Picnicking with Philip

Philip Rosedale/Linden is in Amsterdam this week for the Picnic '06, a cross media event where several media companies come together and is focused on creativity in cross media content and technology, specifically in the fields of entertainment and communication.

Menno and SLI reported about it as well, and Alice did a write up of Philip's big SL demo. It is mostly old stuff for us, but there are some nice stats that she bolded, which I post here and comment on.

“19,000 landowners
80 sq miles, about as big as Amsterdam
20 million objects
20 terabytes of user created content
13 teraflops of simulation“

I wonder how many of those 19k users are first land owners, and how many have own multiple sims. It surprises me that SL is as big as Amsterdam, SL feels much larger. And wow we broke the 20TB, if you think about it, that isn't even so much if you consider all the content and the hours we spent using it. I know if I would watch compressed video instead of playing SL and save all that, it would easily be much more then 20TB for me alone.

“Median age is over 30 “

Wee, I'm still young! :P

But this is not all, since Philip is in Amsterdam he couldn't waste the opportunity to meet ME, :P oh and Menno Ophelia and kai Sachertorte. It was a quickly put together meet up, I was only contacted yesterday evening about it, which is probably good i think, makes it less of a event and more of a friendly meet up. Although I'm sure some people are jealous now, and wished they had known. :P

It was a interesting get together of just 4 people that talked about the thing they love. The meet up was planned to be from 13:00 to 14:30 but we ended up leaving close to 16:00. You can be assured we had a good time. We couldn't really stop talking even after Philip left and chatted even for a while outside while getting our bikes. (yes we are Dutch we all came on bike)

The topics ranged from just who we are and what we do in RL/SL, to usage stats, demographics, weird experiences, why we prefer to chat in English to other Dutchies, Dutch community or the lack of it in SL, almost daily attempts of grid attacks, voice in SL and what our most annoying complaints are. And I'm sure there where many more topics I skipped now. Nothing new or particularly exciting was mentioned by Philip, so no inside news there, in case you where wondering. :p

It was really just like 4 old friends meet up and talked about what they love. Philip was sincerely interested and wrote a page of a small pocket notebook of comments down, and besides that he is good company to lounge with in a hip Amsterdam restaurant. I Hope something good comes from it, and even if not, I had a good time, and I'm sure so had the others. :)

Pics, from left to right: Frans, Menno, Philip and kai.For some reason we look a bit surprised here.

And we got swag! \o/

They run the tubes on the internets

“Baba Yamamoto: what's cnet? are they popular?
Josh Millionsofus: baba: they run the tubes on the internets”

And with that we opened the CNet office in SL. It was a rowdy opening of quick wits and low jabs, just like expect and love in SL. :)

Daniel Terdiman, senior writer at CNET News.com, has convinced his bosses to open a Virtual office in SL It's a decent build that resembles their RL office. Nothing to fancy, but the kind of quality work you expect.

“ Reuben Tapioca: but I gotta tell you, when I went to their offices in SF and told them I needed to take lots of pictures because I was building the offices in a virtual world, the guy at the front desk looked at me like I had 3 heads. “

You think, Daniel would have warned him.

Anyway, Daniel is hoping do a weekly event in SL and is open to suggestions, so if you have any feel free to contact him. daniel.terdiman@cnet.com

And here is the chat transcript, edited out some(a lot of) audience chatter:

[18:27] Reuben Tapioca: Daniel, welcome to your new offices
[18:27] Reuben Tapioca: /audience claps
[18:27] GreeterDan Godel: W00000T
[18:27] Chris Millionsofus: clap clap clap clap!
[18:27] GreeterDan Godel: i am very very happy to be here
[18:27] GreeterDan Godel: and i am very happy and honored all of you have chosen to join me here today
[18:28] Reuben Tapioca: Can you tell folks how this happened and a little about your background?
[18:28] GreeterDan Godel: sure. absolutely
[18:28] GreeterDan Godel: so...to start, I am Daniel Terdiman, senior writer at CNET News.com
[18:28] GreeterDan Godel: i have been writing about Second Life, both for News.com and previously, Wired News, since summer of 2003
[18:29] GreeterDan Godel: and so a few months ago, it really seemed like it was time that CNET got a space in SL
[18:29] GreeterDan Godel: after all, we were covering it constantly (at least constantly from the perspective of a mainstream publication)
[18:29] Reuben Tapioca: Agreed
[18:29] GreeterDan Godel: so i slowly began to pitch it to my bosses, who only got Second Life a little bit
[18:29] Reuben Tapioca: so time to eat your own dogfood
[18:29] GreeterDan Godel: it took some cajoling
[18:30] GreeterDan Godel: ha ha
[18:30] GreeterDan Godel: yes
[18:30] GreeterDan Godel: the funny part was (going back to when I started at CNET) trying to convince my editors why we needed to be covering SL in the first place
[18:30] GreeterDan Godel: but...they got on board with that pretty quick
[18:30] GreeterDan Godel: especially after I did 5 feature stories in the first couple months I was there
[18:30] GreeterDan Godel: anyway...
[18:31] GreeterDan Godel: after a couple months of pitching this project, I finally got the go-ahead
[18:31] GreeterDan Godel: and my vision was for a CNET building that looks a lot like our real-life building in San Francisco
[18:32] GreeterDan Godel: and...well, I'm in San Diego right now at a conference, and a VC who knows CNET very well just walked up to say hi and see what I was doing, and I showed him the building, and he was very impressed with how it looks
[18:32] GreeterDan Godel: so...good job, Millions of Us
[18:32] Reuben Tapioca: It's been our experience that all these projects start with an internal evangelist -- perhaps you can tell folks what it was that you said that convinced your bosses?
[18:32] Reuben Tapioca: thanks
[18:32] GreeterDan Godel: yeah, good point
[18:32] GreeterDan Godel: i think it was kind of just making the point that the SL community is big and growing and made up of early adopters and real influencers
[18:33] GreeterDan Godel: and that we had a chance to be one of the very first mainstream publications to open a space here
[18:33] Reuben Tapioca: Many of whom are in this room
[18:33] GreeterDan Godel: I told them my vision was to have regular events in which News.com reporters and CNET.com reviewers could come and give talks about stories we were working on or products they were reviewing
[18:33] GreeterDan Godel: and do interviews with cultural leaders
[18:33] GreeterDan Godel: and, honestly, they went for it pretty quick
[18:34] GreeterDan Godel: mainly, the delay was just bureaucracy
[18:34] GreeterDan Godel: and the fact, frankly, that I've been traveling almost constantly for months and hadn't been around to grease the wheels
[18:34] Reuben Tapioca: Oooh, grease the wheels
[18:34] GreeterDan Godel: indeed, I've been on the road solid for 5 weeks
[18:34] Reuben Tapioca: i like that
[18:34] GreeterDan Godel: ha ha
[18:34] GreeterDan Godel: so...
[18:34] GreeterDan Godel: here we are
[18:35] Reuben Tapioca: Exclellent
[18:35] GreeterDan Godel: and this is just the first event of what I hope will be a regular series of interviews and talks
[18:35] GreeterDan Godel: in the beginning, since i've been traveling so much, it'll just be me
[18:35] GreeterDan Godel: but in the coming weeks, I'm going to get other CNET folks involved
[18:35] Reuben Tapioca: So honestly, I'd be so interested in hearing what the audience thinks would be cool for events here
[18:35] GreeterDan Godel: oh, yeah, absolutely
[18:35] GreeterDan Godel: what would you all like to see?
[18:36] Reuben Tapioca: As you know, our philosophy is that today is really just the start
[18:36] Spin Martin: Live broadcasts of some of the CNET radio and also tv shorts
[18:36] Reuben Tapioca: and that the key is how it gets used
[18:36] Spin Martin: i am live blogging this for the record :)
[18:36] GreeterDan Godel: i mean...actually, what can we do to use this space to make CNET feel like a real participant in the Second Life community?
[18:36] Reuben Tapioca: NICE!
[18:36] moo Money: machinima of important topics!
[18:37] Reuben Tapioca: It's really cool to think that you could be part of shapinga story as it's being written
[18:37] Chili Carson: Interviews or panel discussions on hot issues happening in SL
[18:37] Reuben Tapioca: that's like web 4.0
[18:37] Reuben Tapioca: great idea Chili
[18:37] GreeterDan Godel: yeah, definitely going to do interviews like that
[18:37] GreeterDan Godel: panels would be good too
[18:37] GreeterDan Godel: i mean...
[18:37] Reuben Tapioca: agreed
[18:37] Sterling Zucker: maybe reviews of producst developed in SL
[18:37] GreeterDan Godel: i'm a student of the Hamlet Linden school of interviews
[18:37] Reuben Tapioca: sterling, that rocks1
[18:38] GreeterDan Godel: i went to the very first one he ever did, with Cory Doctorow, back in 2003, and I want to do talks like that
[18:38] GreeterDan Godel: except much more often
[18:38] GreeterDan Godel: yeah, i mean, that was my point. :-)
[18:38] GreeterDan Godel: i'd like to do an interview, at least weekly
[18:38] GreeterDan Godel: probably more often with other kinds of events
[18:38] Reuben Tapioca: It would also be interesting to mashup some indy media and bloggers
[18:38] GreeterDan Godel: my question to you all...how frequently do you think we need to have events here in order for it to feel vital?
[18:39] Reuben Tapioca: ie. give em an office or two
[18:39] Rhiannon Chatnoir feels cheated.. she jsut got a hug from him
[18:39] Sterling Zucker: weekly is good
[18:39] Surreal Farber: monthly at least
[18:39] Chili Carson: things happen fast here...so weekly
[18:39] Koz Farina: as it happens!
[18:39] Katta Sparrow: Greeter, weekly
[18:39] Asri Falcone: id have to agree with the weekly
[18:39] Katta Sparrow: actually no you should be here 24 hours
[18:39] GreeterDan Godel: right...eventually, when more CNET folks get involved, they will likely be scheduling their own events, and it'll be out of my hands
[18:39] GreeterDan Godel: and that will be ideal, I think
[18:39] Josh Millionsofus: put up camping chairs and this place will be hoppin... *ducks*
[18:40] Katta Sparrow throws my boot at Josh
[18:40] Reuben Tapioca: right, now you're one of us, one of us
[18:40] Josh Millionsofus gets booted
[18:40] GreeterDan Godel: do you guys think that it would be useful if I (and other reporters) came in to talk about stories we were working on
[18:40] Sterling Zucker: I find some of the video reviews on CNET to be too short and not complete this could be a great venue to have an intereactive review of real world products
[18:40] Reuben Tapioca: oh great idea, a money tree
[18:40] Josh Millionsofus: greeterdan: yes, good idea
[18:40] Chili Carson: Yes, Dan
[18:40] GreeterDan Godel: even if the stories were not about Second Life or even other virtual worlds?
[18:40] AnneDroid Lily: personally, I'd like to see interviews with software and technology giants (not necessarily related to SL)... which would seems the kind of thing cnet could pull of easily.. once or twice a month should be sufficient (with streaming replays between)
[18:40] Chris Millionsofus: money tree and camping trees w00t! new business model for MOU
[18:41] GreeterDan Godel: I mean...if I did a story about a great Lego event, would you all want to hear about it?
[18:41] Chili Carson: Yes, Dan
[18:41] Reuben Tapioca: Might also be cool to do some sort of simple prediction market stuff to get people socially involved in news
[18:41] GreeterDan Godel: gotcha, android...that is my plan
[18:41] Asri Falcone: i would
[18:41] Sterling Zucker: I love lego, so yeas
[18:41] Reuben Tapioca: sort of like tringo meets the New york Times
[18:41] Spin Martin: residents make news here
[18:41] Asri Falcone: hehe most builders here have roots in legos
[18:41] GreeterDan Godel: i'm actually hoping to do an interview (shhh) with someone from sun here in a week or two
[18:41] Ingrid Ingersoll: haha
[18:41] Barnesworth Anubis: its true asri!
[18:41] Barnesworth Anubis: i do
[18:42] Asri Falcone: hehe
[18:42] Barnesworth Anubis: love legos
[18:42] Reuben Tapioca: very cool
[18:42] GreeterDan Godel: you're all going to laugh, but since I'm at a conference in San Diego, in a room with no power, I'm going to have to change my battery in a couple minutes
[18:42] Sterling Zucker: haha
[18:42] GreeterDan Godel: so i may disappear suddenly
[18:42] Rhiannon Chatnoir: ha
[18:42] Cristiano Midnight: lol
[18:42] Asri Falcone asri pushes her lego set further under the desk...next to her comic book collection
[18:42] Reuben Tapioca: that's ok, it'll give us a chance to talk about you
[18:42] Spin Martin: boy i have to edit out the lickcing and silk talk
[18:43] Reuben Tapioca: rembember to save chat history
[18:43] Spin Martin: cuz if i hit publish man alive
[18:43] Reuben Tapioca: for your article
[18:43] Sterling Zucker: well, that's like ford demoing their new car and running out of gas
[18:43] GreeterDan Godel: well...i was using Lego as an example, since that is something I cover frequently
[18:43] Spin Martin: i'm doing it in real time
[18:43] Barnesworth Anubis: all i see is one flexi prim infront of your whoo-haa
[18:43] GreeterDan Godel: but I cover many difffent kinds of things
[18:43] GreeterDan Godel: and spin, you just gave me an idea
[18:43] GreeterDan Godel: which is for example, next spring, I'll be going to South by Southwest
[18:43] GreeterDan Godel: i could give a talk here about what's happening at SXSW
[18:44] Katta Sparrow: <-- would rather hear about that than legos
[18:44] GreeterDan Godel: or, i could interview you, spin, since I know you'll probably be there
[18:44] Memory Harker: At SXSW?
[18:44] Spin Martin: ha
[18:44] Reuben Tapioca: what about internal CNN stuff
[18:44] Spin Martin: yes demoing legos in SL on my panel
[18:44] Spin Martin: like to mix it up
[18:44] Memory Harker: :Legos at SXSW?
[18:44] Rhiannon Chatnoir: or even hold combined events.. maybe a dicsussion between both this SL space and the RL space
[18:44] GreeterDan Godel: if I knew anything about CNN internally, I'd be happy to share it with you :-)
[18:44] Reuben Tapioca: like meetings or intervview where a face to face is impossible?
[18:44] Reuben Tapioca: typo
[18:44] Reuben Tapioca: SNET
[18:44] GreeterDan Godel: hee hee
[18:44] Reuben Tapioca: CNET
[18:44] Reuben Tapioca: I'll get you for that
[18:45] Spin Martin: SL holds up well at SXSW btw
[18:45] GreeterDan Godel: so...these are all good idea
[18:45] GreeterDan Godel: yeah, i think SL does hold up well
[18:45] GreeterDan Godel: there
[18:46] GreeterDan Godel: i'm trying, trying, trying
[18:46] GreeterDan Godel: to nail down a 1-on-1 interview for SXSW with Will Wright
[18:46] Reuben Tapioca: what about stuff that people can do here when there are no events?
[18:46] GreeterDan Godel: and if that happens, I'd be very happy to talk about it herer
[18:46] Reuben Tapioca: like leave tips for breaking stories?
[18:46] GreeterDan Godel: yeah, i mean, i'd be very happy to have people using the space 24/7
[18:47] Spin Martin: i'd like to point out something about CNET
[18:47] GreeterDan Godel: so, sxsw is a great festival in austin, texas each march
[18:47] Spin Martin: they are quote accomodating in RL to events like Bloggercon and such
[18:47] Spin Martin: quite*
[18:47] Reuben Tapioca: good point Spin
[18:48] Reuben Tapioca: but I gotta tell you, when I went to their offices in SF and told them I needed to take lots of pictures because I was building the offices in a virtual world
[18:48] Reuben Tapioca: the guy at the front desk looked at me like I had 3 heads
[18:48] Spin Martin: wonder if that OTHER publication is accomodating ;)
[18:48] Reuben Tapioca: ;;-)
[18:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: were they suspicsous.. or just thouth you mad
[18:48] Katta Sparrow: lol
[18:48] GreeterDan Godel: ha ha, reuben
[18:48] Reuben Tapioca: Mad
[18:48] Koz Farina: ppl reated like that over a decade ago when you spoke of the web
[18:48] Chris Millionsofus: This is why I send Reuben to get photo's :)
[18:48] GreeterDan Godel: that's hilarious
[18:48] Koz Farina: reacted*
[18:48] Josh Millionsofus: hehe
[18:48] GreeterDan Godel: i should have warned them
[18:48] Reuben Tapioca: good point
[18:49] GreeterDan Godel: glad you didn't get shot or something
[18:49] Reuben Tapioca: no, it was funnier the way it turned out
[18:49] Josh Millionsofus: virtual worlds?!?! *blam blam blam*
[18:49] Reuben Tapioca: we should put in a boxing ring to that people who are having big blog wars can duke it out
[18:49] Koz Farina: people need trusted voices and open discourse to pave the way for this medium. Make ppl feel safe. Entertained. Educated and Informed
[18:49] Reuben Tapioca: Spin Martin fights. . . . . . .
[18:49] Reuben Tapioca: fill in the blank
[18:49] Spin Martin: i'll take on curry
[18:50] Spin Martin: heh
[18:50] Reuben Tapioca: right!
[18:50] GreeterDan Godel: good idea
[18:50] Reuben Tapioca: technorati death match
[18:50] Rhiannon Chatnoir: actually.. that is a good point.. might even be good to cross policate with the 'Real life Educator
[18:50] Spin Martin: we could do it in cnet in RL and SL
[18:50] Rhiannon Chatnoir: group
[18:50] Reuben Tapioca: even better
[18:50] Josh Millionsofus: someone here should challenge uwe boll to a fight... :P
[18:50] GreeterDan Godel: hey, folks...i hate to say it, but my battery is going to die, and they're also kicking us out of the room where I am
[18:50] Reuben Tapioca: and people could bet on it and the proceeds go to charity of the winner's choosing
[18:50] GreeterDan Godel: so...perhaps we should wrap this up...at least my part of it
[18:51] Chris Millionsofus: first lives, they just aren't conveniant
[18:51] GreeterDan Godel: but I'd like to thank each and every one of you for coming
[18:51] Reuben Tapioca: I think that's a good idea
[18:51] GreeterDan Godel: and for your ideas
[18:51] Chili Carson: congratulations, Dan, this is a very exciting project!
[18:51] Reuben Tapioca: this was totally fun
[18:51] Spin Martin: thanks dan
[18:51] GreeterDan Godel: thanks!
[18:51] GreeterDan Godel: thank you!
[18:51] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes.. great going.. :)
[18:51] Reuben Tapioca: thanks Dan for getting this going
[18:51] Spin Martin: this will be up in a few moments at ericrice.com
[18:51] Sterling Zucker: Thanks Dan!
[18:51] Reuben Tapioca: and we'll all be eagerly awaiting the future
[18:51] Reuben Tapioca: and thanks everyone so much for coming
[18:51] GreeterDan Godel: i will be sure to schedule future events, so you'll know when they're happpening
[18:51] Jean Linden: thanks dan!!
[18:51] Reuben Tapioca: nice!
[18:52] GreeterDan Godel: and feel free to contact me anytime at daniel.terdiman@cnet.com
[18:52] GreeterDan Godel: oh, yes...please please please email me any ideas for stories, or for things to do with this space
[18:52] GreeterDan Godel: i'd love to hear them
[18:52] GreeterDan Godel: and before my computer dies...thanks once again, big time, to Milliions of Us
[18:52] Josh Millionsofus: yay us
[18:52] GreeterDan Godel: yay you
[18:53] Chili Carson: Awesome job!
[18:53] Chris Millionsofus: clap clap clap clap clap
[18:53] Josh Millionsofus: :D
[18:53] Reuben Tapioca: Also, an especially big thanks to the Millions of Us team who worked on this
[18:53] GreeterDan Godel: yes, please dance!
[18:53] Reuben Tapioca: Josh, rodica, Bill, and BushidoBrown
[18:54] Reuben Tapioca: they all rocked
[18:54] GreeterDan Godel: you'll all be invited to the RL CNET offices for a celebration of this. When it happens. Soon
[18:57] GreeterDan Godel: ok, down to 0%
[18:57] GreeterDan Godel: bye all!
[18:57] GreeterDan Godel: thanks again!