More oddness about this Second Life promotion:

You would think that they would take down the posters advertising the live event now that's its over, but they just stay there in the same format. Why not do a follow-up poster and link to a recording of the event rather than to the empty venue?

Obviously I don't know the details of Penguin's strategy for using Second Life, but I would certainly hope that it's a joint venture where Second Life is co-financing their efforts as I have a hard time seeing the financial benefit gained for an event with approx. 50 participants and about 50 or so who couldn't get in, when you think of the time spent designing the posters, the containers, etc.

I doubt that the event had much of an impact on Second Life regulars. They have chosen that media for a reason.

Rather it draws some of the hardcore Gibson fans into a media they otherwise wouldn't be using. Lots of advertisement for Second Life - minimal advertisement for Spook Country.

quote:

Originally posted by Fashionpolice:
More oddness about this Second Life promotion:

You would think that they would take down the posters advertising the live event now that's its over, but they just stay there in the same format. Why not do a follow-up poster and link to a recording of the event rather than to the empty venue?

Obviously I don't know the details of Penguin's strategy for using Second Life, but I would certainly hope that it's a joint venture where Second Life is co-financing their efforts as I have a hard time seeing the financial benefit gained for an event with approx. 50 participants and about 50 or so who couldn't get in, when you think of the time spent designing the posters, the containers, etc.

I doubt that the event had much of an impact on Second Life regulars. They have chosen that media for a reason.

Rather it draws some of the hardcore Gibson fans into a media they otherwise wouldn't be using. Lots of advertisement for Second Life - minimal advertisement for Spook Country.

On the other hand, Gibsonistas recall reading in his blog awhile back that "It wasn't the vision I had in mind", as hip a dismissal of Second Life as anything.

Hee-hee!

P.S. Leaving those posters around makes good marketing sense. There is such a thing as retrospective buzz.

Was a time when only cyber-geeks knew what cyberspace meant. Now it's such a claim to fame for Gibson that it's almost an albatross around his neck. (I LOVE that metaphor. Igauna around his pecker? Sea slug around his wrist?) But, albatross or no, it's still solid street cred for the mainstream crowd.

There is the chance that mainstream media would pick it up as a "William Gibson is having a reading in Second Life, isn't that cyber!" thing, providing a bit of advertising for both.

Yeah I wrote about that earlier
The Publicity is the event

Just wondering if the amount of buzz generated by that is worth the time and dollars thrown at Second Life.

I know that people could have/did make the same arguments with initial corporate websites, but I really don't see 2nd Life becoming a long term lasting tool.

quote:

Originally posted by Fashionpolice:
Yeah I wrote about that earlier
The Publicity is the event

Just wondering if the amount of buzz generated by that is worth the time and dollars thrown at Second Life.

I know that people could have/did make the same arguments with initial corporate websites, but I really don't see 2nd Life becoming a long term lasting tool.

I wasn't at the event, but watched clips of it on Youtube. From what I gather about Second Life, it is designed to allow users to easily create their own content, which means just about everything (from what I saw in the clips) could have easily been created by a few Second Lifers. I don't think much time or effort was put into the event at all, probably as much as what goes into a book signing.

Leaving the posters up is more likely due to laziness than some attempt to generate post buzz. The parties involved in setting it up probably all assumed that it was someone else's responsibility to tear it down, or at least nobody deemed it necessary because it's just virtual space and nobody cares about litter in virtual space. Kinda like how old movie websites remain long after the movie has come and gone, they finally go away when the domain registration lapses.

Does anyone know if WG will be appearing in Copenhagen as he did during the tour for Pattern Recognition?

Thanks one and all.

Definitely no plans for that yet...fingers crossed.....

Now _that_ was a quick answer. Thank you. Goodnight from Copenhagen.

quote:

Originally posted by Clark Nova:
From what I gather about Second Life, it is designed to allow users to easily create their own content, which means just about everything (from what I saw in the clips) could have easily been created by a few Second Lifers. I don't think much time or effort was put into the event at all, probably as much as what goes into a book signing.

Penguin has had a whole area designed to promote Snow Crash complete with the Black Sun. This is not volunteer work. They have a guy on their staff who doesn't seem to have other responsibilities besides "virtual publishing". He needs the skills to both muck around in SL, write press releases, and do project management for the development. He's been around since October 2006 at least. A very modest salary for his job would probably start at at least £25,000 per year. On top of this they will have to pay designers to build the virtual worlds they want. It is not a volunteer project. If Jeremy (Penguin's SL-guy) has an office, it is also costing Penguin money. Undoubtedly people higher up in the chain of command have to approve his development budgets, project plans, etc. hereby using there high-salaried business hours to do this.

So yes, the event could be done cheaply by volunteers, but as soon as you place anything in a corporate environment things get expensive very quick.

quote:

Originally posted by Talarion:
Now _that_ was a quick answer. Thank you. Goodnight from Copenhagen.

Godnat og sov sødt!

Jeremy Ettinghausen of Penguin Books On How To Build Innovation Into A Brand

quote:

Previously marketers at Penguin were only implementing decisions made by others. Now marketing is at the heart of the publishing process; “marketing sets the table”.

Definitely earning more than £25K/year - but also doing a lot more stuff than SL.

quote:

Originally posted by TwiliteMinotaur:
Well I've tried Second Life before but it just wasn't doing anything for me and I didn't get into it. You could say I'm an oldbie or an uninterestedbie.

Same here. Despite all the hype, it did nothing for me either. Generally, I love virtual worlds and interacting with AI systems or other humans in them. 2nd life seems awfully shallow to me.

quote:

Originally posted by Fashionpolice:
Definitely no plans for that yet...fingers crossed.....

Well, Mr. Gibson has left these latitudes, but let it be known that Spook Country is already available in the Copenhagen public library. That's fast work for this provincial corner of the continent. And for some mysterious reason, there are only a few reservations ahead of me - far fewer than the one- to two-month wait to get your hands on Pattern Recognition. Spook-y.

Hey that's excellent! But it's still in the back waiting to be fully processed! (i.e. read by the guybrarian who purchased it!)

You really should buy a copy, Spook Country has now dropped to #15 in it's 3rd week on the New York Times Bestseller list (although I doubt Danish sales impact it anyway)

Did you know that the main library also has the 1984 Gollancz edition of Neuromancer? Currently checked out, but doesn't look like anyone has reserved it!

quote:

Originally posted by Fashionpolice:
Hey that's excellent! But it's still in the back waiting to be fully processed! (i.e. read by the guybrarian who purchased it!)

You really should buy a copy, Spook Country has now dropped to #15 in it's 3rd week on the New York Times Bestseller list (although I doubt Danish sales impact it anyway)

Did you know that the main library also has the 1984 Gollancz edition of Neuromancer? Currently checked out, but doesn't look like anyone has reserved it!

I found and read that nice old last year. I think you're right - I should just buy a copy of the new book.

It finally hit me that you also live in Denmark. Yes, it does apparently say so right there on each of your posts. But I'm new at this bulletin board business.

The business I know a bit better is the one Gibson writes about in Pattern Recognition. Independently, several colleagues recommended I read the book because they said the main character's life and job sounded like mine, right down to doing branding work for giant corporations will assiduously snipping their labels off my clothing.

When I finally got my hands on the book, reading it was a delicious but unsettling experience - I suppose like the experience publishers and filmmakers will soon be offering us: you are the hero of the film, seeing your own face and those of your friends on the characters. It was eerie and delightful, reading about a character whose travels and peculiar profession mirror my own of the last several years, all the way to that Pilates studio in Neils Yard. I didn't follow her to Siberia, though I did do the rebranding of S7. I was equally disappointed and relieved when the book ended. Can't wait to read the new one.

I'd like to meet the guy and galbrarians who do the ortdering at hovedbiblioteket. They have discerning tastes and a seemingly unlimited budget for obscure and interesting music.