Notes from a New World: Henry Jenkins interviews James Au

Here and here are links to Henry Jenkins two-part interview with Second Life embedded reporter James Au. The occasion is the release of Au’s book Taking New World Notes. I often will triangulate with Au’s reports to get a perspective on what has happened “in-world” and the discussion of it “out.” He also discusses the 3x3 between Jenkins, Shirkey, and Beth Coleman (me)…tee hee.

Two samples:

Is there a tension between the corporate colonization of Second Life and the "gift economy" which underlies a vision of the space as a new kind of participatory culture?

For the most part, there is no tension, because the native participatory culture hardly knows the corporations are even there, or care all that much that they are. Residents have scant or limited interest in their "colonization", which is a strong word for what's really going on: big name brands on dozens of private islands that few visit for any extended period of time. Consistently, grassroots, user-created events and sites are far more popular.

You have, of course, been following the ongoing debate about the "value" of Second Life. How much weight -- positively or negatively-- should we place on the issue of subscriber numbers in terms of evaluating what is going on in Second Life?

The numbers do matter. The growth of Second Life will determine whether it becomes an important but relatively niche platform, or evolves, as some (including myself) have suggested, into an essential part of the Net's next generation.