WSU (and 4-H) in Second Life!

Philip Linden (aka Philip Rosedale) was appropriately the first Presenter of the WSU Virtual Journalism Summit. He is, after all, the father of Second Life.

Forward thinking Mr. Linden spoke of the necessity of learning to navigate in virtual worlds because the technology is advancing so rapidly that this sort of media will be commonplace. With approximately 1,000,000 members and about 80,000 people online at a time and 250,000 people everyday, the virtual world of second life is growing exponentially. He said SL is early in it's evolution, so imagine the possibilities.
Kittie was in awe of Philip Linden's Optomism and apparent ability to see possibility when things could be dismissed as fantasy.

Hamlet Au (aka Wagner James Au) of New World Notes gave an
excellent presentation on his professional virtual world journalism career. Journalism is at a crossroads with changes imminent for traditional media and Hamlet Au gave examples of how he is using Second Life to connect with people and be there as the stories unfold.

Egyptian bloggers Eureka Dejavu and Schmilsson Nilsson of
DIP's (Dancing Ink Productions) Dispatches from the imagination Age were able to be present in Second Life and premiere their latest documentary - Virtual Journalism: Inside the Virtual Newsroom of the American University in Cairo.

Kittie felt fortunate to be able to attend without having to make the physical trek across the Cascade Mountain passes to get to the other side of the state. Imagine being able to attend from Egypt.

Erica Driver, Bernhard Drax, Lane Merrifield, and Lila King were also featured keynote speakers and participated in a roundtable discussion with Philip Rosedale and moderated by Wagner James Au.

Headliners, Helen Thomas and Bob Schieffer were the final speakers of the day. They answered questions in both Second Life and real life, and shared their thoughts on the future of journalism.

The summit was held in Pullman, WA, main campus of Washington State University in real life in CUB Auditorium, sponsored by Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. It was also simultaneously held in Second Life on the WSU Virtual Campus Sim. People attending in Second Life were able to view a live stream of the event on the internet and interact with each other and ask questions of the presenters via chat.

Those who missed the live event may view the archived stream at http://experience.wsu.edu/

The WSU on Second Life project is a growing initiative - stay tuned for exciting updates!