DigitalNext

Has Second Life Cut Its Mullet?

Two Years Later, I Venture Back Into the World We All Forgot

Posted by Chris Abraham on 09.28.09 @ 12:09 PM

At the end of June I wrote a simple blog post for DigitalNext addressing why I believe the hype currently associated with Twitter will be more sustainable than Second Life's. Long-story short, "Twitter is light, cheap, open and permanent, whereas Second Life is heavy, expensive, closed and ephemeral."

Twenty-one comments and a series of responses later, I was invited by Second Life to return to the virtual world that I stopped visiting back in 2007. My complaint, and why I never returned, is that the client, called the viewer in SL parlance, was too resource intensive, incompatible with my executive laptop (which favored lightweight and slimness over horsepower and graphics cards) and required too much bandwidth, preferably a LAN connection instead of Wi-Fi.

A New Model for Digital Publishing ... From an Academic Journal?

Why This Blogger's Excited About Scitable

Posted by Chris Abraham on 07.14.09 @ 04:00 PM

A couple of months ago I attended a discussion at the National Press Club titled "What Will We Tell Peoria?" during which a panel of journalists complained that people have become too stupid to realize how essential traditional methods of reporting are and how we'll all be sorry when rigorous newsrooms close and papers die and only TMZ is left standing.

I think that is rubbish. In my work, I believe it is essential to give the gift that people want and not the gift you think they should have. Newspaper magnates are indignantly trying to force feed us their content believing their version of civics is the inoculate we need to prevent us from becoming vile Yahoos.

I believed that papers needed to convert their devoted readership into a devoted community -- transitioning one-way print and broadcasting into conversation and sharing. There are almost no good examples of this.

Twitter Is What Second Life Wasn't: Light, Cheap and Open

And That's Why It'll Outlive the Hype Cycle

Posted by Chris Abraham on 06.26.09 @ 04:00 PM

I run into many skeptics who believe that Twitter is rife with the sort of hype associated with the ascent and crash of Second Life. This is not true. Twitter is suffused with hype, for sure, but it is a much different and more sustainable hype than Second Life.

Twitter, Facebook Just 'Virtual Ballrooms'

At Blog Potomac, the Talk Turned From Tools to What Goes on Within Them

Posted by Chris Abraham on 06.19.09 @ 04:02 PM

Chris Abraham

Tools don't matter, and the best ones get out of the way, allowing people to connect more easily and effectively. That was my big takeaway from last Friday's second-annual Blog Potomac.

Obsessing about "what's next" in online services and technology saps too much valuable attention away from what's really important: connecting with people. We need to stop obsessing on what comes after Twitter and focus instead on how best to connect to, communicate with and relate to our clients, colleagues and consumers.

Global Web Means Your 'Fart Jokes' Can Be Heard Out of Context

How Grey Germany and Doc Morris Blew It With the 'Evil Sperm' Ads

Posted by Chris Abraham on 06.15.09 @ 02:20 PM

Earlier this year Grey Germany put out three condom ads for Doc Morris pharmacies. They were attempts to wittily imply that the human race could have been spared three uber-butchers of the past century (Mao Tze-Tung, Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden), and the horror and suffering they brought, by a simple condom (a Doc Morris condom, natch). The humble rubber as a superhero and savior of humanity -- there definitely is potential for some wonderful, dark, absurdist humor in that idea.