This piece is about the presence of a Reuters reporter (in this case, of course, Adam Reuters) in SL lending the platform greater cachet. It's a nice article, but one bit in particular stands out: "The question about why people would immerse themselves in a virtual world is no longer relevant. The fact is that they do."

Thank you, maybe now we can put all the unnecessary and pedantic speculation behind us. The fact of the matter is, people get curious, sign up, and either find value and stay, or get bored (or frustrated) and leave. Simple as that. It's just something that appeals to you, the same as any service or product or activity. Why ask why? Why do you like what you like? Does it matter if you can't explicate that? Sometimes it's enough to simply accept.

(Via http://www.mg.co.za)

Adam Reuters reports on this story, and gives us all a heads-up. The UK's Fraud Advisory Panel recommends that governments apply RL money laws to SL's economy, stating that fraud, money laundering, and other such crimes are more likely to happen there due to its relaxed and unregulated nature.

If this is really going to happen, I have to wonder if RL businesses will be able to get the same sort of tax benefits and shelters that they do in RL. H & R Block might find they have more to do with SL than they'd previously thought after all. What do you think, should the government regulate currency trade in SL?

Adam Reuters reports the increasing attention that SL casinos are receiving from Federal authorities, at the invitation of LL. While it's still unclear what LL's role is to be regarding the monitoring of gambling areas in SL, it does seem obvious that any system that allows for the free exchange of virtual dollars to RL currency won't remain unregulated for long.

From the article: "There are millions of registered accounts and tens of millions of different objects in Second Life, there is simply no way for us to monitor content prospectively even if we wanted to," said VP for Business Affairs Ginsu Yoon. That's a rather weak argument for the company to make; a simple search for gambling yields a significant number of targets. Obviously it won't be comprehensive, but it would be a start, if the government decides that LL is culpable for any and all such activity taking place in SL.

At the heart of it all, gambling is currently illegal in the US, which would appear to argue that it's illegal in SL as well, given that its servers reside on American soil. Without the numbers on who's making RL money from wagers, however, this remains a moot point. Given its traditional policy of non-interference, it's likely that LL would prefer to remain out of the picture, but it remains to be seen if they'll be afforded the opportunity.

Make no mistake about it, Gavin Newsom is his own man. He's unafraid to speak his mind, and more importantly, to do more than talk about issues that affect everyone in San Francisco. He's somewhat of a local hero, and with LL in SF, it's a natural fit for Newsom to be interviewed by Adam Reuters on the 26th of January at the Davos Conference in Switzerland.

Mayor Newsom has a lot of great things to say, and you can hear them all and see video of the in-world simulcast. On the subject of Linden Lab: "They're home grown and we're going to make sure they stay there. In fact at the rate they're growing I'm not sure we'll have enough office space to keep them.

Adam Reuters: Is that the promise of a tax break I hear?

Gavin Newsom: It's not about money! It's about creative industry and about people - and there is no better place to find creative people than San Francisco, in fact the entire Bay area."

(Via Reuters)

Thanks to the efforts of David de Nood and Jelle Attema of EPN, as reported by Adam Reuters, we can chalk up some more media myths about Second Life. Gregarious people with good educations, do well in Second Life, as do those with few Real Life friends and some social impairment. 'Sadville' it isn't.

Pakka's virtual world signal/noise rule-of-thumb says that noise (or unnecessary drama, if you prefer) comes from about 1 in 5 of any population, real or virtual whenever something changes, or has the opportunity to change but doesn't (and also that 1% generate it constantly). That certainly accounts for El Reg's perception of Second Life as 'Sadville'. Now, really, Andrew. Didn't we chat about that sort of thing some years ago? :)

It seems that the majority of us are a fairly happy lot in both our lives, although those of us that are handicapped are happier for having Second Life. There's lots of good eating in that report -- we'll focus in on some tasty tidbits later on. In the meantime you can (and should) go read Adam Reuters' summary, and then the report itself.

The last fifteen minutes prior to the arrival of Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo America, is littered with chatter -- talk about cellphones, interference from Blackberries, and generally all the usual teething problems that you'd expect of any voice-based interview in SL. Reggie's avatar is sitting there, logged in, but Reggie himself has not yet arrived. The audience has been chatty and calm, many of whom had been camped out for more than an hour to ensure their seat at the event.

Then the stream beeps and goes quiet, as he enters, presumably to not bore us with the necessary technical talk and social lubricant as everyone gets ready. Very quickly, at only 2 minutes past the hour (a mere four minutes after Reggie arrives) he and Adam are sitting and talking smoothly.

Adam is perceptive -- he's asking the sorts of questions people seem to be interested in hearing the answers to. Reggie is pretty smooth, answering easily and comfortable with his material. Reggie would like us not to all hack into our Wiimotes for Second Life though :)

[UPDATE: The Reuters SL article page is http://secondlife.reuters.com/!]

This is huge! Reuters, the respected RL news service, will be opening an SL branch office, offering RL articles to in-world residents, and debuting a special service covering SL for the rest of the world! They'll also provide a wearable object called the Reuters News Center, which will provide links to Reuters stories. Additionally, they plan to offer an Atrium which residents can occupy to discuss the latest news.

Coverage from the outside is nice, but this is a major step for a news service, and I can't help but think that it's a good one, especially with the implied interaction between worlds. Adam Pasick (Adam Reuters in-world, continuing the trend of RL services being granted equivalent in-world surnames) will be heading up this development, and I'll try to get an interview with him, so keep your eyes peeled!