Accolades for Digital Content

While YouTube has announced they will soon honor outstanding achievement awards in best user-generated videos of 2006, blogger Robert Scoble mentions the pre-existing Vloggie awards at South by Southwest.

Vloggie Show blogger, Irina Slutsky: “The Vloggies was the first ever award show to honor and celebrate the achievements and creativity of vloggers and online video creators.”

“When we originally made up the Vloggies, we sought to shed light on the best and brightest of the vlogosphere and back then it was hard for us to get into the gigantic YouTube community. I’m glad YouTube is going to recognize the hard work and talent of those who have been making great videos for a while now.”

I’m wondering when awards for best avatar in Second Life will come about. Now that book publishers are vying for virtual real estate it will also be interesting to see the evolution of the book market. Wiley used the medium to announce and publicize their book, Second Life: The Official Guide, by Michael Rymaszewski, Wagner James Au, Mark Wallace and Catherine Winters. The book even has a forward by Second Life founder, Philip Rosedale. Wiley’s virtual store also sells “digital enhancements for residents’ Avatars—graphic representations of Second Life denizens.”

Brian Crecente’s Kotaku blog he edits also mentions another attempt by publishers to reach more globally in a virtual way: “Bloomberg writes that the virtual Koontz will have his own likeness helped out by two virtual Bantam employees during the reading, one of which will field audience questions and relay them to the author who will answer in his real voice via an audio feed.”

I was clueless about the actual workings of Second Life, but the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has put together a great piece, You Only Live Twice. It synthesizes the heavy players of Second Life and delves into the real-life implications for those who turn virtual dollars into real dollars. My husband, an economist on the hill, has colleagues who were interviewed for this piece to offer tax implications in this virtual world.  

I see a future where we can wear pj’s all day while at our “virtual jobs” and where all of our errands are managed online. We will be a lazy bunch.