Join us in our Northpoint studio at 2pm SLT today, Monday 11th April for an important discussion show on content in Open Sim grids. Are content creators right to fear what John Lester has called the ‘dragons’ out there that can strip away content creator’s rights? Can the dragons be tamed? Can technology or legal arrangements be used to protect content creators? Will the hypergrid ever be commercially viable for content creators or is the solution ‘walled garden’ worlds such as Second Life and Inworldz?
We are hoping to answer these questions and more on today’s show with the help of Maria Korolov of Hypergrid Business, Mal Burns, gridnaut and metaverse commentator, Elenia Llewellyn, CEO of Inworldz, Pathfinder Lester (the former Pathfinder Linden), Director of Community Development at Reaction Grid and Raven Haalan, artist, photographer and content creator.
If you have questions that you would like to put to today’s guests, you will have an opportunity to do so in the studio or on our live chat channel.
Maria, in a recent post, has discussed ways in which content might be distributed using a web-based mall system (like the Marketplace, but able to download good to different grids). And Pathfinder Lester has discussed the issue of content creator rights on his blog in a post entitled: An Obscured Opportunity: Opensim and Content Creators.
So why is this issue suddenly important?
Perhaps there are different reasons.
People on the Hypergrid are perhaps feeling that it’s not just that “If you build it, they will come” isn’t true; if you don’t have the builders – or content creators – to build, then they definitely won’t be coming. This is not to disparage the many, many talented creators who work with enthusiasm on the hypergrid. But where avatars won’t be able to obtain the goods that they know, love and feel secure in, they are less likely to come. This is something that grids like Inworldz have realised – that giving content creators a sense of security will attract them (especially as more become disillusioned with Linden Lab). And seeing this, people in the hypergrid who have said that content can be copied as soon as it is on the web, and that content creators must adopt business models to cope with this are perhaps looking again at ways in which content creators could be encouraged rather than irritated.
At the same time, many content creators, faced with declining markets in Second Life, are anxious to find new markets – and new ways to reach those markets. Thre is perhaps a receptiveness on both sides to look at how this could be made to work for everyone – the grids, the content creators and the consumers.
Can it be made to work? This is what we’re aiming to find out on today’s Designing Worlds show. Make sure you don’t miss it!
The Designing Worlds show starts at 2pm SLT, but you should be in our Northpoint studios by 1.30pm at the very latest to make sure of getting a seat.
Or – if you can’t attend in person – tune in at 2pm SLT on Monday for the live show – where you can now chat with other audience members and even some of the participants during the show – or catch it later in the week on our shows page on the Treet.tv web site.
Prim Perfect 