William Gibson and Second Life

Wired recently wrote a story about William Gibson promoting his latest book Spook Country in the virtual MMG Second Life.

Personally, I don't care for Second Life. As an avid gamer I find the 3-D graphics lacking. In the short stint I spent in the world, I found it hard to get around and find any content or experiences that were worth while.

As someone who works in marketing, I also find it frustrating when brands create a presence in Second Life so they can try to catch a ride on the long gone hype train. A note to marketers: Just opening a storefront in a virtual world is not enough. Spend the time to actually understand the culture of the world you are entering so you can add something meaningful to the experience.

Back to William Gibson. In the comments below the article one poster points out that it's a perfect idea for Gibson to promote his book in Second Life, because he invented the notion of "Cyberspace." Another poster responds with a note that the experience of Second Life if actually more like the alternate reality world people jack into in Neal Stephenson's mind-blowing Snowcrash. People misunderstand the comment and talk about how Gibson's Neuromancer predates Snowcrash by a decade and therfore Stephenson's notions are built on the shoulders of Gibson's world blah blah blah

However, I think the Snowcrash comment is an insightful one. The cyberspace Gibson describes in Neuromancer is a world where people jack in to quickly access huge stores of information that are protected by massive security. Basically, he is describing the internet. What Stephenson describes is a world driven by avatars, that is entirely social, where users buy up virtual real estate and show off their programming skills by how good their avatars and virtual vehicles are. Exactly the world of Second Life.

Although some people have tried to use Second Life to show content or provide information, the experience is a largely social one. Without a doubt, the internet experience is a much quicker way to access and consume content. So the real question is, is it more fitting for Gibson to have a "create an avatar" contest in Second Life and answer questions, or to do something like Warren Ellis and publish the first chapter of his book online so that his readers can easily access it, pass it on, and begin to evangelize his new title for him?

William Gibson is very intelligent, so he'll probably do both. Just don't try to say that he and Second Life are like the creator and his vision colliding, when it's really more a straight PR tactic.