The Alphaville Herald

Town Hall Meetings Take to the Airwaves

by Alphaville Herald on 05/04/06 at 12:56 pm

SL’s Town Hall meetings are getting an overhaul. When King Philip himself logs in tomorrow to field resident questions at 7:00pm SLT, it won’t be in the usual lag-fraught, unreadable chat format, but in an audio feed streamed all over the Grid. SL resident Johnny Ming’s SecondCast was recently contracted to produce the audio Town Halls (way to go, Johnny!), so resident’s questions — pre-vetted by the Linden PR operation, of course — will be asked of Philip by the SecondCast cast, of which I, your humble correspondent Walker Spaight, am a member. I won’t be taking part in the Town Halls, though, due to time constraints and the fact that it doesn’t quite mesh with my role as a journalist, virtual or otherwise. Town Halls should be venues for residents, not scribblers like myself.

No word yet on whether the stream’s URL will be available for anyone to plug into their land (Johnny?), but according to SecondCast member Lordfly Digeridoo’s recent post in the SL forums, “people will congregate in various areas around the grid, with events hosted by Lindens and the Secondcast crew.” Which means that many more residents should have the chance to participate than the limited number that could fit into former Town Hall venues due to sim overcrowding. A downloadable version of the meeting will be made available on the SecondCast site (I assume), and a text transcript will also get posted to the forums after all is said and done (pun intended).

Check Lordfly’s thread not just to see the questions that are being floated, but also some hilarious (and probably not inaccurate) answers being predicted by residents like Khamon Fate. For instance:

Question: Phil, what do you think of the current SL forums situation? Is the ResMod program functioning as Linden Lab desires? What is being done to improve the situation?

Answer: Concerning the resmod program in the forums, <insert general really pleased comment #31>. <insert random, humourous, unrelated forum story #82>. We are very proud of our volunteers and greatly appreciate their efforts to improve your world, your imagination. <insert standard always refining comment>, so <insert patent email me statement>. Next!

Question: The edge of the old continent ends abruptly in straight line. Any plans to ever finish it off and make it look more complete?

Answer: Concerning the edges of continents, <insert general really pleased comment #27>. <insert original idea over coffee story #03>. We are exploring many landmass ideas, such as residents brushing their own hair, in our continuing efforts to improve your world, your imagination. <insert standard always refining comment>, so <insert patent email me statement>. Next!