In May my co-author Marty and I told you about the virtual online world of Second Life and an intriguing experiment conducted by Boston-based public broadcaster WGBH. Classical pianist Jeremy Denk visited WGBH’s studios to perform live on-air and, at the same time, in a virtual performance space within Second Life. Afterward, he answered questions submitted by the Second Life audience.
Public media’s experience in Second Life extends to just a few isolated efforts, and WGBH had never staged such an event before. So Gary Mott, the radio producer at WGBH who oversaw the event, didn’t really know what to expect. Would anyone show up? Would they enjoy it? And would WGBH’s considerable efforts to stage a virtual performance be worth it?
I talked to Mott the other day to find out, and the answer on all counts was “yes”: “It surpassed what we expected,” he said. About 70 Second Lifers showed up to see Denk and ask questions, and Mott says they were polite, attentive and keenly curious about Denk and his music. They also chatted with each other via instant messaging throughout the concert — you can see their comments and applause in the image accompanying this post.
“I was very impressed, as he was, by the level of engagement,” Mott says. (You can read what my co-blogger Marty thought of the experience — she went and had a great time.)
The participants showed “a real hunger for professional classical music in Second Life,” Mott says. Many amateur classical musicians perform in Second Life, he says, but few performers of Denk’s caliber have visited the virtual world. Attendees remarked that the quality of the sound and of Denk’s playing surpassed anything they’d heard in Second Life, Mott says.
Since the performance, Mott has been considering WGBH’s future with Second Life and writing a summary of the outcome for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supported the performance with a $12,000 grant from its Public Media Innovation fund. Some skeptics have told Mott that the performance seemed like a lot of work to draw an audience of just 70 people, considering that public broadcasters reach thousands of people at a time through radio and TV signals. But Mott takes a different view.
“I’m trying to make the argument that it’s really the quality of the experience that, in the long run, is maybe more beneficial than the fact that 100,000 people saw a program,” Mott says. “The usual metrics that we measure audience by didn’t seem to apply here.”
This is an issue a lot of people in public media are wrestling with, I’ve found. Could using new media to cultivate a smaller but passionate and actively engaged audience be just as important as reaching a larger but faceless and primarily passive one? Lots of big decisions, including budgeting and sponsorship strategies, hinge on this question. For more about this, read Robert Paterson’s blog posts about NPR’s decision to cancel The Bryant Park Project, a radio show that had a significant online presence.
Mott can’t say for sure what the monetary and qualitative benefits of such experiments might be. The only way to find out, he says, is to do more of it, and WGBH will apply for additional CPB funding to plan a full series of concerts in Second Life. CPB intends this third round of Public Media Innovation grants to support station projects that are sustainable. So WGBH will use its Second Life performances as a way to advertise its real-world performance studio to people who might want to rent the space.
Though the value of a public-media presence in Second Life is uncertain, Mott imagines that it could eventually become an integral way of engaging audiences. He points to podcasting as a parallel example. (In fact, WGBH was also a pioneering station in podcasting among public broadcasters, thanks to the curiosity and enthusiasm of producer Tony Kahn and his Morning Stories podcast.)
“Four and a half years ago, podcasting was not even part of anyone’s equation,” Mott says. “Then with the work of Morning Stories and Adam Curry and others, it has now become a part of the process. Of course you have to have a podcast. Everyone’s doing it. Everyone’s seeing the benefit of it.” For public media, being in Second Life could someday be “just something you gotta do, “Mott says. “It’s a community of people that you have to engage. Will it ever get to that? I’m not sure — who’s to say?”
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That is an interesting way to tie in media types.
Although, I think it is more interesting (as an egotist) that I found this article by reading a facebook update on my iPhone while I was trying to waste time at work.
Thank you internet for making instant access to esoteric information easier than a push up!
(but seriously, I am reading the rest of your blog now 🙂 )
Seventy people. Seven-zero. That’s not an audience. City council meetings in Montana draw bigger crowds.
Perhaps more important than the audience size is the technical capacity to perform in virtual worlds. Audience size will catch up over time, but early adopters of new technology are almost always rewarded over time. It’s worth the effort right now to play with the format and hone the virtual world presence…over time, it’ll be much, much bigger.
“Audience size will catch up over time”
No it will not.
Second Life has shown zero growth in online participants. Linden Lab’s count regularly goes up, but they count every single person that registers and every person’s multiple identities. The actual number of users online at any given time has not grown.