I joined guests Jesse Hirsh (tech analyst), Alexandra Shimo (reporter), and Anthony D. Williams (co-author, Wikinomics) on TV Ontario's The Agenda yesterday to discuss the ins and outs of Second Life. Virtual worlds are not typical subject matter for the program, which is firmly entrenched in the real world, albeit with a strong interest in technology.

I think the show was a success, but I'm so close to the subject-matter it's hard to gauge how TVO's mature audience might have enjoyed it. The guests, each of whom was far more knowledgeable about Second Life than I'd expected, were personable and articulate. Host Steve Paikin asked some excellent questions and seemed genuinely engaged in the topic. Among the points I personally discussed, I was happy to have explained what "2.3 residents" actually means (signups as opposed to active users). Overall, I think the panel was balanced, realistic (as opposed to hype-tastic) and informative.

I've done a number of TV appearances before, but this particular show had me involved a bit more heavily in pre-production than usual. Normally I'm asked some questions by a producer during the research phase of a show or segment. This time around, TVO's Mike Miner asked me to create an avatar for Steve Paikin, which we ended up using in a shot kicking off the show segment. None of the computers at TVO would run Second Life properly (system specs not high enough), but somehow my iBook laptop managed ok-ish (5 frames per second). The original idea was to shoot some footage in-world but it just wasn't feasible given the hardware.

The production team at The Agenda, some of whom I've met through conducting workshops at TVO, were all intrigued by Second Life. It was refreshing to respond to their questions before the shooting took place--I'm so close to the virtual world I forget how the uninitiated might perceive it. It was particularly sobering to be reminded that my Second Life expertise means nothing outside of a small echo-chamber consisting mostly of blogs and some mainstream media outlets :)

[Update: Further commentary at Mike Miner's and Jesse Hirsh's blogs.]