Wired editor’s Second Life doubts, blog-to-book tips, and other links—plus TeleRead vs.TeleBlog

By David Rothman

Is Second Life like the Florida land boom of the 1920s? Perhaps schools and libraries can dip their feet in the swampy waters.

But long term, maybe foundations ought to get serious about funding a replacement with lower expenses for institutions, as well as a much better interface and a more open approach. The MacArthur Foundation is already exploring the virtual reality area.

Meanwhile, via a post in the excellent Wired Campus blog of the Chronicle of Higher Education, I see that none other than Wired Magazine editor Chris Anderson has lost faith in Second Life—as have some other key participants from corporate America. Could it be, as some have suggested, that you should consider Second Life to be just a set of training wheels for less proprietary alternatives?

Case Western University, one of the schools in Second Life, claims that its efforts there are are cost-effective. But might they be more so with truly open Internetish approach rather than one company selling virtual land? I’d love to hear from educators, librarians and publishers on the issue of continued investments in Second Life, which suffered a setback recently when it appeared that the feds might crack down in a major way on gambling there.

Here are some other items of interest today:

–Blog to Book: answers to Questions from Blogher, in editor Jim Minatel’s blog, addresses such issues as whether a blog should be a book, the copyright issues, and whether a publisher will insist on unique content. Spotted via Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 Blog. His company, Wiley, has done two blog-to-book projects recently, Naked Conversations and Lifehacker.

–Technical Writers May Be the Future of American Literature, a post in Writer’s Blog—also spotted via the Wikert blog, which must be on a roll, because it also contains a pointer to Jeff Attwood‘s funny and scary post on Thirteen Blogging Cliches (among his targets are Sociable icons at the bottoms of posts; ouch!). The Writer’s Blog post quotes a Utah Valley State College English professor named Scott Hatch, who notes that tech writing gets you in the habit of writing regularly. Big deal. Isn’t that what blogs should do?

As for tech writing as a preparation for fiction—well, I have my doubts. Fiction and nonfiction often require different skills, and that’s especially something to remember in the technical writing area, where programming and even clerical talents may count more than novelistic imagination.

No, it isn’t as if you’ll never be Kurt Vonnegut if you’ve spewed out page after page as a technical writer; in fact that’s exactly what the real Vonnegut did for a stretch. But as untrendy as it sounds, print journalism on a small-town daily would probably offer better preparation if you want see Life, not just accustom yourself to machine-gun-paced production.

Meanwhile, for what it’s worth, Scott Hatch has worked as, yes, a technical writer.

–Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing Smackdown continues on the podcast-based Writing Show. Related: Author Jeff DeRego’s case against print on demand.

– TeleRead vs. TeleBlog. Should we stop using the word “TeleBlog”? To me, it’s a handy, less formal way of saying the “TeleRead Web Log” and helps distinguish the blog from the rest of the site. To at least one faithful reader and commenter, however, “TeleBlog” is confusing. Any opinions one way or another?

About the swamp image: It’s CC-licensed and the swamp actually of a nature preserve in Florida. But, hey, you get the idea.