Rodvik Linden and Pete Linden hosted a short meet and greet gathering yesterday morning after 11:09am SLT. The meet and greet was only invite only according to Chestnut Rau’s blog post and tweets on Twitter. I’m angry that I was not invited to the meet and greet meeting because I love attending these special meetings/events.
Chestnut Rau kindly posted up the Full Transcript of the Meet & Greet gathering.
Daniel Voyager 
Thanks for tipping us to this event, Daniel. I’m not amused that Chestnut calls Rod’s appearance a sign of “openness.” Anything but openness, I would say, since he called in only a tiny group of sycophants and let them drool all over him.
This is a lesson in how to control the message and not allow for the possibility of anything unwanted to be asked and reported. There was no new info from Rod even as a lot of credit was given to him by the few there for work that actually was down on the backs of others before he ever heard of SL.
Not only you went uninvited, Daniel, but Hamlet also was not present and many, many other excellent SL writers, photographers and videographers were not invited. This is not a good portent of the future. It’s too bad that Chestnut doesn’t get it when it comes to openness.
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Daniel an invitation to the meeting was extended to members of the Second Life Press Corps group. If anyone wants to be invited to that group they should probably email Peter Linden with a link to their blog and request an invitation. I am not sure what the criteria for acceptance in the group are but Peter can probably clarify that for you.
The meeting was quite small — there were only 20 people on the island at the time. That is exactly why I posted to chat log on my blog. I thought people would be interested in what Rod had to say. Thanks for sharing the post with your readership.
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Thanks for the comments and details. 🙂
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Hey Stone! Nice to meet you.
The people who were invited to the meet and greet with Rodvik Linden are members of the Second Life Press Corps. Anyone, including yourself, can ask for an invitation to join the group. Pretty simple, right?
Hamlet said on his blog he is going to interview Rod personally. Tateru said the same thing. They didn’t need to come to a meet and greet where no questions were really allowed since they have been granted in depth interviews at a later date.
I would point out that neither M Linden or Philip Linden engaged the media the way Rod and his team appear to be doing. I would direct you to Phaylen Fairchild’s blog http://phaylen.com/?p=653 where you will see that people besides me are seeing a change in the way Linden Lab engages the community. Will it last? Is it “real”? I have no idea and I have quite loudly been skeptical on my own blog.
I understand your negativity and cynicism and in fact I share both. Having said that? I am glad I went to the meeting and I hope the sea change is real. I do love Second Life and I would like to see it flourish. What about you?
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Hi, Chestnut. Nice to meet you, too. I’m very glad you posted your chat log. You made no mistake and you did us all a great service.
The misstep was by Peter and Rodvik Linden when they chose to call in a small little group they control, rather than the far larger press corp all over SL. I don’t see that as engaging “the media.” Rather, it is engaging their own little group they have labeled as the media. The problem with that is it allows them to control the message by handing it to only those they know will repeat it verbatim and uncritically. Openness would have been for them to throw whatever info they had out there and let the chips fall where they might. I would offer the prediction that favoritism and selectivity will backfire on them.
I have no insider knowledge at all, so maybe, for all I know, Peter isn’t a PR professional and therefore not well equipped to guide Rodvik through these waters. If that were the case, I would suggest Rodvik seek support from those of us who are ardent supporters of Second Life and who are PR professionals or who train professionals in those matters.
Chestnut, I share your love for SL having been in-world everyday since Nov. 19, 2006. I too want it to flourish and, in fact, have worked in RL every one of those days to promote our virtual world and build the number of residents.
Like you, I have seen disappointments in recent times here. However, I have high hopes for Rodvik based on the credentials he brings to our world.
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The Second Life Press Corps group was created under the leadership of M Linden I believe. Pete was always the contact but the group was not created by Rod.
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Joined the SL Press Corps group last month. Looking forward to attending next time!
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