I have just heard that CNN island will be closing in Second Life before the end of the month (2011 ends). Apparently there will be a special farewell party at 2pm SLT at CNN island today (29th December 2011) in Second Life.
Janey Bracken posted a post called Farewell To CNN in Second Life about 19 hours ago which is really sad news to end 2011 on. Nicole ireport and Henry ireport the CNN producers (sl avatar names) will be going ahead with the closure of the island officially in a matter of days/weeks.
There is a free to join group called SL iReporters which was used for resident reporters who want to contribute to CNN SL iReport. There was special events and occasional announcements about CNN iReport in Second Life. Reqular meetings were hosted on the island by CNN staff where good discussions could take place about many topics virtually/real life. CNN inworld presence will be greatly missed by the SL community when it goes officially. The CNN SL submissions were amazing over the years and I enjoyed reading them.
Snapshots from CNN island today!
CNN report on the closure
It was with a little sadness that I heard the news from CNN producers Nicole ireport and Henry ireport (their avatar names! but CNN producers in real life none the less), that CNN Island will be closing in Second Life. It has come as no big surprise to be honest, as the hectic politics of today’s real world leaves CNN people with little time to cover everything, let alone a fun thing like Second Life.
It’s been great, I owe both Nicole and Henry a lot, as I started to write seriously by using the CNN ireport pages back in 2008 when they started the SL project. Today at a meeting at CNN Island Nicole said “We set up shop here in 2008 because we wanted to see what it was like to participate in a real-time community, in a virtual world no less. We didn’t know what to expect. The prospect was a little scary, to be completely honest.”
“We’ve realized that there’s a whole culture in-world, and we met so many people and acquired amazing threads and dance moves. Our comfort level grew, and we really feel like we’ve come to know you. It’s been a few years now and we’re thoroughly appreciative of this community we’ve had a privilege to be a part of. We are all proud of what we accomplished here and excited about the future. Just wanted you to know that.”
She added “We wanted to let you know that we’ll never forget our meetings, amazing hair and of course the incredible figures on our avatars. (lol!) We wish we looked like this in real life. It’s truly been one of my favourite projects at CNN, and I think others will agree.” It’s been fun for us too Nicole and I think I can speak for a lot of other ireporters too!
Nicole and Henry told us that there will still be Second Life Assignments, so nothing has really changed except their visits in-world. There are still some of the finer points to work out, but CNN will let us know very soon what else is happening. There will be a farewell party on CNN Island on Thursday at 2pm SLT and it would be nice if as many of the SL ireporter group could come along and show Nicole and Henry our appreciation for all the time they shared with us in SL.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/CNN%20iReport%20Island/128/128/2
Farewell CNN in Second Life!
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Daniel Voyager 
