Nedra Kline Weinreich has a fascinating article about how the Centers for Disease Control is exploring Second Life as they look at ways social media can be used to promote public health. She interviews CDC Second Life representative John Anderton at length about why and how the agency decided to establish an SL presence and how he’s been received in the online community. The parallels to advocacy and issue education are obvious, and more and more groups will probably be setting up a presence in this virtual world. The trick, as always, will be in converting online interest into real-world action. Via Micropersuasion, and well worth a read.
– cpd