News by the community,
for the community

PR Newswire provides free kiosks for community press releases

Getting the news out has never been easier for Second Life (SL) residents. The release of version 1.4 of PR Newswire’s new free portable kiosks give SL residents the ability to get the news out as it happens, and to see the latest press releases from around the Grid.

PR Newswire, as reported in the June edition of the Sun, is the real life global leader in news and information distribution services for professional communicators. Under the leadership of avatar Bruce Voight, the company is making an effort to “give back” to the SL community by providing a forum for releasing newsworthy items that can be shared among community members.

The new kiosks were rolled out this August initially to 20-30 locations throughout SL. The new kiosks have a much slimmer footprint than the video-enabled kiosks described in the June edition, but still require 76 prims.

While a 76-prim kiosk means little or nothing to the owner of a larger parcel or sim, it might not fit the prim budget of a first-time landowner or small shop vendor. However, 76 prims is a substantial improvement over the 190-prim video version of the kiosks that should fit the prim budget of most club, mall, and island owners.

The newly released kiosks were designed and built by Aimee Weber’s Virtual Content Creation and Services company. Aimee’s portfolio includes the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association, the United Nations Stand Up Against Poverty, Second Life Relay for Life, and American Apparel, to name just a few of her many projects.

On Monday August 27th, PR Newswire started a contest to encourage avatars to try the new kiosks. To enter the contest, you simply need access to a kiosk (your own or one of the public ally available ones). To get your own kiosk, IM Bruce Voight or use the kiosks at The Seventh Sun Plaza, Second Oasis (240, 155, 21).

Once you have access to a kiosk, click on the Home icon to view recent press releases from across the SL grid. You will be redirected to a web page containing a number of links:

1. Click on the links of both new and old presses.
2. Look for highlighted keywords.
3. IM Pierre Newswire immediately if you find a highlighted keyword.

The first person to find and report the weekly keyword wins L$100,000.00.

In a recent interview with Bruce Voight, Bruce revealed that PR Newswire will be releasing an upgrade to the new kiosks that can be customized to meet the needs of individual communities within SL such as pirates, furries, Goths, Goreans, Trekkies, and so forth. These kiosks would allow specialized groups to filter out unwanted news items (not unlike a spam filter on an email client).

Bruce says, “Specialized kiosks are still in development and any group wishing for a specialized kiosks for their community need only to contact me so we can start working on it.”

* * *