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Telegraph gets green fingers in Second Life

Posted: 31/05/07 By: Robert Andrews

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Telegraph.co.uk has become the latest news outlet to enter Second Life after building a recreation of the Chelsea Flower Show inside the virtual world.

The newspaper erected an approximation of the horticultural event, along with a multimedia section, to support its partnership with the show, at which it has sponsored a garden.

Website assistant editor Ian Douglas wrote: "The Second Life Telegraph.co.uk Chelsea garden has been made so you can see the design close-up and move around it in a way you never could at the flower show.

"There is information about the design on hand, including a full list of the plants used and notes from the gardeners involved."

Since hype about the 3D world, which boasts six million registered accounts but far fewer active residents, exploded in the mainstream press last autumn, many marketers have jumped aboard in the hope of touting products.

In news, Reuters last year opened an in-world bureau to report on Second Life stories and Sky News last week opened the doors to its own virtual newsroom at the Hay Festival this Sunday.

Sky News politics editor Adam Boulton, who anchored a simulcast from an approximation of the broadcaster's tent at Powys on television and inside the 3D world, said the feature attracted 700 avatars, more than the software was able to cope with.

Boulton said Sky would be staging more events in-world in the coming weeks.

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