Endemol, creators of some of the most successful television formats of recent years, announced yesterday that they would be launching the first Virtual Big Brother within Second Life. It’s a fascinating concept, and it’ll be fascinating to see how it’s received by both the Second Life community and those who so far haven’t engaged with it. Will the intrusive and often prurient appeal of ‘real’ Big Brother with ‘real’ people really transfer to avatars within a virtual world? Whether it succeeds or fails, it should tell us a lot about how we negotiate our own and others’ identities within real and virtual communities.
And hopefully something to look forward to in January 2007: Boris Johnson, inimitable Shadow Minister for Higher Education, is widely rumoured to have been approached to appear in the next series of Celebrity Big Brother. I will of course be watching carefully in case he has anything to say on eassessment and elearning in any potential future Tory government.
Now all I need is someone to pay me to play WoW and my life would be complete…
I rather feel that the whole ‘Big Brother’ thing has become more of a freak show than decent reality television. I liked the first one, but I’ve not watched the last two because they seem to trawl the British Isles for the most desperate brain donors who will bring shame upon themselves for the entertainment of teenage girls and the profit of those companies that sell ringtones.
On the other hand maybe I just don’t get it because I’m not part of the ringtone generation anymore?
[Found you via’s Simon’s blog, thought I’d comment because entirely random comments are always fun. Plus, that’s what blogging is about in a way.]