Also: Get a first life | Fox's new TV websites | Drudge does Edinburgh | The Facebook bit | Edinburgh Festival on thelist.co.uk
A flurry of activity at Sky News, where Second Lifers (I know, I know) have been corralled into acting as virtual news reporters. The site is inviting virtual news reports, either on SL events or real-life events re-created in Second Life (is that a good idea? I don't know), that they "film" and work into a two-minute video report.
SLers can pick up a Sky microphone from its newsroom which has to be filmed in the piece. Selected reports will be shown on skycast.com, Sky's video-sharing site, and "possibly" on Sky TV, says the release.
Sky is also Twittering and Flickring, in the form of reporter Derek Tedder from the Heathrow climate change camp, amongst others.
If that's not enough, there's also a very substantial Facebook application, and Sky's first-ever web exclusive video bulletin.
Get a first life
Healthy scepticism.
Fox's new TV websites
Fox Interactive Media, the digital division of News Corp, is taking over management and development of the websites for the affiliate Fox TV brands. That's around 160 sites that will be developed in the "MyFox" model, currently used for the 24 in-house TV stations. (Reuters)
Drudge does Edinburgh
Matt Drudge (remember him?) is speaking via video link to the MediaGuardian TV festival next weekend, sharing a platform with Mark Austin from ITV News, Pete Picton from Sun Online and Wadah Khanfar of Al-Jazeera, amongst others. The session is on terror tapes and related ethical dilemmas; no doubt Drudge's contribution will be illuminating.
The Facebook bit
In a reshuffle, chief operating office Owen Van Natta has been shifted to the role of chief revenue officer and vice president of operations. Boomtown said the shuffle reflects the professionalisation of Facebook's management as the site prepares for an initial public offering or, less likely, an acquisition. Annual revenue is $150m, it reports.
The mysterious, anonymous Facebook Secrets blog that popped up earlier this week has been taken down by Google after Facebook issued a takedown notice - only to be replaced by a Facebook Secrets Again that details the emails from Google to the mystery blogger. Facebook said the blog offered no useful insight and broke several laws; Mike Arrington pointed out that actually the leak provided a useful insight into the kind of security holes on the site, and that because the code was actually released accidentally by Facebook itself, it would be hard to prove that the blog broke any laws. (TechCrunch)
Edinburgh Festival on thelist.co.uk
Scottish listings site list.co.uk relaunched just in time for the festival. The site is run by several refugees from The Scotsman's website, hence it's rather swish. If you're in Edinburgh, you'll need it.
