New Beginnings: Introducing the Active Worlds Press Corps

There comes a time when, due to unforeseen changes, we must react accordingly to these changes. In science, the concept is presented as a conflict in climate change. If the climate changes too drastically, the plants and animals in the area affected are left with three simple choices: Adapt, move, or die.

Drawing from that, there has been a 'climate change' of sorts in Active Worlds over the past year. The average user count in the universe has dropped off sharply, and as such the readership of news has also dropped. Despite the hard-working efforts of those left who are working to get the news out -- Flagg, Maki, Lensman, Strike Rapier, Syntax and myself just off the top of my head -- it's getting increasingly difficult to get the news out. Not only because of a dwindling readership, because also of the smaller pool of writers.

Indeed, one could not believe how difficult it is to get people to write about AW. A longtime friend of mine on Active Worlds, Maki, went so far as to try a program where he would pay your citizenship for that month if you wrote an article per month. One article! It was quite possibly the best deal across Active Worlds at that time, but even that fell on deaf ears.

Consequently, I became rather pessimistic about recruitment to the AW news services until the idea for this service began to form. Think about it: The publishers do a stellar job to provide a place to publish the news. AWNews and the AW Newsletter are both graphically pleasing and well-formatted under maki's leadership; AWPortals' chronicles are a prime and efficient example of publishing; and Lensman's AWSource world will soon provide a unique way to look at the news. I believe in each of these organizations: People enjoy seeing that things are going on and I believe that the userbase at large is encouraged to see news stories, which report on the very happenings in the universe! That is why news is important, and I think these publishers can flourish if it weren't for one small setback. They don't have any writers!

Therefore, this is where I say we should step in. As one of AWNews' old slogans said, things DO still happen in Active Worlds, and we need to get that out. With the establishment of the Active Worlds Press Corps, my mission is to recruit and train people to write about things going on in their part of the Active Worlds community. From this small blog we will act as a supplement to the major publishers, providing content to fill their infrastructure. Active Worlds has changed, and we must adapt. You see, we can't move and we are certainly not going to die.

If you're interested in this new project, please take a moment to fill out a quick application in the next post.