Two Visualizations of the #Emeraldgate Explosion: One Datalicious. One LOL.

I was wondering why the Emerald Viewer story seemed to generate more intense reaction from the Second Life community than just about any other controversy in the last two years.  It seemed like analyzing Twitter activity might shed some light on the question.

First, I created this word cloud from tweets which included the #emeraldgate tag. (Placement of the words doesn't matter, only the size. The larger the word, the higher its frequency.) As you can discern in a glance, the retweet (RT) is what fueled the explosion, sparked by a handful of originators whose tweets were RT'd by a larger pool of participants. A textbook case of the power of the social network. You can click through for a larger image.



The second visualization is from a wild site called "IS Parade" which creates an animated parade from a Twitter user name or text phrase, including tweeps and tweet excerpts. It really gets across the crowdsource roots of the #emeraldgate meme.

The Graver Danger Uncovered in the #Emeraldgate Affair

What concerns me most about the Emerald affair is not the danger of malicious code, but the threat that the expansion of malicious speech in the Second Life community will outlive this particular instigating incident.

There have always been a few people in the community who habitually attack others in public venues through the use of derogatory labels, specious or exaggerated accusations and vitriol-filled multi-post rants. But it seems to me that this tendency has expanded in the wake of the #Emeraldgate affair. This is not surprising. Many people were personally offended by the thought that the Emerald team broke the community's trust and confidence. In turn, what would have otherwise been a shared investigation into the facts surrounding the emerging story was often colored by speculative judgements on the dark motivations and flawed character of the accused perpetrators.

On a positive note, I think that Paisley Beebe's fine interview yesterday with the Emerald team's leaders proved that it is possible to ask hard questions without resorting to personal attack,  and demonstrated the benefit of creating a safe conversational space for those embroiled within controversy.