Follow up on “ISM is not NASA”
Written on April 9, 2008 by Katherine W. Prawl
The response to my previous article is the most activity this blog has seen yet. But I do need to make some clarifications, and highlight at least one thing that has happened as a result of the brouhaha.
First, I should not have made it sound as if I thought Linden Lab’s misattribution by allusion of images from the International Spaceflight Museum (ISM) to NASA was NASA’s fault. I do not believe that at all, although obviously I have had some issues with NASA in the past, but that’s a different story.
This evening a comment was posted to the original article by Catherine Smith, Director of Marketing at Linden Lab, apologizing for the mixup and saying that the video with the misattribution has been taken down and will not be distributed until the error has been corrected. As I replied to her by email, that is a good first step, but it does not adequately address the matter of the machinima that is now part of the Congressional Record. I want Linden Lab to write a letter to the Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee explaining the mistake, and asking to have the explanation inserted into the Congressional Record.
Meanwhile, thank you to everyone who commented on this story, and thanks for the kind words about the ISM. No, we will probably not remove the museum from Second Life as some have thought we might (although we probably will attempt to replicate at least some part of it in other VWs). It would be easier to justify staying in SL if we were able to get what I believe it has deserved all along, the discount given to educational and other organizations. We do have a non-profit corporation, but as yet don’t have IRS recognition as a tax-exempt company. Getting 501(c)(3) status is a long and difficult process, which has certainly not been advanced by the need to scramble for funding to pay full price for the museum’s land every month. You’d think that Linden Lab’s own repeated approbation as “the best Second Life has to offer” and their frequent use of images of the museum in marketing materials would be testimony enough to its worthiness, but so far we have not been able to convince anyone there of that. Perhaps we are still not talking to the right people?
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