CDC on Second Life, could Canada follow?

Nedra Weinreich posted a great article on how U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) took advantage of the Second Life hype to build their CDC Health Fair within Linden Lab’s virtual world and pushing social marketing to the next level by leveraging social media.

Nedra writes how the initiator of the project at CDC was able to make it happen, she tells the story how John first started exploring Second Life and had convinced the powers-that-be within a 4 month period to build a CDC virtual presence. John seems to be the CDC’s go-to guy for their health communications “Special Forces” by not only setting up new communications offices in various parts of the agency but he is contently exploring how social media can be used to promote public health, and he plans to continue to serve as the CDC’s virtual face in Second Life.

I decided to check it out, I logged on and teleported to the CDC Island.

I’ve been consulting for the CDC’s Canadian equivalent, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) since February 2007, with the mission to educate senior managers and staff and begin the deployment of new communication tactics to reach stakeholders and targeted audiences by taking advantage of social media and new technologies. The CDC has not only pioneered the use of social media within the public sector in virtual worlds but has also initiated conversations with their Health Marketing Director’s blog.

On a side note, Mike Kujawski on his post MARCOM 2008 Debrief mentions hearing that Library and Archives Canada has bought some property on Second Life.

Thank you Nedra for your article and Kudos John!