Could they not have called it “An Occasional Diiversion”? No it has to be “Second life“. I have been introduced to second life by some remarks on Darren Barfoot’s Blog“I’ve become convinced that it’s something important, and worth paying attention to.”

I was instantly hooked on the idea. Imagine a virtual world populated by hundreds of thousands of Avatars, spending and making real currency, operating real church ministries, stock exchanges, movie theatres (Mr. & Mrs. Smith any one?), casinos and “edutainment centers”. There are awareness campaigns for non-profits and even a Wells Fargo financial planning education island.

I read stories about companies meeting in the virtual land for employee orientations and project meetings. College students meet to do group assignments and thousands meet to dress provocatively and , erm, date…

. And here is a twist, you own the rights to what you create here. That means you can buy and sell items, apply copywright scripts etc.

With all of this free-form usability though, I worry for the future of the platform. So many questions arise as to copywright (movies, avatars shaped like Snoopy), property law, soverignty, currency trading (who operates the securities regulation anyway), criminal law, hacking, and who knows what else.

Certainly some one someone, somewhere will sue. I suppose that for now the jurisdiction is California as Linden Labis is there. Some are talking about decentralising the servers so Mr. Xeboperific can host his own Second Life integrated “real estate” separately, or that the server base in California could me moves to somewhere where the law is not a factor, like, um, Guantanimo Bay, Cuba.

I am in it now, with Bree, and we shall see that this new world holds.