Some days ago I decided to visit Second Life. I created my avatar, Txitua Paravane, I chose the appropriate clothes, make-up and hair-style and I took a walk among gardens, nudes and some businesses.

While I was walking I recalled the lyrics of Los días de Perky Pat and understood why La Monja Enana was “so excited” to travel to another world…anyway, joking apart, I was astonished!!!

Here it is my passage:

  • Second Life, here after SL, is a funny 3D digital world. The transactions in SL are in Linden Dollars that turn to be real ones because you use your credit card to buy them.
  • Most of the sites in SL have a cost: the discotheques, casinos, businesses, games, contests. You even have to pay for getting a piece of land and install your business there.
  • The advertisements spread on SL have put me in contact with its economic development creating in me the impression that for participating in SL I needed to make a compulsory payment, something that disappointed me taking into account the recent security problem in SL.
  • In spite of that, I created my Avatar and start using my intuition to find what non-profit activities may be developing in this land. So I decided to research more in this less known side of SL.
  • Surfing on the site I found Wagner James, a.k.a. Hamlet Au, who through his blog New World Notes, reports –first hand- what is happening in Second Life.
  • Hamlet Au prefers writing news related to non-profit world because –in his own words- the economy inside SL it is well developed.
  • Among his preferences you can find developments related to games, provided that they are original and interesting; cultural, political-economical and social topics provided that they are being developed inside the SL site. He also keeps you informed about coming events.
  • Thanks to his information I knew about the next Creative Commons conference in Kula 4. This drive me to visit Kula, there I felt among friends.
  • There, I found the CC logo, a podium, an interactive screen that show me how the licenses work, a big screen where you can find the CC website, and a Post-it that suggests me to visit the collection of books under CC licenses.
  • I also found a note with the transcription of the last talk about copyright, something that I considered very interesting.
  • I keep on surfing and I found a stand that gave me CC shirts for free for my avatar. Wow! I have new clothes!!!
  • In the gallery part I enjoyed beautiful images licensed under CC, as well as, the background of the Popular Science Concert that were held in SL with famous musicians.

  • For this reason a Mexican avatar is sitting under the NBC Christmas Tree (homeless style) bearing the referred banner with the name of the campaign, hoping to receive donations. Who will imagine that people will be asking for funds in the virtual world to solve real world problems.
  • There are also a lot of free events announced in the New World Blog like the Lecture on the Science of Star Trek and some concerts. Well, there is a lot to see in SL bur unfortunately so scarce time. Anyway I will be wandering these days in the SL site, and maybe, now with the low temperatures in Indiana I will end up getting into those bars. If you visit SL leave me a message via IM to Txitua Paravane.

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