Second Life Tea Parties

So I barely understand Second Life. I'm struggling enough as it is to get my character to have the right hair type. I mean seriously, how much harder could they make it? I was hoping for a user interface a little more similar to SIMS.

Naturally, this is as frustrated as I was when I first discovered blogging, or tweeting, or facebook. Now I'm obsessed with all three of those things. I feel over social networked. I love Second Life as a concept, but I feel overcommitted online. We all have to recognize our limits, but a program like SecondLife makes me wonder if I'm actually interacting with people or playing a game. Is there a distinction? The human race after all is a playful creature.

Anyway, I decided to look up some ideas about Second Life as a political tool. I don't feel like commenting about them, but I wanted to share them with you all because I found them enlightening. Thank you Institute for Politics, Democracy, & The Internet! :

Fewer logistical nightmares and more timely political events . – In Second Life, a laptop, a free hour or two, and an in-world venue quickly moves the event from conception to execution.

Shadow political parties and shadow conventions. – The official meetings and conventions of state or national political parties are often unwieldy beasts. We might see the official party organizations holding open meetings every so often in Second Life. Or, if they choose not to, we might witness activists organizing parallel meetings in the metaverse, where time is spent plotting the takeover of the official party apparatus.

Metaverse fundraising . – Not all too long ago, the cutting edge in raising money online was having a bat graphic that was colored in as the contribution dollars piled up. By doing away with many of the bonds of reality – time, space, physics, and (to some degree) social constraints – Second Life has blown the doors off of the old models of fundraising.

Reaching out to early adapters . – Second Life opens up a wide range of possibilities for the execution of political advertising. At the least, we might soon see political ad firms setting up shop in Second Life, running virtual galleries to display their wares.