See all in News Features

A close call

News Features

Out-of-body politic

CHANT + WAVE: Avatars speak out just like in reality – only different.

In this online world, where your other you can gamble, have sex, and build fake hookah lounges to get your other you fake high, protestors create a scene not by rallying a thunderous collective chant, but by getting so many people to visit the same spot that a part of the system crashes. Most areas in Second Life can only hold about 100 avatars. So when the online demonstration got crazy, it also got exclusive. Some people who were bumped out when their computers crashed couldn’t get back in. It was sort of like getting stuck on the lame side of a police blockade.

“We had envisioned doing something small and symbolic until . . . we realized that we had clearly touched a nerve in the Second Life community,” said Ruby Sinreich, a/k/a “Ruby Glitter,” a real-world activist who helped organize the virtual-world rally. “ Although we can’t vote in Second Life, we can raise awareness and connect people and show our strength .”

• Internet
• •
• Science and Technology
• •
• Social Software and Tagging
• •
• more >>

The peace rally was the biggest Glitter had ever attended on Second Life, and may be the largest in the world’s four-year history. But, despite the protest’s respectable turnout, it failed to achieve what most activists in the real world consider the number one reason to take to the streets — to get the message to outsider ears. This wasn’t the avatars’ fault necessarily — Second Life is a hodgepodge mosaic of diverse locations without a central gathering spot. One of the coolest things about it, and the most overwhelming for “noobs” (new members), is that you can teleport between hundreds of different worlds whenever you want. There is no one spot that all avatars must visit, or that all avatars take note of.  So social and political activists here have to be creative when it comes to getting their message out, and many of them have only just begun to test the virtual waters .

HONORING THE FALLEN: A virtual soldier cemetery.

The peace rally was organized by Roots Camp, a Second Life counterpart to the “first life” (real-world) groupthat sponsors activist meet-ups around the country. Roots Camp in SL has 19 members . Roots Camp activists know demonstrations in a sprawling world without a central downtown won’t get much attention unless members of the Second Life or real-world media cover them. So social activists in-world have tried instead to figure out other ways to draw noobs to their causes.  Activist Evonne Heyning (a/k/a the green pixie “In Kenzo”) created an interactive “Camp Darfur” with tents, burning huts, and video footage of refugee camps in Sudan .  The UK nonprofit Save the Children sells virtual yaks to raise money for its global efforts .And politicians like former Virginia governor Mark Warner and California representative George Miller have hosted public meetings to bring real-world politics to the sim streets. None of the major US political parties have set up headquarters in Second Life, though the right-wing Front National Party from France has already ruffled some pixelated feathers with its presence there .

• Share:
• 
• Rss
• Email
• Print