I have recently signed up for Second Life. I am now a virtual person.

Second Life is free to join with limitations; as a basic member you can’t own land for example. I wanted to see how this virtual world works and experience it for myself. Now I want to build.

As a kid my friend JMB and I had created our own “virtual” word in the realm of our imagination. Our homes were our countries where we ruled. We created our own monetary systems and as dignitaries of our respective lands we visited each others country, made elaborate treaties and created our world the way we wanted it.

Our worlds were very expansive and extremely detailed. There were no limits to what we could come up with and everything was as we decided it to be. We each had our own little world that we shaped how we saw fit and then had those worlds interact.

Second Life is very much the same concept. It brings back lots of those same feeling of wanting to create; wanting to build and develop and shape things the way I want. Exist in a limitless word of creation and imagination.

Second life is defiantly about creation and interaction. Its all about making things your own way but best of all it gives you the ability to share this creation with anyone and everyone if you wish.

Linden Lab’s Terms of Service agreement recognizes Residents’ right to retain full intellectual property protection for the digital content they create in Second Life, including avatar characters, clothing, scripts, textures, objects and designs. This right is enforceable and applicable both in-world and offline, both for non-profit and commercial ventures. You create it, you own it—and it’s yours to do with as you please.

It’s a grand social, financial, civic, and self examination experiment.

Here are some links to check out:

New World Notes - This is a great blog to read. You can get a glimpse of what cool things are happening in Second Life. There are posts on Intellectual Property and see examples of how people interact in second life. Lots of topics are covered here, overall some of the best I have seen.

Second Life’s stand on Intellectual Property

Tringo - Guy creates a game in Second Life that becomes so popular it is now licensed in the real world.

Lawrence Lessig Lecture In Second Life
On Wednesday night, Stanford IP professor joined a packed audience at a stage in Second Life where he discussed with SL’s founder Philip Linden copyright and democracy issues. Some of his talk looked at how real-life copyright was unworkable in the speed that Second Life existed and that if enforced, IP controls could dampen creativity within virtual worlds.

Online Virtual World Is Part Fantasy, Part Civics Experiment - 'Second Life' lets researchers, local governments, and regular people introduce new projects, trade ideas, and even conduct a bit of virtual commerce in a three-dimensional world.

Virtual world teaches real-world skills - Game helps people with Asperger’s practice socializing

Brave new world - Environments of computer generated splendour inhabited by figures with superhuman powers. Experiences that stretch and stimulate the imagination. Opportunities to be all you could never otherwise hope to be. I suspect I have glimpsed our future.