Since closing the blog last year I have had periodic requests to restart it. As it stands I would be open to anyone wishing to write on this blog around the subject of security and virtual worlds. There aren’t too many other sources out there so keeping the blog going is a good idea. Therefore, if anyone wishes to get involved please email me at roderick[dot]jones[at]gmail[dot]com.
I recently checked into Second Life for the first time in a long time. Interestingly, the subject of what ‘went wrong’ with Second Life has cropped up quite a bit recently as a kind of essay question. My own view is that Second Life had a moment where it almost did offer the metaverse of imagination. Second Life circa 2006 did seem unbound by terrestrial law and economics. The reports of fortunes being made in a new world were drawing in an enormous amount of interest. However, from April to July 2007 the owners of Second Life, Linden Lab began to bind the world the United States law by introducing Age Verification and then banning Gambling from the world. This was in an environment when the US was aggressively pursuing UK executives from BetonSports, which was engaged in online gaming (so it is entirely understandable). While seemingly sensible policy decisions at the time, these decision placed Second Life back in the terrestrial realm. From there the promise and excitement around the world declined.
Offshore Second Life
I find myself wondering how difficult it now would have been to offshore Second Life to maintain its ‘freedom’ and how hard that would be to do now. Unbind it from nation-state law and regulation again. Would it be possible to place the company behind a trust arrangement in an offshore center and place the servers behind similar extra-territorial and legal protections. It is an intriguing idea as online environments become increasingly walled-in — creating one community, which can be transnational is a fascinating idea and would maybe re-boot the idea of a Metaverse. Second Life is currently valued at just north of $200M so it wouldn’t be a cheap experiment but it could work as a side project in Linden Lab.
MetaSecurity 