Edmonton Replicating City in Second Life
The City of Edmonton, Alberta, is using the Second Life virtual world (explanation here) to extend the city and interact virtually with citizens.
Federal agencies such as NASA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have a presence in Second Life, but most cities haven’t gone there for various reasons.
Edmonton is not the first to get into Second Life, but it’s believed to be the first city to officially recreate itself (geography, terrain and major landmarks). Moore believes the interactive platform can encourage tourism and economic development. Virtual Edmonton is set to launch in August.
“I treat it as a platform from which we can understand and experiment,” Moore said. “Because it’s not behind our firewall, it lives in a place where we can easily interact with the community. Will it be the platform that we stay on forever? I don’t know. But it’s a really easy place to start.”
Uncle Sam and Social Media
A discussion from the Pew Research Center on social media and the US Federal Government (great read with lots of examples).