Wow, this is a pretty ambitious and exciting project: http://www.govtech.com/gt/766275?id=766275&topic=117673&full=1&story_pg=1
“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.”
Another quote from this source:
“”If the government wants to keep up with the generation and hear their concerns and learn to interact with them, they’re going to have to move online into the 3-D virtual world because that’s where the next generation is going to be residing.”
via Pam Broviak
