Boston to Join Second Life

Art: Rendering of Sweden's Second Life Embassy 

Last May, as Internet users were discovering Second Life -- described on the site as a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its more than 8 million residents -- the government of Sweden announced it was putting a Swedish embassy there in the online world.

Boston is also ramping up a Second Life online presence, according to a recent story in the
Boston Globe, and the city hopes to present concerts, hold virtual office hours by city officials, and help residents engage in many of the types of civic participation currently conducted through e-mail or on the city's Web site, but with the added novelty of a virtual world.