Let's see what the griefers do with this: supporters of Barack Obama have constructed an apparently unofficial Obama HQ in Second Life. Right now it's rather sparsely decorated, and when I went this afternoon there was only one other avatar there.
Similar to John Edwards' site, it's basically a place to get information about the candidate, gaze upon campaign-approved photos, register to vote, become a volunteerand find as many campaign logos as possible. When I visited there was only one other avatar there who was wordlessly going about the place.
Like many other Second Life spaces it suffers from a lack of attendance. We'll get a better sense of it's true value when people arrive en masse (hopefully leaving their virtual molotov cocktails behind).
In other Second Life news, the Daily Kos announced today that this year's YearlyKos convention will have a presence in Second Life. It will give people who can't make it to Chicago, the site of this year's convention, a chance to participate. Among other things, the virtual convention will feature live video feeds of the sessions and a chance for Second Life attendees to ask questions of the panelists. DailyKos blogger Jay Ackroyd describes what motivated him to get involved with SL: "What motivated me to get involved with this was remembering last year, sitting on the couch, watching panel sessions on CSPAN3 and wishing I could be in Las Vegas. I would have leaped at the chance to attend virtually, because I couldn’t be there in person." Should be interesting...
We talked about making it free, but there were hard costs to be covered, and, also, there are capacity limits. Money serves as an indication of seriousness of interest. And it's a very good cause.
It is still, of course, considerably cheaper than a ticket to the RL event, not to mention T&E.
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A friend and I visited Obama
A friend and I visited Obama HQ is Second Life yesterday afternoon (after the weekly SL Netroots meetup). We agreed that it was more professional-looking than Edwards' space, which is ironic since I think this one is even more unofficial than Edwards'. There were about 7 other avatars there, although I think a few of them were on the clock. One had a "security" title above his name. He approached us, we said hello, he went away.
As for yKos in Second Life, I am very interested to see how it goes. They will be charging registrants (less than in RL) and are restricting access to paid avatars. Personally, I never had a moment when I wished I was there in person (especially b/c it was in Vegas - ew) but I might plunk down the $25 (real dollars) to see it in SL out of curiosity.