Reuters is reporting that the US Congress will have a presence in SL, and it got me to thinking about the upcoming political cycle in Australia. New South Wales goes to the polls in March and all of Australia is likely to vote in another Federal election before year’s end.

Which politicians (if any) would you like to see make an appearance in SL? We’ll approach the most popular suggestions in real life and ask if they’d be interested in joing SL.

It’s the time of year where reflection tends to come a little more to the fore. In this case of SLOz, the reflection is obviously about SL. The interest generated in SL in the past three months has been phenomenal, and recently user concurrence (number of SL users logged in at one time) has broken the twenty thousand barrier. All that said, come January 2008 will SL be any more persuasive as a social medium in the wider population than now? For me the answer is an unsatisfying maybe.

In an Australian context, our smaller population is a double-edged sword – the word-of-mouth regarding SL combined with recent media coverage will increase the aussie userbase, not that it’s possible to quantify that. On the other hand that same small poplation will limit the amount of resources Linden Labs will throw at the Australian market, unless Australia were to become the base for SE Asian marketing / support / operations etc. There certainly is no cohesive Australian community in-world that I’ve been able to nail down. A couple of groups exist that are either inactive or have a handful of members. One of the aims of this site is to increase communication between Australians – if thats one of the facets you’re seeking with SL.

As always, your suggestions and thoughts welcome. Happy New Year!

The shell of an Australian library is available and there’s a call for anyone interested in coordinating the project and bringing the library to life.

Check it out in-world.

ABC TV’s The 7.30 Report featured Second Life tonight (Friday 29th December). The focus was on an Australian user, Lythe Witte and how she took part in the SL community. The story also covered another virtual world, Entropia Universe.

The thrust of the story was how virtual worlds may play an increasing role, and the interest of big business in it all. There was also some discussion on governance and intellectual property issues. A link to the full transcript will be posted when available. We’ll also contact Lythe Witte to see if she’d like to make a comment.

The biggest shame is that the SL grid is down at the time of the publicity.

There have been numerous stories in the past year about corporations developing presences in Second Life. The most well known ones are Reuters, Adidas, Nike, Pontiac etc.

I keep waiting for the first aussie company to take the plunge. I know I’d buy a Mambo shirt for myself in-world, and even like to offer a VB or XXXX to guests. Anyone out there got any inside information or predictions on which companies will be first in the pool?

Reuter are running a report that the Australian Tax Office has ruled that profits made in-world will attract a tax liability. Quoting a Fairfax newspapers article, there’s also discussion by Reuter’s of the UK investigation into the issue of tax liability.

So we’re assuming this means that if you are making serious money in SL, then registering an ABN may be worth considering. If you are making more than $50 000 Australian, then it’s another ball game again. The Australian Tax Office has all the fun detail on the tax system.

Whilst looking for a location for SLOz’s new in-world location, I came across sims with the names of Boggabri and Toowoomba. Neither looked much like their counterparts of course, but I’m wondering what the impetus is for those names being selected…