Moments after talking about how progressive and positive the Canadian media is about virtual worlds, I ran across an article in the Washington Post on government in Second Life with the provocatively positive title: “O Brave New World That Has Such Avatars in It!
Arlington Among Governments Establishing a Virtual Presence”.

The Post gives a wonderful summary of some of the government initiatives in Second Life and is, perhaps, further proof that the media is starting to see the fallacy of always highlight the sexy and the salacious (and hey, they have Sony’s Home for that now anyways).

It includes the following video:

The following gives a sense of how more and more media seem to be viewing virtual worlds:

“Local governments haven’t rushed to set up shop in Second Life and other virtual worlds. Officials have plenty of skepticism, not all of it unwarranted. Virtual worlds remain a social and technological frontier, where people, through their animated alter egos, or avatars, can act out fantasies of violence and public nudity and where a computer hiccup can leave a frustrated visitor pounding on a keyboard.
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But as designers keep pushing to make the worlds more realistic and easier to navigate, the Washington area has become home to creative efforts to move government toward such realms.”

The Post plays up the potential benefits of virtual worlds for collaboration and planning, although it would have been nice if they credited “so-called Wikitecture”:

“Virtual worlds promote collaborations that could eventually change the way local governments manage touchy issues such as development. One idea turns on its head the old architectural gibe about a building looking like it was designed by committee. So-called “wikitecture” is meant to do just that. Designers around the world can each contribute their own flourishes to an architectural sketch. For instance, far-flung hands drew an award-winning blueprint for a health center in Nepal. “