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Sweden the First Country to set up an Embassy in Second Life
Posted by george on January 27th, 2007
Unfortunately there’s nothing on the Swedish Institute website about this amazing story. From TheLocal.se:
Sweden is to become the first country to establish diplomatic representation in the virtual reality world of Second Life, officials said on Friday.
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“We are planning to establish a Swedish embassy in Second Life primarily as an information portal for Sweden,” Swedish Institute (SI) director Olle Wästberg told AFP.
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The embassy would not provide passports or visas but would instruct visitors how to obtain such documents in the real world and act as a link to web-based information about the Scandinavian country…
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While there were individuals in Second Life calling themselves the “Canadian Ambassador” and “The United States Embassy to Second Life”, the Swedish initiative would however be the first officially sanctioned embassy in Second Life.
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Wästberg hoped the embassy would open soon. In the longer term the Swedish Institute envisaged buying an island in the virtual world to create a home for Swedish companies.
The Local - Sweden to set up embassy in Second Life.
Islands are not cheap in Second Life:
Islands are priced at US$1,675 for 65,536 square meters (about 16 acres). Monthly land fees for maintenance are US$295.
According to the Second Life website there are currently 2,956,159
residents in the virtual world.
January 28th, 2007 at 00:19 Europe/Berlin
[…] This is a pretty big deal though isn’t it? A government establishing a presence in a virtual world. True, they aren’t’ going to be doing anything for now other than passing on information, but could this lead to other countries doing the same? Source: [Radiowood via BoingBoing] Feel free to spread the love…These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
January 28th, 2007 at 00:32 Europe/Berlin
Well if you are talking about a country just setting up a space in SL to give out information about themselves, than Morocco really is the first. Here’s some pics from my visit there: http://www.rikomatic.com/blog/2007/01/meet_me_at_the_.html
January 28th, 2007 at 10:46 Europe/Berlin
[…] Notes from Sweden [via Gadgetopia] […]
January 28th, 2007 at 11:04 Europe/Berlin
Good lord, waste of money, time and govt effort. Not really worth all this.
January 28th, 2007 at 16:20 Europe/Berlin
I think it’s cool when any RL entity creates a presence in SL or any other virtual world, but I wonder if there will come a time when all settlers are not considered so equal anymore? I might be thinking a bit too ‘Big Picture,’ but doesn’t SL — with it’s embassies, virtual car showrooms, shopping malls, nice residential areas and raunchy red light districts, etc. — start to truly feel like, and not just sort-of resemble, all that same stuff in RL? What is the point of going ‘there’ then…other than being able to visit all those places anonymously (which may or may not be true itself)? Do we WANT SL and other virtual experiences to get tricked out with propaganda and marketing just like RL? Seems to me that we don’t debate that point enough. But again, like I said at the top, opening an embassy in SL is cool.
January 29th, 2007 at 00:47 Europe/Berlin
[…] Prema izvještaju ambasada neće izdavati vize, ali ko zna LINK […]
January 29th, 2007 at 02:55 Europe/Berlin
Could someone please post the SLurl?
January 29th, 2007 at 08:14 Europe/Berlin
…too bad this image is an aerial snapshot of the New Media Consortium online campus, and has nothing to do with Sweden.
January 29th, 2007 at 08:43 Europe/Berlin
Second Life is http://secondlife.com
The Swedish Embassy doesn’t exist yet. That photo is one of the handful of Second Life press photos. There aren’t many to choose from, and that one seemed to give the best impression. But it didn’t even say on the press image page what it was.
January 29th, 2007 at 19:09 Europe/Berlin
On behalf of the NMC Campus in Second Life pictured above (thanks for the heads-up Joshua), we can now claim “We Be Swede”. If you wish to visit the un-embassy facility (which we think is still rather cool), check us out at http://www.nmc.org/sl/
Leave your passports at home.
January 29th, 2007 at 19:21 Europe/Berlin
[…] Thanks to a sharp heads up from Joshua, we smiled at the photo accompanying the story is an aerial view of NMC Campus: […]
January 29th, 2007 at 20:11 Europe/Berlin
Yeah, I am sorry about that. As I mentioned that is one of the handful of press photos available (and it looks pretty nice). So far I am very much an SL noob.
January 29th, 2007 at 20:55 Europe/Berlin
[…] To their credit of blog posting, the original report has taken what Linden Labs provides as a press photo, so we’re proud to be part of the PR for good things in Second Life. […]
February 1st, 2007 at 02:49 Europe/Berlin
[…] See also: Sweden the First Country to Set Up an Embassy in Second Life […]
February 4th, 2007 at 01:28 Europe/Berlin
[…] Second Life is both less-fulfilling and harder, since it isn’t a game, with specific tasks to carry out. You just wander around and hang out, maybe earn some money. So I resisted, until the Swedish Institute announced it was setting up the first official embassy in Second Life. Then Radio Sweden had to sign up with them, and that meant I had to get involved. […]
March 5th, 2007 at 20:51 Europe/Berlin
[…] Drie weken geleden heeft Zweden als eerste land ter wereld een ambassade geopend binnen Second Life. Via de ambassade zal informatie worden verschaft over het verkrijgen van paspoorten en visa’s. […]
March 19th, 2007 at 14:20 Europe/Berlin
[…] March 19th, 2007 It’s gold rush time in the virtual world of Second Life. With brands of all kinds wanting to get a piece of action in this teeming, massively popular multiplayer game. The Kingdom of Sweden has become the first country to open an embassy in a 16 acre property within the game. So what have banks been doing all this while? Well, Wells Fargo has had an outpost out here as far back as Sept 2005. Created by Swivel Media, (Watch a video here) Stagecoach Island, as Fargo’s outpost is known within the game, the place has been giving out financial advice to residents within the game. ABN Amro Bank became the first European bank to move into the game late last year. With all the buzz around microcredit these days, MetaBank has a place within the game, with the sole purpose of lending out small sums of money to residents. The bank will be doling out Linden Dollars, the currency used within the game, to people who want to make small purchases of land and other things within the game. Posted by icontract Filed in Uncategorized […]
April 29th, 2007 at 12:25 Europe/Berlin
[…] Suecia planea abrir proximamente una embajada dentro de Second Life. La noticia, advierte, sin embargo, de que en este espacio virtual no se expedirán visas ni pasaportes oficiales -de momento- . Se trata solamente, señalan, de una iniciativa para dar a conocer el país. Por eso, dentro de la embajada ofrecerán información turística […]