Second Life is the de facto playground for experiments in virtual world commerce. It's also become a location for grassroots activism. A Parisian association recently awarded a $1,000 prize to
the Second Life citizen who designed the best redevelopment plan for a garden in the Les Halles district also attracted participants from China, Canada and Germany.
The competition
was set up by a local areas residents' association called Accomplir, which orchestrated the event to pressure the French government into speeding up the area's redevelopment. The organization is irate
that residents were not consulted in the first place.
The winning design went to Frenchmen Joshua Culdesac and Piper Pitney, whose project included ambitious water features and an ice rink, and will be preserved on an island in Second Life. Other smaller prizes were awarded for separate competition categories, including sculpture design, connections to the public transport network and a public toilet. The real-world project will be a much more modest redevelopment.