W. James "Hamlet" Au's New World Notes is a must-read destination for the Residents of Second Life, the user-created online world which surpassed a million total accounts in October 2006, and is adding new citizens by the thousands every day. Previously Second Life's official "embedded journalist" from March 2003 to Feburary 2006 (when he was a contractor for Linden Lab, the company behind SL), Au now continues the story as an FM author, documenting the rise of this emerging online society which may consider the next generation of the Internet, following its art, commerce, culture, and technology-- including the many citizens who make a real-world living from their virtual creations. He also documents the arrival of real world businesses, organizations, and governments into Second Life, from Twentieth Century Fox and Microsoft, to Creative Commons and the American Cancer Society, to the BBC and US Homeland Security, and also interviews figures like Cory Doctorow, Lawrence Lessig, and former Presidential hopeful Governor Mark Warner, who occasionally visit SL in avatar form. He's currently writing a book based on his coverage of Second Life, set to be published in 2007.

Au is also a contributor to GigaOM (another FM site), and longtime tech writer for publications like Wired Magazine and Salon. New World Notes has been featured on the BBC Online, CNN, NPR's Morning Edition, the Washington Post, NYTimes.com, the UK Guardian, Wired.com, among many other outlets. He's spoken on the subject at South by Southwest in Austin and the State of Play Conference co-sponsored by New York Law School, Yale Law School, and Harvard's Berkman center. Technorati listing.

"Virtual worlds may end up playing an even more sweeping role — as far more intuitive portals into the vast resources of the entire Internet than today's World Wide Web. Some tech thinkers suggest Second Life could even challenge Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system as a way to more easily create entertainment and business software and services."

Business Week

See also: Red Herring