No political party is an island - unless it is Italy of Values (IoV), the party founded seven years ago by Antonio di Pietro, the country's infrastructure minister. IoV has bought an island in Second Life (SL) - the three-dimensional internet simulation of the real world in which participants have their own "avatars" - in order to propagate its message. French and American politicians have already seen the potential for making vibes in SL but this move by an Italian party to do the same has already provoked a demonstration by a crowd of avatars who want SL to be a politics-free zone.
Some hope. Second Life is already teeming with every aspect of real life including casinos, lap dancing clubs, art galleries, golf courses, shops and corporate spaces. The idea of building a utopia barred to politicians has strong attractions but it was never on the cards that politicians would miss a chance to influence the web savvy citizens of SL. Especially not Di Petrio whose political rival Silvio Berlusconi controls three national television networks and a newspaper among other things. The surprising thing is that Berlusconi hasn't tried to buy Second Life itself. Maybe he has.
The interesting thing about politics in SL is whether it will simply deal with domestic priorities, as it has so far, or whether it will spawn new national and international parties in recognition of the global personal relationships it makes possible and also the need for collaborations to tackle such problems as climate change. SL could spawn its own political parties to set an example to the real world in these areas as well as fending off suggestions, that have already been made, that governments should tax the increasing amount of financial activity that occurs in SL from selling land to marketing virtual trainers.
At the moment SL gets a disproportionate amount of publicity for a web site that still has under five million "residents" or avatars, many of which aren't active. But it is growing very fast and could easily become a major phenomenon. Curiously, Britain's political parties have steered clear of it so far. It is unlikely that Gordon Brown will surprise us all by announcing his budget later this month from Second Life. But the government would be wise not to ignore it, if only because the prospect of David Cameron getting there first would make him seem more sassy than Brown. Maybe Brown thinks that Blair is more in need of a second life than he is. But he only needs to look across the Atlantic to see how MySpace is influencing politics to know that the distinction between real and virtual politics is fast eroding.
