As if spending the day listening to people think about reputation economies in Cyberspace as not enough, this evening, I went to The Opening of Sky Hye’s Gallery in Second Life. It is a beautiful gallery with some beautiful art work. There were also some very interesting avatars there.

The Animals at the Art Show, originally uploaded by Aldon.

I spent quite a bit of time talking about the symposium, and how it related to being a cat in Second Life. Nimbus Rau provided me with at cat avatar, so I joined the feline crowd. If you haven’t seen her avatars, I would strongly encourage you to stop by at her shop in Second Life. When I teleported in, I was greeted by a humming bird which kept a close eye on me. I took a quick look at her cat eyes, her winged cat avatars and her cat avatars. I had seen these already. Next I looked at her Cybergeek Typer. I’ve seen those around and always liked them. Now I know where to get them.

Next, I looked at her Bottlenose Dolphin Avatar. “Have you ever wanted to be a dolphin? Now’s your chance!” Her shop is conveniently located by some water to explore one’s new dolphin nature. There were other avatars and gadgets in the shop as well, including “The amazing steam-powered ectoplasmic newt summoner!” There had been one of those back in Sky’s gallery when everyone was a cat, and it was great to see cats carrying on discussions of aesthetics and reputation economies in cyberspace as they pounced on wandering newts.

The Internet, and especially virtual worlds like Second Life, opens up whole new ways to be creative and imaginative. It also opens up all kinds of new legal and social issues. It is great to explore many of them, but it is also going to be great to get a good night’s sleep.