Swedish Government Takes To Second Life

Second Life, a sort of on-line version of The Sims, is getting more and more like the "real" world it ostensibly imitates. You know the game (is it really even a "game" at this point) is venturing further and further into virtual reality territory when you can conduct semi-official business in it. The Swedish government is even building its own virtual embassy inside the game. I wouldn't be surprised if other government agencies and a lot more big corporations move into the game. Here's Ars Technica on Sverige's Second Life experiment:

The Swedish Institute hopes that the virtual embassy will be modeled after the the newly-opened House of Sweden in Washington DC, and has it begun formal negotiations with its architect, Gert Wingårdh, for rights to create a digital version of the building, according to Swedish newspaper DN. In addition to getting tourist information, users in the virtual world will be able to browse displays, click links to informational sites about Sweden (most notably the Swedish Embassy's digital portal), and get visa information.