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July 06, 2007
The Death of a Virtual Campus (Chronicle 7/6/07)
The Death of a Virtual Campus Illustrates How Real-World Problems Can Disrupt Online Islands
By ANDREA L. FOSTER and DAN CARNEVALE
Woodbury University has been obliterated. The real-world campus of 1,500 students still stands, in Burbank, Calif. But in the freewheeling virtual world Second Life, Woodbury has been deleted.
Linden Lab, the company that runs Second Life, simply blanked Woodbury out of existence sometime during the last week of June.
The company took the drastic step, officials said, after administrators for the university's area ignored warnings to stop avatars -- digital characters -- affiliated with its region from engaging in disruptive and hostile behavior.
Posted by schnitzr at July 6, 2007 07:29 AM