RootsCamp, a series of American grassroots political meetings, has been opened to participation from Second Life residents through the aptly-named RootsCampSL project, and runs daily until November 14, 2006, from 1-3pm Pacific time on Better World Island. Organizer Andrew Hoppin informs me that "RootsCampSL is an effort to allow people that can't make it to a physical offline RootsCamp to still be able to participate in one, and also to get the progressive Netroots up to speed with Second Life--which we believe will be an important political organizing platform for the 2008 election."

In a blog post earlier this year, Hoppin wrote "I've long been a skeptic of the utility of virtual worlds beyond the realm of MMORPGS, but buzz about Second Life is exploding, and after digging into the possibilities a bit myself, I'm a convert. In the political space in particular, where flash animations, podcasting, and YouTube are still all the rage, I think we could see virtual worlds emerge as a 'next big thing.'" Hoppin's not the only one thinking along these lines. Last spring, California city council candidate Brian Ulaszewski extended his campaign into the virtual world of Second Life. In August, Democrat Mark Warner staged a Second Life publicity stunt. Certainly campaigning in the virtual world is a great way to grab press, but it seems RootsCampSL is a more genuine effort.

Hoppin told me via email that he chose Second Life because it seemed capable of delivering online experiences comparable to holding face-to-face meetings. "I'm a big believer in using online tools to organize offline activity," Hoppin said. "In fact, that's the #1 use case of the open-source software platform (CivicSpace/Drupal) that I worked to help build for the past couple of years. It's also what I experienced first-hand as a very powerful approach in my work organizing the US Presidential campaign of General Wesley Clark in 2003/2004. Since Second Life has an API, there is potential to blend it with the powerful more traditional online organizing tools like Drupal. Great efficiency in online organizing and online/offline political advocacy could result."

Noticing the RootsCampSL uses a wiki in addition to Second Life, I asked Hoppin to explain what the wiki gives the project that Second Life doesn't. He said that the wiki's simple interface requires no learning curve, allowing users to easily edit and publish text and images online. "I haven't seen any really good whiteboard / wiki technology deployed in Second Life yet, and even if there were, the utility of the wiki is also quick access." By contrast, he added, "Second Life requires a software download and has bandwidth and computer requirements that are non-trivial. We want the results of RootsCampSL to be more widely accessible." Hoppin looks forward to a future version of the virtual world platform where data between the wiki and Second Life could flow freely.

Unlike some previous U.S. political efforts, the RootsCampSL project is in Second Life for the long haul. "RootsCamp and our 'SL Netroots' group will continue forward after this week. As we get up to speed we'll likely be acquiring our own land and building a more refined set of functionality," Hoppin said. "One thing we're pretty good at in the US is grassroots politics and organizing and leveraging technology tools to do the same... So as we explore a new platform, what we learn will be shared and hopefully of benefit to analogous efforts internationally."