We're growing! It's a big, new world out there, with a lot of unique and varied people in it. We have a population of more than 1.5 million and are regularly seeing concurrency of 15,000 Residents online. The people coming to Second Life are becoming increasingly diverse--more than half come from outside the United States--and their interests and goals are as varied as those of any metropolitan populace.

"Civic Center" replaces the section formerly known as the "Police Blotter," which had become too provincial for the needs of this expanding, changing world. Read on to learn more...

You may have seen Philip's blog post on the mission of Linden Lab, where he outlined one of our biggest objectives. He said, “We will not restrict Second Life by adding constraints which might make it more compelling to a specific subset of people but have the effect of reducing the broadest capabilities it offers to everyone for communication and expression."

We've carried this goal into how we look at civic organization in Second Life. We could never write a set of rules that would work for all people all the time, nor could we enforce them across a population that is growing so rapidly. Instead, we believe that the best way to foster communication and expression is to put power into the hands of the people by giving you better tools for local control. And that's what we've been doing for several months now.

Groups have new features that allow them to fine tune the rights and responsibilities of their members. Individuals are better able to manage their personal experience of Second Life using features like improved mute. Parcel owners have a no-push setting and a larger ban list. Estate owners can assign a Covenant to their land that explains the rules they wish visitors and Residents to abide by, rules that reflect their values and goals. That's just the beginning. In the next year, you'll see many more tools and features rolled out that will allow Second Life users to define their own rules and enforce them.

Our most important job at Linden Lab is to ensure the stability and robustness of the platform as a tool for communication, self-expression, and commerce. However we cannot play the role of arbitrating personal grievances or defining behavioral standards. This is particularly important as Linden Lab becomes more international. We don't want to force a California-centric set of rules on the virtual world. Rather, we want to facilitate Residents banding together and creating their own civic centers around their unique ideals and ambitions.

What does all this mean on the ground? Will there be chaos in the streets? Well, no. Linden Lab will continue to police the world for problems that threaten the stability of our technical, economic and social structures. But when it comes to deciding what behavior should be allowed in a particular place or social group, those rules and their enforcement will be decided by the people involved—those who understand the context of the situation and have a stake in its outcome. Linden Lab is carefully planning the move to this federated model, and during the transition we'll continue to enforce the Community Standards. Note that after the transition, all of Second Life will still be required to abide by the Terms of Service, even though local community standards may vary.

In the coming months, keep your eyes on this space. We'll announce new features, explain policies and respond to your concerns here in the newsletter, as well as in the Official Blog, Knowledge Base, and Town Halls.