A new online magazine covers media moves, culture and other issues in virtual worlds, primarily Second Life, but there are a few interesting pieces in The Seventh Sun, which calls itself a "Virtual Worlds Rolling Stone."

Generally, cultural stories of people's experiences in Second Life, written by people who use their avatar portrait and in-world name as their real-world calling card, are of interest only to Second Life citizens, but one interesting article in the Seventh Sun talks about a pair of women who've developed an "avatar action center" to raise awareness about sustainability -- though this isn't the real-world environmental issue, as the article explains:

In SL, sustainability is often discussed in the context of maintaining traffic to a particular region or sim to keep it from becoming a “ghost sim.” Avatar Sitearm Madonna summarizes, “‘Good for the long haul’... that is what ‘sustainable design’ means in architecture, technology, arts and community.” The Avatar Action Center looks at sustainable design more from a real life global, ecological perspective. Check Merriam-Webster and you’ll find the word “sustain” comes from the Latin sustinere “to hold up” or “to nurture.” Says Sage, “Sustainability is the preservation and nurturance of diversity; the by-product of healthy, balanced (eco)systems.”

It's interesting that there are groups even within Second Life who are beginning to acknowlege that there may be near-term challenges to the sustainability of the space, at least in its current incarnation.

The Seventh Sun is largely well-written, and contains some very readable pieces, including one about Electric Sheep's OnRez viewer and other interesting headlines, some that have yet to lead to articles, but the site's still new!

[Via Earthtimes]