The Metaverse Republic

Vulcano is a very special sim on Second Life. Vulcano is the living example of the fact that the tragedy of the commons, given certain conditions, can be beaten. David Orban, who likes to call himself the “instigator” of the community rather than the creator, started Vulcano with the only rule of “be free”. Members of the community on Vulcano can thus build, create, experiment and do whatever else they want with the only rule that they respect the right of the others to do the same.

Over time, a number of principles that consitute the foundations of the Vulcano community arose from the community itself, which is now growing to another stage of maturity by letting the group, and not one person, manage everything, from the finance aspects to the governance aspects, in what can be considered a lab of self-government in Second Life. They recently asked us to help them outline in a proper fashion these principles, which will result in a document which will be a part of the manifesto of the community. This is not something we usually do, but being Vulcano such a unique example of governance, some of us are willing to help them with this effort. Stay tuned for more