Contents: Don Heider: Introduction – James D. Ivory: Technological Developments and Transitions in Virtual Worlds – Marianne Ryan: The Sociotechnical Infrastructures of Virtual Worlds – Aleksandra K. Krotoski/Evanthia Lyons/Julie Barnett: The Social Life of Second Life: An Analysis of the Social Networks of a Virtual World – David Boyns/Sima Forghani/Elena Sosnovskaya: MMORPG Worlds: On the Construction of Social Reality in World of Warcraft – Nan Zheng: When Geography Matters in a Virtual World: In-game Urban Planning and Its Impact on the Second Life Community – David Beer/Beverly Geesin: Rockin’ with the Avatars: «Live» Music and the Virtual Spaces of Second Life – Don Heider: Identity and Reality: What Does It Mean to Live Virtually? – Jaime Loke: Identity and Gender In Second Life – Edward Castronova et al.: Virtual World Economics: A Case Study of the Economics of Arden – J. Sonia Huang: Real Business and Real Competition in the Unreal World – Jia Dai: Virtual Worlds, Real Brands: A Critical Interrogation of Commodification in Second Life – Peter Spangler/James Morgan: Toward a Democratic Theory of Synthetic Worlds – Paul Hollins/Sarah Robbins: The Educational Affordances of Multi User Virtual Environments – Dustin Harp: Virtual Journalism and Second Life.