Gifteconomy. Ethnography. Anthropology: The Art of Building a Successful Social Site - ReadWriteWeb. Picture if you will, a collaborative site that runs on two servers, is managed by four people, and has attracted a third of its target demographic within six months of launch.
A site that has had 800,000 posts submitted by its users in its short lifetime and has 16 million pageviews/month - and growing. This is the story of Stack Overflow, a free question and answer site built by developers for developers that has fostered a strong and committed online community in under one year. Press: anthropologist about second life. Millions of people around the world today spend portions of their lives in online virtual worlds.
Second Life is one of the largest of these virtual worlds. The residents of Second Life create communities, buy property and build homes, go to concerts, meet in bars, attend weddings and religious services, buy and sell virtual goods and services, find friendship, fall in love--the possibilities are endless, and all encountered through a computer screen.