Burgess emphasizes that the nature of viral videos is the opportunity for participation. The videos that become viral provide a set of rules under which other contributors may create their own videos; this active participation increases the value of the viral video within the public sphere. Drax works within a similar field of participation. Second Life is literally a second public sphere operating on the Internet; it is a virtual world in which people communicate via their Internet personas, or Avatars. Seinna Harris, an activist and Obama campaign supporter, used the site to set up a location within Second Life much like a campaign headquarters in real life (or I guess, First Life, haha), allowing other Obama supporters from all over the country to come together at one place, at this virtual campaign headquarters and discuss Obama's platform, and possibly other important political issues. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, who used Second Life to hold a conference for discussing the international criminal court system, voiced his delight to Drax that geographical boundaries did not impose a limit on his conference; anyone with a Second Life avatar could attend the conference no matter where they were in the world. What Drax and Burgess share is this sense of international community, one that has existed for hundreds of years, but until recently, was limited by geographical space and transportation to geographical locations, much like how communication was once limited to transportation via ship, stagecoach or train before the invention of the telegraph. Internet sites like YouTube and Second Life provide a worldwide public space in which individuals and groups of individuals can debate, offer support for political and social movements, or participate in cultural and social phenomenon.
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