But in a congressional hearing Tuesday, Markey, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that considers telecommunications issues, took Congress where it's never been before: Second Life.

The hearing was ostensibly about such issues as terrorism, consumer fraud and intellectual-property protection in virtual worlds, but the light-hearted nature of the debate and the lack of any real issues requiring congressional action suggested the hearing was more about Markey dragging his colleagues into the 21st century than legislative business.

Colorful Characters

The real-world hearing room featured a laptop running Second Life and projecting a virtual hearing room onto a screen. Markey's Second Life avatar banged the gavel to open the hearing. And, according to press reports, while just a smattering of flesh-and-blood people showed up for the hearing, the virtual hearing room boasted about 65 avatars, including a man with an oversized top hat eating popcorn, a woman wearing wings who occasionally flew out of her seat, and a large bumblebee.

"My avatar actually looks like he's been working out," Markey said. His infatuation with the alternative Congress, in which people don't all dress in blue suits and red ties, led ranking Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) to joke that Markey might prefer virtual Congress to the real thing.

"If you begin to enjoy the virtual world too much, you may not want to return to the real world," he said. "While you're at it, you may want to invite some of your Democratic colleagues as well."

Terrorist Network?

On a substantive note, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) dragged the ever-present spectre of terrorism into the discussion. "I want to make sure these glorious tools are not abused ... or changed into tools that facilitate the use of terrorist attacks," she said.

Philip Rosedale, founder and CEO of Second Life creator Linden Labs, gingerly discounted the threat. "Though there has certainly been discussion [about terrorism in virtual worlds], we have never seen any evidence that there is any such activity going on in Second Life," he said.

Rosedale's main point was that virtual worlds need less regulation and government intervention than reality. Since just about every user activity and transaction can be tracked by Linden, behavior in the alternative universe is "somewhat more police-able" than in the real world -- or on the Web. That should make virtual worlds less attractive to terrorists. "We believe that the degree of scrutiny that is created by [policing methods] is quite rich and the pattern recognition of nonstandard behavior ... is easy enough to spot," Rosedale said.

Back to Telecom Policy

For Markey, the discussion of Second Life and virtual worlds appeared to circle back to the telecommunications issues in which he has been involved. "Policy issues will inevitably arise that mirror the issues that confront policy-makers in the real world -- consumer protection, personal privacy, intellectual-property protection, banking issues, online gambling, or child-protection concerns," he said.

"We want to foster the best of what this medium has to offer, [so] we must consider the policies that will be conducive to such growth," Markey said, including "upgrading our broadband infrastructure and speed, fostering openness and innovation in our Internet policies, and ensuring that we bridge the digital divides in our country so that all Americans can benefit."