Virtual Ball

At first I felt a bit like a Second Life Cinderella, when I thought I had probably arrived too late to see any of the guests at the inaugural ball to be held in the Linden virtual world that was described here and here. When I located the dancers in all their finery, I felt too shy to cut in or make the best of being a wallflower. So rather than being Cinderella, I fled the scene like Goldilocks who didn't belong in the home of the three bears.

Given claims that Second Life tends to be more interesting, perhaps it would have been more interesting to replicate the experience of those who attended the swearing-in ceremony on the Washington Mall, where participants were tightly packed into the physical space. Would that kind of jostling co-presence among the hoi polloi be a better digital representation of the event?