Well finally - a mainstream media outlet, none other than the BBC, publishing a story that shows Second Life and other virtual worlds in a relatively positive light. Tech journalist Bill Thompson has written a fairly skimpy article about his time at the ReLIVE08 education in VW conference. Whilst repeating as everyone seems to need to that SL is used for 'cartoon-like sexual encounters' he also notes the education and research use of virtual environments and has a subtle dig at The Register for always dismissing SL as 'Sadville'. His most interesting points are his summary of the work of Sarah Robbins-Bell in characterising virtual worlds against various metrics, and his suggestion that by labelling themselves grandiosely as 'Worlds' these Persistent Immersive Environments set themselves up to be too readily dismissed by the media. He may have a point there, and many people, myself included, try to avoid the term Virtual World as much as possible.