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The idea behind" 30 Days in Active Worlds" was to document fully the development of a virtual environment from beginning to end, as a plot of virgin virtual land which, it was hoped, would develop into a community and a fullyfledged new virtual world. The aim was not to create a dialog of life in the virtual environment, such as the well-documented My Tiny Life by Julian Dibbell [1] or The Cybergypsies by Indra Sinha [2]. Yet the events that unfolded over the 30 day period led to just such a documentation, and with it my views not only about community and design in a virtual environment, but also about the increasingly blurred boundaries between what is real and what is virtual. The title" 30 Days in Active Worlds" stems from the free trial software of the Active Worlds (AW) server, which allows users to host their own world. The trial software operates for 30 days before timing out, enabling users to set up and run their …