Avatar Planet Blog

You can have land for free at Second Life‘s Burning Life festival, which will be held October 17-25, 2009. Not only won’t it cost you anything, it also won’t affect your tier if you already own land. You don’t even have to currently be a Second Life member (though you do have to join to get the land; basic memberships are free)..

However, this is not ordinary land. You will possess it only for a week, and you should consider it only if you are excited by the idea of Burning Man and Burning life, by the idea of people coming together once a year in the desert to cooperatively build a city from a barren desert, letting imaginations run wild, and then dismantle everything a week later, leaving the desert as barren as it was before, without a trace of what was briefly built there. You can learn more about Burning Man at www.burningman.com and at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_man. You can learn about Burning Life, Second Life’s version of Burning Man, at burninglife.secondlife.com. This picture (http://www.flickr.com/photos/andromega/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) is from a past Burning Life

There are four ways you can get land at Burning Life; it’s all free, but on the condition that people who get the land adhere to the spirit of Burning Life: working together cooperatively as a community; nothing commercial, no sponsorships, no logos, and no tip jars; and adhering to the Ten Principles.

1. Walk-in campsites: These will be available in two half regions beginning October 17. It will be like camping in a national forest without designated campgrounds. You can claim some space and build there, as long as your building is done cooperatively with or at least respecting other builders in the area and not using more than your share of prims.

2. Land Rush: These will be about 275 parcels ranging in size from 1568 square meters with 350 prims up to 3360 square meters with 750 prims. These will be given to the first avatar who claims them in staged releases for about a week beginning around September 14.

3. Small Art Sites: These are about 90 parcels that will be given away in Land Rush style. They are in an areas called "open playa" that’s designed for smaller art works. Parcels are 576 square meters and have 300 prims each.

4. Theme Camps: These are 52 plots that will be awarded to "whoever proposes the most amusing, amazing, or interesting ways to engage their fellow Residents." If you’re looking for ideas, Linden Lab recommends taking a look at the Theme Camp list for the real life Burning Man festival, held every year in the Nevada desert.

For more information about getting free land at Burning Life, read the Burning Life process page. You should also consult the Burning Life home page.

Burning Life is built from nothing in a barren desert

Just like Nevada‘s famous Burning Man festival, Second Life‘s Burning Life festival is a completely non-commercial, non-paid endeavor, an organized magical city springing to life from a barren desert and then a week later vanishing without a trace.

One of the ways you can become involved in Burning Life 2009 is by taking a volunteer job there. Volunteering, both in the real world and in Second Life, can be enormously satisfying and is a great way to meet people. There’s a wide range of volunteer positions available, either preparing for the event, working during it (October 17-25, 2009), or in a year round position for this annual festival. You don’t have to make a major commitment. You can commit to working only as many hours as is convenient As of today, there are 25 jobs that require less than ten hours a week, 20 jobs that require a 10-30 hour commitment per week, and three jobs requiring a 30-50 hour commentment.

The jobs in this temporary city in a virtual desert fall into the categories of Administration, Art Department, Burning Man Regional, Communications/Publicity, Community Services, Department of Mutant Vehicles, Department of Public Works, Performance, and Rangers. The jobs available include Volunteer Coordinator, Porta Potty Artists, Linguists, Tour Guides, Costumers, Builders, Pyro Specialist, Lamplighter/Drummer, and Ranger. These are only a few of the jobs available.

If you’re interested in volunteering, be sure to first read the Burning Life Volunteer Rights & Responsibilities page. Additional training will be required for ranger positions. You can find the list of available volunteer jobs at the Burning Life 2009 Jobs Page and you can apply for a job here.

I’ll be writing more about Burning Life 2009 in coming days and weeks.