I (Drew Frobozz in SL) first blogged about running YearlyKos in Second Life back in August ’06 (http://civicminded.corante.com/archives/2006/08/second_life_targets_existing_b_1.php), and proposed it to the YKC Organizing Committee (of which I’ve been a member for the past two years) shortly thereafter. The idea was received positively, and at about the same time, Jay Ackroyd (Jimbo Hoyer) and Jordan Bigel (Dire Lobo) of InWorld Studios independently approached the Organizing Committee with the same idea. Jay and Jordan became the lead developers and implementers of YKSL, and they did the vast majority of the great work involved. This team was complemented in latter months by a slew of great volunteers including amazing folks like Tom Ballantyne (IF Mastroeni) and Jane McMahon (Jane2 McMahon), who worked day and night both in SL and on-site in Chicago in the weeks before YKSL to make it come off. It has been an honor to work with them, and wonderful for me personally to be able to “attend” YKC from Dubai where I was, to my chagrin, on a trip commitment I couldn’t change. I think we have a crackerjack team now to make next year’s YKSL far bigger and even better– hopefully FREE of charge this time if I have my way, and with sufficient sponsorship raised early enough to support that.

Best,
Andrew Hoppin (aka Drew Frobozz)

I am not sure which Kossacks pushed for a SL component to YKC, but I’m sure glad that they did. It looks like Kossacks are going to keep using SL for future meetings and initiatives. See more info in my Kos diary – http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/4/19742/46081 – look in the comment labeled Further Plans. There are slurls and info there.