Sweden is hoping to increase the country"s profile by establishing an officially sanctioned embassy in the Second Life virtual online world. A digitally created building will be based on Sweden"s actual embassy in Washington and run by Swedish Institute staff. Embassy staff will be on call to discuss tourist information, visa conditions, cultural issues and the country"s history. Either Second Life is becoming more popular than the average person believes and more countries will follow Sweden"s lead, or the Swedes are a little too desperate to make their country known.
"We are constantly trying to reach new groups of people with information about Sweden. This is a very simple and cheap way to reach a large group of younger, educated people who are flooded with information," said Olle Wästberg, director of the Swedish Institute.