Nota Bene: A Virtual Notary
at the notary desk
Nota Bene
While Nota Bene is a privately built and operated business, it's existance within Second Life provides a key piece of the foundation of a civic society. Within the Second Life forums, both the early discussion about having a notary and the announcement of the notary's opening were part of several larger discussions about possible legal and governmental institutions.
To visit and use the notary is to engague in an act of civics. The participants in a notarization are demonstrating that a virtual world can grow into one in which the society has deeper structure than the software that runs it.
Operation
The operation of the notary is decidedly more complex than many other interactions in virtual worlds, such as buying a shirt or playing Tringo (a popular game in Second Life). Notarizing a signature takes several steps, each of which must be clearly understood by the user due to the seriousness of the action.
The major functions (notarization and verification) are distributed across the build, each with their own 'petal'. The build is it's own directory. Furthermore, the automated desks interact via three channels: spoken text, printed text and iconic graphics to ensure that it engages people no matter their primary modality.