Yesterday’s article on Second Life in The Observer reminded us to have a look at how Habbo Hotel is doing.  Looking at the traffic to the site, it’s clearly doing well.  So we’re thinking of ressurecting an idea we developed for The Sorrell Foundation.  Their joinedupdesignforschools explores ‘how good design can improve the quality of life in schools by listening to the voices of the pupils’.  We thought it would be good for each school to have its own equivalent of Habbo Hotel a place where pupils were able to talk about fun stuff as well as sensitive stuff through their avatar rather than face to face.  We seem to remember approaching IKEA at the time to see if they’d be interested in backing the initiative (trading virtual IKEA furniture in the virtual school).  Might also be a good idea for Childline – enabling children to talk in confidence in a way they feel comfortable.