Metafore di città. Fenomeni urbani online 1997-2007.

Today we are witnessing to the phenomenon creation of several new cities. It's a phenomenon linked to the inhabitation needs and to the global economic needs, a phenomenon connected to the life styles changes and to a new partecipation into the global network. New real cities, new ideal cities and new virtual cities. New real cities are rising in the rampant Chinese republic or even in the sea such as artificial islands in the more and more rich Emirates. Could be, even if we cannot affirm it certainly, that this phenomenon have stimulate a return of theories and projects related to the ideal city, a new need of ideal cities. In fact the last Biennale di Venezia took Franco Purini's proposal about the new city of Vema in. While dozens of new online virtual cities are rising and growing really fast, also faster of the chinese one. They get success throught the quick evolution of the IT field. Virtual cities actually are a metaphor of the contemporary city, a precious envelope, rich of clues of the contemporary living, which need to be observed with attention, also from who is not interested to the phenomenon. So far there are more than 50 online cities, the most populated reached large numbers of users, up to ten millions inhabitants and more, and they got hundreds square kilometers of territorial extension. Online cities are a subject of great interest because in them we may glimpse these strong similarities with that real. Today the city represent itself also through online virtual spaces. So it happens very often the city enters into the metaverse, as a mirror of the contemporary city and evolves, becoming independent from its generator model. It transforms itself, generates new possible models, desirable, which in some cases go back in real cities. First of all the research aims to individualize online cities which gets requirements about user generated spaces and contents. In this category we have found so far Secondlife, There, Active World and HipiHi (it will be also possible to add other new ones). The main questions to which we would like to find answers are: What are the roles that generated these realities? Why do these cities are builded up? What is the capcity of self-construction of the different metaverses took in consideration? In this case we'll looking for retrace the birth and the imprinting of these online cities. Could we considerate UGSC cities ( User Generated Space and Content) as a social facts organized in the space? Does Online City represent the expectations of their own users? Online Cities are international at all, lived from people who come from every where in the world. Are some particular “life style” or “genius loci” emerging from Online Cities? What is the form of these cities or of some part of them? Which is the formal organization of the spaces? What are the relations with the real? At this point we will individualize permanences, stratifications and overlaps between analogical and digital world. What are relationships between public spaces and private spaces? Which utilities could get from Online Cities on the ordinary life and how will they change our ways of life? (i.e. Will they help us in the participating methods?) How will online cities influence the point of view on the analogical ones? If the beauty can be projected within metaverses, could it happen that, for instance, real gardens can be substitute with magnificent digital environments? Can Online Worlds help us to avoid real space's constrictions? In which way? Once we will better know the Online Cities' essence we will try to understand which are the tools (legislation, covenants) available to regulate their form and their develop. Online Cities are a Lab of the future's city in which, already prefigure the cities of tomorrow.