_{I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to complete this diploma-thesis:
Prof. Regine Keller and the Chair of Landscape Architecture and Public Space (for giving me permission to commence this thesis) | Mag. Stephan Doesinger (for guiding me through the wide field of virtual worlds and for making it possible to present the island “public townscape” and the project itself to the public during the times of the experiment.) | Graphisoft München (for making the diploma thesis possible with a generous financial support) | Informationstechnologie Weihenstephan (where i was offered a place to work at) | Andre Russ (who helped me in any technical question i had) | Dipl.-Ing. Susann Ahn, Dipl.-Ing. Michael Schulze, Dipl.-Ing. Manuel Schweiger, Dipl.-Ing. Ute Rüger, Dipl.-Ing. Volker Kleinekort and Dipl.-Ing. Thomas Hauck. They helped me very much with interesting discussions, food for thoughts or english expressions.
I furthermore want to thank all the people and avatars from Second Life that participated in the experiment of the island. Many people contributed much time in the development of the island.}