Why virtual world ownership and creation matters

In 2007 I was supervising some graduation project about SL. The student has built a store to sell real-life t-shirts and understand the dynamics of having an online and offline intersection.

She was fascinated about having a store and a real business, at the same time she was studying. I remember her presentation where she affirmed she would not give up because that study changed the way she was looking and living the technology.