An amazing place started very recently by Edward Castronova, the economics professor who first studied the virtual economy of Everquest, and has subsequently spread his study to areas of virtual world economies both ingame and as they intersect with the real world; Julian Dibble, author of My Tiny Life, "A Rape in Cyberspace" and currently working on a project making real money from ingame sales of virtual items (I smell a book here as well...); and the less publicized Dan Hunter at Wharton and Greg Lastowka at Yale who both focus on legal issues in, around and pertaining to virtual worlds.

Terra Nova - Social, Political, Economic and Legal Issues in Virtual Worlds