What he does: Operates the San Francisco company that created and owns virtual world Second Life.

"We had been reading Hernando De Soto's The Mystery of Capital and Jane Jacobs and all these books about innovation and ownership and why great places are great places. And we said, Let's just make this a real world. Let's let it have a real economy and let's make property have real value. There was a lot of buzz around that. The investors could see this thing starting to go."

Read more