The people Celia mentions in the article and in her book are mostly members of The Meeting Place hood. The last TMP Funday Meet in There was a tour of the communities and hoods that she had planned for her next stage of research it seems -- it was due to take place in the first week of April, but was quickly brought forward (it was just starting to be organised in the week before the closure was announced).
The developments in There that she mentions mirror what seems to have happened in Second Life, with the development of a fairly distinct culture of learning and building. However, I suspect that the Uru refugees had a far greater impact on the development of There than those in SL did, simply because they were a far bigger group proportionately within its player base -- something that caused serious problems in the first few months after Prolog's closure (there was initially a great deal of hostility from other players towards this large group suddenly appearing and trying to set up an alternative home from home).
Uru people were behind the development of hoods in There (Mystery Island and Uru Island were among the first, I believe), the University of There, the player-based NCD group for encouraging and supporting the development of player communities. They were also strongly supportive of There when it hit a sticky patch early on.
The importance of friendships, yes -- that was the only thing that got me to go into There in the first place. I vehemently hated the female avatars -- not a good match for this person! Building together too -- that is where Paislee and I first started developing environments to relax and linger in; before then I only knew Paislee from an oddly memorable anecdote she told during one MOUL-based TMP story night.
Will the friendships last? Individual ones may do. But I suspect the group is beginning to be spread too thinly across various games and worlds and social networking methods. We're each gravitating to those where we feel most comfortable, and that seems to be fragmenting the group so that we are no longer able to meet almost daily online as we once did (personal impression -- I hope I am wrong -- perhaps I am just too busy doing what I have been doing
).