Skip to main content

Home/ Second Life/ Group items tagged communication

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Eloise Pasteur

MediaShift . Reuters Closes Second Life Bureau, but (Virtual) Life Goes On | PBS - 0 views

www.pbs.org/...t-virtual-life-goes-on050.html

Second Life journalism Reuters CNN PBS review

shared by Eloise Pasteur on 20 Feb 09 - Cached
  • How did the media go wrong in coverage -- and participation -- in SSL, and what went right? It was a typical hype-and-backlash scenario, as I detailed in a previous post on MediaShift. Some journalists simply tired of SL, as so many people tried it and then bailed because of its steep learning curve and high technological requirements. But the journalists that have been more enmeshed within the world have been rewarded with plenty of cultural and sociological (and yes, business) stories.
  • John Lester leads customer market development for education and health care for Linden Lab, which runs Second Life. I met him in-world and had an instant-messaging chat with his alter-ego, Pathfinder Linden, about how the media has covered SL over the years. My SL name was Lynx Wickentower: Lynx: Did media miss the bigger story of Second Life? Pathfinder Linden at the educational meeting in SL Pathfinder: That seems to be a typical pattern for the human species, yes? We did it with all the previous mediums. We'll do it again in the future. We always misunderstand new mediums, initially treating them like pre-existing ones (e.g., treating the web like print media; treating television like radio). But then we learn new ways of seeing the tools and new ways to leverage them.
  • As for Reuters' coverage of SL, they did better than most journalists who did drive-by stories with a day or two of research in-world. The bureau lived for more than two years. Still, James Wagner Au, who writes the excellent New World Notes blog about SL said they could have done better. "Their writers, Adam Pasick and Eric Krangel, are fine journalists, and did some great external business-oriented reports, but at the same time, I don't think they were ever passionately engaged in the medium or Second Life's community on an experiential level," Au told me. "Consequently, their reporting very much had a distanced, 'outside looking in' flavor that caused them to often miss the big picture, in my opinion."
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • While Reuters thinks that the story has moved on from Second Life, CNN and many others beg to differ. The broadcaster now has an even larger presence in SL. Rather than send in a reporter as a corresponent in-world, CNN relies on SL residents to report their own news as citizen journalists for its iReport site. CNN.com senior producer Lila King said that Second Life iReporters have posted 376 stories since it launched a year ago, but that relatively small number did lead to a number of stories on written by CNN.com producers (including this one about relationships in-world). King Since iReport.com launched in Feb. 2008, Second Life iReporters have posted 376 stories. It's probably worth noting that "in-world" iReporters actually began sending stories when the iReport SL hub launched in November 2007, but we don't have an accurate count of stories submitted before iReport.com launched. King said that SL has been more than just a story-generating tool for CNN's iReport team; it's also helped them learn to nurture an online community. "We've started to see a new benefit of being in Second Life: it gives us a place to polish our skills in community building," King said. "Newsrooms everywhere, ours included, are trying to learn how to foster meaningful, two-way conversations with their audiences. When we hold our virtual news meetings every Tuesday afternoon (2 pm Second Life Time/5 pm ET) with the Second Life iReport community, that's exactly what we're doing: listening and interacting in real-time, offering feedback and courting new ideas along the way."
  • One thing that has survived the hype is the virtual economy of Second Life and other online worlds and gaming environments, where people sell virtual goods with game-based money that can be converted to real money. BusinessWeek's Hof believes that's a story that has staying power. "The notion of virtual economies is already becoming a solid business model for many game companies, and even social networks like Facebook -- by some accounts up to $2 billion in revenues -- so that seems like a trend that has some legs, and it's one you can credit Second Life with proving as much as anyone," Hof said. "And of course, the idea of user-generated content is huge today on a number of fronts, though Second Life is just one example of that."
  • Eloise Pasteur on 20 Feb 09
     
    Balanced article about the impact of journalism on SL and SL on journalism.
Ole C Brudvik

Teachers Buzz 03 Apr 16 Transcript - NMC-Campus - 0 views

sl.nmc.org/...hers_Buzz_03_Apr_16_Transcript

secondlife teaching

shared by Ole C Brudvik on 22 Apr 07 - Cached
  • one idea for a gateway activity might be a show-and-tell for clothing and avatars, so people see what is possible
  • the personal communication really teaches more than signs and object chat [9:24] CDB Barkley: What do you think will be the impact of the voice capability? Have you tried the beta? [9:25] Ravenelle Zugzwang: so as Teachers leading your students into SL, you can relieve some of the new enviroment anxiety by familiarizing yourself and being there as a connection for you students when they come in? [9:25] Ilene Pratt: Voice is going to be very interesting! It works remarkably well! It'll be like an Elluminate session but you'll really BE there with others!
  • [9:25] CDB Barkley: If you had to share 1 or 2 top places with a colleague new to Sl, where would you send them? [9:26] Lizzy Saintlouis: Edu Island and Info Island [9:26] Ravenelle Zugzwang: I think people will be nicer to one another when they can hear the others intentions through voice inflection, or not but more opt to be polite. Text is really misread often [9:26] Robins Hermano: NMC, NOAA, Terra Incognita [9:26] Ilene Pratt: The International Spaceport Museum is great! [9:26] CDB Barkley: But text is so much more information dense
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • [9:26] Enjay Ellison: Svarga, Leo Burnett [9:26] CDB Barkley: What is Svarga? [9:26] Enjay Ellison: Better World [9:26] Ravenelle Zugzwang: a fantasy build
  • I'm not quite as familiar with the Dreams Community, but have been excited we were asked to come... can someone tell me more about their connection with education? [9:35] SamBivalent Spork: hmm... one interesting thing about people's conceptions of what is possible in sl - is that sl can be used as some magic pill that will transform the structure of community/learning/teaching [9:35] SamBivalent Spork: but it's more subtle than all that
  • SL stimulates the need to communicate...that is the most basic driver for learning [9:44] CDB Barkley: Much to to with role play... [9:44] CDB Barkley: historical re-enactment [9:45] SamBivalent Spork: it seems now, that one learns by tp'ing around and looking, occasionally chatting [9:45] Robins Hermano: I'll be using it to allow students to interact with things that are otherwise intangible [9:45] CDB Barkley: We have a theater faculty at Northwestern who is planning to teach stage design, and production in SL [9:45] CDB Barkley: We have a new facility that can sintantly change out a theater into about 9 different configurations... so it is a fluid lab
Nergiz Kern

Community Gateway - Second Life Wiki - 0 views

wiki.secondlife.com/...Community_Gateway

secondlife community gateways

shared by Nergiz Kern on 27 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Nergiz Kern on 27 Mar 09
     
    Second Life Community Gateways
Ole C Brudvik

NMC Announces Parcel Leases in Three New Educational Communities in Second Life | nmc - 0 views

www.nmc.org/...virtual-worlds-lease-available

education nmc secondlife

shared by Ole C Brudvik on 21 Apr 07 - Cached
  • Are you or someone you know looking for a low-cost way to get started in virtual worlds — or Second Life in particular? As of today, the New Media Consortium (NMC) is offering land parcels in Second Life that are part of three unique custom-designed educational communities. These parcels are available now for lease exclusively to bona fide faculty, educational departments, or learning-focused institutions. The new sim NMC Campus, “Teaching”
  • The land is full-permissions, and can be used for almost any purpose consistent with research or teaching in Second Life. The parcels come in sizes from 1024 sq m to 8192 sq m. Costs are roughly 10 US cents per sq meter per year. This works out to $100 US per year for the smallest plot (32 x 32; 1024 sq m; 235 prims) and $800 per year for the largest (64 x 128; 8192 sq m; 1875 prims). There are no hidden or additional costs. Common area on the new sim NMC Campus, “Teaching 2″
  • Each educational community has a beautiful central area which has a number of spaces that all the residents on the island can share — these include a multi-media amphitheater, a conference room, a large classroom or other meeting space, a gallery suitable for exhibiting student work, and a resource center that has been stocked by the folks who run the highly regarded ICT Library in Second Life. Scene on NMC new sim available for lease, “Teaching 3″
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • You can see these sims now in Second Life — they are called Teaching, Teaching 2, and Teaching 3, and each is fully open to the public — no group memberships are required to visit. Soon to open as well are Teaching 4, Sciences, Mathematics, Arts & Letters, and Outreach; those sims each also have “large lot” options — parcels as large as a half-sim — available. Large lot leases include basic terraforming, landscaping, subdividing, configuration, and ongoing maintenance. The cost of the lease can even be folded into a “Special NMC Membership” package if desired, and both the lease and the membership billed on a single invoice — call for details if that is of interest.
  • NMC Virtual Worlds offers the full span of services to support educational institutions in Second Life, and many, including the use of the NMC’s Campus in Second Life for your own events, are free to NMC members. See the listing of services currently offered [PDF, 100k]
Helen Otway

Avatars As Communicators Of Emotions - 0 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...080709110053.htm

avatars communicators emotions virtual_world

shared by Helen Otway on 14 Jul 08 - Cached
  • Helen Otway on 14 Jul 08
     
    Based on research
Eloise Pasteur

Second Life offers healing, therapeutic options for users - 0 views

www.sfgate.com/...article.cgi

healing second life support therapy

shared by Eloise Pasteur on 13 Jul 08 - Cached
  • poured out my heart from a place of loneliness and grief. Click click went the computer keys, like the staccato beat of my heart. Clack clack went their replies, their empathy and their own tales of triumph and woe. Via my avatar - the persona I'd created to engage here - I was participating in an "anxiety support group" in the free, virtual world of Second Life.
  • As I write those words, I can hear the scoffing. Pathetic! Escapist! Are you addicted to computer games? Do you have no friends? Second Life? That place is just about weird sex fantasies!
  • No wonder analysts at Gartner, a leading technology research company, predict that three years from now 8 in 10 Internet users will work or play in virtual spaces.
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • more attention to elaborate hairdos than Cher in her heyday
  • It has, in short, all the trauma and pain of real life, and some cautions are in order when it comes to seeking psychological support.
  • But maybe because it's a dream realm, hopefulness abounds. Nowhere is that truer than in Second Life's support groups, which help people cope with everything from cancer, depression, bipolar disorder and autism, to caretaker stress. There are more than 70 such groups, according to Second Life's Health Support Coalition. Most are secular. While a few groups are facilitated by associations such as the American Cancer Society, peers run most.
  • As expressed on the Web site, www.supportforhealing.com, associated with Second Life's Support for Healing Island, "we are NOT and never will replace the help of professionals ... but purely hold a safe place for people to come when they need a shoulder."
  • A year ago, before I had explored Second Life, I would have laughed at the idea of virtual shoulders. How can a person possibly be "real" via an avatar anyway - much less have a meaningful conversation with a puppy dog, barmaid, elf, or wilder avatar appearance such as a blob or a tree? It's hard enough to trust someone in real life, much less "second life." Then again, what better place to connect our yearning selves with other yearning selves than in a space of mutual creation - a place where those very selves can be one's unconscious made manifest? Indeed, avatar, in its original Sanskrit, refers to the descent of the soul in human form. Click, clack: When I rose from my hourlong anxiety group meeting, I felt seen and heard in the deepest part of me - more so, in fact, than in some "real life" interactions, where we often put up fronts.
  • The anonymity of Second Life can make all the difference in opening up to share within a support group. Somewhere in small-town America, a wife and mother of about 40 - she could be your neighbor or relative - suffers from serious depression. She loves animals, so within Second Life, as Fionella Flanagan, she's a big gray dog with a shaggy white mane. She attends the depression support group. Why does she do it? "I don't have to worry about what I say in the group coming back to bite me in my home town."
  • She also suffers from fibromyalgia, one of those crippling, invisible diseases that some doctors say is "all in your head." In Second Life, Fionella doesn't "have to overcome real life prejudice when I say I'm sick. There's none of that, 'but you look so good' junk."
  • When anxiety support group avatars were asked whether they were more honest as avatars than in real life, a wild-haired blonde, Galvana Gustafson (in real life an American, dancer and bassoonist with a master's degree in psychotherapy), put it this way: "My avatar is more honest than myself because the rejection won't hurt as much."
  • "All of Second Life is my support group," she reported.
  • Morgana later discovered the Support for Healing Island "because I was going through a major relapse with my bipolar and needed help from people who understood. I personally like to be in groups that are survivors, sufferers, and caretakers and loved ones, supporting one another. The best help and advice I have ever gotten are from people who have experienced firsthand."
  • People with autism or Asperger's especially seem to appreciate Second Life.
  • Researchers of autism use Second Life as a laboratory and tool. At the in-world SL-Labs and Teaching and Research facility, at the University of Derby in England, Simon Bignell, a lecturer in psychology, studies how Second Life can "enhance first life social-communication skills in people" with autistic spectrum disorders. The Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas, Dallas, offers a therapy in Second Life for people with Asperger's that helps them practice interviewing for jobs.
  • Second Life's Health Support Coalition (a collaboration between Soj, the avatar Gentle Heron and Carolina Keats, who in real life is a medical librarian) has won a grant from the Annenberg Foundation to create an Ability Commons, for 40-plus smaller health and support groups. "Imagine a paralyzed 23-year-old lying in his family's back bedroom," the coalition wrote, "yearning for contact with age peers in similar situations. Second Life offers people with serious physical and cognitive disabilities opportunities to socialize and get information."
  • opens each meeting with disclaimers: "Please do not let these meetings take the place of professional help," he typed to us.
  • One in-world psychologist, Dr. Craig Kerley from Georgia, who was profiled on CBS's "Early Show," has hung his shingle for "cybertherapy" at $90 per hour. This work, he says, "can be valuable for those who have limited choices in their geographical region, have limited time to drive to regular in-person appointments, have limited mobility, and have limitations in their lifestyle that make traveling to a brick and mortar office difficult."
  • Still, Dr. Peter Yellowlees, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at UC Davis and a specialist in virtual worlds, cautions about therapy in Second Life, even with professionals. He advises using it only as "a potential adjunct to face-to-face therapy," and to "use passwords or other cues in Second Life to make sure you're talking to the right person" - the real therapist, not scammers posing as one.
  • Yellowlees uses Second Life as a teaching tool, not for therapy. His Virtual Hallucinations sim gives "the lived experience of schizophrenia - to hear voices and see visions" so his students (and the rest of us) can "get inside the head, just a bit, of someone who's psychotic." It certainly sparked empathy in me, much more richly than a mere clinical description of the disorder would have done.
  • Empathy: There's that word again, an odd one to associate with impersonal bytes and modems, but the right one. Second Life is a hot, humming thing of wire and light, a "server" - spiritual teachers would like the metaphor - that can carry community and genuine human sympathy.
  • Eloise Pasteur on 13 Jul 08
     
    Personal anecdote of seeking support in Second Life. It is written by a journalist and addresses a lot of the issues from several sides - including advice from various mental health practitioners and comments from volunteers as well as some real insight into the world of SL and relating it to the public.
Eloise Pasteur

Finding health information, community online - 0 views

www.sfgate.com/...article.cgi

groups health second life support

shared by Eloise Pasteur on 13 Jul 08 - Cached
  • On finding support groups in Second Life: The SLHealthy wiki (slhealthy.wetpaint.com) is probably your best and most comprehensive resource for Second Life health support groups, organizations and locations.
  • On "official" Second Life health support groups like those operated by the American Cancer Society versus groups begun by individuals who have suffered from a particular ailment: We have not reviewed the information provided by groups, though in several instances, we've decided not to list information about a group because it's clearly unethical. One example is a pro-ana (or pro-anorexia) group, and another was a for-profit "organization."
  • If you're thinking about joining a group, I suggest you use the same radar you might in the real world: Do you feel comfortable? You should feel perfectly OK about asking questions you have.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • I sure understand professionals' concerns about the validity of information provided in peer health support groups, but it's important to understand that they meet anyway, with or without our support and listing. It's caveat emptor, as it is everywhere else - on the Web, in the media, it's all about questioning and evaluating health information. It may be surprising, but from my own observations of people in health support groups, the discussion does get round to whether information is valid or not, surprisingly often. I think we all are coming to realize that the goal has to be empowerment, so that the individual can be a true partner in his or her health care - informed, skeptical, involved, well-supported within the health care and personal communities.
  • With regard to health information from groups, I'd recommend you use what you learn as you might use information from Wikipedia: a great resource with terrific anecdotes that may help you understand more about a health condition, but not necessarily authoritative. And it might not necessarily apply to you, with your own unique health history, medications, and more. It can be a wonderful starting point and provide you with questions you can explore on your own, discuss with health care professionals and check out with a medical librarian. Someone should come up with a Latin corollary for caveat emptor that means "always ask, always learn"!
  • Eloise Pasteur on 13 Jul 08
     
    Quick overview of using support groups in Second Life with an analytical slant and a link to SfH's list of groups
Fred Delventhal

EDUCAUSE Review Magazine, Volume 43, Number 5, September/October 2008 | EDUCAUSE CONNECT - 0 views

connect.educause.edu/...47218

education learning magazine secondlife sl teaching virtualworlds

shared by Fred Delventhal on 22 Sep 08 - Cached
  • Fred Delventhal on 22 Sep 08
     
    Virtual Worlds? "Outlook Good" AJ Kelton ("AJ Brooks") Whether it is Second Life or another virtual world, this foundational movement is not going away. The question to be addressed in the coming months and years is how higher education and, subsequently, individual institutions will determine the best way to continue to move forward with virtual worlds. Higher Education as Virtual Conversation Sarah Robbins-Bell ("Intellagirl Tully") Virtual worlds can become an important tool in an educator's arsenal. But using this tool requires a shift in thinking and an adjustment in pedagogical methods that will embrace the community, the fluid identity, and the participation-indeed, the increased conversation-that virtual spaces can provide. Educational Frontiers: Learning in a Virtual World Cynthia M. Calongne ("Lyr Lobo") The use of virtual worlds expands on the campus-based and online classrooms, enhancing learning experiences. Classes in virtual worlds offer opportunities for visualization, simulation, enhanced social networks, and shared learning experiences. Looking to the Future: Higher Education in the Metaverse Chris Collins ("Fleep Tuque") Beyond the capabilities that virtual worlds offer us at the moment, it is the possibilities that we can imagine for the future that may be the most compelling. Virtual worlds technology, like the Internet in general, is changing the way we access and experience information and the way we can access and connect with each other. Drawing a Roadmap: Barriers and Challenges to Designing the Ideal Virtual World for Higher Education Chris Johnson ("ScubaChris Wollongong") When using a roadmap, one can take many different paths to reach a desired destination. Similarly, institutions can take many different turns along the road to implementing an ideal virtual world for higher education.
James OReilly

SLEDcc2008 - 0 views

www.knowclue.com/SLEDcc2008.html

shared by James OReilly on 25 Aug 08 - Cached
  • James OReilly on 25 Aug 08
     
    As part of the education track of the Second Life Community Convention (SLEDcc 2008), we'd like to showcase great educational machinima. Work will be featured at a Machinima Festival that spans the three-day,
healingseason

Holistic Health Alternative Medicine Support for Journalists - 0 views

thecenterforhealingarts.com/news-detail.php

adept alternative arts ayurvedic dvd film ganges gangotri healing health himalayas holistic lifestyle lifestyles medicine meditation natural optimal philosophies practitioner river wellness

shared by healingseason on 10 Nov 07 - Cached
  • healingseason on 10 Nov 07
     
    The Center for Healing Arts is a world wide community of healing arts practitioners and those interested in healing and wellness. Members receive six DVDs a year, one every two months, that features a personalized Now, thanks to The Center for Healing Arts you can experience personal encounters with expert holistic health and alternative health practitioners six times a`year`on DVD - all from the comfort and privacy of your home.
  • healingseason on 10 Nov 07
     
    The Center for Healing Arts is a world wide community of healing arts practitioners and those interested in healing and wellness. Members receive six DVDs a year, one every two months, that features a personalized Now, thanks to The Center for Healing Arts you can experience personal encounters with expert holistic health and alternative health practitioners six times a`year`on DVD - all from the comfort and privacy of your home.
Fred Delventhal

Veodia : agile streaming video that puts your work in motion - 0 views

www.veodia.com/index.html

second_life secondlife sl streaming video

shared by Fred Delventhal on 12 Jun 08 - Cached
  • Fred Delventhal on 12 Jun 08
     
    Veodia provides an agile platform-as-a-service that enhances daily work communications with simple-to-use, high quality video.
  • Fred Delventhal on 12 Jun 08
     
    Can do live video streaming from a webcam or desktop into Second Life.
Ole C Brudvik

Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative - 0 views

www.holymeatballs.org/...st_practices_for_educatio.html

bestpractices education globalkids secondlife

shared by Ole C Brudvik on 21 Apr 07 - Cached
  • [SL] Best Practices For Education in Second Life The following best practices were developed by Global Kids, Inc. through the summer 2006 Camp GK in the teen grid of Second Life. Over four weeks, 15 teens spent three hours a day, five days a week, participating in interactive, experiential workshops about pressing global issues. Over the course of the program the teens picked a topic of concern -- child sex trafficking -- and built a maze to educate their online community and inspire them to take action. In its first eight weeks, the content-rich maze was visited by 2,500 teens, amongst whom over 450 donated money to an international organization committed to eradicating this global crime against children. Below is a review of general concepts. For more details download the pdf. Best practices for working in TSL 1. What happens in the teen grid stays in the teen grid. 2. Create multiple places of meaning. 3. If you build it, they will come. 4. Go beyond TSL. Best practices for bringing a youth development model into TSL 1. Build, build, build! 2. Don’t just build; design and manipulate avatars. 3. Think globally, act locally. 4. Know when teens know best. Best practices in workshop design and facilitation in TSL 1. Use real world content when addressing real world issues. 2. Don’t wait until someone has the floor to start typing. 3. Don’t fear multiple communication channels. 4. Incorporate processing into the activity, not just as a final step. Best practices in program design for TSL 1. Employ effective, rigorous, targeted recruitment. 2. Replace the dominant TSL culture with the GK Island culture. 3. Carefully design and build the tools required. 4. Ensure the program is designed for the recruited participants
healingseason

Need a New Idea for Getting Together with Holistic Friends? - 0 views

www.prweb.com:80/releases/2007/10/prweb564644.htm

shared by healingseason on 10 Nov 07 - Cached
  • healingseason on 10 Nov 07
     
    The Center for Healing Arts is a world wide community of healing arts practitioners and those interested in healing and wellness. Members receive six DVD healing arts sessions a year, one every two months, that features a personalized, in-depth encounter with an adept practitioner of the healing arts.
  • healingseason on 10 Nov 07
     
    The Center for Healing Arts is a world wide community of healing arts practitioners and those interested in healing and wellness. Members receive six DVD healing arts sessions a year, one every two months, that features a personalized, in-depth encounter with an adept practitioner of the healing arts.
Kerry J

lg3d-wonderland: Project Wonderland - 0 views

lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/index.html

wonderland Sun virtualworlds

shared by Kerry J on 29 Mar 09 - No Cached
  • Kerry J on 29 Mar 09
     
    Project Wonderland is a 100% Java and open source toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds. Within those worlds, users can communicate with high-fidelity, immersive audio, share live desktop applications and documents and conduct real business. Wonderland is completely extensible; developers and graphic artists can extend its functionality to create entire new worlds and new features in existing worlds.
Kerry J

15 Minutes of Fame: WoW 101 -- yes, WoW for college credit - 0 views

www.wow.com/...101-yes-wow-for-college-credit

WoW Warcraft ILUedau edauILU

shared by Kerry J on 20 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Kerry J on 20 Jul 09
     
    "Warcraft: Culture, Gender and Identity," a credit-awarding class being offered at Inver Hills Community College in Minnesota. At the helm of this innovative course is Landon Pirius, Ph.D., also known as Nodnal the Gnome Warrior of Blackwater Raiders-US. No stranger to the convergence of WoW and academia, Dr. Pirius wrote his doctoral dissertation on "Massively Multiplayer Online Virtual Environments: A Potential Locale for Intercultural Training." We didn't go quite that deep in this interview; we simply visited with him about his wildly successful college course and how it's helping shape modern educational methodologies.
Deanya Lattimore

SLC - 0 views

secondlifechildren.blogspot.com

kids children avatar roleplay secondlife sl Second_Life

shared by Deanya Lattimore on 27 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • Deanya Lattimore on 27 Aug 11
     
    Second Life Children.  The SLC is a community in Second Life where people get to have a second childhood as a child avatar.
anonymous

SSRN-Virtual Rule of Law by Michael Risch - 4 views

papers.ssrn.com/...papers.cfm

law VirtualWorlds regulation

shared by anonymous on 05 Oct 09 - Cached
  • anonymous on 05 Oct 09
     
    This article, which follows a presentation at the West Virginia Law Review Digital Entrepreneurship Symposium, is the first to consider whether virtual worlds provide a rule of law that sets expectations for virtual business. Many consider the rule of law a catalyst for economic development, and there is reason to believe that it will be equally important in virtual economies, despite differences from the real world. As more people turn to virtual worlds to earn a livelihood, the rule of law will become prominent in encouraging investments in virtual business. The article finds - unsurprisingly - that virtual worlds now lack many of the elements of the rule of law. Which aspects fail is more surprising, however. Provider agreements and computer software, the sources of regulation that are most often criticized as "anti-user," provide the best theoretical hope for achieving the rule of law, even if they currently fail in practice. On the contrary, widely proposed "reforms," such as community norms, self-regulation, and importation of real-world law face both theoretical and practical barriers to implementation of the rule of law in virtual worlds. Part I of the article describes virtual worlds and their connection to business. Part II defines a framework to measure the rule of law in virtual worlds. Part III discusses the various types of regulation in virtual worlds, and Part IV critically analyzes how these regulations measure up against rule of law requirements. The article concludes with some suggestions about how providers might enhance legal rule in virtual worlds.
1 - 20 of 44 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page