Governance of Virtual Worlds

SmarterTechnologies12 January 2010

a concept

and a course

the concept

functions of “government” have spun out to a wide range of actors, all essential to “governance”

virtual worlds are a field site for exploring how governance takes place in the modern world

as a model of governance processes

as a subject of external and internal governance

as an example of emergent tools, processes and customs that may be adapted to wider usage

governance by traditional political entities– taxation– sexuality– speech– property rights– jurisdictional questions

governance by corporations– EULAs and Terms of Service– vertical contracts to govern horizontal

relations– human resources law and policy– ownership of means and media of self-

expression

governance by peer associations– Second Life land covenants– guild websites and application processes– formal community rules– informal social norms

the course

http://bit.ly/AiPw6

LAW 791/Education Technology 791

Arizona State UniversitySandra Day O’Connor College of LawThe Graduate CollegeSpring 2010, 3 units

learning objectives

• professional development

• interdisciplinary training

• critical thinking/citizenship

note:

it’s not about “content” – it doesn’t matter if students learn 5 elements of a virtual world and 6 factors relating to personal jurisdiction

it’s about process – how to understand, manage and thrive in new socio-technical problem spaces

“the future’s already here – it’s just unevenly distributed” – William Gibson

the course aims to give new lawyers and scholars a set of tools for working in the future

and, hopefully, the desire and means to distribute it more evenly

professional development

• apply tools learned in traditional contexts to un-traditional problems

• digital tools for academic/professional work product

• presentation skills

interdisciplinary training

• learn to apply a broad range of tools to a single problem

• ASU Challenges http://www.asuchallenges.com/

• Law, Education, Psychology, Political Science, Cognitive Science, Software Engineering, Economics, Philosophy

critical thinking and citizenship

• challenging what “everybody knows”

• virtual worlds context

• academic debate

• evidence-based methodologies

course activities

term project

alternatives to seminar paper encouraged

cross-disciplinary collaboration encouraged

academic-conference quality presentation

but the heart of the course

is an experiment in hands-on virtual worlds governance

by creating and managing a guild in World of Warcraft

• infrastructural constraints• dispute resolution• taxation• wealth redistribution• citizenship• collective action• the commons• identity

Midterm report

ASU Center for Law,Technology and Innovation/World2Worlds Inc.

conference on governance of virtual worlds

ASU/SL, Friday March 26, 9 am -1 pm MST

John Carter McKnight - RLKaseido Quandry – SLjohn_carter - TwitterKaseido – last.fmKaseido – FlickrKaseido – World of Warcraft/MishaJohn Carter McKnight – FacebookJohn Carter McKnight – Goodreadsjohn.carter.mcknight - Skype

john.mcknight@asu.edu