1.
alaw school experiment
in online community governance
John Carter McKnight
Adjunct Professor of Law
PhD Student,
Human & Social Dimensions of Science & TechnologyArizona State University

2. 3. LAW 791/EDT 791: governance of virtual worlds
27 students:
17 second/third year law students
7 Masters students: educational technology, public administration, English
3 Honors College undergraduates
40+ year age range
vast range of gaming experience
all white, middle-class, moderate
4. course frameowork
3 credit graduate course
cross-listed in Law and Education Technology first collaboration!
multi-disciplinary readings
law, economics, anthropology, political science
journal articles, books, blogs, news reports
grading
participation (summed across media)
weekly forum questions on readings
WoW guild project blogging
term project:presentation + documentation
5. Why Virtual Worlds Governance?
a *model* - government processes in miniature
a *site* - a thing governed by custom and code both legal and software
an *inspiration* - can the experience of online self-governance translate to RL?
6. the project
create a guild in World of Warcraft
create governance systems for it:
citizenship
taxation
dispute resolution
accountability
task management
banking and finance
play, blog, discuss
7. project goals
experiential learning James Paul Gee
participatory democracy
vs. collaborative democracy
Beth Simone Noveck
2D and 3D collaborative tool use
8. tools
in-class meeting time
last hour of 3 hour session
in-game chat
guild, officer, general channels
course Ning site
(in lieu of Blackboard)
discussion threads,
personal blogs
Google Docs (for charter drafting)
9. what happened?
very slow start
need more how orientation + more why orientation
no structured goals with clear class application
gap between veterans and n00bs
this is how we always do it vs why are we here?
ideological/temperamental splits
fear of committing time
(law students more than grad students!)
10. deliberation vs. collaboration
Deliberation
Ning group and in-class discussions
Google Docs as collaborative preparatory space
Collaboration
the noob dance expert/new player partnering, spend and hour together and blog about it
3D environment as action space
11. deliberation vs. collaboration
unresolved discussions in Ning/Google Docs
rush to action in class time
appointment of guild manager with unlimited powers
pushed by banking/citizenship issues
12. we need peons!
guild coalesced around in-class goal: make the largest guild
introducing strangers = introducing governance
class united as officer corps
class time now management meeting, not bickering/rush to decisions
13. experiential learning FTW
Is a hands-on exposure to virtual governance worthwhile?
I think many of my class members will go on to help create and implement the laws and rules for virtual governance. I am glad to know that they have at least played the games that they will govern.
Many issues in law do not need to be experienced to be fully understood, because those issue exist in a world that is familiar to us. But in a virtual world, which differ from world to world, and certainly do from the real world, the issues are not so clear. Therefore, a hands-on exposure is not only worthwhile, it is necessary.
14. more immersion, plz
I feel that it could have been very beneficial to have classes that were completely run in world without us meeting in the actual classroom.
I was not a big fan of having real-world discussions that affected our virtual organization. Our real-world guild discussions seemed very hostile to me and because there was no process or agenda, I just felt they were all disorganized and not particularly productive.
15. speaking = death
I'm not sure I really connected with WoW as a platform. I feel like the guild structure is rigid, and it limited where we could go as far as how we created our governance.
Also, you can't take a break from killing a boar to respond to what everyone is saying in guild chat without dying.
16. too much is given
WoW was a very closed and tight circle; a place for everything, and everything in its place.
I don't think this reflects all (or even most of) the possible challenges of governance that we will face in the future. While there may be questions of governance of groups, resource allocation, and the like, all are still occurring within a perfectly controlled and designed space.
To me, governance is the practice of power manipulation in a space where the limits are not known and nothing is ultimately protected or guaranteed.
17. level the playing field
Second Life doesn't require leveling up to play, and so everyone is equal.
Also what I liked about using Second Life is that this was unfamiliar to a lot of people. So I wander how different the governance issues would be in a world where everyone started at the same point. I know in WoW, I witnessed the experienced players were so used to the WoW platform; it was hard for them to deviate from the norm, and not only that, Blizzard does not really allow you to deviate that much either.
18. UGC generates real issues
It seemed as if many of the cases brought up in class, and things like copyright and jurisdiction, pertained more to a user-generated-content environment than something like WoW.
19. summing up
Split between veteran WoW players/gamers and the rest of the class
Non-gamers saw more shortcomings in the platform
Veterans didnt feel governance issues at the noob level were meaningful
20. summing up
(Relative) Ease of learning WoW a plus
Many put off by SLs difficulty to learn and lack of structure
Class split on SL: might favor it with highly structured course goals
More immersion, end RL as a medium for negotiating inworld issues
21. next time?
Craft a quality experience in SL a LOST style roleplay, maybe?
Split gamers and nongamers?
Meet twice a week, once RL, once in a VW
Actively recruit from a wider range of disciplines
22. Loktar! For The Horde!
23. contact
John Carter McKnight, MIA, JD
john.mcknight@asu.edu
johncartermcknight.com
Blog, CV, presentations
+ Twitter, Facebook, last.fm
LinkedIn, Goodreads, etc.
WoW: Kaseido, Misha-US,