politics – Page 2

Twinity: intersection of immersion and State

July 8, 2009 by Editor 9 Comments

With a new round of funding in the bank, Twinity is on as firm a ground as it’s ever been. The development of virtual replicas of cities has proven a successful formula to date. Singapore is a Twinity stronghold and a virtual Orchard Road is on the way.

Two aspects of the Orchard Road announcement caught my interest:

Virtual Singapore was developed in consultation with the Media Development Authority (MDA) and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA).

and

Twinity is tying up with AsiaOne – the interactive arm of Singapore Press Holdings – to seek retailers, brands and firms interested in promoting their products or space on the virtual ‘Orchard Road’.

Bear with me while I explain some of the intricacies.

The Media Development Authority (MDA) is a government agency that has two main purposes: “The first is to promote the growth of the media industry. The second is to manage content to protect core values and safeguard consumers’ interests“.

The Infocomm Development Authority is also a government agency with the roles of “infocomm industry champion, the national infocomm master-planner and developer, and the Government CIO“.

AsiaOne is a key business within the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) stable. SPH isn’t government owned, but under SIngapore’s Newspaper and Printing Presses Act, no management shares can be transferred without approval of the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA). This is the ministry that oversees the Media Development Authority.

What this means is that the SIngapore Government has direct involvement in the development of virtual SIngapore in Twinity. Nothing wrong with that at all – Australia’s government has played a role in funding virtual world presences, as have a plethora of other governments. What interests me most is the AsiaOne partnership, which is likely to have an advertising revenue focus. If you’re currently a SIngapore business person, you’re likely to have advertised with SIngapore Press Holdings at some stage as it has nearly 80% of the over-15’s market.

What do you do when SPH’s sales team phone you to negotiate your next advertising package and mention you can now advertise in Twinity? If you don’t know that the government have funded the Twinity presence, the less well informed may see it as a gimmick and decline. This is where it gets really interesting: if take up of advertising in Twinity’s virtual Singapore isn’t as great as expected, what happens next? I won’t be surprised if Singapore becomes the first sovereign entity to have virtual world advertising as a standard option for its business owners. The initial acceptance may be limited but the incredibly close government involvement combined with substantial influence over SPH makes for one fascinating and potentially controversial case study of virtual worlds and business. There’s no criticism of Metaversum intended – they have operated as one would expect of a commercial entity. It’s wider issues of politics, media and governance that invite further discussion.

I fired some questions on the issue through to Metaversum’s Managing Director, Jeremy Snyder:

TMJ: Does Metaversum see the Singapore model of government funding combined with a media partnership to drive advertising as one it’s likely to explore in other markets.

Singapore really offered some unique opportunities for us. Their drive to stimulate and showcase innovative companies in the IDM (Interactive Digital Media) space. The media partnership that we entered here is a strong endorsement of our vision. We do see a lot of value in similar strategic partnerships for other markets.

TMJ: Does it see this model working as well as it may do in Singapore where SPH’s management has a close relationship with the government?

Twinity: The relationship between SPH and the Singapore government was not part of the decision process for entering that partnership. Negotiations for funding in 2008 & subsequent negotiations with SPH were entirely different excercises.

TMJ: Does Metaversum have any concerns that potential success in Singapore may be as a result of the unusually tight control on media in Singapore, which may ensure widespread adoption of virtual world advertising as indirect government policy, making it a case study not easily replicated in other markets?

Twinity: Singapore’s media policies in the Internet space really don’t have any affect on our business. Similarly, we do not plan to apply any different standards for content in Twinity’s virtual Singapore than in other locations in Twinity. We feel our success in Singapore and elsewhere will still come back to the core values of Twinity – the connections to real life, the content available, and the strength of the community.

—

What do you think: is virtual Singapore likely to provide a unique social experiment?

Filed Under: General News, Law and virtual worlds, Politics, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: politics, singapore, twinity

Protest in Second Life: the current Gaza conflict

December 30, 2008 by Editor 11 Comments

Over on DIP’s Dispatches from the Information Age, SL resident Eureka Dejavu has posted some pics of a protest held over recent days. The focus of the protest is the current flare up of hostilities between Hamas and Israeli defence forces. Specifically, the protest is against the current Israeli actions in the Gaza strip. This has caused some angst in some quarters, with accusations of one-sideness.

Although I deplore in the extreme Hamas’ actions to date, I’d be surprised if the protesters were there primarily to support Hamas. Isn’t the distress focused primarily on the loss of innocent human lives in the midst of it all?

Yes, Hamas use appalling tactics of placing themselves in civilian areas, but that doesn’t negate the right of those concerned for those civilians to be outraged at their death? As Eureka summarises in her post, that’s exactly the perspective encouraged at the protest.

For mine, this view expressed in the post says it all:

The gathering is an example of the rich, textured opportunity that 3D immersive spaces like Second Life offer for people to express their concerns about present day issues

Click here for the full photo set (from which the above picutre comes) and judge for yourself. As always, comments are welcome – was this a one-sided protest, a rightful platform to express sorrow at current events, or both?

Filed Under: General News, Politics, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: gaza, politics, protests

Australian politics and virtual worlds – no momentum

November 20, 2008 by Editor Leave a Comment

It’s coming up to a year since the change of Federal government in Australia. In Second Life, there was an election night party.

At the time there was lots of excited talk about the ALP’s broadband policy and the promise it may bring – there is progress on that front but it’s fraught with problems. Then there’s the internet censorship issue bubbling along. All in all, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy hasn’t shone in his role to date. There’s a real perception that we’ve got a government with 20th Century views on some distinctly 21st Century challenges.

In the year since that Second Life election party, there’s been zero interest by either political party in virtual worlds. There’s certainly been significant forays by both sides into social networking via YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. The US presidential primaries this year saw Second Life play a role, and Barack Obama’s supporters kept that going through the campaign itself. Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull have obvously been watching the US Democrats’ online campaigning efforts, but there’s no inkling of a virtual world foray at this stage.

We’ve previously queried our pollies on their thoughts with no response – it appears that the current Minister is no more cognisant of the opportunities and challenges than his predecessor.

Filed Under: Australian News, Politics, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: censorship, conroy, politics

Linden Lab’s CEO to testify before Congress

March 31, 2008 by Editor Leave a Comment

At 9.30am on the 1st April US Eastern Time, Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale will testify before the US Congress. I don’t have any further details at this stage aside from determining that it’s the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. More specifically it’s the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet Hearing. The topic of the hearing is ‘Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium’

If you’re super keen you can view the live webcast. It’s likely to be a fairly mundane event although with any political process there’s the potential for fireworks. Ageplay, gambling and financial services are obvious areas but we’ll have to wait and see how wide the focus becomes.

Update: a text summary of the hearing can be found here on Virtually Blind.

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Filed Under: General News, Politics, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: lindenlab, politics

The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

March 17, 2008 by Editor Leave a Comment

Note: Philip Rosedale stepping down from the CEO position at Linden Lab is a dominant story in the news at present, which we’ve covered here.

1. BBC News – Virtual world for virtually Irish. “The world likes to drown the shamrock at this time of year, and for the first time plastic paddies can really get in on the act. Tourism Ireland is hosting a virtual St Patrick’s Day parade on Sunday in the internet world of Second Life (SL).”

2. Al Bawaba – eGames Targets Tourism & Education. “With e-Learning on the rise, the search is still very much on for the most effective way of delivering online courses, and encouraging interaction between participants at a distance. Second Life (www.secondlife.com), is the newest, hottest thing in the online teaching world suggests David Wortley, Director, Serious Games Institute, Coventry University and presenter at Knowledge Oasis Muscat’s (KOM) annual eGames Conference (31 March – 1 April, Muscat Hall, KOM). Wortley will deliver two presentations at the eGames Conference that will consider the opportunities offered by Second Life to education, tourism, heritage and culture.”

3. The Daily Telegraph (UK) – Virtual vogue: Second Life wardrobes. “Who pays real money for unreal clothes? Enough people to make digital dressing-up big business. But is virtual fashion just another teenage craze or is it the end of clothes shopping as we know it?”

4. The Times Online (UK) – Has the internet killed jobs fairs? “THE recruitment fair seems to have gone the way of the dodo, the zeppelin and the space hopper. Its moment seems to have passed. Caroline Weeks, head of delivery recruitment at BT Global Services, rather misses the old recruitment fairs where companies used their collective power to lure candidates to meet them face-to-face.”

5. Science Daily – Real And Virtual Pendulums Swing As One In Mixed Reality State. “Using a virtual pendulum and its real-world counterpart, scientists at the University of Illinois have created the first mixed reality state in a physical system. Through bidirectional instantaneous coupling, each pendulum “sensed” the other, their motions became correlated, and the two began swinging as one.”

6. The Brown Daily Herald – Donahue ’11 cashes in as virtual arms dealer. “Before setting foot on Brown’s campus, Evan Donahue ’11 made thousands of dollars creating weapons to summon damned souls and create rifts in space-time fabric to suck in adversaries. The weapons systems were for the virtual world of Second Life, a popular online role-playing game. But the money – more than $20,000 – was very real.”

7. The Bangkok Post – Socializing goes big in 2008. “Enhanced collaboration and Web 2.0 tools, such as social networking, will continue to be integral components across Asian businesses in 2008, say industry analysts. Claus Mortensen, principal for emerging technology research, digital marketplace and new media at IDC, predicts that more companies in Asia will create and maintain corporate profiles on social network sites.”

8. The Huffington Post – All Politics is Virtual. “Will the next election season’s big caucus battle look like a videogame? Web strategist Michael Whitney recently revealed the contents of a Hilary Clinton campaign survey on the Huffington Post, and among the usual questions about political leanings and election contributions was this seemingly odd query: Which of the following have you visited or played online?”

9. Wired – AI-Based Virtual Child Plays in Second Life. “This is how it always begins in the movies. Some well-meaning scientist-geeks create an artificial intelligence, and set it loose to see how it learns and behaves. Next thing we know, he’s taken over the nuke launchers and threatens humanity unless someone brings him an ice cream cone. In this case, the AI was built at Rensselaer Polytechnic, and gets to play in the Second Life MMORPG.”

10. The Australian Financial Review (subscription only) – Aussies lose interest in Second Life. “Australian usage of much-hyped free virtual world Second Life has not returned to highs experienced in mid-2007, according to data released by the system’s US-based publisher Linden Lab.”

Filed Under: General News, Virtual Worlds, Virtual worlds in the media Tagged With: politics, population, the watch

Will virtual worlds get a guernsey at Rudd’s summit?

February 10, 2008 by Editor 4 Comments

In recent weeks there’s been significant coverage of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s summit (two examples here and here). Some commentators see it as an opportunity to get some ideas on the table bt it’s fair to say most see it as a talk-fest unlikely to generate any lasting policy initiatives. I wouldn’t be quite as cynical as that, but I have my doubts on how much can be achieved with a thousand people in a room for two days. The ego quotient alone will pose a challenge.

Given the focus is Australia’s future in 2020 you’d hope there’s at least a studied mention of the impact virtual worlds are likely to have in the future. The potential downsides of heavy virtual world use on its own should draw some interest let alone all the great opportunities to be had in the virtual sphere that could benefit Australia in coming years. Some of the more obvious challenges for government in regard to virtual worlds include:

1. Australia’s lagging broadband infrastructure;
2. Consumer protection in virtual world transactions;
3. Clarity on taxation and financial regulation;
4. Appropriately trained addiction and counselling services;
5. Expansion of research and development funding for business, non-profit, education and health in the virtual world sphere.

Who would you like to send to the summit to wave the flag? What questions / issues would you like to see raised?

(I’ve already declined an invitation – I’m washing my hair that night ).

Filed Under: Australian News, Op-ed, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: politics, rudd

The Mike Huckabee Center for the Liberation and Housing of Spermatazoan-Americans

January 24, 2008 by Editor Leave a Comment

We reported recently on some excellent political satire occurring in Second Life focused on Hilary Clinton. Republican Mike Huckabee gets his turn with the opening of the “The Mike Huckabee Center for the Liberation and Housing of Spermatazoan-Americans”.

I was a bit slow in realising what the Huckabee Center was about – it was only when I saw this area that I realised:

Built by “Gen.JC Christian”, his blog gives a pictorial tour and an explanation of the build.

The growing attention on the US Presidential Election is only going to ensure that virtual world satire goes from strength to strength. Once each party has their candidate I’m expecting some even more cutting 3D commentary.

Check it out in-world

Filed Under: Humour / Satire, Politics, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: humour, mike huckabee, politics

Political satire at a whole new level

January 9, 2008 by Editor 2 Comments

With ten months still to go until the US Presidential election, Second Life is definitely hotting up as a platform for campaigning. As you’d expect, where there’s political activity there are satirists waiting in the wings to lighten the load for those of use bombarded by the whole election process. Christophe Hugo is one such person.

When I arrived at his faux WhiteHouse he was sitting there in his Hilary Clinton avatar. I approached Christophe and he immediately enveloped me in a cage, demanding I wouldn’t be let go until I voted for Hilary. Here’s the same fate befalling another visitor:

He was too busy for an extensive interview but I did manage to ask whether Christophe’s efforts were coming from a particular political ideology. His response: “I am a French Marxist (of the Groucho Marx movement)”.

That sums it up really -if you enjoy political humour with a dash of slapstick then this is an area you may want to visit. There’s even a Barack Obama / Hilary Clinton boxing ring where it’s obvious who lost out:

And finally, there’s the Whitehouse itself – it’s not the best replica I’ve seen but it fits the overall presence well:

Thanks to New World Notes for the heads-up.

Check it out in-world

Filed Under: General News, Politics, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: clinton, humour, obama, politics

US Presidential politics comes to World of Warcraft

January 4, 2008 by Editor Leave a Comment

Gamepolitics.com has covered a march undertaken by 200 or so avatars in World of Warcraft to support US Presidential election candidate Ron Paul, who’s on the Republican side of the fence.

Second Life is a regular venue for political discourse but it’s fair to say World of Warcraft isn’t a natural fit as there’s no ability to create individual content to augment political activism. That hasn’t stopped people from making their views clear via this march and it’ll be fascinating to see if there’s growth of such events in WoW in the lead up to November’s elections. What’s stopping some PvP events occurring along political lines? Election campaigns can be brutal on both the combatants and the electorate so this would be an obvious next step.

Filed Under: Politics, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: politics, ron paul

A new government’s genesis viewed from Second Life

November 24, 2007 by Editor 1 Comment

ABC Island played host to an election night party, with lots of chat about unfolding events in the real world. The ‘Australians’ group in SL was also buzzing with a running commentary.

It’d be an understatement to say those gathered on ABC island and the group chat were pro-Kevin Rudd:

Numerous comments were expressed in regard to the ALP’s broadband policy and its impacts on the SL experience. There was plain old partying.

As one party-goer said, “I just wanted to be with some Aussies at this historical moment”. There’s been no involvement by Australian political parties in Second Life to date – my prediction is that by next election there’ll be a marked presence by at least one party in the virtual world sphere.

Filed Under: Australian News, Politics, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: community, politics