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 Inside the First Congressional
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  prompted the sally of Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. BooPerFunK UNISEX Afro Caribbean & African American FUNK hair BooPerFunK (240, 21, 24) |
The hearing took place on April 1st in Washington, D.C. But this was no April Fools’ joke. Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale testified, along with representatives of IBM, TechSoup, and the New Media Consortium. (A complete transcript of the hearing is available online.) Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications, banged the gavel as his avatar in a virtual hearing room constructed on Second Life’s Rayburn Island. The handful of avatars who attended the 6:30AM SLT hearing included Seventh Sun correspondent Dreamingen Writer, Pica Paperdoll, Frank Foley, Lostmedia Ares, Universa Vanalten, and SL designer Aimee Weber, as well as a gaggle of Lindens (Sue, Catherine, Pathfinder, Red, and Zero). JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear, who in real life is Jeffrey Allen, US Managing Editor of OneWorld.net, and blogger Rik Riel also joined the virtual audience to hear the former CEO of Linden Lab testify. The hearing was presented as a two-way simulcast with the virtual hearing room projected from a laptop onto a screen in the real-world chamber, while a live video of the real-world proceedings ran on a screen in the virtual hearing room. As part of his testimony, Philip Rosedale presented a digital video (machinima) that provided an overview of how people use Second Life. The video was produced by Machinima by Silver and Goldie, with additional footage provided by Torley Linden. Behind the scenes, the chat among avatars seated in the virtual courtroom at Rayburn was as fascinating as the hearing itself: |
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Babu Writer: |
Does anyone think this is a precursor to regulation and if so, what are the concerns Linden Labs has in that regard? |
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Universa Vanalten: |
I think it is a precursor to further discussion about that, but still much to learn and understand. |
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Goldie Goodman: |
Any regulation should take great care not to step on the toes of the First Amendment. |
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Rik Riel: |
I think that this hearing demonstrates that there is a growing awareness among the public and even elected officials of the enormous potential of virtual worlds, moving beyond previous paranoia about them being simply dens of vice and iniquity. |
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JeffreyOneWorld Runningbear: |
Philip Rosedale was very eloquent. They hit him with a few tough questions about how much they’re doing to protect children online, but otherwise it was pretty friendly. |
 appears in a digital video shot inside Second Life. |
Meanwhile in Washington, the testimony touched on a number of issues: consumer protection, intellectual property protection, online banking, gambling, child protection—even terrorism. Representative Jane Harman (D-Calif.) raised the specter that, “Islamic militants are suspected of using Second Life, the Internet virtual world, to hunt for recruits and mimic real-world terrorism.” Philip Rosedale carefully countered, “Though there has certainly been discussion [about terrorism in virtual worlds], we have never seen any evidence that there is any such activity going on in Second Life.” “We believe that the degree of scrutiny that is created by [Second Life policing methods] is quite rich and the pattern recognition of nonstandard behavior ... is easy enough to spot,” Rosedale said. The back chat at Rayburn was telling: |
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Babu Writer: |
As a reporter I have witnessed a U.S. Iraq war veteran shooting an AK47 at a mosque here in SL—but not seen any terrorists. |
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Goldie Goodman |
What does a terrorist “look like” in SL? |
 Glitteractica and Nonprofit Commons respond to Jon Stewart  Senior virtual correspondent Rob Riggle reports live from the floor. |
Jon Stewart later gibed, “I don’t think Osama bin Laden is in the basement of his mom’s cave, creating jihad-friendly Second Life avatars.” Jon Stewart lamented that he had to settle for the name “Glitteractica Cookie-2” for his avatar because the name “Glitteractica Cookie” is already being used Susan Tenby, Senior Manager of Online Community Development for TechSoup. Tenby testified before the subcommittee about how virtual worlds can help grass-roots groups with low-cost ways to organize, raise money and advocate for non-profit organizations. In response to Beowolf Porpoiseburg and Rob Riggle’s report for Jon Stewart, a dolphin avatar reporter from Second Life covered a recent “mask-in” protest of avatars wearing Jon Stewart masks showing their support for Glitteractica Cookie and nonprofits in Second Life. All joking aside, Congressman Markey—willing to conduct a hearing as a Second Life avatar—clearly understands the power and potential of the new 3D virtual worlds medium. Linking up with OneClimate’s “Virtual Bali” initiative to participate in the UN’s Climate Change negotiations last December using his Second Life avatar, he remained in Washington DC to press for passage of the final Energy Bill in Congress. |
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As his avatar, he delivered an address to the United Nations and the world—participating in the conference without the carbon cost of flying. Most likely both Democrats and Republicans can agree with Cliff Stearns (R-Florida) comment during the hearing that virtual worlds “can best flourish without overregulation,” This is a recurring theme in Dr. Robert Bloomfield’s Metanomics series on the economics of virtual worlds. And perhaps Philip Rosedale’s main point might best be summarized that Congress has not so much “given up” on the actual world, but rather that virtual worlds need less regulation and government intervention than the actual world. |
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