Virtual Freedom of Virtual Speech

John Edwards Second Life HQ Vandalized

"Shortly before midnight (CST) on Monday, February 26, a group of republican Second Life users, some sporting "Bush '08" tags, vandalized the John Edwards Second Life HQ. They plastered the area with Marxist/Lenninist posters and slogans, a feces spewing obsenity, and a photoshopped picture of John in blackface, all the while harrassing visitors with right-wing nonsense and obsenity-laden abuse of Democrats in general and John in particular."

O.K., still not sure what to think about this. It does raise some questions in my mind [another virtual place that has often been vandalized]. Is Second Life a battleground state? Is it likely to go red or blue? Is the feces spewing obscenities available for private parties?

This reminds me more of Monty Python's, "Silly Election" skit. I would categorize this more as an act of anarchist antics than political pugnacity. Yet, I am registered Slightly Silly Party.

The other day some Paladin asked me to assist in a quest [in WOW . . . not in real life, but that would be cool] . As usual, I agreed, even though I was grinding specifically and had pots burning [I’m a charitable guy in WOW]. About a minute into it I noticed his guild was Crusaders for Christ [4 Paladins, 1 Warrior and 1 Mage . . . no Warlocks!] and cringed.

In a way that is uncharacteristic for me, I was kind of . . . err . . . well . . . slightly offended [I think I'm generally known as open and accepting of all races, creeds and colors . . . unless they are Elves]. A fleeting thought of breaking the party and going my own way was quickly discarded. Then thoughts about would Jebus approve of the WOW lifestyle? Or of Crusaders? Then my mind wandered to the scene in Clerks II where Randal explains how Transformers are a slight against God. Then I looked up GoBots on Wikipedia . . .

O.K., back to the topic . . .

Why was I . . . errr . . . well . . . slightly offended? I don't know. I tend to prefer my online experience to be a political and religion free experience. I have never thought of ViaMedia's political or religious affiliations . . . nor do I want to [whatever it would be would be dedicated to a LOT of killing, but killing without regards to race, creed or color].

Yet, in regards to the Edwards stuff above, a place like Second Life is based far more on free expression [and just go see how disturbing that free expression can be . . . I'll wait . . . well . . . errr . . . you've been gone a long time].

The real question that all of this really rises in me is what type of world do we wish to create in the online environments? Are they to be reflections of the constraints of current culture or are they to be based on the constraints of the online environments? WOW is designed solely [IMHO] to get me to pay $12 a month and $50 a year and allows no evolution of experience. Second Life is designed more for an open communal experience and allows for evolution of that experience.

Question: Can't you lock down your Second Life land to prevent this type of expression?

Addendum from the John Edward's Blog Forums:

Friendly greetings!

I'm Torley. I work for Linden Lab; while "abuse" per se isn't my specialty, I'm involved with community development, and wanted to raise awareness of our land parcel control tools, a benefit to clear unwanted objects & other detritus easily that is far easier than sweeping up a mess offline (in "RL").

Especially since it hasn't been mentioned yet here, nor on Digg...

I checked out the John Edwards HQ inworld, and looks like autoreturn is set to 1 min., and the Create Objects & Object Entry checkboxes are set to OFF too. Great move!

Just so everyone knows, these are a feature available to any parcel owner in Second Life, and help undesired stuff from accumulating, including litter and malicious garbage. We also have Knowledge Base articles about this, so feel free to have a look and I hope with a better understanding of what these tools can do for you, you'll enjoy your Second Lives more:

» http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/arti cle.php?id=395

» http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/arti cle.php?id=380

T'care!

I except Twink to be conservative. I think Twink expects me to be aggressive

Saturday in Hell’ . . .

Disclar: If you haven’t noticed, my posts tend toward the personal and observational. If are looking for academics, look to Hall’s posts. Mine will remain shamelessly idiosyncratic .

So, Clive was 3 bubbles from ‘ding’ for 60 today. This meant a lot to both Twink’ and myself. We’ve watched him grind his levels out the hard way and him reaching 60 is a testament to the man’s endurance and perseverance. It was a accomplishment worth of praise and pictures.

I know that both Twink and myself would not have choose anyplace else to be as Clive pushed from 59 to 60. That golden glow that enveloped him I found very . . . satisfying. DING and we posed for pictures.

After, still a question of getting him through the long chain. None seem that interested, but I remained. Clive set them up and I took them down. 45 minutes later, we had taken down the end of the long chain and were ready for ramparts.

Twink and I have walked these halls a dozen times. Cy was familiar with the grounds. Clive, new ground, but he had skilled Sherpas. We had some bumps, but

Moving onto the Furnace, everyone was even more skilled and successful. It was a smooth a run as I have had and all performed admirably.

Outside an instance, we all engage the game differently. For me, and Twink, it is important to be there for the benchmark moments . . . 40, 60 & 70. It is part not just of the game, but of being part of the community. Like attending a birthday party for someone you care

I think Twink and I experience them very similarly. He either leads or I do . . . and it is a comfortable compromise. He is a bit too cautious. I’m a bit too . ..errr . . not cautious. He brings his people [who I have o respect [and do] and I bring my people and get the same respect.

Yet, in our leadership . . . I think we both always feel we have not only a voice but a veto and even an opportunity of command. It’s simple to realize that I never get annoyed with him. I think it requires him a bit more to never . . or seldom . .. get annoyed with me.

Must an Educational Virtual World be Just a Cooler Classroom

Okay, this is going to be the first in a series of reflections as I get trained up on Quest Atlantis, Sasha Barab's self-described MMO for science ed. I'm getting formally trained by Bron Stuckey right now. I know Bron, oddly enough, through Etienne and CPSquare (Community of Practice group).

---

I first encountered Quest Atlantis, or QA as most call it, at the GLS conference two years ago. Sasha ran a mini workshop on it and we all got to have a wee taste. I recall being on a mission to figure out why the downstream part of the river was polluted. I wandered a 3-D virtual world and interacted with NPCs who had info relevant to the problem. Unlike, say, World of Warcraft, this wasn't about just going somewhere to do or get something and then check back with the quest giver. I recall my table group had to weigh evidence from a variety of sources to draw our own conclusion about what was going on. In that sense, an active learning experience was there to be had.

Now nearly three years later, I am training up on what has become a much larger, more fully implemented, virtual world. THere are trading cards, novels, and multiple ways of engaging with the environmnet. So far, I have experienced the content as king, and the virtual world as a stage upon which to engage in problem based learning activity. That is, I have not yet seen the science or society & technology content as embodied in the game. Oddly, I keep thinking back to the workshop at GLS where at least the problem was an in-game virtual world problem. Now it is very likely that this is a matter of time, and that as a beginner in the game I have not yet been offered those sorts of experiences. I reserve my judgment accordingly, but I am curious about whether and how the world itself will come to be an integral component of the content.


I guess as a TV gen. person, I think of content in virtual "learning" worlds the way Gumby and Pokey experienced it: walking into a book. In some ways, their experience was better integrated. Here's a quote from Art Clokey on Gumby's Trip to the Moon: "Well, you know, the spaceship had four modules on spokes like a wheel. The fifth module, that is the central module, was spherical. The idea was that they would rotate in space and create artificial gravity with centrifugal force. I studied physics and chemistry and so on. I taught chemistry and physics in high school at one time. So I had the knowledge at that time, in 1956." The content was IN the world, a part of the world. The world was not a backdrop for conducting education materials, it embodied the ideas themselves.


Also, the QA world raises some interesting problems for the notion of VR world design for education. The graphics are admirable, but chunky and old style active worlds stuff. If most kids are in touch with designs for consoles and for games such as World of Warcraft, QA looks downright funky and old. The avatar idling behavior cycles so often and is so annoying, it makes me wonder if the world is full of fleas. THese people are constantly picking at their clothes. Anyhow.. that last remark is really petty except as a marker of the problem. WoW and console games can afford the investment in art design because of the size of the customer base. Will educational games ever be able to afford the grandeur of a real virtual world game? And if not, won't they always seem funky, dated, and well, boring, even before the kids get into them? This is a real problem. However, we know text book publishers make a pretty penny off the text book market. Why couldn't a massive world game, if it could scale the entire curriculum of a grade level subject matter, pull down the same revenue? Can a Quest Atlantis stand in for the entire 5th grade science curriculum, usurping the textbook? That's a big burden to place on the developers, or is it.