- 1. the undoing of an online community merger& its
implications for globalized politicsJohn Carter McKnightHuman &
Social Dimensions of Science & Technology Second Year Research
PresentationArizona State UniversitySeptember 2010
2. in2009, two communities in Second Lifenegotiated a merger
with a year trial period forsix months in 2010, the
communitiesfactionalized, and bitter verbal conflict escalated
inJuly 2010, the governing board of onecommunity voted unanimously
to terminate themerger 3. cross-cultural clash of assumptions over
definitions: democracy participation citizen(ship) suggestive of an
extreme unpopularity ofelectoral-governmental forms for
voluntarycommunities overall rarity of democratic communitiesonline
democratic fundamentalism! 4. 1,903,000,000 sq.m. non-Linden land4
democratic communities: ~852,000 sq.m. five one-thousandths of one
percent of SL land is democratically governed 78users out of 1.2
million have chosen an elected government 5. platform architecture:
land purchased from Linden Lab must be held inthe name of either an
individual or a US nonprofitcorporation communications tools
default to a sole owner voting with dollars: 99.995% of SL is
*sublet* by people paying for corporate/feudal management instead
of self- governance same in *all* game & non-game virtualworlds
6. Extropia one vote to replace the participatory system with a
pure managerial one LAW 791, Spring 2010 law students created a
class junta one student circumvented a month-long debate to name
herself Guild Master, create group and bank 7.
participant-engagement(Pearce 2009) 92 forum posts elected to 13th
Representative Assembly Chair, CDS Communications Commission
post-merger Communications & Culture chair, AlAndalus host
monthly social events attended most governmental meetings of
bothgroups, many social events 8. Kendall(2002): BlueSky Castronova
(2002): Everquest Taylor (2006): Everquest Steinkeuhler (2006):
Lineage I, Lineage II Boellstorff (2008): Second Life Pearce
(2009): The Uru Diaspora Gee & Hayes (2010): The Sims Nardi
(2010): World of Warcraft 9. ~2500pages of logged text chat/IMs
~500 screen-capture photographs ~10 hours of one-on-one interviews
key threads read from 6 years of forumposts 10. anon-game virtual
world in operation since 2003 ~1.2 million regular users
interaction via avatars through a softwareclient voice capacity but
text chat usedexclusively in this context 11. most are tied to
virtual land two sets of governance issues property: subleasing,
aesthetics, security social: events, cohesion, disputes 12.
TheConfederation of Democratic Simulators The Virtual Democracy of
Al Andalus131 citizens of the merged entity on 4/18/2010, 78 of the
CDS post-merger (inclusive of dual citizens) 13. grew out of a
discussion on the SL forumsin 2004 on democratic self-governance
ofregions from 1/3 region in 2004 to 5 on the eve ofmerger in 2009
small, but long-lasting focus on formal institutions styled on
thenation-state 14. foundedby CDS legislative veterans initially an
attempt at a liberal globalcaliphate online, governed by
aprogressive interpretation of Sharia, underthe founder as Caliph
after the founders departure, re-envisioned as a space for
globalencounters with religious and secularviews and spaces 15. Al
Andalus had successful events but littleto no staff CDS had a lot
of staff, but little non-governmental activity assumed synergies Al
Andalus principals were current orformer CDS officials, familiar
with theculture 16. negotiated by a US lawyer on each side The Wasp
Clause provided a one yeartrial period, with right of refusal on
eachside vocal opposition in Al Andalus, less vocalopposition in
the CDS 17. both defined themselves as democratic both saw Al
Andalus as ad-hoc, vibrant both saw CDS as formalist, divisive,
aharder-edged politics some in each group wanted synergy,
somefeared loss of unique identity 18. dominatedby CDS old guard
weak Leader of the RA allowed meetingsto turn to off-topic
confrontations weak Chancellor failed to negotiateoperating
agreement as called for growing conflict over personalities
andpolitics, along community lines 19. Al Andalus will force a sale
of the CDSsims to a US nonprofit corporation Al Andalus is
anti-democratic cult of personality around Sultana
representational/participatory customs democracy CDS has a hostile
& divisive political culture 20. 7/6split largely along
community-of-originlines failure to elect a Chancellor led to
carry-over of previous Chancellor more civil tone, much greater
productivityunder new LRA from Al Andalus 21. referendum 23
approve, 17 disapprove, 16 abstain/no vote Al Andalus closed
meetings before election, very large majorities in favor of merger
termination Al Andalus open meetings after election, sense of
inevitable termination 13th RA would not have had 2/3 majority to
terminate 22. VirtualDemocracy, Inc. board votes unanimously to
terminate Al Andalus participation 23. 13th RA passing key reform
legislation bysuper-majorities online forum as confrontational as
ever very little change in CDS membership,debate between procedural
andsubstantive advocates continues unabated CDS running active
calendar of socialevents Al Andalus re-launch 24. John Carter
McKnight, MIA, [email protected] Blog,
CV, presentations + Twitter, Facebook, last.fm LinkedIn, Goodreads,
etc. Second Life: Kaseido Quandry
