POLITICAL VOTE (Updated)

Governor Warner speaks through an avatar called "Governor Mark Warner"

Here's an update with the Governer's thoughts on SL and political campaigning.

The polls are closed, and with nearly 100 votes received, the tally is in for the NWN poll, "Do you want to see more real world politicians and campaigns in Second Life?"  (A survey inspired, of course, by Governor Mark Warner's recent appearance in SL.)  The results are fairly ambivalent, with 43.3% "Yes", 39.2% answering "No", and a swing vote of 17.5% cautiously choosing, "Depends on the politician/campaign".  As mentioned in the event re-cap, the Governor plans to make another whistle stop tour in Second Life soon, a much more open-ended, town hall-style event, so it'll be interesting to see how the public consensus changes after that (if at all.)

Updated and bumped, 9/14, 1:45pm:  Governor Warner, as it happens, discussed his SL experience yesterday on NPR's Brian Lehrer show, and his reasons for doing it.  Some excerpts after the break.

During Brian Lehrer's 9/13 WNYC interview with the Governor, the very first question Lehrer asks-- as opposed to, say, Iraq, universal health care, or the war on terror-- was about his experience in Second Life.  Roll tape:

Governor Warner: "It was kind of out there... you're kind of this disembodied figure walking around.  But my sense is that particularly younger people are not going to receive most of their political news through the dreaded 30 second TV ads.  And that they're a whole series of people who communicate, and form new communities, in a series of areas using the Internet and technology.  As somebody who spent 20 years in telecom and IT, and as somebody who believes politics in this country is less about left/right/liberal/conservative and more future/past, I want to try all these mediums, to see how they might reach out to people who might not otherwise be involved, get them in engaged.  Whether the Second Life three-dimensional avatars are going to become the next Meet Up-type of phenomenon... I can't say. But my sense is you got to be willing to try it all."

Lehrer: "Who would have thought 20 years ago?  Avatars and Colbert, and you take it from there."

The whole segment is available via stream here and via download here, and well worth a listen.

And today, Reuben Tapioca of Millions of Us (an NWN sponsor) was also on the Lehrer show, discussing Governor Warner's event, while providing more background on SL to WNYC listeners.  His interview can be streamed here, downloaded here.

Comments

[Redaktisto Noble]

Polling for whether or not more politicians should come to SL is like polling to ask whether they should go to county fairs. The point is, is it an EFFECTIVE venue for the politicians to meet potential voters, and does SL provide any extra possibilties for meaningful interaction? One thing that occurs to me is that with no security concerns, it offers close-up contact and thus, an unprecedented opportunity for meaningful dialogue without the presence of bodyguards and handlers. On the other hand, it takes longer to have even a simple exchange in SL than in real life. So for busy national politicians, the factor of potential votes gained versus time spent is not too great - unless that time spent provides visibility and pays off in the greater scheme of things.

[rikomatic]

I'm less interested in SL as a place for political campaigning as I am interested in it as a place for political discourse and organizing. I.e. are we creating civic spaces where people can connect with each other and exchange political views and ideas in ways that are different than in the real world or in other web-based forums? Is SL becoming a safe place for real world political discussion, or will it mostly be an escapist playground?

Of course SL is big enough that it can be both. But tracking the general interests and preferences of the residents is a good exercise.