Mr. Linden Goes To Washington: Philip Rosedale To Appear At First US Congress Hearing On Virtual Worlds
This Tuesday, according to a Linden Lab media alert, the company's exiting CEO/future Chairman of the Board will speak on the topic of “Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium” before the House Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee. The purpose of the hearing, an official invitation from the Committee reads, "is to obtain testimony on the nature and growth of online virtual worlds; the types of applications and services, both commercial and non-commercial, supported and offered in such worlds; and any policy issues raised by virtual worlds that may need to be addressed or monitored." (Emphasis mine.)
And no, despite the April 1st date, this is no fooling: it's even on the Committee's schedule, and the video will be streamed live from the site starting at 9am EST, 6am Noon Second Life time. Billed as the first Congressional hearing to directly address the
topic of virtual worlds, it'll be led by Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA), who
happens to have an avatar of his own. (Last December, rather than jet
to Bali for the UN's conference on climate change, Rep. Markey addressed the topic from within Second Life.)
Philip is not the only virtual world expert being called: Susan Tenby
(Glitteractica Cookie in SL), director of Techsoup.org's Non-Profit Commons in Second Life, will also appear.
Image mash-up credits: Tao Takashi, Frank Capra.
Update, 10:05am: Adam Reuters has more details on the event-- namely, the House will also call Dr. Larry Johnson of The New Media Consortium and Colin J. Parris, Ph.D., Vice President of Digital Convergence at IBM Research.
Indeed when the quantity of blogging regarding a bunch of people in some computer games wants to form their own government grows to a certain level then you betcha the real world governments, i.e.; the only ones that matter, will become very interested indeed and will step in to "set the record straight" as to exactly what government is relevant.
This will be very interesting. Good story. Would never have heard about it otherwise. Many thanks!
Posted by: Ann Otoole | Monday, March 31, 2008 at 01:53 AM
Hope he's ready to talk taxes, because that's all I see Congress caring about.
Posted by: Morris Vig | Monday, March 31, 2008 at 03:47 AM
Ham, do you have the time straight? The schedule you link to says 9:30; and I think you brought the time forward instead of back, so that it would be 6:30 Pacific/SLT, instead of 12:30.
If I'm wrong, just delete this comment.
Posted by: Harper Ganesvoort | Monday, March 31, 2008 at 06:25 AM
Why do I see "Casinos" "Internet predators" and "SL Banks" as being the big issues here?
Posted by: Marianne McCann | Monday, March 31, 2008 at 10:57 AM
Taxes taxes and taxes O and face time for these guys.
Posted by: anomouse | Monday, March 31, 2008 at 11:51 AM
Good catch, Harper, thanks; fixed forthwith.
Posted by: Hamlet Au | Monday, March 31, 2008 at 12:25 PM
We're at war, the economy is in the dumps, and the dollar is now worth sixty cents. And the Congress is doing what? Looking into virtual worlds and deciding whether steroids are (obviously) being used in baseball.
Why do we vote for these clowns?
Posted by: Rusalka Writer | Monday, March 31, 2008 at 01:36 PM
Well the fact that Glitteractica Cookie of Techsoup.org and Larry Johnson of The New Media Consortium will be testifying along with Philip is at least some indication that the line of inquiry might venture beyond just taxation matters.
And Ed Markey is a known defender of internet freedom.
So I've got some confidence that the hearings will be more than just a virtual world witch hunt.
Posted by: rikomatic | Monday, March 31, 2008 at 08:26 PM
Mr Pixel is going to:
http://sl.nmc.org/2008/03/31/mrpixel/
His remarks are posted now in CommentPress format:
http://wp.nmc.org/mrpixel
Posted by: Alan Levine | Monday, March 31, 2008 at 11:10 PM
good hearing. the "in world" survived.
Posted by: Ann Otoole | Tuesday, April 01, 2008 at 08:27 AM