Governance & Virtual Worlds
Tens of millions of individuals around the world engage in virtual worlds. This research area looks at the issue of governance in the context of virtual worlds - from at least two dimensions.
First, we look at the governance structures, institutions, and processes within a virtual world: what are the rules that govern interactions inworld, how do these rules come about, and how are they enforced? Normatively we ask what rules ought to be governing virtual worlds, and why.
Second, we look at the governance contexts in which virtual worlds are being provided. As virtual world providers compete for users with each other, and across jurisdictions, regulatory dynamics among real world policy makers as well as virtual world providers ensue, providing us both with an intriguing and important real world experiment into regulatory interaction, as well as normatively challenging us to find regulatory approaches that are robust and effective.
Limits of Virtual World Governing
This research project, headed by Centre director Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, looks at the limits of governability of virtual worlds. In his previous work, "Napster's Second Life?", Mayer-Schönberger analyzed the regulatory dynamic among providers of virtual worlds. As virtual world slowly move towards more permissive regimes of user rights (spearheaded perhaps by Linden Lab's decision to let users of SecondLife retain their intellectual property rights), virtual world providers have fewer options to differentiate themselves from competitors. Size continues to play a dominant role, but governance may increase in importance.
In "Napster's Second Life", Viktor Mayer-Schönberger argued that given limited differentiation possibilities for virtual world providers coupled with their choice in real world jurisdiction, real world policy makers may soon face a troubling dilemma: either leaving virtual worlds largely unregulated to the potential detriment of social welfare in these worlds, or over-regulating virtual worlds, thus pushing virtual world provision to decentralized peer-to-peer models. Encouraging robust virtual world self-governance may be the pragmatic solution for real world policy makers to escape of this dilemma.
In "Virtual Heisenberg", Viktor Mayer-Schönberger looks at the inherent limitations of substantively regulating virtual worlds while at the same token keeping alive market competition among virtual world providers.
Virtual World Seminar Series
As virtual worlds rise in social and economical importance, so must our knowledge and understanding about how to best govern them. This seminar series, led by Centre director Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Visiting Professor Yee Fen Lim aims at engaging the leading minds around the world on the question of virtual world governance, and bringing them to the academic and practitioner audience here in Singapore.