U.S. State Department Considering SL Project
I had lunch yesterday at Virtual Worlds 2007 with a couple of guys from the U.S. Department of State, who told me the State Department is considering launching an official project within the virtual world of Second Life. Specifically, this would be an initiative of State’s Public Diplomacy wing, which is headed up by Karen Hughes. Before we go any further, I should note that your tax dollars were not used to feed 3pointD; my tasty lobster salad was kindly picked up by a venture capitalist who was also at the table.
Though any State Department project would at first be very small and include no persistent State Department presence (I don’t think State has budgeted any money for SL yet), it sounds like the public diplomacy department (essentially State’s outreach and PR arm) is considering Second Life and virtual worlds in general as a potentially powerful new communications channel, and that if early experiments go well, it could mean an expansion of their activities there. This is potentially a great way to make more information available about the State department, and get more people engaged in the workings of government, which can’t be a bad thing. We don’t really hear enough from most government bodies in a way that’s palatable; one wonders how some longtime SL residents might react, however.
[A note before we go on: I’m not talking the week off from blogging because of the Kathy Sierra affair, but I am going to try to mark all my posts today with a message like this, despite the fact that some other people have a blogging boycott on today. I’m not sure a boycott is the right thing for me, but I don’t mind interrupting a few posts for a public service announcement about an insult culture that has run right off the rails. Now back to our story.]
Any first steps taken by the State Department would be built around issues the government is engaged in rather than specific government policies or positions, according to senior technology advisor William May and policy and planning officer Pedro Martin, who were at lunch. One topic under consideration is the issue of access and equity for the handicapped, for instance. State has held one-off events in Second Life in the past, in conjunction with USC’s Center for Public Diplomacy, which has a presence on SL’s Annenberg Island, and further steps would probably be taken with their help, it sounds like. I’m not entirely sure, but it also sounds like State’s SL explorations have approval from pretty high up the public diplomacy food chain, possibly from Karen Hughes herself — which is an interesting prospect, given that she’s known to have the ear of President Bush, who is of course fairly powerful as world leaders go.
There was a bit of moaning when it was revealed that the IRS was looking into virtual-world economies, and I’m sure there will be similar reaction from some quarters to State coming in. But Martin and May are looking hard at how best to engage people in a virtual-world context. I think they’ve already realized that engaging a metaversal audience implies having a dialogue rather than just broadcasting a message. If State does decide to poke around in SL, it will be interesting to see which has more of an impact on the other: the government on the virtual world, or the virtual world on the government? Who knows, perhaps we’ll soon be voting with our pixels.
Feeds
Does this mean we’ll finally get a decent combat system in SL? *smirk*
I talked to the same guy. I think they have a lot of money to spend, and there are probably developmental companies and universities and such that won’t mind taking their money, even the “Hate America First” types. They have long-term prospects that aren’t specifically tied to this or that president or this or that party but are part of a long-established tradition of doing educational and public diplomacy on the values of democracy. That sure wouldn’t hurt in Second Life, where insult culture has run right off the rails, among other things.
In RL, these kinds of programs bring all kinds of visitors to the US, or send Americans abroad to speak, i.e. when it’s Martin Luther King Day, the U.S. makes a point of putting on the road prominent black speakers to talk to other countries about racism. If you think this is hokey or discredited, you haven’t lived in some of the countries of the world, where even to have a government *talk* about racism is a completely novel experience, and helps open up taboo topic.
I think it would be good if the U.S. government did low-key kinds of joint programs of speakers, or various public diplomacy types of things on basic issues. I find that for all the haters out there, and for all the demonstrating against the war in Iraq that I personally would be happy to join, when actually confronted with real U.S. officials, the haters wilt. And it’s actually a good thing if they have an opportunity to try to sort through all their hysterical beliefs and exaggerated notions of the US, and then have to say something coherent. To tell us what THEIR solution is to Sadam Hussein, or what THEIR solution is to Hamas terrorism and Palestinian suicide bombers. Seriously.
In RL, I’ve had to endure all kinds of this stuff at all kinds of levels. Some of it can be outrageously embarrassing. My God, the fellow from the Homeland Security they sent out to this one gig we were all at made us all crawl under the table with embarassment from being from the same country, but other venues I’ve been impressed how the professional people that have remained in agencies despite the leadership have been able to make a quiet difference.
The greatest challenge of our time is the non-state actor. The Metaverse amplifies and empowers the non-state actor in ways that nobody is prepared to cope with, and nobody has any idea how bad it will get. I have one word for you: Durban. I was there. It was awful. It’s always MORE awful when America decides to duck its responsibility and opts out of the process instead of staying in. The U.S. needs to be in SL in some form. If it ends up getting demonstrations and firebombs every day, so be it, they should just keep putting on programs and eventually when we have better people in office these kinds of things can be better, too.
I’ll skip the habeas corpus jokes and just second the sentiments expressed above.
That a single taxpayer dollar would be wasted on second life should be enough to get anyone off their ass to vote for a change. Jeezus, what next, use federal funds to invest in Scientology recruiting efforts? I guarantee none of the budgetary decision makers knows shit about second life. This is the work of mid-low level bureaucrats who sit around all day tweeking their furbie yiffy costumes. This circle jerk has gone on far enough. Jeezus. I can’t wait until those damned tv exposes they’ve been working on for the past six months finally air. After Hillary and friends grandstand on “Second Life Look Here’s Toilets Set Up So You Can Simulate Shitting In Your Child Lover’s Mouth”, I somehow doubt the State Department will be so interested as the FBI.
[…] Even the US State Department is considering a Second Life presence. […]
[…] First, the State Department mulls over setting up shop, President hopeful Barack Obama shows up campaigning, escaping unscathed unlike fellow rival John Edwards which found his virtual headquarters defaced by pranksters who left behind a giant turd spouting out feces (such a nice touch) among other nasty mods. And now FBI is snooping around to contemplate the legality of gambling within Second Life. […]