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November 07, 2006
Public policy seminar at Uvvy Island
On November 3rd Eudoxa became the first public policy think tank to organize a seminar in a virtual world. The seminar about the New Virtual Frontier in Second Life was attended by about 25 virtual avatars.
A motley crew of spectators from all over the world attended the Eudoxa seminar
Eudoxa director Waldemar Ingdahl held a speech based on the articles The New Virtual Frontier and The Estonian cyberdemocratic revolution.
Discussing the development of cyberdemocracy
Ingdahl had to admit that he had previously been wrong in his projections for the growth of Second Life, the virtual world now has more than a million users, with a growth of 20 per cent a month it now projects 10 million users already in 2007. He also noted Switzerland recently joining the cyberdemocratic experiment and that faculties of higher education are now considering the virtual worlds as a venue for classes and courses.
Director Ingdahl's avatar lecturing at the seminar
Ingdahl noted that one problem facing the improvement of virtual services and cyberdemocracy is currently that European governments could get better at e-administration. Services to the citizens' have seen some improvements but for a true 24/7 society to develop, governments need to also increase their services to businesses.
Death and taxes never seem to escape you, as the US' Congress has opened a committee reviewing the opportunities for extending taxation and sales taxes on the services producing in the virtual world. Many of the new conflicts between governments and organization may well stem from the virtual worlds in the future.
Will public policy institutes jump on the virtual world bandwagon? Possibly, as international seminars often cost a lot of money to organize, the travels needed are very time consuming and limit the number of people that can attend, while virtual seminars also broaden the outreach to increasingly important groups that seldom attend real world seminars.
Eudoxa is currently considering holding more seminars at Uvvy Island in Second Life, and possibly opening a virtual office building.
Posted by Waldemar at November 7, 2006 12:35 PM