Beyond Broadcast 2007

Insights

• "Naked democracy": The basic idea is that most people don't participate in the democratic process on a regular basis. Going to a local school or library to vote every two or four years has become a milestone participatory event. "Naked democracy" is a vision of the democratic process where participation in decision-making becomes an everyday occurrence ("voting from one's bedroom").
  • As we discussed in class, the Internet (via blogging, wikis, etc.) enables and promotes naked democracy. Could it also be be making traditional milestone events like voting appear relatively less important?
  • Naked democracy is relatively easy to achieve in small groups (e.g., college co-ops), where everyone is familiar with the issues and has a direct stake in the outcome. Blogging etc may be restoring a "small village" feel to the complex and large system in the US.

• Second Life: I attended the conference in SL as I wanted to see what all the hype was about
  • My overall impression is that the virtual conference was little more than a webcast + IRC. Several people expressed interest in doing something more radical with SL's capabilities, but it's unclear what else could have been done.
  • SL is just like RL. A couple of robot-looking participants notwithstanding, everyone looked normal (some people designed their avatars to look like them in real life). Everyone "sat" in virtual chairs and looked at the virtual screen. Is there more to SL?