Team+America+--+Research+Project

**Team America: Disaster Capitalists** **American Blackburn, Smiley Clawtooth, Christian Fall, Louie Pausch** Team America: Disaster Capitalists set out to determine Social Norms in Second Life with respect to copyright. We decided to take an empirical bent to our research, and developed a survey which would be administered to approximately 100 Second Life users, selected as randomly as possible. The research was to test 3 dependent variables—whether or not a user had successfully copied a non-copy object, whether or not a user would copy a non-copy object, and whether or not a user would report another user whom they knew was copying non-copy objects. These dependent variables were tested using 6 independent variables—age, gender, how long the user had been using Second Life, whether or not the user was from the United States, whether or not the user was a student, and whether or not the user had used peer to peer software.
 * Copyright and Research Methods in Second Life: An Exploration in Social Norms**

However, shortly after we began this project, we quickly realized that doing research inside the virtual world of Second Life would be entirely different from doing research in the real world. Because the social norms within Second Life are almost fundamentally different from social norms in real life, we were able to use our research program to actually conduct research about social norms.

In beginning to research copyright and how the issue is impacted by social norms through conducting research on the Grid, the prospect of SL itself presented many issues for consideration in developing an effective approach. In this manner, we originally had selected an approach that would be effective in conducting empirical research in real life, yet realized that such attempts would present problems if applied to research in SL. Largely due to the vastly different sets of social norms that govern societies in real life versus SL, our group was forced to realign our methods to fit the social norms of the participants in this virtual subculture. American Blackburn writes about such realignments and changes to the research program in his essay.

Blackburn writes about how SL is often used as a means of expression for those trends or practices not readily found in real life (or deemed as socially unacceptable by the masses). Blackburn writes about the group’s choice to phrase survey questions in a more generalized fashion so as to cater to aspects that are able to transcend the two worlds and be applied to real life instances. By asking questions regarding the use of P2P software and the copying of objects designated non-copy in SL, the exact practices of individuals were less of an issue for our consideration.

Methods and Observations of Research in Second Life: An Analysis of Social Norms

It became obvious to Team America that a theoretical framework could be developed that might be able to describe this project outside of the empirical work. Two of the groups members, Christian Fall and Smiley Clawtooth, worked to develop this framework in their research.

Christian Fall talks about how norms relate to the perverse incentives that are in place in a society that is totally controlled by a private corporation. It seems that value is placed on items that can be created in Second Life and the initial incentive for creators is to tag those objects as no-copy in order to increase their value. Fall discusses this idea and some of the resulting behaviors, such as the copy-bots in Second Life. Fall looks at the issue of the public vs. the private in Second Life. It seems that these actions are a result of the idea of a totally private world. People’s actions are recorded, chats must be trademarked and it seems that the entire idea of Second Life rests in the commoditization and privatization of information in Second Life.

The Public in Second Life: The Issue of Norms and Perverse Incentives in a Public Controlled by a Private Organization

Smiley Clawtooth used the group’s research method to examine the social norms in SL and see how that relates to Second Life's permission culture. Clawtooth asked people why they joined Second Life and was met with a variety of answers, but the three main responses were: to meet more people, to make money and to escape real life. Having established the reason people were on Second Life, Clawtooth went through and looked for the foundation of copyright in Second Life and how people can protect their intellectual property. People can report things to Linden Labs, but ultimately their copyright claims can leave Second Life for Real Life if litigation must be used. This setup has led Second Life, a virtual world that boasts a "fully-integrated economy architected to reward risk, innovation, and craftsmanship," more toward a permission culture. With so much money involved, Second Life will continue moving toward a permission culture until it eventually starts driving people away toward new avenues of creation.

Creativity and Control: Permission Culture Within Second Life

While the theoretical framework that was developed did a great job of describing the social norms within Second Life, the empirical research was also successful. 130 interviews were done by all members of the group, and the resulting regressional analysis did give a great snapshot of the social norms within Second Life. The independent variables which correlated to the dependent variables we wanted to describe were sometime predictable and somewhat surprising.

Louie Pausch writes his essay on the statistical findings of Team America’s research. The three regression equations were analyzed and the correlating independent variables were explained. The findings were in line with the theoretical framework developed by Team America. Indeed, the theoretical framework can be completely wrapped around the claims that arise from the data. Pausch connects the statistical claims to the theoretical framework of his colleagues, especially in relation to the permission culture of Lessig and the “Great Community” of Dewey with respect to Second Life.

Social Norms in Second Life: An Empirical Approach

At the end of the research, Team America was happy with the research that was completed. The framework which was developed theoretically managed to map directly upon the empirical research which we completed. We feel that our theoretical framework accurately describes the social norms within Second Life, and the fact that we are able to empirically back up our theoretical claims only adds credibility to our research.

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