Elwing+polysci

**First Thoughts.**
As far as initial thought on second life I wonder how the level of analysis problem comes into play. If I want to study or look at second life i need to at least think about who is driving this virtual world. or atleast what is effecting the players in the virtual world to make certain decisions. While man great Poly-Sci'ers have failed at this very attempt I have a strict advantage in my second life project. My world is already simplified, and now I only need to simplify the digital world only slightly allowing any theory to be both descriptive and accurate. Some individual level of analysis champion that their method is the only "real" method because people are really the only beings that have action. (No regardless if you think virtual action is real or not) In my case their are no "real" actors, everything in secondlife is an abstraction of the human mind. Now are there states in second life? alliances, NGO'S? I already know from my short expirence on SL that their is no war, atleast not in the sense that it exists in the real world. Is this from the lack of nation states? or a lack of the game interface to truly express the wants and needs of its gamers? I guess the Question is are their nation states in SL or just corporations?

====The Corporatist State? A Vision of the Future manifested in SEcond life? While I understand that Second life is not reality and that even by using it as a sort of predictive model may break a few academic rules especially since not only is it not reality but it technically isnt even real; However, what is theory if not a fictions distortion of reality. Distorted in certian ways to minimize the content of reality into something managable and predictive. So to use SL as a perdictive model of the future of states I must understand how Second Life Distorts reality. First there seems to be realitivly no government interfearance with the everyday activities of me in SL, the government could be thought of in some respects like Plato's philosopher king. As stated earlier I do not attempt vast and life changing perdictions such as the cause or prevention of war like the great Waltz, all I want from my model is a small glimpse at a possible world with little to no government action and the buisness' in this possible world and how they can or might take over some of the powers of the states or leave them ungoverned or even replace them with a new idea of consumeristic survivalism.====


 * Perspective Project:** Exploring Second life as an extension of Lessig's Idea of copyright, as well as Friedmans idea of a blank world in which the market has control over the economy. Our current ideas place Second Life as a world in which the copyright symbol in Lessig's work is very small allows lots of sharing and transmission of culture and user created work. Friedmans ideas have also been meet to a large extent except for some intervention on the part of linden labs becuase of land prospecting. Becuase of this we may not be able to use this as a model of Friedman economics.

Copyrights And American Politcal Thought.
[|Dublin 3 - Dalymount Park Soccer Stadium and Home of U2inSL] - Mature Home of Shamrogue Rovers; Home of U2inSL; DISCLAIMER: U2 in SL is a role-playing group supporting charity. No money is made. Not affiliated with the real U2. "U2" and "Bono" are registered trademarks. All rights reserved. No infringement. This is the Tag for this area, so naturually I became interested becuase this is an organization that is well sponsored and is following all the copyrights provided. They are also very creative or so it seems. To prove my project has merit with my group, I need to some how figure out if their trademark is a burden to them or if they would be more free to help out a non caritity organization with out it. This would rightfully go on the group page but i haven't made sense out of it. Mabye I can ask one of my group members to look at it.

I think I figured it out. I don't think that this band should be able to exisit online as it is. It is most likely only allowed becuase it is a campaign for the organization ONE. It is becuase they are allowed such freedom with no copyright infringment that they can make such a wonderful idea come alive. This is an example of how SL is more free than the real world becuase of copyright restraints. IF a group of actors got on a stage on real life and pretended to be U2 of NY, roleplayed the characters without consent and permission of U2 they would be sued.

**Control**
What are some of the types of control in Second Life? Item control and creation control?

In certain areas you cannot build items. In others you can't modify items. These restrictions are tried to be upheld in real life. No Loitering, or no staking on public property. In SL these laws or rules can actually be stopped permanently.

Sand Box Worlds [|PUBLIC SANDBOX - All Welcome! (PG) No Shooting or Selling] - Mature Are worlds where There is no restriction on building or creating items. Besides the PG/Mature rating.

Item Restricted Worlds

Types of Item restriction.

So imagine this as items in the real world. You would be able to pick up and use each of these items. regardless of who you are, within some restrictions. Even if the law told you not too, you could still physically do it.



However in SL this is not the case. Fix this picture, show a zoom on the left hand side of the picture. This object is not so simple. On this guitar you cannot sell it or copy it. Take this compared to this. Also you cannot physically move or edit this guitar. Where in real life you could break this guitar if u wanted.

This UK Wall however has no restrictions on its use or copying. You could even do things with it you couldn't do in real life. Say lift it. Second Life has ridged Item controls that cannot be broken. architectural control. Now where this becomes truly interesting is when items and object become cultrual references to identities and gender.



While just searching for some items that are compelety restricted from any modification or transfer or anything bascially the only effect a user that doesn't own is to look at it i found an interesting world and a very interesting poster.



This was on [|!TM Hair Styles By Tami McCoy Get Tamified!] - PG Not only is this a poster expressing the normative value of not stealing second life objects but also legal action that could be used agianst someone who does.

=Figured id check out some cars.= http://slurl.com/secondlife/Atropos/108/134/56 work on it in a bit. Just wanted the Slurl up here.

This is my work on Secondlife that was structured around our group project. I sort of made the group page my unoffical hang out while we shifted our gears toward group work.

== ==
 * Copyright


 * Thesis:**
 * Stronger Copyrights are harmfull to education and the sharing of culture and knowledge.
 * Second Life is a Virtual World where Copyright restrictions are less than in the "real" world.
 * Second Life should contain more valuble information culturally or methodically than the real world.

> The Naxos Library is a small Library of spirtual non copyrighted material. Rather than a vision of the future, I would call Naxos a Vision of the Present. With the use of Interfaces Such as SecondLife and looser copyrights there could be a virtual library full of spiritual books designed to help and inspire people. You could even extend this idea beyond the idea of spirtualism. With Secondlife and No Copyrights students from across the world could access thousands and thousands of virtual books that are more than just text. books that can be seen and read, with as little as second life and an internet connetion. Also usefull if you wish to view other similar Libraries check out the notecard from the light green staute of the wheel. > > This Library Is Small Becuase it is working within the arcitechture of a Large Copyright. Compare to... > > [|McMaster University Library] - Mature > McMaster University has a very large Library resource online. This stems from its real world holdings and position in copyrights. For McMaster Money is less of an object, It is a University, a Conglomorate or Corporation. The reason why this library has so much more than a group/indivdually owned library is money. I while not discredit McMaster Unviersity I am sure the hard work and dedication of thier staff also alows for such a great website. In this sense the amount of knowledge an indivdual or group can share is linked to the amount of money they can spend to purchase copyrights.
 * 1) **Secondlife Proof For Sentence One:** **[|Naxos Library] - Mature**

> [|Dublin 3 - Dalymount Park Soccer Stadium and Home of U2inSL] - Mature > This is an example of very small copyrights that allow creative and innovative solutions to global problems. This band of rockers roleplays as U2 for the non profit organization One. In The world of Second life it is easier to work to inform people. The Concert is alot cheaper, you dont have to actually pay for u2 or another band. If this exact concert was to happen in the real world, U2 or U2's song holders could be outraged. They could claim copyright violations and shut the whole operation down. What makes U2 in SL special to the One project is what lessig would call an architectual difference. By changing the artitechure of the band, to virtual they lowered the cost of production and still kept the same amount of information about ONE and the cause behind it. Fourntalty enough I have stumbled upon my greatest discoveries, or atleast what I feel are my greatest discoveries. The Picture of The Woman saying don't steal and the No Prims sign I found in Dublin. I actually just found these while I was hanging out doing some person interest shopping along in second life.
 * 1) **Secondlife Proof For Sentence Two:**