On Monday, January 28, there will be a public forum on the topic "Virtual Liberties: Do Avatars Dream of Civil Rights?" featuring Jack Balkin , First Amendment legal expert at Yale Law School, and Robin Linden, head of marketing and business development at Linden Lab. Part of the "MacArthur Series on Philanthropy and Virtual Worlds," the event is co-presented by the USC Institute for Network Culture and Global Kids . This will be a multi-verse event, taking place both in Second Life and Teen Second Life, as well as audio streamed to the web for the VW-impaired.
How civil rights as a legal and moral framework map onto virtual worlds is terribly important as more work, play and community engagement take place in virtual environments. What does freedom of speech, freedom of the press, due process, and freedom of association mean in-world? Does an avatar even have rights?
The complete announcement after the jump….
Virtual Liberties: Do Avatars Dream of Civil Rights?
MacArthur Series on Philanthropy and Virtual Worlds
The USC Institute for Network Culture and Global Kids present a
discussion on Virtual Liberties: Do Avatars Dream of Civil Rights?
11:30a.m. PST on Monday, January 28, 2008
Please join the USC Institute for Network Culture and Global Kids
for the first event in an upcoming series on philanthropy and virtual
worlds.
The event, “Virtual Liberties: Do Avatars Dream of Civil Rights?” will be held on the USC Annenberg Island or on the Global Kids estate on Second Life at 12: 00 p.m. PST on Monday, January 28, 2008.
Jonathan F. Fanton, President of the MacArthur Foundation, will
chair a discussion about avatar civil liberties. Joining him will
be Robin Harper, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business
Development from Linden Lab, and Jack Balkin, professor of
Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School.
Prior to their remarks, Douglas Thomas, Professor at USC and
Director of the Institute for Network Culture, and Barry Joseph,
Director of Global Kids’ Online Leadership Program, will give updates
on and announce a dramatic series of programs as part of MacArthur’s
year exploring philanthropy in virtual worlds. Thomas and Joseph are
MacArthur grantees.
The live audio from the event will be available at this Web location
during the event, to be followed the next day with an archived version.
But if they have civil rights, will it be US civil rights law? And if so, does that mean that foreign nationals have no civil rights?
The walled garden is an illusion.