WORKSHOP ON DEMOCRACY IN CYBERSPACE DIAC '94 Amy Bruckman (organizer and panelist) MIT Media Lab. 20 Ames St., MIT E15-315a, Cambridge, MA 02139. E-mail: asb@media.mit.edu Pavel Curtis (panelist) Xerox PARC. 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304. E-mail: pavel@PARC.xerox.com Nancy R. Deuel (panelist) University of Maryland. 1109 Animal Sciences Center, College Park, Maryland 20742. Email: nd26@umail.umd.edu Mitchel Resnick (moderator) MIT Media Lab. 20 Ames St., MIT E15-312, Cambridge, MA 02139. E-mail: mres@media.mit.edu DEMOCRACY IN CYBERSPACE How is cyberspace to be governed? Bulletin boards systems, text-based virtual reality systems (or "MUDs"), and other services on computer networks are not merely sources of information; they are communities. Those communities are playing an increasing part in the daily lives of a broader and broader segment of the population. Are they to be controlled by the owners of the hardware and software, or by the participants? Commercial service providers require new members to agree to a set of "terms of service" which establishes standards for appropriate conduct. Changes to services offered are made at the discretion of the management who may or may not consult the members involved. When there is a dispute between members and management as there was on the Prodigy network in 1990, the management may choose to exert social control by manipulating fee structures or suspending individual member's accounts. More democratic methods of governance are possible. A text-based virtual reality system or "MUD" called LambdaMOO became a direct democracy on May 1st, 1993. MediaMOO began a gradual transition to representative democracy in September of 1993. These systems are not static but evolving through a complex combination of formal and social processes. These ongoing experiments have made it clear that "democracy" is not one thing but a general term for a form of government that can take many shapes. Just because a community is a democracy does not make its governance fair or efficient. A host of practical problems must be dealt with, forcing us to challenge our assumptions about what democracy is in the real world. While there have been extended discussions within certain communities about the direction the governing system should take, there has been little dialogue between communities. One aim of this workshop is to begin a hopefully ongoing dialogue on these issues. INTENDED AUDIENCE The intended audience includes members of any form of virtual community interested in these issues, as well as people with an interest in issues of government and democracy who would like to learn more about virtual communities. No technical knowledge will be assumed. One goal of this workshop is to increase communication between these communities. THE WORKSHOP Pavel Curtis, the founder of LambdaMOO, will briefly describe the history of direct democracy on LambdaMOO. Amy Bruckman, the founder of MediaMOO, will briefly describe the history of representative democracy on MediaMOO. Nancy Deuel, one of MediaMOO's first elected councilors, will discuss her experiences as an elected official. Numerous members of the LambdaMOO and MediaMOO communities live in the Boston area, and others plan to come to Boston to attend DIAC. At this time, all members of these communities present will be invited to say a few words about how the change to democracy has affected them. The audience will be invited to direct questions to both panel members and audience members who have shared their experiences. Finally, the moderator, Mitchel Resnick, will take a few minutes to sum up the conversation, highlighting key issues that have emerged. RESULT Workshop participants will be invited to join a new mailing list on issues of virtual government. WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS AMY BRUCKMAN, MIT MEDIA LAB Amy Bruckman is a doctoral candidate at the Media Lab at MIT, where she founded MediaMOO, a text-based virtual reality environment or "MUD" designed to be a professional community for media researchers. MediaMOO began the process of becoming a representative democracy in September of 1993. Amy received her master's degree from the Media Lab's Interactive Cinema Group in 1991. For her dissertation, she is creating a MUD for kids called MOOSE Crossing. MOOSE Crossing is designed to provide an authentic context for kids to learn reading, writing, and programming. PAVEL CURTIS, XEROX PARC Pavel Curtis has been a member of the research community at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center since 1983, during which time he has worked on programming environments and on other projects mostly related to the design and implementation of programming languages. His current work centers on the Social Virtual Reality project, investigating the implementation, applications, and implications of systems that allow multiple simultaneous users to communicate and interact in pseudo-physical surroundings. He is the founder and chief administrator of LambdaMOO, one of the most popular recreational social virtual realities on the Internet. LambdaMOO became a direct democracy on May 1st, 1993. NANCY DEUEL, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND In real life, Nancy Deuel is Assistant Professor of Equine Sports Biomechanics at the University of Maryland, where she has 12 years of experience in designing and utilizing computerized image analysis techniques in her studies of athletic motion patterns and gait dynamics. On the Internet, she is one of the first elected representatives to the MediaMOO Council, perhaps the first representative democracy on the Internet. She is also the co-author of a publication that considers the practices and ramifications of virtual sex. MITCHEL RESNICK, MIT MEDIA LAB Mitchel Resnick is an assistant professor at the MIT Media Laboratory. His research focuses on the development of computational tools that help people (particularly children) learn new things in new ways. He is co-developer of LEGO/Logo (a computer-controlled construction kit) and developer of StarLogo (the first massively parallel programming language intended for nonexpert programmers). He is currently exploring (with Amy Bruckman) how virtual communities might change the ways children learn, play, and think about themselves. REFERENCES Bruckman, Amy and Mitchel Resnick (1993). "Virtual Professional Community: Results from the MediaMOO Project." Presented at the Third International Conference on Cyberspace in Austin, Texas on May 15th, 1993. Available via anonymous ftp from media.mit.edu in pub/asb/papers/MediaMOO-3cyberconf.{ps.Z,rtf.Z,txt} Curtis, Pavel and David Nichols (1993). "MUDs Grow Up: Social Virtual Reality in the Real World." Presented at the Third International Conference on Cyberspace in Austin, Texas on May 15th, 1993. Available via anonymous ftp from parcftp.xerox.com in pub/MOO/papers/MUDsGrowUp. {ps,txt} Curtis, Pavel (1992). "Mudding: Social Phenomena in Text-Based Virtual Realities." Proceedings of DIAC '92. Available via anonymous ftp from parcftp.xerox.com, pub/MOO/papers/DIAC92.{ps, txt}.