COLONIA NOVA - About 30 avatars gathered today to hear lecturer David Orban speak about the possibilities for democracy in virtual worlds.  Orban discussed the reasons democracy can be compatible with virtual environments like Second Life (SL) as well as how long-held concepts will need to adapt to the new public sphere.

Orban, the CEO of Italian IT company Questar and frequent lecturer, spoke for about fourty-five minutes and then allowed a lengthy question-and-answer period with the audience.

The lecture was held at CRAEDO Auditorium, sponsored by Michel Manen's CRAEDO, an organization advocating active citizenship in the 21st century.  The auditorium is itself located in the only known democratic community in Second Life, the Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS).

A major theme of Orban's talk was the increasing interdependence of virtual worlds and the real world.  When virtual worlds were primarily a game, this was not a problem.  But with platforms like SL, there are new tensions between the two realities that have special application to democratic governance.  Concepts like citizenship, territory, and creating legislation all have to be redefined in contexts like SL.

Orban suggested that virtual worlds provide a laboratory for social experiments. He called the distinction between sciences and humanities "artificial," and said that political theories should become more formal as they are evaluated using the scientific method.  He mentioned direct democracy, electronic voting, and weighted voting as possibilities for experimentation.

He also proposed some new possibilities for democracy in virtual worlds like SL, including setting up systems to know the preferences of the people present and "vote" accordingly.  This could be as simple as what audio stream to choose for a location based on the pre-defined preferences of the avatars present, or as serious as voting on important political issues automatically.

Many types of online activities can incorporate democratic principles, and many have.  Orban points to online forums as one common example.  But, he adds, Second Life and other 3d virtual worlds have brought the possibilities to a new level.  Avatars are familiar forms, and users can connect to many of the concepts of identity and community that were less tangible before. 

"For non-technical people, many of the reasonings that were there in other online media as well are now more clear," he says.  "The associations can be followed through existing metaphors and analogies.  If you relate to the avatar as a human, your empathy will click in, and you will understand the issues more quickly."