FCC Transition Team co-chairs are virtual worlds nuts, too

Wagner James Au sez, "Not only are [Obama's FCC Transition Team leaders] Kevin Werbach and Susan Crawford great Net Neutrality advocates, they're also into online games/virtual worlds-- Werbach belongs to not one but *two* WoW guilds, and Crawford calls herself a "big fan" of Second Life. Agreeing with his guildmaster Joi Ito, Werbach's also a big supporter of WoW as a model for the future of work and software development."

“What [Warcraft] does,” he continued in that post, “is provide an incentive for people to develop new software and ideas for collaborative production. Many of those ideas will translate to other group activities, including those within the business world. I think MMOGs will be, at a minimum, a significant testbed for these new technologies, because users see a direct benefit and are willing to experiment with new things.”
Unsurprisingly, this perspective extends to virtual worlds like Second Life, which has been an important component in Werbach’s Supernova technology conference. On her own blog, Professor Crawford, a board member at ICANN, also counts herself “a huge fan of Second Life” for the way it lets users retain IP rights to their content (though she confesses to difficulty when it comes to moving her SL avatar around.)

Obama’s FCC Transition Team Co-chair a WoW Player

Discussion

Take a look at this

#1 posted by Nelson.C , November 19, 2008 4:55 AM

Presidential address on YouTube? That is so last week. I'm looking forward to the first presidential address in WoW.

#2 posted by Takuan , November 19, 2008 6:02 AM

oh dear, Obama's lost the al Qaeda endorsement!

#3 posted by franko , November 19, 2008 6:25 AM

WTB prez transition team ganking noobs in WSG. pst

#4 posted by Cool Products , November 19, 2008 6:54 AM

It wouldn't surprise me if Obama secretly spent his time owning at WoW, in fact, it was probably his training for the presidential race.

#5 posted by Takuan , November 19, 2008 7:12 AM

heh!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borowitz/obamas-use-of-complete-se_b_144642.html

#6 posted by Halloween Jack , November 19, 2008 7:25 AM

Pwnership society?

#7 posted by FoetusNail , November 19, 2008 7:59 AM

Takuan, did you click the short Joe the Plumber interview at Huffington Post?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/19/joe-the-plumber-interview_n_144841.html

#8 posted by FoetusNail , November 19, 2008 8:07 AM

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David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

#9 posted by Takuan , November 19, 2008 8:07 AM

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20081026

#10 posted by Roy Trumbull , November 19, 2008 12:11 PM

The present FCC makes a political decision and then back-fills with studies using cherry picked data.
If we can get them to stop trying to repeal physical laws that would be nice. How about at least one engineer on the Commission? What a concept.

#11 posted by PoisonedV , November 19, 2008 3:27 PM

He's trying to model policies around World of Warcraft?
OH god, we're all fucked! So much for lowering obesity.