Social Software, Groups, and Governance

Formal groups play an important role in the law. Informal groups largely lie outside it. Should the law be more attentive to informal groups? The paper argues that this and related questions are appearing more frequently as a number of computer technologies, which I collect under the heading social software, increase the salience of groups. In turn, that salience raises important questions about both the significance and the benefits of informal groups. The paper suggests that there may be important social benefits associated with informal groups, and that the law should move towards a framework for encouraging and recognizing them. Such a framework may be organized along three dimensions by which groups arise and sustain themselves: regulating places, things, and stories

Second Life and the role of educators as regulators

Regulation, governance and harms stemming from the use of virtual worlds and other Massive Multi Media Online Role Playing Games (MMMORPGs) in higher education, are poorly understood and under-researched issues. Second Life, developed by Linden Labs, provides users with a series of generic &lsquo;terms of service&rsquo; and codes of conduct, yet place the bulk of responsibility on individual users or groups to report misbehaviour or develop their own behavioural codes, enforcement procedures and punishments suited to their particular needs. There is no guidebook to assist users in the processes of risk identification and management. As such, the various benefits of MMMORPG technologies could be offset by the risks to users and user-groups from a range of possible harms, including the impact of actual or perceived violence within teaching and learning settings.While cautioning against the direct translation of real-world regulatory principles into the governance of virtual worlds, this paper suggests theoretical and practical guidance on these issues can be taken from recent criminological developments. Using Lawrence Lessig&rsquo;s (1999) landmark work on cyber-regulation as a starting point, this paper examines the literature on video-game violence to illustrate the need for educators show awareness of both real and perceived risks in virtual worlds as a core element of an emerging educational pedagogy. We identify how the multiple roles of the virtual-world educator become useful in framing this pedagogy to improve student learning, to dispel myths about the risks of immersive technologies and advocate for their adoption and acceptance in the educational community.<br /

Virtual Worlds: Between Contract and Property

Although virtual worlds have existed in some form for several years, it is only recently that the phrase has begun to seem truly accurate, with many users increasingly choosing to live the primary part of their days logged into a virtual world. While virtual worlds are causing us to rethink how we view relationships and communications, they are also increasingly coming into conflict with our prior conceived notions of property law. With virtual worlds facing an escalating number of conflicts over property ownership, it is becoming imperative that the status of virtual property be addressed to ensure the continued growth of virtual worlds and their nascent, booming economies. In this Article, I examine the current conflicts over property rights within virtual worlds and offer a solution to the current problems. Although the status quo is untenable, I show that neither property law nor contract law can provide an exclusive solution to the current conflict. Instead, I argue that virtual worlds and their unique characteristics call for the creation of a new type of property interest, which I call the virtual easement. Combining features of both property and contract law, the virtual easement allows for sufficient user property protections as well as maintaining virtual world companies’ control over their worlds. If established, the virtual easement should allow for continued growth of virtual world economies with a minimum of governmental interference. I conclude with a discussion of possible policy concerns relating to the establishment of the virtual easement

Sovereign Wealth Funds: Form and Function in the 21st Century

As representatives of nation-states in global financial markets, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) share a common form and many functions. Arguably their form and functions owe as much to a shared (global) moment of institutional formation as they owe their form and functions to the hegemony of Anglo-American finance over the late 20th and early 21st centuries. We distinguish between the immediate future for SWFs in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, and two possible long-term scenarios; one of which sees SWFs becoming financial goliaths dominating global markets, while the other sees SWFs morphing into nation-state development institutions that intermediate between financial markets and the long-term commitments of the nation-state sponsors. If the former scenario dominates, global financial integration will accelerate with attendant costs and benefits. If the latter scenario dominates, SWFs are likely to differentiate and evolve, returning, perhaps, to their national traditions and their respective places in a world of contested power and influence. Here, we clarify the assumptions underpinning the conception and formation of sovereign wealth funds over the past twenty years or so in the face of the ‘new’ realities of global finance.Sovereign Wealth Funds, Crisis, Market Performance, Long-term Investment

Development through Globalization?

globalization, development, policy space, initial conditions, institutions, markets, state, democracy, governance

Advanced Digital Competence of the Teacher

This chapter is devoted to the issues of changing the structure of the competence of teachers in the transformation of the school of the twenty-first century—the school of digital civilization. With this in mind, this chapter takes a fresh look at the advanced competencies of teachers of the near future in the context of these real school changes, the structure of which can be represented as the “triangle of digital competencies”: life, social, and professional. As shown by analytical studies and experimental experience of teacher training, the results of which are presented in this chapter, this triangle of competences will allow children to be included in the digital school environment and form their further activity in the smart education system in the profession throughout their lives. It is also important to note that new competencies have become the basis of a new profession in the school—a digital curator, which is also discussed in this chapter

Negotiating intimacies in China's online social milieux

This is a cultural study into China’s cyberspace focussing on romantic relationships. The research asks: how does culture influence the ways Chinese Internet users conduct romantic relationships online; and how might these relationships be seen to reproduce, extend and/or challenge the Confucian tradition governing social and familial practices, and the communist party-state’s ideologies? While the first question explores the issue of how culture may shape the ways the Internet is used in China and impact on users’ experiences of online romance, the second question examines how Chinese cultural traditions may in turn be shaped by the Internet. The aims are to understand: (1) how Chinese define and make sense of their online romantic relationships; and (2) the significance of the Internet in influencing the ways Chinese negotiate their intimacies in relation to wider familial relations, the party-state’s paternalism and the social climate of growing individualism in the society