From Trend Analysis to Virtual World System Design Requirement Satisfaction Study

Virtual worlds have become global platforms connecting millions of people and containing various technologies. The development of technology, shift of market value, and change of user preference shape the features of virtual worlds. In this paper, we first study the new features of virtual worlds and emergent requirements of system development through trend analysis. Based on the trend analysis, we constructed the new design requirement space. We then discuss the requirement satisfaction of existing virtual world system architectures and highlight their limitations through a literature survey. The comparison of existing system architectures sheds some light on future virtual world system development to match the changing trends of the user market. At the end of this study, we briefly introduce our ongoing study, a new architecture, called Virtual Net, and discuss its possibility in requirement satisfaction and new research challenges.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, 2 table

Solidarity in a global age: Seattle and beyond

There are good grounds for taking seriously Wallerstein's dictum that the world system has entered what he describes as an interregnum. By this he means two important things: First, that the world is moving between two forms of world system, from a capitalist world system to something new; Second, that in such an interregnum questions of structure become less significant than those of agency. The world system is one that has been produced, reproduced and will ultimately be transformed by human actors. The direction that it takes will be the result of the political struggles that ensue in the interregnum. In this paper I examine some of these claims in the context of a series of events that have taken place over the past decade and in the run up to the protests that occurred in December 1999 at the World Trade Organization (WTO) summit in Seattle. In so doing I hope to put some empirical flesh on the bones of the idea that Wallerstein has suggestively offered us. While I am critical of important aspects of Wallerstein's work and that of his cohorts at the Fernand Braudel Center I would equally argue that they have presented us with the most powerful and coherent framework for making sense of, I hesitate to use the term given Wallerstein's ontological assumptions, international relations. Thus, this paper is informed by sympathy with Wallerstein's ideas and an acknowledgement that they offer us a rich source of insight into the emergence of the modern world order

IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN'S WORLD SYSTEM THEORY

World-systems analysis is not a theory, but an approach to social analysis and social change developed, among others by the Immanuel Wallerstein. Professor Wallerstein writes in three domains of world-systems analysis: the historical development of the modern world-system; the contemporary crisis of the capitalist world-economy; the structures of knowledge. The American anlyst rejects the notion of a "Third World", claiming there is only one world connected by a complex network of economic exchange relationship. Our world system is characterized by mechanisms which bring about a redistribution of resources from the periphery to the core. His analytical approach has made a significant impact and established an institutional base devoted to the general approach.World system, core, semi-periphery, periphery, external regions

Cosmological constraints for a two brane-world system with single equation of state

We present the study of two 3-brane system embedded in a 5-dimensional space-time in which the fifth dimension is compactified on a $S^{1}/Z_{2}$ orbifold. Assuming isotropic, homogeneous, and static branes, it can be shown that the dynamics of one brane is dominated by the other one when the metric coefficients have a particular form. We study the resulting cosmologies when one brane is dominated by a given single-fluid component.Comment: This work was presented at the VIII Taller of the DGFM, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico noviembre 22-26, 201

Global communication and political culture in the semi-periphery: The rise of the Globo corporation

This article will offer a description and explanation of the rise of the Brazilian media corporation Globo by situating it in the context of the periphery and semi-periphery of the World System and the globalisation of communication. In particular it focuses upon the changing role that Globo has played in the construction of an elite-led political culture in Brazil that has moved through phases of authoritarian and democratic government. The article sets out an historical account of the emergence of Globo from being a regional media organisation in the periphery of the world system to a global broadcaster in the semi-periphery. It moves through three phases: First, 1925–1964, the colonial legacy and Brazil in the periphery; second, 1964–1985, a period of transition and conservative modernisation, into the semi-periphery; and finally, 1985 onwards, the age of globalisation

Soft Power, World System Dynamics, and Democratization: A Bass Model of Democracy Diffusion 1800-2000

This article uses Polity IV data to probe system dynamics for studies of the global diffusion of democracy from 1800 to 2000. By analogy with the Bass model of diffusion of innovations, as translated into system dynamics by Sterman, the dynamic explanation proposed focuses on transitions to democracy, soft power, and communication rates on a global level. The analysis suggests that the transition from democratic experiences (\'the soft power of democracy\') can be estimated from the systems dynamics simulation of an extended Bass model. Soft power, fueled by the growth in communications worldwide, is today the major force behind the diffusion of democracy. Our findings indicate the applicability of system dynamics simulation tools for the analysis of political change over time in the world system of polities.Democracy, Bass, Communication, System Dynamics, Power, Diffusion

Trends of capitalism in world system

Frente a las crisis que se vienen presentando, cada vez más frecuentemente, se lleva a cabo una evaluación del desarrollo y cambio de los factores internacionales económicos, políticos, sociales, jurídicos y ambientales, entre otros, para establecer escenarios sobre el Orden Internacional que prevalecerá y cuál será la nueva fase del capitalismo desde la óptica de las Relaciones Internacionales. Se muestra el proceso reciente de globalización, la forma en que opera y que contribuye a la generación de un nuevo orden económico-financiero y político mundial, direccionado por los actores transnacionales y los países más poderosos. Se tienen en consideración los problemas de identidad que sufre América Latina y la manera en que debería encarar esta problemática.Faced with the crisis that is showing up more and more frequently carried out an assessment of development and change of international economic factors, political, social, legal and environmental, among others, to establish scenarios of the International Order and what the new phase of capitalism from the perspective of international relations will prevail. Is shown the form that the recent process of globalization operates and contributes to the generation of a new economic-financial and political world order, directed for the transnational actors and the most powerful countries. The problems of identity that undergoes Latin America are have in consideration and the way in which it would have to face this problematic one.Fil: Dallanegra Pedraza, Salvador Luis. Universidad Nacional de Rosario; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Re-theorising the core: a ‘globalized’ business elite in Santiago, Chile

World systems theory continues to be a widely adopted approach in theorisations of the contemporary world economy. An important epistemological component to world systems theory is the metaphor of core-periphery. Recent work within the approach has sought to transcend earlier criticisms of regional conceptions of cores, peripheries and semi-peripheries by an increasing sensitivity to local differences and an increasing emphasis on Wallerstein's original idea of core-periphery as process, operating at all scales in the contemporary world system. However, this paper argues that the core-periphery metaphor currently used by world systems theorists is founded around a restrictively narrow spatial epistemology. Such a narrow epistemology implements the core-periphery metaphor only as something which produces territorial outcomes in the physical world. This paper contends that recent work within the social services, concerned with the globalization debate and issues of spatial epistemology, should inform world systems theory in producing a reformulated spatial understanding of the core-periphery metaphor, embodying a wider conception of space to include abstract social spaces. This argument is developed in the notion that the world economy must also be understood as having a ‘social core’: a transnational diasporic business elite exercising decision-making power over the capitalist world system. The contention is grounded in the presentation of research into a case study of such a ‘globalized’ business elite in the capital city of Chile, Santiago