Virtual Worlds and the Rise of the Goverati
1, 1,2, 3
Eric Hackathorn Brandon Lynge Derek Parks
1NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado
2Contract with Systems Research Group, Inc., Colorado Springs, Colorado
3 NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Silver Spring, Maryland
http://hackshaven.com/the-goverati/ (watch the movie!)
What is the “Goverati?” Creating an interactive government 1. Maintaining crowd conditions 4. Understanding the data
Unfortunately, governmental policy always seems to lag Virtual worlds allow for large scale interactions As part of The Administration's open government initiative
behind the latest innovations and can blur the path towards while doing a good job insuring everyone is there is a push to publish vast amounts of government data
the best solutions. Policy protects us from the unknown or participating. in open standards for public consumption. Virtual worlds offer
“The Goverati is made up of people with
harmful, but it is not very good at driving change. unique capabilities to take that data and visualize it in
first-hand knowledge of how the government
Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist who works immersive and easily understandable fashions.
operates, who understand how to use social
at Oxford University, concluded that the
software to accomplish a variety of
cognitive power of the brain limits the size
government missions, and who want to use
of the social network that an individual can
that knowledge for the benefit of all. It
As we look to the future, what if the Goverati became more develop. Virtual settings are typically limited to around this
includes high-profile thinkers outside of the
that a marginalized group? What if it became the foundation number (approx.150) of simultaneous visitors.
government who have an interest in a more open, Scoble’s Number
of a new movement, and by using social technologies our
transparent, and efficient government. Using formal and
government was recreated by the people for the people?
informal social networks, the Goverati is networking, sharing Second Earth Science On A Sphere
information, and changing how parts of the government
Ten years ago, 80% of the content on the Internet was written Second Life + Google Earth in a Extending real life programs into a
interact with each other and with citizens.\" collaborative GIS mashup virtual space
by traditional media organizations. Today, this has changed.
http://www.goverati.com/ -Mark Drapeau
The market expects -- even demands the opportunity to
Virtual world examples
Hutch Carpenter, Spigit
participate in the conversations going on behind our In essence, virtual worlds do a good job bringing a humanly
Why is it necessary?
corporate firewall. understandable sized community back to the Internet by
NOAA is working on a massively multi-player simulation
increasing the level of interaction.
Today, the public demands transparency, participation, and
where each user controls a small planet. A player invests
collaboration in ways government does not yet provide -
resources in energy, agriculture, production, and other areas
2. Higher levels of collaboration
mostly because the needed tech because the needed
seeing how their choices effect the quality of life on their
technologies have not yet been vetted through our
planet. The goal is to teach users about the complexity of the
Virtual worlds allow groups to work
bureaucracy. We‟ve created one too many committees, left
trade-offs involved in sustainable living. Each world is
together towards a common goal with
out the citizens, and now we are late to the party.
networked with other players to encourage competition and
a higher bandwidth than their 2D
This change isn't just reflected in the media, it's beginning to
to identify the best solutions.
counterparts. In this example, a group
reflect in our governance. What if through social networking
is building a house from a blue print.
tools like virtual worlds the political conversation became two
directional? Could we harness the concept collective RL Architecture Group in SL
What if the goal wasn't to build a house but to engage a
intelligence in order to improve our governance?
group of stakeholders to design a better energy plant, factory,
It is hard to even explain to senior
management why we need social
or bill for congress?
James Surowiecki wrote a book called The Wisdom of
technologies as its inherent advantages
Less than optimal communications are distilled out into static power point
Crowds. In his book, Surowiecki demonstrates several
What would happen if NOAA were to ask a large enough
strategy slides due to the lack of access at the
A collaborative mind-mapping tool
situations where the many are smarter than the few.
office.
segment of its customers to take a guess about tomorrow „s
where a group can brainstorm ideas
“Wise crowds” need:
weather? What if we offered incentives for the closest
Why is it important now? in real-time while literally walking
predictions and created a type of futures exchange around
through the associated concepts.
•diversity of opinion
weather modeling? Under the right conditions, could we
Though the idea of the Goverati isn't new, many have said •independence of members from one another
improve our scientific understanding by taking into account
our society is reaching an inflection point where these ideas •decentralization 3. Conveying a sense of ownership
the input our combined social network?
are reaching a critical mass. •a good method for aggregating opinions
Virtual worlds increase the sense of personal ownership for
participants. Similar to wikis, virtual worlds provide the
framework for collaborative design saving revisions as part
How can virtual worlds help?
of the history. By empowering individuals to take a common
design in personalized directions virtual worlds convey a
Virtual worlds have the ability to create communities and
sense of personal ownership of a common goal.
foster smart crowds in ways never before seen on the
Internet. This presentation covers four advantages including:
Contact information
1. maintaining optimal crowd conditions
Our president is being referred to as the
NOAA’s Virtual Worlds Program
first “wired” president. He is remaking
GovLoop may be an early sign of this
2. increasing the level of collaboration
change and already boasts over 9,000 the white house website as a
http://hackshaven.com/the-goverati/
members made up of both government conversational medium and soliciting
3. conveying a sense of ownership
employees and contractors. feedback on how to run his
325 Broadway R/GSD6 T: (303) 497-6831
administration. Incredibly, he is even
4. understanding the data
http://www.govloop.com/ the first sitting president to use email.
Wikitecture Group in Second Life
Boulder, CO 80305 E: virual.worlds@noaa.gov
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