The document discusses the opportunity presented by Eikonicopolis, a proposed virtual world. It identifies four problems with existing virtual worlds: lack of social responsibility, inability to transfer social capital between worlds, lack of diverse governance models, and privacy being traded for commercial interests. To address these problems, Eikonicopolis would implement the following solutions: 1) an economic system based on euergetism where reputation and status is earned through contributions to the community, 2) use of an ePortfolio that allows users to maintain their identity and social capital across worlds, 3) a governance model based on Goertzelian principles of diversity and separation of power, and 4) inversion of the current data model so

1. EIKON-I-COP-OLIS Eik
A Virtual World
Virtual worlds are persistent, avatar-based social
spaces that provide players or participants with the
ability to engage in long-term, coordinated
conjoined action.
Douglas Thomas &John SeelyBrown, Why Virtual Worlds Can Matter, Missives 1.1 (2009) p.37

2. The Market
Virtual worlds will generate $3.9 billion globally in revenue from
subscription fees, in-game virtual goods sales, and third-party
marketing by the end of 2011, and $6 billion by the end of 2012,
driven by increases in conversion rates and ARPPU (average
revenue per paying user) as well as total growth of the market.
Virtual Worlds: 2011 and beyond. Key industry trends and market developments
Key Growth Drivers
• Perceived Value: Parents allowing their children to spend more time in VWs
• Greater Funding: Uplift in VC activity moving into 2011
• Brand Awareness: More VW having real-world presence
• Payment Mechanics: Easier, faster ways to purchase virtual
services/currencies/goods Virtual Worlds: Industry and user data

3. Many VWs have grown substantially faster than Facebook.
This year, VWs will likely generate $6 billion in revenue.
Age group 18+ offer the highest revenue.

4. The Opportunity
theEikonicopolisproject
This project accounts for technological advances in the development of the
Internet by creating virtual communities to enhance the scope for human
expression and creativity that is otherwise unavailable or restricted within
the given world of nature. Features include an economic system based in
euergetism, governance based in the Goertzelian model, a Scale of
Repute, and avatar ePortfolio.
The present paradigm for virtual worlds aims to create an immersive
experience for its users as the feature that keeps the model economically
viable (as well as fun). However, all worlds with significant market
penetration are run by private companies that do not allow deeper
controls to be passed onto users. This has the effect of limiting the
immersion experience, and ultimately the potential profits that may come
from allowing deeper user control. Unless the paradigm is freed up, the
default future will tend to problematic commercial and state-monopolized
paradigms, de-empathaticized corporatism, the politics of control, and the
fear of Other.

5. Problem 1: Social Responsibility
Lack of social responsibility and empathy
in the marketplace.

6. Being open, vulnerable and sensitive to the plight of others is
considered detrimental to commercial relations and a
prescription for failure in the marketplace. Yet the market
requires a continuous infusion of social trust to function.
Indeed, the market feeds off social trust and weakens or
collapses if it is withdrawn.Jeremy Rifkin, Economic Recovery Will Fail Without Our Trust, Huffington Post 2010
This attitude is endemic to long term social cohesion, and
ultimately does not serve optimal financial return.
Rifkin is describing the requirement for empathy as a means
to both economic and societal advancement. The challenge
faced by present and emerging virtual networks is to structure
the virtual environment so that the invisible hand of empathic
sensibility thrives.

7. Problem 1 recommendation:
EUERGETISM
Giving to the community
Members who wish to develop standing in the community will
fund the VW. The recognition of such giving will serve to gain
credibility and trust within the VW that will in future reap the
benefits of a loyal market and commercial benefit.
Repute is gained by providing Eik with:
– Funds
– Service
– Product
– A Klout-like score
(a measure of influence based on one’s ability to drive action.)

8. Problem 2: Social Capital
Social capital is not transferrable between virtual
worlds, or social sites generally.

9. This creates a barrier to world jumping, so even if a
world is not providing an optimal experience, the
social capital built there is difficult to abandon.
When to comes to allowing for the social capital
built through regular social sites, there is ZERO
provision to transfer that into a virtual world.

10. Problem 2 recommendation:
ePortfolioassociated with one’s Avatar
An ePortfolio is a digitized collection of artifacts used to document
accomplishments of an individual or institution, allowing a transfer of
social capital between virtual communities.
• Tells the story of avatar, creating identity and collecting artifacts as
showcases of achievement.
• Adds other voices to the story to enrich and validate identity and the
story told. Other voices are like proofs of existence.
• Includes projections into the future: goals and dreams, my view of the
world and my environment. They also include references to one’s other
representations and the metaverse where they exist.
• Not site-centric: used for all environments without limits. Embedded in
other social networks, they serve life-long.
• Display qualitative results rather than quantitative. Stats in one
environment are not useful in another.
• Hard to fake due to the ‘review through others’ component.
MarekBuzinkay, Avatar ePortfolio: Digital Identity in Synthetic Worlds (2007) p.7

11. Problem 3: Governance
Governance is lacking, leaving anarchy as the
default mode.
… anarchy seems to be the de facto form of government in
synthetic worlds. No one is in charge. Edward Castronova, Synthetic worlds: the
business and culture of online games (2005) p.222
Depriving player experiences of a variety of governance
models limits the ability to optimally immerse into the
virtual world.

12. Problem 3 recommendation:
The Goertzelianmodel
• Promote benevolent, intelligent, scientific, open-minded leadership on all levels
• Promote diversity among the various power structures on each level
• Separate, as much as possible, power from meta-power
The separation of power from meta-power, diversity of expression and open-
minded leadership establishes the grounding for creative growth and expression of
being, enhancing the ability to innovate and enable a quality of life customized to
one’s personal nature. These customizations will bring together groups of like-
minded individuals. The creation of a platform in cyberspace where these
individuals can create a constitution based around their interests will inevitably
lead to a Community of Focus from which a further evolution of expression may
occur.
A major advantage of this governance model is that it sets a precedent for citizen-
sovereign values, thereby distinguishing this synthetic world from the rest as they
are exclusively based in merchant-sovereign values. Not only does this create a
major point of difference to other synthetic worlds, but also spearheads a
profound political layer (and therefore deeper immersive experience) to the world
and how it is perceived by real-world governments, and the rights and privileges
that may come from that relationship.

13. Problem 4: Privacy
Anonymity (privacy) is traded off for commercial
interests.
Privacy control is coded to favour corporate interests. Full use
of a site is often predicated on allowing personal data to be
mined and shared with third parties.
Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
… anonymity is needed to allow freedom of expression and
has been vital for pro-democracy movements such as last
year's revolutions that became known as the Arab Spring.”
This country was founded on unpopular ideas by unpopular
speakers and they used anonymity. It's part of why we have
protection of freedom of speech, to protect unpopular
ideas.... Elinor Mills

14. Problem 4 recommendation:
Inverson of data requirement model
Euergetism inverts the data requirement of members to the data
requirement of businesses, thereby allowing personal data to
remain private. Businesses prove themselves worthy (as
addressed by the proposed Scale of Repute) of the interest of
Eik’s citizens without having to reveal their demographic. The
more businesses reveal their intentions through Eik-funding,
the more likely they will benefit through commercial
reciprocation from Eik citizens.

15. Ending Thoughts
With few exceptions, worlds do not close once they are
opened. This is absolutely astonishing in the context of
games, where an industry rule of thumb holds that
approximately 95 percent of titles will fail and disappear from
the shelves after six weeks. By contrast, the seven-year-old
world of Ultima Online still has more than 150,000 actively
paying subscribers, at more than $10 a head. Indeed, all of the
oldest games have amazingly robust population counts.
Synthetic worlds, it seems, almost never die.
Edward Castronova,Synthetic worlds: the business and culture of online games (2005) p.56