"Governance of Online Worlds and Cultural Diversity"

A workshop organised by the eDiversity project 12 September 2008, University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland Next to traditional channels for distribution of cultural content, online worlds have become a prominent and ever expanding space not only for the generation of considerable revenues, but also for various types of cultural expressions. Blogs brim over with literary work, while websites, such as YouTube or Flickr, attract videos and photographs in a dynamic mode. In online games and virtual worlds, avatars and their alter ego rival in the creation of “themselves”, buildings, clothes and other virtual objects. Technologies have radically lowered the threshold for creativity. An increasing number of internet users experiment with established and new types of cultural expressions. These creative activities take place simultaneously to intense social networking and lead to the emergence of new community structures, facilitated by the digital environment. The governance mechanisms of online worlds – the structure of corporate business models in combination with applicable public policy regulation – are receiving increasing academic attention. Yet, regrettably little research has been done on how cultural diversity in online worlds is being influenced by these governance mechanisms. Despite the amplified possibilities for creators, doubts about a purely favourable environment arise not only from the poor linguistic diversity. The contractual terms of game controlling corporations on ownership or intellectual property of virtual objects and other user contributions, as well as the tight social bond of users with almost non-substitutable online sites and their user community, pose a challenge to undertaking thorough research on the conditions for cultural diversity in the context of online worlds. In addition to this, the role and the effect of existing, primarily mass media oriented regulation in the public interest, such as the protection of minors, marketing and advertising rules, as well as certain competition law aspects need further exploration. To assess the effects of governance mechanisms of profoundly different nature on cultural diversity within online worlds and the possible legislative desiderata the workshop on "Governance of Online Worlds and Cultural Diversity" will proceed in a transdisciplinary manner. It will bring together approaches of law, economy, sociology, anthropology, philosophy and political science to explore the legal and non-legal tools for the effective protection of cultural diversity in online worlds.  (picture  CC Chapman 2007)