hello eve – copy attached

think of our rhetorical space as 0.0 space
best idea wins
every time there is a fight
with judges drawn from the those who hear

the article in the new york times excites
democracy as a business plan compelled by an open environment
hello eve born again from adam

let the same offer be made by internet poker
run clean out in the open
including what you or what runs the code
what u make and where it goes
clean game from bottom up
let us see constitution

my email for today

andrew, i love your thought. i am forwarding this on to terry fisher and john palfrey. we have been thinking ourselves that we are coming up to the tenth anniversary of the founding of the berkman center, and feel the possibility of synergy here.

On 6/7/07, Decker, Andrew (Exchange) wrote:

I have been reading Jack Goldsmith ‘s and Tim Wu ‘s book ” Who Controls the Internet ” and noted that the tenth anniversary of ACLU v. Reno is coming up at the end of the month (June 26th ). Goldsmith and W u observed about this decision: “With Reno, the idea of an unregulated and post-territorial Internet seemed to many to have migrated from kooky obscurity to the law of the United States as announced by America ‘s highest court. ”

I also note an article in today ‘s edition of the New York Times titled “In a V irtual Universe, The Politics Turn Real ” (page E1 of the NY metro edition; copy attached in case you have not seen it).

I mentioned these to my son Benjamin Decker (who I think you know) and suggested that the 10 th anniversary of Reno might mark an appropriate moment to consider various issues relating to the developing of synthetic worlds in some sort of virtual forum. Although the time is short to organize something, perhaps there might be some benefit to hosting something online that could provide material for an upcoming piece in the Harvard Interactive Media Review. Some topics that might be worth addressing include :

1. Do terrestrial governments — those “weary giants of flesh and steel ” (Goldsmith and Wu) — have jurisdiction in cyberspace/virtual worlds, and/or should they?

2. Can and should virtual worlds be governed by independent, potentially more-democratic organizational forms of organically grown “govern ment” ? Would such governance be in lieu of RL governmental procedures or would the re be overlapping jurisdiction? If overlapping, how does Reno shape or define at least the boundaries i n the US?

3. As my son observes, assuming the need for an independent, novel form of governance, what kind…Engineer-Kings ; the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF ) ; a panel of luminaries such as Larry Roberts, Robert Kahn, Vint Cerf, Jon Postel, Dave Clark ; Distributed-Cognition Anarchy? Should a government be open, minimalist, and neutral serving mainly as an arbiter of disputes and enforcer of rules or should it pursue some agenda based on some consensus developed in some manner within the community ?

4. How would such a “government ” derive and maintain its legitimacy? What are the means by which it exercises powers of governance to enforce its authority/decisions?

5. H ow would a synthetic government fit within the tapestry of local, national and international governmental authorities? How would the ” laws” of a “government ” in one synthetic world correlate to those of another (perhaps a synthetic UN or League of Nations)?

I know it is very short notice but the topic seems ripe for attention.

Regards,

H. Andrew Decker
Senior Managing Director
Chairman, Global Telecom Group

what is the puzzle you are trying to solve