Announcing: Command Lines

Command Lines: The Emergence of Governance in Global Cyberspace will be really useful to this community, I think. We talk all the time about economics and law, not enough about governance.

We now have some firm info about the conference. From the website: The conference "will examine the diverse ways       in which governance is both implemented and emerging       within cyberspace and the effects of such approaches       to governance in the off-line world. Sessions will       cover the entire range of types of governance mechanisms,       from the formal laws of government through the       formal and informal governance mechanisms of both       state and non-state actors to the cultural practices       of governmentality that sustain and enable both governance       and government."

The formal announcement:

The Center for International Education at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee is pleased to announce

Command Lines: The Emergence of Governance in Global Cyberspace

a colloquium at the Hefter Conference Center, University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, April 29-30, 2005, organized by Sandra Braman
(communication) and Thomas Malaby (anthropology).

The transfer of many realms of social life to the global domain of
cyberspace presents numerous challenges to formal governance through law and
law-making – while increasing the relative importance of  other approaches
to "the conduct of conduct."  While governments struggle to develop and
apply laws to cyberspace, the producers of the internet (its users and
programmers) create their own parameters, norms, practices, and rules that
control life online.  Experience within cyberspace, whether building a
virtual world, making or participating in games, or learning how to
communicate congenially and productively in a listserv, is becoming the most
important training in political life for many.  Governance systems being
developed within cyberspace in turn are providing models for, or interact
with, the laws of governments.  This colloquium will examine the diverse
ways in which governance is developing within cyberspace and the effects of
such approaches  to governance in the off-line world.  Sessions will cover
the entire range of types of governance mechanisms, from the formal laws of
government through the formal and informal governance mechanisms of both
state and non-state actors to the cultural practices of governmentality that
sustain and enable both governance and government.

Participants and Contributions:

Richard Bartle
"Why Governments aren't Gods and Gods aren't Governments"

Ian Bogost
"Playing Politics: Videogames for Politics, ACtivism, and Advocacy"

Sandra Braman
"From Governance to Government to Governmentality: The Regulatory Roles of
Cyberspace in the Post-Law Era"

Edward Castronova
"The Social Question: Games for People Left Behind"

Leopoldina Fortunati
"User Design and the Democratization of the Mobile Phone"

Alexander Galloway
"How Machines Govern"

John Horrigan
"Pew Survey Research Findings Related to Internet Governance"

Rob Kitchin
"Code, Everyday Life, and Mundane Governance"

Hans Klein
"System Architecture, Geography, and Global Internet Governance"

Marwan Kraidy
"Inter-Media Dynamics and Reality Television in the Arab Region"

Greg Lastowka
"The Jurisdiction of Play"

David Levy
"More, Faster, Better?"

Thomas Malaby
"Coding Control: Ethics and Contingency in the Production of Online Worlds"

Helen Nissenbaum
"Values at Play: Method and Application"

Christiane Paul
"Digital Art/Public Art: The Networked Commons"

Jonathan Sterne
"Command Tones: Acoustic Space and the Ordering of Motion"

T.L. Taylor
"Beyond Management: Participatory Governance in Emergent Player Culture"

Edward Valauskas
Facilitator: Dangling Thoughts Discussion

Deborah Wheeler
"Digital Politics, Responsive Governance, and Cyber Freedoms Meet
Authoritarianism in the Arab World: Results still Emerging"

Michele White
"Guest Work: The Use of the 'Other' in Producing Rules and Identity Norms in
Internet Settings"

Guobin Yang
"Networks of Power, Links of Resistance: How Online-Offline Connections
Challenge Internet Control in China"

Website: www.uwm.edu/Dept/CIE/CommandLines
For more information, contact: Sandra Braman ([email protected]) or Thomas
Malaby ([email protected])

Comments

[Thomas Malaby]

1.

Thank you, Ted, for posting about the conference. Sandra Braman and I are very excited at the prospect of a group of diverse thinkers from a wide array of fields coming together to talk about governance online. Personally, I hope that this will also further the engagement of virtual world scholars with those who study other aspects of technology and sosciety.

Registration info and other details are on the website. Anyone interested should please feel free to email me if you have any other questions.

[Ian Bogost]

2.

Wow, the gang's all here. Looking forward to seeing all of you in Milwaukee.

[Kathryn]

3.

Sweet site! Keep up the awesome job!!

[Benson]

4.

Great site!