Synthetic Democracy: Associations and Social Capital in Virtual Worlds

The pigeon's back from PNWPSA!  I meant to write yesterday, but thanks to a delay in Spokane I didn't get home until yesterday--it was the first time I've ever been stuck somewhere overnight because of a missed connection!  And with nothing but the clothes on my back, to boot.  But all's well that ends well, and I still had time to roost comfortably with the family in front of the fireplace.

Anyways, back to the conference... which went very well!  Got there about 2 PM Thursday, checked in to a mint nest, and chilled out until the opening reception started across the street at the conference site (in the Peacock room, no less).

I, of course, didn't know a soul; but since pigeons are gregarious birds, I soon struck up a conversation with an Iranian expatriate couple (we even exchanged some Persian with each other).  When they learned I was there alone, they asked me to have a drink with them and their fellow professors and students from Western Washington University.

And man, did we drink!  The Foley Institute ran a tab to quench our thirsts, so I hit the Scotch list like no pigeon's business.  By the end of the evening we all ended up at a Greek restaurant, with me sitting next to a grad student who looked scarily like an adult version of my daughter.  Ultimately the WWU contingent "adopted" me and always looked me up at meal and beer times.  I was very grateful for their hospitality!

I attended panels most of the day Friday, although I skipped the 1:30 - 3:00 PM session to catch up on my own notes and an orphaned copy of the Wall Street Journal.  Overall, I appreciated the scholarship of the panels combined with the relaxed atmosphere of the organization (I've heard at some of the bigger conferences egos clash and panelists come to serious verbal fisticuffs).  If beggars had to be choosers, though, I lamented the lack of a publisher and book section.  When I went to MESA last year I spent a good four hours poring over an expansive hall of texts.

My entire reason for being there, of course, was to present my own paper, "Synthetic Democracy:  Associations and Social Capital in Virtual Worlds."  I can't even begin to calculate the gallons of Starbucks coffee that went into making the paper!

All my hard work, thankfully, came down to an extremely warm reception.  All my spare copies were snatched up, and I got some leads on possible publication and future collaboration (as an added bonus, I might be hooking up a scholar I met at PNWPSA with USAFA's very own Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Policy).

The panel discussant found my work fascinating and timely, and his only critique was I need to flesh out my conclusion.  I 100% concur.  By the time I "finished" the paper, I thought I'd written the best joke in the world but slacked on the punchline; but I was at a point in my research that I felt the paper in its current condition was worthy of peer review.  Now not only do I want to keep on top of this paper, but I also want to ask new questions on the same research, such as exploring the international relations impact of virtual worlds (i.e. how would China deal with citizens making an independent economy, landmass, or culture in a virtual setting?).

Anyways, now I'm ready to share my work with my readers!  Yes, it has my real name on it.  You can even email me or call me at work, I suppose.  But since I'm only pseudo-anonymous here--that is, I have a "Mad Pigeon" persona but don't take any great lengths to disguise my real self--it really doesn't matter.

For your reading pleasure!

Abstract:  My paper examines the connections among the Internet, social capital and associations. A significant amount of literature exists examining the impact of the Internet on politics in general; however, I extend this research by specifically looking at 2D and 3D representation of the self and its effect on online social interactions. I use Tocqueville as my theoretical foundation for investigating these levels of association. Our democracy is based on association, particularly face-to-face association and communication, which fosters trust and reciprocity.

My research indicates that when the self is visually represented online the self-identity is projected in a similar manner as face-to-face communication, unlike other forms of electronic communication that lack non-verbal cues. Online virtual communities establish behavioral norms, develop social hierarchies, and ultimately reinforce self validation, which increases personal commitment. I argue that avatar-based communication via the Internet has the potential to not only increase association in the Tocquevillian sense, but also expand the political discourse by pushing the concept of association beyond real-world time and space restraints while at the same time building trust.  CONTINUED (PDF format)

Hopefully none of my readers think it sucks!

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