The Master's Tools, or, my first week in Info and Control

Chances are that if you've done any serious work on virtual worlds or in cyberlaw, you've come across Julian Dibble's article "A Rape in Cyberspace." There's a lot in that article, and while most of the comment's I've read have been directed at the nature of anonymous internet speech and the avatar/actor relationship, I've been fascinated with two things this time around: examining the way the rape was dealt with from a governance standpoint, and a t-shirt that one of the characters was wearing during the "trial" of Mr. Bungle, the attacker.

I won't get into the article itself, if you want to read it, you can find it at Julian Dibble's webpage. It's highly recommended reading if you have any interest in the interwebz, or virtual worlds, or cyberlaw; it's graphic, as the title might imply.

Anyway, back to the first point that interested me: the way that the crime was dealt with. Some time previously to the attacks, the programmers behind LambdaMOO, the word in which the crime was committed, had decided that they were no longer going to govern player activities. While formerly, the programmers, "wizards" as they were called, would take it upon themselves to adjudicate disputes, deal with disruptive players, and generally rule the virtual world. At some point, likely tired of the burden of command, they declared that the community would have to govern itself. In the words of the arch wizard Haakon, "LambdaMOO would just have to grow up and solve its problems on its own."

This was a controversial idea, but one which the community seemed willing to accept. And things seemed to be working. When Mr. Bungle was brought before the community to face sanctions for his actions, there was a spirited debate as to what his fate should be. When the community finally finished talking, it appeared that Mr. Bungle was going to be spared; whatever rage his actions has bred, it was spent, and he was spared exile.

That is, until one of the wizards decided to act unilaterally and zap him.

Now, toading, the name for removing a player from the world, was not an outrageous punishment for someone like Mr. Bungle. But it was outrageous from a governance standpoint. Toading Mr. B was like the government deciding to execute someone after a jury had found them not guilty. While it wasn't really that big of a deal, as nobody was killed, and the person behind Mr. B soon came back as another avatar, it does show how tricky governance can be when there are individuals with such a monopoly on power that they can do such a thing.

The second point of interest, which does, to some degree, relate to the first point, was this awesome shirt someone was wearing. It said, "Even if you can't tear down the master's house with the master's tools, it's a hell of a place to start." I want that shirt. I've been thinking about it for days now.