Govt agency buys island - in cyberspace
By Tham Yuen-C & Chua Hian Hou
AN IT-SAVVY government agency here owns an island - but one which does not exist in the real world.
Along with at least two other agencies, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) has bought real estate to operate in a universe that exists only online.
This virtual world, called Second Life, is visited by more than 8.9 million residents from about 100 real-world countries.
Besides the IDA, the Singapore Tourism Board and Economic Development Board have bought stakes there - not for commercial gain, but to reach their audiences, or to explore operations in a virtual world.
Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts Balaji Sadasivan, revealing this yesterday, noted that life in this digital age was making the world increasingly porous, so it was important for people to ‘exploit the opportunities opening up’ in the cyberworld.
Dr Balaji, who is also the Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, was speaking at the opening of a gathering of 220 lawyers, social scientists, entrepreneurs and technologists from 20 countries.
The State of Play V Conference is a platform for them to discuss the impact of virtual worlds on, for example, real-world laws and regulation.
In Second Life, more than US$1 million (S$1.53 million) in virtual transactions happen daily.
It has attracted companies, organisations and yes, agencies from other real-world governments interested in reaching out to the audience that spends several hours in cyberspace.
Assistant Professor Aaron Delwiche from Trinity University’s department of communication, who is also the co-chair of the conference, noted that people were forming impressions of other cultures based on these digital encounters.
He said: ‘Today, virtual worlds are viewed as playgrounds, but tomorrow, they will supplement our physical workplaces.’
The three Singapore government agencies yesterday declined to elaborate on their cyberspace forays.
But The Straits Times understands that on the ‘island’ the IDA bought, the agency is working with students of Nanyang Polytechnic to design software applications that could be used in the virtual world.
For example, they have created a live video conferencing programme for Second Life residents to stream live meetings and conferences.
Speaking at the conference yesterday, Principal Senior State Counsel Charles Lim of the Attorney-General’s Chambers said Singapore was in favour of leaving virtual worlds alone, as long as the activities there did not damage the ‘fabric of society’ by, for instance, using online characters to incite religious hatred.
Another speaker, Temple Law School professor David Post, suggested that governments might want to leave virtual worlds to set their own laws.
Source : Straits Times - 21 Aug 2007
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