Yesterday morning, about 30 avatars gathered on the MacArthur Island sim in Second Life to view for the first time a live simulcast of a proceeding of the Federal Communications Commission. Building upon last month's appearance by Beth Noveck, White House deputy CTO, in Second Life, this was actually an official FCC Workshop, part of a larger effort to solicit public input into the "National Broadband Plan". This particular workshop was focused on the topics of e-Gov and Civic Engagement, so it is very appropriate that it was held both with a live audience in DC and online via Second Life and on a WebEx webinar.
The event was not with technical difficulties, which is not uncommon for first efforts like this. Apparently people on Macs had problems viewing the live stream on the webinar. Meanwhile most Second Life participants were not able to view the video feed, but did hear the audio of the proceedings. But in general, it was a successful demonstration of how a government agency can use multiple communications channels to build public understanding of and engagement in their work.
Kudos to the FCC for their willingness to try and open the doors a bit more to the online public. Hopefully this is just the beginning of these governmental efforts to use virtual worlds to increase transparency and public input into policy-making.
For those that missed the live event, you can view the recorded video at this link and you can continue to submit questions and ideas on their Ideascale page.
