If any of you have been able to tear your brains away from Left 4 Dead, you might've heard that President-elect Barack Obama is in the process of choosing his cabinet. What you might not have heard is that he's selected two self-avowed "virtual worlds nuts" to chair his Federal Communication Commision (FCC) Transition Team: Kevin Werbach, assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and Susan Crawford, professor of communications and Internet law at the University of Michigan.
This important to me (and should be important to you) for two reasons. The first being that the co-chairs of Obama's FCC Transition Team are both hard-line Net neutrality advocates. The second reason is that Werbach describes himself as a "hardcore" World of Warcraft player, and is a member of two guilds, one of which is "composed primarily of academics and other thinkers who study and write about virtual worlds,” he writes.
Werbach is apparently a Level 70 Tauren Shaman named Supernovan Jenkins, "Jenkins" being something of an honorific for players who have cleared the "Leeeeeeeeeeeeeroy" achievement. The fact that Werbach is aware of, and embraces, the memetic nature of the Entirewebs certainly can't be a bad thing.
What's more, it seems that people are already trying to de-construct Werbach's online choices:
The fact that he chose [to be a healer] (his build, under the Talents tab, is 0/8/53) means that he enjoys helping people, and being depended on. Again, this is exactly what I'd expect from someone aligned with Obama.
While it's comforting to think that the co-chair of Obama's FCC Transition Team is a nice guy who likes helping people like you and me, it's much more likely that he thinks being a huge f*cking minotaur is just plain cool.
[Via
Waltermonkey's livejournal, via
Offworld]
Joseph Leray is a founding Destructoid editor and has better hair than you. He speaks French and needs to send us his updated bio in English, preferably.
Likes
Confuse Ray,
Feel My Blade
A Mabari War Hound,
Snot,
Spiral Arrow,
Argo,
Dan Smith's critical hit bark,
Rolling things up into my life
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
23 comments | showing # 1 to 23
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
7:17 PM on 11.21.2008
| 
OBAMA KILLED LOTHAR!!!!
From Wiki:
"Network neutrality (equivalently net neutrality, Internet neutrality or simply NN) is a principle that is applied to residential broadband networks, and potentially to all networks. A neutral broadband network is one that is free of restrictions on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, on the modes of communication allowed, which does not restrict content, sites or platforms, and where communication is not unreasonably degraded by other communication streams."
Why would you be against that?
gamers managing FCC for the fucking win
Shaman are such a rare breed Horde-side. At least on my server.
I love it.
Truly, this is a new age. An age in which politicians actually relate to us.
But then, who are we but next year's old people?
It looks like deregulation because it's saying the ISPs aren't allowed to choose how much priority certain sites get. But seeing as the ISPs are private companies, taking away their right to do that would actually be regulation, just as if the government said you weren't allowed to decide what to do with your WiFi network when your friends came over.
All the fear mongering about what ISPs will do if Net Neutrality laws aren't passed contradict basic economics. UPS didn't start sucking at regular delivery when it started allowing people to pay more for over night delivery. TV manufacturers are allowed to sell differently sized TVs at different prices.
Actually, many regulations are often very good for many industries. Many industries lack competition and innovation without regulations that force companies to focus on innovation of product rather than the manipulation of markets.
This is the exact kind of regulation that "net neutrality" implies. Many companies have inherent and/or vested interests in companies in other sectors doing well or poorly, and if allowed to, will manipulate markets in order to give these interests competitive advantage or disadvantage.
Example: ISP X buys Yahoo, then proceeds to install hardware that limits it's customers internet access to Yahoo as their only search option. ISP X controls a large majority of the ISP share in many markets, and in many regions, is the only provider available. They are able to manipulate the search engine market, therefore stifling competition and innovation. And I don't think anyone but my Grandma thinks that Yahoo is more advanced and innovative than Google, and probably not even her;P (As far as search goes anyway, I think Yahoo has it's place for news and other products.)
This is just one example of how many laisez-faire markets are inherently not free and can be manipulated in order to stifle competition and innovation.
(Also charging higher prices for tiered services can be easily used to manipulate markets through consumer demand. Not to mention the possible threats to the freedom and flow of information, and even Democracy itself. You seem like a smart person, you can come up with many other manipulations yourself if you think about them.)
The point is that just because something is regulated does not necessarily mean it is less free. Often times it increases freedom.
You're right, market regulation does go against what seems like sound policy in basic economics, as it pertains to economists like Smith or Ricardo, but as you further your studies and get into more advanced economics you'll find that many markets are not inherently open and free, and need to be regulated in order to make them more free, open, competitive and to allow for the innovation that market competition creates.
also win on the Shaman... and win that he's a resto... although screw the fact he'd be rolling on the same gear as me
You should have gotten a picture of a resto you nub :P
<3