Activism in Virtual Worlds: Back To Basics

In reading Second Life and Cyber Activism, I couldn't help but wonder whether people are mistaking participation with communication. I could sit wherever I am, by myself, and protest the actions of the government of Burma as related to the 2007 Burmese anti-government protests- which, in my own way, I have done. I didn't wear red since the Monks of Burma wear saffron. Whoever came up with 'red' really was detached from the issue. I didn't wear saffron either. Sorry.

But I also wrote my thoughts, making anyone who finds these thoughts aware of them (approximately 164 so far). Granted, I'm not a 'cause-hopper' and I'm not much known for any form of protest outside of the technology arena - but if I were, would I better have an effect on the internet where anyone can access it, or in a virtual world at an event where the number of people who can see my protest are limited technically? Let me explain.

Lets say that 100 people (a very high estimate, usually half of that) can be in one place at one time in Second Life - a 'simulator', as we call them - and let us say that to protest something we get a group together to protest it. Let us say that we get 100 people there to protest - that leaves no one to view the protest. In the grand scheme of things, how useful is that?

What if we got 50 people protesting, and maybe 25 people blipped through? Then 25 people may have learned something of what is being protested.

What about 10 people protesting in a busy simulator, so that maybe 50-70 people hear about it at one time? That seems to be pretty effective in comparison.

These are all snapshots, though - virtual worlds are much more dynamic than the web or the real world... but what if one person stood at Grand Central Station in New York City? Compared to the 10 people protesting in Second Life, how effective could that one person potentially be?

Activism in virtual worlds will happen, and while the technical limitations may be an issue - the underlying issue is that people need to consider what they are actually trying to do and how effective they wish to be at it.

The general rule of thumb with activism is - Activism 101, if you will - the number of people affected by the protest should be greater than the number protesting. Leveraging numbers to make more people aware is what activism is about... and while media may play a role in reporting what others did, well - you could write bots that run around and protest and be just as effective...

Perhaps more.

Still, this isn't rocket science. It requires common sense and a large amount of passion to protest effectively... all the successful activists knew this. All the unsuccessful activists remain unknown, their causes chained to their own lack of efficacy.