I mentioned this earlier in my reflections about the conference. I had seeded a map that outlined the history of our community, gatherings, protocols, blogs, papers, podcasts, wikis, mailinglists. One of the participants took a very high resolution picture of the finished map. Phil has a picture of the initial map. On my original Omnigraffle version I have Kim’s Laws of Identity but on this one I didn’t get them up and Kim just pinged me to let me know it needed to be added. If there are things you think need to be added feel free to let me know.
I hope to bring the big map or another version to the conference at Berkman and DIDW for others to add more information to it.
DIDW
Queer Identities and discrimination online
So there is a big hubub going on around World of Warcraft
[the new “golf” in case you haven’t heard yet – I can’t wait until we have WoW day pre DIDW instead of real golf…what do you think Vince ;)].
around discrimination towards the queer community. Dana Boyd’s latest post was brought my attention to this issue and in an update highlighted why this relates to identity in particular.
As has been noted over and over again, queerness is an identity not just a set of sexual practices. By silencing people’s identities and not allowing people to have bigot-free spaces, Blizzard is upholding a level of discrimination that far outweighs the _potential_ sexual harassment that might occur if people’s sexualities were known.
More about the situation from Dana…
I’ve already heard on numerous occasions that there is intense homophobia within the chatrooms on WoW and this had already made me quite uncomfortable. But Blizzard’s response is just disgusting. How can they call a queer-friendly guild sexual harassment given that this is an attempt by the queer community to create space? Furthermore, there’s so much sexism in the chats (aside from the creatures) that no one from Blizzard can actually argue that they are preventing sexual harassment. I can’t help but wonder about the state of other forms of discrimination and prejudice within the system (particularly since “race” is critical to the narrative of WoW). That said, i don’t care enough to find out – i can’t justify spending personal money on a company with these values.
Chris hasn't blogged either
I don’t feel so bad now…I see that Chris Cepi has not blogged since DIDW either. His last post highlights such as:
Best Semantic Transformation: Kim Cameron swapping “reify” for “thingify”
Most Predictable Vendor Behavior: Awkwardly inserting the recent Identity Theft instances into product and company pitches – for products and companies that do not provide technology that would have prevented any of the examples cited.
I missed Chris’ presentation cause I just was over tired and couldn’t find a plug at the back of the room. I promise I will make it to the next one.
I noticed visiting his blog that Thomas Barnett is in his blog roll – rad thinking our the state of our world related to connected and disconnectedness.