Mr Pixel Goes to Washington

1

Policy Issues for Consideration

3

These developments are not limited to American interests by any means — the excitement being generated by these new technologies is global. Just as we see the new frontier of virtual worlds and its opportunities begin to unfold, however, the United States is poorly positioned to take advantage of them. We have largely ceded our leadership in the Internet arena over the past dozen years; we are now 19th in the world in providing broadband access to our citizens, and that number has been worsening every year. More than that, the product we allow companies to deliver to our citizens is just one tenth the speed of the broadband commonly available in Japan — we lag at 14th in the world in the quality of our basic Internet service. Twenty other countries provide their citizens broadband Internet access at lower cost than what Americans pay for a generally shoddier product.

I am reminded of similar times and similar opportunities our nation has faced in the past, and of the bold leadership and vision that kept our nation on the track to greatness then. When the country was expanding westward, the Morrill Act set aside lands for universities, ensuring that education would flourish as the country expanded; when it was clear commercial interests would only provide electricity to the cities, where profits were easy, the Rural Electrification Act brought the modern age to all Americans. When television was new, the FCC ensured that channels would be set aside for education and learning; in 1991, when the world wide web was still just an idea, the High Performance Computing and Communication Act ensured that the United States would have the infrastructure in place that ultimately allowed it to lead the world in information technology throughout that decade; the Next Generation Internet Research Act of 1998 ensured that our computer scientists would be able to develop the next generation of network technologies.

1

Yet despite the innovation of visionaries like Philip Rosedale and his team, who created the virtual world of Second Life, the U.S.’s leadership in the emerging landscape of the 3D web is not at all certain. More than 70 virtual world platforms exist at this moment, according to an ongoing study by the American Federation of Scientists, and only a handful are being developed by American companies. While Second Life is by far the most successful today, we need not think back beyond America Online to remember how quickly things can change in this space.

1

At the same time, we are not addressing important social aspects of the issue either. When Americans came home to a new reality after World War II, the GI Bill ensured that the opportunities they needed were within their reach; Pell Grants extended the promise of an education to the disadvantaged in 1965, just as computers were emerging onto the scene. More than 40 years later, we’ve not extended the promise of technology to far too many Americans, and we’ve really not even begun to think about the geographic and global dimensions of the digital divide.

1

Where is that kind of vision today? Who will step up to ensure that we not only allow but encourage these new developments to prosper, and entrepreneurs and visionary thinkers to innovate? How will we address the twin challenges of a lagging infrastructure and a growing divide?

1

Congress can reverse our current technological decline and recapture the excitement and American spirit of innovation by putting policies into place that will encourage development of the 3D web and the virtual worlds that are its precursor. We need leaders today like Frieda Hennock, who as the Commissioner of the FCC in the late 1940s “became impatient for the day when television would become an electronic blackboard, a ‘classroom of the air,’ serving American students as the proscenium from which culture was to enter the living room of every home.” There was strong bipartisan support for the High Performance Computing and Communication Act, sponsored by a Democratic senator, and promoted by a Republican president who predicted it would help "unlock the secrets of DNA," open up foreign markets to free trade, and encourage cooperation between government, academia, and industry. It did that, and more.

A hugely important result of this legislation was the development of Mosaic in 1993, the world wide web browser that launched the Internet as we know it — and changed the world in the process.

This kind of leadership is at the heart of what has made America the country it is, and is much needed today.

I encourage this subcommittee to take the first steps in embracing this new technology, so that each of you can begin to see the enormous potential not only promised by the evolution of the network into three dimensions, but already being realized today in communities across Second Life and dozens of other virtual world platforms, such as HiPiHi, There, and Project Wonderland.