Interview of the Day: Thomas P.M. Barnett in Second Life

Image: Second Life Future Salon

"You may have heard of Thomas P. Barnett; he's a foreign-affairs wonk whose influential latest book is The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-first Century. He once worked for Donald Rumsfeld, yet is a lifelong Democrat who briefed John Kerry on his foreign policy during the last election. Barnett has an interestingly geeky way of describing politics. He calls the American style of government the 'source code' for democracy; he argues that democratic countries need to form an armed deployment that will operate as the 'SysAdmin force' to help negotiate peace and trade worldwide.

Perhaps because he's so tech-savvy, Barnett recently agreed to a really unusual public event: He appeared as an avatar in the online game-world Second Life, and conducted a speech and Q&A session on his ideas. Avatars logged in from all over the world, including France, Britain, and China -- many of whom hurled catcalls at him and threw tough questions. Wagner James Au, Second Life's official in-game journalist, hosted the event -- as his avatar Hamlet Linden -- and he's blogged the transcript."
Source: collision detection
[via Thomas P.M. Barnett]

Blogs:
New World Notes
Thomas P.M. Barnett's Second Life Transcript and Slides - Second Life Future Salon

Audio:
Thomas Barnett - IT Conversations