Interesting hearing on virtual worlds this morning in the US Congress, chaired by internet defender Rep. Ed Markey. I got to watch the hearings from a virtual "Rayburn" conference room with a bunch of press folks and Lindens.
I was surprised that the hearing was mostly a bunch of softballs thrown to Second Life boosters from Linden Lab, TechSoup, IBM and New Media Consortium. Okay, there were a couple of inevitable questions related to child protection and Jihadists, but overall it was a positive interchange. And I didn't hear any references to gambling or taxation!
A video and text archive is already up at this link, for those that missed it. Meanwhile, here are a few pics...
The crowd of avatars chatting away while the representative from IBM gives his testimony live.
My avatar watching Philip Linden testifying.
The avatar of Rep Ed Markey presides over the virtual hearing. (Or just camps.)
