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Dr. James M. Bower (panel moderator) is CEO of Numedeon Inc., the founders of Whyville.net. Dr. Bower received his Ph.D. in neurophysiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While a professor of Computational Neuroscience at the California Institute of Technology, in 1998, Dr. Bower and several of his colleagues interested in education founded the virtual world company Numedeon Inc, whose website Whyville.net has since become one of the leading virtual world sites for young children. From its outset, Numedeon Inc. has devoted considerable resources to community management and safety technology for its users and Whyville was recently recognized for the second year in a row by iParenting.com as "best in class" for internet safety as well as best website for children. Dr. Bower has served on educational committees of numerous national organizations including the National Academy of Sciences, and the Society for Neuroscience, and has made presentations around the world on Whyville in general, and the importance of community management in virtual worlds in particular.

Dr. Bower believes that virtual worlds, properly constructed can approach the social and political sophistication of real worlds, and therefore require similarly sophisticated governance systems. However, virtual worlds also have their own additional complexities and unique opportunities to engage users in the design and implementation of governance. The Whyville Senate, for example, is one of the world's first governmental bodies which, while governing a (virtual) physical space, does so with citizens who are not located in the same geographical location in the real world.
 

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