REN REYNOLDS

Writer, Philosopher and Consultant

Ren Reynolds is a writer, philosopher and consultant. He blogs on the academic group-blog TerraNova and is founder of The Virtual Policy Network think tank. Ren has written extensively about the ethics of virtual worlds, the application of law to play spaces and ideas of legitimate governance.

Ren argues that we should treat virtual worlds on their own terms, be they game, social or civic spaces, but that those that run these spaces need to be open about what governance models they are going to apply and what the limits of player freedom are. Users of virtual worlds also need to be clear about the nature of the space they are in, whether they have reasonable assumptions of privacy, speech rights etc. and act accordingly.