I’ve spent two weeks recovering from the previous four. And I don’t mean some sort of health thing, I mean recovery from some sort of shift in thinking that has left me kind of dazed and confused.
I mean, here’s the thing: after spending the better part of the past few years worrying about whether virtual worlds had a place in the digital landscape, I suddenly discovered that they do, and that the questions have become more profound.
I’ve talked about this before: I find myself surprised when I don’t get grilled on cartoon characters and ‘escaping reality’ anymore. People get it. They want in. And they want to know how to go about doing so.
But my thinking has also shifted because I’ve been trying to figure out the place of virtual worlds IN that larger digital landscape and I’ve realized that my thinking has been pretty much off-kilter. I’ve spent a few weeks doing nothing much more than thinking and trying to get my e-mail cleared out (although I still have 1,200 backed up in my G-mail and apologies to any of you who are lost in there, I’m really trying to get through them all as quickly as I can!)
What I Got Wrong
So a few of my realizations:
- I overestimated the importance of open source and where it actually stood in the pantheon of current thought.
- I underestimated where the next battle for the heart of the digital landscape is taking place. The real battle of the moment is in the ownership of your physical location. This battle, perhaps more than all of the discussions of identity or commerce or whether the Web is free will be the defining fight of our times. Whoever “owns” your geo-location wins.
- Virtual worlds can inform the Web and not simply be informed BY the Web. Virtual worlds (and their sister, game consoles) are one of the few places in the digital landscape with the profound power to change the paradigm for how we connect.
- Social media is broken.
- I underestimated how many people care about intellectual property. The “all information wants to be free” concept is a fallacy.
- Virtual worlds are NOT the source of all wisdom nor the new site for storytelling. They’re part of a fast-moving and evolving domain which is actually a radically different paradigm for connection.
In other words, I’ve decided that my mental models need an overhaul so stay tuned.
I need to get some stuff out of my system and put this all into some kind of coherent package I think, and I’ve been pecking away at a few posts and a bunch of newsy type updates just so there’s SOMETHING here to read.
Virtual World Advocacy
In the meantime, I’ve been feeling frustrated that virtual worlds aren’t sitting at the “big table” although they have increasing mainstream acceptance. Now, maybe I should have gone to the toy fair or whatever in New York, but I’m boycotting it: last time I went I left infuriated at how big brands talked about “monetizing engagements” and “tracking behavioral habits” and were talking about SIX YEAR OLDS.
So in the meantime, I run across Max’s post on Pixels and Policy that he’s joining the editorial team at the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research and my jaw almost dropped.
Here I am misdirecting my frustrations at my own lack of a clear sense of where virtual worlds fit into these broader cultural trends and out there somewhere one of the few sane and credible voices for Virtual World research is bringing in – um, Pixels and Policy?
What a monumental blow to their credibility. Whatever the basis for the move it primarily seems to signal that the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research is about to integrate audience trolling, lack of research or use of out-dated research, and constant, irritating reference to themselves in the third person.
So sure, I’m snarky, I’m frustrated, I have lots to say. But at least this incredibly dense move by the Journal to partner or host or receive editorial support or whatever it is from someone who talks about himself in the plural has woken me from my slumber of over-obsessing about ‘meta’ and given me something to get all snarky in back chat about.
Amen.
Yeah, Pixels and Policy will be as much of a triump as Bonzo the chimp eating at the table with Diana and Ron.
Hey, it could be worse… Metaverse Journal could be bringing ME in…
Dusan, put your hammer back in your pocket.
You’re a relative newcomer to this scene. Yeah that’s right – a newcomer.
You’re still going through the early stages of acclimation, and you’re surrounded by people who have been involved in these platforms twice as long, and have already been through all of these “aha” moments. And based on your “ahas” here, you still have further to go.
Pixels and Policy “gets” it – maybe they’ve been “in it” longer, or maybe they just took the time to discard their preconceptions and look at this new medium afresh – something you haven’t quite yet done.
But you don’t just get credibility by speaking loudly about things you don’t yet understand. Ok, that’s not really true – lots of people get credibility that way – for the short term.
Actually, I will say I think you’re finally on the right track. But don’t be miffed by the purists who have taken time to become natives. Maybe you should try it yourself sometime.
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dusanwriter: Blogged: Threw the “if you dont have anything nice to say” rule out the window http://ow.ly/18nq8…
Wow, Gary… Must be nice to be so certain and sure of yourself that you never change your mind, or your perspective. I guess you’ve never heard the words of Aristotle, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”
Pixels and Policy has been “in it” — that is, blogging — for a month longer than I have: August 2009. At first, I felt a kinship of sorts, and followed his blog regularly. However, I also read them carefully (and the links contained in them), and soon learned how slipshod his alleged “research” can be.
More recently, a good portion of his blog posts are recycled from weeks or months earlier. One of those, this past week, was actually written by me back in October, deconstructing one of his. When I objected to the reappearance, he took it down… but unfortunately, whatever bot he’s using to recycle the old posts breaks the original links, and now it’s as if my piece never appeared. But, no matter; I’m done with him.
Let me ask you this, Gary: If he “gets it”, how come he *still* can’t tell the difference between a virtual world like SL and a MMO game like WoW?
Slightly off-topic but interesting anyway – an open beta of viewer 2.0 seems upcoming – a (new?) link is on the Dashboard and leads to a 404 at the moment.
http://secondlife.com/beta-viewer/
Second Life and worlds like it are run by our Ids. Its why they are so seemingly disorganized and incoherent.
I think its a good thing that companies and governments can’t harness that now. It gives the users breathing room.
However, Warcraft is the bull in the china shop now. And many companies want the kind of money that is generating. So they are quite willing to give up what we have now for a virtual theme park experience.
Just one more pundit without any value or experience or work done beyond his own navel and blogger fingers.
no one “does”, they just write-blog.-twitter- and they then somehow convince others they are the “talent”…. another reality of virtuality that one day all posting and praising here will lament.-
oh. yea\h, in the tradition of pixel/policy max –
WE think he’s what YOU(plural) all deserve.;)
WE cube3.
oh and Dusan…
youve opened your eyes–(Avatar-2009) first and last shots…
YOU SEE ME….;)
couldnt find a top 10 could ya?
neither can I. well only in my memory, i cant show them of course…so youll only have to “believe”..
pretty scary eh?
so , na’vi,
now the real world begins…..;)
blue cube3
I’m with you on this one, Dusan. Although I enjoy the art of creative headline composition, I’ve been burned so many times with Pixels and Policy that I’ve stopped taking the RSS bait, no matter how enticing the pitch. The consistent combination of hard-hitting teaser headlines and fluff-filled content is a lot closer to local TV news than academic research.
Wow, Gary. Talking about a knowier than thou, condescending, and quite frankly, rude comment. Esp coming from someone who hadn’t even considered that engaging a memory researcher in their memory project is a no-brainer. That is, until I pointed the obvious out to you. Just sayin…
As for PnP? If his sloppily written and self-promoting op-eds are alleged proof that he “gets it” or that he even remotely understands statistical analysis, research, and the social impact of the virtualities, then someone, somewhere, clearly does not “get it.” Either that, or they are settling for lower standards when it comes to researching virtual worlds.
wishfarmers…. since 2004?
maxs blogs are full of non accurate info and all it suggests is that he gets “how to get heard” on the web using blogs and Rss fields…
i guess he does get “it”….
but every animal learns to scream to get mommies attention/and fed after birth. natives indeed.
cannibals.
amazingly hes listed as an editor…lol
maybe they should have “hired” free interns and called them fact checkers…
you get what you pay for.
“They’re part of a fast-moving and evolving domain which is actually a radically different paradigm for connection”
not really.. one used to call it the DARK AGES…or Soviet Russia, or Nazi Germany. or Cambodia 1970, or….
all experiences of the day.. wake shit do die…
or be killed by the lord.
burn the books. the past… to live in the moment, the virtuality IS the reality.
So best to UNDERSTAND the differnce BETWEEN PIXELS AND POLICIES….. or we get more max’s….even if we have to do some homework and research the past before Google deletes it for not being quarterly revenue enhancing.
its not all green mists.:)
but keep looking for them:)on that we agree.
Perhaps I’m just daft but I see that Max Burns is listed not as an Editor but as “Editorial Coordinator” for the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.
From our friend the interwebs cache of said position for JVWR when it was listed:
3. Editorial Coordinator: The Editorial Coordinator position is responsible for managing the copyediting, layout and publishing elements of the publication process. The editorial coordinator will work directly with the Managing Editor and the copyeditors. There is a stipend of $400 for each issue budgeted for the Editorial Coordinator. We hope to increase this amount in the future.
Isn’t there just a tiny bit of a logical leap from copy edit to a “monumental blow to credibility”?
Dusan –
Disconcerting how different our previous private conversations have been from what is posted about me from time to time on your blog. But I suppose short of closing down Pixels and Policy, not much can be done about that. Sorry you feel so negatively towards JVWR now, that seems like misplaced negativity.
Ok folks, you’re right. I was a little harsh.
Sorry, Dusan.
Btw, Cube – yes – 2004. What of it?
Now let’s all get back to the work of making Virtual Worlds creativity. Not Virtual Worlds Politics.
I still love ya’all.
Actually Dusan Writer Metanomics is nothing more then a paid infomercial which makes you part of the weak link.
I must be one of those that really do not ‘get it’ because I think there is a place for Pixels and Policy (and I truly enjoy the entries from time to time). And more so, there is value in the collaboration without the sky falling
As much as pure research methodologies are key to credible results and views, the ordinary virtual worlds’ user (and much less so much the developer, researcher or corporate analyst) seek the presentation and distribution of content in a fairly familiar and less techno-academic format. Making research finding useful for application in daily life – as opposed to it resting on a polished shelf of an institution’s library – is an age-old challenge. To me it seems this tension has now crossed-over into the virtual domain. How to maintain integrity and standards without loosing meaning and application?
I think the partnership could be rather exciting if each stick to core strengths. Clearly, for me any way, it is community engagement of ordinary users for PnP, and academic standard of research for the Journal. Iron sharpens iron. No offense intended to either party.
2004– not quite what I’d call- LONG TIME- to be calling anyone a newbie.;)
Editorial Coordinator — I did not read what the “job title” entailed for the per say journal. titles at most web based organization can mean just about anything..” WE” at pixpol believe that;)
So what youre trying to suggest is thats he’s been hired for 400 bucks a story to post the webpages on the site? webmastering stuff?
brains to hands? or then again, when was it ever brains;)
ok. yes a few times, a few posts showed some brains…. but every coin has a head and a tail.;)
“Editorial” used to refer the content written, i guess like all things redefined by the autistic geeks. its now just the random text presented in html 4.0/rss/php for whatever agenda desired.
as to making virtual worlds… and blogs…. its 90% political/personal agendas, and if were lucky 10% written or shown offers anything of “experiential” value for a larger community or makers or users.
sorry to suggest thats what we “get”
not sure i love youall;), cube3
“ok. yes a few times, a few posts showed some brains…. but every coin has a head and a tail.;)”
Saying something nice about P&P, I feel the groudn beneath my feet getting colder.
@Grace, thanks for the cool splash of reason and research up there …
An editoral coordinator who is overseeing copy editing(among other duties) is NOT going to represent a blow to the journal’s credibility. The journal is quite capable of doing that all on their own … or not.
If you don’t understand the need for good copy editing, then you don’t understand academic journals … or good writing, for that matter.
With more and more communication and social interaction happening over cyberspace, Pixels and Policy is really filling an important niche that seems to be overlooked.
In countries like Iran, where speaking out against the sham of an election they had was tantamount to a death sentence, protesters turned to virtual worlds and social media. If it wasn’t for Pixels and Policy, I would have been completely unaware of the digital activism that was going on. It added a whole layer of depth to the situation.
With so many countries that are similarly locked down and undergoing a digital revolution, like China, this avenue of free speech seems like it’s only going to become more important.
Dusan, (saw your Twit, and admittedly I’m a noobe on Twitter, but have followed its evolution from the sidelines). Anyway, I have to say, and have always felt this, your openness, and humility is major reason why I continue to follow you, as well as Metanomics.
I suppose it’s (virtual worlds) are still in the Beta stage. Perhaps on the near end to Gold release, but there are still many things to iron out.
One, I look at your “got wrong” list and wonder, did you really overestimate “open source”, I’d say you didn’t.
Two, “ownership of physical location”, if you meant virtually speaking as in hosted by; you may not be far off the mark, really. I would assert that there will be VSP’s (virtual service providers) that will replace ISP’s as time goes on. Some will be big players in that respect, in that, they will adopt leading edge virtual world features; the faster they do, the more will flock. Open Source is really where it will all come from, its the INTERFACE that matters to most everyone in adoption of it. Coinciding with subject of interest like Education, Business and Social Networking to name the primary ones to this point. That all said there is an HUGE creative/content builder network now. Some vying for a name and market reach, others just creating/exploring a part of themselves that has been repressed in RL or not expressed at all. Virtual worlds have not made it to main stream, yet. We are the ones making the landscape or models to follow. So, don’t beat yourself up just yet.
Three, there are still ample opportunities to implement “Informing the Web”. It’s a matter of presentation and ease of use or access, combining this with a social network framework. I’m still a believer that Greenies is/was ahead of its time. Greenies represents the WAY to present a product and have it not be in your FACE and it falls into the ’story’ or place you are that’s completely non-intrusive. We all would be wise to continue down that vein. BUT, to be a contender in “Informing the Web”, we need to come up with a way to present it in a artistically fun and wowing way; this is not a dead issue but is core to the future of Web 3.0. I’m not giving up on it, and am pursuing matters, creatively, in this respect outside of SL in a alpha phase.
Social Media is not broken, its changing as fast as we can blink an I. Right now there are a just lot of different places to experience it. And since virtual worlds haven’t developed enough for mainstream its near, but moving up, the bottom of the list. I still have hope for it because of ALL the people I’ve dome to know IN it now, and the impact it has to each and everyone one of us. I still believe it’s a Killer app, just like Layar (for droids). There is a battle to be heard, this will always be so. Twitter, Facebook, et. al. is a medium that might accomplish it to some degree. But, egotism will never be an accepted form of expression to the masses. This is why humility, conversation, interaction, immersiveness is the path, from my view.
Four, “intellectual property”, I’ve said it before, not to you directly, but there is a huge misconception about ‘free information’ and free products. Second Life is one big heaping multitude of 3D products, content, what have you. Its paving the way to what will come, those that will be “bridging” their content/products to the Internet will be those that make it readily available in the other grids. If I go by a Web site widget, there is NEVER or rarely ever, a widget that cannot be used on one ISP or another. So, the key here is cooperative portability to the rest of the other grids. Mark my words, and I’m not tooting my own horn here, but the writing IS on the wall. Now the question is, what is considered normal 3D content and what’s a widget, per se? I’d say those that go in the widget category fall into Intellectual Property. Then there is the rest and it would fall under typical artistic creator rights. This is a whole other conversation, but I think you understand?
Five, Storytelling, I’d say your right on both counts, it IS a place to tell stories, and really KEY to its adoption. Your also right on the other count.
In closing, I would assert you don’t’ need an overhaul, but a continuation of THE conversation with ALL of us. So, please don’t change too much.
I am certainly guilty of outing bloggers and reporters that I feel are doing piss-poor journalism. However, I try and keep my open disdain for the worst offenders. And yes, I will go on peoples’ blogs and challenge their stories as I see inaccuracies; I will call them on their misreporting. I’ve definitely a few times with P&P.
However, if I were to openly write about every blogger that I thought wasn’t doing a great job … well, let’s just say I have second thoughts about what kind of person that would make me.
Dusan, I think you were particularly harsh in your criticism here. It makes you *appear* jealous. Not saying you are, but reading this article, it glows green.
I’ve dropped you a direct message – I’d like to chat privately.
Oh, and… the JVWR? It’s all academics. You know, one might criticize them and say that they could use some real-world industry people.
Oh Dusan, you’re in trouble now!
Pope Ron T Blechner has demanded a private audience!
Ron T Blechner, I don’t know where you’re coming from? Having read Pixel and Policy, I would say a time machine from 2007? You’re opinion is firmly rooted in your own self serving arrogance and this strange overbearing self worth.
Ron, some of us know you from the past , you’re totally overstating your own contribution. Confusing it with being a thought leader and expert practitioner in this space. Which as far as I can tell, is more about being a blogger on other peoples work and contribution, and attending SLCC. Which does not amount to leadership, just longevity.
Ron, you bitch-slap everyone all the time in your blog, and even more in your recent Pixel and Policy’s guest blog.
What is the difference in what you do, and what Dusan has done here?
Nothing.
You’re both expressing your personal opinions, which are just that, personal opinions. Which doesn’t actually have to be factually correct, or even researched… it’s just an opinion. Something you seem to be an expert on.
Ron, your blog posts here left me feeling that you *appear* arrogant.
BTW this is man who boasted at bar during the last SLCC, that he has M, Philip and Mitch on speed dial. He’s a contributor behind the scenes, the SL equivalent of ‘deep throat’ (mature region content?). The man who told Philip to change features, and it happened. The MAN who partied with the Lindens, The MAN who was here in SL, before any present at this bar… at that point, I left the bar for a more fun atmosphere.
LOL
David
[...] from some other blog. It surprises me when someone posts something in the comments of this blog such as this: “Actually Dusan Writer Metanomics is nothing more then a paid infomercial which makes you [...]
Dusan,
I asked to chat because I think both you and Max have some smart things to say.
“David”,
Clearly you’re in the industry. Beyond that, you’re an anonymous comment troll – there’s nothing you say anyone ought to believe.
I was never *at* a bar last SLCC – I was too busy. I can think of one time I had drinks with a small handful of people (there was no speed-dial conversation, though) and if you indeed were there, it would make it really easy to figure out who you are.
It’s likely you’re filtering hearsay through a third party or two, and getting the stories wrong. Or you have a serious split personality and someone who has been nice to me to my face. Either way, it’s easiest for me just to dismiss you as anonymous.
Note to Dusan..
Notice that there is a very popular meme that ” 2007 or even 1997″ is a distant history past. NON important for the current meta.
As mentioned, for a HUMAN CULTURE to thrive there must be a HISTORY of event/ story/ and the passage of information..-CONTEXT.
The BLOG/ TECh/DIGG/ WIKI/ Meme has HAD its effect.. its being shown over and over on the web in the past decade….
Its the evidence combined with the ever erasing GOOGLEs affects, that CONTEXT is the victim of virtuality beyond its imediatte wrapper.. be it a blog/ or 3d room./space.
time machines…. the way the meta think , they had no use for them;) well maybe only for the future button, to see their narcisstic futures..;)
I don’t know why you haven’t been listening to me for five years. I’ve been telling anybody whose lapels I could grab that opensource is overrated and people really care about IP way more than they do that information stone soup crap. Seriously.
Worlds and stories shifting? Well, not really. The “destination worlds”
You were silly to boycott Toy Fair. It was the richest intellectual experience I’ve had all year — and that’s saying something when you think I’ve also been to top-rate conferences in my field at Kennan, the UN, Columbia etc. Truly.
You’re being a silly socialist utopian nerdball with this “ACK THE HORRAH THEY MONETARIZING 6-YEAR OLDS”. You have to be like Jim Bower on this. You don’t say this is bad. You say that this *is*. You study it and figure out how to do it better. You win them over. Whyville is the dissident of these games, and now they have Wal-mart advertising them on Dells for sale in their store, not Whyville wandering lost in the halls of the Javitts Center looking for VC handouts like last year’s has-been worlds. Wake up, Dusan. It’s morning in the Metaverse.
Geo-location? I would revise that to say “me location”. Wherever people are roaming with their phones. They want stuff on their phones, but not necessarily about their location but perhaps a fact off Google or a song or a telephone number or even a book. People do have their noses in their phones more than in their worlds, but you know they do both, and move back and forth a lot more than they used to.
9-11 year-old girls’ playing Farmville on their parents’ Facebooks and chatting about it with their friends on their mobile phones in between some snatches of Free Realms or Club Penguin, this is where it’s at. This is the future. There will be heavier and light on a continuum.
Seriously, again, you can’t have the vapours about the capitalism and the monetarizing. It’s more about who gets to do the monetarizing, not whether there will be monetarizing.
Do you know the fastest segment of mobile phone users in Europe, according to these toy execs, is the 8 year old kid? He is using his phone to buy Habbo furni. We don’t have that in America yet because of heavy carrying charges. But that will change as it did for the EU and Japan and Russia. That 8 year old and his parents are not fainting in Victorian distress that he has been monetarizing, they are weaving it into their lives, making it part of his regime of allowance and chores.
BTW, I have been seeing what you mean by the PaP guy, ugh, what an opportunist. It shows you how showboats always get on boards like that just for showing up and tooting their own horn. Awful stuff. No one to argue with him now.
well, let’s just say I have second thoughts about what kind of person that would make me.
Gosh, like…Second Thoughts’ blogger doesn’t know what kind of person you are already, asswipe.
Recently Ron wrote to me that he was ready to make up (he is on my enemy list). He magnanimously did this because…he decided that *I* had changed (lol — I haven’t). He decided that I made “less ad hominem attacks”. Therefore, he was ready to meet with me.
Honestly, you couldn’t script stuff funnier. Is Ron just looking for work now, is this the form it takes? I told him to go piss up a rope.
Gary Arthur Douglas II — good Lord, is there a Gary Arthur Douglas III in the making?! Shall the world hold its breath for the little prince?
I have to marvel that anyone could say that PaP has “got it”. All PaP has in fact done is wheeled out the worst, most tired ridiculous memes about SL that were made in 2006 and 2007 and tried to re-tread them. Seriously, my eyes bug out. All the *lies*. Like “there’s racism in SL, whew, read all about it, get it linked on the BBC which hates America!” or “Wow, we are single-handedly running the Iran revolution off an SL server, details at 11!” — and a link to…somebody who isn’t Iranian…with about 2 1/2 other people holding a candle in a virtual mosque with a sign telling others they can’t honour the dead unless they put on the veil.
Entirely un self critical. Entirely unconscious of in fact the latest conversations. That reference in the third-party, having us all waiting for the revelation that he is a lost Romanov rising from the pits of the Ipatiev House. Honestly, there hasn’t been anything so pretentious around SL since Ron/Hiro Pendragon lol.
lol.. funny stuff.
romanovs…lol
ah. youth and virtual worlds… a chance to dream.
It seems many soon find that the real truths of virtual world/net media are found not when one is newly plugged in– but when one gets unwillingly unplugged.
“I don’t know why you haven’t been listening to me for five years.”
I have, and it’s made me the man I am today…
hold on, my 5 minutes weekley computer time is up. BACK TO THE PADDED ROOM! WOO WOO!!!!1
Say, Dusan … now that you’re done being a suckup, how are you going to make up for it?
Ron, crist man are you that hard up for a job? i have a toilet you can clean!
Cube – get a fuckin clue these people are idiots your wastin your time
lol…
v.
pony up some cash… I’ll use my time better;) I Got many ideas… promise.
or find me a better venue.;)
i keep looking…..and looking.;)
Dusan, I haven’t read this Journal in a while, and I was astounded at how bad it was. It’s like the entire mediocre warmed over crew from Terra Nova (which I call Terra Antiqua) migrated over. It has all the same tired, well-worn “critical” (i.e. Marxist) essays about “the consumerist culture” and the “commodification of online life” blah blah de blah. I’ll try to read more, but I’ve got enough of an idea to see that maybe what’s happened here with PaP is that like has gravitated to like, not that the Journal’s standards are slipping, because they aren’t innovative.
You should simply start a new one.