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Category
Identity and Expression
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02.21.11The Future of Thinking Virtually: Tom Boellstorff on Overlays, Cyborgs and Second Life CultureI could chat with Tom Boellstorff all day - but I'll take an hour when I can get it, as I recently did on Metanomics (full video at the end of the post). During my recent interview with Rod Humble, the new CEO of Linden Lab, I had one major piece of advice: reach out to Tom and spend some time with him (and while you're at it, hire an ethnographer to work at the Lab!). Excerpts from my interview with Tom might help explain why: On Virtual Worlds, Techne, and the Concept of the Overlay DUSAN: So one of the ...
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02.12.11Virtual Dialogues: My Conversation with Rod Humble, CEO of Linden LabLong-term residents of Second Life would probably experience the little shiver of recognition that I did during a long-ranging interview with Rod Humble, the new CEO of Linden Lab. "For me, the hook was the moment I created something," Humble told me. "It was the moment I made a cube and then checked off 'activate physics' and watched as the cube fell to the ground and bounced to its side." For many Second Life users, that initial 'aha' moment is often something so simple that it later seems difficult to describe the power of the experience: the moment you rez a prim ...
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02.03.11Second Life: Metanomics with Tom BoellstorffAnthropologist Tom Boellstorff was our guest on Metanomics this past Monday. It was an exhilarating conversation, covering everything from the cultural implications of voice in Second Life to the concept of "Overlays" as a way to think about our digital lives. Tom is an incredibly engaging person with an enthusiasm that left me (and many in the audience I think) feeling exhilarated about the future of virtuality. We're just at the beginning in our understanding of what virtual worlds mean, the implications of avatar embodiment, and the larger cultural implications of our increasingly digital lives. I'll comment more soon once the transcripts ...
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01.30.11Metanomics Monday: Masterclass on Culture, Anthropology and the Meaning of LifeOK, so not much ground to cover on tomorrow's Metanomics when I host Tom Boellstorff, noted anthropologist and author of the seminal work Coming of Age in Second Life. The discussion lifts off of my previous post on the future of Second Life to which Tom graciously responded in the comments. In follow-up chats with Tom, we toyed with a show focused on the merger of the Teen and Main Grids. We thought we might discuss how our journey as avatars in a virtual world isn't unlike our journey as humans - from "noob" to "teen" to wiser and more mature (um, ...
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08.18.10It’s All in a Name: Display Names in Second LifeLinden Lab announced the addition of display names to Second Life, permitting residents to have a name which, well, displays in addition to the account name chosen on sign-up (gone is the requirement to pick a last name from a pre-generated list). Back in the days of M when everything was done in secret and every third person on the Grid had signed an NDA for some reason or other - they were in the mesh beta, or the Viewer Beta...I was asked to contribute to an NDA'd display name messaging roundtable or something. It wasn't a roundtable on the feature ...
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08.07.10Avatars as Diaspora: Identity and Content Wallets for the New Age of PrivacyThere's power in your avatar. In my recent post about MyWorld, a new mirror world social gaming platform, Metacam Oh commented that without avatars it isn't a game changer for the metaverse. Now, I'd argue that the metaverse is more broadly defined - it includes mirror worlds, augmented reality, and life logging. And so while MyWorld may not rattle the cages of World of Warcraft or Second Life, it will be a game-changer for "places" online in which users interact with each other. But Metacam is right that there is something significant about participating in a virtual space with an avatar. ...
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05.31.10The Why of Virtual Worlds, and Selling Second LifeThe why is more important than the what or how - and in saying that, Grace McDunnough reaches my heart. Picking up on a speech by Simon Sinek at TED, the question of "why" doesn't negate the "what" or the "how", but it's the basis of leadership: Every single person, every single organization on the planet knows WHAT they do, 100 percent. Some know HOW they do it, whether you call it your differentiated value proposition or your proprietary process or your USP. But very, very few people or organizations know WHY they do what they do. And by "WHY" I ...
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05.30.10The Ultimate Emptiness of Dusan: Identity and VirtualitySomehow I missed the post earlier, but BotGirl has continued a conversation that has flipped back and forth across the blogs since, well, since I've been paying attention: what constitutes an avatar identity. In this case, Botgirl parses the different impressions we might have when we think of someone using their real or avatar names: "As I was thinking earlier today about a post in Phasing Grace on Second Life culture, it occurred to me that the same sort of semiotic questions I had in the quest to identify and name a distinct virtual Second Life culture also applied to personal ...
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05.20.10Creativity and Mental Health: Do Your Dopamine Levels Explain Why You’re in Second Life?The typical Second Life creator quite likely shares brain chemistry with schizophrenics, although whether this explains the duality of avatar/physical identity I'll leave for the scientists to sort out. And while in some ways this might seem like a joke, I've been thinking a lot lately about the qualities inherent in the act creating in a virtual world, and whether this truly has an impact on brain chemistry. But maybe I've been putting the cart before the horse - it's not that Second Life and virtual worlds changes your brain chemistry, but rather people with a certain neurochemistry tend to be ...
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05.11.10Web, Meet World: Second Life As Augmented RealitySo I've joined the east coast liberal elite. Or at least I think I have. I'm shuttered up in a little country home in the Hudson Valley where I thought I'd be wearing flannel and chopping wood, but being Canadian I have a limited sense of geography, and it turns out I should have headed to, um, Vermont or somewhere instead. So instead, I find myself headed to town in the morning to eat 20-grain bread, drink free trade organic coffee, and read the New York Times along with people who look like they're just as happy that New York ...
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