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The Archives
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03.17.08IBM Identity Purchase and Implications for Virtual WorldsIBM's purchase of Encentuate adds to the aggregation of identity management software and services amongst a few top players. As covered at Information Week the move follows that of Microsoft which purchased Credentica's U-prove identity software. Identity, age verification, transparency and trust are Internet-wide issues. These issues have played out in virtual worlds and are increasingly viewed as either something that can create a barrier to 'real world entry' into virtual worlds or a thorn in the side of immersionists. The idea of being able to toggle your identity is thus gaining increasing credence, leaving the power in the hands of ...
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02.11.08Report from Emory Virtual Worlds Conference: Live ReportVirtual Worlds Evolving is the first topic at Emory University where academics, policy-makers and in-world developers have opened up a discussion of the future of virtual worlds towards "engaging scholars in a strong and vital community to confront the human condition and experience and explore...frontiers...specifically involving virtual world phenomena." The first panel was asked to look at the 'trajectory' of virtual worlds - Edward Castranova of Indiana, Michael Rowe of IBM, John Clippinger of Harvard, Gregg Kaminsky a student at Emory who also has a significant business in Second Life, and Rhonda Lowry of CNN shared their thoughts with Benn Konsynski ...
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01.31.08Geeks in Life: Second Skin TrailerA new documentary explores identity, love, addiction, and life in virtual worlds. Two years in the making, Second Skin has released a trailer and if its production values and neutral stance are any indication it could be a real mind-opener. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPOxuOCGi9I] Meantime, BBC ran a show last night for the first time on adultery in virtual worlds. Haven't seen it but the slant of the coverage harkens back to the "birth of the Internet days"...remember when the Net was a dangerous alternate universe populated by geeks and pervs? NWN had a nice reminder: Has the Internet been overhyped? Even as cyberspace is ...
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01.25.08Alts, Virtual Worlds, and TribesIs our emerging virtual world literacy facilitating freedom, or quasi-religious indoctrination? On the heels of my previous post about alts, and the insightful commentary that followed from others, I ran across an intriguing post (design note: one which would be far better if they'd change the background wallpaper that almost makes the site illegible) on the inter-subjectivity between real and virtual spaces. First, the poster notes: Virtual worlds thrive on the content of the communication that is crafted meaningfully through the imagery of friendship. It is crafted to deal with individual users through an inter-face of choice and freedom, as a world ...
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01.22.08The Place of Alts in Virtual Worlds and Second Life: Possession or ExpressionIs having an 'alt' in Second Life a moral failing? Where does "Your World, Your Imagination" begin, and "Our World, Our Imaginations" take over? In an environment with purposeful fluidity of identity construction, open-ended opportunities for exploration and immersion, and as many prims as your land can handle - does assuming a secondary identity constitute a moral failing, or is it maximizing the promise of the platform? The issue of alts (setting up a second, separate account which thus constitutes a "second you" within the Second Life world) is not just intriguing, but also a hint at the challenges related to ...
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01.14.08Liberate Your AvatarNew World Notes pointed out this fascinating experiment in virtual/real world cross-over and while at first glance it was an amusing and brain-twisting experiment in bring the real and virtual together, I actually think it's a prototype of things to come. With all the talk of immersive worlds (and more about Castranova's concept of an exodus to "the" virtual world later), augmented reality gets lost in the flood of talk of Warcraft and MMORPGs and Second Life. I've imagined before what a future concert might be like (wake up music industry!) - one in which the artist appears both live and ...
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12.22.07Lessons from Second Life: Imagination, Discovery and Negative ConsequencesA long and thought-provoking post on the dangerous lessons of Second Life reminds me again of the "strange loop" and offers insight into how the issues of identity, emotion, trust, and immersion will shape issues in the years to come: years when more and more people will migrate to increasingly "real" synthetic worlds. Dave Pollard summarizes the negatives of his immersion in Second Life with two observations: On Appearance In Second Life we can have both. Everyone in Second Life appears lovable, aesthetically and erotically. So from the safety of our lovely avatars we can afford, and have a platform, to put our ...
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11.30.07Avatars Living Past DeathI've written at length on how we deal with death in virtual worlds, and the implications of the technology for the future, where the question of who will "own" an avatar will become increasingly complex. An interesting post and discussion at Massively as to whether avatars should live on once the real person behind them has passed on, picking up previous discussions and postings of my own that speak to how strange the issues of identity will truly become, especially as avatars themselves increasingly become repositories of deeper value. Once an avatar's typist is gone, the avatar should be removed after a ...
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11.15.07Avatars and Identity: Conference on Orange IslandHot topic of the week it seems - avatars and identity, meaning, the "brand you". Orange Island presents a series of talks and discussions with what seems to include a robust lineup, including: Avatar as a Personal Brand Persona and Identity Transparency in Business Details here. Very much in line with my post of yesterday on virtual worlds and identity.
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11.13.07Virtual Worlds & IdentityIs an avatar us, who owns it, and if our avatars are simply code on a server somewhere does the owner of the server own the rights to that representation? Or in granting a license to be "present" does the use of that license grant us ownership of what we create from that license (including identity). A much longer posting to follow on thought of identity based on a recent death which impacted a virtual world, but first a quicker response to a posting by Taran over on KnowProse. He first points out an article covering the theft of an avatar on ...
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