Real virtuality:when your own name is your avatar

Posted on January 17, 2011 by mandy

I have bitten the bullet, and created a Second Life avatar which carries my own name; no more hiding behind exaggerated curves for me.

I picked an off-the-shelf avatar, one that  like me, had a lock of hair over the eyes. The problem is that there are sure to be thousands who look just the same, so some modifications will no doubt ensue,  subject to the dreaded time vortex that seems to accompany avatar customisation.
MandySL

I admit I have an affection for my original avatar, ‘Caliope Voss’, created in the days when Linden Lab decreed that one’s name had to be chosen from a pre-set list.

Caliope Voss

Users could nominate their own first name, making for some intriguing conjunctions. ‘Eaten Gumbo, ‘Fried Fish’, ‘Sleeplesin Seattle’, are amongst those names collected on Vint Falken’s blog.

Many influential  members of the metaverse choose to be playful with their names, as indeed they are with the graphical images they have created for their avatars. People working with immersive health and education domains know that the name Pathfinder belongs to a leading advocate, the wonderful John Lester; while consultant and former IBM luminary, Ian Hughes, is so well established as ‘Epredator’, that his Wikipedia entry contains the avatar name in the title. In both  cases,  the avatars’ identities have developed into valuable brands, with currency that extends into the physical world, as well as into virtual environments other than Second Life, (Lester is based at Reaction Grid).

Pathfinder/John Lester

Epredator/Ian Hughes

With the real and virtual world become increasingly diffused, I wonder if dear ‘Caliope Voss’ will end up buried in a dusty corner in my digital inventory… or will she maintain her status,  in recognition of a quintessential element of virtual worlds, the ability to play. Indeed, now that I have real world identity in the virtual world,  Caliope might be able to relax a bit, and let her alter-ego get on with the serious stuff.

 

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Posted in avatars, Second life | 4 Comments

Wikileaks, the Christmas gift that keeps on giving

Posted on December 17, 2010 by mandy


Wikileaks heralds the end of secrets. The primacy of privacy is eroding, as anyone on Facebook can attest.  Now the shift has hit governments around the world.  They are shaken and stirred, and gone forever is our tacit acceptance that information held by government agencies should be silo-ed and untouchable. Everyone, all of us, are now accountable for our actions to the new regulator, or rather, self-regulator, that organism that is the global network.

The reverberations have only just begun.

Few would have dared predict that in 2010, the Internet would neutralise the secret service, and the cosy chats of entre-nous diplomacy.

Where once the door to the back room of politics was shut, it will now be forever ajar, but we will need to be wary, as pragmatists may choose Wikileaks over the parliamentary press corps to spread the word.. Wikileaks could even become the new frontier for counter-espionage.

But regardless of whose message is carried, Wikileaks is developing into some new kind of Associated Press, and, in the process, is corralling traditional news media into three parts: press releases, sports news and opinion pieces.

Scoops regarding the corridors of power and its underbelly will be increasingly supplied by a global population of  ’we, the deep throat’s’. That is, if the Internet remains open….

…this will be our big challenge in the next 12 months.

Season’s greetings !

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New Report: Immersive Internet Australia: Education

Posted on December 7, 2010 by mandy

I’ve posted my report, (the full PDF version is located under the Immersive Internet Australia tab, profile on education), profiling Australian educators’ use of virtual worlds and other immersive technologies. Hopefully, it is something of a roadmap for those contemplating such tools, as well as a marker of those who already do.

Here’s the abstract :

The idea that virtual environments are places for community engagement has been understood by the gaming community for some time, however the rise of the online world, Second Life (SL),  during 2005-7, brought wider recognition, as fascinated media reported on the more sensational aspects of living in a pixelated world.

Since then, the faint pulse has turned into a strong heartbeat, spearheaded by a bullish kids and youth market that sees constituents migrating comfortably to virtual worlds for social and gaming purposes. Equally, rapid improvements in the platforms themselves have prompted  service providers to consider 3D virtual environments for geographically dispersed or resource-limited communities, or where remote services and collaborative projects are being undertaken.

It is timely therefore, to understand how multi-user virtual environments (MUVES) add value to the education sector.

The report describes those elements which distinguish virtual environments from other collaborative tools, and documents Australian initiatives in education, demonstrating how immersive Internet technologies can engage students not just in learning, but also in knowledge production.

With Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) initiative in mind, a field study establishes a context for further government supported programs.

There are many projects which, due to the space/time equation, are not included – but if you have a project, please drop a note in the comment box. Many thanks  to my colleagues at Smart Services Internet Cooperative Research Centre, my research home, and especially a virtual worlds cohort who have assisted my research. In particular:

Dethridge, Lisa. School of Media and Communication, RMIT, Melbourne Victoria

Driver, Erica. Co-founder, Thinkbalm

Field, Westley. Managing Director Skoolaborate, Director eLearning, Methodist Ladies College (MLC), Sydney NSW

Flavell, Karen. (formally), Treet TV,

Gray, Peter. Public Relations Unit, Linden Lab

Joy, Bruce. CEO, VastPark

Kay, Jo. Principal, Jokaydia, 2009

Linegar, Dale. Virtual Worlds education facilitator, Monash University

McKeown, Lindy. Virtual Worlds education consultant

Millea, Jenny. Program Manager, Education.au

Mitham, Nic. CEO, KZERO

More, Greg. Principal OOM Creative; Lecturer, Spatial Information Architect Laboratory (SIAL) School of Architecture and Design RMIT

Quodling, Bob. CEO, Simmersion Holdings Pty Ltd

Rizzo,  Alberto. Director, eLearning Strategies Melbourne Grammar School

Sankar, James. Director, Applications & Services, AARnet

Steele, Cathie. Director, Centre for Health Innovation, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne

Stefanic, Danny. CEO, ExitReality

Smith, Stuart. Senior Research Officer, Falls and Balance Research Group, Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute

Soudoplatoff, Serge. Founder, Almatropie

Teubler, Vincent. Co-Founder, Gogofrog

Wood, Colin. Manager, Partnerships for Learning, Centre For Learning Innovation, Department of Education and Training NSW.


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Are virtual worlds off the boil ?

Posted on October 28, 2010 by mandy

The August release of Gartner’s 2010 hype cycle for emerging technologies, which sees Virtual Worlds lodged in the pit of the disillusionment trough, has generated some interesting discussion in the blogosphere. VW’ds marketing consultant Mary Ellen Gordon asks why this has occurred, especially in light of Gartners’ much quoted 2007 declaration’ that by 2012, 80 percent of Internet users would have an avatar.

One way to look at this is that Gartner pretty much got it right: the notion of ‘avatar’ needs to be widened, and seen as one’s personal web identity, across social platforms and beyond.

But why does Gartner predict VWd’s  are 5-10 years away from mainstream adoption, when in 2009, it suggested the range of 2-5 years was the more likely marker?   Chris Arkenberg, a researcher at California’s Institute of the Future proffers this insight:

‘The ongoing failure of virtual worlds is due to their failure to embrace the predominant social API’s. Walled garden worlds only work if you have a massive budget and a solid narrative and reward system, ala Blizzard. Otherwise, you have to leverage the social platforms that the first life uses if you want them to feel like the second life is a place they should spend their time.”

Indeed, the diffusion of virtual worlds and social media (a two-way process, each taking from the other) is readily observable, especially when looking at the way digital goods are generated and transacted. Facebook supports a number of 3D apps, remember Vivaty? Smallworlds is a more recent example, and there are numerous others. Cyworld (Korea) has been doing it since 1999, with personalised 3D home pages. In these cases, the motivation for ‘rooms’ is chat and  content sharing ( goods and media) for recreational use.

Smallworlds, integrates social media with virtual worlds – but if virtual worlds are to be mainstream, the diffusion needs to occur at a more systemic,  institutional level…in financial, goverment, education  and so on.

The breakthrough for virtual worlds will come when users will be able to ‘go virtual’ from whatever web page they are on. This will be the litmus test of the two-way diffusion, and will roughly coincide with the time that ‘social media’ ceases to be a feature in itself and instead  becomes intrinsic to our  web transactions across many different business and service domains. It’ll be a simple question: “is what we need to do best suited to being in the virtual environment ?” And if the answer is yes, users will simply go there. Standards will need to be in place, embodied avatars will need to be able to easily migrate from one system to another. One platform may well end up being the industry standard.  And  it will be the launch pad for a thousand(s) plugins that tailor make the virtual experience, according to users needs, just as we have seen with iphone apps.

When the first bank, government agency or hospital launch a virtual worlds platform from their home page, we’ll really know the social/ virtual diffusion has been fully realised. (Tell me which platform it’ll be, I am ready to invest).

Meanwhile, I look to evidence of the use of Virtual Worlds for strategic thinking and international collaboration,  such as the Virtual World Conference 2010, convened by the UK’s Open University amongst others.  http://www.thevirtualworldconference2010.org/. Here in Australia, our own Open University is seriously evaluating virtual environments, in particular Avaya’s Nortel. The opportunity for engagement and action via virtual environments in remote learning situations is where the driver for in a 2-5 year time frame for adoption lies, rather than a 5-10 year adoption which Gartner is latterly espousing.

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Posted in avatars, collaboration, enterprise, provocations, socialmedia, Virtual Goods | 20 Comments

Immersive Learning: on or off the boil?

Posted on October 9, 2010 by mandy

Immersive Learning was very much on the agenda in Australia in 2008, as this video made by Educationau enthusiastically demonstrates.

A group from Gippsland TAFE, in Victoria, drafted a set of protocols for immersive learning here but, like Educationau, the site has not been modified for two years.

So what has happened in the interim; has the momentum gone? Is innovation  on the wane,  failing to gravitate past the ‘worthy experiment’ stage ? Are educators waiting as platforms gear up for a much better user experience?  Or has the focus shifted to other new tools, such as the integration of social media and geo-location?

With Australian government agencies looking to fund new projects for our proposed superfast broadband infrastructure, (one such program is Multimedia Victoria’s cIIF, Round 2, which has $5 million to develop innovative uses), the time is right to advance the next phase of immersive education. But one government agency representative privately questions whether virtual environments can deliver on their promise.  My feeling is that a SecondLife-centric view prevails amongst the doubters, and as any follower of the platform knows, the service has suffered lately through a range of technical and administrative obstacles, such as with the shutting down of its Teen Grid service, the decision to withdraw SLEnterpriseBeta, its behind-the-firewall solution, and management instability.

Over the next few weeks I will be setting out a clearer picture of Immersive Internet the education sector. In the meantime,  if you have a current project or plans to uses immersive tools and platforms in the education setting,  I invite you to add comments or pass on a link in the the comments box. Cheers.

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Collaborative modes of learning for the future

Posted on September 30, 2010 by mandy

MMOs and virtual environments continue to fire innovative thinking in the education setting, indeed the Games-4-Learning concept is the obvious path to follow, given the way we know young people achieve set tasks through shared quests, especially when these tasks are visually constructed. The next ‘quest’ is to see this thinking imported into the workplace. An eloquent discussion of this is Paul Gee’s report ‘Getting Over the Slump: Innovation Strategies to Promote Children’s Learning‘.   More of Professor Gee in the clip below.

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Why virtual goods are not ‘make believe’

Posted on September 8, 2010 by mandy

Today’s News.com report on the rise of virtual goods, demonstrates widely held misconceptions, if its social media expert Jules Cole’s response is anything to go by.

Commenting on the strength of the global trend, and the success of  Californian company Virtual Greats, Coles says: “If they (virtual goods) are free, I can definitely see the use of them … but they (users) are  not actually getting anything tangible for their money…If it’s an extension of games, I see that as a benefit. But I can’t see it taking off.”

It’s a comment that is almost as miscalculated as that made by Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, who in 1943  said,  “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” And like Thomas, Cole’s words may well come back to haunt him.

Cole’s assertion contradicts the article’s very thrust, that the global market for  virtual goods has ‘doubled in two years to an estimated $3.3 billion, up from around $1.7 billion in 2008‘. The mismatch seems to have gone unnoticed.

In fact, virtual marketing analyst KZERO estimates trade revenue of vitual goods to be even higher, more like USD 5 billion), other evidence abounds. Take Zynga, the LA- based social games company whose titles  include Farmville and Mafia Wars. In just two years, 2007-2009, Zynga acquired 180 million active players per month across its various games titles and brought in over 500 staff to manage them. Revenue expectation for the year 2009-2010 is in excess of $(US) 100m. Moreover,  in spite of a tough financial environment,  FORBES reports that  the Company has taken $519 million in funding, the bulk of which was raised after December 2009.

Another glaring problem with the story is that it refers to  ’Make- believe items’.

Virtual Goods are not substitutes  for the real thing: no one expects a virtual umbrella to stop the rain from landing on you…but it  might be a fashion statement for an avatar; it might be a symbol for a charity you support and which you attach to your web or social network home page; it might embed a service – not a real world one, that would be rain protection,  but perhaps, like the the Penguin’s brolly in Batman, it activates something. His was shooter,  but why not a brolly as a dynamic widget casing for water consumption on your desktop?

In the virtual world, objects are editable and open to new interpretations. But while the digital goods have uses which the real world ones can not,  people’s desire to own them are the same : as  identifiers, as status, or for the service they deliver. And as research by Stanford’s Byron Reeves and Cliff Nass has shown, the same dopamine responses come into play when the cash register rings.

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Posted in provocations, Virtual Goods | Tagged | 8 Comments

Virtual Parliament House

Posted on August 25, 2010 by mandy

The industry white paper, Immersive Internet Australia, is currently embargoed, as Smart Services CRC  industry partners get the first look.  It will shortly  to be released (see the tab on the home page which links to it).  In the  concluding chapter, I suggest  Parliament House in Canberra should go virtual.  Here’s the excerpt :

Coincidentally,  Australian free-to-air television station, The Nine Network, has put its toe in the water by creating a virtual Parliament House as part of its election night coverage. I was quite excited by the  the coverage as it went to air, and now, friends at the  Metaverse Journal have brought the background story to light, via a YouTube video they sourced.  The ABC also played with the idea : election data represented as augmented 3D graphs, was placed in front of journalist Leigh Sales, as she spoke.

Next?  Reporter avatars. Stay tuned (as they say).

Here’s the video

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Posted in Immersive Internet Australia, vGovernment | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Avatars: Personas ? or Skins?

Posted on August 18, 2010 by mandy

I’ve been following a discussion thread about avatars, where the distinction between ‘personas or skins’ demonstrates the discomfort people in enterprise situations might feel about the corporate use of avatars.
Firstly , a reminder as to why the corporate use of  3D environments does indeed have something unique to offer – which Skype, Webex, Gotomeeting, Citrix and the like, do not offer :

Virtual environments allow users to congregate around and modify editable objects; they allow users to interact with one another in a customised, spatial environment; they are places for streaming rich media; they have the potential to create narratives : think serious games and machinima.

Yes the platforms have glitches and can be unstable, but these problems are being addressed. Constraining usability issues should not be confused with the overarching principles being discussed here.

Secondly, What exactly is an avatar ?

Avatars are all about agency: somehow, users need to navigate and activate. Then, there is the question of persona: what or who does the user present to the online community? (Do you really have 600 friends on Facebook ?)


Taking the persona angle: for some users, having an customisable avatar allows them to feel MORE themselves than they do in their real life : this is well documented in cases of disabilitiy such as people with cerebral palsy.

It’s also worth remembering that the Barbie/Ken Doll/Disney forest creatures SL variety avatar, is just one kind of embodiment. Some platforms offer photorealistic versions of their users. One platform being developed creates the avatar via realtime video streaming of the user (one of my university colleagues is developing this), prompting the question, where does real and virtual presence begin/end?

My view is that people are unnecessarily hung up on concepts surrounding avatars, especially as the idea of having an avatar, fuelled in part by the James Cameron’s movie, is now widely understood, and is no longer some weird, nerdy, geeky thing.

Personally, I consider all expressions of the self online, as being an avatar, in the sense that it is a way of gaining agency and identity in a shared online environment. Fanciful, whimsical or strongly naturalistic – that is the users call, and their penchant for one choice over another, may change according to need and circumstance.

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Ode, in the social media mode

Posted on August 3, 2010 by mandy

A friend commented on a rather quirky claim to fame: that I might just be the first comic to use an iPad on stage ?!?

We have many lives.

In a previous one, I performed comedy at a much missed venue in inner Sydney, named The Gap,which was located on the 3rd floor of the notorious Sydney Trade Union Club in Foveau Street,  Surry Hills.

To kick off a Powerhouse Museum curatorial project on the new wave comedy of the era,  (the mid  80′s), there was a concert featuring some now famous names. There’s more information about the event, via the Facebook group ‘The Gap Reunion’ ).

Reprising my role as the compere,  I assumed my character-of-old, ‘Fiona Smout’. Fiona was always at the cutting edge of cool, but sadly, was very unlucky in love. So a poem on social media, which reflects my current research interests, provided some comic material (as too, our forthcoming federal election) for the night. It is reproduced here.

Ode, in the Social Media Mode

A  kindly friend on facebook
Suggested I ‘add’ you, and take a look.
I was not to know what would unravel
Once the metadata between us began to travel

A search on Google was to relay
Your A+ status on eBay
Ninety nine percent were satisfied!
Which your 5000 Linkedin connections ratified

With such a reputation
I accepted your invitation
To a chat room if you please
To discuss Microsoft’s latest release.

We debated the value of IP
Shared and downloaded MP3
You sent me jpegs from afar
We even synced our calendar

Our love progressed to Second Life
Where, predictably, you had a wife
But your lie to me was no matter,
In real life, my chest is flatter.

And now, I cannot resist
To see if you actually exist.
To meet face-to-face, do I dare?
Or is this a reality I should myself spare ?

Why not learn to simply embrace
Love that takes place in the digital space.
The downer is it’s  far from total,
but on the upside, its multimodal.

…tweet me ?

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Posted in provocations, Second life, socialmedia | Tagged | 1 Comment