Hey Everyone! Here is a copy of my paper on VWs if anyone is interested. I am using WordPress as a tool to convert to HTML.

            Every once in a while a new type of organization comes along and changes the way that the world works. In the past these have included guilds, schools, and corporations. Today the new type of organization is not tangible, but rather lies within the depths of our computer screen. The organization type that I am talking about is virtual worlds. These worlds can be text based MUDs (Multi-User Domains) like LambdaMOO (Turkle 11) or 3D representations like Second Life and World of Warcraft. These virtual worlds can be accessed by anyone who has a decent speed internet connection, so in today’s technological climate the barriers to entry are very small. People use virtual worlds for a multitude of reasons. Some like the social aspect, while others use it for work; some people just want to play. No matter what the reasons for the growth of virtual worlds are, it is important that we learn from them as they continue to be more widespread in the future. As their presence grows, they will begin to affect people more and more. As Edward Castronova puts it, “there is a there there and it’s getting bigger” (38). As these worlds grow there will be positive outcomes and there will be pitfalls that we, as a society, will have to watch out for. Virtual worlds are a new type of organization that is growing rapidly and becoming more prevalent in our global society and there will be effects on individuals and culture as a result.

            Before understanding the following affects, it is important to understand why so many people are beginning to use virtual worlds. Edward Castronova uses the term “attention migration” to explain this phenomenon. He says that while our bodies are not physically moving into virtual space, our minds are. Our attentions are being shifted from real life to virtual life (72-73). Why is this shift occurring? Virtual worlds considered to be more fun and enjoyable than the real world and provide us with new ways of thinking and doing things.

            Virtual worlds are a great way to connect with other people. Being a part of a virtual world allows individuals to meet with and have conversations with new people. It makes it easier to find people with whom they share interests. Barrie Gunter, author of The Effects of Video Games on Children states that, “the use of [these] networks enable[s] [people] to interact with people of a like mind with whom they [are] able to share mutual interests” (67).  One positive attribute that virtual worlds have is that they do not rely on geographical local. They allow us to bridge the gaps that real world distances create. Just last evening I was at a pub in virtual Dublin and met a man from India. Without the geographical divide the cultures that an individual can learn about are limitless.

            The geographical bridge does not end with making new friends. Some people are using virtual worlds to connect with real life (RL) family and friends. In a documentary about Second Life Kim Anubis, a content creator (she makes items in Second Life) says that both of her parents are in Second Life; “I can visit with them virtually every day.” In today’s world we are less likely to live in close proximity with our families as society has changed so that we are no longer complete dependent on being together. Virtual worlds may help bring us closer to our friends and family who we have left in a different area to pursue RL gains.

            In addition to meeting and learning about other people, virtual worlds can also help individuals to learn about themselves. Virtual worlds provide anonymity so that people can express unexplored parts of themselves (Turkle 185). Users can look inside themselves and find out who they want to be and actually create a being that fits those wants and needs. This can be incredibly revealing to the RL person behind the character. Others use virtual worlds as a way to explore their emotions on a deeper level. Turkle tells a story of a girl named Julee who used a
Dungeons and Dragons type of game to work through a tough emotional situation (while these games typically take place in RL situations, they are the precursor to virtual worlds that we see today). Julee’s mother abandoned her when she was nineteen years old because she found that her daughter had had an abortion the summer before she began college. In the game Julee was playing the role of a mother and had to make the decision of whether to kill her own daughter (who was found to have been a spy for a rival team) or to forfeit the game herself. Through a long process and conversation Julee decided that she would forfeit the game. Julee was able to reach new emotional resolutions from being a part of this world simulation (Turkle 187-188). Other people are using similar roles in virtual worlds to help to work through emotional problems. Another college student, Matthew, uses MUDs to be the ideal father. His character in the MUD is exactly like his father, but he used the MUD to play the person that he wished his father could be (his father was a lawyer, a drunk, and an adulterer) (191). Role playing in virtual worlds helps individuals to work through tough emotional situations that it is difficult for them to address in real life.

            In virtual worlds people can be whoever they would like to be and do whatever they would like to do. It acts as a way for people to “get past real world disabilities” (Second Life: a Documentary). The disabilities that they speak of are both physical and psychological. One man, Stewart, grew up with a severe heart problem that prevented him from partaking in many normal RL activities (he took a ski trip his freshman year of college and was hospitalized for a week because of his heart problems during the activity). He uses the MUD world as a way to participate in activities that he never before though possible (Turkle 192-196).

            Virtual worlds can also be helpful to people with social disabilities. It is possible that a painfully shy person could find it easier to communicate through the web. Gunter says that computers may provide the shy and withdrawn, “an alternative channel through which they can express themselves and establish social networks, while functioning with a medium with which they feel comfortable and confident” (67). I believe that this could have future applications for people with Asperger Syndrome, which is a social disorder that makes proper communication skills difficult. While my niece, who has been diagnosed with the syndrome, has trouble communicating with new people in RL, she is perfectly happy communicating with her friends in Neopets and Webkinz on the net. Applied on a larger scale, virtual worlds could help people with the syndrome to learn how to socialize better in an area where they feel comfortable.

            Not everyone who participates in virtual worlds in there to get past real world disabilities, they just want to accomplish more than they can in RL. Many people who join virtual worlds feel as if they are a part of something bigger than themselves (and they are in fact as there are approximately 30 million people worldwide that are using virtual worlds) (Castronova 34). Virtual worlds allow people to get involved. Active protests have been held in many virtual worlds. Some examples include the tax revolt in Second Life and the public demonstrations in which World of Warcraft players demanded attention for their concerns about the warrior class (Taylor 125). The tax revolt in Second Life is of particular interest as the whole the virtual world got involved and created real change in the monetary policy of Second Life. People were standing (with their avatars) in heavily used areas with signs protesting the tax system that was in place. One of the content creators made revolutionary war style costumes for the protestors to wear (one color for anti-tax supporters and another for anti-tax dissenter). Overall the protest was a huge success and Linden Labs re-evaluated the way in which they charged people for using space. There is now a system where you pay just for renting the land, but not for how high your items are or how much space they take up (Ideal World). People in the world were able to have an effect on the way that the world was being run (something that is lacking in today’s RL, even with the emphasis on democracy).

            Virtual world residents can also get involved by helping others. When I started in Second Life I was very confused about what to do in such a large world. I had no idea how to change my appearance or get currency. The Second Life website recommended a place called Help Island for “newborns” (new users). There were many people there looking to help new people out. I found someone that taught me how to dress myself and change my appearance. She gave me information about important resources and took me to an area where I could have a proper tutorial (as the one provided at the start is a little lacking). When I thanked her for all of the help she responded, “We find it pleasing to help.” There are people in virtual worlds that are making themselves feel as though they are doing good in the RL by helping people to learn about virtual life.

            Virtual worlds can also be used to help real life people. One Second Life citizen and newspaper owner, Katt Kongo, held two virtual fund raisers to help to raise money to donate to victims of hurricane Katrina. Through her virtual world auctions she raised about $10,000 to help those who were ravaged by the hurricane. She believes that while being a part of these virtual worlds it is important to give back to your community, both in the virtual world and in RL. Another individual giving back to a RL community through simulation is Hiro Pendragon. Hiro has been working on a virtual world project to design a park for an area in New York City. The space is called Landing Lights Park. Here, members of the RL community can come and experiment with their own ideas for the park space. They can build their ideal park area, save it, and share it with the rest of the community. It allows the people to show what they want to do with the park rather than having it decided for them. This example shows that virtual worlds can help to support RL community involvement that town hall meetings and other such venues have failed to do in the societies of today (Second Life: a Documentary).

            There are also organizations within the virtual world organizations. Many people have started businesses in Second Life and other virtual worlds. For some it is a dream that they never before imagined. Ansche Chung is the first person to become a real world millionaire from her business in Second Life. Ansche is a graphic designer who purchases land in-world and alters it to look like a fantasy land. She then sells parcels of land to other players in Second Life. Her talent has allowed her to make a large profit. Other businesses have also flourished. Pixel Dolls, a virtual clothing business run by Second Life citizen Nephilaine Protagonist has also been successful. While her husband Neil does have a real world job, Casey (the woman behind the avatar) stays at home and brings in a sustainable living through her virtual creations (Ideal World.

            Real world businesses are also using virtual worlds to do business. Philip Rosedale, founder and CEO of Second Life, says that businesses use virtual worlds rather than telephone conferences simply because they are more fun and engaging (Philip Rosedale). Other organizations are using virtual worlds in a more practical way. Because virtual worlds simulate real life, businesses can use them for training. One group uses virtual worlds to train for disaster response. This is difficult to do in RL because it can sometimes be dangerous (and frankly one cannot create a disaster just to train someone on what to do). Disaster first responders are able to learn how to manage a disaster situation by running through disaster simulations in virtual worlds. Another company, Crompco Co. in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, has begun to use Second Life as a training tool. Crompco Co. inspects gas stations to make sure that they are up to the code for environmental compliance. FlipperPA Peregrine, whose RL self is the technology chief at Crompco, suggested that they start using the 3D environment in Second Life to train new employees about the underground part of a gas station, how it works and what they need to look for. Flipper believes that this simulated environment it much more helpful than the previous 2D white board drawings that the company used to train with, and that gives them a competitive advantage over other firms because their clients are impressed with the technology that the company is using (Second Life: a Documentary). The fact that businesses can use virtual worlds to help them to be successful shows that virtual worlds can be applied to RL situations.

            According to Philip Rosedale virtual worlds are, “… the sum of all of our dreams…everything we’ve ever wanted” (Philip Rosedale). When he says this he refers to the idea that we can make virtual worlds into whatever we want. They are the ultimate outlet for creativity with life. A virtual world user can create and be whatever they want. Fabricating things in-world is not the only way that people can demonstrate their creativity. People can also upload their real art into the world and sell it. In the teen focused virtual world Gaia Online people often draw pictures of their avatar and place it in their profiles. Music has also become a big part of virtual worlds. In Second Life people can have concerts by streaming live music into the world. There are many bars and cafes that support this action. It gives people an opportunity to have their music heard around the world rather than in just one geographical location (Second Life: a Documentary).

            While all of these positives are evident, there are some concerns about virtual worlds that have been brought to light. One concern is that people become too attached to their avatars and instead of spending time learning about themselves they are spending time hiding out in the virtual realms. Sherry Turkle states that, “We are moving toward a culture of simulation in which people are increasingly comfortable with substituting representations of reality for the real” (23). She also admits that while the virtual worlds may help some people, they may also hurt other people by causing them to be trapped in the virtual realm and lose track of RL and RL problems (188).

            There is a sign in a tutorial area of Second Life that reads, “Always remember [there] is a real person behind every Avatar. Be nice; don’t push people around for fun… Be polite, courteous and considerate to all residents. Harassment is a violation of the SL terms of service and can get you in trouble…” While these warnings do exist, Rosedale admits that attacks on player characters still happen. He says that there are incidents of what he calls “griefing” or giving other users such a hard time that it is no longer fun for them to be a part of the world. There are other more harsh forms of attacks. One type, known as virtual rape, can be harmful to those who are heavily connected to their avatars. One bad case happened in the MUD LambdaMOO, an avatar dressed as a clown entered and hacked into other players’ accounts forcing them to do sexually explicit acts that they did not want to (Turkle 251). While some believe that these are just words, to people who are truly connected to their avatars feel as though they have been personally harmed.

            The biggest concern with virtual worlds is addiction, which is defined as “compulsive behavioral involvement with games accompanied by a lack of interest in other activities” (Gunter 51). While there have been some cases that could be described as addiction, for many users virtual worlds are not a constant part of their life because of addiction. According to Edward Castronova, people spend more time in virtual worlds than the real world because the virtual world experience is better compared to their RL experience (188). People often associate spending a great deal of time on something as an addiction, but this is not the case. According the Turkle, one must spend a lot of time in the world in order to keep up with action (183).

            Edward Castronova presents another fear that those who participate in virtual worlds will lose sight of real world families. Parenting is an important part of real life, and without it our society will dwindle to nobody. Many virtual worlds do not contain children at all. Castronova is concerned that if we do not gain proper parenting skills or ignore out real children in order to be a part of the virtual worlds that we will perpetuate a cycle of misery that will be passed from one generation to the next (190). It is important that, even as more people begin to use virtual worlds, we remember where we came from and that we need happy, functional (or mostly functional) families in order to thrive as a global society.

            When judging the use of virtual worlds for future applications it is important that we look at both the positive and negative effects. Virtual worlds are no longer just for play; we can do great things in them. They are an innovative way to collaborate and can be used for many business applications. They allow us to be creative and learn about ourselves while we learn about others. As people begin to “migrate their attention” , we need to look out for the negative effects of being a part of virtual worlds, being careful not to lose complete sight of our real life selves and making sure that others that are involved keep at least one foot in the real world as well.

Works Cited

Castronova, E. (2007). Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun is Changing Reality. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

Crooks, A. v. (Director). (2007). Second Life: a Documentary [Motion Picture].

Gunter, B. (1998). The Effects of Video Games on Children: the Myth Unmasked. Seffiels, England: Sheffield Academic Press.

Philip Rosedale: Second Life: What Do We Learn If We Digitize Everything? (2006). [Motion Picture].

Taylor, T. (2005). Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Thomas, G. (Director). (2007). Ideal World: A Virtual Life Documentary [Motion Picture].

Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon and Schuster.

When I first read Dibbell’s article I was highly confused and terribly disturbed. I reread the whole thing and still didn’t catch it; I really just didn’t understand what he was trying to say. So, I researched LambdaMOO and found some pretty interesting facts. There still is a LambdaMOO site and apparently is a quite popular online community. You go into this house and just walk around and converse with other people. On the main page of the LambdaMOO website, the creator says that you can be whoever you want to be on this website, however you want to be portrayed. It had also mentioned Dibbell’s article which surprised me because I thought that might be seen as bad publicity for the website. I thought at first when I read this article that LambdaMOO was this crazy ‘cyber rape’ website but when I went on it just seemed to be an online community.

As I researched this ‘Mr. Bungle’ case more I found a lot of interesting viewpoints. So, Mr. Bungle a well known character on the game allegedly raped two other characters by making them perform sexual acts on him. So is this a crime? Should someone be charged? That is where Dibbell gets the basis of his article from. “No bodies touched. Whatever physical interaction occurred consisted of a mingling of electronic signals sent from sites spread out between New York City and Sydney, Australia.” This was a quote from his article. Basically in this sense he’s saying that it wasn’t ‘rape’ as it is defined. We don’t know who’s behind these computer screens. After researching LambdaMOO I learned a lot from not knowing anything about it. I went back and looked over Dibbell’s article again and understood it a little better after having some background knowledge about it. So, the debate is still here… Is this enough cause for a court case?

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” – Oscar Wilde

“What is the search for the next great compelling application but a search for the human identity?” – Douglas Coupland (”Microserfs”, 1995:15)

—–

The headline that leapt out at us recently — “Virtual Cheating Ends In A Very Real Divorce” was, needless to say, very laughable.

We clutched out stomachs and howled at the ridiculousness of the story — a woman filed for divorce after she found out her husband had cheated on her with another woman in the online virtual community Second Life.

“I caught him cuddling a woman on a sofa in the game,” she told the press. “It looked really affectionate. He confessed he’d been talking to this woman player in America for one or two weeks, and said our marriage was over and he didn’t love me anymore.”

Then again, is this anything new? Many a woman have been offended by their mates enjoying porn.

So in the world of Web 2.0 we’ve gone beyond this to “virtual romance”, “virtual rape”, “virtual cheating” and, inevitably, the virtual creeps into the real.

Gone is the day of virtual reality as computer simulation

Once upon a time virtual reality referred to computer simulation and science fiction. Nowadays it’s literally everywhere.

Our culture is now utterly ensconced in computer-mediated communication; the number of institutions, enterprises and – most importantly – people, who do not have some form of ‘online presence’ is rapidly becoming smaller and smaller.

The value of communication as a tenet of humanity intensifies with technological interaction – one’s online persona is sustained and negotiated through interaction with others.

Netrape by Mr. Bungle in LambdaMOO

Some years ago in the relative earlies of chat rooms there was the infamous netrape by Mr. Bungle in LambdaMOO, via a voodoo doll subprogram that attributed actions to characters that their users did not actually write. The “ghostly sexual violence” committed by the “spidery flitting of fingers” across the keyboard had real-life effects because the rape “victims” felt violated.

But no player in the MOO expected or wanted real-life punitive measures: “he had committed a MOO crime, and his punishment, if any, would be meted out via the MOO.”

So Mr. Bungle was “toaded” i.e. electronically killed. But — of course — he ended up reincarnating himself by simply opening up a new Internet account. The rape was seen as a crime against the mind — yet significant because “in a MOO the body is the mind” and as another MOO user added, “all reality might consist of ideas, who knows?”

So here we come, back to virtual reality and real life and the woman who divorced her husband after virtual cheating in his imaginary online fantasy of Second Life.

Second life: A force to be reckoned with

Ridiculous, perhaps, but Second Life is a force to be reckoned with. Its “residents” often have a creative background and display their “real” art as well as create new “virtual” art. Professionals hold “virtual meetings”, countries have “virtual embassies”, real-world designers sell their “virtual designs” for avatars, lecturers and students communicate within their “virtual classrooms” and “live” music performances and political rallies take place in Second Life.

Users spend real money and make real profit (‘Linden’ money [L$] is sold at an exchange rate that fluctuates with the US$…….. something to think about as we slide further and further into recession!!!).

Going back to the parallel between the real and the virtual again, let’s have a look at the Megan Meier MySpace suicide and the YouTube LonelyGirl15.

Megan Meier: virtual hoax leads to real-life teen suicide

Megan Meier – two teenage girls have a falling out and one of their moms invents a 16-year-old boy on MySpace who lures 13-yr-old Megan into a false sense of security and love and then turned on her, posting online bulletins saying “Megan is a slut” and “Megan is fat”. He said she was a bad person and the world would be better off without her.

She then proceeded to kill herself. In the very real sense.

Lonelygirl15: real human emotion for virtual fabrication

YouTube’s Lonelygirl15 was presented as a “real” teenage video-blogger until fans outed her as an actress. Some fans were angry because they had gotten so emotionally involved in her problems with her parents’ religious cult and so on. Most of them kept tuning in. The farce won “webby awards”.

And so the all-consuming vortex of consumer culture swallowed the hoax and incorporated her into entertainment.

And so the virtual creeps into the real.

So back to the prefaced quote — what is real anymore, and what is virtual? Are we truly LESS ourselves behind the mask or MORE ourselves behind the mask?

Who am we?

Technology has constantly been moving towards the goal of mapping human identity.

Identity isn’t about unity anymore but about multiplicity. As Sherry Turkle says: “Who am we?”

So who did the woman divorce? Her real-life husband or the one in Second Life? Or both of them?

She’d married him online as well, before she even married him in real. So which one did she marry? Ah, now THERE’S the real question.

‘All reality might consist of ideas… who knows?’

…Why do we want a “second” life — whatever was wrong with the first??

…How much of ourselves do we lose to the flickering screen?

…How much of ourselves gets lost in cyberspace?

So vive le virtual — haven’t we been doing so already… for a longer time than we may ever admit?

What was the first really big online social site? MySpace, Plenty of Fish, or Facebook. Well, young Jedi, these are all far too young. Since 1985 The Well has been connecting people. And after that there was a place called LambdaMOO.

The Well allowed me as a member to connect with such people as Dr. Tim Leary, and Jerry Garcie. I connected with people from around the globe in a way I had never dreamed was possible with the local Bulletin-Board Systems (BBSs). And when Lambda came along it took everything to a new level. Neither of these place allowed rich content. There was no pictures, no audio, no music and of course no video. There was however text. The written word. And relationships were built based upon the words you typed. From 1989 until 1997 these two places were a part of my daily life. And in an era when most of my friends and peers thought the “internet thing” was a waste of time and a toy, I got to be part of something that was bigger then anything those of us in those days ever dreamed. In that era it was a new frontier out there and we all were a bunch of mavericks and by accident pioneers.

I created friendships in that era that have stood the test of time. I watched people meet in textual based rooms, start relationships, and fall in love. Some ended up getting married and those are some of the strongest relationships I have ever witnessed. We exchanged ideas, reviews on products, and helped one another out in anyway we could. In Lambda we developed a virtual world. When Pavel created Lambda that wasn’t his idea. But he gave birth to something bigger then us all, and we all benefited. Pavel didn’t do it for money. Pavel didn’t do it for fame. There was no cost to join either one of these sites other then the price of your monthly dial-up account.

So what’s the point of this. The beauty of that era was it was pure. We had no ads. There was no marketing hammer us from every angle. No banner ads. It was about connecting. Building relationship built upon mutual respect, trust and shared interests. As I said, it was pure.

There is a rumor that banner ads or some other form of ads will be coming to Twitter soon. This doesn’t bother me. I enjoy the service, and I don’t mind a smart ad. Facebook has ads, and yes, I do click through. What people tend to forget is these services take a huge amount of money to operate. Servers, network usage, IT security, skills & talent, etc all cost money. And we tend to forget that at times. Lambda was run by volunteers. It was sponsored by XEROX PARC in the beginning. But I don’t think any of use would have minded an ad here and there, just so long as it didn’t fsck too badly with out online experience.

Consumer control dictates we have the power. But in order for us to have that power, we must surrender a part of our privacy. If I don’t want ads for online sex-webcams on FB, I need to tailor what I do wish to have ads displayed for. By sharing my interests the powers that be can build a program that targets me and my interests. And this folks, is part of data mining. The real money or power behind FB is not the online ads, it’s ALL that data we place online. Take that data, run it through a few stats programs on a super computer and the corporations and/or government are able to build profiles based upon our lifestyles and interests. The question to ask, is this a good thing?

The vote is still out. Lambda and The Well never data mined, but I suppose they could have. What I think is important, is if Big Brother is going to track what we do online, do we really care? And are they going to be ethical with that data? Is the exchange of what I consider important in my life, who my friends and peers are really that valuable that I am not prepared to share that knowledge with corporations in order to connect with people around the globe?

Personally, I can live with that exchange. However for your business you may decide no. The internet is never gonna be the same. Online marketing now has as much if not more power then TV or radio. And the key to take away from this posting is that text has power. What you write and how it is written online can have a huge impact on your bottom line. Trust is important. The text we read online is the content we keep. And yet so many websites seem to miss this point. Personally I see the textual content of a site as having more value then the images or rich media they offer. So, young Jedi, be smart and make damn sure you have something of value in all those words upon your website. Twitter is all text. Facebook has rich content, but it’s the textual content that determines if I’ll view that video or not.

I suppose something haven’t changed. Twenty years later we are back to text. Yes, the pen is mightier then the sword.

recalling reverberating
the body of the language
just like a summernight
dream out of sight

Das Sommerloch ist eine Gelegenheit, etwas abgefahrenere Lernumgebungen zu präsentieren – heute: virtuelle 3D-Umgebungen: umfassende Beispiele, auch Kurse, über Lehrversuche in “Second Life” (SL) gibt es auf dem von IBM und SL gesponsorten “Second Life Grid“. Mittlerweile gibt es auch ein zweites Deutschland. Eines reichte eben nicht…

Seit ca. 1 Jahr habe ich selbst auch ein Büro in SL, auf “Aya’s Rock“. Einfach einen Account holen, und im “Search” nach “Birkenkrahe” suchen, mir dann eine “IM” (Internet Message) schicken, die ich kriege, auch wenn ich nicht gerade eingeloggt bin. Mein virtuelles Büro hat einen Pool, deutlich mehr Platz als mein reales Büro, sowie einen Seeblick… den ich sonst in Berlin nicht kriegen kann! Angefangen hat diese Reise für mich vor 15 Jahren, als ich einen der (den?) ersten virtuellen Kurs lehrte – in einer textbasierten Umgebung namens MOO. Thema: die Programmiersprache C++. Bis heute argumentieren Praktiker, dass textbasierte Umgebungen möglicherweise Lernen besser unterstützen als 3D-Umgebungen – siehe Forschung von GATECH professor Amy Bruckman.

Meine eigenen ersten Versuche im letzten Semester, Studenten als Teil mehrerer Semesterprojekte ins SL zu holen, waren begrenzt erfolgreich. Die Projekte waren zwar ziemlich gut, aber wirklich virtuell unterrichtet habe ich dort (noch) nicht. Dabei bin ich überzeugt, das sich zumindest ein Teil des E-Learning in den virtuellen Welten abspielen wird – und zwar im wörtlichen Sinne, nämlich “spielerisches” Lernen, anstatt Wissensvermittlung. Das ist genau der Trick. Im MOO hat das (damals) gut funktioniert, und die Präsenz vieler Dozenten im SecondLife weist ebenfalls darauf hin.

Hier ist eine Übersicht aller in SL tätigen Lehranstalten (soweit sie angemeldet sind). Häufig sind Schulseiten noch besser als universitäre Angebote. Beispiel: Math-Playground – in SL vertreten auf Edu-Island, wo es noch viele andere Resourcen gibt. Z.B. diese Präsentation zu Moodle.

Seit Juni 2008 ist auch die Universität Hamburg in SecondLife vertreten – mit einer eigenen Insel (“private island”), die aber öffentlich zugänglich ist: dort sehen wir das Hauptgebäude der Uni, in dem sich ein voll ausgestatteter Hörsaal befindet, im Foyer und vor dem Gebäude präsentieren sich aktuelle Forschungsprojekte, und gegenüber steht eine Bühne mit Schlagzeug, Synthesizer und Lichteffekten, bei der jeder mal spielen kann (“Sit down to play”).

Im Juli 2008 feierte SecondLife 5-jähriges Jubiläum auf dem Internet. Bei einer (virtuellen) Feierveranstaltung in SecondLife sprach einer der Gründer und Investoren, Mitch Kapor, der für IBM die erste Killerapplication (das Spreadsheet Lotus 1-2-3) entwickelte. Business ohne Spreadsheets ist heute kaum vorstellbar … Kapor erklärt seine Vision des “nächsten Trends” virtueller Welten: die größere Emotionalität der Avatare, der elektronischen Abbilder menschlicher Nutzer, durch mehr Gesichts- und Körperanimation. Die Technologie hierfür steht bereits bereit – mit Hilfe von 3D-Kameras werden eigene Körperbewegungen und Gesichtsausdrücke in SecondLife animiert – ein kleiner Video erläutert das.

Wie geht die Story weiter? Wir wissen es nicht. Ab September werde ich wieder virtuelle Sprechstunde abhalten – vielleicht wird es sogar bald eine “Second FHW” geben?

(Siehe auch: früherer Artikel).

The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps an infinite, number of hexagonal galleries…

Anyone familiar with the great Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges will instantly recognize these as the opening lines to his 1941 short story The Library of Babel.  Borges’ alternate universe, a library-cosmos, is made up of nothing but interconnecting chambers full of randomly shelved books, extending in every direction, and through which librarians (that is, people) are fated to wander their whole lives long.

Most of the books in Borges’ library are perfect gibberish.  Letters and symbols are arranged on the page at seeming random or according to patterns which provide no foothold for interpretation.  Denizens of the library, even after a lifetime of searching, consider it a great triumph to find a book containing a single intelligible sentence.  However, since the Library is infinite, it can only be conjectured that somewhere in the numberless galleries there exists every possible book, every work of literature, every poem, every instruction manual, every biography of all past and future persons, every history and every prophecy –as well as a mind-numbing multiplicity of textual variants and forgeries.

I ask: what is the Library of Babel today if not the Internet?  Certainly I’m not the first to see the obvious parallels.  Hasn’t Borges’ fictional library achieved a sort of flickering actuality in this so-called “worldwide” Web that extends indefinitely in every direction, page upon page, link upon link, and gallery upon gallery?  The Web encompasses every imaginable variety of human expression.  Full of rot and nonsense, for sure, it nonetheless holds in its digital recesses virtual encyclopedias of accumulated knowledge, experience, observation, trivia and arcana.

This Digital Age, if you want to call it that, is little more than twelve years old.  It only began to come into its own about the time I finished college. Graduating in ‘95, mine was the last generation of university students to receive an entirely “offline” education: no assignments or syllabi posted on the Web; no online discussion forums; no laptops in the classroom; no Power Point presentations and no class email lists.  Everything was done on paper.  (In fact, one summer I took a job with the university’s Records department where every grade for every class for every student for over a hundred years was stored on typed or hand-written paper transcripts – which sounds downright medieval now.)  It was only in my senior year, that we were given email addresses – but we didn’t really know what to do with them, and neither did our professors.

However, I do recall wasting a lot of time that year in a place I’d hardly set foot in before: the computer lab.  Some friends and I were using a now-archaic telnet protocol to log into a multi-user dimension (MUD) founded by Pavel Curtis, called LambdaMOO. This was a sort of precursor to today’s online communities like Second Life (which I’ve never visited, but I get the idea).  LambdaMOO was a text-based virtual-reality environment that mimicked a vibrant, rather chaotic city.  At its height, it claimed over ten thousand members.  After gleaning some basic knowledge of how things worked and a few special commands, users could shape their character’s identity, construct their own additions to the metropolis, and interact with -even manipulate- those around them.

I once dated a girl in LambdaMOO.  We went for “walks” together.  We met for “drinks” at bars in the hip central district of the city.  We went “dancing” too (which is difficult to do in text).  We even crossed the line and spoke over the phone, which was a mistake.  She was from the South and I was charmed by her accent, but her real life was too complicated and distant and I didn’t want to get involved.  It wasn’t long before I got sick of my new life in the far corners of the computer lab and returned to my old life in the far corners of the library.

When the World Wide Web arrived, everything changed.  I remember the first time I ever saw image content online through a browser (Mosaic?).  I was impressed.  We all were.  I began to understand that possibly something revolutionary was happening. Was it a good revolution, or a bad one?  I wasn’t sure.  But along with everyone else I watched in mute fascination as the edifice of the Web was built up before us like a new Tower of Babel, soaring upward towards some vague appointment in the digital heavens.

If you are my age or older, you will recall that at its birth the Web was not a consumer space, nor was it a governmental space.  Its prophets announced it as the universal solvent, an equalizer, a democratizer, a peacemaker.  It was supposed to be the harbinger of a new era in human consciousness.  It was immaculate.  It could never, they said, be tampered with by men of ill intent.  It could never be commercialized.  It could never be politicized.  By its very nature it would call forth all that was right in the human spirit, uniting and pacifying strangers and enemies across the thousands of miles, ideological or actual, that separated them.  In all sincerity the question was posed: How could there be hatred, conflict, war, when the mothers and children of Tehran, Moscow, Pyongyang and New York could reach across the frontiers of governmental belligerence and hold virtual hands in peace?

It sounds perfectly ridiculous now.  It was only slightly less ridiculous sounding then.  The Web has become like any other organ of human cultural expression.  No one today seriously considers the Web in itself a promoter of peace and universal harmony.  In many ways it has become the consummate field for conflict and partisanships of all kinds: political, religious, sporting, consumerist, sexual, ethnic, academic, you name it.  For some it may still be a forum for the promotion of peace, knowledge and community.  For others, it’s a forum for inanity, indulgence, or cost-effective and unfettered propagandizing.  The Internet has simply, inevitably, become an extension of our best and worst selves.

Which is not to say there isn’t any philosophical or spiritual content in our life online, just that the Web is not properly conceived as a filter designed to admit only the better angels of our nature – our demons get access too.  Even so, there is a sort of limited transcendence available through the Web that can’t help but exert an influence on our perception of ourselves and our image of the world.  We live in a different way when we live online.  As Nicholas Carr puts it:

For those seeking to transcend the physical world, the Web presents a readymade Promised Land. On the Internet, we’re all bodiless, symbols speaking to symbols in symbols.

In this respect, the Web is the Platonist’s vision of paradise, the consummation of millennia of platonic longing in western culture.  Freed from the limitations and disappointments of materiality, we gain online the godlike powers to extend our interests infinitely and to recreate ourselves according to our own desired ideal image.

And so it’s hardly surprising that, like Platonism, the Web births its own mysticisms.  I need hardly mention, for example, The Matrix or its film and video game offshoots.  More people than you might imagine are eagerly awaiting the day when, in Gibsonesque-fashion, they can cheat death by downloading their consciousness directly onto the Web.  And some of today’s New Age leftovers still speak of the Web as a means for achieving a state of universal collective consciousness.  Others see spiritual significance in the Web’s very architecture and describe visions of data packets ascending and descending through the Net’s immaterial courses like the angels on Jacob’s ladder.

In The Library of Babel there’s room for mysticism too.  Even under the weight of universal incoherence and apparent meaninglessness, the residents of the library whisper of a mythical gallery, a Crimson Hexagon in which is shelved the One Book, an Index of Indexes, containing the key to deciphering the entire cosmic library.  To find the Crimson Hexagon and read the One Book is to transcend the library itself and become “analogous to God.”

But what is this place, this Internet, after all?  A cosmic library, an unreal city, a distillation of the human spirit into bits of light, electricity, data – can we even call it a place?  I caught my first shimmering glimpse of Electric Babylon in the imaginary metropolis of LambdaMOO more than twelve years ago.  Now we are within its walls.  Electric Babylon is a city, a symbol, an idol, a mystery, a place of strange worship and strange encounters, of strong men and beggars, of priests and prostitutes, of hanging gardens and cloud-locked towers. It is a home for some and a place of exile and captivity for others.

How long, I wonder, before some curious sect of netizens begin a hushed pilgrimage to search out the Web’s own Crimson Hexagon?

I was browsing the net between classes, and came across this website. I didn’t have time to read the whole thing, unfortunately (though I do have it bookmarked on delicious) but there was one phrase that stuck with me.

Silver states that a group of writers, investors and politicans claimed that cyberspace was “a new frontier of civilization, a digital domain that could and would bring down big business, foster democratic participation, and end economic and social inequities”.

Now this sounds very much what the Pilgrims said when landing in America in 1620, when Robert Mugabe came to power in Zimbabwe in 1980, and what the African National Congress reckoned was a given when they took over in 1994 in South Africa.

My point is that this idea is not a new one. When mankind discovers another land to inhabit, be it physical or digital, there is the hope that this time, this place will be the Utopia we’ve been searching for.

So far, this idealised notion hasn’t been realised. While cyberspace and cyberculture comes with a whole new set of rules, the same problems that society faces arise, albeit in new ways.

Julian Dibbell, a journalist, wrote an article called “A rape in cyberspace: how an evil clown, a Haitian trickster spirit, two wizards and a cast of dozens turned a database into a society” . In it, he describes the case of one Dr Bungle, a LambdaMOO user who, through the use of voodoo doll – a program which allows one user to control the actions of another – forced certain LambdaMOO users to rape or violently attack other users, or even to violate themselves.

We could argue for hours whether or not this actually is rape or assault. That is not my point. The point is that as soon as a new society came into existence, old society’s problems flowed straight into it.

Instead of a Utopian society, cyberspace provides greater anonymity for people to play out their fantasies and desires. As I mentioned in my first post, the advent of the internet allowed people to operate under aliases, and to experiment with things they normally would never have.

While the Internet has allowed greater freedom as a society, it is clear that with this come greater threats – those problems of society which are heightened by the freedom that the Internet allows us.

I guess one shouldn’t really be surprised that there is terrorism in a game called World of Warcraft but I didn’t realize how deeply it was embeddd into the game.

There is an interesting little piece about this, and the value of studying it in relationship to real-world terrorism, over on Wired:

“Warcraft has a history of in-game terrorist activity. Early on, players found a curse in a high-level dungeon that would turn them into living bombs. They would then teleport to major cities and detonate themselves, killing nearby players. These suicide bombers gradually began to target areas where large number of players gathered, usually at auction houses or banks. Eventually, attacks occurred with enough frequency that some players simply avoided dangerous cities.

Virtual bioterrorist Allen and his guild, domus fulminata, used a similar teleportation technique to spread an epidemic throughout in-game cities. Using a contagious curse called Corrupted Blood that could kill most players in seconds, Allen and his guild purposely infected other players and created a semi-permanent well of disease in cities’ non-player characters. Allen and his group found the chaos caused by their actions humorous.”

This reminds me of some of the controversies surrounding virtual sexual assaults in places like Second Life and even dating back to all-text worlds like LambdaMoo.  There is a fascinating piece, in fact, called A Rape in Cyberspace that I highly recommend.

“Pavel Curtis, while a computer scientist at Xerox PARC, created one of the first popular on-line role-playing environments, LambdaMOO [requires Telnet], in 1991.” /artmuseum/ —->Lambda Moo

“A puppet is a MOO object that acts much like a player (saying things, performing actions, etc.) but that is actually owned by and under the control of some other player.”

” There were long periods, indeed, where many petitions reached ballot stage and none of them passed; it seems to me now that the voting population could never agree on anything of real substance. I think that this is the real lesson of LambdaMOO’s experiment with direct democracy.”

” If these online “virtual” communities are to have the same robustness as the more physically oriented ones, they must become pliant and mutable under the same forces that cause RL communities to grow and change. It must be possible for incompatible sub-communities to separate and grow apart, thereby relieving the kinds of stresses that constantly tear at LambdaMOO. It must be possible for individuals to completely control their own creations, without the specter of an all-powerful wizard looming in the background, distorting all natural social interactions.” //written by Pavel Curtis on Wednesday, June 19, 2002//

	   Mudding: Social Phenomena in Text-Based Virtual Realities 

				 Pavel Curtis
				  Xerox PARC

Pavel’s Blog

Pavel’s Puzzles

List of publications

Multimedia coordination system

The Jupiter audio/video architecture: secure multimedia in network places

PAVEL CURTIS

by Steven Shaviro

“The LambdaMOO-Builder is a tool to support the development of virtual realities. It is a graphical user interface for the programming of the LambdaMOO-Server Version 1.8xx”

“LambdaMOO is both the name of a MUD and the name of MUD server software. This page is about the server software, not the particular MUD.”

LambdaMOO Programmer’s Manual by Pavel Curtis

” LambdaMOO Status Blog//For LambdaMOO users who suspect LambdaMOO might be down and seek knowledge.”

"Inofficial LambdaMOO Beginners Quick Reference"  

From the LambdaMOO help system: > help LTAND

Lessons from LambdaMOO: A Social, Text-Based Virtual Environment

LambdaMoo Links

LambdaMOO

The Lost Library of MOO

…oh, and did I mention I was naked? And smoking a blunt the size of my head? (Image censored by the Committee for Family Values – click for NSFW version)

OK… you got me. I didn’t really do any of that – not in the physical world at least. All of those experiences were limited to my brief excursion (assigned by my New Media Theory class) into Second Life under the alias “Nokondi Mumfuzz.”

First, a technical criticism. Even though I was running the game on a fairly fast computer with plenty of memory, it still lagged like crazy. If I was in a crowded area, I would often have to wait for a minute or two before objects and people started to appear.

So, aside from technical difficulties, how did I spend my time in Second Life? Trying as hard as I could to get kicked out, of course! Almost as soon as I started exploring, a helpful fellow traveler sent me a message telling me that I was ugly, and that everyone would think I was ugly until I got some better clothes. With that thoughtful advice in mind, I began browsing for clothing options. I ended up finding “Neva’s XXX Emporium, freebies, clothing store, and orgy room” listed under clothing sales (after I turned off the adult filter, of course). It sounded interesting, so I decided to teleport there. Upon arrival, I quickly found the “freebies” area, where I outfitted myself with a killer dragon tattoo, various types of smoking paraphernalia, some “designer” clothes, and a penis. Rather than stick around to watch hordes of lonely people act out their fanatasies online, I decided to head back out to the more kosher areas of Second Life, with my newfound goodies in tow.

The first problem I encountered was learning how to wear the new things I had purchased. The first few times I attempted to do this, I ended up with a large box sticking out of my head! Finally, another helpful soul approached me and said “U gotta unpack it dumass [sic].” After figuring out how to do that, I was finally able to attach my penis, start smoking my blunt, and begin harassing people.

Which brings us back to the beginning of my story… So there I am: I’ve grown tired of pissing off random strangers. I’ve become weary of this “second life.” I take up my meditation pose (another “freebie” from Neva’s XXX Emporium) and sit for awhile to ponder the meaning of Second Life. That’s when it hit me: there is no essential meaning to this virtual world! It’s all what you make of it. You can be helpful, like the two kind strangers who reminded me of how ugly and stupid I was in the hopes that I would use their comments as impetus to better myself (I’m sure that if there was such a thing as Second Life reincarnation, they’d be coming back as cows!); you can be a total douchebag like me and waste an hour trying to offend people; or (I suppose) you could mind your own business, have a little fun, maybe meet some people… I don’t know… do what you do in your first life… or something different. It’s your call.

The second virtual world I visited for this week’s assignment was LambdaMOO, a fully text-based virtual world (referred to as a MUD, or “multi-user dungeon”). I found LambdaMOO to be a much more compelling world than Second Life, partially due to the fact that there were no technology issues. The text told me what to imagine, and I imagined it (i.e. “You are in a sewer surrounded by bugs and stinking refuse. There is an exit to the north”). Interacting with people in this world was interesting too. I had a brief chat with someone named Doom-something-or-other-I-can’t-rememer. I also gave a girl named Melki a severed arm that I found in a farm house. All of this was done by entering text commands into the interface.

After exploring for awhile, shortly before I decided to end my excursion into LambdaMOO, I read this quote on a sewer wall:

“It is said – it was a man from the far North who told me – it is said that, in certain parts of Scandinavia, there are cities within cities, just as there are circles within circles, existent yet invisible. And those cities are inhabited by creatures more terrible than imagintion can create; man-shaped but man-devouring, as black and silent as the night they prowl in.”