Journal of Virtual Worlds Research - Volume 2, Number 5: The Metaverse Assembled

Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled April 2010

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Garrison LeMasters, Georgetown University, USA Max Burns John Brengle Sil Emerson

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research Volume 2, Number 5 May 2010 “The Metaverse Assembled” ISSN: 1941-8477 Table of Contents • The Ontological Aspects of Puzzles into Metaverses o Cristiano Natal Tonéis and Luís Carlos Petry, Department of Communication and Semiotics, Pontificia Universidade Catolica de São Paulo, Brazil • Some Remarks on Ontological-Cognitive Structures in the Metaverse o Luis Carlos Petry, Department of Communication and Semiotics, Pontificia Universidade Catolica de São Paulo, Brazil • Digital Guqin Museum from a Virtual World to the Real World: Conception and Design of an Ongoing Cultural Sim o Shuen-git Chow, Digital Guqin Museum Project; Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, enass, Paris, France • Who am I - and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Realities o Benjamin Gregor Aas, Katharina Meyerbröker, Paul M. G. Emmelkamp, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands • The effects of Avatars’ Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Virtual Worlds o Domna Banakou, University College London, United Kingdom o Konstantinos Chorianopoulos, Ionian University, Greece • ExtSim: A Flexible Data Mapping and Synchronization Middleware for Scientific Visualization in Virtual Worlds o Johan Berntsson, Norman Lin, Zoltan Dezso, 3Di Inc, Japan • Compounding the Results: The Integration of Virtual Worlds With the

Semantic Web o Charles J. Lesko, Yolanda A. Hollingsworth, East Carolina University • Culture of the Cloud o Tom Boellstorff, University of California, Irvine • Staging the new retail drama: At a metaverse near you! o Savvas Papagiannidis, Newcastle University Business School, United Kingdom o Michael Bourlakis, Brunel University Business School, United Kingdom • Exploring Participation in ClubZora: An International Bilingual Virtual World Educational Intervention for Youth o Laura Beals and Marina Bers, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University • Implications for Virtual Worlds: A Comparative Study of United Kingdom, United States and Australia on Network Readiness, Government Investment and Cyber-security. o Kate Roth, Macquarie University, Australia • The Essence of Virtuality: Exploring the Digital Body o Mark Ortwein, Texas A&M University • Trucking Towards a Virtual World: The Development and Implementation of FMCSA’s Transportation Nation Second Life Island o Adam Schlicht, Management Analyst, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation • Producing knowledge in collaborative research about virtual worlds: discursive constructions of Second Life o Louise Jane Phillips, Roskilde University, Denmark • My Second Life as a Cyber Border Crosser o Carleen D. Sanchez, University of Nebraska-Lincoln • Second Life Unplugged: A Design for Fostering At-risk Students' STEM Agency o Sneha Veeragoudar Harrell, TERC Education Research Collaborative o Dor Abrahamson, University of California, Berkeley • The Effects of Avatar Appearance in Virtual Worlds

o Nicholas Merola, Communication Studies, The University of Texas at Austin o Jorge Peña, Communication Studies, The University of Texas at Austin • Building Knowledge in the Virtual World – Influence of Real Life Relationships o Ana Loureiro, Department of Communication and Art, University of Aveiro, Portugal o Teresa Bettencourt, Department of Didactics and Educational Technology, University of Aveiro, Portugal • Brands and Consumption in Virtual Worlds o Ioanna Nikolaou, Shona Bettany, Gretchen Larsen, University of Bradford, School of Management, UK • ArchHouseGenerator – A Framework for House Generation o Nuno Rodrigues, Research Center for Informatics and Communications, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal o Luís Magalhães, INESC Porto. UTAD - University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal o João Paulo Moura, GECAD - Knowledge Engineering and Decision Support Research Center, Porto; UTAD -University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal o Alan Chalmers, University of Warwick, International Digital Laboratory, WMG, University of Warwick, United Kingdom o Filipe Santos, ESECS, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal o Leonel Morgado, UTAD - University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal • A Second Life First Year Experience o Peter Duffy, Educational Development Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong o Paul Penfold, School of Hotel & Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong • Metaverse: Building Affective Systems and Its Digital Morphologies in Virtual Environments o Donizetti Louro, Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil o Tania Fraga, Institute of Mathematics and Art of São Paulo, Brazil o Maurício Pontuschka, Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil

Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010 The Ontological Aspects of Puzzles into Metaverses

By Cristiano Natal Tonéis and Luís Carlos Petry Department of Communication and Semiotics, Pontificia Universidade Catolica de São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract The present text talks about the substantiation and usage of logicmathematical puzzles inside the metaverses and its incidences as cognitive objects. Starting from the evolving path of hypermedia to the metaverses, it is introduced some formal criteria to reflect on the interactive context of the metaverses exemplified in the presentation and solution of logic-mathematical puzzles, taking as a paradigm example the metaverse experience of Myst online. It is concluded by the importance of the collaboration between the digital narrative and interactive problematical formulation for the research, production, knowledge and teaching-learning processes.

Keywords: metaverse, ontology, puzzle, matematical logic, games.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Puzzles into Metaverses

The Ontological Aspects of Puzzles into Metaverses

By Cristiano Natal Tonéis and Luís Carlos Petry Department of Communication and Semiotics, Pontificia Universidade Catolica de São Paulo, Brazil

From the Hypermedia to Metaverses Since the initial moments of computer history and personal computers, we can identify the existence of a whole development and cooperation path that connects collaboratively computer science and the narrative structures of western tradition. Amongst many and excellent reviews that were produced, we would like to enhance the ones accomplished by Murray (2003) and Manovich (2001), which points out by the hypermedia concept and accomplish a discussion of this concept in relation to the western tradition legacies of arts, literature, cinema and design.

From the transposition of tradition content, like literature pieces, to the computational environment in the shape of regained text blocks capable of receiving search fields by words, until we reach the concept of cyberdrama postulated by Murray (2003) we have a rich path, which certainly will not be possible to contextualize completely in the present article’s space.

However, we let indicate the importance of the historical reference.

It is, however, the indication of the importance of the historical references that lead of the original experiments in the form of hypertexts, passing for interactive environments to the way point and click of the games Zork (release in 1980) and Myst (release in 1994), to arrive, in the turn of the third millennium, to the concept of metaverse, with games and highly complex interactive three-dimensional worlds digital, inside of which, problems logical-mathematicians (in the form of puzzles) they can be introduced and if to place as a cognitive space to player reach higher periods of training of understanding and rationality. The present paper focuses this problematic one of metaverse URU, in the series of the game Myst showing its relevance as logical-cognitive structure. For in such a way, we to trace a passage that, before description, must be taken as a way of the experience of thinking understood here inside the phenomenology.

The inaugurate paradigms of the experience with metaverses In order to we context the importance of the origins this problematic of the metaverses in the context of the experience in cyberspace and the immersion the human being in the resolution of logical problems, teletransport ourselves them for the quarrel of hypermedia3 in the context of cyberspace emergent, namely, breaking of the work of Lev Manovich (2001) in The Language of New Media.

As Manovich has indicated, the occurred mutations in the cyberspace, since the beginning of the 1990s were neither free, nor planned4. Not only its springing out, but also its progressive mutation is related to the emerging of digital paradigms that determine the personal computer evolution means and its incorporation in human life and culture. As so, far from being an ordinary phenomena, the digital phenomenon, in this case having in mind its designation under the hypermedia field, has produced new cultural forms that has resituated themselves and continue to transform the western culture. These paradigms can be better understood when we have in mind their participation in games, and furthermore, in cyberspace with the emerge of metaverses.

4

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Besides, according to Manovich, the 1990s were the years of the so called new media, in which we have the rising of numberless cultural objects that exemplify the new media potential, in the perspective of the computer usage, in the revealing of aesthetic shapes genuinely original and historically without any predecessors. Among these objects, two special ways are featured: they are two computer games, Doom5 and Myst6.

As paradigms, they opened specific digital economy types inside the post-modern era.

Inside each one of these paradigms we have special economies producing and determining its social, cultural, technological and conceptual effects. These new type of economies, which are opened by the new ways of interfaces of both games are designed by Manovich (2001) as “cultural economies” that structure new ways of digital life. One of the examples of this turn produced by the new paradigms can be visualized when J. C. Herz says the following: “It was an idea that stipulated a new time. To release a thinner and free version (of the game) through the shareware sources, Internet and online services, followed by a complete, registered and for sale version of the software”7.

And with this procedure, it is formally initiated the Demo Plays policy, the playable version of softwares, in which we show the product potential. The Manovich analysis is supported by the studies of Michel de Certeau (1999), when he says that: “the producers define the basic structure of an object, and release some examples and tools to allow consumers to create their own versions, sharing it with other consumers”.

From this type of economical politics, opens the path to establish new digital objects: the open source software, the free software and all the production and licenses group that it is reachable in the cyberspace. It will be this emphasis on this type of perspective of facing things that has allowed, in a short period of time that Internet converted into cyberspace or else, in a surfable and interactive space, as it was the project of the Web creator, Tim-Burnes Lee. According to this perspective, one of the consequences that we have is that cyberspace has become progressively a place in which is made available an infinity of paths that are visualized mentally by the user as “environments to be visited”. This was the idea presented by Robin Miller, when he said that they “were creating environments to be briefly followed” – lacking a better term, many have called this a game and the authors themselves called it like that because they lacked a better concept. With Manovich studies (2001) and Murray (2003), the fulminating light of the narrative concept is released on the cyberspace landscape. Games such as Doom, and above all Myst, constitute themselves as digital narrative, in navigable and interactive digital environment and, in particular, make public specific and powerful “cultural forms” sufficiently able to reshape a series of aspects of human life and culture.

Such as cyberspace navigation allows the introduction of the new cultural forms perspective and its respective economical policies, the navigable space in cyberspace (especially structured games over narratives), opens the possibility of understanding the digital universe and its revolution, not as opposite ruptures of the development of the western tradition of Gutenberg’s culture, but as an extension of the human world, of being in a world and share with your similar being the living in narrative processes as powerful cultural forms, in which we identify here as metaverses. According to Dannam8, the Myst universe was created to put in front of the user a digital narrative more likely to be the Shakespearian method.

Meanwhile, in Doom, another game pointed out by Manovich as paradigmatic, the rhythm is fast, whereas in Myst, it is slow, rhythmic by an expressive new age soundtrack. In the world of Myst, and we speak here mainly of Myst Original in 1993, “the player moves in the world literally step by step, discovering the narrative along the route”. In this discovery the user soon 5

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Puzzles into Metaverses

verifies that the worlds of Myst, full of landscapes and sound constructions were complete and profoundly empty. At the time (1993) it was about lonely worlds, in with the user was unleashed in a digital adventure in pursue of its puzzle. In Myst there aren’t game levels, but complete and differentiated environments that offer a variety of situations, in which they present themselves as enigma to be solved.

From the resolution action of the puzzles, new faces of the narrative emerge. At them, the user accomplishes a tour in the pursuit of worlds and the solution of its mysteries. The essence of the game, in which resides in a terrific architecture and the navigation possibility inside it, making available the intervention of its paths, its destination. As in an anticipated dream by Schopenhauer (2007), the digital Argonaut mingles inside the navigable worlds of Doom and Must, and there their avatars live intensively in systematic conditions of proto-metaverses.

Characteristics of the navigable space in the metaverses from an experience with games One of the differentiable game elements is its possibility of introducing into the plan of computerized human action, in the relation man-machine-world, that we can call the Discovery logic. Since its first version, Myst already initiates the proposal of introduction the digital Argonaut in the position of opening itself to the progressive apprehension of a logical discovery and, with that, assimilate more and more increasing complexity schemes inside a basic narrative of the game. With a delicate intellectual property, Manovich tells us that “the player moves in the world literally step by step, discovering the narrative along the route”. This is a structure in which “the logic of the discovery is necessary”. Each enigma or puzzle presented in Myst contributes to a resolution of a part of a mystery and allows you to advance in the understanding of the game, in the narrative comprehension and even in its navigation. In this process the subject of the navigation is persuaded to dedicate itself hours in front of the game and through the schemes accomplished inside the game, reinforces its “elementary logical structures”, according to the ideas of Piaget (1970).

Another important aspect consists in the navigation structure. Myst organizes itself as a universe commanded by a navigation aesthetic that proposes a freedom of movement. The user can remain as long as he/she wants in each of the various worlds and, if that is the case, for the simple pleasure of walking through it, appreciating its landscapes, or even, accomplishing an intimate contact with the local cultures of the game. The authors themselves have declared that if they have not reached the status of the game, they would be simply satisfied by producing worlds in which we could just go by. This is one of the great qualities of Myst (Murray, 2003), the free navigation around digital worlds that the metaverse of Myst unleashes.

Along with an aesthetic of free navigation, we have an extremely generous and detailed exploration economy of the environment. This type of economy has as a result the development of the environment observation, of its details and characteristics. As a result, the analytical potential of the cybernaut is motivated inside the richness of the world’s details and its objects that were abandoned to solitude: labs, libraries, galleries, refineries and a number of equipment are put to be explored. Many of them, already interactive in the first version of the game in 1993, in which will become more and more complete, complex and functional, each time the narrative in incremented with a new episode (the various versions of the game). In this case, the technological evolution of the computers and its processing capacity are followed by the interactive resources that are made available to the cybernaut agency and the transformation of the digital universe. Thus, to define a game based on the exploration economy is to define the 6

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Puzzles into Metaverses

knowledge progression of the man.

Finally, our synthetic analysis allows us to situate ourselves in this metaverse inside a constructive perspective. There isn’t a pre-data: the secrets and enigmas need to be found and solved so that we have the sequence of the central and tragic story. Inside this universe, in which today works in a open narrative in the WEB (URU live), the structure of the solution of the narrative, even better, its outcome, tends to offer multiple possibilities, including different endings, all of which are linked with the interactive behavior of the user. The strong factor that boosts the constructive fundament resides in the organization of the puzzles and in the independence of its solutions, not having a linear order to their resolution, but leaving the possibility of the manifestation of various player styles.

Mathematical Logic and Interactive Puzzles If the design structure of Myst organizes itself as a navigable space (Manovich, 2001) opened in the production of a even more variable narrative (Murray, 2003), this means that the more we advance in the various versions of Myst, the more we find the progressive construction of a discovery logic (Tonéis & Petry, 2008) that assumes Wagnerians proportions. At one point we have here emergent phenomenon that become more and more evident if we are to be taken to suppose that they organize themselves from a fundamental structure of this world, we can say here, the metaverse that can be designed as the aesthetic experience of metaverses. At another point, this theme of aesthetic experience constitutes in a conceptual work object in the phenomenology (Gadamer, 1999; Petry, 2003; Tonéis & Petry, 2008). In this case the secret passion between the aesthetic and organization of interactive puzzles founded in the mathematical logic constitutes in one of the fundamental metaverse elements, such as our model example here, Myst. It is in this aspect that we think that the modern science game, not only allows the technical digital world but also reserves many surprises to the man. Regarding navigable and interactive adventures that we can allow in the numberless metaverses, they can open the possibility of challenges in which both the logical and mathematical reasoning can be inextricably connected.

In Tonéis & Petry (2008), the central theme of the analysis is taken inside the question of the aesthetic experience, identified as the first form of constitution and reckoning of the living world. We have learnt with the hermeneutics phenomenology that each and every experience must be taken as an encounter: like a happening that touches us and invites us to discoveries. The personal experience is born from a reflexive process, when something happens to us, touches us, passes by us resulting in a transformation, because we understand that the reflexive act has a transformer character, and consequently, the actions to be followed. A cognitive discovery, a solution to a problem that has taken all of our attention, tends to generalize to our whole life the impact of its solution: therefore, the entire discovery matters in a reflective experience. Inside it we can observe that the importance of the significance of the objects by the individual is in considering that without this last one the process of the knowledge construction, in its wider conception, will be harmed. In the usage of the digital universe, in the navigable space, in a metaverse, for example, we can invite the Argonauts to participate in the immersive narratives so that those story protagonists wish to proceed in their script overcoming challenges – puzzles – and in this way developing, in several levels, an ontological math, before calculation and algebra.

It will be in this sense that this ontological opening in math or even in logic will be in the origin of the problem resolution, in reflective process application and action, etc… Such dynamism is, 7

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unquestionably, offered by Myst to its visitors9.

While the Argonaut explores the spaces offered in the landscapes and environments of the metaverse, inside its alternate universe, it will be living unique experiences that will be able to be converted in the future in high level logic-mathematical structures. The experiences in the metaverse help the structuring of the capacity of problem solving. It is like this that, when developing a method to “escape the problem”, to overcome this barrier or any other, that constitutes, progressively, in the way of acting positively in the construction of a mathematical reasoning, of a discovery logic (in which can have structural incidents in practical life).

Dominating the extension of verbal concepts and perceptive groups, restructuring itself logically, so, coming from its own experiences, actions and operations, the metaverse proposes its traveler an activity that establishes itself as a context of an autonomous activity, place in which it is demanded to discover itself (by the initiative of its actions) the relations and the notions of a complex network of meanings that constitutes its plot on the narrative, recreating them. When they are recreated, it is produced a new and personal knowledge! This is now founded in its own experiences, in the interaction with the environment, private and public – in the community. To know the real is also to configure it and to be able to reconfigure it.

As such, this means that, in other words, to mean the real preserving the richness of the senses in the real. Like Merleau-Ponty (2006) used to say, the senses relate themselves before the language. The representation is born in the necessity of understanding this real10. At the same time, not only in the mathematical symbolism, but also in the logical abstraction can be understood as the delicate fruits of an adaptation process (Piaget, 1970) – assimilation and accommodation – arising from singular experiences of a subject of experience (aesthetic).

In this aspect, among many authors that currently have dedicated themselves to this new region of human thought and life, we remember here of the contributions of Mayer (1996), Miles (1999), Manovich (2001) and Murray (2003), among many others. It is like this that, by analyzing the game Myst, Miles proposes to discuss questions that are more general regarding the expressive possibilities of the multimedia environment. The present references in Myst include artistic works or traditions as diverse and rich as the Odyssey by Homer, the gothic romance, the painting tradition, the filmic surrealism, besides the, clearly, interactive fiction derivative from Borges. To Miles, Myst represents the beginning of a new form of art – that synthesizes different means in new combinations – and, what is equally important, recovers and reinvents different ancient art forms that for long have been claimed obsolete” (1999: 309). This relation of recovery and rescue constitutes to Miles the most important research object.

It is on this sense that Myst opens a new paradigm of interface man/computer (Mayer, 1996). The conceptual hyper-realist proposal and the image refinery, the tridimensional effects, the textures and the perspectives of the scenery contribute to an intense immersive experience.

But it will be in the introduction and the emphasis given in the solution of the enigmas (puzzles) that will transform the metaverse of Myst into something absolutely differentiated and putting it, as an experience that simulates the difficulties and progresses that the individual faces in its representations of the real world. Murray (2003) reminds us that the “solution of the puzzles usually depends on subtle sound clues, rising the attention of the player to the meticulous sound project”. The complete Myst project conspires to produce an essential connection between its visitor and the presented virtual world. When entering this holodeck the Argonaut converts himself in another element in the big puzzle that Myst is. Its first mission is to discover what to do and where to go. The clues will lead him to the discovery, in the virtual world, of its own potentialities in the resolution of problems and constructions of methodologies. In the resolution 8

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of a puzzle we find an experience, and opportunity, a tool to logical organization of events and actions. Such organization can occur almost unconsciously, when it is about developed cognitive processes, due to the ease and familiarity with the world of Myst obtained by each visitor. What we expect at this point of out reflection is the comprehension of the mathematical experience in the resolution of a puzzle as being an attempt to formalize concept and actions taken during such resolution and so consciously understanding some concepts that are supporting such resolution.

As so in a comprehensive approach, we can say that here between a game the so called conscious takeover (Piaget, 1977), in which it focus on the action process that transforms an scheme into a concept, or else, going from the behavior of the resolution of the puzzle, to arrive at stages of generalization that get wider and more universal. Maybe that is the aspect to be initiated with the undefined practice to reach the episthéme11 that the activity of solving puzzles can be compared to a Maieutics Socratic that, by means of investigation, the person will find the answers to the question that has been formulated and like this it will be reckoned the methods involved in its investigation. From the arguments presented, we cannot fail to glimpse in Myst new possibilities that emerge from the immersion in the virtual world, in the constriction of the abstractions and mathematical concepts that are present in the digital universe.

The context of the puzzles inside the metaverse experience in Myst online: URU With the growing development of software and hardware in a way of always overcoming its predecessors, in processing speed, space for data storage, the digital universe became fundamental part of our living world12. It is almost impossible to designate how much we denominate in the virtual world to different people constituting in absolutely live experiences.

We are connected beings; we keep in touch with the real time with the help of a virtual world, instant messages, chats, forums, etc. It will be in this path that Petry (2009) looks to present the emergency of the metaverse, from ontological elements, in which enable the structure of ubiquitous aesthetic-digital experience. From that point, “in an expansion of the concept of hypermedia by Manovich (2001), the metaverse can be thought as a collocation in a piece of the Wagnerian concept of Total Opera, with the difference that its characters identify with their audience.” In this metacontext, the evolution and transformation suffered by the interface concept, at the metaverse we are taken to consider it as digital life forms (Petry 2009). From that perspective, the digital universe can be thought in one continuous line with the daily life, like an extension or prolongation or, in a word, a metaverse.

The importance of an ontological look over the objects that conduct a more refined attention to the world that constitutes the metaverse conducts us in the direction of understanding the opening to this aesthetic experience, or else to a metaverse experience in its total, in this world of infinite worlds (Merleau-Ponty, 2006). This occurs in Myst, in various versions, in different levels of experience. Myst online – URU13 – opens opportunities to the phenomenological sense of sharing with the other the experience: the “being-with”. Being an experience with them, communicating internally with the world, with the body and with the others (Merleau-Ponty, 2006), designates the necessity of engaging in transforming attitudes and activities, of being in movement being with them instead of just being next to them. Like Heraclitus would say, “everything flows, everything changes”; so occurs with the digital universe, in constant metamorphosis. With that we can say that the metaverses constitute themselves in our projections of something more fundamental, something unique, something singular, in other words, transcending the material reality to the digital representation plane, we 9

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Puzzles into Metaverses

are equally taken in Myst to face our fundamental incompleteness and, from this finding, put ourselves in the condition of being capable of accomplish our transforming experiences. To reach a differentiated link to conscious, in which reciprocity is beyond the mere exchange, the simple feedback.

Online Myst, URU, is a game in the multiplayer line, a game in which the explorers, like in other types of metaverses, have the possibility of creating their own avatars, selecting its characteristics that provide them a digital presence (Digital Anwesenheit). Among other adventures, we are invited to rediscover, restore and rebuild the ancient D’ni civilization and learn their story. The environment of URU live allows the possibility of your modification as time goes by. The Myst community analysts organize a list of characteristics of the URU live metaverse. The first consists in the fact that the metaverse organizes itself in navigation worlds with surreal environments that encourage the exploration. In second place, the high level of gameplay, due to the fact that there aren’t any rules at first, levels, maps to be memorizes – only the navigation and the encounter with the community members that are inserted as data. The third element is the non-violence and the impossibility of having a user dying or being killed by another player. The fourth element is, and maybe here the most important one, the possibility of volunteer interaction with other players, different from the offline versions, in which solitude was the game’s trademark. In fifth place and of equal important, we find the progressive introduction to the puzzles; to a group of them is reserved the task of supplying the necessary information to the digital inhabitants of the metaverse about the mysterious civilization D’ni; to another group of puzzles is reserved the role of inserting enigmas that must be solved so that the Argonaut deciphers the functioning of the worlds, its structures and mechanisms, enables passages to places in other Eras not yet explored. It will be at this fifth group, the puzzle group that we aim here, in which we will be questioning around its ontological constitution.

Myst online put us in a kind of a new never-ending story14, with the story being continuously being renewed, with new possibilities in the story being inserted, by new members, by modifications in the environments, in new plots that are the product of collaboration – the essence of a new kind of digital economy that is powered with the advent of the metaverses: the online cooperation economy.

It is in the aesthetic communitarian experience context, committed to the online puzzle resolution that emerges in the collective construction of the D’ni metaverse, going by the individual consideration and looking for dialogues with others and with the digital source. By being capable of exposing its line of thought, before it used to be inner and blurred, the Argonaut finds in the metaverse the possibility of sharing its ideas and theories with its journey fellows.

A brave new World of educational metaverses: the narrative and the discovery context The enigmas of Kadish Tolesa are among the most difficult ones in URU. Not only we have to imagine how to solve them, but we should also imagine how to interpret the clues. All the evidences are in this gallery – Kadish Tolesa – the question is, then, to study the panels, make detailed notes and sketches or even to examine the possible relation between them.

Here, the ontological investigation strategy indicates that at the phenomenal observation lets the Argonauts community fill the blank spaces in the proposed narrative. If we think that the blank spaces in the narrative must be completed, for example an x element, which will have a function of structure the sense deeply and profoundly, we can refer this narrative strategy ontologically to the developed tradition from, at least two developments: while Frege’s logic 10

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teaches us that an empty space in a proposition comes to be filled by a logical object or a function to consequently obtain a sense and a denotation, on the other hand the hermeneutics phenomenology shows us that this very same process of logic meets its function of an reversed blackout that was submitted to the sealing of organization conditions of the world. It will be on this specific sense that we will introduce and discuss here the three telescopes puzzle in the Kadish metaverse.

Each telescope has three buttons in its base and each click in one of the buttons rotates the associated parts in the telescope – rings about 1/8 of the circle circumference.

With the objective of establishing properly each circuit, you need only to push the buttons you have the correspondent configuration in one of the panels (see the images below). In case there weren’t any alteration in the device configuration (telescope 1), the correct alignment is reached, pressing the left button 4 times, the central button once, the right button five times, and resulting in the configuration exemplified by the following image:

Figure 1: In order telescope 1, 2 and 3 and its respective scope unsolved; Kadish Gallery clue; scope solved

On the second telescope, look through the scope display to see three keys that control the rotation of the device. From the initial state, press the right key three times for the correct alignment of this device (image 2, above). You do not have to touch the other keys. Now being at Telescope three, look through your display. From the initial state, the proper adjustment is reached by pressing the left key three times, the central key seven times and the right key three times (image 3, above).

If telescopes 1 and 2 are adjusted correctly, we can see the movement in the back when this when this third telescope is adjusted and, when we step behind the display we can see that the door in the tree ahead was opened: the three telescopes puzzle is solved.

The key to the images is in the exploration of the blank spaces of the scope. So when visualizing the image in the Kadish Tolesa gallery, we should relate to the telescope, however considering only linear formations. That is the reason why we advice to make notes or draw whatever is necessary from the gallery, or else, to return there as many times as necessary.

Summing up, we will have the following combinations: Left

Center

Right

4

1

5

10

Telescope 1

4

1

5

0

0

3

3

Telescope 2

0

0

3

3

7

3

13

Telescope 3

3

7

3

7

8

11

26

Table 1

Table 2

The three Telescopes puzzle of Master Kadish can be analyzed, not only in logic but also mathematically. The analysis, on the other hand, has incidences and ontological basis and, from the metaverse point of view, it allows the organization of the take over of the epistemological conscious, allowing that the knowledge acquired inside the aesthetic-logical experience in the metaverse, obtains more global potentials in the lives of the members of the D’ni community.

Such as a preparation for a resolution to other problems inside the metaverse, and also as ostentation of the groups’ own personal reflexive abilities. Even that no member of the group 11

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comes to accomplish a logical-mathematical formalization of the puzzle, the developed steps in the problem resolution takes them to the situation that Piaget (1977) designs as the conscious take over: to know how to do something is just like knowing how to explain something to someone else – or else, in a wittgensteinian language, I know how to play this game, so I understand this game.

From the table above, at the mathematical point of view, we have verified that this can be compared to a square matrix of an order of three, and with that we focus on the particularities of the mathematical structure involved in the resolution of this puzzle. The values of the table, that represent the circular movements present themselves as odd prime numbers even between 3 and 7, in other words, just the figure 4, compound number derivative from the only even prime, the number two, occurred only once. This reveals the nature of the movements in this game, the movements as being primary, movements that generate movements, like in this case, the opening of the door, as action and reaction. Elements of the Fibonacci’ sequence are also revealed as present in the table (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13...) what values even more the question of natural movement. Another relation that becomes the focus of our observation is the sum of the lines and columns of this table, because adding lines and columns; in the intersection we will have the same value, 26, which is composed by 13 multiplied by 2, in other words, two prime numbers between themselves (Table 2 above).

Conclusion The mathematical characterization of a puzzle is not only about the number conversion of the events, but in its ontology it constitutes exactly in the thinking exercise.

It is due to these characteristics that the frontiers between mathematics and logic become tenuous. According to Russel (1960) such separation became too delicate due to the nature of the logical demonstration with the usage of algebra and algebra resolutions from the conception of initial assumptions or even deductive structures. If from one side, there exist classes more than things, what results in a paradox, the logical organization of a puzzle (as referred), tends to structure the analysis and the reasoning centered in formal conditions and procedural actions. In the sayings of Putnam (1988) the formalization does no have as a task the solution of the real problems or other things, but the task to serve as a sound instrument to enlighten the difficulties that can become clearer and operative from its systematic.

The topological alignment of the three telescopes results in the opening of the door, the missing on this puzzle, can be compared to the interdimensional portal in Stargate15. Here we have the dialogue between the Web’s digital metaverses with the filming metaverses. The procedural schemes that are functioning, not only in the Kadish telescope but also in the Stargate portal are formally identical: solar rotations around a central axis determine the conjunctions (alignments) of symbols (logical positions) that determine the triggering of unrevealed mechanisms at first.

From the metaverse experiencing point of view, the puzzle resolution implies in cognitive processes that result in comprehensive schemes. From the formal and phenomenological point of view the understanding precedes the explanation (Von Wright, 1979). If the comprehension generally comes by means of a leap in the total vision of things and of the world, the relating, introducing and letting registers to the society movement is accomplished inside the explanation scheme. Our purpose in the present article sought the valorization of the aesthetic-ontological experience inside the metaverses and, by accomplishing the presentation and analysis of the URU metaverse in a modular puzzle. Our intellectual action does not have as a purpose to give 12

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the last word on the proposed theme. On the contrary, it seeks to route of questions that are situated in the range of our academic research. It occurs that, however, with the present article we could reach to demonstrate some elements of the logic-mathematical structure resident and alive in the play the metaverse game, having as a result the opening of a line of dialogue between new worlds and new possibilities.

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Bibliography Bairon, S. (2002). Interdisciplinaridade: educação, história da cultura e hipermídia. São Paulo: Futura.

Certeau, M. (1999). A invenção do cotidiano. Petrópolis: Vozes.

David, K. (2003): Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture, Random House Publishing Group.

Dilthey, W. (1910). Der Aufbau der geschichtlichen Welt in den Geisteswissenschaften. Leipzig.

B.G. Teubner.

Freud, S. (1914). Sobre o Narcisismo: Uma Introdução. Vol. XIV das Obras Completas de Sigmund Freud. Rio de Janeiro: Imago.

Gadamer, H. G. (1999). Verdade e método: traços fundamentais de uma hermenêutica filosófica.

Tradução de Flávio Paulo Meurer. Petrópolis: Vozes, 3. ed.

Heidegger.

M. (1969).

O que é metafísica. http://personales.ciudad.com.ar/M_Heidegger/index.htm.

(1929).

From

Huizinga, J. (1990). Homo Ludens: o jogo como elemento da cultura. São Paulo: Perspectiva.

Lacan, J. (1953). Os escritos técnicos de Freud. Rio de Janeiro. Editora Jorge Zahar.

Manovich, L. (2001). The Language of New Media. Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Mayer, P. (1996). Representation and action in the reception of Myst: a social semiotic approach to computer media. Nordicon Rev. Nordic Pop. Cul., 1, 237-254.

McLuhan. M. (1964). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Massachusetts. The MIT Press (Ed. 1994) Merleau-Ponty, M. (2006). Fenomenologia da percepção. São Paulo: Livraria Martins Fontes Editora. (Original publicado em 1945).

Miles, D. (1999).“The CD-ROM Novel Myst and McLuhan’s Fourth Law of Media: Myst and its “Retrievals”. Em: Mayer, P. (org.) Computer Media and Communication: a Reader. (pp.

307-319). Oxford (NY): Oxford University Press.

Murray, J. (2003). Hamlet no holodeck: o futuro da narrativa no ciberespaço. São Paulo: UNESP. Petry, L. C. (2003). Topofilosofia: o pensamento tridimensional na hipermídia. Tese de Doutorado, São Paulo, PUC-SP. Petry, L. C. (2006). Aspectos fenomenológicos da produção de mundos e objetos tridimensionais na hipermídia. In: Anais do 15º Encontro Nacional da ANPAP. 14

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Petry, L. C. (2007). O ciborgue e a arte da hipermídia. In: Anais do 16º Encontro Nacional da ANPAP. Piaget, J. (1970). A Gênese das Estruturas Lógicas Elementares. Trad. Álvaro Cabral. Rio de Janeiro. Zahar.

Piaget, J. (1977). A tomada de consciência. São Paulo: Melhoramentos/Editora da Universidade de São Paulo.

Putnam, H. (1988). Lógica. In Enciclopédia EINAUDI, Vol. 13. Lógica, combinatória. Lisboa.

Imprensa nacional - Casa da Moeda.

Russell, B. (1960). Meu pensamento filosófico. São Paulo. Companhia Editora Nacional.

Santaella, L. (2000). A trama estética da textura conceitual, Apresentação digital ao Labirinto – Bairon, Sérgio (Coordenador) & Petry, Luís Carlos, Hipermídia. Psicanálise e história da cultura, Caxias/São Paulo, EDUCS/Mackenzie, hipertexto p. 0017.

Schopenhauer. A. (2007). O mundo como vontade e representação. São Paulo. UNESP. Tonéis, C. N. & Petry. L.C. (2008). Experiências matemáticas no contexto de jogos eletrônicos.

Ciências & Cognição 2008; Vol 13 (3): 300-317. from: <http://www.cienciasecognicao.org/pdf/v13_3/m318317.pdf>.

Von Wright. G. H. (1979). Explicación y compreensión. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.

Whitehead, A. N. & Russell, B. Principia Mathematica to *56. Cambridge. Cambridge: University Press.

Wittgenstein, L. (1994). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. São Paulo: Edusp.

Notes: (3) The hypermedia concept has many definitions, since its context inside the computer science, going through the Design, and arriving at the culture and information theory. On the side of culture and semiotics theory, we have Santaella (2000) telling us that: “far from being just a new technique, a new mean of preexisting content transmission, the hypermedia is, in reality, a new language in pursuit of itself”.

(4) Not free means that those mutations are supported by a historicity that is revealing from a dialogue that crosses and trespasses a number or regions. Not planned points to the fact that they do not constitutes in the result of a unique and monolithically program of work and research, but they could be seen previously as an phenomena in which we have the multi determination of forces that reciprocally feed themselves.

(5) Link to Doom. See also: David, K. (2003): Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture. At Wikipedia we have a very interesting description in <http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom>.

(6) Nowadays, the base site for the worlds or metaverses of Myst is: <http://www.mystworlds.com/us/>. The game creation was directed by the Rand and Robyn Miller brothers. This game was one of the most famous among the adventure games, helping to 15

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disseminate the genre. From <http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst>.

(7) J.C. Herz is the author of Joystick Nation: How Videogames Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds (1977). Brown. Little. and of Surfando na Internet – uma Aventura On-line (1996). São Paulo. Domínio Público.

(8) Lorna Dannan is the nickname of an autonomous researcher of games and ciberliterature that maintains the biggest reference site about the Myst themes, in <http://www.grandecaverna.com>.

(9) It is at this aspect that, from Huizinga (1938), the own game conception is redirected to its fundamental aspects. According to the thinker, the game and the play constitutes themselves into absolutely primary life categories and, in this sense, as essential as reasoning – Homo sapiens – and the objects factoring – Homo faber – making it appear the denomination Homo ludens, in which means before any other hypothesis that the playful element that is present in the basis of the civilization appearance and development.

(10) It is equally the case of Freud (1914) and Lacan (1953) studies that have identified the prelinguistically stages in the anticipation of the human subjectivity.

(11) The real knowledge, different from opinion. The knowledge of causes that is necessarily true. A mixture of science and knowledge, by what it differs from the so called empirical sciences. A rational effort to substitute the opinion, lets, the knowledge around the quota. It is divided into praxis, technè, e theoria.

(12) It is our modest understanding that Dilthey (1910).

(13) The users that had the opportunity of navigating through the preliminary version of URU live have commented that the visual-graphic sensation is similar to waking inside a film. From <http://www.coolwind.ws/esdni/htmls/esuru.html>, (14) The Neverending Story is a cinema adaptation, of 1984, from the homonym book of Michael Ende. (Wikipedia, available at <http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Neverending_Story>.

(15) The term Stargate refers to the American science fiction productions (of the “Space Opera” genre) that started with the motion picture Stargate, in 1994. The plot in all the productions goes around the Stargate premise, a superconductor device that allows time travel through the “subspace”. (Wikipedia, available at <http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate>).

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010 !

Some Remarks on Ontological-Cognitive Structures in the Metaverse

By Luis Carlos Petry Department of Communication and Semiotics, Pontificia Universidade Catolica de S達o Paulo, Brazil Abstract Metaverse is emergent. Its affirmation allows for the structuring of omnipresent aesthetical-digital experiences. In a widening of the concept of hypermedia of Manovich (2001), metaverse may be thought of as the setting in motion of the Wagnerian concept of Total Opera, with the difference that its characters identify themselves with their audience.

In this metacontext, the evolution and transformation suffered by the concept of interface, in the metaverse, we are oriented to think it as digital life forms1. On the other hand, it will be inside the discussion of the plastic foundations of the concept of metaverse that we find Louro and Fraga (2009) presenting a rich discussion about the mathematical-technological art, in which universes and physical-virtual experiences semi-permeable, open their doors for a reflection about the fundamental cognitive structures that would be working underlying men-machines-world systems, designating operational paradigms present in games, in hypermedia and in- systemic projects of metaverses. Initially we will discuss a few concepts that we find appropriate to the formulation of a possible cognitive-corporal structure which has an ontological status inside the digital world and, above all, in the metaverses. Right after that, we will present six moments of occurrence and manifestation of those structures in current projects, related to the emergence of the metaverse, for then, finally, to advance upon our perspective that puts the question of the possibility of thinking ontologically the foundations of the parallel worlds, called metaverses. We start with a monadic element: the three-dimensional patterns.

Keywords: ontology, metaverse, metaphysics, constructivism This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0!

United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Ontological-Cognitive Structures in the Metaverse

Some Remarks on Ontological-Cognitive Structures in the Metaverse

By Luis Carlos Petry Department of Communication and Semiotics, Pontificia Universidade Catolica de São Paulo, Brazil

Three-Dimensional Patterns In Louro and Fraga (2009) we find a mathematical-artistical reference to the threedimensional patterns2 present and active in the interactive environments, submitted to a logical structure of physics’ simulation and, manifesting themselves as cognitive structures. The component replicability, which manifests itself in the association between patterns, as basic structure of second order, tends the configuration of composite and/or complex structures in the spatial three-dimensional organization of interactive environments. A pattern is a structure capable of component replicability in the production of three-dimensional worlds, such as the metaverses. That´s what Louro & Fraga (2009: 3) tells us when they say that the study of the patterns is in itself a key element to the understanding of the growing of the three-dimensional structures on cyberspace. According to the authors, there are specific kinds of patterns which are directly related to the development and expansion of the three-dimensional structure and its transformation into a timeline. One of these cases may be found in the description of digital and physical experiments proposed by Fraga (2007). In those, we understand that the idea of threedimensional patterns may convert in material and/or virtual objects to Fraga (2007). Such structures have as their goal to incite unusual experiences in their users from the concept of affective computation of Picard (2000), since they provoke the suspension of the rational belief of a single reality (sic). Be tactile or almost tactile, the experiences offer a prototype of the futurity of holography and the total immersive interaction metaverses suggest.

Logical Structures Now, if we think that the patterns can also be seen as complex logical structures which are based in other elementary logical structures3, in the fashion of a three-dimensional construct, they work inside the organized, rational perspective of a figural collection (Piaget & Inhelder, 1975) which constitutes into ones of the bases of the construction of knowledge, including scientific knowledge. As logical blocks conceived by Hungarian mathematician Zoltan Paul Dienes4 in the 1950s, they offer and can be the support for a special type of interaction which has as a spontaneous, “non-intentional” result the forming of cognitive structures responsible by the production of knowledge. Every learning, be it in the mathematics or in life, involve physicalrepresentational and logical processes (Piaget, 1970, 1976 and 1971). To open a door, for example, may be thought of as a puzzle able to reveal the structure of a present pattern, not only in the virtual environment, but also in the logical-physical processes which inhabit the mind of the subject of the action. The return or retrieval of the experience lived by the users in the form of the description of their actions and intentions, in which they explain and describe consecutive steps of their action (to open a door, for example) reveals an operative structure in the mind that takes to itself the responsibility and conduction of behavior (Piaget, 1977). The constructivist approach harmonizes itself with the philosophical reflection in our example. That becomes clear when we remember that Wittgenstein (1994) indicated us that to describe a game is to

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understand a game, and, as components of a logical language game to be played in a countless number of ways, the patterns are those minimal elements of a cognitive structure that, in a game, participates in the phenomenon of understanding. Therefore, if I know how to play this certain game, I can understand this certain game. However, it will be only entering the playing of the game, amidst an environment formed by the myriad of patterns that the bigger cognitive structure of understanding will come.

Ontological Logic Working as Leibnizian Monads5 gifted of the most refined entelechya possible, the threedimensional computational patterns organize representational worlds whose ultimate hunger can be expressed via the metaverses. The idea of monad serves as the basis of the Leibnizian logical thought, expressed in the Charateristica Universalis namely the organization of a universal symbolic language that should be free from the plurivocity of the ordinary languages. The concept of Charateristica Universalis and its organization in a lingua sive characteristica would take a symbolic, imagetic aspect. Leibniz´s thinking followed, in its central theses, and it was widely developed by the German philosopher Gottlob Frege (1879) in the creation of the Begriffsschrift, the Conceptography, equally with visual aspects, and, aiming above all for the dynamic relationship between the vision of the totality of the page-image-assertion and its propositional components, which served as basis to first-order logic. More recently, an approach of the monadological thought was retaken, in 1993, by Michael Heim, in The metaphysics of virtual reality. Comparing Leibniz´s Calculus Universalis (Heim, 1993) with the logical system currently present in the computers, he calls this conjunction, metaphorically, Leibniz´s electric language6. The Leibniz´s electric language would emulate the divine intelligence, resulting in the possibilities of simultaneity and omnipresence, elements found in cyberspace, and, we say, in the metaverses. Even though Heim used the word metaphysics in the weak sense of the term, new-age like, to designate its pop, fun meaning7, the implicit ontological aspects in the question of the monadological grounding of cyberspace (and the metaverses) present very rich, instructive indications8. That´s the case with the summoning for the dialogue of the question with Heidegger, MacLuhan, and Marcuse. That is, a logical basis of cyberspace and the metaverses would have much to gain if thought in the light of an ontological grounding of the world and of the Dasein9.

Another approach of essential importance for a critical reflection of cyberspace and metaverses and, indicating the possibility of its ontological grounding, may be searched with the help of the thinking of the American philosopher Andrew Feenberg10. In the path opened by Heidegger and Marcuse, he defends that technology must be thought in its constitution of the extension of technical systems and of power in society, both in their outlook technocratic control as resistance to it. If on the one hand the naïve and technocratic technological thinkings arm themselves against public pressure, sacrificing values and ignoring necessities, on the other hand we see that a critical reflection of the question of technology (and here cyberspace and the metaverses enter) equally shelter other beneficial potential that should be better thought. Well, postulating the neutrality of technology would be naive then. Assumed as neutral technology converted in technocracy would favor some certain ends and would be oriented to block others.

Besides, we could include in this aspect a harder search by spontaneous organizations through all society (in and out cyberspace) in favor of a democratization of a wider and wider technology, which would mean thinking in new ways of privileging the values excluded by technocracy and

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make them concrete in new technical arrangements that walk together with social, ethical, ecological needs of human as a whole. It´s in this sense that a critique of the essence of technology can´t be dismissed, as well as a concern with dialogue and its use by communities of users inserted in holistic design modes11. Such a transformation carries with itself the affirmation of need of a transformation from down top and from the inner layers to the outer layers of the systems in usage. That would mean opening the technological structures to the interests and discussion of the communities – a situation that have been more and more realized based in organized communities of Web users. That leads to a certain technical choice instead of other, or, as we got used to see in the last half of the 20th Century, a technical choice instead of another one, social, political or ecological, determined for its time a political, ethical, social, cultural, and ecological meaning without precedent.

So, if we identify here the necessity of a philosophical reflection that states itself as capable of realize a critical and constructive dialogue with the technical thinking, that means a reflection that take into account the product, from Leibniz to Feenberg-Heim, must be perceived as a methodological program of thinking the aspects that are the closest to human, in which the communities of subjects really navigate, interact, communicate, and produce their transformations. They are located, the way we see it, in the scope of cyberspace and in the emergent metaverses12.

The reagent surfaces and the plastic body of aesthetical manifestation in the metaverses From 2003 to 2008, we realized a research program in which the central theme was the ontological grounding of the interactive three-dimensional discussing some aspects that we consider that are related here with the approaches already presented. Initially, in Petry (2003), we presented the possibility of thinking the work of three-dimensional modeling for threedimensional interactive environments, such as game engines and metaverses, as high-level reflective activities. In that moment, modeling an object would equal the act of thinking the thing as such, in its constitution of digital thing, which opened the possibility to think, from hermeneutical phenomenology, the beginnings of a thought that problematized the groundings of digital makings, designated by us as topophilosophy.

In our text, titled Aspectos fenomenológicos da produção de mundos e objetos tridimensionais na hipermídia (Phenomenological aspects of the production of threedimensional worlds and objects in the hypermedia, Petry, 2006), from the phenomenology of Heidegger and Gadamer, we located some aspects of the hermeneutical fundament of the concept of topophilosophy as the key concept for the understanding of the digital processes that bridge artistic and computational processes. In that case, we assumed that a methodological reflection about the theme of three-dimensional modeling would be necessary to a better understanding of the current digital phenomena that inhabited the Web, such as games, hypermedia, and metaverses. The starting point was the Heideggerian concept of aesthetical experience as an Erfahrung, a changing experience in the full sense of the term, as much for the author-artist as for the collaborative user and navigator of digital environments. The concept of aesthetical experience guided us to a reflection about the building, inhabiting, and thinking (Heidegger, 1994a), which offer the possible ontological circumscription for the idea of building objects and environments inside a given digital environment. Such as in the German word bauen, to build its home equals mixing the colors for a painting and, equally, the transformation of an object giving it a subjective determination beyond the condition of simple thing. In that moment, we put the

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Ontological-Cognitive Structures in the Metaverse

accent in the interrogation about the plastic dominion of the artistic space, and the possibility of the logical and mathematical intervention partaking of the reconfiguration of the artistic experience13. In this context, the aesthetical experience of the production (by the artistprogrammer) adds up to the possibility of the aesthetical experience of immersion (by the digital argonaut), in the quality of the possibility of an immersion gifted with sense, as much as for the locutionary manifest by its hypermedia production as for the elements of what´s left unsaid, its illocutionary elements, revealed by the interactive character of the same (agency, cf. Murray, 2003) and, possessed by its interactor.

That is when the problem of the plastic body in the modeling of three-dimensional characters was put to us as one of the aspects of the ontological question about cyberspace and the metaverses. In O ciborgue e a arte da hipermídia (The cyborg and the art of hypermedia, Petry, 2007), dislocated to the context of the digital environments and the question about the new modes of being of the Dasein, our research has found its expression in the avatars and characters of the digital universes metaverses14. In the form of three-dimensional cyborgs who inhabited the poetic worlds of the Quantum Opera AlletSator15. If, from the advent of postmodernity, we started to face new modes of being of Dasein, it´s similarly to expect that, in the plane of digital art, such new forms the modes of being come to manifest themselves. That´s the case of the construction and manifestation, into the plans of interactive worlds the inhabit cyberspace, avatars and cyborgs, taken as digital entities or, as Heim would say (1993), the cyber entities.

Finally, when we published the text A im@gem pensa: aspectos quânticos da imagem cibernética (Im@ge think: quantum aspects of cyber image, Petry, 2008), we began a systematic project of an organized discussion of the ontological foundations of cyberspace. In this publication we present the possibility of understanding the synthesis image, that is, the digital image produced by and with 2D and 3D computational resources, as a cognitive object. It´s in this way that we are always taken to think the ontological-cognitive structures of the digital universe in which metaverses live as homes of the digital Dasein. In order to illustrate some ideas initially sketched here in the context of a research in progress, I will discuss four examples in which the idea of patterns is presented and indicate, in the light of the concepts articulated here, the conceptual value of those digital works. Finally, I will make some notes about two important metaverses projects, both of which, opening space in its Open Source organization for academy research, fulfill the sacred mission of science taking us to new worlds of understanding.

The first example I wish to present encompasses the works in drawings and lithographs of the artist [1] Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972), known in the whole world as M. C. Escher16, in imaginative sculptural productions and lithographs. The artistic theme of the patterns in Escher is at the same time recurrent and deeply imaginative. Countless are the works that relate to Escher´s art with mathematical research and imaginative intuition17. The Web paper The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher (1997-2009)18 shows relations between Escher´s art and mathematical imagination, inside which the (1) regular division of the plane (tessellations), the (2) polyhedron, the (3) essays in symmetries and the (4) shapes that intersect planes are identified here in our approach with the concept already presented of pattern. In Escher´s case, the patterns present themselves as imaginative-artistic structures that have mathematical and three-dimensional potentialities.

The second example I would like to bring here is given by the work in [2] sculptural projects which take into account the organic replicability of the sphere, by artist Tomas Saraceno19. We observe that the dialogue between the sphere and the ropes that sustain those forming conical cords is worked inside the spirit of a pattern that made possible the

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Ontological-Cognitive Structures in the Metaverse

demonstration of a sculpture that dialogues between replicability and organicity. Here, the sign of the mandala present in the works of Saraceno presents a possible experience at tactile immersion, in the fashion proposed by Fraga (2009), when she speaks of three-dimensional, stereoscopical and interactive simulations, referring to what is being produced in virtual realities in cyberspace. In the case of Saraceno´s work, similarly analyzed by Louro & Fraga (2009), everything leads us to believe that the artist seeks to fulfill a kind of return of the digital to the physical installation, producing the same paradoxical impact we experience with the objects described by Fraga (2009). Well, the thinking and making of the artist seeks to dialogue with the concept of cyberspace. In her words: “Like continental drift at the beginning of the world, the new cities will search for their positions in the air in order to find their place in the universe . . . [this structure is] capable of imagining more elastic and dynamic border rules (political, geographical, etc.) for a new space/cyberspace.”

Image and representation here join forces in a collaborative fashion in order to produce an aesthetical experience and a plastic body, such as what we observed previously, as well indicate the pertinence of Fraga´s thinking (2009) when she describes the process her own analytics of creation, “During the process, I analyze constantly the non-causal connections which emerge as synchronic events, in relation with dreams, mental images, and insights, as cited above, and I transform them into conditions and action, so I can do things (Heidegger, 1988).”

That´s in this sense that it´s called to our attention the [3] work dedicated to the associative dialogue between the eidetic-transcendental forms in empirical and virtual compositions which show themselves as ambient objects by Brazilian artist Tânia Fraga20. Fraga (2009) shows us the possibility that scattered data during the creation period can emerge in a work that, at the same time present synchronicities that result from logical operations, as well as are organized as demonstrations which produce paradoxical aesthetical experiences. As sparse bubbles, emerging and floating in the logical-creative active imagination of the artist, they organize themselves as liquid, mobile thoughts that, in their results of manifestation and present city (Anwesenheit), show themselves as flexible patterns. Well, the basilar structure presented above in Fraga´s work is the triangle. We can´t avoid to observe that this basilar structure, here described by us also as a pattern, is a minimal building structure of every three-dimensional shape produced by the 3D modeling software. The three-dimensional world is founded upon the variable and mutant harmony of the triangle, in idea that makes us develop all the reflection to the ontological indicators presented by Heim to cyberspace: The eidetic-transcendental forms defined by Plato and, in our case, by the eidetic-transcendental figure of the triangle21.

Therefore, the triangle is the organizing matrix of the live-action experiment [4] Hyposurface22, presented by its authors as a system of exposition in which the surface of the screen makes physical movements from forms, information and the interaction of subjects. A visit to the several videos featured by the Hyposurface team shows us the possibility of aesthetical-plastic manifestation, in which the metamorphic-chromatic wall not only presents articulated images from the triangular pattern, as it also capable of synesthesically involving the users of the interaction. Every example, from [1] to [4] may be taken as effective demonstrations of reagent surfaces in which the plastic body puts as aesthetical manifestation that may inhabit the metaverses. That´s the case of the Open Source metaverse projects [5] Project Wonderland and [6] Croquet Consortium23. As wonders of the human intellect of the digital age, Wonderland and Croquet present themselves as possibilities of collaborative development between researchers around all of our geodesic and cognitive sphere. They have the capacity of

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Ontological-Cognitive Structures in the Metaverse

realization of the ontological forethoughts indicated by us, both formally as well as from the aesthetical experiences denoted here from Escher, Saraceno, Fraga, etc.

Conclusion World is everything, that is the case, but if the world doesn´t have an ontological grounding, it can only count as something that has no meaning for no mind. The ontological foundation of the metaverses, in the form of a Mathema capable of transmissibility and reasonability becomes necessary and urgent. It´s in the precise sense that the present text has been developed: to alert for the importance of the ontological fundament of the metaverses, which shall be subject to discussion among the communities of developing and participating minds. Our modest examples of the patterns, as logical-cognitive structures that are part, not only of the mental life and of nature, inhabit the space of the plastic body of the metaverses. As such, they open the door through the question of the ontological grounding of cyberspace and the metaverses, path that demands time and a work process non-determined a priori. A path that points out questions that in the current present moment, as in the saying of old Heraclitus, neither reveals nor hides, but indicates.

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Bibliography A im@gem pensa: Aspectos quânticos da imagem cibernética. (2008). Porto: revista cibertextualidades, (3. Ed.), Universidade Fernando Pessoa.

Aspectos fenomenológicos da produção de mundos e objetos tridimensionais na hipermídia.

(2006). Anais do 15º Encontro Nacional da ANPAP. Bahia.

Construir, habitar, morar. (1994a). Web link in: <http://personales.ciudad.com.ar/M_Heidegger/index.htm.> Dienes, Z. P. (2004). Mathematics as an art form: an essay about the stages of mathematics learning in an artistic evaluation of mathematical activity. In: <http://www.zoltandienes.com/Mathematics_as_an_art_form.pdf> Feenberg. A. (1999). Questioning Technology. Kentucky. Routledge. Feenberg homepage in: <http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/feenberg/> Fraga, T. (2007, August 7). Artes interativas e método relacional para criação de obras [1].

Readings 4306, [14:59] from <http://www.cibercultura.org.br/tikiwiki/tikiread_article.php?articleId=53> Frege, G. (1879). Begriffsschrift: Eine der arithmetischen nachgebildete Formelsprache des reinen Denkens. Halle/Saale. Verlag L. Nebert.

Heidegger, M. (1967). A proveniência da arte e a determinação do pensar. Web link in: <http://personales.ciudad.com.ar/M_Heidegger/index.htm> Heráclito. (1998). A origem do pensamento ocidental. A doutrina heraclitiana do lógos. [1944].

Relume–Dumará. Rio de Janeiro.

Heim, M. (1993). The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality. Oxford University Press. New York.

Leão, L. (2005). Hermenetka Zona de Interâmbio. From <http://www.lucialeao.pro.br/hermenetka/ > Leibniz. G. W. (1714). Princípios da Filosofia ou a Monadalogia. From <http://www.leibnizbrasil.pro.br/leibniz-traducoes/monadologia.htm> Lógica: la pregunta por la verdad. (2004). [1926]. Alianza Ensaio, Madrid.

Louro, D. & Fraga, T. (2009). Morphologies for the grown of responsive shapes. IJDST (International Journal of Design Sciences and Technology).

Murray, J. (2003). Hamlet no holodeck: o futuro da narrativa no ciberespaço. UNESP. São Paulo.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Ontological-Cognitive Structures in the Metaverse

O que é metafísica. (1969). [1929]. Available on: <http://personales.ciudad.com.ar/M_Heidegger/index.htm> Petry, L. C. (2003). Topofilosofia: o pensamento tridimensional na hipermídia. (Doctoral dissertation). PUC-SP. São Paulo.

Piaget, J. (1970). A Gênese das Estruturas Lógicas Elementares. Trad. Álvaro Cabral. Zahar. Rio de Janeiro.

Picard, R. (2000). Affective Computing. MIT. Cambridge.

Prado. G. (2007). Cozinheiro das Almas: apontamentos para o game (with Grupo Poéticas Digitais) in: Suzete Venturelli. (Org). Arte e Tecnologia: intersecções entre arte e pesquisas tecno-científicas. (Vol. 1, pp. 127-130). From http://www.cap.eca.usp.br/poeticas/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/cozinheiro-dasalmas_unb.doc. (1 Ed). UnB, IdA. Brasilia.

Stewart. I. (1996). Os números da natureza. Rocco. Rio de Janeiro.

Wittgenstein, L. (1994). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Edusp. São Paulo. _______________ Notes (01) Taking, for instance, also in the path of Manovich (2006), this idea is an extrapolation of the formulation of Wittgenstein´s language games (1994) as life forms. Such context of production of several digital life forms can be found in Leão(2005), Fraga (2007), and Prado (2007), for example.

(02) Pattern: from the French "patron," which, for its turn is derived from one of the meanings of the word "father" (pater). It designates a kind of recursive theme that incides upon objects or events. This word has several meanings, being used in computer science, art, psychology, psychoanalysis, etology, mathematics, among other sciences. The patterns are complex replicable structures that tend to organize a predicable (in meaning) structure, such as recursive algorithms (computer science), repeating images (art), behavioral schemes (psychology), compulsive repetitions (psychoanalysis), approaching rituals (etology), Golden Ratio (mathematics). Repetition, cycle, frequency, organization, manifestation, and transformation are some of the logical principles inherent and active in the patterns. The most basic examples of patterns that can be presented are the fractal structures of nature, such as Kepler´s Snowflake (Stewart, 1996).

(03) Even a pattern is guided by rules, be they of association, permutation, et cetera, inasmuch as a curve is formed by a succession of points oriented (by an interval) from a given center. As we will say further in this paper, even language games have rules which determine their existence.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Ontological-Cognitive Structures in the Metaverse

(04) See author´s website: http://www.zoltandienes.com. This Hungarian thinker developed the called logical blocks, and, in his site, we can find examples of applications between mathematics, art, and games. See, for instance, the text Mathematics as an Art form: an essay about the stages of mathematics learning in an artistic evaluation of mathematical activity, in the section Zoltan Dienes' Mathematical Games.

(05) Monad: key concept in Leibniz´s metaphysical philosophy, which designates the simple substance – from the Greek µ!"#$, µ%"!$, which may be translated as “unique” or “simple.” As such, the monad is a constitutive part of the composite, being itself without parts, therefore, indissoluble and indestructible. The modern concept of pattern has a parental relationship with the Leibniz Monad.

(06) According to the words of the philosopher: “Leibniz´s ‘electric language’ operates by the emulation of divine intelligence. The divine knowledge has the simultaneity of omnipresence and, so that it can establish the Access divine to things, the global functions of the matrix interconnect, by means of a net in a kind of a current eternity, between the gaps of all language.

Due to the access that does not necessarily need to be linear, cyberspace, in a first moment, doesn´t require a jump from one position to another in an orderly fashion. Science fiction writers have often imagined how it would be traveling at the speed of light. One of those writers, Isaac Asimov, described this travel as a “jump through hyperspace.” When, in his fiction, a ship reaches light speed, Asimov states that it performs a special kind of jump. At that speed, it´s impossible to follow the discreet points of the distance traversed by it.” (Heim, 1993, 95-96).

(07) See the interview with Heim about this point to Geert Lovink in 1994 in http://www.thing.desk.nl/bilwet/TXT/HEIM.INT (08) As written by Heraclitus: The lord of the Delphi Oracle neither reveals nor hides, but indicates.

(09) Here we have in mind the work of Heidegger, Marcuse, McLuhan, Heim, and Feenberg – in their productive elements for us to think an ontology of cyberspace and the metaverses.

(10) Feenberg is concerned about the possibilities of a philosophical reflection of technology.

The philosopher must dialogue with science, not just react to it or discuss it naively. In Critical Theory of Technology (2002), he tells us that the philosophy of technology walked a long way since Heidegger and Marcuse. Even though the thoughts of those philosophers are inspiring, the task of finding answers to our problems and current questions must count with our own ability to think and create, without resort to previous formulas which were connected to modes already overridden by the socio-historical evolution of capitalism and of technique.

(11) See the cases of the big communities of metaverse production gravitating around the engines Croquet and Project Wonderland, inside which the discussions, needs and works of the community of users that determines the Open Source ways of usage of technology.

(12) This methodological path is much more similar to another one, indicated by the German philosopher Karl-Otto Apel (2000), when he says that we should think the transformation of philosophy from Descartes to Husserl.

(13) More specifically, I came to the conclusion that it would be closer to art that we could find and locate truth, but, on the side of normal science, we would only have to count on method, systematization of the preconceived project of world. In this way, the appropriation of space in the spacialization of the artistic making leads man to inhabit, inside which to spacialize is to locate things, that is, to put him/herself beside them and there undertake an operative understanding, but not a mechanical understanding. That would be the transit space of a possible topophilosophical reflection, in its due rigueur.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Ontological-Cognitive Structures in the Metaverse

(14) If the definition of cyborg shelters a hybrid composition between the human corpus and the corpus of the technique, that means that we are dealing with a hybrid figure that, as inhabitant of both world at the same time, cannot belong exclusively to none of them.

(15) AlletSator is a project of an interactive quantum Opera that is in its final development phase in a research group gathering researchers from Brazil and Portugal, among them Pedro Barbosa, Rui Torres, Rogério Cardoso dos Santos, and this author. Web address/wiki: www.telepoesis.net/alletsator/wiki. The wiki contains a vast methodological material of the group’s work and indicates its sources and image libraries that can complement this exposition.

(16) See a general outline form: http://www.mcescher.com/, published by M.C. Escher Foundation and The M.C. Escher Company B.V. (17) An interesting list can be harvested from within the official website, in http://wwwgap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Escher.html (18) Of author unidentified, from: http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/minitext/escher/index.asp (19) The work of the artist Tomas Saraceno can be seen in: http://www.core.formula.com/2009/03/22/profile-tomas-saraceno/. Accessed on 2009/03/16.

(20) Described and presented in: http://www.cibercultura.org.br/tikiwiki/tikiread_article.php?articleId=53 Access in 2009/03/17 (21) In Plato´s Timeus: “In the first place, it´s obvious for everyone that fire, earth, water, and air are bodies, and that every body is solid. Everybody is limited by surfaces and every rectilinear surface is composed by triangles.”

(22) Available in: http://hyposurface.org/. Accessed on 2009/03/17.

(23) Project Wonderland can be accessed in: https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/. Croquet Consortium: http://www.opencroquet.org/

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

Digital Guqin Museum from a Virtual World to the Real World: Conception and Design of an Ongoing Cultural Sim Shuen-git Chow Digital Guqin Museum Project; Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, enass, Paris, France Abstract This paper provides an overview of the Digital Guqin Museum1 2 built in Second Life that provides the user an opportunity to experience and interact with different facets of Chinese culture. The user will find examples of Guquin culture, considered by some to be a place holder for Chinese culture3, such as the guqin, a rarely seen musical instrument sometimes confused with the guzheng, a more common popular instrument. Users can see the making of a guqin instrument and listen to guqin music being played, which represents both Chinese music, and more specifically, the guqin music genre - an elegant and quiet music – that might be considered a good match for a virtual world. The Digital Guqin Museam enables participants to play guqin music both in-world and via mixed-reality session, such as the recreation of an online “yaji” – elegant gatherings4. This paper questions which groups of Guqin players would be interested and which group would not, and what types of uses might be most engaging5. The Digital Guqin Museum in Second Life enables meetings possible only in a virtual world.

Real life people could meet in virtual places, visit cities, venues as an end in itself.

1

Slurl site location Digital Guqin Museum: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Daiyu%20Island/201/37/4065/?title=Digital%20Guqin%20Museum&msg=come%20and%20play% 2C%20try%20the%20Digital%20Guqin%20%21; picture of the Venue: http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/07/g8-moonlithotel.html 2 Facebook international group “Guqin”, introduction of Guqin and its culture, there are 248 members, all qin players, composed of scholars and qin players, discussion in English.

3 qin ( qin), qi ( qi), shu ( calligraphy) and hua ( painting). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Arts_of_the_Chinese_Scholar 4 Guqin master player : John Thompson, sl : Toadall Xuanzang 5 Other groups are more hermetic not opened to the public for example Japanese groups, and some Hong Kong based groups.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Digital Guqin Museum

DGM has been shown to professional guqin players, in informal settings 6 and at a specialists conference 7.

Keywords: Guqin, Digital Guqin, Virtual World to Real World This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

***

A selection of pictures from the prehistory of the Digital Guqin Museum are reproduced at the end of this paper and the picture logbook 07088 can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69077492@N00/sets/72157619515725129/show/

The Digital Guqin Museum is a cultural venue designed for pleasure and meaning with functional elegance as focus.

Why are some cultural SIMs more popular and others quite quiet? What are the make up of a successful, frequently visited SIM for a theme based cultural venue? And what happens after we achieved a successful SIM, does the venue stay in the Virtual World or we could hope to export some parts of the builds from the Virtual World?

I investigated a selection of SIMs of playful interests as follows: Chinese themes: Kowloon 9; ChinaBoat 10; quiet esthetic life style on tea cultures with Asian settings 11 and nonAsian settings 12 ; and live music venue 13, formal 14 and informal 15 stage sets ; in order to evaluate the multi-facet issues of â&#x20AC;&#x153;social playâ&#x20AC;?, â&#x20AC;&#x153;esthetic enjoymentâ&#x20AC;?, â&#x20AC;&#x153;building and sharing a narrativeâ&#x20AC;?, and crossing over experiences to/from real life to immersive online playing.

6 7

John Thompsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s private home museum WeeHawkens NJ "Intercultural International Conference on Guqin, Aesthetics and Humanism, 1 # % " ! - 2 - 0 * + TaiChung, Taiwan. DGM live demo and tour; url:http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/03/taiwan-guqin-conference-programme-2009.html; http://163.17.8.18/ge/files/20090418095955.pdf

8

For convenience of certain geography regions; the DGM picture 0708 book is here also: http://blog.sina.com.cn/swannjie Katati shop in Kowloon SIM, with graffiti from graffiti king as wall paper. http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/05/kowloonsim-real-kowloon-graffitti-king.html 10 China Boat â&#x20AC;&#x153;sunkenâ&#x20AC;?, disappeared ; http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/07/asian-style-teahouse-at-yelas-china.html; http://swannbb.blogspot.com/search?q=china+boat 11 Asian theme pampering tea house atYelas; http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/07/asian-style-teahouse-at-yelas-china.html 12 Tea and Treychnine stylized nature beauty qin playing space; Asian theme tea houses : tea, Chinese chess, Chinese furniture for qin playing: http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/07/dgm-yaji-venue.html 13 An example of live music event at a cafĂŠ: With CafĂŠ (high quality sim, closed) http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/03/withclosing-farewell-party-venice.html 14 formal stage; http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_e-OWu9iW-Nw/Sc3Lm3uUoMI/AAAAAAAABBM/JaQ4d-uVkkE/s1600h/live+music+venue+Circes+Circle+Radio.JPG 15 Informal live music with DJ line up, using street as venue, Circeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Circle Radio: coffee shop piano bar, chapel, etc stage with DJ line up, using street as venue, Circeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Circle Radio: http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/07/dgm-yaji-venue.html 9

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Digital Guqin Museum

Background Origins of The Digital Guqin Instrument and The Digital Guqin Museum In 2000, I had begun a research on the Preservation, Promotion and Development of the Guqin at City University of Hong Kong, with funding from the University at School of Creative Media. During that period, I have recorded many master players performance and understood the guqin milieu at various YaJi (Elegant gatherings) from many parts of China, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Paris 16. The present work is a continuation of the research begun from the Digital Video filming, Recording work to the creation of interactive 2D Digital Guqin graphics to music works 17, to the current 3D version for an immersive experience of the Digital Guqin 18.

I had the idea to create a meeting place for interested people who might know or not know anything about the guqin, like a culture club in the Virtual World, because I am interested in building architectural spaces, for both historically reconstructed and contemporary structures for specific virtual world programming to recreate an authentic environment which promotes the expression of the quiet elegance of an intimate voice of the guqin music 19. Secondlife is able to provide tools for graphics, spatial construction, texturing, online chat; in short, a creativity oriented platform without preset narratives – unlike other MMORPG - which suits my purpose.

Purpose To preserve, promote and develop Guqin and Guqin culture by building a nodal gathering point beginning in a virtual world and eventually exporting a part of the virtual to the real world 20 . In the virtual world, everyone could deploy their graphics, construction, speech, story construction, social behavior capacities and play together as one giant size creation (on going 24/7 sl stage) both through passive viewing by simply being inside the immersion experience and actively by creating personal constructions, exchanging visions, collaborative team work, cross disciplinary teaching and learning and, for fun and play in building an ongoing dream. (Dream here means multiple ever-improving scenarios approaching a personal and/or collective vision, including parallel visions, like simultaneous multiple plays with various actors) Methods First design and conception Venues: Guqin Music gatherings in the virtual world and in real life.

16

List of master guqin player video documentaries 2000-present: http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/07/guqin-master-playersvideo_12.html 17 Pale Ink, Zebrafish, Museum and the Web: http://www.archimuse.com/mw2006/bios/au_395015835.html; http://www.archimuse.com/mw2006/abstracts/prg_310000681.html 18 DGM at Daiyu island, http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/04/real-life-event-and-sl-presentation-of.html 19 Guqin gatherings are traditionally small numbered in intimate settings, in gardens, in libraries; not in large auditoriums as the common current norm. See: VanGulik “Lore of the Chinese zither”. Elements of yaji are open to discussion and involve many design issues : ie wearing Hanfu (traditional Han Dynasty costumes); are these for showmanship purpose, or role-playing props (cosplay?) What is important? The recreation of ancient configurations or music comes first, we wear white shirt and pants – be sober - and that’s fine? What about not-sober colorful fun clothing?

20 The DGM design principle has always been focused on the linking of sl to rl worlds as this is the target. The author is not interested in pure role playing as an end in itself, the sl platform is used as a special branch of rl guqin promotion. A lot of the attributes of sl use are uniquely possible in sl. The following initiatives are small steps in exporting sl to rl. Swannjie Postal Service 2007, Swannjie Postal Gift Service 2007-8, Mixed reality events 2008, and MobileMusic HuaHui House constructed by sl+rl people using rl postal service 2009.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Digital Guqin Museum

I have visited a real life Guqin Art Museum at Changshu in summer of 2008 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; proclaimed Heritage of Humanity Town of Guqin by Unesco 21 . It is a â&#x20AC;&#x153;Guqin Art Museumâ&#x20AC;? housed in an original Ming Dynasty wood construction, very well preserved with objects depicting guqin culture, setting of Guqin playing, and a mock up of a guqin instrument making workshop. The venue had an ambiance of a quiet bookish elegance. There were not many visitors, and the program was one of passive viewing. When I planned the virtual world museum, I not only complement the rl museum, I deploy the virtual world platform for functions specific to online gatherings using the advantages of the immersive virtual world. The purpose is to bring the content to more people and not â&#x20AC;&#x153;replace the rl guqin cultureâ&#x20AC;? as some guqin people feared. If we could augment, complement the passive viewing to actively learning and playing the music with available existing means, why not? I have interviewed the director of the Museum in 2008 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Mr.JU Xi 22, and made a video recording of our discussion. The director is an accomplished player of the guqin himself.

Materials Real life architectural builds photos pertaining to guqin historical references; guqin culture references; guqin instrument design, textual and graphical archival documents, music recordings, animation, scripting experts, textile, fashion of Chinese ceremonial wear, everyday wear, graphic design from various periods with accompanying settings.

Procedures and milestones Building of a first model of digital guqin instrument â&#x20AC;&#x153;HunDunâ&#x20AC;? 23 in secondlife 2007, invitation to Arts Birthday event in Tokyo sl+rl 2008 24, Linden Lab Campus Land grant to Swann Jie for representing CNAMenass for Digital Guqin Museum Project 2008 25 , collaboration and presentation at Universities in sl+rl 26 ; invitation to perform at a concert for a Chinese culture festival as musician player 2008 27, land donation to Digital Guqin Museum Project by private party WangXiang Tuxing 2008 28, invitation to mixed reality event broadcast in real life 2008, Rennes, France 29, invitation to present the avatar at Grand Palais, Paris, France, art event : Avatar Parade 2008 30; invitation to a real life conference with master guqin scholar players April 2009, Taichung, Taiwan 31 ; invitation to present the Digital Guqin Museum at CHIME nov09, Brussels, Belgium.32 Equipments used 21

Unesco page: http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=FR&RL=20 Changshu Qin art museum : â&#x20AC;&#x153;GuYinZhengZhong 1 ( ' 3â&#x20AC;?, editor JU Xi, publ. Shanghai WenHua ChuBanShe, 2007.

23 Sl+rl Qin designs; http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/07/sl-hundun-rl-half-hundun.html 24 Arts Birthday in 2008, http://www.artsbirthday.net/2008/; http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/07/arts-birthday-2008.html 25 Linden campus CNAMenass; http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-real-life-home-enass.html 26 University of Southern Mississippi performance at talk. http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2008/03/poster-comic-book-style-test1.html 27 Owl Bay first concert pic: http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2008/09/strange-dream-bird-shit.html 28 WangXiang Tuxing blog page: http://wangxiang.wordpress.com/2008/11/15/second-life-un-mur-de-graffitis/ 29 mixed reality blog page: http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2008/11/clap-clip-transmusicale-2008-and-moon.html 30 Grand Palais blog page : http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2008/12/medieval-horses.html 31 Taichung conf blog page: http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/03/taiwan-guqin-conference-programme-2009.html 32 CHIME 09: http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/06/digital-guqin-museum-presents-at-chime.html 22

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Digital Guqin Museum

Computer specification as per current sl requirements. Projector, screen, broadband connection, microphone. Photoshop, graphic pen palette, sound software, hard disks, camera, video camera.

Findings Guqin as an intrument without any pre-briefing is already a beautiful instrument soliciting viewers inquiry. The music has been admired by all listeners. Therefore, further development is definitely worthy because the instrument is full of life by itself.

On Youtube, we see often many self-uploading of various parallel experiments, electric guqins, new guqins designs with pickups, electric dulcimers in the form of a guqin, using electric guitars to reproduce guqin sounds, so on so forth. 33 From the internet, through wikipedia, and social networks such as Facebook 34, I see Guqin player groups has steadily increased globally, including many non-Chinese groups since my first investigation of this subject in 2000. 35 Many famous qin models are only exhibited for very brief periods of time per year due to the fragile nature of the object, if we reproduce a “manipulable” double in the Virtual World, more people would be able to see it and enjoy it for what its worth. 36 Discussion How do we enjoy an sl SIM passively and actively? I visited a Kowloon SIM which used all real life documents to recreate the Kowloon Walled City structure and infill with creative elements from avatars using the theme of Kowloon Gate Video game 37. The game itself is based on Kowloon Walled City. As I know the real life Kowloon City very well, I find it meaningful to pose a Chinese object at the SIM, a package of Pu-erh tea – a standard Cantonese drink for Kowlooners such as you would find in any tea house large or small, buvette stands and restaurants. I proposed to put a Pu-erh tea box at the Kowloon SIM as a cultural and active link to the Chinese DGM culture, however, it was refused by Magnum the manager of Kowloon SIM. He/she explained that, their Kowloon SIM has nothing to do with the real life Kowloon, because their world and pleasure is based on the Kowloon Gate video game 38. They live another esthetic pleasure which is not related to real life Kowloon City culture. Their world starts with Kowloon Gate, a Japanese video game, and not the real life Kowloon. As the tea box shows real tea and not sl tea – even though it gives out sl tea with a further possibility of tiny bricks of real life tea delivery via postal service making a link from sl to rl- “it is imperfect as object” for the Kowloon sim. Magnum has limited the use of the Kowloon SIM as a uniquely Kowloon Gate video game vision. 39 This opens an interesting subject because everything in the Kowloon SIM from food to shop to apartment to street names, to urban façades are all based on photographic realities of the

33

foldable guqin-electric-dulcimer, custom made instrument: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZJQNYLdFuY electric “Chinese slide-guitar” (guqin); http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh8tCtY0Wgk&feature=PlayList&p=A530486319948249&index=1 34 Facebook, groups of Guqin music and culture, new+old: http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/07/vulgar-ideas.html 35 Spanish group web site: http://guqin.mybesthost.com/en/index.cgi/QinShosoin 36 The Shosoin Qin, Nara, Japan : http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/06/locked-up-qin-at-shosoin.html 37 Kowloon café zero displaying the original document sources and book by Japanese explorer of Kowloon Walled City. See illustration 38 Kowloon Gate Sony video game, released in Japan 1997 39 Kowloon SIM born from Kowloon Gate which was born from Kowloon walled city . http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/05/kowloon-gate-video-game-and-real.html

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Digital Guqin Museum

real life Kowloon City culture 40. I rather think isn’t a creation that much more rich and vibrant if it is capable of being interpreted and enjoyed at more than one level? Could Star Trek in sl exist without the original Star Trek show? 41 On the otherhand, how many real life resident of real Kowloon would enter the Kowloon sim and find it enjoyable to stay for long periods of time? (not that many real life people would need to enter sl to enjoy their own culture, but we cannot assume that they have no real life use for sl. For example, a German group imported their own home so they could enjoy a mini real home in sl too and share this online with faraway friends. And the entire city of Berlin is being recreated in another virtual world.) 42 In my present Digital Guqin Museum context, even though the sl platform could present a “parallel virtual world” for very interesting uses 43, from the conference in April09 in Taiwan, most real life Master guqin player’s reactions range from aggressive rejection to curious to wanting to see more, but they all want to see a practical application and not to “play” or “socialize” at the present point. I have contacted younger players via Facebook, and they are more receptive to the idea. In general, this group is already computer literate and are using online social networking for their everyday activities. They are more interested in lighter playful aspects of the culture, experimenting with new guqin composition and sounds 44 (post production reverberation textured,), but also costumes, outings, summer school, group gatherings. Their elegant gatherings seem to resemble a larger club like activities. 45 A fundamental issue is, what are components of the “guqin culture” that real life guqin player feel partial to? Even though Guqin people are rather small in number, there are many different groups. (“pai” = School) 46 “Pai”s of guqin establishes styles of play and whats “guqin culture” and whats “non guqin culture”.47 There has been much discussion on the new Guqin schools in real life, that people only learn to play and have little accompanying guqin culture as witnessed in the new Private Guqin studios 48. We are in year 2009, how many people have time to learn to play the guqin intrument and to study guqin culture as described in the old literati tradition? How many teachers are qualified to teach both subjects? Should we expect some adjustments to be true to our time instead of falling into “role play” in real life?

There are multiple voices on this question, many Guqin groups, no matter from which “school” or style the players have learnt from, all proclaim their interpretation of the existing philosophy as the authentic one, and are upholding the true essence of the Guqin. 49

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Kowloon walled City video report by RTHK. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5hk5oxj5uM Tilly Ayer talked about passing difficult Star Trek like exam at the role playing academy 42 Berlin reproduced in Virtual World Twinity. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7754038.stm 43 John Thompson’s evaluation of Digital Guqin Museum in VW ; http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/07/john-thompsons-ondgm.html 44 new guqin groups ie: “Vulgar Ideas” (as opposed to YaYue = elegant music) “An experimental collective of guqin musicians devoted to making our instrument louder, harder, faster, and generally sicker.” (facebook group headed by Stephen C. Walker) http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/07/vulgar-ideas.html 45 Guqin players in Han costumes at a Yaji in Toronto, June 2009. an open event of the Guqin group on Facebook: http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/07/guqin-and-hanfu-revival-costume.html 46 current discussion on “pai” (schools) in Facebook, Guqin group; and formal classifications: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_schools 47 an example of transmission of guqin: Tsai DeYun’s “school”, by Bell Yung http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/06/locked-upqin-at-shosoin.html 48 !"#$%&!'#(!)*+! $ “ & Era of Private Qin Institutions” presented at Taiwan conference 25Apr09. http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/03/taiwan-guqin-conference-programme-2009.html 49 Discussion of “pai” (school) in facebook amongst the guqin players. This issue comes up very often and never ends with any conclusion.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Digital Guqin Museum

In creating a Digital Guqin Museum in sl, targeting exportation of specific elements of the virtual model into real life, I am proposing to make this long heritage from 3000 years ago open to a larger population’s enjoyment, currently the group of people who use online services.

I began with an example of a Guqin Museum Club, it’s a first interpretation and I will leave some of the delicate question of policing “authenticity of enjoyment” to the viewers and players themselves in order to make way for a richer output and continuation? Because there will always be a group of people who are naturally attracted to verification of authenticity and others are more in tune with creating at an intuitive, sensual level. Without a large base of people working simultaneously on the subject, we would have a harder time to refine and develop, inject vitality into any art, music of any cultural form.

Conclusion For the Digital Guqin Museum to be on target and to successfully carry out its original mission, being authentic to the original mandate 50, we need to fulfill three or more conditions: 1. We need to find existing guqin and guqin culture groups and introduce them to the virtual world possibilities to build a real life player group.

2. We need to introduce the guqin and guqin culture to existing sl avatar groups so they might be able to develop a corpus of activities and narratives from the social activities starting from the sl environment. Eventually, some members of this group will export into real life to learn the real life instrument.

3. Through events, we might (as we have already succeeded from being invited to two professional international musician/musicologist conferences 51 ) link up the real life group with the virtual world group. Though it may not be in any great numbers compared to other cultural sims, such as Star Trek, but, judging solely from the strength of the beauty of the Guqin instrument and the quality of the music, from the reactions of sl avatars, we have and we will gather a group to expand and carry on this culture in a significantly larger, grander scale than the existing small group. And definitely will have more reach than the single one on one teacher-student real world method. (The one on one method is very good but limited access for both teacher and student.)

4. While number 1 to 3 is being carried out, it would be fruitful to develop design objects, builds, costumes 52, stories, videos, texts related to Guqin themes – all the paraphernalia

50

Mandate: 1: to show the Guqin Art and Culture to another group of people, an international computer literate online people. 2: to historically recreate tableaux of guqin elegant gatherings in a controlled environment, and create tableaux of other styles and settings as virtual model, as theatre. 3: sharing of fun and design creativity, collaborative amusement and self perfectionnement. The sharing part is especially good aspect of sl, at its best it enables a light, non material, spiritual existence.

51 Taichung, Taiwan, April09, and chime nov09 urls: http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/03/taiwan-guqin-conferenceprogramme-2009.html; http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/06/digital-guqin-museum-presents-at-chime.html 52 Discussion and use of “Han” costumes. Pic of guqin players wearing these clothing. Gong Yi says even if you paid him millions he would never wear such clothing, as its just silliness does not correspond to the present contemporary age. Wearing such clothing is akin to theatre. Though I must say, in the SL environment, cosplay is part of some peoples joy of being in a Virtual World. And we say, I think its Vladimir Jankelevitch, that it is because you conduct yourself as musician that you become musician. So, if we have such a good setting given through sl, why not? And I do believe we don’t become musician over night, wearing a costume if it helps to focus on becoming musician, what harm could there be? As long as you don’t think you are musician just because you are wearing the “Han” robe. Here the costume aspect is like “prop” for entering the scenario. What matters is the quality of the presentation, does the costume look convincing on the person in context?

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of a guqin culture and related activities to increase interest and profile for a sl+rl life style. From sl to rl, these activities are excellent opportunity for teaching and learning aesthetics, design, interactivity, scripting, animation, video editing, machinima, interdisciplinary creations through formal structured coursework or informal “play” oriented research-creations.

5. Internet connection must be up to grade and speed for an virtual world to run and the virtual world platform itself has to be stable for clients to invest in it. As of now, it’s reliable for some uses – for example for non-urgent fun oriented deployments. But for real time teaching lessons, the requirement of stability needs to be higher than the present.

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Paraphrenalia include: tea ceremony, incense burning, nature setting, costume, hair piece, dialogue, and music play; including other standard accompaniment instruments such as flute, clay flute (Xun) and ruan.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Digital Guqin Museum

Selected Pictures from the Digital Guqin Museum Here you will find a selection of pictures from the prehistory of the Digital Guqin Museum and you can find the entire picture logbook 070854 at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69077492@N00/sets/72157619515725129/show/ Visitors of the Digital Guqin Museum, avatars interested in the instrument, and mixed reality events 55:

Musician Wildo Hoffman, an electro acoustic specialist in rl

Dalian Hansen, author of first novel published with sl as a setting

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For convenience of certain geography regions; the DGM picture 0708 book is here also: http://blog.sina.com.cn/swannjie Mixed Reality; http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2008/12/3rd-dec-2008-talk-demo-at-sl-rl.html

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First Mobile Music exporting from Secondlife to Real Life: Huahui cube Mobile Music House Previous to the HuaHui House project, there was an experimental postal service project: real life postcards sent from sl to rl upon demand. This experiment was to see how many people you meet (not anonymous open calls but after direct contact has been made) in sl are actually interested in receiving a post card from Paris sent via a real life postal service. I sold around 30 postcards. People in sl generally wish to enjoy their sl life and not have to be bothered with rl realities. They enjoy the idea of receiving a card but prefer to keep things separate and simple, just one less problem to worry about.

Visitor Sushimetal testing Huahui house

Huahui cubes arrived via postal service: Aquito, Estella, WXT, Break out Breakers, WangXiang http://huahuimagiccubehouse.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-version-slim-and-trim.html

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Poster publicity offered : Cyber Aquarium

Poster publicity offered: Tukiyo C of Moonlit Hotel in sl Digital Guqin Museum as a social gathering club

1 Cover of Digital Guqin Museum VW/RW Logbook 2007-2008

2 Small mobile guqin playing venue â&#x20AC;&#x201C; buildable in real life: in weather proof fire proof cardboard. Here shown under a tree with a Freisian Mare with petting animation, at DGM site.

One of the famous historic guqin player was a great horseman. A ridable black horse was gifted

by Leni Galli.

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3 Virtual model for real life construction in cardboard

4 Small mobile guqin playing venue ready to travel behind any medium car – dimensions conform to highway travel norms. Light weight tent on frame structure w human scale.

5 Mobile Digital Guqin Museum (airship gifted by Hanako Hammerer (Japanese): DGM Airship on Linden Campus, for Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers enass. Site of collaborative learning – creation of Oracle consultation service between CNAM enass Swannjie (France: design and conception, content) and University of Southern Mississippi (USA, Prof 14

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Digital Guqin Museum

Sturtevants class: scripting. CNAM enass was client to the service provider, the experience provided a real client/service interchange for a class of computer science students. An Oracle book based on the original Wong Dai Sin book from the temple of the same name located in Hong Kong was scripted for real Oracle consultation and interpretation upon request.

6 Mobile Digital Guqin Museum visiting the burning China boat.

The Boat has the interior of Ancient Chinese architecture, it was burning for an unknown period of time. When interviewed Aston Leisen the creator said, he doesn’t know why its burning and for how long and it will probably just slowly sink and disappear.

7 There were high quality posters, furniture from the 70s, memories from the cultural revolution era. This corresponds with a current Mao chic in real life. Creator Aston Leisen has selected typical objects from the era, the propaganda poster, stylized simple sparse furniture, nostalgic pretty woman from the 30s playing the pipa – retro chic, a canvas school bag. Later, we see now at this exact location, a new China SIM. The burning boat had disappeared from Secondlife.

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8 Digital Guqin Museum 2009. Yaji elegant gathering venue interior design using a purchased base of an existing tree stone castle as template and will be entirely reconstructed in wood texture with corresponding period Chinese architectural details, and respective interior fill.

9 Swannjie with a Tea culture virtual world/real world - a testing of an eBusiness model. If visitors wished, they could order tea displayed in Secondlife to be sent to them in real life with a Digital Guqin Museum label. A previous attempt for real life postcards: Swannjie Postal Service has been made in 2007. On the lower table are: xfactor; an artificial intelligence cybertwin chat cube linked to cybertwin Swannjiejie; and the Suiseiki stone social chat cube linked to cybertwin WangXiang. Horse waiting to be petted in the back, there was a story of playing the qin to a cow ; meaning useless – however, here you could play to an intelligent horse: a cybertwin who gives you echos of Guqin music and culture info.

10 Digital Guqin Museum : MobileMusic HuaHui House. 3200 prims; each cube contains a color changing script and gives a gift. In Secondlife Virtual World, the house comes in two versions: multicolored, or silver. In real life, the House also exists in color or silver. Guests were invited to test the ambiance of the house in the Virtual World.

The first prototype being built is silver with high lights in color. Cubes are invited from around the world. Details + contributors: http://huahuimagiccubehouse.blogspot.com/2009/04/list-ofcubes.html; in real life the HuaHui House could be transported from place to place on the highway. Each cube could be assigned to a 2D barcode to link to a web page for details associated with the gift given by the cube – or some other information as designed by the maker of the cube. Sometimes, the material gift itself maybe stored directly in the cube itself if the HuaHui House is to be a permanent structure as a physical location of an item – for example if the gift was say a tiny coffee mug, teddy bear, beaker with a plant, notepad with a tiny pencil and other mysterious symbolic items so on so forth.

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11 Digital Guqin Museum : HuaHui cubes in real life.

12 Digital Guqin Museum HuaHui House in Ilan Taiwan in Secondlife – and we could imagine the landscape as plausible in real life.

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Chinese culture deployment in the virtual world as used by the well loved Kowloon SIM

13 Kowloon SIM is based on references of real documentation of the book Kowloon Walled city by. /) Kowloon Explorer team captain

14 Katiti’s shop at the Kowloon SIM inspired by Kowloon Emperor’s Graffitti, a real life bona fide art brut artist of Hong Kong Mr. TSANG Tsou Choi. (However there is no reference of this source which constitute an important part of the charm of the place given that Chois graffiti is really a signature symbol of Kowloon)

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15 TSANG Tsou Choi , "Emperor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsang_Tsou_Choi

of

Kowloon"

Graffitti

emperor,

16 Kowloon real estate office. These spaces correspond to a real Secondlife volume sometimes with only 9 prims â&#x20AC;&#x201C; tiny allocation of rental spaces conformed to the reality of real Kowloon.

17 Swannjie puts her tea here to try the mobile street vending experience at a typical left over space as found street corner.

18 Eating porkbun in a Chinese apartment the green and white wall is a typical coloration in Kowloon homes from the 60s â&#x20AC;&#x201C; some homes have never been updated in style and remain the same.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Digital Guqin Museum

19 The famous computer mall sign “Kowloon Computer City” seen through the window and a typical popular culture poster on the backwall of this café. Fu = plenitude.

Popular Tea and leisure culture venues in the virtual world and in real life for social settings are highly appreciated and esthetics of tea and its related paraphernalia are much searched for in an installation for a guqin event; venues used by Asian and non-Asian themed tea rooms, exterior spaces

20 Tea & Strychnine http://swannbb.blogspot.com/2009/07/tea-and-strychnine.html

21 Mobile Music House – delicate tent house - staying for a few days on a stretch of empty great wall of China. A Real life location would be in JianCou (triggering point of the bow+arrow) – the wild section of the Great Wall.

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22 A Kungfu shop for mystical experiences of guqin music as presented by recent cult kungfu films. The creator said his kungfu fortress sim has no real life model; he created it from kungfu films he saw. His sources would include: inventive hybrid guqin+guzheng instruments, Kungfu hustle, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Warring States, Erotic desires burns the Qin, and many others because in popular culture the Guqin is being used as some musical mystical weapon which attacks via immaterial sound waves and plainly as a material object.

23 Unusual place: China West SIM, sand, wind, dirt, hardship, tough man land. Owner cctv Back creates Chinese military tough wear. Chance meeting a good creator: according to the book of qin, when you are with a friend, it is also a good moment and is appropriate to play.

Pleasant ambiance for guqin playing in non-Asian and non-tea room venues

24 Oyster bar.

Pleasant ambiance for guqin playing in Virtual World venues

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25 In fairy land

26 Player on a rose (sculptie bed purchased) Digital Guqin Museum story logbook 2007 2008

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Building of the HuaHui Cube for the Mobile Digital Guqin Museum in real life: The version shown above will take 3200 cubes to complete. The structure is a light weight tensegrity structure used as a landmark. Each time the DGM visits a venue; it will be used as a landmarked for a musical event. Targetted launch 23 June 2010 on Music Festival Day in Paris, France in a public park.

27 HuaHui Cube exported into real life with 2D barcode identification for each cube.

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled February 2010 Who am I - and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Realities

By Benjamin Gregor Aas, Katharina Meyerbröker, Paul M. G. Emmelkamp

University of Amsterdam, Netherlands Abstract

Virtual realities form a new technical platform, raising scientific questions about the human mind, communication and identity. There is hardly any scientific research on the influence of a virtual reality on the identity perception and the personality of a user of these virtual realities. The present study attempts to contribute to filling this gap by assessing the potential difference between real-life personality and the ‘virtual’ avatar personality using the online virtual world of Second Life. Dutch participants (N = 34) were asked to use their own avatar or create a new avatar within this online virtual reality, to communicate with other avatars and finally to fill in a Big Five personality questionnaire (5 Persoonlijkheids Factoren Test - 5PFT) via a virtual interactive testing screen within Second Life. The virtual 5 PFT scores were compared to pencil and paper scores of the same questionnaire, which had been filled in by all 34 participants during a first-year undergraduate test battery, seven months prior to the virtual testing. Results showed no difference for any of the five subscales (extraversion, friendliness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, development) between the pencil and paper and the virtual version, suggesting that users of virtual realities do not create a ‘virtual’ personality for their avatar. Furthermore, high scores of internal consistency and high test-retest correlations between the two versions were found, which are very similar to the original test-retest scores of the 5PFT. These findings show the potential of virtual realities as new platforms for reliable (psychological) testing and future clinical applications.

Keywords: personality; virtual reality; online games; Second Life; virtual psychology This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Who am I – and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Reality

Who am I - and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Realities

By Benjamin Gregor Aas, Katharina Meyerbröker, Paul M. G. Emmelkamp University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

In recent years technological development has enriched our daily lives with a wide range of new possibilities. Personal computers, the internet and other means of information technology are rapidly changing communication and thereby people’s lives, maybe even as much as the invention of language, writing and printing did (Baecker, 2007). One of the most intriguing experiences, and at the same time most controversial discussed topics, is the phenomenon of virtual realities. Second Life is the biggest free available virtual reality, with 15 million people currently registered, while approximately 500.000 people are online in Second Life at least once during one week (Linden Research, Inc., 20 October, 2008). At any moment somebody with an avatar can join the Second Life world to meet people, build objects and do whatever he likes. In fact, in Second Life there is an online world developing that has pretty much the same features as the real world.

One important difference between the real world and virtual worlds is that contacts are always established via the technical use of the computer. Avatars approach each other in virtual places, but to disappear it only takes a mouse click. There is for example the possibility to fly and teleport, meaning that at any time the avatar can directly be transferred to any other place within Second Life, except some restricted private areas. By wearing the virtual mask of the avatar and by always having the chance to leave without being known or questioned, a user of the virtual reality finds himself confronted with questions as “what am I going to tell?” and “am I going to tell the truth?”. This anonymity can lead to a sense of de-individuation and disclosure, which in turn has influence on the identity perception of the user (McKenna & Bargh, 2000).

Users of the online role game ‘World of Warcraft’ are found to create their avatar more closely related to their ideal self, than to their real self (Bessiére, Seay & Kiesler, 2007). This finding is supported by an experimental study, in which the true self (the inner concept of the participant’s self) is found to be more available cognitively during internet interactions, while during face-toface interaction the actual self (the ‘outer’ concept of the participants self) shows to be more accessible (Bargh, McKenna & Fitzsimons, 2002). One could argue that people communicating via internet or virtual reality try out behavior which they do not dare to express in real life, or do show implicit stereotypical behavior without willing so (Wigboldus, 2008). The avatar could for example be much more open, telling his deepest thoughts. They could also be less friendly, because there is no need of being polite as in the real world, which in turn can also be interpreted as being more honest. In fact, each person could have its own differences compared to the real life. It is even possible that one is maintaining several avatars with different personality styles, for example an animal avatar which is friendly and besides that maybe a rough-looking guy being direct and extraverted. In the end, one could also use the avatar just to be the same as in real life; all directions of change or no change at all are possible, raising the question what the influence of online virtual realities on the user’s personality is.

‘Personality’ is generally defined as the stable and unchangeable concept of the sum of the attributes of a person (Mischel, 1999). The most widely known theory of personality is the socalled ‘Big Five’, a theory that tries to describe personality by using five basic continuous traits, namely extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism. These traits are supposed to be stable across time and situations. Modern theories nevertheless view personality as a whole set of different adaptive modes for different situations (Turkle, 1997).

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Who am I – and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Reality

People do behave very differently in various situations, mostly appropriate to the demanded social rules in the situation. In other words, people use a variety of different personality-patterns according to a specific situation. Therefore it seems plausible that people may also create a ‘special’ personality to use in Second Life. To put it short: Richard David Prechts philosophical question on personality: “Who am I - and if so, how many” expands with virtual realities to: “Who am I – and if so, where?” (Precht, 2007) Current literature strives the above mentioned question, but has a number of shortcomings.

First, scientific papers are often more theoretically than empirically oriented. For example the work of Turkle (1995) or McKenna and Bargh (2000) give an overview on the implications of the internet and virtual reality on people’s lives and their personality, though without transcending their theoretical framework to a more experimental level. Second, a few studies make use of massively multi player online role playing games (MMORPG’s) like ‘World of Warcraft’, in which the main aim is, in contrast to Second Life, to fulfill missions of a preset plot and not on social interaction (Bessiére et al. 2007, Bainbridge, 2007). The emphasis in these studies is on people’s personalities in real-life, rather than on how personality undergoes changes during such role-playing games. Third, a number of researchers interested in virtual realities are not interested in the aspect of personality in virtual settings (De Nood & Attema 2006). Although they use experimental designs, interest lies on behavioral aspects like virtual distance between avatars (Yee & Bailenson, 2007). A few researchers use reaction time tasks to assess actual and true self in virtual realities, but do not make any claims about the content of these selves and the differences between them (e.g. Yee & Bailenson, 2007; Bargh et al. 2002, Boellstorff, 2008).

The present study will try to overcome the shortcomings of the mentioned studies by using psychological questionnaires in an experimental-correlation setup and answer the research question: How stable are personality-traits when entering a virtual reality?

To assess this potential difference between personality in real life and virtual life, personality is measured twice with the same tool, namely the 5 Persoonlijkheids Factoren Test (5PFT, Elshout, 1999). This pencil and paper questionnaire is regularly taken by first year undergraduate psychology students during the so-called ‘testweek’, which is an obligatory testing panel, undergraduate psychology students of the University of Amsterdam have to attend.

The 5PFT is supposed to be a fairly stable measurement of the five personality attributes: extraversion, friendliness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and development (Elshout, 1999). In the present study, the 5PFT questionnaire is filled in a second time via an interactive virtual tool in Second Life. The participants use their avatar to approach the testing screen, where all questions of the 5PFT are presented one after another. If the comparison of the two 5PFT versions shows differences for the real life condition and the virtual condition, this can be accounted for by a real difference of how participants experience and act within the two worlds.

To control for mediating factors, ‘absorption’ and ‘presence’ will be measured. People that are being ‘sucked’ in or absorbed by all kinds of situations (the plot of a play or a story) might get more involved in their avatar and therefore show different results on ‘absorption’ than people that keep a distance towards the virtual world. Presence tries to measure whether the participant feels present in the online virtual reality and whether this world appears to the participant as if it was real. Again, it is possible that participants that feel more present in the virtual world behave differently from participants who are not feeling present.

With this approach, the present study attempts to transcend the discussion about personality in virtual realities from a theoretical level to an empirical level. Using ‘blind’

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Who am I – and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Reality

participants, a laboratory setting, scientific data analyses et cetera, will make it possible to give an informed answer to hypothetical beliefs on how people ‘are’ in virtual realities as they circulate in press, internet forums and blogs. Finally, using the platform of Second Life has, in contrast to MMORPG’s, the advantage that the emphasis lies on ‘virtual’, hence relatively ‘normal’ social contact instead of following a role-play objective. Due to a lack of empirical studies, it is not possible to predict an outcome on the question whether there is a difference between virtual personality and real personality. On the basis of a more flexible view on personality one would expect that a difference between virtual and real life can be identified. On the other hand personality is, in contrast to Turkle (1997), widely seen as a stable concept that does not vary across different situations (Mischel, 1999); from this perspective there is no reason to predict a difference between the real life and the virtual setting.

Method Participants Psychology students of the University of Amsterdam were informed and could register for participation via wallpapers. Potentially, every psychology student who has participated in the ‘testweek’ could also take part in the study, as during this prior testing corresponding results of the 5PFT had already been produced. As compensation, participants could earn up to 2 ! ‘participation hours’ or 17 Euros, depending on whether or not they had a previously existing avatar. Participants flagging not to have taken part in the ‘testweek’ could not take part.

Measures 5 Persoonlijkheids Factoren Test To assess the personality structure of the participants the 5 Persoonlijkheids Factoren Test (5PFT) has been used, which consists of 70 items. This is the first questionnaire to assess the Big Five personality structure, consisting of the scales extraversion, friendliness/sociability, conscientiousness, neuroticism/emotionality and development (Elshout & Akkerman, 1973; Elshout 1999). This questionnaire is included in ‘testweek’ tests on a routine basis; therefore, each participant had filled in the 5PFT with pencil and paper before. Between the two versions of the 5PFT (‘testweek’ and virtual), there was a delay of at least 6 months for each participant, ensuring that nobody had insight into the real purpose of the study, namely the comparison of the two 5PFT versions. In fact, no participant mentioned recognizing the 5PFT from earlier testing.

To measure the avatar's personality, this test was administered in the present study by using a virtual interactive screen within Second Life, as can be seen on Figure 1. The participant started the questionnaire by clicking on the screen. Subsequently, the avatar was welcomed personally by its avatar name and the screen showed the introduction of the 5PFT. Finally, after being introduced, the screen showed each question one by one and the participant could respond by clicking on one of seven ‘answer-buttons’, ranging from ‘absolutely not of relevance’ to ‘absolutely of relevance’. After the participant’s response, the next question followed. As an example, the first question is as follows: “Talkative. Talks a lot, to everybody.”

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Who am I – and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Reality

Figure 1. Avatar in front of the interactive survey screen Absorption After the avatar logged out, participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire that measures Absorption (Tellegen & Atkinson, 1974). The absorption list is included as a subscale of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; Tellegen, Lykken, Bouchard, Wilcox, Segal & Rich, 1988), which had also been completed during the ‘testweek’. In the present study Absorption is measured to control how much participants are open to absorb new situations and are open to self-altering experiences. This test consists of 34 items, each to be answered on a 5 point scale ranging from ”This is barely of relevance” to “This is of very high relevance”. The first question is for example: “Sometimes I experience things just the way I did as a child”.

Furthermore the ‘testweek’ results of the MPQ also yield scores on time needed to fill in, as well as two validity scales, namely the Variable Response Inconsistency (VRIN) and the True Response Inconsistency (TRIN) (Patrick, Curtin & Tellegen, 2002). The VRIN controls whether participants fill in the MPQ “randomly”, while the TRIN flags participants’ tendency to have a specific positive or negative answering style, respectively. These three scales are used in the present study to exclude participants that filled in the ‘testweek’-MPQ too fast, too randomly or with a too strong specific answering pattern.

Igroup Presence Questionnaire To control the manner in which participants experienced a sense of presence in the virtual reality, the Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ) was used (Schubert, Friedmann, & Regenbrecht, 1999; 2001). In this 14 item questionnaire, participants answered questions on a 7 point Likert-scale, ranging from -3 to +3 (“absolutely not” to “very strongly”), like: “I had the feeling of being present in the virtual reality”. The IPQ subdivides into the three subscales of spatial presence, involvement and experienced realism.

Computer competence.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Who am I – and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Reality

Finally, another 5 pencil and paper questions on computer competence were administered.

The answer possibilities ranged from “very bad or never” to “very good or daily or often”.

Questions were for example: “How often do you use a PC?” Procedure Participants were first asked, whether they had previously been participating in the ‘testweek’. The laboratory itself was based at the psychology faculty of the University of Amsterdam and consisted of 5 working places. Each working place was equipped with a PC on which the computer program Second Life, version 1.19.1, was already installed (Linden Research, Inc., April 2, 2008). In case of technical problems the instructor, situated in the same room, could be asked for help. If participants agreed to sign an informed consent, they were asked whether they already owned an avatar in Second Life. If they did not have an avatar yet, participants were asked to open the website of Second Life and create their own avatar.

Participants then logged in to Second Life with their new avatar and ran the Second Life tutorial, which took about 60 minutes. In this tutorial, provided by Second Life, participants learned how to move, communicate and change the appearance of their avatar. After finishing the tutorial a new appointment was scheduled with the participant, taking place one week after the first use of Second Life. Participants were also encouraged to use Second Life in their spare time.

In the second session both groups of participants, namely those who had created their avatar one week earlier in the first session, as well as those who had an avatar already before starting the experiment, had to follow this procedure: First, the participant was asked to log in to Second Life and teleport to ‘Groningen’ (virtual Dutch city) via the Second Life search option.

Then the participants were asked to walk around and talk to at least two random avatars and find out as much as possible about these avatars. By communicating with other avatars it was supposed that participants identified with their own avatar more and in a short period of time.

When merely walking around in the virtual world, the avatar might only be used as a tool for navigation. The introduced processes of trying out new personalities and being approached by somebody else through the virtual appearance process supposedly come into play the most during communication with others. After 30 minutes of conversation, the participants were told to teleport from Groningen to the area where the testing screen was situated (Monowai 111/207/62) and follow the instructions written on the screen, starting with welcoming the participant by the avatar name. After finishing the virtual 5PFT questionnaire, the participants were asked to log out of Second Life and fill in the questionnaires ‘Absorption’, ‘IPQ’ and ‘computer competence’. Finally, some questions concerning demographic data (age, gender et cetera) had to be filled in. The participants were then asked to sign an allowance form in which they gave permission to couple the results of the Second Life study to the ‘testweek’ results and were then debriefed about the real purpose of the study. After signing the debriefing the compensation for participation in the study was given.

Results Participants.

In total, 57 persons (30 women/ 27 men) intended to take part in the study, only two of whom had their own pre-existing avatar. Due to not being psychology students and therefore not having taken part in ‘testweek’, seven persons could not take part in the study. Another four participants had to be excluded, because no matching 5PFT ‘testweek’ results could be found.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Who am I – and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Reality

Due to technical problems of the website www.secondlife.com, four participants could not create an avatar. From the 42 remaining participants the results of two persons could not be included in the analyses due to a large number of missing values in the Second Life 5PFT version. When participants had more than seven missing values, which was calculated by the commonly agreed ratio of 1/10 of the total 70 questions, they were excluded. The missing values of the remaining 40 participants (M = 1.94; 2.7% of 70 5PFT answers per participant) were replaced by the calculated mean of the group on the respective question.

On basis of the ‘testweek’ MPQ results, participants were controlled for time, TRIN and VRIN scores. According to Patrick et al. (2002), an exclusion criterion of two standard deviations above and below the mean was used. On the basis of time scores two participants had to be excluded (M = 1269, SD = 338), whereas VRIN (M = 10.7, SD = 2.4) and TRIN (M = 1.14, SD = 3.86) each led to exclude one participant. Data of two more participants were excluded from the statistical analysis due to corresponding low scores on the conscientiousness scale of the 5PFT in both versions. It is possible that participants with low scores on this trait do not seriously participate in experiments in general, so they were excluded from data analyses.

Finally, 34 datasets were included in the statistical analyses.

Internal consistency.

The present study used Cronbach’s ! to assess the internal consistency of the different scales of the 5PFT. In fact, all scales reached acceptable Cronbach’s ! in both, ‘testweek’ and virtual settings, as can be seen in Table 1. Both settings managed to yield reliable results for the 5PFT. Furthermore, ‘testweek’ and ‘virtual’ Cronbach’s !s are similar to the Cronbach’s !s found in the original version (Elshout & Akkerman, 1975).

Tabel 1 Cronbach’s ! reliability coefficients for ‘testweek’-virtual and original version of the 5PFT per subscale (Elshout & Akkerman, 1975) Subscale Testweek" Virtual" Original# Extraversion Friendliness Conscientiousness Neuroticism Development

.80 .76 .76 .83 .73

.76 .69 .67 .87 .74

.85 .77 .80 .87 .82

" N = 34; # N = 37 (Elshout & Akkerman, 1975) Exploratory results Using paired-samples t-tests, significant differences were not found for any pair of the corresponding scales of the 5PFT ‘testweek-’ and the virtual-version, as can be seen in Figure 2.

The notion that there is no difference between the virtual and the paper and pencil 5PFT scores is further supported by the fact that among all participants the difference between the total score per subscale of the virtual version subtracted by the ‘testweek’ total score per subscale is close to zero (difference-extraversion: M = 1.74, SD = 5.90; difference-friendliness: M = 1.61, SD = 6.904; difference-conscientiousness: M = 0.35, SD = 6.201; difference-neuroticism: M = 0.31, SD = 6.50; difference-development: M = 1.12, SD = 6.04). These difference scores are all 9

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Who am I – and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Reality

(except neuroticism) normally distributed according to Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests (differenceextraversion: D(34) = .121, p > .2; difference-friendliness: D(34) = .071, p > .2; differenceconscientiousness: D(34) = .126, p = .185; difference-neuroticism: D(34) = .158, p = .031; difference-development: D(34) = .103, p > .2). Even the absolute difference for each participant across the whole test does not exceed a mean of 24.81 (SD = 7.802) with a maximum of 45.16, which are both very low with regard to the fact that the 5PFT consists of 70 questions with a range of 1 to 7. In other words, the mean participant (avatar) filled in a mean question only about 0.35 points different compared to the first time as subject in the context of the test week.

Very high Pearson Correlation coefficients were found for all couples of the virtual versus real setting scales, meaning that there is a positive relationship between the scores obtained in the ‘testweek’ and scores obtained in Second Life for the five scales respectively.

All other possible combinations of subscales for both versions showed no significant Pearson Correlation coefficients, except the correlation between neuroticism and friendliness scores of the ‘testweek’ (r = -.35, p = .043). These test-retest reliability results are in fact similar to the results Elshout and Akkerman (1975) reported in their original test-retest analyses for the 5PFT, which had a delay of one year between the two test sessions, as shown in Table 2. Only the correlation for the subscale of neuroticism differs substantially between the present study and the original results (neuroticism: present study: r = .84; Elshout & Akkerman, 1975: r = . 37).

Table 2 Test-retest correlations per subscale of the 5 PFT for the ‘testweek’ vs. virtual version and as tested by Elshout and Akkerman (1975) Subscale Extraversion Friendliness

Testweek vs. virtual version* (N=34) .81 .61

Elshout & Akkerman (1975)** (N=37) .73 .52 10

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Who am I – and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Reality

Conscientiousness .73 .76 Neuroticism .84 .37 Development .72 .72 *: 7 month between test and retest; **: 12 month between test and retest In order to control the influence of absorption and presence on the virtual 5PFT scores, difference scores between ‘testweek’ and virtual 5PFT scores were correlated with absorption and presence scores, by calculating Pearson Correlation coefficients. There were no significant correlations found, neither for the subscales spatial presence, involvement and experienced realism of the IPQ presence measure, nor for the absorption questionnaire, meaning that the way a participant absorbs and feels present in the virtual reality is not connected to difference in personality scores. Computer competence was not a moderating factor either.

Discussion The main intention of the present study was to explore the stability of personality-traits when entering a virtual reality. With respect to the 5 Persoonlijkheids Factoren Test, results are stable when the version completed in the test week and the version completed seven month later by the avatar in Second Life, are compared. High correlations of the personality traits extraversion, friendliness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and development are found for each subscale of the two versions respectively. In other words, the personality traits of participants do not differ between the real world setting and the virtual world setting. In light of these results the answer for the research question (How stable are personality-traits when entering a virtual reality?) seems to be that usage of virtual environments does not have an influence on the personality traits of the user; apparently, people do not use the virtual worlds to create a ‘virtual’ personality through or for their avatar. Also, strong correlations between the real life setting and the virtual setting on the one hand and the similarity of these correlations compared to the testretest correlation attained by Elshout and Akkerman (1975) on the other hand, can be interpreted as supporting evidence that questionnaires can be administered in virtual settings as reliable as in real life settings. Furthermore, neither presence, the feeling of being present in the virtual reality, nor absorption, the tendency to completely absorb and being ‘sucked’ in by new situations, has moderating influence on the personality measure.

These findings support the notion that personality can be seen as a very stable concept that is not disturbed when entering a ‘new’ world such as Second Life. This sheds rather critical light on some blogs on the internet, which are trying to detect the difference between avatars’ and peoples’ personality (Botgirl Questi, 2008). The differences in personality found by these must be accounted for by the poor operationalization of asking participants directly whether they perceive a difference, and not by a real difference in personality-style.

In psychological research, it is a big problem to find participants for experiments. It is customary to make participation in psychological research an obligatory part of undergraduate psychology programs. This group, however, is very specific in age, interests, educational level etc., all flaws to the validity and generalizability of scientific experimentation. Besides that, the costs of running laboratories are immense, need supervision and are mostly situated at universities, which are not easily accessible for everyone. A virtual laboratory, in contrast, could 11

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Who am I – and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Reality

run 24 hours a day without any supervision needed and assess people from all around the world (Bainbridge, 2007). This virtual group is not a heterogeneous group representing the whole population either (PC, internet and a program for running the virtual world are necessary), but as a recent study on the demographics among Dutch users of Second Life shows, this group has a big variance in age, education, gender and financial background (de Nood & Attema, 2006). The fact that high reliability scores are found for the real life version and the virtual version of a personality questionnaire as well and that these are very similar to the original reliability scores (Elshout & Akkerman, 1975), shows that virtual realities could function as new reliable platforms to assess participants for psychological research. The mere fact that it was possible to run the present study within a virtual reality, without having too much dropout, running at low expenses and yielding reliable results, shows the high potential and usability of virtual laboratories.

Although the present study yields promising findings, there are clearly some shortcomings at hand. First, the fact that no difference in personality is found might be due to the stability of the questionnaire that has been used, because it is insensitive to the change of personality by nature. Being built on the idea of a stable personality within the tradition of the Big Five personality theory, any personality questionnaire might be un-useful to detect differences of personality within the participants. It might be better to use less stable psychological aspects like self-concept, mood or emotions to detect differences between the real and the virtual world.

Second, most participants (except two) of the present study were not in possession of an avatar beforehand. It can be hypothesized that it takes quite some time to develop a ‘virtual’ personality, which might be found in people using virtual realities on a regular basis. Some participants asked the instructor, if they were supposed to fill in the personality questionnaire as themselves or as their avatar. Apparently, some participants perceived their avatar as partly distinct from themselves, otherwise they would not have asked how to fill in the questionnaire.

Future research should try to overcome these shortcomings to enable future applications of virtual realities for clinical psychological interventions (Westerhoff, 2007). Classically, therapy takes place in a therapist-client(s) setting, in which direct contact is an essential part of the therapy. Nevertheless, new technologies present new methods even in this field. Interapy, for example, uses the internet to give writing therapy without face to face contact between therapist and client, showing promising results (Wagner & Lange, 2008). One could think of expanding classical therapy into virtual realities and by doing so, ease the first step to start therapy.

Thinking one step further one could try to implement 3-D worlds in therapeutic avenues that use exposure techniques (Emmelkamp, 2005). In such studies, fear is induced by wearing a 3-D toggle and virtually walking up a skyscraper or virtually sitting in an airplane. Even though people know that they are not on a skyscraper and in no danger of falling, they do experience symptoms of fear. Even in more complex anxieties, like social fear or agoraphobia, virtual realities like Second Life could be used (Gallego, Botella, Banos & Guillen, 2008). People e.g. experience virtual realities as being freer to begin and end conversations with others (McKenna & Bargh, 2000). A socially phobic patient could, as a first step of intervention, step into Second Life and experience social situations behind the PC. The experience of communication and the training of social skills could then subsequently transfer to real life. If the present results are replicated, knowing that people show no difference in personality, psychologists could develop specific intervention programs within virtual settings.

One possibility of future research would be to use other realms of human psychology.

Personality is, as shown, a fairly stable concept even across virtual worlds. In contrast, emotional

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Who am I – and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Reality

processing is a more flexible concept that could react on virtual realities much more than personality. Classical experiments within the field of social identity theory manipulate mood or emotion rather than that they assess personality. One further line of research is to administer a mood changing manipulation in real life and in virtual life, in participants that use virtual realities and their avatar on a regular basis. Results of such an experiment could much more thoroughly answer the question, whether people ‘are’ different in real world compared to virtual worlds.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Who am I – and if so, where? A Study on Personality in Virtual Reality

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Bainbridge, W. (2007). The scientific research potential of virtual worlds. Science, 317, 472-476.

Bargh, J., McKenna, K. Y. A., & Fitzsimons, G. M. (2002). Can you see the real me? Activation and Expression of the “true self”on the internet. Journal of Social Issues, 1, 33-48.

Bessiére, K., Seay, A. F., & Kiesler, S. (2007). The ideal elf: Identity exploration in world of warcraft. Cyber Psychology & Behavior, 10, 530-535.

Boellstorff, T. (2008). Coming of age in second life: An anthropologist explores the virtually human. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Botgirl Questi (2008). You can help investigate human and avatar personality by taking brief test.

Retrieved 12 November 2008, from: http://botgirl.blogspot.com/2008/05/you-can-helpinvestigate-human-and.html.

De Nood, D., & Attema, J. (2006). Second Life. Het tweede leven van virtual reality. EPN rapport. Retrieved June 5, 2008, from http://www.epn.net Elshout, J. J. (1999). De vijf persoonlijkheidsfactoren test (5PFT) 1973-1999. Nederlands tijdschrift voor de psychologie, 54, 195-207.

Elshout, J. J., & Akkerman, A. (1973). Een Nederlandse test voor vijf persoonlijkheidsfactoren, de 5PFT. In Drenth, P. J. D., Willems P. J., & de Wolff, Ch. (Eds.). Arbeids-, en organisatiepsychologie (pp. 49-56). Deventer: Kluver.

Elshout, J. J. & Akkerman, A. (1975). Vijf persoonlijkheids factoren test 5PFT handleiding.

Nijmegen: Berkhout/Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger.

Emmelkamp, P.M.G. (2005). Technological innovations in clinical assessment and psychotherapy. Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics, 74, 336-343.

Gallego M.J., Botella C., Garcia-Palacios A., Banos R.M., & Guillen V. (2008). A self- help treatment via the Internet for fear of public speaking: A single case study. Psicologia Conductual, 16, 2, 323-340.

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Linden Research, Inc. (October 20, 2008). Economic statistics. Retrieved October 20, 2008, from: http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php.

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McKenna, K. Y. A., & Bargh, J. (2000). Plan 9 from cyberspace: The implications of the internet for personality and social psychology. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4, 57-75.

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010 The effects of Avatarsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Virtual Worlds

By Domna Banakou University College London, United Kingdom Konstantinos Chorianopoulos Ionian University, Greece Abstract In this article, we investigate the effects of avatarsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; appearance on user sociability in virtual worlds. In particular, we study gender and appearance differences in social communication preferences and behavior in virtual public spaces. For this purpose, we have employed the virtual ethnographic method, which is an adaptation of traditional ethnography for the study of cyberspace.

Although we only employed nine users who used four different avatars, we observed a cumulative of more than two hundreds social encounters. We found that users with the more elaborate avatar had a higher success rate in their social encounters, than those users with the default avatar. Most notably, female users selected to speak with male avatars much more frequently, when using the attractive avatar, which indicates a self-confidence effect induced by the appearance of the personal avatar.

Keywords: virtual ethnography, Second Life, avatar appearance, sociability.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Virtual Worlds

The effects of Avatars’ Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Virtual Worlds

By Domna Banakou University College London, United Kingdom Konstantinos Chorianopoulos Ionian University, Greece Introduction Virtual worlds have become an important aspect of the networked society. Notably, more than five hundreds thousands Second Life users have logged-in at least once during the last week of May 2009i. In the beginning, engineers and computer scientists developed online 3D worlds as an alternative interface to computer information processing. Most of those works have been inspired by the science fiction literature (e.g., Gibson’s Neuromancer).

Later, human-factors engineers have considered the ergonomic aspects 0 and have focused mostly on the motor and cognitive dimension of ergonomics (e.g., presence, navigation). In our work, we focus on the social aspects of online 3D worlds and we provide empirical evidence for the relationship between social behavior and avatar appearance. Indeed, Donath 0 has called for a focus on the social effects of appearance of avatars in online 3D worlds.

For this purpose, we explore what is the effect of avatar appearance on user sociability in online 3D worlds. In particular, we hypothesize that avatars with attractive clothing, hairstyles, or body shapes will be treated favorably in an online 3D world. In particular, we explore the differences in gender and appearance with regard to social communication preferences and behavior. For example, are attractive female avatars treated differently when compared with less attractive choices? Or, do male avatars have the same conversation response rate in novel social situations? For this purpose, we have employed a virtual ethnographic approach Error! Reference source not found., which is an adaptation of traditional ethnography for the study of cyberspace.

The rest of this article is structured as follows: In section 2 (Related work), we analyze previous related work in the fields of virtual environments and social communication. In section 3 (Methodology), we set our goals and approach, introduce the materials used in study (3D virtual world, avatars), and explain the process of the experiment.

In addition to that we discuss the way our data was collected. In section 4 (Results), we present the findings on the users’ behaviors and attitudes and we discuss the differences of a person’s appearance both in the real and the virtual world. In section 5 (Discussion), we describe the implications of this work for theory and practice. In the last section (Conclusion and further research) we provide conclusions and propose further studies that should consider cultural and ethnic background, in addition to style enhancements treated here.

Related Work The virtual embodiment of users in online 3D worlds has been known as ‘avatar’ and has been a major component of virtual worlds, such as Second Life (SL) and World of Warcraft (WOW). Previous research indicated that people would like to be able to have great control over their avatar representation, or have input into its design Error! Reference source not found.. In addition, in most major virtual worlds, one can spend extraordinary long time choosing the appearance of the avatars Error! Reference source not found.. As a matter of fact, practitioners have been developing several mechanisms for avatar selection and customization.

Always wonder how it would be like to be a tall, blonde woman or a dark-skin male?

In an online virtual world everyone could become what he or she desires. Moreover, avatar appearance can be used as an indicator of team membership and, thus, regulating the colors, 4

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Virtual Worlds

skins or shapes of the avatars within the team is often employed Error! Reference source not found.. In contrast to early findings, researchers have argued that 3D world users select and design their avatars to reflect their own appearance Error! Reference source not found., or their ideal selves 0. Regardless of the motivations for avatar choices, researchers have not yet fully explored the differences between avatar types (e.g. gender, attractiveness).

Notably, Yee and Bailenson 0 have demonstrated that the avatar under control affects the user’s social behavior, but they have not investigated how other avatars treat it.

Social communication in online worlds Social communication and the development of social relationships is one of the main aspects in all virtual worlds since they allow people to speak or share knowledge with each other. Communication between users has ranged from text, graphical icons, visual gesture, and sound. Online virtual worlds are not limited to games but, depending on the degree of immediacy presented, can encompass computer conferencing and text based chatrooms.

Sometimes, emoticons or 'smilies' are available, to show feeling or facial expression. Curtis Error! Reference source not found. was among the first to study the social phenomena that take place in online virtual worlds with a special focus on MultiUser Dungeon (MUD), which are considered to be the ancestors of contemporary graphical online worlds. Although, the technologies of online virtual worlds have been progressing through the years, the main medium of communication has been mostly textual, which does not provide many clues for the physical appearance of others.

Contemporary research has focused on the social aspects of virtual worlds, but has mostly considered a gaming application context. Ducheneaut 0 has claimed that story-driven online gaming communities face important challenges affecting their cohesion and eventual longevity. Nevertheless, Ducheneaut 0 has also identified several opportunities for increased sociability in virtual worlds and have proposed directions towards increased social capital creation. Notably, their research revealed that "third places" (i.e., spaces for social interaction and relationships beyond the workplace and home) have the capacity to function as one form of a new public space for informal sociability. Participation in such virtual "third places" appears particularly well suited to the formation of bridging social capital—social relationships that, while not usually providing deep emotional support, typically functions to expose the individual to a diversity of worldviews Error! Reference source not found..

Physical appearance online and offline A person’s outer appearance can significantly affect social communication. When referring to outer appearance, it doesn’t always has to do just with the height, the weight, the body type, etc. Additional factors, such as body pose and attitude, face expressions, or even the high self-confidence many people have and show to others, all of which may have their own significance. In addition, clothing and personal accessories are seriously taken into consideration and can form somebody’s aspect for one of his/her mates.

In the area of virtual 3D immersive environments, the realism of appearance has been investigated in terms of impact on the quality of communication Error! Reference source not found.. Contemporary research has also revealed that the virtual self in online games could serve as a compensatory function that might satisfy the unfulfilled roles in real life Error! Reference source not found.. Indeed, Turkle Error! Reference source not found. has argued that online environments offer people the option to create multiple representations of themselves and to explore alternative aspects of their personality. The latter research has been performed in the context of text-based online virtual worlds. When it comes to 3D photo-realistic virtual worlds, Vasalou, Joinson and Pitt Error! Reference source not found.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Virtual Worlds

have provided explanations for users that prefer to customize their avatars as close as possible to their real physical appearance or ideal shelf.

At the same time, researchers have been examining how users select avatars online.

Several research findings have indicated that users of online worlds masqueraded or enjoyed playing roles that they did not have in reality Error! Reference source not found.Error!

Reference source not found.. In addition, it has been demonstrated that role-playing is not only an entertaining past-time, but it might be beneficial for developing empathy, when a virtual environment is experienced through the eyes (and body) of someone else 0. Yee and Bailenson 0 have also provided a study on the effects of the avatars’ physical appearance, but they have not provided neither gender-related, nor social aspects of the behavior in virtual environments. Finally, the latter study has been performed in the context of an immersive environment in a lab setting, which is rather different to the desktop virtual reality environment accessible to the majority of the population, such as SL. Gender differences Variations in the physical appearance of humans, known as human looks, are believed by anthropologists to be an important factor in the development of personality and social relations. Previous work has revealed that physical appearance, global self-esteem, and appearance self-esteem, might be experienced differently between the two genders Error!

Reference source not found.. It has also been found that when comes to cyber-flirting, in terms of attitude, individuals downplay the importance of physical attractiveness online, while men are more likely than women to initiate contact Error! Reference source not found.. Nevertheless, real behavior (offline or online) might be different to attitudes expressed in a questionnaire, which is affected by a motivation of just being ‘ politically correct.’

Previous research has considered several aspects of gender differences in online social behavior. It has been noticed is that the qualities of cross-sex online friendships are higher than that of same-sex online friendship 0. A common phenomenon revealed when participating in online worlds is that men may play the roles of women and women vice versa, an experience called “gender swapping” through which they form ideas about the role of gender in human interactions 0. Nevertheless, for the sake of simplicity, in this study, we asked the participants to select an avatar that matches their gender.

Methodology The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of physical appearance on social behavior in an online 3D world. For each gender, two avatars with significant differences in their external appearance were created. Instead of asking our test-users (or others in the online world) about their attitudes towards particular issues 0, we opted for a more natural data collection methodology (virtual ethnography). Each one of the test users was given one avatar at a time and was asked to interact with other users in public spaces of SL, while the coordinator of the study was recording social behavior from a distance, by employing an avatar.

Subjects Nine users agreed to take part in the study: four females and five males. Most of them did not have previous experience with SL, while some of them had experience with related technologies, such as video games, or online text-based virtual communities. Users used the SL application from their home having access from their personal computer. In the same way, the researchers had access from their own PC over a distance. There was an advance

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Virtual Worlds

communication with each user, in order to allocate a convenient time slot and virtual meeting place.

Materials As a case study, we examine social behavior in SL, which is a desktop Virtual Reality (VR) application. Second Life takes place in an online 3D world, which is partly created by its “Residents” all over the world. SL users are given the option to be represented by default avatars, or to customize an avatar to their liking by buying clothes, body types and postures.

Previous research raised the question of how the appearance of the avatar might affect the nature of interaction. In particular, Schroeder Error! Reference source not found. points out that “it is not only the shape of virtual bodies that matters in the experience of virtual worlds, but also the level of detail with which they are represented”. Thus, we chose the avatars according to how much elaboration is need to construct one. We selected the default avatars (avatar a) and we constructed two more elaborate avatars (avatar b). In Figures 1 to 4, we present indicative snapshots of the four avatars.

Figure 2: Default female avatar (a): Mary

Figure 1: Elaborate female avatar (b): Sarah

Figure 4: Elaborate male avatar (b): Leo

Figure 3: Default male avatar (a): John

Since the way one considers a person attractive or good-looking is rather subjective, we made the following assumptions:

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Virtual Worlds

• The avatar with the ‘non attractive’ appearance is considered to be the one which is given on user's first login into the virtual world, when no changes in the outer appearance have been previously made (default avatar a).

• The ‘attractive’ avatar has been changed physically, with different hair styles, clothes and accessories, which the first avatar does not possess: shoes, make-up, eyes, or even differences in the way they pose, dance, walk, sit, talk and make any kind of gestures (attractive avatar b).

Process In order to avoid phenomena where the behaviors of the users adapt to the goal of the research, participants were given a slightly different research goal than that of the study. In particular, users were informed that the goal of the study is the evaluation of chatting mechanisms in SL. In this way, in addition to disguising the real purpose of the study, participants were motivated to interact with numerous other avatars. Indeed, our users interacted (through two avatars each) with a cumulative number of over two hundreds other avatars in SL. According to the user’s gender, they used one avatar at a time. In addition, the researchers gave each user an exact location and time in SL, where they will be both transported. Although the users were aware of the coordinators' existence in the same area, they did not know what the coordinator’s avatar looked like. In this way, each participant was free to act spontaneously and not let her behavior be affected by the physical presence of the researchers.

Each time a user entered the virtual world the exact location where the research took place changed from person to person. In SL, locations are not always occupied, which could be an issue if users didn’t have an adequate number of other avatars to communicate with.

For that reason a rather crowded place was chosen each time, according to SL’s 'Popular Places'.

The users were asked to engage in public conversation with other avatars. In this way, the coordinator was able to record and evaluate their behavior and choices. In the case of private messaging (PM), they were asked to note it down and then inform the coordinator of the event at the end of the session. Finally, users were given a time-limit of one hour, half with each different avatar, to contact other avatars and discuss about anything they wished to know or to do.

Data collection The data was recorded in real-time using a table where the study’s coordinator noted down each user's acts and behaviors with regard to the number of, type of (gender, appearance) social encounters with other avatars. An example of this table is presented in Table 1. The majority of them chatted for about two or three minutes about where they are from, whether they liked the place they were at or not, the reasons they connect to SL. Some participants asked for help to manipulate objects or make specific moves. An example of such a conversation follows: [John]: “Hello there Michael” [Michael]: “Hey, how r u?”

[John]: “How can I fly here?”

[Michael]: “see a button called “fly” at the bottom? Click it and use the keyboard arrows to navigate” ….

[John]: “I see I can fly thanks Michael” [Michael]: “anytime, bye for now” 8

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Virtual Worlds

[John]: “bye”

Table 1 Indicative table used to record data for the 1st female user.

F = Female avatars M = Male avatars ! = attractive " = non attractive

1 = positive reply x = negative reply

After the end of the experiment users were asked to fill-in an attitude questionnaire, which contained questions such as: 'How much do you believe that your physical appearance is related to developing interpersonal relationships in contemporary societies?' and 'How much do you believe that your avatar’s physical appearance is related to developing interpersonal relationships in a virtual world?' Furthermore, we asked the users to use free text in order to describe or rationalize their opinions on the above questions.

Results Behavioral findings on the effect of physical appearance in a virtual world During the observation of the users, it was recorded that correspondence was bigger for those who chose the attractive avatar (b) instead of the default avatar (a). We recorded 56.88% (62 out of 109 observations) successful social encounters of the attractive avatar (b) in contrast to 31.5% (30 users out of 96 observations) for the default avatar (Figure 5). In addition, other SL inhabitants proactively engaged in a conversation with the attractive subjects of our study. In particular, we recorded twenty SL inhabitants 'breaking the ice' towards an attractive avatar, and only three towards the default avatar.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Virtual Worlds

Figure 5: Success rates of users using two different types of avatars (a) and (b) for both genders (9 users, 2 avatars each, 205 social encounters)

Besides public conversation, sometimes users initiated private chat. For the attractive avatar (b), there was a 21.1% (23 out of 109 observations) interested in creating some kind of friendship with the users from inside the SL, just as to move to private conversation. In the case of the default avatar (a) there were only 3.13% (3 observations out of 96). In summary, it seems that the elaborate avatar (b) has been very successful in social encounters.

Gender differences and success rate in social communication Female avatars seem to have slightly higher success rates when they engage in virtual social encounters. In particular, when it comes to others who replied to male avatars (Figure 7), the success percentages are 30.18% for the avatar (a) (16 replies out of 53 observations) and 52.54% for the avatar (b) (31 replies out of 59 observations). Success rates for female avatars are 32.55% (14 replies out of 43 observations) for avatar (a), and 62% (31 replies out of 50 observations), for avatar (b) (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Success rates for females using avatars (a) and (b)

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Virtual Worlds

Figure 7: Success rates for males using avatars (a) and (b)

Notable gender differences appear for the users’ PM conversations and friends’ list.

Using the avatar (b) the percentages for men are 15.25% (9 PMs out of 59 users) and 3.77% (2 PMs out of 53 users) for avatar (a). Female users have been added as friends 28% times for avatar (b) (14 PMs out of 50 observations) and 2.32% for avatar (a) respectively (1 PM out of 43 observations). In summary, female users seem to have higher success rate in communication than men and come in contact more easily than men.

Gender preferences for communication partner Most notably, it was found that female participants with the 'attractive' avatar (b) preferred to talk to male avatars. The percentage of other male avatars who they chose to chat with is much higher than the percentage of the other women whom they chose not to, with percentages of 68% (34 out of 50 observations with regard to four women) and 32% (16 out of 50 observations with regard to four women) respectively.

On the other hand, when using the default female avatar (a) female participants choose to talk to other male avatars 44.2% times (19 out of 43 observations) and more frequently 55.8% times with female avatars (24 out of 43 observations). The findings reveal that even in a virtual world the appearance can influence someone’s self-confidence, mainly in the interest that is expressed towards the opposite gender (Figure 8).

11 Figure 8: Gender choices and communication for women users with

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Virtual Worlds

However, in total, the percentage of women and men that women users of the application chose to speak to, doesn’t seem to have huge differences between each of the two cases. with the percentages to come up to 43.1% (40 out of 93 observations) and 56.9% (53 out of 93 observations) respectively (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Gender preferences for communication partner for males (observations = 112) and for females (observations = 93)

In contrast, male participants preferred to spoke mainly towards female avatars regardless of the avatar they used. In particular 72.32% times (81 out of 112 observations with regard to 5 male users) talked to female avatars, and only 27.68% times (31 out of 112 observations with regard to 5 male users) towards other male avatars.

Attitudes towards appearance in online virtual worlds According to the majority of the participants, physical appearance is important in everyday life. Based on their questionnaire answers, the importance of the physical appearance depends on the type of relationships (professional versus personal).

What is the attitude towards physical appearance in a virtual world? The answer to this question seems to be split. After the end of the study, five out of nine participants answered that physical appearance plays a significant role in such a “virtual game”. On the other hand, four out of nine of them answered that an avatar’s look matters just a little bit, or not at all.

Most notably, we found that participants behaved in contrast to their stated beliefs.

Before starting the first session, participants were asked to choose the avatar that they preferred. It turned out that seven out of nine users chose to use the attractive avatar (b). In contrast, according to participants’ answers to the questionnaires, only five out of nine agreed that the physical appearance of the avatar is important in a virtual world. Thus, two out of nine users chose to use the attractive avatar (b), although they finally claimed that their personal appearance in Second Life is not important at all. Due to the small number of participants, we cannot raise conclusive arguments, but the above findings might reveal subconscious stereotypes about physical appearance in online virtual worlds.

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Discussion The findings of this research are in accordance with and build upon findings from previous research in the respective fields. Gender differences in text-based computermediated communication have been reported to reflect the real-world stereotypes 0. Indeed, our study has revealed that several commonly held beliefs and stereotypes about physical appearance and gender apply to online virtual 3D worlds, as well. Moreover, users with attractive avatars (especially women) have increased confidence, which complements both (real-world) intuition and previous related research on height and attractiveness 0. Although the virtual 3D worlds provide the opportunity of ignoring or transforming stereotypical attitudes towards gender and appearance, our study has revealed that casual users of online 3D worlds have not exploited the opportunity.

The findings of this research are also related with previous works in human-computer interaction (HCI), which have studied the evaluation methods and the mechanics of effective user interaction in online 3D worlds. In addition to avatar customization, basic user interaction and evaluation concepts (e.g., position and gestures of avatars) between avatars have been found important in the sociability of users Error! Reference source not found..

In our work, we provided both elaborate and default versions of avatars and we have confirmed that the customized version of an avatar provides significantly more opportunities for socialization in an online 3D virtual world. Moreover, in complement to previous research methods on non-verbal social interaction (position, gesture), we have provided several metrics in the context of virtual ethnographic method for the evaluation of verbal social interaction in online 3D worlds.

Based on the behavioral data collected during several social encounters in SL, we have realized that physical appearance is an important factor in determining the social communication in online 3D worlds. In addition to behavioral data, we recorded the opinion of the users on several aspects of physical appearance and sociability in 3D online worlds.

Most notably, users referred to the social identification function. In particular, one user reported “[...] There are also different groups of people like in real life with specific characteristics (e.g. metal outfits, rapper outfits and glamorous outfits) who might prefer to communicate only with people in their own groups.” While another user said that “I believe that appearance is very important in SL because I also chose to speak to people who had a closer appearance to mine. I thought that since they are more like me they might be the same in their real life”. Therefore, further research on this topic should consider providing the choice of alternative avatars to the users.

Finally, it is worth mentioning some limitations of this study. Even if appearance is the basic factor determining the beginning of a conversation through virtual worlds, the topic of subjectivity of when someone believes that another avatar has a nice outer appearance comes up. Indeed, attractiveness is rather subjective and it depends on several factors such as belonging to a social, ethnic or cultural group, as well as comparison to the majority of the rest of the people 0. A future study might need to perform a pre-study that identifies attractiveness of avatars with regard to a particular population. An additional limitation of the present study is that we did not employ ‘blind’ coders for the identification of the sociability metrics. Nevertheless, we employed a pre-defined data collection table (see Table 1) and we focused on rather objective data (gender, replies). Overall, the ethnographic methodological underpinnings of the study provide results that should be regarded for qualitative pragmatism rather than quantitative accuracy.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Gender and Appearance on Social Behavior in Virtual Worlds

Conclusion In conclusion, we have collected initial evidence that confirms previous studies on social communication preferences in the real world. Although the similarities with the established real-world stereotypes might be the result of low experience with virtual worlds, we need to elaborate further on social behavior in online 3D worlds and how it is related with real world social behavior 0. In particular, we have found that the customization of avatars does not only fulfill the need to adapt a userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s representation to his liking, but it is also critical for the effective sociability of users in online 3D worlds. Further studies should consider other cultural and ethnic backgrounds, in addition to the style enhancements treated here. Moreover, we plan to replicate the same study in the context of particular online activities, such as education.

List of Abbreviations 3D HCI MUD PM SL VR WOW

3 Dimensional Human-Computer Interaction MultiUser Dungeon Private Messaging Second Life Virtual Reality World of Warcraft

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Bibliography Bailenson, J. N., Yee, N., Blascovich, J., Beall, A. C., Lundblad, N., & Jin, M, “The use of immersive virtual reality in the learning sciences: Digital transformations of teachers, students, and social context”, The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 17, 102–141, 2008.

Bessière, K. Fleming SA, Kiesler, S, “The Ideal Elf: Identity Exploration in World of Warcraft”, CyberPsychology & Behavior. 10(4): 530-535, 2007.

Chan, DKS, Cheng, GHL, “A Comparison of Offline and Online Friendship Qualities at Different Stages of Relationship Development. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships”, 21(3):305-320, 2004.

Curtis, P, “MUDDING: Social phenomena in text-based virtual realities”. In Kiesler, S. (Ed.), Culture of the Internet (pp. 121-142), Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1997.

Donath, J, “Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community”, Routledge, London, 1999.

Donath, J , “Virtually Trustworthy”, Science 317 (5834):53-54, 2007.

Ducheneaut, N., Yee, N., Nickell, E., and Moore, R. J, “"Alone together?": exploring the social dynamics of massively multiplayer online games”, In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing CHI '06, ACM, New York, NY, 407-416, 2006.

Ducheneaut, N., Moore, R. J., and Nickell, E, “Virtual "Third Places": A Case Study of Sociability in Massively Multiplayer Games”, Comput. Supported Coop. Work 16(1-2): 129166, 2007.

Garau, M., Slater, M., Vinayagamoorthy, V., Brogni, A., Steed, A., and Sasse, M. A, “The impact of avatar realism and eye gaze control on perceived quality of communication in a shared immersive virtual environment”, In Proceedings of CHI '03, ACM, New York, NY, 529-536, 2003.

Herring, SC, Gender and power in online communication, In J. Holmes & M. Meyerhoff (Eds.), The Handbook of Language and Gender (pp. 202-228), Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2003.

Hine, C, “Virtual Ethnography Sage”, 2000.

Jacobson, D, Impression Formation in Cyberspace: Online Expectations and Offline Experiences in Text-based Virtual Communities. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 5(1), 1999.

‘Reference: Available: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol5/issue1/jacobson.html’.

Kiesler, S, Culture of the Internet, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997.

Manninen, T, “Interaction Forms and Communicative Actions in Multiplayer Games”, The International Journal of Computer Game Research, 3(1), 2003.

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Nowak, K. L. and Rauh, C, “Choose your "buddy icon" carefully: The influence of avatar androgyny, anthropomorphism and credibility in online interactions”, Comput. Hum. Behav.

24(4):1473-1493, 2008.

Pliner, P., Chaiken, S., Flett, GL, “Gender Differences in concern with Body Weight and Physical Appearance over the Life Span”, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16(2):263-273, 1990.

Schroeder, R. (Ed.), “The Social Life of Avatars: Presence and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments”, Springer-Verlag New York, 2002.

Slater, M, “How colorful was your day? Why questionnaires cannot assess presence in virtual environments, Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments”, 13(4), 484–493, 2004.

Smith, M. A., Farnham, S. D., and Drucker, S. M, “The social life of small graphical chat spaces”, In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI '00. ACM, New York, NY, 462-469, 2000.

Stanney, KM., Mourant RR. and Kennedy, RS, “Human Factors Issues in Virtual Environments: A Review of the Literature. Presence”, 7(4):327-351, MIT Press, 1998.

Steinkuehler, C., and Williams, D, “Where everybody knows your (screen) name: Online games as "third places."”, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(4), article 1, 2006.

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

Vasalou, A., Joinson, A. N., and Pitt, J, “Constructing my online self: avatars that increase self-focused attention”, In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2007.

Yee, N. and Bailenson, J, “The proteus effect: The effect of transformed self-representation on behavior”, Human Communication Research, 33(3):271-290, 2007.

Wan, CS. and Chiou, WB, “Psychological Motives and Online Games Addiction: A Test of Flow Theory and Humanistic Needs Theory for Taiwanese Adolescents”, CyberPsychology & Behavior. 9(3): 317-324, 2006.

Whitty, MT, “Cyber-Flirting: An Examination of Men's and Women's Flirting Behaviour both Offline and on the Internet”, Behaviour Change. 21(2):115-126, 2004. !

i

http://secondlife.com/statistics/economy-data.php

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

ExtSim: A Flexible Data Mapping and Synchronization Middleware for Scientific Visualization in Virtual Worlds

By Johan Berntsson, Norman Lin, Zoltan Dezso 3Di Inc, Japan Abstract

In this paper we present a general-purpose middleware, called ExtSim, that allows OpenSim to communicate with external simulation software and to synchronize the in-world representation of the simulator state. We briefly present two projects in ScienceSim where ExtSim has been used: Galaxsee which is an interactive real-time N-body simulation, and a protein folding demonstration, before discussing the merits and problems with the current approach. The main limitation is that we have been limited to a third-party viewer only, and a fixed server-client protocol, but now we can present our work on a new viewer, called 3Di Viewer â&#x20AC;&#x153;Rei,â&#x20AC;? which opens new possibilities by enhancing both performance and richness of the visualization and it is suitable for scientific computing. Finally, we discuss some ideas we are currently studying for future work.

Keywords: scientific visualization; simulation; OpenSim; ExtSim

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – ExtSim

ExtSim: A Flexible Data Mapping and Synchronization Middleware for Scientific Visualization in Virtual Worlds

By Johan Berntsson, Norman Lin, Zoltan Dezso 3Di Inc, Japan

OpenSim (The OpenSim Project) is an open source virtual world server, which in its standard configuration implements the Second Life server protocol from Linden Labs. The software allows users to build content and interact with each other in virtual worlds, using Second Life compatible client software. OpenSim is implemented in C# and runs-on .NET or mono, making it available both on Unix and on Windows platforms. OpenSim implements regions (“sims”) that can be linked in grids, either on the same server, or across several servers.

The user can then move between regions, or even between grids, by teleporting in the same way as in Second Life.

Although the main usage until now has been social networking, there is interest in using the technology for other applications. This has led to the development of distributions based on OpenSim, such as ScienceSim which is designed to fill the needs of scientific computing and visualization.

OpenSim provides new opportunities to implement, display and manipulate simulations not present in many of the virtual reality systems discussed in the literature to-date. The main difference is that OpenSim allows collaboration, in that many avatars share the same space and are able to talk to each other (either by voice chat or messaging), look at objects and videos together, and move around using realistic physics to prevent people from occupying the same space. The contents of the world can be created either directly by the avatars while running the application, or by importing existing models from other 3D design software. The objects in the world can be controlled by scripts and various visual effects, such as different particle system algorithms which can be used to display physical phenomena.

Scientific Computing in OpenSim There has been a keen interest in virtual reality to display and manipulate computer simulations and advance general scientific understanding. OpenSim, with its focus on social interaction and collaboration provides new opportunities not featured in previous systems.

Consequently, there is an interest in applying OpenSim to new application areas, such as astrophysics (Djorgovski et. al., Farr et al.). One recent development is ScienceSim (The ScienceSim Project), which is an OpenSim distribution customized to meet the needs of

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scientific computing. ScienceSim is a part of the 3D Internet initiative, which is a Thrust Area at SC09 (The 3D Internet Thrust Area).

Scientific computing applications generally require a lot of computing power (Pentland), and a typical simulation will be too heavy to run on the OpenSim servers. One solution to this problem is to run the heavy physics simulation on an external physics server, and to represent the calculation with in-world objects whose attributes are calculated using values from the physics simulation. The state of the OpenSim and external physics servers must be synchronized, which could be done either by extending the scripting languages to read and write data from the external server, or by defining a mapping between in-world variables and those of the external physics server. The latter method is more flexible.

In the next section, we present a general-purpose middleware, called ExtSim (The ExtSim Project) that allows OpenSim to communicate with external simulation software and to synchronize the in-world representation of the simulator state. We also discuss two projects in ScienceSim where ExtSim has been used, Galaxsee (Gibbon, Murphy, and Peck, 2009) which is an interactive real-time n-body simulation, and a protein folding demonstration which is also supplied as an example application with the ExtSim source code distribution. The final part of the paper discusses the limitations of the current approach and possible direction for future work aimed at enhancing the utility of OpenSim for scientific computing.

The ExtSim Middleware ExtSim (External Simulator Bridge) is an OpenSim plug-in, which has access to the internal state of the OpenSim server. ExtSim polls data from an external server and creates and modifies virtual objects on the OpenSim server (see Figure 1 below). The server then sends object updates to any attached client viewer, which renders the objects on the screen. The objects created by ExtSim are under full control of the external server, and not affected by the internal OpenSim physics engine.

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Figure 1. The communication links between OpenSim, ExtSim and external simulators.

ExtSim currently uses XmlRpc to achieve a platform-independent data transfer from and to any cluster resource that has an active connection to the Internet and provides external server stubs in several languages, including C, Python, and Clojure. The protocol is defined by data files that specify the update frequency and the location of the external server: the mapping of OpenSim object is attributed to variables in the external simulation. Each of these mappings can control either the position, size, or color of the OpenSim object. In addition, events from OpenSim (for example, pressing a button) are sent to the external server, allowing a two-way communication between the servers.

Object updates on the OpenSim server cause update messages to be sent to each attached client viewer. When the simulation includes many objects, this can be an expensive operation that limits scalability. To reduce this load, ExtSim puts an upper the number of internal OpenSim updates caused by new data from the external simulation by keeping track of both the current actual position of the object and the new position received from the external process. For each object, a weighted displacement is calculated using this formula:

Thus, the update bias parameter determines how much bias is given to old parameter updates that have not yet been updated in the OpenSim server.

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The object with the largest weighted displacements will now be updated, until a maximum number of objects have been moved. The age bias promotes older objects so that smaller object updates will eventually show up on the client screen, even in the presence of objects with frequent large displacements.

ExtSim Applications In this section, we briefly present two applications that use ExtSim to demonstrate the use of virtual world technology to display computer cluster calculation results.

Protein Folding Protein folding is an example of the computationally heavy applications that typically cannot run in parallel with OpenSim on a server. As a demonstration of ExtSim, the ExtSim project includes a demo server, which publishes a data stream from a protein folding experiment.

ExtSim reads data from the server and shows the position for each atom in the molecule in an OpenSim region. The demo data stream is short, and a longer demonstration can be seen on the “3Di ExtSim Demo” region in ScienceSim (see Figure 2). The data is visualized in OpenSim as a cloud of spheres, representing atoms in the molecule. When ExtSim receives new position data for an atom, its corresponding sphere is moved in the OpenSim scene. OpenSim will then automatically update all connected viewers.

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Figure 2. An OpenSim user observing a protein folding experiment.

Galaxsee Galaxsee is a demonstration of the mechanisms needed to connect real-time simulation (in this case an N-Body problem) into a collaborative virtual environment. The output is displayed as spheres, representing stars in a spiral galaxy, in a ScienceSim region, which is otherwise dark. A user can control various aspects of the simulation, and examine the model from different vantage points, possibly in collaboration with other users. The project uses ExtSim for updating in-world contents, using data from an external computer cluster on which the simulation is run.

Problems and Future Work Unfortunately, technology restricted what we were able to achieve, since we had to work only on the server side. Things like atom bonds had to be represented as prims, creating quite a 8

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ExtSim

bit of overhead for simple things like drawing a line between two spheres, and we were not able to scale to more than 1,000 atoms. Scalability problems were also reported in the Galaxsee project (Gibbon, Murphy, and Peck 2009). Furthermore, the current implementation requires active polling of data from the external source, which leads to an inefficient usage of bandwidth.

The Need for New Viewer Software Although the Second Life viewer software is widely used by OpenSim users, one problem is that OpenSim developers cannot make changes or improvements to this viewer, due to software license incompatibility between the OpenSim project and the Second Life viewer software. Inability to alter the client side software thus limits OpenSim scientific visualization solutions to using the existing viewer facilities; new viewer capabilities or new network protocols cannot be added to the Second Life viewer by OpenSim developers.

Figure 3. The Rei viewer, embedded in a Web page showing a virtual medical seminar room.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – ExtSim

Recognizing this need, we have recently developed and open-sourced a browser-based viewer called 3Di Viewer “Rei” (The “Rei” Viewer Project), which is compatible with OpenSim. Figure 3 shows the Rei viewer embedded in an html page.

With the new viewer, we are planning to extend the protocol to allow line nodes and meshes, in addition to the normal prim-based content used by Second Life. This will help us to increase scalability in the protein-folding problem, since we will not need heavyweight prims1 to represent atom bonds. However, Rei also extends the current capabilities of the standard Second Life viewer to a new viewer in a way that allows new ideas in 3D data visualization, which we want to investigate in future work.

HUD Display and Control With a more advanced viewer, we will be able to enhance the rendered 3D image with other information. For instance, we will be able to add a transparent surface graph showing things like temperature or pressure levels directly on top of the 3D image and to move the graph together with the rendered scene. We can also add effects, such as an arrow showing the flow of steam, water, or even people's movements on top of the image.

The Rei viewer could support Head-Up Displays (HUD) that can be used to display data, such as trend curves, graphs, data tables, or even animations and videos. The display can also contain control elements, such as buttons and sliders, which can activate scripts that control the simulation. One HUD use case is to access data that is normally hidden. For example, imagine that we have a room showing the nuclear reactor hall. By clicking on a pipe or a valve, we can pass the simulator parameters for this object and appropriate control elements. A valve could show its current position (e.g. 37% open) and buttons to open, close and stop the valve motor. A pipe could show a trend curve that displays pressure, temperature, and vapor levels. Various buttons can be used to change the time range, or displayed variables.

3D Browsing Since each avatar only sees his or her immediate neighborhood, we may need a way to move about in a larger 3D space, as well as keeping track of other participating avatars. The Second Life viewer has a map mode that either shows a global overview of all areas or an outline of the current area the avatar is standing on, but the global information is quite limited.

1

The word prim is a shortened version of "primitive" and refers to the basic 3D polygonal shapes used to

build objects in OpenSim.

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We think that a promising area for future research is experimenting with ways of adding external video streams and external pictures to the 3D world. Using VNC links, external applications or desktops display can be rendered on a surface in the 3D world. This can be used to let the avatar interact with external software, or share information by sharing their desktop contents with other avatars. Moreover, we can create an HUD display of several views of the environment through virtual in-world video stream from fixed positions. This allows the user to interact with the current surroundings while still seeing what is happening further away. A natural extension would be to allow the user to teleport between different areas of the environment by simply clicking on the area in the HUD that shows the area he/she wants to visit.

Collaborative Tasks The multi-user nature of OpenSim environments makes is possible to study how humans interact with other people and with the simulated world. In addition, the social aspect makes OpenSim a valuable tool for cooperative investigation and presentation of scientific data. At the same time, the collaborative aspect could also be a valuable tool for man-machine studies. For example, OpenSim makes it easy to make an environment where several people can meet and cooperate to carry out tasks. An application in the nuclear industry could be to model a control room, in which typically 4-5 operators with different specialties monitor and control the plant together. Since the model can be very close to reality, operators can easily work in the simulation as they would in a real plant without special training. However, the physics model may differ and the setup can be used in research and training when considering new or modified hardware in a plant.

Another application area is crowd control, e.g. monitoring how people move around during normal operations or in emergencies. Are there bottlenecks? Are people able to access areas of interest in time? We are working on solutions where such data can be stored in log files and later analyzed in programs that can summarize information over various categories, such as a given time period, only in a given area, and so on; as well as to show the actions of single individuals (see Figure 4).

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Figure 4. Data analyzing tool, showing recorded avatar movements in 3D space. The view is animated and can be rotated freely.

Conclusion OpenSim has unique strengths compared to traditional virtual reality and data display systems, and the previous sections briefly describe ideas on how OpenSim may be used in Scientific Computing. In this paper, we have presented a new middleware for OpenSim called ExtSim, which has been used by several project groups and we have discussed the advantages and limitations of the current approach. We have identified that good performance requires source code modifications to the viewer software, and presented work done on a new open source viewer project, which could enable more efficient future implementations.

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Bibliography Djorgovski, S. G., Hut, P., McMillan, S., Vesperini, E., Knop, R., Farr, W. M., et al. 2009b.

Exploring the Use of Virtual Worlds as a Scientific Research Platform: The MetaInstitute for Computational Astrophysics. In J. Sablatnig (Ed.), Proceedings of the FaVE 2009 Meeting. Springer Verlag.

Farr, W.M, Hut, P., Ames, J., Johnson, A. An Experiment in Using Virtual Worlds for Scientific Visualization of Self-Gravitating Systems. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, (Vol. 2, number 3).

Gibbon, A.F., Murphy T. Peck C.. (2009, September). Science Visualization, Collaboration, and Education through Virtual Worlds. Poster, Intel Developer Forum.

Pentland, A. Computational Complexity Versus Virtual Worlds. ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics: (Vol. 24, issue 2, pp. 185–192).

The 3D Internet Thrust Area. Super Computing conference 2009 Thrust Area. Retrieved from http://sc09.supercomputing.org/?pg=thrustareas.html.

The 3Di Viewer “Rei” Project. (2009). Retrieved from http://3di-rei.org/ .

The External Simulator Bridge Project. Retrieved from http://forge.opensimulator.org/gf/project/extsim/.

The OpenSim Project. Retrieved from http://opensimulator.org/.

The ScienceSim Project. Retrieved from http://sciencesim.com/.

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010 Compounding the Results: The Integration of Virtual Worlds With the Semantic Web

By Charles J. Lesko, Yolanda A. Hollingsworth East Carolina University, United States Abstract Over the past 20 years, governmental use of Web-base information and technologies has continually expanded taking advantage of the Web's vast, everexpanding volumes of browser-accessible information. Now, it infuses two new technologies, the first one espousing a world where semantic-powered applications become knowledgeable assistants for Web users. The second new technology takes a perceivably flat two-dimensional approach to presenting current Web-content and adds a three-dimensional perspective to the presentation. Welcome to the Semantic Web as seen through the eyes of a Virtual World participant, an environment where Web users no longer are browsing for information that is largely static, where Web users interact through their proxies (avatars) query applications (Web agents) soliciting them to collect, filter, verify, correlate and present answers to their queries often in a more visually palatable three-dimensional format. Following a brief overview of these two technologies, this article presents several of the key force drivers behind their evolution and the benefits gleaned from their collective use.

Further discussion identifies new methods for visualizing semantic content in virtual worlds. Finally, as with any technological evolution, the merge of these two technologies brings on a whole new set of challenges from a Web userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspective as well as perspectives from technology developers both in academia and government.

Keywords: Virtual Worlds, Semantic Web, Government, 3-D Web. This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

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Compounding the Results: The Integration of Virtual Worlds With the Semantic Web

By Charles J. Lesko, Yolanda A. Hollingsworth East Carolina University, United States Evolution of Two Technologies The exponential growth of the World Wide Web (WWW) over the past two decades has been witness to many technological innovations. The linking of Web-documents via early markup languages such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Extensible Markup Language (XML) has stimulated growth and knowledge sharing on a global scale in literally all aspects of government. As the Web has evolved so has our desire to become more involved with the process of content-sharing and content-creation. Now, new Web-based technologies look to provide smarter, more meaningful content and present such content with a new level of depth and interactivity. Welcome to the Semantic Web presented to you in 3-D. The following discussions give a brief overview of these two technologies: the Semantic Web developments, and 3-D Web Virtual World environments.

A More Meaningful “Semantic” Web The evolution of the Web over the past two decades saw a 1990s era, often referred to as Web 1.0, that focused on read-only content and static HTML-based Web sites. Web 1.0 Web sites were generally not interactive and the protocols concentrated on linking documents on the Web (Strickland, 2009). Web use over the past decade, often referred to as Web 2.0, has been more about user-generated content. Web 2.0 has been more of a read-write Web where users have been contributing as well as consuming Web content through forums, blogs and social sites like Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook [Strickland (2009) and O'Reilly (2005)].

Current growth estimates for the Web indicate that nearly 1 billion new Web pages are being added to the Web daily and that is on top of the estimated 48 billion Web pages that are currently presented on the nearly 75 million Web servers that make up today's World Wide Web (Aker, 2009). One of the key challenges for both governmental agencies and the general public in the coming decade will be to find more meaning out of this vast, ever-expanding amount of Web data.

At the crux of the issue here is that while computers understand the syntax of what to retrieve they do not understand the meaning or semantics behind the content they present to Web users. Today’s search mechanisms find information on the Web largely through search words or phrases. The challenge with the majority of data on the Web is that in its current form it is difficult to use on a large scale. Every discipline and government agency or unit has its own lexicon and by using controlled vocabularies this limits the range of data retrieved due to too strict a syntax. Plus, similar words can also have different meanings (example: the word “whip” in congress has a different meaning to a “whip” used to herd cattle) and contrarily, different words can have similar meanings. The current solution to this is to create multiple word searches. Multiple words or phrases is a powerful feature in many of today’s (largely nonsemantic) search engines since additional words help to narrow the context (example: “whip in congress” or the other: “cattle whip”). There is also a growing concern involving the notion of a “collective intelligence” Murugesan (July-August, 2007), Mikroyannidis (2007) and Gruber

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(February, 2008) that helps fuel the need for having everyone searching for similar concepts to be on the same “page(s)” regardless of where that data may reside (blogs, wikis, etc.). What differentiates the current Web with what Tim Berners-Lee saw as a logical next step 10 years ago, is the need to structure Web data in a way that both users and computer systems are able to take meaning from the same data (Berners-Lee, 1998). The Semantic Web technologies, a part of the Web 3.0 phenomenon, have been evolving over the past decade with a focus on the semantics or meaning of the data that is available on the Web. The premise here is that more meaning to the Web content will bring about more intelligent searches and a more personalized experience for Web users (Agarwal, 2009). Building a Semantic Web is akin to creating a collectively intelligent and globally linked database from the Web in such a way as to be easily processed by the computer systems that maintain it with the overarching goal of providing a more efficient means of retrieving the data on the Web. Efficiency is particularly of importance in areas of local government where immediate decision-making and action result in life-saving efforts. By simply having a better-designed Web search, retrieval and dissemination options will enable a better government interaction from remote areas to execute necessary field operations (VanLeuven, March 2009).

Key Semantic Technologies As the technologies surrounding the implementation of the Web evolve so does our notion and thus our expectation of what the Semantic Web is to be. One concept is clear though, by embedding additional semantic metadata into Web data via technologies such as the Web Ontology Language (OWL) schemas and common vocabularies like the Dublin Core and Friend of a Friend (FOAF), Web developers will be able to engage new tools to extract more “meaning” from their various searches and interrogations of the Web (Smith, Welty, & McGuinness, 2004).

By incorporating data modeling like Microformats and Resource Description Framework – inAttributes (RDFa) used to describe Web resources - computer systems will gain the “meaning” in the Web content to better serve its Web users (Ding,, et al., 2004).

In another recent Semantic Web milestone,, the W3C published a new query technology called SPARQL (pronounced sparkle). SPARQL is a key standard for opening up data on the Semantic Web. SPARQL defines a query language and protocol that interacts with the other core Semantic Web technologies such as RDFa for representing data, OWL for building vocabularies, and Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages (GRDDL) used for extracting Semantic Web data from documents (W3C, W3C Opens Data on the Web with SPARQL, 2008).

With the implementation of SPARQL, Web-based applications are now able to query information from databases and other diverse sources in the wild, across the Web (Berners-Lee, 1998).

Virtual Worlds Providing (3-D) Web Experiences Simulating real-life objects and environments had some of its precursors in governmentdriven research. Developments in military exercises for troop battlefield operation simulations proved safe and cost-effective as compared to other training modes (Huifang, Deng, Guo, & Chen, 2009) and (Murphy, 2008). Over the past decade this technology initially translated into the public mainly in the gaming industry, then into academic research and now into the general public for all to access via the Web. Alongside other recent Web developments, 3-D Web

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technologies have evolved to a point where Web users are beginning to experience some of the benefits gleaned from 3-D verses 2-D presentations.

In recent years, the use of 3-D Web environments has seen a tremendous growth to a point where the Web now supports nearly 580 million people worldwide that are registered in virtual worlds today with nearly half of those falling into the up and coming 10-15 year old age group (K. Zero, 2009). Current reports also show nearly 150 virtual worlds in existence today with that number are expected to grow to 900 or more within the next three years (Mitham, 2009). Given survey statistics, building a profile of the typical government Web user may be somewhat illusive. The government does, however, recognize the need to target different age groups for specific content presentations like the Bensguide.gpo.gov site aimed at children.

Further study also seems to suggest correlations between age leaning towards e-research (searching for a subject or topic - resource library) when younger and e-governance (searching for political or policy-related area or service - legislation or online voting info, how to pay taxes) when older (Thomas & Streib, 2005).

As a 3-D Web interface, virtual worlds provide users with unique capabilities. However, when discussing the values of a 3-D interface it is important to understand the basic design elements and principles that exist as a part of our human condition and how they affect the implementation of a Web interface. To more clearly understand what functionalities encompass a virtual world experience Virtual Worlds Review (2009) cites six features that all virtual worlds have in common: • • • • • •

Shared Space: the world allows multiple users to participate at once.

Graphical User Interface: the world depicts space visually.

Immediacy: interaction takes place in real time.

Interactivity: the world allows users to alter, develop, build, or submit customized content.

Persistence: the world's existence continues regardless of whether individual users are logged in.

Socialization/Community: the world allows and encourages the formation of inworld social groups (What is a Virtual World?, 2009).

As Burden (2009) points out, “virtual worlds are NOT about what they look like, but about what’s in them” and what is growing is a continous demand for access and interactions with Web content in the form of information and resources that manage and retain that information. From a functionality perspective, early virtual world developments have taken advantage of Web 3-D technologies in many areas including social presence, persistence, and the visual presentation of the environment. However, the early emphasis has been on building out these worlds and providing for a growing demand for more social-context and interaction, there are some recent indicators that show a growing interest in the use of virtual worlds as vehicles for presenting content.

Despite the inventiveness and creative push in virtual worlds for military training and intervention, these areas lagged in all other areas of government. Continued interest and calls for better collaborative technologies rose from scientific researchers, business and social networks (Masinsin, May 2008). “Government agencies are just starting to recognize the merits of Web 2.0 technologies.” (VanLeuven, March 2009). For educators, researchers, business and community networks the push for combined technologies was steady.

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Key Forces Driving These Two Innovations Incorporating a Web with more meaningful content within the VW environments we are now developing, it brings together not only the benefits of a visual 3-D experience and its sense of social presence but it also provides Web users with an added depth of perception that adds new space to the presentation of increased volumes of more meaningful content through the implementation of semantic technologies. Where the Web 2.0 focused on social interaction and user-generated content with the Web 3.0, the focus shifts to support the coming volumes of computer-generated content. Sweeney (2009) describes the significance of this shift as being akin to a modern industrial revolution only this revolution takes content-generation to an entirely new level. Several current examples of computer systems that are automating the tasks of locating, selecting, describing, organizing and assembling content under the direction of Web users include: • • • • •

Google News: a computer-generated news site where the articles are selected and ranked by computers.

Kosmix: a categorization engine that organizes Web content into magazine-style topic pages.

Wolfram Alpha: a knowledge computation engine that dynamically calculates facts in response to questions.

Primal Fusion: a thought-networking site created through a semantic synthesis technology.

BING: a semantic-based decision engine with access to indexed Wikipedia content.

Users Can Do More and Want More

It is not only technology that is progressing. The way the Web is being used and how information is searched have also become more advanced. Here we are discussing two categories of key forces. One is another technical force factor that is focused on the “how” and not the “what” as in technical tools. The other key force is the “human/user-factor.” Web 2.0 is more than the tools we use, but how we are using them. Quite often, social, academic and professional networks collide. This second force is the human factor. Human factors of consumption and contribution are driving the technology beyond the current advantages of Web 2.0. This is not very different from a business model with regard to its consumers. Frankly, the technological combination is market-driven. Users are consumers driving this upcoming and developing market. Consumers want all the advantages of Web 2.0 and more. Several of the advantages of Web 2.0 include user-centered and user-driven, both synchronous and asynchronous and techfriendly ability for readers to also be writers. Morevoer, information is easily updated as well as the interconnection of social and professional networks.

As Web technologies evolve independently, the possibilities expand exponentially when two or more technologies find significant synergy. This is especially the case for social and professional networks. We generally find each of them linking to or embedding each other. This “tech blur” is leading the charge for a layering of technologies which are either cross-compatible or interconnected. Other key forces currently driving these two technologies are found in usage

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statistics covering several realms of Web activity and are proving key to the emergence of both of these technologies.

Overall Global Internet Usage According to InternetWorldStats.com, there was an increase of 132.5% in Internet use throughout North America between 2000 and 2009. The increase in use globally is more remarkable showing a growth of more than 340% for global internet users between 2000 and 2008 and these upward trends are expected to increase in the foreseeable future (North America Internet Usage Statistics, Population and Telecommunications Reports, 2009). Although government entities use a number of domain spaces such as “.mil,” “.arpa,” and “.gov” domains, space now includes over 27,000 government registered Web sites (iReport, 2009).

Growing Interest in Virtual World Usage The arrival of several Web 3-D virtual environments used for academic, professional, and community networking confirms a strong public interest in and growing acceptance for this evolving Web medium. In 2007, research data show sharp increases for VW registrations and log-ins amongst some of the most popular environments (Virtual Worlds Platforms and User Numbers, 2007). There is also a growing number of virtual worlds that are considered “open source” and these world models are free, non-proprietary and available to the general public. The number of virtual worlds has been doubling about every 2 years. That puts it in synch with Moore's law and it is anticipated that the market for virtual goods and services along with the amount of money made by individuals interacting within these virtual environments will all continue to grow at a significant rate (Metaverse Roadmap Forecasts - Part A, 2009). On a daily basis Linden Labs alone with its virtual world currency, the Linden Dollar, was averaging $1.5 million in monetary exchange, (Richards, 2007). Furthermore, as these various virtualenvironment-evolve-users are also looking at ways to gain gateways, such as those provided by Myrl's solution, between environments that allow them to share their virtual experiences (KZero.co.uk, 2008) and (Myrl.com, 2009).

Increased Complexity of User System Queries There has been an exponential growth in Web-based query activity. In 1998, the average query length for a Web search engine was approximately 1.3 words. By 2005 that average query length had doubled with a volume of half a billion queries a day on Google alone. If this trend of doubling the query length every seven years continues, then extrapolation shows that 5.2 word query averages can be expected by 2012 and 10.4 word queries or queries the equivalent of a complete conversational-style sentence can be expected within the next ten years (Metaverse Roadmap Forecasts, Part A, 2009).

Another factor is the strength of more specialized searching for users. Most Web users are aware of the typical broad-based or “horizontal” searches provided by most well-known search engines, but there are also searches that focus on a specific information type that are

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collectively referred to as “vertical” searching. Vertical search tools include vertical engines like Answers.com, Indeed.com, Become.com (Regan, 2005), and Google Book Search is Google’s vertical search engine that lets you find matching pages within books that it has scanned. Curious about that part in Tom Sawyer where he was whitewashing the fence? Then enter “tom sawyer fence” and Google Book Search tells you it is on page 22 of Mark Twain’s classic novel (Sullivan, 2007).

Bridge to Social and Professional Networks The strength of research is its ability to connect information wherever it happens to reside. It is not a coincidence that both social and professional network domains are becoming blurred. MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are but a handful of examples of those being sought after for both social and professional means. Social and professional Web sources have crossed over and merged a symbiotic connection to each other. Now the research communities have had to cross a bridge too. No longer are the three areas of academic, social and professional, heavily divided such as in the past.

Now, research efforts must also include specific information taps on social and professional networking sites. The fact now remains, there is retrievable information and/or raw data present in social networking spaces like blogs, wikis and tubes with many cites and links to other “personal” or “professional” spaces of experts in specific fields. These field experts are conducting original research and making valuable information available in areas outside of more traditional means. This relatively new social phenomenon leads us to why researchers need different types of search options beyond the traditionally published scholarly book, journal or technical report.

Increased Use as a Telework and Educational Media Due to the evolving Web-based technologies at real world worksites, employers are seeking employees who are able to perform duties remotely. Telecommuting or telework may not be done on a full-time basis, but much work is often completed off-site electronically whether the employee is officially on the clock or not. The number of Americans whose employer now allows them to work remotely at least one day per month has increased 39 percent the past two years, from 12.4 million in 2006 to 17.2 million in 2008 with those numbers expected to increase significantly in the coming years (Marica Rhodes, 2009).

Online education has also become a more viable alternative to campus-based learning for an increasing number of individuals who maintain employment, families and wish to further their education on their own time. Educators are finding new and innovative uses for 3-D Web-based environments. Virtual Worlds allow students to go places that cannot be visited, overcome stereotypes, role-play, collaborate in groups, conduct scenario simulations, and interact with a global audience. The increase of Distance Education (DE) enrollment and use of distance Webbased technologies in the classroom at many major institutions is met with a driving force to seek out and identify different synchronous and asynchronous instructional models to meet the demands of users who require 24/7 service. Distance education has become increasingly common in postsecondary education; national statistics indicate that in a single academic year of 2006-7, 66 percent of both 2- and 4-year colleges offered distance education courses and there is

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a growing use of Web-based tools in traditional face-to-face course offerings as well (Distance Education by Postsecondary Faculty, Indicator 47, 2006).

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Government Initiatives Federal, state and local government use of Internet space is increasing and so too is the public use of them. When discussing direct services by such agencies as the Social Services Administration O'Looney (2005) notes that given “the public goods nature of the Semantic Web, governments should assume some of the responsibility for being first movers in investing in the Semantic Web.” At the national level, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been investing millions of dollars in the core technologies of the Semantic Web. There is a growing need for large governmental units with multiple data stores to integrate this data and the semantic information infrastructure can provide the large-scale accessibility to those data stores (O'Looney, 2005).

Government agencies have an implied mandate to facilitate, expand and secure a means for the general public to search and find information and with the volume of data expanding at such rate it demands new and innovative approaches that semantic and 3-D Web technologies provide. Today's governmental Web infrastructures are among the largest and most diverse in existence and are ideal environments for expanded use of semantic technologies. Recently, several semantically-based governmental sites have begun to take advantage of these new technologies. The recovery.gov site is another example of a federal governmental site designed to present the vast amount of data involved with the on-going economic stimulus efforts.

A current federal effort focuses on increasing public “access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.” At present, the Data.gov effort includes searchable data catalogs providing access to all forms of government data. A recent review of the Data.gov draft Concept of Operations document indicates the organizations movement towards semantically published data (Miller, 2009).

Visualizing Semantic Content in Virtual Worlds Improving the Web user’s ability to visualize the vast new amounts of Web content will find VW technologies on the forefront of this new era of Web usage. In a recent Forrester Report on the use of virtual worlds in the work sector, Information Technology (IT) professionals were urged to begin investigating the uses of virtual worlds. While experimenting with virtual world technologies, they had to attempt to “replicate the experiences of working physically alongside others; allow people to work with and share digital 3-D models of physical or theoretical objects; and make remote training and counseling more realistic by incorporating nonverbal communication into same-time, different-place interactions" (Driver & Jackson, 2008).

However, Burden (2009) notes that most initial assessments of VW environments have focused on the looks and not necessarily on the functionality of the environment. Therefore, to maximize the usefulness of these two technologies, new and more effective virtual environments will need to be first visualized and then designed to present these workers, students, researchers and other Web-content users with working environments that have the ability to present the results of their semantic queries in a three-dimensional virtual space. All this while should be accomplished by also providing an interactive environment which enables users to alter, develop, build, or submit their customized queries in real time.

Whether in two or three dimensions, computer-based displays are designed to support the perception of relevant system data and to facilitate further processing of that data. In their work on human factors engineering, Wickens, et.al. (2004) outlined 13 principles used to create an

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effective display design. When visualizing new virtual world spaces that support semantic content, several of these principles come into play.

Principle 6 - Pictorial Realism.

This principle implies that a display looks like the variable that it represents. As an example, if attempting to display a high-temperature value on a thermometer then the display should be shown as a higher vertical level. If there are multiple elements, they should be configured in a manner that appears like it would in the represented environment. The key here is that however the content is presented, it should have a visual appearance that is real to the user.

According to Scott (2009), the semantic Web is “about real-world objects. It is about things that people care about, things that people think about,” (Scott, 2009).

Principle 7 - Moving Part.

Again, the concept of real-world presentation surfaces in principle. The principle of the moving part implies that moving elements should move in a pattern and direction compatible with the user’s mental model of how it actually moves in real world. An example would be the moving element on an altimeter; it should move upward with increasing altitude and down with decreasing altitude.

Principle 8 - Minimizing Information Access Cost.

This principle implies that when the user’s attention is averted from one location to another in order to access the necessary information, there is an associated cost in time or effort.

A display design should minimize this cost by allowing frequently-accessed sources to be located at the nearest possible position. However, adequate legibility should not be sacrificed to reduce this cost.

Principle 9 - Proximity Compatibility.

This principle infers that divided attention between two information sources may be necessary for the completion of one task. These sources must be mentally integrated and are defined to have close mental proximity. Information access costs should be low, which can be achieved in many ways like close proximity, linkage by common colors, patterns and shapes.

However, close display proximity can be harmful by causing too much clutter.

Principle 10 - Multiple Resources.

This principle implies that a user can more easily process information across different resources. As an example, visual and auditory information can be presented simultaneously rather than presenting all visual or all auditory information.

Principle 11. Replace Memory With Visual Information - Knowledge in the World.

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This principle means that a user should not need to retain important information solely in working memory or to retrieve it from long-term memory. A menu, checklist, or another display can aid the user by easing the use of their memory. However, the use of memory may sometimes benefit the user rather than the need for reference to some type of knowledge in the world like an expert computer operator would rather use direct commands from their memory rather than referring to a manual. The use of knowledge in a user’s head and knowledge in the world must be balanced for an effective design, (Wickens, Lee, Liu, & Gordon-Becker, 2004).

The basic function of any computer interface is to enable the user to communicate with the computer as transparently as possible. Rosenthal (2001) suggested five areas for consideration when developing 3-D Web interfaces: 1. 3-D World Simulation Brings With it two Elements: Both Navigation and Emotional involvement. Immersion within the real-world RL will, by the nature of our being, cause an emotional response. “Being there” within the virtual world will affect our thoughts and feelings in a different way than the detached ‘windowed” 2-D interface can offer.

2. An Object's Consistency in the World: Inanimate objects around us do not move around and navigate as we do. The challenge of the 3-D interface is to make the change known so that whatever purpose is served by the objects transformation, its “history” must be known by the user so that the object is useful for them.

3. Audio to Suggest Spatial Relationships: The ability to localize audio and effect is the volume within the 3-D world. It allows the audio interface to become as important as any visual cue to understanding the world we are within.

4. The User's Effectiveness to Alter the Environment: We affect and alter our real environment constantly. The user’s ability to create “cause and effect” will immediately place them in the world and define its rules. When a rule about an object is broken, consistency is lost and the user cannot be sure of an action’s reaction.

5. Time, Scale, and Distance as an Interface device: The manipulation of time and its relation to 3-D space can become a navigational nightmare within the 3-D interface. Our body size in the real world sets many of our notions of time, scale, and distance. It is no coincidence that we measure distance in “feet.” We use our own mass and size to “fit” into our real world. Within a flat screen on our desktops, 3-D offers the world paradigm but to most at small scale - a screen that is about 15-20 inches across, (Rosenthal, 2001).

This addition of the third dimension to Web content presentation brings with it a level of depth to the 2-D screen experience. It is this 3-D illusion and sense of presence which enables the Web user to be now be inside the environment or inworld (IW) as opposed to just viewing it from the surface. That is the greatest of challenges for Web interface designer and developers.

To maximize the value of virtual world technologies and to provide for a more effective presentation medium for the Semantic Web, consideration must be made to each of these five areas listed above. Given the five dimensions, it is a logical step that researchers are going from finding objects semantically from mostly static pages to searching for them in a virtual world.

The roads on the super-information highway are taking new form (Liefman, Meir, & Tal, September 2005).

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A Focus for the Near-term: Viewing the Road Ahead

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Having strong semantic search engines will likely improve search options and increase the researchers ability to retrieve relevant data otherwise missed by more traditional search tools that have relied mostly on controlled vocabularies. The Semantic Web seeks out the unique syntax and concepts shared within a specific field of study and enables database results to incorporate a “concept-driven” instead of “pure word” locating process. Thus, 3-D Web environments provide a way to bridge people and technical tool sheds, placing both inanimate and animate objects as well as pure data into a functional co-existence.

Moreover, the benefit of coupling the two technologies is achieved by creating a community of scholarly experts, regardless of distance, teamed in real-time, searching, retrieving, manipulating data in any given discipline.

Finally, there will be a way for everybody to access empirical research data we can see (graphic representation), define (semantic) and touch (activated avatars). Nevertheless, careful considerations must be given with regard to determining points of emphasis. It is of paramount concern for a successful journey using Web 3.0 technical tools in combination with semantic search mechanisms to not rely so heavily in graphic-quality where contextual quality is weak.

Going Beyond the Visuals In 3-D environments, there is much emphasis on realism – graphic quality. With the advent of semantic searching the virtual environment can become a place evaluated on its sight, sound and meaning. If the tech combo is to be a success in all three realms (social, academic and business) then laying the groundwork for semantic mark-up of content (largely presented as objects instead of text) within virtual worlds would be a first-priority concern. The value of virtual worlds will increase if inworld contents are not only visually appealing, easily manipulated and realistic, but they must also be searchable and retrievable (Burden, Toward Semantic Virtual Worlds - A Thinkpiece, 2009). Research supports that content is key for government sites. Thomas and Streib (2005) noted that despite “the Internet image as a channel for commerce, the public mostly views it as a source of information, and these uses appear to explain its popularity much more than its utility as a way to shop, bank, or invest” (Thomas & Streib, 2005).

A Trend Towards Mashups Throughout the work there is a constant reference made to two combined technologies.

Yet, it is arguable that there is actually a combination beyond just the two isolated technologies for detailed discussion here – that it is, in fact, several types (Web 1.0, 2.0, Web 3.0/Semantic and VW/3-D). What happens when we get all these technologies working simultaneously? We get an effect that is often referred to as mashup. Originally used to describe the mixing of music tracks to yield something different and new, mashup is an “unusual or innovative composition of content (often from unrelated data sources), made for human (rather than computerized) consumption” (Merrill, 2009).

The term mashup typically implies quick, easy integration, frequently using open APIs and data sources to produce results that were not the original reason for producing the raw source data. Between the visuals, information seeking, retrieving and manipulation mashups, we find that virtual worlds such as Second Life evolve into not merely a mock of reality, but a totally

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different, separate and self-sustaining one. An anthropological perspective offers the notion of virtual worlds as a merge of craft and knowledge – a “crafty knowledge” (Thompson, 2009).

Becoming Immersed in Data The governmental data environment is unique and its challenges to synthesize and present that data to the public are enormous. Achieving any level of interoperability on a global scale is a monumental endeavor; all this while handling the countless semantic differences of interpretation across many fields of service (legal, administrative, and civil services) with differing processes and best-practices, and coupled with the numerous languages and dialects across counties, states and in national and international levels. Examples of the two technologies can be found in several disciplines. According to Daden Limited, “Several virtual worlds support the ability to bring data in from the Web and the real world - either as batch files or live data from Web services feeds” (Daden Limited, 2009).

Governmental agencies with disciplines in areas such as astrophysics, bioinformatics, geography, geophysics, biology (and the list goes on) are all starving for new communication venues. These two technologies provide a much needed interactive media to facilitate communications across the science, technology and engineering communities. Djorgovski, et al.

(2009) note that many of the world's great challenges including global climate change, and energy conservation are “fundamentally interdisciplinary in nature, and not reducible to any given scientific discipline (physics, biology, etc.), the lack of effective and pervasive mechanisms for establishment of cross-disciplinary interactions is a serious problem which affects us all” (Djorgovski,, et al., 2009).

Emphasizing the Need We can trace the practice of archiving and retrieving information back to around 3,000 BC when the Sumerians, realizing the importance of proper organization and access to archives, began designating special areas to store clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions (Staikos, 2009).

The coupling of data retrieval and manipulation in real-time amongst Web users is fast becoming a desired process and these two technologies should prove their worth in the coming decades. However, as these two technologies begin to merge, they will both bring their own sets of challenges but from a Web user’s perspective and a technology developer’s perspective. Yet, vast quantities of governmental public sector data are available on both public and governmentally secure infrastructures.

Data ranges in scope from statistical and financial, geospatial and imagery, as well as legal, operational and administrative information. Making this data both available and reusable are two very unique challenges. Most governmental data are published in numerous formats with little structure that inhibit their reusability. This continued use of unstructured, non-semantic representations of data makes it nearly impossible for computer systems to collect, with any level of understanding, and present the data in meaningful formats for both governmental employees and the general public. But it is not just the challenge of making the data more meaningful, we must also embrace a new era of data presentation, an era where 3-D Web-based virtual world environments provide users with a new sense of “Data-in-Depth.”

Moving forward, how governments publish their data and ensure its readability are going to be critical decisions. The publishing of semantically-structured data that is read through Web

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3-D virtual world technologies will form a major solution to adding increased data transparency while absorbing the growing volumes of Web-based government data in the future.

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Journal of Virtual Words Research - The Integration of Virtual Worlds With the Semantic Web

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

Culture of the Cloud

By Tom Boellstorff University of California, Irvine, United States

Abstract The goal of this speculative essay is to ask after potential consequences of the emerging notion of “cloud computing” not only for virtual worlds, but also for human sociality in general. I explore the short history of cloud computing and some presuppositions that shape construals of “cloud computing” and its consequences. I examine convergences and distinctions between cloud computing and virtual worlds, and what this tells us about new forms of computer-mediated culture.

Keywords: cloud computing, virtual worlds, social networks This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Culture of the Cloud

Culture of the Cloud

By Tom Boellstorff University of California, Irvine, United States Stage 1: Evaporation The goal of this speculative essay is to ask after potential consequences of the emerging notion of “cloud computing” for virtual worlds, but also for human sociality more generally. The essay has four parts or “stages.” Taking its metaphorical engagements as points of analytical departure, the four parts of this essay will follow four stages of the cloud cycle. Given that a cycle has no beginning or end, we can start anywhere and so might as well begin with “evaporation,” the upward movement of water vapor — or in this case, the posing of questions for inquiry. Following this short introduction, in the second part of the essay I briefly sketch out the history and current usages of the phrase “cloud computing.” Third, I look at the presuppositions that shape construals of “cloud computing” and its consequences. Fourth, I examine convergences and distinctions between cloud computing and virtual worlds, and what this tells us about new forms of computer-mediated culture.

I am interested both in positive possibilities of cloud culture for translocal connection and citizen empowerment, and also in negative possibilities of cloud culture for centralization and alienation. In my work on virtual worlds, I have been at pains to emphasize the key importance of grasping social phenomena “in themselves,” as they are understood in everyday life, and at the same time exploring the forms of interconnection between social phenomena (Boellstorff 2008).

For instance, it would be a mistake to see a networked society as network and nothing more, a placeless web of intersecting lines. Yet interconnection can take a range of forms, including the movement of bodies, commodities, and ideas, but also forms of stasis and non-movement— forms of overlapping and obviation (Wagner 1989). Cultures of the cloud may provide both conceptual resources and experiential paradigms for rethinking the constitution of social phenomena through place and connection.i Stage 2: Condensation Evaporation is followed by “condensation,” the formation of clouds from water vapor. It is hard to determine when cloud computing first condensed: the concept is quite new, and clear definitions are as difficult to grasp as a cloud itself. Wikipedia, which in a case like this is the closest thing to an authoritative voice, notes that John McCarthy, the computer scientist who coined the term “artificial intelligence,” spoke as early as 1960 of the possibility that “computation may someday be organized as a public utility,” and also that by the 1990s, the term “telecom cloud” was used in reference to some data communication protocols.ii However, it is clear that “cloud computing” as currently understood is of much more recent provenance. It is telling, after all, that the First International Conference on Cloud Computing took place only in 2008, and another international conference on cloud computing met for the first time in December 2009.iii At its core, “cloud computing” refers to providing a range of computer resources over the Internet. For instance, rather than purchase a word processing program and install it on a desktop 4

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Culture of the Cloud

or laptop computer, a user accesses a word processing program online (Google Docs is a wellknown example of this).iv Or, rather than backing up files on a local hard drive, a user uploads files onto an online sever and stores them there; in many cases, like that of Flickr for images, the data can optionally be available to multiple persons, or even be open access for everyone.v Google’s Chrome operating system is just one example of an initiative to take this tendency to its logical conclusion: the locating of all aspects of computing, even operating systems, online.vi In cases like these, the physical location of the computers providing the processing or storage services in question are not known to the user: it is not considered relevant information, and their physical location might float elsewhere over time. The computing in question is understood to take place in what at first glance appears to be the abstracted and generalized non-place of “the cloud.”

The essence of cloud computing, then, is a de-emphasis of the desktop or laptop computer via an online engagement with computing resources. Cloud computing is, therefore, at its core a kind of intensification or condensation of Internet mediation. This is the pivotal difference between cloud computing and the related but distinct notion of ubiquitous computing, which typically refers to the embedding of computational capabilities in everyday objects, from cars to shoes. The key issue in cloud computing is that it is no longer just data that is transferred via online technologies; computation itself becomes Internet-mediated. That is why the true technological predicate for cloud computing is not processor speed or disk size, but the ability to transmit large amounts of data cheaply and wirelessly online. The reason why “The Battle Over Cloud Computing” appears as a cover story in The Economist magazine on October 17, 2009, (not 2005, 1999 or 1989) has to do, above all, with thresholds of broadband access.vii In the 1980s, we witnessed what arguably was the most significant development in computer history: the invention and mass-market adoption of the personal computer in desktop and then also laptop forms. The era prior to this, the first age of modern computing, was the age of the mainframe. Mainframes were centralized computer behemoths looked after by technical specialists. Users did not have computers but “terminals,” a word that has largely fallen out of use, from which they accessed shared computing resources. Mainframe computers certainly still exist, but with the rise of the personal computer, computation and data storage could leave the mainframe environment and take place at the desk of the individual user. Programs were duplicated millions of times and installed on individual computers. The need to install such programs, and also to move data between personal computers, led to a whole range of transfer technologies, including floppy disks, zip drives, CD-ROM and DVD disks, and flash drives.

When Internet access first became available for personal computers, the limits of dialup technology meant that online communication was used mostly for email, website access, and the transfer of relatively small document files. The rise of broadband and also wireless Internet access has led to the decline of these data transfer technologies and the possibility of cloud computing.

The fluffy image of the cloud obscures how cloud computing represents nothing less than the end of the second age of computing, the age of the personal computer, and a return to the mainframe in a virtual form—“virtual” in a general sense, but also in the specific sense that it is accessed via the Internet. Since the mid-2000s, we have seen the emergence of “netbooks”: small, inexpensive laptop computers with limited processor and storage capabilities, designed primarily for cloud computing. Additionally, we have seen the continuing acceleration of a shift from basic cellphones to “smartphones” like the iPhone that are also designed for cloud computing. In other words, netbooks and smartphones both function largely as wireless terminals 5

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Culture of the Cloud

for accessing the virtual mainframe called “cloud computing.” One thing condensing from cloud computing, then, is a depersonalization or re-terminalization of the computer, and I cannot imagine that this will not have significant consequences for human sociality.

Stage 3: Precipitation In the cloud cycle, condensation is followed by “precipitation,” the formation of rain or snow. It is not yet clear what will precipitate from cloud computing, but if the history of computing and technology teaches us anything, it is that what at first glance appear to be obscure protocols and technical debates are in fact social practices with significant cultural consequences (see, e.g., Kelty 2008). With regard to cloud computing, we are at a stage where the phenomenon in question is highly emergent and the tools for inquiry are not yet clear. At times like these, I find it useful to return to my roots as a linguist and begin with the metaphorical entailments of the phenomenon in question. Indeed, I have formulated this entire essay with such an approach in mind.

Therefore, what precipitates from “cloud” computing? Consider clouds for a moment.

When it comes to cloud computing, the images that appear everywhere from the cover of The Economist to the logo for the International Conference on Cloud Computing show clouds that are white and fluffy. No thunderheads or hurricanes, no dark clouds on the horizon, not even any fog. What is invoked is what, following the classic work of Eleanor Rosch, we could term a prototypical cloud (Rosch 1973). In this understanding, clouds never depart into the stratosphere or touch the ground. They are liminal between earth and sky. They do not have intentionality but are mobile, moving laterally and collectively as a consequence of impersonal meteorological forces. No one owns a cloud or controls its movements. Clouds are features of a landscape to which humans must adapt. They persist yet are ephemeral, constantly changing shape. You cannot stand on them or touch them, yet they cast shadows and can precipitate rain or snow.

They are sometimes presented as heavenly, the place where God lives or those who have died now reside.

The overall image that emerges from this prototypical construal of the cloud obscures both agency and place. The cloud is an ostensible non-place, separate from the earth, insubstantial and inaccessible. It is a naturalization of the social just as much as using biogenetic metaphors of “hybridity” to talk about diaspora, or using hydraulic metaphors of “flows” to talk about globalization. “Naturalizing power” in this manner is a longstanding strategy of domination and control (Yanagisako and Delaney, 1995).

Stage 4: Infiltration In the water cycle of cloud formation, “precipitation” is followed by “infiltration,” or the movement of rain and snow into subsurface soil and rock. How will the notion and experience of cloud computing infiltrate everyday subjectivity and sociality? At this point, the best we can do is set out questions and provocations that can hopefully serve as starting points for future research. As a metaphor, a set of technical protocols and design specifications, and an emerging configuration of social practices, the culture of the cloud may represent nothing less than a successor principle to that of the “network.” In a network, you make links between nodes, lines that make up a net, but in a cloud you “tag,” as the convergent metaphor of a “tag cloud” indicates. “Tag cloud” might seem to be a different idea than “cloud computing,” but they have 6

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Culture of the Cloud

arisen together and share a set of entailments. A tag does not draw a line between two nodes in a network; it names affinities. It does not connect; it clumps. A tag cloud shows terms in a kind of assemblage; not a network but an aggregation. Frequently used tags usually appear larger and in a darker color in a tag cloud, as if they threaten to precipitate from it. Tagging seems to be a salient element of the culture of the cloud, because it allows for connection without the notion of the network. It may be, for instance, that while Facebook and Twitter are currently described as examples of “social networking sites,” in fact they and other such phenomena represent not networks but cloud cultures where techniques like hash marks allow participants to tag each other without networking as such, so that you socialize in a cloud of friendships and affiliations.

The culture of the cloud is “infiltrating” the network society.

I am particularly fascinated by possible consequences of cloud culture for notions of the real, which I prefer to term the “actual,” and the virtual. Moving between earth and sky without touching either, clouds slide laterally in a liminal space, a space of tagging rather than mediation.

This space straddles actual and virtual; it is a kind of in-between space that is emerging as a crucial site for sociality. However, one crucial thing obscured by the cloud metaphor is that the epochal shift to cloud computing implies leaving the personal computer behind: it represents an epochal depersonalization of computing, a powerful recentralization not just of computer processing and data storage, but ownership and control. The image of innocently ephemeral clouds disavows this centralization of control; the metaphor must be reworked to enable interventions into issues of privacy, corporate power, and access. We may need to respond critically to the gathering storm and seed some clouds of our own; perhaps new clear-sky initiatives are needed, or better forecasting.

Cloud computing is a broad socio-technical formation, relevant to many domains of human experience—certainly including virtual worlds. At first glance, virtual worlds and cloud computing might seem utterly opposed, since the key defining feature of virtual worlds is that they are places and a key defining feature of cloud computing seems to be a status of non-placeness. However, it is not coincidental that virtual worlds and cloud computing both emerged in the early-to-mid 2000s. It is not just that virtual worlds and cloud computing both require broadband. For virtual worlds to be persistent places, they must continue to exist even as individual residents switch their computers off. They must be stored in and instantiated thorough a kind of virtual mainframe that residents access as needed: virtual worlds are predicated upon the possibility of cloud computing.

However, I have indicated throughout this essay that while my interest in virtual worlds first drew cloud computing to my attention, cloud computing already shapes a far broader range of social domains, and deserves extended attention—not just theoretical attention, but ethnographic attention, precisely because “clouds” appear soon at first glance to be so incompatible with such ethnographic attention. In addition, the intertwined cultural, political, economic, and technological aspects of cloud computing may shed light—or should I say, precipitate insight—regarding pervasive emergent dynamics of mobility and interconnection.

Not for nothing is Apple’s proprietary cloud computing service, complete with icon of fluffy white cloud against clear blue sky, termed “MobileMe.” It appears that it was sometime in 2002 that the number of cell phone lines first surpassed the number of what are now termed “fixed telephone lines” or simply “land lines” (Castells et al., 2009:8). Phones, computing: everything seems to be leaving the land and moving to the clouds. So how, to paraphrase Claude LéviStrauss, might clouds be “good to think” (Lévi-Strauss 1971:89)? How might we find important clues to emerging cultural logics in a partly cloudy horizon? Might the key to new imbrications 7

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Culture of the Cloud

of culture and technology lie neither in the search for beginnings and points of origin, nor in the quest for endings and points of resolution, but in the liminal, untethered non-place of a cloud?

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Culture of the Cloud

Bibliography Boellstorff, Tom. (2008). Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Castells, Manuel, Mireia Fernandez-Ardevol, Jack Linchuan Qiu, and Araba Sey. (2009). Mobile Communication and Society: A Global Perspective. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Kelty, Chris. (2008). Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software. Durham: Duke University Press.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. (1971). Totemism. Boston: Beacon Press.

Rosch, Eleanor. (1973). Natural Categories. Cognitive Psychology 4:328–50.

Wagner, Roy. (1989). Symbols that Stand for Themselves. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Yanagisako, Sylvia, and Carol Delaney. (1995). Introduction. Pp. 1–19 in their edited Naturalizing Power: Essays in Feminist Cultural Analysis. New York: Routledge.

i

I will sometimes refer to “cultures of the cloud” and at other times “culture of the cloud.” As always, the analytical purchase of referring to a singular “culture” versus plural “cultures” is more about how one conceptualizes interconnection than it is about multiplicity and inclusion: with regard to cloud computing there will surely emerge both overarching cultural logics and innumerable cultural specificities shaped by place, subjectivity, topics of interest, and so on. ii See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing#History>, accessed November 8, 2009. iii See <http://thecloudcomputing.org/2009/2/>, accessed November 18, 2009, <http://www.ux.uis.no/cloudcom.org/indexmain.htm>, accessed November 18, 2009. iv See <http://docs.google.com>, accessed November 18, 2009. v See <http://www.flickr.com/>, accessed November 18, 2009. vi See <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QRO3gKj3qw&feature=player_embedded>, accessed November 18, 2009. vii See The Economist, October 17, 2009.

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010 !

Staging the new retail drama: At a metaverse near you!

By Savvas Papagiannidis Newcastle University Business School, United Kingdom Michael Bourlakis Brunel University Business School, United Kingdom Abstract Consumers have traditionally looked for products that could fulfill their needs and retailers responded to demand by initially adopting product-oriented, and then more recently, customer-oriented strategies. This shift was heavily underpinned by technology, which enabled retailers to implement more intelligent approaches that evolved around consumers based on their profiles. The next step in this transformation is now towards a â&#x20AC;&#x153;uniqueâ&#x20AC;? experience creation, with retailers providing a retail theater experience that is different and special and consumers enjoying an increased opportunity to interact and participate in the overall experience. In this paper, we examine how metaverses, i.e. Internet-based virtual worlds, and more specifically Second Life, can potentially provide the stage for this retail theater experience. Our discussion takes place in the context of two cases that are used to highlight the implications of retail theater for both consumers and retailers and illustrate the opportunities and challenges they face.

Keywords: retailing, metaverses, retail theater, Second Life, electronic business, electronic marketing. ! "#$%!&'()!$%!*'+,($-#./0!120/(!.#/!3(/4.$5/!3'66'2%!7..($81.$'29:'!;/($54.$5/!<'()%!=>?! @2$./0!A.4./%!B$*/2%/!8,!.#/!C'1(24D!'E!F$(.14D!<'(D0%!G/%/4(*#>!

Journal of Virtual Words Research - Staging the new retail drama: at a Metaverse near you!

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Staging the new retail drama: At a metaverse near you!

By Savvas Papagiannidis Newcastle University Business School, United Kingdom Michael Bourlakis Brunel University Business School, United Kingdom Introduction Technology has radically influenced retailing both by extending the scope and reach of established channels and by creating new ones. Although new channels, especially Internetbased ones, have provided the means effectively and efficiently to reach customers directly, they often lack the atmospherics and context that traditional offline approaches enjoy. Metaverses, i.e.

Internet-based virtual worlds, can potentially add the missing piece to the online retail puzzle by allowing customers to immerse themselves in retailing experiences while overcoming the limitations that other online channels - such as the two-dimensional Web - pose.We begin by outlining the development of metaverses and their use as a retail channel. Particular emphasis is put to their cross-space applications and interfaces. The paper then moves on to examine how metaverses could form the stage for retail theater upon which a “unique” experience could be created. Following this, two case studies, that of the retail space of I Want One Of Those (IWOOT) and that of Vodafone InsideOut are presented in order to put theory in context. The paper concludes with implications for academics and practitioners alike.

The creation of multiple spaces The Internet and related technologies affect our businesses and social environment, enabling the development of an electronic space, which intertwines with the space and place of our physical world (Li, Whalley, et al., 2001). The intertwined “two spaces” have marked the advent of a new period in economic and social activities that were manifested through the development of e-business and related activities since the mid-1990s, affecting the way we live, work, communicate, learn and play (Li, 2007). A further technological development, that of metaverses (a phrase first used in Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash in 1992, in order to describe how a virtual reality-based Internet might evolve in the future) extended the electronic space, creating in the process a plethora of new environments within which economic and social activities could take place. Metaverses and the activities within them are not isolated from the rest of the electronic space or the real world itself: “The emergence of these practical virtual reality spaces will have significant consequences primarily because events inside and outside them cannot be isolated from one another,” (Castronova, 2005).

Different types of metaverses support and encourage different types of applications, depending on the underlying theme. In this paper we use the experience of Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com), which is a continuous and persistent world that was designed to provide users with control over nearly all aspects of their world, in order to stimulate users’ creativity and self-expression, translating into a vibrant and dynamic world full of interesting content (Ondrejka, 2004). Users can exercise their control by creating any objects they want, for 4

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which they own the copyright. This allows trading them for the Second Life currency, the Linden Dollar, which can be exchanged for real currency, allowing them to benefit not only within Second Life, but also in the real world.

Initially, first-mover advantage led many well-known brands to establish a presence in Second Life, mainly to capitalize on the associated hype of being the first in their market to make such a move. However, it soon became apparent that unless the environment’s characteristics were taken into consideration, such moves were not going to result in any tangible business benefits (Rose, 2007). Consequently, metaverse marketing paved the way for a new phase in marketing and retailing. Specifically, Kotler and Armstrong (2007) argue that consumers have been traditionally looking for products that could fulfill their needs. Retailers responded to demand by initially offering the right product for the right consumer (segmentation strategy), which was then gradually developed to a customer-oriented strategy. Electronic retailers were particularly successful when it came to developing customer relationship management tools using the Web extensively and by targeting specific customers via the use of e-mails (Feinberg and Kadam, 2002). Nowadays, as shown in Error! Reference source not found., we are going through the next step of this gradual transformation, with consumers seeking not only to consume a product or service, but to interact and experience it, (Eroglu, et al., 2001).

Figure 1. The evolution from traditional to electronic and metaverse retailing.

The challenge for retailers is that the atmospherics that play a critical role in the consumers’ experiences in real life are difficult to be translated into electronic environments (Dennis, Fenech, et al., 2004) and especially on the Web - a flat environment. Metaverse retailing, i.e. retailing that takes place in metaverses (Bourlakis, Papagiannidis, et al., 2009), such as Second Life, could provide the stage on which these experiences can be set up and lived, bridging the gap between the real space and the electronic space, at least as we have got to know it so far. Such a transition from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional retail environment is not an easy one and brings retailers to face a diverse set of challenges before they can reap any potential benefits (Papagiannidis, 2008).

Metaverses could be an implementation of what in the retail literature has been described as “retail theater” (Harris, Harris, et al., 2001), with retailers providing a service that is different and special and consumers enjoying an increased opportunity to interact and participate in the overall experience. The concept of retail theater is further discussed in the next section, with examples provided to illustrate the arguments made.

Retail Theater Wells, et al. (1999) note that organizations are more successful if they focus on getting and maintaining a share of each customer instead of aiming for the whole market and argue that information technology has become the key enabling factor. Hence, firms are employing information technology to support and improve their marketing offerings. For example, information technology can support and improve customer service strategies by personalizing or augmenting service and even transforming products (Ives and Mason, 1990). Wells, et al. (1999) 5

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also point out that these strategies should offer customers an effective interactive interface and that these interfaces should be built on other information technology elements of customer interaction. If this does not happen, the firm will not be capable of interacting satisfactorily with customers and of increasing the overall customer value. All of the above is applicable to Second Life, where a range of firms have established a presence, in order to interact with their customers and their avatars, i.e. the characters who act as the users’ proxies in the virtual world. In fact, many retailers have even started using metaverses and mechanisms within them to offer their products or services and by doing so to maximize the customer value. However, this value sought by customers may vary in metaverse retailing compared to traditional and electronic retailing. In traditional retailing, customers are generally looking for convenience, customer service, product availability, social interaction and atmosphere, competitive prices and product choice (McGoldrick, 2002), while in electronic retailing consumers are looking for excellent prices, as they have the ability to run online price checks, a plethora of product choice, satisfactory product/service delivery at the consumer’s home and user friendliness/ease of Web site navigation (Kim, 2002). For example, when it comes to grocery shopping and consumers selecting a transacting space, they face the dilemma of selecting the atmospherics and interaction of the real space over the convenience of the electronic space and vice versa. Metaverse retailing has the capability to put back the context and enrich the environment, while at the same time maintaining the convenience factor. More research will be required in the area of humancomputer interaction in the context of retailing in order to review best practice and benchmark Web-based commerce systems against metaverse-based points of sales.

More importantly, the avatar plays a critical role in the formation of the final product or service offering as he/she (assuming the avatar has a humanoid form) has the ability to select and choose different elements of the final product. For example, an auto-retailer could provide customers with a paint tool to spray a car with favorite colors before ordering it. Although such extreme customization may not yet be possible or at least economically viable when it comes to mainstream retailing, it still illustrates how the customer could be potentially encouraged to actively engage and not just be a passive receptor of the outcomes of his choices.

In fact, when it comes to transacting virtual items, such as houses, furniture or clothes, retailers in Second Life can allow customers to modify the objects as they see fit in order to match their exact requirements. The digital nature of products is ideal for such modifications, although the customer must possess the skill-set required to perform the modifications. With the avatar creating a product or service that matches his/her needs, we are witnessing another case of a “transient employee.” This concept was initially proposed by Namasivayam (2003), aiming to illustrate the evolving role of the contemporary consumer, who is, nowadays, focusing on developing products or services that will satisfy his/her personal requirements. A further point is that the more a customer is engaged in the retail offering, the more likely it is that the customer will consider the whole process as an experience; painting a car is a much richer experience than just clicking on a color selection. An instance of this can be seen at Reebok’s Second Life island, where avatars can live and experience the whole co-design process, using their virtual trainers to extend and express themselves just as in the real world, and experimenting with possibilities they might not have considered before (Rivers Run Red, 2007).

The customer first purchased a box for L$50, which contained a pair of DJII shoes that were ready to be customized. These came in three sizes to choose among. Once the avatar put them on, the shoes could be customized by standing in front of a booth that provided the interface to color each of the 12 shoe sections using the 17 available colors. When the customer 6

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was satisfied with the design, this was transferred to the shoes for L$5. In the context of this example, the actual product is not the customized shoes, but the experience the customer gains by customizing and then enjoying the shoes.

In terms of the unique experience offered by retailers to consumers in Second Life, we suggest the analogy of “retail theater” as proposed by Harris, et al. (2001) and Baron, et al.

(2001) aiming to shed further light on metaverse retailing. It is a metaphor transferred from the theater setting to the traditional retail setting to illustrate the “creation of exciting retail theater environments that invariably involve opportunities for audience participation and interaction, characteristic of theatrical performances” (Baron, Harris, et al., 2001). As avatars effectively share the metaverse space, they can also share the experiences among them.

In the aforementioned examples, while an avatar is going through the selection or modification process, other avatars can observe and comment or even actively engage in the process themselves. This is something not easily possible in other electronic spaces, e.g. the Web, where the retail experience is confined within a few inches in front of the computer monitor. The real world may potentially allow experiences to be shared locally, but this will still be limited, not only spatially but also socially, especially now in the era of social networking with personal networks often spanning over continents. For example, one of the most popular retail sectors in Second Life is fashion, which has proven so popular and successful that many designs have actually made it to real life (Trollop, 2007). A bride in real life could invite all her friends from around the world to come into the metaverse, while she tries on many different wedding dresses, sharing her joy with them.

Baron, et al. (2001) note that the retail theater concept has been used extensively by retail firms selling an enormous amount of product categories and is “generally presented as a fun experience involving spectacle and excitement” (ibid, p. 103). There are different motivations, though, for retailers. They argue that some retailers aim for consumers to interact with their products, in order to create a range of responses that will result in product sales. Other retailers aim for consumers to develop a “sense of belonging.” It is our view that Second Life retailers aim to develop both, i.e. to capitalize on the strong social network already developed in a metaverse and to enhance product sales and customer loyalty by offering fun experiences. By doing so, retailers offer a “total customer experience” to customers and examine product consumption as a holistic experience (Harris, Harris, et al., 2003) that are influenced by the social interactions with other consumers, as was also suggested for another retail setting by Aubert-Gamet and Cova (1999). These social interactions should not be ignored and can make a strong contribution to an organization. As Davies, et al. (1999) pointed out: “consumers appear to add value to the service experience of other consumers through oral contributions (for example, offering honest opinions, independent product knowledge and reassurance about purchase decisions) that contact personnel cannot provide.”

Overall, in metaverses, the retail theater concept is creating a new space for consumers within which they can interact with the other avatars, and potentially transform the retail offering from being a passive (as with Internet retailing) and a less spectator-based process to an active and participatory-based experience. At the same time, the consumer is entertained via getting a unique experience. We suggest that this experience is the actual product that the consumer is getting in Second Life, drawing similar conclusions to Sherry, et al. (2001), who analyzed another form of a retail theater. Most of these issues are summarized in Error! Reference source not found., where we illustrate the differences of the application of the retail theater concept between traditional, Web and metaverse retailing. Error! Reference source not found.

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also includes a number of aspects, which will be discussed further during the analysis of the findings.

Traditional Retailing

Internet Retailing

Metaverse Retailing

Theater Stage

Store

Retailer’s Website

Metaverse (Second Life)

Key Actors

Personnel and customers

Delivery and order taking personnel

Avatars

Approach

Social interactions

Non-interactive

Key Benefit Sought

Competitive prices and product choice

Excellent prices, satisfactory product delivery

Key Limitations

The customer should visit the store to interact socially and to experience social integration

Minimum/basic store interaction and integration with retail personnel

Customer Integration

Possible integration with retail personnel and other customers confined within the store

It does not portray the real identity of the person, creating possibilities for misbehavior.

Further limitations posed by technology.

Basic integration with retail personnel confined within customer’s house

Possible extensive integration with other avatars confined within the metaverse space

Purchasing real goods

Purchasing mainly real goods

Full integration with the supply chain

Full integration with the traditional supply chain

Total market approach

Mass customization

Activity Categorization

Table 1. Retail theater in traditional, internet and metaverse retailing.

Active, participatory-based “Unique” experience creation

Purchasing mainly virtual goods Possible integration with aspects of the traditional supply chain A small/“niche” market for the time being

Methodology Our empirical research aimed primarily to identify and explore the retail theater phenomenon in Second Life and more specifically, it had the following objectives: • •

To explore whether and how the retail theater concept is applied to metaverse retailing.

To meet that objective, secondary data were collected for retailers’ applications in Second Life.

To analyze successful practices, techniques and processes that retailers in Second Life employ in order to offer a unique experience to their customers through their virtual representations, i.e. their avatars. To shed light on that objective we gathered secondary data on retailers’ practices, techniques and processes in Second Life.

These objectives were examined via the use of a qualitative case study methodology, which according to Patton (1990), allows for in-depth studies that produce a wealth of detailed information, albeit at the expense of generalization. The qualitative case study methodology does not seek to illustrate statistical significance or patterns (Denzin and Lincoln, 1994; Patton, 1990;; 8

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Stake, 1995). It aims to facilitate the in-depth exploration of cases and to provide rich knowledge of a specific context (Eisenhardt, 1989). In general, a small number of individual case studies can shed light on the circumstances they occur in, or as a result of, thorough analysis of the case in relation to the sector or sphere examined. Multiple case studies can support the development of an in-depth, empirically grounded, theory of the studied phenomena (Miles and Huberman, 1994; Yin, 1984). Following the above, the qualitative case study methodology was deemed appropriate for this research. In order to ensure that the research produced relevant findings, we selected a small sample of cases. This approach is typical of qualitative research as Patton (1990) notes: "… there are no rules about sample size… sample size depends on what you want to know, the purpose of the inquiry, what's at stake, what will be useful, what will have credibility, and what can be done with available time and resources… a qualitative sample size only seems small in comparison with the sample needed… when the purpose is generalizing from a sample to the population of which it is part…”

The sample comprised two cases representing retailers which operated in Second Life.

The first case deals with an online retailer that sells tangible products, while the second one is that of a service provider which also has a retail presence both on the Web and in the real world.

These were selected in order to examine both sides and come up with insights for product retailing and service provision in virtual worlds. In particular, the first case is a prime example of how Web-based retail spaces can provide the platform for virtual spaces and how the two can be integrated into one supply chain that eventually reaches the real world, while the second case makes it possible to examine transactions that span multiple spaces. The two cases also represent organizations with a significant real and Web presence that have utilized the virtual world for more than just promoting activities. As we are still in the early days of metaverse retailing there are not many organizations that lend themselves to such a study. In fact, both cases presented seem to have worked as pilot projects for the organizations involved, as after a while they both closed down.

The non-participant observation method was employed for data collection. This is a technique where the researcher observes the subjects of study, but without taking an active role in the situation under examination (Marshall, 1998). We used this technique extensively and we observed how the retail theater concept is applied to metaverse retailing by looking into practices, techniques and processes that two retailers in Second Life follow. Findings stemming from each case were considered on an individual case basis and were analyzed in relation to the aforementioned research objectives (Yin, n.d.).

The Case of I Want One Of Those I Want One Of Those (IWOOT) (http://www.iwantoneofthose.com) is a UK-based online retailer offering a selection of gadgets, toys and home, office, outdoor and travel accessories.

IWOOT was one of first companies to allow users to purchase products in Second Life and get them delivered in real life. The IWOOT island featured five buildings, which when looked at from high enough spelled out the word IWOOT. The one corresponding to the letter W was the retail area.

The Shopping Process

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Customers first grabbed a shopping cart, which was used to carry the customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s selected items. As is often the case with real life shopping carts, the cart could be used to carry another avatar, transforming shopping to a shared enjoyable experience. The customer could browse the items available and add them to the cart, by clicking on them. The first time this happened IWOOT asked customers to register their contact details as these were required for the delivery.

Once the customer was ready to check out a summary of the order was presented to the customer and the total cost in Linden Dollars was also calculated. The customer paid the amount of money requested and the transaction was then complete.

Supply Chain and Customer Relationship Management Challenges The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s supply chain needed to be synchronized and integrated in order to deal successfully with both the online and metaverse aspects of product selling and the resultant financial payments and flows. Adding a new customer interface to the supply chain infrastructure in order to extend the retail activities into Second Life could have been a significant task and overhead. However, once the retail space is in place the retailer can capitalize on the already deployed supply chains. This is not, though, the case with customer support. On the Web, customers are used to not being offered live support and their enquiries are answered asynchronously (Sterne, 2000). In Second Life, though, where interaction is critical and with the retail spaces resembling those in the real world, not meeting shop assistants to greet and help the customer can be detrimental to the customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience. Automated avatars (bots) assuming the roles of shopping assistants could potentially be used to record customer enquiries, but could not be used as a substitute for a real human being.

When it comes to supply issues it should also be pointed out that IWOOT was only making a small number of products available through its points of sale, which were represented by photographs and short descriptions for each product. Hence, the customer could not see a three dimensional representation of the product, neither could the customer experience it. For instance, instead of just displaying a radio-controlled helicopter using a photograph, IWOOT could have offered a working model to the customers and let them play with it for a few minutes.

Both of these approaches would have required significant investment, which might explain why the experience fell short. The complexities of such an undertaking become even clearer when one considers retailers who stock thousands of products. For example, a grocery retailer such as Tesco would have been required to recreate many thousands of products (Fernie and Sparks, 2004).

This is not actually possible at the moment as a Second Life island will only support up to a few thousand primitive objects, which at best could only translate to a few thousands products. Another limitation of the technology is the number of simultaneous visitors, as an island will only accept about 250 visitors at a time mainly due to the hardware requirements and bandwidth needed to sustain these connections. Of course, technology will improve and will eventually be mature enough to allow deployment of such demanding retailing applications.

The Customer Experience In addition, IWOOT created a metaverse retail space which was in alignment with the image they wanted to convey to their customers, an image that is also consistent with the very nature of their products, which are supposed to be fun and entertaining. This was illustrated in 10

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the other activities available on the IWOOT island or the fact that a user could carry an avatar in their shopping cart. In such a case, the experience was not only shared by those directly involved, but also those close by. Many metaverse customers may feel they are free to have fun with the carts, while others may be more tolerant than they would normally be in real life, because this is a virtual environment. However, for others, this may not constitute appropriate behavior and could discourage them from visiting that retail space again. This is further complicated by the role-playing nature of the environment. For example, a user may decide to role-play a gangster and try to disrupt the retail space in any way possible. Access rights could potentially prevent them from doing so, but as the cost associated with such actions is minimal one can continue under a different account/identity (Dibbell, 2008), giving consumer behavior a whole new meaning.

Finally, consumer ethics may also be affected. It may be the case that on the Web it is more difficult to share a shopping experience, but this indirectly protects the privacy of the customer, who can only interact with the retailers. Hence, if one was to order a product that was considered “taboo,” no one, but the retailer, would know. This is not the case in real life, where one has to physically enter a space and can be seen by others. Similarly, metaverses may pose such privacy challenges. Although in principle avatars protect the identity of the user, the avatars themselves have established relationships and a role to play in the metaverse that they may not want to jeopardize. As a result, the user may not want to visit such a retail space using that particular identity.

The Case of Vodafone InsideOut Papagiannidis, et al. (2008) have proposed that actors in a transaction are represented by a projection of their selected identity depending on the space. In real life this will be their real persona, while in a metaverse it is their avatar ( ). These representations will have their own “identity capital” (avatars may not necessarily be humanoids) and social capital may span beyond the boundaries of the originating space. Space crossovers allow actors to effectively live and transact in multiple spaces (Li, Papagiannidis, et al., Forthcoming, n.d.), which results in often complex and sometimes futuristic scenarios.

Figure 2. Transacting space and the interactions between actors and their identities. Adopted from Papagiannidis, et al. (2008).

The Service

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One such case was Vodafone’s InsideOut service, which made possible connecting actors in different spaces and more specifically actors in Second Life and real life, through mobile phones. Avatars in Second Life used the supplied heads-up display (HUD), which had all the functionality of a real life mobile phone, to call other avatars and Vodafone connected the call to their real mobile, with the virtual identities intact. It follows that users could also receive phone calls too when inworld or even when offline. As with real mobile phones, the Vodafone service provided a messaging solution too, which made it possible to send and receive SMS. Again, if the recipient was online, the message was delivered in Second Life, while if the recipient was offline the message was routed to their mobile phone in real life.

The Customer Experience The service carried an important symbolism as a mobile phone contact lists is something that we only associate with real life and not with synthetic worlds. With avatars having their own mobile phone contact lists the boundaries between the two spaces blurred even further. It should be noted that in this case, with the avatar acting as a proxy for the user’s communication, it effectively protected the user’s identity. Vodafone achieved this by providing unique numbers for the avatars’ mobile phones as they would have done for real life mobile phones. The same applied when a real phone initiated a call to a number in Second Life, with a virtual phone number assigned to the communication. These virtual phone numbers, though, were unique and only worked between the two friends who were involved in the communication. Each side was assigned a different virtual number that could be used for reaching the other person.

Marketing and branding opportunities The free HUDs were branded with Vodafone’s logo. Potentially, a range of HUDs from different mobile phone manufacturers could have been used illustrating the various models they offered. These could have been given away for free, promoting new handsets. Alternatively, Vodafone may have decided to bundle these to real life purchases and offer real life customers the same mobile phones they purchased for real in Second Life. This could enhance branding even further, as those who had a different handset from the default one could differentiate themselves in Second Life from the other avatars, effectively making a statement with their choice.

When it came to the features offered by the Vodafone virtual phone, these only included making and receiving phone calls and SMS messages. The HUDs functionality could have been extended to match the functionality of real life mobile phones. For example, cameras could have been built into the phones, allowing avatars to use their virtual mobile phone to take photos or even video clips. They could have also included MP3 players that connect to the users’ favorite MP3 streams or even to any subscription services to which users had access, allowing them to listen to their favorite music. Examples like this one illustrate how product manufacturers and retailers can use virtual worlds such as Second Life for more than just advertising. By adapting their products to the virtual environment they could offer them in virtual worlds too, which can not only strengthen their brands but also increase the value of real life products too. In this case, Vodafone’s service was extending the retail theater concept to the metaverse environments by using HUDs as the medium to offer a unique and unparalleled experience, online and offline.

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Discussion The two cases studies presented in the previous sections met our first research objective by providing evidence of how metaverses were used for retail purposes and how elements of the retail theater concept were employed. Our evidence also highlighted key practices and techniques used in order to enhance the customer’s unique experience in metaverses, effectively meeting the second objective.

Specifically, in both cases, the customer interacted with the retailer, the retailing area, the objects in it and the application itself through a dedicated HUD or mobile phone (Vodafone case), which followed the nature of the products or services offered. On the other hand, in the first case (IWOOT), this was a shopping cart. The processes themselves imitated the processes followed in real life, although there was no real-time interaction with customer representatives, despite the virtual world lending itself to this. This may have not been a big difference compared to Web-based retailing, but it is a major deviation from what customers are used to in real-world retailing. As in both cases discussed the organizations involved were attempting to reproduce real-world experiences, this was clearly an area that required attention. In addition, both cases demonstrated a certain level of integration with real world supply chains and service offerings.

For example, IWOOT delivered to real world addresses, but offered only a limited number of products in Second Life. Similarly Vodafone’s InsideOut although allowed calling and messaging other users, it did not allow sending them MMS or using other more advanced applications. These may have not been required or they may have not been even necessary.

There was also good evidence of the application of the retail theater concept in metaverses. For instance, the shopping process in IWOOT was a shared enjoyable experience as an avatar could have be carried in a cart by another avatar; hence, the avatars were following an active, participatory-based approach. In the Vodafone case, the opportunity to connect actors in different spaces via the InsideOut service offered another unparalleled and unique experience, supported by excellent supply chain integration between the physical and metaverse mobile systems.

Still, for the retail theater concept to be applied in full, retailers will need to go to greater lengths to provide richer experiences. This is not to say that significant steps have not been taken, it just highlights the fact that there is scope to engage more with the customer. For example, IWOOT could have allowed customers to test the gadgets in the virtual world, while Vodafone could have potentially provided customers with the option to customize their handset or even use their own designs. Further challenges relate to synchronizing and integrating the supply chains which exist simultaneously in different retail spaces, the limited number of visitors that a metaverse retail space can accommodate and possible misbehavior by the avatars, as the IWOOT case has shown. Overall, both cases offered different perspectives of the metaverseretailing phenomenon and illustrated a plethora of opportunities and challenges that need to be taken into consideration by managers and retail professionals.

Finally, although the cases presented in this paper are good examples of how metaverse retailing can cross to the real world, this is not a prerequisite. In fact, the vast majority of retailers operating in virtual worlds are metaverse-only retailers, typically a sole entrepreneur selling virtual objects like furniture or apparel. Their practices can become “innovations” for real world organizations that enter metaverses, as they have a good understanding of the environment. A good example of this can be seen in metaverse retailers paying other users a small fee to role-play their members of staff, not only attracting more visitors to their retail area 13

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by making it a popular destination (because of the staff spending time in that area), but also enhancing the experience customers get. After all, who wants to shop in an empty store?

Conclusion The findings have shown that if a retail organization aims to keep its customer base, it should use integrated information technology strategies, in order to maximize its interaction with customers. Retailers operating in physical, electronic and metaverse environments have to link their systems to match the above. In this paper we have presented two cases, that of IWOOTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s retail space and Vodafoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s InsideOut service to highlight important aspects of metaverse retailing and the associated opportunities and challenges. IWOOT and Vodafone were not the only real life organizations in Second Life. On the contrary, many real world companies and organizations have established a presence in Second Life. These spanned over a wide range of industries, markets and functions. In most cases, engaging with the customer was just for promotional purposes. What makes cases like the two presented above stand out is the level of integration of virtual activities to the real life activities these companies offered and their excellent application of the retail theater concept to the metaverse environment.

Apart from the emerging metaverse retailing and its characteristics, future research should consider whether existing retail business models and marketing strategies need to be adapted in order to become more effective in this new business environment. It should also examine the customerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s views and, probably via controlled experimentation, whether it is actually feasible and if so, how easy or difficult it is for the experiences to be created in metaverses. Other future research could shed light on the supply chain challenges faced by retailers, like IWOOT, operating in metaverses and whether these are similar to or different from those faced by Web-based retailers. In addition, these could be operational challenges emanating from a supply chain complexity as having a presence in various environments altogether could be problematic. For example, what kind of information technology systems will be able to manage the various product and service flows in these environments? Or what kind of infrastructure will be required to accommodate the different currencies used (normal currency vs.

Linden Dollars) and to communicate these financial flows with the relevant stakeholders involved, such as customers and banking institutions? Do these firms need to develop separate supply chain systems and infrastructure or should they seek a full integration between the alternative environments they operate? These are some of the issues that require immediate attention and further research will prove extremely beneficial.

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

Exploring Participation in ClubZora: An International Bilingual Virtual World Educational Intervention for Youth Laura Beals and Marina Bers, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University, United States Abstract This paper reports on an evaluation of participation in a complex, international, bilingual project called ClubZora. ClubZora was an elevenmonth long educational intervention in which the Zora virtual world was introduced to an international after-school community of youth spanning 11 countries and two languages, English and Spanish. Zora is a multiuser virtual environment that provides a safe space for youth. In Zora, users can create and populate a virtual city by making their own places and interactive creations, using 3D objects such as picture frames, movie screens, houses, interior decorations, message boards, and signs. Zora provides both a real-time chat system and a message-board system for communication. This paper presents a case study of an evaluation of participation in this virtual world educational intervention. Through this case study, methods for determining participation will be explored. Using the data collected during the ClubZora project, this case study explores who used Zora and how, including statistical analysis of usage patterns in order to examine potential participation differences among demographic characteristics (i.e., gender, age, language, Clubhouse region, etc.). A discussion of the implications of the results as they pertain to development of the software and of the educational program supported by Zora is also presented.

Keywords: virtual world, evaluation, computer, technology, constructionism, youth, children This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Exploring Participation in ClubZora

Exploring Participation in ClubZora: An International Bilingual Virtual World Educational Intervention for Youth Laura Beals and Marina Bers, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University, United States Introduction This paper reports on an evaluation of a project called ClubZora. As will be described in more detail below, this project was an eleven-month long intervention in which the Developmental Technologies (DevTech) Research Lab at Tufts University introduced a virtual worlds software, called Zora, to an international after-school community of youth who were members of a nonprofit organization called The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network. The DevTech team invited youth and adult coordinators and mentors involved in this organization to participate in this project on a voluntary basis. While interacting with the virtual world software, participants could build a virtual city and populate it with objects such as picture frames, movie screens, houses, and interior decorations. In addition, they could also communicate both asynchronously and synchronously. The next section describes the ClubZora project by providing information about the host institution for the project—The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network—and the Zora virtual world.

The ClubZora Project The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network1 is a program whose mission is “to provide a creative and safe afterschool learning environment where young people from underserved communities work with adult mentors to explore their own ideas, develop skills, and build confidence in themselves through the use of technology” (The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network, n.d.-b). Began in 1993, as a collaboration between the Computer Museum (now the Boston Museum of Science) and the MIT Media Lab, the Clubhouses serve youth between the ages of 10 and 18. There are currently over 100 Clubhouses around the world, in 21 countries serving over 25,000 youth (The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network, n.d.-a). In addition, “the Clubhouse represents a constructionist learning culture that creates a supportive space for its members to design, build, and share their projects and ideas” (Kafai, Peppler, & Chapman, 2009, p. 4). Each Clubhouse has a paid coordinator and volunteer adult mentors who share their experiences and serve as role models. Some Clubhouse locations are stand-alone buildings while others are located within community-based organizations, such as YMCAs or Boys and Girls Clubs. Thus, they attract a wide-variety of youth from many different backgrounds and experiences. Coordinators, mentors, and members also have access to an internal website called The Village. On The Village members can share projects, participate in discussions, and have access to a secure email system in which only emails from people within the organization can be received.

1

http://www.computerclubhouse.org

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Exploring Participation in ClubZora

The Zora Software Zora is a multi-user virtual environment that provides a safe space for youth to explore issues of identity (Bers, 2001). Marina Bers first designed Zora as part of her doctoral work at the MIT Media Lab upon constructionist learning principles (Papert, 1980). The theory of constructionism is based on Piaget’s constructivism (Piaget, 1965) and asserts that people learn better when they are engaged in building personally meaningful artifacts and sharing them with others in a community. Thus, Zora allows users to create their own virtual space and populate it with objects and stories. The DevTech Research Lab at Tufts University redesigned the new versions of Zora using the Positive Technological Development (PTD) framework that addresses the question: “How can we develop interventions to help children use technology in effective ways to learn new things, to express themselves in creative ways, to better communicate, to take care of themselves and each other, and to contribute in positive ways to self and society?”

(Bers, 2006). Informed by the strengths and assets of young people and how children can use technology in important and meaningful ways, PTD focuses on supporting youth in developing positive attitudes, predispositions, and skills for using technology with the goal of becoming contributors to their own personal growth and to society (Bers, Beals, Chau, Satoh, & Khan, in press; Bers, 2008a, 2008b).

In Zora, users can populate the virtual city by making their own virtual places and interactive creations, including 3D objects, characters, stories, message boards, and signs, as well as movies and sounds via easy-to-use tools (Figure 1).

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Exploring Participation in ClubZora

Figure 1. The ClubZora virtual world software.

At the beginning of each new DevTech project, users encounter an initial blank 3D world. Their task is to create the virtual worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public and private spaces and populate it with interactive objects. While using building tools in Zora, users learn basic computer programming principles as well as gain technological fluency (Barron, 2004).

Zora is a platform that enables researchers and educators to run different educational programs using the virtual world. Over the years, Zora has been used with many populations including those with end-stage renal disease undergoing dialysis treatment (Bers, Gonzalez-Heydrich, & DeMaso, 2003), multi-cultural groups (Bers, 2008a; Bers & Chau, 2006), freshman in college (Bers, 2008a; 2006), post-transplant pediatric patients (Bers, Chau, Satoh, & Beals, 2007; Satoh, Beals, Chau, & Bers, 2007; Satoh, Blume, DeMaso, Gonzalez-Heydrich, & Bers, 2008), and participants in national and international after-school computer-based learning centers (Beals & Bers, 2009, April).

In addition to making virtual objects and narratives, Zora provides a real-time chat system for participants to communicate with each other while navigating throughout the virtual world. Users can also communicate with each other via message board objects; the ability to leave messages allows for asynchronous communication among users. The DevTech team purposely designed the environment to provide both synchronous and asynchronous modes of communication in order to accommodate different personalities and time-zones, as well as to afford participants a chance to self-reflect on their 6

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Exploring Participation in ClubZora

narratives, values, and stories.

The Zora software allows users to incorporate movies, music, and pictures. For the ClubZora project, users were able to links to projects from their Village accounts.

During the evaluation study reported this paper, this functionality in Zora gave users the opportunity to showcase the projects they completed in their Clubhouses. Subjects in the study included pictures, videos, and music from outside the Clubhouse that they added in order to represent themselves. The library of objects that were available to ClubZora users to populate the city was limited; generic objects, such as cubes, picture frames, and TV screens, allowed users to engage their imaginations to invent objects that were not available to them as models—though the Active Worlds library contains thousands of pre-made 3D objects, ClubZora users were only given 35 objects to use. The DevTech team enacted this limitation in order to encourage users to think creatively “outside the box” about what they wanted to build and how they wanted to portray themselves in the community. For example, one member created a pyramid that could be climbed or explored from the inside by using the generic cubes overlaid with a picture of stones (Figure 2). As many of the available objects allowed for personalization with the use of pictures, video, or sound, these objects encouraged users, for example, to “show off” their Clubhouse projects or to highlight their hobbies and interests.

Figure 2. Pyramid created by a youth member from the CEDES Clubhouse.

Zora is a secured and password-protected world in which only youth engaged with a particular research program can view and contribute to the world. Because the community is constrained to a particular research project, and to users who have agreed to participate in the research, the research team has full access to data collected during the project. Each action performed by the participants in Zora is logged into a database and analyzed with a customized log-parser (Figure 3).

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Exploring Participation in ClubZora

Figure3. The Zora Log parser search page for usage statistics (left) and participants (right).

The log-parser is divided into four sub-sections: (a) the Administration section, for exploring population demographics, (b) the Search section, for gleaning data related to software usage (i.e., logging on/off, conversations, objects, etc.), (c) the Reports section, for quickly viewing common queries, and (d) the Graphs section, for examining and downloading common graphs, such as logins over time, logins by user, etc. For the search, reporting, and graph functions, the data can be filtered by date range and/or by certain user. This information can be viewed directly on the webpage or can be downloaded in an Excel file for further analysis. In addition, a master registry of the objects created in Zora is contained within a file called a “prop dump.” These prop dump files allow project administrators a more accurate representation of the world, as the files contain the date of creation, coordinates, owner, etc. of each object. These prop dump files can be used with third-party tools to create maps that can show a snapshot of the world at the date of the prop dump.

Method The Evaluation Framework The evaluation reported in this paper focuses on the ClubZora participants, who numbered over 550, represented 84 Clubhouses, 19 countries, and all eight Clubhouse

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regions: the United States (including the Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and West Coast), Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East-Africa, and Latin America. It is important to understand not only who participated, but also—in the case of this project—who did not participate, as well as how members participated in order to get a better sense of how the ClubZora project was implemented within the organization. This type of evaluation highlights whether there were differences, such as in age , gender, language or region in who decided to use, or not to use, the virtual world while also providing insights to how the program implementation could be improved. Furthermore, while the Zora software was open to all members of the Clubhouse community, it was designed for youth ages 11 to 14. Therefore, understanding who used the software and how they used it is important to a larger understanding of how to implement a virtual-worlds environment to an international organization of youth.

Data Collection Procedures Data for this project were collected by two means: data provided by the Clubhouse Network—such as demographic information—and data from the Zora software (as described above, from the logs and prop dumps). For this paper, the specific usage data used included four variables: (1) total time online, (2) total number of logins, (3) total number of objects, and (4) total number of lines of chat. However, because enrollment in the project spanned 11 months, from November 2007 until October 2008, these usage variables needed to be weighted in order to account for the different lengths of time that enrollees had access to Zora. Therefore, a weighted variable for each usage variable was computed by using the following formula: Weighted Variable = (Original Variable Value) * Proportion of Days in Zora where Proportion of Days in Zora = Number of Days from Date of Enrollment to 10/1/2008 Total Number of Days Zora was Available where Total Number of Days Zora was Available = 335 (November 1, 2007 to October 1, 2008).

From this point on, all usage variables presented in this paper use these weighted values, unless specified otherwise.

Furthermore, because there was an extremely large range in the time spent online (N = 563, minimum = 0 minutes, maximum = 1071.02 minutes, M = 39.88 minutes, SD = 103.75 minutes) and number of logins (N = 562, minimum = 0, maximum = 589.95, M = 12.93, SD = 41.13), combining all of the enrollees into one large group for analysis would not present an accurate picture of participation in the ClubZora project. Therefore, enrollees were first assigned to one of two groups, participants and nonparticipants. The criteria to be assigned to the participant group were (1) that an enrollee had to have logged into Zora two or more times, showing they had returned to Zora after their initial

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Exploring Participation in ClubZora

experience, and (2) they must have spent four or more minutes in Zora. This four-minute cutoff was based on the fact that the Zora log rounds the time online to the whole minute; meaning, for each of the two sessions the user needed to be logged at for a minimum of two minutes in order to ensure that users spent more than one minute in the software at each session. For this determination, the unweighted variables were used because they represent a more accurate picture of a user’s first experiences with the program.

Within the resulting participant group, several users had extremely high numbers of logins and time spent online. Including them in the analysis of “normal” participants would have resulted in an inaccurate understanding of user participation, so these participants were separated into their own group, called “extreme users.” These extreme users were defined as participants whose z-score for time logged into Zora (the weighted variable was used here as it did need to reflect their entire experience with the program) was greater than 2.5.

To more accurately understand how the members of the Clubhouse Network—of which Mentors and Coordinators are an important component—participated in the project, the participant and nonparticipant groups were further divided into Coordinators/Mentors and youth. This resulted in a total of 5 groups (N for all enrollees = 562): 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Youth nonparticipants (N = 229) Coordinator/Mentor nonparticipants (N = 60) Youth participants (N = 201) Coordinator/Mentor participants (N = 64) Extreme Users (N = 9)

Of the youths who enrolled in the project, 52% were nonparticipants, 46% participants, and 2% extreme users.

In this paper, results from two research questions will be presented and discussed.

The first research question was: Who were the youth who participated in the ClubZora project and how did they do so? The second research question was: What were the characteristics of the youth nonparticipants who enrolled in the ClubZora project?

Results Overall Enrollment and Usage During the 11 months of the ClubZora project, 562 Clubhouse members requested enrollment: 437 youth and 125 Coordinators/Mentors. These enrollees represented 84 Clubhouses, 19 countries, and all eight Clubhouse regions as previously presented. Also, as described above, enrollees were divided into five groups: Youth participants (N = 201), Coordinator/Mentor participants (N = 64), youth nonparticipants (N = 229), Coordinator/Mentor nonparticipants (N = 60), and Extreme Users (N = 9). Overall, participants logged in over 9,800 times, spent 430 hours in Zora, created more than 52,000 objects, and recorded over 35,000 lines of chat.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Exploring Participation in ClubZora

To illustrate the growth of the world, Figure 4 shows three birds-eye view maps, which were created using the propdump files.

2008.

Figure 4. Growth of the ClubZora world, November 1, 2007 to October 1,

The first is from before the project started; the only objects in the world are those that the project administrator added to pre-populate the world. These objects included an English-language Welcome House, a Spanish-language Welcome House, a Zora City Hall, an Activities House, and a personal house of the administrator. The public houses were surrounded by a fence in order to indicate to users that this was an area that was reserved for the City Center and that personal houses were not to be built in this area. The 11

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Exploring Participation in ClubZora

second map shows the world one month into the project and the third map shows the world during the last month of the project.

Youth Participants Overall, there were 201 youth participants (36% of enrollees total), with 130 (64.7%) males and 71 (35.3%) females. In addition, 150 (74.6%) indicated English as their preferred language and 51 (25.4%) indicated Spanish. The average age of the youth participants was approximately 12 years (SD = 2.56 years), with a range of 8 years to 18 years (all ages served by the Clubhouse). The youth participants represented 40 Clubhouses, 11 countries—including the United States, Colombia, Costa Rica, Jordan, Mexico, Australia, Panama, Philippines, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom—and all eight regions represented by the Clubhouse Network. Table 1 provides information about usage of Zora for youth participants.

N

Minimum

Maximum

M

SD

Time Online (min)

201

1.21

415.03

56.16

74.00

Number of Logins

201

0.18

109.34

18.50

26.24

Lines of Chat

128

0.29

1,401.18

81.35

170.62

Number of Objects

116

0.21

2,085.72

57.39

227.52

Table 1. Usage of the Zora Software by Youth Participants in the ClubZora Project (N = 201).

There was a significant difference between youth participant males and females in the time they spent online and the number of logins (F(1,199) = 8.48, p < 0.01; F(1,199) = 7.35, p < 0.01), with boys spending more time online and logging in more (N = 130, M = 67.19, SD = 79.79, M = 22.15, SD = 28.72) than girls (N = 71, M = 35.96, SD = 57.21, M = 11.82, SD = 19.43). However, there was not a significant difference between males and females in the number of objects they created or the lines of chat recorded (F(1,114) = 1.76, p > 0.05; F(1,126) = 0.12, p > 0.05).

There was a significance difference between the number of objects created by Spanish speakers than English speakers (F(1,114) = 4.28, p < 0.05), with Spanish speakers creating more objects (N = 34, M = 124.27, SD = 378.04) than English speakers (N = 82, M = 29.65, SD = 112.32). However, there was not a significant difference in the time online (F(1, 199) = 2.11, p > 0.05), the number of logins (F(1, 199) = 0.35, p > 0.05), or the lines of chat (F(1, 126) = .82, p > 0.05) between English and Spanish speakers.

There were no significance differences in usage based on region or age for participant youth. Furthermore, a Pearson correlation addressed the relationship between lines of chat (M = 81.35, SD = 170.62) and number of objects (M = 57.39, SD = 227.52) for participant youth. The correlation between lines of chat and number of objects was

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Exploring Participation in ClubZora

found to be statistically non-significant, r(97) = .178, p > .05. This indicates that lines of chat and number of objects for youth participants are not related.

Youth Nonparticipants Of the enrollees in the project, 229 (41%) were nonparticipant youth, defined as participants who logged in less than two times and spent less than four minutes logged into the program. In addition, 143 (62.4%) were male and 86 (37.6%) were female. The average age of youth nonparticipants was 13 years (SD = 2.7). One hundred seventy-eight (77.7%) youth nonparticipants indicated English as their first language and 51 (22.3%) indicated Spanish. They represented 56 Clubhouses, 16 countries and all eight regions of the Clubhouse Network. Of the 56 Clubhouses that were represented by nonparticipant youth, 18 Clubhouses did not have a participant youth (i.e., the remaining 38 had at least one participant youth). Of these 18 Clubhouses, 10 also did not have a participant Coordinator/Mentor.

Discussion General Findings Participants and Nonparticipants Of those who enrolled in the ClubZora project, there were approximately equal numbers of youth participants (N = 201) and nonparticipants (N = 229). As will be discussed in more detail below for each group, having information about the youth who enrolled but did not participate in the project is important, as it may provide information about how to improve appeal and retention for future projects. In addition other projects that have similar information about nonusers could attempt to contact these enrollees in order to survey them as to reasons for not using the software. This would provide invaluable feedback to a project to allow for a better understanding of how the target audience perceives the software.

Region Representation The Clubhouses most represented by enrollees were from the United States, though there was a large Latin American representation for this project. The large number of enrollees from the United States is not unexpected, however, because over two-thirds of the Clubhouses are located within the United States and the primary language of the software and project administration is English, naturally drawing members from the United States. In an ideal case, the software and support materials should be available in all of the languages used by potential participants. However, this ideal case is one that is very expensive—for example, the materials, software, and logs would have to be translated, additional programming may be required for the software to support different versions, and it may require staff who are fluent in those languages—and time-intensive. Thus though Zora only supported English and Spanish users, these languages are the most prevalent in the Clubhouse Network.

The high prevalence of enrollees from Latin America may be because support materials were provided in both Spanish and English and that Spanish, using the Latin character set, could easily be integrated into Zora, as opposed to languages using a non-Latin character set, such as Chinese or Arabic. In addition, the United States and Latin America, for the most part, share time zones. The project was based in Massachusetts, and thus many of the activities were planned

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Exploring Participation in ClubZora

during the afterschool hours of members in those common time zones (Eastern Standard Time through the Pacific Time Zone). Though members from other time zones could use Zora whenever they wanted, it was less likely that there would be someone else online during that time. Informal feedback from Coordinators, regarding what they thought members liked the least about Zora, provided two quotes supporting this idea: “They [members] didn't profess any dislikes other than they wished more people were on there at the times they were on there” and “Not having enough people to interact simultaneously.” If staffing allows, international projects in which it is important for participants to use software synchronously should attempt to have activities during times that cross all time zones represented by participants. Barring that possibility, perhaps engaging the time of a Coordinator or Mentor in each of the other time zones to lead an activity during that zone’s afterschool hours would be helpful. However, in projects working within nonprofit programs, where staff members are already stretched thin with responsibilities, this may be an unreasonable request. Therefore, targeting the time zone in which the majority of users would be online would probably be a better use of staff time and resources.

Zora Usage Over Time Results show that the project had an initial surge of participation, with a decrease in enrollments, logins, object creation, and chat over time. During the time that ClubZora was in the Clubhouses, several other network-wide projects were occurring simultaneously. Because members are encouraged to participate in activities that are interesting to them, the youth had many choices at any given time. This decrease in usage may also be due to participants not knowing “what to do” in Zora once they entered the world.

Communication is clearly an important aspect of a virtual project; however, the method of communication, and the unexpected challenges, is just one facet of examining the decrease in project usage over time. As members participate in the project, there needs to continue to be a sense of purpose—why they are using the software and participating in the project (Beals & Bers, 2009). When the ClubZora world was originally conceived, the project staff used a model similar to previous projects they had completed, in which very little of the world was prepopulated, in order to allow participants to develop the world as they imagined. However, this turned out not to be an ideal model for such a large population for several reasons.

The first reason was that object permissions were set so that members could put objects “on” other objects, even those that they did not create. Permissions were set this way in order to allow collaborative building of houses and objects (the converse of this option would not allow members to work together). However, users would often build objects on top of other users’ objects, sometimes on purpose but often times not. Only the creator of the object, or the project administrator, had the ability to move objects and users may not have known how to contact the other user or the project administrator to remedy the situation.

This inability to move objects owned by another user was frustrating to users who had spent time building a space within Zora, only to find that someone else had added unauthorized objects to the area. Informal feedback from users supported this, with participants responding about what they did not like about Zora: “houses being built over [other] houses,” “not being able to delete things that people built in my house,” and “Ugh... Having to clean up after others....” In an ideal case, there would be mediation between the two users with the help of the project coordinator, allowing the two users to work together to fix the situation. Taking it one step further, ideally the project administrator would then work with all participants to create a method for dealing with this situation that was publically posted and agreed upon by all

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Exploring Participation in ClubZora

participants. However, as it was often difficult to get users online at the same time, especially if they were located in different regions of the world, this was a challenging task that most often resulted in the project coordinator moving objects at the request of a user. Perhaps the best solution would be increased education, monitoring, and support from the project administrators as well as stronger reinforcement of internal Zora policies regarding where buildings and objects could be placed in order to reduce overlapping buildings and objects.

The second reason that a minimally pre-populated world was not successful with a large population of users was that the world might have become too large and too cluttered for new users, making them feel overwhelmed upon entrance to the world. Even experienced users may have been unsure of how to proceed over time in such a large and unstructured world. As there was little sense to the layout of the resulting world, with the users often haphazardly placing objects and houses in the world, it was difficult to find objects and other people who were online.

Informal feedback supported this notion, with the following responses pertaining to the purpose of the project and what was liked the least about the project: “no map, getting lost,” “It was hard to find a piece of land to build [a] house,” “It seems like there were no land left,” “It seemed like a 3-D extension of the Village, but it never really seemed to get there - it seemed like a lot of people building houses on top of each other,” and “The confusion about finding other Clubhouse members' houses.” Though mapping software is available from several third-party sources, in which the prop dump files can be used to create a birds-eye view map of the world, these maps are static and do not reflect the dynamic and constantly changing nature of the ClubZora world.

In an ideal situation, the Zora software would have a map that was updated regularly to allow members to better understand the layout of the world and navigate it more easily. For future projects, it would be suggested that the world, if possible, be pre-populated with additional cityplanning features, such as roads, street signs, and landmarks. Depending on the specifics of the population and the goals of the project, this process could also be implemented during the first few group activities to encourage community involvement. Of course, this suggestion also comes with the need to increase education regarding where objects and houses can be built and methods for working together when objects are not placed correctly. This would possibly allow for a less chaotic world that would be easier to navigate. Perhaps these measures would make it less overwhelming for new users to know “what do to” as well as allow them to easily find open land in which to build their own creations.

Finally, in relation to the size of the world, the enormous number of objects built in the world caused the program to work very slowly even on computers with more than adequate equipment and a high-speed Internet connection. Users, when opening Zora over the course of the project, may have become frustrated with how slowly the program ran, and therefore, in combination with the other factors described above, may have abandoned the project.

Unfortunately, this may be a difficult challenge to improve upon for future projects, as it would be difficult to completely control the computers being used and the Internet connection available at the computer clubhouses..

Youth Participants Age of Youth Participants The Zora youth participants ranged in age from 8 to 18 years, encompassing all of the ages served by the Clubhouse Network, with the average age being approximately 12 years.

Though all Clubhouse Network members were allowed to join the project, Zora and this project

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Exploring Participation in ClubZora

were aimed at youth between the ages of 11 and 15 and thus this average age is within expectations. Similarly, the most recent Youth Impact Report (Gallager, 2008) from the Clubhouses reported that half of the members responding to the survey were between 11.7 and 15.5 years (median = 13.6 years) (p. 7). In addition, the Quarter 3 and 4 Clubhouse Report (The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network, 2008), as discussed in the introduction, reported that the daily average percent of teens members was 58, indicating that 42 percent were younger than 13 years, which is quite a large proportion of the population of youth attending the Clubhouses.

This finding is further supported by a recent Pew Internet and American Life report regarding video games usage by teens which found that younger teens, 12 to 14 years, were the most avid gamers and that furthermore, younger teens are more likely to use virtual worlds than older teens (Lenhart et al., 2008, pp. 10, 19-20). Though Zora is not in itself a video game, it may appear to be similar to one for participants and thus the report findings may support those from this project.

Though it was anticipated that this age group was the target audience, these findings confirm that Zora is appealing to this age group. However, it does suggest that for future projects such as this, to which a wide range of ages could be catered (i.e., 8 years to 18 years is a large range for an intervention), the curriculum for and methods of communication with younger subjects should be explored in more detail.

Informal feedback from Coordinators further reinforces that Zora was best enjoyed by the younger members of the organization: “Zora was really popular with the Under 12s. The activities on Zora were a good way to put some focus in Zora and learn about how to use it, but they really had fun just wandering around” and “I encouraged members to complete the activities in Zora, but it was most appealing to the younger members who enjoyed building houses and walking around.” However, there were no statistically significant differences in how the program was used based on age, at least for the usage variables that were recorded (time online, number of logins, number of objects, and number of lines of chat). This suggests that while it might be used more by younger subjects, those who did decide to interact with Zora use it the same regardless of their age. The Zora software has been used with older youths, including college students (Bers et al., in press; Bers, 2008a; Bers & Chau, 2006; Bers & Chau, under review), suggesting that it can be used, in conjunction with an appropriate curriculum, for a wide range of ages. The results from this evaluation do suggest that Zora is initially more appealing to younger youth, though this may be due to the organization’s population. Therefore, future projects of a similar nature should attempt to understand the ages of the target population for the intervention, as well as the ages of the youth who, based on the history of the organization, are most likely to engage in projects such as this one, as the two ages may be different. Improved knowledge of the distribution of the ages of the target population would allow for the curriculum, and surrounding supports—including staffing, materials, etc.—to be best tailored to the youth who will be using the program.

Gender of Youth Participants Regarding the gender of the youth participants, two-thirds were male. This finding is supported by the 2008 Clubhouse report for Quarters 3 and 4 (The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network, 2008), which indicated that the daily average percent female attendance in the Clubhouses was 40, only a slightly higher percentage than was present in this population. These findings, especially considering the statistically significant difference in comparison to The Village population, suggest that Zora is more appealing to male users. As the aim of most

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Exploring Participation in ClubZora

interventions are to be equally appealing to all potential users, and in that certain technology in particular can exacerbate gender differences in program usage, it would be important for future projects to better understand the aspects of Zora that do and do not appeal to males and females, perhaps in the form of a focus group.

Despite there being more male participants in the project, and while boys did spend more time online and logged into the software more, there were no differences between males and females in the number of objects they built or the lines of chat recorded. The difference between girls and boys in terms of time online and number of logins is reflected more general trends about gender differences in video game use (Lenhart et al., 2008, p. 9). However, the lack of differences in usage is similar to findings presented in the Clubhouse Youth Impact Report, in which only one of the seven activities listed had more than a 10 percentage point difference between boys and girls (Gallager, 2008, p. 11). The resulting statistics showed no differences in building or chatting between boys and girls though there was a difference in terms of logins and time online suggests that girls, when using the software, were more focused on building and chatting, while the boys spent more time engaging in other types of activities in Zora, such as playing chase, just walking or running around, or engaging in role-playing like activities. This is supported anecdotally, as the project coordinator spent many sessions playing hide-and-seek, tag, or racing a male youth in the world. Other sessions were spent in engaging in role-playing-gamelike activities in “Area 34”—a compound created by several members from the same Clubhouse in which the project coordinator had to navigate through several rooms and wait her turn to speak with the commander. Informal feedback from two male youth support this notion, in their response to the question, “What kind of games do you think their should be in Zora “Like racing games or something” and “mmm......like game finding each other…someone disappear and we have to search for him and catch him.”

These differences in time spent online and number of logins further support the use of a focus group to explore in more detail how males and females use the program. Unfortunately, the Zora software is currently unable to track a user’s movements through the world over time, though this has been done with other projects using the Active Worlds platform (Penumarthy & Borner, 2006). Therefore, a focus group, or series of focus groups, in which the actions of the youth were recorded and feedback gathered based on their experiences with the program, may allow for a better understanding of how males and females use the software. This would in turn allow for the software design and curriculum development to be best tailored to the needs of each group.

Language of Youth Participants As for the language of the participants, there were more English-speaking youth participants than Spanish-speaking. However, this is not unexpected due to the number of Clubhouses located in the United States. Despite this difference in the numbers of participants speaking each language, it is of interest to note that the only difference in usage of the software was that Spanish speakers built more objects than English speakers. This may suggest that Spanish-speaking youth participants felt more comfortable using objects, but it is unclear whether this was because they preferred to express themselves by building rather than by chatting or because they just preferred to build more. Much like the discussion above about the potential use of a focus group in order to better understand gender differences, further exploration into the use of Zora by Spanish-speaking participants may be warranted. This was the first implementation of Zora with support for Spanish; therefore, this is an interesting result

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Exploring Participation in ClubZora

for the pilot project, as it suggests that Zora was used by Spanish-speaking participants without difficultly, though additional testing with Spanish-speaking youth may be helpful for future projects.

Youth Nonparticipants As with the participant youth, two-thirds of the youth nonparticipants were male and approximately three-fourths spoke English. This similarity suggests that there were no gender or language reasons for not choosing to participate in the project. The average age of youth nonparticipants was 13 years, one year older than the average age of youth participants though still on the younger end of those youth served by the Clubhouse Network.

In addition, 18 of the Clubhouses in which there was a nonparticipant youth did not have a participating youth or Coordinator/Mentor, suggesting that the software may not have been available in the Clubhouse, perhaps due to technical issues with the software. Since Zora is a stand-alone application, it needs to be installed on each computer before being used. Often Clubhouses around the world have different computer setups (both in terms of hardware and software), and even within an organization computers may have different configurations, possibly making it difficult to install the software consistently on all computers available to members. In addition, several Clubhouses reported difficulties in connecting due to firewall and security settings in place at the Clubhouses for the protection of members. For example, one Clubhouse Coordinator with whom the project coordinator worked was able to connect to Zora via his laptop on the wireless connection to the Internet, but was not able to get the computers available to members, which were on a wired connection, connected to Zora.

As one may imagine, this inability to connect to Zora, combined with the various levels of technical expertise of the Coordinators, was likely frustrating to both Coordinators and members, causing them to discontinue use of the software. While this issue does not pertain only to nonparticipants, and could possibly be the reason for low participation in other groups, the technical difficulties surrounding Zora present challenges to the implementation of projects such as this. While other 3D virtual world programs, such as Second Life, also require a stand-alone application, many programs popular with youth are accessed via a web-based interface, such as Habbo and Club Penguin, with no additional software needed. However, a web-based interface does increase the chance that the software would be used in a location other than the Clubhouses, which for this project was not desirable. While there are, of course, pros and cons to each of these methods of software delivery, it would behoove those interested in future projects such as this one to explore their particular organization’s technical status and abilities, as well as the requirements for program access in order to determine the best tool.

Ideally, it would be valuable to be able to get more information from these youth as to why they did not participate in the project—was it by choice, was it because they just clicked the “enroll” button because it was there but did not know what it was for, or was it because their Coordinator was not able to install the software? Taking it one step further, gathering information regarding the appeal and use of the project from those members who did not even enroll in the project would be valuable. However, this information would be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain.

Limitations and Future Directions There are several limitations to this evaluation study. Due to various limitations by the university Institutional Review Board, we were unable to connect the “Zora person” to the “real-

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Exploring Participation in ClubZora

life person,” and therefore we were unable to associate a user’s activities in the Clubhouse with his/her experience in Zora. In future studies, however, it would be important to gather more reallife information about participants and be able to connect them to their virtual person. This could perhaps be done with a separate study, having its own methodology and consent process, with the members of a local chapter of the organization. In particular, information about participants’ use of the program, in relation to other activities, would give a better sense of the project implementation and how it could be improved for the future.

Second, as there are some challenges and limitations in what the software can record, we may have an incomplete picture of what “really” happened in the project. Therefore, our findings and conclusions can only be based on what data were available. Perhaps for future projects, we would increase the “bots” (background programs that run as part of the Zora software) that record information about how participants use Zora; in particular, knowing information about their movements within the program over time may be important. Finally, much of the demographic information that was used came from user-reported data, and therefore the accuracy of it is unknown.

Third, this was a unique intervention that was piloted with an organization that has its own mission, principles, and methods of practice. Therefore, while many aspects of the implementation, and in particular suggested implications for future projects, could be applicable to other programs of a similar nature, some aspects were specific to this particular project which was completed within a single organization. Therefore, because it was a pilot intervention with a specific population, the results are not generalizable to other populations.

Finally, a lot of rich data was collected during this project; this evaluation aimed to only explore one facet of the program, the overall participation. However, future evaluations about this project could, for example, examine the extreme users, the virtual projects that were built, or the chat logs. In the latter case, both the content of the chat as well as a social network analysis (Rosen, 2009) may provide interesting insights into the implementation of this virtual world for youth.

Conclusion This paper presented a case study of an evaluation of participation in the virtual world educational intervention ClubZora. Due to the international population of the Computer Clubhouse Network, this intervention was very complex in nature, as users were located in different timezones and spoke both Spanish and English. Through this case study, methods for determining participation were explored. Using the data collected during the ClubZora project, this case study specifically explored who used Zora and how, including statistical analysis of usage patterns in order to examine potential participation differences among demographic characteristics (i.e., gender, age, language, Clubhouse region, etc.). The implications of the results as they pertain to development of the software and of the program were discussed, thus showing how these methods for examining participation can be used to improve software and program design.

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Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge the Coordinators and members of the Intel Computer Clubhouse Network for welcoming us into their organization. In particular, we would like to thank Gail Breslow, Patricia DĂ­az, Chris Garrity for their support and help with the ClubZora project. We would also like to acknowledge the hard work of the DevTech Research Group, in particular Nauman Khan and Clement Chau. Finally, we thank the National Science Foundation for support of this research (NSF Career awarded to Dr. Bers NSF IIS-0447166). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Bibliography Barron, B. (2004). Learning ecologies for technological fluency: Gender and experience differences. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 31(1), 1-36.

Beals, L., & Bers, M. (2009, April). Clubzora: A 3d virtual community for youth. Poster presented in the symposium: The computer clubhouse learning model: Learning inquiry, collaboration, and the development of 21st century skills in informal learning spaces.

Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting.

Beals, L., & Bers, M. U. (2009). A developmental lens for designing virtual worlds for children and youth. The International Journal of Learning and Media, 1(1), 51-65.

Bers, M., Beals, L., Chau, C., Satoh, K., & Khan, N. (in press). Virtual worlds for young people in a program context: Lessons from four case studies. In I. Saleh & M. S. Khine (Eds.), New science of learning: Cognition, computers and collaboration in education (Vol. Part 2: Computers and New Science of Learning).

Bers, M. U. (2001). Identity construction environments: Developing personal and moral values through the design of a virtual city. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 10(4), 365-415.

Bers, M. U. (2006). The role of new technologies to foster positive youth development. Applied Developmental Science, 10(4), 200-219.

Bers, M. U. (2008a). Civic identities, online technologies: From designing civic curriculum to supporting civic experiences. Civic life online: Learning how digital media can engage youth. In W. L. Bennett (Ed.), The john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundations series on digital media and learning (pp. 139-160). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Bers, M. U. (2008b). Virtual worlds as digital playgrounds. EDUCAUSE Review, 43(5), 80-81.

Bers, M. U., & Chau, C. (2006). Fostering civic engagement by building a virtual city. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(3).

Bers, M. U., & Chau, C. (under review). The virtual campus of the future: From civic identities to civic communities.

Bers, M. U., Chau, C., Satoh, K., & Beals, L. (2007). Virtual communities of care: Online peer networks with post-organ transplant youth. Proceedings of the 2007 Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Conference, New Brunswick, NJ. Bers, M. U., Gonzalez-Heydrich, G., & DeMaso, D. (2003). Use of a computer-based application in a pediatric hemodialysis unit: A pilot study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 42(4), 493-496.

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Gallager, L. (2008). Assessing youth impact of the computer clubhouse network: May 2008 youth impact survey administration. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.

Kafai, Y., Peppler, K., & Chapman, R. (2009). The computer clubhouse: A place for youth. In Y. Kafai, K. Peppler & R. Chapman (Eds.), The computer clubhouse: Constructionism and creativity in youth communities. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Lenhart, A., Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., Macgill, A. R., Evans, C., & Vitak, J. (2008). Teens’ gaming experiences are diverse and include significant social interaction and civic engagement. Washington, D.C.: Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, computers, and powerful ideas. NY: Basic Books.

Penumarthy, S., & Borner, K. (2006). Analysis and visualization of social diffusion patterns in three-dimensional virtual worlds. In R. Schroeder & A. S. Axelsson (Eds.), Avatars at work and play (pp. 39-61). Netherlands: Springer.

Piaget, J. (1965). The child’s conception of number. NY: W.W. Norton and Company.

Rosen, D. (2009). Social network analysis in virtual environments. Paper presented at the 2009 ACM Hypertext and Hypermedia Conference.

Satoh, K., Beals, L., Chau, C., & Bers, M. (2007). Virtual community of learning and care at children's hospital, boston. In the symposium developmental technologies: Positive uses of technology for youth learning and development., 2007 Society of Research in Child Development Conference. Boston, MA. Satoh, K., Blume, E. D., DeMaso, D. R., Gonzalez-Heydrich, J. M., & Bers, M. (2008). A virtual community for post-transplant pediatric patients, 28th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. Boston, Massachusetts.

The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network. (2008). Assessment & planning: 2008 q3/q4 quick stats (based on 90 reports).

Retrieved May 22, 2009, from http://archive.computerclubhouse.org/assessment/quickstats/2008-q3-q4.html The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network. (n.d.-a). The intel computer clubhouse network fact sheet. from http://www.computerclubhouse.org/sites/default/files/Clubhouse%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network. (n.d.-b). Mission and vision. Retrieved April 23, 2009, from http://www.computerclubhouse.org/content/mission-and-vision

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

Implications for Virtual Worlds: A Comparative Study of United Kingdom, United States and Australia on Network Readiness, Government Investment and Cyber-security.

Kate Roth, Macquarie University, Australia Abstract Universities and Colleges are utilizing virtual worlds such as Second Life in increasing numbers worldwide. Virtual Worlds also contribute to access to knowledge and the economic development of countries. The capacity for continued utilization and development of virtual worlds is influenced by government policy and investment. The worldwide performance index of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is the Network Readiness Index (NRI) of the World Economic Forum. This paper compares and contrasts the performance of the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia since 2006. This paper then provides a comparison of the UK, US and the Australian government ICT policies and expenditure, as well as each governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach to cyber-security and Virtual Worlds. The US and the UK have embraced virtual world technologies and Australia has ignored the opportunities presented by Virtual Worlds.

Keyword: Virtual Worlds, Government, Policies

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Implications for Virtual Worlds

Implications for Virtual Worlds: A Comparative Study of United Kingdom, United States and Australia on Network Readiness, Government Investment and Cyber-security.

Kate Roth, Macquarie University, Australia Introduction The capacity to engage with Virtual World activity is underpinned by the ability to access high quality and high speed networks (Huang, Boulos & Dellavalle, 2008, p498). High-speed networks are enhanced by governments ensuring that the technological environment, readiness and usage of digital networks are facilitated (Atkinson 2009 p5.). The worldwide readiness of a country’s digital network is measured by the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Network Readiness Index (NRI) (Dutta & Mia 2009.).

The development of digital capacity is enhanced by the level of government investment as well as the areas of focus for government policy. This paper contrasts the level of funding across the UK, US and Australia and compares the cyber-security policies and government’s Virtual world activities.

Australia lags behind the US and the UK in the WEF NRI. The level of investment the Australian government plans to make in ICT may improve this ranking. However, Australia’s internet filtering policy and lack of engagement with the possibilities of Virtual Worlds may impact the effectiveness of the government’s investment.

Network Readiness Index This section examines the Network Readiness Index (NRI) for the UK, US, and Australia reflects the Environment, Readiness and Usage Sub-Indices contributing to the NRI. These measures indicate particular activities.

The Environment Sub-Index provides a measure of the presence of an ICT-conducive environment and includes the broad business environment, regulatory aspects, and infrastructure for ICT (Dutta & Mia, 2009, p6).

The WEF indicating the relevance of the Environment component is based on “the friendliness of a country’s environment for ICT development” (Dutta & Mia, 2009, p6).

The Readiness Sub-Index provides a measure of the “preparation needed to use ICT; for the three main national stakeholders—individuals, the business sector, and the government” (Dutta & Mia, 2009, p7).

The WEF indicates the importance of the “readiness subindex, including ... appropriate human skills ... and ...affordability ... as well as government readiness” (Dutta & Mia, 2009, p7).

The Usage Sub-Index provides a measure of the “use of ICT by business, government and individuals” (Dutta & Mia, 2009, p7).

The Usage Sub-Index “gauges the actual usage of ICT by a country’s main stakeholders, with a particular focus on the impact of ICT in terms of efficiency and productivity gains” (Dutta & Mia, 2009, p7).

The following sections outline the overall performance of the UK, the US, and Australia in the NRI and the Environment, Readiness and Usages Sub–Indices. The countries’ results in the NRI are provided in Table 1, and the results in the Sub-Indices are provided in Table 2 below.

Country

2006-2007

2007-2008 2008-2009

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United Kingdom United States Australia

9

12

15

7

4

3

15

14

14

Table 1 United Kingdom, United States and Australia World Economic Forum Network Readiness Index Ranks (Dutta & Mia, 2009) Country United Kingdom United States Australia

Environment 12

Readiness Usage 24 13

3

6

5

10

15

17

Table 2 United Kingdom, United States and Australia World Economic Forum Network Readiness Sub-Indices 2008 -2009 (Dutta & Mia, 2009) The next section provides an analysis of the ranks of the UK, the US, and Australia in the WEF NRI Index and Sub-indices.

United Kingdom The last three years have seen the UK slip further down the NRI from a rank of 9 in 2006-2007 to a rank of 15 in 2008-2009. The UK ranks on the three NRI Sub-Indices; Environment, Readiness and Usage are not rank in the top ten.

The UK’s decline in terms of digital capacity is marked. The measures the UK government has introduced to arrest these declines are described in Section 4.1 of this paper.

United States The US has managed to increase its ranking in the WEF NRI in three consecutive editions. The United States has improved its ranking from 7th in 2006-07 to 3rd in 2008-2009.

The US ranks in the top ten for each of the WEF NRI Sub-Indices.

Australia Australia’s performance in the WEF NRI has been consistent over the past three years, with the current ranking of 14 out of the countries involved in the ranking scale. Australia has yet to break into the top 10 ranking in the WEF NRI. Australia ranks 10th for the Environment SubIndex, 15th for the Readiness Sub-Index and 17th for the Usage Sub-Index.

Comparing the rankings of all three countries, Australia performs below the US and the UK on all Sub-Indices except the Readiness Sub-Index with the UK. In order to rank more highly significant investment in Australia’s digital economy is required.

The next section describes the cyber-security measures of the UK, US and Australian governments.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Implications for Virtual Worlds

Comparative Cyber–Security Measures This section of the paper compares the UK, US, and Australian government cybersecurity measures policies. While the UK and the US have developed structures to secure their information technology capacity the Australian government has proposed the introduction of an ISP Internet Filtering Scheme, threatening to slow internet speeds and limit access to Virtual Worlds.

United Kingdom The UK Cabinet Office (UKCO) reported the activities of the UK government to address the UK’s cyber security challenge in the June 2009 Report “Cyber Security Strategy of the United Kingdom”. The report indicates the main aspects of the UK governments’ activities.

These are: • • •

“A cross-government programme, to address the following priority areas in pursuit of the UK’s strategic cyber security” (UKCO, 2009. p 21); “An Office of Cyber Security to provide strategic leadership for and coherence across Government” (UKCO, 2009. p 21); “A Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) to monitor the health of cyber space and co-ordinate incident response; and;provide better advice and information about the risk to business and the public” (UKCO, 2009. p 21).

The UK House of Lords is currently debating the Digital Economy Bill that proposes that Internet Service Providers (ISP) monitor subscribers and take measures to limit speed, capacity, access, and service to the Internet. These measures are to be taken if subscriber activity is illegal.

Illegal activities are to be determined by the government without parliamentary oversight (United Kingdom, Digital Economy Bill 2009-2010).

United States In 2009, the US created a Cyber-Security Office to “develop a comprehensive strategy to secure America's information and communications networks” (Obama, B. 2009 p1). The Office will “ensure an organized and unified response to future cyber incidents” and “collaborate with industry to find technology solutions (that) ensure US security and promote prosperity” (Obama, B. 2009 p1). The Office will also “Invest in the cutting-edge research and development necessary for …innovation and discovery ” (Obama, B. 2009 p1). The US President clarified that the “USA pursuit of cyber-security will not monitor private sector networks or Internet traffic. The USA will preserve and protect the personal privacy and civil liberties” (Obama, B. 2009 p1).

In 2009 the US introduced the Cybersecurity Act to allow the federal government to examine all elements of every citizen’s digital information (United States. Cybersecurity Act 2009). The argument is that the government’s monitoring of citizens will enable it to check the threat of cyber-security attacks.

Australia The Australian government has developed a comprehensive Cyber-Safety Plan (Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy [DBCDE] 2009) to combat online risks and help parents and educators protect children from inappropriate material.

The Australian Government’s commitment to cyber-safety include: A Child Protection Operations Team for detecting and investigating online child sex exploitation; funding to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for education activities; an online 6

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Implications for Virtual Worlds

helpline; developing and implementing ISP filtering; expanding the Consultative Working Group; forming a Youth Advisory Group; ongoing research into the digital environment to identify issues; and targeting future policy and funding (DBCDE 2009).

The UK cyber-security legislation, if passed in its current form, would place the responsibility of monitoring illegal activity onto ISPs. The US Government plans will monitor activities and the only threat to internet activity in the US is if a cyber-security emergency is declared. Neither of these plans have the potential to limit the activities of citizens on the internet. However, the Australian plan to mandate a filtering scheme will limit access of Australians to the internet and Virtual Worlds.

Government Investment This section discusses the investments of the UK, the US and Australian governments in ICT. The individual government investments are compared as a percentage of Gross Domestic Policy (GDP) for the respective countries.

United Kingdom Policies The government of the UK is providing significant support for and investment in the Digital Economy, as the NRI rank indicates is a requirement. The United Kingdom Digital Britain Report (Department for Business Innovation and Skills [DBIS]. 2009) outlines the investments and direction of digital policies for the coming years.

The Digital Britain report outlines the UK government investment plan including: • • •

120 million pounds (approximately AUD219million) for a coordinated digital economy program (DBIS, 2009. p 166); 300 million pounds (approximately AUD548million) to provide home access scheme for low-income families (including lower cost devices, new recycling schemes and pre-pay mobile broadband) (DBIS, 2009. p 166); Universal Access to Broadband Scheme; 200m pounds (approximately AUD365 million) direct public funding to deliver the universal service broadband commitment (DBIS, 2009. p 11-12).

United Kingdom Investment as a Percentage of Gross Domestic Product at Current Prices The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2008 indicated the United Kingdom had a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD 2,198 billion (approximately AUD 2,500 billion) (International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database. ([IMF], 2009). The investment in the policies described earlier in this paper is equivalent to approximately 0.0004% of GDP in the UK. United States In the US the Obama Administration is pursuing an aggressive investment and infrastructure program for the support and development of the digital economy. The president places the Digital Economy at the centre of the investment strategy under his direction (Obama, 2009).

Key aspects of the vision provided by President Obama include: • •

“Making Internet access available to everyone and everywhere; “Promoting Internet-based innovation, competition and user choice”, and ; 7

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Implications for Virtual Worlds

•

“Creating an environment to encourage infrastructure investment, higher levels of connectivity and innovative services and applications” (Obama, 2009. p1).

The Recovery Act provides USD 7.2 billion (approximately AUD 8.2 billion) for broadband internet access nationwide. The Federal Communications Commission (2009) has also been commissioned to develop a comprehensive plan for national broadband.

US Investment as a Percentage of Gross Domestic Product at Current Prices The IMF calculated the United States had a GDP at current prices in 2008 of USD 14,077 billion (approximately AUD 16,020 billion) (IMF. 2009). The Recovery Act spending is approximately 0.0005% of GDP for the United States.

Australia The Australian Government’s current ICT funding includes: • • •

The establishment of a company to invest up to AUD 43 billion over eight years for an enhanced National Broadband Network, to provide broadband for all homes and businesses; AUD 61.1 million to develop and implement targeted initiatives for regional telecommunications, and; AUD 2.2 billion over six years for;: new ICT equipment for secondary schools; high speed broadband connections to schools; teacher access to training; online curriculum tools and resources in national curriculum and specialist subjects; parent online learning; support mechanisms for schools to deploy ICT (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Digital Education Revolution. 2009).

Australian Investment as a Percentage of Gross Domestic Product at Current Prices Australian Gross Domestic Product (Current prices), according to the International Monetary Fund in 2008, was USD 1,013 billion (approximately AUD 1,152 billion) (IMF 2009).

The amount of government investment in ICT AUD 6.41 billion as a percentage of Australia’s GDP is approximately 0.005%.

Virtual World Activities The number of Universities and Colleges with virtual land in Second Life is in the hundreds (Second Life Virtual Environments Enable New Models of Learning. 2009). Specific opportunities available in Virtual Worlds include training, rehearsing and role-playing, reenactments, scientific theories and natural processes (De Freitas, 2008). Virtual Worlds present tangible educational benefits for universities.

Virtual Worlds also include their own economies. In 2008 Second Life economy traded USD 35 million (AUD 43 million) a month. Also in 2008 more than USD 100 million (AUD 124 million) worth of Linden Dollars were bought and sold on the LindeX, the official virtual currency exchange of Second Life (Second Life. The Marketplace. 2009).

The number of Virtual Worlds is collated by the KZERO Worldswide Company in the UK. KZERO provides a graph of the number of Virtual Worlds. The graph illustrates currently active Virtual Worlds, by target age group, years of development and number of subscribers. The graph developed by KZERO is available through http://www.kzero.co.uk/universe.php.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Implications for Virtual Worlds

United Kingdom This section examines the UK, US and Australian Governments’ response to Virtual World development.

The Digital Britain Report (DBIS, 2009) recognizes “the potential reach and scale of virtual worlds. For example, Habbo, the virtual world for 8-14 year olds has had 130 million registered users and receives 2.7 billion visits per month from young people” (DBIS, 2009. p113).

Furthermore the Digital Britain Report argues “Virtual worlds may offer business benefits and opportunities in relation to enhanced interaction with customers, efficiencies, environmental gains, international collaboration and knowledge transfer” (DBIS, 2009. p113).

The UK has a lead role in arranging the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) workshop on Virtual Worlds. The OECD workshop discussed trends and development in Virtual Worlds. The result of these workshops was a proposal presented by the UK to the OECD for a major study on Virtual Worlds (DBIS, 2009).

By ensuring that the UK is at the forefront of Virtual World discussions, it will be able to make the most of the opportunities presented by Virtual Worlds.

United States The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (2009) conducted a study examining the content available and the methods virtual world operators use to restrict minors’ access to explicit content. As a result the Commission suggested virtual world operators make certain enhancements to reduce youth exposure to explicit content. The measures included: • • • •

•

“Ensuring age-screening mechanisms for virtual world operators employ do not encourage underage registration”; “Implementing or strengthening age-segregation techniques to ensure minors and adults interact only with their peers and view only age-appropriate material”; “Re-examining the strength of language filters to ensure detection and elimination of communications violating online virtual worlds’ conduct standards”; “Providing greater guidance to community enforcers in online virtual worlds to ...: self-police virtual worlds by reviewing and rating online content; report the presence of potential underage users; and comment on users who otherwise appear to be violating a world’s terms of behavior; and”, “Employing a staff of specially trained moderators whose presence is well known in-world and who are equipped to take swift action against conduct violations” (FTC, 2009. p iii).

The Commission recommended parents and children become educated about the benefits and risks of online virtual worlds. The focus was on ensuring that parents have the information they need to decide which online virtual worlds may be appropriate for their children (FTC, 2009. p iii).

The US Government has actively engaged in virtual worlds. A Congress Telecommunications and Internet Subcommittee hearing was streamed live in Second Life. The Subcommittee was able to hear evidence through “a three-dimensional (3-D) model of the House hearing room and the subcommittee chairman presided over the meetings in person in Washington and as an avatar in Second Life” (Pellerin, C. U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs. [USDoSBIIP] Congressional Hearing on Virtual Worlds 9

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Implications for Virtual Worlds

Simulcast in Second Life. 2008 p1). The Second Life rendering of Capitol Hill is provided in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2. An avatar looks over Second Life's Capitol Hill, (Pellerin, C. [USDoSBIIP] - avatar Mercy Paine, 2008. p1) Australia The Australian Government has proposed a mandatory ISP -level filtering scheme. This scheme will mean slower internet speeds and does not guarantee material cannot be accessed.

Schemes like these could mean that Australia may not be able to utilise the possibilities of Virtual World technology. Australia has not produced a policy or reference to Virtual Worlds.

While classification of Virtual Worlds, such as Second Life, is expected after the implementation of the Internet Filtering Scheme. Classification of Second Life as a game, combined with the Internet Filtering Scheme would put access to Virtual Worlds and their possibilities in Australia in serious doubt.

Conclusion From 2006 to 2009 Australia lagged behind the US and the UK, in terms of the worldwide indicator for ICT capability, the WEF NRI. Australia’s commitment to investment in ICT over the coming years is roughly equivalent to ten times more, as a percentage of GDP, than the funding currently set aside by the UK and the US. This level of investment may improve Australia’s rank in the NRI. However, in contrast to the US and the UK who have adopted structural measures to address cyber-security, Australia has chosen to address cyber-security through an internet filtering scheme. Obstruction through an internet filtering scheme will not enable Australia to gain an advantage in virtual worlds. Indeed such obstruction will threaten Australia’s virtual world development.

Notes; The International Monetary Fund Gross Domestic Product at Current Prices Data has been used for consistency across the country comparison. This data is accessible through International Monetary Fund. World Economic Outlook Database, http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2009/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2007&ey=2014&sc sm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=193%2C112%2C111&s=NGDPD&grp=0&a=&pr1 .x=69&pr1.y=16 The foreign exchange conversions used in this paper are based on conversions by the Foreign 10

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Implications for Virtual Worlds

Currency Exchange website (http://www.xe.com/) on 22 December 2009.

The author has an account and 10,000Lindens (approximately USD250) in Second Life.

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Bibliography Atkinson, R. The Role of Competition in a National Broadband Policy. Journal on telecommunications and High Technology Law. 7. 2009.

United Kingdom Cabinet Office. Cyber Security Strategy of the United Kingdom; safety, security and resilience in cyber space. June 2009. Retrieved 21 December 2009 from http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/216620/css0906.pdf Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy [DBCDE] 2009. Cybersafety Plan.

Retrieved 21 December 2009 from http://www.dbcde.gov.au/online_safety_and_security/cybersafety_plan De Frietas, S. Serious Virtual Worlds: a scoping study. November 2008. Retrieved 22 December 2009 from; http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/seriousvirtualworldsreport.aspx Department for Business Innovation and Skills [DBIS]. Digital Britain Final Report 2009.

Retrieved 22 December 2009 from; http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/6216.aspx Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Digital Education Revolution.

Retrieved 22 December 2009 from http://www.deewr.gov.au/SCHOOLING/DIGITALEDUCATIONREVOLUTION/Pages/ default.aspx Dutta, S. and Mia, I. (eds) The Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009. Mobility in a Networked World.

Retrieved 21 December 2009 from ; http://www.insead.edu/v1/gitr/wef/main/home.cfm Federal Communications Commission, 2009. FCC Launches Development of National Broadband Plan. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-31A1.pdf.

Federal Trade Commission. Virtual Worlds and Kids. Mapping the Risks. A Report to Congress.

December 2009. Retrieved 22 December from http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/12/oecdvwrpt.pdf Huang, S.T., Boulos, M.N., & Dellavalle, R.P., (2008). Scientific discourse 2.0 Will your next poster session be in Second Life? EMBO Reports. 9(6). 496-499. doi:10.1038/embor.2008.86 International Monetary Fund. World Economic Outlook Database, October 2009. Retrieved 22 December from http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2009/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2007&ey=2 014&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=193%2C112%2C111&s=NGDPD& grp=0&a=&pr1.x=69&pr1.y=16 KZERO Worldswide. The Virtual Worlds Universe. Retrieved 22 December 2009 from http://www.kzero.co.uk/universe.php 12

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National Broadband Network: Regulatory Reform for 21st Century Broadband Discussion Paper.

April 2009.

Retrieved 22 December 2009 from http://www.dbcde.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/110013/NBN_Regulatory_Reform_ for_the_21st_Century_Broadband_low_res_web.pdf Obama, B. Remarks by The President. On Securing Our Nation's Cyber Infrastructure. The White House. The Briefing Room. Retrieved 20 June 2009. From http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-SecuringOur-Nations-Cyber-Infrastructure/ Organisation for Economic Co-Operation And Development, Shaping Policies For The Future Of The Internet Economy, June 2008. Retrieved 22 December 2009 from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/1/29/40821707.pdf Pellerin, C. U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs.

[USDoSBIIP] Congressional Hearing on Virtual Worlds Simulcast in Second Life. 2008. http://www.america.gov/st/usg-english/2008/April/20080407131116lcnirellep3.368556e03.html Productivity Commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Review Of Regulatory Burdens On Business: Social And Economic Infrastructure Services .

Retrieved 22 December 2009 from http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/study/regulatoryburdens/social-economicinfrastructure/report Second Life. Virtual Environments Enable New Models of Learning. Retrieved 1 July 2009, from the Second Life Website: http://Second Lifegrid.net/slfe/education-use-virtual-world Second Life The Marketplace. Retrieved 1 July 2009 from Website: http://Second Life.com/whatis/marketplace.php United Kingdom Digital Economy Bill 2009-10 http://services.parliament.uk/bills/200910/digitaleconomy.html United States. Cybersecurity Act 2009. http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s773/show World Bank, Regulatory Trends In Service Convergence, Policy Division Global Information and Communication Technologies Department. World Bank. June 2007. Retrieved 22 December from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDT ECHNOLOGIES/Resources/RegulatoryTrends-ServiceConvergence.pdf

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

The Essence of Virtuality: Exploring the Digital Body

By Mark Ortwein Texas A&M University

Abstract This “think piece” explores the definitional possibilities of “body”— that is, what is a body and how should we understand it, especially in light of the recent emergence of virtual bodies. To this end, the author employs an essentialist framework for understanding: Is the body reducible to some fundamental essence or substance, something common to all bodies? To what extent does a definition of body extend to virtual bodies? These questions (and others) are posited, and the author invites readers to consider the manifold issues engendered by such reflection.

Keywords: Virtual: Having the power of acting or of invisible efficacy without the agency of the material or sensible part; potential; energizing. Essence: Philosophy. The inward nature, true substance, or constitution of anything, as opposed to what is accidental, phenomenal, illusory, etc. (Dictionary.com)

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Exploring the Digital Body

The Essence of Virtuality: Exploring the Digital Body

By Mark Ortwein Texas A&M University

What is a body and how should or should we not define it? This open question can be analyzed from numerous perspectives. We might take a hermeneutic approach and interpret its constituent parts, seeking meaning. Feminist scholars have made important contributions to this area. Alternatively, perhaps we might ask an epistemological question like, “How do I know I have a body?” Cartesian skeptics will enjoy this one. These are interesting modes of inquiry — not at all extensive of the numerous ways in which we can think about the body. For present purposes, however, I am more concerned with understanding what a body is/is not, and what this suggests about digital bodies — that is, those virtual bodies (sometimes called avatars) we construct in virtual environments and online games. Nevertheless, it is significant that we understand and appreciate precisely what we mean when we use the word body. We shall see that easy distinctions between body and a non-body are almost hopelessly ambiguous. Thus, the first section of this essay will enumerate these difficulties through an essentialist framework, which entails a brief description of essentialist theory. This should give us a good platform for deconstructing (literally) the body in Real Life and Second Life — which is described in Part Two. Essentialist Theory in Two Minutes Essentialist philosophers hold that most (if not all) objects are comprised of two properties: the essential and the accidental. Essential properties are those which a thing must possess to be what it is. A ball, for example, is necessarily round; without roundness it is no longer a ball but something else. It could, however, possess numerous accidental properties. It might be made of rubber or plastic, be any color imaginable, be large or small, and so forth.

Thus, we understand accidental properties to be those which an object may possess but are not necessary to its existence (Robertson, 2008). Attempts to define essential properties have drawn from numerous philosophical traditions — most notably the metaphysics of Aristotle. On the other hand, Saul Kripke published a seminal article, “Identity and Necessity” in 1971, which drastically narrowed the common approach to essentialism (Oderberg, 2007). Here he outlined a form of modal logic, called K for short, that employed specific symbols (!, ~ ,", #) to signify precise linguistic truth statements. The fundamental object of this logic is to distinguish the difference between what is “possible” and what is “necessary” (Garson, 2008). Robertson offers this basic and symbol free example: !

“P is an essential property of an object o just in case it is necessary that o has P whereas P is an accidental property of an object o just in case o has P but it is possible that o lacks P.” (2008, para. 5).

Using our earlier example: Roundness is an essential property of a ball just in case it is “necessary” that a ball have roundness... whereas roundness is an accidental property of a ball just in case a ball has roundness but it is “possible” that a ball lacks roundness.

!

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Is such a circuitous route to an otherwise obvious truth necessary? Consider for a moment what it means to be human... or more specifically, what it means to have a human body.

Although essentialism appeals to our common sense (that all things have a basic essence that A ball.

Not a ball, right?

makes them what they are) not all agree that it is a viable theory. For example, Karl Popper argued that essence is neither measurable nor definable. It has no actual physical presence thus any definition is at best an impression or, as he derisively put it, an “intellectual intuition” (Oderberg, 2007). Other objections concern the essentialist's use of grammar — chiefly, that language is simply too imprecise for the job. Words evolve, misrepresent, take on additional meanings, alter with circumstances, and subtly shift definitions according to the individual user.

Even precise scientific language evolves. If a medieval philosopher assigned a categorical essence to the word “fish” it would share little in common with a designation given by a contemporary philosopher. Why? Because new understanding demands new definitions and classification, and there is no reason to believe we have exhausted our understanding about anything.

Deconstructing the Body The physical body fairs no better under the essentialist’s knife. Cut off my leg; I still have a body. Remove one leg and both arms; probably still have a body. Remove both arms and both legs; maybe I no longer have a body, or perhaps my body is no longer a traditional body but retains body-status nonetheless. Accidental conditions (legs, arms, and so forth) are not what define the essence of my body. Is it something else, some quality without which I no longer claim to have a body? Perhaps there is a metaphysical explanation — to claim the body is a warehouse of sorts — a casing for the soul, or perhaps just one-half of a Cartesian dualism. If this is true, than a body might be just anything that houses a soul/mind. Theists and religious folk in general might be drawn to this position. Others will be tempted by a completely naturalistic conception of body, placing it within the realm of causal transactions in nature, synaptic firings, !

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bodily secretions, all the pumping and churning of carnal existence. And still others might split the difference with some sort of hybrid notion. However we conceive of the body, the fact remains that we have one and it is difficult to define in certain terms.

Perhaps we can find common ground here by claiming a rational component is what constitutes a body. But what of corpses? Have they no bodies? Would we callously claim that only those parts which are organic deserve body-status? Certainly not! Once more we are confronted with a conundrum, and it would seem we still have very little to go on: Various parts of the body are not necessary, nor are (putatively) rationality or sentience, or even organic parts.

There seems to be no standard, no actual rubric, for judging what a body is or what one needs to possess one. Bearing this in mind let us consider the digital body.

We have already seen that defining a Real Life body is beset with difficulties. It needs not be living or rational, have all its parts, or even be constructed of organic parts. What then do we make of our digital bodies in, say, Second Life? Is it possible that these bodies are just as valid as those we possess in Real Life? This is intuitively revolting but plausible in a sort of disconcertingly logical sense. A digital body is not alive — no problem there. It is rational insofar as a mind controls its actions and that is helpful. It wholly consists of synthetic, electronic parts. This is not a problem. It exists in time and space, a factor which bears consideration, to be sure. I see no easy answer to these questions, and the issues surrounding “body-status” are surprisingly manifold and rich.

!

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Exploring the Digital Body

Bibliography Garson, J. Modal Logic. (2008). In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [Web]. Stanford: Stanford University. Retrieved January 5, 2010, from http://plato.standford.edu/ archives/sum2008/entries/essential-accidental.

Oderberg, David S. (2007). Real Essentialism. New York: Routledge.

Robertson, Teresa. (2008) Essential vs. Accidental Properties. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [Web]. Stanford: Stanford University. Retrieved January 5, 2010, from http://plato.standford.edu/archives/sum2008/entries/essential-accidental.

!

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

Trucking Towards a Virtual World: The Development and Implementation of FMCSAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Transportation Nation Second Life Island

By Adam Schlicht Management Analyst, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, United States Tim Schmidt Chief Technology Officer, Office of the Secretary of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation, United States Abstract The U.S. Department of Transportation continues to explore the use of Web 2.0 technologies, including the business-level application of virtual worlds for gathering organizational information, simulating program processes, and supporting new training and instructional initiatives. One such example is Transportation Nation, a Second Life based virtual island created by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), an Operating Administration within the Department of Transportation. FMCSAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Transportation Nation island expertly draws upon functionality unique to virtual worlds for government application, including virtual motor carrier vehicles for simulated safety inspections, a multi-floored replica of DOT Headquarters for web-based conferencing and instruction, and consolidated access to federal and state officebased organizational information. The successes and ongoing challenges of utilizing Transportation Nation by FMCSA are an important model for state and federal government agencies seeking to integrate virtual worlds in their day-today program activities.

Keywords: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), Virtual Worlds, Second Life, Transportation Nation This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Trucking Towards a Virtual World

Trucking Towards a Virtual World: The Development and Implementation of FMCSA’s Transportation Nation Second Life Island

By Adam Schlicht Management Analyst, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, United States Tim Schmidt Chief Technology Officer, Office of the Secretary of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation, United States The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) strives to be a government leader in identifying, developing, and utilizing new technologies and tools to meet strategic and business needs. To that end, DOT encourages Operating Administrations to use new technologies as contemporary vehicles for change and process improvement. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), an Operating Administration within DOT, began exploring the use of virtual worlds in 2009. Specifically using the Second Life platform, DOT developed Transportation Nation (Figure 1), a virtual island for FMCSA staff. In the future, DOT envisions making this technology available to the American public to interact with missioncritical motor carrier safety information and data. FMCSA’s use of Transportation Nation is ongoing, and the agency continues to explore, experiment, and expand the use of Second Life to achieve departmental priorities.

Second Life use is not limited to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Virtual worlds will continue to be explored by other state, local and federal government agencies. By better understanding the successes and challenges FMCSA has encountered in the development and use of Transportation Nation, federal, state, and local government agencies seeking to use virtual worlds can benefit greatly in their own planning and development activities.

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Figure 1: An aerial view of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)’s virtual world Transportation Nation. The island’s shape was inspired by the U.S. Department of Transportation logo.

The exploration and operation of virtual worlds as a business-level solution for interacting with both internal and external stakeholders is an excellent option for both public and private organizations. As use expands, the value and importance of virtual worlds needs to be further analyzed. Accordingly, scholars are increasingly seeking to explain and understand the practical application of virtual worlds within organizations. Much of the research on virtual worlds has been occupationally-focused, e.g. educational specialists have written about the use of Web 2.0 technologies and virtual worlds at colleges and universities. However, the findings of these authors—and all scholars seeking to explain the capabilities and significance of virtual world use for collaboration, outreach, and interaction—can be applied to the government example. The existing research provides valuable insights for government agencies seeking to create or enhance their virtual presence, while also illuminating FMCSA’s experience developing and implementing Transportation Nation as an important case study.

Figure 2: An avatar examines one of several motor vehicles located on Transportation Nation. Each vehicle on Transportation Nation includes videoperformance capability as well as interchangeable and examinable parts at the chassis for Safety Investigator training Virtual worlds are a new and important location within the public sphere which, as defined by Eiko Ikegami and Piet Hut, are “sites of political discourse outside the realm of the political institution of the state” (2008). As both a tool and a resource for governments to utilize given the “proliferation of various non-traditional types of cyber-based media” (Ikegami & Hut, 2008) virtual worlds can be seen as contemporary public spheres. Virtual worlds exist within the public sphere “on the basis of the more casual and flexible social interactions and to ephemeral voluntary human ties, which have historically provided society with increased flexibility by providing open circuits for communication” (Ikegami & Hut, 2008).

In 2006 and 2007, Time Magazine contributor Jeff Howe defined the processes within Web 2.0 applications that reflect the contemporary ways in which these technologies will be

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used to support interaction and public discourse for Sharing user-contributed content (Collins & Moonen, 2008): • evolving community-developed tagging and organizational schemes for large sets of user contributed content • developing of content collections by the user community • finding not only objects but trends and contributions Howe’s definition of how to apply Web 2.0 technologies is informative, but commentators Collins and Moonen (2008) suggest a logical expansion of his classification to include virtual worlds. They suggest that it is significant how users can create “artifacts within the worlds that they are simulating and then interact within the virtual worlds with their newly created artifacts”. Therefore, virtual worlds, like other Web 2.0 technologies, encourage further openness and facilitate discourse at all levels of government by facilitating processes that “represent new ways of making, sharing and consuming digital documents” (Collins & Moonen, 2008).

The term affinity spaces, as interpreted by Clare Strawn, is applicable in further defining the significance of virtual worlds and in complimenting the understanding of virtual worlds within the public sphere. As an affinity space, virtual worlds “instantiate participation, collaboration, distribution, and dispersion of expertise and relatedness,” (Strawn, 2009) for government employees and Americans who elect to access public information and data.

Therefore, participation in virtual worlds provides internal and external stakeholders with a comprehensive experience. As an affinity space rooted firmly in the public sphere, virtual worlds can encourage interested participants to collaborate, contribute, and interact with government information and data in innovative and dynamic ways.

Figure 3: An area within Transportation Nation, featuring an interactive map connecting users to information about FMCSA field offices.

Public discourse and collaboration are not the only benefits of using virtual worlds.

Similar to educational and private-sector institutions, governments can use the inherent virtual world functionality to interact with and share information across and within stakeholder groups.

Author Gilly Salmon suggests that organizations can exploit virtual worlds to meet business objectives in new and creative ways. Salmon suggests that virtual worlds allow for: 6

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Trucking Towards a Virtual World

• • • •

the illusion of [three-dimensional] space which offers infinite possibilities…, including the ability to “fly” by avatars (Cheal, 2007) virtual [artifacts] that can be manipulated in ways impossible in [the real world] or used as a ‘spark to start a dialogue’ (Edirisingha, et al., 2007; Salmon, 2002) new visual environments and tools for interaction and participation between individuals and within groups (Ditullio, 2008) adaptation to almost any discipline or context (The future of (second) life and learning, 2009).

Given Salmon’s suggestions, government agencies that elect to integrate the strategic and business-level goals of their organization with the creative capabilities of virtual worlds throughout the development and enhancement of a virtual presence will be more successful. In doing so, government can begin institutionalizing a new and innovative approach to publicsector interaction and collaboration.

Another critical factor to consider is the dramatic growth in the use of virtual worlds as currently expected by scholars in the next quarter century. Executive Vice President of the Asia Society, Jamie F. Metzl, argues that virtual worlds will “have overtaken the two-dimensional Internet as the predominant system of non face-to-face human interaction” (Metzl, 2008).

Envisioning that “business meetings will seat people across the world around three-dimensional tables in a matter that will very closely replicate the look, feel, and experience of real world meetings,” Metzl suggests that “virtual worlds will become less a playground of fantasy and more the primary environment in which humans interact” (Metzl, 2008). The crux of his argument, and one that government agencies cannot afford to ignore, is that virtual worlds provide a venue in which “people will interact in meaningful ways [and] relationships will flourish” (Metzl, 2008).

The impact of technology, technological growth and the virtualization of business relationships on both public and private organizations will be considerable. Since the advent of the Internet, researchers strive to understand the role of new technologies in “shaping organizational form and function,” particularly as information technology penetrates everyday life (Zammuto, et al, 2007). Virtual collaboration, as defined by Zammuto, et al., is a contemporary affordance of new technology on organizations in the 21st century. As user participation continues to expand, virtual worlds will increasingly become a primary vehicle for virtual collaboration.

As a dominant mechanism for discourse, virtual worlds will be an affinity space that permeates the public sphere. In this context, Zammuto, et al. provide an important definition of virtual collaboration as “the ability to share and integrate others’ knowledge when that knowledge is primarily conveyed through virtual media” (2007). Their characterization greatly encompasses virtual worlds, particularly as an organizational tool which “is highly dependent upon intertwining technological and organizational features in ways that encourage open knowledge sharing, knowledge acquisition, knowledge maintenance and knowledge retrieval” (Zammuto, et al., 2007). This definition helps to further explain how local, state, and federal government agencies can utilize virtual worlds for collaboration, interaction and information sharing across internal and external stakeholder groups. Specific benefits include: • expanding participation in an organization’s work processes and decision making by including people located at its periphery through the proper intertwining of organization and information technology

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Trucking Towards a Virtual World

• • •

increasing the potential for bringing people from different organizations and disciplines together dynamically…who would not otherwise have the opportunity to become engaged in a particular activity providing opportunities to capture decision rationales and work processes as work is being done, enabling future participants to reuse or learn from past work enhancing the potential for organizations to extend their boundaries temporarily, experimentally, or permanently (Zammuto, et al., 2007).

Each benefit will likely become more apparent to organizations using virtual worlds for collaboration, particularly as use of the technology becomes more pervasive. Robin Hastings, an Information Technology Manager for the Missouri River Regional Library in Jefferson City, Missouri, has written extensively about the use of Web 2.0 technologies for gains in virtual collaboration. Though her research was specifically applied towards use within libraries, many of her findings are applicable to the government example. Given that participants can access Second Life and other virtual worlds from any location worldwide, virtual worlds and other Web 2.0 technologies promote the ability for organizations to “use many different channels of communication in… collaborative efforts” (Hastings, 2009). As virtual world participants are not required to be physically and geographically centralized, the benefits of virtual worlds in supporting a “communication infrastructure” are apparent by “[eliminating] the constraints of distance between collaborators” (Hastings, 2009).

The connection between community engagement and virtual collaboration through virtual worlds is provided by Jaime Metzl. Local, state and federal agencies must seriously consider developing and implementing new virtual worlds, particularly if participation shows that “new and discrete virtual worlds… emerge where common standards form the foundation of community engagement” (Metzl, 2008). Thus virtual worlds increase “[the number] of new social contracts… formed online among participants…” (Metzl, 2008). While virtual worlds inherently allow for interaction, meaningful collaboration will likely occur when virtual world environments “support learner-centered teamwork” that facilitates “mastering content and developing general learning skills” (Falloon, 2010).

While the benefits are many, establishing a virtual presence can be challenging. Local, state, and federal government agencies must remain considerate of the quality of technology they are implementing and the interactive experience of internal and external stakeholders accessing a government-run virtual world. Several barriers may exist that prevent users from fully exploiting the unique capabilities of virtual worlds. For example, Collins and Moonen note that “newly emerging Web 2.0 tools and systems will not be directly integrated into existing information technology (IT) systems because of institutional IT management processes” (Collins & Moonen, 2008). All new users of virtual worlds, including both government employees and the American public, will have differentiated knowledge of the technology, creating “a gap between the experience and skill sets of [users]… with respect to Web 2.0 tools and processes” (Collins & Moonen, 2008).

Government organizations can expect the use of virtual worlds to increase. However, this escalation must coincide with a corresponding boost in “computing power, storage, broadband, digital tools, e-spaces and networked applications” (Salmon, 2009). If not, technological advancement will occur disproportionately, and virtual world implementation by government agencies will occur within a bubble that does not carefully consider the usability for internal and external stakeholders. Other important considerations and government responsibilities, such as

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Trucking Towards a Virtual World

Section 508 compliance for people with exceptional needs, must also continue to be met throughout the implementation of new technologies like virtual worlds through government diligence.

Figure 4: An automated PowerPoint display on Transportation Nation to feature mission-critical safety information.

Safety and privacy of information is an important consideration that cannot be ignored by governments seeking to develop a virtual world. Government-based virtual worlds must be created, modified, and monitored with new and innovative approaches to information security.

Collins and Moonen suggest that “Web 2.0 processes runs counter to institutional IT perspectives on quality where orderly, robust and secure processes are highly valued” (Web 2.0, 2008). At the onset, governments seeking to establish a virtual world must recognize that new technologies represent “different ways of working with, and having control over, technology” (Collins & Moonen, Web 2.0, 2008).

Figure 5: An avatar of David Anewalt, Deputy Chief Information Officer at FMCSA, on Transportation Nation

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The legal ramifications of using virtual worlds also must be considered by government organizations. Constitutional law scholar Jack M. Balkin’s article Virtual Liberty: Freedom to Design and Freedom to Play in Virtual Worlds provides some important, foundational insights for agencies seeking to develop a virtual presence. In 2004, Balkin acknowledged the mounting significance of virtual worlds, stating that “platforms will be adopted for commerce, for education, for professional, military and vocational training, for medical consultation and psychotherapy, and even for social and economic experimentation to test how social norms develop” (Balkin, 2004). While many skeptics suggest that “most virtual worlds today are an outgrowth of the game [entertainment] industry,” Balkin is correct to acknowledge that virtual worlds “will become much more than that in time,” (2004) requiring preemptive legal consideration.

Early security and legal deliberation of developing a virtual presence is critical to ensure government confidence in virtual worlds as a safe and productive work environment. In fact, Balkin suggests that a significant amount of regulation of virtual worlds “will occur through realworld law, not outside of it: through contract law, through property law, and through the protection of values of freedom of speech and association” (2004). Balkin’s article, however, focuses on the “relationship between the state on one-hand, and the players [stakeholders accessing the virtual world] and the designers of virtual worlds on the other hand” (2004). To be most successful, scholars and practitioners of virtual worlds must consider the ramifications of the government as both the state (the guardian of the legal and constitutional rights of the citizenry) and as the player/designer (the beneficiary of information and interaction) of virtual worlds.

Government organizations planning a virtual world presence will best benefit in their development and enhancement activities through the conjunction of “information technology and organization features coupled with managerial intent” (Zammuto, et al., 2007). Overall, the benefits of using virtual worlds are extensive. Virtual worlds “have the potential to enhance social interaction and [support] connectedness, particularly among those individuals who may have difficulty facilitating communication on a face-to-face basis” (Falloon, 2010). Falloon identifies three primary benefits virtual worlds, complimenting the existing literature on virtual world functionality and collaboration. With the expansion of virtual worlds in both the public and private spheres, organizations can expect that: • users will have the ability to carry out tasks that could be difficult for them in the [real world] due to constraints, including cost, scheduling or location • a natural persistence will allow for continuing and growing social interactions, which can serve as a basis for [collaboration] • virtual worlds will adapt and grow to meet user needs (Falloon, 2010).

The expanding breadth of scholarly research on virtual worlds reinforces the notion that usage is increasing significantly, though comprehensive statistics about participation, particularly in the case of Second Life, “are neither well coordinated nor reliable” (Salmon, 2009).

Nonetheless, the experience of organizations currently involved in developing and implementing a virtual world can provide useful and anecdotal evidence that compliments the existing literature. For local, state, and federal government agencies seeking to create a virtual presence, FMCSA’s experience in developing Transportation Nation as a Second Life-based virtual world is a particularly meaningful case study.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Trucking Towards a Virtual World

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration seeks to “reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities involving large trucks and buses” (U.S. DOT, 2009a). FMCSA’s mission extends across the United States and accomplishes its safety mandate as a DOT Operating Administration that: • develops and enforces data-driven regulations that balance motor carrier (truck and bus companies) safety with industry efficiency • harnesses safety information systems to focus on higher risk carriers in enforcing safety regulations • targets education messages to carriers, commercial drivers, and the public • partners with stakeholders including federal, state, and local enforcement agencies, the motor carrier industry, safety groups, and organized labor on efforts to reduce bus and truck-related crashes (U.S. DOT, 2009b).

FMCSA employees are located across the country in all fifty states and at DOT Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The persistent and continuing partnership of FMCSA employees with state governments and the motor carrier industry is fundamental to FMCSA’s safety philosophy. Creating new and improved techniques and processes for the ongoing interaction between FMCSA Headquarters personnel, FMCSA employees in the field, the motor carrier industry, and the American public is critical for FMCSA to succeed in fulfilling its safety mission.

In 2009, senior managers at FMCSA decided to explore creating a virtual world island using the Second Life platform. This pilot program was tasked to and primarily envisioned by staff within the Office of Information Technology at FMCSA to compliment many of FMCSA’s other strategic initiatives, including: • the COMPASS Program, an effort to modernize FMCSA’s IT safety systems by integrating new information technologies with improved business processes • the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP), a federal grant program which provides states with financial assistance to hire staff and implement strategies to enforce Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSRs) and Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMRs) • the Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 (CSA 2010) Program, which seeks to improve large truck and bus safety by introducing a new enforcement and compliance model which allows FMCSA and its state partners to contact a larger number of carriers earlier in order to address safety problems before crashes occur (U.S. DOT, 2009c).

In addition to these and other important strategic initiatives, FMCSA continued to implement the use of other Web 2.0 tools for internal and external communication and collaboration, including development of an FMCSA presence on Twitter and implementation of Microsoft’s instant messaging tool, a component of Microsoft’s Office Communicator Server product.

FMCSA originally identified using a Second Life-based virtual world as a way to provide internal training for federal staff and FMCSA partners located worldwide. While a significant population of the FMCSA workforce is located in the Washington, D.C. area, senior leaders continue to examine and identify new and creative ways to reach, instruct, and inspire FMCSA stakeholders. For examples, safety investigators (SIs), who are based throughout the United

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Trucking Towards a Virtual World

States, are central to FMCSA’s ongoing efforts in “investigating high risk carriers and enforcing compliance with agency safety regulations” (DOT, Safety Investigators [SIs] Fact Sheet, 2009).

The National Training Center (NTC), a facility of the U.S. Department of Transportation and FMCSA located outside of Washington, D.C., has served as a primary hub for the training of safety investigators and other FMCSA employees. SIs and other FMCSA-field based employees frequent the National Training Center each year to receive significant instruction about investigation procedures, federal rulemaking changes, and other safety information. At the inception, Transportation Nation was considered a possible venue for web-based interactive and informative training events to mitigate some of the costs associated with hosting trainings centralized at NTC. With limited direct experience in managing a virtual world, the staff at FMCSA was able to establish a process for developing Transportation Nation that quickly illustrated the many capabilities and functionality of Second Life. This process reflected many of the recommendations made in the existing scholarly literature about virtual world development, through which FMCSA staff identified the many benefits and challenges inherent in creating, managing, and utilizing a virtual world.

After deciding to pursue Transportation Nation, FMCSA senior staff focused on establishing intermodal support and participation in the development process. FMCSA staff coordinated with several existing governance boards within DOT to support the project. Given ongoing efforts at DOT to utilize and implement Web 2.0 technologies, FMCSA staff believed it was imperative to collaborate with other technology stakeholders, notably the DOT Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council. Much like the federal CIO Council, the DOT CIO Council meets monthly to discuss and prioritize IT projects and initiatives across the Department of Transportation. Membership of the Council includes the Chief Information Officers from each DOT Operating Administration, including FMCSA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and others. Politically-appointed and career civil service executives, senior managers and employees from the Office of the Chief Information Officer also served as members. The DOT CIO Council and the former Chief Information Officer for the Department of Transportation were encouraged by FMCSA’s efforts to develop Transportation Nation and provided financial support to FMCSA for the project.

Upon receiving approval from the DOT CIO Council, FMCSA senior mangers used a two-pronged approach to successfully develop Transportation Nation. After purchasing space within Second Life for the virtual island, FMCSA procured the services of a web- and graphicsdevelopment contractor who specialized in the creation of Second Life environments. The contractor was responsible for the physical build and deployment of Transportation Nation.

Staffs from the contractor and FMCSA met weekly and remained in close contact and collaboration throughout the development process. FMCSA employees defined and established the look, feel, and functionality of the virtual environment, while the contractor was responsible for realizing FMCSA’s vision within Second Life and on the Transportation Nation island.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Trucking Towards a Virtual World

Figure 6 and Figure 7: The Washington, D.C.-based Headquarters of the U.S. Department of Transportation, an interactive meeting place and networking building on Transportation Nation One particular innovation that FMCSA employed throughout the development of Transportation Nation was creating the Social Media Extreme Team (SMET). FMCSA senior managers assigned young professionals within the Office of Information Technology to manage and monitor the progress of Transportation Nation and to explore implementation of other Web 2.0 technologies at FMCSA and at DOT. Managers specifically identified “next generation” employees for the SMET as an effort to empower new, less seasoned staff with direct responsibility for a large project and to leverage the knowledge of several employees who had existing experience with Web 2.0 technologies. The SMET was a multicultural group of employees that had a wide variety of expertise from within the Office of Information Technology, including planning and project management, IT development, and IT operations.

Senior leadership encouraged the team to pursue multiple out-of-office training events and conference-based learning opportunities in support of and throughout the development of Transportation Nation.

By carefully procuring a contractor for development of the Second Life, FMCSA managed the initial development process of Transportation Nation very successfully. SMET was able to create a virtual world that significantly captured the vision of FMCSA senior management. Highlights of the functionality of Transportation Nation include virtual motor carrier vehicles for simulated safety inspections (Figure 2), a multi-floored replica of the U.S. DOT Washington, D.C.-based Headquarters building for web-based conferencing and instruction (Figure 6; Figure 7), and consolidated access to federal and state office-based organizational information (Figure 3). Upon completion of the project, however, FMCSA staff responsible for the ongoing utilization of Transportation Nation identified three primary issues that need to be addressed.

First, supplementing Transportation Nation with additional information and functionality requires ongoing financial and workforce support. While members of the SMET continue to interact with FMCSA’s Second Life island, significant enhancements to the site have stagnated since the initial development concluded. FMCSA senior staff and other stakeholders who have visited Transportation Nation have been pleased with the early functionality of the island, though further work is required. FMCSA does not currently employ a virtual world or Second Life expert and remains reliant on outside contractors for significant enhancements and further functional development of Transportation Nation. Given that FMCSA operates on a safety-based

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budget through Congress’ three-year review cycle, the immediate fiscal support required to fully exploit the potential of Second Life and Transportation Nation remains difficult to sustain.

Fortunately, both the SMET and FMCSA senior staff remain committed to Transportation Nation and continue to explore alternative financial solutions to further expand the island.

A second challenge that FMCSA has identified is the level of restriction required to safely operate Transportation Nation. Second Life, like other virtual worlds, can be unwieldy and difficult to monitor, as users are able to and are encouraged to pursue the endless opportunities of a virtual existence. As the Second Life user community and American public access FMCSA’s virtual world, illicit and more uncontrolled behaviors may become prevalent.

To date, FMCSA has elected to use specific restrictions, including safeguarded access to Transportation Nation, to ensure the safety and security of the site and other DOT information and data. While FMCSA hopes to continue expanding access to Transportation Nation, the amount of ongoing effort required to maintain a well-functioning virtual island is not insignificant.

Third, Second Life is an easy-to-operate software package that can be downloaded at no cost from the Second Life website, though the technical requirements for most effective use of Transportation Nation functionality are not available to all FMCSA stakeholders. Once an FMCSA employee or member of the public downloads Second Life, they can visit Transportation Nation immediately. After Transportation Nation was developed, however, FMCSA found that each user had a different experience when accessing Second Life. Given that FMCSA employees and the American public are located across the country and have access to significantly different levels of telecommunications, bandwidth and desktop hardware, the use of Transportation Nation will be different, and, at times, challenging, depending on the user. In future development efforts on Second Life, FMCSA will seek to optimize the functionality available on Transportation Nation while ensuring a quality user experience for all FMCSA stakeholders seeking to access organizational information and data via Second Life.

Rectifying these challenges and continually improving the Transportation Nation island remains a priority for FMCSA, and developments and enhancements to the virtual world will occur in 2010 and 2011. Additionally, Second Life and virtual worlds should be considered by local, state and federal governments as a possible tool for complying with the Obama Administration’s “Open Government Directive,” which was issued on December 8, 2009. The “Open Government Directive” specifies that “executive departments and agencies are [required] to take specific actions to implement the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration” (The White House, Open Government Directive, 2009). The engagement of the American public, as mandated by the Open Government Directive, includes efforts to implement: • Transparency, which promotes accountability by providing the public with information about what the Government is doing; • Participation, which allows members of the public to contribute ideas and expertise so that their government can make policies with the benefit of information that is widely dispersed in society; and • Collaboration, which improves the effectiveness of Government by encouraging partnerships and cooperation within the Federal Government, across levels of government, and between the Government and private institutions (The White House, 2009).

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The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration consider virtual worlds and Transportation Nation to be an example of a Web 2.0 technology for government use that contributes to meeting the goals of the Open Government directive, that will be used as a vital component of the array of tools and processes that continue to encourage government transparency and interaction with the public. Still, the Open Government Directive is only a single example of a business-solution being met through the use and application of virtual worlds in government. The full potential of virtual worlds has not yet been fully exploited, though more government organizations are sure to examine the use of virtual worlds as an innovative solution for future business needs.

The development and implementation of Transportation Nation by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation is an important case study for understanding the increasing importance of virtual worlds. Similarly, the existing research on virtual worlds can help practitioners to understand the capabilities and significance of virtual world use for collaboration, outreach, and interaction, specifically in the government example. Scholars have already begun to highlight and observe the important benefits of using virtual worlds. While a relatively new technology, virtual worlds can act as contemporary sights for collaboration and discourse within the public sphere. Moreover, virtual worlds will increasingly act as an affinity space for individuals seeking to interact with government information and data in a new and creative forum. The existing research should also be used as a tool for government agencies seeking to develop and implement a virtual world, particularly providing foundational information related to best practices of the safety, legality, and effective usability of virtual worlds. Ultimately, by drawing upon the functionality unique to virtual worlds, local, state and federal government organizations will experience new successes in meeting business needs.

FMCSA’s effort to implement and explore virtual worlds through Transportation Nation is a meaningful model for governments seeking to utilize new technologies. FMCSA strategically identified Transportation Nation as a contemporary technology solution. FMCSA also prioritized the project, engaged stakeholder communities within DOT, and utilized existing resources to develop and implement the project. In doing so, FMCSA has created a base within Transportation Nation for future training, interaction, and dialogue with internal and external stakeholders. Transportation Nation is indicative of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s efforts to be a government leader in identifying, developing and utilizing new technologies to meet strategic and business needs. The effort to implement Transportation Nation is also emblematic of DOT and FMCSA’s commitment to serving the American public through new technologies that will positively impact how government conducts business in the future.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Trucking Towards a Virtual World

Bibliography Balkin, Jack M. (2004). Virtual Liberty: Freedom to Design and Freedom to Play in Virtual Worlds. Virginia Law Review, 90(8), 2043-2098.

Collis, Betty, & Jef Moonen. (2008). Web 2.0 tools and processes in higher education: quality perspectives. Educational Media International, 45(2), 96-106.

Falloon, Gary. (2010). Using avatars and virtual environments in learning: What do they have to offer? British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(1), 108-122.

Hastings, Robin. (May/June 2009). Collaboration 2.0 [Chapter 5]. Library Technology Reports, 45(4), 16-18.

Ikegami, Eiko & Hut, Piet. (July 2009). Avatars Are For Real: Virtual Communities and Public Spheres. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 1(1), 1-19.

Metzl, Jamie F. (Fall 2008). Life: Coming to a Screen Near You. World Policy Journal, 25(3), 247-251.

Salmon, Gilly. (2009). The future for (second) life and learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 40(3), 526-538.

Strawn, Clare. (Fall 2009). Learning in a Digital World. Adult Basic Education and Literacy Journal, 3(3), 188-189.

The White House. Executive Office of the President. (2009). Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on the Open Government Directive. Retrieved from the White House website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/ memoranda_2010/m10-06.pdf.

U. S. Department of Transportation. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. (2009a). Our Mission. Retrieved from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration website: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/about/what-we-do/mission/mission.htm.

U. S. Department of Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. (2009b).

FMCSAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Strategy. Retrieved from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration website: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/about/what-we-do/strategy/strategy.htm U. S. Department of Transportation. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. (2009c). Key Programs. Retrieved from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration website: http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/about/what-we-do/keyprograms/keyprograms.htm.

U. S. Department of Transportation. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. (2009d).

Safety Investigators Fact Sheet. Retrieved from the Comprehensive Safety Analysis (CSA) 2010 website: http://csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov/documents/si_factsheet.pdf.

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Zammuto, Raymond F., Griffith, Terri L., Majchrzak, Ann, Dougherty, Deborah J., & Faraj, Samer. (September/October 2007). Information Technology and the Changing Fabric of Organization. Organization Science, 18(5), 749-762.

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

Producing knowledge in collaborative research about virtual worlds: discursive constructions of Second Life

By Louise Jane Phillips Roskilde University, Denmark Abstract The topic of the paper is the production of knowledge about the virtual world, Second Life, in a collaborative research project in Denmark on sense-making processes and social and cultural innovation in virtual worlds. The paper applies a discourse analytical approach (based on Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis) in order to analyze how participants in the research project co-produce knowledge about Second Life by drawing on different discourses, that each represent particular ways of talking about, and thus giving meaning to, objects and subjects.

Three main questions are addressed. In the construction of Second Life as an object of discourse, what meanings are ascribed to Second Life? How are researchers and users constructed as discursive subjects? And how does the discursive construction of “Second Life” and of users and researchers delimit the production of knowledge about virtual worlds in the collaborative research project? The paper argues for the importance of highlighting the implications of the delimitations identified for how virtual worlds are understood and studied. And, on the basis of the post-foundational epistemological position that all knowledge is context-dependent, it stresses the value of casting a reflexive eye on how “Second Life” is constructed as a research object and field of social practice through collaborative research practices.

Keywords: collaborative research; discourse analysis; discourses; discursive construction of virtual worlds; knowledge construction; reflexive analysis of research process; Second Life; virtual worlds This research was supported by the Danish Strategic Research Council, KINO committee.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Discursive Constructions of Second Life

Producing knowledge in collaborative research about virtual worlds: discursive constructions of Second Life

By Louise Jane Phillips Roskilde University, Denmark Introduction This paper presents an analysis of the production of knowledge about the virtual world, Second Life, in a collaborative research project in Denmark on sense-making processes and both social and cultural innovation in virtual worlds. The collaborative research project under study in this paper brings together university researchers and other partners who work practically with virtual worlds in different organisational contexts. I apply a discourse analytical approach (based on the form of critical discourse analysis developed by Norman Fairclough (1992; 1995; 2003) in order to evaluate how different kinds of knowledge are produced through the discourses that the research participants draw from collaborative research workshops in order to talk about, and thus give meaning to, virtual worlds.

A central assumption underpinning this paper is that our ways of talking are organized in discourses that are not mere reflections of a pre-existing realityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;they construct reality by ascribing particular meanings to the world in ways that exclude alternative meanings (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2002). In this sense, discourses are constitutive of reality, including knowledge and identities. Thus discourses drawn on by researchers in talking about Second Life represent a framework for meaning-making that enable and delimit the meanings given to Second Life as a research object and the identities ascribed to researchers and users. A focus on processes of meaning-making is, of course, a focus that discourse analysis shares with other qualitative approaches. But discourse analysis differs from other qualitative approaches by its interest in how meanings are produced within the discourses that people draw on as resources in order to talk about, and thus produce knowledge about, aspects of the world.

In presenting an analysis of how particular kinds of knowledge about Second Life are produced discursively in research, this paper has two related aims. One aim is to delineate the particular ways in which the discourses identified delimit the production of knowledge on virtual worlds in the research project under study. Secondarily to and within this aim is to highlight the implications of those delimitations for how virtual worlds are understood and studied not only in this project but in research on virtual worlds more generally. Another related aim is to pursue the post-foundational epistemological position that all knowledge is context-dependent, as well as to demonstrate the value of casting a reflexive eye on how research-based knowledge about virtual worlds results from collaborative research practices. The value of these aims is rooted in the performative nature of research practices, according to the premises of post-foundational epistemology: since research practices contribute to creating the reality that forms the object of study, engaging in reflexive analysis of how those practices construct research objects in particular ways that exclude alternatives is important (Bourdieu, et al, 1991; Law, 2004; Mauthner and Doucet, 2008).

To fulfil these aims, the analysis in this paper addresses three main questions: 1. In the construction of Second Life as an object of discourse, what meanings are ascribed to Second Life?

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Discursive Constructions of Second Life

2. How are researchers and users constructed as discursive subjects?

3. How does the discursive construction of Second Life and of users and researchers delimit the production of knowledge about virtual worlds in the collaborative research project? ¶ First, the paper briefly describes the collaborative research project under study in this paper and my own position in the project. Then I outline the paper’s discourse analytical framework and methods of data production. Following this, an analysis of how the researchers (university researchers and participating practitioners) discursively construct Second Life and users-researchers is presented. And finally, I discuss the implications of the patterns of meaningmaking identified for research on virtual worlds more generally. In this last task, I return to the argument about the value of taking a reflexive stance towards how research is carried out in particular contexts that enable and delimit the kinds of knowledge produced. In particular, I highlight the importance of considering the implications of the prevalence of a situated, partisan discourse whereby the researchers position themselves as engaged user-analysts and advocates of Second Life.

Collaborative Research Project: Brief Outline The project under study is organised as a collaboration between university researchers at two universities (five senior researchers including myself, two post-doctoral researchers and three doctoral students) and a range of different practitioners – dubbed ‘partners’. These ‘partners’ work with virtual worlds in different organisational contexts, encompassing both public organisations (such as libraries) and private businesses (such as an estate agents) as well as a job recruitment agency. The duration of the collaborative research project is from 2008-2011 and the project has, at the time of this writing, run for two years. A series of workshops have been held that represent the fora in which all the collaborating actors – the university researchers and partners – engage in the co-production of knowledge that constitutes the collaborative research process. My role as one of the university researchers in the collaborative project is to follow and analyse the production, negotiation and sharing of knowledge’s about Second Life in the collaborative project itself. My analysis is a form of reflexive meta-analysis from within the project as a participating actor, the driving assumption being that a reflexive analysis of the research process can be harnessed to shape the practices of research in a positive direction. In my own research practice, I try to follow principles of interactive, practice-oriented research, engaging in continual processes of dialogue with the other participants in the project.

The collaborative project’s starting-point is that virtual worlds carry a potential for userdriven social and cultural innovation by virtue of possible new forms of social interaction based on communication among avatars being made possible – digital representations that are able to perform actions and are controlled by a human agent in real time (Bell, 2008, p. 3). The purpose of the project is to gain insight into the potential for innovation by various aspects, including: by carrying out in-depth, explorative, empirical studies of users’ sense-making in relation to their practices in virtual worlds; by using a diverse range of theories and methods including sensemaking approaches, actor-network theory, theories of social learning, discourse analysis, virtual ethnography, active observation with Instant Message interviews and logs in Second Life, videobased interviews designed to explore the interplay between virtual interaction and activities on the outside; and by experimentation with simulation and virtual spaces in interplay with experiments in physical space (Jensen, 2009). The project’s orientation is practice-based in two respects. First, it is directed at exploring a myriad of diverse virtual world practices, adhering to

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Discursive Constructions of Second Life

the premise of virtual ethnography that research on online phenomena should avoid sweeping generalisations and engage instead in systematic analyses of online practices in the contexts in which they take place (Antonijevic, 2008; Hine, 2000; 2005). Second, the project aims to further the development of virtual practices partly through close collaboration with users of virtual worlds. All the participants – both university researchers and practitioners – are active actors in Second Life practices through their engagement in the project; in most cases, their interest and engagement in Second Life extend beyond project-related activities.

Virtual worlds represent online 3-D environments, persisting over time, in which people – through their avatars – engage in social interaction with others, treating them as their fellow inhabitants (Schroeder, 2008, p. 2). The key characteristics of virtual worlds are encapsulated in a succinct definition formulated by Bell - ‘A synchronous, persistent network of people represented as avatars, facilitated by networked computers’ (Bell, 2008, p. 2). All the activities in the project thus far have concentrated on one particular virtual world, namely Second Life, which is owned by a company called Linden Lab and is a type of virtual environment that, unlike online role-playing games, does not revolve around one specific activity (such as playing a game); it is a world consisting of hundreds of square kilometres of virtual space that users experience themselves as inhabiting, that they have contributed to building themselves in processes of userdriven content generation, and where they can engage in an enormous range of activities, spanning education, business, collaborative work, party-going, gossip and sex (Gordon, 2008; Schroeder, 2008).

Analytical Framework The paper’s analytical interest in the discourses that the collaborating researchers draw on to give meaning to virtual worlds as fields of social practice is based on the discourse analytical assumption, mentioned earlier, that discourses work to constitute reality – including knowledge, identities and power relations - in particular ways that mask, marginalise or totally exclude other forms of social organisation and other ways of knowing and doing. This represents an understanding of discourse that is based on Foucault’s definition of a discourse as a limited set of possible utterances that set the limits for what can we can say and, therefore, do (Foucault, 1972, p. 117). Thus, by giving particular meanings to Second Life, discourses delimit the existing and future production of knowledge in the collaborative research project.

For Foucault, discourse is tightly linked to power and knowledge. According to Foucault all knowledge-claims emanate from particular power-positions within particular discourses, such that one can never gain access to truth outside discourse (Foucault, 1980). This builds on the post-foundational epistemological position that all knowledge – including that produced in research – is a situated and contextual product of context-dependent, contingent representations of the world rather than a neutral, context-independent foundation (Jørgensen and Phillips 2002; Silverman 2001). The researcher – like all others – is a subject of discourse, ascribed subjectpositions within discourses rather than being an autonomous agent with privileged access to truth. And individual identities – for instance, as researchers and users or inhabitants of virtual worlds – are created in the meeting between different subject positions (Hall, 1996).

In this paper, I apply Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (1992; 1995a; 1995b; 2003) which has been widely applied in media and communication studies including research on digital media (Fernback, 2007; Masso, 2009; Papacharissi, 2009). Fairclough operates with the concept of discourse as a way of speaking which gives meaning to experiences from a particular

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Discursive Constructions of Second Life

perspective (Fairclough, 1993, p. 138; Fairclough, 1995a, p. 135). According to Fairclough, discourse both shapes, and is shaped by, the wider social practice of which it is a part1.

In the case under analysis in this paper, the discursive meaning-making about Second Life contributes to producing and maintaining Second Life as a field of social practice. Moreover, the collaborative research process that shapes meaning-making about virtual worlds can be understood as a social practice that is part of a wider “shift to dialogue”; in this shift, researchers co-produce knowledge with diverse social actors with a view to meeting the supposed need of the “knowledge economy” for knowledge that can contribute to economic growth and social and technological innovation (dubbed Mode-2 research in an influential analysis by Gibbons et al, 1994; Nowotny, et al, 2001; 2003). The kinds of knowledge about Second Life created in the collaborative research workshops are shaped by the nature of the project as a collaborative research venture in which the university researchers have declined their traditional role as sovereign agents of knowledge production and instead invite other actors – practitioners in virtual worlds – into the research process as co-producers of knowledge2. The ways in which the different collaborating actors position themselves and each other – for example, as different kinds of experts - in processes of negotiation shape the kinds of knowledge produced. And the practice orientation of the project also fundamentally shapes knowledge production since the aim is to produce a set of products that can be of use to all participants in their future practices in, or relating to, virtual worlds. In collaborative research processes, certain discourses - and the different identities and forms of knowledge they articulate – dominate while others are marginalised or silenced. The aim, in applying critical discourse analysis, is to open up for reflexive consideration of the discourses at play and the ways in which they delimit the nature of the knowledge produced. Arguably, by homing in on how research is delimited by socially and culturally specific discourses, such reflexive consideration can work to refine the practices of research on virtual worlds.

The methods of data production are participant observation and audio-recordings of the five all-day workshops on the virtual world, Second Life, that were held during the first year of the collaborative project (the kick-off workshop, two major workshops and the two smaller workshops). The data take the form of a corpus of transcriptions of the audio recordings and field notes from these five workshops. As noted above, the workshops represent the fora in which the university researchers and partners engage in the co-production of knowledge that constitutes the collaborative research process. Topics for workshop discussion have included the potential and limitations of Second Life as a field of social practice that opens up for social and cultural innovation; the concept of innovation itself; the Danish media discourse on Second Life; and libraries in Second Life. The observation-based data are the product of detailed field notes. The observation data and audio recordings are combined with informal conversations with participants, power point presentations that the participants have given at the workshops and email correspondence. The observational lens is shaped by a theoretical interest in which kinds Notes 1. But in contrast to Fairclough, this move is not based on an ontological distinction between the discursive and the non-discursive. The establishment of an ontological distinction, I argue, involves underplaying the role of discourse – the representation of social practice in meaning – as a constitutive dimension of every social practice. Instead, I make an analytical distinction between discursive practices – the object of empirical analysis – and broader societal developments – the background for analysis. In other words, I bracket the question of the ontological status of discourse and treat discursive practice as an analytically distinct dimension of social practice.

2. See Louise Jane Phillips (in press), for a detailed analysis of the virtual worlds project as a case-study illustrating the dialogic turn.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Discursive Constructions of Second Life

of knowledge about virtual worlds are constructed and negotiated in interaction among the different participants in the collaborative research process and in how they are constructed and negotiated in that interaction. And my approach to observation is based on an ethnomethodological approach to ethnography, focusing on how the research project on virtual worlds is constituted discursively through the actions of the participants (Silverman, 2001).

Following Fairclough’s framework, data analysis concentrates on three dimensions: discourse practice – the discourses drawn on in constructing particular representations of the world and particular identities and social relations; text - the ways in which these discourses are constructed linguistically in texts3 - and social practice - the wider social and cultural structures and processes that the discursive practices are shaped by and work to reproduce and change. In analyzing the text dimension, the focus is on linguistic features such as modality - the speaker’s degree of affinity with or affiliation to her/his statement4 - and transitivity – the ways in which events and processes are connected with subjects and objects5. As a preliminary step towards analysis – and in common with other qualitative methods of analysis - the data corpus was coded into themes through a lengthy process of reading and rereading the transcriptions. An open approach to the coding was adopted that was informed by the discourse analytical framework and by existing research on virtual worlds and, at the same time, sensitive to the plurality of meaning – making at play in the data.

Mapping the Discourses of Second Life: Analysis The following gives an account of the main discursive constructions of Second Life and of user/researcher identities that I have identified through a mapping of the discourses articulated in the research workshops. As is the convention in the presentation of discourse analysis, and indeed in many other forms of qualitative analysis, the account is presented as an interpretation of the data and illustrative examples from the data corpus are given in order to provide textual support for the analytical claims made. According to the analysis presented, the discourses were co-articulated without significant tensions or conflicts; in the co-articulation of discourses, hybrid identities were formed for the researchers and inhabitants of Second Life.

3. The concept of text is used in a broad sense in Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, referring both to written and printed documents such as doctors’ journals and newspaper articles; transcriptions of spoken language such as meetings, interviews and focus groups,; and multimodal communication combining language, pictures and sound such as websites, virtual worlds and TV-programmes (Fairclough, 2003, p. 3).

4. For example, the statements, “Second Life is full of potential”, “I think Second Life is full of potential” and “Second Life may be full of potential” are different ways of expressing oneself about Second Life; that is, they represent different modalities by which speakers commit themselves to their statements to varying degrees. In the first case, a categorical, objective modality is used in which the speaker commits herself completely to the statement, expresses her/himself authoritatively about reality and presents an interpretation as if it were an objective truth or fact. In the second case, a subjective modality is employed, stressing the status of the truth-claim as the speaker’s own interpretation rather than as a fact. And in the third case, a modality is used that expresses a lower degree of certainty (Second Life may be full of potential but it may not). The modality used has consequences for the discursive construction of both social relations and knowledge and meaning systems (see Fairclough 1992; 1995a; 1995b; 2003 for much more detailed accounts).

5. Central types of process include action, event, relational and mental processes. In action processes, for example, subjects can be positioned as active agents such as those used in the following example: ”I have thrown 140 avatars out of my area”. Such a positioning can contribute to building an identity for the subject as authoritative social actors (see Fairclough 1992; 1995a; 1995b; 2003 for much more detailed accounts).

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Constructing Second Life as an object of analytical reflection and as a space in which social rules are being established One discourse that was dominant across the workshops was the discourse of Second Life as an object of analytical reflection. Within this discourse, different knowledge forms are constructed, and, in particular, an experience-based expert knowledge that stresses the actors’ active engagement in the field of practice and ascribes actors with the subject-position of experience-based expert. Another discourse that was dominant across workshops was the discourse of social rules under construction. This discourse constitutes Second Life as a new space for social practice in which social conventions and rules of conduct are in the process of being established. Within the terms of the discourse, the necessity of establishing and regulating rules of conduct is taken for granted; it is also implied that violations of the rules are a threat to the social order of Second Life. This discourse works to constitute Second Life as a space for social interaction in which social conventions are established, shared and regulated (Boostrom, 2008; Carey, 2007). Social actors contribute to the discursive construction of Second Life as a social space through their assumption of identities that are established relationally6. Key identities are those of the law-abiding social actor who behaves appropriately and it’s Other, the law-breaking social actor who violates the rules, and also the experienced, well-functioning social actor and it’s Other, the Newbie who is new to Second Life and lacks the necessary social competencies to be accepted as a well-functioning inhabitant. The deliberate violation of rules is, of course, a well-known phenomenon of virtual worlds, dubbed “griefing” (Wetsch, 2008, p. 7).

The two discourses, the discourse of Second Life as an object of analytical reflection and the discourse of social rules under construction, are often articulated together in the workshop sessions. The co-articulation of the two discourses creates a hybrid identity across the subject positions of experience-based expert and active participant in, and advocate for, Second Life.

In the co-articulations, the researchers as subjects are not experts producing neutral analyses but positioned experts who are actively engaged in Second Life as actors and who are committed, to varying degrees, to furthering Second Life as a field of practice. And they are used to navigating in fields where Second Life is subjected to criticism. In particular, actors respond strongly and frequently to the Danish media’s representation of Second Life as a failure or flop (the so-called ‘anti-hype’) that followed an initial period of positive publicity for Second Life (the so-called ‘hype’).

This active stance-taking on virtual worlds is the case both for the partners in the collaborative project and for the university researchers. Generally, Second Life is not constructed as a neutral study-object but as an object whose development the project wants to further. This kind of situated, partisan perspective whereby the researchers position themselves as engaged user-analysts of Second Life rather than just as analysts pervades other research in virtual worlds.

For example, Nesson and Nesson (2008) construct their article as an argument, based on empirical, practice-based research, in favour of the ‘current value and future potential’ of virtual worlds in education (2008, p. 273). In the article, they directly address the reservations of critics and sceptics.

The following example of the co-articulation of the discourses is taken from the kick-off workshop on 25 February, 2008, where the workshop participants have been divided into two groups to discuss on the basis of their experience with Second Life (if they have any) what they see as the problems with Second Life, what ideas they may have for solving those problems and 6. See also Boostrom (2008) for an analysis of how the social construction of the virtual reality of Second Life is partly accomplished through the articulation of stigmatized identity of the Newbie.

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opening up for the use of Second Life in processes of innovation, and what new knowledge they see that we will have a need for. The speakers position themselves as engaged user-analysts and as law-abiding actors in opposition to law-breakers. In the example, the first speaker (Anders) is a highly experienced professional user of Second Life who is participating in the collaborative project in this capacity. He positions himself as a central agent in the regulation of social behaviour in Second Life, and applies sanctions against those who violate the rules, such as expelling them from his island: Anders: And then there are all those idiots who move into Second Life, right? From people who cause trouble in our sandpits or run around and shoot at people and cause trouble, people who can’t behave themselves properly. But there are also firms. The mind boggles […]

Marie: Does it require more social skills?

Anders: I don’t think that it requires more than in real life or that it makes particular demands. Well there are also many who say that Second Life is their Second Life. It may be that it is for some people. It isn’t for me. I am the same person, whether or not I am in the one platform or the other platform. I try to be the same person.

Whereas many people don’t play with open cards […] The problem with Second Life is that you can be anonymous. There are some people who enjoy that, right? You can do whatever you like. Because in principle you can’t trace it back to who it is who has caused trouble […] (Kick-off workshop, 25 February 2008, lines 579-602) Established relationally through being contrasted with what it is not, the subject position of law-abiding social actor is created in opposition to the Other of the law-breaking social actor who behaves inappropriately (for example, by causing trouble, shooting at people and not behaving properly).

This discursive reproduction in Second Life of offline social conventions is, of course, not surprising; as many other studies point out, online social relations are interwoven with offline relations in social actors’ everyday lives and the social norms and rules of the physical world are drawn on in social interaction in virtual environments (Antonijevic, 2008, p. 235; Bell 2009, p. 4; Carter, 2005, p. 154; Yee, et al, 2007). What is interesting here is precisely how the manifestation and management of social relations in Second Life are constructed in meaning. In Anders’ talk, Second Life is understood not as a separate world but as a world in which you take your “real life” identity in with you. The problem, according to the discourse, is that there are some participants in Second Life who do not adhere to the rules and this problem has its roots in the possibilities that Second Life gives the individual of (re) presenting the self in different ways: “Whereas many people don’t play with open cards […] The problem with Second Life is that you can be anonymous”. This problematisation of identity construction in Second Life contrasts with a discourse outlined below on the advantages of Second Life as a platform for the flexible construction of multiple identities, a feature of new media that is often celebrated in postmodernist texts on the new media.

In the co-articulation of the discourse of social rules under construction and the discourse constructing Second Life as an analytical object, the researchers are ascribed identities not only as law-abiding social actors but also as authoritative experiential experts. While all the speakers

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position themselves as experts of experience, Anders is given a privileged position as the most knowledgeable with his authority conveyed linguistically through the use of categorical, often objective, modalities that express total certainty in the truth of the statement (for example, from his statement above, “The problem with Second Life is that you can be anonymous”). In the moment immediately following the Anders statement above, the research leader, Susanne, also positions herself as an expert. In her case, the expertise is research-based: Susanne: In the book that I am writing at the moment, I have a case-history […].

And there are some stories about how you can be cheated and conned and really be subjected to terrible things. So that’s completely right. (Kick-off workshop, 25 February 2008, lines 604-608) While Susanne’s authority is reinforced through her positioning as an agent in an action process in which she acts as a researcher (“In the book that I am writing at the moment”), her research-based expertise is clearly rooted in her experience as an actor in Second Life and, more specifically, as a law-abiding actor. Thus, her identity is created across the two discourses, the discourse constructing Second Life as analytical object and the discourse of social rules. In the following statement, this hybrid identity as both experiential expert and social actor is articulated clearly: Susanne: I can remember, wasn’t it at the University of Southern Denmark? A long time ago. Where there was somebody who threw a virtual bomb. Yes. But the situation was also totally incredible. It was all set up for a big meeting with a discussion about what universities were doing in Second Life and that kind of thing, right? And then someone comes and throws a virtual bomb, and a countdown started.

And it broke in and destroyed everything. All we could do was sit there and follow the countdown and then it exploded, right? And he did it several times!

Anders: Nothing happened, but it was annoying.

Susanne: Yes, an example of chicane. (Kick-off workshop, 25 February 2008, lines 609-616) The roots of Susanne’s knowledge in her experience as a law-abiding actor in Second Life is stressed here by being framed within an narrative eyewitness account of an event in Second Life in which the contrasting figure of the law-breaker violated the social rules by throwing a virtual bomb. By backing up each other’s narrative accounts, Anders and Susanne work to construct a consensus of meaning within the discourse of social rules under construction.

In the exchange that follows, the discourse of social rules is again co-articulated with the discourse of Second Life as analytical object and Anders is ascribed a privileged position as knower: Anders: Well, I’ve kicked 130 avatars out of my area. And many of them are returnees. I kick them out and then they make a new avatar. And then they are in again.

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Susanne: How can you see that they are returnees?

Anders: Yes, well, one of them, he’s always called Mr. Benson as his first name. But with 8 different surnames, right? The big idiot!

Helene: Can’t you just “mute” Mr. Benson? [people laugh] Anders: There’s nothing written down. It can’t be done.

Philip: They sent someone out onto a barren field, a cornfield, once a long time ago.

It was someone who had done a lot of cheating [...] The avatar has to go out onto an island that’s totally isolated and sit there for 1-2 days and get bored. That was some years back, and there was one who ended up out there and served his sentence because he had cheated at something or other. And then he could get permission to come in again [..] (Kick-off workshop, lines 617-648) All the speakers in the extract speak within the terms of the discourse of social rules, and their identities as law-abiding social actors and as authoritative experiential experts are constructed linguistically through their positioning as agents in action processes. For example, Anders asserts that “Well, I’ve kicked 130 avatars out of my area”. This contributes to building a hybrid identity for Anders as a powerful social actor who plays a central role in the establishment and maintenance of rules for appropriate behaviour in Second Life (discourse of social rules) and as an experiential expert (discourse of Second Life as analytical object). By supporting Anders’ and Susanne’s accounts, the other speakers contribute to creating a research project “we” of lawabiding actors in Second Life. Accepting the terms of the discourse, there is no questioning of the shared concern over the violation of the rules or the application of sanctions against those who are guilty of a violation. Philip suggests that the problem with the lack of control of aberrant behaviour in Second Life can be solved through borrowing a convention from another medium, E-Bay. This is in line with Carey’s point that people using new media may often borrow conventions from a previous or related medium in order to regulate behaviour (Carey, 2007, p.

84).

Susanne continues with a positive articulation of the discourse of social rules, making the point that rules are being established through self-regulation among the existing Second Life communities: Susanne: I think now that it seems like it’s under construction. I have a clear understanding in any case that it’s in any case very difficult to do anything in Wonderful Denmark that doesn’t go round in circles in the Danish groups, right? It’s almost like in a village, it’s so quick to circulate. Gossip and other things. And also if there any events. They circulate also quite fast. I think it depends a lot on where you are. That is also I think one of the problems that one talks about Second Life as if it is one thing. And a lot has to be done in order to make that differentiation. There is crap in Second Life, real crap, and then there are some things that are sublimely good.

And masses of things in between. And that differentiation, that’s going to be necessary soon. You showed me the mainland at one point, and that demonstrated it clearly. How completely awful it is. And if you go in as a newcomer and see it,

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there’s nothing to say, if you think ‘Second Life what on earth is there for me here?’

(Kick-off workshop, 25 February 2008, lines 649-663) Here, the discourse of social rules is articulated together with a discourse that constructs Second Life as a plurality of diverse practices and which argues that this very diversity ought to be made clearer to newcomers. The discourses are harnessed in argumentation in support of Second Life, ; the development of Second Life being dependent on its becoming more popular.

In order not to lose disenchanted newcomers, Susanne states, “differentiation, that’s going to be necessary soon”. Thus she positions herself as an engaged, partisan analyst and active participant working to develop Second Life, and Second Life is constructed both as an analytical object and as an object to be supported and developed further. The view that Second Life should be supported and developed through the recruitment and retention of new members belongs to a marketing discourse that is also articulated in consumer research on Second Life. For example, Wetsch (2008, p. 1) argues that organisations need to “effectively recruit real world consumers into Second Life and retain them through positive interactions”.

Constructing Second Life as an arena for experimentation Another discourse that was frequently articulated across workshops was a discourse that constructed Second Life as an arena for experimentation through co-design. The following example comes from a description by the research leader, Susanne, of the project’s site in Second Life – named “Research Island” - that was under construction at the time and which is intended to serve as the project’s platform for experimentation with simulation: Susanne: I love being able to go into something and see it from perspectives that otherwise aren’t possible. I think it would be good if we could play with this on our Research Island. I don’t know if we should be able to swim in the stomach of a shark.

And see what it actually looks like inside. [..] We have the ground level or the underwater level, where we can play a bit with the more imaginative. And then there’s the surface of the water or our big arena and then we’ll have the levels up to the level of the sky which are our experimental plateaux. In fact, we would really like to get you on board with ideas. What is it you would like us to experiment with on these plateaux? The idea is not that we’ll build something which just stands there and then it’s finished. The idea instead is that what’s fun in Second Life is to build and create and construct. And we will experiment with the ideas that lie behind the design. And then we will pack it up again and make something new. Because I think that that’s the way that’s going to be the most fun. We’re trying to follow the same principle in the arena. [..] And it would be good if we just could press a button and reveal a cosy little seminar room of a completely different character than the big arena […] And we should be able to. Well, it’s made for experimenting. And Helene thinks we can definitely do that.

Helene: It can be done.

Susanne: So we’ll try and see if you’re right, Helene, okay? And you have any ideas for something, you think it could be fun to try to experiment with, then mail them to us. (Workshop 2, 3 April 2008, lines 222-257)

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Here, Second Life is constructed as a space for experimentation that can produce innovation through co-design by taking advantage of the unique characteristics of Second Life; Second Life allows us to see it from perspectives that otherwise aren’t possible. The potential for innovation lie in practices where actors interact in novel ways not possible in physical spaces, and it is often related directly to the quality of immersion. In this case, it is an actual instance of immersive experience that is referred to: namely, swimming in the stomach of a shark. And the ideas for co-design put forward take advantage of what is distinctive about Second Life as a social space – that is, what’s fun in Second Life is to build, create and construct.

The co-design is a joint endeavour among all the collaborating actors, whereby both partners and university researchers are ascribed subject-positions as, at one and the same time, both analysts and active participants in Second Life. Research is constructed as a co-production which is tightly intertwined with co-design processes in the social space of Second Life. The discourse of Second Life as arena for experimentation is combined with the discourse of Second Life as analytical object: research is an experimental, practical endeavour in which practical experience represents a main source of expertise and in which the researchers are ascribed the hybrid identity of engaged user-analysts. For example, Susanne ascribes an authoritative voice to one participant without academic research credentials, namely the project manager, Helene, on the basis of her experience as a user of Second Life (when) Susanne (says) “Well, it’s made for experimenting. And Helene thinks we can definitely do that”. This privileging of experiencebased knowledge is common across the discourses articulated in the workshops, which is made clear in the analysis in the next section of the co-articulation of two other discourses that workshop participants drew upon in ascribing meaning to Second Life.

Constructing Second Life as a unique social space and as a space that is or is not useful Other key discourses that were used to construct Second Life both in terms of its potential and its limitations were two related discourses: one that constructed Second Life as a unique social space with special characteristics and one that understood it in terms of usefulness.

These discourses are obviously closely linked to, and sometimes intertwined with, the discourse described above that constructs Second Life as a space for experimentation. As described above, experimentation is seen to be grounded in the possibilities that Second Life affords immersion.

In many cases, the discourse that constructed Second Life in terms of its unique or special qualities focused on the social relations that Second Life made possible rather than the quality of immersion, as in the following utterance by the project manager, Helene in an account of her own experiences as an actor engaged in setting up a virtual personnel recruitment business: Helene: In reality, Second Life opens up for incredibly good ways of getting in contact with people who have both opinions and ideas. And if you lock yourself up in your own little place, you won’t necessarily meet them. But if you are open to different networks and travel around like an egg [avatar in the shape of an egg] or whatever you want, then there are actually a lot of possibilities of getting feedback on a project you’re in the process of doing. And it’s a really easy way of getting in contact with people. You don’t need to ring to them and ask am I disturbing you?

They’re standing there as an avatar in front of you and want to engage in dialogue.

So it’s really an open hand to take and make use of. You just need to find people, they all want to help you. (Workshop 3, 29 May 2008, lines 6-13).

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Thus this discourse constructs Second Life as a social space that facilitates forms of interaction that are not as easy in other spaces. The following example of the application of the discourse of usefulness derives from a librarian’s account of her experience with her library’s trial-run in Second Life. Here, the discourse is also articulated in argumentation for the unique possibilities that Second Life offers: Birthe: But some of what I think is that you can start to pick up clothes and dance too. That’s some of what can attract you as a new beginner, right? Because wow, here you get something you can use for something, right? (Workshop 2, 3 April 2008, lines 125-129).

The discourse of usefulness was also drawn on in argumentation about the limitations of Second Life with respect to what it can be used for as part of a discussion about the potential and limitations of Second Life in relation to social and cultural innovation. Here, the absence of obvious usefulness was often linked to the openness of the space in reference to function. This was presented as an obstacle to its becoming more popular. The user-driven character is defined in negative terms as a source of difficulty for the user in this example which represents a comment by one of the practitioners: Grethe: But the next issue is what’s the point of my being in there? Why should I be in there? It ought to offer something extra, something that you just can’t get in real life. That’s hard to tackle, right? And there’s a lot of talk about user-created content today on the net. You can say that Second Life, is one of the places where everything is user-created. And that’s also a huge challenge. Let’s say that you can find out how to control your avatar very quickly, to undress it and dress it. And then what? The next step is to create something inside. And you create something inside, you start to reproduce something you know. That’s hardly likely to be unique. In our project, it started there where we had a bit of firm ground under our feet, right? The next step should be to create something in terms of the premises of the universe and something unique. And I think that’s a challenge to get that far. (workshop 1, 25 February 2008, lines 747-762) Second Life and the steep learning curve Another feature observed as a limitation was the steep learning curve required of newcomers to Second Life. In the following example which was also from the discussion about the potential and limitations of Second Life with respect to social and cultural innovation, the steep learning curve is incorporated into the discourse of social rules. Here the argument is that newcomers should be able to come in as guests without rights: Anders: And there’s another challenge with the learning curve. It’s steep. All that you’ve got to go through and answer and take a stance towards and the only thing you want to do is see what it’s about. You have to dress your avatar and learn to talk and everything. And it’s just not necessary. There ought to be some finished avatars that are ready to jump into, guest avatars. . Which don’t have any rights, but which can be used to browse with. (workshop 1, lines 667-674)

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There is also a problem with the steep learning curve in relation to university studies (where Second Life is a study object and medium of communication): Susanne: Well, you can say that that learning curve is steep. And experience from the workshop which has just finished confirms that it’s steep even for young people, you’ve got to remember that, right? They’re in the middle of their twenties, these young people. And they are university students so they’re not total idiots. They are actually quite bright. Some of them, Søren, you must admit [laughs] And yet they sit there and have problems. We are group-oriented so the students pull each other up by their boot-straps. But there are still some who cannot be pulled up by the hair, it’s that hard. (workshop 1, lines 737-746) The discourse of high hopes Another key discourse articulated across workshops is a discourse of high hopes in which the existing limitations with respect to Second Life are acknowledged and weight is placed on the potential of Second Life in the future: Anders: It’s been about a year since I started up. And I did that because I’m convinced that virtual worlds will become big. They’ll become really big. It’s about getting in on it from the start and getting a solid head-start in relation to the competitors that are going to pop up at some point. I haven’t seen any of them yet. (workshop 1, 25 February 2008, lines 428-432).

Here, a belief in the potential of Second Life as an innovative field for social interaction is presented as the central motivation for entering Second Life and setting up a business. The low level of participation in Second Life is acknowledged as a problem but at the same time, presented in positive terms - the absence of competitors allows Anders to get a head-start.

In many other cases, though, the low level of participation is discussed as a serious problem for the development of Second Life. Often, the figure of the inactive participant in Second Life is invoked as part of the problem: Anders: I’ve had contact with several businesses at several levels. And it’s been a fun experience. Actually, the customer we have called Columbus – the bookshop.

They had a criterion for success that they should just be the first Danish bookshop in Second Life. So we made a shop for them. I think that was in June last year, and it hasn’t been touched since. It’s stayed there completely untouched. Their success criterion was to be the first Danish bookshop.

Susanne: But they don’t use it for anything?

Anders: They pay rent dutifully every month. It’s good to get rent but it still irritates me that there’s an empty shop there that’s not put to any use and that they don’t even change their poster once in a while. But that was apparently their criterion for success. (workshop 1, lines 501-532)

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Here, the inactive participants are positioned as actors that do not take advantage of the possibilities that Second Life offers and that ought to do so. Other figures who are invoked as part of the problem are journalists. Frequently, the negative hype that Second Life has received in the media is blamed for the low level of participation, as in the following example in which Anders is asked about his experiences: Lise: Have you experienced the negative hype as something that has had an effect?

Anders: Yes, because after the summer holidays about three months passed, I think, where not a single new customer came. And we could also see on the traffic-figure, that it went the wrong way and the press coverage was also negative. But then at Christmas time, in December, it started to show signs of life again. And then we crawled up the ladder again, slowly right? But we are far from the level we were at in Spring last year, it was completely wild then, right? I was able just to sit and welcome the customers – well, almost. The first 5-6 customers came by themselves, I could hardly keep up.

The personal investment that Anders has in the success of Second Life and the problems he faces from the impact of the negative hype are manifest in the above citations. The negative hype is treated as a direct threat to activity in Second Life. In the project as a whole, the negative hype was viewed as a threat which the project had to act directly to curb. This implies that the project as a whole had invested in Second Life in such a way that Second Life’s well-being was in the interests of the project. Thus participants at one workshop, following discussion of the Danish media discourse on Second Life (and, in particular, the media’s pronouncement of the “death” of Second Life), were invited to suggest constructive ideas for how to exert influence on journalists to produce more balanced representations.

Conclusion This paper has explored the body of knowledge about Second Life in the context of its production in an ongoing research project about social and cultural innovation in virtual worlds. I identified and analysed that body of knowledge through a mapping of the discourses articulated in the research project, that each ascribe particular meanings to Second Life and particular identities to the users and to the researchers who position themselves and each other as engaged user-analysts and advocates of Second Life. The starting-point was the premise that the discursive construction of Second Life and of users and researchers delimits the production of knowledge about virtual worlds in the collaborative research project. In adopting the postfoundational epistemological position that knowledge is context-dependent, I argued that it is fruitful to analyse the discursively constructed knowledge as the product of processes of negotiation among the collaborating researchers (university researchers and practitioners), rather than treating the knowledge output as independent of, and detached from, the context in which it is produced.

Those processes of negotiation can be understood as an integral part of collaborative research as a social practice belonging to a general shift to dialogue, whereby university researchers engage in processes of co-production with diverse social actors in order to satisfy the supposed requirements of the “knowledge economy” for knowledge that can contribute to economic growth and social and technological innovation. The practical orientation of the

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project—with its thrust towards producing knowledge that is useful for both university researchers and practitioners—exerts influence on the nature of the knowledge produced.

One can then ask the question, in what particular ways do the discourses identified delimit the production of knowledge on virtual worlds? What discourses that produce alternative knowledge and identities are marginalised or excluded? The answers to the questions can be used to further ongoing research, both within the project and in other studies. To address these questions, the different constructions of Second Life identified herein can be related to other ways of giving meaning to Second Life produced in other research projects. The focus here in this instance can be on the special characteristics that are ascribed to Second Life as a distinctive space for social interaction and on what are defined as the possibilities and limitations of that space with respect to user-driven innovation. Above, for example, I have pointed out that a situated, partisan discourse whereby the researchers position themselves as engaged useranalysts of, and advocates for, Second Life is prevalent not just in the research project but across the field of research on virtual worlds. The example given was the article by Nesson and Nesson (2008), in which they formulate their article as an argument in favour of virtual worlds, and provide support to their argument in the form of detailed empirical analysis of the use of Second Life in a particular educational initiative. Another example is Gordon and Koo (2008) who argue that ”the immersive, playful and social qualities (of Second Life are) uniquely appropriate to engage people in dialogue about their communities”.

My point here is not that the advocacy for Second Life and other virtual worlds inherent in research on virtual worlds is necessarily problematic in itself. A basic sympathy for virtual worlds is in line with the practical orientation of many of the research projects (including the one analysed in this paper), whereby a key goal is to produce insights that can be harnessed to further the practices of virtual worlds. However, unacknowledged advocacy is problematic. It is important – in order for that research to be critical – for researchers to take a reflexive stance and consider the implications of this partisan promotion of virtual worlds for the production of research about virtual worlds and for knowledge production processes in virtual worlds. A reflexive consideration of those implications can form the basis for opening up for other ways of understanding and acting as researchers and users in relation to virtual worlds – ways of understanding that may be innovative and may lead to innovative practices in virtual worlds.

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

My Second Life as a Cyber Border Crosser Carleen D. Sanchez University of Nebraska-Lincoln, United States Abstract This article explores Chicana (Mexican-American woman) experiences of being a cyber border crosser â&#x20AC;&#x201C; someone of both and neither real life and Second Life. The presumption and privilege of whiteness as the foundation of Second Life is seen to limit participation of people of color. Further, I write against the notion that cyber worlds provide transcendence from the limitations of the non-normative body. Second Life and official Linden discourse are devoid of references to race, ethnicity, disability, or any other type of salient identity that might interfere with Linden Labâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision of a perfect world.

Indeed, there is a pervasive blindness to color which has negative rather than positive effects for people of color. As long as SL persists mostly as an entertainment platform, the larger SL population may not consider the lack of interest by people of color anything to be concerned about. However, the SL grid will continue to grow and engage with educational and commercial operations that will desire the participation and economic resources of people of color. The issue that needs to be addressed now is will the borders that limit users of color be build up or knocked down?

Keywords: Second Life; race; ethnicity; gender This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Cyber Border Crosser

My Second Life as a Cyber Border Crosser Carleen D. Sanchez University of Nebraska-Lincoln, United States

Overhead blimp: A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies, the chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure. New climate, recreation facilities...

(Blade Runner 1982) Second Life is an online 3D virtual world imagined and designed by you. From the moment you enter Second Life, you'll discover a universe brimming with people and possibilities. . . Enter a world with infinite possibilities and live a life without boundaries, guided only by your imagination. Do what you love, with the people you love, from anywhere in the world.

(What is Second Life? Second Life Website) Introduction As noted by Boellstorff (2008, p. 144), issues of race and ethnicity have been underresearched and under-theorized regarding cyberspace and virtual worlds, and, Second Life is a place where race happens (Nakamura, 2002, p. xi). The development of Second Life has allowed participants to engage in fantastical as well as banal social interactions through new technologies once heralded as the antidote to the ills of the post industrial age. Options abound in Second Life for “trying on” new identities as easily as trying on new clothing – seemingly without experiencing the consequences of violating social propriety. Yet virtual worlds are constructed out of the cultural and historical templates already in existence and thus replicate relations of power that mirror those found in the real world. As a creative construct, Second Life emanates out of a political economy and cultural milieu based on a Eurocentric model of the world (Blaut, 1993) that privileges a limited set of subjectivities.

Consequently, there has been a tendency to conceive of virtual worlds as largely under the purview of whites; white is, therefore, the “default” assumption unless otherwise indicated (Boellstorff, 2008, p. 144). Yet, as Cornel West (2001) has demonstrated, race does matter, even in virtual worlds. Similarly, Anzaldúa (2007), and Moraga and Anzaldúa (2002) have theorized the borderlands inhabited by Chicanas (i.e., Mexican American women) as a means to call attention to the rich terrain of cultural production that is otherwise neglected by mainstream society and feminism. Life on the racial and ethnic margins presents myriad obstacles, difficulties, and stereotypes that must be overcome for participants to become fully enfranchised cyber-world beings. As a Chicana engaged in Second Life I have found that cyber border crossings are as salient as crossing the very real borders of nations, and of race/ethnicity, gender, and class. The primary border to be crossed is between real life and Second Life. While no passport is required, passage into SL requires cultural, technological, and financial capital that is concentrated in the hands of white, educated, middle class people.

My experience in SL has demonstrated that avatars of color experience harassment, verbal abuse, marginalization, and cyber violence in the form of shoving and ejection. These experiences were disturbingly borne out by Mohammed (2009) when her avatar was “killed”

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while wearing a hijab. While Castronova (2003, p. 2) indicates that “avatars can be seen as bundles of attributes,” avatars of color are identified by their “phenotype” created through the conscious efforts of the user rather than genetics. Visible markers of race and ethnicity are reflected in skin color, hair styles, wardrobe, and body shape. Performing race and ethnicity complicates avatar identity in that individuals can choose to embody their actual racial/ethnic identity or engage in racial “tourism” by “passing” as a member of a different group (Nakamura, 2002). As such, cyberspace is perceived as a postracial location (Boellstorff, 2008) and performing race/ethnicity is an option open to any player. What is not widely acknowledged, however, is that white privilege allows white players to engage the virtual world without the need to be cognizant of underlying racist tropes that permeate real and virtual life. This privilege is not, however, equally open to women of color unless we construct avatars that can “pass.” In this article, I will explore the way that race and ethnicity intersect with gender as a woman of color that engages in various Second Life activities. By relying on the work of critical race theorists, feminist borderlands theorists, and postcolonial theory I will examine Second Life to reflect on the degree to which the color line and ethnic boundaries are replicated in virtual settings.

Envisioning the Virtual In the cyber-noir film Blade Runner, earth is a wasteland occupied by extinct animal species replaced by genetically manufactured copies as well as humans that are unable to qualify as off-world colonists. As a dystopian view of a future in Los Angeles, Ridley Scott projected a decadent and decaying society comprised of non-whites and other socially marginal groups (e.g., Goths, Hare Krishnas) that merely exist while entropy degrades culture and language into a patois of Chinese, Spanish, German, and English. Those members of society that are not the “little people” are signposted in the film primarily by their whiteness. Escape from the nightmare that earth had become was possible through emigration to off-world colonies;: new lands that offered opportunities and adventure. Dystopic science fiction of this nature reflects anxieties that whites experience today in reaction to contemporary shifts in US demography, politics, and perceived eclipses in the global arena.

Second Life, however, is more commonly associated with ideas set forth in Neal Stephenson's novel, Snow Crash (1992). Also principally set in Los Angeles, Snow Crash concerns the lives of people that move in and out of a three dimensional virtual metaverse within which their avatars are able to club, conduct commerce, and even “die” in combat. As in Blade Runner, the Los Angeles of Snow Crash reflects a dystopian view of a society broken down under the anarchy of unrestrained neo-liberal capitalism. Pizza delivery joints are run by the Mafia; the most dangerous man in the world is an Aleut assassin leading a floating refugee city towards the Pacific Coast of the former USA. The main character, Hiro Protagonist, is a racial/ethnic hybrid: half Korean and half African American. Evocative in its elaboration of a virtual world wherein nearly anything is possible, Snow Crash itself crashed out of the constraint of the printed word and became the inspiration for the development of computer based virtual reality.

Similarly, The Matrix relies on notions in its portrayal of a ravaged world in which humans live plugged into a virtual reality that keeps them enslaved to extract electricity from

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their bodies for use by their robotic masters. Those humans that have awakened and been ejected from the (in-script) matrix include a rag-tag ensemble of racially/ethnically diverse people. Indeed, the film Matrix III focuses on the protection of “Zion” an underworld community of hybrid, multi-ethnic people that look to Neo, the “One” for salvation. Again, whiteness and multi-ethnicity are underlying aspects of the characters that populate Matrix III and “reality.”

With this very brief synopsis of these significant works of cyber fiction I wish to draw attention to the fact that for many, the imagined future and cyber worlds are constituted as places signified by the presence of non-white, hybrid, and defective peoples. In these dystopias, whiteness is used to mark superior beings (e.g., Deckard and the Replicants of Blade Runner, and the Agents of the Matrix franchise but, these representations of whiteness are those left behind – simulacra of real whites that have either left earth or no longer control what is left of earth. Imagery of this type serves as a cautionary tale of what unrestrained miscegenation might produce – a world out of control (of whites).

In contrast, the creators of Second Life organized their virtual world as a utopia; a place where individuals are free to do and be as they wish. “. . . we’re building a new world” (Guest, 2007, p. 60). Significantly, Second Life and official Linden discourse are devoid of references to race, ethnicity, disability, or any other type of salient identity that might interfere with Linden Lab’s vision of a perfect world. Indeed, there is a pervasive blindness to color which has negative rather than positive effects for people of color. This (color) blind spot is so ingrained that demographic profiles for Second Life and other virtual worlds provide little more than age and gender breakdowns (e.g., Spence, 2008). As a result, it is not possible to know the ethnic or racial background of virtual world residents (although it is possible to break down participation by nation or language). Yet the primary message about avatars in Second Life is that choices abound that allow residents to create, consume, and engage in almost any activity as long as it doesn’t violate the terms of agreement (Rymaszewski, et. al, 2008). The ideal of a new world where new relationships and a new social order is reflected in the statement “This time, though, our new lands have no indigenous inhabitants to dispute our claim to the territory. Virtual worlds are empty except for us, and are shaped entirely to our desires” (Guest, 2007, p. 6). No more messy business of colonization – that project has been completed. But we do take our colonial attitudes into virtual worlds with us.

3 D(ementia-nal) Living “Your avatar choices say a lot about who you are . . .” (Rymaszewski, et. al, 2008, p. 10) My Second Life began on October 25, 2008. After more than a year of residence in SL, my avatar has settled into a very specific look and routine. She is humanoid, female and bears some physical resemblance to me. However, in real life the markers of my identity as a Chicana are significantly more apparent than in Second Life. For Latinos, who are classified on the basis of ethnicity rather than race, group identity is constructed out of a complex integration of shared history, language, ancestry, culture, geography, and religion. This complex mosaic of culture and history is difficult to encapsulate into a singular visual representative that can be read and

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comprehended by other residents. Further, there are aspects of Second Life that hinder Latina identity construction.

First, Second Life surnames are “preordained” – that is, Linden Lab requires new residents to select a surname from an established menu during identity creation. However, nonwhite “ethnic” surnames are conspicuously absent from the menu. Available surnames have included: Alex, Lamplight, Wardell, Oximoxi, Rembrandt, Sandalwood, Slavicz, Maesar, Leborski, and a variety of nonsense names and random juxtapositions of letters. Names almost entirely reflect American, European, or white identities. I was not able to find a name to convey my Latina background. A limited range of surnames illustrates what I consider is Linden Lab’s illusion of choice.

Finding an appropriate “skin” also proved to be a challenge. The majority of offerings in terms of skin tone reflect the dominant US binary racial classification system (black or white).

One of the first tasks in the transition from newbie to more sophisticated resident involves skin upgrading. In my searches for a skin authentic to my aesthetic, I was frustrated to find that skins might come in different tones, but features are nearly uniformly “Barbie doll” white or stereotypically “black.” Latina, mestiza, and Indigenous appearing skins are sorely lacking. I was able to locate a “Frida Kahlo” skin (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Frida Kahlo Skin by Brazen Women Given that she is so very iconic, a Frida skin can really only be worn by a Frida personifier. There is one store, Brazen Women, that offers “older” skins, but skin color and shape fall into the black/white binary. A likely response from a Linden or other SL advocate would be that anyone can create the items one needs in Second Life. Of course this presupposes the ability to design and create. Second Life, based as it is on consumerist capitalism responds to market demands. The lack of items resonant with Latina/Chicana culture and phenotype (of which there are many) may indicate a limited participation by Latinas in SL. As a result, as I engage in SL, I experience a tangible erasure of being. Who I am seems difficult to replicate in Second Life. Since I cannot adequately signify who I am, I experience 7

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the psychosis of being an interloper, an impostor. These feelings are similar to Chicana/Latina real life experiences – particularly that of not belonging. As a cyber border crosser, I experience the ambivalence of not being of here nor there as Anzlaldúa (1999, p. 99-113) and Moraga (2002, p. 24-33) wrote about living in the real world. Entering into SL creates a distortion, a type of cognitive dissonance since one’s identity as a woman of color is largely invisible, suppressed, neglected, or erased. As a cyber border crosser I may be able to move fluidly across the socially constructed and binding boundaries of race, ethnicity, and gender. But the more important question is, do I want to? As in my first life, my Second Life leaves much to be desired. The perpetual immersion in a white oriented world wears upon the psyche. My Chicana self often looks not for escape in exotic vacations, but rather trips “back home” to the comfort of family, food, traditions, and raza-ness. Second Life, then, fails to meet my needs for “escape.” I believe that this is an important distinction, and one that bell hooks reflects on in belonging: a culture of place (2009). hooks reminisces about Kentucky, the home place in the hills outside of the everyday indignities of racism, segregation, and humiliation. Likewise, I associate escape with returning home where I can relax away from the scrutiny of white dominated society.

Second Life strikes my curiosity, meets my need for debate and discussion in Socrates Café or Philosophy Island. I have enjoyed explorations and dancing the night away in techno clubs. But these are proxies for opportunities lost when I moved from the fast paced living of Los Angeles to the Midwest. Additionally, as a Latina with a significant amount of international travelling under her belt, I find tourist sims to be sterile and made to appeal to the timid American traveler too afraid to actually engage with the dirt, poverty, and reality of non-western settings.

Finding communities of color in SL Second Life is known amongst virtual world cognoscenti as a place where members of non-mainstream groups can find similarly like minded people. The most notable communities are the Furry (avatars that dress/play as animals) and Gorean (Dom/Sub play) groups. Second Life has literally given new life to these rather underground real life micro-cultures. While in world sexual minorities are able to enjoy sex play and community secure in the anonymity of the platform.

My search for groups based on racial or ethnic identities has not been successful. A search did reveal more than 360 individuals that used Chicana, Chicano, Latina, or Latino as a first name. In this way, some residents explicitly signify their ethnicity through naming. For Latinos, who can be of any racial group, phenotype is a poor marker of ethnic identity. In the real world, Latino identities are conveyed by language, behavior, social networks, kinship, and— to a lesser degree—physical appearance. Interestingly, the one Latino community I was able to find was the Furry Latino group which had 242 members in January 2010. What had originally brought this group together was identification primarily as furry, and secondarily as Latino.

Linden Lab does not record demographic information regarding resident/user race or ethnicity. Interestingly, gender and age categories are considered relevant data points to gather.

Indeed, Second Life: The Official Guide (Rymaszewski, et. al, 2008, p. 86) light-heartedly revealed that many men have female avatars in SL. It has reported that a good percentage of female avatars are animated by men. This is seen as a good thing – a means for men to explore their femininity. Shopping in Second Life is certainly a more female oriented activity. There is a wider range of skins, clothes, and accessories for females than for males.

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But as has been pointed out already, references to race or ethnicity are seemingly taboo.

The official guide to SL offers “not to be missed” hotspot recommendations (Rymaszewski, et. al, 2008, p. 38-63) and a sample list of communities (p. 44-45). However, none of these communities is organized around shared ethnic, cultural, or racial identities. Second Life does boast sims and even regions dedicated to non-English speakers, but these are base on national or linguistic terms such as Mainland Brazil or areas where German, Korean, Japanese, and Spanish speakers can congregate. This is an aspect of a globalizing market that must be attractive for Linden Lab to explore. However, national identities or regions for specific language speakers do not address issues of race and ethnicity in the overall US conceptualization of this virtual world.

In terms of studying race, ethnicity, gender, and other “invisible” identities within Second Life, proxy measures are required. One must rely on avatar “phenotype” (physical features) and other markers such as clothing, hair, and accessories (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Black Male Avatars The difficulty here though, is discerning whether the person behind the avatar is acting out a desire to inhabit the body of a different race or is in fact performing his/her actual identity.

Since SL is populated by every variety of avatars, it can be difficult to determine what motivates users’ choices. I have found that many Black female avatar bodies are highly sexualized and eroticized aspects (Figure 3).

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Figure 3: Eroticized Blackness Anecdotally, it appears that the more sexualized the body, the less likely the user is black or female. Avatars of this type recall blackface performance; whites are able to enact their projected fears and desires to control the exotic female other in a socially sanctioned performance space called Second Life.

In my travels through SL, I have met avatars designed to reflect the real life identities of their users. For example, at Virtual Native Lands the Director is Nany Kayo, an enrolled Cherokee (her profile states “Cherokee by blood, by custom, by law, and by choice”).

Latino-ness is represented by a few sims such as Visit Mexico Second Life Ruta Maya and the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum. Both, however, seem to be largely oriented towards attracting non-Latino residents. Visit Mexico Second Life Ruta Maya recreates popular tourist attractions such as Chichén Itzá, Palenque, and colonial Campeche. Created by the Mexican Tourism Board, this sim provides residents the opportunity to engage in virtual tourism “without the cost of staying in a hotel” (Second Life Update.com). More importantly, cyber tourism offers travel without the inconveniences of interactions with real Mexicans. There are no children hawking cheap souvenirs, linguistic barriers, or concerns about “Montezuma’s revenge”. Instead, all is provided for the virtual tourist including cyber stereotyping that allows visitors the comfort of their xenophobic knowledge base (Figure 4).

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Figure 4: Virtual Sombrero in Virtual Mexico Virtual Mexico also provides entirely inauthentic “authentic” Maya costumes that avatars can wear as they explore. However, these costumes rely on the trope of Indian as savage – accessories include a spear and feathered headdress (Figure 5). Equally jarring is the audio tour with the voice of a woman with a British accent!

Figure 5: “Savage Indian” Costumes for Avatar Tourists

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The Fantasy of Transcendence Some have argued that virtual worlds such as Second Life allow individuals to transcend the physical limitations of the body (Jones, 2006, p. 3, Guest, 2007, p. 114). One can style an avatar into any shape, size, or creature (anything from aliens to velociraptors). Transcendence, however, is an unrecognized privilege of whiteness, heteronormativity, ableness, and even perhaps gender. For residents that enjoy white privilege, this transcendence allows them to play out fantasies of performing the other. I have met “Orientalized” avatars manipulated by white users. In this way, whites can dress and act out according to their romanticized notions of ethnicity. They transcend their whiteness by appropriating the phenotype, dress, and stereotyped behaviors of non-whites.

For people of color, however, the notion of transcendence is awkward and problematic.

Jones (2009, p. 4) suggests that Second Life is attractive to individuals that wish to be free from social and physical limitations of the body limited by ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and other markings. Boler argues that computer-mediated communication, while offering the hope of disembodiment, actually “re-invoke(s) stereotypical notions of racialized, sexualized and gendered bodies” (2007, p. 140). Similarly, I question whether those of us with non-normative bodies desire to be set free from these so-called limitations. Do we really want to transcend our racial/ethnic identities? Do we desire the ability to “pass”? Is the fantasy of transcendence real?

Do people of color really feel that we want to transcend the body or do we merely desire to transcend the privilege attached to whiteness? As the experience of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates indicates, people of color are subject to greater surveillance, racial profiling, and racist commentary in everyday real life (Antonovics and Knight, 2009; Kivel, 2002; Murcchetti, 2005). Due to institutionalized racism, skin color itself has been criminallized (Harris, 2002, p.

224) and the costs take a heavy psychological and physical toll (Kivel, 2002). For Gates— arrested for disorderly conduct on his own property—neither fame, status, class, nor his gender mitigated the humiliation perpetrated on him by the police, community, and media. Entry into the upper echelons of US society still remains contingent upon factors outside the control of the individual. Be this as it may, individuals that must endure the threat and fear of racist, sexist, or homophobic assault, do not necessarily wish they could change their state of being.

I contend that for users of color there are opportunities to play with identity by performing whiteness, fantasy creatures, other genders, etc. However, assuming that virtual worlds allow us to transcend the limitations of the body assumes that our bodies are the problem.

For people of color, our bodies are not the problem, rather a history of racism, prejudice, discrimination, colonialism, and oppression is what we wish to overcome. The subtext of transcendence is that white is the norm and that given the opportunity, anyone can engage in SL without the problem of being recognized as colored by look, dialect or dress. The fantasy of transcendence is little more than the colonialist desire to remake the colonized in the image of their white masters.

Transcendence is also problematic in the sense that it offers the opportunity for whites to transcend their perceived lack of ethnic identity and adopt for a day the experiences of people of color. However, should a white user performing blackness with a black avatar experience racism or harassment, he or she can easily shed this other skin and return to the safety of whiteness. For users of color, however, authentic renditions of themselves via avatars means potential exposure to racism and harassment. If I have no desire for whiteness then I must face the consequences of choosing not to transcend.

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The subtext conveyed is that people living “defective lives” can be freed through technology and virtual living within Second Life. Similarly, poverty, issues of computer access, and the need for technical competency are not addressed. Second Life is in many ways a virtual gated-community that protects a cyber-suburbia from direct interface with marked and marginalized real bodies. Yet, for the “ethnic curious” (akin to being “bi-curious”) whites can presume to experience, for example, blackness with virtual bling or play out fantasies of being an exotic erotic Asian automaton. Should the experience prove too real or too uncomfortable, escape is a quick avatar appearance edit away. But for users that must continually be hyper vigilant within white patriarchal capitalist sexist society (bell hooks), no easy edit exists. But the question is can a woman of color present her authentic self through performance of an avatar in Second Life? Second Life does present opportunities for some marginalized or poorly understood micro-cultures to play and interact with relative freedom (e.g., furries, Goreans, etc.).

However, these identities are not tied to racialized stereotypes that are part of one’s physical being. Second Life is a controlled and contained environment where racial and ethnic identities may well be construed as dangerous to the “public” good.

As there are currently no off-world colonies to escape to, people that have become weary of the ennui of the daily grind can enter into a perpetually clean world. For many residents, places such as Second Life provide order and safety from a chaotic world (Guest, 2007, p. 76).

What would such residents be willing to do or do without to guarantee the illusion of order?

Social order is maintained to a degree by adherence to informal rules of “SLettiquette.” One SLettiquette rule states “Just like in first life, no one with self-respect likes a badgering beggar.”

Code for no panhandlers, please! Through the deployment of polite language and an ethos of “just get alonged-ness” Second Life has literally and virtually eliminated the inconvenience of stepping over the undeserving poor. This is but one example of the types of social discomforts that are not allowed in Second Life. Behaviors that infringe upon other people’s enjoyment of the SL are designated as griefing and carry the potential punishment of perpetual banishment.

If we build it, will they come?

Audre Lorde in “The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House” (2002) argued against mere tolerance of difference. At the time she was speaking out against mainstream feminists regarding Black women and Lesbians of Color as afterthoughts . . . literally the last point on the agenda. Similarly, any social project that seeks to be liberatory cannot relegate minorities, and especially women of color, to the margins. If we seek to create new worlds in virtual environments, we must fashion such places with new tools and new perspectives. Certainly in the realm of technology, Linden Lab and other developers of virtual reality have made the speculative fiction of the past into today’s (virtual realty). However, given that the developers employed the old tools of the Master – capitalist based, gender neutralized, and from a predominantly (although not necessarily conscious) white perspective the final product is a world that negates difference because it is too difficult for whites to deal with.

Mohammed (2009, p. 9) advocates the creation of educational materials within SL as a means to apply a “negotiation rather than negation” approach to teach cultural/religious understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim residents. Certainly, increased participation by diverse peoples through the creation of sims, educational endeavors, gatherings, and discussion groups holds significant potential for making non-western, minority, and differently constituted

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people visible within SL. However, this raises the question; if such venues for learning about difference are created, will residents avail themselves of such opportunities?

Examples of educational sims for the dissemination of cultural information include Virtual Native Lands and the Smithsonian Virtual Latino Museum (SVLM). Opened in March 2009, the SVLM required major financial and labor commitments to integrate online museum collection materials with the sim build. The resulting product is of high quality and caters to a wide range of interests. One may spend quite a bit of time examining the various exhibits; clicking on artifacts or panels will link directly to digital archives, sound files, and images. This is an excellent museum with great educational potential. From it’s official opening through January 2010, there have been more than 12,000 visitors. Over the course of 2009, the SVLM had the greatest number of visits in April (3106, average of 103 per day) and the fewest in December (339, average of 7.3 per day), while visits were high in November (likely corresponding to Day of the Dead activities that were advertised both in- and out-world). By comparison, about 30 million people visited SI museums and the national zoo in 2009 (Smithsonian Institute, 2009, p. 9), averaging more than 80,000 people per day. Daily visits to Second Life average around 50,000. This does not indicate that the SVLM is an unsuccessful project.

Visits to Virtual Native Lands, a sim that offers accurate visual and textual information on American Indians also seem light. The website for VNL states that it “promotes the use of emerging Internet technologies to create and sustain Native American culture.” Similar to VNL is an educational project developed with the USC Annenberg School for Communication Network Culture Project. The project developed in response to “harmful misrepresentations of Native Americans in Second Life” (Mayo, 2009, p. 22). The current director of the project— Nany Kayo—has set up VNL as a non-profit educational project designed to serve several needs.

I communicated with Nany in VNL in October 2009. Nany took time out of her busy schedule to talk about plans for the upcoming Day of the Dead festivities in coordination with the SVLM. It was clear from our discussion that Nany is a hands on SL creator with a passion for the work she is engaged in. According to Nany VNL is the only sim in Second Life created by an authentic American Indian. This is an important aspect of the sim. Nany notes that some residents claim to be Native, profit from such claims, but perpetuate stereotypes about Indians in negative ways (Mayo, 2009, p. 23-24). Future plans include collaboration with a Native American college.

From VNL, one can teleport to a mall to buy items from Native American creators such as realistic skins, authentic clothing, and household items. At this mall commerce provides opportunity for education. Visitors can view posters critical of “Caucasian Fantasy,” the appropriation of Indian culture in ways that reinforce negative stereotypes of Native peoples (Figure 6).

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Figure 6: Caucasian Fantasy Will there be white flight from Second Life?

If, as I have suggested, Second Life is similar to a gated community keeping the riff-raff out, what will happen when the gates break down? Currently, gate keeping in Second Life is accomplished by external cultural, economic, and social factors that limit accessibility by women, people of color, the poor, and people with disabilities. While there are certainly increasing numbers of people crossing over the digital divide, what will be the results of greater influxes of the multitudes? Will more and more SL residents opt for creating barriers between themselves and perceived others? Currently, privacy is maintained by fences and ejection bots.

Will segregation be the result of a multiculturalized Second Life?

In world, conduct is regulated by the terms of agreement and SLettiquite. The overriding desire for SL by Linden Lab and the majority of residents is a calm, tranquil virtual life where one is free to engage in the 3Cs: commerce, combat or consensual sex. But, if SL is like RL, can social movements, protest, political action, and even affirmative action take root? If I am offended by a grotesquely stereotypical racist/sexist avatar – do I have recourse? The answer, at this point is yes and no. Since SL is a privately owned, corporate venture that individuals opt into, then anyone who encounters difficulties is free to leave. Abuse reports can be filed, but there is no guarantee that Linden Labs can or will take action. Abuse that occurs in private sims are regulated by covenants and may not be punishable.

Au (2006) recounts the experiences of Erica, a woman that spent a month modeling her friend’s black skin, who was completely surprised and outraged by the treatment she received as a black woman. Yet, she did not report the abuse, since there are "Better things for Lindens to worry about." This is white privilege in operation – the ability to walk away from racism (Kivel 2002). The subtext is really that she (as a phenotypical blonde in RL and SL) had more 15

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important issues to deal with than challenging racist discourse within SL. For residents and avatars of color, however, the choices are more problematic. One can choose to perform whiteness in Second Life, as two of Erica’s Black friends do (Au, 2006). Or, one can perform as a woman of color and be prepared for racist/sexist treatment, or leave Second Life behind.

Methal Mohammed’s (2009) experience of being singled out and killed without warning in SL was so disconcerting that she did not return to SL for two months. Further, she became concerned the same could occur in real life.

The anonymous nature of Second Life offers people myriad opportunities to explore new skins, new behaviors, and new relationships. This is a positive aspect of virtual world living.

However, a negative aspect of anonymity is that racist, sexist, and other hurtful actions can take place with the victim having little recourse. Abuse reports can be made, but in the immediate moment, avatars of color may be so shocked by the attack that they fail to take down information. Regardless of what actions Linden Lab might take against abusers, once a resident has experienced abuse he or she may simply decide to not engage in SL again. As long as SL persists mostly as an entertainment platform, the larger SL population may not consider the lack of interest by people of color anything to be concerned about. However, the SL grid will continue to grow and engage with educational and commercial operations that will desire the participation and economic resources of people of color. The issue that needs to be addressed now is will the borders that limit users of color be build up or knocked down?

“Within the interdependence of mutual (nondominant) differences lies that security which enables us to descend into the chaos of knowledge and return with true visions of our future, along with the concomitant power to effect those changes which can bring that future into being. Difference is that raw and powerful connection from which our personal power is forged.”

Audre Lorde (2002)

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Bibliography Antonovics, K and B. G. Knight (2009). A New Look at Racial Profiling: Evidence from the Boston Police Department. Review of Economics and Statistics 91(1): 163-177.

Anzaldúa, G. (1999). Borderlands/La Frontera. The New Mestiza: Second Edition. San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books.

Au, W. (2006) The Skin You’re In. New World Notes. Retrieved January 21, 2010, from http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2006/02/the_skin_youre_.html.

Blaut, J.M.(1993). The Colonizer’s Model of the World: Geographical Diffusionism and Eurocentric History. New York, NY : The Guilford Press.

Boellstorff, T. (2008). Coming of age in Second Life: an anthropologist explores the virtual human. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Boler, M. (2007). Hypes, hopes and actualities: new digital Cartesianism and bodies in cyberspace. New Media and Society, vol. 9(1) 129-168.

Castronova, E. (2003). The price of Man’ and ‘Woman’: A hedonic pricing model of avatar attributes in a synthetic world. Cesifo Working Paper No. 957, pp 1-45.

Guest, T. (2007). Second Lives: a journey through vitual worlds. New York, NY: Random House.

Harris, D. (2002). Profiles in Injustice: Why Police Profiling Cannot Work. New York: The New Press. hooks, b. (2009). Belonging: a culture of place. New York, NY: Routledge.

Jones, D. (2006). “I, Avatar: Constructions of Self and Place in Second Life and the Technological Imagination.” Gnovis, vol 6 (2006), Retrieved January 15, 2010, from http://gnovisjournal.org/files/Donald-E-Jones-I-Avatar.pdf Kivel, P. (2002). Uprooting Racism: how white people can work for racial justice, revised edition. Gabriola Island, B.C., Canada: New Society Publishers.

SLetiquette (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2010. http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SLetiquette Lorde, A. (2002). The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House. In This Bridge Called my Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, ed. by C. Moraga and G. Anzaldua, pp. 106-109. Berkeley, CA: Third Woman Press.

Mayo, C. (2009). Native Intelligence. Prim Perfect vol. 19: 22-24.

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Moraga, C. (2002). La Güera. In This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, ed. by Moraga, C. and G. Anzaldúa, eds. Berkeley, CA: Third Woman Press.

Mucchetti , A. (2005) Driving While Brown: A Proposal for Ending Racial Profiling in Emerging Latino Communities.

Harvard Latino Law Review Vol. 8. http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/llr/vol8/, accessed January 15, 2010.

Nakamura, L. (2002) Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York, NY: Routledge.

Rymaszewski, M, et. al (2008). Second Life: The Official Guide, second edition. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing.

Scott, R., Director (1997) Blade Runner (Director’s cut) 1982. DVD Warner Home Video.

Second Life Update.com (2009). Visit Chichén Itzá Mexico in Second Life – Travel to Yucatan Peninsula Virtual World.

Retrieved on January 15, 2010 from http://www.secondlifeupdate.com/virtual-world-experiences/visit-chichen-itza-mexicoin-second-life-travel-to-yucatan-peninsula-virtual-world/.

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Life wiki (n.d.) Wikipedia, Retrieved on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life#cite_note-35.

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15,

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Smithsonian Institute (2009). Detailed Performance Data Report, Fiscal Year 2000, Retrieved January 31, 2010, from http://www.si.edu/about/policies/documents/FY2009-DetailedPerformance.pdf.

Spence, J. (2008). Demographics of Virtual Worlds. Virtual Worlds Research 1(2).

Stephenson, N. (1992). Snow Crash. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

Wachowski, A. and L Wachowski, Directors(2007). The Matrix. DVD Warner Home Video West, C. (2001). Race Matters. New York, NY: Vintage Books.

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

Second Life Unplugged: A Design for Fostering At-risk Students' STEM Agency

By Sneha Veeragoudar Harrell TERC Education Research Collaborative, United States Dor Abrahamson University of California, Berkeley, United States Abstract At an alternative high school serving predominantly at-risk underrepresented students evicted from mainstream education, we designed and implemented Fractal Village, a critical-constructionist computational and mathematical pedagogy learning environment. Fractal Village, instantiated in the virtual world "Second Life," constituted an empirical environment to research our emergent model of mathematical/computational agency (m/c) as well as an intervention aiming to foster such agency. Key research objectives were to: (1) study relations amongst cognitive, affective, material, technological, and social factors that would contribute to individual development of m/c agency; and (2) delineate design principles for fostering m/c agency. The student cohort engaged collaboratively in virtual world imaginative construction activities each manifesting generative themes (Freire, 1968), to which the designers-as-teachers tailored mathematical and computer-science concepts, such that students appropriated the STEM content apropos of tackling their own emergent construction problems. We argue that to build agency, students must develop both skills and dispositionsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a spiraling inter-constructive growthâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and articulate a developing methodology for fostering agency development. We conclude that we can, and must, engage at-risk youth by helping them to build STEM-oriented identities, engaging their a priori m/c agency, and customizing skills and dispositions-related classroom discursive supports.

Keywords: youth; virtual worlds; pedagogy; STEM This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Second Life Unplugged

Fractal Village Unplugged: Design-Based Research On Computing with Marginalized Youth

By Sneha Veeragoudar Harrell TERC Education Research Collaborative, United States Dor Abrahamson University of California, Berkeley, United States Overview and Theoretical Background It is every educator’s aspiration that students become powerful agents in their own learning by adapting, transforming, and applying knowledge in the pursuit of change they want to see within themselves and the world. Herein we report on a design-based research study that investigated the nature and conditions for the development of mathematical and computational (m/c) agency. Veeragoudar Harrell (2007) proposed and studied a model of m/c agency that is comprised of the following six interacting factors characterizing aspects of individual students’ knowledge, skills, and psychological and social inclinations: a. Availability of mathematical concepts, such as definitions and formulae, in the personal knowledge-base repertory b. Ability to select and apply appropriate mathematical procedures during inquiry, proof, and problem solving (Collins & Ferguson, 1993; Schoenfeld, 1985) c. Personal positioning with respect to the practice of mathematical reasoning, both in terms of identification as a mathematics learner and doer (Cobb & Hodge, 2002; Nasir, 2002; Lee, 2003) and within the socio-cultural context of mathematical practice, such as a one-to-one tutoring session, whole class discussion, or small group project (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Yackel & Cobb, 1996) d. Affective disposition toward mathematics content and mathematical practices, e.g., toward explorative modeling-based mathematical problem solving e. Fluency in mathematical literacy, broadly perceived, and knowledge of privileged mathematical discourse norms, e.g., ability to articulate one’s reasoning using a mathematics ‘register,’ generating normative mathematical inscriptions and artifacts in so doing (Balacheff, 1999; diSessa, 2000; Ernest, 1998; Mahiri, 2004) f. Facility (cognitive, affective) in appropriating personally new semiotic means, e.g., diagrams or innovative computer-based tools, (Vygotsky 1978/1930).

We will use a series of diagrams of increasing complexity to illustrate the study’s progress from the development of the above hypothetical model of m/c agency through empirical evaluation of that model in a real-world setting (see Figure 1, below).

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Figure 1. Agency Development Model: M/C agency factors as theoretical design resource.

Our two research questions straddle theory and practice. The theory-oriented research question is: What are the relations amongst cognitive, affective, material, technological, and social factors apparently contributing to m/c agency? The practice-oriented research question is: What are the design principles that help foster m/c agency development?

In order to create an empirical setting for investigation of these research questions, we searched for a medium that would provide space sequestered from real-world contexts, including any personal inhibitions students might have—a space that would provide opportunity for powerful identity transformations and potentially develop students’ mathematical and computational literacy. We chose a digital environment called Teen Second Life (TSL), a proprietary virtual 3D world owned by Linden Laboratories (Linden_Research, 2007). Within TSL, we designed and implemented Fractal Village (Veeragoudar Harrell & Abrahamson, 2007), a 3D virtual island in which students could construct personae of their own making and build imaginative artifacts through a programming interface.

The construction and facilitation of Fractal Village was inspired by the proposed slogan Critical-Constructionist-Computational literacy, a blend of the critical-pedagogy vision of Paulo Freire (1973), the constructionist pedagogical philosophy of Seymour Papert (1980, 1991), and the vision that computational literacy will one day be as widespread and important as textual literacy (diSessa, 2000).

Central to our approach is the Freirean concept of dialogic education, by which teacher and student share ideas “horizontally” (not hierarchically) with mutual trust, and knowledge and understanding are seen as emergent and transformational (as opposed to static and conventional). Accordingly, we worked with students to identify generative themes— central productions of dialogic education consisting of aspirations, motives, and objectives, rooted in temporal–spatial conditions of the students (Freire, 1973), albeit with the understanding that such themes are dynamic. Through constructionist activities, we aimed to

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create opportunities for students to develop mathematical reasoning skills and computational literacy as they engage the generative themes.

Veeragoudar Harrell’s (2007) emergent view of STEM agency should be viewed as operationalizing the application of critical-constructionist pedagogy to students’ STEM learning. This m/c agency model spells out the six factors discussed above that are pertinent to individual students’ agency in a situated mathematics-problem-solving context. In turn, this model informs design decisions on the iterative development of Fractal Village.

Stemming from a framework in which critical pedagogy and constructionism are jointly applied to STEM content, the following pedagogical commitments informed the design of an instructional intervention to foster mathematical and computational agency: (1) engage generative themes (Freire, 1973); (2) develop computational literacy (diSessa, 2000); (3) foster imagination play (Gee, 2003; Clinton, 2006; Hayles, 1999); and (4) focus on constructionist activity (Papert, 1980, 1991). These pedagogical commitments (see Figure 2, below) reflect the intellectual commitments of the study and, specifically, the design that was created to provide the empirical setting of the central study.

Figure 2: Agency Development Model: Pedagogical commitments as theoretical design resource The m/c agency model and pedagogical commitments informed the instructional design elements, comprised of materials, activities, and facilitation (Abrahamson & Wilensky, 2007). Thus, the materials selected/built for this study served dual purposes: (1) to create context for activities eliciting students’ generative themes (Freire, 1973) that the designers-as-teachers could then reflexively and strategically match with target mathematical concepts (e.g., variables and functions) and computer-science concepts (e.g., recursion, looping), so that students appropriate the STEM content in the process of tackling emergent construction problems they have identified and articulated; and (2) to elicit students’

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discourse surrounding mathematical activity and, hence, provide a lens on their evolving selfimage as mathematical practitioners (see details in Figure 3, below).

Figure 3: Agency Development Model: Materials, activities, and facilitations Methods Participants Fractal Village was implemented with a class of thirteen 15 – 19 year old students from an urban California alternative high school. All students at this school enroll because they have been expelled from the local mainstream schools. The students are mostly of African–American and Latino–American descent, and all qualify for federal free lunch programs. Over half of the student participants have been categorized as Special Education students and have Individual Education Plans (IEP).

Procedure We worked with the class for fourteen 110-minute sessions. After creating a virtual identity (starting with the generic avatar options shown below in Figure D), the students then spent the first 10 sessions constructing Fractal Village, a community in the TSL virtual world, learning programming skills in the process. The last four sessions were spent with students learning Hypertext Markup Language (html) in order to build customized web pages that presented the work they had accomplished in the intervention. Additionally, the students took a field trip to the Linden Research Laboratory and made a final presentation to a research group at our university.

Data Collection The raw data collected in this study consist of: digital movies of collaborative work, screen-capture movies that archive every keystroke/mouse-click produced by each student,

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students’ journal logs, digital movies of day-by-day individual interviews with a set of focal students, rich field notes, and participant-generated mixed-media artifacts, e.g., worksheets, modeling constructions, and computer screenshots. In addition, we videotaped the designteam’s debrief/plan sessions.

Data Analysis Using techniques adapted from grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) and microgenetic analysis (Schoenfeld, Smith, & Arcavi, 1991), we developed the key constructs discussed herein, and specifically we examined the adequacy of the initially proposed model of m/c agency to capture the collected data. The Results section summarizes consistent patterns in the data as well as our interpretations of these patterns vis-à-vis our emerging model.

Figure 4: Generic set of avatars user can choose among. These can be modified later.

Results We identified two discursive supports as necessary for student success that had not been specified prior to the implementation. The discursive supports (see Figure 4, above) – skills- and dispositions-related—reflect aspects of teacher–student interactions. These supports were not part of the initial design, but to maximize student success we augmented the model

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Figure 5. Agency Development Model: The design of the learning environment was augmented during the implementation based on two identified enabling interactions—skills- and dispositions-related discursive supports—that emerged through intense day-by-day planning/debrief sessions of the research team.

Skills and Dispositions Through data analysis, we came to appreciate that it would be methodologically beneficial to cluster several of the original six m/c agency factors into two groups: skills (to include procedural and conceptual knowledge and facility with tools) and dispositions (to include affective disposition and self-image/personal positioning). As we attempted to code data1, we found that the same data segments could be assigned to two or three different factors. Thus, creating the six factors into two clusters availed us of richer data segments. A brief description of each of the two clusters is furnished below.

Skills. Students developed two types of skills; interface deftness and computational literacy. By “interface deftness” we refer to students’ ability to efficiently navigate the graphical user interface to accomplish a problem-solving task. “Computational literacy” is based on diSessa’s (2000) work in new literacies and is defined as effective deployment of material intelligence in the context of computational problem solving to achieve valued intellectual ends (a slight adaptation of diSessa’s definition of literacy, p. 19). The original scope of computational literacy has been narrowed for purposes of skill analysis in this study.

Dispositions. Mathematics-education research into affect has risen dramatically over the past two decades and was prominently positioned by both the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the National Research Council in 1989, in their recommendation that researchers attend to affective, as well as cognitive, factors related to mathematics teaching and learning (NCTM, 1989; NRC, 1989). Much of early mathematicseducation research into affect utilized McLeod’s (1994) classification scheme for concepts in the affective domain. The scheme included three concepts: emotions, attitude, and beliefs, 1

The coding scheme we used is detailed in Veeragoudar Harrell, 2009 (Dissertation, U.C.Berkeley).

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ranging from ‘more affective/less stable’ to ‘more cognitive/more stable’ (see Figure 6, below).

Emotions

Attitudes

More affective/ Less stable

Beliefs

More cognitive/ More stable

Figure 6: Uni-dimensional view of concepts in affective domain (McLeod, 1994).

McLeod’s influential classification scheme was an important beginning that has since been elaborated to include the concept of values as well as interaction amongst the concepts (DeBellis & Goldin, 1997). The resulting model can be illustrated as a tetrahedron diagram (see Figure 7, below).

Emotions

Values

Beliefs

Attitudes

Figure 7: Tetrahedron model of affect in mathematics learning (DeBellis & Goldin, 1997).

Yet the tetrahedron model of affect, too is incomplete: it does not account for a variety of emotional phenomena such as motivation, mood, interest, anxiety, and selfconception that need to be, and are currently being, investigated by numerous researchers across disciplines. Predominantly, mathematics-education researchers have focused their attention on attitude. A newer wave of researchers has been oriented toward coupling, “what one knows” with “how one learned it” (Gresalfi & Ingram-Goble, 2008). Our research is aligned with this last view, which couples knowledge with the process of obtaining that knowledge. We utilize the disposition construct defined by Gresalfi and Cobb (2006) as “ways of being in the world that involve ideas about, perspectives on, and engagement with information which can be seen both in moments of interaction and in more enduring patterns over time.” In this way the term “dispositions” is intended to capture affect towards mathematics/computer-science problem solving (“looking out”) as well as towards one’s self as a mathematics/computer science learner and practitioner (“looking in”).

After collapsing the six factors into skills and dispositions2, we came to realize that these were aligned with the enabling interactions we had earlier identified. These relations are color coded in Figure 8, below. M/C agency factors and discursive supports related to skills are written in blue text and those related to dispositions are in written in green text.

2

The factor relating to discourse practices will not be discussed in this paper.

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Figure 8: Agency Development Model: We collapsed M/C agency factors into skills- and dispositions-related factors. We realized after the study that there was a correspondence of the newly collapsed m/c agency factors with the discursive supports we had identified during the study.

Thus far, we have discussed all that was invested into the learning environment. Next, we will look at what came out of the learning environment. Specifically, we will look at students’ m/c agency development over the course of the project, which temporally stretches from left to right in the figures.

Students’ m/c agency development. We found that students developed m/c agency.

This claim is substantiated by measurable skills and dispositions found in data collected during the study (see Figure 9, below).

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Second Life Unplugged

Figure 9. Agency Development Model: The learning environment in action fostered measurable growth in students, specifically skills- and dispositions development.

Recall that the project aimed to foster agency, thus straddling theory development as well as best practices development. With respect to the theory-oriented goal, we found that cognitive and affective factors are co-dependent variables, reciprocally related, in contributing to m/c agency development (see Figure 10 below, noting the feedback loop between skills and dispositions).

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Figure 10: Agency Development Model. Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; skills- and dispositions development was reciprocal, gaining skills fostered positive disposition development and vice-versa.

With respect to the practice-oriented goal (delineating design principles), the emerging claim is that m/c agency development can be fostered through implementing a convergence of two sets of interventional components, namely pedagogical commitments and discursive supports (see Figure 10, above).

Grounding Theory in Data: A Case Study The paper thus far has been a primarily theoretical treatment of the increasingly complex model of agency development. In this section we ground this evolution in data through the lens of one case study (for a greater elaboration, see Veeragoudar Harrell, 2009, for three case study reports). We report a snapshot of Shahzor, the case study participant, at the beginning and end of the project so as to illuminate the change he underwent. We then provide an overview of his activities in the project and then attend in detail to his interconstructive skill and disposition development.

Snapshots: beginning and end. Shahzor, a participant in the study, is also a selfprofessed gang member, drug user, and he admits to engaging in criminal activity. He is in his 4th high school placement. At the beginning of the project he had the following exchange with the PI. PI: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

SQ3: [shakes his head side to side, indicating he does not know] PI: [pause, giving him time to think] Where would you like to be in 5 years?

SQ: [laughs and shakes his head again indicating he does not know] â&#x20AC;Ś PI: What are you most proud of yourself for?

3

We will abbreviate the pseudonym Shahzor when quoting him by using his initials, SQ.

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myself.

SQ: Nothing. Ain’t proud of myself, I’m ashamed of myself…I’m ashamed of

Shahzor was unable to explain where he saw himself in 5 years. He had never experienced a virtual world environment and had never programmed. He claimed not to like mathematics. He could not identify accomplishments in his life that he was proud of.

By the end of the project Shahzor had the following exchange with the PI: PI: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

SQ: I want to be an architect. …

[After presenting his project to a group of scholars at the University of California, Berkeley] PI: What was your favorite part and what was the hardest part?

SQ: It was just hella fun cause these people they never saw anything like that so every time you show them they see they was like WOAH! It makes you really feel appreciated, they really like my work you know, give you a little confidence….Nothing was hard.

What fostered these changes in Shahzor over the course of the 4-week project? In this section, we will argue that the humanistic design principles at the heart of the study promoted Shahzor’s agency growth. Namely, the design intervention enabled students’ skill and disposition building within a safe, collaborative environment; this environment facilitated imaginative play, and students’ development of m/c literacy skills was an authentic product of their immersive, supported engagement in the virtual world project.

Overview. Shahzor did not begin the project with great content knowledge, nor did he identify with mathematics as a discipline nor see himself as a mathematics learner or practitioner. Yet he leverages his comfort with construction tools. Experimenting with these tools, Shahzor engages mathematical/computer science concepts and procedures apropos of building artifacts, and he draws on the one-to-one support to accomplish his goals within the virtual world.

Shahzor had no programming or other computer-science knowledge at the beginning of the study, but did have experience with 3D object manipulation through playing computer games (e.g., Sims4), which may have served him as an entry point into the activities. For example, Shahzor wanted to build a skyscraper with multiple floors (Figure 11, below). To accomplish this task, he had to weigh the pros and cons of using the graphical interface to manually build stairs versus programming a set of stairs that could be generated automatically (see Figure 12, below). Should he decide to program the stairs, he would need to determine whether he should hardcode a set height for the stairs or base the construction on user input. Note that there are tradeoffs regarding the workload, knowledge, complexity, and usability of each decision.

4

http://thesims.ea.com/us/

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Figure 11, Shahzor’s final skyscraper, comprised of glass walls, an interactive door, a wood floor, staircases, and a striped rooftop with pyramid décor.

Figure 12. Shahzor builds a series of staircases as we discuss various construction options.

Initially, Shahzor harbors negative feelings toward mathematics, yet he nevertheless consistently engages mathematical activity throughout the project. For example, Shahzor expresses interest in architecture, yet feels he cannot study this field because of the demanding amount of mathematics he would need to know. However, he experiments with

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mathematical thinking when utilizing tools embedded within the 3D environment to manipulate his artifacts.

Shahzor readily engages in mathematical thinking just as long as he does not perceive the activity as constituting traditional classroom mathematical problem solving. For example, he began experimenting with building and manipulating objects in the virtual world on the very first day of the intervention, without any suggestion to do so by the researchers. This behavior is in contrast to his behavior in his mathematics classroom where he needs to be repeatedly told to do his work before he will finally do it.

Reviewing Shahzor’s computational-, mathematics-, and school-related comments reveals that the process of building mathematical or computational identity or gaining discipline-affirming dispositions is certainly not straightforward. In summary: (1) In relation to Shahzor’s computation-related dispositions, we found a distinction between his use of the computer as a medium for interacting with software programs and his use of the computer as a programmable tool, a distinction reminiscent of diSessa’s (2000) articulation of computer literacy vs. computational literacy. (2) In relation to Shahzor’s mathematics-related dispositions, we found that he had inconsistent dispositions towards mathematics based on whether he feels he comprehends the material. Furthermore, it could fruitful to explore if his self-image varied based on his contextual framing of any mathematical content as ‘school-’ or in the ‘real-world.’ (3) In relation to Shahzor’s school-related dispositions we found that he feels disengaged by lecture-style instruction. However, despite a general sense of disenfranchisement from the educational enterprise, he nevertheless appraised that school would be instrumental for his future prospects and thus tries to do his best.

Inter-constructive skill- and disposition- development. Below, we provide evidence to support our assertion that Shahzor’s agency development were a dynamic and reciprocal coconstruction of skills and dispositions. We begin with a visualization of Shahzor’s skill and disposition growth over time (see mapping on Cartesian plane in Figure 13, below). The coding scheme we utilized to plot the points in Figure 13 is based on student behaviors, statements, and activities contributing towards skill- or disposition- building.

When we had coded all the chunks, we plotted them on a Cartesian plane as ordered pairs of cumulative disposition and skill (disposition, skill).5 5 Most days are single data points, but on Day 17 there was both a class session in the morning and an afternoon presentation to a group of scholars at U. C. Berkeley, and therefore Day 17 is broken into 17am and 17pm. Most days are represented by a dot, but Days 6 and 15 are represented by horizontal lines. On these days, Shahzor conveyed a wide array of dispositions (see below for further details).

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Figure 13. Shahzor’s skill and disposition development synthesized.

The above grid shows both skills and dispositions developing over time. This plot demonstrates a monotonic increase in both skills and dispositions. However, at this point one need not read this plot as necessarily expressing a relation between the two dependent variables (skill, disposition). Following, we will narrate Shahzor’s experience in the intervention. The analysis captures observed connections amongst skill-related and disposition-related data segments. Emerging from this analysis is an assertion that skills development and dispositions development are reciprocal and co-dependent. That is, student development along each of these two dimensions enhanced development along the other dimension, and vice versa, in a dynamical “zigzag” reciprocity (see Figure 14, below— several of these episodes, which are captured by titles in boxes, are then elaborated in the subsection). Further analysis can reveal more of the details of a general connection between perceived incrementally competence and an improved disposition.

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Figure 14. Snapshot of Shahzorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s construction of skills and dispositions over the course of the project, with arrows that demonstrate the reciprocity of these two types of increments.

In order to support our emergent conjecture regarding the reciprocity of student development along the two core trajectories, skill and disposition, we now report on results of inspecting the relationship between skills development and dispositions development. To do so, we shall inspect a small selection of data episodes from the above diagram.

Day 1: positive mental attitude. After having spent most of the class guiding students in creating accounts and begin exploring the environment, we gathered all the participants for a brief discussion so everyone could share their initial experiences. As compared to his

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classmates, Shahzor had been making significant headway in terms of exploring and learning in the environment. One classmate who had had a particularly negative experience trying to edit his own avatar proclaimed, “This stuff is boring.” Shahzor responded, “Naw you’re trippin’ man, this stuff is fun.” The classmate who thought the project was boring had not been able to obtain the skills he desired. In contrast, Shahzor, who had had a positive experience gaining the requisite skills reacted with positive sentiment towards the project.

Day 2: In class, and on time. On Day 2, and all days thereafter in the project, Shahzor arrived to class on time, whereas previously in the semester he regularly arrived 30 minutes tardy. His interest in the project thus increased his time-on-project, in turn increasing his opportunities to develop further skills.

Day 11: Taking pride in his work. Shahzor made it a point to ask his teacher to come visit his work area so he could show him the skyscraper he was building. In this gesture, Shahzor demonstrated pride in the work he has accomplished with his new skill-set.

Day 12: It’s a matter of experience. Shahzor gave a virtual tour of his work to Linden Laboratories employees while on a field trip to the company’s headquarters in San Francisco, California. After the visit, the PI conducted a brief interview with him. Shahzor stated, “It’s like cool working there…I’d work there if I could. I think you just gotta be experienced.”

Shahzor’s statement suggests he believes gaining employment at Linden Laboratories is an actual viable prospect for his future employment, contingent only upon gaining further experience and skills. He thus construes achievement as the product of learning and views such achievement as well within his personal horizon of possibilities.

Day 15: Wants to take it home. On Day 15 Shahzor states, “I was thinking I might, I might just put that [SL] on my computer at like, home you know. Find out more about it.

Work on it. The more I work on it the more I’m going to find out about it...I take it as fun so the more I’m gonna do it the more I’m going to be good at it.” His statement indicates a reciprocal relation between being positive about a learning activity and gaining knowledge and skills.

With that, we conclude the survey of daily instances of skill- and disposition-related exchanges with Shahzor. The survey demonstrated an intermittent tie between these two aspects of Shahzor’s agency growth. As design-based researchers interested in students’ development of skills as well as positive mathematics- and computer-science dispositions, the interesting question becomes, “How do we design so as to foster both skills and dispositions?” In particular, looking at our data, a more specific question has been, “Which, if any, aspect(s) of the design and facilitation of the learning environment fostered the skillbased and dispositional aspects of Shahzor’s agency development?”

In order to begin addressing this practical question, let us recall that the framing theoretical and practical resources that input into the design of the empirical environment included four pedagogical commitments and the facilitation involved two discursive supports.

This case study analyzed empirical data from a single student’s experience in our intervention. The study’s objectives were two-fold—theory-oriented and practice-oriented.

Toward the theory-oriented goal, we presented evidence of this student developing along lines of both skill and disposition and argued for the “zigzag” inter-constructive relation between growth in skill and disposition. Toward the practice-oriented goal, we traced these effects to the design’s original pedagogical commitments and to the discursive supports proffered by the researchers.

Educational and Scientific Importance of Study The implications of these findings are important for Shahzor and students like him, who have been failed by our public school system. Shahzor has spent nearly thirteen years in a school system that he felt he did not belong in. Over those years, he has bounced around

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schools and finally was (r)ejected by the mainstream high school. In his alternative school and adult school, he often wants to walk away, and some days does walk away. Through his own admission, Shahzor is engaged in gang and criminal activity. The bleak prospects, which unfortunately are statistically viable, are that Shahzor could end up in prison. Yet, at the same time, and just as real, Shahzor still maintains buried, dormant yet intact dreams of becoming an architect and a desire to make his family proud.

This case study serves as an existence proof and wake-up call to the effect that Shahzor, and students like him, can: (1) be critically engaged, highly motivated, and maintain disciplined focus in learning mathematical and computational content; and (2) develop positive mathematical/computational self-images. For these students, who have few if any attentive academically-oriented adult models in their lives, teachers’ dedicated provision of skills-related instruction, though paramount, is not sufficient. Dispositions-related supports are also required. Making a deep impact in students’ self-image and affective disposition toward the very knowledge and skills that may enable them to soar above their statistical rubric requires forming a human-to-human connection, even before or even as forming a teacher-to-student relationship. Attending to Shahzor’s development of positive affective dispositions (towards mathematics, computing, and schooling) and positive self-image was a pedagogical requisite that operated hand-in-hand with his development of conceptual and procedural knowledge and facility with the tools associated with STEM disciplines. With these supports ready and able, the learning environment—which drew upon our theory of m/c agency factors, pedagogical commitments, and discursive supports—fostered Shahzor’s mathematical- and computational-agency development.

The students in this study are those that have been thrown away by the mainstream school system and explicitly told not to return. They are marginalized and disenfranchised, and the alternative school represents a last chance for most of them. While the resources necessary to support their development of agency in learning are enormous, this study acts as an existence proof that we can learn from, and build upon. The consequences of not paying attention to research that yields demonstrable positive results are devastating, both for students—the “end clients” of the entire educational research endeavor—and for designbased researchers who are liable to continue wondering why their instructional materials fail to “work” for all students.

Acknowledgements We acknowledge with gratitude the comments of members of the Embodied Design Research Laboratory (Abrahamson, Director) at the University of California, Berkeley and in particular members of the Fractal Village Crew: Kelly Buchanan, Daniel Fragiadakis, José Francisco Gutiérrez, and Dragan Trninic.

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

The Effects of Avatar Appearance in Virtual Worlds Nicholas Merola Communication Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, United States Jorge Pe単a Communication Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, United States Abstract In virtual worlds, users employ avatars to interact with their surroundings and with each other. However, while users exert influence on their avatar, their avatar can also exert influence on them. For instance, research has demonstrated that avatars can influence their users to be more negative, confident, aggressive, or intimate. In this paper, the ways through which subtle signals from an avatar's physical appearance can influence users and interaction partners are described.

Suggestions for ways in which virtual world users, developers, and researchers can apply this knowledge to manage their virtual environment are also included.

Keywords: virtual worlds; avatar appearance This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

The Effects of Avatar Appearance in Virtual Worlds Nicholas Merola Communication Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, United States Jorge Peña Communication Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, United States As awareness, interest, and excitement about the possibilities of social interaction in virtual worlds continues to bloom, so, too, does the value of understanding how these worlds are different from our physical one and, also, how social norms and conventions of the physical world apply to virtual contexts. Ongoing investigations have uncovered intriguing social phenomena: while we exert influence over our digital embodiments (e.g., customizing an avatar for self-presentation purposes, see Vasalou & Joinson, 2009), our digital bodies also exert influence over us as users. For example, the extant research has demonstrated that the way avatars look (e.g., whether they are tall or short, or whether they have more evil or more prosocial appearances) influences the way the user thinks and behaves in video games and virtual worlds. As digital worlds increase in popularity and importance, researchers and practitioners must continue working to understand how and why, exactly, users are influenced by their avatars, as well as in which ways these mechanisms can be applied to engineer more compelling and foreseeable social experiences in virtual worlds.

In this paper, we examine some of the current findings and discuss the design implications of this research. The goal is to familiarize the reader with the mechanisms through which avatars can influence their users, provide examples from the literature of how we know that this takes place, and finally, to review our current knowledge through a lens of virtual world design and exploration.

Avatars as Virtual Clothing Jumping into the body of Solid Snake, a character from the Metal Gear Solid series who wears a sneaking suit and is lightly armed, it just seems right to skulk around. Logging on to a provocatively-dressed Second Life avatar, on the other hand, may encourage other sorts of behavior. To understand how we should behave, we rely on information provided by the looks of an avatar and decode the avatar by connecting its cues to our broader social knowledge (Isbister, 2006). Creators of avatars, whether developers creating character templates or players taking advantage of customization options, use visual stereotypes to create a “story” of the avatar that others can understand. For example, when developing an “executive” avatar, a designer might provide props such as a briefcase and business attire. When we use or encounter the avatar, we note the briefcase and stereotypical appearance, and understand the narrative behind the avatar (Isbister, 2006). Virtual world users apply these principles when customizing their own avatars, as well. For example, when asked to create avatars for dating, participants made them distinctly more attractive than avatars to be used for other purposes (Vasalou & Joinson, 2009). After connecting a Second Life avatar’s scanty clothing to a database of situations and concepts related to provocative attire, we are then able to understand how they (or we as they) should behave.

Simply, we know how to behave when using an just by looking at the avatar.

Consider this example: upon logging in to an unfamiliar virtual world, a person is presented with their new body, an avatar. This avatar is hooded, and dressed in black robes.

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Next, the person is given a task: interact with some other people and decide how harshly to punish a criminal. What does the person think? In this novel situation, the user might look at the black clothing of their avatar, the veiled identity, and connect this information with other knowledge: bad guys wear black, executioners hide their identities, and so forth. So, thinks the user, since they look like a bad guy in this virtual world, maybe they should behave accordingly.

These were the results we found in an initial study on how an avatar’s appearance can affect the cognitions and behavior of the user (Peña, Hancock, & Merola, 2009, Study 1). As described above, participants were given avatars dressed in black robes and asked to interact and make decisions. We measured their intentions and attitudes, and compared them to those exhibited by participants using white-robed avatars. The black-robed avatar users showed a greater intention to attack other characters, were more aggressive, and endorsed anti-social behavior! These tendencies were not found in users who employed white-robed avatars, suggesting that the appearance of the black-robed avatar was influential to the user in a negative way.

Other researchers have found more positive effects from avatars’ appearance. Yee and Bailenson (2007) found that participants using avatars which were more attractive behaved more intimately with a confederate. In their study, the participants interacted in a virtual reality system through a first-person perspective, but were briefly shown their avatars’ appearance in a virtual mirror before beginning the interaction. A second study manipulated the relative height of the participants’ avatars, and found participants made different decisions when their avatars were taller or shorter than normal (Yee & Bailenson, 2007). Users of tall avatars were more confident with offers in a bargaining task, while those assigned short avatars were more likely to accept an unfavorable decision. Clothing can also exert significant influence over the user’s cognition: operating a “supermodel” avatar in Second Life evoked narratives with exotic names and exclusive brands, while operating a “professor” avatar encouraged mention of concepts connected to education (Peña, McGlone, Jarmon, & Sanchez, 2009).

Clothing as Cues To understand how avatars’ appearance can influence their users, we can examine earlier research on how clothing influences the wearer. Frank and Gilovich (1988) did a series of studies on how black uniforms exert influence on their wearers. Initially, they looked at sports teams in hockey and American football, comparing the penalty records of teams with predominantly black uniforms to other teams in the leagues. They found that teams with black uniforms accrued significantly more penalties against them in both sports. Further, when teams switched from their own color to black uniforms, their penalties increased concurrently. Subsequent laboratory studies demonstrated that the effects of the black uniform were due to two factors: the influence of black uniforms on outside viewers (e.g., referees, the audience) and the influence of black uniforms on the wearer (Frank & Gilovich, 1988). Frank and Gilovich found that not only does the color of a sport uniform (e.g., black) predispose users to certain behaviors (e.g., aggression), but also that referees more often sanction sports teams dressed in black.

In virtual worlds, users of avatars contend with these same dual influences. We could reasonably explain part of the negative influence of black uniforms both through the direct influence of the avatar on the user as well as through perceivers’ expectations about avatars in black uniforms. An external perceiver can influence the user of an avatar through a variety of means. For example, in computer-mediated contexts, people tend to commit to the identity they

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portray in front of a public audience (Gonzales & Hancock, 2009). So, simply by assuming the identity of an avatar in front of others, users may identify more strongly with their avatar.

Behavioral confirmation, or “the self-fulfilling prophecy” effect, describes how one individual’s expectations about another person can influence that person’s behavior (Snyder & Stukas, 1999). In virtual worlds, when others view an avatar they may have certain expectations about the avatar that, in turn, can model the avatar user’s own cognitions and behaviors. When avatar users are treated in a particular way based on how their avatar appears, they may then modify their behavior to conform with outsiders’ expectations. For example, in the World of Warcraft (a multiplayer game which features warring alliances) encountering a member of an opposing faction may trigger a defensive reaction by them, provoking the user to attack in response. Public commitment and behavioral confirmation effects have not been exhaustively examined (for exceptions see Gonzales & Hancock, 2009; Walther, 1996) and could bear more examination in the context of virtual environments.

While these theories describe how an external perceiver can influence the user of an avatar, in several studies on avatar effects, either there have been no interaction partners (Peña et al., 2009, Study 2), or the partners have been blind to how the avatar appears to the participants (Yee & Bailenson, 2007). This confirms that avatars influence their users directly, and parallels Frank and Gilovich’s (1988) finding that clothing also exerts influence directly on the user. In the following section we describe how these direct influences are explained through psychological mechanisms such as priming and deindividuation, and how these effects operate in virtual worlds.

Deindividuation and Avatars Going beyond external perceptions, social psychological research further explains how clothing (and avatars) can, at times, very strongly influence the wearer, encouraging them to behave in ways they wouldn’t otherwise behave. In an experiment, Johnson and Downing (1979) dressed participants in a variety of garb and asked them to deliver shocks to a confederate when he failed to give a correct response in a learning task. The garb that participants wore resembled either that of nurses or Klu Klux Klan (KKK) members. Results showed that participants dressed as nurses shocked less severely than those dressed as KKK members.

Johnson and Downing (1979) linked these effects to priming and neo-associationist models which predict that the associations raised by uniforms can elicit behavior congruent with those cues (e.g., KKK uniforms augment antisocial behavior, nurse uniforms elicit more prosocial behavior). For example, priming has been conceived as an unconscious mechanism that affects cognition, emotion, and behavior (Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996). In support of this view, participants remained unaware of the intended effect of their avatar when generating new intentions and attitudes and when writing spontaneous stories, thus implying that they did not intend to respond the way they did or simply complied to the expectations of the researchers (see Peña et al., 2009a, b). Priming effects as a theoretical explanation of the effects of avatar appearance were explored and updated in the Peña et al. (2009a, b) studies.

In their studies, Johnson and Downing (1979) manipulated an important variable – the participant’s state of deindividuation. Deindividuation is a psychological state that causes a reduction in self-awareness and heightened submersion into a group (Postmes & Spears, 1998).

This deindividuation effect is brought about by circumstances that, broadly, cause an individual’s identity to be hidden: large crowds, dark rooms, anonymous circumstances. Germane to avatars and virtual worlds, deindividuation has specifically been studied with respect to online groups

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and interactions, and theorists argue that computer-based interactions are by nature deindividuated as interactants are visually anonymous and physically isolated (Lea & Spears, 1991).

As a result of deindividuation, reliance on external information for guidance is increased (Postmes & Spears, 1998). From this perspective, external cues such as the appearance of one’s avatar, are expected to be more influential to behavior and cognitions when people are deindividuated than when identifiable. In Johnson and Downing’s (1979) study, they manipulated deindividuation by masking all participants, but requiring some to wear nametags.

Thus, half the participants were deindividuated and half were not and had their real identity available. Among the deindividuated participants, Johnson and Downing (1979) found that the effects of wearing the nurse or KKK garb was increased – deindividuated “nurses” were nicer, while deindividuated “KKK” were crueler.

Applying this to avatar research, a deindividuated state should act as a lens that enhances the focus on cues provided by the avatar’s appearance, increase identification with selected anonymous groups, and enhance conformity to group norms. For example, participants using the same avatar in a virtual group were less capable of identifying individual differences in group discussions, identified more with their group, and conformed more to the proposals of group members in comparison to participants using dissimilar avatars (Lee, 2004). If users of avatars are deindividuated, then they might be more influenced than they would be in other contexts.

In sum, avatars are a form of “virtual clothing” that influences the user, both directly and indirectly by influencing the behavior of others. In the remainder of this piece, we turn to the practical considerations instantiated by this research. We discuss how users who are able to configure their own avatars might be influenced, and we then examine how users and designers of virtual worlds can avail themselves of this knowledge to further their interaction goals.

User Customization of Avatar Appearance We probably imagine the virtual worlds of the future as allowing users to select or design their own digital representations. This is already true of many of the present games. Second Life offers a variety of self-customization opportunities. World of Warcraft, while using basic size and shape templates, allows users to customize other features of their avatar such as facial features, skin color, and adornments or jewelry. Even many first-person shooting games allow users to select an avatar (though it is usually only visible to the other players due to the firstperson perspective). The level of customization available for avatars is ever increasing (for more on avatar personalization, see Ducheneaut, Wen, Yee, & Wadley, 2009).

When users select their own avatars, they are, in a sense, deciding how they will play the game. Users who wish to engage in sexual encounters select attractive avatars dressed provocatively. Users who wish to be “bad guys” choose suitable representations. When users choose avatars, they are furthering their own goals for interaction in the virtual world. Of course, though avatars usually directly reflect our goals, sometimes this is not the case. A clever “griefer” (a player who manipulates the game to cause emotional distress to others), certainly might disguise themselves and their intentions by choosing the most unlikely avatar possible.

Research on avatar effects doesn’t give a clear indication of how self-selecting an avatar would change the influence the avatar exerts over the user. According to Vasalou and Joinson (2009), users do select and design avatars with some sense and relation to how they will interact within the virtual world. For instance, as noted above, users engaging in romance in virtual worlds design more physically attractive avatars (Vasalou & Joinson, 2009). It seems likely that

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choosing or designing an avatar will intensify and sustain any effect the avatar exerts on the users’ cognitions and behaviors through a feedback loop. For example, deciding to take on the role of a bad guy in a virtual world might be associated with more negative behavior and intentions. Then, using an avatar that has a “bad guy” appearance may encourage and reinforce negative intentions and reactions by others, further polarizing behavior. In any ambiguous situations the avatar user might encounter, they could rely on the avatar’s appearance for information on how to behave (Bem, 1972). So, when users have the ability to choose or design avatars, their behavioral intentions are likely to be further strengthened by the reactions of others to that avatar and by the cues that the avatar itself exerts.

Employing Avatars Savvy users and designers can employ an understanding of avatar effects to encourage the interactions they wish to have in the digital world; indeed, many already do. It is not hard to imagine that the average attractiveness of the avatars populating Second Life far exceeds that which would be found on Earth. Particularly, we can use research on avatar effects to guide the incorporation or use of features to create ideal interactions in virtual worlds. As we have seen in an earlier issue of the Journal of Virtual Worlds, pedagogy in virtual worlds is an exciting frontier (Volume 2, Issue 1). Or, what administrator has not dreamed of a more harmonious, unified community? Virtual merchandise sellers certainly wish to increase their revenue. The skilful design and manipulation of avatar appearance is one tool likely to help them achieve each of these goals. By altering the physical appearance of avatars, we can also expect to alter the way the user of the avatar thinks, behaves, and is received by others.

The physical appearance of avatars is highly customizable, and increasingly so as designers capture a wider array of human phenotypes. Indeed, users may be able to create avatars that would be exceedingly rarely, if ever, expressed in the genome (e.g., see EA’s “Spore,” where users have extensive tools to manipulate the biological makeup of their avatars). Despite all of this variability, there are some common elements of physical attractiveness that can be manipulated in the service of positive avatar effects. Facial attractiveness is relatively consistent across cultures (Cunningham, Roberts, Barbee, Druen, & Cheng-Huan, 1995), and a feature that avatar users can intuitively manage.

More attractive avatars could be employed to create several positive effects. Those with physically attractive avatars are rated higher on social competence, social adjustment, and intellectual competence (Khan & De Angeli, 2009). People also self-disclose more to attractive others (Brundage, Derlega, & Cash, 1977). By adopting a physically attractive avatar, a virtual psychologist could encourage patients to self-disclose a greater amount than they would to a lessattractive representation. Generally, if one wishes to be well-received, it seems putting on an attractive virtual body is prudent.

Manipulating the relative height of avatars is also a consideration. As we have seen from Yee and Bailenson’s (2007) work, there are significant differences between how those employing tall and short avatars behave. A teacher, wishing to exert control over a virtual class, might be able to reinforce hierarchy by giving students shorter avatars. Or, a salesperson, interested in negotiating better prices, could employ a taller avatar to gain an advantage when bargaining.

Research has shown ways in which behavior of digital representations can be altered for positive effects (see Bailenson, Yee, Blascovich, & Guadango, 2008). In this research, the behavior of avatars is altered in a way to make them more appealing or influential to participants.

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For instance, the way an avatar is rendered is altered so that it appears to each of three interaction partners that the avatar is maintaining eye contact with them, thus giving the appearance of paying special attention (Bailenson, Blascovich, Loomis, & Turk, 2005). This alteration increases the persuasiveness of the avatar. Avatars made to mimic the head movement of participants have also been found to elicit more agreement from the participants (Bailenson & Yee, 2005).

Though these studies were done using a virtual reality system, the principles can be adopted for use in our current virtual worlds. Just as in real life, avatar users pay attention to the orientation of their avatar relative to others in the virtual world (e.g., Krikorian, Lee, Chock, & Harms, 2000). In World of Warcraft, computer-controlled characters are programmed to turn to face the users when clicked on. In many platforms, even though users are perfectly able to talk with the voice chat, they will often steer their avatars to be near each other during a conversation, an act that does not facilitate “better hearing” or anything of the sort. Providing an impression of this sort of special attention to each user could be a way for developers to increase persuasion or pro-social behavior. Adapting the research into speaker gaze by Bailenson et al. (2005) to virtual “lecture rooms,” where each user has the impression that the speaker is oriented towards them, could reproduce effects associated with speaker gaze (e.g., persuasiveness) among an entire audience.

Finally, colors are basic cues that should not be underestimated. Discussed earlier, Frank and Gilovich (1988) found black clothing encourages aggression in the wearer. On the other hand, females in red clothing appear more attractive and encourage males to devote more resources to them (Eliott & Niesta, 2008). In Olympic competition, competitors assigned to red clothing win more often than expected versus those assigned to blue (Hill & Barton, 2005), an effect which was also found in online first-person shooting games (Ilie, Loan, Zagrean, & Moldovan, 2008).

When designing avatars, users and developers should keep in mind how they wish to behave and be treated. If the goal is harmonious interactions, white garb should be chosen over black to increase cohesion (Peña et al., 2009). Users choosing avatars for competition should favor red avatars. Developers of games who wish to further a narrative or elicit a response from the player (e.g., “this is an enemy”) should exploit our stereotypes about those wearing black when designing computer-controlled characters, or at least avoid those with strong unwanted connotations. Imagine if, instead of a lovely shade of blue, the Na’vi alien race in the 2009 movie Avatar were black, or red? Their plight might not have evoked the same reactions from the audience.

Conclusion Using an avatar is in many ways like donning a Halloween costume: when in costume, the way one appears to outsiders is different, the ability to be personally identified is hindered, and, as a result of a hidden identity and wearing the costume itself, behavior changes. As shown in Frank and Gilovich (1988) and Johnson and Downing (1979), clothing influences not just the way people are perceived, but the way they act as well. The same is true for users of avatars – the effects of donning their “virtual costumes” are enhanced by deindividuation and the reactions of others.

The present manuscript reviewed some of the mechanisms related to the interplay between users and avatars, including self-presentation goals, public commitment and behavioral confirmation, priming, deindividuation, and self-perception. Combined, these elements help

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explain how, while we are exerting influence over our avatars, they are able to influence us in turn. As we return to our own virtual communities, whether Second Life or the World of Warcraft, we can build better worlds by applying these fundamental theories. This knowledge will help us reach our goals, be they a harmonious and co-operative world, a new environment for learning, or just having fun.

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Ducheneaut, N., Wen, M., Yee, N., & Wadley, G. (2009). Body and mind: a study of avatar personalization in three virtual worlds. Proceedings of CHI 2009.

Elliot, A.J., & Niesta, D. (2008). The effect of red on men's attraction to women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1150-1164.

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Virtual Competition. Cyber Psychology and Behavior, 11, 375-377.

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

Building Knowledge in the Virtual World – Influence of Real Life Relationships Ana Loureiro Department of Communication and Art, University of Aveiro, Portugal Teresa Bettencourt Department of Didactics and Educational Technology, University of Aveiro, Portugal Abstract This paper intends to present a preliminary PhD research that is being developed by the authors, with the intention to determine how to improve teaching and learning situations, at the university level, based on experiences in immersive virtual worlds. The authors have realized that, nowadays, courses don’t fulfill our students’ needs. They belong to a networked and multitasking generation, and what they get from today’s teaching strategy does not, in many situations, fulfill students’ needs and perspectives. They need to gather competences in order to become motivated citizens, communicative and knowledge builders. It is our belief that we can take advantage from the immersive virtual worlds’ resources to overcome this situation and therefore to transfer it to real life. In order to achieve this we need, at the first instance, to understand how social interactions occur in these environments (in particular at Second Life®), how they grow and how they are developed. What we present here is a preliminary sample of our intended research.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Building Knowledge in the Virtual World – Influence of Real Life Relationships Ana Loureiro Department of Communication and Art, University of Aveiro, Portugal Teresa Bettencourt Department of Didactics and Educational Technology, University of Aveiro, Portugal Introduction Our society is changing, as are all the citizens that are growing and living in this new age.

Education cannot ignore those changes, cannot cling to the old habits and methods of teaching and learning from the last century. Today’s society, and therefore today’s kids and students, are interconnected. They live in a digital age, being able to multitask; they live in a “world of fast context-switching” (Brown, 2002). With today’s networked society (with special impact from the facilities offered by the World Wide Web) we can observe a new way of learning that is discovery based. The Web is now not only an informational and social resource, but also a learning tool that enables new ways of creating and sharing knowledge. Consequently teachers are becoming challenged to develop new strategies of teaching and learning, in order to fulfill the needs and enhance the skills of their digital age students. We believe that we can only catch and keep students’ attention and motivation if we leverage the same tools. We have to enter and to get to know their digital worlds; and thereby become part of it! Our major focus of interest is university students. The research we are conducting has the aim to achieve better and more efficient ways to teach and learn at a higher level. We have made some preliminary research and we recognise that many studies are being done in this area. However, we detected that an important area was not being covered, due in part to the emergent nature of the tools. We are referring to immersive virtual worlds, with particular emphasis to the Second Life® platform.

We have been residents of this environment for some time and we see its potential in teaching and learning situations. Why is that? Because it is immersive; it is a real world simulator; it is a social network and allows real time communication, cooperation, collaboration and interaction, and all this in a safe and controlled environment. Through understanding all those potentialities, we believe that immersive learning can be integrated in today’s pedagogical practices. However we can only apply and suggest best practices if we get to know the Second Life® environment, to learn and understand how interactions and relationships are established between the users (or residents) of this Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE). In order to start and to achieve our research foundations we have been observing, for some months, residents behavior at Second Life®, including some informal learning situations.

In this paper we would like to briefly discuss the evolution of the web, in order to contextualize the study. It will be followed by the presentation of the research itself, with our purposes and goals. We will end with some preliminary conclusions and outline our future work.

State of the art With the advent of Web2.0 users have “immersive Web sites with flash quickly followed combined with ubiquitous communication via IM and IRC chat (…) the exponential growth of self publishing, blogs and wikis (…) the massive sharing social network communities of flickr and YouTube in sync with the explosion of portals containing all the above in services such as

MySpace, Yahoo and MSN” (Hayes, 2006). We are no longer simple information collectors (Web 1.0), now we are active and reactive users, we develop and share content and information.

Each one of us has an intrinsic need of being part of cyberspace, of being known by our partners.

We could say that we all have an unfulfilled eagerness for communication, and to share our thoughts, needs and knowledge. And that’s what Web2.0 is all about: sharing. We all are now content builders, information sharers, communicators. We all belong to a common space with no barriers called World Wide Web. Although we are already behind Web 2.0, we are in presence of what some authors called as Web 3.0. This concept is related with “virtual environments in which we meet as avatars, interact as 3D moving objects that takes sharing, co-creation and communication to the next, predictable level” (Hayes, 2006). We are now in the age of the real time collaborative web, a web where “human become more linked together (…) more networked (…) internet have no limits or borders” (Veen e Vrakking, 2006). We present a figure (cf. Figure 1), that clearly shows the evolution of the Web concept – from 1.0 to 3.0.

Figure 1: The Changing Intraweb(Hayes, 2006) We would like to say that, for us, the environment Second Life® might be the best representation of the “real time, co-creative Web”. We see Second Life® as an immersive 3D multi-user virtual world, where each user (or resident, as they are called) is able to have a life “em tudo correspondente à vida real (…) é literalmente uma segunda vida, onde cada um define o que pretende ser, fazer ou ter”1 (Bettencourt e Abade, 2007), represented in world by his/her avatar. In fact, and according to Linden Lab® itself, “Second Life is a virtual world that allows 1

“in similarity with real life (…) it is indeed a second life, where each one of us decides what we claim to be, to do or to have” (paper author’s translation)

its residents to create completely original content using atomistic building tools in a shared and globally accessible space” (Lester, 2009).

The term avatar was made popular by Neal Stephenson in his novel Snow Crash, and is “an interactive representation of a human figure in a games-based or three-dimensional interactive graphical environment (…) Usually an avatar will have human characteristics, including speech and facial expressions” (Freitas, 2006).

According with the Web 3.0 assumptions we believe that Second Life®, having itself MUVE’s (Multi-User Virtual Environment) characteristics, have great possibilities if used for education and learning purposes. This environment is like an “ever growing virtual playground that is limited only by the creativity of its users” (Johnson, 2006). According with Federation of American Scientists (Wagner, 2007) it will allow us “to build 3-D objects collaboratively and in real time with others in the same world”, with major applications at “building, design, and art principles”. On the other hand, Second Life®, is a “rough simulation of the natural world, with meteorological and gravitational systems, the possibilities of experimenting with natural and physical sciences are endless”, and all this “in a safe and controlled environment” (Wagner, 2007). The twist is that in an immersive environment we are walking inside the material, not just viewing it from a distance. In fact, Second Life® and other MUVEs “have attracted a growing and increasingly sophisticated community of practice (Wenger, 1998) focused on the topic of teaching and learning in 3D immersive worlds” (Richter, Inman & Frisbee, 2007).

We have perceived that “Education began, slowly, to realize that many of the attributes of great game playing, from the intellectual challenge to the provision of multiple learning styles, had an immediate part to play in learning” (Freitas, 2006).

We also assist, with the Web 3.0, to what we called as the humanization of the virtual space, through the representation of each one of us by the avatar. It’s as if we were actually living the experiences. It’s about growth, life, interaction, communication, knowledge creation and sharing experiences in a 3D virtual world, and how real life relationships can influence it, that we would like to talk about in this paper.

Building knowledge in the virtual world – Influence of real life relationships Logging in Second Life®, as a real world simulator, has great potential. However, how can we use and enhance it? How can we be successful educators in a virtual world? What makes us grow?

What makes us stick around?

Every day there are between 60-75 thousand users in world at any moment (cf. Figure 2), and according to Hayes (2009), it “seems many folk do tire of it at around 18 months with only around 20% going for longer than two years” (cf. Figure 3).

Figure 2: Users logged in (example)

Figure 3: How long have you been in Second Life® (Hayes, 2009) This could be a problem if we wish to develop a project in a virtual world. With no residents/avatars it doesn’t make much sense. If it doesn’t grow, it has no future at all.

For us, and from what we have been observing from the past few months, one of the most important conditions for people stick around at Second Life® is related with the relationships that are made (not just between avatars, but also between avatars and persons behind the screen) and with the sense of belong to a community. Like Paul (2009) said “Shared practices and meanings help solidify cultural practices and develop common symbols and structures with which to interpret surrounding stimuli”. Second Life® is a good example of a social network and we believe that the main goal why people sign into it can be related with the need of socialize, interact, communicate. To have the chance to contact with other persons, cultures, languages, ideas. In many cases people open a Second Life® account by some friend’s influence. But, on

the other hand, there are also those who join Second Life® because they are “forced” to do it, maybe because of an academic project, a business/work project or just because a teacher said so!

What are the major differences of behavior between people who came to Second Life® by free will and the ones who, somehow, were forced to join the environment? That’s what we intend to find out. As we can see by the chart in figure 4, we have people that spend 16 or more hours per week in world. Who are they? Why are they at Second Life®? What are they doing? Where do they spend their time?

Figure 4: Second Life® Involvement (Hayes, 2009) We should also consider the ones who are giving up Second Life® or, not giving up, don’t grow or socialize in the virtual world. If we could achieve the reasons why this happens we might get into some ways to help them to stay and enjoy, and above of all, to learn through MUVE’s.

Therefore we will summarize some of the Second Life® barriers, that were already identified by some authors (Harold, 2009; Pita, 2008; Kirkpatrick, 2007; Richter, Inman & Frisbee, 2007) . First of all we need to have access to a good and fast Internet connection.

Besides that we need to install and constantly update the software viewer. The software is very demanding in terms of hardware (cf. http://secondlife.com/support/sysreqs.php); we need, for instance, to have a good graphics card and a recent operating system in order to properly run it.

As a consequence of the many improvements that are constantly made the servers and the grid is often unavailable (normally, and fortunately, for short periods of time). Another barrier could be the fact that Second Life® is not available in all languages. All these issues lead many people to give up Second Life® at an early stage. According with Kirkpatrick (2007) and due to the huge

complexity of the software, only one person, among six, keeps logging into Second Life® after the first month.

Learning in immersive worlds The potential of Second Life® has already begun to be used for teaching and learning, for some of the reasons we have already presented in this paper. We all have realized by now that we are living in the age of the “digital natives” (Prensky, 2003), of the connected generation.

Nowadays, and because of the advantages of the social web, students “have a lot of practice of emailing, blogging, googling, chatting, gaming, and so on!” (Bekkers, 2009). They can develop several tasks at the same time; they are multitasking. For instance, “students in higher education walk around their faculties or work at computers while listening to their music files, using their iPods and MP3 players. It’s common to meet students at a teacher training college multitasking while surfing the internet, listening to their music in one ear, and communicating with a peer student through the other” (Veen & Vrakking, 2006). These are our students and we had better cater for their needs in a digital age. In fact, students “entering universities after 2000 (…) were portrayed as needing a more and IT driven learning environment” (Paul, 2009). But what do they get when they arrive to the Universities? In the most part of the cases some old strategies from the last century.

According with Bettencourt and Abade research (2007) “those students are asked to sit in rows and listen to lectures, take notes or solve exercises given by teachers. It’s a teaching strategy that doesn’t prepare students to be critical citizens and professional workers on their specialty, nor give them the skills and competences needed to be autonomous and constructors of knowledge” (Bekkers, 2009).

Nowadays students live in a multimodal and interconnect world and for them this “way of dealing with information is much more intensive than listening to one source of information at a time” (Veen & Vrakking, 2006).

Students are familiarized with video games, computer games, and online games. We could say that this is their natural environment. They are used to deal with several spaces where they present and share themselves, many times “cycling through” (Turkle, 1995) multiple characters, according with the time and space where they are mingling. These multiple “selves” are, in fact, one and the same. The same person is behind the screen or behind the gadget, the player of the game himself. Virtual spaces “blur the boundaries between self and game, self and role, self and simulation (…) 'You are what you pretend to be...you are what you play’" (Turkle, 1995). In fact, “today's kids are always ‘multiprocessing’-they do several things simultaneouslyin parallel and so unobtrusively” (Brown, 2002).

According with these assumptions, we could dare to say that our students are hugely familiarized with virtual life. No matter if used as a game, as a communication tool or a way to socialize. Therefore, we will state again that we believe that virtual and immersive worlds, like Second Life®, can be used to teach and to learn with success. Our society is becoming “more networked every day (…) Virtual worlds like Second Life represent the future of human interaction in a globally networked world, and students who grown up in the Internet naturally swim in these waters” (Zhu, Wang & Jia, 2007).

We would like to say that we don’t see Second Life® as a game, like many others believe it is, because it doesn’t really have the major characteristics of a game (like multiple levels, scores, or an end – we don’t see the game over label!). Of course that we can find in this virtual world some forms of game, like in role-play communities, but “virtual worlds are not themselves

games” (Austin & Boulder, 2007). Even so, “Multi-user virtual environments, whether game or non-game, all have one thing in common: communication (…) may be non-verbal through gestures, appearance, or battle” (Robbins, 2007).

There so the use of MUVEs in education also allows learning “through exploring environments, ‘realia’, lived and virtual experiences with tutorial and peer-based support. This method of learning is based upon the notion that learning patterns can be helpfully transferred to dissimilar situations through meta-reflection. (…) helping individuals to use their imagination and creativity to draw out lessons from interactions as well as extracting meaning from data” (Freitas, 2006). In these virtual environments students are, usually, more open, more participative, more creative, and more reactive.

In fact, in the immersive virtual worlds, students attend the classes because they want to learn. Students actually can interact with the simulated world “allowing them to engage with content (Bricken, 1991). Being able to learn subject matter in the first person, as opposed to the third person” which is “experiential, nonsymbolic, interactive, and multisensory” (Richter, Inman & Frisbee, 2007).

The study The research we are here presenting is an early stage. It will be develop in the aim of the Doctoral Program in Multimedia in Education of the University of Aveiro.

We are conducting the research under the theory of Connectivism, defined as being a learning theory for the digital age (Siemens, 2004). In connectivism we can indentify, in learning situations that occur at the MUVEs, many aspects from its major principles, such as: “Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.

Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.

Learning may reside in non-human appliances.

Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.

Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.

Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.

Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision” (Siemens, 2004).

After a careful comparison with the other Learning theories we believe Connectivism provides the best framework for this study.

SL® as a learning platform reflects the assumptions of the Connectivisim theory in many ways. We know nowadays that information and knowledge are transitory, chaotic and unstable, there is an inherent need of a continuous learning (long life learning). SL® enables a contact and connection with a diversity of opinions, nodes, links and specialized information sources.

Because it is digital, virtual and immersive it allows that those information links to be more interactive, which enhances the learning and information sharing. On the other hand, the motivation, feelings and sense of community belonging that are generated among SL® users helps to create, develop and maintain connections, and facilitate a process of continuous and natural learning. According to Siemens (2004), ability to “know more is more critical than what

is currently known” and incidence (correct, up-to-date information and knowledge) is the purpose of learning contexts based in Connectivism.

As we said earlier in this paper, our main goal is focusing on understanding what are the major differences of behavior between people who came to Second Life® by free will and the ones who, somehow, were forced to join the environment. We intended to provide some “insights to all educators and researchers interested in using those environments as a teaching medium in real life, and those new approaches to better prepare the university students for the marketplace will emerge” (Bekkers, 2009), as well to achieve a better understanding how people grow and build knowledge in Second Life® in both formal and informal learning contexts.

Our study emerges from the need to observe some of the variables that have been already identified by Bekkers' study (2009) and give it continuity (cf. Figure 5).

These variables are related with three major areas: the person and their motivations; the relationships that exist or are established between avatars or between avatars and persons; and the social integration at Second Life® (sense of community). Although as we can see at figure 5, the three main areas are related and can’t be observed in a separated way, they all are interconnected. They all influence one another.

Figure 5: Variables of the Study (Bekkers, 2009) Besides that, and in order to better explain our goals, we can say that our research concerns are more focusing on the variable related to RL/SL/RL relationships, being aware of the others variables interference.

It will be an exploratory and qualitative study.

We intend to divide the study in two different parts. For our in world research we will observe learners in what we will call as formal and as natural contexts. As formal learners we will count with the cooperation of students from Portuguese Universities (at least in an earlier phase), and as natural learners we will observe avatars that are engaged in some free courses that are available at Second Life® (also Portuguese language speakers, in this first stage). This sample will be our target audience for the research.

To collect the data we intend to use surveys (with closed answers) to inquire about the reasons why people enter into Second Life® and also what kind of difficulties they experience in using the environment; if they felt curiosity about exploring the environment; what kind of activities are they doing, where and how long; what is the frequency of logging in and how many hours they stay logged in.

We also intend to make some interviews when, and if, we feel need of an additional information, or a clarification / explanation about some data or answer.

Besides these two instruments we also will be working as observers, to identify key indicators (such as the avatar appearance and how the avatar behaves when in a group or community), that will help us to clarify the level of growth or socialization of the avatar / person in the virtual world of Second Life®.

Conclusions and Further Work We agree with Wagner (2007) when he says that MUVEs are “an ideal pedagogical resource”, special because, “acting in virtual communities is nothing new to homo zappiens and is part of normal life”, because nowadays for the most common users “both real and virtual life are components of their lives, without considering one less valuable or real than the other” (Ween & Vrakking, 2006). In fact “the digital natives (Pransky, 2001) have limited patience with an educational system that has not changed substantially since the 19th century. They think and learn in environments that are fast-paced, multimedia, multimodal, interactive, and, of course, digital. These volatile, interconnected, and complex social milieus (Cohill, 2000) call for learning options that are critical, collaborative, creative, and futures oriented.” (Richter, Inman & Frisbee, 2007).

We can say that immersive environment bridges the gap, so people live the experience, live the learning, and thereby learn better. For us these are alternative methods of presenting content, as an attempt to catch student’s attention. In fact immersive worlds have a huge potential for education because they can facilitate “collaborations, community and experiential learning” (Kemp & Livingstone, 2007).

We will be developing this research, outlined above, for the next two years. Our purpose is to achieve a better understanding of immersive learning and develop best practices to teach and learn in virtual worlds, namely in what it concerns to the RL/SL/RL relationships variable mentioned earlier in this paper. With the information that we hope to achieve, we will intend to transfer it to a real life learning context and thereby to improve our ways of teaching and learning at a higher level.

For now we can just say that, and for what we have collected so far, Second Life® “induces teachers’ innovation of their practices and leads them into a collaborative approach with students. Teachers and students become partners and interact socially to a common goal.

The process of teaching and learning tend to be more focused on the development of skills: critical thinking, making initiatives, entrepreneurship, responsibility, teamwork, respect for others and their differences, inter-culturality” (Bekkers, 2009).

According with these factors we can only stay motivated to keep going with our work.

For now, and because we are in a preliminary stage of this research we can not present any results or data based conclusions. We are still, at this very moment, building the analytical instruments to collect our study data. We hope we can bring further results in a next article.

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Retrieved January 26, 2009 from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2007_Horizon_Report.pdf Bekkers, C. (2009). Teaching & Learning in SL: Figuring Out Some Variables. Retrieved January 30, 2009 from http://cleobekkers.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/teaching-learningin-sl-figuring-out-some-variables/ Bettencourt, T. & Abade, A. (2007). Mundos Virtuais de Aprendizagem e de Ensino – uma caracterização inicial. In: Marcelino, M. & Silva, M. (org), Actas do IX Simpósio Internacional de Informática Educativa (pp. 37-42) (CD-Rom).

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Freitas, S. (2006). Learning in Immersive Worlds. Retrieved February 26, 2009 from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearninginnovation/gamingreport_ v3.pdf Harold, D. (2009). Virtual Education: Teaching Media Studies in Second Life. Received by email and retrieved March 20, 2009 (in press for the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, March 2009 edition) Hayes, G. (2006). Virtual Worlds, Web 3.0 and Portable Profiles. Retrieved February 2, 2008 from http://www.personalizemedia.com/virtual-worlds-web-30-and-portable-profiles Hayes, G. (2009). ROI 101 & Stickiness of Second Life®? Retrieved February 25, 2009 from http://www.personalizemedia.com/roi-101-stickiness-of-second-life Johnson, N. (2006). The Educational Potential of Second Life®. Retrieved February 2, 2008 from http://digitalunion.osu.edu/showcase/virtualenvironments Kemp, J. e Livingstone, D. (2007). Putting a Second Life® “Metaverse” Skin on Learning Management Systems.

Retrieved February 2, 2008 from http://www.sloodle.org/whitepaper.pdf Kirkpatrick, D. (2007). It’s not a game. Retrieved February 1, 2009 from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/02/05/8399120/index.htm Lester, J. (2009). Artistic expressions in Second Life. In: Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Retrieved March 20, 2009 from http://jvwresearch.org/v1n3.html Lester, J. (2006). Pathfinder Linden’s Guide to Getting Started in Second Life®. In: Livingstone, D. & Kemp, J. (org.) Proceedings of the Second Life® Education Workshop at the

Second Life® Community Convention (pp. v-vii). Retrieved February 7, 2008 from http://www.simteach.com/SLCC06/slcc2006-proceedings.pdf Linden Research, Inc (2008). Second Life®: Official site of the 3D online world. Retrieved February 1, 2009 from http://secondlife.com/whatis Morgado, L. (2009). Interconnecting virtual worlds. In: Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Retrieved March 20, 2009 from http://jvwresearch.org/v1n3.html Paul, C. (2009). What we do, not just what we are. In: Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Retrieved March 20, 2009 from http://jvwresearch.org/v1n3.html Pita, S. (2008). As Interacções no Second Life®: a comunicação entre avatares. Retrieved February 1, 2009 from http://prisma.cetac.up.pt/ Richter, J., Inman, L. & Frisbee, M. (2007). Critical engagement of teachers in Second Life®: progress in the SaLamander Project. In: Livingstone, D. & Kemp, J. (org.) Proceedings of the Second Life® Education Workshop 2007 - Part of the Second Life® Community Convention (pp.

19-26).

Retrieved January 20, 2009 from http://www.simteach.com/slccedu07proceedings.pdf Robbins, S. (2007). A Futurist’s view of Second Life® Education: A developing Taxonomy of Digital Spaces. In: Livingstone, D. & Kemp, J. (org.) Proceedings of the Second Life® Education Workshop 2007 - Part of the Second Life® Community Convention (pp. 2732).

Retrieved January 20, 2009 from http://www.simteach.com/slccedu07proceedings.pdf Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. Retrieved February 26, 2009 from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. Simon & Schuster.

Veen, W., & Vrakking, B. (2006). Homo Zappiens – Growing up in a digital age. London: Network Continuum Education.

Wagner, J. (2007). The School of Second Life®: Creating new avenues of pedagogy in a virtual world. Retrieved February 1, 2008 from http://www.edutopia.org/school-second-life Zhu, Q., Wang, T. & Jia, Y. (2007). Second Life: A new platform for education. In: Liu, H., Hu, B., Zheng, X. & Zhang, H. (org.) Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Information Technologies and Applications in Education (ISITAE 2007) (pp. 201-204).

New Jersey: IEEE Press.

Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

Brands and Consumption in Virtual Worlds

By Ioanna Nikolaou, Shona Bettany, Gretchen Larsen, University of Bradford, School of Management, UK Abstract Virtual worlds, such as Second Life, are rapidly becoming recognized as a technology of substantial future importance for marketers and advertisers due to the great growth of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). In recent years virtual worlds have become highly interactive, collaborative and commercial; these worlds would have the potential to be new channels for marketing content and products, integrating ‘v-commerce’, or ‘virtual e-commerce’. Virtual Worlds clearly demonstrate how the boundaries between the physical and the virtual are becoming more fluid as individuals are interacting with digitally constructed entities. This paper aims to explore the literature in order to illuminate some of the issues related to consumption in virtual worlds and offer a better understanding of virtual participants’ consumption practices.

Keywords: brands; consumption; virtual worlds.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual World Research - Brands and Consumption in Virtual Worlds

Brands and Consumption in Virtual Worlds

By Ioanna Nikolaou, Shona Bettany, Gretchen Larsen, University of Bradford, School of Management, UK “Computer-mediated communication is not just a tool; It is at once technology, medium, and engine of social relations. It not only structures social relations, it is the space within which the relations occur and the tool that individuals use to enter that space.”

-Steven G. Jones, CyberSociety 2.0, 1998: p. 11-12 With the diffusion of computer and information technologies throughout businesses and homes, the field of marketing has transformed significantly. Worldwide, people have adopted the Internet as an information, communication, transaction, and distribution channel. Because the Internet connects people and disseminates information at an unprecedented speed and scope, it is clear that also its impact as an online social network and knowledge reservoir is profound (De Valck, 2005).

The recent advances in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) has led to instant communication that ceases to be restricted by traditional understandings of space and time, but it is also possible to identify the infringement of the virtual realm on to our physical space1. In fact, the physical and virtual realms are becoming increasingly difficult to separate due to less frequent face-to-face contact (Ward, 1999). Due to the great growth of Computer Mediated Communication, online virtual worlds are rapidly becoming recognized as a technology of substantial future importance for marketers and advertisers (Hemp, 2006). The phrase ‘Virtual World’ refers to a 3 Dimensional computer-generated environment that appears similar to ‘real’ world, often developed to supply online entertainment and social networking for users (Barnes, 2007). In recent years virtual worlds have become highly interactive, collaborative and commercial. There are more than one hundred virtual worlds, and more are under development (Barnes, 2007). In our definition, virtual worlds are open-ended virtual interaction platforms or ‘experience worlds’; therefore, goals are not prescribed, and virtual worlds are not games in the traditional sense. For instance, game-oriented environments, such as Worlds of Warcraft, Sims Online and Everquest would be excluded from our definition. Current virtual worlds would have the potential to be new channels for marketing content and products, integrating ‘v-commerce’, or ‘virtual e-commerce’. Virtual Worlds clearly demonstrate how the boundaries between the physical and the virtual are becoming more fluid as individuals are interacting with digitally constructed entities. This paper is going to specifically focus on Second Life (SL), which is the best known virtual world. It is an immersive 3-D virtual world created by its Residents (users) (developed by Linden Research).

Given the uncertain ontological status of avatars’ needs, the meaning of their consumption practices is going to be explored in this paper in the context of the livedexperiences of consumers who live their life in the virtual worlds.

1 By physical space we mean the activity that takes place in the traditional sociological field; the physical world (Berger, 1963). It has been proposed that for some internet users the activity that takes place in text-based virtual space is experienced as a reality (Watson, 1997) and that the virtual space simulates the physical world to the extent that the virtual space is experienced as ‘more real’ than the physical world (Dery, 1996). I accept that the virtual is enclosed with the physical and vice versa, but I support that the value of virtual space exists in its ability to improve the transformation of individual’s physical, political and social lives.

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What is Brand?

A brand can be defined as an asset that does not have physical existence and the value of which cannot be determined exactly unless it becomes the subject of a specific business transaction of sale and acquisition (Seetharaman et al, 2001). The other definition that can be used is ‘a name, term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of them, intended to identify goods or services of one seller; or a group of sellers, and to differentiate them form those of competitors’. The legal term for brand is trademark. A brand may identify one item, a family of items, or all items of that seller. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferred term is trade name.

(Marketing Power, 2007).

A Brief History of Branding The first Journal of Marketing article on the topic of ‘brand’ can be traced back to H. D. Wolfe’s 1942 “Techniques of Appraising Brand Preference and Brand Consciousness by Consumer Interviewing”, with several other articles on brands and branding appearing in the popular literature even earlier in the 20th century. While some thirty brand and branding articles appeared in the top three consumer behaviour journals (Journal of Consumer Research, journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research) from 1942 to 1969, branding as a major topic of study in the marketing discipline, began in earnest in the 1970’s. Books and journal articles have tackled the topic of branding from a variety of perspectives. Specifically, a good portion of the research on brand is devoted to building a better understanding in the areas of brand choice (or preference), brand switching, brand loyalty and brand extensions. As Marketing’s study of branding has progressed, so too has the usage of branding by managers. Several popular journals, including Brandweek, Brand Marketing and Brands and their Companies have been mainstays for marketing management during the last two decades (Moore & Reid, 2008).

A Brief History of Consumption The historical community, following the leads of Braudel and the example of McKendrick et al, has recognized that the ‘great transformation’ of the West included not just an ‘industrial revolution’ but also a ‘consumer revolution’. This consumer revolution represents not just a change in tastes, preferences, and buying habits, but a fundamental shift in the culture of the early modern and modern world. Modern consumption was the cause and consequence of so many social changes that its emergence marked nothing less the transformation of the Western world. There are three important episodes in the history of consumption: the consumer boom in sixteenth-century England, consumption in the eighteenth century and consumption in the nineteenth century.

In the last quarter of the sixteenth century, a spectacular consumer boom occurred. The noblemen of Elizabethan England began to spend with a new enthusiasm, on a new scale. The consumer revolution served as cause and consequence of the transformation of Elizabethan England. Caught up in Elizabeth’s strategic use of consumption as an instrument of government, Elizabethan noblemen were forced in patterns of noticeable consumption that had deep consequences for their families and localities. Spending more and more for their own immediate purposes, these noblemen withdraw from their reciprocal contracts with the family and the locality. For the family, this withdrawal had the effect of helping to narrow its scope and corporateness. For the locality, it had the effect of diminishing the influence of the super ordinate (McCracken, 1988).

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In the eighteenth century, consumption has moved a little closer to the centre of the historical stage. Merchants were now marketers and the masters of diffusion effects and new media of communication. The number of goods was increasing steadily and they could be bought in more places on more opportunities than before. The transformation power of fashion now touched more product categories and the rate of fashion change had increased. This involved more frequent purchase and a wider scope of social knowledge. Now the consumption was a mass activity. The epidemic metaphor used by contemporaries was apt. The virus that had restricted itself to a minor aristocratic community had now infected everyone (McCracken, 1988).

By the nineteenth century the consumer revolution had established itself as a permanent social fact. The dynamic dialectic that bound consumer change and social change was now a structural reality. In fact, this revolution had even found an institution locus, a place of its own, the department store. This new institution helped change the nature of aesthetics by which goods were marketed, introducing powerfully persuasive techniques in film and décor that are being refined. The department store also changed the very nature of the place in which people consume, what they consumed, the information they needed to consume, and the styles of life to which this new consumption was devoted (McCracken, 1988).

Virtual Worlds Virtual Worlds (VW) “are computer-moderated, persistent environments through and with which multiple individuals may interact simultaneously. In order to make these environments persuasive, such systems always present to their players an illusion that encourages the acceptance of familiar concepts such as place, inhabitant and object. Therefore, it is usual to refer to these virtual items in the same way that one refers to real items – as “a castle” or “a shopkeeper” or “a book”, rather than as “an interpretation of bits” (Bartle, 2004).

Many of these virtual worlds are actually commercially driven role playing games, or Massive Multiplayer Role Playing Games (MMORPG’s) which can be defined as “ highly graphical 3-D videogames played online, allowing individuals, through their self-created digital characters or “avatars,” to interact not only with the gaming software (the designed environment of the game and the computer-controlled characters within it) but with other players’ avatars as well. These cyberworlds are persistent social and material worlds, loosely structured by openended (fantasy) narratives, where players are largely free to do as they please – slay overgrown butterflies, siege cities, barter goods in town, or scalp raw materials off the local flora and fauna.

These Virtual Worlds are complex places, with a complexity that sometimes can even be seen as similar as the real world’s.

According to Castronova (2001), a Virtual World or VW is a computer program with 3 defining features: • •

Interactivity: it exists on one computer but can be accessed remotely (i.e. by an internet connection) and simultaneously by a large number of people, with the command inputs of one person affecting the command results of other people.

Physicality: people access the program through an interface that simulates a firstperson physical environment on their computer screen; the environment is generally rules by the natural laws of Earth and is characterized by scarcity of resources.

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•

Persistence: the program continues to run whether anyone is using it or not; it remembers the location of people and things, as well as the ownership of objects.

These virtual worlds exhibit most of the traits we associate with the Earth world: economic transactions, interpersonal relationships, organic political institutions, and so on. A human being experiences these worlds through an avatar, which is the representation of the self in a given physical medium. Most worlds allow an agent to choose what kind of avatar she or he will inhabit, allowing a person with any kind of Earth body to inhabit a completely different body in the virtual world (Castronova, 2003).

The word ‘avatar’ derives from the Sanskrit word Avat!ra, meaning ‘descent’ and usually implies a deliberate descent into mortal realms for special purposes. On the web avatars are graphical representations of characters – people – and are used in various applications including chat, instant messaging, blogs, games and virtual communities (Barnes & Mattsson, 2008).

‘Virtual World Avatars’ (VWA) are three-dimensional anthropomorphic representations of people, including related in-world behaviour and paraphernalia, for the purposes of interaction within virtual worlds.

As the phenomenon continues to grow, the aggregate amount of time devoted to shared virtual reality spaces seems likely to rise from today’s tens of thousands of person-years into the hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions. The physical representation of the self in virtual reality – the avatar – is an important aspect of the choice problem, as we would expect that people would gravitate toward those worlds that offer them their ideal avatars (Castronova, 2003).

To enter a virtual world, the user is first connected to the server via the Internet. Once the connection is established, the user enters a program that allows them to choose an avatar for themselves. In all of the main virtual worlds, one can spend an extremely long time at this first stage, choosing the appearance of the avatar as well as its abilities. Avatars, like their human counterparts, express themselves through appearance and body language (Adrian, 2007).

Most of these virtual worlds have a firm basis for commercial development, including an in-world currency, customization of avatars and objects, concepts of property ownership, text and/or voice communication and many different marketplaces and communities (Castronova, 2005; Good, 2007; Manninen & Kujanpää, 2007). Virtual Worlds offer extraordinarily flexibility and potential for brand-building. Tools for promotion include, for example, product placement of 3D objects (similar to product brands, like beverages, as seen in films), real-world analogs (such as billboards and radio), advergames (mini-games or mini-worlds, with some element of advertising), and cross-promotion (such as coupons, dancing or camping in SL) (Vedrashko, 2006).

Brands and Consumer Goods in Virtual Worlds in the Context of Consumer Culture Consumption and culture have an unprecedented relationship in the modern world. By ‘culture’ we mean the ideas and activities with which we interpret and construct our world (McCraken, 1988). By ‘consumption’ we broadly mean the processes by which consumer goods are created, bought, and used. Consumption is shaped, driven, and controlled at every point by entirely cultural enterprise. The consumer goods on which consumers dedicate time, attention, and income are charged with cultural meaning. Consumers use the meaning of consumer goods in order to express cultural categories and values, develop ideals, create and sustain life-styles, construct concepts of the self, and create (and survive) social changes.

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Much contemporary consumption is playful and imaginative (Gabriel & Lang, 1995).

McCraken (1988) and Campbell (1987) advocate that consumer goods might be perceived as resources with which to build imagined “better” lives. For instance, people may envisage that if they had a particular car or clothes their lives would be better. This means that consumer goods give individuals hope that imagined ideals are attainable, acting as “bridges” to them, without ever in fact fully achieving them. In this sense, commodities offer pleasures of the imagination.

The actual pleasure is in the dream that the consumer good symbolically represents. Dreams may be framed and encouraged by the media, including advertising (Campbell, 1987). Virtual worlds are attractive to people who inhabit media-created ideal worlds in their imagination and some of these simulations include the signs of significance to individuals in ‘real’ life: branded consumer goods. Virtual worlds, due to the fact that they are a form of play, make us escape from our ‘everyday lives’. Therefore there are many virtual world participants separating their ‘real’ lives from their virtual lives, considering that there may be more than one reality that they can now live in.

Martin (2004) in his exploration of a fantasy trading card game explains that: ‘the real provides a necessary basis for creating a fantastic milieu that absorbs the consumer’. Aspects of reality are required in order for the imagination to be evoked. The aspects of reality used to evoke the imaginary may vary, but they may also include brands as ideas that we are used to daydreaming about. Hence, brands may ‘connect’ fantasies to individuals’ everyday experiences.

What an individual sees on the screen is realistic just because they know those brands as real brands.

In virtual worlds consumers are taking the initiative and adopting alter egos that are anything but under wraps, marketers can segment, reach, and influence them directly. In fact, it is important for companies to think about more than the potentially rich market of the virtual world and consider the potential customer-the avatar. In Second Life there are clothing designers that have been approached by real-world fashion houses, and at least one business makes realworld versions of furniture based on virtual “furni” designed by Second Life residents.

At this point we need to point out that in the mall of a virtual world, an avatar can try on and try out real-world clothing brands or styles in front of the virtual friends that the individual behind the avatar typically couldn’t afford or wouldn’t dare to wear. In case this avatar gets good reviews for her/his buddies and if she/he becomes comfortable with the idea of wearing a particular outfit, a purchase in the real-world may follow.

The Virtual World Second Life (SL) This paper specifically focuses on Second Life (SL), which is the best known virtual world. It is an immersive 3-D virtual world created by its Residents (users) (developed by Linden Research). The Residents are able to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse.

Everybody’s avatar runs around together in a virtual environment, complete with oceans and trees and houses and animals. They can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another. Avatars can take whatever form and appearance and manifest whatever personality that a user desires. Every avatar can point at people and things, to drive virtual motorcycles, or to run up to someone and hug them. Residents can own property, create objects and animations, form relationships with one another, and engage in virtually any type of transaction or interaction imaginable. They can communicate with one another by typing local public chat messages,

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typing private, global instant messages, and even by voice. The can also navigate the landscape by walking, flying, or instantly teleporting from one location to another, among other means.

There’s an easy-to-learn programming language you can use to tell the system to make something for you in a certain way. Making things costs virtual money, of course. So people make outfits and cars, and even houses, and they trade them back and forth, trying to save up their $L to do more building when it strikes their fancy (Castronova, 2008).

Second Life is not a game since there really isn’t any game to it at all. You just go there and talk to people, make friends, and build stuff that you might trade around for $L, using the money to buy other things. For most of the millions of people who have begun to spend time within avatar-mediated communication systems, their encounter with this technology is not viewed as an encounter with a technology at all, but rather as a move into a new society, albeit one that operates under unusual circumstances. The circumstances change from world to world – in some, like Second Life, users build houses, in others they hunt dragons – but the common theme is sociality. These are new places for human communities, but they have grown to the point where they have begun to merge with communities – and markets -- outside cyberspace (Castronova, 2008).

Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe. It has grown rapidly from 2 million residents in January 2006 to more than 9 million residents in August 2007. Some 1.3 million people ran the official software and logged-in to Second Life in March 2007, an increase of 46 percent in the number of active residents from January 2007 (ComScore, 2007). In March 2007, 61 percent of active Second Life residents were from Europe (16 percent from Germany), compared to 19 percent from North America, and 13 percent from the Asia Pacific. Additionally, 61 percent of residents were male while 39 percent were female (ComScore, 2007).

Real Life (RL) Brands in SL This virtual world has more than 100 real life brands (Kzero, 2007), including those in sectors such as: • Auto (e.g., Mercedes, Mazda, Toyota and Pontiac), • Media (e.g., AOL, Reuters and Sony BMG), • Tourism/Travel (e.g., STA Travel), • Consumer electronics (e.g., Intel, Dell, Apple, Nokia and Sony), • Consumer goods (e.g. Reebok , Adidas and American Apparel), • Telecommunications (e.g. Vodafone and Telus), • Finance (e.g. ABN Amro and ING) There are two types of accounts that a Resident in Second Life might have: Basic and Premium. Basic accounts are free. Premium Residents pay a recurring fee to buy land directly from Linden Lab, and receive a weekly allowance of Linden Dollars called a “stipend”. Premium Residents aren’t the only ones who are contributing to the economy, however. Since its inception more than 90,000 unique Residents have bought currency on the exchange. Basic Residents account for significant economic activity.

The Economics of the SL Community The SL economy is a vital part of the game experience. Second Life has its own currency, the Linden Dollar. Linden Dollars may be purchased and sold for real world money through a

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variety of exchanges at a rate that fluctuates according to market supply and demand. The value of Linden Dollar is L$267.48 per US$1.00 in average-value varies from L$264.00 to L$275.00.

So the value of one L$1.00 is US$0.00374. Residents can use Linden Dollars to purchase property, goods, or services from one another, to make purchases through automated vendors in a variety of stores, and for many other types of transactions. The prices of property, goods, and services are similarly driven principally by market conditions.

In September 2006, the virtual world had a GDP of US$64 million, based on residents being able to sell pretty much anything they create within the metaverse, as long as they can find a buyer. While the SL currency is known as the L$, these can be exchanged for real-life US dollars with Second Life creator Linden Lab (Sudhaman, 2006). As figure 1 shows, the amount of resident owned land has increased 10 times in the last two years.

Figure 1. Amount of resident owned land Source: Second Life Official website (2008) Virtual Experience & Virtual Consumption Due to the fact that consumption is a central aspect of contemporary life, it has been greatly appreciated by researchers of various fields not only within consumer behavior, or more broadly marketing, but also in sociology, psychology and anthropology. With the dynamic development of information technology and the proliferation of interactive media with the Internet at the front position, the ways in which people consume started to change. Consequently, consumers were introduced to new ways of consuming physical goods and their digitized equivalents such as e-books, e-journals, mp3 music, etc (Kedzior, 2007).

Virtual game communities are considered one of the most promising online game models â&#x20AC;&#x201C; incorporating traditional computer games into the context of collaborative virtual environments. Thousands of participants may not only interact with each other, but they may also buy and sell virtual items in a virtual community. Such goods are bought and sold using real money. According to DFC Intelligence (2005), the revenue from trading virtual assets in virtual

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game communities will reach $1.8 billion by 2009. The emergence and increasing popularity of three-dimensional animated virtual worlds such as Second Life has set new stages for consumption. Being highly immersive, these environments represent lively consumption spaces not only for consumption activities but also for other manifestations of consumerism such as consumer activism, resistance and consumer creativity (Kedzior, 2007).

According to Firat and Venkatesh (1995), consumer-controlled avatars engage in many consumption activities such as shopping, trading, socializing at a club, etc. In that sense virtual consumption demonstrates an aspect of ‘hyperreality’, where members of the culture realize, construct and live the simulation. As Rheingold (1991) notes, ‘real’ describes a specific set of experiences; namely, those that are lived through the body, without the intervention of computer technology. Simulating these embodied experiences comprises virtual reality, and these simulations are hyperreal. As such, these experiences may be realistic, a state that is like real, but not really real.

Similar to the physical world, consumption in a virtual environment is often connected to spending hypothetically virtual money. As we have mentioned earlier, Second Life has its own form of economy and virtual money might be exchanged into “real” money and vice versa. As a result, the line between real and virtual has become blurred. Due to the new character of virtual worlds little remains known about the nature of such consumption (Kedzior, 2007).

The big question that arises at this point is why people buy virtual items with real money.

According to Second Life Residents’ views about this issue, they shop and buy by appearance.

They ask themselves ‘How do I look?’ How will I blend in?’. Appearance and attractiveness is important to them. Additionally they explained a bit more about the ‘blend in’ thing. An SL Resident specifically gave me an example in order to explain it better telling me: “Go to a Rock club for example or Black Hearts [and] take a look at what everyone else is wearing..those two have different cultures of clients, different styles and people change to ‘fit in’ as they perceive it”. Asking him what exactly Black Hearts is he easily told me that Black Heart Café is a popular dance club in SL. What is Real and what is Virtual?

Recent works have characterized our late-twentieth-century lives and social structures as hyperreal, or moving closer to the virtual; many scholars theorizing about cyberspace and computer-mediated communication focus on the difficulty of determining what is real and what is virtual, or on the blurring of the two in or through various technologies (e.g. Benedikt, 1991; Rheingold, 1991; 1993).

According to MacKinnon (1998), “The primary difference between the real and the virtually real is the interposition of some mediating and transforming agent or interface between the senses and the shared perception” (p. 4). MacKinnon seems to define real as that which is experienced by the senses and virtually real as that experience which encounters something between its existence and our senses. Most probably he means a computer, but he could also mean displays, or a mirror. More significantly, there is a standard reality out there, and something is happening to it. Howard Rheingold (1991) writes that computers “are only beginning to approach the point where people might confuse simulations with reality.

Computation and display technology are converging on hyperreal simulation capability.

[Through this capability, we] will be able to put on a headset, or walk into a media room, and surround ourselves in a responsive simulation of startling verisimilitude….That point of convergence is important enough to contemplate in advance of its arrival. The day computer

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simulations become so realistic that people cannot distinguish them from not simulated reality we are in for changes” (p. 388).

At this point we need to point out that virtual realities such as the Internet encourage people to see virtual as real and vice versa, or to accept the virtual as an adequate way to experience various places and others. For example, when in Second Life, I can seem to walk through a forest, without actually going there; I can share significant discussions with people from all around the world that care about me online, so I might not feel ‘forced’ to accept or get along with people who live close to me.

Conclusions and recommendations and further research Thanks to the recent advances in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) the physical and virtual realms are becoming increasingly difficult to separate due to less frequent face-to-face contact. In recent years virtual worlds have become highly interactive, collaborative and commercial. Current virtual worlds, such as Second Life, would have the potential to be new channels for marketing content and products, integrating ‘v-commerce’, or ‘virtual e-commerce’.

Most of these virtual worlds have a firm basis for commercial development, including an inworld currency, customization of avatars and objects, concepts of property ownership, text and/or voice communication and many different marketplaces and communities. They offer extraordinarily flexibility and potential for brand-building. In addition, much contemporary consumption is playful and imaginative, which means that that consumer goods might be perceived as resources with which to build imagined “better” lives.

The role of these complex worlds as tools that individuals use to make sense of their lives in a consumer society is worth further consideration. Further studies may consider how the brands are perceived by virtual participants and whether there is an interaction between Real Life consumer behavior and Second Life consumer behavior. A very important question that arises is whether the avatars are going to actually buy real-world products that are marketed in virtual worlds, effectively purchasing real-world goods for the individual behind the avatar, just as those individuals buy virtual-world stuff for them or not. Could an avatar who is spending Linden Dollars in order to buy a virtual shirt from a designer clothing store in Second Life be attracted, while visiting an in-world Gap retailer store for example, to click on a cash register and use her/his credit card in order to buy a real-world Gap sweater that would be shipped to the real person’s doorstep? This research agenda is a very important one as the use of interactive entertainment continues to grow.

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Castronova, E. (2003). Theory of the Avatar. Social Science Research Network Electronic Library, February 2003.

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ComScore (2007). ComScore finds that second Life has a rapidly growing and global base of active residents.

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http://publishing.eur.nl/ir/repub/asset/6663/EPS2005050MKT_905892078X%20_DEVA LCK.pdf.

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Hemp, P. (2006). Avatar-Based Marketing. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved April 28 2008 from http://vhil.stanford.edu/news/2006/hbr-avatar-based-marketing.pdf.

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KZero

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McCraken, G. (1988). Culture and Consumption new Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods and Activities. Indiana University Press: Bloomington.

McKendrick, N., Brewer, J. & Plump, J. H. (1982). The Birth of Consumer Society: The Commercialization of Eighteenth-Century England, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Manninen, T. and T. Kujanpää (2007). The Value of Virtual Assets – The Role of Game Characters in MMOGs, International Journal of Business Science and Applied Management. 2, 21-33.

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Marketing Power (2007). Dictionary. Retrieved 23 September http://www.marketingpower.com/_layouts/Dictionary.aspx?dLetter=B.

2008

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Palm Power Magazine, (1999). Palmistry and numerology: understanding branding. Retrieved October 25 2008 from http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue199903/editorial0399001.html Rheingold, H. (1991). Virtual Reality. London: Secker & Warburg.

Rheingold, H. (1993). The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley.

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Journal of Information Technology, 14, 95-105.

Watson, N. (1997). Why we argue about virtual community, in Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cyberspace. Jones, S. (ed). Sage: London. pp. 102-33# Vedrashko, I. (2006). Advertising in Computer games, Department of Comparative and Media Studies. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved July 12 2007 from http://gamesbrandsplay.com/files/vedrashko_advertising_in_games.pdf.

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

ArchHouseGenerator – A Framework for House Generation Nuno Rodrigues Research Center for Informatics and Communications, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal Luís Magalhães INESC Porto. UTAD - University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal João Paulo Moura GECAD - Knowledge Engineering and Decision Support Research Center, Porto; UTAD University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal Alan Chalmers University of Warwick International Digital Laboratory, WMG, University of Warwick, United Kingdom Filipe Santos ESECS, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal Leonel Morgado UTAD - University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal Abstract The manual creation of virtual environments is a demanding and costly task.

With the increasing demand for more complex models in different areas, such as the design of virtual worlds, video games and computer animated movies the need to generate them automatically has become more necessary than ever.

This paper presents a framework for the automatic generation of houses based on architectural rules. This approach has some innovating features, including the implementation of architectural rules, and produces 2D floor plans as well as complete 3D models, with a high level of detail, in just a few seconds. To evaluate the framework two different applications were developed and the output models were tested for different fields of application (e.g. virtual worlds). The results obtained contain evidences that the proposed framework may lead to the

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development of several specific applications to produce accurate 3D models of houses representing different realities (e.g. civilizations, epochs, etc.).

Keywords: procedural modelling, virtual environments, virtual worlds, house generation.

This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0!

United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

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ArchHouseGenerator – A Framework for House Generation Nuno Rodrigues Research Center for Informatics and Communications, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal Luís Magalhães INESC Porto. UTAD - University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal João Paulo Moura GECAD - Knowledge Engineering and Decision Support Research Center, Porto; UTAD University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal Alan Chalmers University of Warwick International Digital Laboratory, WMG, University of Warwick, United Kingdom Filipe Santos ESECS, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal Leonel Morgado UTAD - University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal In the past few years, the use of algorithms to automatically generate virtual environments has become an area of growing interest for computer scientists and researchers all over the world. In fact, the idea of automatically creating environments with very little modelling effort is a fascinating idea that can lead to several benefits in different areas, such as Architecture, virtual worlds, video games and movies.

The goal is to place all, or most of the effort of creating an environment in computer software. In the context of the examples presented (i.e. Architecture, virtual worlds, video games and movies), the effort required by human resources (architects, computer artists and animators), could be greatly reduced and applied to more useful tasks, thereby leading to the development of more realist models.

This paper describes a framework – ArchHouseGenerator – conceived on the study of real structures, to demonstrate that computer algorithms for house generation can be used, even on areas where there are strict legal rules to be respected. Such is the example of Architecture where all Portuguese projects have to comply with RGEU (Regulamento Geral das Edificações Urbanas, General Regulations for Urban Buildings)1. This is just one example, since the framework may be used in other areas (e.g. virtual words and video games). Indeed, in this paper we also show some tests where the generated models were imported inside a multiuser virtual world that was built with a Virtual World SDK, OpenCroquet, This raises some interesting possibilities as the generation of Real Virtual Worlds, i.e. virtual worlds generated according to authentic Architectural rules. These may be contemporary worlds but also ancient worlds, representing structures lost in time, but where some kind of information about the rules of construction is available. This last reality is demonstrated with the representation of heritage structures. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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RGEU is one of the main documents by which all Portuguese architectural projects have to comply.

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The proposed framework implements an algorithmic approach for the automatic creation of a multitude of different house geometries in just a few seconds. This includes external geometry as well as interior geometry, with a high level of detail. An application – HouseGen – was developed over the framework which allows the creation of many features present in typical houses including doors, windows, roofs and baseboards. At the same time, the features generated for the different rooms of the house reflect the characteristics of a real house. This stems from the results, where the final models (considering the example of modern houses) present tiles, both in kitchens and bathrooms, and where different kinds of materials are represented for the floors of different rooms (e.g. mosaic for kitchens and bathrooms and wood floors for bedrooms).

The following contributions are presented: •

ArchHouseGenerator produces models according to architectural and legal rules.

•

The generation of models that may match different architectural styles, thus allowing the representation of buildings from different civilizations, places and epochs.

•

The generation of 2D floor plans as well as complete 3D models, with a high level of detail, in just a few seconds.

•

The possibility to define rules that regulate the possible paths between different parts of the house (i.e. define which parts of the house can connect to any other part of the house).

A dedicated exporter capable of generating 3D models suitable to different types of applications.

Related Work The reconstruction of urban environments has been a focus of previous work from different areas, spanning several types of data sources (e.g. aerial images, laser scanning data) (Martinez-Fonte et al., 2004; Weidner, 1996) as well as different applications. There are also approaches that attempt to model a particular town or city (Ingram et al., 1996), to those that create purely artificial environments (Urban Simulation Team), as stated by Laycock & Day (2003).

A different method of modelling, entitled Procedural Modelling, relies on algorithms to automatically generate the physical geometry. These algorithms usually aim for the generation of new worlds, rather than the reconstruction of existing worlds. Although they may also be used for the reconstruction of non-existing worlds for which there is some kind of knowledge (e.g. floor plans, photographs) to support the reconstruction of realistic environments (e.g. reconstruction of archaeological sites where only some features about construction techniques related with the site are known).

In the recent past many methods have attempted to address the field of Procedural Modelling in urban environments, where most of them are discussed by Watson et al. (2008) in addition to several other aspects, advantages and practical applications of this promising area. One initial approach to the construction and analysis of architectural design is based on shape grammars, presented by Stiny (1975). These have become the foundation for many

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applications comprising different architectural styles, e.g. (Koning & Eisenberg, 1981; Knight, 1981; Flemming, 1987; Duarte, 2002). Indeed, most of the related work concerning the generation of urban virtual environments relies on grammars, e.g. L-Systems (Parish & Müller, 2001), split grammars (Müller et al., 2006).

Parish & Müller (2001) presented an approach which uses shape grammars, namely LSystems to generate large urban environments. Wonka et al. (2003), also used shape grammars, but concentrated however on creating detailed geometric façades on individual buildings. Later, Müller et al. (2006), used the knowledge from the previous mentioned work to propose a new method for addressing the problem based on a mass model technique.

Through a different approach Greuter et al. (2003), focused on optimization techniques to present a framework capable of generating real-time virtual worlds and Finkenzeller et al.

(2005), presented a technique for generating floor plans and resulting 3D Geometry based on a decomposition technique.

One common feature among most of these authors’ techniques is the fact that only buildings façades are generated, which means that there is a degree of realism lacking. This also means that these approaches are not suitable for some applications (e.g. Architectural applications and some video games) since the generated buildings are not traversable.

Martin (2005) addressed this problem by presenting two different approaches to generate both outer and inner characteristics of houses (instead of skyscrapers). Even though the presented work lacks some realism, an interesting thing to notice is that some architectural issues were taken into account. This can be perceived from the fact that the author makes the distinction between public and private parts of a house, as laid out by Christopher Alexander2.

Hahn et al. (2006) also address interior generation, in real time, by dividing rectangular floors, corresponding to buildings’ interiors, into rectangular rooms and hallways. Although, the divisions are performed randomly and have no architectural patterns into account (which doesn’t seem suitable for the representation of real buildings).

The use of real rules to support the generation of virtual environments has been recently explored by the authors of this paper, either on the generation of modern structures (Author, Date) or on the generation of ancient civilizations, e.g. Roman civilization (Author, Date; Author, Date). This is demonstrated in this paper where modern structures as well as heritage structures were generated by the framework. As such, official rules, as laid out by RGEU were codified. This may serve as a basis for the future development of tools, which may aid both Architects and Civil Engineers, in the creation of new building floor plans, as well as 3D models, in a sense that may be considered as artificial creativity.

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2

The distinction between public and private rooms stems from the architectural patterns described in 1977 by Christopher Alexander’s in “A Pattern Language” (Alexander et al., 1977). In most of the related literature it is common to find references that acknowledge Alexander’s contribution which may serve as a basis to several architectural applications. Nevertheless, a similar distinction has already been made in more ancient civilizations. One example is the Roman civilization where the literature adapted from Vitruvius (Roman Engineer and Architect) “De architectura” refers to the function of a room (Maciel, 2006).!

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Likewise, Vitruvius’ rules3 were also taken into account for the generation of Roman structures, and an example of a 3D reconstruction of a Roman House is presented.

Overview The rest of the paper is structured as follows. “Framework Architecture” section provides a general description of the framework. Examples of applications built over ArchHouseGenerator, as well as experiments are presented in the “Results” section and the paper concludes with the “Conclusion and Future Work” section.

Framework Architecture The framework is composed by several modules represented in Figure 1. These are set off by the user design choices which guides each module until the final result is reached. The whole process is demonstrated with the case study of modern Portuguese houses.

Figure 1: ArchHouseGenerator Architecture.

The design choices may match different architectural styles thus allowing the representation of buildings from different civilizations, places and epochs. The architectural style is enforced by several Validation Rules, coded in the form of a formal grammar. The object database, composed by 3D geometry representing different house features (e.g. ornaments, window styles, etc.), along with the Validation Rules may be used in this fashion to create computer programs using the framework to generate specific house types. This is demonstrated in the “Results” section, where an application – HouseGen – was developed to generate modern single, Portuguese houses. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Marcus Vitruvius Pollio – Roman architect and engineer who lived in the 1st century BC, author of “De architectura”).

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In the ArchHouseGenerator Core there are three major components: Organization, Floor Plan and 3D Model. These are in charge of the generation of house floor plans and corresponding 3D models according to a specific organization (i.e. room types, connections between rooms, room dimensions, etc.) specified by the user.

The output of the framework is produced by a dedicated exporter module capable of producing several formats according to the purpose of the models. Furthermore this exporter module is more than an all-purpose exporter that simply maps the geometry primitives to a specific format. Indeed, it includes a sub-module for each format which has to be capable of exploiting the optimizations of that specific format. For example if the desired format is VRML or X3D the final model ought to include these format optimization capabilities, e.g. cloning, inlining, billboards, etc. This way the exporter model is a specialized tool, which produces clever models where performance may be a critical issue, making them suitable to different fields of application (e.g. virtual worlds, games and heritage sites).

Organization The first step performed by the ArchHouseGenerator Core is the definition of the Organization of a house which will guide the generation of the floor plan. This Organization includes the creation (when the rooms are specified by the user) or generation (when the rooms are randomly generated) of the house rooms as well as the way in which they connect to each other.

Room creation and generation When a new house is to be built there are several issues to account for. These may have a different priority considering the person who is dealing with the problem. On one hand, if we are talking about a common person (e.g. the person who wants to order a project for a new house), the first thing that usually occurs is the determination of the desired rooms. On the other hand if the person is the one who will develop the house project, one of the first things to account for, may be the total area of the house.

In this framework an effort to include the most common choices associated with the creation of a new house was made, considering that there may be different profiles, which may have different goals, relative to the final result. Having this in mind we considered both high level decisions, as well as low level decisions, regarding the options to be chosen on a house.

When considering the rooms to be created this resulted in three different modes of creating a house: 1. Constrained Random Creation – in which there is no need to specify any room of the house since they are randomly created.

2. Partial Specification – the user may specify only some of the rooms of the house (e.g. three bedrooms, one living room and a dining room) and the framework will generate a house adding more rooms to the ones already specified.

3. Full Specification – the user specifies all of the rooms of the house. The only additional rooms (beside the ones chosen by the user) may be small add-on rooms to fill small spaces in the house (e.g. closet).

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In each of the previous cases the generation will take into account rules which were specified in the framework to prevent the generation of invalid houses (houses where the room lists do not represent common Portuguese houses, in the present case study). This stems from the application of the RGEU rules and rules obtained from the observation of “real” floor plans.

Connecting the rooms Once all the desired rooms of the house are generated, there is still the need to establish the proper links between them, guaranteeing a valid path, i.e. making sure all the rooms are reachable starting from the front door. This is ensured in this step where one can specify all the valid links between the different rooms of the house. The result of this step is a graph representing the connections between the rooms.

The links may be defined either in a low level kind of way, i.e. defining the rooms which can link together (e.g. “A living room may link to a kitchen”) or in a higher level, i.e. defining the room types which can be linked together (e.g. Allowed Links: Public Room, Private Room).

The latter allow the creation of rules such as “A private room never serves as a link between two public rooms”, meaning that a bedroom could not be used to pass from a dining room to a kitchen, which seems to make sense in today’s houses.

Figure 2 represents a connection graph generated for a T24 house.

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4 The “T” stands for the house type, where the following number represents the number of bedrooms in the house. This number determines most of the legal rules from RGEU in Portuguese architectural projects.

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Figure 2: House graph.

It is also possible to generate several graphs until the desired structure is achieved. This step also allows circular connections to be created in the graph (which is actually why the connections are represented in a graph instead of a tree), i.e. connections between rooms which have the same origin (e.g. a foyer which links to a kitchen and to a hall which are also linked between each other â&#x20AC;&#x201C; see Figure 2).

Floor Plan After all the desired rooms of the house are generated and the links between them established, it is up to the Floor Plan to create a floor plan with all these elements.

For each room of the house, the corresponding 2D polygon is created and the final result assures that the previously established path is respected. The rooms are randomly placed, but in accordance with the links previously established between them. The generated floor plans also respect several rules such as the minimum area of each room and the correct placement of doors (including correct opening directions) and windows. Wall thickness is also taken into account during room placement.

The boundaries of the floor plan are dictated by the position and geometry of the rooms making up the house. The user can also generate several different floor plans. Therefore multiple different geometries can be obtained and the user can choose the one that pleases most. An example of a result from this process is illustrated in Figure 3. !

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Figure 3: Generated floor plan.

3D Model The floor plan may serve to illustrate the different parts of the house, the connections between them, the sizes of each one and even the outer geometry, but still does not give a real perspective of the house. This emerges by adding the third dimension into it.

A great deal of features may be specified for the 3D models, although this step is also capable of using appropriate default parameters for each feature of the houses.

To enhance the realism of the scene several aspects were included in the final models, like different light sources, appropriate textures for each part of the house and transparencies to represent glass surfaces (e.g. windows and doors). All of these can be individually specified by the user.

In Figure 4 a generated model representing the exterior of the house may be observed.

Figure 5 represents the same house viewed from the inside.

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Figure 4: Exterior of the house.

Figure 5: Interior of the house.

To represent the final models any of the Export formats provided by the framework may be used, and in a near future more formats may be added to allow a broader range of applications. Depending of the format used, as well as the goal of the models, different features are also available. For example if the format is VRML or X3D this allows the easy and widespread distribution of the results obtained with the framework over the Internet (see WebHouseGen, described in the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Resultsâ&#x20AC;? section). Likewise, the VRML/X3D models allow the visualization of all of the elements of the house in a 3D perspective, where the user can navigate through the exterior and interior of the house. The generated models also include transparencies, collision detection, proximity sensors for turning on lights and opening and closing doors, to increase the realism of the scene. !

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Results To test the functionality of the framework two applications were developed: HouseGen and WebHouseGen. Both applications have the same general goals, i.e. allowing the user to generate floor plans of houses and their respective 3D models. However the specific goal of each is somewhat the converse, since in one hand HouseGen runs on a Windows operating system and was developed to exploit most of the features of the framework. On the other hand WebHouseGen was developed to allow the widespread divulgation of the framework over the Internet and as such, offers a smaller bundle of functionalities.

HouseGen Most of the present framework features were exploited in HouseGen. This application, developed in C#, was used to evaluate the framework usability but also to measure some performance issues.

Even though HouseGen is not a complete production-ready application but merely a prototype, there is still a great deal of options available to the user. Tasks such as defining the total area for the house or for specific rooms, configuring the rooms that will make up the house, generating floor plans which can be exported to some common formats5 and specifying new types of houses can be performed in the application.

There are also detailed customizations available to the user that enables the configuration of the 3D models. These customizations allow the configuration of both exterior and interior features of the house, such as: •

Material selection.

•

Colours.

•

Roof types.

•

Windows linings.

•

Light source positioning.

The interior customizations (e.g. materials, colours, textures) may be applied to either all the rooms of the house or individually.

Figure 6 shows a screenshot of HouseGen, where some of the features available to the user are visible.

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Including both raster formats (bmp, jpeg, tiff, gif, png, wmf) as well as vectorial formats (dwg).

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Figure 6: HouseGen. With this application it is also possible to generate environments composed of multiple houses (whose types can also be selected).

Figure 7 shows a simple virtual city consisting of different types of houses with all of their interior rooms created. The city has 60 different houses and consists of about 170940 polygons generated in about 18 seconds6. Note that no performance issues were taken into consideration. The city may be explored from a first person perspective and the houses may be traversed.

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All tests were conducted on a system equipped with an Intel Pentium 4 running at 3.2 GHz with 1 GB of RAM.

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Figure 7: Generated city with 60 houses.

Figure 12 at the end of this paper shows some of the infinite different house geometries which may be achieved with the framework.

WebHouseGen In WebHouseGen only a few features of the framework were exploited. This application, developed in ASP.NET, was intended to show the simplicity associated with the generation of a new house, which can be done in only three simple steps: (1) Building type and room list setup, (2) Floor plan setup and (3) 3D model generation. Figure 8 presents the first of these steps.

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Figure 8: WebHouseGen. As outputs the user receives the floor plans as well as the 3D models. The website is available at: http://www.dei.estg.ipleiria.pt/projectosOnline/geradorEdificios/.

Performance Tests To measure the performance of the framework, two different tests were conducted. The first test measured the efficiency of the generation of a single house, considering different house types from a T0 to a T6. The generation times range from 0,064 to 2,913 seconds respectively as perceived on Table 1.

Table 1. Generation times for a single house.

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House Type

Generation time (s)

T0

0,064

T1

0,211

T2

0,247

T3

0,982

T4

1,785

T5

2,542

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T6

2,913

For the second test the goal was to measure the efficiency of the framework in generating virtual environments, i.e. several houses. The selection of houses types to generate was done randomly (between T0 and T6) and the tests accounted from 10 houses to 100 houses, considering intervals of 10. Test results are presented in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Generation times for multiple houses.

Note that any performance issues were taken into consideration.

Virtual Worlds In recent years we have been seeing an increase use and academic interest in Virtual Worlds.

Virtual Worlds are generally characterized as collaborative virtual environments that give their users the sensation of “being” in a space (generally 3D) and the sense of “co-presence”, i.e. “the sense of others” (Bartle, 2003). Their use is consolidated in some areas, as games (where the MMORPG kind is the most common use of these environments (MMOG chart, 2009)), virtual spaces for socializing, collaborating and digital creation (being the Second Life virtual world the most popular example (MMOG chart, 2009)). Likewise, a growing number of SDKs (as OpenCroquet (OpenCroquet, 2009), OpenSimulator (OpenSim, 2009) and Sun’s Project Wonderland (Project Wonderland, 2009)) for their creation is arising.

As such there is also an increase demand for tools that can generate “massive” 3D content automatically to quickly populate a virtual world (ex: buildings for a whole city). This requires automatic solutions as manual creation methods are no longer sufficient.

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This framework does not intend to replace the work of computer designers or replace the creativity of virtual world users who want to design every single detail of their models.

Instead, the goal is to provide means of rapidly and efficiently produce models, which may include user choices and several sets of rules, which may also be enhanced and freely modified by them.

We can foresee a set of contexts where automatic 3D modelling mechanisms based on a set of rules are useful. For example, a virtual city with hundreds or thousands of buildings can be implemented for real life simulations (ex: earthquake damages scenarios) as virtual worlds may also have powerful physics engines integrated. These can also be useful for games and movies as new scenarios could easily be seen and tested since it would only be needed to change the pre-programmed rules for building creation.

Although some worlds give their users tools to develop 3D content (with scripts for behaviour if desired) there are others that rely on 3rd party tools for this task, as Blender or 3D Studio Max, giving the user “import content” tools. As this may be desirable, giving the user the liberty to use its favourite modelling tool, the lack of a common 3D modelling format, for the several virtual worlds, could also be a challenge as some problems of conversion between formats still exist (demonstrated shortly). Due to these issues, some virtual worlds are opening their platforms to more creators by using open-standards. One example is Vivaty, a “web-based virtual world platform that is built entirely on open standards” (Vivaty, 2009). Indeed, Vivaty allows the users to create worlds in standards like X3D and VRML (supported by ArchHouseGenerator), also providing a tool – Vivaty Studio – which allows the user to import several other formats.

We have tested some of our models in a virtual world developed with virtual World SDK, OpenCroquet, a tool that “can be used by experienced software developers to create and deploy deeply collaborative multi-user online virtual world applications on and across multiple operating systems and devices” (OpenCroquet, 2009). As this SDK is still on an early release it does not give great support for the most common 3D formats. Indeed, though this SDK supports some formats provided by ArchHouseGenerator, such as VRML, the authors have experienced some problems in the correct import of the model. This led to rely mainly in the ASE format (3D Studio Max ASCII Scene Export) as this is one of the formats that it is easily imported by this SDK. Although the ASE models have rendered generally well in the virtual world (see Figures 10 and 11) it was stated that using some of the most common conversion tools available to convert the original model (VRML) to the ASE format (that was imported into the virtual world) would sometimes give unpredictable results as some features of the original format were lost. This is visible in Figure 10 where the columns and flowers, previously formed by billboards and transparent textures in VRML, lost their veracity when converted to the ASE format and imported into the virtual world. The figure shows the rendering of one model using a virtual world developed in OpenCobalt (OpenCobalt is currently being developed by the OpenCroquet community as a future “metaverse browser” (OpenCobalt, 2009)) corresponding to the virtual reconstruction of the “House of the Skeletons”, a Roman house, for which presently only the ruins exist at the heritage site of Conimbriga, Portugal.

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Figure 10: House of the Skeletons (in OpenCobalt).

The reconstruction considered rules derived from the knowledge left by Vitruvius, mostly trough the reading of the Portuguese adaptation of “De architectura” from M. Justino Maciel “Tratado de Arquitectura” (Maciel, 2006). A study of Roman Architecture, along with the director of the Monographic Museum of Conimbriga – Dr. Virgílio Hipólito Correia, with the goal of determining several options regarding the reconstruction of the House of the Skeletons, is also responsible for most of the options to produce the results presented. This example also serves the purpose of demonstrating the use of the framework to generate heritage structures.

Figure 11 shows our own designed OpenCroquet virtual world where a house produced with HouseGen was imported and where its multi-user capabilities were also tested.

Figure 11: T3 House (in an OpenCroquet multiuser world).

As it can be seen we show how the world was rendered in two different machines synchronously – allowing the simultaneous presence of two users (here represented by rabbits – each one is seeing the other). This is one of the main advantages of shared virtual worlds as

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Journal of Virtual Wordsl Research - ArchHouseGenerator

by allowing the presence of multiple users they allow a great set of collaborative activities (by the simultaneous presence and interaction of several users).

Conclusion and Future Work The framework presented in this paper was initially conceived to demonstrate the use of computer algorithms for ruled based house generation. The results achieved are in accordance with the initial goals, whereby most of the 3D models produced present many features, with a high level of detail, comparable to real houses.

ArchHouseGenerator also revealed to be capable of generating several distinct house types, with different characteristics (e.g. rooms, areas, paths), which seem adequate for the creation of virtual environments. Figure 12, at the end of the paper, shows different houses types representing the variety which may be achieved with the proposed framework.

Figure 12: House variety.

We can conclude that the proposed framework is suitable for some areas of application, where Architecture and virtual worlds were emphasized. Nevertheless it may also be used, in the near future, in other areas where some level of realism is required such as video games and movies.

There are some details which need improvement, and new features to be added, either on the framework itself or the presented applications, such as:

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Allowing different geometries for the rooms of the house (e.g. circular, octagonal).

•

Allowing geometric operations (e.g. rotation) on room geometries.

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Extending interactivity by allowing the user to manipulate different characteristics of the house.

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Generation of multi-floor houses.

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Generation of furniture which allows an easier identification of the different rooms of the house.

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Creating enhanced façade features (e.g. balconies, ornaments, porches).

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Add new export formats.

These represent a fraction of the identified future work topics, since from here there are several new features to be added as well as new areas of application for which the framework may be used in a near future.

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Bibliography Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S., & Silverstein, M. (1977). A Pattern Language. Oxford University Press.

Bartle, R. (2003). Designing Virtual Worlds, ISBN 0-1310-1816-7. New Riders Publishing.

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Finkenzeller, D., Bender, J., & Schmitt, A. (2005). Feature-based Decomposition of Façades.

Proceedings of Virtual Concept, Biarritz, France.

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Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 14 (1987): 323-350.

Greuter, S., Parker, J., Stewart, N., & Leach, G. (2003). Undiscovered Worlds – Towards a Framework for Real-Time Procedural World Generation. Fifth International Digital Arts and Culture Conference, Melbourne, Australia.

Greuter, S., Parker, J., Stewart, N., & Leach, G. (2003). Real-time Procedural Generation of ‘Pseudo Infinite’ Cities. International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Australasia and South East Asia.

Hahn, E., Bose, P., & Whitehead, A. (2006). Persistent Realtime Building Interior Generation. In Proc. of ACM Siggraph Symp. on Videogames, ACM Press, pp. 179– 186.

Ingram, R., Benford, S., & Bowers, J. (1996). Building Virtual Cities: applying urban planning principles to the design of virtual environments. Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST96), 83-91.

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Koning, H., & Eisenberg, J. (1981). The language of the prairie: Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie houses. Environment and Planning B 8 (1981): 295-323.

Laycock, R., & Day, A. (2003). Automatically Generating Roof Models from building Footprints. Proceedings of WSCG, Poster Presentation.

Maciel, M. (2006). Vitrúvio – Tratado de Arquitectura. IST Press.

Martin, J. (2005). The Algorithmic Beauty of Buildings: Methods for Procedural Building Generation. Honors Thesis, Trinity University.

Martinez-Fonte, L., Gautama, S., & Philips, W. (2004). An Empirical Study on Corner Detection to Extract Buildings in Very High Resolution Satellite Images. Proceedings of ProRisc, IEEEProRisc, Veldhoven, The Netherlands. 288-293.

MMOG Chart, http://www.mmogchart.com/, retrieved on 29-07-2009.

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Müller, P., Wonka, P., Hägler, S., Ulmer, A., & Gool, L. (2006). Procedural modeling of buildings. ACM Transactions on Graphics 25, 3.

OpenCobalt, http://www.opencobalt.org/, retrieved on 29-07-2009.

OpenCroquet, http://www.opencroquet.org/, retrieved on 29-07-2009.

OpenSim, http://opensimulator.org/ , retrieved on 29-07-2009.

Parish, Y., & Müller, P. (2001). Procedural modeling of cities. In Proceedings of ACM SIGGRAPH, ACM Press / ACM SIGGRAPH, New York, 301-308.

Project Wonderland, https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/, retrieved on 29-07-2009.

Second Life, http://www.secondlife.com/, retrieved on 29-07-2009.

Stiny, G. (1975). Pictorial and Formal Aspects of Shape and Shape Grammars.Birkhauser Verlag, Basel.

Urban Simulation Team, http://www.ust.ucla.edu/ustweb/ust.html, retrieved on 29-07-2009.

Vivaty, http://www.vivaty.com/, retrieved on 29-07-2009.

Watson, B., Müller, P., Veryovka, O., Fuller, A., Wonka, P., & Sexton, C. (2008). Procedural Urban Modeling in Practice. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Vol. 28, No. 3, page 18-26.

Weidner, U. (1996). Proceedings of the 18th ISPRS Congress, Comm. III, WG 2, Vienna, Austria, pp. 924-929.

Wonka, P., Wimmer, M., Sillion, F., & Ribarsky, W. (2003). Instant architecture. ACM Transactions on Graphics 22, 3, 669–677.

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010

A Second Life First Year Experience Peter Duffy Educational Development Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Paul Penfold School of Hotel & Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Abstract Learning experiences within Multi User Virtual Environments (MUVE’s) focus on discovery and active experiences and provide many opportunities to support multicultural learners. Virtual worlds have the potential to become meaningful, highly sophisticated tools for educators and students, and it is timely to consider how educators can move from the hype to the how and why? Consideration needs to be given to the characteristics of meaningful pedagogical activities that move learners from playing to an enhanced learning experience? This paper presents a case study in which the MUVE Second Life was used to support a First Life (Real-World) orientation programme for students within the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Presented is an overview of the approach, rationale for the use of Second Life as well as lessons learned in relation to the application of virtual worlds for learners within the Hong Kong context. The study concludes that the Second Life orientation programme was not as successful as envisioned. However, the specific lessons learned, and ‘moments’ of intervention and further assistance identified have provided rich material and an emerging interest’ in relation to the incorporation of Second Life into meaningful educational activities in the university.

Keywords: Game Based Learning, Virtual Worlds, MUVE, Second Life, Higher Education This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0!

United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Second Life First Year Experience

A Second Life First Year Experience Peter Duffy Educational Development Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Paul Penfold School of Hotel & Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Introduction Why should the notion of incorporating Virtual Worlds such as Second Life (http://secondlife.com/) be important within education? In what ways has the rapid development of digital technologies associated with Second Life and its use in education enabled individuals to interact differently within existing and emerging ecologies of learning? How can educators engage students in appropriate pedagogical activities to incorporate virtual worlds like Second Life in meaningful ways?

This paper presents a case study in which the MUVE (multi-user virtual environment) Second Life was used to support various First Life (Real-World) Orientation Programs for freshman students within the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Presented is an overview of the approach, rationale for the use of Second Life as well as lessons learned in relation to the current application of virtual worlds in the provision of meaningful educational strategies for learners within a Hong Kong context.

A Student Context The university environment has typically been viewed as a merging of the academic and social. Terms such as diverse learner, multiculturalism, educational equity, and learning styles have been used pervasively in the literature to indicate the diverse range of considerations within this educational context.

Many students experience difficulties in moving from their school life into University.

This case study presents the integration of the virtual world Second Life into an existing student orientation within the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Management. The experience of first year university students has become a major focus of concern in the US, the UK and Australia.

This has been prompted by factors such as increasing student numbers, widening diversity in the backgrounds of students, high student drop out rates in first year, and the accelerating implementation of teaching technologies and flexible course delivery (McInnis, James, & McNaught, 1995).

Ideally the enculturation of First Year Students involves practices to address these issues as it is in the first year that students are most likely to form lasting outlooks, values and patterns of behavior with respect to higher education and lifelong learning. Identifying the diverse multicultural learner, facilitating the myriad of classroom learning styles, developing responsive curricula, and implementing innovative teaching methodologies are strategies that must work simultaneously to provide an equitable and engaging classroom environment and introduction to university life for all students (ASHE Report, 2002; Bonner & Hairston, 2001; Meacham, McClellan, Pearse, & Rashidi; Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke, & Curran, 2004).

Students today have grown up within a world of pervasive technology including mobile phones, digital cameras and the omnipresent internet. Described as, “Gen-X, Millennials, the Nintendo and Net Generation” (Tapscott, 1997; Oblinger, 2003; Olsen, 2005), these students

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interact in immersive 3-D worlds, blog, listen to podcasts, instant message friends and collaborate in the creation of ‘digital stories’ for their ePortfolio. They absorb information quickly, in images and video as well as text, from multiple sources simultaneously. They operate at what Prensky (2004) describes as, “twitch speed”, expecting instant responses and feedback.

A range of new technologies relating to the use of Virtual Worlds is playing an increasing role in many learners’ everyday lives. Virtual worlds offer the potential to engage learners at higher levels, offer flexibility in identity and access, create a sense of presence within in-world educational tasks and have the potential to become a meaningful, highly sophisticated tool for educators. The two key considerations here are how can we capitalize on the willingness of learners to engage with virtual worlds? And, what is the range of pedagogical activities to move learners from playing to an enhanced learning experience?

The case study being presented within this paper highlights the particular use of Second Life within the multicultural context of Hong Kong and in particular the first year SHTM (School of Hotel and Tourism Management) student cohort at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. This context typifies many areas and associated pedagogic challenges associated with a diverse multicultural and in many cases trilingual ESL student. Presented will be initially an overview of Virtual Worlds, a rationale for the use of Second Life as well as lessons learned in relation to the context of the case study and current application of virtual worlds in the provision of meaningful educational strategies for learners within a Hong Kong context.

Background to Virtual Worlds “The unique qualities of a 3D virtual worlds can provide opportunities for rich sensory immersive experiences, authentic contexts and activities for experiential learning, simulation and role-play, modeling of complex scenarios, a platform for data visualization and opportunities for collaboration and co-creation that can not be easily experienced using other platforms”.1 Virtual worlds are extensive and absorbing 3D places that people use to interact and communicate with others using an "avatar". Virtual worlds, such as Second Life (http://secondlife.com/) or Active Worlds (http://www.activeworlds.com/), are different from game worlds (e.g.: World of Warcraft) in that they "can be applied to any context". Game worlds usually "have a fixed, goal-oriented purpose". This means that with virtual worlds you can do nearly anything, limited to the general environment of the world and the users located there.

Game worlds have a specific goal to which everything you do is bringing you closer. to that goal.

Virtual world users develop their own goals and pursue them. Whether it's making friends, making money, education or just having fun, in a virtual world, you can do whatever you want.

The following are six commonly identified features of Virtual Worlds2: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Shared Space: the world allows many users to participate at once.

Graphical User Interface: the world depicts space visually.

Immediacy: interaction takes place in real time.

Interactivity: the world allows users to alter, develop, build, content.

Persistence: continues regardless of whether individual users are logged in.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! $!Introduction to Second Life: http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/educationaluses %!Adapted from Current Reality and Future Vision, Open Virtual Worlds; January, 2008.! !

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Second Life First Year Experience

6. Socialization/Community: the world allows and encourages the formation of in-world social groups.

Virtual worlds are being increasingly used by higher education (Hiltch and Duncan, 2005). Platforms such as Second Life make it relatively fast and cost-effective to design and set up a virtual environment for teaching and learning. Aldrich (2004) suggested there are three types of simulations – linear, cyclical and open-ended. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and each have a main purpose or outcome. Linear simulations are like movies and books – they have a beginning and ending – and although there may be different routes through the content, the end result is the same. Most e-Learning today is linear, usually includes standard tests and assessment, and is primarily owned and managed by the creator. Cyclical content is the sort of simulation used in arcade games where the outcomes depend on the skill and speed of the user.

This type of content may be useful in the educational context if you need to teach a skill or precise activity, but it is less valuable as a learning tool. Open-ended content is the most challenging – for the user as well as the creator – and is very good in developing strategies and transferable skills. Virtual worlds can be considered the next generation of e-learning and can offer this open-ended structure for learners.

Background to Second Life Launched in 2003, Second Life is an online 3D virtual world created by Linden Labs3.

Much like massively multiplayer games, Second Life provides an immersive environment for users to play and interact in. However, Second Life goes beyond a game, allowing residents to build and create their own environments; and interact with others from any internet connected location. Philip Rosedale from Linden Labs suggests the following as a vision for Second Life; "Well.. what if you could create a 3D immersive environment that looked as good as a video game, that was tactile and visceral and exciting and you know sexy, fun to be in... but had the (of course) very web like and very compelling property that everything in it was built by you.

And that in fact, the method of building would be the method of living. That you would just do things there, in the same way that you do them in the real world... you could touch things, you could sculpt things, you could build, you could just make stuff." (Rosedale, 2008) Second Life is the size of a small city, with thousands of servers (called simulators) and a Resident population of over 15 million (and growing). Residents come to the world from over 100 countries with concentrations in North America and the UK. Demographically, 60% are men, 40% are women and they span in age from 18 – 85. It is based on a game engine, but expanded to allow more natural social interactions and user-created content outside the restrictions of a game. It has a self-contained economy of Linden dollars, themed simulations created by users, and over 70,000 logged in at any given time (Second Life Metrics, March 2009). Users are represented by completely customizable avatars and are from diverse real-world backgrounds such as gamers, housewives, artists, musicians, programmers, lawyers, firemen, political activists, college students, business owners, active duty military overseas, architects, and medical doctors, to name just a few4. There is also a Second Life Teen Grid for teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17, and where adults are not allowed in. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'!http://secondlife.com/!

of statistics, current as of March 2009: FAQ – Second Life, http://secondlife.com/whatis/faq.php!

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Second Life First Year Experience

The School of Hotel and Tourism Management decided to explore the educational possibilities of Second Life after developing a virtual hospitality simulation, ‘Virtel’. The Virtel project was an interactive 3-D game that allowed students to participate in simulations relating to real-world authentic scenarios that they may experience in their work placement. Second Life was chosen to further explore the pedagogic possibilities of Virtual Worlds for several reasons: 1. It is extremely challenging for any educational institution to develop a well produced simulation as they cannot compete on budget with industry, nor can they compete with talented game designers and Second Life provides a ready-made platform.

2. Second Life enables students, educators, and businesses to create innovative environments for distance learning, computer-supported cooperative work, simulations and teaching.

3. Second Life provides a 3-D simulation in a safe environment to enhance experiential learning, allowing individuals to practice skills, try new ideas, and learn from their mistakes. The ability to prepare for similar real-world experiences by using Second Life as a tool for simulation was identified as having unlimited potential.

4. Students and educators can work together in Second Life from anywhere in the world as part of a networked and very social virtual classroom environment.

5. Second Life offers flexibility in access, identity, is easily customized and offers a distinct feeling of presence not seen in other e-Learning (social) activities.

6. Using Second Life as a supplement to traditional classroom environments also provides new opportunities for enriching an existing curriculum.

Background to the Case Study At the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) together with the School of Design (SD) created an innovative virtual campus in Second Life called PolyuSotel (http://virtel.shtm.polyu.edu.hk/sotel/) in order to; • • • • •

To provide a cost-effective platform for SHTM to continue teaching & learning in a virtual world; To provide an innovative and stimulating learning environment for students; To provide an existing virtual campus for other departments to test and use Virtual worlds; To encourage innovation and research in educational technology; To support PolyU’s outcome-based education initiative by offering ‘real-world’ scenarios for teaching and learning

The project team originally planned to create their own virtual world using one of the open source platforms available. However, the attraction of using an existing world with a large number of residents outweighed the early plan. It was therefore decided to test one of the platforms available, Second Life, and to explore the educational possibilities of trialing the platform to support the School’s student orientation program conducted during September to October 2007. It was envisioned that this first foray into the educational possibilities of Virtual Worlds would provide a valuable learning experience and areas of further exploration. This ‘virtual’ orientation program aimed to cultivate new learning experiences for the students and the provision of various educational activities. Over 400 full-time Year 1 hotel and tourism students

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Second Life First Year Experience

were invited to join the orientation program and academic staff; Year 2 and 3 students took the roles of “teacher” and “student mentor”.

PolyUSotel This island was developed with many recognizable buildings from the bricks and mortar PolyU campus to enhance an existing student orientation programme. It was designed to help students become familiarized with their new study environment and understand how to become an effective and successful student in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

In PolyUSotel, students registered and created a personalized 3-D avatar in order to participate in various structured tasks related to the SHTM orientation programme. They were expected to explore the campus and team-up with fellow students in a series of competitive and structured activities. Opportunities were also provided for them to interact with, and learn from, senior students and teachers through in-world consultations. Also, as a motivational strategy they could redeem virtual gifts at PolyUSotel using the reward points accumulated on successful completion of tasks or competitions. Lastly a set of unstructured ‘places of interest’ were developed in order to assist the students in exploring this virtual environment. The following clarifies in more detail the three identified aspects of the PolyUSotel experience.

1. Activities PolyUSotel provided a series of activities within a supported environment to help students get to know fellow students, teachers, learn about university life and some essential learning skills. The students could interact with other participants in the PolyUSotel at their own discretion and also had the opportunity to complete a scheduled series of interesting activities requiring active participation and completion of learning tasks. There were chances for students individually and in teams to be rewarded with real and virtual gifts upon completion of these activities or missions. Below is a sample of two of the missions: EG: Mission 2: Grooming in formal events Brief: Collect a formal outfit at the “Grooming” kiosk in PolyUSotel. Wear the outfit and alter your character’s appearance when you attend online discussion session in the virtual classroom/theatre.

EG: Mission 4: Learning styles Brief: Complete a Learning Styles self-test at http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html. Submit your personal result according to the score sheet generated, and obtain a meeting schedule you need for Mission 5. Duration: 4 Sep – 17 Sep Reward points 20 points 2. In-World real-time consultations Teachers were scheduled to provide in-world real-time consultation sessions on different themes related to students study and personal development. This was on a voluntary basis for students and the maximum capacity for each session was around 30 persons, on a first-comefirst-served basis.

The following were some of the topic areas offered: a. Personal grooming and classroom etiquette b. Understanding your learning style & strengths

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Second Life First Year Experience

c. How to be an effective student: study skills (reading, note taking, handling exams etc) d. How to become an active learner in PolyU e. Managing pressure & stress f. Academic Honesty – what is plagiarism and how to deal with it? g. Work-integrated education – what it is, how it works, how you benefit + Q&A h. Student exchange program + Q&A i. Meeting with 2007/08 Year 1 tutor (Q&A) j. Meeting with 2006/07 Year 1 tutor (Q&A) k. Meeting with MSc program leader (Q&A) 3. Places of Interest Also within PolyUSotel the following were established as ‘open-ended’ and ‘unstructured’ places of interest:

Clock Plaza

tower

Information Signpost

Team Room

The Clock Tower Landmark was the central meeting place in PolyUSotel and where you first appeared when you teleported to the island. It mimicked the realworld clock tower on the Polyu and campus.

The Signpost was designed to provide hints and guidance for students related to various tasks and consultations

The Team Room was designed to provide various break-out rooms where smaller groups could meet and discuss aspects related to the tasks for different mission objectives The Wishing Tree was where students could leave feedback and comments in relation to their experiences in the PolyUSotel environment

Wishing Tree

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Theatre

The Theater space was designed to provide an environment similar to a Real-World lecture with the opportunity for groups to meet, participate in lecture-like activities and presentations The Resource Centre provided an environment similar to the RealWorld library in which resources (video / text. etc) were linked to bookshelves in the Centre.

Resource Centre The Gift Shop was where students could spend their reward points earned through participation in various activities on items for their avatar OR real-world gift vouchers.

Gift Shop Figure 1: Places of Interest in PolyUSotel Second Life Pedagogy The following were identified as key educational benefits of Second Life as opposed to other eLearning possibilities that were considered in order to provide a richer orientation experience for the SHTM students.

Social Presence One of the most profound impact of the sweeping popularity of the Internet advocates social learning which is based on the fundamental premise that learning and understanding is 'socially constructed' through a wide range of activities afforded by a rich social learning space where students can interact with other follow students, tutors, and the instructional elements in a wide range of social activities.

Richard J. Light (2001) highlighted that one of the strongest-determinants of student learning success was students' ability to engage in small study groups and thus socially build their understandings and construct knowledge. In the literature there are a number of documented studies exploring the potential of social learning (Klamma et al 2006; Saltze et al, 2004; Reffay and Chanier, 2002; Kreijns et al, 2002; Hiltz and Turoff, 2002 and Brusilovsky et al, 2005), including those performed on Second Life in the Harvard Law School, the University of Southern Queensland (Australia), Ohio University, New York University, to name a few (Ducheneaut et al, 2005).

Second Life provides a much greater sense of presence than the World Wide Web. Usually students manifest their presence in the Web through activities such as discussion forums, blogs, posting YouTube videos, or social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. In Second Life there is a greater sense of realism, as if users are attending the event with others.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Second Life First Year Experience

Technologies within Second Life also contribute to this sense of social presence by allowing users to more clearly hear someone speaking close by than with an avatar that is further away.

Self Identity The use of avatars to represent the individual can significantly change social / multicultural perceptions and judgment, and gender and status expectations. Bradshaw, (2006) describes Michelle Dodd, of Challenger TAFE (WA), who managed a Framework inclusive elearning project in 2006 and used Yahoo avatars with learners with a disability. She discovered that the students were very liberated by the use of their avatars, as they could choose what identity they would like to be, although it is interesting to note that towards the end of the project individual avatars more closely resembled the real person in looks.

Imagine being a learner where for example English is the predominant medium of instruction. However your native language is not English. Students could be assigned different roles within specific activities designed to allow them to take on various identities in role-play in order to highlight some of the difficulties and strategies needed to be adopted within various learning scenarios. The experience could well make that student (and teacher) a more empathic learners and bring to light some underpinnings that need to be considered in these types of learning scenarios. Lancefield (2006), suggests that the level of anonymity afforded in virtual worlds through playing a role and use of an avatar can enhance the level of social confidence to enact new behaviors and increase self-awareness and efficacy.

Teachers as Central The 2006 New Practices in Flexible Learning action research project, “Virtual Worlds – Real Learning!”, emphasized that the role of the teacher is absolutely central and highlighted that at every stage, the teacher needs to be fully present, engaged and alert. This report suggested that if teachers and learners are to achieve the educational wealth inherent in Second Life, there are three key factors that are vital: • • •

the provision of time for teachers to prepare themselves for inhabiting Second Life as a broad and deep learning environment according critical importance to continuous, integrated reflection – which means incorporating guided dialogues with students before and after immersion providing adequate professional development and ongoing support for teachers, as they venture into what, for most, will be unknown territory – as both guides and ‘guardians’ of their students

Enhances students’ learning experience Simulation, games and role-play are notable for their extensive potential in engaging students in their own learning with a stimulating, ‘real-life’ environment applicable to tourism and hospitality curricula, with a focus on work-based problem solving and professional, transferable skills (Armstrong, 2003). Simulations can be described as learning by doing, as though the user is actually in a situation, and really doing something (Schank, 1997) and simulations are being increasingly used not only by industry and the military but in education.

Successful educational simulations need to be a combination of three elements according to Aldrich (2004). The first is ‘simulation’ which models reality and enables discovery, experimentation, practice and construction of content. Second, ‘game elements’ which provide

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Second Life First Year Experience

familiar and entertaining interactions and which motivate students to learn. Third, the ‘pedagogical or didactic’ elements which help to provide a focus for activities and ensure students’ time is spent productively.

Engages students in deeper learning Students engaged in educational games and simulations are interpreting, analyzing, discovering, evaluating, acting, and problem-solving. Simulations are suggested as a replacement of real-life situations which are too dangerous, too expensive, or impractical to allow students to experience in the real-world. Simulations can provide an environment where students can explore, experiment, question and reflect on real life situations. Role-play is historically been used in a range of disciplines including drama, education, psychology (Britt, 1995), social sciences (Duveen and Solomon, 1994), health sciences, business (Brown, 1994; Egri, 1999), tourism and hospitality, ethics (Brown, 1994; Raisner, 1997; Armstrong 2003), economics, marketing, political science and information technology (Kirkwood and Ross, 1997). New approaches are also emerging via specially designed computer software (Wagner, 1997).

Simulation and role-play, if designed appropriately, can provide the following benefits: • • •

Enhance interest in the topic and retention of knowledge and skills; Capture students’ imagination, stimulate involvement and allow significant freedom of expression; Build the confidence of students in a non-threatening environment.

Uses learning methods that motivate students and achieve results Students today are in touch with technology and innovation in their everyday lives. These young people are community-focused (especially in Asia), they belong to virtual communities to discuss shared interests (communities of interest), to develop social relations (community of relationships), and to explore new identities (communities of fantasy) (Hagel and Armstrong, 1997). According to Zemsky and Massey (2004), students want to use technology in order to be entertained through music, games and movies, to be connected to one another and to present themselves and their work. Educational institutions are playing catch up, and not doing it very successfully. Yet, despite this situation, there are signs of change, with learning taking place in some academic departments which demonstrate student-centered and innovative teaching through e-Learning and “Serious Games” (Annetta, Murray, Laird, Bohr and Park, 2006).

It might be construed that the use of ‘game’ ideas such as ‘missions’ and ‘reward point’ might not be educationally sound or in conflict with other pedagogical ideas described earlier.

However, the use of these game concepts to motivate and help students plot a path through the program seemed to help rather than hinder the learning experience. Some students in their evaluation indicated that they expected more game-based activities and were disappointed that Second Life was not so ‘dynamic’ as other games they had played. Therefore our use of some game concepts helped to provide a pathway and a plot which did help some students progress through the program.

Hind-Sight and Lessons Learned The program was voluntary and received over 60 student registrations, however only 10 students took part in the activities and workshops. This substantial lack of numbers in the project indicated for the project team that there were some serious issues that needed to be addressed in

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Second Life First Year Experience

future teaching and learning activities incorporating Virtual Worlds. There were a number of identifiable moments within the process of the program delivery that provide the reader with an insight into areas identified for improvement.

Moment 1: Awareness and Understanding of the Program What was identified very early on in the program was a greater need to have defined and demonstrated through numerous channels the benefits of participation in the program. Also explored was the option of making some aspect of the program more closely tied to a compulsory event such as one inclusive of the students Work Integrated Education training.

Moment 2: Technical Issues and Support Second Life does require some quite specific technical requirements and although every effort was made to ensure a specific lab was established with these specifications still students needed additional support (for example maybe a designated contact point via email, phone or MSN messenger Moment 3: Second Life Orientation There were some difficulties in students being able to complete the Second Life Orientation Island and from there to easily locate the PolyUSotel Island. It was identified that a guide to the user interface in Second Life and making the PolyUSotel Island open to the public would have been beneficial.

Moment 4: Develop a PolyUSotel presence At times because of the lack of students in the PolyUSotel Island there was a feeling of isolation by the students (and staff) who did participate. Recommended for future trials would be to train a cohort of students in the use of PolyUSotel and have them present in the island as guides to meet newcomers and to help them settle in.

Moment 5: Clarity of Task Instruction Although some of the tasks were identified as beneficial to students from an educational perspective and also from the perspective of achieving the objectives of the program, there at times seemed to be a disjunction between these and the social or play aspects of the simulation in Second Life. Future plans should aim to both simplify the tasks and associated instructions and to provide more opportunities to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;play / exploreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

Moment 6: Timing and Awareness of Consultation There was a clash in times when students were interested in using Second Life and when the consultation times / teaching staff were available. Students mostly explored Second Life in the evenings and early morning (typical of Hong Kong students) whereas teachers often were available for consultation during working hours. It was also suggested to align the tasks with more concrete real-world tasks.

Conclusions and follow-up Clearly the use of Second Life to support the student orientation program of the SHTM students was not the success (in terms of usage) that the project team had hoped for. However, it is pleasing to note that this initial foray into the use of Virtual Worlds has provided an emerging

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Second Life First Year Experience

grassroots interest at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in the teaching and learning possibilities of Second Life. As an outcome of this project several other program are now actively teaching using Second Life and a recently submitted eLearning funding proposal entitled “Core SL – HK PolyU in Second Life” highlights the success of this case in relation to initiating some conversations and further interest in this area.

This new project, “Core SL – HK PolyU in Second Life”, started in late-2008 and builds on and expands upon existing funded projects in Second Life and the experiences of teaching and learning efforts by the School of Hotel and Tourism Management and the School of Design.

It has already provided a new virtual campus to enhance the learning experience of students at the HK Polytechnic University through the development and deployment of four functional spaces within the 3D online world of Second Life.

The project was jointly proposed by staff from the Department of Applied Social Sciences, the Department of Computing, the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, the School of Design, and the Pao Yue-kong library. The project has initially targeted a number of program and courses which directly affect over 1000 students in the four different departments or schools. The new Hong Kong PolyU Second Life Campus has provided a rich 3D virtual environment to support student learning activities with four functional spaces: Teaching & Learning, Assessment, Design and Resources.

Closing thoughts If Moore's law holds true, Second Life will not be at the bleeding edge of technology for long. As server power and bandwidth increase, more possibilities will develop around Second Life and Virtual Worlds in general. An anticipated increase in ubiquity and technology will allow Second Life and related three-dimensional simulations to develop a more realistic look and enhanced interface, with more powerful tools for communication and interaction.

One can easily imagine a more immersive environment. Kurzweil (2005) describes several scenarios for building full sensory environments with offshoots of today's technology.

Technologies like Second Life provide people with an opportunity to role-play very different lives. Avatars cross gender, race, and cultural lines, blurring the differences that can be obvious in real life interactions. The social and (multi)cultural implications of a more powerful and immersive environment are immense. The first artificially intelligent agents (AIA’s) capable of interacting with avatar residents are appearing in Second Life by linking modern artificial intelligence engines into avatars. Some are obviously designed to appear artificial, while others attempt to pose as real people. As the engines get better, the distinction between residents and AIA’s becomes will become more blurred.

Like the early days of the Internet, there is an optimism driving experimentation and exploration across the learning ecology presented by Second Life. The unique qualities of Second Life can provide immersive authentic contexts involving simulation and role-play and opportunities for social learning that can not be easily achieved using other platforms.

Which tools are used by learners and teachers, and whether such tools will be used at all, will always depend on the specific pedagogical needs of a teaching situation. Second Life presents educators with shifting frames of reference to consider in relation to teaching and learning. Clearly acknowledged is that the use of Second Life as part of the orientation program in SHTM was not as successful as originally envisioned. However, the specific lessons learned, and ‘moments’ of intervention and further assistance identified have provided rich material and

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Second Life First Year Experience

an emerging interestâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in relation to the incorporation of Second Life into meaningful educational activities.

Acknowledgements The PolyU Virtel and PolyUSotel projects referred to in this paper were developed at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University through a project funded by the Education Development Centre of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and jointly initiated by Paul Penfold from the School of Hotel and Tourism Management and Mr Henry Ma from the School of Design. The project team consisted of Creamy Kong, Gigi Ay, Alex Ng, Jeffrey Mak, Yim Cheung Kong, Jackie Kwong, Annie Ko, Jovi Liu and Bill Liu within project management and technical roles. Peter Duffy was the Learning Designer associated with the project.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Second Life First Year Experience

Bibliography Aldrich, C. (2004). Six Criteria of an Educational Simulation, Learning Circuits, [online] http://www.learningcircuits.org/NR/rdonlyres/F2ED000A-7A59-4108-A6CB1BE4F4CC1CA5/4719/clark_e2.pdf Annetta, L.A., Murray, M., Gull!Laird, S., Bohr, S., Park, J.C. (2006). Serious Games: Incorporating Video Games in the Classroom. Educause Quarterly, 29(3), pp. 16-22.

Armstrong, E. K. (2003). Applications of Role-Playing in Tourism Management Teaching: An Evaluation of a Learning Method. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education 2(1), pp. 5-16.

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Bonner, F. A., & Hairston, J. (2001). Teaching the multicultural learner: A musical theory approach to pedagogical practices [Electronic version]. Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2(1), 43-50.

Bradshaw, D. (2006). New Practices in Flexible Learning. Virtual Worlds – Real Learning!

Pedagogical reflections. Australian Government Department of Education and Training. [online]http://virtualworlds.flexiblelearning.net.au/reports/VWRL_pedagog_reflect.pdf Britt., M. A. (1995). Research on Trial: A Pedagogy for Research Methods Instruction. In Teaching of Psychology: Ideas and Innovations: Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Undergraduate Teaching of Psychology. New York, pp. 124-133.

Brown, K. M. (1994). Using Role Play to Integrate Ethics into the Business Curriculum: A Financial Management Example. Journal of Business Ethics 13(2), pp. 105-110.

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Current reality and future vision, open virtual worlds, (2008). Sun Services White Paper. [online], http://www.sun.com/service/applicationserversubscriptions/OpenVirtualWorld.pdf Ducheneaut, N. and Moore, R. J. (2005). More than just 'XP': Learning social skills in multiplayer online games. Interactive Technology and Smart Education, 2(2). pp. 89-100.

Duveen, J. and Solomon, J. (1994). The Great Evolution Trial: Use of Role-Play in the Classroom. Journal of Research in Science Teaching 31(5), pp 575-582.

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Egri, C. P. (1999). The Environmental Round Table Role-Play Exercise: The Dynamics of Multi-Stakeholder Decision-Making Processes. Journal of Management Education 23(1), pp 95-112.

Hagel, H and Armstrong, A. (1997). Net Gain: Expanding Markets through Virtual Communities. Boston, Mass. Business School Press Hiltch. L., and Duncan. J. (2005). Games in Higher Ed: When Halo 2, Civilization IV, and Xbox 360 Come to Campus, Educause 15 August 2005, [online], http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/DEC0503.pdf Hiltz, S. and Turoff, M. (2002). What makes learning effective? Communications of the ACM, 45(4), pp. 56-59. April 2002.

Kirkwood, J. and Ross, D. (1997). Multimedia Design and Development: An Industry Simulation Project Delivered on the Internet. In J. Osborne, D. Roberts and J. Walker (eds.) Open, Flexible and Distance Learning: Education and Training in the 21st Century.

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Klamma, R. Chatti, M.A. Duval, E. Fiedler, S. Hummel, H. Hvannberg, E.T. Kaibel, A. Kieslinger, B. Kravcik, M. Law, E. Naeve, A. Scott, P. Specht, M. Tattersall, C. Vuorikari, R. (2006). Social Software for Professional Learning: Examples and Research Issues. Proc. 6th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies. pp.

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Kurzweil, R. (2005). The Singularity Is Near, New York: Viking Press Lancefield, K. (2006). New Practices in Flexible Learning. Virtual Worlds – Real Learning! A psychological perspective. Australian Government Department of Education and Training. [online], http://virtualworlds.flexiblelearning.net.au/reports/VWRL_psychology.pdf Light, R. J. (2001). Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.

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Why NOT Simulation? [online], http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20why%20not%20simulation.pdf.

Prensky, M. (2004). Digital Game Based Learning. McGraw-Hill, New York.

Raisner, J. A. (1997). Using the ‘Ethical Environment’ Paradigm to Teach Business Ethics: The Case of the Maquiladoras. Journal of Business Ethics 16(12/13), pp. 1331-1346.

Reffay C., and Chanier, T. (2002.) Social network analysis used for modeling collaboration in distance learning. Proc. Intelligent Tutoring System Conference (ITS702). France, June 2002.

Rosedale, P. (2008). Watch a Video: Glimpse Inside a Metaverse: The Virtual World of Second Life. [online], http://flnw.wikispaces.com/secondlife?f=print Saltze, J., Hiltz, S. and Turoff, M. (2004). Student social graphs: visualizing a student's online social network. Proc. ACM conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCWJ04), pp.596-599.

Schank, R. (1997). Virtual Learning. A Revolutionary Approach to Building a Highly Skilled Workforce. McGraw-Hill, New York.

Second Life (2009). Economic Statistics (Raw Data Files) Wednesday, March 25, 2009.

Retrieved March 25, 2009 from http://secondlife.com/statistics/economy-data.php Second Life (2009) FAQ – Second Life. (2008). [online], http://secondlife.com/whatis/faq.php Second

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(2008). [online], http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/project_reports/teaching_with_games/ TWG_report.pdf Virtual Worlds – Real Learning! (2006). New Practices in Flexible Learning action research project. Australian Government Department of Education and Training. [online], http://virtualworlds.flexiblelearning.net.au/ Zemsky, R and Massey, W.E. (2004). Why the E-Learning Boom went Bust, Chronicle of Higher Education, 50(9), [online].

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http://education.unlv.edu/Educational_Leadership/higheredadmin/AdmissionsArticle.pdf#search=%22Why%20the%20E-Learning%20Boom%20went%20Bust%22 Second Life in Education, some examples: • • • • • • • •

The growing use of Second Life within education is illustrated below by a small sample of many examples and is sourced from: http://schome.open.ac.uk/wikiworks/index.php/Second_Life_education_websites; The list of universities who have locations in SL http://simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Institutions_and_Organizations_in_SL Second Life Education Wiki http://simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki Proceedings of the Second Life Education Workshop (August 20th. August 2006) http://www.simteach.com/SLCC06/slcc2006-proceedings.pdf Metalab: "Creating and exploring tools for online learning events within Second Life" http://metalab.blogspot.com/2006/06/communal-whiteboard.html VITAL Lab at Ohio University - overview of a good range of SL projects http://vital.cs.ohiou.edu/index.php/Second_Life_Development 101 Uses for Second Life in the College Classroom http://trumpy.cs.elon.edu/metaverse/gst364Win2005/handout.html The New Media Consortium (NMC) Campus (SLurl) is the largest educational presence in Second Life and supports events, classes, demonstrations, art exhibitions and learning experiences (http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/educationaluses)

For more information about this project please refer to: • • •

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http://virtel.shtm.polyu.edu.hk/sotel/ http://project.shtm.polyu.edu.hk/new-index.html http://slurl.com/secondlife/Polyusotel/128/1

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Volume 2, Number 5 The Metaverse Assembled May 2010 Metaverse: Building Affective Systems and Its Digital Morphologies in Virtual Environments

By Donizetti Louro Pontifical Catholic University of S達o Paulo, Brazil Tania Fraga Institute of Mathematics and Art of S達o Paulo, Brazil Maur鱈cio Pontuschka Pontifical Catholic University of S達o Paulo, Brazil Abstract: This essay reflects the metaverse as a virtual reality system created by affective and aesthetic computing and its digital morphology through visual mathematics. An appropriate system and its structures can move, changing their shapes as a whole, and produce responsive 3D assemblages answering in simple ways to emotions. The study of behavior and cognition in virtual environments, and to interact with them as a collaborator, is valuable, but we also need someone who gets right into the code to see how it all works and how it may be adapted to his own world, as well as keeping the study focused on the necessity to organize the known geometries in systematized morphological sets to apply them for the creation of affective and aesthetic systems for virtual worlds in 3D platforms, which change and grow, becoming symbiotic assemblages. Certainly, there is a long journey to go on to investigating conditions and evolutionary iterations which may assist the affective computing to approximate to the real world, to go ahead and conquer more and more ambitious digital architectural spaces, but it all are like vectors pointing to such direction.

Keywords: metaverse, behavioral mathematics, cognitive science, affective and aesthetic computing This work is copyrighted under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.

Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Digital Morphologies

Metaverse: Building Affective Systems and Its Digital Morphologies in Virtual Environments

By Donizetti Louro Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil Tânia Fraga Institute of Mathematics and Art of São Paulo, Brazil Maurício Pontuschka Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil Introduction This paper is an attempt to begin to point out the key issues necessary for the development of metaverse as a virtual reality system created by affective and aesthetic computing and its digital morphology through visual mathematics. In this way we can show how physical properties like space, time, light, matter and movement could derive from information processing. That is the virtual reality concept for the development of geometric structural organizations in 3D (n- space) which are able to grow for visual education. The applied cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience has shown that perception may be modified by emotional involvement and may also be tricked by illusions.

Nowadays, to accept or not the metaverse environments in the formal education and training doesn´t seem to be a choice anymore; to do no study and yet know this kind of learning technology exists, is a social irresponsibility. (Gardner, 2007) Through history we can see the Descartes' conception of time and space that reflects this primacy of the mind. First of all, Descartes maintains that space is infinite and unlimited, and that time is the meaning in with which the human mind accounts for duration (Trusted: 69-70). Sir Isaac Newton's (1642-1727) theories of mechanics are postulated on the ideals of absolute space and time. Due to instabilities in the earth's movement, human beings necessarily depend on "relative time," although an absolute time outside of this relativity exists. Likewise, absolute space exists because, while objects may be moved in relation to each other, space itself cannot be moved (Trusted, 1991).

The research of digital morphologies for the construction of behavior structures through affective computing, exploiting the fabric of morphological growth to be able to change dynamically their forms in a responsive way, may allow mixing virtual and physical realities in social symbiotic ways. It’s the reflection of Marshall McLuhan in “Understanding Media”, who described a similar process as "implosion" as people are more closely unified through networks in the electronic age. This unification through implosion, for McLuhan, produces a positive sensory connection that allows for a "global village" to emerge. For instance, we know that the mind perceives the conception of perceptual accommodations of space and time in several medias. In this way, we have that the period of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries postulating that experiences of time and space outside individual media have become increasingly compressed. "The immediate prospect for literate, fragmented Western man encountering the electric implosion within his own culture is his steady and rapid transformation into a complex and depth-structured person emotionally aware of his total interdependence with the rest of human society" (McLuhan, 1994). To illustrate the depth of contrast, consider the primary axiom of Lee Smolin’s book: “There is nothing outside the universe” (McLuhan, 1994). The edifice of science itself is often assumed to rest upon this apparently self-evident statement, yet it is precisely this statement that virtual reality theory contradicts. Indeed the prime axiom of virtual reality

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theory can be obtained by reversing Smolin’s axiom, namely: There is nothing in our universe that exists of or by itself. This axiom arises because a virtual reality processor cannot itself, logically, exist within the virtual reality its processing creates. A processor cannot create itself because the virtual world creation could not start if a processor did not initially exist outside it. Hence any virtual reality world, by definition, must have existence dimensions outside itself. Many physics theories, like string theory, already suggest that our world has additional dimensions, yet these are, for some reason, still assumed to be in the world, but just “curled up” to be invisible to us. In contrast, virtual reality theory’s additional dimension(s) must be outside the virtual reality world. Yet what is the difference between an unknowable dimension that is “in the world” and one that is “outside the world”? Since both are untestable science favors neither view. To postulate that the world is virtual does not contradict science, but rather engages its spirit of questioning. Science is a method of asking questions, not a set of reality assumptions. Science does not require an objective world, only information to test theories against, which a virtual reality can easily provide. Not only can science accommodate the virtual world concept, a virtual world could also sustain science.

Louro and Fraga wrote about a Russian mathematician called Kolmogorov who developed an additive procedure to evaluate the dimension of sets of points. Such procedure led to the future the development of the concept of fractals by Benoit Mandelbrot, allowing the knowledge that sets of similar objects with fractal dimensions seams to better explain many natural processes. At the same time the British zoologist D´Arcy Thompson applied well-known mathematical concepts to study morphologies for the growth of forms in nature.

The usefulness of Thompson´ studies for architects and computer artists creating 3D physical structures lies mainly in his approach based on geometry and Newtonian mechanics. Also, his focus on the Fibonnacci series, the Miraldi angle, the logarithmic spiral, and the golden ratio puts him in line with advanced studies in neuro and cognitive sciences, which are pointing toward the hypothesis that there is a logarithmic order imbedded in the neuronal circuits of our brain. (Louro and Fraga, 2008) We have also to consider the proposes in the current physics that seems to approach virtual reality theory in that our physical reality can be simulated by information processing which is calculable. On the other hand, we also recognize that our physical reality uses information processing in its operation to some degree and our physical reality is created by information processing based outside the physical world.

Yoshikawa and Ueda describe that calculable universe hypothesis states that physical reality can be simulated by information processing. Calculable here does not mean deterministic, as processing can be probabilistic, nor does it mean mathematically definable, as not all definable mathematics is calculable, e.g. an infinite series. Many scientists accept that the universe is calculable in theory, as the Church-Turing thesis states that for any specifiable output there is a finite program capable of simulating it. If our universe is lawfully specifiable, even probabilistically then, in theory, a program could simulate it (though this universal program might be bigger than the universe itself)(2007).

This hypothesis does not say the universe is a computer, but that it could be simulated by one, i.e. it does not contradict objective reality. In other hand, the calculating universe hypothesis states that the universe uses information processing algorithms to create reality, e.g. quantum mechanical formulae. Supporters of this view are a minority, but include mainstream physicists like John Wheeler, whose phrase “It from Bit” suggests that objects (“it”) somehow derive from information (“bit”). Now information processing does not just model the universe, it explains it. While a computer simulation compares its output to the physical world, in a computer explanation the information processing creates reality, i.e. the latter is a theory about how the world actually works. Now the world is not just like a computer, it is a computer (Yoshikawa and Ueda, 2007).

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In this way, after our initial consideration, the dynamical images describe the building of digital morphologies to metaverse as a rich opportunity to present some creative process in the thought of computational artists who plan before virtual worlds constructs. Therefore, in order for artificial intelligence to equally deal with interactions in the symbiotic assemblages between virtual environment, between a user and a virtual environment, and between users, we regard each of the elements - virtual environments, users, and so on. We let these elements form independent modules, and also let the interactions between them form modules connecting them. On other hand, in the same direction, let’s remember what was explained by biologist Humberto Maturana (1980), that “Living systems are units of interactions; they exist in an environment. From a purely biological point of view, they cannot be understood independently of the part of the environment with which they interact, the niche; nor can the niche be denned independently of the living system that occupies it.”

Moreover, “when an observer claims that an organism exhibits perception, what he or she beholds is an organism that brings forth a world of actions through sensory motor correlations congruent with perturbation of the environment in which he or she sees it [the organism] to conserve its adaption (Maturana, 1980).

Inside digital’s heart The environments of 3D platforms in the virtual worlds with physical realm of buildings/objects may allow the development of symbiotic constructions that can be explored in order to discover new shapes for affective computing and its digital morphology. As Louro and Fraga (2008) state: Computing technology is becoming pervasive in our environments. It is a wellknown fact that human perception of space and time is determined by culture and change with new inventions. Psychological and neural cognitive sciences have shown that perception may be modified by emotional involvement tricking illusions. It is a challenge for cognitive scientists, computer artists, designers, architects and physical-mathematicians to conceive digital morphologies to be applied in responsive buildings/objects, which, associated with affective interfaces, may create unfathomable qualities for future built immersive environments and artworks.

To build and discover new shapes for affective computing in virtual worlds, the mathematics is the most important tool in either simple or complex worlds. Actually geometry is the key for these immersive environments to unite creation and algorithmic development for education through affective computing. Immersive Education, today, combines applied cognitive sciences, interactive 3D graphics, 3D platforms, trade and technology in simulation games, digital cinema, and visual poetry, augmented reality, mixed reality, artificial life, and teletransport, among others. As Santiago says “Mathematics is the language of science, and anything we do with a computer must have a mathematical construct on which it is based” (Santiago, 2005). To understand the concepts behind computer graphics and to most effectively use software to create effects, it is important to know basic algebra, trigonometry, geometry, calculus, and linear algebra. Math is the language of science, and many effects are based on the scientific reality we experience every day. Applying the mathematically correct solution the first time is much more effective. Math is the language of science, and many effects are based on the scientific reality we experience every day.

Paul Fishwick (2003), in his paper called Exploring Multiple Visualization Perspectives with Aesthetic Computing, says: “In computing, the finite state machine (FSM) is ubiquitous, found in lexical scanners for language parsers and scripting languages, and in behavior encodings for artificial agents in interactive games.” Let’s consider the following Moore machine M (fig.01):

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The machine has 3 states (S1, S2, and S3) with an input value of 1 achieving a change in state. An input of 0 leaves the machine in the same state. The machine oscillates between two states S2 and S3 after it gets a jump start from S1, and a subsequent stream of ones.

All of these aspects and relevant procedures to build responsive virtual environments with high technologies in modeling and characters development must work as close to exactly pas modeled for its computing to be effective in its applications. To illustrate the influence of social relationships on emotions, Picard uses Roseman, Antoniou, and Jose in their 1996 study: “Roseman and his colleagues constructed a model in which a small number of appraisals interact to give rise to seventeen emotions.” (Picard, 2000) Our studies, based on a long work by Louro about behavioral mathematics1, allowed us to consider technical images inside virtual environments, through behavioral mathematics in the creative process, numeric-topological expressions, describing all the morphologies that are working on the aesthetical computing. In this way, Santaella wrote: Conceived as a science of knowledge of how a sensitive issue, as we recall Baumgarten, the founder of aesthetics is not confined to what has been understood the art of speech ("the art of beauty ","fine arts"), but to understand how knowledge of aesthesis to study gnoseologia a feeling or perception of sensible, logical knowing the inevitable (Santaella, 2007).

In this way, Paul Fishwick wrote about a new area that is called aesthetic computing. “Within this area, there is an attempt to balance qualitative with quantitative representational aspects of visual computing, recognizing that aesthetics creates a dimension that is consistent with supporting numerous visual perspectives” (Fishwick, 2003).

Affective Computing2 – Keep Walking Actually the latest studies in the virtual world have to consider artificial intelligence as a mix between digital games and digital cinema through emergent technologies and digital Medias. For these environments, virtual platforms with high quality graphics and a good human-computer interaction (HCI), must reflect a dynamical repertoire of procedures aggregating mathematical concepts such as self-similarity, fractal dimension, quaternion algebra, geometric systems allowing growth, and maximum movement with the use of minimum forces which have not, yet, taken shape. Such a set of procedures may become a very useful tool for educational computer and training, exploring new affective images and characters for architectural design processes and for industrial advertisement initiatives. The research of mathematical morphologies to build structures (Peirce, 1990; Serra, 1988), using 1

behavioral mathematics is a numerical-topological representation, imagetic and dynamic, which simulates affectivity through computational codes to approximate cognitive models of realistic behavior in immersion environments or interaction.

2 Affective Computing: The research area concerned with behavioral artificial mathematics that relates to simulating emotion. Affective computing expands HCI by including the emotional communication and caracterization of character, together with the appropriate tools of mathematical modelling of affective information.

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the fabric of morphological growth and also allowing them to change dynamically their forms in responsive ways, may mix virtual and physical realities in symbiotic constructs.

Such repertoire will be of great help to systematize the huge amount of possibilities that emerged after many years looking for mathematical morphologies that would be appropriate to build dynamical physical and virtual structures. To research changeable morphologies for dynamic spatial 3D structures, it is necessary to explore algorithms for growing structural shapes, using random and automated processes, and for the development of kinetic systems to provide the movements of their physical parts.

This paper may make a difference in how to use potential improvements to researchers and developers, in ways to involve a given technique, focusing on how they might create and construct affective and aesthetic computing in their own virtual environments.

Joe Bates—who works with emotions and moods for animated characters—in his communication at ACM, describes how to make agents believable by giving them the illusion of life, and designing them to be able to influence their audience as deeply as they would if they were real (Bates, 1994). There are a lot of signals representing emotions and moods inside virtual environments, describing some of the pieces of an affective system. Picard (2000)related that theorists tell us that emotions usually last for less than a minute or two, while moods can last much longer. Cognitive expectation is important in these constructions, it on architectural planning for signal representations in virtual environments. To Picard all these influences can be represented by a simple nonlinear function applied to the inputs of an emotional system. The proposed function is a “sigmoidal nonlinearity” (fig.02) described by the equation

!

Finally, let “f” be a function that controls the temporal decay (fig.03) of on emotion intensity, and let “g” be a function that constrains the emotion intensity to lie between zero and its saturation value. The new intensity is then a function of its decayed previous value, its elicitors, and influence from other emotion intensities:

To create, developing or to constructing up emotion and behavior with scenarios and characters in metaverse, and to bring them to life, it is necessary to keep focus on affective and aesthetic computing and its mathematical morphologies based on cognitive reasoning3 within a social context. The visual dimension of artificial intelligence through affective procedures in the virtual environments is not only guaranteed to engage the surfer but also, if carefully constructed, it can demonstrate, inform and arise interest, motivation, and so on, inside environment, where from a world of reality or fantasy the categories and strategies for developing the effects will remain essentially the same, even as technology moves forward, providing new and better tools and systems to implement them.

3

This condition as implemented as rules in Elliott’s Affective Reasoner System. Clark Elliott of DePaul University.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Digital Morphologies

In the other hand we have to consider that affectivity happens by dynamical effects in our vision systems. At this point the affective and aesthetic computing can be implemented through emotion and behavior based on the devices of the project. The research developed by Louro (2007), with emotion and behavior in immersive games, digital cinema and visual poetry, as metaverse, has demonstrated the fundamental importance of the field in the creative process. The study of Mutable Architectures has aroused possibilities for constructing interaction with emotion and behavior through mathematical morphology of digital animation by numeric-topological systems. Before describing applications in the next point, there is an important distinction to be made regarding the scope of digital morphology in the metaverse, otherwise, in the visual mathematics and physics inside them, that is presented by quaternion`s algebra theory, who decides rotation and translaction of rigid bodies in the virtual worlds. The affectivity, aesthetics, movement and complex dynamics systems, through rules and principles from code computing, emerged by numeric-topological expression behind the creative process in the project, as a computational intelligence become highly associative and intertwined with architecture design. Another important application that involves affective computing requires attention to the following issue in how to recognize/expresse/develope the best visual system.

Consider the image below that generates affective states which include social rules of interaction developed by studies on creative process. Let`s look at a frozen image of a Metaverse where we can interact with the virtual environment called: Mutable Architectures and Caracolomobilis.

Figure 1. Mutable Architectures

Figure 2. Caracolomobile and Nanoshelters

The Caracolomobileâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s structure is composed of a set of varied pyramids that unfolds forming a logarithmic curve.

Figure 3. & 4. Caracolomobile: simulation of the open shape, view from above

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Metaverse as Dynamical Repertoires: Meanwhile, as we describe in this paper, the cognitive expectation is important in these virtual construction planning because the dynamical effects will be designed by imagetic perceptual analyses. The study from Picard (2000) focused on affective computing through signal representations in virtual environments was an important contribution to the applied cognitive science. In an effort towards the development of characters and scenarios for metaverses that we will demonstrate in the future, morphologies allowing moving parts of buildings to change elements of their physical structures themselves have not yet begun to be addressed. The hypothesis we work with is that it is possible to use behavioral mathematical for generating affective and aesthetical forms and procedures for the design of dynamic and flexibly assembled spatial 3D structures as parts of responsive symbiotic artworks in the metaverse. We are interested in applying this methodology to the more general problem of modeling applied cognitive systems. A dynamical modular repertoire of procedures includes: • the study of possible new materials to replace mechanical devices in built spatial 3D structures; • learning, decision making, perception, and goal-seeking as aspects of AI in cognitive behavior that cover mathematical framework of animation in virtual worlds; • the search for patterns for growth, extension, development and expansion of such structures.

Such repertoire will be of greater help to systematize the huge amount of possibilities that have emerged after many years looking for the behavioral mathematical that would be appropriate to build dynamical physical and virtual structures. Patterns for growth may be based on the proliferation of similar modules creating 3D lattices by packing polyhedrons (Williams, 1979) in similar ways to crystals and also looking for similar structures at the natural world around us. To develop repertoires based on the latter it is necessary to look for: • sets developed by repeating variations of basic configurations which will create articulated shells and cocoons; • geometrical configurations which allow movement provoked by minimum forces; • ways to use gravity as part of the process of moving things for energy savings; • the creation of systems based on the repetition of slightly varied objects forming logarithmic configurations usually known as spirals.

For dynamic growing spatial 3D structures to be used as parts of architectural spaces it is very important to study patterns for their extension in the three dimensions of space. The structure final shape may be more opened or closed, sparsely or densely spiraled. This behavior becomes a very big physical problem for builders since they have to deal with another powerful force: the gravity. This problem increases when movement is added to the structure itself. Therefore, the larger the structure the bigger are the tensions the sections of structural elements are subjected to. As Galileo stated more than 400 years ago, for an ant to become the size of an elephant it would also need to lose its morphological characteristics becoming heavier and bulkier. The same problem has hunted architects and engineers for ages and has defined all the technologies developed until today. The combination of such families of patterns will define the final shape of the structure and will provide the procedures to automate the production of the kinetic systems that will move the elements. It is important to notice that a growing structure, being irregular in relation to its mass, will tend to look for physical equilibrium. Such situations convey that the structural center of mass is improperly located in relation to its geometrical center, a fact that needs to be addressed from the beginning of the design process, so it will not become vulnerable and a huge problem.

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research – Digital Morphologies

The use of such cognitive reasoning is the base of the Mutable Architectures and Caracolomobile artwork. This computer interface is a surface created aiming to instigate participation. It integrates the participants’ actions with real time computer processing. The movements of both surfaces use the same sinusoidal equation. For instance, ‘Caracolomobile’ and Mutable Architectures go further into these concepts by adding affective interfaces to control some processes happening inside the metaverse. The following images will demonstrate the embodiment calculus reasoning in the creative process before implementing computer programming to the metaverse.

Every scenario and character characterization, which has affective inherent attributes and physical properties determined by the generator, and are sometimes called internal influences. In the other hand, the external influences are those to which the system being simulated is subjected. In this way those influences can be phenomenon like wind, gravity or collision on objects which the behavior of the affective system reaches due to its current attributes.

The reasoning through calculus can open minds and bring cognitive effects through emotion and behavioral mathematics inside of animated 3D images.

Figure 7.Draft sheet calculations of rotation, translation and colors, to be implemented in computer codes generating images

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Journal of Virtual Worlds Research â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Digital Morphologies

Figure 9 Sheet Draft: Calculation of angles to test physical prototypes, which precedes the interaction design for the environment of immersion

These images, also, show the hidden mathematics in the human creative process, different calculus line for angles and movements that will implement the computational codes for constructing the immersive virtual world.

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Conclusion The simulation of emotion in virtual environments can be fairly simple or extremely complex. It is the behavior mathematics of real-world objects that we are trying to simulate in the computer, a controlled environment by artificial intelligence through affective and aesthetic computing.

Finally, in general, a virtual world’s maximum event rate is fixed by the allocated processing capacity, but in our real world, the fixed maximum that comes to mind is the speed of light. That there is an absolute maximum speed could reflect a maximum information processing rate, and in digital processing, if a world is virtual, everything in it must be digitalized. Plank’s discovery that light is quantized could then generalize not only to charge, spin and matter, but also to space-time.

This article should inspire us and inform us, in a way that leads us to reflect in work about virtual environments and, above it all, it shall remind us of how it feels to be someone who can change lives through the power of affective computing and its mathematical morphology. As Louro, (2007) wrote: To research about computing effects, affective and aesthetic, in immersive virtual worlds, and its morphology mathematical construction for dynamic spatial 3D structures, it is necessary to explore applied cognitive science and all related fields such as: behavioral mathematics, imagetic perceptual analyse, artificial intelligence, algorithms for growing structural shapes, for using random and automated processes, and for developing kinetic systems to provide the movements of their physical parts.”

Attempts to clarify what behavior mathematics and affective computing means in the cognitive applied science should start by the acknowledgment of the term’s meaning, as the interactivity of these terms can cause an interaction human-computer successful in the virtual immersive environments, transforming the passive receiver of information into the active participant and collaborator in virtual worlds.

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