By Lynda LarsenSpecial to The Epoch Times Sep 4, 2008
ATLANTA—Your profile is not on Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn? You don’t subscribe to Twitter? Not a member of Ning? New Web 2.0 social networking applications, the interactive communication devices based on internet technology, appear weekly. Why should you be interested? Just because Wolf Blitzer on CNN has his own blog, and interactivity through blogging, voting or texting is now mainstream? If media adoption of Web 2.0 applications isn’t convincing, then maybe predictions of the future prospects of 3-D will do the job.Intel spokesman Bill Calder was quoted in the Atlanta Journal Constitution as saying the 3-D computing is “an area that’s going to explode” due to intense consumer demand for high definition movies, gaming and digital photography. 3-D is where the creative edge of computer programming lies.Second Life is a 3-D game that has taken social networking to the next level. Wagner James Au, freelancer and (formerly) embedded reporter in Second Life, is quoted as saying in his book blurb that many believe that user-created worlds like Second Life will become the framework for a revolution in the way we shop, work and interact. In addition, the technology analyst firm, Gartner Inc., has projected that 80 percent of all active Internet users will be involved in virtual worlds by 2011, according to their website.Second Life is unique in that it is entirely built and owned by its residents. As of June 2008, according to the Alliance Trends Report, SL had over 12 million avatars or residents from around the world. The users of Second Life have created their own social scene, clothing stores, buildings and classes using currency called Lindens.I’m a member of the Special Libraries Association Working Group in Second Life where I’m still considered a Newbie. My SL birth date is July 1, 2008. On July 31st, I attended my first professional meeting in Second Life where we discussed what we as professional librarians want to do “in world.” We asked, “What does our profession have to offer” in this electronic world of beautiful scenery, people and imagination? We may have to rethink what our profession does and how we do it.Using search techniques I already knew as professional researcher, I quickly learned to check the “Events” tab, selecting education as my topic area, to find interesting places to explore in Second Life. Classes and discussion groups are popular in-world. The classes teach how to alter your avatar’s appearance, how to build structures, how to buy land. Alternatively, you can search ads and find someone to build for you.The most obvious content rich applications of Second Life are likely to be in education, training and recruiting. Universities are already a major presence in Second Life.Large corporations such as IBM have set up virtual office space for meetings, conferences and training. The technology in Second Life for meetings will only get better, my British IBM tour guide advised me. IBM uses their space for new employee orientations, training and staff meetings according to Lee Fox on Blogspot.com. Fox says that IBM finds this virtual environment far superior to teleconferencing or web conferencing. Recruiting is the third promising application of the Second Life environment. A recent CPA Daily article describes how firms like Ernst & Young are increasingly using social networks to find job prospects. The article suggests testing how an applicant would handle a real situation through observing his interactions in Second Life. In his 2006 book, The Making of Second Life, Wagner James Au estimated that the economy in-world averages more than $1,000,000 in transactions every day. Corporations and other organizations are betting their money that Second Life and other virtual worlds have a future in the real world.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
The Ethics of a Sex Life in Your Second Life
September 05, 2008 8:57 AM
by Rachel Balik
Second Life entrepreneur Kevin Alderman installs a technology that lets avatars have intercourse, and it may be altering the course of fidelity.
Get ‘Physically’ Intimate in the Virtual World
Like a growing number of Internet users, Kevin Alderman was eager to jump on the Second Life bandwagon. Second Life is a computer game that allows users to design avatars and operate in a fully elaborated virtual world. It enabled users to do most real-life activities, but Alderman noticed that it prevented users from touching. He founded the company Eros LLC and developed the SexGen software for Second Life. Now, avatars can engage in a variety of sexual positions and activities with other avatars. Since each avatar represents a real human being, the software adds a new dimension to user relationships on Second Life, reports The Guardian.
Alderman’s avatar, Stroker Serpentine, is currently in a loving and “physically” intimate relationship with an avatar named Fyre Rain. The woman behind Fyre Rain lives a thousand miles from Alderman and has a family, as does Alderman. However, his wife Debbie is fully aware of the relationship, and remains unperturbed. She argues, “He might be physical with himself, but he’s not actually physical with her, and that doesn't bother me. It’s a role, a fantasy, a character.”
Background: Second Life encroaches on real life for many
While Debbie may claim that her husband’s Second Life infidelities don’t affect their marriage, the evidence suggests otherwise. Studies have been conducted suggesting that people’s self-perception in their Second Life actually bleeds into their actual life. “When we cloak ourselves in avatars, it subtly alters the manner in which we behave,” Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford told Time magazine. “It’s about self-perception and self-confidence.” Bailenson, who conducts research on Second Life, also suggested that 90 seconds of avatar conversation could alter real-life behavior. That raises some questions about what a Second Life sexual encounter could do. Researcher Nick Yee found that people who watched their avatars exercise were more likely to exercise themselves in the following 24 hours. Sex and exercise are both representational physical behaviors. If one virtual behavior influences real-life inclinations, the other might do so as well.
Actions on Second Life also have clear financial and legal implications. Alderman’s company, Eros LLC, holds the patent rights for the SexGen bed, a virtual bed containing animations of 150 sex positions. A SexGen bed costs approximately $45. When another Second Life user copied the bed and started selling it for less than Eros LLC, Alderman filed a suit against the user for copyright infringement in a Tampa court.
He won his lawsuit, and 19-year-old Robert Leatherwood was ordered to stop selling his copies. An article in the Albuquerque Journal suggests that this is only the tip of the iceberg, and that virtual environments can provide a fertile ground for real-life crime.
Related Topic: Sex addiction and the Internet
When David Duchovny entered treatment for sex addiction in August 2008, it brought new attention to the disease. The Internet seems to enable the condition. “The Internet has provided a level of access (to pornography) that was previously unavailable. So many people have this problem and the Internet has driven that,” Rob Weiss, executive director of the Sexual Recovery Institute in Los Angeles told Reuters.
Reference: More about Second Life
BusinessWeek takes a trip through Second Life’s flourishing fantasy world. The article chronicles all the pretend banality of a virtual rookie’s (mis)adventures, from finding a home to buying clothes and going to bars.
Source: BusinessWeek
by Rachel Balik
Second Life entrepreneur Kevin Alderman installs a technology that lets avatars have intercourse, and it may be altering the course of fidelity.
Get ‘Physically’ Intimate in the Virtual World
Like a growing number of Internet users, Kevin Alderman was eager to jump on the Second Life bandwagon. Second Life is a computer game that allows users to design avatars and operate in a fully elaborated virtual world. It enabled users to do most real-life activities, but Alderman noticed that it prevented users from touching. He founded the company Eros LLC and developed the SexGen software for Second Life. Now, avatars can engage in a variety of sexual positions and activities with other avatars. Since each avatar represents a real human being, the software adds a new dimension to user relationships on Second Life, reports The Guardian.
Alderman’s avatar, Stroker Serpentine, is currently in a loving and “physically” intimate relationship with an avatar named Fyre Rain. The woman behind Fyre Rain lives a thousand miles from Alderman and has a family, as does Alderman. However, his wife Debbie is fully aware of the relationship, and remains unperturbed. She argues, “He might be physical with himself, but he’s not actually physical with her, and that doesn't bother me. It’s a role, a fantasy, a character.”
Background: Second Life encroaches on real life for many
While Debbie may claim that her husband’s Second Life infidelities don’t affect their marriage, the evidence suggests otherwise. Studies have been conducted suggesting that people’s self-perception in their Second Life actually bleeds into their actual life. “When we cloak ourselves in avatars, it subtly alters the manner in which we behave,” Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford told Time magazine. “It’s about self-perception and self-confidence.” Bailenson, who conducts research on Second Life, also suggested that 90 seconds of avatar conversation could alter real-life behavior. That raises some questions about what a Second Life sexual encounter could do. Researcher Nick Yee found that people who watched their avatars exercise were more likely to exercise themselves in the following 24 hours. Sex and exercise are both representational physical behaviors. If one virtual behavior influences real-life inclinations, the other might do so as well.
Actions on Second Life also have clear financial and legal implications. Alderman’s company, Eros LLC, holds the patent rights for the SexGen bed, a virtual bed containing animations of 150 sex positions. A SexGen bed costs approximately $45. When another Second Life user copied the bed and started selling it for less than Eros LLC, Alderman filed a suit against the user for copyright infringement in a Tampa court.
He won his lawsuit, and 19-year-old Robert Leatherwood was ordered to stop selling his copies. An article in the Albuquerque Journal suggests that this is only the tip of the iceberg, and that virtual environments can provide a fertile ground for real-life crime.
Related Topic: Sex addiction and the Internet
When David Duchovny entered treatment for sex addiction in August 2008, it brought new attention to the disease. The Internet seems to enable the condition. “The Internet has provided a level of access (to pornography) that was previously unavailable. So many people have this problem and the Internet has driven that,” Rob Weiss, executive director of the Sexual Recovery Institute in Los Angeles told Reuters.
Reference: More about Second Life
BusinessWeek takes a trip through Second Life’s flourishing fantasy world. The article chronicles all the pretend banality of a virtual rookie’s (mis)adventures, from finding a home to buying clothes and going to bars.
Source: BusinessWeek
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