Many of us who are active on the internet, giving our
views on what is happening, are used to getting “flamed” (having
hostile messages about us posted online).
Just say something negative about Linux and see what gets put
into Slashdot.org.
But things have got a bit scarier over the past few months, as
people start confusing the virtuality of the web with the realities
of life.
For example, a few months ago, a man was murdered in Japan for
selling a virtual sword he had been lent during a Dungeons and
Dragons-style multi-user gaming session. The original owner had
reported the man for theft, but the authorities were not interested
(nothing of any material value or substance had actually happened),
so the guy took matters into his own hands.
In the UK, a person had their throat slashed by someone who
tracked them down after statements were made about the attacker in
an online chatroom. No sleuthing was required – the victim had
provided their real name and address in the public profile
data.
These are extreme examples, but there does seem to be more of a
move to see the internet as the source of all truths, and the
increasing number of unfiltered blogs and social sites provides
more and more opportunities for people to take exception to things
that have been said, typed or printed.
Then, we have Second Life, a complete virtual world with one
million-plus (and rapidly growing) inhabitants. Second Life has its
own commerce (its economy is trading about $500,000 a day), and
gives an environment for people to have a complete virtual
experience in another realm.
You create your own avatar (this can be a likeness of yourself,
something less frightening, or even half man/half beast), and these
avatars can interact with others, chatting, carrying out business,
whatever.
It is essentially unregulated. There is a set of “community
standards” to stop standard excesses, but this is countered by a
statement that the owners cannot be held responsible for the
“quality, safety, morality, legality, truthfulness or accuracy of
various aspects of the service”. There is an explicit buyer
beware clause: anything that changes hands or is bought in Second
Life is a matter between the buyer and the seller – Second Life
cannot become involved.
Individual users have set up shops to sell such things as
clothes for your avatar to wear – and increasingly this is morphing
into selling actual goods that will be delivered via the physical
post. A virtual U2 bought a virtual island in Second Life and held
a benefit gig there. Retail banks and large department stores are
looking at whether they can set up stores. Some casinos have
already appeared.
The local currency, the Linden dollar, can be earned in
different ways – or bought for real US dollars (and other
currencies) on LindeX, the world’s exchange system. So we are
talking real commerce here – and real money from real people. But a
lot of it is virtual. So if I buy something from Second Life that
does not get delivered, or I feel that I have been cheated in one
of its casinos or get into an argument with someone while wandering
around Second Life, then flaming them just doesn’t quell the
anger.
It would be a pity for such an interesting brave new world to
sink rapidly into just a mirror image of the real world. As in the
real world, where someone tries to make the world better by
planting plants or trees and finds them vandalised the next
morning, or paints things to make them look cleaner and brighter
and finds graffiti covering the work within hours, Second Life runs
the risk of being overrun by the dregs of humanity that wander the
furthest reaches of the internet.
Is there hope? Second Life is built by people for other people.
If they can get together as communities, and protest loudly when
areas are set up that they do not agree with, the overall landlord
(in this case, Second Life’s owner, Linden), may well close down
undesirable areas.
Democracy, communities that work, a thriving commercial base,
and an infrastructure for unencumbered growth with no environmental
issues within its virtual walls – maybe we can all learn something
from the virtual side of things.
Clive Longbottom is service director at analyst firm
Quocirca
www.quocirca.com
www.secondlife.com/whatis
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