Bonus Mission #2: Not a Game but a Second Shot at Life

To label Second Life as a game would be degrading to the makers, Linden Labs and its scores of residents. A game has winners and losers, ratings and scores are tabulated. But Second Life has none of these characteristics.

The tagline Second Life adopts is Your World. Your Imagination. Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 5,332,185 people from around the globe.

Imagine a virtual world where in which people can interact, play, do business, and otherwise communicate. Second Life is a 3-D virtual world that has been built by members also known as residents in it. Imagine locating a new island and maintaining your very own population in it. Give them the resources and materials to start a life there and build everything from scratch. Residents are pretty much able to do anything they want to from doing business to watching concerts. (Second Life, 2007)

Unlike any other computer game, Second Life requires players, or what Second Life users refer to as residents to build up their own character. This is distinctively different from a game where people simply assume their characters from a set of players that have already been programmed into the game. The adopting of a character and then customizing it shows that it is more than just a game. (Levy, 2006)

Participating in the thriving economy is another strong factor in setting Second Life from a game. Second Life participants are able to trade in a virtual economy using "Linden Dollars" and they can be converted into U.S dollars at about 300 to the real dollar by using a credit card at online exchanges. Anshe Chung, for example made her money through property in Second Life. According to the Business Week, Chung's firms’ now has currency holdings worth $250,000 in real U.S dollars. Chung's business on Second Life has been doing so well that she has just opened a 10 person studio in Wuhan, China. Life in Second Life pretty much reflects life in reality (Anshe Chung, 2007). Residents have to work to earn Linden Dollars or make items to sell to other residents. In some cases, users have made real money out of selling their created items on Second Life.

Second Life is masked as a sophisticated social networking program. Unlike instant messaging (IM) programs where users communicate on windows through the exchange of text messages, Second Life provides a whole new virtual playground for users to break beyond the lack of social cues on IM programs to express themselves in a 3-D world. Basically, Second Life has placed IM chatting in an active 3-D environment setting.

With real emotions, real currency and the strong human communication involved, Second Life is anything but a frivolous game. Those who insist on seeing it as one are only foolishly robbing themselves of the plethora of opportunities available in Second Life. This is where the future of the Net is heading to, where we can upload life onto the Internet and take a second shot at life.


References:

Levy, S. (2006). World of Warcraft: Is It a Game? Retrieved April 7, 2007 from
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/print/1/displaymode/1098/

Second Life. (2007). In: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved April 7, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life


Anshe Chung. (2007). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 7, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anshe_Chung&oldid=120060081

Qotw10: Meet My Alter Ego

Second Life opened up a whole new world for me. Prior to this week’s assignment, Second Life was simply a passing mention in class, all thanks to Mr Kevin Lim who waxed lyrical about it. I knew I would never attempt SL willingly on my own as I never favoured video games or anything remotely close to it. As you can imagine, this week’s Qotw threw a curveball at me. Ready or not, SL was coming into my life. (read: invading my increasingly slurry computer system)

Choosing a pseudonym is always fun. Meet Skarlet Jewell. It means a red gemstone who listens to ska music. Okay maybe not quite. Jewell caught my eye out of the long list of exotic last names and Scarlet was already taken therefore I went with Skarlet instead.

Picking out an avatar character was cool. ‘Girl next door’ and ‘city chic’ bored me,’ the fox’ was way weird and the ‘nightlife girl’ looked skanky. In the end it was really a toss up between ‘cyber goth’ and ‘harajuku’. I went for the latter.

It came no surprise to me that my first difficulty encountered in orientation island was moving my character. I have awful hand-eye coordination skills and that was painfully discovered in my virgin attempt at CounterStrike years ago where all I did was stumble into walls and tables. But Carol threw me a heads up about the arrow keys and pretty soon I was walking into stone walls and falling into water. Progress in baby steps is still progress I say.

Editing appearance made me go all Nip/Tuck on my avatar. It was intentional on my part to pick a character that ressembled the complete opposite of me in reality so I went all out on my harajuku chick. Long raven hair, bared torso and rose tattoos, Skarlet Jewell was ready to venture out.

I suppose its only in SL that tanned beefy thriplets would be chatting me up. Again, not quite. Actually I just bumped into other clueless souls who were in the midst of doing their tutorials. They even asked me for help but its really a case of the blind leading the blind because I just wanted to leave the orientation island already.

Joining the COM125 group was a breeze, some of the names were easy to figure out and the rest like mine, gave nothing away. Finding places to teleport to were a riot. Its amazing the myriad of places available in SL and how gorgeous the landscapes looked.

I found a modern art gallery, it had beautiful baroque feel with the detailed cornices and paintings complete with music to set the ambience.

Along the gallery, I spotted this odd looking object and was staring at it for the longest of time and finally decided to sit on it. Lo and behold, it perched me right up on the coil and the whole picture looked grand for a snapshot.

Everything seemed pretty decent until I discovered a teleport beam where I could choose to go to other sections of the gallery elsewhere. Beam me up Scotty!

This was taken at the garden of tranquility. Which lived up to the name completely. Streams, chirping birds, cushioned gazebo, it had all the elements of a fairytale. Only Skarlet was no princess, she was a harajuku rebel. At least she looked the part.

SL is indeed an eye opener. Despite my initial reservations, Im glad this week’s assignment allowed for me to explore the world beyond. Although I experienced many hiccups along the way, right up till the end where I found myself stuck in between two pillars, I most definitely am keen to explore further.
Get a life? I’ve got two, beat that

Qotw 8: David VS Golliath

"Because bloggers answer to no one, they need not worry if their dispatches cause the chairman of the board of General Motors to stop talking to the publisher—or placing ads. Their independence gives them a subversive strength, one that undermines the cozy relationship the press has with its corporate cousins and government. The unmediated nature of blogs, which frightens so many professional journalists, is really a plus. With so many bloggers writing outside the bounds of authority, they've become impossible to silence or censor and their provocations help keep the national debate going at full tilt."

Blog Title/URL: Alfian’s Secret Wank Shed- http://alfian.diaryland.com
Blogger’s Name: Alfian bin Sa’at
Blogger’s Occupation: Citizen Blog
Blogger’s DOB: 16th March 2001
Technorati Rank: Does not recognize this blog but states 98 links to this URL

There is a perception that getting involved in Singapore politics will get you into trouble. Which is why most most bloggers who talk about local politics hide behind the cloak of anonymity, such as the much acclaimed, Mr Brown. He is not the first. A handful had started penning their views online earlier. An Internet search threw up blogs such as ‘Singabloodypore’, ‘Xeno Boy’ and ‘Vox Leo’. Political watchers and bloggers expect more to sprout up.



Allow me to introduce my adopted blogger for this week’s assignment. Alfian Sa’at is a poet and writer whose pet topics include freedom of expression and Malay rights. He is more known for his literary accolades rather than an esteemed blogger. Unlike most local political bloggers, his profile is easily traceable. Born on 18th July 1977, Alfian bin Sa'at was educated in Tampines Primary School, Raffles Institution, Raffles Junior College and the National University of Singapore.He was the Chairman of Raffles Players Drama Society in RI and RJC, where he received the Kripalani Award for Outstanding Contribution to Creative Arts. He is currently the resident playwright of the theatre group, W!ld Rice Productions.

I must admit I am a green thumb to Singapore politics much less political themed blogs. My first foray to politics only began last year during my virgin vote in my constituency in the General Elections 2006. Researching for local political blogs on the search engine threw plenty of links at me. I skimmed through a lot of them and changed my mind about 3 times before deciding on Alfian’s Secret Wank Shed.

I loved how he was not hiding behind a pseudonym. Not that I have anything against those with nicknames but I personally felt it takes someone with balls of steel to comment on half of the things he mentioned in his blog. Very much like Catherine Lim, the literary success known for her very public jabs at the Singapore government, Alfian Sa’at has written and spoken about many things that a mere mortal (read: moral coward) like myself dared not write nor speak. But what sets his works from other blogs I have come across is that what he had written is important and pertinent to Singaporean, especially if they are young and Malays. As far as I know, there are no other writers in Singapore who are vocal enough to voice out about the adversity faced by the Singaporean Malays. What makes his blog such an attractive read to his entries most were his candid take on gahmen masked artfully under his skill for the language. The fact that he writes particularly about the gripes faced by a Singaporean Malay strikes a chord with me.

To address the question, “Do blogs allow for greater democracy in Singapore?”
Habermas develops the normative notion of the public sphere as a part of social life where citizens can exchange views on matters of importance to the common good, so that public opinion can be formed. This public sphere comes into being when people gather to discuss issues of political concern. (Thornton, 2002)

In Singapore, there is the much talked about “climate of fear” that the government can clamp down anytime. There have actually been very few instances of arbitrary clamping down yet the fear persists and thus, a lot of people in Singapore, including bloggers, self-censor to some extent. With the passage of time, there is increasing confidence that freedom of speech on the Internet is pretty wide.

Positive developments in the new media are expected to continue in 2007, barring any major government crackdown. As more Singaporeans from all backgrounds take to reading, writing and commenting on blogs, online forums, podcasts and vodcasts, the diversity of views on the Internet will also increase. (Giam, 2006) If you can’t beat them, join them. Which is exactly what the Singapore govenrment has done.

The architecture of political blogs allow a lone voice to seek out others and together, they make a unison so loud, Golliath cannot ignore it for long.

References:

Thornton, A. (2002, October). Does Internet Create Democracy. Retrieved March 24, 2007 from <http://www.zip.com.au/~athornto/thesis_2002_alinta_thornton.doc>

Giam, Gerald (2006). "Review- The politics of Singapore's new media in 2006." Retrieved March 24, 2007 from <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2006/12/31/review-the-politics-of-singapores-new-media-in-2006>

Qotw 7: Twit is In!

An online community is “a group of people that may or may not primarily or initially communicate or interact via the Internet.” (Virtual community, 2007) Apart from that, different virtual communities have different levels of interaction and participation among their members. According to a survey done by Horrigan (2001), it was found that almost 90 million Americans have participated in online communities. This shows that online communities have found its way into our lives.

There are limitations to a real life community that an online one can surpass. Although lacking the physical characteristic, the structure of virtual communities allows for communication over vast distances. It also allows for people from different times zones to interact in an asynchronous nature. (Wellman & Gulia, 1996)

According to Rheingold, he believes that people in virtual communities interact for a myriad of reasons. They can engage in intellectual discussions, have arguments, share knowledge on various subjects, play games, conduct businesses, have idle chat, flirt. But, the only aspect that lacks from virtual communities is the absence of the physical characteristic in the interaction. (Fernback & Thompson, 1995)

Twitter was introduced in March 2005. “Twitter is a social networking service that allows members to inform each other about what they are doing and what they think. It allows users to send messages via phone or instant messaging. Two SMS gateway numbers are available - one for USA and one UK number for international use. Users can receive updates from other selected users via web, IM, or SMS” (“Twitter”, 2007).

Twitter’s main interface has a theme with the heading, “What are you doing?” Twitter users are able to hide behind a pseudonym as they post messages on what they are currently doing/reply to their friends’ messages. Messages on Twitter, however, are only allowed to be of 140 characters. This makes messages short and straight to the point. In general, people choose to sign up for Twitter using either their real names/pseudonyms. Furthermore, they are able to post short messages with regards to their current activities.

I believe Twitter is great for catching up with your friends especially over long distances. It provides an alternative to MSN or IRC due to the real time interaction. Moreover, with the tagline “What are you doing?” gives a blogging-like vibe to it. As we have learnt, blogging can act as a mean to document your life. Only Twitter condenses this to bite sized information limited to 140 characters instead.

Despite initial differences on the surface, I would still consider Twitter as an online community as it allows interaction among strangers and friends. Rheingold defines virtual communities as “social aggregations” that “emerge from the Internet when enough people sustain public discussions long enough to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace. (Fernback & Thompson, 1995).

Regardless if Twitter serves to bring communities together or to separate smaller communities from larger ones, I believe that Twitter still constitutes an online community. Twitter is like an online community where each of its functions resembles that of other existing online communities. Communication is a key factor in building a community, and Twitter's main function is for friends to communicate with one another. Relationships are subsequently strengthened and fostered through this communication, and thus, an online community is formed.

References:

Fernback, J, & Thompson, B (1995). Virtual Communities:Abort, Retry, Failure?. Retrieved March 17, 2007 from <http://www.rheingold.com/texts/techpolitix/VCcivil.html>

Wellman, B, & Gulia, M (1996). Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone:Virtual Communities as Communities. Retrieved March 17, 2007 from <http://www.acm.org/%7Eccp/references/wellman/wellman.html>

Virtual Community. (2007). Virtual Community. In Wikipedia [Web]. Retrieved March 17, 2007 from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communities>

Twitter. (2007). Twitter. In Wikipedia [Web]. Retrieved March17, 2007 from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter>

Bonus Mission #1: Excuse me officer, you're in my way

Every once in a while, a bright spark in the local entertainment promotions conjures up the magnificent idea of bringing down a favourite band of mine to grace our humble Singaporean shores. Of course, I understand that getting an international act perform here is no walk in the park. Logistics, ticket sales, bands availability are just a few of the gazillion factors that need to be taken into consideration.

However, after witnessing a handful of concerts in the past couple of years, I have come to the conclusion that protecting the band is numero uno. Not only do security comes in part of the bands entourage, the country they are playing in needs to beef up the security coverage; from the starched blue police officers at the airport to the hefty moustached fellas at the concert venue itself. The main idea here is to secure the proximics of the band members from any oncoming threats. (read: overzealous crazed female fans)

I have seen one too many females get manhandled by these officers. Yes, giddy fanaticism plus raging hormones can equate to animal-like strength. Obviously security officers have been subject to plenty of physical abuse. Call it the work hazards but then again, muscles are job requirements in this line.



The Who: Alexander Kapranos, lead vocals of Franz Ferdinand
The What: Autograph signing after concert
The When: 16th February 2006
The Where: Outskirts of Singapore Indoor Stadium

The Why?

As you can see, I have garnered the full attention of the moustached fella’s attention. Although his muscles are questionable, his company’ name printed on the back of his shirt is not. As it is not a video, I will provide an insight to this freeze frame snapshot. Simply put, he was instructing me to quit taking pictures. What irony. Considering the multitude of flashes that was going off, my camera was solely pointed out as the main offender.

Sousveillance is such a new word that my Microsoft Word does not acknowledge the term. But in actuality, sousveillance is merely the opposite of surveillance. It denotes bringing the camera down to human level in which ordinary people are doing the watching. One of the things that brought inverse surveillance to light was the reactions of security guards to electric seeing aids and similar sousveillance practices. It seemed, early on, that the more cameras that were in an establishment, the more the guards disliked the use of an electric seeing aid by the public. It was through simply wearing electric seeing aids, as a passive observer, that it was discovered that surveillance and sousveillance can cause conflict and sometimes confrontation. (“Wikipedia” 2007)

So we have gathered thus far that security folks and electric seeing aids like digital cameras and mobile phones do not go well together. I understand that these people are merely carrying out a job duty but what escapes me is the simple fact why they allow certain people to get away with it but clamp down on those few that they manage to get.

This happened again during the John Legend gig that took place in January this year. I was seated in the upper levels of the theatre where ushers were apparently so free; they shine a blinding torch your way should they even glimpse a digital camera in your hand. Yet the sea of concert goers on ground level got away scot free. I suppose paying 30 to 50 dollars more entitles you to such practices.


References:

Sousveillance. (2007, February 7). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 10, 2007 from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance>

Qotw5: What's in a Name?

"What's in a name?
That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

(William Shakespeare)

The quote taken from Shakespeare’s well known play Romeo & Juliet probably will not sit in well with online pseudonyms. Pseudonymity is simply anonymity that hides a person behind an online persona via a username. Many internet users have a number of different identities they use online, to allow them to explore different aspects of their persona, interests or hobbies. But pseudonymity is also the key to membership systems as well, as it allows members of the community to learn to identify other members they like or dislike based upon their behaviors and personality. Pseudononymous systems strike a balance between people’s needs to obscure their identities online, while still allowing them to build reputations in those usernames. These systems have been shown to work very well for an online community.

People build reputations in their usernames and so their reputation becomes something they value and want to protect. Members who have an investment in something within your community are far less likely to blow that investment through inappropriate, negative behavior.
A reputation is really the collection of tags that are assigned to an individual or entity to reflect their status within a specific social network. Given that individuals play different roles in social networks; they can serve variously as connectors, gatekeepers, truth-tellers and enforcers. Reputations are tied to roles within social networks. Even in online communities, reputation tags are the motivator and governor of behaviors. People take seriously the reputation scores of an eBay seller/buyer, the accumulated scores of a player of online games, or the number of friends and ratings one has in the online social networks of Linkedin, Orkut, Friendster, Facebook or My Space. (Clippinger 2005)

An account I own under MySpace is mainly used to access music sites. In a nutshell, MySpace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos. (“Wikipedia, 2007”)


As you can see here, this is my account under MySpace. I use my real name and not other any moniker created as I feel old friends who stumble across my profile will be able to identify by my actual name. Although there is an option to make my account private, I choose against it. Therefore my full profile is assessable to whomever in MySpace. This means my pictures, my introduction, my music tastes, my top 12 friends are etc. It is very easy to size me up simply by spending a mere 5 minutes browsing through my profile. I do not add any fancy codes to my page to spice up the look of my account so understandably, traffic to my account is relatively moderate. This can be easily monitored by checking the numbers on my profile views.

Reputation garnered from this account is easily established by my interaction within the community. For instance, when I add a music band’s page into my list or when I comment to my friends accounts or pictures. I build up a reputation by choosing carefully what I wish to present myself to the online community. There have numerous incidents when I do know of friends who have their profiles completely ripped off. The term coined for this is Fakesters accounts. The rate this happens just goes to show how easy identity theft can occur online. Fortunately, I have never undergone a stolen identity before. Perhaps my profile just may not be that interesting to steal from.



In a bid to jazz up my profile, I carried out a mini experiment by simply changing my name to a pseudonym instead. I chose ‘scarlet’ as I use that moniker when tagging on friends blogs or in MSN. I kept everything else the same, from my default picture to my ‘About Me’ section. Upon logging in the following day, I found my profile views shot up to 820 from a lowly 322 the previous night. Friend requests and new messages were awaiting me in my inbox as well. It was amazing how a pseudonym like ‘scarlet’ could be so powerful to evoke attention from the MySpace community in 24 hours.

New ways of establishing and of hiding identity are evolving in the virtual world. It is a world that has evolved an intricate system of signals and behaviors that aid in establishing identity and in controlling identity deception. (Donath 1996) The more attractive an identity is presented, the more likely are its chances to get stolen and reproduced completely. Back to Shakespeares quote I used in the beginning, “What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Apparently in my case, ‘scarlet’ smells a whole lot sweeter then my real name which is ironic since ‘Raihana’ actually means sweet fragrance.


References:

Donath, J.S. (1996) Identity and Deception in the Virtual Community. Retrieved on February 22, 2007 from < http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/Judith/Identity/IdentityDeception.html>

Clippinger, J. (2005). Identity, Reputation and Social Currency. Retrieved on February 22, 2007 from <http://onthecommons.org/node/723>

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2007) Retrieved on February 22, 2007 from < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpace>

QotW4: I Give, Therefore I Take

“He who brings me news of a great thought before unknown presents me with what is always an acceptable gift.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

The past tense of “I give” is “I take” a professor from last semester candidly mentioned. In reality, the rule of reciprocation and obligation are two trump cards marketers wield as persuasion tactics. The rise of the Internet soon followed the birth of the concept of "virtual community." From the beginning, the concept of virtual community gained wide currency in part because of its utopian resonance. Given that online interaction is relatively anonymous, that there is no central authority, and that it is difficult or impossible to impose monetary or physical sanctions on someone, it is striking that the Internet is not literally a war of all against all. (Kollock, 1999) Many observers were struck by the voluntary and democratic nature of virtual communities. The online practice of strangers helping other strangers with advice and information spoke forcefully to long-standing images of idealized community life of generous mutual aid.

Why do some individuals invest so much time and effort in posting free advice and information online while others do so rarely, if at all? Research suggests that a powerful motivation for disproportionate gift giving in virtual communities can be traced to rational calculation- individuals may expect reciprocity in the not-too-distant future, individuals wish to contribute to the general welfare or they wish to repay past generosity. (Curien, Fauchart, Laffond, & Moreau, 2004)

The Gift Economy offers us a means to learn, to understand, to take charge and to change our world. It is a natural economy, steeped in millions of years of pre-civilization human culture and the culture of all life on Earth. If enough of us embraced it, the modern 'market' economy built on the faulty and inhuman foundations of inequality, scarcity, false quantification of value and acquisition could not survive. In a 'market' economy, the highest status belongs to those who have acquired the most. More generally, in hunter-gatherer societies the hunter's status was not determined by how much of the kill he ate but rather by what he brought back for others.

In a Gift Economy, the highest status belongs to those who have given the most. But what is most important is that the gift must always move. This idea was recently popularized by the terrific little movie called Pay it Forward. Every gift is its own reward but that reward is multiplied without limit, when the gift is passed along to others. A story is a gift. Blogs are gifts. Ideas and insights and teaching and counsel are gifts. Conversations and advice are gifts. (Hyde, 1983)

The Photographers’ Network is one such local online community I belong to. This site aims to be a "photography learning community", in which more experienced photographers, both avid amateurs and professional, provide mutual support, as well as being a resource for those interested in learning about photography. The most prominent sections of the site are forums and galleries featuring member-contributed photos and writing. Volunteer moderators and editors are responsible for most of this content. Almost all the content on the site can be commented upon by members and the comments become a significant part of the content.

The audience consists of photography enthusiasts and would-be enthusiasts but with a significant number of semi-professionals and professionals. Due to the growth in digital photography, there has been a substantial increase in novices visiting the site to use it as a learning resource. Although the audience is predominantly 80% male, female budding photographers feel no reservations to contributing freely thanks to online interaction being relatively anonymous. When people pass on free advice or offer useful information, the recipient is often unknown to them and the giver may never encounter the recipient again. (Kollock, 1999)

Online communities are for all intents and purpose communities made up of strangers who remain strangers so the question that inevitably arises is what could motivate strangers to give gifts to other strangers? Status and status seeking sustain gift giving in virtual consumer communities. However, because status seeking online cannot be done by display or by asserting rank, it takes a different form of identity enactment: The gift comes with a message about the gift giver, a message that contains the identity that the giver wants to establish as a way of communicating status. The power of this process and the reason that it can sustain gift giving resides in the fact that the persuasiveness of the message as a way of seeking status does not depend on direct interaction with the receiver of this information. The dual investment that gift givers make- in the gift and in the accompanying message- is in principle enough to sustain further gift giving.


References:

Kollock, P. (1999) The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace, Communities in Cyberspace. Retrieved on February 9, 2007 from < http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm>

Curien, N., Fauchart, E., Laffond, G., & Moreau, F. (2004). Online consumer communities. Working paper, Laboratoire d' econometrie, Paris. Retrieved on February 9, 2007 from <http://www.cnam-econometrie.com/upload/OLC-CUP.pdf>

Hyde, L. (1983) The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property. Vintage Books