It's a Small World, After All (Thanks to Virtual Worlds)

Use of virtual worlds, by which I mean in tact universes like Second Life or Entropia Universe, are the subject of much speculation and interest, particularly because some folks have actually managed to make a profit in the virtual universe. Of interest to me is the question: How does this technology affect the social ability and learning of participants? Are second lifers more or less able to interact effectively in the 'real' world as a result of their immersion in these virtual worlds?

How to Study Virtual Worlds
I think it's widely known that the first profitable industry on the internet was porn, and that same tragedy of human affairs appears to have found it's way into early incarnations of second life. This sort of domination by folks looking for an orgy affects the willingness of the more well adjusted to participate, and makes that particular community, and ones like it, somewhat less interesting to me. I'm a live and let live guy, but like most of you, I stay out of neighborhoods that have strip clubs - And second life has that dimension.

I view the virtual worlds as a technology more than place or space, but that's mostly because I don't feel compelled to participate in the wild, wild west of virtualness. Instead, I think it would be interesting to create virtual worlds of our own, and use them for specific purposes. Electronic collaboration, for example, is notoriously poor in its conveyance of context. Sharing ideas with people you don't see, interact with or exchange visual and verbal social cues with is difficult. A virtual universe may be useful for bridging those gaps.

Croquet, and it's commercial offshoot, Qwaq represent a toolset for the creation of such virtual, collaborative worlds that may do a better job of solving these types of context-conveyance issues than prior attempts. Imagine exchanging documents in a 3d universe like this:



We don't know yet if it's better, but it certainly is different.