Copyright..From This World To Another

Its a problem that arises in so many aspects of life, probably more than we even know about, copyright, pushes its head into vast corners of this life..and others two. However, in a virtual world that the social environment is so different from our own and where things have little boundaries or repercussions. It is even harder to put copyright laws into it.  At the end of the day whether some have problems admitting it or hearing it the world is ‘virtual’ it does not exist it appears to exist. Therefore, it creates an even greater problem of enforcing real life laws into Second Life. Because one is real and the other is not

If  Electronic Arts, the corporate owner of The Sims Online, turns off its servers-or just engages in a periodic database wipe-every piece of virtual property in Blazing Falls immediately disappears.20 3 In other words, despite its name, there is no there There. One might assume that something so intangible can't be property at all because property, after all, should be something real. (1).

In real life there's consequences, in real life you touch, feel, taste, breath, you are who you are, whether you like it or not. What you create has a physical presence.  In Second Life these truths become blurred. Yes, it is obviously a fantastic thing about Second Life, you can be anyone and do anything. But how do you reinforce real life laws into something that isn't absolute “ As virtual worlds continue to evolve into virtual communities with separate rules and expectations, it is important to understand the interaction between the laws of the real world and the laws of the virtual worlds”(2).  It must to be considered the time, money and love that people have put in to Second Life  and the importance it has to their lives “millions of people with Internet connections are currently living large portions of their lives, forming friendship with others, building and acquiring virtual property, and forming social organizations” (3). It is therefore important to ensure that these users have laws  in place to protect and provide a safe environment to create, venture and form social communities in. It  becomes important to establish copyright laws that safeguard the creations, ideas and designs that are invented within Second Life. However, there are problems establishing these copyright laws as most of these laws are created by the content designers. The laws therefore, lack the legal knowledge that is needed to ensure of correct legal procedures to be in place.  An issue also arise because of the fast paced and ever changing technology that comes along with virtual environments, it is than difficult to keep up legally with these changes. Along with this as it points out in Content & Licensing in Virtual Worlds from shenlei.com it is not easy to change licencing terms “If you license content under one agreement, you cannot legally to make a unilateral change in the licensing agreement unless you have included language to this effect in the original license.”(4). Although, things in Second Life are not said to be ‘real’ , there are still  designed, produced, sold and used whether virtual or not these things have a right and need to be protected. The time, effort and dedication that is put into  creating things in Second Life  must be appreciated and guarded from plagiarism. Copyright laws allows for publishers of work to have legal right over their work, this means that the creators  within second life can have a say over how their work is used. It is important that copyrights exist within Second Life for the same reason that it does in real life.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=402860

Links 


http://shenlei.com/2010/10/13/content-licensing-in-virtual-worlds/

Footnotes

(1) , (2) Lastowka, F. Gregory, and Dan Hunter. "The laws of the virtual worlds."California Law Review (2004): 1-73.

(3) Lastowka, F. Gregory, and Dan Hunter. 2003. The Laws Of The Virtual Worlds. Ebook. 1st ed. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Law School. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=402860.

(4) SHENLEI,. 2010. 'Content & Licensing In Virtual Worlds'. Shenlei Winkler. http://shenlei.com/2010/10/13/content-licensing-in-virtual-worlds/.

Ending Here

Choosing Our Communication Platform

In a world with huge amounts of on-line networks to communicate through, with technology at the touch of your fingertips and in a word that is constantly on the go, it sometimes becomes hard to really communicate with one another. On an average day most people across the world will have numerous open windows or tools that will allow them to communicate with vast numbers of people, from emails, Facebook, Twitter to Snapchat, Viber, Whatsapp and many many more "Internet-based social media has made it possible for one person to communicate with hundreds or even thousands of other people" (1) .Therefore, it is essential to find the right form of communication for everyone in a group, especially when you're working with people across the globe and working on something important.  

Our groups communication skills started off a little rough and probably took a little longer to get settled than the lectures would of liked. But it will be the groups loss rather than the lectures so in my opinion these things take time and sometimes can't be leashed on to a deadline. We started off communicating through Second Life which was good because we could explore,learn and  interact fast which meant we were all on the same page at the same time. However, later in the week this started to become a bit of a problem. I am currently in my final year of my degree and I work part time so this means that my time to roam around Second Life is limited and I tend not to be on it everyday. Which meant that when someone sent me a message through Second Life it would more than likely take me awhile to get back to them and when I did they were not on second life at the same time as me. The time difference between America and Ireland also caused a little bit of a dilemma as certain time with suit the Americans better and other times suit the Irish. However, after these teething problems and some discussion, I suggested we communicated through Facebook. Everyone in the group had Facebook, most of us admitted to being on it daily and if not it was more than likely to send a notification through your phone to tell you had a message. This meant that it was faster for us to reply, easier to keep in contacted daily and we were all on the same page at the same time. It also made it easier because it was connected through our phones which meant even if someone was on the go or times for Ireland and America didn't suit each other  they would still be in the loop and informed on what was going on. So far communication is going smoothly through it, so fingers crossed it stays that way.

Ending Here

Footnotes
Mangold, W. Glynn, and David J. Faulds. "Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix." Business horizons 52, no. 4 (2009): 357-365.

Going Global

Our Endeavour Begins

Last weeks class kicked off and although my avatar was having a few connection problems I managed to finally hear what the class was all about. It was project time and our assignment was presented to us - Each group is to explore the theme 'Global Village'  by identifying a cause or charity anywhere in the world, and taking it global. So the first thing was first, it was time to put on the thinking caps.

There was three charity's that I had an interest in using 3T's, Aware and Cystic Fibrosis Ireland,  and thought that they would be good to use for this project. I was especially keen on using Cystic Fibrosis and making it our groups charity to take global an option that I put to the group.

Cystic Fibrosis Ireland

"CF Ireland (CFI) is a voluntary organisation that was set up by parents in 1963 to improve the treatment and facilities for people with Cystic Fibrosis in Ireland. CF Ireland also co-operates with medical professionals to give maximum assistance to both parents and children/adults with Cystic Fibrosis."

https://www.cfireland.ie/index.php/about-cf/living-with-cf

Cystic Fibrosis is a disease that affects numerous  amounts of children and adults across the globe. This disease has a huge impact upon the sufferers of this disease and affects their day to day lives. Certain children living with this disease miss out on things that most of us would take for granted like going to school, playing ball and leaving the house. This does not just affect the suffer but the family and friends that have to look after and watch their loved one live through this. Many people across the globe would over look this illness and have little or no understanding of the impact this illness has. Because at times these children and adults are unable to live their homes encase of catching something that could be fatal to them, such on-line interactive sites like second life could have a huge impact on their lives. It could be used as a source to allow for people with such elements to quite literally live a second life without the damaging effects. There is a lack of resources for sufferers of Cystic Fibrosis mentally and physically and would be a fantastic charity to help and contribute to.

Close Encounters

We were encouraged to break our normal boundaries of Second Life and adventure beyond the classroom to make contact with at least two people relevant to our interests. I had a little bit of an issue with this not because I am scared of contacting forces beyond the classroom. But I was a little confused how we would randomly just so happen to meet someone with the same interest as us in a world that apparently had 1 million users in 2014 and I am only assuming that has gone up. Not only was it going to be hard to find someone that had the same interest as you but also where on earth was I going to even start looking for these people. So I started of doubtful, with little hope that I would find someone and feeling a little bit like a kid at their first day of school with their mother pushing them to introduce themselves to the other kids ‘Hi my name is Avatar and  I am 4years old what's your name?”. I kind of rather it happens when it happens, you talk when you want to talk approach. But hey, its all an experience and I have to learn to except its all apart of the learning curve.  So my avatar set off to find wonderful avatars to have some delightful encounter with.

An Avatar Named Hanna

I decided to go somewhere that was some what familiar and that in real life you would normally end up chatting to some strangers. So I headed to Dublin and landed in a pub and I met a girl named Hanna. Honestly,  I got a little distracted from the find ‘someone with similar interests’ and was more interested in why people used Second life and what their experiences where like. Hanna was very interesting and was open to share her experience on second life. She was from Turkey and attending a Jewish school in Istanbul. She told me when she was eighteen she was very lonely, suffering from Mitochondrial Disorder she felt that it changed the way her friends treated her, she decided to explore Second Life and see if she could find company in it . Second Life gave her the opportunity to in her words ‘act normal’. She said said that for awhile she felt that Second Life was better than her real life as it gave the certain opportunities that she didn't present themselves to her in real life. Her mitochondrial effects her speech and at times she found harder to communicate in real life. She told me how she felt that it was easier to be accepted in SL and was apart of groups and clubs and that she had made some really good friends through it. She also spoke about how it was important to accept her real life and not allow for Second Life to become her main outlet. Although her disorder at times can cause her difficulties in real life she said that she must still find happiness there to and not just SL. But Second Life would always give her experience real life wasn't quite able to. Hanna’s story was endearing and I was truly honoured that she had shared it with me. Seeing someone with her condition strive so well and be able to communicate in ways she might not be able to in RL. Her story really showed a side of Second Life that I admired. Not just can you meet people that have similar interest, or experience a world with no repercussions but it really can allow for people to connect and establish friendships worldwide. Second Life really can offer people a Second Life.




Ending Here

Exploring New Environments

This week in ‘Virtual environments’  we were assigned to meet our groups and explore three new places. Before meeting my group I decided to have a look around myself and see what ‘Second Life’ had to offer in terms of diversity. I have to say, there was quite some range of different things to see from dragon lands, games to help dwarves, to adult nudist beaches. But things to actually do I felt were limited as I found that most places you go to you either need money or to talk to people to get anything out of it. I can say that this could just be me, growing up in a household filled with male dominated games, I tend to be drawn towards games that there is either a car to race or some something to shoot or fight. Perhaps I need to adjust to ‘Second Lifes’  laid back and explore approach. Something that doesn't come naturally to me obviously.

What I did find very interesting was watching people interact and use their avatars in ‘Second Life’. I have to admit I saw some wild things which definitely showed how limitless the virtual environment of  ‘Second Life’ is and how it separates from reality because of the lack of rules and regulations. Avatars are virtually aloud roam and do what they want where they want, I guess every world has strange corners in it and strange people too. But what I find worrying about it is, from what I have experienced, people tend to hide away from themselves and immerse themselves into their avatars, saying what they want no matter how crude or rude it may be. For instance when I first arrived in ‘Second Life’ I was nearly immediately approached by a male avatar asking for me to ‘kiss him’ and following my avatar around shouting out ‘sexy’ and I won't even talk about the male avatar that told me he would ‘F*** me in the A**” (don't worry he immediately got blocked) not something that would tend to happen in reality or be socially  accepted (they would get a punch to the face). But in ‘Second Life’ its all game. And yes you find the nice polite people too but I have started to ask the question whether sites like ‘Second Life’ are only increasing in people’s lack of confidence in reality and hiding behind an avatar that is able to say and do whatever they want is their way out of accepting who they really are, is it a form of isolating themselves from reality?  Realistically people are able to use multiple different personalities, profiles and identities “Users have the freedom to embody any type of body and to be in any type of environment”(1).   “when you interact with people, both online and offline, they’ll build up an image of who you are over time”(2), but online you can be anyone. Because of how new and quickly these sites are progressing it is hard to say how they will affect the youth in the future and whether or not they will have a psychological effect upon the people that become engrossed in them.  

There is obviously many benefits to sites like this too and meeting up with my group was a clear example of the this. I was one of the two from Ireland as the rest of the group were from America and it showed how quickly ‘Second Life’ could put you into contact with people halfway across the world. An amazing development and achievement for technology and not even could we just converse but also explore and learn together. This form of interaction can allow us to brand ourselves off line as well as online “It's an important way to set yourself apart from the loud voices crowding online culture.”(3) . Also create a wider variety of contacts, not just to be friends, but could help develop your career and grow your network. However,this form of interaction will only develop and get better through the years so we must be aware of the dangers of this social media and online interactions being informed about what you're using and understanding that not everything is what it seems, enjoy it but be safe while doing it.

Location’s We Visited

Brazil Rio

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Brasil%20Rio/57/198/22

Our group first decide to teleport our avatars to Brazil Rio. I was particularly interested in finding out how different countries, cities and cultures were portrayed. It was an interesting place and there were many people interacting in portuguese, it was fascinating to see that many people from Brazil chose to stay in the virtual home environment. It seems that even when we have most of the world at our feet, it seems the majority choice home. The main thing that I observed while walking around Brazil Rio was the large amount of advertising that was displayed everywhere. It was filled with branding, endorsements and posters trying to sell you their products. Many of these products were to do with your avatar's appearance it seems no matter how hard we try, body image is still a huge part of social standards, on or off line. It was disappointing to see little amounts of cultural representation as it felt as though you could have been anywhere.

The Maze 

(http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sculptie%20Paradise/160/120/21) 

I particularly was keen on exploring the games within ‘Second Life’ as I started to get a little bored with the endless walking, running or flying around places and wanted to see what it had to offer in regards to doing rather than just observing. So the idea of a maze seemed like a fun thing to do to and would be a good way for the group to experience different elements ‘Second Life’ has to offer. When our avatars arrived there there was instructions on how to complete the task, which involved holding a golden stick, and finding ten golden eggs within the maze and find your way to the top to win a prize. The concept of the game seemed simple and seemed to have a puzzle dimension to it. However, it was fun for about five minutes until you realised that their was no pattern or way to track where you had already been. The design elements were interesting in the sense that the walls moved but the patterns that the designer had used where to strong and got overbearing after a while. I think it was an interesting concept and could definitely work to be an entertaining game but needed some work on the dynamics of the game.  

The Castle

The castle was one of my favourite places to visit so far in ‘Second Life’. There was not a lot of people there to interact with but the design aspect of the castle was phenomenal. It really struck me how much time and dedication people put in to building ‘Second Life’. The castle had a huge amount of detail in it from large columns to stain glass windows in the church. It really was worth a visit to fly around and appreciated the design of it. I also think it was a good place for the group to visit as it showed how ‘Second life’ could be a good way of teaching people about history in an interactive and interesting way.

I think each place that was  visited allowed for the group to explore and experience the very different elements that ‘Second Life’ can offer. It developed a greater understanding of why and what people use ‘Second Life’ for.

Ending Here,

Footnotes

1. Ahn, Sun Joo (Grace), Jeremy N. Bailenson, and Dooyeon Park. 2014. 'Short- And Long-Term Effects Of Embodied Experiences In Immersive Virtual Environments On Environmental Locus Of Control And Behavior'. Computers In Human Behavior 39: 235-245. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.07.025.
2. Muse, The. 2012. 'The First Step To Building Your Personal Brand'. Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2012/02/14/the-first-step-to-building-your-personal-brand/.
3. Mashable,. 2014. 'The Lazy Person's Guide To Personal Branding'. http://mashable.com/2014/11/10/personal-branding-lazy-guide/.

Introduction to Second Life (05/02/2015)

‘Virtual Environments Is One life Enough’

‘Virtual Environments, Is One Life Enough’  is a social media course taught at the Dublin Institute of Technology. But this module has a twist and is taught for 10 weeks in 'Second Life'. Second Life is virtual on-line world created by Linden Lab and was released in 2003 “Second Life, the pioneering virtual world that’s been enjoyed by millions of people and seen billions of dollars transacted among users in its economy.” This unusual model is aimed at undergraduates, professionals and educators that are seeking to advance in the use of on-line tools, such as Second Life, Wordpress and twitter. The module also offers the extraordinary opportunity to learn and explore through interactive learning different from the norms of a class room.     

.

My Expectations

My expectations for Second Life, a world with no repercussions, where your avatar is free to roam through vast landscapes, experiencing all that world has to offer, are perhaps unmeasurable. We live in a world with social restrictions, obligations and responsibilities. It is a world with great knowledge, power and experiences, but this world is not easily accessible and freedom does not lie behind every door that is opened. Therefore,  it is hard to have expectations for a world that is so different from our own reality. A world that is said to have every door wide open, to give limitless amount of opportunities and endless streams of communication, this world is beyond our comprehension, or perhaps just mine. So my expectations are everything and nothing all at the same time. I guess my expectations are to merely experience a second life, a limitless life and find out if one life enough.

My Goals (what I hope to get out of the module)

The goal is to a explore a second live and find out how people act, react and communicate within a world that offers unlimited opportunities for your avatar. To interact with different people to develop a greater knowledge of why Second Life is so popular and why do so many people find solace in removing themselves from reality. The module gives the chances to develop a greater  skill at using online software/social media sites such as twitter  and wordpress. I would like to take this opportunity to do this as I think that it would be a good bases to develop a greater understanding of the design aspects of second life and other online platforms similar to it. The ambition is to learn to establish and strengthen an online avatar and become accustomed to using the settings of Second Life. Because it is an interactive class I hope that I learn to work online with other collaborators and use this interaction as a learning block for social media interaction.

What I Might Be Able To Contribute

Previous to studying Creative and Cultural Industries, I studied Fashion and through this I feel like I have developed a good eye for fashion and would be highly in to how people dress and present themselves in reality. I would use this skill set to form a basis on how people portray themselves online in comparison to how they do in reality. Through many years of experience working in the hospitality industry I have worked with many different people giving me an in depth awareness of people and communicating with them. I feel if I was working in a team that this would help to improve productivity within in the team. As the hospitality industry can at times be a high stress environment, through my position with in this industry, it has taught me to alleviate team members stress and develop a greater sense of HR within a team.  

The Relevance Of The Module Objectives

Its important because it will give me a unique opportunity to observe how people live, react, socialise and interact in a world with no social repercussions. I think it is important to understand the way in which the development of technology is impacting on our culture and the way we live within it today and in the future.

Ending Here

Foot note 
1.  Lindenlab.com,. 2015. 'About Linden Lab | Linden Lab'. http://www.lindenlab.com/about.