Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual Worlds have come into the cusp of internet innovations. They have created a home away from home for many that want to experience more then what is available to them in reality. Virtual worlds provide an escape to a land unknown and a land where that person can be unknown. Virtual worlds dont fall far from the gaming tree. It follows the same concept. You play as a character to experience an adventure you would never be able to in reality. Second Life gives people the chance to be in a second existence, where they can develop an avatar to either be completely identical to their present personality or create an extravagant fantasy representation of themselves. Anything seems to be possible when entering a dual existence. With the popularity of this virtual worlds companies have tryed to take advantage of this nifty tool. Many corporations attempted to expand their marketing approaches by going virtual and advertising in the virtual worlds. There were also attempts to build out businesses in the virtual worlds. In the case of Second Life there was a monetary system setup that expanded out into real accounts. Many tried to build assets and capital virtually. Some companies also used it as an equivalent to conference calls and meetings. With the capability to sit at their computers and meet in a common location. This is an interesting way to apply this technology and can be an fun tool within a casual environment but within a normal corporate atmosphere it needs to remain on the side of professionalism. Companies are already attempting to lower traveling and communication costs by pushing video conferencing and other web casting calls. There was a brief display, on an episode of the Science channels "Future of Communication", of technologies being developed to actually virtual a persons room to put them and their actual images in a virtual location.
Virtual worlds can be a positive experience and good getaway but for many it seems to be their only means of expression as they hide in virtuality since they can be fully functional in reality. Not a healthy past time if too much time is spent making believe to be someone else. This split personality works well for kids building their imagination skills but should not be the primary outlet for people trying to run away from their own being.
The virtual worlds within the gaming community such as World of Warcrafts and Halo where people come together for common entertainment is a good release and another good example of social networking where it didnt exist before. It brings strangers and different worlds apart.

Check out Social Networking Sites

Back somewhere after the beginning of the 21st century I had signed into a social networking site called Whimit. This was primarily for the Russian speaking culture with the majority of its free members being from Brooklyn and New York. It quickly grew in size and popularity. This was my first taste of viewing profiles with peoples pictures and being able to interact with public and private messaging within the site. It was a nice tool to communicate with friends as well as meet new people. It also provided a forum area where people could discuss any ideas and topics that were on their mind ranging from politics, sex, to any infinite possibilities. I retain many friends today that I met originally on that site. I was even able to benefit from it as a dating tool and reach out beyond my neighborhood and common hang out spots. I met one of my Ex-girlfriends off of the site that lived in Philly. There would have been no other way our lives would have ever crossed if not in that manner. So early on I discovered the usability of this site.

The owners of this site eventually created MEETSPOT which expanded its horizons to provide the same popular service and functionality to all cultures. This also became quite popular. Some spinoffs eventually evolved whether not from this sites originality or quite possibly others that were following the craze, such as Fly Guy Crew and Myspace. It took me awhile but eventually got on board with Myspace and found the capability of adding your own flavor with music and background designs quite interesting and saw the potential it raised with allowing personal expression. They also seemed to have struck gold with their Bulletin functionality which seems to be the originating idea behind Facebooks status updates that get broadcast to all buddies and as well as the idea behind Tweeting.

Myspace allowed for some people to remain somewhat anonymous with nicknames, same as Whimit, Meetspot and FlyGuyCrew. It presented a very laid back sort of youthful manner. Then Facebook comes in with people actually using Government names. Well not all as some continue to revert to trying to hide their true identities. Facebook itself came out to the public as a tool for college students to communicate. It has grown immensely since its launch. It brings more of a mature atmosphere and allowed not only college students but the older more scared 30+ scene to get involved into something that was deemed as a kids virtual playground. Myspace now still continues to be a great asset to the younger generation while Facebook has taken over the real world with kids, adults and even some signs of the older generation. Another site that I have partaken in is Linked in which is a professional social networking site and allows to keep a working log of references and working associates. I also personally enjoy their groups and discussion groups very much.

The great thing with these tools is free communication without the maintenance of an email account, group cooperation since you can have communication with several people and of course the most popular is picture sharing. They have brought a new twist to the stale email chit chatter and seemingly unneeded calls and texts that all were used to keep the masses intertwined. Facebook also smartly incorporated Instant Messaging into the mix as they take a piece from AOL and Yahoo and realize immediate touch and conversation will always be a major factor of the internet. All these tools are a great sign of the direction that social networking and technology itself is going.

Blog Vs. Wiki

Blogs and Wikis are both new media technology to enhance communication for the masses. Blogs allow for matters of opinions to be expressed and for additional commentary to follow based on current topics or subjects that fuel some form of discussion. The topics of discussion can fall under personal messages all the way up to those that touch on the feelings of the masses such as politics or other news of the times. Blogs are run by one entity and the content originates based on the what that entities interests lay. Wikis are more of a collaborative effort where you have a centralized location to join ideas and have different matters of opinions come together. There is a broader set of subjects and ideas that are brought together. The subject matter can be changed and updated based. With a blog there is more of an archived and written record of content where the wiki can evolve as need be to properly cover the material.
Both blog and wikis allow for people to come together and share ideas. This is an immediately available resource on the web. This interaction is very important for todays generation that like to have everything available at their finger tips.
Blogs can be used for collaboration. Ideas can be thrown back and forth. This is a subtle discussion based formula. Similar to email threads going back and forth with its distribution except this is more publicly available and easily accessible for interested parties.
A new approcah to Wikis that has not been done yet is to put up political initiatives so that people can go see the truths, such as this health care agenda, and have their concerns and issues discussed and addressed based on facts and the ideas that properly coincide with the program at hand.