A few days back I alerted WorldChanging’s prolific Jamais Cascio to recent news concerning the rapid-manufacturing of homes (see my earlier post – Link). He wrote a rather long entry as a result and to my surprise much of it is on some of what I’ve been doing. I’d actually have been more comfortable not being mentioned. And the funny thing is, I wasn’t really mentioned at all. Csven Concord, who is cited in the article, is of course the name of my avatar in Second Life.
Last year I pointed out during a conversation with another resident, Gwyneth LLewelyn, how a MSM outlet had used her virtual identity as a “source” for their article (the first time I’d ever seen that happen). They even quoted this virtual person as if it were flesh-and-blood. The real person behind Gwyneth didn’t seem to think anything of it. I’m not sure what I think now that it’s happened to me. But it does feel a bit odd to have a virtual persona created for a relatively small virtual world simulation move into the real world.
Makes me wonder if I need to be concerned about two possible targets for identity theft. Now how did the guys on Star Trek fuse Captain Kirk back together?
Transporter magic, of course.
Sorry about the name thing, Csven; it was yet another sign of my rapidly deteriorating cognitive capacities. In my scanning for the post, I came upon an article by James “Hamlet Linden” Au in which he talks to one “Csven Concord,” and that name stuck in my head. I’ve corrected the post.
As for mentioning or not mentioning you… face it, Csven, you’re doing something cool and interesting and potentially quite provocative. You deserve some credit for that.
Truth is, I was glad you used my virtual identity. It highlighted the cross-over between online and offline reputations. And Reputation has become of interest to me since realizing that it’s becoming increasingly less about the tools and more about the people (I posted a long entry on that over on the SL Future Salon a while back).