Alice in Wonderland

Okay, here is one for you -
How can we expect SL to grow as a legitimate forum for debate, education and the arts if we promote ourselves as children, bunny rabbits and 9 foot wonders?
Are we not diminishing ourselves in a way by doing so? Can this virtuality appeal to the intelligentsia that Linden corporation desire by being so "eccentric"? I should add that I am an adult Neko at this point so dont get too snotty.

The Lindens should have thought of this 5 years ago. The genie is out of the bottle. To try and rein in the residents now will cause a massive exodus.

Well, as someone who normally wears a Furry avatar, and is currently constructing sims for two real-world Universities, I can say that the ones I have dealt with have absolutely no issues with "credibility" over the various avatar forms. They are usually quite fascinated by all the various forms that I can change to.

One of the first meetings I had with several of the senior University staff, several of the faculty were wearing non-Human avatars. And the guy who hired me? His standard avatar in SL is a furry, like me.

And I'm not talking about small community colleges. One of the ones I am building 4 sims for is Rutgers University.

The intense sexuality in some areas of SL is more of an issue with them. And they treat that just like they do in the real world, where quite often the campus neighborhood ends up attracting pick-up/make-out bars, adult bookstores, and other non-academic businesses that are attractive to college-age adults. Those associated with the University are instructed not to wear their University group tags while at any place that is not suitable to associate with the University.

Thanks Ceera.
I appreciate you response coz I am partnered to an academic here BUt I am NOT - definitely NOT - an academic.
maybe academics are just humans to a degree - haha! On the other hand, maybe not. Education is not my forte.

As business and education continue to embrace virtual world technology, they will be smart to focus their evaluation on the platform and its capabilities, not so much on the people who inhabit it.

If the only criteria used to evaluate the seriousness of SL's virtual world are those that would seek to make it mimic the physical world, then I think we've gone down the wrong path. The whole point of digital reality is precisely that it is *not* subject to the same constraints in many ways as the physical reality is, while of course being subject to limitations of its own that do not exist in the physical reality. I think this is quite a good basis for discussion and debate, and that is quite enhanced by the presence of avatars, for example, that exist in ways that are not possible in the physical reality. In a sense these enhancements help demonstrate the potential of the digital world to enhance the human experience.

I have described myself as a grown-up version of Alice in Wonderland, in relation to SL. What I mean by that is that I'm a happy-go-lucky normal human young woman wandering in a world where the ordinary coexists with the bizarre and the absurd.
But the absurd becomes normal after a while. I don't mean nasty stuff, just the silly and the wacky stuff!

It strikes me that a virtual world filled with all manner of weird and wonderful beings, many of whom look nothing at all, or act nothing at all like your average vanilla flavoured businessman or academic - well that's a GOOD thing, and in itself an education in how to try and get along with different people.

--
Aes

Anyone who judges the message by the messenger is intellectually and spiritually challenged.
Anyone in a position of power who fails to evaluate an idea on its merit alone is a dead hand on creativity and progress.


"How can we expect SL to grow as a legitimate forum for debate, education and the arts if we promote ourselves as children, bunny rabbits and 9 foot wonders?"
Legitimate? As in approved of by the unimaginative?

"Are we not diminishing ourselves in a way by doing so? "
Only in the eyes of little small-minded people.

Somebody has to say it: Whatever happened to "academic freedom" ?

If academics in a virtual world cannot appreciate the diversity of exploration and expression that makes up SecondLife--or at least accept it for what it is--then how ever are we to take seriously their claims to similar freedoms?

Of course, universities and corporations have a responsibility to maintain an environment free of harassment, etc.--in loco parentis and/or to avoid lawsuits. So they'll need (and already have) their own little enclaves of normalcy.

I'm not sure what happens when the Executive Deputy Vice President of Administrative Protocol decides to wear her Gorean child bondage furry finery to the boardroom. But that's kind of her problem, not SL's.

Likewise, this kid is workin' on a University job (UQ) right now: one of our bosses is a anthro panda.

Mari

If SL is to become a place where "Enlightened" people come to allegedly exchange ideas and expand horizons, yet can't get past what avatar a person chooses to use to portray themselves, then perhaps they need to rethink being here.

one of the big problems we have in RL is that our "Intellectual Elite" have evolved into being neither.

QFFT!

Some of the most rigid minded people I know call themselves Intellectuals. I call them Bores.

Well said.

Who said that is what LL had in mind? Were you there when LL was founded? And although I walk around as a normal-looking male, there is nothing wrong with being what you want to be in SL. Those who like to judge want to control, and I'm against telling people what they should and should not do.

Not enough shrooms dude!
or is that salvia these daze.

I never saw SL as a forum of any kind . more a free for all.

Was SL ever intended as a forum for debate etc . or as "Your world Your Imagination"?

Where is it written that SL is meant to be those things, or solely those things?

No. We are enhancing ourselves be expressing our inner desires, fantasies and creativity.


Where have you found evidence that LL desires the "Intelligencia"* above any other customer base?*Whoever they are*

I'm surprised that anyone would want to look like a human wearing cheap badly made Gap clothing!

As compared to a cheap badly made furry avi's, of which SL has a plethora as well?

"Intellectuals" are just as liable to use human-like or alternate-look avatars as any other group. It is the serious corporate types, most of whom are not "intellectuals," who think the use of or the necessity for Avatars (of any type) , in online business meeting etc., is nonsense.

Working in academia myself, by far the biggest problem with using SL in academia is a) the sex aspect, and b) the inability to set up a local hub (so that, for example, if 10 students in a lab are all logged into SL, that's 10 full speed streaming connections to SL to deal with, even if they're all on the same sim and thus 90% of the messages are duplicates).

I've never heard anyone complaining about whimsicial or furry avatars, outside the sex context.

i had assumed it was uni level that we are mainly talking about,as for 10 students from the same place i can see that being a major lag issue esspacally seening that alot of the sandboxes can be a laggy place to start with.

and as far as the sex thing goes,well!, after having four children myself,i flip flop back and forth between thinking kids today are oversexed as it is to thinking maybe we repress them to much and that is a root couse of alot of devolepmental issues.

as a teachr though you don't want to be anywhere near that line so i see your consern

Exactly - it's not really an age issue. There would be all sorts of issues with requiring students to go into an environment where we could predict they would be likely to be exposed to porn, even if they're postgraduate students who are over 18. (And if we don't require SL we can't base any teaching on it.)

well there i would dissagree under the argument then you can't require a computer becouse i might see porn on that was well see what i'm saying