The only way that you know they have been is when you come into the office the next day, and notice that things on your desk are just not quite where you left them.  The phone headset is dangling off the edge of the desk.  The paperweight has been moved.  The puzzle ball has had a piece knocked out, and you have to remember how to put it back together again.  Nothing ever seems to be stolen, or actually broken – yet.

Some have a theory that the visitors are real people – that they are cleaners.  There is no evidence to prove this theory.  Things are no cleaner.  Like other items on the desktop, any visible dirt has just been rearranged, not removed.

No-one has ever seen one of these mythical creatures.  All we have is the evidence that they have visited in the night, and departed, leaving only the enigmatic evidence of their passing…

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person.  Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

 - Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900)

Although it has been around for a while, I am just starting to hear a bit about the use of Second Life as a training environment.  I certainly support anything that associates learning with fun, and this sounds like fairly serious fun!

It seems that Second Life provide a lot of support for education.  From a quick Google around, it seems that applications can include learning games, simulation-based learning, system training and suchlike.  One application that looks interesting is a Teamwork Tester.

Disclaimer – I have not yet entered the world of Second Life, and I will be the first to say that I will only be qualified to comment on it once I (make the time to) get inside and have a look.  I obviously need to do some more work on this, so this post will not dig very deep!

However, I would be interested to find out more about how well Second Life works in an organisational training environment.

In particular, I am interested in the impact of avatars in this environment.  From what I understand, most people tend to create flattering avatars.  How many of us would purposely create an ugly avatar? 

So, if learning is truly gained from peer-to-peer interaction, then how will this work if your peers are all avatars?  There has apparently been some work done on trust, gender and avatars. 

Are there – or should there be – any constraints on the personas that people adopt when they enter Second Life and create their avatars to participate in training in an organisation?  Do I have to be me, or can I be somebody else?  (Is that Philip K Dick knocking on the door?)

It is easy to play a role when in an on-line world.  You can take on a different persona – usually a less inhibited one, and most particularly if you are able to be anonymous.  But which persona is the “most real”? 

Wilde saw the masked persona as the most real.  (What mask is more effective than an avatar?)  There is probably a parallel to being drunk here.  (This one I have experienced, although not very often these days!)  Are we more really ourselves with the lowered inhibitions of alcohol? 

Wilde may well be right – but I am not completely convinced.  Do our natural inhibitions hold us back from being who we really are, or those inhibitions actually an integral part of our character?  When our inhibitions are removed, are we then less truly ourselves?  I do believe that we are each still individually accountable for our actions, whichever life we are in. 

Anybody have any stories to tell about training in Second Life?  (Oh, and I picked up the quote from “Criminal Minds” last night…)

If something looks real, but turns out to be fake, is it any less funny?  A video that did the rounds late last year raised another question – when is a fake not a fake?

It looks like a TV news item.  Bart Sweeney, a journalist with an American accent, introduces us to “This edition of Spotlight on the World” from Copenhagen.  He refers to the Danes’ “tolerant and casual attitude toward just about everything”.  However, Bart tells us, they are becoming less tolerant of speeding motorists. 

He then shows us an innovative solution being taken to address this issue: “speed control bikini bandits”.  These young women do “whatever it takes so that motorists pay more attention to the speed limit.” 

The video then (gratuitously) shows the bikini bandits running around the road waving speed limit signs – topless.  The remainder of the video is vox pops of various supporters and detractors of the plan, with the Danish overdubbed in English.  One reported problem of the system is the emergence of traffic jams as sightseers stop for a closer look.  (The original movie at http://www.speedbandits.dk/ seems to have been taken down – see a copy here – you have been warned!)

It looks real.  To the sceptic, though, it is no more than a very convincing fake.  They wouldn’t really do that, would they?  (Even in Denmark?)

As it turns out, the truth is not exactly either of these.  In the top left corner of the video, there is the logo “RFSF”.  This indicates the actual producer of the video – the Danish Road Safety Council.  The video was distributed over the Internet as a viral marketing campaign aimed at “young male motorists with a chronic lead foot.”  “Bart Sweeney” was Bryan Wilder, an American playing the part. 

So it is true that the Danes are trying an innovative approach to traffic safety, but not in the way that it appears on face value.  The campaign has apparently been very effective.

Allan Jenkins, a friend of Bryan Wilder’s, discusses this on his blog.  This episode also highlights the impact of cultural differences on communications.  As Allan states: “While America loses its mind over the Janet Jackson Super Bowl thing, Denmark says: “Hey, if it slows down a few speeders, go with it.”

Of course, this may all be a hoax, too…

- Renée

“If the main theme throughout my writing is, ‘Can we consider the universe real, and if so, in what way?’ my secondary theme would be, ‘Are we all humans?’”
 - Philip K. Dick 1957