Dreaming in Public
Social skills in cyberspace
Clo Willaerts
Kortrijk, 15 March 2009

Clo Willaerts?
Sanoma Magazines
Belgium
@bnox
http://www.bnox.be
brusselsgirlgeekdinner.
be

Sanoma Magazines Belgium

Sanoma Magazines Belgium

virtual physical

1975 Maze War
virtual world
virtual = not real,
simulated, fantasy
http://www.digibarn.com/history/
04-VCF7-MazeWar/index.html

1984 William Gibson
Neuromancer:
artificial intelligence
virtual reality
genetic engineering
cyberspace

1985 Ultima IV
Avatara (Sanskrit):
\"incarnation\"
avatar
computer games
internet chat
instant messaging
blogs

1992 Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash
avatars (= online
virtual bodies) in the
metaverse (= a virtual-
reality version of the
Internet)

1993 Peter Steiner
“On the internet,
nobody knows you’re a
dog” (The New Yorker)
“the ability to self-
represent from behind
the computer screen
may be part of the
compulsion to go
online.”

2007 Robbie Cooper
Alter Ego: gamers and their avatars

2007 Robbie Cooper
Alter Ego: gamers and their avatars

What happens on
Facebook....

Kevin Colvin

Kevin Colvin

Facebook: Kevin Colvin

MySpace: Carmen Kontur-
Gronquist

Bebo: Naomi Broady and
David Rice

Bebo: Naomi Broady and
David Rice

YouTube: Alberto Arroyo

Flickr: Tamara Hoover

Blog: Michael Hanscom

Twitter: @keyinfluencer vs
FedEx in Memphis

Now what?

The internet is not virtual any
more
smartphones:
cameraphones +
mobile internet
Google never forgets
(and neither does Twitter Search)
The Internet of
Things
Meet-ups e.g.
Twunch.be

The comcast guy
http://twitter.com/comcastcares

Dreaming in public
“Dreaming in public is an important part of our job
description, as science writers, but there are bad
dreams as well as good dreams.
We’re dreamers, you see, but we’re also realists, of a
sort.”
(William Gibson)

Thank you
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