The document discusses social networking and virtual worlds. It describes different types of social networking tools like collaborative software, social software, and metaverses. It explores how social networking affects people socially and economically. It also examines the challenges and future of social networking, virtual worlds' implications for business, and examples of their successful uses in education.

1. SOCIAL NETWORKING Socialization & Communities in a Virtual World 10/23/2007 M.Tadros New England Institute of Art Brookline, MA For more information visit: http://socialnets.wikispaces.com

2. Objectives Types of virtual social networking tools How does it affect us? [socially, economically etc.] Why should we care? Challenges and risks Future? 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

3. Types of Software Collaborative software Social software Social metadata and/or anchortext /social bookmarking Metaverses and immersive environments 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

4. collaborative software designed to help people involved in a common task achieve their goals. Eg. email, calendars, web conferencing, meetings etc.] Web 1.0 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

5. social software web-enabled software programs allow users to interact, share, and meet other users a virtual interaction that replaces physical interaction online networks [who you know is better than what you know – applying for jobs – accepting job applications from an HR perspective, etc.] [eg. including myspace, twitter, facebook, online dating, meetups, Craig’s List, youtube, linkedin, etc.] 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

6. Points for discussion why are they successful? what are the risks involved? what are the challenges? What is the demographic of their usage? What are the social implications? 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

7. Social metadata and/or anchortext: Emerging world of social metadata a layer of programming data that describes content and helps tag it it is predicted that Web 3.0 will be about social metadata through “factoring in the opinions, naming conventions, web habits, locations, and behaviors of regular people and their "friends””. It is moving into more enhanced methods putting publicly visible metadata, in the form of reviews and descriptive details, to existing records. 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

8. Metaverses or immersive environments Everyone is trying to understand its implications. Is it a simulation of the economy? of the environment? Of society? Of political and/or social landscapes? Business perspective: discussion of social networking for employees, customers/clients, branding issues This is video games meeting Web 2.0! 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

9. Definition It is not just interactive tv it is also immersive. An immersive 3D virtual world, that includes aspects of the physical world objects, actors, interfaces, and networks that construct and interact with virtual environments The Metaverse is the convergence of virtually-enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space. It is a fusion of both, while allowing users to experience it as either. Source: metaverse roadmap 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

10. Statistics Second Life 7 m Entropia 550 k HiPiHi There – Cyworld [south korea] Habbo hotel [in excess of 70 million downloads] Gaia 1m Virtual Laguna Beach 1m ActiveWorlds about 1m Kaneva 1m IMVU 1m Club Penguin: 12 m Neopets – 70 m Zwinky 4.7 World of Warcraft 7m MMORPG: 12-15 m total xbox live: 6 m [the virtual world of the social network of xbox users] 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

11. 250 million residents in virtual worlds by 2011: what is the potential of that? Projected: 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

12. Virtual worlds for business enterprise? Using 3d modality for meetings Workplaces are changing: real world/vs virtual world Photorealistic environments What are the key trends in a virtual environment that will impact your work? How can they be used to foster communication and communities valuable to your customers? What are the risks and business implications of investment in virtual environments? How should you protect yourself as a business? Technology evolution affects games, virtual worlds and platforms. What happens now when they are trying to make the avatars cross-platform and cross-worlds? [Gravatar] 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

13. yesterday PCs GUI IM SMS internet games knowledgeable rules, immediate goals 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

14. today Wireless rich media VOip peer to peer virtual worlds that are limited and predetermined 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

15. Tomorrow? user created content /cms potential is still wide open 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

16. Challenges and opportunities Will enough people come to justify online presence and investment? Virtual sales versus ghost towns Commerce: pilot information sharing, link to websites, virtual stores. Identity Branding Locations: isolate private facilities; develop security measures for public sites/ watch out for malicious code. There is a trust reduction factor: distance, organization, clture, jurisdiction, technology 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

17. Option 1: use available media set your own rules, controlled demographics, conventional business model you can use multiverse [a platform that allows you to create your own world – use them as platform to create your own world]. Much of it is open source. The technology is easy – but what is the problem is the idea: what is the content? what do you want to do with it? etc. Eg. Tyra's virtual studio, myspace, the hills, club penguin 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

18. Option 2: public worlds Second Life and There: platforms or worlds? second life is a platform – it has a good user interface that allows you to create stuff. how does an organization benefit from that? What about intellectual property. Linden labs give you IP... until they close down. They are under no obligation to keep it running for any time. 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

19. Option 3: build a private world self hosted or serviced, inside your firewall, secure collaboration, no distractions, augment other communications. Eg. activeworlds, multiverse, torque game engine; croquet; project wonderland 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

20. Prominent examples of success UN World Food Program's food force: uses 3D gaming to teach about famine relief Game-like websites using flash or other rich clients: car, kitchen, house walk-through Unisfair virtual trade shows: trade shows and user conferences in second life for business Wells Fargo launched a 3D online financial education site for young people on the ActiveWorld platform about a year ago Sixth-graders in Wisconsin are using an avatarized virtual environment built at Harvard to learn about science [MUVEES or Multi-User Virtual Environment Experimental Simulator) 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

21. Success http://www.millionsofus.com/ [a business model that helps others create virtual environments for their businesses] http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~dedech/muvees/ [a Harvard project that creates a virtual environment for education] BUT: Are your customers in MMORPGs [massive multi-player online role playing games]? 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

22. Education and government nonverbal communications teaching social skills – medical and training applications one-to-one, one-to-many, several to several educational courses political canvassing civil response simulations Cyberone: law in the court of public opinion 10/23/2007 M.Tadros

23. Sources http://www.joelamantia.com/blog/archives/cat_social_bookmarking.html http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/21433.wss Gartner Summit presentations – September 07 http://www.metaverseroadmap.org/overview/ 10/23/2007 M.Tadros