Notes

Outline

Conferences and Trade Shows in Inhabited Virtual Worlds: A case study Bruce Damer Jan de Bruin Dirk-Jan de Bruin Stuart Gold

Content of Presentation A Social Science View on Inhabited Virtual Worlds (IVW): History of social functions of Virtual Worlds Social movement and imaginary organization Large-scale events and institution-building Conferences and Trade shows: Avatars 98 & 99 Demonstration: Touring Avatars worlds

Short history IVWs It is not all technology Growth of IVWs as a social phenomenon Man the story-teller: Roots in MUDs and text-based real-time chat systems Man the Player: gaming and existing 3D-rendering (it’s not all VRML) Pastime & entertainment (games) & IVW Dewey and the fundamental tension between immediate qualities and functional thinking

A social science scheme of reality Beyond dichotomies: physical and cultural (social sciences) physical and virtual A well-known social science scheme (Talcott Parsons): ultimate reality realm of action physical reality

Immersion into what? Realm of action: cultural social psychological physiological Interpenetrations between realms of action: institutionalization, socialization, and internalization

The IVW movement Dedicated users who inhabit Cyberspace as  Avatars Transforming Cyberspace in Inhabited Virtual Worlds Worlds in its encompassing anthropological meaning:  all actions & experiences (Kant) IVWs on the Internet

Taking the concept of world or society seriously All kinds of human experience Totality of human action Institutionalized action: rules which are of strategic importance for order in society self sufficient and ongoing

Social movements need  organizations to direct them Direction: Steering techniques Steering techniques of a virtual or imaginary organization: Mobilization of Commitment Consensus-Building (Vision) Maintenance of Trust CCON: Large-scale events to build and reinforce commitment, consensus, and trust

IVWs and the grass roots Home-brewed digital spaces versus designed digital spaces: strictly designed not naturally evolving; functionally specific instead of being a real world (all experiences)  In terms of institutionalization: not enough room for spontaneous institutionalization

IVWs and advanced social technologies and institutions Barriers to complexity in IVWs: too much focus on basic actions (gestures) too much attention to the graphical component (architects too central): building-metaphor not enough inclusion of social technologies of  different realms of life Too much on the micro-level: the use of the room-metaphor Needed: large-scale events as experiments

Complex IVWs Small and large-scale social events Large-scale events and levels of institutionalization Micro-level: diversity of types of Avatars (roles) and behavior Meso-level: different types of organizations Macro-level: a variety of types of social meeting spaces (also public spaces)

Avatars98 First large-scale social event completely in Cyberspace: Several IVW-platforms (main: Active Worlds) Conference & trade show 4,000 attendees (represented as Avatars) 6 speaking tracks (50 speakers) Side events: Art show, etc. 40 nodes all over the world

Exhibits Diversity of exhibits Trade shows: Broad-ranging and multi-level marketing instruments Trade shows and  ICT Multi-level social functions: AGIL-scheme

A hierarchy of functional levels of action The AGIL-scheme: A: adaptive function. G: goal-attainment function I: integration L: latency. Pattern-maintenance and tension reduction

Crude evaluation of a large-scale event in IVW: AV98 More attendance Cost-effective Mobilization of groups Satisfied customers Fundraising Labor-saving automation: bots

Where do we stand with the medium IVW An evolutionary approach Are there patterns of change? Can we define evolutionary levels? Colonizing Cyberspace: spadework phase (building) basic anthropological institutions Nearly all IVWs on these two levels

Modern phase IVW Division of labor (bureaucratic) organization Money and market systems Universalistic systems of law System to guide and develop policy (political system) Social technologies from all realms of social life

Conclusions: Institutionalization and IVWs Institutionalization: spontaneous and planned Events as test bed for institutionalization Going from small to large-scale events Large-scale events with the AGIL-scheme in mind Institutionalization and social technologies