Will Voice Chat make Second Life a more Cohesive Community?
In the podcast I recorded yesterday with Akela Talamaska we discussed the potential effects of the integration of voice in Second Life. As we discussed it I mentioned that voice might result in a “wave of honesty across the grid.” As is the case with many interesting ideas, the concept of honesty hadn’t occurred to me until right then when I said it and I’ve been mulling over it since.
There are about as many definitions of community as there are laptops in a Starbucks:
A community is a relatively self-sufficient population, residing in a limited geographic area, bound together by feelings of unity and interdependency.” Munon, 1968.
Communities are characterized by three things: common interests, frequent interaction, and identification.”
“Virtual communities are social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace.” Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community
“I define “community” as networks of interpersonal ties that provide sociability, support, information, a sense of belonging, and social identity. I do not limit my thinking about community to neighbourhoods and villages. This is good advice for any epoch and especially pertinent for the twenty-first century.” Wellman 2001
“An online community consists of people who interact socially as they strive to satisfy their own needs or perform special roles; a shared purpose that provides a reason for the community; policies that guide people’s interactions; and computer systems to support and mediate social interaction and facilitate a sense of togetherness.” Preece 2000
So we’re left with geography (whether physical or perceived by the boundaries of a form of communication), common interests, a sense of togetherness or attachment, and some form of frequent communication. I find it interesting that none of these definitions suggests that there must be honesty or self-exposure as a prerequisite for a community. Perhaps the “interdependency,” “identification,” and “sense of belonging” are implying that, in order to form relationships through communication, participants are honest and self-exposing at least enough to be accepted as being authentic members of the community.
The more I think about the role of honesty and openness in these kinds of communities, the more convinced I am that there is a critical and unstated element of honesty at play. At least, if not more, community members have an agreed upon (if unstated) level of honesty and self-exposure that they use as a standard. Even in groups founded on anonymity such as Alcoholics Anonymous, while members may be able to use a pseudonym in meetings, it’s expected that the stories and struggles they share will be authentic and not fabricated. In a group where everyone is open and exposed a single person who isn’t is perceived as an intruder and a violator.
So how does this apply to Second Life?I refer back to my “wave of honesty” revelation. With the integration of voice not only will folks who have been using an alternate identity in SL be given an opportunity to “out” themselves. But even for folks who don’t use an alternate identity, the opportunity to share more of themselves should increase trust relationships (or void relationships completely if there was deception involved) thus increasing community.
I’m still concerned whether this wave will be isolated in specific places thus creating increased cohesion in pockets rather than grid wide. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.
Bryon Munon. Changing Community Dimensions. 1968. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1. Wellman, Barry. 1979. “The Community Question.” American Journal of Sociology 84: 1201-31.
Preece, J. (2000). Online Communities: designing usability, supporting sociability. Chichester: Wiley.
Rheingold, Howard. Virtual Community. 2000. Boston: MIT Press.
March 2nd, 2007 at 7:01 am
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March 3rd, 2007 at 7:34 am
I’m not sure that having an alternate self, a projection of oneself, a self that is free to do or say/chat what’s not possible in RL sometimes, is dishonest. Is role-playing dishonest? And you mention fabrication–is it “making” or “making up” and what is the difference? Is literature dishonest? I suggest that such works as “Ulysses” or “Moby Dick” or “Hamlet” (even with its ghosts) achieve a level of honesty unrivaled by so-called real life. I am who I am in SL, an honest representation, albeit a representation. Personally, I don’t think I will participate in voice, except in an educational setting/event. If I wanted to use my voice, be recognized by my voice, as if it’s more me than my avatar is me, I would walk into the next office or next door or call a friend on my cell. Maybe there’s more, but these are my initial thoughts. . . .