Intro

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=240ad5b9b413aa7346a1

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=0415dada82e08bc09e9f

1. Godtube as a Christian network (st. pixels etc)

2. Christian vs. Christ Follower

[14:24] Ignatius Baroque: I see you've done some nice Christmas decorating... are you going to spend part of the holiday in SL?
[14:24] Sonic Rang: i'm on everyday
[14:25] Ignatius Baroque: really, I noticed that you were really dedicated, but I didn't realized that you were here everyday
[14:25] Ignatius Baroque: are you going to have a SL Chrismas?
[14:26] Sonic Rang: dont know what you mean
[14:26] Ignatius Baroque: are you going to do like a special event
[14:27] Sonic Rang: we will have some type of christmas party i'm sure
[14:27] Sonic Rang: prob
[14:27] Ignatius Baroque: I very well may be here
[14:27] Sonic Rang: i have a lot going on, i take it one day at a time
[14:27] Sonic Rang: lol
[14:28] Ignatius Baroque: yeah, it seems like this place is happening, I saw that you were the number one trafficed site when "Chrsitian" was typed in as a keyword on a search
[14:28] Sonic Rang: well, both properties are in the top 3
[14:29] Ignatius Baroque: yeah I guess it fluxuates
[14:29] Sonic Rang: what is your idea?
[14:29] Sonic Rang: very much
[14:29] Ignatius Baroque: my idea?
[14:29] Sonic Rang: you said you wanted to talk about a virtual world community?
[14:30] Ignatius Baroque: well, I'm not planning on creating one myself... I am presenting on successful community builders in virtual worlds
[14:31] Sonic Rang: oh ok
[14:31] Ignatius Baroque: I want to know what your strategy was for creating Club Eternal and the Sky Garden etc...
[14:32] Ignatius Baroque: They are very inviting places, do you think it is the design aspect, more the openess/friendliness, both, whatever
[14:33] Sonic Rang: well, really
[14:33] Sonic Rang: it was just an idea for what God put in my heart, to use SL for His work.
[14:33] Sonic Rang: there were already so many churches, i wanted a place that people could come
[14:34] Sonic Rang: and NOT be a church, but find good clean fun and fellowship
[14:34] Ignatius Baroque: like an everyday place
[14:34] Sonic Rang: right
[14:34] Sonic Rang: and i love the beach, so the theme just kept growing
[14:34] Ignatius Baroque: like the church experience is a bit exhausting, it's great once a week, but I couldn't go everyday personally, but this place it could be
[14:35] Sonic Rang: the sky park was just an idea to build up there, and it grew and grew
[14:35] Ignatius Baroque: so it started with the beach from and grew from there?
[14:35] Ignatius Baroque: wow
[14:36] Sonic Rang: yeah, and really, it was the people that made it happen, i had little to do with it but the vision, my builder and my core of friends really made it happen, and they are all Christian and had the same desires as me
[14:36] Sonic Rang: Well, i spent the money for all the land too
[14:36] Ignatius Baroque: are you guys friends in RL, or did you meet on SL?
[14:36] Sonic Rang: at one time I had 2 sims
[14:36] Sonic Rang: all SL friends
[14:36] Ignatius Baroque: where did you meet?
[14:36] Sonic Rang: at a land called Kane
[14:37] Sonic Rang: brb
[14:37] Sonic Rang: one sec
[14:37] Ignatius Baroque: ok

God's Playgroud

Conclusion: My point or Raison de Research

Funny, a few days before I have to take a crack at presenting this mumbo-jumbo I finally figured out a reasonable point for it. Using the e-vangelist model for community building in virtual spaces gives an example of an effective approach at engaging young people to join a community that young people have grown up trying to engage their elders in.

Building online communities and the Christian e-vangelical strategy share the common goal of simple engagement. Unlike enfranchisment into most groups or societies, all that is wanted is you participation, however slight it might be, is all that it takes to strenghten the network. Like getting people to sign a voters petition, all that you need is the idea of enfranchisement, rather than actual participation. A small conglomarate of moderators gain power based on the number of people that they can get to join their community. Communities thrive based on the sheer number of participants and the odds that, with such a large number, there will be enough participation to make their community thrive.

Where do I go from here?

Christmas in Second Life

Attempt to talk to more community builders

Attempt an evangelism

Forced Love

There is something powerful about belonging and recruiting. They give participants and recruiters a sense of having affected. Christian sites, often aren't explicitly Christian. They just advocate the power of communication, giving men or women or certain vague categories of people a place to "talk."

I've found that participants use virtual worlds to experiment with things that would be to consequential in RL. You can get a tattoo, see how it looks as you walk around, but then take it off if you don't like it. You can buy a shirt for 20LD and stuff it in the back of your inventory if it doesn't suit you. You can check out a community and join it, and never return if you don't like it.

Community builders such as "Sonic Rang," understand the power of evangelism as a force. He claims to have invested thousands into his Sim and is not looking to make any money back at all. For him it is a dream come true to be able to share the gospel with so many people and save so many people from less righteous lives. (revisit the bdsm girl).

Peoples stories and visions of people have affect on those who bear witness.

Sometimes, there is force in just hearing someones stories. Suggest

Take http://ied.gospelcom.net/evangelists14.php

Networking Faiths

A place in the network has equipped Christian communities with a new place and powerful new recruitment tool. Most all networks actively recruit, and the few that don't, (as to keep exclusivity) still gain prominence through the network. A group already dedicated to recruitment, gains a new frontier in the network society.

Real Life recruitment techniques have softened. Campus Crusade for Christ (the behemoth of evangelical organizations), had segment in their 2007 conference called "Connected Movements," regarding the web 2.0 frontier and discipleship and a "facebook tutorial" designed to teach participants how to use this social network as a community online.

Being a member of a community gives you a connection with others within the community, and the broad world wide community of "Christians" maybe be the worlds largest. New Christianity favors unification under the reduction of the faith to the simple principle of faith in Christ and the three forms of god.

One could imagine a Christian flash mob protesting affronts to their faith in a moments notice.

Rusty Wight as a model of Network Engagement: http://ied.gospelcom.net/article3.php

Second life E-vangelism: http://ied.gospelcom.net/secondlife-evangelism.php

Designing Worship

The tactile limits imposed by the distance of new media are seen as surmountable by online communities. The better we can overcome these limits, the closer we will become to the vision of new Christianity (The Emergent Church): devotion and faith in Christ, instead of "going through the motions of Church services" in order to serve a tradition.

While traditional church service provides a novel template for what a virtual church should look like (pews, alter, occasional anachronisms like bells). These new postmodern possibilities for a Church enable community leaders to design a setting for worship that has the charming old-fashion of a gothic cathedral, with a coffee shop and dance club inside to represent the desire of the new wave of Christians to worship through life. Part of the idea is to show how "Christ Followers" are different than you might thing.

The concept of a "liquid church" is central to the choices community builders make with their newfound possibilities. "Liquid churches" are gaining popularity in Real Life as well. The concept: A church with revolving Sunday services that schedule different types of services throughout the day to suit different styles of a worship within a community. Some people stay all day. Online, the possibilities for "liquid churches" are expanded and offer the diversity without the fragmentation, as different types of worshipers can go at the same time to different rooms, and explore other rooms with ease and anonymity to see what they're missing.

Ethnography Presentation

Abstract

This presentation tracks the community building practices of "e- vangelists" in Second Life, a virtual world possessing autonomous, but integrated (networked) communities. Using in-world ethnographic research and in-world and "Real Life" in-person interviews of e-vangelicals including the Second Life religious community builder Sonic Rang of Eternal Creations, I report on how many Web 2.0 religious leaders describe their use of SL to conduct online worship services, their "mission" as cyber-Christians, and the future of e-vangelism in an evolving new media ecology. The presentation will include in-world Second Life photographs.

Details

On Thursday 12/6, I will present an examination of my work thus far on this project (which I plan on continuing through years end in order to observe the community during their most holy day). My presentation will include media created by e-vangelical community builders and my own in-world photography. The presentation will be organized, like our course, into five units (post-humanism, design, friction, the network society, and force) that represent ways of explaining new media ecology.

The cult of the milkshake

Stewart's Cultural Poesis has a particularly fascinating section about the Body For Life diet/self-actualizing regiment. If you follow the rules of the 12-step program you will live the life that was always just out of reach because of physical/mental inadequacies that drove you to seek help in the first place. The idea of salvation casts a shadow over the distractions of overeating and the pleasures of sloth. As Stewart writes: "They began the crave the 12week program even more than they craved a piece of key lime pie or a beer" (1037).

Now imagine such a powerful promise delivered in just one simple step? The acceptance of the lord. The promise is delivered. Beyond all of the psychological benefits of feeling that you have made some sort of good change in your life (turning a new page), there is the life-affirming power of being "part of something." A supportive group, that accepts you for who you are, and encourages you to do better, alongside others who are working towards the same ends. I don't know if I could continue doing these assignments and weekly readings, if I didn't know there were others who were going through it with me.

Community building provides a certain life-affirmation for the builders as well. The professor enjoys watching the study of their dedication enthused by new practitioners. For the pastor and the organizer of groups like Body for Life, there is something stronger at work. The belief that the people they enfranchise are being saved. Communities give participants and builders something to "step" towards.

Being Watched

The idea of being watched is tossed around in Cache, the way that we toss around our visions of the lives of others. Someone watching Georges and his family. Him turning an eye to Majid. The public watches Georges on TV, and we watch it all in the film. All the viewers are looking for answers it would seem, monitoring the evidence of captured for some better understanding as to what is going on within the captured scene. A question that the film begs, and which often eludes us is: Why do we watch? Why do we torture ourselves with bewildering views into other peoples complex universes? Georges may have found peace with himself had he not so easily absolved his past. His view into his past through nightmares and confrontations with Majid were shown to us (and presumably before his consciousness) far fewer times than repeated screenings of the front of his own house looking for answers.

In Stewart's "Ordinary Affects" we get almost voyeuristic snapshots into the lives of charming innocents. Stewart makes a convincing case for the legitimacy of this "qualitative research," the often unseen power of "ordinary" moments. The example of the motorcycling couple that gets into an accident, is used in both this and the reader on Qualitative Research. Stewart writes that the little accident will "shift people's life trajectories in some small way."

Watching Cache shifted my life trajectory, both by endowing me with an increased paranoia and by getting me to think and talk about the idea of being watched with other people, who in turn told me creepy voyeur stories from their lives, and that they've heard through friends. Also when I was at the video store (which I signed of for membership for the sole purpose of getting Cache for this class), I discovered a movie I'd always wanted to see, but never really thought about renting, but it was in the "Employee Picks Bargain Price" section. When I saw it there, I got it too and made my day double feature. Further altering my encounters of the day, and those I encounter with the recommendations to watch Cache (and The Day the Earth Caught Fire).

What is hip?

Thanks to Jason's valuable support/meddling, I've discovered a cold mine of an example of forming an online Christian community (or fellowship). St. Pixels.

St. Pixels is a good model, because they do what every other online fellowship I've found does to enfranchise internet users. They espouse hipness, and put-down anything that would be conceived as traditional or "outdated." Perhaps, a strange attempt to shake off the image of
religiosity as a relic of an era when we just didn't know any better. To not treat the web with the respect that a young user might be pre-disposed (through a whole life time of using it as a resource) to treating it with, would seem to fuel the belief that the Christian community "just doesn't get it." By harnessing power of web 2.0 as a medium to such a degree that you endow it with powers once reserved for "sacred places" (praying online, online confessionals, etc), you show young users that have been brought up to trust the web with personal information, fact-finding, and general advice, that you do get it.

Part of St. Pixel's mission statement is: to create a sacred place. To make the internet sacred? This is an interesting extension of the accessibility that evangelical Christians have been developing since, well, the apostles. The idea that hyperspace can be considered sacred, seems revolutionary to me. I don't mean necessarily a revolution on the order of The Reformation, or The Great Awakenings, but to assign the internet the power of a church certainly frees up control of how one can participate on the level older media have leading to the aforementioned revolutions. Would the Reformation be possible without the printing press? The "mega church" without unprecedented ease in automotive travel?

Could online holy spaces change the way we view religious participation? Imagine staying home on a Sunday, with your family hunched around the computer watching an e-service. If the music was interrupting your football game, it could be guiltlessly muted. Say the sermon was boring, maybe you could only watch half. I'm not saying that this potential would destroy the traditions of a good service. I think some people will always need to dress up and worship in a traditional way, but now the community has been extended to include these possibilities. New ways to participate expand what community membership means. The process of being a practicing Christian is "globalized." The way that everybody who writes can, with debatable verisimilitude, now call themselves a writer if they keep a blog, any one who considers themselves a Christian can call themselves one, as long as they log on for an occasional chat.

Adapting a community to serve new ways of networking is essential, but is all the "hipification"? Should St. Pixels use goofy cartoon avatars, instead of, maybe more realistic ones. Is making the structure of RL services seem boring by assigning them traits like "cobwebs, and organ fund," really necessary?

I want to further explore the need for coolness that seems to be inescapable in e-vangelism. While there is nothing disrespectful about St. Pixel's attitude towards a traditional service, there is a subversive sensibility to what they are doing. There is an emphasis on the conflict that this subversion creates, that doesn't seem to be necessary for expansion, but is perhaps is part of a greater marketing strategy to make the organization seem like an alternative for those who "don't like church." What about the crotchety old traditionalist point that we lose certain things with this network, especially in such a deeply spiritual context. Is it fair to suggest that logging on is akin to attending a real service. I wonder what Islamic attitudes towards this kind of worship are/would be, and what this says about the two religions different ideas about community building.

War Games

Exploration of Christian communities and recolections of my past experience with evangelism has led me to an observation, which in turn has led to an easier and more direct method of observing e-vangelical communities.

My observation is that understanding the nature of evangelism is secondary to the nature of communities. Formation of communities is more important to understanding the nature of the network society, and sheds light onto why e-vangelists opperate in the way that they do.

Eternal Creations, Campus Crusades, youth groups are all communities that use the power of group think that play on our desires to belong. They need not preach, only to provide. The cordinators of such groups are are networkers, builders of networks. Networks give us a place to "be."

These places provide free things, stuff to do, and a happy face. They don't ask anything in return. They aren't judgemental, and often break with skeptical asumptions of what missionaries do. They are, in my experience, outwardly tolerant, and genuinely interested in meeting people from different persectives. That being said, like all groups, they have a mission. A goal, something that unifies them, if they didn't, well, they wouldn't be a group. The mission of a missionary is to spread Christianity.

Communities like these don't ask anymore than belonging, a perfect and most members want nothing more. But what does it mean to belong to a group or a network. What do we sacrifice by belonging? What do those who ask us to belong stand to gain?

Evangelism is defined as a "militant zeal for a cause." Can activities as innocent as dance parties, games, charity work, etc, be considered militant? The question, better posed, is: can dance parties, games and charity work be considered the weapons of war. To me it's obvious. Could there be a better way to enfranchise people than mere unconditional acceptance? I certaintly get a little giddy everytime I find I'm pre-approved for a new credit card.

To ease my work, I will approach my further interviews by digging up clues as to how the activities are used to create a sense of community. The formation of a community is analogous to the formation of an army. If you form a community on behalf of anything, especially something as deeply devisive as religion, you are inherently conquering something, someone's individuality perhaps (If you haven't figured it out yet, I personally eschew affiliations). I am no longer interested in why evangelists use open, non-coersive communities as a tool of recruitment. This appears self-evident. I want to use my observations to gain a better insight into what community means to the creators of evangelical communities.

By understanding the personal value of communities within a network, we better understand the power of the network society. We gain an insight into, for better or worse, what our network society does for community affiliations in general. A better explanation of my research: How/why Christian communities appeal to disaffected web surfers.

Ebbs and Flows

Castell's "Space of Flows" follows information throughout our ever-expanding series of complex networks. Changes in the way we live, change the way information is exchanged and from where it comes. Both valuable as an anology and as an example, is the changing face of the metropolis. The new "mega-opolis" which Castell exemplifies with the Pearl River Delta. He describes them as "discontinuous constellations of spatial fragments, functional pieces and social segments." Where the rural and urban are connected through the increasing posibility of commuting, the increasing possibilities of community and the exansion of cities.

For an example that hits closer to home look at BosWash the megaopolis that we are in the epicenter of. There are areas of discontinuity on the 95 coridor that runs down BosWash. I am more likely to wind up in Boston than the Bronx on any given weekend, or more relevantly I am more likely to wind up talking to someone in Europe on SL than anybody in Jersey. My exchanges become more associated with purpose than proximity. Proximity still takes it's toll of course, but outside of my neighborhood and my commute to school, proximity becomes less meaningful. I buy my vegtables from places I've never been in upstate New York. When I go to Jersey for Thanksgiving I will eat pears from Oregon orchards (Harry & David) that I have romped through. The Union Square farmers market is like a hub for the flow of fruit. Where those with the benefit of farm land can benefit from Manhattans flow of consumers and commerce.

Meme Map

In designing a digital research tool, I wanted to somehow design a system for measuring the conviction of one's beliefs. This would be valuable for my project, but also prove to stump me. I couldn't think of a reasonable way to do "measure" beliefs, so I figured the next best thing would be a way to organize everything (or at least any popular ones) that is believed by groups of people. One of my inspirations for this concept was the website www.relgioustolerance.org. They do their best to create a database of religion. They've created an interesting place to surf and learn in the giest of relgious harmony.

Religious Tolerance's website isn't exactly what I had in mind though, I was something beyond just religious beliefs, but all memes maped the way those clever geneticists figured out the human genome. A database the size of imdb, or better yet wikipedia. Of course it would be a wiki! Then people could add beliefs they share, or encounter. Of course the wiki would have to be edited as judiciously as wikipedia to prevent, as one of my irreverant undergraduate prank postings was labeled by a moderator, "patent non-sense." Ok so what I envision is a comprehensive wiki, that is (unlike wikipedia) limited to memes. The design inovation would be the map.

Like wikipedia, my meme map would be searchable, for ease of opperation, but unlike wikipedia, the site wouldn't be organized in alaphabetical lists (if it were, again, it would be an afterthought to increase ease of use). No my meme map would be a linked series of ideas, that would be taged to link to other ideas that perhaps inspired or were inspired by the idea you first found on the map. For example, say I looked up evangelism, which certaintly is a meme. You would come to a page that might look somewhat like a wikipedia post, but with much more emphasis on user testimonials and ideas, than origins and facts (although those aren't without their importance to the evolution of memes). Up in the corner of each meme page there would be a button a link that would say MapIt! When pressed it would link you to evangelisms place on the meme map (also user/moderator edited). I envision the meme map looking something like an idea map that like writers groups use to brainstorm: here is a link to a model. I would want the meme map to be less scribbly instead to have a key and different fonts and colors to signify different classes of memes (the way a cartographer does on a geographical map).

Bigger memes would be more pervasive, and generally have smaller sub-memes comming off. Christianity would be a huge sphere on the meme map, with it's different sects and sub-sects comming off. Different idea's that have developed from Christianity would be linked off of the appropriate meme bubble, and perhaps be linked to another huge concept that helped develop it. For example, temperance would be linked off of puritanical sects of Christianity, and on the other side of the bubble, temperance would link to Islamic law, or healthy living etc... The reason it would have to be a wiki, is that memes are so hard to pin down in such a way, the only chance a map like this has, is regular contributions from those "infected." Any time a change was made to the map, a facebook like story would be added to a blog seen by moderators it might say "user samhag has established a link between animism and paganism."

The idea behind the meme map is to create a different way of exploring belief, one that attempts to use a "flow." The map would be good for preserving meme theory (which of course has it's own spot on the map somewhere between evolutionary genetics and enlightenment philosophy. The most difficult disiction to draw, might be where to seperate a meme from something more, something that is empirically established, for example the concept of temperature is a meme as far certain things that are theorized about it it (degrees), but it in itself is perceived. So there could be small meme pages that distinguish between Kelvin, Centigrade etc... but one for temperature itself wouldn't be necessary because everyone recognizes that there are varying degrees of heat in one place and time.

Hopefully this makes sence, it's an abstract idea, but memes themselves are an abstraction. My meme map is nothing more than a different way to organize knowledge. It's main revolution could be to put ideas in their place, rather than as something as truthfull as an encyclopedia page.

Friction Addiction

I think I understand friction. It's the way that you can take a group of people across cultures into the forest and they would each come out with a different adjective to describe it. Unspoiled, boring, sacred, dangerous, refreshing, dirty, clean, obstructive, open, cathartic, novel. Some would see trees as a natural resource others as a natural treasure, some as inanimate and without character, some would see an aura around them. Even among those who see this aura (and if you don't I feel sorry for you), there are different ideas about how important they are and how they can best be protected.

Tsing's exploration into Indonesian conservation/preservation is wonderful because she explores (fricative) views as diverse and the bio-region they squabble and struggle over. She guides us gently away from universalism and into a realm of "awkward understanding." Thinking about global connections under the lens of universality is viewed as quaint and dangerously complacent I read the focused my analysis on the final section: "Freedom." Tsing follows friction in Manggur over two decades and through multiple "histories." Addressing the problems of organizing a rebellion across so much friction was what really got me thinking about the problems of global environmentalism.

Taking into account the utopianism of student activists, the romanticism of outdoors-men, the rights to habitation of the natives and threatened species, the needs of the market-place, and the transcendental nature of personal experience in a rain-forest. We see the Manggur as closer to what it ever could be through a theorized definition, such as "protected wildlands."

Without the natives struggling against an immediate threat, and the support of environmental activists worldwide, victory may not have been won. This can be viewed as evidence for a "universal vision," but I like the way Tsing examines the different histories and motivations for the environmentalism the "overlap of understandings" (256). This helped me personally understand friction as something that isn't necessarily abrasive, but complex.

With such a tapestry of histories and desires, the world is better understood as in-understandable, better that we celebrate our confluences than mourn our conflicts.
It makes us view our challenge as ethnographers as it is: one of collecting understandings, and forming connections between them, but not necessarily finding harmony. I applied this to my ethnography. Is it fair that I just interview evangelical sim-owners? What about the perspective of converts, or sex shop owners, or rigid atheists who view evangelism as invasive? What frictions exist in the world of second life, a place where ease of communication facilitates unprecedented interactivity.

Evangelical like me

This is a snapshot of an evangelical training slide-show at one of second life's Christian rooms. I went to the website listed at the end of the slide show and they have these pamphlets for sale, for anyone who might want to spread the gospel. I shot them an email about the possibilities of meeting in SL, as I haven't been able to track anyone down within the program.

PS. I heard that this Week's The Office features second life. I haven't seen it, but it seems that SL is spreading around older media and may soon hit full on fad status.

Patches

I had some good reading time this week, so I did some more snooping around Connected. I noticed that Jackson's "Stitch Bitch" has a similar patchwork feel, as well as having "patchwork" in the title. I've noticed that my tolerance for reading in this style is much higher than normal. I can blow through like 20 pages of Connected without batting an eye. The hypertext style seems to resonate with my contemporary attention-span.
Jackson goes through chunks of difference between her life and the life of her alter-ego in hyperspace. She lists differences between life, fiction and hypertext (and hyper-fiction). Organized into little bursts of a concept, with an example from pop culture, and perhaps a dash of hermeneutics. I like when she admits her disdain for the term "hypertext" calling it a "spiky" word, that reminds her of a rooster on a go-cart (uhhh ok whatever you say Shelley Jackson). This kind of interpretation , as she puts it, "leaves you naked with yourself at every leap." When hypertexting the frequent interruptions give the interaction with the discourse more of a dialogged feel. The style is similar to Shaviro's. Perhaps they are innovators in a new academic style that is more readable for this hypertextual readers.
The "schizophrenia" and uncertain path of doing online research, as opposed to book research, has been transformed into "book" or article reading, as best as it can be. In these cases it is to provide an example, but what if we started doing all sorts of research this way? When I am looking for information on a film I am studying I start at the IMDB, but could wind up anywhere, from a page about the director, to one about a film that influenced the film makers that will help me better understand what I am writing about.
In boiling down Christianity to e-vangelism to e-vangelism 2.0 to Jesuit's combating SL immorality with e-vangelism. I used hypertext hopping to understand what was popular, pertinent and researchable. The internet, being a populist medium gives wandering an advantage over calculation. Had I known what I wanted to study when I began, I might have gotten stuck with a topic that was a dead-end. Hypertext keeps our eyes and minds open, if a bit unfocused.

IM conversation=revalations

A conversation I just had with a good friend who's in ministry college...

[12:54] triumph2nd: hey can you help me with something for school
[12:54] moonpatrolpdx: yeah whats up
[12:54] triumph2nd: not like now, but just keep your ear open
[12:54] moonpatrolpdx: ok
[12:54] triumph2nd: I'm doing an ethnographic study of e-vangelism
[12:55] moonpatrolpdx: aight
[12:55] triumph2nd: do you know much about it
[12:55] moonpatrolpdx: like internet evangilism? or evangilism?
[12:55] triumph2nd: like internet evangelism
[12:55] moonpatrolpdx: hmm
[12:56] triumph2nd: more specifically in web 2.0
[12:56] triumph2nd: user interfaced social networking programs
[12:56] moonpatrolpdx: hmm i dont know if i know much about that
[12:56] triumph2nd: like myspace or second life
[12:57] triumph2nd: preferably second life
[12:57] moonpatrolpdx: i know thre are certian ministries that have myspace websites
[12:57] triumph2nd: that's a start
[12:57] moonpatrolpdx: http://www.myspace.com/xxxchurch
[12:58] triumph2nd: jesus!
[12:58] triumph2nd: I'm at work man
[12:58] moonpatrolpdx: oh
[12:58] triumph2nd: that's funny though
[12:58] moonpatrolpdx: well anyways chech them out when you can
[12:58] triumph2nd: yeah
[12:58] triumph2nd: is it really porn?
[12:58] triumph2nd: i didn't look i clicked away
[12:58] moonpatrolpdx: xxxchurch.com the number one christian porn site as they say
[12:58] triumph2nd: how does that work?
[12:58] triumph2nd: slutty nuns?
[12:59] moonpatrolpdx: no its not porn its a site where they minister to people in the industry
[12:59] triumph2nd: ohhhh
[12:59] triumph2nd: i'm going back then
[13:00] moonpatrolpdx: instead of standing outside of conventions yelling at the people, they get a booth space inside and talk to pornstars, and give out bibles that say "Jesus loves porn stars" on the cover
[13:00] triumph2nd: woah
[13:01] triumph2nd: i see someone debated ron jeremy
[13:01] moonpatrolpdx: yeah the pastor of xxxchurch went on tour with ron and they had a debate series around the country
[13:01] moonpatrolpdx: thought they stand on oposite sides of the fence, they actually became friends
[13:01] moonpatrolpdx: was cool
[13:02] moonpatrolpdx: ron even helped them do a comercial to keep kids away from porn
[13:02] triumph2nd: what's their position exactly? porn is morally wrong for christians?
[13:05] moonpatrolpdx: im not sure what there exact mission statement is you would have to find that on their site but i would be willing to be that they would say something like, porn destroyes peoples lives, from the people involved to the people who watch.
[13:05] triumph2nd: oh hmm
[13:05] moonpatrolpdx: i read one of the dudes books and thats kind of the idea i got from it but it might say on their website or something
[13:05] triumph2nd: yeah, thanks that's actually perfect for my project
[13:05] triumph2nd: like exactly
[13:05] moonpatrolpdx: sweet
[13:06] triumph2nd: I am examing placement of scripture "Bilboards" in second life
[13:06] moonpatrolpdx: some of their videos are funny if you get a chance to watch them
[13:06] triumph2nd: evangelical groups put them next to ad's for porno to counter act them
[13:06] moonpatrolpdx: like pete the porno puppet
[13:06] moonpatrolpdx: really
[13:06] moonpatrolpdx: ha
[13:06] triumph2nd: yeah
[13:07] triumph2nd: like you'll be looking a an ad for a sex club in second life, then you'll turn around and see John 3:16
[13:07] moonpatrolpdx: weird
[13:07] moonpatrolpdx: ill be interested in all of your findings through your research
[13:08] triumph2nd: yeah I'll keep you abreast

I might develop a more specific area of research around these "porn wars".... http://www.myspace.com/xxxchurch

An altered state

This is me praying at the alter of SL's most popular evangelical ministry. I can't say it did much for me, but I'd like to talk to other prayers and get there take on what SL prayer does to fulfill RL spiritual needs. Too bad it was a ghost town...

Amendment to My Autoethnography

My first experiences with RL evangelicalism really softened my skepticism of the practices. I don't mean the general ones where Jehovah's Witnesses came to my door, or when I dated a Catholic girl who would try in vain to make me pray with her etc... but when a relative stranger grabbed my hand and asked me if I knew Christ.

I used to be a fairly regular hitch-hiker, and after spending hours thumbing in vain, I'd find myself very grateful to whomever might pick me up. Almost invariably the driver would fit one of three profiles: ex-hippie who used to hitch back in the day, a depressed sad-sack, who will complain about the misery of their lives until they drop me off (I think these people pick up hitch-hikers with the secret hope that we will do them in), and evangelical Christians. Where I used to roam, the latter made up more than 75% of my benefactors. I would always get the spiel.
There is something about a hitch-hiker that implies being lost (although as any good hitcher knows... not all who wander are lost). To an evangelical Christian, picking these people up helps someone in need and gives them an opportunity to discover the love of Christ. Generally they start with, "do you know Jesus." Then perhaps ask me to pray with them, or offer to say a prayer to help get my life "back on track." Grateful and wanting the ride to go smooth and long, I am as affable as possible. I lie. I try to change the subject. I clasp their hands, close my eyes and mouth something.

While I was exploring the Cyebrsaint's guide to online evangelism, I couldn't help but recall the attempts that were made on me in RL. Further I wonder if people online ever "fake it." There might not be a powerful motivation, like 50 miles of road, to encourage such behavior, but in some of the examples I read, the convertee seemed like they just really needed someone to talk to, and might have agreed to anything to keep the conversation rolling along.

Bingo!

I was considering going onto a Christian chat room to attempt to observe the process of spreading "the word" to a confused internet wander, but I can see that someone has already done it for me, complete with notes on their reactions and a full chat log. I will duplicate this, only from the perspective of a non-Christian observer (myself).


http://house-of-hope.net/chat/first.html

Designing Reality

I remember the discussion we had in class last week, where we talked about the significance (and frustrations) of the continued existence of the burning life grounds, months after the, supposedly temporal, event took place. In RL, if you went to the playa now, it would be deserted. Part of what makes SL so wonderful for some might be that magic. In RL you would starve and face the elements out on the playa without a community of burners to help sustain a society, but thanks to the magic of SL, you can have that experience, of being the only one at burning man/life.

After reading Smith, I couldn't help but think about SL in the terms of the literal and the magical. Flying around vs. politely apologizing for the inevitable bumps we take as avatars with slow processors. When describing the features of ARK, I couldn't help but marvel at what the possibilities of playing around in an atmosphere where you control the force of gravity. Also consider the metaphor of the machinima in SL, and how they could be metaphorical for information capture in RL, and how, while the enhance the possibilities of the program for skilled users, such uses of magic limit the general teachability of SL. I remember some of the problems I've had getting it to work.

Information capturing techniques in SL, are so advanced that you could record every sight and sound of your (avatar's) whole SL existence. Could this be a grim look into the a future of ubiquitous computers? Will it be that grim? Safer? Right now we are facing these questions in America. Will new technology lead to Big Brotherism?

I couldn't stop thinking about the disadvantages of a sophisticated "point-of-sales" system, while working in a restaurant. While they do a lot of you job for you (calculations, tracking ordering, some act as a virtual waiter captain, telling you where to seat new parties), POS systems take away from your ability to do you job your way, and make defrauding the company (sometimes it's nice to "buy" your friends drinks) impossible. Conscious of POS's surveillance, crafty waiters always find a way to do what they want, but the observe effect of knowing your every move is being tracked (down to the time it takes to run food after the orders are up) does encourage a sort of obedience. This obedience is false and born out of fear. When a server finds a way around the meddling POS, they exploit it in spades.

As Agre writes "no matter how thoroughly the capture process is controlled it is impossible... to remove the elements of interpretation, strategy, and institutional dynamics. You may not have to tip a robotic waiter, but would the dining experience be the same without a smiling face?

Determining a designs usability, while evaluating it's expressional qualities, is a valuable conceptual tool to carry with me when critiquing SL (something I do now without such tools). Any program, or theoretically any designed "thing" can be examined in these terms. I had a great sandwich earlier today, but it wasn't very usable. In fact, it was a sloppy mess. The sandwiches designer spent too much time thinking about the wonderful effect (expression, maybe) the marinara would have on the meatballs, but not about the functionality of a drippy hero. Not an especially apt example, but I use it because it shows just how mundanely this concepts can be applied. They really shine when applied to a full user interface virtual world, where considerations of usability must be put into every one of the many complex functions, but the fact that they can still be applied to a sandwich (sorta) points out just how powerful they are as theory. When we deconstruct complex new forms of communication like this we get to see them for what they really are new "things" that can teach us lessons about what good design is, rather than abstract metaphors that fall short of who ever (if anyone) designed RL.

Are You an Auto, an Ethno or a Graphy?

"Autoethnographers vary in their emphasis on the research process (graphy), on culture (ethnos) and on self (auto)" (740). I would say I am a auto. I have a background in fiction and am quite self-interested.

What is unstated in this semantic breakdown of what were all doing here, is that a good autoethnography is all three. My process will be a little dab of each. I will do my best to give a frank description of my personal experiences in SL, use traditional ethnography methods, including conventional qualitative interview (in this case more like reflection) techniques and focus on the cultural forces of SL. My excuse for taking an unscientific approach (even for the already questionably scientific genre) could be this, also from the article:

"The question is not "Does my story reflect the past accurately?"… "What are the consequences my story produces? What kind of person does it shape me into? What new possibilities does it shape me into? What new possibilities does it introduce for living my life?"

Also the references to Kuhn defending the process....

Following the process of a genuinely interested researcher, with the most sincere possible of human experiences fueling the interest, from idea to IRB, also provides good framework, and an interesting story to boot. Ellis and Bochner have equal part instructional essay and an ethnography of sorts!

Too sexy for my embodiment

Last two readings for last week (particularly Hayles's Materiality of Informatics) got me thinking about our relationships with our bodies, or what will become of our bodies in the post-human era. Will the body like on as a concept, as embodiment, can thinking of minds as being attached to bodies, or being representative of one, ever be an old way of thinking?

I really like the example of Foucault's work with bodies. Criticizing Foucault for his universality, and comparing his to newer ideas about "thinking about bodies," rather than one body with variations, or more importantly (and newer) to think about embodiment. (As were my fun explorations with the class on SL today) It is very comforting to my technophobia to read an article that explores the irreplaceable aspects of humanity that are embodied. All that can't be explain, programed or "formalized in a heuristic program" (Hayles 201). Heuristics and muscle memory, are comforting, but are they enough? Will they be charming the way vinyl is?

When discussing "habitus" (a new concept for me) Bourdieu picks apart pieces of Cartesian philosophy, reminding us that (in Hayles terms on 203) "embodiment emphasizes the importance of context to human cognition." This got me thinking about improvisation (something briefly touched upon in the article), computers can sort of improvise (random numbers corresponding to tonal notes could create a reasonable sounding jazz solo), but they have no ability to do so in a situational manner. A jazz pianist could sense a bored crowd and break into a upbeat boogie-woogie number, sending musical cues to his band that was prepared to do a slow minor-keyed number.

Audio-tape serves as a fitting example of what we can expect in an era of ubiquitous computers, and how embodiment can endure. Also the exploration of Burroughs's "The Ticket That Exploded," gave me a new respect for a writer that I never considered quite so prophetic and exploratory. If audio tape created an age where it's difficult to "think silence" for more than ten seconds, imagine an age where other senses become irresistible. If encryption with recorded sound affects our tranquility so, imagine what programs like SL are going to do to our minds eye. Our dreams....

I have actually made the same analogy Burroughs does, between language and viral infection before. As language changes shape again, in a more anthropomorphic form what could the consequences be? This really got me thinking about the differences between voice chatting and typing on second life. The differences in expression we subtler those between text and audio tape in, but the element of the visual avatar made the differences seem vaster than on old programs with voice chat capabilities and no avatars (ie: ICQ).

Reingold's "Smart Mobs" gave me increased optimism about the possibilities of social networking. The concept of mobile ad hoc social networks, specifically was thought-provoking. Weighing the pros and cons of having your friends being able to track your coordinates, can easily be tipped with "well you can always take it off..." As any of us who has ever tried to "commit myspace suicide" will tell you, it's not that easy. We grow strangely attached to these representations of ourselves and tend to think of them as extensions of the bodies. Imagine now trying to pull the plug on yourself. Also, paradoxically, the idea of being part of a swarm is reduces us to primal instincts through unfathomable technology.

Why people are so nice on Second Life (and not-so much on the subway)

Thinking about the infinite nature of hyper-reality, I considered this: the more people join SL the more diverse and interesting the community. Not so in RL. Overpopulation is a real issue. We are running out of space. It's hard to be friendly and accepting of every bumbling grad-student with stars in his eyes from Oregon, when you're already on an overstuffed 9AM subway. New York, like SL has enough to do to keep you busy for a theoretical life-time, but unlike SL, it could potentially become to crowded to live comfortably. Second-life will never experience this. As we continue to grow at an astronomical rate (ever look at a chart of the projected population in 50 years? 100?), tensions will mount and we will need some place accepting and infinite to hang-out. Any ideas?

This is a human, post

Get it?

I guess it's really a post-human post. More word play, when I first learned the term three weeks ago, I couldn't help but think of a corpse, like posthumous. Dead. Again, my misunderstanding held sophmoric truth. I'm not saying that modern cybernetic technology, or even an era of post-humanity that is distantly foreseeable, could be signs of the death of the human. I don't even think there is any good evidence that "Homo-Sapians have out-grown their use." But I do see a certain death, more of a death like the one that disco suffered (cliche, perhaps, but a more accurate analogy than dinosaurs, as Hayles debunks it in the introduction).

We are undergoing a rapid change. A change that will affect power in society, more so than the printing press. Like the printing press, much of this may be beneficial, may open expand the possibilities of the masses to be exposed to the wild variety of life's possibilities, and immortalized thereafter.

Searle's "Chinese Room" parable, really struck a chord with me. It so well articulates the sentiments of those who've responded skeptically to the idea of post-humanism being a death. Post-human, seems to be an inclusion, rather than a death. An inclusion of more useful tools to enhance the human experience, rather than replace it. My view may be influenced by my lack of acceptance of virtuality, including second-life. I just don't get sucked in. It's just a complex chat-room to me, I'm not accepting the illusion. I'm like a kid who's too old (read: grounded in my RL) for Santa. When I go on, I don't view my avatar as an extension of myself. I couldn't care less what it looked like or how it was perceived. All I care about is if I am an entertaining chat partner, which I would analogize to the desire to be a good conversationalist or writer. Some people might have different experiences. Although I was born to late anyway... I never really dug disco either.

In the "Semiotics of Virtuality" Hayles uses science fiction to help explain post-humanism. To me this is perfect (it might be better if I read the books, but hey...). A lot of the stuff we have read and discussed thus far, conjures things prophesized, or what I could imagine being prophisized, in science-fiction. Using four novels, Hayles explains the four "sides" to "The Semiotics of Virtuality." The ideas of being: duplicated like a photo-copy, having infinite resources (read my next post on this one), the idea that cyborgs will carry the weight of human feelings or that we already are essentially machines (and therefore post-human), are similtaneously great fiction, and telling of our uncertain future in a world of ubiquitous computing, and virtuality.

Hayles comes back to the question that is really on everyone's mind, it's answer determining your view of the post-human era, and perhaps (by extension) SL. Let's say we live our lives on second life as "Homo-Silicon", perhaps as a result of gradual selection, perhaps out of necessity. Will life as we know it be over? Yes, but certainly worth living. The most joyful journeys of anyone's lifetime are those of the mind, not the body, and if our minds are functioning on a higher plane of consciousness, why not get rid of the obsolete bags we keep them in. Is this an evolution? A dystopia? I don't think so. In my lifetime, I wont not giving up my trips to go take a sauna to make sure that my avatar is making lots of friends, but if I had to, I'd sew a lot of virtual oats along the way, blissfully unaware of the antiquated pleasures of the flesh.

Artificially Cultured

Gessler's "Ethnography of Artificial Culture: Specifications,Prospects and Constraints" really helped expand my thinking about my time in Second Life. I think I was even somorphically groping at some of the topics he discussed, in my previous postings.

Examining Artificial Culture (AC) has distinct advantages to consider, compared to Natural Culture (NC). AC (especially one as advanced as SL) gives the researcher the advantage of being able to capture, manipulate and study worlds, on an unprecedented level. Scenarios for experimental research could be attempted in ACs with affects much less adverse than such experiments in NC (although, as we learned in the previous readings on research ethics online, there are still certain concerns to consider). SL creates a world with that mirrors the physics, objects and sensuality of our own, but AL and the subsequent culture it creates is only as valuable as it's verisimilitude.

The T.I.E.R.S. program might better simulate our world NC than SL. The prospects of being able to use a world that so affectively simulates ours that it can be used to study our origins is mind-blowing. As much as I believe we can grasp new insights regarding human nature via SL, I wouldn't imagine that it, or any other program could unlock the mysteries of our development into and as hominids.

The processes of trade, information exchange and risk sharing, that have brought us into civilization, still are developing, as we evolve. Oddly enough this tool, which might enable us to better understand T.I.E.R.S, will also change our evolution and the way we trade, share information and the risks we share as a society. As an advancement of T.I.E.R.S, programs like SL change the way we communicate as people and might be an entirely new evolution (doubtfully on the level of "hominidization," but certainly worth studying). Based on my earlier reactions, you might guess that I will be most interested in the "T" in T.I.E.R.S....

Ethical Conduct in a Cruel, Cold Cyberworld

Before entering this class, I had no idea "netnographies" existed. When I we had the process described to us our first day, I felt like it was a total innovation, if not slightly farfetched. When I told my sexagenarian father about the concept of conducting research in a virtual world, he had the same reservations.

"Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me," he said.

He couldn't see how you could study humanity without actually making physical contact with their "person."

After going on second life, I immediately saw room for ethnographic study among the community, and the fears I had about the impersonal nature of net research were mostly dispelled. The Kozinets article on the netnographic method, describing it'sical morays, purpose and general ethical guidelines, showed me me the precedent had certainly been set. The article reminded me the mind-numbing "Intro to Social Research" textbook I hauled out here, because my Sociology professors told me it would help in grad school, except it was interesting. It was so relevant and described the things I did as an online socialite anyway. It was like the moment when I discovered that my obsession for social observation had academic ethos in the field of Sociology, only now my late night online wanderings could also be considered intellectually keen.

After reading Bruckman's guidelines, I felt good about being straight-forward with my first subject in SL, immediately admitting my purpose for being there, and even telling him I was recording the chat for my research notes. Even though our conversation was more of a dry-run, than actual research (mostly it consisted of him telling me how the damn thing works), his helpfulness gave me confidence to be straight forward with anyone else I should chat with. I don't think we're taking these before an IRB, but it's for our own benefit to treat this as if we were. Especially helpful were Brckman's levels of disguise, which I will keep in mind for the duration of my research on SL. The more sensitive the subject, the blurrier they will come out in my papers and blogs. I actually felt fortunate that I got to conduct my research online. Rejection of informed consent is, as dating is, easier to accept when not face-to-face, but avatar to avatar.

Bassett and O'Riordan's "Internet Research Ethics" immediately dispelled one of my assumptions about doing online research in the introduction. They write: "The understanding of the Internet-as-a-space supports a conflation between activity carried out through this medium and the action of human actors in social space. Further, it leads to the argument that any manifestation of Internet activity should be regarded as a virtual person." Remember there's people on the other end of those avatars, and when conducting social research, they should be treated as such, not like robots or guinea pigs.

They describe their research on the message board of a site pseudonymously referred to as gaygirls.com. They described the communicative style of the bored as it related to a sense of space, their space was more like a traditional text. Will the spacial differences in Second Life lead to more difficult ethical quandaries? It seems like the program does a fairly good job of up holding "parochial space," but will the increased visualization and the sense of talking to a person lead to more being accidentally disclosed? I believe the ethical challenges of Second Life will be more adverse than the authors of our ethical guidelines had in mind. On the plus side, this makes me feel like more of an innovator.

The Avatar and the Ego

The more I think about how ridiculous it is to me that people spend so much time customizing their avatar to meet some fantastic aesthetic, or how grossly people will miss represent themselves using their avatar, the more I consider how much I think concern over personal appearance is ridiculous in RL. This is a view that most would share, and so my judgment should be tempered with this consideration: Just because I think it's O.K. to look like a slob, and by extension have a half-assed sloppy avatar, doesn't give me the moral high-ground. At best it just saves me some time and hassle in favor of life's more important things.

The avatar is like the extension of your ego. Which makes me wonder how much of your design might depend on less conscious elements of your pyche, or where might your id manifest itself on second life?

Marxist Escape

My immediate, visceral reaction to SL was disgust at how realistic, yet (or perhaps hence) superficial the world was. I hope I don't reveal to much about myself here, but my immediate critical lens for this world was that of a Marxist. The sophistication of the avatars and props gave users a sense of the material. With this sense of ownership, came the forces of division of labor, hierarchy, and fetishism of props, invading what should be ( in my mind) a diversion from these social frustrations. When I expressed these to a chatter, he claimed that it was easy to live like a "SL vagabond" and just get by doing this and that, and only really use the chat functions, and enjoy the lifelike atmospheres. He assured me that SL could, like other internet world, be used as an escape.

SL was different than I expected. It wasn't just an animated chat room, in fact often took second tier to many of the program's other, more unique, functions. I went to a bar that was designed after the cantina in Star Wars. The owner seemed stressed out about making sure everyone was dressed in the proper attire to continue the illusion. She was very serious about it.

When I thought about it, it seemed that living out the dream of opening a strange business can be time consuming and costly on SL, but nothing compared to the toll it would take to do it in RL. Some people held propriety over businesses that didn't really make money, it was a labor of love, and a very creative one at that. They got to share their babies with the world, without having to deal with many of the realities of being a business owner. Like playing the "Life" board game, SL gives the player the opportunity for escapism, or to become embroiled in a second life that will just further pre-occupy you. I personally believe that the latter is more likely.

I guess it depends on perspective.

First Impressions of Second Life

Just as I get signed up and figure out how to move around life, my roomate asks me if I'd like to watch a movie with him. Lately, I've felt bad about choosing work and school over hanging-out, so in the spirit of roomately comradeship, I told him I'd join him with the caveat of multi-tasking. I'd seen Werner Herzog's "Invincible" before, so I figure that the pictures across the room won't be too distracting from the sights and headphone enclosed sounds of "Orientation Island." As I hone my body-shape in the islands booth, I find my eyes wandering more and more towards the screen of my roommates laptop, even succumbing to the urge to take my headphones off, just to remind myself of what is being said in the movie. I find the appearance adjustment process to be repetitive and it brings about unsettling questions about the shape of my face. Is my nose a 54? A 67? What about the bridge. Being that the movie that is my distraction has messages of Jewish pride, I self-consciously shrink my nose. In being so distracted I don't realize until I am almost done, that I am at a female body station.

The process stirs intense vanity. I can't help but admire how handsome I'd look in theory. But eventually the urge to make a joke of it takes over and I endow my character with a beard, and consider purchasing an eye-patch. I fret over the pukah shell necklace that is a part of my "city chic" clothing set, I desperately want to remove this, as I would never wear jewelery, especially jewelery that conjures memories of frat-boys. I can't figure out how to take it off, and am afraid go out in "public", to initiate conversation with an intelligent animation with such a gross misrepresentation of my fashion sensibilities. The only way to learn is to experience, so I abandon my vanity and fly to a more social atmosphere. After I finished my tutorials, I decided to go to where, I'd go to meet people: a night club. I found it charmingly realistic; the music sucked and people criticized my avatars dancing. I thought that the fact that they had a tip jar was charming and a sign of how far people will go to continue illusion.

As I explored looking for someone to talk to, like the traditional avatar based chat-rooms of my youth (the palace), I found that the emphasis on making Linden dollars made most of where I went a commercial wasteland. Everyone was selling something, whether it be food, fashion or "fake" estate. I went to a kitchen chat room in hopes of talking food and wine, but found that the avatars there were busy mopping the digital floor for 24 LDs an hour.

Finally, in the most random of rooms, I met a friendly soul who helped explain a few things to me and told me about "money trees," where newbies can get a base nest egg of Linden's to get them started. We also discussed the safety of this program, the social functions of it, and misrepresentation. After making introductions, he took me to meet a friend at a land that was designed after some village in Star Wars (not a fan, don't know the particulars). I got so wrapped up in learning about what people do on SL and speculating (somewhat critically) as to why they do it, that I completely abandoned the movie and stayed plugged straight in.

In my inexperience, I got disconnected and accidentally lost my conversation, but was able to find my tutor and he sent it to me.