AFTER AVATARS

Reflections on what happens when the curtain is briefly pushed aside

So some 120+ Second Life Residents made the trip to New York Law School in Tribeca for yesterday's SLCC 2005, the first Resident-sponsored gathering on a massive level. Several Linden Lab staffers and contractors came along for the ride (including myself), while some members of a few major media outlets came to report on it, too. Those may actually be the best people to cover the event. Several folks have asked me if I planned to blog it here on New World Notes, but my beat ends when I click the Exit button.

However, there's some fascinating questions to ask after this convention, which are appropriate to this blog, and I'm inviting SLCC attendees to answer them in the Comments section of this entry:

You met a lot of Residents last weekend, most of whom you've never met in person before; some of them looked and acted very much like their avatars, others not at all. They've also had a chance to meet the person behind your avatar, too. So what happens when you meet again as avatars? Will last weekend change your relationship to them, and how? Will it change the way you act in-world, and how? Post your thoughts here.

UPDATE, 12:30PM EDT: I am writing this from a coffee shop on the Upper West Side, a few hours before I fly back to San Francisco. Having thought I had already logged out of that temporary extension of Second Life into the material world downtown, I find I still can't escape it. A few minutes ago, by total, gobsmacking coicidence, legendary land development entrepeneur Anshe Chung quite literally walked in. She had no idea I'd be here, and until this morning, neither did I; she's here, as it turns out, to meet with a photographer from the Associated Press. He has her log into Second Life from a barstool, so he can capture both the real person and her avatar together. She points me out to the AP guy, however, who promptly shifts her over to a nearby table, so we'll both be in-shot. (Virtual land baroness and virtual reporter, laptop to laptop!) Before she leaves, she offers me two shirts emblazoned with her AnsheChung.com corporate logo (which to maintain some semblance of journalistic integrity, I'll be donating to Linden Lab.)

So despite my best efforts, even now, the worlds just refuse to be kept apart. But I wonder if the Residents I just met feel the same-- please post here, and share.