Homeless in Second Life

On: December 5, 2006
About Michael Stevenson
I am a lecturer and PhD candidate in Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. I've been a contributor to Masters of Media since 2006, though I now only post occasionally. A short list of papers and projects can be found here

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A while back I promised to become the first bum on second life, but it seems someone has beat me to it. The NGO Mensajeros de la Paz has created a homeless, teenage avatar to raise awareness (and money?) for abandoned and abused children in developing countries.

Not trying to take anything away from this initiative, but I do wonder how Second Life keeps getting press.. who are the real world avatars that make it such a big deal? There are those that point to new opportunities for experimentation with identity, and those that emphasize the ‘real world consequences’ like making (or losing) money.. I dunno, in both cases Second Life isn’t especially new, is it?
At picnic ’06 there were marketing executives that were very happy about ’embracing’ second life so soon. Maybe we could go ahead and start a Second Life backlash (which, barring a YouTube-like sale, is probably the only real measure of success on the Web)?

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