The new industrial revolution
Jemima Kiss wrote on her Guardian blog that Andrew Keen, speaking at a recent conference, compared the industrial revolution to a new digital revolution. He suggests Linkedin, Facebook and MySpace networks are similar to new nations. However, he warns that we will need to push ourselves to find “the heart of this new world”.
Some would say that second life was supposed to be that push – a literal virtual world, where people can live an alternative life through their avatars. But it hasn’t quite turned out that way – Computer Weekly this week reports that the hype has started to die down, although some believe that we’re still in the early adopter phase. The article goes on to say whilst virtual offices and companies selling virtual products have tended to fail (Reuters the latest to quit this week), those using sites for presentations have been more successful as part of a wider communications strategy.
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Tags: Andrew Keen, Second Life, virtual networks
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onewomanandherblog
I have always been very sceptical of Second Life. I have heard many stories of bullying, paedophile rings etc that I have always stayed away. However, academics are being hyped into using this as a tool and I for one am fighting it all the way. Perhaps as a Digial Immigrant – and being a mature student tend to think – what’s wrong with face to face and why would you want to meet in a virtual world and assume a character other than your own – generate a general feeling of distrust. Trust being an essential feature of distance communication either time, distance and now in anoter world!