Are you willing to verify your identity? Geoff Livingston blogs about it in Opening Identity
"Now more than ever companies, marketers and consumers are concerned about demonstrating identity.
Several recent events have driven that home:
- Second Life and IBM’s initiative to open Second Life avatars so they can be used in a wide variety of virtual worlds"
Geoff also did this great video I've added below to get you thinking.
Since he brings up those two little words "Second Life" - you new this was coming - I have a question.
Are you willing to verify your identity with a trusted third party to assure that those you do virtual business with that you are who you say you are?
Laura Thomas of Dell, Jeff Barr of Amazon, Mitch Wagner of Information Week, writer Aliza Sherman, and dozens of others who take part in the vibrant business community of Second Life have adopted transparent identities that say: "I'm here and I'm who I say I am".
Others aren't so nuts about the idea
Asking a question related to being transparent about who we really are, and even where you can contact us, was met with a notable lack of enthusiasm when I brought it up in - of all places - a discussion about “Persona and Identity Transparency” in Second Life last Friday.
The reaction to my question showed a rather overwhelming opinion favoring “in world” reputation as far outranking any need for transparency of identity in what we might call the real world. Granted, parts of the Second life community are insular and many longtime residents resent suggestions that things might be done differently by a fresh wave of users.
It’s probably safe to predict much ado and an uphill battle to make sure we’re all reading from the same ethics book no matter what world we're dealing with.
And that's not even opening the can of worms about allowing pseudonyms on facebook.
So what's your stance? You know where you can find me. I'm Tynan Clary on Second Life - but that's only because they wouldn't let me be Susan Reynolds.
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