Identity at “Play” in Virtual Worlds

Taryn StankoJonathon Richter

University of Oregon

Oregon Immersive Education Conference, 2010

Research Overview and Introduction

Virtual Organizations as SocioTechnical Systems grant from the National Science Foundation

Alan Meyer, Kathryn Aten, Luciara Nardon, Taryn Stanko, & Jonathon Richter

Sun Microsystems: Nicole Yankelovich & Kevin Roebuck

St. Paul College: Warren Sheaffer

Comparing team use of Second Life vs. Wonderland within Sun

Development of a Collaboratory: working in, authentic context, showcase results

Intercultural issues, open source as a phenomenon, collaboration routines & identity

Identity at “Play” in Virtual Worlds

Identity in Virtual Worlds

Researchers have examined virtual worlds as a place to explore and “play” with identity (e.g. Turkle, 1995; Ducheneaut & Moore, 2004)

Emphasis is often on how individuals use virtual worlds for play/online gaming

Some important exceptions (e.g. Reeves and Read, 2009)

What About “Work” Identity?

Work identity: How an individual defines himself or herself at work (Wrzesniewski and Dutton, 2001)

Work activities provide opportunities for identity building (Van Mannnen, 2009)

How does work identity emerge and evolve in a virtual work environment?

Sociomateriality as a Lens

Why is sociomateriality a useful concept for studying identity in virtual environments?

All Interactions mediated through technology

Level of plasticity

Immersive nature

Importance of Routines

Routines as a way to help us view and study both the social and material in action and how they shape one another in this environment

Organizational routines provide opportunity for self-reflective behavior (Feldman and Pentland, 2003)

Data and Methods

Grounded theory approach In-depth interviews

Scientists, educators, software developers Routines protocol and identity protocol

Participant observation

Pictures, machinima, written descriptions of routines

Findings

Work in virtual settings elicits self-perceived & profound changes in work identity over time.

Witnessing a remarkable variation in adoption of work routines across work settings and by individual role.

Alignment of work and identity in virtual worlds requires adjustments in both domains.

The “real” affects the virtual... and vice versa

Emergent Themes

Push to align avatar with offline self Transformative forces on work Routines developed around affordances:

Plasticity and Immediacy

Back Channel Communication

Feedback Loops

How these routines shape identity

Theme 1: Plasticity and Immediacy

Plasticity and flexibility around both environment and avatar

Age, size, shape, clothing, color, gender, etc.

Alternate avatars Ease of change

Theme 1: Plasticity and Immediacy

Theme 2: Back Channel Communication

Multiple forms of communication Individual to individual text Individual to group text Audio

Informal Simultaneous

Theme 2: Back Channel Communication

Theme 3: Dynamic Interaction

Building on multiple affordances Manipulating objects Simultaneous text and audio

Sharing, creating complex knowledge Highly dynamic, interactive

Theme 3: Dynamic Interaction

Phases of Adoption

Phases

l------------------l---------------------l----------------------------------l-----------------------------l--------------------------lPre-entry Entry Reality Check Starting to Click Retooling Maturity

Time ------>

Phases

l------------------l---------------------l----------------------------------l-----------------------------l--------------------------lPre-entry Entry Reality Check Starting to Click Retooling Maturity

Time ------>

Emerging Questions

What is the most appropriate balance between transferring offline routines for virtual world use and creating new ones?

How should issues around ownership of “self” in virtual worlds be managed?

To what extent should we keep vs. discard the elements of ‘play’ or ‘game’ like dimensions of virtual worlds?

The Collaboratory

Design Charrettes with Nancy Cheng

Architect Brian Lockyear Use of a Pattern Language that fits our data (data – wiki - collaboratory) Google Sketchup (SketchLife) Sketchup model to Open Wonderland Connecting Wonderland and Second Life Collaboratories

http://virtualinnovation.wikispaces.com/

Questions?