Comments on: Virtual Gender: Q&A with Jamison Green

By: Ener Hax

Ener Hax — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:26:19 +0000

Very well written, balanced, and reasonable. As time passes and adoption of 3D realms continues, these issues will (hopefully) become less relevant. If an employee was good enough to hire in the first place, it is likely they will portray themselves in an appropriate manner (appropriate being the operative and subjective word).

That said, I did run across a LinkedIn discussion where someone was looking for a way (software) to enforce very strict company presence of their employees in ALL social networking arenas. It reminded me of how a photo was a standard item to include with your resume in the 60's. Clearly used as a discriminatory tool. Which is interesting considering how centre your image is in LinkedIn. I venture to say that the use of your image in social networking is again being used by others in shallow judgement.

As for me, I will stay either a small genderless beaver or a pink haired fairy with wings.

btw Maria, thanks in part to you, we have now entered into Reaction Grid as resellers – thank you for all your wonderfully written posts =)

By: Kelley Winters

Kelley Winters — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:54:03 +0000

I think I would go a bit further than my friend Jamison in questioning how far an employer should be allowed to go in imposing its own gender expression, racial expression, ethnic expression, or as Brian suggests, rendering of physical challenges upon diverse employees in virtual graphic spaces.

Being a geek gal, however, I thought I should try Second Life before commenting. I installed their app (only at beta revision) on my ubuntu notebook, set up an account, and found myself standing in a stone plaza for new arrivals, wearing a really hideous punkish looking outfit that certainly didn't reflect my identity. I found the menus for configuring my appearance and told them to change my hair and clothes. Instead, the server deleted them. All of them. And there was no way to get them back. So there I was, standing naked, busty as Barbie and bald as a peach, in the middle of the newbie plaza. As a large herd of gawking young male avatars gathered around me, I thought about my last boss in the corporate world and felt glad to be retired. At least I made a lot of new friends that afternoon.

By: brian bauer

brian bauer — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:18:33 +0000

This is a subject about which we cannot be passive. For anyone involved in VW imlpementations, you can either address the question properly in the beginning, or potentailly face real challenges down the road. On a related subject, we also need to consider the question of those with physical challenges. i.e. if a user in real life is in a wheel chair, should that physical representation be required in a virtual world? the fip side of that is that many VW's are designed for walking, not rolling. Making a VW "virtually accessible" could result in additional cost. I'd like to hear what others have to say about non-gender related phsyical representations.

By: Patrick M. Callahan

Patrick M. Callahan — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:10:47 +0000

Excellent article about an issue too many view as irrelevant. People work better when they believe they are accepted for who they are rather than for who others would prefer them to be. The bottom line in any business is directly linked to the quality of service or product they provide and that quality is the result of the work of employees. There is a very simple truth that more employers need to remember, support your employees and they will support you.

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Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:23:38 +0000

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By: Marianne McCann

Marianne McCann — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:40:46 +0000

Good article. I know that, as a person who has had to work with some businesses and universities on their Second Life projects, I have had to alter my avatar a time or two for their projects.

I would highlty recommend the book "The Second Life Grid" by Kimberly Rufer-Bach for further delvings into how to handle avatar presentations in the workplace.