Ethnography Results, Week 7

Goal

My goal this week was to log on to second life and teleport to a place where I can find high density of people. Then, make a statement about a controversial topic that will trigger a debate. Make observations about the debate, if it is more technical and educational or if it contains more hate words, negative sentiment and derogatory language.

Methods of Study:

• Teleport to the Newbie Island
• Observe the mood of the people.
• Make a controversial statement to trigger a debate.
• Make observations from what people say about the issue.
• Judge the tone of the debate.

When I got to the newbie island, i noticed that one of the guys was changing his costume very frequently. All the costumes he was wearing were superhero costumes. First, he showed up in the spider-man costume, then superman, then batman and lastly he-man.

A controversial statement I used:

"I think all the superheroes are faggots (gay)!"

Observations:

Initially people interpreted this statement as something against the superheroes. So, they started talking about real life superheroes and they help people and why they are important. One of the good point was that super heroes inspire kids to behave well. Some people remained neutral while some people agreed that super hero costumes usually look pretty stupid and lame.

However, soon the debate switched to the other aspect of the statement - Homosexuality. This is what I was really looking for. Homosexuality is a very controversial topic and I wanted to know people's opinions about the issue.

Most people present at the Newbie Island actually supported homosexuality. Most of them said that they had no issues with people being homosexual. One of them asked me straight up that what was my problems with gay people since I made a controversial statement. I tried to keep the debate going. The debate lasted for about an hour.

Tone of the debate:

The debate did not contain a lot of obscene words or hate words. It was surprisingly quite educational. I think one of the reasons for this is the place where you carry on the debate. At the newbie island, most of the folks who frequent there come from good backgrounds - college students, housewives, professionals etc. Also, when I checked the profiles of the people who were present there, most of them were from California, some from New York and New Jersey region, a few from Washington and a couple from Chicago, Illinois. People from other states formed a minority. Since most people available there were from big cities, especially from the west coast, they had a more liberal attitude.

Overall Experience

The overall experience was very interesting. I did collect a lot of qualitative data. It was interesting to know what people think about the LGBT community. Lot of people on SL actually are intelligent and do make sense opposing to the popular belief that people on SL are time-killing procrastinators and losers. I found a lot of interesting people on SL who are professionals, doing great in their lives.

Ethnography Results, Week 6

Due: March 22

Goal:

This week, myself and Pape decided to log into Second Life(SL) at the same time and meet each other in SL and collect the data together. Until now only one of us were logging in and the other took the notes.

Methods of Study:

The methods of study don't change a lot. They remain more or less the same since the only mode of interaction is via IM or VOIP. Observations are crucial, but avatars don't represent the true characteristics of people in real life.

• Teleport to Newbie Island and Help Island. (Since these places always have a lot of people)
• Observe people and their actions.
• Try to initiate conversation with people and judge their tone.
• One new thing that I wanted to study this time was the nature of conversation as friendship on SL strengthens.

Observations:

I observed that people usually don't start conversation with you unless they know you. So, it is usually you who has to take the initiative. One reason behind this is most people you see hanging out on SL have been on SL for some time and are already busy talking with their friends. I started a conversation with a guy. The conversation was short, but interesting. Here it is:

Me: So, who here is from TX?
TK: I’m from north texas….
Me: Where in North texas?
TK: We call it "Oklahoma" but Texans think they own everything.
Me: I'm not sure if they do think that way.... i was not born and raised in TX
TK: It was really a joke
Me: now i am confused...so r u from TX or OK?
TK: Oklahoma
Me: anywho, maybe Texans are indeed very proud about their state. But, on the whole, it’s a pretty good state...and whats wrong in being proud about your home state?
Me: I’ve never been to OK, so i can’t comment :)
TK: It's not bad
Me: i bet it’s not
Me: alright dude, looks like u're getting busy. I’ll get going...was nice talking to u
TK: Take care man
Me: u 2

Towards the end, TK got busy talking to some ladies and started to ignore me, so I took off.

Then I moved on and started talking to my friend - AW. I had a nice time talking to her a couple of weeks ago, so I thought of engaging in a conversation again. Here is the conversation.
Me: hey, how u doin?
AW: sweetheart, sooo good and you
Me: i'm doin fantastic
AW: holy shit…where you been?
AW: um sorry, got surprised
Me: it was a pretty busy week....and i got into a car accident yesterday
AW: oo noo you ok? I’m sorry to hear that
Me: I’m fine....bunch of drunk chicks hit my car....Saturday night, s**t happens.
AW: still that’s bad
Me: hmmm ya, since I don’t drink, I am always safe. The cops filed a report against those gals, i'm off the hook
Me: my car did get damaged from the sides. I’ll will get it fixed soon
AW: damn…but you're ok and your family loves you
Me: omg, i didn’t tell this to my parents, they already have enough to worry about…I don’t want to add to their tensions…
AW: oo they are still in India?? end of wedding season. find you a pretty girl for next year…jk
Me: so, how was your week?
AW: was ok
AW: we had disaster stress test at the bank this Saturday. test environment
AW: it was stressed and a disaster… so thats complete success right?
Me: cool....so do they train u for bank robberies and stuff like that
AW: nooo… i'm not in a branch. i do systems….double thick concrete walls
Me: my bad....i just had that in mind since i saw the movie the town last Friday.
AW: bullet proof glass and double gates. armed guards and double security doors
Me: gosh...that’s tight
AW: no money in the building…just servers. i have almost 10 passwords to work
Me: so what kinda disasters do they train you guys for
AW: everything server failures, logistics failures
Me: hackers?
AW: everything
AW: the easiest one is rotten thinking. Nobody plans for that
AW: everything gets f'd for that. No remedy.
AW: well time for bed here. have fun and be well and drive CAREFULLY
Me: oh, u stay in NY?
AW: nooo, eastcoast yes but not NY……hotlanta
Me: i might be relocating to NY soon…..for grad school
AW: cool, good for you
Me: not sure yet….anyways, i'll talk to u later then....tomorrow's Monday :(
AW: yep almost there….night night
Me: night. sleep tight

Overall Experience:

I think the overall experience was very nice even though we did nothing new this week. I think making friends on SL is similar to the old concept of making pen friends. You don't even know their RL names. You sometimes wonder what their RL names are and what kind of people they are in RL. In general, I observed that as you start making friends on SL, conversations get relaxed, you start talking about your week, your interests and hobbies. Since people are getting lonely in real lives, second life offers an alternative to talk to people and socialize. People even have face book profiles with second life names and have added their second life friends on facebook, who also use their SL names on facebook. Real identity is never revealed. Sometimes, I think this suspense sucks, but maybe it's better that way...because when you start getting to know people well, there is good chance that some of their traits may disappoint you. So, it's a boon in disguise.

* SL: second life

* RL: Real life

Ethnography Results, Week 5

Goal:

Now that we are familiar with different functions, controls and features of the second life game, we started visiting new places, meeting people and making friends. Following were the goals for this week:

• Meet new people.
• Discover new places.
• Start conversations and make friends.
• Get an idea of the overall tone of conversations on Second Life.

Method of Study:

• Teleport to a new location - Newbie Island.
• Observe the interactions between newbies and second life experienced users.
• Observe the actions of people, if they are willing and helpful or reluctant.
• Observe how many people take initiative in starting conversations.

Introduction:

We found a lot of people at the newbie island. However, not a lot of them were newbies though. Most of them were experienced Second Life users who were regular visitors of the place. Many of them knew each other and were busy in conversations. Almost every place on second life has a leader, he the once who owns the place, since land on SL is not free.

I have noticed that some people purposely hang out at places like the help island and the newbie island where they can make contacts with newbies and advertise their business. Many people own businesses on second life and earn real dollars from the sale of virtual products. They try to lure newbies into buying products and earn money. However, as long as you are clever enough not to go on a shopping spree as soon as you sign up on second life, you can save yourself from most of the trouble.

There are many people like you and me, college students, professors, scientists, inventors and businessmen who also have second life avatars. Interaction with nice people on second life can often be very motivating and enlightening.

Newbie Island Screenshots

Detailed Description:

After landing at the newbie island, we tried to start conversation with some of the people who seemed to be doing nothing. We were successful in getting some of them to talk to us. A couple of them recommended us some interesting places worth visiting. However, these conversations were pretty short. These people seemed like experienced users bored with newbie questions.

However, while we were wandering around the place, one of the ladies initiated the conversation with me. I am not sure why she did that, maybe she thought I was lost and lonely, or maybe something else. Anyway, it turned out that we had a long and very interesting conversation that went for couple of hours. Following are the parts of the conversation:

me: how would you compare SL meetings and interactions with RL interactions?

MB: when you meet someone in sl it’s more the character than the stuff that shines, so when you meet them in RL after knowing them in SL, you already know them, just now you see they have a twinkle in their eye; or wow those are some big feet… hmmm looks diff than in picture but who cares, it’s your friend….you've bypassed all the stuff and gotten to the essence of that person much faster.

MB: why do you ask?

me: hmm, i was just curious....i have read about ppl meeting on SL and then actually meeting in RL, some of them even ended up gettin' married.

MB: yes, i know some...some form RL relationships, some even get married while some horribly fall on their faces. just because you chat in sl doesn't mean you are mentally well or prepared to be with a virtual stranger. One may have horrible personal habits in RL.

MB: so what bought you to SL?

me: honestly, a class project. u?

MB: non profits, art, fun...it's all here.

Then she provided me with some interesting landmarks to visit. She mentioned a place where native Americans tell people about their culture. They do this to increase awareness about their cultural values. She also gave me a landmark in Texas called "The Lonestar". During the conversation I mentioned that I was on SL as a part of the HCI class project and gave her the link to my blog. After that, the conversation goes like this:

MB: r u indian?

me: yes ma'am ,i am....where r u from?

MB: Germany, working in the US in the finance industry.

MB: you might like this place : paradise. I love it there. Pluralism rocks!

me: indeed it does!

MB: thats why i love sl you can be in the room and have all continents there and all get along...fabulous

me: yup, i think i'm gonna get addicted to this thing, it's way better than FB

MB: fb is for kids and grandmoms

me: i think i'm gonna be a SL junkie

MB: never never leave...i love it here.

me: i dont think i will :) now that i can make friends from all over the world

MB: it can be intelligent conversation or just silly goofy stuff. you can make a lot of contacts and connections. I have met disney inventors, people from hallmark and many creative people on SL. and obviously, and some very stupid drunk ones too.

me: just like RL, there are wise people and there are always some stupid ones, but atleast SL brings all of em closer....and i dont mind meeting stupid ppl :)

me: i met one australian lady on SL who owns a furniture business on SL, she's disabled in RL, making fortune on SL. now thats the power of innovation...changing lives. its up to you if u wanna change it to better or worse.

After this verbose conversation, she sent me a friend request. I had just made yet another friend on SL.

Some advantages of Second Life

Virtual Conferencing

I realized that second life can be used as a tool for virtual conferencing. Two sisters, living in different continents meet on second life everyday, have lunch and go for shopping together. Thus, second life can act as an important communication channel and can help in fostering relationships.

Making contacts and connections

You can make professional contacts on second life. You might need an appointment to meet a CEO of a company, but if he is signed up on SL, he is totally approachable. There are many professionals on SL, who are very busy in their personal lives and spend some leisure time on SL.

Thinking beyond the differences

You can meet and make friends with people from various countries, having different religious backgrounds and skin color. Second life avatars filter out the external differences and the emphasis is laid on the character, thoughts and the person's ideas. It is very possible that you might not be comfortable talking to a person in real life just because he/she doesn't look like you, doesn't talk like you or maybe doesn't share the same religious values that you do, however, you can befriend this person very easily on SL, thus filtering out all the differences and removing the barrier that restricts the flow of ideas.

Overall Experience:

Just like real life, not everyone on second life is a nice person and everyone has to pick and choose their friends, people who match their own interests and hobbies. The overall experience was wonderful, I had a really nice conversation, got to know new places and made a friend. Some conversations on SL can be a total waste of time, while others can be interesting, informative and motivating.

Ethnography Results, Week 4

Goal:

Until now I have been discovering new places on Second Life and getting familiar with how different features work. Having acquired that preliminary knowledge, my aim this week was to actually interact with people, rather than simply observing their behavior. This week, I wanted to make friends on Second Life.

Methods of Study:

• Teleport to already visited or some new locations.
• Observe the general behavior of the people.
• Start conversations with different people and get an idea of their general attitude towards newbies.
• Try to make new friends on Second Life.

Locations:

I have set Texas A&M University campus as my default location, so I always start my Second Life session with the Texas A&M Campus. However, so far I have always found the Texas A&M campus empty. Next I teleported to the Standford Campus, then to the IEEE society but all these places were empty.

It was my observation that people mostly sign up for second life for relaxation and to make friends rather than going to universities and libraries, which is why I found all the libraries and college campuses I have visited so far to be empty. People tend to be at places like clubs and beaches where they could hang out with their friends.

So finally, I teleported to one of the places I had visited before and knew that I would find lot of people there. The place was - The Help Island. I have talked about this place in my week 2 results.

Screenshot: The Help Island

Like I had expected, I did find a lot of people here. I did start talking to some people and told them that I was a noob. I asked them about what they usually do on second life, what interests them about second life, what are the places that are worth visiting and questions like these. Following are some of the conversations I recored:

Conversation with AF: (I won't be disclosing names to maintain player's privacy).

Jaideep Balekar: Hi, could you tell me about some interesting places I could visit on SL?

AF: there u go hun thats a load of places u can go

JaideepBalekar: thanks so much!

AF: do u need places to get cloths as well? and that is a place to get free stuff

JaideepBalekar: sure, i am a noob and my clothes are pretty dorky :)

JaideepBalekar: i love free stuff..!

AF: lol well that is a folder of a whole bunch of free stuff

JaideepBalekar: thanks !

JaideepBalekar: btw where are you from?

JaideepBalekar: are there any do and donts I should know about SL?

AF: not really just have fun

JaideepBalekar: alright, thanks a lot AF!

AF: yw

My short conversation with Arc:

JaideepBalekar: hey wats up arc?

Arc: fine how about u ?

Arc: ur quiet new to SL

JaideepBalekar: yes, very new :) what about you?

Arc: i am five months old

JaideepBalekar: so, what made you sign up ?

Arc: brb RL call

Arc: ok jai i was surfing net around august of last year then i saw this website and i like it better than other chatting webs

JaideepBalekar: hmmm, i got here because of a class project and i'm actually liking it here

Arc: but dont become addict to this game ok:)

JaideepBalekar: well, i'll try not to :)

JaideepBalekar: actually, i have to run to my next class. It was nice talking to you. Can I add you as a friend?

Arc: yeah of course

Arc: but i usually come once a month or twice

Friendship offer accepted.

JaideepBalekar: alright bud, ttyl. hope to c u online sometime

Arc: ok bye take care

Finally, I had another conversion with yet another player on Second Life. I'll abbreviate her name as GM. She is from Australia. The conversation was very long and verbose, so I'll summarize it instead. This person told me about some nice places on SL where I can find nice people to hang out with. We asked each other about our interests and got introduced. During the conversation, she told be that she is disabled in real life and that made it very challenging for her to engage in any kind of work in real life. Instead, she run a furniture and resale business on SL and earns real money through this business. I thought this was a really interesting notion. She spends 6 hours a day on second life selling her stuff, so it's pretty much like a job for her.

During night though, she works at a night club as a dancer. It was interesting to know that a person who is disabled in real life can cross the limits and discover new horizons in second life. She also left me a piece of advice - she told me that some people on SL aren't nice and that they can actually trick you into getting your money (linden dollars, which can be converted into USD). Then she invited me to her place in Australia and introduced me to her husband. She had her shop at her place and a rest area for visitors. She told me about how people buy land, houses and other stuff on SL and pay USD for it. People have their businesses and do jobs on second life. Then, I had to end my conversation because I was getting late for the class. However, it was wonderful to talk to these people and get better insight into Second Life.

Screenshot: GM's house and guest area

Overall Experience:

I enjoyed the overall experience this week since I got to talk to people and make friends. During the first two weeks, I was wondering what people really do on second life. Second life can get pretty boring if there is no human interaction. Making new friends and hangings out with them takes the notion of pen friends to a new level. The general attitude of the three persons I talked to was very amiable. They were very helpful and also provided me with some useful advice.

Ethnography Results, Week 3

Goal:

This week we decided to visit more communities, and tried to interact with people. we wanted to find communities that had large gatherings, but as we will explain later on, we believe finding these large communities depends highly on the time of day you play second life.

Methods of Study:

• Teleport to different locations - college campuses, libraries, coffee shops, clubs, beaches etc.
• Observe people and their actions.
• Try to initiate conversation with people and judge their tone.
• Notice what music and visuals are playing at different places and what relation it has with the environment of that particular place.

Locations and Communities:

Since Dr. Hammond had asked us if there were any classes held on the Texas A&M second life campus, we decided to go back to Texas A&M and tried to see if any classes were held. We went at night, so there were not any classes, however we were able to take screen-shots of announcement boards.

Screenshot-Texas A&M bulletin board:

As can be seen by the boards, not a lot seems to be happening on the second life campus. We were able to go to the classes, but did not see any meeting times scheduled. From there, we decided to go to Tom Bukowski's house (A.K.A. Tom Boellstorff). Mr. Boellstorff has done some research on second life, and I was curious to know if he was at the home he set up on purpose to conduct interviews, and studies. The name of the location where he "lives" is called Ethnographia.

Screenshot - Ethnographia



Since we did not find anyone at home, we decided to fly around the house to look at the scenery. Lo and behold, we discovered the FCA(first church of atheism) building. Having heard a bit about this community from the CHI classmate doing research on the reddit community, we decided to check it out. As soon as you land near the building, you get greeted with a card that was interesting to read. We plan to bring bring the things we read to class. No one was there though, but we wonder if, and when they actually meet.

Screenshot - FCA(first church of atheism)

Afterward, I thought I'd try coffee shops like Starbucks and Starstruck but did not find people. I did notice how one Starbucks coffee shop was very different from another. The music also would be different.
I then went to a place where new second life users go. There I met a new user who I interacted with. She was new to second life, and told me she had joined because of her friend. An interesting thing I noticed, is that when both of us would start typing to each other, the other would stop typing. The same thing happens in the real world when someone tries to talk at the same time as someone else, but then you stop to let the other person talk first.

Screenshot - Starbucks and Starstruck

A bit of my conversation with the new second life user can be found below. I changed his/her name for privacy.

Kat : Hi. I am new too..
me: that's cool:) I'm really overwhelmed by all there is to learn about
Kat: very overwhelming.. haven't seen anyone.. you're the first i've seen here.
Kat:I need to read on more about it.. don't know what to do
me:I have another friend who recently joined also so I may ask him to give me crash course... so anyways is there a reason for joining second life?
Kat: friend told me about it. he suggested I would li9ke it.. here i am .. clueless :)
me: I actually joined SL as part of a class project- I basically have a few weeks to write a report on my findings about SL
Kat: That's cool. I hope to get better with the game. It's after 12 now, hope to see you again. It was nice talking to you.
me: Cool - nice talking to you- If you want feel free to add me as a friend- I'll try to go to more places in the coming weeks.
Kat:Ok, Thanks a lot.. Tell me how it goes.
me: CIAO!
Kat: C-ya!

Experience:

The overall experience was good, but we wish we had met more people. The chief reason for that is that we were playing second life at night and most users were offline. For next week, we plan to also log onto second life during the day.

Ethnography: Week 2 Results

Goal:

The goal for week 2 was to enter different communities and observe people's method of interaction and behavior. We wanted to study the general environment of different places. We wanted to observe if people would notice that we were new members and if they wanted to approach us and talk with us.

Methods of Study:

• Teleport to different locations - college campuses, libraries, coffee shops, clubs, beaches etc.
• Observe people and their actions.
• Try to initiate conversation with people and judge their tone.
• Notice what music and visuals are playing at different places and what relation it has with the environment of that particular place.

Locations and Communities:

First, we started with the Texas A&M Campus. We visited different places like the Bonfire memorial, Cushing Library, the MSC flagroom and some classrooms. However, we couldn't anyone on the campus. So, we thought of discovering new places.

Screenshot:

Next, we decide to go to a public library, but it was also empty, so we decided to go to the Standford Campus, Palo Alto. However, the Standford campus was also empty on this Friday night.

Screenshot - Stanford Library:

After finding no one at the Stanford and the Texas A&M Campus, we went to one of the featured places - The Help Island. Here we met many people who were all there to help newbies like us! I think that was pretty exciting. No one approached to us first, but once we asked for help, one of the guys invited us to his Cedar Park, Newbie University.

Screenshot - The Help Island

Lastly, we teleported to the newbie university and got lessons about Second Life. One of the guys from the help island who invited us to the newbie university accompanied us to this university and instructed us about finding the lesson and places to seek help.

Screenshot - Cedar Park Newbie University.

Experience:

The overall experience was very exciting. This was our very first exploration of the second life communities. This was the first time that we had interaction with people. Even though no one approached us and talked to us, but when we seeked help, people were more than willing to help. There were situations where some people tried to ignore or avoid us. These experiences will help us to tweak our behavior in order to gather more data starting next week.

Ethnography: Week 1 Results

We did the following this week:

• Installed Second Life on our computers.
• Created a login ID and entered the second life world.
• Explored the Texas A&M Campus.
• Created the avatar, learnt movements and how to fly.
• Took the Texas A&M Second Life tutorials and went through the rules.

Ethnography Ideas

1. How many students have ever downloaded or still illegally download copyrighted software/music/video? Personal information will be kept confidential.
   (DC++, torrents and other P2P sharing methods? Did you know that Texas A&M has one of the largest shared volume on DC++?)


2. How many people would prefer an open-source operating system like Ubuntu on their computers rather than sticking to Windows?


3. Observe how many people at Sbisa (or any restaurant) choose to have healthy food like salads, subs and soups as opposed to eating pizzas or burgers.