If it's Virtual, Is it Community?
By Lynda Weinman
This industry loves buzzwords; among my favorites is "community." Creating community is generally lauded as noble and honorable, but it's often a thinly disguised means to attract traffic to your site or encourage visitors to buy your product.
Many of us tend to be technocentric, thinking that answers lie in technologies instead of content or concepts. Numerous technologies exist that supposedly create community -- from virtual worlds to avatars, virtual reality, Quicktime VR, and VRML. Call me a skeptic, but just because something can spin in 3D space, is rendered with realistic shading, or can move in real time doesn't mean it will magically generate community. I'm not so sure the answer lies in technology at all -- more likely, it lies in people's desire to communicate, share, and interact.
As visual designers who affect the way technology looks and feels, it's important not simply to pursue the technology, but to give thought to its purpose. To this end, I'll focus this month on visual-chat software, its potential for creating community, and possible guidelines for successful design.
Avatars and Role Playing
Watching my eight-year-old pretend she's a Spice Girl, or role play with stuffed animals, or dress up in strange costumes makes me wonder if there aren't little girls and boys locked inside us all who crave to be someone else and explore uncharted worlds. Perhaps the computer is our ultimate therapy machine for role playing, and we'll be able to work out our aggressions, ambitions, and anxieties in virtual environments instead of in war, work, or home life.<>
