The Use Of Avatars
- 1. The Uses of Avatars Business, Communications, Government, and Academics Presented by: Jennifer Nasipak, Jessica Solomon, Victoria Henderson
- 3. Why Avatars? The answer is as simple as they are – because they have a multitude of uses, and keep us safe when we need to present a face to the World Wide Web. Also, Avatars are fun, creative and they are everywhere.
- 4. Elements of Avatars Name comes from Hindu mythology - temporary body a god inhabits while visiting Earth. In cyberspace, the term was used to describe the visual embodiment of users Represent the real time embodiment of people in a graphical image of a user, alter ego, a body double
- 5. Avatars in Business Gartner suggests six guidelines to make the best use of avatars in the business world: Help users learn to control their avatars Recognize that users will have a personal affinity with their avatar Educate users on the risks and responsibilities of reputation management Extend the code of conduct to include avatars in 3D virtual environments Explore the business case for avatars Encourage usage and enterprise pilots.
- 6. Avatars in Communication Advertising/ Pop-Up People Avatar mail Chatting Situations Social Networking SIMs SecondLife MMORPGS
- 7. Avatars in Government new meeting of human communications. SecondLife Federal Government tests out new policies and ideas
- 8. Avatars in Academics Online Classes More personal Helps Audio Learners
- 9. Wrap Up Avatars are useful They are varied in representation format Avatars represent your digital self Businesses, Classrooms, and the Government use them for various situations and reasons Avatars are EVERYWHERE, not just on the Internet!
- 10. References Muni Gov 2.0, https://sites.google.com/site/munigov20/Home/second-life Gravatars, http://en.gravatar.com/ Dr. Angela Thomas, Avatars as Communication, http://www.slideshare.net/anya/the-avatar-as-communication Bob Pearson, Common Sense Blog, http://www.csmg.us/2009/10/guidelines-for-using-avatars-in-business.html NuRelm, Avatars in E-Learning, http://www.nurelm.com/resources.jsp?pageId=2161392210281162147507764 Byron Reeves, Leighton Read, the Harvard Business Review, http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/01/avatars_at_work.html
- 11. Thanks for Listening! From: Jennifer Victoria and Jessica
Editor's Notes
- #5: No one really knows how to define the avatars, but originally the word comes from Hindu mythology and is the name for the temporary body a god inhabits while visiting Earth. Avatars can also be “an embodiment or concrete manifestation of an abstract concept”. In relationship to cyberspace, Chip Morningstar first used the term to describe the visual embodiment of users in the early days of Habitat back in 1985. Avatars, as Bruce Damer said: Represent the real time embodiment of people in cyberspace and the fundamental avenue to meaningful community and a sense of place and memory, online for the general population and for the business world. Avatars and inhabited cyberspaces are in their early phases in terms of knowledge management, but they are here to stay. Simply put, an avatar is a graphical image of a user, a duplicate representing someone else on a computer screen. Think of an avatar as an alter ego, a body double in the virtual world of the internet.
- #6: According to the industry analysts at Gartner, “that by year-end 2013, 70 percent of enterprises will have behavior guidelines and dress codes established for all employees who have avatars associated with their organization when they’re online.” Gartner suggests six guidelines to make the best use of avatars in the business world: Help users learn to control their avatars Recognize that users will have a personal affinity with their avatar Educate users on the risks and responsibilities of reputation management Extend the code of conduct to include avatars in 3D virtual environments Explore the business case for avatars Encourage usage and enterprise pilots.
- #7: Advertisers use pre-recorded images of people that pop up on websites Avatar mail, uses an avatar to speak to your recipients giving them the expressive clues that normal face to face interaction would have, that email would not. Avatars are used in chatting situations like IMVU where you can create yourself, an environment and interact with others in the same setting. Social Networking MMORPGS SecondLife IMVU Yahoo! Avatars Gravatars (Globally Recognized Avatars) These use anything from your actual picture to a whole body you create and use like a simulacra. Even the SIMs are avatars, and in some communities like SecondLife or MMORPGS you can make them interact with others and their environment
- #8: Avatars represent a brand new meeting of human communications. The virtual worlds are worlds where people come to socialize, where people come to build cities, work, and try utopian experiences, to build together and learn together. - Bruce Damer There is a social network called SecondLife which adds a multiplayer function to a SIMs like program. Local governments are finding it useful for things such as tourism, training, meetings, networking and planning/design. How the Federal government uses is similar, by using fake communities they can test out new policies, ideas and then plan based on how well they worked.