This site contains a (strangely, horizontal..) list of polaroid pictures of real people, each with a caption that states what that person would like to do before they die.

Here are some of my favourites polaroids from the site..

What do you want to do before you die?

My answer is below. :-)

To me, virtual/online worlds conjure up images of freedom…

I’ve never participated in a community in Second Life – but after reading about SL in various media articles, I gave in and checked it out.

If I’m going to be brutally honest, it looked horribly boring.. A game without rules and restrictions, or a fancy, pixelated extension of internet chat rooms. Either way, I wasn’t interested in participating. But I was interested in the sociology of Second Life – in how it’s residents interacted and whether this virtual society was impacted by social norms from the ‘real world’.

I carried out a study on the social norms and relationships between people on IRC, four years ago (possibly the only part of my degree that I actually enjoyed..). I’ve been a participating member in various IRC communities for around a decade. The social norms and the general sociology of online communities has fascinated me ever since I first logged into a chatroom and began thinking about how a virtual world was different from the ‘real world’.

I wont flatter myself into thinking that anyone (or many people, anyway!) would be interested in what I think about the ethnology/sociology of Second Life. However, The Bryant Park Project have filmed an interesting video.. It may not be rocket science, but it’s interesting nonetheless – I can practically guarantee will get you thinking (even if you’re adamant that you just don’t care about the sociology of online communities!)

A virtual world is free of social and cultural ties, free of the pressures of conformity, free from the confines of the social norm.. Or so we may imagine. The question is,

Are we ever as free as we think we are?

If you’re interested in this sort of thing – check out The Daedalus Project – The Psychology of MMORPGs.