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Second Life Avatar Study – Volunteers needed (for £5 amazon vouchers)

Slyvar
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Slyvar

Slyvar

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Dear Second Lifers, 

We are looking for volunteers to take part in a study on avatars, conducted jointly by the University of Southampton and the University of Bath.  The study explores the extent to which your Second Life avatar reflects your physical appearance and personality.  We offer £5 Amazon vouchers in compensation for your time.

In addition to answering a few short questionnaires, we would ask you to send us a picture of your avatar as well as of yourself.   The whole process should take you no longer than 30-40 minutes. Please let us reassure you that we are bound by a code of ethics which ensures that we will keep your data secure and private, but do ask us if you have any concerns.

If you think you might be interested in taking part in this study, send me a PM and I will send you more details.  We hope to begin the study in two weeks, on the 16th December, but it will run for some time, so if in doubt, send me a PM!

Dr Greg Neil,

University of Southampton.

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RudolphFarquhar

RudolphFarquhar

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Be warned!

As I have pointed out in a post which has disappeared, presumably because of a software bug since I have received no notification of a problem, this study is funded by the US Department of Homeland Security.

Or maybe the unexplained disappearance of my previous post might suggest something more sinister is afoot?

**********Rudi**********

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Drake1 Nightfire

Drake1 Nightfire

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RudolphFarquhar wrote:

Be warned!

As I have pointed out in a post which has disappeared, presumably because of a software bug since I have received no notification of a problem, this study is funded by the
US Department of Homeland Security.

Or maybe the unexplained disappearance of my previous post might suggest something more sinister is afoot?

**********Rudi**********

Both of those schools are in the Uk. They are offering to pay with a UK gift card.. How exactly is this the work of the US government?

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Perrie Juran

Perrie Juran

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Drake1 Nightfire wrote:

RudolphFarquhar wrote:

Be warned!

As I have pointed out in a post which has disappeared, presumably because of a software bug since I have received no notification of a problem, this study is funded by the
US Department of Homeland Security.

Or maybe the unexplained disappearance of my previous post might suggest something more sinister is afoot?

**********Rudi**********

Both of those schools are in the Uk. They are offering to pay with a UK gift card.. How exactly is this the work of the US government?

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/superidentity/

"The SuperIdentity project is funded by the EPSRC under grant number EP/J004995/1 under the umbrella of the Global Uncertainties initiative, and by the Department of Homeland Security in the US."

So its not just U.S. funds but yeah.......nice to know where my tax dollars are going.

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Dillon Levenque

Dillon Levenque

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 Yes, it appears to be mostly a British project; all the schools I saw mentioned were British. The project's goal seems to be finding better methods of identifying cyber entities with their real identies. It mentions some lofty reasons why that's a good idea, but the project itself is listed under the "Cybersecurity" category by Global Uncertainties and is no doubt of interest to intelligence-gathering types. Not surprising they could involve an American lab and slice off a chunk of Homeland Security money to help out.

I can't imagine they're going to get much useful data from Second Life. Based on what I typically see shown as the RL pic on profiles, not many of us are willing to share that with anyone, let alone a project like this. They're pre-sorting the subject population for a certain type of internet user before they even start asking questions.

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KarenMichelle Lane

KarenMichelle Lane

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The only relevant outcome I can see with this study, given the credentials of the researcher & the organization supporting the study is:

~~ To measure our tendency to relate our avatar selves to our real life selves in some measurable manner for the explicit purposes of breaking down the anonymity barrier without the nuisance of issuing a subpoena to Linden Research.

"Just because I'm paranoid does not mean they are not out to get me!" anon

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Perrie Juran

Perrie Juran

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KarenMichelle Lane wrote:

The only relevant outcome I can see with this study, given the credentials of the researcher & the organization supporting the study is:

~~ To measure our tendency to relate our avatar selves to our real life selves in some measurable manner for the explicit purposes of breaking down the anonymity barrier without the nuisance of issuing a subpoena to Linden Research.

"
Just because I'm paranoid does not mean they are not out to get me!
" anon

 

 

ETA to add the rest of my response:

Wow, I think I may really be living dangerously today.

And this is kind of rough because I actually am a bit of a flag waving American!

You see, this study has a problem.  In order to be academically acceptable they need to obtain data from "ethical" sources.  If they use data from unethical (that would be clandestine) sources they would not be able to publish their work and be academically acceptable.

Let me explain.

It wouldn't surprise me if by the end of the day that someone clandestinely obtains a picture of my Avatar and my RL picture.  Now what worries me is they will discover that there really are Martians here. 

Sound far fetched?  Not really.  The goal of the project is to get their conclusions, based on their methodology, accepted in a Court of Law.  Once accepted, they can go into a Court of Law, state that I really think I am a Martian and say I need protecting from myself.


My response to the Professor is this:  The road to Hades is paved with good intentions.  I hope you are enjoying your trip there.

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colleen Criss

colleen Criss

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I'm not sure that anyone here is going to be of much help. Most people do not create SL avatars to reflect thier RL operators. I'm not sure how Rudi can look like a Fluffee IRL or how a Dragon av, or a doll av or a merfolk av or Dwarfin av or or or ......do you see how this is going to work out?

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Slyvar

Slyvar

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To clarify some of the issues raised in this thread:

This work is part of a larger project that is funded through the EPSRC with support from the DHS.  However, all of our work sits in the public domain and we work within very clear and thorough ethical guidelines which deal very explicitly with issues of confidentiality, data protection, and data sharing.  For every individual, data will not be viewed by anyone other than those directly involved in this research. This means that our funders do not see an individual’s data, only the overall results of our research.  The first thing we send to poterntial participants is an information sheet which provides full details on what data we are collecting and what we are going to do with those data, so anyone participating in the research receives full information before anything else actually happens.  We are very happy to provide reassurance on this both through this post and through individual communications if preferred. 

In terms of the research question of this specific study, we are primarily interested in what factors go into people's choices of avatar.  What is it that makes one person chose one type of avatar and a different person chose a different type?  Why do some people chose to use avatars that reflect their RL appearance, whilst others do not?

Finally, you're right that by looking at second life we are to an extent pre-selecting the sample, but we've chosen Second Life because of the freedom people have in editting their avatars.

 

 

 

 

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Perrie Juran

Perrie Juran

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There is an old saying, "He who has the gold makes the rules."

If you want to convince people your research is purely a social study find funding elsewhere.

I read a good part of your Year Two Progress Report.

Why is so much much of it focused on the use of Cybermetrics in Law Enforcement? 

Sounds like you have a target audience.

And even if you keep my personal data secure and away from the Gov't, why should I support an innitiative that seeks to enhance Gov't intrusion in my life?

While we may sometimes tolerate DHS as a necesary evil, finding out that they are funding your study p*sses me off as a U.S. Taxpayer.  On that level alone I could not participate.

 

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Storm Clarence

Storm Clarence

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But Doc, where is your signature:

"Dr Greg Neil,

University of Southampton"

... on the post above?  Are we to really believe it's *you* posting in response? 

Or, perhaps Mr. Snowden shares your account access? 

PS SL has a large BDSM community as you are well aware.  How long would it be before DHS sponsored a.k.a. funded avatars (with RL photos on file) rezzed some Dolcett in-world before you told them everything about us that they wanted to know?  Just askin'.  

 

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RudolphFarquhar

RudolphFarquhar

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Storm Clarence wrote:

Doc, I was also wondering if you could pass off the daily Mumbai spam posts to your DHS bedmates.  Please ask them to ask the spammer to provide photos of the Indian escorts as part of  the spam.  We may as well enjoy the RL photos of the most prolific posters to SLF.  Don't ya think?

 

Funny you should say this. One of the related studies referenced by the SuperIdentity site is Project Aadhaar, which aims to get fingerprints and iris scans to identify all those escorts and digipimps, inter alia.

Oh, and that project has achieved infamy because one of the firms collecting the identity data, MongoDB (which is a New York company) is funded by the CIA . . .

. . . although at least the CIA have admitted that it funds initiatives which "identify, adapt and deliver innovative technology solutions to support the missions of CIA and the broader US intelligence community."

It gets more and more amusing - and scary.

I'm delighted that nobody knows who I actually am.

Apart from that ex-Russian with an anvil on her head that used to hang around the forums who rang me up at home and tried to sell me some junk bonds, then ordered several pizzas to be delivered to me, which my kids really enjoyed, but which I, of course, refused to pay for.

And anyone else remotely digitally literate.

**********Rudi**********

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