All in the name of research
I am so glad I went to SLCC this summer. No there weren’t any "academic" panels, but I met so many long-time Second Lifers over beer and wine that it turned out to be helpful. I guess that’s what research is all about: booze and chat, mostly a lethal combination, sometimes a useful one.
As I was fretting over how to get any griefers out of their dens to talk to me, I came up with this brilliant idea that I should ask some of my new "friends" to see if they knew any of them. My first friend, who lives in Pi, a exclusive community of hackers, told me that he was in contact with one of the well-known griefers in IRC. He also mentioned that he had been served with papers so he may not be in-world that much. So as I was thinking about downloading an IRC client to find this guy, I remembered meeting another "friend" at the Crow Bar in San Fransisco, who had told me that he was good at connecting people, that was his "job description" so-to-speak. Later, I met this guy in-world at one of the radio show programs and made friends with him. I figured, time to test his abilities to connect people… When I saw him in-world yesterday, I asked him if he knew any griefers. It took him about five minutes to get me in touch with someone else who knew some of these griefers! This morning I had two e-mails in my inbox from them. Five minutes… We’ll see how this goes or if they would be willing to pursue this, but I intend to buy a beer for the intermediary guy… Quite impressive.
I just want to go on the record to say that I really hate my job and I don’t enjoy a single minute of it. Last night when I was talking with my friend on the phone and was telling all the details of what went on about SL (quite excitedly I might add), he stopped me short and told me that he didn’t need the details, just the headlines. I was a bit upset asked him "What the h*%$ do you want me talk about then? What do you want to know?" Almost sheepishly he said "Well I wanted to know what you were up to…" To which I replied "I am telling you what I’m up to. I’ve been living breathing SL for the last couple of weeks!" More like last year. We were both a little apologetic afterwards. We’re going for a beer tonight to make nice. LOL.
Svarga and grey goo
I finally started my Second Life chapter, primarily because I have to present next Saturday, Dec 2nd, which, by the way, is also my birthday. I figured it may also be the nth birth of my dissertation, who knows… Maybe I can nail this thing down once and for all. Trying to keep up some optimism, which I am running low on these days.
I started writing the beginning of the chapter and everything seems to be coming along nicely. Once the theoretical framework is in place, I intend to talk about three in-world cases: Svarga, the experimental ecosystem that Lauk created in-world. The plants grow and replicate, the bees carry pollen and cross-pollinate plants, birds feed, weather changes, etc… Truly remarkable case of hacking.
Then I will look at the grey goo incidents caused by griefers, who also create self-replicating objects, but for a bad purpose: to crash sims.
And all of a sudden it dawned on me: Lauk and the griefers are probably using similar scripts! I am sure they are not identical and have differences, but they both create self replicating objects–for different purposes and outcomes. What a revelation! In terms of textual poaching, This aligns with what Certeau and Jenkins had in mind when they said, poaching does not have to be negative in total opposition with the authorial intention, it could also be aligned with it.
The third case will be the copybot disaster: A group of hackers creating a tool that is ultimately used to grief. What a fine line between hacking and griefing…
I am hopeful, but I won’t call it a touchdown until i see the re-play.
Copybot and Second Life
Last week all hell came lose in SL. Libsecondlife, a group of volunteer programmers, created a software called copybot which copies objects in the sim. For example, the minute an avatar comes near you, it can take your shape, or it can replicate any object in the sim… And Linden Lab didn’t realize the negative effects of this in time, nobody did. The result: the SL blogs and forums exploded with protests from the residents claiming that SL economy will go down the toilet if this program is not removed all together. The libsecondlife programmers were crucified as demons who are wreaking havoc in SL. How dare they? Some shop owners closed down shop just to protest this monumental event. The SLED list exploded with e-mails that are defending and opposing the technology. Did somebody say griefing? Of course, as an attentive researcher, I quickly started bookmarking copybot news on the Internet, saving e-mails, asking for permissions from people. Too good to miss, I almost salivated at the face of this opportunity. What is most interesting, it that here is an incidence where the role of the hacker blurs with that of the griefer. When do you pass that line between being a helpful programmer and being an evil griefer? Over night, you find yourself in a hole being stoned! That, my friend, is a pretty interesting social phenomena.
Do I think copybot is going to take the SL economy down? Hell no. Here are some reasons:
- You can’t copy the script, just the shape.
- No way you can stop people from stealing this type of information on the Web, so let’s get used to it.
- History is full of doomsday examples. When radio stations multiplied in Turkey and played copyrighted songs on their stations, music stores cried bloody murder, fearing that their businesses would close down. Did it? Well some did and some didn’t. And we moved on.
As we all know it by now, the notion of copyright needs a major revision in this day and age. Let’s be realistic. Fake objects can bring more revenue to the producers of the real ones just because they advertise the real brand in a relatively cheap fashion. But in the meantime, I will collect the stories that are written and performed,
Dissertation fellowship proposal
Though I had initially given up on the idea of submitting anything for the dissertation fellowship, I changed my mind after I received my letter of rec from one of my chairs. I said to myself, "They believe in me, I can’t let them down." So back to writing something that is not going to win the fellowship anyway. An exercise in futility… First and foremost, my focus changed from the time my introduction got approved, so I can’t talk about what i want to write about because it would contradict with the letter of rec already in existence. So for the last two days, I pulled my hair out trying to write something that doesn’t contradict with what’s already been written but also show the new area of what I want to explore. Gotta tell you, these last two days were quite challenging. I was indeed quite uncooperative, "bitchy" (for lack of a better term), stressed, non-negotiable. I wanted to destroy stuff, literally…
Finally, after two days of looking at the screen, typing, deleting, crying, not only I wrote a proposal that doesn’t contradict with what i have written, but also takes the new approach of my dissertation. I actually like this stuff! When I send this in, I won’t even be lying or pretending to say that I will do something that I won’t… And it is interesting (I think). Maybe it wasn’t an exercise in futility after all. What are chairs are for?
Life’s little twist and turns
Funny how life has a way of pulling me back to academia. God knows I had my doubts along the way and I still do. I quit school for about a year and worked at Borders wowing never to return to school, I started working at private sector, almost liked it too much, I had special friends who tried to convince me that I wasn’t happy doing what I am doing and i should find a job and end this misery. But it is so interesting that little things happen that keep pulling me back to academia. Coincidences… Either i run into my profs who encourage me to come back or fellow grad students who are studying for their comprehensive exams as i am selling cds at Borders, or have boyfriends who open up new fields of interest and pull me back into my studies, or I see how boring working at the private sector can be. All in all, I have come to the verge of quitting my Ph.D. more than I can count. But in the end, I quit Borders, I dump the whining boyfriend, I reduce my work hours at the private sector which pays me super well and I come back to the same place.
I used to think that I never made an informative decision when I chose graduate studies, and that being born to parents who are hardcore academics, I breathed the stuffy air early on and never knew anything else. My earliest memories were playing with my Fisher Price toys in my father’s office or answering the phone as Doctor Itir at the hospital where my mom researched… I was jinxed for life I thought. Never had a chance… Now seeing these coincidences and how much i try to pry myself away from this and yet keep coming back, I am beginning to think differently. Maybe I was born to do this, maybe i am fighting against my fate.
The reason why I am writing about this now is that a similar thing happened two days ago. I had told my chairs several months ago that I would be applying for a dissertation fellowship. Well lately I’ve been so stressed and overworked I gave up the whole idea. I was planning on e-mailing them and let them know, but I figured, they probably already forgot about it. Two days ago, I checked my department mailbox and found a letter of recommendation from one of my chairs. All of a sudden I realized that they trust that I will make it in the field so much that they didn’t forget my request, and they delivered. That meant so much to me. I realized that I can’t let these people down, they believe in me.
