With the growth of social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, all of which revolve around the idea of "friends", I have to wonder what the word really means now. Apart from my "friends" on such sites (both in my capacity as Tom and as my alter ego - all of whom I am very happy to have) I also have a number of Second Life "friends." One or two of them might not deserve those quotation marks, even though I have only virtually clapped eyes on them.
Can one really have so many friends? I don't know about the rest of the world, but the Anglo-Saxons/Celts already use the word more freely than Germans, Poles or Russians. There's a big difference between a freund, a sportfreund and a geschäftsfreund in German for example. You might play squash or do business with someone you would never dream of bringing into your home. The word for "friend" in Polish is quite rare. An Englishman might think that's because przyjaciel is so hard to say, but it trips readily enough off a Polish tongue. Use the female variant carelessly and you may imply rather more than intended. Someone a Brit or American would cheerfully call a friend is more likely - to a Pole - to be a znajomy (literally someone known, i.e. an acquaintance). Many a dobry znajomy or "good acquaintance" probably feels closer than many Anglosphere "friends".
It seems to me that in other cultures, the obligations of friendship are taken more seriously and therefore not given or accepted lightly. When I read that Tony Blair's son had been left drunk in a London gutter by his "friends" years ago, I thought them unworthy of the word. No Russian friend would have done that. He would have seen the unfortunate chap home as, ahem, I can vouch for from personal experience.
The English language is able to make all these important distinctions of course, but from a social point of view it's difficult to do so politely. I did not know whether an Austrian client was a friend or not for years, because his cheery bonhomie in English was so indiscriminate. Only when he described me to someone else in German as his "very good business friend," did I understand my true position. In the Anglosphere, the situation is blurring further as social mores change. My instinct to frost a young salesperson who uses not only my first name, but the chummy abbreviated form, is no longer understood when I visit Britain. I still do it, mind. I suppose they think I am a crusty old sod. I have never bought anything from anyone who does it, which is adequate vengeance for now. Soon though, I shall be unable to shop in person.
When, as I do, one works across cultures, all this can be a cause of confusion. It's perfectly possible, in a recession, for an Englishman to find himself firing someone he has called a friend. Whether the friendship will survive is, admittedly, another matter. In other cultures, it would be simply unthinkable.
I have heard "friend" defined as someone who would come to your funeral, even if it was raining. I am not sure that's a good definition either. I have gone to the funerals of employees who were not my personal friends, to show my firm's respect and gratitude. I know elderly people who go to funerals merely for the social possibilities; a rather maudlin analogue Facebook. Funerals are a poor test.
If a friend is someone who will be there for you if you are in trouble; someone on whose shoulder you could cry if the need arose, how many friends do we really have? Certainly not the large number leaving chirpy messages on Facebook.
How, dear reader, would you define a friend?
BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Whitehall defends 'fantasy world'.
How amusing. The British government has established an "innovations centre" in Second Life. The BBC reports that it has cost twenty thousand pounds to set up and will cost twelve thousand pounds a year to run, but those numbers don't make sense. I thought the journalists always told us they were superior to bloggers because of their editors and their obsessive "fact checking?"
A "private region" or "island" in Second Life - as owned by such companies as Mercedes-Benz and BMW - only costs a thousand US dollars to set up, plus two hundred and ninety-five US dollars a month in "tier fees" (Second Life's "land tax").
From the annual maintenance fee, it therefore looks like this "Innovations Centre" straddles about 4 private regions (almost twice my personal holdings in SL). Yet the reported setup cost would have bought more than twenty regions (even at current exchange rates). I infer that our highly-educated civil servants were incapable of navigating a few set-up screens and have paid a third party taxpayers' money to do it for them. The centre may be virtual, but the fees are real enough.
For what it's worth, I think the government is right to explore the possibilities of using Second Life for virtual meetings etc. It's a bit of a joke at the moment, I know, but it has within it the seeds of Web 3.00. It's just ridiculous (though typical in all but the small amount involved) that it should waste money in the attempt. I would have cheerfully have rented it a centre for $12,000 a year with no setup costs and full support from my in-world staff! Indeed if they called it the Tom Paine Centre for Innovation, I might be prepared to host it for free. If only for the amusement of watching Civil Service noobs staggering about the place.
In the lull after Christmas, I have had chance to spend some time in my virtual domains in Second Life. I know this leaves some readers cold, but I find the whole concept of virtual worlds fascinating. I think they foreshadow the future of the internet. Yes, like the early 'net, they are currently populated by a strange combination of the earnest, the nerdy and the wacko (apart from my very sensible friends, of course) but they will come to be part of our everyday lives in ways as yet unimagined.
For now, they are a space for creativity. For example, an SL friend is currently working on an exhibition of photographs about the history of Second Life. Her subjects are the SL pioneers - those who were there when SL was 16 "sims" (simulators or regions) as opposed to more than 13,000 today. She has had many interesting conversations with these people, some of whom still own well-known clubs and other businesses in-world. One of my own longest running activities in Second Life is my art gallery, which features a private collection of artworks made in SL, as well as providing free exhibition space to my favoured artists. There are also theatre companies, literary circles (I have read at poetry readings, as has JMB of the Nobody Important blog) and even a Bar Association.
It has to be said that most activity is less cultured. For many users, it's just a kind of 3D chatroom, with all that entails. Others are using it as a platform for all kinds of roleplaying (RP) games. There is, for example, a thriving community of Doctor Who fans, and several enthusiasts competing to manufacture the best Tardis in SL (where even the chameleon circuit works)
I am not particularly adept at building there (though I have my moments). I tend to do the master plan and general design for a project, which is then built by my long-term SL friend and business partner, Abramth Asp (pictured below). Abramth is an SL tech wizard and deals with the problems of the tenants in our 70 virtual apartments and houses. I could not operate on such a scale in SL, given my real life commitments, without him.
It's easy and free to join. All you need to do is register for a free account and download the client software. You will only need to buy land and pay land taxes ("tier" in the SL jargon) if you want to build your own stuff. Most of the fun can be had for free and you can always buy some of the local currency if you want to dress your avatar up more elegantly.
If you decide to explore, feel free to send me an instant message there. My avatar's name is LastDitch Writer. If you are a Blogpower member, ask me to invite you to the Blogpower SL group, which has its own "common room" in my "Sky City" complex. These pictures from my own lands in SL should give you some idea of what to expect. You are most welcome to visit anytime.
Finally, here's my latest SL acquisition, an enormous space ship which, following my own tradition, I have named after a Blogpower blogger. Congratulations Colin. Here's the link to follow to visit your namesake.
All best wishes for a merry, festive Christmas and a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year from me and my Second Life "avatar", LastDitch Writer.
I remember having email when no-one else I knew (or wanted to know) did. It was the electronic equivalent, for a while, of the bean can telephones linked by string that we played with as children.
I also had one of the first mobile phones in Poland, during the testing phase of one of the first networks. There were plenty of people I could call on landlines, so it wasn't the same experience, but there was again a sense of being a pioneer. What I mostly remember was how awful the service seemed when millions joined a network I had used with a few dozen others!
I wonder how fast the original telephone networks took off - and for how long the pioneer subscribers had no-one to call? I am experiencing something a little like that now.
Second Life finally has a "telephone line" to the outside world in the form of an instant messaging client called SLim. It allows voice or text chat from any computer connected to the internet with people "in world." It's a very good idea - especially for people stuck behind their corporate firewall during the working day or for those running SL businesses who will soon be able to handle enquiries from in-world without having to be drawn into SL - a world which has become even more addictively immersive now that 50% of all communication is by natural voice conversations, rather than on-screen text. I have just downloaded and installed SLim. I can see which SL friends are online, but until they download the application themselves and those little SL hand emblems go from black to green, it's useless! So I guess this
is what it must have been like to be the first in your circle with a phone.
On July 1st, 2007 Blogpower hosted a virtual awards ceremony in Second Life. The idea was to present trophies to the bloggers who had won Blogpower Awards in such serious categories as "Best Britblogger" or "Best North American Blogger" as well as in less serious ones such as "Best Ranter". The "sky box" where it all took place has long gone. I have since bought most of the region where it was and have redeveloped it as a lakeside park on the ground and a sci-fi city in the sky.
However I recorded the location where the innovative ceremony took place and have built a laws-of-physics defying memorial there. Visitors to the Blogpower Common Room may visit by clicking on the teleporter for a menu and selecting "Memorial" as their destination. Those who remember dancing at the post-awards party may be pleased to know that the Airship "Limoncello" which contained the ballroom and bar is still there. It now houses the Limoncello Art Gallery, which contains both a permanent collection of Real Life and Second Life art and changing displays in 12 small galleries I provide free to artists working in SL. "Art Gallery" is the option on the teleporter which will take you there. "Ballroom" will take you to the awards party venue, which is now available for hire for SL events and has since been used, for example, for weddings. Yes, people get married in SL. Weird, isn't it?
The awards themselves were a lot of fun. The ceremony, while nerve-wracking to organise (given Second Life's tendency to crash at crucial moments), was entertaining too. We had a lot of interesting conversations in the run-up period, while bloggers planning to take part were practising their Second Life skills. As far as I know, there are no plans to organise Blogpower Awards again. Perhaps, when such meetings in virtual worlds become commonplace, some bloggers will remember with amusement their clumsy moments as pioneers.
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