MBI Holodeck

At the Maastricht conference “ePortfolio and Digital Identity 2008″ I will present my ideas about a possible avatar ePortfolio. Although the paper will be available short after the conference at the end of October, I want to outline some general ideas here in this post. More about my research can be found here…

One aspect of digital identity is our representation in synthetic worlds (for a classification of such worlds, see my cultural classification of synthetic worlds) - you name it - the avatar. Avatars play an interesting and important role in such worlds as they are the main point of communication and socialization with others. Without, social aspects in synthetic worlds are not impossible, but limited in various ways.

Identity means also something continuous and coherent, something which is badly considered in modern game design. There are many tweaks and tricks to build an avatar identity, but often, there are very limited in social range. ePortfolios for avatars could change that dramatically, and that’s one of my research focus. And that are the basic ideas behind an avatar ePortfolio:

• In synthetic worlds, where authentication systems are often unreliable or not wanted (in the sense to identify the player behind his/her agent), another way of identity proof is needed: reputation. An ePortfolio is suited to provide a place of reputation transfer.
• Avatar ePortfolios should tell the story of the avatar, create identity (process as proof of growth or history) and collect artifacts as showcases of achievement.
• Avatar ePortfolios should add other voices to the story to enrich and validate identity and the story told.

I will follow with more of this in the next weeks and months to come. You’re maybe also interested in another blog I participate: ePortfolio Research. It will be bi-lingual in german and english and I published 2-3 posts on it yet. But it’s really fresh ;D