Mashable has a great roundup of 27 best avatar builders.
As a big fan of avatars and a team member of the Klonies here at Comverse I was very happy to see the topic has been getting traction and coverage!
Hopefully in the next roundup we will see Klonies mentioned there as well... :)
Dear friends,
After answering a few readers queries through email, I realized that there is a growing reader's interest in mobile offering of avatars. Therefore, I decided to reply in a series of posts for the benefit of others who might be interested as well.
One of my favorite examples of a smart business model and a VERY successful avatar service is Mobile Game Town (Mobagetown) from Japan. It is the largest and fastest growing mobile Social Networking Service (SNS), available only on mobile. The site is a blend of casual games and social networking, multiplayer and singleplayer games coupled with chat, blogs and avatars.
An interesting fact is that Mobile Game Town is offered by DeNA, a Tokyo-based e-commerce company that runs virtual auction sites and shopping malls. This fact leaves a notable footmark on the business model (and makes a differentiator from other SNS sites). DeNA hooks the users with free mobile games with over 30 titles to choose from, supported by advertisement. Users buy from mobile e-commerce sites and get “mobile gold” which is then used to dress their avatars; by spending in the real world users get virtual money to dress their virtual alter ego, their avatar.
[via DeNA]
Mobile Game Town’s success is overwhelming: 5 million users with over 400 million daily page views back in May in less than a year from its official launch. Just to put the numbers in perspective, Mobile Game Town’s stats are four times larger than that of Yahoo's mobile portal!
And to give you a sense of latest (brilliant) marketing activities:
In June, DeNA announced "an interesting summer Yukata campaign. In co-operation with Aeon
dept. store the companies have set-up a virtual avatar catalogue from which members can build, for a modest fee, their outfit based on actual products complete with best dressed contest prizes. This would seem to be a rather slick ad campaign ultimately designed to drive purchases of the real thing just in time for the summer matsuri (festival) season. The company ran a similar campaign for Nike where customers who bought physical goods were rewarded with virtual prizes."
[via Wireless World Japan]
And a special treat from the Wireless Watch Japan - a video demo of both "Mobile Game Town" and Disney's "Wonder Days" (which will be reviewed here on its own in one of my next posts).
As a fan of David Pogue of the NY Times, I was very proud to see his review of the Klonies mobile Caller ID:
"You know how young people are spending $10 billion a year on ringtones, just because it lets them express themselves? The next big thing, I'm convinced, will be avatars. This feature, too, was on display: You design your own little character, or avatar, choosing a hairstyle, clothes, facial features and so on. Then, whenever you call people, your character appears on their cellphone screens. I'll bet avatars will be the next huge teen fad in 2010 or so."
[via NYT]
Let me provide some background info for those of you who are not familiar with Klonies; Klonies is a new service of personalized avatars by the mobile solutions provider Comverse, that enables the creation of avatars from a big content library of body types, eyes, hairstyles, hats, glasses, moods, clothes, branded accessories, etc., which can be used in traditional web forums, as well as to extend this experience to the mobile arena. Comverse has created a mobile Caller ID service, by which a user can create his Klonie either on the Web or on his mobile handset. Klonies let youth segment do something they could never even dream of doing before: create expressive avatars that represent them on other people’s phones. Klonies give the users extended means for self expression: they define how they are seen by their friends, on their phones.
The NYT published a beautiful series of portraits by Robbie Cooper in this weekend's magazine about people and their avatars, in virtual environments such as Second Life and Everquest. Follow the link for more pictures
The interesting is to witness how the created avatar is very closely tied to the personality of its creator in one of two ways:
Doing some spring cleaning at my files I've run into this cool video we made a while ago in order to present the Klonies concept.
Let me provide some background info for those of you who are not familiar with Klonies; Klonies is a new service of personalized avatars by the mobile solutions provider Comverse, that enables the creation of avatars from a big content library of body types, eyes, hairstyles, hats, glasses, moods, clothes, branded accessories, etc., which can be used in traditional web forums, as well as to extend this experience to the mobile arena. Comverse has created a mobile Caller ID service, by which a user can create his Klonie either on the Web or on his mobile handset. Klonies let youth segment do something they could never even dream of doing before: create expressive avatars that represent them on other people’s phones. Klonies give the users extended means for self expression: they define how they are seen by their friends, on their phones.
What I liked in this video is that it literally presents the idea of 'inventing oneself' that usually is happens online, when the information about one's identity is very limited. Enjoy! :)
Over the past day, the issue of simulated and actual child pornography in virtual worlds has attracted the attention of mainstream media. The buzz was provoked by a report of a German TV news program which uncovered the trading group and members who pay for sex with virtual children at Second Life.
For those of you who haven’t heard of Second Life, it is a virtual world in which members create for themselves an avatar and use it to live out a separate existence at the virtual world of Second Life.
Now, Second Life is being investigated by German police following the allegations that some members were having virtual sexual contact between adult avatars and avatars with child-like appearances called "age play"; (which are groups that revolve around the abuse of virtual children);but also claims that photographs of real-life child sexual abuse have been made available in Second Life.
The incidents involving child pornography didn't stay within Second Life though, according to the investigator that carried out the report, Nick Schader, he was offered by this said trading group access to traders of real child pornography. Moreover, there were meetings within Second Life where virtual and real child pornography was shown.
Now, the police are trying to identify the Second Life members involved since under Germany law possession of "virtual" child pornography is punishable by up to three years in jail. In response, Linden Lab, creator of Second Life, said it would help identify users and pass on details to prosecutors.
[via BBC News]
Ever since the first allegation of sexual abuse at Second Life has been published, there is an ongoing debate whether “age play” is legitimate, and whether it is a healthy outlet for sexual fantasies. Virtually Blind states that -
“sexual age play practitioners are quick to differentiate themselves from pedophiles (who, they point out, are sexually interested in actual children, rather than in adults who role play children).”
One of the interesting things, apart from the debate about the legitimation outlawed behavior in virtual worlds is what measures Linden Lab has taken to law enforce within its jurisdiction. Virtually Blind states that
“several months ago, The Register, reported that a Dutch prosecutor was considering bringing charges against citizens of the Netherlands who engaged in sexual age play in Second Life.
Shortly after that story broke, the Second Life Herald reported that Linden Lab had begun quietly contacting residents who appeared to be running businesses related to sexual age play, with the following message:
"Dear Second Life Resident:
Linden Lab would like to inform you that your land or business is possibly not in compliance with Second Life’s Community Standards. The depiction of sexual activity involving minors may violate real-world laws in some areas, and the Second Life community as a whole has made it clear that it views such behavior to be broadly offensive. Linden Lab chooses not to allow the advertising or promotion of age play or related activities in any public forum — including in-world textures, classified ads, the Second Life forums, or parcel descriptions.
Advertisements, promotions, or descriptions of such activities must be removed to avoid account sanctions.
Any account asserting an age that does not meet Second Life’s minimum age of eligibility will be closed.”"
[via Virtually Blind]
I was reading some very interesting bloggers' opinions about the Klonies service at Skype by Jean Mercier and by Phil Wolff and wanted to answer both. As my comment was becoming longer and longer, I decided to post it here and offer a bonus - Klonies pics!
Before actually addressing the points raised by both Jean and Phil, let me provide some background info for those of you who are not familiar with Klonies; Klonies are a new service of personalized Avatars by the mobile solutions provider Comverse, that enables the creation of Avatars from a big content library of body types, eyes, hairstyles, hats, glasses, moods, clothes, branded accessories, etc., which can be used in traditional web forums, as well as to extend this experience to the mobile arena. Comverse has created a mobile Caller ID service, by which a user can create his Klonie either on the Web or on his mobile handset. Klonies let youth segment do something they could never even dream of doing before: create expressive avatars that represent them on other people’s phones. Klonies give the users extended means for self expression: they define how they are seen by their friends, on their phones.
Both Jean and Phil talk about the workplace and the adult Skype users segment; both raise a certain feeling of discomfort with the young looks of the Klonies; this feeling is associated to the older users (of Skype and in general).
As a member of the Klonies team at Comverse, let me share some insights: at a trial we had at a European TIER 1 mobile operator a few months ago, we received very enthusiastic responses from young adults (19-24) and adults (25 and up) participating the trial. Both young adults and adults participants replied that they find the Klonies content to be appealing and fun to use and that they would be willing to pay for this mobile service.
As for the Klonies looks, yes, Klonies are good looking and juvenile, as they are primarily targeted to the youth mobile market. Klonies are good looking as they are our alter ego, our “wanna be web\mobile persona”. Klonies are also means for playing with our identity. Over the web we can “try” different characteristics as if they were different outfits (or costumes), we can express hidden parts of our personality that we don’t expose in daily life, such as our desires.
As for "rugged", "mature", "experienced", "damaged", “fat” avatars, the question is who would want to have his exact body shape and look to be his\her web representation? Imagine yourself this situation: I’m a very cool teenager but my face is all covered with pimples. Would I want my avatar to be polka dotted as well? -of course not! Would I want to have a button that adds zits to my avatar’s face? -no!! Nobody thinks zits are a good way to promote yourself. We all prefer to show an improved image of ourselves. If an “add a zit" option exists in the avatars building studio, and I’d deny its existence because I want my avatar to look cool and hip (who wouldn’t?!), my friends would say I’m lying about the way I look. The bottom line is that no button that adds flaws is welcome in avatars world. Better not have this possibility\option.
And last note about the Klonies looks - we are working on different skeletons to address different market tastes:
Also, different cultures have different conventions of how to present our body and how to pose:
Thanks Jean or sharing your thoughs and Thanks Phil for raising great ideas (I tried to reply to all of them at the comments section).
I was going through my feeds and was excited to read Gigaom’s post about Gaia online avatar social network.
First, a few words about Gaia for those who are not familiar with it; Gaia is an online world with a series of virtual cities where Gaian avatars can socialize (up to 100 in a single space), with apartments they can own, and treasures they can find with no combat, whatsoever). I have been familiar with Gaia ever since I entered the avatars business and learned the avatars market and offering of those days.
However, stumbling upon avatars websites is very common on the web. The real excitement is to be able to get usage numbers. Fortunately, Wagner James Au (correspondent for Gigaom) managed to bring us the usage numbers of Gaia online social network:
• 300,000 log in daily, according to the company; average unique visit is two hours a day.
• Average concurrency: 64,000 users. Maximum: 86,738.
• 85% of users are based in the US
• 10% are English-speaking but non-US (with 5% a nebulous Other)
• Breakdown by gender: 55% Girls - 45% Boys
• About 20% of subscribers put up their real life photo in their avatar profile.
• Number of Gaia gold “millionaires”, as of last week: 1385
[via Gigaom]
Putting the numbers on ice, one of the interesting features that are worth to notice at Gaia is the incentive mechanism where users get incentives for participating in the online community’s life:
“A unique innovation is the way the company distributes its virtual gold currency: instead of selling it for real money (as with There) or allowing its trade on the open market (as with Second Life), Gaians are automatically given gold for participation: You get gold for posting on the Forums, for riding events, for uploading content, for exploring the world. Subscribers are rewarded for engaging in Gaia, in other words— and the reward incents them to engage in Gaia even more.”
To summarize, every avatar social community that succeeds is a win for the entire avatar business. Way to go Gaia!
Yesterday Weeworld revealed its survey’s results on “Why generation Y loves avatars”; a survey which is very important for the entire avatars market. For those of you who are not familiar with Weeworld, Weeworld is an online web avatar provider looking like the South Park’s characters. You can follow this link and create a Weemee.
“Based on more than 750 unique respondents, the survey revealed that U.S. Millennials ("Gen Y," born between 1978 and 2000) are using avatars such as WeeWorld's WeeMees because they like having a cartoon version of themselves for entertainment and to express themselves online.
The survey results also revealed key industry trends, significant variations by age and gender, and specific insight regarding WeeMee usage. Key findings include:
Based on the wide array of respondents, variations by age or gender also became apparent such as:
According to Wikipedia's definition, Gen Y was “the first to grow up with the Internet in a developed, prolific form, including music downloads, instant messaging and cellular phones” and “even before they could type and mouse-click their way through the Internet, they grew up with modern media choices: television remotes to encourage channel flipping; cable, with its wealth of channels among which to switch.” Many consider Gen Y as the most important generation for marketers based on their expansive spending power and significant influence over their parents’ purchases. However, with the continued evolution of Web 2.0 and the growth of widgets, APIs and avatars, the motives behind this unique generation’s immersion in the digital arena and how to effectively engage it challenge today’s marketers.
With approximately 76 million Millennials in the United States and 15 million people worldwide having created at least one WeeMee, there is a lot of room for growth. A WeeMee is born every three seconds and 700,000 new WeeMees are born each month.
The survey revealed WeeMee-specific findings on how and why users interact, for example:
Pulse Mobile, a San Francisco company that lets you send mobile messages with an animated avatar, has raised $7 million in a second round of financing according to PEHub.
Since last December, Cingular users can use Pulse Mobile’s “Veepers” in order to create an animated avatar and send it to friend's mobile phone or email address. Users can upload a portrait photo or pick an image from the gallery. Then, the image turns into an image with 3D animated qualities. Users can direct their avatar to nod, shake or wink and choose what kind of accent the avatar speaks the message when it is delivered to friends. Finally, friends will receive a fully animated personality delivering the chosen message with voice by MMS. To get a sense of how Veepers works click here
Little by little, we see more players populating the mobile avatars arena. The fact that investors believe in the avatars market and are putting the $$$ in it - is very good news for the entire world of avatars! GO avatars!
Lately, I keep getting readers emails saying that I haven’t written about the Klonies for a while now… So I decided to give you a peak of the Klonies backstage. I’ll start with the Klonies content and continue with the making of in my next post.
We all know that when it comes to mobile, content is the king. You can have a cool sharing app or community but if you don’t have attractive or compelling enough content - you’re doomed.
Just a quick note - Klonies, for those who don’t know, are a new service of personalized Avatars by the mobile solutions provider Comverse, that enables the creation of Avatars from a big content library of body types, eyes, hairstyles, hats, glasses, moods, clothes, branded accessories, etc., which can be used in traditional Web forums, as well as to extend this experience to the mobile arena. Comverse has created a mobile Caller ID service, by which a user can create his Klonie either on the Web or on his mobile handset. Klonies let youth segment do something they could never even dream of doing before: create expressive avatars that represent them on other people’s phones. Klonies give the users extended means for self expression: they define how they are seen by their friends, on their phones.
To be able to cover the Klonies content I met Ronen Ventura, the Klonies Chief Graphic Designer and Tali Perel, the Klonies Styling Adviser. Here’s what they told me:
Usually we start with a meeting of the designers, Styling Adviser and Marketing for a brain storming, to raise upcoming events (Valentines, Halloween, spring break etc’), topics, characters and that sort of leads. For example, when we launched the Klonies on Skype last year, we offered a wide collection of Football Mania clothing as it was only a few days before the world cup.
Other lead is analyzing users downloads; we can share with you that we were amazed to find out that men and women are very different in their preferences:
Most women want to be either bad or cool:
We see a lot of laid-back men:
As for dressing up:
Also, sport is the strongest theme amongst males, which nonexistent with the ladies. So, by analyzing downloads we get to learn a lot about tastes and trends. Also this is a great pointer of which areas to need to be broadened.
Apart form events, locals fashion also inspires the Klonies content. Our styling adviser explores fashion and teen magazines to get the sense and taste of specific audiences. Klonies sales people usually buy local magazines as part of their tasks when flying on business trips.
And you'll have to tune in later on for the second part of 'The Making of Klonies' :)
Virtual worlds are becoming a sphere for children as well - the BBC plans a virtual online kids's world where they can inhabit and interact.
"CBBC, the channel for 7-12 year olds, said it would allow digitally literate children the access to characters and resources they had come to expect. Users would be able to build an online presence, known as an avatar, then create and share content. Bosses said CBBC World would not have the financial aspects of other online worlds such as Second Life. [...] "It will give children a chance to move around a safe, secure world where they can not only interact with familiar characters but have an opportunity to make that world a more fascinating place with their own imaginations.""
[via BBC]
It makes me think about the messages that will be conveyed, targeted marketing and segmentation, child's psychology...
I was tipped about the launch of the talking avatar ringtone application called U-DOO. U-DOO is a ringtone application for mobile phones that allows users to create talking animated avatars with their own voices and use the characters as ringtones on their mobile phones and send them to friends. In addition, U-DOO lets users publish the talking avatar to their MySpace web pages. The company behind the taking avatars is no other than web avatars provider Oddcast, which is looking for new partnerships to expand to the mobile arena.
How does it work? U-DOO users can create personalized ringtones and avatars with their own voice or from pre-recorded messages, and email them to friends, who can then download the ringtones to their phones. The phones can be set to sound the ringtone whenever the friend associated with the avatar calls. This means I create my avatar ringtone and I send it to you and hope you'd associate it with my profile, so whenever I call you, you'll see and hear my avatar. So I need my friends' cooperation in order to decide how do I look when I call them. Other thing is if I'd have several different ringtones, each associated with a friend, how would I know my own mobile is ringing? Each time I choose to change my ringtone it takes me a few seconds to realize that the mobile ring actually belongs to me... I guess more people will use U-DOO to make their own personalized avatar ringtone and leave the Caller ID function aside.
The email and MySpace options are free to end users, but the wireless download option is offered by subscription through wireless carriers under a 60-day free trial, with a $5 monthly charge after. Enjoy!
Thanks Katie! :)
A dear friend and fellow mobilist, Rudy De Waele of m-trends, pinged me about a very cool social programming tool called partyStrands. partyStrands is designed for bars, clubs, and other socializing venues or private/public parties. It allows partygoers to influence the music being played all through their mobile phones.
-So how does it work? -partyStrands starts to run on a playlist chosen by the bar or club owner. Then, partygoers can influence the music by sending an SMS containing an alias + favorite artist. As more people join in, the sequence of the songs is influenced by the collective tastes in music of the people who join that party.
To create a seemingly online community experience, partyStrands runs on a screen that displays the current playing song, album and the messages that the partygoers send via SMS. It can also display photos sent by MMS, and several other innovative features such as cool animations targeted to the audience, and what I personally liked (the reason is obvious) - is the ability to display member’s avatar :) Also, the playlist, partygoers, and SMS is accessible on real time from the party's webpage which can be visited during or after the party.
For the partygoes, partyStrands brings the virtual experience of online social network to the physical space (and vice versa). On the same time, advertisers, venue owners, music labels and operators enjoy the newly created context of consumption and the newly created place to advertize and promote mobile and music services/products. Smart!
Recently I was asked to give a presentation about the Korean avatars market, trying to understand the craze and predict other mobile markets’ behavior. Knowing it might interest some of you, I’ll be publishing the content of the presentation at this blog. Due to the length, I’ve been posting it in a few parts every Thursday. If you missed the opening, here’s the link to the first part, second part and third part.
****
Mobile Avatars Offerings
The medium of avatars is naturally focused on community, since users need an audience to present their character. As such, avatars can increase operator's attractiveness using its viral affect to mobile operators. Also, operators can use avatars in order to utilize the loyalty established by online communities.
However, the mobile industry had stumbled upon barriers to provide a mobile avatars offering: the mobile internet hasn’t reached the web’s speed, latency, and user interface. Also there’s a big difficulty in implementation.
Having said that, there are already some players in the Korean mobile avatars arena. The first player was NEOWIZ which began supplying mobile avatars to KTF in August 2001, to LG Telecom in April 2002, and SK Telecom in August 2002. According to company’s reports, mobile avatar sales grew to over 2 billion won per month in 2004 (which are about $1.5 B).
The second player was NATE. SK Telecom's Nate launched its avatar service in October 2002 and provides avatar service similar to those provided by web portals. This move was the result of the wired-wireless convergence with SK Telecom’s acquisition of a Korean web portal. Nate offers clothing brands for avatars, providing its users with replicas of the genuine clothing lines. The fashion and consumer brands companies enjoy the advertising by increasing actual product sales, while NATE profits from avatar sales.
What avatars demonstrated to the mobile industry is that mobile phones are a strong extension of self for many users. By personalizing the mobile with avatars, the mobile becomes much more than a communication tool. It has become an extension of either how the user views himself\herself, or would like to.
To summarize, avatars should be linked with other services and not just be a cute application to play with. Avatar service has been generating sales related to community-based services like gaming, forums, chats, IM, and minihomepies. Integrating the web and mobile increases the usage of avatars provide the ability to use the digital identity created practically everywhere.
I've been invited to join the mobileYouth and w2forum virtual networking event being held in the popular youth hangout - the UK branch of Habbo Hotel on Friday 27th of October at 14:00-16:00 BST. This is a great opportunity to play around with avatars and meet some very interesting people - so I'm inviting you to join!
Also, starting next week, I'm having my November special coverage. A very interesting guest will be visiting Xellular Identity, and will talk about mobile youth trends... It smells like teen spirit around here... :)
Recently I was asked to give a presentation about the Korean avatars market, trying to understand the craze and predict other mobile markets’ behavior. Knowing it might interest some of you, I’ll be publishing the content of the presentation at this blog. Due to the length, I’ve been posting it in a few parts every Thursday. If you missed the opening, here’s the link to the first part and second part
***
Avatars Offerings
Consumption of all kinds of online content has extremely grown in Korea ever since broadband internet service became popular. I’ll also add here a little piece of valuable info I got last week (Thanks Melanie) to get the idea of “heavy connectivity” that was discussed last week: on average, Korean Internet users spend 12.2 hours online per week and participate in 3-4 community websites!
South Korean users were the first to adopt avatars as their web representation. Respectively, the demand for avatars has grown with the fast adoption of online social interactions in a bodiless, ageless and sexless sphere. This amorphous presence has evoked the need to establish a visual presence by nominating a visual representant.
Most of the avatar providers are portal companies which entered the avatar market to upgrade their web offerings. This companies recognized that avatars can increase revenues by promoting more frequent and longer visits and by serving as a bridge to additional services. Only later down the road service providers realized that avatars are a consumer goods which should have a business model of their own. The avatar service evolved to a pay service which increased the quality of the offerings.
What makes the avatar phenomenon so interesting for many, is the fact that so many users are willing to pay to dress their avatar with clothing and accessories. Understanding that the avatar has a major role in self-representation in the social world over the web, service providers offer only a basic avatar. Many times the basic avatar doesn’t wear more than pajamas or a fig leaf. Service providers understood that users want to have an avatar that resembles them as much as possible, so they offered premium content for extra charge.
The major avatar providers in Korea are NEOWIZ (SayClub), Cyworld, Daum, MSN Korea and Yahoo! Korea.
NEOWIZ operates one of the most popular avatar sites - SayClub. SayClub has over 20 million subscribers which are equivalent to nearly 50% the population of Korea! Neowiz launched the first avatar service in 2000 and has occupied one of the leading positions among Korean internet companies offering avatars and games ever since. According to the company’s reports, Q1 2006 avatar revenues reached $2.4 M!
NEOWIZ was the first provider to employ an “avatars distributed for free, clothes and accessories sold for small amounts” business model. According to this model, users can buy designer avatar clothing and other premium content, with licensing fees being paid to actual consumer brand. This has led to the reality where Korean avatar owners spend more money on clothing for their avatar than they do for themselves. In a society where most of interactions happen over the web – this makes sense.
MSN Korea launched its MSN messenger in 2003 which includes “dynamic avatars”. Dynamic avatar changes according to the typed emoticons or certain words like ‘happy’, ‘angry’, etc’ in the chat window. Dynamic avatars require server capacity which is equal to the online games; which makes it harder for small portals to provide similar services. MSN Korea offers users a “multi avatar feature” which enables the user to employ up to 4 avatars. The displayed avatar depends on the chat partner. To initiate the service, users need to pay cyber money.
The last major avatar provider, which got a lot of coverage after its entrance to the U.S. market, is Cyworld. Cyworld is a social networking leader in Asia with localized sites in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, owned by a subsidiary of SK Telecom, the country's largest wireless provider. The Cyworld service is a combination of minihompies, online communities, music downloads, picture sharing, messenger and eBay. Cyworld’s users have avatars that visit (by linking) each other's "minihompy" [= a miniature homepage that looks like a 3D room which contains user’s blog, photos, and virtual items for sale]. Cyworld users also buy and sell music, ringtones, and clothes for their avatar. They can also buy skins to furnish their virtual minihompy. The service is free yet a big part of the content is available only for a fee, paid in virtual currency. Cyworld has astonishing penetration rates with 90% of the 20-year-old Koreans.
Daum, another major avatar provider is one of Korea's largest portals. Currently it has more than 35 million subscribers.
Next week - I’ll be talking about the next big thing... avatars entering into the mobile arena! So don’t forget to tune in on Thursday.
As I told you last week, I was asked to give a presentation about the Korean avatars market, trying to understand the craze on the web and predict other mobile markets’ behavior. I started to post it in a few parts every Thursday. If you missed the opening, here’s the link to the first part and now let’s move forward to the second part:
***
South Korean connectivity culture
South Korean users were the first to adopt avatars as their web representation and very quickly it has turned to be a very prosperous market for avatars providers. To understand this phenomenon we should look into the South Korean connectivity culture.
South Korea has quickly become the world's most wired nation. A friend of mine who just got back to Israel after being relocated in South Korea for 1.5 years shared that he "couldn’t grasp how much the web had to offer until I got to Korea. You suddenly realize how FAST it can be! An average South Korean apartment has a high-speed Internet connection of 8 megabits per second” - which, just for the comparison, is 8 times the typical broadband speed in U.S. households. That's FAST!
But we’re not only talking about the speed. Korean broadband penetration leads the world being one of the fastest, and its subscription rates which are among the lowest in the world. 78% of the total Korean households or some 11 million homes, have broadband accounts. This makes Korea a fertile land for broadband services.
Massively multi-player online role-playing games or MMORPGs are one of the beneficiaries of Korean broadband’s high penetration. These games form entire fantasy worlds (and economies), where players meet, interact, and even fight (together or against one another). All is done by using their avatars, their web representations. MMORPGs where the first arena where the need for having a personalized self-representation was understood and answered.
The demand for avatars has grown with the fast adoption of online social interactions in a bodiless, ageless and sexless sphere (at MMORPGs and elsewhere on the web). This amorphous presence has evoked the need to establish a visual presence by nominating a visual representant.
Service providers, on their behalf, entered the avatar market to upgrade their web offerings, recognizing that avatars can increase revenues by promoting more frequent and longer visits and by serving as a bridge to additional services; wherever you go, you take your avatar with you. For the different Korean Avatars offerings you'll have to tune in next Thursday... :)
Recently I was asked to give a presentation about the Korean avatars market, trying to understand the craze and predict other mobile markets’ behavior. Knowing it might interest some of you, I’ll be publishing the content of the presentation at this blog. Due to the length, I’ll be posting it in a few parts every Thursday.
***
Email, IM, VoIP, P2P file sharing, online social networks etc’... we all use these to communicate with other people. It makes our lives easier, it extends our availability (and our working hours) and it makes us manage more "mediated" relationships than we used to have in the past; meaning we communicate more through emails\mobiles\IM and less in person, face to face. Having said that, we should examine the influence of these medias on our lives and what we gain from them.
One of the key attributes of the internet is that users are liberated from their body, age, sex and occupation. For many, this is a major attraction while others loathe the lack of boundaries. Either way, users need to supplement information that otherwise can be gathered easily, like age, sex, personal traits etc’. To do so, users adopt a personal referent that stands for them over the web. It can be a screen name, a user ID number, an email address… Yet many users find that a graphical representation provides a better service for this purpose.
That graphical representation is what we call an avatar. An avatar can be based on the user’s physical appearance as close as possible, if not identical, to how he\she is seen in real life or, in contrast, present a desired but imaginary appearance; a manga fairy, a medieval warrior, cute Hello Kitty... Anything or anyone. Thus, avatars empower users. Avatars are users’ alter ego.
Also, users can change their avatars frequently to better fit their mood and the actual settings.
Scholars have found major interest in the self-representation over the web mechanism, and dealt a lot with the following questions:
Moving to South Korea...
South Korean users were the first to adopt avatars as their web representation and very rapidly it has turned to be a very prosperous market for avatars providers. To understand this phenomenon we should look into the South Korean connectivity culture. So don’t forget to tune in next Thursday for the second part.
Congratulations to WeeWorld people for steping into AIM with their WeeMee avatars. Now AIM users can have their personalized WeeMee as their AIM expression. This is great news for the entire world of avatars. :)
And here is my Weemee:
The encounter of reality with the virtual has led to a very interesting and creative implementation of consumer brand offering in a virtual world:
Adidas is now selling its "a3 Microride" shoes for L$50 to Second Lifers. “Like the real-life shoe, the Second Life counterpart provides “the ultimate blend of bounce and flexibility with minimum weight.” In fact, it’s a great virtual-world product, acting like a kind of pogo stick for your feet, and with the option to keep bouncing you around as long as you’re walking over open ground”, says Mark Wallace.
[via 3pointD.com]
So these “a3 Microride” shoes leverage the power and attractiveness of the consumer brand Adidas in reality while also benefiting from being a virtual product that can have fantasy features\powers. Come to think of it, these Adidas shoes are better than the real ones!
This makes me think what more can be done when brands get extra fantasy benefits at the virtual arena... awesome! :)
Hi everyone,
I wanted to share the latest news... Starting yesterday, I'm joining the Comverse Fun Dial business unit. You probably know our service under its common name of ringback tones.
For all Klonies fans among you - don't worry! This doesn't mean I'm leaving the Avatars Group. As a positive outcome of the company's latest reorganization, The Avatars Group and the Fun Dial now belong to the Content line of business, so I will be working for both at the Marketing Department.
Naturally, in the near future I will be mostly learning, however it would be great if you have interesting ideas\ findings\thoughts to share about the mobile music industry which I'm joining. Your welcome to email me or comment.
Idan sent me these pics from “Boyds Personalization Center” in NY (correct me if I'm wrong about the store, dear). As you can see, girls are now offered to personalize their dolls and choose from a wide selection of color and hairstyles (no need to make improvised haircuts that end up in tears), color of skin tone, color of eyes, and of course many clothes etc’… (If I was given this task of choosing as a little girl it would have taken me ages to decide which items to buy or even worse, all of my spending money; because a girl needs a wide wardrobe to select from...) ;)
I don’t know if this is influenced by the wide world of personalization that rules the world of virtual identities (MMOGs, IMs, chats, forums and even mobiles) or vice versa. Yet in both, “the user” identifies with the doll\avatar during “the playing time” and is willing to invest money in the looks of the subject of identificati
on.
Meez, a 3-D avatar provider, is widening its activity to virtual activism, under the newly-minted "CAUZ" banner, according to the company’s PR. The CAUZ brand is the result of collaboration with 7 youth-oriented non-profit organizations: 26 Valencia, Do Something, Just Think, Music for America, Outward Bound, Summer Search and YouthNoise.
"CAUZ virtual items will include t-shirts, hoodies and backgrounds that prominently display a non-profit's brand or a message about a social concern that is important to today's youth, like the environment or AIDS."
CAUZ items will be available for free, unlike Meez branded sportswear which has a price tag.
Many teens spend more time over the web than in real life, so these NGOs decided to promote social activism in the virtual arena. Cool. Yet, Merton and Lazersfeld* would have said (if they were alive) that consuming virtual activism is a "narcotic disfunction" of mass communication. It gives users the false sense of doing/acting while actually being passive, i.e. ONLY consuming activism at home (as TV entertainment or here - as virtual content).
What do you think?
---
*Lazarsfeld, P.P., and Merton, R.K. (1948). Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action, in: Schramm and Robert (eds.) The Process and Effects of Mass Communication, pp. 459-480. University of Illinois Press.
Just wanted to let you know that your beloved Klonies avatars are now FREE on Skype. Yes - free! Go ahead, express yourself and if you want to be featured here, under the "Klonie if the week" spot, send it over by email.
Enjoy!
According to jeff Hester from BigBlueBall Forums, the Yahoo and MSN IM interoperability doesn't include avatars... was obvious, ha?
Anyhow, you're welcome to follow the link for screenshots and install instructions.
Technorati Tags: Yahoo messenger, MSN messenger, interoperability, avatars, Yahoo avatars, MSN Dynamic Display Pictures
Yahoo! and MSN have finally put up together interoperability between their messengers, starting with a limited beta test of a service that will enable users of Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger to connect with each other, creating a huge community of nearly 350 million accounts. Finally, I can have one messenger less on my taskbar :))
What I’m curious about is the avatars… up till now, each company has been promoting its own brand (Yahoo avatars vs. MSN Dynamic Display Pictures), having free as well as paid content. So how’s this is going to work from now on? Will MSN and Yahoo take interoperability all the way?
Technorati Tags: Yahoo messenger, MSN messenger, interoperability, avatars, Yahoo avatars, MSN Dynamic Display Pictures
Successful consumer brands allow customers to assign their own meaning to a product or service. This gives them the opportunity to project themselves to others, to get a feeling of self-expression. To provide greater added-value, consumer brands usually use celebrities to promote themselves.
Stardoll has taken the power of celebrities being brands themselves. Instead of dressing your avatar or paperdoll - the way it's called there - with brands you can choose Brad Pitt, Halle Berry or any other celebrity out of a list of 400, and get them dressed from a very limited collection. [I don’t know how they got the approval of all these celebrities to use their faces... Anyhow, copyrights and royalties aren’t my issue here].
The celebrities are a sure attraction no arguing here. Yet, instead of using the power of consumer brands and engage it with the need for expressing the personal identity on the web, these avatars are taken to the childish world of play and fantasy. I’m offered to play with my favorite celebrity’s paperdoll, dress it up, identify with it and become the celebrity during the playing time, just like when girls play with their Barbie dolls or boys play with their action figures. This is why they’re called “dolls” rather than “avatars”: you can play with it for certain time and that’s about it(!). There's no other outlet for your paperdoll, like different messengers, web communities and in the future - the mobile… Having this restricted outlet, this service can only be targeting the segment of 5-13 yrs girls, during the dolls' period of glory, and therefor the sweet pinkish tones of the website.
Anyhow, it is an interesting example of combining web identities and consumer brands.
Technorati Tags: stardoll, avatars, paperdolls, celebrities, consumer brands, self expression, marketing, web identities
"Klonies Blogging Idol" is still running and kicking... who's gonna win this close competition? Before the final results, let's welcome the last contestant, Nissim Bar-Siman-Tov, a.k.a. D.J. B., who's a dear friend and a gifted software developer. Well, enough said... Nissim, the stage is yours!
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Recently, ABC announced its free broadcast of new episodes of rating-dominating TV series like Lost, Desperate Housewives, Boston Legal and Alias over the web. This announcement followed a former one which stated that “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” will be provided for Verizon’s mobile devices supporting Web 2.0 for $2.99 for each episode added to the $5 Mobile Web 2.0 monthly access costs, just to watch Eva Longria on the go.
In the 3G world, most of the business models depend on broadband-supported content to gain back the billion $$ invested in 3G networks. However, I don’t think they expected their business models to fail so quickly. Most of the content offered by mobile providers can be obtained freely from the web or through other media networks, and can be downloaded to mobile devices very easily. Any user who has a broadband can access any multimedia content and either store it on his/her PC, view photos, listen to ripped CDs, watch pre downloaded movies, pre recorded by PVR or even watch live TV according to cable/satellite subscriptions. All that thanks to the “Media Shifting” technology, which has reached its matureness. With this brilliant technology, why would mobile users pay twice for multimedia content they can download from their Computer/TV at home?? All they really need is an unlimited internet package for their mobile device!
Yahoo! declared its intention to be a major player in this huge promising market with its recent acquisition of “Meedio” (Yahoo! Go!). This service provides content both to PC and to Mobile devices with the same interface. However, Yahoo! Was preceded by Orb networks which seized the business potential and offered an excellent service of “Media Shifting” for some time and allowed its users to have their multimedia on the go…
Realizing that these business models might not survive in the long term, mobile operators should seek other ways of expanding their services. One way is to make the most from call-related content, like ringback tones, forward tones and branded Avatars. Since the media shifting’s hype can jeopardize current mobile content business models and change the world again, better be ready than sorry.
Technorati Tags: Nissim Bar-Siman-Tov, mobile, mobile content, mobile operators, mobile TV, media shifting, Meedio, Yahoo! Go!, Orb networks
I'm very happy to share our excitement: the Klonies avatars are now available on Skype!!
With the Klonies, Skype’s users can create and personalize their Klonies to reflect their looks, moods and interests and share with friends, family, and community groups. Check it out and tell me what you think :)
Disclaimer: I work at Comverse, on the Klonies project.
Technorati Tags: announcement, avatars, klonies, skype, IM
"there are currently slightly more than 2.5 million wireless IM users worldwide, about 0.6% of the 400 million Internet IM user base. It pegged wireless IM worldwide revenue at $54.9 million in 2005 and predicts this will grow to $265.2 million this year, $580.9 million next year and more than $3.6 billion by 2009."
[via telecomasia]
wow!!
You're probably guessing my thoughts... mobile avatars, that's right! :)
Technorati Tags: IM, mobile, mobile avatars, avatars
I want to welcome a dear friend and a very well-known blogger - Stowe Boyd (a.k.a. Stowe Klowe) - who's wearing the new spring collection of the working model fashion house, a Klonies T-shirt!
Technorati Tags: stowe boyd, clothe stowe 2006, klonies, klonies t-shirt
Last week, a well-known web avatar service has released its news about raising a big amount of $$ for widening its activity on the IM market.
All people who got to know me don't understand why the hell am I writing about this, since I work at Comverse, on the Klonies project which is other avatar Mobile and web service... The thing goes like this: the fact that big companies/investors believe in the avatars market and are willing to invest in it - is very good news for the entire world of avatars!
GO avatars!
Technorati Tags: avatars, mobile avatars, avatars market, klonies
"Klonies Blogging Idol" is still running... Causing the participants to nervously bite their nails not knowing who’s winning since many friends want to get the chance to try the blogging thing. For those of you who haven't heard about it, I'm looking for blogging talents among the Avatars Group, to get them blogging in our upcoming Klonies Blog. So let me introduce you to my fourth guest, Tom Sella, a dear friend of the group, a Klonies addict, a regular reader (I didn’t pay him to do so I swear) and a great blogger. Well, enough talkin’... Tom, knock ‘em down!
*******
Several years ago I had a couple of paperback Asimov’s Journal (after looking it up, I think it is Asimov’s Science Fiction zine) editions, or something to that effect. These were collections of short science fiction stories by (I think) both known and lesser-known authors.
One story that I particularly liked was one which, among other things, described a message answering holographic video phone, where your (today more commonly known as “avatar”) attendant would answer, and filter messages. Both the complexity of the system, and unsolicited messages (today more commonly known as “SPAM”), were described, where one would try to fool the other to reveal its true identity – the avatar as message filtering service instead of the targeted “live person”, and the message as SPAM, instead of something of importance to the “live person”.
This would seem to be more science than fiction these days, in so many aspects. To forego the subject of SPAM and SPAM filters, we are now making daily progress in manifesting and/or changing our personal representation. We do this in our instant messengers, e-mail, blogs, and when Klonies and SeeStorm have it their way, on our mobile phone.
How long would it take to bring us, our personal computers, and mobile phones, technology just as recently described as being used in movies, where one can come into the studio, and with no makeup and no special effects, appear 25 years his younger, or in fact, anything else? To judge from technologies brought forth by Logitech [videos here and here], combined with avatar technologies like Klonies, possibly not long at all.
As one Israeli child song goes, with a little twist “whomever stands behind in front of me, does not know who I am”.
P.s. if anyone can remind me of the author of the story, and where it may be found, I would be grateful.
Technorati Tags: tom sella, sciense fiction, avatars, mobile avatars, asimov, seestorm, klonies, logitech,
Just saw this one on Yahoo Answers:
Q: Why do you like avatars?
A: “To tell you the truth, I'm just not that great to look at. I'm not the ugliest, but I am getting older and I would rather avoid the signs of aging. An avatar suits me for this purpose.” (Brigid_01)
Avatars - cheaper than a face lift and a lot more effective in our digital era...
Technorati Tags: avatars, yahoo + avatars, virtual identity
More things you can do with your avatar: get satisfacion. Run a romantic virtual/real life. More specifically, you can flirt, court, go on date, cuddle and even have sex. -Crazy? -Maybe. But it’s real: 
IMVU integrated their IM avatars to allow their users to push further their chats into virtual social interactions. Instead of just having a verbal interaction, IMVU enable users to take the “traditional” chat and run it over a cup of coffee on the virtual “Starbucks” or smooch under the moonlight sky.
-Naive? -Maybe, but I’m sure you’ll agree that most people would choose this IM to flirt/ look-for-a-date/ have cyber-sex rather than just to chat with their best friend…
On the mobile sphere, Digital Chocolate apparently targets teenagers and their mobile phones with its new dating video game. According to its last announcement, with “The Hook Up: AvaFlirting” we could create a mobile avatar and flirt with other peoples’ cell phone avatars. No word on how this is going to work, so we’ll have to be patient…
The app that takes it to the verge is “Naughty America: The Game”, a multiplayer online dating game where “players can create their own character and explore an exciting, sexy, and vibrant world. Escape from your day-to-day life by creating a Naughty Persona and interact live with other players from around the world.”
What’s so special you’re asking? Well, while you can have some “ordinary” experiences of a virtual
multiplayer world of chatting with people, shopping for clothes or having other outdoor activities, you can also try the “sex mode”! This mode allows you to try sex positions with your avatar partner, turn on the webcam, “or just visit the voyeur club and get a sneak peak at someone else's wild side”.
Very creative, kinky and daring. Really. What I don’t like in these apps is the potential to replace (to a certain extent) a normal social interaction. There’s no harm in meeting a potential date over an online dating service, over any IM jabber or flirt through SMS. There is no wrong in having a place to express ourselves and our fantasies more easily and freely either. But these apps exist in an evasive sphere, not totally real and not totally imaginary. They provide an alternative experience which is easier and safer to dating (in the real world) which many find as very stressing, intimidating and exhausting. By providing a detour, many just don’t need to cope with/ face their difficulties in order to get satisfaction.
Would next step be feeling embraced to initiate a small talk with people without having technology as a mediator? Will we (need to) hum/ scream out loud Rolling Stones' "I can't get no satisfaction"? ;-)
As you’ve probably heard, there’s a new version of Google Talk at a special setup URL. It seems to be a pre-release, since the official Google Talk homepage doesn’t have this link just yet. In this update is included the ability to display avatars. Apparently, Gtalk doesn’t have its own avatar brand but some lame cliparts that can be used to personalize your account. Nice move, but not good enough considering the very developed avatars on the IM sphere.
BTW, if we're talking about instant messengers, take a quick look on Weeworld's recent launch of WeeChat.
As you probably got to know me by now, I’m really fascinated by the online culture that is growing and developing, and especially fascinated by one of its biggest phenomena, the Avatars.
Once in a while I look for new content on avatars, posts, discussions, apps… whatever my hand reaches – or better said - whatever my RSS aggregator reaches… :) This time, I came across a conversation over WrongPlanet.com forums, asking the community whether “avatars strongly affect how you read a person's posts?”
Before posting here a few answers which I liked, I’ll give you my answer. Of course avatars affect the way you read a person’s post! Over the web, this is the first visual impression we have on a certain community member\ blogger. As a first impression, it plays a major role in managing our impression in the eyes of the other. In everyday life, we need just one look on a person on the street or in the subway to hold an opinion regarding who is he\she, what is his\her lifestyle, economic status and even some notion regarding some personal traits (we can observe aggression, tenderness, exhaustion, suspicion, shyness…).
I’ll confide here and tell you about a little game I’ve had since I was a little girl with big eyes and shy character hiding behind pink plastic glasses… One of my favorite things, especially when I’m on train or waiting to a doctor’s appointment is the people around me. I’ve always liked to examine people and guess who they are, where are they rushing to, gather as much as possible info to learn their story… (everyone has an interesting story to tell, you just need to look\ listen close enough). I know it isn’t polite to stare, so I try to keep my inquisitive looks invisible… Sometimes I play the little game with a variation: I try to guess who lives in a certain building or house, especially those very very very old ruined buildings with high and narrow windows and rusted blinds. To me the most interesting is the tension between things that are emphasized and things that leak from the side, exposing deeper layers… like a very tidy man, looking like he’s on his way to a job interview, straightening his tie, combing his hair. Everything about him says tension and order but his shoes are powdered with dust… that say it all – he’s trying to make an impression of a tidy man but he doesn’t really have a pedant soul :)
Well, enough with those nonsense and back to the Avatars… :) So, as I said, the visual appearance of things helps us gather so much information on the object of reference (no matter if it’s a human being or an artifact). It has a crucial part in determining our approach and opinion on a given object (is it safe? Can I trust? Am I in danger? Do I believe? Am I repulsed by something?). Especially when it comes to the web and we need to establish our approach and are given so little solid info we can rely on.
NeantHumain: “have noticed someone using a different avatar now (don't remember the old one, just know it's different), and it changes how I read the tone of their messages and how I perceive them as people, too. I often don't even remember someone if they change their avatar or think they're a whole new person. I was just wondering the perennial question: Is anyone else like this?”
Baby: “my avatar is a picture of one of my tattoos, so it’s me whether it reflects badly on me or not.”
aspiesmom1: “Many people's nicknames are confusing to me, or maybe mean something to the person but not to the community as a whole, and so I associate people with their avatars. When they change them it throws me off completely. The avatar itself however, doesn't affect how I view the person.”
Theman: “Well, the answer is yes. That's why we pick them, they say something about who we are, and consciously or unconsciously everyone is influenced, to what degree is debatable but it is impossible not to be.”
As an ending note, I’ll ask for forgiveness if someone got offended by what was supposed to be an invisible harmless investigating look… it’s just for the sake of the human story lying there that fascinates me. A great human story which sometimes I get carried away with… hey, life is the best show you can get around town! :)
A bit late, but I just had to comment on something I’ve read on Ad Age. The recent post of “Media Morph” covers the phenomena of Avatars, from marketing point of view. Yet it did that only to a very poorly extent, the concept was so reduced and badly presented…
First, Avatars are a visual mean of self representation in a limited environment, where we can’t use our physicality as our representation. The environments vary from virtual games, to chats, instant messengers, forums, different social softwares and they have even reached the mobile sphere.
Avatars can be used also for interacting with friends, like in more evolved instant messengers (IMVU for example), or like in virtual societies (“Second Life” for example). On these platforms, avatars can have all kinds of interactions with other people’s avatars: they can go on a date over a cup of coffee, shake hands, hug or kiss... Avatars can have formal interactions like buying or selling stuff too. Whatever comes to your mind – your avatar could interact for you!
And to the marketing perspective: Since avatars are our representation, we want them to be as close as possible to the way we are, as close as possible to what we wish to be. That is why from consumer’s perspective, there is no difference between branded content for avatars to other branded merchandise (clothes, gadgets, cars… you name it). Whatever brands we own in real life we’ll probably want to have for our avatars as well. Here lies the big benefit to marketers - make branded content to be used in the virtual sphere. This can advertise and promote the consumer brand in real life. But it could be another major route for revenues.
So, don't just go underestimating Avatras (or you'll get me writing another post about it! ;-))
I was playing around and found a very interesting web community – The Self-Portrait Tuesday. Each member posts a self portrait on his\ her blog on Tuesdays (as often as wanted) and sends a trackback to the Self Portrait Tuesday Blog. There is also a Flickr group filed under the same title.
I watched dozens of self portraits and I felt admiration for the self exposure that people are willing 
to have. Yet it should be noted that on the process of taking pictures we stage ourselves (lighting, angles, colors, compositions, etc…). So the outcome is less invasive than a spontaneous paparazzi photo taken on your worst bad hair day. Moreover, there is also the "editing decision", i.e. which pic to upload or to destroy. It’s like willing put up an act on stage – the actor reveals something private about himself (his pain, his joy…) and he puts a mask, a role, a character at the same time. In this duality of hide-reveal, we express ourselves in a very genuine way.
I decided to publish an avatar, a Klonie of myself. Your first thought might be – “she’s hiding, this isn’t a self portrait”. But if you really think about it – every decision we make says something about us. Oscar Wilde phrased it (so much better): "Give a man a mask, and he'll tell you the truth." the mask lets us loosen up and expose hidden parts of the personality. Because we’re putting up an act\ a role we allow ourselves to unleash some inner restrains and express ourselves (“that’s not Xen, that’s Hamlet”). I'll say it allows more libidinal materials to come upon surface and become less hidden. So, next time you change your Avatar into a sexy diva or a Manga worrier think what kind of emotions are you restraining in your life. Or you might consider taking some martial art lessons…
Technorati Tags: self portrait tuesday, exposure, avatras, Oscar Wilde, Flickr Group
Video calling on the mobile phone, what anticipation!! “Wow video calling, how exciting!” “Which HS it’ll work on?”, “Which operators?”, “What capabilities…?” Lately, everyone is buzzing on Video calling...
It’s great to be able to see people that you talk to. Thinking of all the possibilities, it really sounds great. Waking up to the sound of the phone ringing, answering with puffed eyes and saliva on the corner of your mouth… Beautiful sight! Or calling late to work, saying you’re just around the corner of the office when you’re really 20 miles away… Great surveillance system and the deployment is paid on behalf of the excited workers…
We will need to direct ourselves before participating in a video call and check if our hair is combed (spikes are standing up, in my case :-)), if lipstick is well put and dark circles around the eyes are well covered – hey, this is a close up shot!
And if you’ll decide to keep your face off the video call (a new zit in the center of the forehead, or a swimming pool in the back instead of an office scenery), people would probably ask – what do they have to hide? If they didn’t have something to hide they would have showed themselves… not only we’re connected 24-7, we will be under the spotlight, standing on the big stage with even less privacy left…
What would be best is another visual means of communicating… Much more fun and much easier!
Lately, I see everywhere I look around, a new avatar service emerges to the world. This week I came across the Imstar Instant messenger’s 3D avatars. I’ve looked around their demo site and even downloaded the messenger (I really love playing with new apps).
With Imstar’s 3D avatars you can personalize the shape of the body and face to really look like yours. Then, you can try out different clothes, make up and accessories of different brands, buy them if you like the way you look or sell items if you’re tired of that ol’ dress. The other day, I saw great pics published by Heather Meadows, who tried to build her Imstar avatar to look just like her – as much as possible with Imstar’s 3D graphics.
Imstar’s avatars are really great, but the question is who would want to have his exact body shape and look to be his\her web representation?
Imagine yourself this situation: I’m a very cool teenager but my face is all covered with pimples (it happens to the best, right?). Would I want my avatar to be polka dotted as well?
–of course not!
Would I want to have a button that adds zits to my avatar’s face?
–no!!
Why?
-Cause nobody thinks zits are a good way to promote yourself. We all prefer to show an improved image of ourselves. If an “add a zit" option exists in the avatars building studio, and I’d deny its existence because I want my avatar to look cool and hip (who wouldn’t?!), my friends would say I’m lying about the way I look. The bottom line is that no button that adds flaws is welcome in avatars world.
So, have Imstar guys lost their minds adding the option to make fat 3D avatars? Not really… There are segments that will welcome a very realistic avatar to represent them on the web. These people don’t want to upload their real picture and get the inevitable exposure. Think about the dating scene, for example. When flirting on the IM with a potential date we’ve just met, we want to show our best and to protect our real identity at the same time. After gaining trust, we’re ready to provide more details about ourselves and we’re more confident to send a real pic of ourselves. So in our online lifestyle, even not-so-perfectly-looking-avatars have a role. But cool-looking-avatars have a so much bigger role…!
What do you think of this new Klonie looking like the Matrix? I saw it and was so impressed! Thank you Ventura (both of you, believe it or not, we have 2 graphic designers called Ventura) and Gila for arranging it to be published here in my "Klonie of the Week" album.
I was reading Stowe Boyd's post about face-to-face technology (a.k.a. F2F). He thinks that real time F2F technology will be the next hit, using video chat through PCs and mobile phones. According to Stowe Boyd, the only hurdle is the lack of interoperability which is needed to be cleared out of the way. Looking at Google’s last moves, it’ll happen sooner than we think. Stowe also brings great examples of situations when you would prefer to use F2F communication.
I’m sure F2F will become more popular over time, but what about all those instances that you don’t want to be totally exposed? Like when...
I believe there’s another channel of communication that we should consider here, and that is communication through Avatars.
Avatars are our web representation. We can personalize them to better fit our look & feel; we can choose their clothing, hair styles, accessories and scenery… absolutely everything! The ease in changing appearance allows us to use this sphere to explore ourselves. In every social encounter we can change our appearance\ characteristics: a hippy, a gallant cavalier or a rapper, and define who we are and who we aren't.
But actually, we can use these avatars for communication everywhere: on the web (IM, blogs, forums, greeting cards, signatures), on the mobile (wallpapers and screensavers), on daily interactions (business cards, ads, bumper stickers… you name it). Think of the day that your Avatar could stand in for you absolutely everywhere…!
What would that give us? Avatars can stand in for us when we don't want to disclose ourselves. They can easily represent us when we want to separate our real life from the social impression we want to make. So next time the phone wakes you up, friends would see your neat and tidy Avatar. I guess when you’re reading these lines now you come up with a lot of more good examples too.
We can communicate using Avatars on the web and in real life when communicating visually. The mobile phone links between these worlds. And this is where the Mobile Avatar is utilized to bridge these spheres. A Mobile Avatar can be your caller ID, so when you call a friend, he will see your personalized Avatar on his screen, just like on the web. This way, your web representation could serve you over the real world as well. Needless to say, that you can use this avatar wherever else you want (like on your business card, etc…).
So… back to F2F communication. Avatars aren't F2F communication by all means; they are just part of widening visual communication. Yet, Mobile Avatars will integrate the web and the real world.
The other day, I was asked by a well known blogger this question:
Is this you?
I answered: "Yup, that's me."
All day long I was hearing the question in my mind over and over again: "is this you? ". Then, it suddenly came to me! I don't know if you thought about it before, but I've realized that your blog is part of who you are. Your blog is another way to introduce yourself on the web. A blog is just like an avatar that represents you or stands for you on the web sphere.
Like an avatar, you can personalize it to better fit your mood, and to better express who you are...
So, we have an icon\an avatar\our web-representation, which we can edit\manage\manipulate to master the message we want to promote about ourselves.
But (there's always a 'but', ha?) does this blog self-representation resemble to the real-life self-representation?
-To a limited extend. Can they (blog and real-life self-representation) co-exist??
Well guys, I don’t know what about you but I just love trying different personalities while on-line. Most of you would probably say that I’m a fraud… But if you think for a moment - trying different personalities is just like trying out different costumes for a costume party, trying out different clothes at the mall or in front of the mirror at home – we experiment different characteristics or personalities to explore ourselves.
I’ll give you another example: Avatars are used to stand-in for us when we’re online. That is why a lot of people want their avatar, their web self representation\alter ego, to be as close as possible, if not identical, to how they are seen in real life. But can they really do that? I mean, who hasn’t experienced the pain of “self-creating” a digital image\web persona? Who doesn’t remember how difficult it is to decide which pic to upload, what witty lines to write while on-line?
You probably run into chats like this all the time:
Night Rider: knock knock…
Crazy Diva: who’s there?
Night Rider: who do you think I am…?
Crazy Diva: do I know you?
Night Rider: maybe… I’m the man of your dreams.
So who is really the “Night Rider”? A mysterious suitor or your shy hometown neighbor? Have you noticed that over the net everyone is “the most”… the most attractive, the most beautiful, the most sexy, the most cynic, the most charming… or at least “more something” than in real life? Assuming that this self representation isn’t artificial, how come there are differences between self representation over the net and self representation in real life? The characteristics are supposed to be constant, aren’t they?
Maybe here comes the resolution to self representation “pains”. Avatars are not just our representation on-line. Avatars are also means for playing with our identity. Over the net we can “try” different characteristics as if they were different outfits (or costumes). We can also express hidden parts of our personality that we don’t expose in daily life, because we simply are too shy or unconfident to expose them.
Back to the Night Rider: your neighbor can be both shy and a great suitor at the same time. On daily interactions he’s probably just too shy to let himself express the romantic sides of his personality. So the different self representations are all real.
Or in a MUD participant’s words - “You are who you pretend to be.”
So, keep trying out different outfits, keep playing around with your Avatar, let your imagination go wild, and feel free to express who you really are… But who are you really?
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