Assuming that Second Life will eventually offer the option to use real names, how will avatar identities shift?
Sam: Offering people the option to use their real names for their avatars is one of the best strategic moves Linden Lab can make to bring Second Life into the professional limelight. Second Life is already being used for collaboration, learning and training, and many among things. Second Life and other immersive platforms are attractive to business people because this technology can solve real business problems. (For more insight, see the May 26, 2009 ThinkBalm report, “ThinkBalm Immersive Internet Business Value Study, Q2 2009”). But, as I highlighted above, transparency of identity is the norm in the workplace and this will not change. As a result of Linden Lab enabling the use of real names, I expect to see people create “alts,” or additional alternative avatars, to help keep their personal and professional lives comfortably separate — the same way some people separate their professional networking into LinkedIn and their personal social networking into Facebook.
