AW Researcher Needs Your Help

Courtesy of Matthew Williams

I've been carrying out research in Active Worlds for two years now, logging in most days and participating in conversation and generally observing people's behaviour. But you may be wondering why on earth someone would want to conduct their PhD on a 3D graphical community, spending all that time chatting and observing what most people do for a hobby (what I've now realised has become a major part of peoples lives). This is why I've decided to write this article for the newsletter, to explain why I sit here at my computer for most of the day watching you all chat away.

It was two years ago, while working in a cyber-café, that I discovered an online community called Active Worlds. As usual I was sat at my computer at mid-day just after lunch with little to do and browsing the net in search of some entertainment (it wasn't a very popular cyber-café). Some friends had told me about IRC and some impressive looking 3D online communities, but I wasn't prepared for what I saw after that initial double click. I was presented with a visual of something called the Gateway, an automated message greeted me and almost instantly a horde of people welcomed me to their world. What a friendly place I thought. After finding my feet for the first ten minutes, learning how to fly, changing my avatar's colour and so on, I began to chat. While talking to some obvious regulars I began to think of how a place like this was run, how did someone become a gatekeeper, how could you enrol to become a peacekeeper, were there any disruptive acts and if so how were they prevented. I was hooked, almost immediately I decided to pay my dues and become a fully-fledged citizen of the Active Worlds community.

While working at the cyber-café I was also enrolled on a Masters degree in criminology. Having enjoyed the degree immensely I was encouraged to further my academic career. The PhD beckoned. But what the hell was I going to do it on, I enjoyed criminology, but most of my spare non-academic time was spend messing around with computers and the net. Then it dawned upon me, why not merge them, criminology and computing, that way I could maintain my interest in both my hobby and my academic subject. This is where Active Worlds came into play. While I was interested in crime and forms of deviance I didn't want to go down the route of white-collar crime research, looking into computer fraud and so on, it just didn't interest me. So I went down the more sociological/anthropological route, looking into the structure and emergence of communities and cultures, what makes them run successfully and how deviance and what I call quasi-criminal activity is managed within new social structures.

I began to look at the literature in the area of 'computer-mediated communication' (CMC), trying to work out what research and what findings were already out there. I came across work on identity and CMC, gender, race, language use and so on. Yet there was a clear gap that I immediately identified, there just wasn't anything written on deviance and especially nothing on 3D VR communities. It was then that I saw my opportunity to formalise my interest in Active Worlds and chose the community as the primary research site for my PhD.

The first year of the study was a bumpy ride of getting permission from Activeworlds.com, Inc. to conduct the research, finalising what questions I wanted to answer, deciding how to go about getting the information I wanted, while at the same time having to complete assignments for a diploma in research methods and ethics. The only way I can describe it is completely exhausting. Once I got permission to conduct my research I begun to observe behaviour within some of the AW worlds, at every turn trying to inform the avatars present that I was a researcher (something that proved difficult). I begun to make quite a few friends who seemed interested in my study, some of whom were interested in joining my discussion group about the study itself. As the months went on I started to think more deeply about how these communities were run and the kinds of issues that interested the members. It was towards the end of my first year that I decided to place my studies emphasis on community members attitudes and beliefs of online life.

I suppose that at this point readers would like to know what I aim to achieve through this study. At a personal level I want to create a piece of work that is an insightful and interesting look into online community life, arguing that this life is as real for many people as their actual lives. At a more functional or practical level I hope the study will inform online community development, highlighting certain aspects of community life that are deemed important by members of that community, allowing for a reciprocal relationship to be established between developers and end-users. I aim to create several models of governance and anti-disruptive policies that might aide in curtailing what is often portrayed as online harassment. Ultimately I aim to reduce levels of harm and anxiety that may exist in some online communities, phenomena that are detrimental to online community cohesion and overall well being. At the end of the day I acknowledge and advocate the fact that online life is not 'virtual' as often portrayed, it is as real as the time you spend within the physical world, if not more precious.

Final Note

At present I'm in the middle of recruiting members for an online discussion group which will focus on community members ideas about community, belonging, friendship, deviance and general online life. At present I have a few volunteers but I need a few more. If your interested in becoming part of my studies discussion group and want to contribute to some interesting conversation about Active Worlds communities then e-mail me at WilliamsM7@cf.ac.uk. All participants names and other identifiable features are removed so total anonymity is guaranteed.

Matthew Williams
Cardiff University

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