Guest Thinkers — February 16, 2011

Virtual world tidbits

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

A few choice items related to virtual worlds…

Dr. Judith Donath hypothesizes a day when spammers will use avatars to scam money from us.

Dr. Edward Castronova, author of the fabulous book, Synthetic Worlds, is finding that gender bias may also occur in virtual worlds. For example, female EverQuest avatars fetch 10 percent less in the market, even when they have the same powers and skills as male avatars. Check out some of his other work too.

Virtual Congress, anyone? (I wonder if it will include scandals…)

Finally, check out this funny real-world simulation of Second Life (brought to you by Blackboard).

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

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