Users roles, cultural identity and open access in Second Life

Focus My research focuses on users cultural

identities, roles and Open Access activities impact in Second Life.

Themes: education, enterprises and entertainment.

Methods Text content analysis Qualitative visual content analysis Semiotic visual analysis Questionnaires Interviews

Cultural identity Cultural identity is fundamental symbol

of a persons existence. Culture in virtual worlds comprised of

people, and people are requirement for culture to exist.

Open Access in VWs Open Access in virtual worlds can be

interpreted as free access to virtual environments, free opportunity to create objects and to copy and share alike them further free.

Libre Access means cost free and permission free access.

Gratis access means just cost free.

A little bite of Virtual Worlds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GPcW2Q-b24&list=PLC505E316DB51834A&feature=plpp_play_all

References Adler, Peter 2002. Beyond Cultural Identity: Reflections on

Multiculturalism, http://www.mediate.com/articles/adler3.cfm Banks, Marcus 2007. Using Visual Data in Qualitative

Research. London. Thousand Oaks California. Singapore. India. ISBN 978-0-7619-4979-4. SAGE.

Banks Marcus and Morphy Howard 1997. Rethinking Visual Anthropology. London. New Haven. ISBN 0 300-06691-0. Yale university press.

Bell, Philip 2001. Content Analysis of Visual Images. Handbook of Visual Analysis. Reprinted 2003. ISBN 0 7619 6476 2 (hbk). ISBN 0 7619 6476 0 (pbk). Sage. London 2001.

Boellstorff, Tom 2008. Coming on age in Second Life: an anthropologist explores the virtually human. Princeton University Press.

Jenkins, Richard 2008. Social Identity. 3rd edition. ISBN 0-415-44848-4 (sid.) ISBN 0-415-44849-2 (nid.)ISBN 978-0-415-44848-2 (sid.) ISBN 978-0-415-44849-9 (nid.) Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon. Routledge 2008.

Hall, Stuart 2003. Theorizing Diaspora: A reader 2003. Cultural Identity and Diaspora.

Kosir, Andrei 2004. http://www.ldos.si/eng/index.php?id=01_Members/07_Andrej_Kosir/05_Raziskovalno%20delo/Analiza%20vsebine%20digitalnih%20slik%20in%20videa.html

van Leeuwen, Theo & Jewitt, Carey (toim.) Handbook of Visual Analysis. Reprinted 2003. ISBN 0 7619 6476 2 (hbk). ISBN 0 7619 6476 0 (pbk). Sage. London 2001

THANK YOU!

Anna-Kaisa Sjölund, PhD st. Hanna MeinsterUniversity of Turku, digital cultureankasj@utu.fi