Steve Ranger's Notebook: I, Avatar

Looking at someone's digital personality - made up of IM, email, avatars and social networking - is like looking in a broken mirror, says Steve Ranger. You can see bits and pieces but not the whole. Which isn't helpful if you are trying to do business...

I've been to a couple of press conferences recently where I have behaved - frankly - appallingly.

I've appeared out of nowhere, ignored people, refused to sit down and wandered around while the speakers were on stage.

Several times my head drooped while I wasn't paying attention and if this wasn't enough I capped it all by flying round the room taking photos, and then teleporting off to the beach when I'd had enough.

But then of course these were press conferences taking place in the virtual world Second Life - which aren't run by quite the same rules as real-world ones. For a start, in real life I've never met a press officer that actually looked like a seven foot tall Predator before - but indeed there was one in Second Life.

Now, some of the other journalists who turned up to the recent IBM 'virtual' press conference about Wimbledon in Second Life were happy to sit down for the entire event and listen in via the conference call. To me this seemed to reduce the whole experience to little more than a webcast - after all, what's the point of having a meeting in a 3-D environment if you just sit there doing nothing?

I've been to enough press conferences over the years to understand there is a certain etiquette - and disobeying the laws of physics by flying and teleporting is generally a no-no. But in virtual worlds the idea of what is appropriate isn't quite fixed yet. And yet I still felt slightly guilty flying around during the press conference - although if I hadn't I wouldn't have the Second Life tennis pictures for you to see.

At least part of this is a question of the identity you assume when you are interacting digitally.

Many visitors to virtual words go there because they want to do things they can't do in the real world - like be a 50-foot giant, try on the body of the opposite sex or fly around press conferences.

But as these virtual worlds become more of a business tool, you need that anonymity to go away. For example, at a recent press conference a mysterious avatar tried to befriend me but I ignored him. I had no way of knowing he was one of the people I'd come to meet because the individual's avatar didn't share his real world name.

So something that might be fun in one context is just plain irritating in another.

It's an issue with other consumer technologies that have leaked into business too. Should your IM avatar or image be a sensible business representation or a photo of your cat? Should your Skype ID be your nickname or your full name? Should your Facebook profile have a picture of you boozed up or wearing a suit and tie?

All my digital identities are different yet for work I want to have one set of consistent digital identities that can be managed as one persona.

As the saying goes, on the internet nobody knows you are a dog. But sometimes - especially when trying to conduct business in virtual worlds - it's nice to be able to prove you are human.