Was it just serendipity yesterday that minutes after reading the excellent Vision of the Future winner (Rob Ainsley)  in New Scientist (8 Jun 2058: So, from today, avatars have equal status in the workplace. ….) that I read the blog entry from Pam (GridWorks colleague and friend over in Illinois)  on her issues with having an avatar image on a real world futures forum. Or something more significant?

Lots of issues raised in both of these items, one being that of avatars finally getting equal rights in fifty years time, the other illustrating the start of that process where someone wanting to present themselves as an avatar, at least in pictorial form (for very good reasons imho) is not accepted.  The first being futuristic and sci-fi, but the second in the here and now.

Will sociologists and others have a field day now with the diversity issue widened to include avatars as more and more people take on second life businesses and enterprises, related or unrelated to their real world personae?