My avatar's name in Second Life is Amilie Anatine. You may still be wondering, what is my real name? Who am I really? - during business hours in the world we call "real" I am Ph.D. level young investigator interested in genomics, bioinformatics, networks and curing human diseases with many daily responsibilites during the day that do not include Web 3D and most likely won't in the next few months. After business hours I am someone's child, someone's mate, a pet owner, a new home owner, a creative and artistic lover of multi-media, digital content, photography, virtual worlds, social networks, House and Scrubs fan, and a damn good SL builder and tutor. But, I didn't answer your question. Who am I, what is my name? I'm not going to tell you my 1st life name. Is who I am defined by what I am called, my sex, marital status, or by what I do during business hours, or is it defined by how I enjoy living and contributing to society? If so, this is who I am:
My SL and RL are seperate. My SLA inSL activities are through my Second Life avatar name, Amilie Anatine.
I keep my RL information private on a need-to-know basis (tax info, phone numbers, etc.). Internet privacy is a human right and should be protected. But I will not reveal my rl name. This doesn't mean I have anything to hide.
If i dont tell you my rl information, then how can you trust me?
If you were meet a stranger in rl and ask their name and what they do, is that enough to trust them? A certain benefit of doubt must follow. Usually people trust others by visual cues in person, whether a mutual friend vouches for them, or their association with a particular trustworthy (based on reputation over time) organizations.
You might choose to trust me based on my Second Life name and my association with SL organizations and based on my association with Heather ODaniel, a mutual colleague and friend. Anything less than these associations, it is natural to not trust me, unless you get to know me. But with those associations, i would hope at first i would get a benefit of doubt which comes before but is not equal to trust. I intend to work toward earning trust based on my contributions and how I treat others. I have a reputation in SL that depends on how i treat others in SL, I have no intention of ruining my SL, my reputation, why would I after taking so much time building it.
And, what is in a rl name? If i include my rl name on this page like everyone else perhaps that is enough to be trusted like everyone else? I would disagree, therefore adding my rl name to this page is irrelevant for you but would make my privacy vulnerable. Would you invite your boss or certain family members, even some rl friends into your home at any given time of day or night and allow them to rummage through your personal things? Of course not. You would only do this for close friends you know and trust, and not just anyone in your life or even those you don't know. Amilie is my virtual persona and a "personal thing". Amilie's life and SL activities come from private thoughts and dreams not realized in real life. Amilie is truly my second life, (actually, she is my third life). I likely won't tell you who my second life avatar was, but occasionally I may make reference to her. There are many people who don't use SL or the internet that are critics of virtual living or even chat rooms and a 3D world is something that some simply cannot comprehend. Some people will attack or disregard what they do not understand. I do not have the desire to invite any negativity into my life, so I generally keep my virtual living private from most people, and share it only with those who can appreciate it. So, what do i mean by virtual living? Open my profile in SL (or any other veteran's for that matter) and you will see a snapshot of life. You see loyal friendships, favorite locations, committed relationships (yes marriage), children, families, homes, jobs, careers, inventions and more. In real life you would protect all that you loved as well as your livelyhood. I equally protect my life in the virtual.
So perhaps you just believed everything I just wrote above? Does that make it true? "It is true cause i said so" of course it sounds illogical but its good enough for many people. However, if you trust Heather, and if she tells you that you can trust me with this or that (or not with this or that), perhaps you can believe her instead.
As for you, the reader, its not that I don't trust you, at least as long as I know who I am talking to. Who is reading this now? Is it you? Or is it them? There are some people i know on the internet that I do not trust, and computers don't really know how to keep track of these things. Ultimately my privacy is in my hands. I have done very well keeping my privacy and it has given me peace of mind, many many times.
Ultimately it's up to you on who you trust, be careful out there on the information highway. How will you keep your privacy? Will you ever find out, meet me or see what i look like in rl? I'm not sure. It's not that i don't want to meet you, its that I feel I already have. My avatar is very glad to meet your avatar, lets have a virtual coffee. I'm looking forward to getting to know the parts of you that you feel comfortable expressing, I would welcome a good friendship with you and it would be interesting to see what we can accomplish together in this virtual world, perhaps more than in the 1st life, and most likely, we don't need to share our rl information to do it.
Welcome to Second Life,
Amilie