Something that I have not seen that much discussion of in respect of current virtual world technology is what one does with the avatar of someone that has died and in what way the person might live on virtually. We had a brief discssion on this topic on TerraNova earlier this year: http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2005/07/ after_me_after_.html.

Interesting issue and something that has crossed the mind with regard to having virtual identities that span the globe in various forms. In organizational settings, dead leaders are memorialized by adorning hallway and office walls with their paintings or photographs. Talk of doing the same for the avatars of the deceased? I keep a record of all online identities (i.e. email, listservers, groups, etc.) so that a loved one or friend can notify the administrators to bring closure to this part of life. It would be interesting to do a study to determine how many other people have establised what might be considered as a virtual will. How about those of you reading this posting? Do you have a virtual will? -- Gail ------------------------- Gail Taylor, M.Ed. Human Resource Education Ph.D. student Educational Psychology Teaching Assistant University of IL Urbana-Champaign