Mes Influences

1.How do you see the adoption of identity systems taking place - where, and at what pace?

Why identity matters?

In few moments, I will describe our current activities at My Virtual Model in regard to virtual identity. First, allow me to describe the evolution that I perceive in our quest of identity. With mass medias, we found ourselves almost dissolved in a homogenous identity. Identity defined by country, culture, family, corporation, history, society, brand, publicity, etc. Marshall McLuhan wrote some great thoughts about the medium and the message in these eras. The digital identity brought the dynamism of interaction. Glenn Gould, the Canadian pianist, saw very soon how the audience would become more involved in the creative process. As an interpret, he proclaimed himself a re-creator. The virtual identity was envisioned by a poet and writer like Borges and by aboriginal cultures like the Haidas. The Internet is a huge mask. We reinvent the rituals of transformation. With our online games and virtual worlds, we personify multiple personas, inventing an imaginary territory of culture. Nomadism, seen by Bruce Chatwin as a true form of civilization, comes back in our world and happens in our virtual experiences. The mobility of our avatars and our virtual experiences is a real need. I see My Virtual Model as a first expression of this since its origins in 2000. Like the crab disguising itself with algae, we mash up ethnicities, cultures, ages and times, composing an operatic image of our virtual model avatar.





Trybalization: Mobile Identity

Shopping virtually with your 3D models on publishers’ sites and bringing your Closet and your Virtual Home in your blog and in your virtual personal space, on your cell, in store, wherever you want. Your Virtual Model of yourself is mobile and interoperable. The world revolves around you and your network as you are reinventing yourself in accordance with your communities and your values.





To Shop is to Search

Since we created My Virtual Model, users continue to create photorealistic and human-like virtual models of themselves. They persist doing it. For them, they would like to have more benefits. When they use models to loose weight, to improve their health and their figure, they would like to have a more complete set of choices. A true, real, accurate and real-time 3D virtual model of themselves. We are launching the RT3D for the Holidays. They also want to have more choices, more content when they use it to shop for new garments, new outfits and new looks. The goal is to scale the production to meet the expectations. We are introducing a Visual Search Experience to scale the production. The queries are visual configurations based on our library of images and open to a wiki input from users. The results of the search are the product thumbnails provided by any Search Engine and could be made in 3D again by users texturing the configured query. The visual quality can always be increased by using Photoshop CS3 and by a service offered by professionals.







Reliable ID for more virtual commerce

Once the choice is there, the reasons to come back to shop for Fashion, Beauty and Home Décor are numerous. Therefore, the desire to secure the virtual closet created by users on their blogs or on their personal pages is continuous and ubiquitous. When you can put a picture of your face on your model and store your virtual makeover and hairdos in your virtual closet, share it with friends and family, comment and rate things, you need a secure ID system. You can always open your closet and your virtual home if desired. This ID system will also be used to get paid as you are becoming a publisher.





2. Will the consumer - user - see the value of identity systems and embrace them not only for security reasons - but as a way of expressing themselves and more effectively joining and participating in social networks, communities and all forms of collaborative and discovery efforts. Hints of what works and what doesn't are always welcome.





BrandME: I am the brand



With some very aspirational brands, the visual and personal ID system is not easily accepted. It seems contradictory to express yourself and to co-design the brand when it represents a quasi inaccessible image. The creative community approach fits with open brands like American Eagle, Reebok and Adidas. The sport brands started with custom-made products and want to evolve with new ID system fitting the customized approach. The dynamism of the brands, the participative nature of sport prepares the new paradigm of Virtual Identity. At the Super Bowl, Fritos launched an ad selected through a YouTube contest. The Lifestyle theme is very strong with a mix of Sport and Fashion. The healthy, fit body created by sports, fitness, yoga and well-being is not anonymous and dictated by the tyranny of Fashion. The conquest of our body and of our shape identifies who we are and connects us with the environment. A virtual ID comprises many causes and matches the ones following certain rules regarding the environment and the planet. As the user chooses with whom they want to share their personal info, they select the brands with which they share.

3.Any predictions about adoption and any major forces that might drive and shape adoption - such as RealID, HSPD12, identity theft, the pressures of relying parties and payment systems - would also enliven and enlighten the conversation.


Virtual Identity

The mobility of users and their virtual experiences will force the adoption of Virtual ID. No one desires to stay in one place. For example, Second Life is a place where many users are curious to go and to experiment. They also want to shop and then use their virtual model or virtual rooms created with planners at the image of their homes in other Virtual Worlds. It implies a standard between multiple 3D systems. MVM is in a perfect position to propose it. Users are moving with their Virtual Models already from one website to another. They want to send it as well to their cell, games, to virtual worlds, etc. They want to use a photorealistic model to shop but a more imaginary one to play and date. Nevertheless, they want to regroup these separate avatars under their Virtual ID. As they establish a real trust towards their models, it seems very natural to allow the user to own their personal info with their virtual models. It becomes their personal agent of communication. Trust and reputation are keys and paramount. Their models can help them to feel protected and well served.


4.Also, any predictions about what a pervasive new identity system might look like and the timeframe when it might become pervasive - would be welcome. Thought should be given to also the evolution of identity on mobile devises - the iPhone could be an interesting transition technology with WiFi and web services model.




Visual Search Interface: visualization of the intent

It has to be visual (or hidden at will), mobile, interoperable, sharable and get some intelligence. We can imagine an enhanced virtual identity matching virtual models and intelligent agents. For instance, when I shop, I search. My search should be as pleasant and vibrant as my virtual experiences are. A visual interactive search allows visualizing my intent. We enter here in the mysterious world of the anticipation of desire. To give a public or commercial access to our secret desires is pretty pervasive. This is why we have to own our information and control with whom and when and where and under which circumstances we want to share it. We are responsible for our identity.














I am responsible of my identity: Choosing with whom to share personal info

I think that virtual experiences and virtual models should not eradicate privacy. The transparency can become very difficult if not dangerous. Some areas of our lives need intimacy, need to be protected. We can reveal ourselves in some places and circumstances but to open everything can be a real threat. With personal medias like blogs, it is a true challenge as people tend to reveal everything. A new ID system is in fact a necessity, as new technologies allow to be scrutinized all the time, everywhere. The paparazzi values and systems is a terror. It requires bodyguards and great wealth to resist it. As we realize that we have to protect the planet and life itself, we also have to protect our humanity, our sensitivity and capability to be remote, quiet and private. The fanatisms exclude individual lives, individual thoughts and individual behavior.




Send to cell: my ID comes with me

Yes, the iPhone is a great alternative because a phone is even more personal than a computer, therefore it could be associated with Virtual Identity. It might make it easier to understand the importance of Virtual Identity and the importance of our implication with our identity. We become less passive, more involved and we can have more control over our financial situation, budget, planning, family and friends, retirement, etc.

5.What has happened that surprised you?





Trying on and mix & matching several lives: Re-use of the assets

I always liked the following expression of Carolyn Evans: “the theatricalisation of everyday life and the staging of the self”. Virginia Wolfe encouraged us to try on several lives, to put it on as we do with garments. Not to let others, especially friends to limit us in our identity. When I see how users love to inhabit all kinds of personas and explore all kinds of adventures in virtual worlds and games, it surprises me positively. When we shop and we come closer to our reality, the goal should be to harmonize our desire of uniqueness and fantasy and at the same time to embody it in our lives. That’s why My Virtual Model combined with others avatars in virtual worlds and real life is a powerful experience. The fact that we create our identity anticipates the role we should and will play in the society. Less mandate and more direct implication. We can influence how to manufacture products and virtually avoid wastes in producing goods that people don’t need or want. What virtual reality allows is to try on before producing. It is very healthy. We have developed tools in the B2B area for brands to do exactly this. When Adidas saw that users could try on garments virtually before buying them, they decided to use the technology at the design level and then be ready to reuse it for their online catalog, in store, on cell with virtual models of users. To create one experience for users and the brand.










The powers of identity

The reappearance of trust, ethics and values as counterpart of a disillusioned society. I wanted to work with aboriginal myths, and with little girls and technology. I believe that art and creativity and knowledge should not be separate from life. With technology, we reintroduce creativity and innovation for everyone. At the same time, I am curious to see what will happen with memory. I am surprised to see how many movies, videos, pictures, texts and messages we are creating. The re-enactment of memories through all kinds of stories surprises me.

I am very honoured to present my vision of Virtual Identity at this year's iMeme conference and to expose the exciting work My Virtual Model is doing in this area.

In my PDF entitled "Trybalization and Shopalization" I have answered the following preparatory questions for my panel:

1. How do you see the adoption of identity systems taking place - where, and at what pace?
2. Will the consumer - user - see the value of identity systems and embrace them not only for security reasons - but as a way of expressing themselves and more effectively joining and participating in social networks, communities and all forms of collaborative and discovery efforts.
3. What are your predictions about adoption and any major forces that might drive and shape adoption - such as RealID, HSPD12, identity theft, the pressures of relying parties and payment systems.
4. What are your predictions about what a pervasive new identity system might look like and the timeframe when it might become pervasive.

I hope you will enjoy it. Your comments are very welcome.