Learning to be is more diffuse, more difficult to get a handle on, which is probably why our formal models have tended the other way.

I take your point about SL, though I think it depends on the sim you’re in. (As many people have pointed out, in general you don’t see avatars of color, nor fat ones, nor old ones. The Lake Wobegon effect meets Gold’s Gym.)

Still, I agree with both your point and the one in the article. In a sense, the immediate community (however defined) chooses how to value the contributions of its members. Eric Kandel makes a similar point about his brain research: he doesn’t think he and his teams could have achieved what they did in the more hierarchical world of European academia. In the U.S., postdocs and even grad students were encouraged and even expected to have ideas, pursue hypotheses, ask questions.

Gotta read this one – thanks, Dave.

This is something I really like about social media. I especially notice it in environments like Second Life where you don’t even use your own name. All those stereotypes, hierarchies are removed.