Bananas and triangles protest IBM in Second Life
Wagner James Au has a writeup and pictures from a recent "in-world" labor protest that took place in Second Life. The company in question: IBM. The aggrieved: 1850 avatars, including some bananas and triangles. Link.
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I feel an odd compulsion to make a t-shirt that says, "I AM A LARGE GREEN TRIANGLE".
I wouldn't mind making one that says, " Seriously guys what has Korea ever done for us"
George Saunders's amazing short story "In Persuasion Nation" features a large green triangle as one of its main characters, to wit: "Over the next few weeks, as it practices flying during the day and meditates on these great new truths at night, it is gradually, almost imperceptibly, transformed, from a mere green plastic-cellophane corner into a beautiful glowing oblong green triangular symbol."
Most completely pointless waste of 1850 people's time ever. The idea that this will do anything but bring a small amount of negative publicity is ludicrous.
Well, I'm a Korean and was puzzled about that protest sign about Korea. Here's what the linked article had to say about it:
And as with most real world protests, this one also attracted off-message sign-wavers. For instance, I asked this humanoid stack of square discs what Korea had to with the strike.
[ pic: the protester with the Korea sign ]
"Is that what it says?" the stack of discs replied, surprised.
Wow, that was a surreal moment. When I saw the first shot I thought I was in that crowd "protesting" - but I guess someone else made an avatar inspired by Rez. I'm glad I'm not the not the only one with such a wilfuly abstract fan-avatar. ( see http://egypt.urnash.com/sl/projectk/k-1 )
Somehow I suspect that a certain percentage of the "protesters" were pranksters. Or griefers. There's a thin line and which side they're on depends on whether or not the prank involves taboo-breaking, and attacking something you hold dear. A large green triangle with a protest sign reading "I am a large green triangle" is probably a teenage Dadaist, draining meaning out of the intent of the original protesters.
As a private sim within Second Life can only hold a maximum of 100-avatars at one time a better measure of the "depth" of the protest /might/ be to look at the traffic score (1-point per minute per avatar). [Corporate-owned private sims typically have terrible traffic scores as no one is interested in visiting a virtual concrete mono-block.]
Keep in mind that as Second Life also offers unlimited alternative accounts and a person can use "-multiple" to run multiple instances of Second Life on their computer there's a strong possibility that a more accurate count of total protesters /might/ be much much much lower.
And what does it all mean when a person can teleport instantly beyond a picket line?
Plus, the "right" to free speech doesn't exist within Second Life. IBM could have kicked the protestors out at any time though how could anyone do such a thing to an adorable green triangle? They're like cuddly bunnies.