My main interest now is the rapidly developing field of Avatar Virtual Worlds, or VW for short. These are computer generated, 3D digital spaces that are accessed over the Web through proprietary browsers. While visiting such spaces, users are represented by figures called avatars, which move about and act as we direct them to.

The word "avatar" is from the Sanskrit, and in that context it means the form in which a god manifests in the earthly plane. In the context of digital space it means the form in which humans manifest in that plane. Avatars can assume a wide variety of shapes, from realistic human forms to wildly fantastic creations. What they all have in common is that they stand in our stead in the completely new socio-spatial environment of cyberspace, to which such embodiment lends an almost visceral reality. The social environments thus created have great implications for our future evolution, pointing out new possibilities for embodiment, subjectivity and agency.

Here are some other papers on practical applications for VW:

Digital Sapce as an Arena for Broadband Educational Opportunities

Collaborative Virtual Environments for Learn, Work, Play

Collaborative Virtual Environments for Distance Learning