So Descartes got it wrong. Cogito ergo sum? (I think therefore I am)

Nope. I believe it is Facio ergo sum (I do therefore I am). Similarly Kant’s Categorical Imperative suggests that principles & morals are absolutes and by extension it is your intent that is moral not the actions of this intent. (maybe I failed to grasp the concept in my philosophy classes but I always had a problem with this summed up by the phrase “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”). Nope, don’t think so. I’m a practical person. I do things. The things done are tangible and perceivable by others who may or may not care less WHY I did them.

So what, you may ask. Good question.

Back to performance theory. My interest lay in the manifestation of the digital self. Who we are online. Are we the same? Do we become another person? If we differ, how ‘real’ is this difference? As a marketing researcher, this fascinates me. There is a lot of talk in the industry (and action) about research & marketing in virtual domains. What hope for success?

In my opinion there are several levels of digital being thatrange from an absolute copy of your offline persona (i.e when you do online banking, buy some tangible good or service that applies to your offline life) to the other extreme, a pure avatar that is a projection of yourself that likely is what you’d like to be, but aren’t (or could be pure sport or fantasy).

The former is easy to market to & to study, the latterp roblematic. If your cyber-sexy self in Second Life likes a product or brand, does this matter when you are Jane or John Doe offline? Avatars don’t buy real products. However they may still be influencers for others. It’s messy.

My interest lies in the middle ground. Your persona on sites like Facebook are quite like your offline persona (in most cases) but perhaps a little jazzed up. Basically it’s you without the warts and with what you think your best attributes front & center (this is of course simplistic but serves as an example).

So I’ve spend time over the last year or two trying to figure out how to best engage people online in a social environment in ways that mean something to clients residing on terra firma.

It’s a fine dance, and I have two left legs, but I’m getting there.

Cheers.