VPEX – Virtual Personality Extension
Posted by Tim Cole on October 3rd, 2006
OK, so it is an odd name, but it is was an acronym for something I came up with back in 1996? Back then I got to thinking about how the net would change things, and came to the conclusion that people would extend their personalities into the virtual world. That would mean creating/aquiring virtual assets to adorn/extend their virtual character. I guess we are now seeing this happening fast with the the likes of the social networks and people (including me) surrounding themselves with digital assets and links.
Why write about this now? Dunno. I suppose I wish I was thinking I put my money where my mouth was back then. Hindsight is such a wonderful thing 
. Anyhow, I still think that tools are required, especially on mobile devices, to help create these “extensions”.
Back then I got to wondering what would be the first born virtual child, and how it would come about. Surely, if people have more and more a virtual/digital persona, then in that dimension there must come a time when it is important/developed enough for that to happen?
April 25th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
[...] I was at the latest Mash Up event in London last night, all about Identity 2. It was a very informative evening, the panel were excellent, and it was well worth the trip. On the train on the way back I was reflecting on what was covered in the evening, and some of the comments around identity theft, anonymity etc. For some reason I got to thinking about VPEX (virtual personality extension), and figured that as our identity extends into virtual space, then there is no reason to expect that these extensions would not also be prone to parallel afflictions to those in the real world. [...]