Ariel Lancaster is a founder and Principal of the consulting and research group Virtual Frontiers. Most of her “virtual” time has been spent in Second Life, where she has been a resident for over ten years. In terms of professional work, she has served as a researcher and columnist for outlets such as The Virtual Times and Scruplz Magazine (both no longer in publication), for which she wrote about life and culture in virtual worlds. She is currently helping with communications for the Spirit Light Dance Company (SLDC) and the Community of Democratic Simulators (CDS).
In her actual life, she is a social scientist, full professor. and researcher at a major public university. Her research focuses on identity formation and community development, and their implications for our understanding of “places” in virtual worlds. She engages in the same lines of research in her virtual existence and for Virtual Frontiers. Since a virtual existence can be every bit as “real” as a real-world life, she generally declines to expand on her actual world beyond that which is written above.
JT Croxton is also a founder and Principal of Virtual Frontiers . . .