D2.13 Virtual Persons EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Executive Summary

This document shows how current domains of application of the term “virtual person” can be extended in order to better describe and understand new forms of identities in the Information Society in relation to rights, duties, obligations and responsibilities.

At the beginning, we give a detailed description of two typical uses of the term “virtual person”: the first example is related to avatars and new forms of identities in online games, while the second one comes from the legal domain.

Then, we motivate the introduction of a new model with two layers – the physical world and the virtual one – to better represent new forms of identities in the Information Society. The virtual world allows a unified description of many identity-related concepts that are usually defined separately without taking into consideration their similarities: avatars, pseudonyms, categories, profiles, legal persons, etc. This unified description is based on a generalization of the traditional concepts of virtual person.

Some sections in this document are aimed at an audience of non-experts; others are for experts who are interested in applying the model of virtual persons to represent new forms of identities, as well as to describe identification and authentication processes in the Information Society.

This document does not aim to cover the implications of using such a model, for example in the legal domain. However, it brings the necessary foundations to pursue the research, to investigate further and assess the possible need for new legal entities – based on virtual persons – in order to describe and cover the new paradigms induced by new forms of identities appearing in the Information Society.