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Unmasking Chat Room Impostors by Kristen Philipkoski 3:00 a.m. 15.Sep.99.PDT A new Internet game can help you find out if your online paramour who claims to be Bambi, 18, and blonde from San Diego, is really Fred, 47, and bald from Detroit. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have used the principles of the Imitation Game, developed by British mathematician Alan Turing in the 50s, to create a game for unmasking Net imposters. The game can help users decipher gender, age, race, nationality, native region, or any cultural marker the user chooses. "People underestimate the power of the Internet in making issues of identification salient," said Joshua Berman, co-creator of the software and a doctoral candidate at the Georgia Tech College of Computing. The Turing Game, funded by grants from Microsoft Research and the National Science Foundation, is a multiplayer online game that challenges players to find phonies by analyzing the content and style of their written communications. The researchers say it provides insight into the cultural markers that define a person's virtual identity. "Online communication is becoming an increasing part of people's lives, and there are different views on what this means," said Amy Bruckman, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech and co-creator of the game. "Some would say that when we go online we become pure intellect, and we bring nothing with us. Others would say that's naïve -- we're the same people online as offline," she said. Berman is using the game as a research tool for his dissertation, which seeks to understand the relationship between public and Internet identities and to explore how virtual communities operate. The game is free to play, and runs on any computer using Windows 95, 98, or NT 4.0. Players must register online to play during a scheduled game time. The responses are posted immediately on the Web, and users must sign an agreement to participate in Berman's research project. Reminiscent of the TV game show To Tell the Truth, the game features a panel of people, all but one of them taking on a false identity. Web viewers submit questions to determine who is lying. Berman and Bruckman believe the rapidly growing number of virtual communities offers new educational and cultural opportunities that wouldn't otherwise be possible. About 1,400 players from every continent but Africa, ranging in age from 18 to 89, have registered to play the game. "I don't think people understand the way the Internet changes culture," Bruckman said. The researchers worked for a year and a half to adapt Turing's original Imitation Game. The original was a typed test to see if a person could distinguish the gender of an individual without knowing it beforehand. The researchers hope to find out whether a user can hide his or her history of cultural experience online and, for example, if it's possible to create a genderless or raceless classroom or courtroom. In one Turing Game, men trying to portray women answered the question: What's your best beauty tip? Nicky replied: "Mix your own concealer with Oxy10." Rhonda said: "Always blot your lipstick with a piece of tissue." The real woman? Nicky. Women trying to portray men were asked: What was the worst thing about your last significant other? Bob said: "She wanted me to hang out with her all the time." David said: "She always had a comment for everything." Joe said: "She was the 'clingy' type." David was the real man. "Many Internet-savvy people say that men treat women differently online, and we understand that at different levels," Bruckman said. "Some things you can't just tell someone about. They have to experience it to understand it and realize the implications." Copyright © 1994-99 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved. <http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/21754.html> janet paterson 52 now / 41 dx / 37 onset http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Village/6263/ 613 256 8340 po box 171 almonte ontario canada k0a 1a0