Virsona.com - Breathing Life into the Dead

Although historical legends such as Abe Lincoln and Marilyn Monroe are long dead and gone, social media company Virsona has brought them back to life as revived virtual personas. Virsona resurrects the dead and breathes life into fictional characters via their interactive chat platform. You can actually chat with famous figure via what is essentially instant messaging. The characters learn to interact as more information about them is input into the database—this can be done by any registered community member. Thus, as you ask the digital persona questions, it will answer using the information programmed into it. Each figure has a wiki like data sheet page, where you can find out vital facts such as birth date and place, along with accomplishments and education. Users can also create their own virsonas for departed pets and loved ones.

“Virsonas are virtual personas created to Reason, Remember and React just like a living, historical or fictional character. You can create the Virtual You as a Personal Virsona™ or participate with our Community Virsonas and talk to your heroes, do research or simply have fun! Create Virsonas for your pet, departed loved ones or for common Shared Experiences.”

This is an interesting concept. It has a wide possibility of applications; for instance, historical figures could be used for educational purposes; movie characters could be used to promote upcoming films; virsonas could be used to enrich fan sites; families could create virsonas in honour of their deceased loved ones.

How effective is this—do the characters respond in a real, lifelike manner? Are the answers they give accurate? How is information/data provided by community members screened?