Book Chapter: "Transforming Digital Virtual Goods into Meaningful Possessions", Watkins, R., Denegri-Knott, J. and Wood, J., 2012. (part of Molesworth, M. and Knott, J.D., eds. "Digital Virtual Consumption". Routledge)

Previously posted this in the G+ community for FutureLearn’s Digital Marketing course in October 2014 …

 

Really deep rabbit trailling now. After watching Rebecca Watkins' video in unit 2.15 "Do I really own it?", I Google-ed for more of Rebecca's work on digital virtual goods including this summary of a talk ("The Biographies of Digital Virtual Goods") that Rebecca delivered at a conference in 2013,

This paper considers the biographies of consumption objects by exploring the hoarding and dispossession of digital virtual goods (DVGs). Following a review of possession, ownership, and dispossession literature, we note that consumers’ reluctance to dispossess is neglected. With hoarding often dismissed as an extreme behaviour, more commonplace ‘functional’ hoarding is overlooked in goods’ biographies, yet in our interviews we find it commonplace. We (1) highlight how the nature of DVGs leads to digital hoarding; (2) identify the role of storage in coping with digital hoards; (3) discuss the role of liminal storage spaces and the passage of time in resolving DVGs’ ambiguity, resulting in rediscovery or divestment, and; (4) consider the emerging issue of lingering digital virtual rubbish. This analysis illustrates the divergence of DVGs’ biographies from those of material goods, and reveals that our understanding of consumption, currently rooted in the materiality of goods, is problematized by DVGs.

Being a physical hoarder of cassettes, books, CDs, video tapes and DVDs, I am also becoming a digital/physical hoarder of digital content so this is all very pertinent to me.
I then found a book chapter that Rebecca wrote with additional relevant content in this Google Books entry with other preview pages from other chapters also available.
http://goo.gl/FSQ2nU