The Avatar's Story

Id like a little icon on my character's paperdoll which opens up to a "bio" about my character that Ive typed out. This was a cool feature of Ultima Online. I know books can accomplish this somewhat, but Id like a small section of text that is accessible to anyone in proximity without having to give them an item. I think a brief character bio would help people with RP and maintaining a consistent story for their character.

 

I saw something like this back when I was playing Neverwinter Nights on a persistent server and it confused me. Aside from an indepth visual description, how does one magically know someone else's bio?