I am ridiculously excited about the theatrical release of the breakdance documentary "Planet B-Boy." This is one of the best dance movies I have ever seen, rivalling "Rize" and "Wild Style." The premiere will be on March 21 at the Landmark Sunshine Theater in New York! Then it goes on limited release in eleven other…
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Hello Kitty Online Beta-launching Soon: The cuteness overload may destroy the metaverse!
I have to admit, I am super-excited about the upcoming beta launch of the newest virtual world "Hello Kitty Online." The press release (which you can read after the jump) notes that the persistent 3d virtual environment will be able to accommodate thousands of players and NPCs from the popular kiddie franchise, including Badtz-Maru, My…
Global Kids on ABC News!
I finally got a chance to see the ABC news story from last week about Global Kids. The story focused on our new program teaching science in a real life classroom in Brooklyn using Second Life. Nice coverage of our work, which my colleagues Barry Joseph and Joyce Bettencourt are leading up. Good stuff, guys!
Learning for Failure: The MacArthur Digital Media & Learning Grantee Meeting
I had the honor of being among a small of incredibly smart, dedicated researchers and practitioners who are all supported by the Digital Media and Learning Initiative of the MacArthur Foundation. About 70 of us gathered from Thursday to Friday at USC to talk about issues of common concern, share progress on our respective projects,…
Cool trends: Second Life corporate builds donated to charitable causes
In July of 2007, Starwood Hotels announced that their first experiment with virtual worlds, the Virtual Aloft Hotel, had come to completion. Normally when such things happen, the corporation just has the island and the build derez into the ether and everyone congratulates themselves on a job well done. Starwood decided to do something different…
I’m on the Teen Grid!
My work avatar "Rik Gkid" was successfully created and transferred over to the Teen Grid today! I have to say that being ported over from the Main Grid over to Teen SL felt a bit like going into exile in a strange land. What is this giant volcano? Where are all the ad farms and…
“The Freshest Kids” Quick Movie Review
I just watched the documentary "The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-boy" (2002). It’s an entertaining introduction to how breakdancing got started in the Bronx in the 1970s. The documentary intersperses awesome dance footage with interviews with legends of the hip-hop world — from Cool Herc to Ken Swift to Mr. Wiggles to Africa…
Postscript+Chatlog: Event on Best Practices for Nonprofits in Second Life a big success!
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of leading up a panel of non-profit experts talking about "Best Practices for Non-profits in Second Life," held at the Plush Nonprofit Commons in SL. Speakers shown from left to right are: Lori Bell, Alliance Library System Rafi Santo, Global Kids Jade Lily, SL Relay for Life Jimbo Hoyer, YearlyKos…
Mole Negro Boxed
Mole Negro Originally uploaded by Swifty My roommate Swifty took this awesome picture of my cat Mole Negro. Yes, Mole always looks like that — perpetually shocked. So cute!
REMINDER: I’m speaking about Best Practices for Non-profits in SL TOMORROW at 8:30AM in Second Life
Just a quick reminder that tomorrow — Friday, February 8 at 8:30AM PST — I and a host of other great speakers will be presenting the best thinking around non-profit work in Second Life. The discussion is based on a white paper that I prepared for Global Kids on "Best Practices for Non-profits in Second…