Barry Joseph, the director of the Online Leadership Program at Global Kids, posted to the Huffington Post yesterday about how he got involved in youth-oriented digital media. It’s a very interesting read about how one person evolved in his career as a techie with a social conscience.
Category: Civil Society
$2000 prize for best multimedia piece on a global issue
My friends at Citizens for Global Solutions tell me that they are launching another cool multimedia contest for the best artsy piece on a global issue. Submissions can be flash animation, spoken word,or digital video, so virtually any kind of activist / artist can submit something: It’s that time again! Calling all aspiring flash animation…
New York teens wanted for Second Life machinima project!
I’m excited to announce that Global Kids is starting up again its youth machinima initiative called the "Virtual Video Project." If you know of a teenager in the New York area who is interested in global issues, politics, digital media and having fun, then send them our way! Applications are due by October 17. Students…
Draxtor’s report on the USC Public Good Challenge
Here’s another great machinima news report from my buddy Draxtor Dupres. This time he covers the USC Network Culture Project’s Public Good Challenge in Second Life. It’s a nice frame for looking at the potential of virtual worlds for more than just commerce and entertainment. I was honored to serve as one of the selection…
“The Breaks” play by Marc Bamuthi Joseph remixing all the elements of hip hop
Tonight my buddy Rafi and I saw "The Break/s", an amazing one-person play by Marc Bamuthi Joseph that mixes dance, spoken word, rap, turntablism, beatboxing and video art, all within a strong hip-hop framework. There’s a loose, dream-like narrative chronicling Joseph’s travels from Senegal to Paris to Tokyo to Havana as a hip-hop instructor, interweaved…
Where my Republicans at? The dearth of conservatives in Second Life
According to Reuters, the Social Research Foundation has found that Second Life residents support Barack Obama 2-to-1 over John McCain. The survey of 1,000 SLers found that 554 residents preferred Obama while only 143 supported McCain. This finding is true whether the Second Life resident is a self-reported American or from another country. The Obama-supporter…
Obama for President Music Fest this weekend in Second Life
I got word from my friend Doubledown Tandino that there will be a two-day "Second Life Obama Music Fest" from September 27-28 in Second Life. The "Obama for President" group in SL (with over 1,300 members) is inviting Obama/Biden supporters from across the country for an afternoon and music, fun and activism: Obama Fest is…
Retreating with the online team at Global Kids
Had a really fun time yesterday on Randall’s Island on a staff retreat with the Online Leadership Program team at Global Kids. We started the morning playing bonding games in classic Global Kids-style. Then we spent a couple of hours talking about the overall direction of our work, how to best collaborate with each other,…
Face-to-Face vs. Videoconferencing and Virtual Meetings: increasing the emotional bandwidth
Seeing some of the enterprise-level distance meeting and videoconferencing technologies at the Web2.0 Expo recently, I’ve been thinking about what sorts of lessons should be taken away for running effective and emotionally engaging meetings in virtual environments. Here’s some of my thinking on the matter…
War Child’s online peace march in Habbo Hotel today (video)
I dropped in on the "largest ever" online peace march organized by Warchild International in the teen virtual world of Habbo Hotel. Here’s some video I shot there. To call it a "march" was kind of a misnomer — it was basically 50-some avatars standing around and shouting "Peace" in the open chat. It was…