This morning I attended a cool session at the Games in Education Conference on "ROBOTS: They're Not Just for Taking over the World, but for Education, too!" put on by Nick Webb, Senior Scientist at the Institute for Informatics, Logic and Security Studies at the University at Albany and Ilene Frank, of the Schenectady Museum…
Category: Information Society
Vadis Turner + Brooklyn Museum’s super-secret tech project at 1st Fans Meetup
Shelly and Will gave us "1st Fans" members of the Brooklyn Museum a sneak peek at their new tech project last night. I was sworn to secrecy, but I will say this: it will change how you visit the museum… forever. Ok, maybe that's a bit of an over-sell. Still, it's a neat initiative that…
The Digital Quaker: What it means to be a Friend in the Information Society
This morning at Meeting for Worship at the Friends Meeting of Brooklyn, I was thinking about how analog our worship services are. There's almost no modern technology involved at all except for electric lights and maybe an oscillating fan in the summer. There's no amplifier, microphones, television or computer monitors, or other digital technology found…
“Tron Legacy” trailer released (video) OMG!
The original "Tron" was a very formative movie for me as a teenager. I remember walking out of the theaters being so excited about the possibilities for computer graphics and simulations, and really wanting to be able to program animations like that. It inspired me to join the computer club in school, to convince my…
Do virtual worlds support or hold back marginalized youth?
Today was the last day of the "I Dig Zambia" virtual summer camp, and I have been reflecting on how our Global Kids teens participated in the program. For the past two weeks, eleven of our Global Kids teens have been going through a virtual summer camp in Teen Second Life with eight other teens…
Beth Noveck, White House Deputy CTO, talks about “Wiki Government” in Second Life on July 20th!
Please join a Second Life simulcast, from the Markle Foundation, of Beth Simone Noveck, now the deputy Chief Technology Officer at the White House responsible for Open Government, presenting her new book, WIKI GOVERNMENT: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A, in…
(o.o): First Annual NYC Digital Youth Media & Tech Fest this Saturday (June 27) at New School!
I'm excited to announce that this Saturday, my group Global Kids is participating in the First Annual NYC Digital Youth Media & Technology Festival taking place on June 27 at the New School in NYC. The daylong festival will spotlight the growing movement among teenagers in New York and nationally to design video games, films…
Digital recreation of Al Minns doing the charleston in Maya
This is a neat 3D digital animation recreating Al Minns awesome charleston steps from a film in the 1950s. Don't know how this was done exactly, but the character does seem to mimic quite well a lot of the subtle styling of Al Minns. I'd love to get this animation for my Second Life avatar!…
Appreciating my role as a “Connector”
Post-processing my experience being a "mentor" at the BAVC Producers Institute in San Francisco last week, I've been realizing some of the unique aspects of my own personal journey and how that has shaped me into the odd amalgamation of activist / technologist / educator/ dancer/ Quaker etc. This past week has helped me to…
BAVC Producer’s Institute Finale: Pitching your project!
The culminating event of the BAVC Producer's Institute is a presentation of the eight projects being developed here to a group of potential funders, partners and distributors. The challenge presented to each team was to develop and present a prototype of a participatory media project that creates social change. It's an intense and nerve-wracking experience…