I received yesterday from Amber Oliver of the World Wide Workshop Foundation a very interesting "grant" call for proposals, offering their new education platform that teaches young people how to create computer games to educators and youth leaders around the world. Sounds like a great opportunity for an educational organization looking to expand their interactive…
Category: Information Society
“Beyond Broadcast” conference to include SL virtual participants
On February 24 a bevy of media experts, activists, producers and policy-makers will be gathering at at the second "Beyond Broadcast" conference. I attended last year’s excellent "Beyond Broadcast" event, where I met Pathfinder Linden and Rodica MillionsofUs among many other folks. The purpose of this year’s conference is to : explore the means, the…
“Peacemaker” computer game teaches about peace in the Middle East
ImpactGames announces the release of the computer game "Peacemaker," a simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in which you play the part of either the Israel Prime Minister of the Palestinian President in quest to create a secure and peaceful environment for your people. The game is innovative in that it intersperses real-world footage and data…
$2,000 to best Flash movie on a global issue
My friends at Citizens for Global Change sent me a note about a new contest they are running to find the best Flash-based movie that deals with a global issue. Animation is not really my gig, but sounds like they are interested in amateurs as well as Flash-gurus giving it a go. Oh, and the…
Turn out the lights, shut down the computer, log out your avatar for five minutes today
In about a couple of hours, my office will be turning off all of the lights in response to the "Five Minutes for the Planet" effort launched by the Alliance for the Planet. Here’s the announcement, briefly translated: The Alliance for the Planet [a group of environmental associations] is calling on all citizens to create…
MTVu giving out $5,000 for best game idea to fight HIV/AIDS
MTVu (MTV has a university?) announces that they are holding a contest to come up with an online video game to teach young people about HIV/AIDS. Called the "Change the Course of HIV Challenge," the competition is for the best idea for an online viral video game. So you don’t have to be a game…
Coke re-creates GTA as “Help-Em-Up” Game (video)
I saw this amazing Grand Theft Auto-like ad for Coke at a movie theater last night. I love how it re-imagines the ultra-violent video game as a new kind of FPS — a First Person Samaritan. So awesome. Sadly, I think this…
Eventful.com: your personal event coordinator
I’ve been experimenting with the cool calendaring website Eventful.com. It’s an impressive online community-based calendar service with lots of Web2.0 goodness built into it. What’s innovative about Eventful is that any user can add events, tag them, and share them with others. Even better, you can export the events to all sorts of other scheduling…
Davos in Second Life: public engagement, Flavor of the Week or damage control?
Coming out of the first of many in-world interviews with some of the major personages attending this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, I am left with the question, What’s the point? The WEF is an annual gathering of 2,000 of the most influential business and political leaders in the world to discuss important…
Pioneering legal scholar Jerome Barron on the First Amendment and the Internet
“Ideas matter and they have enduring power.” – Jerome Barron Today, Jerome A. Barron, legal scholar at the George Washington University School of Law, delivered a lecture to mark the 40th anniversary of a groundbreaking Harvard Law Review article he wrote in 1967 entitled “Access to the Press – A New First Amendment Right.” In…