The MacArthur Foundation announced today at the Museum of Natural History their new initiative to provide $50 million to fund universities and non-profits for work on using technology for education. I'm at the press conference right now. MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton's summarized the proceeding with the following six points: This is a paradigm shift in…
Category: Information Society
MacArthur Digital Learning event today (webcast and SL broadcast)
The MacArthur Foundation announced today at the Museum of Natural History their new initiative to provide $50 million to fund universities and non-profits for work on using technology for education. I’m at the press conference right now. Here’s the details on how to connect from the web and Second Life: Thursday, October 19, 2006 ,10:00…
First gubernatorial e-debate in Minnesota
e-Democracy guru Steven Clift has done it again, organizing the first gubernatorial e-debate in Minnesota. His site smoothly brings together streaming videos posted by each of the candidates, daily blog posts and rebuttals, RSS feeds, flickr photos, and email updates. Taking place from October 9-19, several issues important to Minnesotans have already been debated, including…
Your tax dollars at work: US government regulation of virtual worlds
Reuters (now with their own Second Life Bureau desk!) reports that the US Congress is considering how virtual economies such as those within Second Life and World of Warcraft interact with US tax code. According to federal economist Dan Miller: Right now we’re at the preliminary stages of looking at the issue and what kind…
Symposium and photo contest on Digital Media (due date Oct 18)
Alan Levine, aka CDB Barkley, announces that as part of a twelve day symposium on "the impact of digital media" being sponsored by the NMC Campus, they are holding a photo contest on the contest theme. According to the contest rules, images "must capture in still photography the power of digital media, or some impact…
Off to Athens for Internet Governance Forum!
It looks like I will be going to Athens, Greece for the inaugural meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, from October 30 to November 2! The IGF is a UN-organized body devoted to supporting "multi-stakeholder policy dialogue" on the Internet and its governance and regulatory policies. I believe that I am being invited to speak…
Thoughts on strategic uses of virtual environments for the UN
Recently I was contacted by the programme officer of a UN agency for advice on how they could best use the virtual world of Second Life to promote their organization’s goals. As an activist with more than ten years of experience with various international campaigns and coalitions at the United Nations, and an active Second…
Jerry Paffendorf speaking on the Metaverse Roadmap tomorrow
Poinky Malaprop, coordinator of the Kuurian Expeditions, sends me info that at their next meeting tomorrow evening (Tuesday Oct 10), they will feature a presentation "The Metaverse Roadmap Project: Pathways to the 3D Web" by Snoopybrown Zamboni / Jerry Paffendorf: In May of 2006 the Acceleration Studies Foundation began the process of mapping the metaverse…
Bransford post-script: on testing learning hypotheses and changing the academy
Okay, I’ve had a couple of days to digest some of the substance of Dr. John Bransford’s presentation on virtual learning environments that took place a few days ago. I suspect that what he is proposing fairly radical. There are really two points: If we are serious about virtual environments as being fertile learning spaces,…
Rik’s skating tour of Info Island (video)
I got an invite to the official opening of the Info Island Second Life Library, a project I have been watching develop for the past six months with great interest. Those librarians have a whole weekend full of activities planned from October 12-14, from panel discussions to scary movies, a costume ball, a beach party,…