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…
Category: Information Society
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,…
Ban Ki Moon is next UN Secretary-General: share your views on the race
I’ve mentioned previously that my pal Tony Fleming runs a very well-done blog covering the race of the UN Secretary-General position in 2007. Tony tells me that he has been invited by the Washington Post to provide background material on the UN Secretary General’s race. Using this material, the Post asked leading editors, writers and…
John Bransford: let’s build an “innovation island” to develop learning environments
Here’s a few pictures from the excellent presentation on "Virtual Environments as ways to Reorganize Thinking about Research and Education" that Dr John Bransford, education psychology specialist affiliated with the National Science Foundation, gave today in Second Life. The complete transcript of the event can be found here. You can view the video shown during…
Salon on the Net Neutrality and the “telecom slayers”
There’s a couple of nice quotes from my colleague Ben Scott, policy director at the media reform group Free Press, in a Salon.com story on Net Neutrality entitled "The Telecom Slayers": In his Capitol Hill office, Scott keeps a small framed photo from the movie "Cool Hand Luke." It is the famous scene where…
Cisco:virtual environments help education, video-conferencing doesn’t
Cisco has conducted a meta-study of education technology entitled “Technology in Schools: What the Research Says." Produced by Cisco Systems and the Metiri Group, the report summarizes general trends and representative studies in areas such as television and video use, calculators, engagement devices such as interactive whiteboards, portable or handheld devices, virtual learning, in-school computing,…