This passage from the Quaker mystic Thomas Kelly's book A Testimony of Devotion really speaks to my condition: "The concern-oriented life is ordered and organized from within. And we learn to say No as well as Yes by attending to the guidance of an inner responsibility. Quaker simplicity needs to be expressed not merely in…
Speaking about the UN, civic engagement, new media, and virtual worlds
I had the pleasure of speaking to my friend Josephine Dorado's class on "Collaboration in Networked Environments" that she is teaching at the New School this semester. The course apparently this week is exploring virtual worlds and MMOs, after delving into a range of other social media, from social networks to micro-blogging to mashup technologies. …
Jenny and I dancing to “Roll Em Pete”
Here's the lovely and talented Jenny Sowden and me dancing last night to Count Basie's "Roll Em Pete." This was at a social dance after a show by Emily Vartanian's dance theater group "General Mischief." Video courtesy of my buddy Will. Thanks, dude.
Final breaking performance today
The PMT Breakers did our final performance today for the Fall Showcase. I'm happy to report that everyone brought the fun and in-your-face spirit of b-boying to the stage. Thanks to Pavan for coming up with the overall vision for our piece, and then giving us the freedom to create our own personal moments throughout…
Metaplace has the awesome-est EULA of any virtual world
I have heard rumors that some educators have been invited to be part of the Metaplace beta testers group for this new virtual world environment created by Raph Koster. According to one of those rumored educator beta-testers, Metaplace is "one of the most powerful, user-friendly web-based / flash-driven virtual platforms out there." But of course,…
Awesome breaking performance last night!
Last night at PMT Studios, my breaking performance group and I were the opening act for the Fall Dance Showcase. It was a packed audience — including a good 15 or so of my friends, family and co-workers, which was super awesome. It's both great and nerve-wracking going first in the lineup because you don't…
Playing with YouTube Annotations
I like the new "Annotations" feature on YouTube. Opens up interesting possibilities for contexualizing video content in interesting ways, from adding speech bubbles to highlighting certain parts of the shot for the viewer. Now anyone can create a popup music video! Here's my first experiment with using annotations, using a video of me getting body…
Cypher Time: Breaking performance tonight and Sunday!
Tonight's the night! wup wup! Tickets are certain to sell out for tonight's Fall Dance Showcase at 8pm at PMT Studios in the West Village. The Sunday show at 3pm is probably still going to have tickets at the door. So excited!
UN Foundation: Win a free “bednet observation trip” to Africa
The UN Foundation just sent me this interesting notice about a contest they are running with MTV called “Your Turn to Get Exiled.” Apparently this is associated with some MTV reality show called "Exiled." All that matters is that if you win you get to go on a "net observation trip" to somewhere in Africa…
New report describes how youth hang out, mess around and “geek out” in digital spaces
I've started reading the white paper "Living and Learning with New Media," a summary of the immense, three-year, multi-study investigation of how American youth are using digital media for learning. Funded by the Digital Media & Learning initiative of the MacArthur Foundation, it incorporates the work of 23 researchers under the overall guidance of Mimi…