I logged into Second Life this morning to find that my avatar appears to be riding the fence about who he is voting for this coming November. Is Second Life in a Red State or a Blue State? Or just a confused state?
My first Spore creature: meet the Ferengi
I know, not very original name. For my first creature in the game "Spore," I wanted to create a small, mean, carnivorous race of creatures. So the name "Ferengi" just seemed to fit. I have just formed alliances with two other lesser races, and now I’m on the trail of other Ferengi who have flown…
What Quakers can learn from hip-hop
Today in Meeting for Worship at Brooklyn Quaker Meeting, my mind was spinning on the subject of hip-hop. Although the Meeting was just about over, I couldn’t help but stand up and share this: This morning I can’t stop thinking about hip-hop. As a form of expression, hip-hop, at its best, challenges the powers that…
“The Breaks” play by Marc Bamuthi Joseph remixing all the elements of hip hop
Tonight my buddy Rafi and I saw "The Break/s", an amazing one-person play by Marc Bamuthi Joseph that mixes dance, spoken word, rap, turntablism, beatboxing and video art, all within a strong hip-hop framework. There’s a loose, dream-like narrative chronicling Joseph’s travels from Senegal to Paris to Tokyo to Havana as a hip-hop instructor, interweaved…
Following the 1st McCain-Obama Debate in Second Life
Tonight I decided to see how the opposing camps viewed the debate tonight between Barack Obama and John McCain. Normally it would be difficult to survey live the differing impressions of Republicans and Democrats. But via the wonders of Second Life (and two laptops) I was able to attend debate viewing parties of both Obama…
College pic of me and roommates in ugly ties
My roommates Andy, Baber and me circa 1990, Los Angeles. I don’t remember why my roommates Andy, Baber and I are wearing identical outfits with incredibly ugly ties. All I know is that this picture from around 1990 makes me very happy. Yes, those glasses are bigger than my head. I think I wore them…
Where my Republicans at? The dearth of conservatives in Second Life
According to Reuters, the Social Research Foundation has found that Second Life residents support Barack Obama 2-to-1 over John McCain. The survey of 1,000 SLers found that 554 residents preferred Obama while only 143 supported McCain. This finding is true whether the Second Life resident is a self-reported American or from another country. The Obama-supporter…
Obama for President Music Fest this weekend in Second Life
I got word from my friend Doubledown Tandino that there will be a two-day "Second Life Obama Music Fest" from September 27-28 in Second Life. The "Obama for President" group in SL (with over 1,300 members) is inviting Obama/Biden supporters from across the country for an afternoon and music, fun and activism: Obama Fest is…
Retreating with the online team at Global Kids
Had a really fun time yesterday on Randall’s Island on a staff retreat with the Online Leadership Program team at Global Kids. We started the morning playing bonding games in classic Global Kids-style. Then we spent a couple of hours talking about the overall direction of our work, how to best collaborate with each other,…
Face-to-Face vs. Videoconferencing and Virtual Meetings: increasing the emotional bandwidth
Seeing some of the enterprise-level distance meeting and videoconferencing technologies at the Web2.0 Expo recently, I’ve been thinking about what sorts of lessons should be taken away for running effective and emotionally engaging meetings in virtual environments. Here’s some of my thinking on the matter…