Here’s Josh Silver of Free Press revving up the crowd at the Save the Internet Party tonight in Memphis at the Gibson Guitar Factory. Later they charge onto the dance floor for the filming of a new viral video on Net Neutrality.
A Successful media policy research conference!
We just finished my most pressing responsibility in Memphis, the Media Policy Research Pre-conference that my group the Social Science Research Council organized to gather academics to discuss research needs in media and telecommunications public policy for the coming year. I frankly had some concerns about how successful the event would be, with several fairly…
MacArthur panel discusses “Do Videogames Help Kids Learn?”
I just got an email that the MacArthur Foundation is hosting what sounds like a very interesting panel discussion on videogames and learning on February 8 in Chicago. The presentation I’m most interested in is by Sasha Barab of Indiana University who will demo his latest project, Quest Atlantis, "an immersive online world designed to…
Off to Memphis for the weekend
I’m off to Memphis tomorrow to participate in the National Conference on Media Reform, put on by Free Press. And as excited as I am to be with 3,000 media activists, researchers and policy-makers, right now I just want me some Memphis barbeque. I have fantasies about making it out to Graceland, but I think…
Darfur, Open Source and 12-sim Monsters — just another crazy day in virtuality
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue. It was a crazy flippin’ day in SL to be sure. At 2PM, I beamed into the Infinite Mind sim to catch Mia Farrow, John Heffernan and several other notable personages talking about the deteriorating situation in Darfur. Ms. Farrow spoke passionately about the…
“Videogames for Good” meeting, January 12 in Memphis
Just got an email from Suzanne Seggerman, head of Games for Change, that they will be organizing a session on "Videogames for Good" at the upcoming National Conference on Media Reform in Memphis this coming weekend. Why a session on videogames? Here’s what Suzanne writes: Videogames are increasingly ubiquitous. More than half of all Americans…
Second Life’s New Slogan: Your Code, Your Imagination
Read all about it! Nuff said.
Dancing is hard, making animations is TORTURE
I’ve started messing around with Avimator to learn how to make my own custom animations in Second Life. I’d love to be able to create my own dance moves, particularly swing, African dance and hip-hop. Man, is it a bitch to learn though. My first project is doing a basic 1920s "flapper-style" charleston. I downloaded…
The Sundance Channel, virtual worlds and the future of film in a Digital Era
As I posted about previously, I’m excited about the potential for Second Life to enhance the movie and television-watching experience by adding more social interaction. It looks like the Sundance Channel is going to be the first television channel to experiment with showing their programming in-world. This Tuesday, January 9, at 8PM EST, the Sundance…
Awesome Filipino basketball tees on Ebay!
My sister has managed to obtain several basketball jerseys from the the Philippines, which she is selling on Ebay. Filipinos, despite their diminuitive frames, have a great love for basketball and beer. So it only appropriate that the Philippines Basketball Association’s top team is the San Miguel Beermen. (San Miguel is the Philippines national beer.)…