Making Sense of the Political World

Looking to parse out primary season?

Widget Whiteberry, the Rockridge Institute's Second Life Scout (pictured above with Eureka Dejavu and Schmilsson Nilsson downstairs at the Windmill), invited Dancing Ink Productions to attend a Virtually Speaking event hosted by InWorld Studios and the Rockridge Institute at 6 pm SLT on Thursday, January 3.

George Lakoff (Schmooze), Glenn W. Smith(Republic) and Eric Haas (Tigerpaw) will be the guests for a one-hour discussion followed by an "informal discussion of the early returns from New Hampshire primary and all things political."

For more information, ping Widget Whiteberry in SL. She's an excellent SL Scout...informative and tenacious. She pitched a series for this blog about SL communities for individuals with various physical disabilities. We look forward to sharing her work as it progresses.

New Year, 1,000 New Identities?

How many identities will you have in 2008? One? Ten? A thousand? I've created two new virtual world avatars in the last 48 hours about which we will blog here later. So I'm up to over a dozen.

Lordfly Digeridoo, who interviewed me a few months back on the now-on-hiatus, but very fun and cool, SecondCast has launched an effort to compile portraits of 1,000 avatars in the virtual world of Second Life. At the time of this writing it looks like he is almost halfway there.

Eureka and I did our part by submitting the below self portraits to the cause.

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Food for thought for the New Year ... In today's edition of The New York Times is a compelling story, "Web Playgrounds of the Very Young," about the boom in virtual worlds for children. While there is talk that Second Life is in decline, what is NOT in decline are virtual worlds in general. And, like it or not, a generation is growing up in virtual worlds.

Will we be ready for them?

Wishing you all a Prosperous and Peaceful 2008!

The Evolution of Diplomatic Sophistication

Our panel in Kuala Lumpur on December 13 took place in multiple worlds. Second Life shown here.

Director of DiploFoundation Jovan Kurbalija moderated our recent panel in Kuala Lumpur at the Global Knowledge Partnership's "Event on the Future," after which a colleague from Sri Lanka, Sanjana Hattotuwa, wrote about why he felt the panel was a missed opportunity.

He felt that the panel was "ill-informed" and a "gross mismatch" with what the audience expected. I found the opposite to be true. Panelists included Stefan Geens of the Swedish Institute (his blog chronicles what has been learned through building the Second House of Sweden in Second Life) and Jean Miller, who joined us virtually in Second Life.

Sanjana Hattotuwa's assertion included:

"The panel, that did not have a single Asian on it or anyone with experience in using MMORPG’s / virtual worlds / Second Life for real world complex political negotiations, focussed entirely on the simplistic uses of Second Life to bring people together for genetic research and other mundane and relatively uncomplicated tasks. The unique and extremely challenging demands of virtual diplomacy shaped by and responding to violent conflict or where not at all covered."

For starters, the entire panel was organized diligently by Eva Tanner of the DiploFoundation in Malta, who happens to be Asian. And as for real world complex political negotiations, it is obvious that virtual worlds present a far more humane and sophisticated opportunity to engage in conflict without destroying the lives of innocent human beings in the process, but we are not there yet. Genetic research is far from mundane or relatively uncomplicated. Such research is revealing that the history of human life, now so seemingly fractured by geography and the very socioeconomic, political and cultural traditions that lead us into war, seems to have had a very cohesive beginning. In other words, we all started out from the same distant mystery, and while we may never live to know the answer to our shared start, we might be able to regain some sense that we're all in this together as we learn to create new identities and a rich global culture in immersive virtual environments.

In Josh's response to Sanjana, one comment really stood out in response to our colleague's intriguing thoughts on oppressive regimes and virtual worlds:

It's my contention that repressive regimes actually provide an opportunity. During my days at the Voice of America, I witnessed people living under repressive governments where information was tightly controlled, going to tremendous lengths to access the news and information of the VOA by any means necessary. When we made VOA accessible to the people of Iran via satellite, people started making satellite dishes out of garbage can lids. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Jovan Kurbalija (who contributed to this report and who finds Sanjana Hattotuwa's comments to be "non-substantiated spin") wrote to say that the session in Kuala Lumpur continue to be discussed. Jean’s update on Second Life developments seems to be highly popular at YouTube. Lucy Hooberman from BBC and Future Media posted this. An African blog on Djibouti’s virtual embassy (to be opened in the first part of 2008) also provides useful information.

"We hope that our session in Kuala Lumpur is the first step towards more joint activities," wrote Jovan, who has compelling plans for the future.

We hope so too. And we thank Sanjana Hattotuwa and Jovan Kurbalija for the time taken to articulate their respective thoughts as Dancing Ink Productions continues to explore the value of virtual worlds as tools in service of the greater good.

Tell me again why we are compelled to kill?

Maintaining fluency and context in virtual worlds requires constant exploration, especially at the rate at which the new virtual worlds are entering the marketplace. While Eureka Dejavu has traveled across multiple virtual world platforms, she had not yet visited the Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game dimension of Virtual Worlds. Thus it was that we sent Eureka into one of the largest MMOs in that Universe: World of Warcraft.

I’ve attempted to chronicle this effort as a good could’ve-been anthropologist might’ve observed someone entering a new society.

Character creation
Ms. Dejavu liked character creation process because of the compelling narrative and, as such, chose a Draenei Shaman. She explained her reasoning: "Draenei are more sophisticated than humans. And their story is one of hope – finding a new place to live after fleeing their planet." She chose to be a shaman class because they "commune directly with the elements," and because they are "tribal advisors or leaders." She also felt that it was good that shamans had a "primal bond."

She spent some time earlier considering the implications of choosing Alliance over Horde. She chose Alliance because they "loathe all things demonic, but still fight." This seemed like the lesser to of two evils for her. She did not like the concept of "fighting" to destroy order and questioned to what extent the fighting satisfied some deeper human need. "Fighting," she noted astutely, "perpetuates more fighting." Unfortunately, she noted, "righteous anger" can go both ways, with no end in sight.

Living in World of Warcraft
Upon entering the world she was struck by a number of elements that made the experience equal parts compelling and revolting. No longer was the narrative as supreme as it was in the creation of her character. Now the quest was supreme. The first bevy of quests she embarked on required that she kill eight local giant moths for their blood, which had healing qualities to the wounded Draenae who were ailing at their spaceship crash site.

"I can see why people like this game: this quest formula is compelling. If people had more quest-based experiences at work in real life, they might enjoy it more. But why do you have to kill?" she asked plaintively. To make matters more confusing, "quests are killing veiled in saving other people." "The real, ethical challenge," she noted, was that there is no "inherent sense of good or evil."

As she journeyed farther into the wilds of the Draenei country, she was besieged by a troop of carnivorous orchids, her favorite flower. "I’m getting smacked around by my favorite flower," she vented. "Where is the fun in this? And tell me again why I have to kill?"

Twenty minutes later, partly out of boredom and partly out of exasperation, she was on a rampage killing an innocent community of Owlkin. Ultimately these giant bi-pedal owl creatures ganged up on her and killed her. Eureka Dejavu’s incarnation in World of Warcraft, a game purportedly patronized by 10 million people worldwide, was over ... at least temporarily.

But not for too long.

"I like the resurrection option," she offered as her newly-minted shamananic ghost ran back to her corpse.

World of Warcraft is a much-considered part of the Virtual World panoply and significant because of the volume of people who play it.

Statistically, we know that Second Life is predominantly female. Is there something inherently more compelling to women in SL or is this a statistical anomaly? What is is it that makes World of Warcraft so compelling to so many more people?

A key concern to Dancing Ink Productions is the point at which community and intercultural dialogue are built. I saw people changing their views of other cultures in Star Wars Galaxies back when it was still a popular MMO. Many, many people, I observed, sought peace in this experience over killing.

We look forward to sharing our discoveries with you.

Happy Holidays from the Windmill

Late on Christmas Day, before settling into bed with visions of sugarplums dancing around the globe, an impromptu soiree took place at the windmill.


The place is decked out for holiday cheer, from a bottle of virtual bubbly that perpetually exudes a stream of shimmering stars to strings of lights and two decorated trees that did not require a lumberjack (and conversely, conspicuously lack the fresh sappy scent of pine). Bright boxes are wrapped and stacked. Real gifts, switched between virtual inventories, are exchanged in Second Life. The luminosity of the conversation is a warm, candlelit way of wrapping up yet another Christmas. The sweet middle-of-the-night magic reminds me, after so many years, of the feeling of waiting for Santa, even long after I'd stopped placing literal faith in that belief.

It's Full of Stars

The Monolith (photo credit Galactic Contact, some rights reserved.)

The first inscribed book I ever received and read, personally inscribed by its author, was Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey." I was five years old and had no idea how it would change my life by making me see reality so differently.

As we packed our bags from Malaysia to Thailand last week, I took a break to read an article in The Straits Times about Arthur C. Clarke's three wishes for his 90th birthday. Clarke, who for the past 50 years has made Sri Lanka his home, included among his birthday wishes word from E.T., the end of global warming, and Peace in Sri Lanka.

I've not yet had time to write about the experience of participating in the Global Knowledge Partnership GK III Conference in Kuala Lumpur. Eureka, fortunately, posted a missive. Just today I've read a blog post by a colleague from Sri Lanka, Sanjana Hattotuwa, who during question time asked one of the most interesting and relevant questions during the "Virtual Diplomacy" panel in which Rita J. King and I were invited speakers. I'm compelled to respond to it.

Sanjana is doing some truly progressive work which is dear to my heart and on a topic that I have been dedicated to over the past four years in my work at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. Sanjana's work can be found on his blog, "ICT4Peace," which blogs about ways that Information Communications Technology (ICT) can be used for conflict transformation and peacebuilding. In my own work, I've looked at the role of virtual worlds and video games to this end. I consider Sanjana a brother-in-arms in this effort.

Sanjana's post takes issue with the "Virtual Diplomacy" panel on which Rita and I sat. His points are poignant -- that the panel focused mainly Second Life and much to the disregard of the world beyond North America and Europe.

I think he makes a key point and one that I support fully.

Sanjana Hattotuwa poses a tough question to the GK3 Virtual Diplomacy panelists.

One of my biggest concerns, and one that I tried to highlight during my limited time on the panel, is that there is a majority of the world -- throughout Asia and the African continent -- that are not a part of the Digital Dialogue that is being experienced in immersive worlds. One of the people that Rita and I have been working with is my friend Derrick Ashong who is exploring how to make Ghana, which is dependent largely on the capricious whim of satellites to provide its denizens with Internet, part of the virtual world community. Derrick firmly believes that the People of Ghana who produce rich and vibrant art and music are not being included in the broader digital conversation.

While Second Life certainly has its limitations, the point that Rita and I were trying to make during our respective statements was the potential of these spaces. To wit, our interest is global. We are keenly interested in the potential impact of these spaces on parts of the world where access. What can be done to improve access? How can we work with existing infrastructures to improve access?

Sanjana's other interesting point was about repressive regimes and virtual worlds. It's my contention that repressive regimes actually provide an opportunity. During my days at the Voice of America, I witnessed people living under repressive governments where information was tightly controlled, going to tremendous lengths to access the news and information of the VOA by any means necessary. When we made VOA accessible to the people of Iran via satellite, people started making satellite dishes out of garbage can lids. Necessity is the mother of invention.

As my father describes us, as members of the Primate family, we all share a minimal behavioral drive. We are all Active Information Seeking Organisms. If there is one constant in our Primate Behavior, it is our hunger for information. Information about people, others, and our surroundings. As Tish points out in her recent interview with Eben Moglen, the information sought may be trivial to some but the value is in the eye of the beholder and should not be underestimated.

Virtual Worlds provide yet another gateway, albeit a richer and more complex one, to information about people and, hopefully, peace.

I wish Sanjana the best of luck in his important work and look forward to collaborating with him in the future.

Wat Po in the Temple and the Windmill

Wat Po, virtual and physical.

People frequently ask if I fear that virtual worlds might replace the physical world when it comes to adventure. Quite the opposite. I've had Wat Po, the massive reclining Buddha, in the windmill for some time, which has only made me want to see the real thing in Thailand even more. Yesterday, I experienced the gleam of glowing gold from the body of the massive 46 meter long statue, which has mother of pearl feet inlaid with 108 "auspicious scenes." Behind the statue a sound rang out like metallic rain, and upon walking around I saw metal buckets into which coins were tossed like music. For 100 baht, we made a restoration gift for the Buddha's feet, and on a ceramic tile left a message:

Peace is not the absence of conflict, but one's attitude toward it.

Worlds Embedded in Each Other

These pictures, taken at the Global Knowledge Partnership, were posted to flickr by David Wortley, Director of the Serious Games Institute at Coventry University. I like the way the real life scene appears in Second Life, and vice-versa. In the top photograph I am on the far left and Josh is on the far right.

Improving the Human Condition

Rita J. King and Philip Rosedale in San Jose, California for the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo.

On November 21, Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale blogged about his company's new mission: “To connect everyone to an online world that improves the human condition.”

Dancing Ink Productions supports that mission wholly, and looks forward to seeing how virtual worlds evolve to connect everyone. Josh and I just left Kuala Lumpur, where we attended Global Knowledge Partnership, to serve on a panel about virtual worlds. Over a thousand people from around the world have gathered here to discuss myriad issues that center on access and connectivity to places in the world where people have traditionally been left out of the global dialogue.

When we spoke about the emergence of a new global culture in the Imagination Age, a man from Sri Lanka pointed out that immersive environments in which participants create new identities and cultures will be perceived as threatening by governments that censor the public, and therefore, people will be left out of the dialogue. Later, at the airport, before we flew to Bangkok, we bumped into a woman who had also attended the panel.

"There are places in the world," she said, "where even the illusion of democracy does not exist."

Later, Josh asked me if I'd ever seen the New Yorker cartoon in which an idyllic row of houses behind white picket fences is disrupted by helicopters hovering over one house and a tank rolling up to the front door as a couple watches and the woman says to the man: They're bringing democracy to the Joneses.

A Responsibility to the Whole

In Second Life, Schmilsson Nilsson and Eureka Dejavu (avatars of Rita J. King and Joshua S. Fouts), visit temples such as the one depicted here. Currently, we are both in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the Global Knowledge Partnership, to serve on a panel about virtual worlds. Someone asked us today if we fear that people will begin to substitute real life experiences for virtual ones, and if we find that dangerous. Participation in virtual worlds is far more interesting than a passive activity such as television watching, but the real value is the way it inspires many to take action in the physical world.

The photographs below are of us in a Malaysian temple. No trip to a virtual counterpart can replace the scent of incense in the air, or the offerings of oranges and apples, or the vivid glow of sunlit orchids blossoming in a nearby pot. But experiencing the unusual first in virtual worlds, for people who don't normally have the opportunity to witness one another's cultures, is a critical first step.




This morning at the summit, Malaysian Prime Minister Yang Amat Berhormat Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi gave a heartfelt welcome speech to express his gratitude for the opportunity for Kuala Lumpur to host the visionary event.

The front page of the Malaysian newspaper New Straits Times today contained an article with a prominently placed quote from the Prime Minister:

"I'm willing to sacrifice public freedoms for the sake of national stability."

His responsibility, according to the article, is to the "greater public." There are many groups in Malaysia, he pointed out. This is apparent when wandering in the city of Kuala Lumpur, where Christmas trees are a surprise, and a constant stream of carols even more so against a backdrop of the Malaysian flag, the Jular Gemilang, in which the crescent symbolizes Islam. The juxtaposition of such a mixed ethnicity "demands balance, conscientiousness and a sense of accountability to the whole, rather than the few," Badawi stated. Awareness of such complexities, he pointed out, prevents the nation from descending into chaos.

In a world that is no longer divided into comfortable geographical compartments, the advent of virtual worlds has come at the perfect time. People are learning to relate to one another across the traditional chasms that have long divided us. I agree that we have a responsibility to the whole over the few, and that has not been an easy philosophy for me to come to terms with. But we are still grappling, globally, with what the concept of freedom really means. I believe it starts with each one of us, and that it requires the kind of fearlessness that our world, with its constant underlying threat of violence, seems to consistently undermine, if we let it.

Far from replacing the physical world, immersive virtual environments can teach us how to connect on a much deeper level than that to which we have grown accustomed. We are all human, after all.

Sleepless in Kuala Lumpur

Joshua Fouts in Kuala Lumpur.

The first call to prayer of the day was just broadcast to Kuala Lumpur's faithful.

Friends and family seemed confused. Was I actually going to Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, or was my avatar simply teleporting to a virtual simulation of these cities? Since founding Dancing Ink Productions I've been traveling constantly, and by the time I land back on the east coast of the United States in two weeks I will have made a complete revolution around the world, from Thailand and Malaysia, then Los Angeles and New York, working to help foster the emergence of a new global culture in the Imagination Age.

Josh and I are here to give a presentation at the Global Knowledge Partnership.

An Anthropologist in the Windmill

From Left: Hillary Knopfli, Schmilsson Nilsson and Eureka Dejavu

My RL sister Hillary Fouts, (pictured above left in her Second Life avatar Hillary Knopfli) is an anthropologist who does amazing work studying cross-cultural child rearing in the French West Africa. She's had some seriously stunning experiences and is truly a great and strong soul who has pursued her dreams and research amidst sometimes harrowing odds. Her stories of the challenges she has faced rival the grimmest of tales I've heard and seen (think: Apocalypse Now).

Tonight Eureka and I hosted her in The Windmill.

As per usual, the windmill spun its magic and whipped up a conversation that traversed the boundaries of writing for love money and theory; child-rearing; spirit chasing; Margaret Mead; and (our favorite) Second Life and its potential as a cultural salve nudging and nuancing relationships into the light.

Toward the end we moved into an intense discussion about authenticity and the importance of shedding paradigms and mantles of previous relationships to move into the now. Most of the stuff was personal. But it held a broader resonance: We impose certain images of ourselves upon ourselves in order to meet the expectations of others.

In Second Life we don't. I'm green. Hillary has violet hair. Eureka has a new wardrobe every five minutes (well ... I guess some things aren't that different from real life).

To be truly happy in life we must meet people where they are. But we must also meet them where we are and how we are. And that brings change. Change into the new. Change into the now.

As Hillary ended our delicious conversation, she offered a little sisterly homily -- the kind that only a brilliant, successful sister could offer. "Finally," she said, you have resolved to "pursue happiness or let it happen to you. Either way is good." Her point: That the portal that Second Life provided me was a window into what relationships can and should be and their potential to be much more.

For me, it was a message about the importance of embracing your dream and living it. And that I am doing.

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Eureka and me in our new silk suits! Ready for Asia!

On Friday Eureka and I head off to two big adventures to speak at the Global Knowledge Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and then on to Bangkok, Thailand to work on the first chapters of our forthcoming book about Second Life. The book, relevant to the conversation above, will explore the intuitive nature of social interaction in Virtual Worlds as a unique catalyst for vibrant, meaningful relationships.