Press Release: Manpower Inc. Convenes Avatar Thought Leaders in Second Life to Discuss Virtual Workforce of the Future

Contact:
Marci Pelzer
+1.414.906.7670
marcelline.pelzer@manpower.com

Manpower Inc. Convenes Avatar Thought Leaders in Second Life to Discuss Virtual Workforce of the Future

“Grown Up Digital” author Don Tapscott; Manpower Inc. Chairman and CEO Jeff Joerres; and Linden Lab Executive Director of Enterprise Marketing Amanda Van Nuys among expert panelists

Milwaukee, Wis., USA (1 September 2009) - Manpower Inc., a world leader in the employment services industry, will host a provocative hourlong discussion, "The Evolution of the Virtual Workforce" on Tuesday, September 1 at 11am ET in the virtual world of Second Life.

The event will feature digital work expert Don Tapscott, best-selling author of “Grown-Up Digital” and “Wikinomics.” Tapscott will be joined by Manpower Inc. Chairman and CEO Jeff Joerres; Linden Lab Executive Director of Enterprise Marketing, Amanda Van Nuys; Manpower Senior Vice President for Global Workforce Strategy, Tammy Johns; Manager of e-learning Strategy and Education Solutions for IBM’s Center for Advanced Learning; Chuck Hamilton; and President of Louisiana Digital Workforce non-profit 3D Squared, Spencer Zuzolo. The event will be moderated by CEO and Creative Director of Dancing Ink Productions, Rita J. King.

"Since we established our presence in Second Life two years ago, social networks have completely evolved the labor market,” said Manpower Inc. Chairman and CEO Jeff Joerres. “Now, every social network has some underlying current related to job searching or career development. We are seeing the emergence of a flexible new model for virtual work, led by entrepreneurial, tech-savvy individuals who dictate when, where and how they work. We are focused on what motivates and interests this new breed of workers, giving us the ability to create practical solutions that help our clients attract, engage and retain winning talent.”

Manpower’s Second Life Island is one of many virtual programs Manpower has explored to lead in the changing world of work. Through its subsidiary, Right Management, Manpower recently formalized an exclusive partnership with LinkedIn®, the professional networking website, to work with individuals to develop profiles that showcase their knowledge and expertise and provide them with specialized training, integrating LinkedIn’s functionality and networking capabilities with Right Management’s industry-leading outplacement solution – RightChoice®. And later this year, Manpower will roll out a social networking community that connects individuals to customized career development insights and invites them to proactively navigate and manage their careers.

“The discussion will focus not only on how work is changing as a result of technology, but how the workforce is changing,” said Tammy Johns, Manpower's Senior Vice President for Global Workforce Strategy. ”By regularly convening thought leaders of this caliber, investing in innovative technology platforms, producing cutting edge thought leadership, we are helping to define work practices, providing our clients and potential candidates invaluable insight about what’s now and next in our industry.”

Don Tapscott’s book, “Grown Up Digital” focuses on a workplace evolution. He has been documenting what he calls the Net Generation since his own children, now adults in their twenties, have grown up. This generation is characterized by creativity, ability to collaborate and comfort with multitasking across digital media and even simultaneous multiple realities. Tapscott believes that their culture will come to dominate the world of work.

“As a new global culture and economy take shape, available technology and human creativity are transforming how the workforce operates,” said Rita J. King, CEO and Creative Director of Dancing Ink Productions. “This conversation, broadcast live to the internet from Second Life, will facilitate dialogue on this critical topic and illuminate best practices for the workplace at a time of metamorphosis.”

Observers from around the world are invited to take part in this event by registering for the live stream at the Dancing Ink Productions website (link: http://dancinginkproductions.com/live-events). Participants will be able to view and participate in the event both from Second Life and from the web. Those participating from the web will be able to communicate in live, real-time chat with event participants in Second Life.

About Dancing Ink Productions
Dancing Ink Productions (DIP) is a full-service creative company that develops business strategy, policy, immersive narrative and mixed media, mixed-reality content including games, conferences and cultural intelligence for a new global culture and economy in the Imagination Age. DIP works across multiple social media platforms and within virtual worlds on cost-cutting solutions to amplify creativity and innovation while bringing together geographically dispersed members of the evolving global workforce, culture and economy. For clients taking their first steps in the digital culture, DIP streamlines the experience and creates strategic plans for participation. For experienced clients, such as IBM, the American University in Cairo, Manpower Inc. and Linden Lab, we collaborate on identifying and sharing a brand’s core narrative through creative mixed-media including data visualization and documentaries. DIP works with governments and organizations to contextualize the evolving culture of the Internet, providing cultural intelligence and strategic foreign policy guidance toward and a fundamental understanding of how culture is shifting in the Internet era.

About Manpower Inc.
Manpower Inc. (NYSE: MAN) is a world leader in the employment services industry; creating and delivering services that enable its clients to win in the changing world of work. With over 60 years’ experience, the $22 billion company offers employers a range of services for the entire employment and business cycle including permanent, temporary and contract recruitment; employee assessment and selection; training; outplacement; outsourcing and consulting. Manpower's worldwide network of 4,100 offices in 82 countries and territories enables the company to meet the needs of its 400,000 clients per year, including small and medium size enterprises in all industry sectors, as well as the world's largest multinational corporations. The focus of Manpower's work is on raising productivity through improved quality, efficiency and cost-reduction across their total workforce, enabling clients to concentrate on their core business activities. Manpower Inc. operates under five brands: Manpower, Manpower Professional, Elan, Jefferson Wells and Right Management. More information on Manpower Inc. is available at www.manpower.com.

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Blue Mars, Open Beta Coming Soon

This video trailer of the forthcoming virtual world Blue Mars by the company Avatar Reality looks spectacular. According to some notices I've seen, open beta will be coming soon. I'll be interested to see the extent to which organizations can create their own content. According to the Blue Mars dev group they accept three tiers of developers: "City Developers," "Block Developers" and "Content Creators." Still the graphics look stunning. Noticeably absent from the footage: people. (via NPIRL)

AfPak and Virtual Worlds

Screenshot of the avatar of Samih Shah, Karachi-based journalist and Second Life stand-up comic, from the 2009 graphic book from the DIP project, Digital Diplomacy: Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds.

AfPak is a hot topic in the foreign policy sector and by all accounts it is going to be a significant piece of the foreign policy legacy that President Obama leaves behind.

Thus, I'm thrilled to see this post by Pixels and Policy about Pakistani presence in virtual worlds, "Young Pakistanis Turn to Virtual Worlds for Comedy, Community Building," which profiles Karachi-based journalist and Second Life comedian Samih Shah, who we first learned about in 2008 from Wagner Au's blog. This is an area that DIP has been actively exploring for the past three years. Max Burns is right on the money with this point:

Whether letting their hair down in virtual comedy parlors or showing Western visitors the ropes of virtual Islam, Pakistanis have a larger cyberpresence than ever before. If Pakistan's government fails to corral and focus the growing clout of young, wired Pakistanis to achieve positive growth, it is entirely possible that the old ways could fall to the wayside and give birth to Pakistan's Second Life.

What I found most interesting about our research and interviews with Samih is that he defied a pervasive stereotype in many Washington circles that Pakistanis are somehow averse or unable to use the Internet or social media tools because of the irregular and unreliable technology infrastructure of the region. In fact, Samih's work demonstrated just the opposite. What it showed us was a more organic approach to the use of technology. During Samih's stand-up comedy routines in Second Life he would begin the show by advising the audience that electricity in Pakistan is unreliable and that we should be prepared for him to be disconnected. But if we could just wait a few minutes, he'd be back on and continue the show. Indeed, we experienced just that.

Unreliable technology infrastructure has rarely been a deterrent for people hungry for new information and a desire to connect with other cultures. In fact, it breeds innovation and creative solutions. (I witnessed this repeatedly when I was at the State Department.) This is particularly relevant in societies in which information is regulated or tightly controlled by the government.

Life On Line: Virtual Worlds Reporting on the Physical World

In an interesting twist on virtual worlds news reporting, the Australian talk show Life on Line, has spent the last 13 episodes covering physical world use of the Internet reported from Second Life. (Programming started in February and is on hiatus now, but back in October.) Hosted by a veteran Australian producer via his Second Life avatar, Steve Cropper, Life On Line reports cover news focused on use of the Internet and how we live our lives online, all reported from inside the virtual world of Second Life. Longer form interviews with guests cover everything from the therapeutic benefits of time spent online to gambling addiction to interviews with Microsoft's virtual world evangelist. It's highly produced and informative program with format winks and nods to shows longstanding variety shows like the Tonight Show. As opposed to many virtual worlds programs which focus on what's going on inside virtual worlds, the fact that this program steps outside and reports on the physical world from the virtual world makes it a fun twist. I look forward to the next season.

Archives are available on Blip.TV or in their Ning group.

New Blog on Virtual Worlds and Foreign Policy

I've just discovered a welcome new blog at the intersection of foreign policy and virtual worlds: Pixels and Policy is a blog that is "Studying how virtual worlds change our politics, policy, and culture." The blog is edited by Max Burns. (Seeing that name I can't help but wonder if Max Burns is related to the ubiquitous virtual worlds news maven Mal Burns.)

The blog's first post, The Iranian Opposition's Second Life highlights some of the virtual world protests that took place in response to the elections in Iran. The author goes on to offer some intelligent assessment on the potential of virtual worlds for good:

If protests like those in support of Iran’s democratic movement gain credibility as legitimate forms of protest – which, by all rights, they are – the potential for a paradigm shift in dissent speech is fast approaching. The potential exists for a system where undemocratic governments are held accountable through cyberspace even after making domestic political dissent impossible and dangerous for real-world protesters.

Young, politically minded activists coming of age in today’s computerized world will find less and less trouble circumventing government censors through rudimentary routers and proxy systems. This offers the possibility of a world where cyberspace falls beyond the reach of all but the most repressive governments, creating a strong incentive for governments to keep access to cyberspace open. After all, not even Iran’s extremist government wants to be considered on par with reclusive North Korea.

The rise of virtual protest also means that mainstream media must begin paying closer attention to the goings-on of synthetic worlds like Second Life. The stereotype of online gamers as acne-ridden teenagers slaying virtual dragons is outmoded. In Second Life, a vibrant virtual community now views synthetic worlds not so much as walled off from reality but as a means to augment reality. Over the next several years, the level of virtual political activity will almost certainly rise in proportion to the growing number of people logging on and sharing opinions.

Excellent points. And points that were bourne out in our research for our 2009 report, "Digital Diplomacy: Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds."

In December 2008 at the end of our research period, we broke a story about protests in Second Life against the conflict in Gaza. Second Life was not the only virtual platform in which this took place. But the Israeli government immediately ramped up its cyber response, launching the first-ever Twitter press conference within days.

The stereotype the author cites about people who live and work in virtual worlds is changing. But not as fast as we might like.

I look forward to future posts from Pixels and Policy. Now if I could only figure out if they Twitter ...

Rita J. King: Gov 2.0 Hero.

Rita J. King joins Craig Newmark, among others, as a Gov2.0 Hero.

Congratulations to Rita J. King for being recognized by Government social media site as Gov 2.0 Hero. The complete list of Gov 2.0 Heros is here. Also included in the list is EPA Gov 2.0 guru Jeffrey Levy (who, coincidentally, bears the distinction of being the person who introduced me to the Internet in 1991.)

Each Gov 2.0 Hero is asked a series of questions about their thoughts on government and technology. Rita's entire response is worth a read, but here's an excerpt:

What was your path to Gov 2.0?

I’ve been studying the cultural effects of digital anonymity since 1996, but when I discovered a Muslim woman in a virtual Jewish synagogue in Second Life in 2006 I realized that global culture had entered a powerful new realm. The idea of “avatars” is polarizing. Some people instantly see the benefit of this new form of identity and community construction while others, believing that avatars dehumanize people, are appalled. I was not a gamer, nor did I ever expect to be mesmerized by the virtual world of Second Life after a friend of mine who works at IBM suggested that I check it out. I was reading Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth,” and I searched on temples, synagogues, churches and mosques during my first few hours and days in Second Life, which was how I found myself at prayer services in a virtual Jewish synagogue speaking to a Muslim woman.

On September 8 at the O’Reilly Gov 2.0 Expo, Rita J. King will be discussing “Digital Diplomacy: Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds” as part of the Government as Peacekeeper section.

Social Media, Iran and "Diplomacy 2.0"

Screenshot from the site, "freethehikers.org."

Matthew Stannard has posted an article in the San Francisco Chronicle entitled, "Berkeley, Iran and Diplomacy 2.0" about the fate of three UC Berkeley hikers who were detained by the Iranian government after hiking near the border and the possible role of social media helping to facilitate their release. (I'm interviewed.) An excerpt:

"The paradox of Iran is that they are an incredibly wired and tech-savvy nation and, yet, in the last 15 years that I've been involved in cultural diplomacy projects to engage them, I've yet to see the technological inspirations of the society have an impact on the political dominance of the mullahs," ... "That said, I think that any and all efforts to encourage, enhance and facilitate democratic discourse within and between societies is worthwhile. We may not see results today, but long-term, I think we will. The people of Iran have demonstrated that they have a hunger for differing opinions and new insights and I think they and we will benefit from greater cultural transparency afforded by ubiquitous social media."

Read more here.

Rita J. King blogged extensively about the situation of Laura Ling and Euna Lee while they were captive, including her piece "Journalistic Experimentation and Creative Diplomacy."

While I remain optimistic about the power of social media (spanning the metaverse from virtual worlds to Twitter) to empower people, launch movements and build critically important bridges between cultures, I do not think that the power of social media should be overestimated. Governments in closed societies are well-practiced in suppressing and/or at least ignoring the voices of their publics. The increasing ubiquity of the Internet and Social Media gives people greater, more nuanced voices to mobilize people and mobilize democracies, which is a good thing in and of itself.

New Post about Digital Diplomacy on GovFresh

The editors of GovFresh, a new site covering US government social media activity, invited me to write a guest blog about our project on Digital Diplomacy: Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds. An excerpt:

In June 2009, President Obama delivered a speech in Egypt in which he made a call to “create a new online network, so a young person in Kansas can communicate instantly with a young person in Cairo.” More recently, Anne-Marie Slaughter, head of policy planning at the State Department offered that, “our diplomats are going to need to have skills that are closer to community organizing than traditional reporting and analysis. New connecting technologies will be vital tools in this kind of diplomacy.”

You can read the full post here.

On September 8 at the O’Reilly Gov 2.0 Expo, Rita J. King will be discussing “Digital Diplomacy: Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds” as part of the Government as Peacekeeper section.

Pooky Amsterdam's The 1st Question

Watch the video of Eureka Dejavu's appearance on Pooky Amsterdam's The 1st Question here.

The video from Eureka Dejavu's (aka DIP's Rita J. King) appearance on Pooky Amsterdam's The 1st Question is viewable here. She appeared alongside anthropologist Tom Boellstorff (SL's Tom Bukowski) and SL's Spiral Walcher and Mykal Skall.

Any guess as to who won?

Augmented Reality's "Sermon on the Flatlands"

Science Fiction guru Bruce Sterling delivered a powerful speech in Amsterdam this week about the future of Augmented Reality. It is equal parts cautionary tale and celebratory moment. Bruce is an excellent speaker and storyteller. And this speech is no exception.

We found it particularly poignant as we've been chronicling the evolution of our own Augmented Reality community and cultural project, 1,000 Inches in Loveland.

After you finish watching that you should read Tish Shute's excellent post "Everything Everywhere: Thomas Wrobel’s Proposal for an Open Augmented Reality Network." Tish has been on the Augmented Reality moment for a while now. Her archives are worth a good scour.

Still want more? See Ori Inbar's "Augmented Reality Reading List for the Weekend." Ori is interviewed by Tish Shute recently in this recent piece, "Augmented Reality’s Growth is Exponential: Ogmento – “Reality Reinvented,” talking with Ori Inbar."

[Video: Bruce Sterling's Keynote - At the Dawn of the Augmented Reality Industry from Maarten Lens-FitzGerald on Vimeo.]

A Day in Second Life

Yesterday started off with an appearance on Smarter Technology in Second Life, where DIP has maintained an office since 2006. We're not the only ones. Check out this Wall Street Journal article, "A Second Chance for Second Life," published today.

John Jainschigg, Rita J. King, Joshua S. Fouts and Jerry Paffendorf discuss DIP's work with 3D Squared and Loveland. (1000 Inches in Loveland is DIP's neighborhood within the city of inches in a warehouse in Detroit).

At 7 pm SLT, I appeared on a "quiz show to the stars," The 1st Question, hosted by Hydra Shaftoe and the highly entertaining Pooky Amsterdam (proprietor of PookyMedia, with whom we recently collaborated on a short video, "Transformation: How We Become Who We Are." All guests were asked which element from the periodic table they most identified with. I said helium because it floats and it's vital in the study of superconductivity.

My experience with games that have buzzers is limited to a distant day in Syracuse, a college bowl held on a snowy afternoon, during which I had buzzed in on round one as soon as the host said, "This famous trail..."

"Ho Chi Minh!" I shouted, realizing at that very moment that it could have been the Trail of Tears, the Appalachian Trail, the...what was I thinking? All eyes were on me. Why had I buzzed in so quickly??

"Correct!"

I didn't answer another question the entire time, and I feared a repeat performance on Pooky's show.

Not this time. I won!

The real prize, however, was meeting Spiral Walcher, one of the other contestants, who teleported me to two of his spectacular builds, one for IBM and another called the Electric Forest. I'm shown below in the x-ray disco ball I was wearing to dance with the contestants and audience after the show.


Second Life continues to amaze. In fact, I've got to split now to meet with TREET.TV to work on an upcoming broadcast from Second Life to the internet--more on that soon. I'll leave you with the Electric Forest, below.

Our Shared Europe: Amsterdam

Just came across this interesting short produced by the British Council's Netherlands team -- part of their Our Shared Europe effort, an intra-European project to help foster intercultural dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims across Europe:

The Muslim contribution to contemporary European culture and society stretches back over 1,300 years with more than 120 million Muslims now living in Europe. As populations continue to change, some citizens are becoming increasingly sceptical, with a growing minority becoming more concerned and even hostile to the changing nature of societies. The British Councils Our Shared Europe project aims to create more understanding and awareness of the many contributions that Muslims have made throughout history and continue to make in present-day Europe. By doing so, Our Shared Europe seeks to strengthen the bonds of mutual knowledge and trust between Muslims and other majority and minority communities in Europe.

The Netherlands figured significantly into Rita J. King's and my research for our report, "Digital Diplomacy: Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds." The Netherlands has a unique combination of issues ranging from second and third generation Muslim immigrants "googling" their religion, and finding incorrect information, to backlash against some of the first Muslim elected officials in Parliament. We were lucky to have met with so many people working on the ground to overcome these cultural challenges.

Sheikh: Second Life part of "God's gift to mankind"

Scene from a the virtual hajj to Mecca as chronicled in DIP's 2009 report, Digital Diplomacy: Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds.

Ramadan is approaching and the media is reporting on new efforts to reach out to young Muslims in a contemporary, technologically current way. "Sheikh to Deliver Ramadan Sermons in Virtual World," an August 17 article in The MidEast News Source highlights how a Saudi Sheikh is going to appear in Second Life:

Sheikh Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, the Mecca director of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, will deliver a sermon entitled "Ramadan, oh youth!" on Tuesday evening from a virtual mosque on Middle East Island, a fictional island in Second Life, an Internet-based virtual world imagined by its users.

The virtual Ramadan sermon is the first attempt by the commission, effectively Saudi Arabia’s vice police, to reach out through a less conventional communication platform.

Of note in the article, the Sheikh describes communication tools like Second Life as part of "God's gift to mankind." It's refreshing to see high level political figures candidly recognizing the transformation of our culture and the importance of engaging people where they are. Where they are might well be an island in Second Life or a community room in Muxlim Pal.

MediaOriente reports on August 18 that "Virtual Islam is Ramadan’s next 'big thing'" and quotes the website "Muslimness" (which appears to be no longer available):

Young generations of Muslisms around the world – like the fashionable bloggers’ avatars on Muslimness.com – are welcoming those kind of experiments, adding some interesting “remixes” like this picture of a virtual Muslim Darth Vader and a sexy young Muslim girl in a mosque “well, sometimes you tend to take that lightly, since it is a *virtual*world” says Madiha M.K.The Diva one of the hosts of Muslimness.

Read: "Sheikh to Deliver Ramadan Sermons in Virtual World,"
Read: "Virtual Islam is Ramadan’s next 'big thing'"

For Tuesday: IBM's Smarter Technology and Pooky Amsterdam's 1st Question

Rita J. King (as her Second Life avatar Eureka Dejavu) will be appearing on two Second Life programs this Tuesday, August 18 at 4pm and 10:00pm Eastern, respectively: IBM's Smarter Technology hosted by John Jainschigg; and Pooky Amsterdam's Game Show "The 1st Question."

Tuesday, August 18
Smarter Technology
4pm-5pm Eastern
Click SLURL here to teleport directly.
Rita J. King, Jerry Paffendorff and Joshua Fouts will discuss new educational initiatives employing virtual worlds to teach the spectrum of skills required for game development, and share about a new augmented reality project that puts one million square inches of Detroit real-estate online and creates a notional shared space of global scope.

The 1st Question
10:00pm-11:00pm Eastern
Click SLURL here to teleport directly.
Rita J. King (via Eureka Dejavu) will be appearing alongside fellow digital ethnographer, anthropologist Tom Boellstorff (Second Life's Tom Bukowski), author of Second Life Ethnography, "Coming of Age in Second Life."

The Trust System

The Second Life Community Convention is going on in San Francisco, and tonight's festivities included a performance by Second Life's Beyers Sellers (aka Robert Bloomfield) and Lauren Weyland in the physical and virtual worlds. (To watch Malburns Live Stream click here.)

On the stage there's a tip jar, and as I purchased 5,000 Linden dollars (worth about $20) to tip Molaskey's Pub and support music, I thought about how, in childhood, I'd been amazed when my family stopped at a farm stand on the side of the road. We asked our parents why anybody would pay when nobody was there to tell you how much you owed or make sure you paid it, and they explained the honor system to us. Though the vegetables looked easy enough to sell, but somebody had to grow them, and that was hard work.

The honor system should be a major part of the digital culture. If tipping is a transparent gesture (as it is in Second Life, where the tip and the name of the tipper show up in chat) then more people are likely to do it. Imagine if while you were reading an article in The New York Times, you could see that other readers were paying what they thought the information was worth. Publications should create a gold membership level for top sponsors. This would additionally enable publications to keep track of key metrics, and allow public sponsors to keep track of what's in the fund and vote on not only the budget basics, but on the priorities of the publication.

This would change the entire debate around the future of journalism. Instead of charging for content, let readers and viewers tell you what it's worth. Put a tip jar out on the farm stand.

Welcome, Lovelanders!

At last count, 75 inch-holders have inchvested in Loveland! Read all about it in this thoughtful post (including the Fermi paradox, coded communication with extraterrestrial life forms, humans in cages and shooting stars) by Loveland impresario Jerry Paffendorf.

1000 Inches in Loveland is a neighborhood in Loveland made up of eight zones named for the Eightfold Path. Read this to learn more about it and check out the map of the inches.

So far we've got Grady Booch, Stephen Burlingham (scroll to the bottom of the Tiffany family archives page to see him), the brilliant and hard-working Alexis Madrigal, nanotechno artist and IBMer Jack Mason and on Inch 502, Zone V: Livelihood, we have the mysterious proprietor of the Mystery Hole.

If you're incherested, get in touch.

Follow @ritajking, @makeloveland and @1000inches on Twitter.

Culture of Security: Cyberspace & Underground Battlegrounds

I'm creating a report for a presentation for the Aspen Institute on "Culture of Security: Cyberspace & Underground Battlegrounds."

If you have remarks you'd like to make on this subject or people you'd like to recommend for an interview, please leave a comment below and/or follow me on Twitter and @reply me. What does security mean? How can we protect ourselves, and from what? How do you envision the future of security?

Upcoming Copper Robot: Designing great public spaces in Second Life.

"We look so much younger" From Left to Right, Second Life avatars of John Jainschigg, Kim Smith, Rita J. King and Joshua Fouts.

Mitch Wagner emails about the upcoming edition of Copper Robot this coming Sunday, August 16 on the topic of "Designing great public spaces in Second Life." Guests include John Jainschigg (pictured above as his Second Life avatar John Zhaoying). John is Executive Director of the Internet and Community Labs at ZiffDavisEnterprise, and head of the advisory board at World2Worlds. From the email:

As people design spaces in Second Life and other virtual worlds for
public use—including theaters and nightclubs and malls and gaming
areas and digital urban downtowns—they’re inventing a new visual
language, borrowing the principles of real-life architecture and Web
design to make exciting new digital spaces.

Dancing Ink Productions has been focused on the evolution of public space across physical and virtual worlds. Rita J. King's recent installation for the UK's Proboscis "Transformation" is a recent example, as well as her 2008 installation, Being in Common.

More on Copper Robot event here.

Transformation

When Proboscis asked me to create “Transformation,” a series of 27 six-sided story cubes to be published as part of the Diffusion series, I was overjoyed. I love working with Proboscis, and I’m *always* in it for the story.

This commission was offered in a London pub over an animated conversation with Giles Lane, Orlagh Woods, and Joshua Fouts about cultural relativism as juxtaposed with cultural collaboration.

While working on the cubes I started to envision how they could be amplified to demonstrate which images are significant to each story in which they play a role, so I reproduced the entire set of cubes in a virtual world. It became possible to collaborate with anyone, anywhere, on a story generated by the cubes, which are now not bound by the laws of physics or their uniform size in the physical world.

26 of the cubes contain screen shots of a Mind Map I created called “Transformation,” and each segment corresponds to a different letter of the alphabet. As a writer, I am obsessed with the infinite possibilities represented by the untouched snow of the alphabet, from which all words and spoken ideas arise. But I also know that some ideas don’t have linguistic equivalents, and this is what the 27th cube represents.

The 27th cube contains an augmented reality marker on it, the source code for which was generously shared by Boris Kiselshteyn of Popcha!, who was getting married only days later and remembered to send the information despite being at the height of pre-wedding frenzy so that a video could be created by DIP and Pooky Media, documenting the virtual installation. (I first met Pooky at Second Life's "Relay for Life," where they raised $240,000.)

I must stop here and say a few words about Second Life's Pooky Amsterdam and Rosco Teardrop. The level of attention to detail they applied to this process is proof positive that there is no discernible distinction between workable realities. They worked as quickly as Boris did. This is the main benefit of creating one’s own hours--you might be up until 3 am like Rosco was in Scotland while the rest of the team was in NYC--but you can also take an unauthorized three day weekend if you’re moving, which Rosco was, or shoot out an email with source code while standing in line to have your tuxedo tailored.

The code that he sent became the basis for the 27th cube, an augmented reality marker that triggers a three dimensional cube on screen when held up in front of a webcam at 1000InchesInLoveland.com. The images triggered by the augmented reality cube can change at any time, creating a transformative fluidity in the 27th cube that continues on as the alphabet strives, in tandem, to tell the collective story of Transformation.

Transformation will be launched by Proboscis in September.

Interview with makers of "Second Skin" on Monday, August 10

Web page of the new virtual worlds documentary, "Second Skin"

Just got an email from John Jainschigg, from SmarterTechnology.com, that tomorrow, Monday, August 10 at 10pm Eastern he will be hosting an interview in Second Life with the makers of the documentary ""Second Skin". Looks very cool:

"Peter Brauer, Producer, and Juan Carlos Pineiro Escoriaza, Director of Second Skin - a documentary about online gamers that Richard Garriott (aka Lord British) calls "A superb documentary unveiling a digital subculture that has bridged the gaps of time, distance and humanity." Second Skin has earned raves over the past eight months as it's toured the festival circuit from Hot Docs 2008 to SouthBySouthwest (SXSW). This past Friday, the film officially premiered at the Tank Theatre in NYC, and will open in select cities across the US this week, including a run at the Downtown Independent in LA from August 14th-20th.

Looks like a great event.

Imagining the future of Augmented Reality

Tom Armitage of the UK design firm Schulze and Webb has a good post up about the direction Augmented Reality technologies are headed and the need to consider what they'll be like in the future when we are not constrained by the limits of our current tech tools.

[W]hen AR really hits, it’s going to be because the technology it’s presented through has become much more advanced; it won’t just be webcams and monitors, but embedded in smart displays, or glasses, or even the smart contact lenses of Warren Ellis’ Clatter.

So whilst it’s interesting to play with the version of the technology we have today, there’s a lot of value to be gained from imagining what the design of fully-working AR systems might look like, unfettered by current day technological constraints. And we can do that really well in things like videos, toys, and games.

Touchable Holography, New Augmented Reality and more

Technology Review has a good summary of some of the new augmented and virtual reality tools that are being demonstrated in New Orleans at SIGGRAPH this week, including the above. Others include Augmented Reality for Ordinary Toys, Hyper-Realistic Virtual Reality and telepresence, which will be a big evolution in virtual meetings in coming years.

See the full list here.

(Thanks Todd!)

He's no Schwarzenegger ...

Image of Presidents Clinton and Kim via BoingBoing and Daylife.

Yesterday's news about President William Jefferson Clinton traveling to North Korea to seek the release of two imprisoned, Current TV staffers reminded me of Rita J. King's post a few weeks back in which she offers that we take seriously Liberate Laura publisher Horgan's suggestion that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger be sent as an envoy to North Korea. President Clinton's no Schwarzenegger, but he is routinely characterized as a "rockstar." We'll find out if a rockstar politician is an adequate substitute for a movie star politician in the eyes of Kim Jong-Il. From the original post:

True, the Governor of California does not have extensive foreign relations or diplomacy experience. Nor am I trying to suggest capitalizing on any echo of the fictitious scenarios he once made $20 million enacting (though how I wish he could travel back in time to March 16th and counsel Lee, Ling and their cameraman Mitch Koss to abort their next-day trip to the border).

No, the reasons @schwarzenegger might prove a uniquely valuable choice are three-fold:

1) As sitting Governor of one of the world’s top economies, he has the requisite stature;

2) Because he is a “fresh face” choice, he also represents possibly in the eyes of the North Koreans a more emblematic reflection of the seriousness of the U.S. government;

Kim Jong-il is (still, presumably) crazy for Hollywood movies.

Transformation

I've been working on "Transformation," an installation across multiple realities, for several months. Shown above, playing with an augmented reality component in the installation. When the 27th cube is held up to the webcam, it activates an augmented reality cube. Stay tuned for the launch of Transformation...

The Ethics of Cultural Collaboration

Ethics of cultural collaboration from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

While at the June 2009 140Conf, Rita J. King was interviewed by long-time Online Journalism guru, JD Lasica about the ethics of cultural collaboration, online identity and the evolution of journalism with the advent of social media. Lots of great nuggets inside. Take a look.

No Surprise: Brazil Moves to Metaplace

A few days ago, Raph Koster twittered the above interesting comment.

This should come as no surprise. Brazilians have consistently demonstrated an almost hive-like approach to social and new media over the past decade. I've been tracking Brazilian techno-culture for about that long formally, and informally, having lived there on-and-off for the past 30 years.

I blogged last year about some other examples of Brazilians taking over English-language social media platforms, including Blogger when it first launched and then Orkut. Brazilians also demonstrated a significant presence in the virtual world of Second Life, about which we blogged.



What's fascinating is that Brazilians are not so hive-like in the physical world: They tend not to congregate among other Brazilians once they leave their country, unlike many other expatriate communities. In interviews I conducted in 2006 with former Brazilian Ambassadors to Moscow, the US and the United Nations, including a former Brazilian president, all of them expressed some frustration with the challenge of finding and engaging Brazilian communities living abroad, particularly to assist with visa and citizenship issues. At the time the foreign service was not yet using social media tools to engage communities. The government as a whole, however, was way ahead of other governments in understanding the potential of the Internet as an outreach tool. The Brazilian Ministry of Culture was one of the earliest adopters of newer social media technologies.

At the same time, these diplomats expressed a concurrent frustration with trying to counter the image of Brazil as a "Carnival Culture". What is Carnival Culture? Carnival is a annual festival in which people take a break from the work-a-day pressures of the "real world" to play. The centerpiece of Carnival is a massive costume party -- a mixed-identity free-for-all, where people from all levels of the social and economic hierarchy, more-or-less equalize.

In essence, Brazilians are experts at identity play. So it should come as no surprise that they have taken to social media with the inherent mixed-identity of that culture.