Business Communicators of Second Life®

Science Friday: Ahhh…An Intelligent Second Life Media Discussion

Maybe it is the flow of Ira Flatow’s voice, or maybe I’m conditioned to expect the exceptional from his radio show, Science Friday.   Either way, it was just refreshing to sit back and listen to the calm and intelligent conversation about Second Life and virtual worlds that Ira gave us yesterday on NPR’s Science Friday show. 

Flatow, in the avatar persona of Ira Flately was taking questions in Second Life live yesterday afternoon during the taping of the show.  I was listening on delayed radio broadcast last night, but the Science School sim where the action was taking place in world was reportedly maxed out during the taping,

Ira, with his characteristic curiosity, focused on the sociology and psychology of human behavior in virtual worlds as well as the very real research potential of Second Life.  He brought on Dmitri Williams (USC), Sherry Turkle (MIT), Eric Lofgren (University North Carolina), and Cory Ondrejka (Linden Lab) to weigh in on various aspects of human behavior in virtual spaces. 

Dmitri, Assistant professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, honed in on an oft-overlooked aspect about extrapolating (or predicting) real life behaviors from virtual world behaviors.  Incentives and risks in virtual spaces are often quite different than they are in real life.  Rules, morality, laws, cultural imperatives may have no connection in a particular virtual space to the person’s real world constraints.   Mapping incentives to those in real world environments – as well as environmental control – are key to making any kind of viable rl/vl behavioral research connection.

Turkle, Director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self Program and well known for her research on virtual identity, is particularly focused in this discussion on the bridges between real world and virtual world personas and behaviors.  I have to say I found a good deal of dissonance in her continual distinction between the virtual and the real.  Although she said she prefers to refer to rl as  “rest of life,” and said she doesn’t like to make a distinction – she went on throughout the discussion to underscore “real” versus “virtual.”  She mentioned she is particularly concerned about the impact of virtuosity on the political realm: that people put in real work to create virtual communities and yet don’t vote because they feel their virtual politicking is more potent.  Turkle would like to see them move these organizational skills into the “real” political realm.

The dissonance for me is that she is surprisingly missing a key point in her remarks - we are increasingly melding our real presence into the virtual (okay the other way around too). 

Virtual (in all its forms) facilitates our expanding global knowledge and presences and the imperative to do so is only broadening. 

It seems to me we have virtual “presences” that we consider part of our “real” life – telephone, email, video conferencing, ecommerce, PayPal, eBay, WebEx, IM, text messaging, logins to our various networks.  I’m sure your list goes on.   The march is on toward taking our “virtuosity” as much for granted as we do the telephone.  Yes, eventually, even the rl politicking Turkle is particularly concerned about will be played out in virtual spaces as seamless adjuncts to the real.  Candidates are certainly using the virtual to expand their campaign organizations!

Dmitri pointed to a tangentially related thought – that scope and scale are quite different in virtuosity.  What may be small(er) group dynamics of community and society in real space suddenly becomes the potential coordination of large(r), more diverse groups.  Real skills come into play – and are learned - "there."

Perhaps we need to consider that those who feel politically (or otherwise) potent in virtual spaces just possibly, partially may be a function that they may be more rl/vl “melded” than others.  I call it “sociology, not technology” in many of my presentations.  (Yes, virtuosity can also be an escape.  Okay, that is a huge topic for another post…. just consider my point for now.)

We won’t meld our virtual and real presences linearly or predictably. History takes jumps.  Rudimentary case in point – mobile phones suddenly brought many parts of the world voice connectivity.  They didn’t move through a “linear” progression of wired lines. 

Back to Science Friday – and a final important point.  There is a wide range of interpretation about the effects and/or benefits of virtuosity.  Dmitri (again) pointed out that virtual must displace some real (or what we accept as “real”). The individual isn’t scalable, after all. 

His research shows that “virtual” activities mean, for example, watching less television, but that certain news gathering behaviors are not displaced (radio, newspaper-reading….hmm would that be online (virtual) newspapers - isn't that real??).  Virtual spaces also tend to be existing-relationship maintenance tools, but that relationships with casual friends may change – rl casual friends may be displaced with friends met in virtual places.  The important question to ask: is what we displace better or worse?  Not a simple “good” or “bad” answer to that.

Listen to the show at NPR here. Lots of other topics were discussed besides those I focused on here.  Come back and tell us your thoughts!

Science Friday show notes here.

Science Friday– Making Science Radioactive.

Photo Credit:  Science Friday


September 1, 2007

Darfur Event with Mia Farrow Scheduled in Second Life for January 9.

As UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Ms Farrow will be in-world at the Infinite Mind virtual broadcast center in Second Life to discuss and answer questions about the worsening situation in Darfur and Chad.   She has just returned from her fourth visit to the region and will be returning there again in February. 

The mixed-reality event is scheduled for 11:00 - 12:00 noon (SLT)/2:00 -3:00 p.m. EST January 9, 2007.  It will also be simulcast to two other regions in Second Life:  Camp Darfur and Global Kids on the SL Teen Grid.

This is a re-schedule of an event, sponsored by the Committee on Conscience of the U.S. Holocast Museum, that was to take place in early December, however a real world fire in the building housing the Infinite Mind studios prevented it from happening.

To accompany the radio discussion and interview, Lichtenstein Creative Media, producers of the Infinite Mind radio show, created a visual exhibit on the Infinite Mind sim that replicates the photography exhibit, Our Walls Bear Witness: Darfur  – Who Will Survive Today? The original exhibit was projected onto the walls of the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. last November during the Thanksgiving holiday.  However virtual the exhibit may be, it is powerful, moving and an excellent example of  media in Second Life.  See my earlier post about this Second Life exhibit space.

According to the press release Bill Lichtenstein, president of Lichtenstein Creative Media sent over today there will be several others speaking at the event:

John Heffernan, who has traveled extensively throughout Sudan and the region, coauthored the 2006 report “Darfur: Assault on Survival” for Physicians for Human Rights,  and serves as Director of the Genocide Prevention Initiative for the United States Holocaust  Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience;   

Ron Haviv, the award-winning photojournalist, whose images of Darfur are part of the virtual  event;   

Ronan Farrow, who has served as a UNICEF Spokesperson for Youth in Sudan, as a  representative of the Genocide Intervention Network, and has written extensively about the  situation in Darfur; and 

Bill Lichtenstein, president of Lichtenstein Creative Media, and Senior Executive Producer of  the national, weekly public radio series The Infinite Mind, who will moderate.

To quote from Bill's email:

The event comes at an especially critical time, as the situation in Darfur continues to worsen dramatically in recent days. Reuters reports that as the conflict enters its fourth year, the fighting, which has driven 2.5 million Darfuris from their homes and killed an estimated 200,000, but was mainly concentrated in remote villages, now engulfs the main towns.  As a result, the world's largest humanitarian operation in Sudan's remote west, involving 14,000 Humanitarian Aid workers, is becoming increasingly threatened. 

The event is free and open to the public and press.  The Infinite Mind sim is located here.

If you cannot attend the live in-world event, don’t miss the chance to see the exhibit.  It will be open in Second Life until the 31st of January, 2007.

January 2, 2007

Korea Sees 50% of Its Computer Crime Related to Virtual Worlds.

That's a statistic Edward Castronova, virtual world expert and author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games, cites in an interview on public radio show, Zocalo.  This is a must-hear interview.

He asks us to imagine that a new world has been discovered. He draws an analogy to the discovery of America and the massive changes in European society it provoked: the prodigious migration of people, the new economic models that were created, and the awakening of democracy.

Today, the migration is a different kind, and perhaps more massive.  We are shifting some fraction of our time and attention into instantly accessible virtual worlds.  Castronova estimates there are 20-30 million people who are now logging into some kind of virtual reality.

Castronova, who is also an economist, spends much of his time telling policy makers and business leaders it is time to pay attention. 

Korea is facing significant social and economic issues due to the large percentage of its population who spend considerable time in virtual spaces.  And, he suggests the Korean experience is a look into the future for the rest of us.

Filling the court docket with virtual world crime as just one societal area that is about to be seriously challenged.  He wonders how we keep students in school, for example, when they can choose fantasy-on-demand instead.  Although educators currently view gaming as an “opportunity,” Castronova says Korea is showing us that the opportunity phase is over – and that we must be integrating immersive experiences into education or we will lose eyeballs to these far more compelling spaces.

Should governments respond?  Castranova warns virtual reality is moving too fast for our systems to keep up – and that it is vital for governments to devote attention to them and to their impending impact.

Listen to the interview on Zocalo, Life 2.0 Market and Society on the Virtual Frontier.  In the second half of the show, Cory Ondrejka, Chief Technology Officer for Linden Lab, talks about the workings and culture of Second Life and gives fascinating examples of how it is affecting the lives of real people, education, and real-world spaces.

Castronova is currently working on a new book, The Fun Revolution.

December 16, 2006

Public Affairs in Second Life: Crisis in Darfur with Mia Farrow

Last Friday Lichtenstien Creative Media was to hold an interview and visual event in the Infinite Mind sim with actress and activist Mia Farrow, sponsored by the Committee on Conscience of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.  Ms. Farrow was to discuss the worsening situation in Darfur and Chad amid images that needed no words.  Tragically, a real world fire emergency kept the event from happening on Friday as scheduled.

The event will be rescheduled according to the LCMedia web site.  LCMedia are the producers of the Infinite Mind radio show.

In the meantime, the Infinite Mind outdoor visual event is available on the sim.  It replicates the photography exhibit, Our Walls Bearing Witness – Darfur: Who Will Survive Today?, that was projected onto the walls of the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. during the Thanksgiving week in the U.S.   

The virtual exhibit was scheduled to be dismantled on December 12,  however, in light of the circumstances, it may remain until the interview can be rescheduled. It also includes a video of the real world exhibit installation.  Don’t miss out.  Take a few minutes and teleport over.

This is yet another example of the powerful communications tools Second Life affords. 

I often refer to “360-degree” content when urging clients and colleagues to rethink information presentation in 3D spaces.  By that, I don’t necessarily mean an object which an avatar can walk around, through or physically interact with.  I also mean rethinking more powerful content through multimedia.

Second Life is global.  Issues we want people to experience often have universal impact.  We cannot rely on language to communicate here.  Some things become diluted with language.

Rethink media.

The Infinite Mind is located in Second Life here.

For more information on the real world event, see the Holocaust Museum web page.

December 10, 2006

Second Life Media List

While there are at least a dozen “mainstream” media stories every day about Second Life, to really get close to the community, follow some of the dedicated Second Life media as well. Remember them for your Second Life media relations efforts.

Here’s a list of the dedicated Second Life media outlets.  If I’ve missed your publication, please add a comment and I’ll add it to the list.

Publications
SL Business Magazine:   Business and marketing in Second Life (monthly magazine)
Metaverse Messenger:   Second Life news (weekly newspaper)
Metaverse Messenger Teen:  Second Life Teen Grid news (weekly newspaper)
Second Life Herald:       Second Life news (news blog)
Second Life Arts and Total Entertainmnet:  The arts and cultural scene of Second Life (monthly magazine)
Second Life News Network:   Second Life news and real life news that affects Second Life (daily)
In The Grid:     Second Life culture (monthly magazine plus blog)
Second Style:  Fashion scene in Second Life (monthly magazine plus Fashionista blog)   
Second Opinion: Official Linden Lab newsletter (monthly)
The Konstrukt:  General magazine (monthly)
Second Life Art News:  Second Life art news (blog)
Pixel Pinup:   Fashion and design in Second Life  (web-based magazine)
The Avatar:   Tabloid Newspaper by Bild.
Second Life Reuters:  Business and economy of Second Life by Reuters

Podcasts
SecondCast:   A collection of discussion and event webcasts related to Second Life

Coming Soon
Virtual Life TV:  Broadband channel for Second Life
[1-1-07 url added above] German tabloid by Alex Springer: launching in December, subscription price $10-15 Linden dollars

I’ll be adding a blog roll of Second Life and virtual world blogs to a new blog roll here next week.

November 21, 2006

New "The Infinite Mind" Second Life Radio Series Available

Drew Stein CEO of Infinite Vision Media was kind enough to email me today to let me know that The Infinite Mind public radio show has produced a new series of three one-hour radio shows about Second Life.  The series is titled Through the Looking Glass: Virtual Communities.  The radio shows will be available in-world in The Infinite Mind listening rooms as of tomorrow; and will begin being broadcast then on public radio shows across the U.S. and on Sirius radio.  You can listen to Part 1 now on the ICMedia site.

If you've ever listened to The Infinite Mind you know the material they produce is consistently high-quality and thought-provoking.

Part 1 of the series, Exploring Virtual Communities, is easy listening yet a fascinating set of interviews.  Philip Rosendale, CEO of Linden Lab and creator of Second Life, shares his thoughts on the concept of “presence” which is a vital characteristic of Second Life and he explains why presence makes SL the immersive experience it is.  He also discusses “persistent identity” which is a feature that distinguishes Second Life from other types of virtual communities or games.

Dr. Thomas Malaby, anthropologist, with a grant from the  National Science Foundation, did a yearlong on-site research study at Linden Lab.  He tells us what distinguishes Second Life from a game – yet what certain elements of “game” it retains that make SL so compelling. He has observations about the parallels between Linden Lab as a corporation and Second Life as its creation.

Bill Lichtenstein of ICMedia and Drew Stein provide some commentary on the possibilities of Second Life.  The show also reprises an interview with futurist Howard Rhinegold.  Interviewer John Hockenberry always asks insightful questions, and it is refreshing to hear a truly thoughtful discussion toward finding the meaning of these virtual worlds.

The other two radio shows in the series are scheduled to begin broadcasting on October 4 and October 11.  Try to catch them.

You may also purchase copies of the show or transcripts here.

Photo credit:  Taken from the Lip Flap machinima, by David Laundra

September 28, 2006

On the Media Does Second Life

This past Sunday I heard the tones of Second Life coming from my real life radio. Brook Gladstone of On the Media had two segments on Second Life.  In the first, called "Second Chances", she talks with former Virginia Governor, Mark Warner about why his presidential campaign will include Second Life; and in the second segment she talks with Jane McGonigal and Edward Castranova.  McGonigal is an “immersive play” expert and Edward Castronova is author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games and blogger over at Terra Nova.

The segments are fun to listen to – the transcripts and audio are available here.  In the "Second Thoughts" segment Castronova said something in fun that is probably worth thinking about seriously:

Let's look at this Iraq war as a game designer would. Let's say we're making a part of the game environment of our people, and we want them to be happier. And then you might think, gosh, that's why Iraq I was more fun than Iraq II. Iraq I had a victory condition. You know, it was limited in time. It didn't go on forever, [LAUGHS] and so on and so forth. And I'm not suggesting that we really should do policy this way right now. What I'm suggesting is that over the next hundred years, as more and more people grow up familiar with game design as a part of their policy environment within these games, we will see increasing pressure and new insights in real-world policy, where people go, hmm, now, is that the funnest inflation rate that they could have designed? Don't we want a more fun one than that? And we're going to have to deal [LAUGHING] with this.

As we move into immersive environments for learning and work, they will have a naturally profound effect on the way we deal with real world problem-solving and our expectations of our own world control/experimentation.  This will bleed over into what we expect of our work and public policy environments.  And "play" and "fun" may be assigned a higher value and become far more essential elements than they are now - because well, we can.

On The Media is produced by New York Public Radio and is available on local public radio stations.

Photo credit: Lizbeth Marlowe

BBC’s Breakfast Looks at the Future of the Internet – Available Online

BBC’s early morning show, Breakfast, did a three-part report last week, Where for the web?, looking at the future of media – specifically, the web, music, and television. 

They profile Second Life in the first report as a representation of the future of the web – which they predict will become an immersive, “3-D” environment.  The fragmentation of television audiences and the “socialization” of music are themes from the other reports.

Catch these short reports on the BBC website.  The video reports range from 1.5 minutes to 4.5 minutes.

Second Life in the Media

Second Life has gotten tons of media coverage in recent weeks – and it’s not limited to just the gaming or tech pubs.  Much of what I find in the news media is fairly light and airy but there is other reporting going on that is much more enlightening.

Here are pointers to a few stories you might find interesting that report on Second Life from different angles.

Popular Science (September 2006)
Your Second Life is Ready
The reporter enters Second Life with guide Hamlet Au of New World Notes and tours several aspects of Second Life.

Open Source Radio: International Public Radio
Living in Game Space. (mp3, 24 min, aired March, 2006)
A broad-ranging interview with an educator from MIT, SL reporter Hamlet Au, and others, about SL sociology, real life versus virtual life, sex, education, architecture and more; with questions coming in from the listening audience.

Be sure to check out some of the reading material at the end of the accompanying blog post.

The Phoenix (August 2006)
Right Click to Learn
Second Life as a learning space and for educational collaboration and community building.

 

ClikZ Network
Marketing Opportunities Emerge in Online Gaming Venues (August, 2006)
Statistics and research about gaming for marketers.

The Infinite Mind Radio Progam is Now Simulcasting in Second Life

Last Thursday the weekly public radio show, The Infinite Mind, opened its virtual broadcast center and studio in Second Life.  To celebrate it, John Hockenberry, the host of the radio show, is interviewing four visionaries, simulcasting them in Second Life from the Infinite Mind “sim” (simulator).

This Monday and Tuesday, August 7 and 8, Hockenberry will be hosting futurist Howard Rheingold and best-selling author Kurt Vonnegut.  Tickets to the events in Second Life are available beginning at 9:00 a.m. (PDT, Second Life Time) on the day of each event at the Infinite Mind in-world amphitheater.  SL attendees will be able to ask questions of the guests during the events.

The interview series was kicked off last Thursday with Suzanne Vega, who is known as the “mother of the MP3.”  She (and her avatar) performed live in-world to a virtual audience.  It is another of the fascinating and growing list of Second Life firsts.  Watch Suzanne perform one of her songs during the show in this video and a bit of the interview in this video.

To appreciate the talent, work and detail that goes into building a virtual object, watch this three-minute video on the building of Suzanne’s virtual guitar for her performance.

Both the broadcast center and the simulcasts are exciting experiments for radio media. There is lots of music broadcast in Second Life and the BBC’s Radio1 has held virtual concert events in-world.  But The Infinite Mind has built their virtual broadcasting home here, with screening rooms, a studio with a viewing gallery, a lecture theater for PowerPoint and multimedia presentations, an archive library, the amphitheater and a transportation center (for a shuttle).  The Infinite Mind’s goal is to “go beyond broadcasting,” making this the first interaction between Second Life residents and a First Life radio program.

Perhaps without coincidence, the radio show is about the human mind, brain and behaviors.  Second Life is an excellent laboratory to explore human behavior through virtual environments and I suspect The Infinite Mind will be providing some intriguing insights on the topic as they operate here.

You don’t have to be a Second Lifer to listen to the upcoming shows.  They are simulcast on the web here.

And you can find a terristrial radio station that airs the program here.

See the Flickr set for more images of the virtual broadcast center.

The Infinite Mind Sim is located at: secondlife://The Infinite Mind/208.745/76.4281/0