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Category Archives: innovation
International Architecture is Here
Is it possible to be efficient as both a local and global creator? Virtual vocations create an opportunity for international collaboration that is unparalleled — have we learned to work efficiently together across boundaries?
The architects of today’s International Architecture in Virtual Worlds panel hosted by the US Department of State in Second Life explored both the global and local implications of their shift to Second Life as a tool for professional design and education. Judy Cockeram, Amr Attia, David Denton and Jon Brouchoud (also known as JudyArx Scribe, Archi Vita, DB Bailey and Keystone Bouchard) took an hour to join participants inSL for a streamed discussion followed by a tour of their key architectural builds. Students and designers were given time to explore open source 3D design solutions like the Wiki Tree and Studio Wikitecture along with the gorgeous landscape of reimagined Cairo being built with the collaborative design team led by Amr and David.
After years of producing mixed reality events it still astonishes me when we can beam multiple speakers from around the world through space and time to join us in one place. Synchronous collaboration still has its challenges (try finding one time zone that works for Egypt, New Zealand and the US) but we were able to gather 70 people from over a dozen countries in one place to share a conversation about architecture and international partnerships that may prove fruitful for a burgeoning new industry.
As the 3D web and our collective design desk radically evolves we are wise to make the best use of the tools in front of us, not only the Wiki Tree and www.archvirtual.com for Architectural design community but also the rich global community we share inworld at these panels, conversations and events. Together we are asking questions, exploring potential, offering perspectives and hopefully opening a few eyes and ears along the way.
I am grateful for the professionals working virtually to share their work with a larger global audience and learn something new from people half a world away. Their willingness to explore new methods is what gives us a rich landscape to explore and build on together, scripting new doors where none existed before. Whether we work in architecture or public diplomacy, we have this amazing time and space to share together and explore what our world could be like if we could take the best of our cultures and bring them together. The virtual landscape is a dreamlike media where worlds can mingle and merge, much like our real world malls and living spaces where cultures collide, and I am grateful for the builders, creators and trailblazers who are making these worlds worth living in.
Thank you to Any1 Gynoid for this CNN iReport; take a few minutes to see more of the photos and videos shared at this event tagged #intlarchitecture.
Lightning Temple updates
Lightning Temple at WordPress will soon become our main site for updates while we maintain the wiki for public details and idea sharing. Enjoy recent updates including 3D video walkthrough of the temple as it is being built by our team of engineers and artists.
Essentials of Virtual Community Building
No matter who you are, where you come from or what challenges you are hitting right now, there are a few things we all share in common. We need a few basic things: food, water and shelter are followed by education and communication with others who share our experiences. Deep down we want to bond and experience a sense of connection.
Connections thrive when we create solid and healthy communities and this is where virtual worlds excel: the immersive landscape is appealing to network weavers as it provides an infinite canvas for collaboration and experimentation. My avatar In Kenzo wears her wings as a visible reminder to crosspollinate between the worlds and bring people together so that millions can come together and create the emerging 3D web.
When I first sat down with Douglas Thomas of the USC Network Culture Project he excited me with an idea: Create a challenge to grow the communities of the virtual world. Together with a stellar team we crafted The Second Life and the Public Good Community Challenge and successfully gave away a million L$ to winning projects chosen by a panel of experts.
Through the process of reading over 20 proposals and helping our panel through the process of picking their top five, I recognized that listening is essential to community building. If there’s one secret ingredient to success from events to metaverse productions it’s deep engaged receptivity, not only to words but to actions and creations expressing the ideas that proposals sometimes struggle to capture. Once you listen to what others say and do you are able to connect them with new ideas and resources to help them grow, which helps the whole community in turn.
During our event on Monday 11/17 I sat with our awardees and discussed the real world impacts that their communities have created in the last few months. The awardees shared many triumphs including new sims and groups now hosting events along with challenges such as responsible research management in the nebulous terrain of virtual worlds. Some tested the strength of virtual bonds as dynamic personalities make conversation a complex game about identity; one sim away excited groups at the Nonprofit Commons shared about the strength of their alliances built effectively in these networked spaces.
As avatars learning to work remotely for the first time our panelists for the challenge tested new tools including a graphic consensus-building device that allows groups to map themselves and see statistically significant data made by Alpine EMS. We relied on the talents of the Vesuvius Group to help us produce podcasts and content for USC Network Culture Project and many content creators throughout Second Life who brought their best to the table as artists and activists. Global Kids, our virtual worlds collaborators for many events including the mini-conference this week, detailed their birds of a feather sessions and RezEd talks on their blog Holy Meatballs for youth audiences (and in the podcast below!).
Together we witness blooming artistic communities, machinima that tells stories of good created in virtual spaces that echoes into our daily lives. Amazing storytellers like Draxtor Despres are now being recognized for machinima works; Draxtor is accepting an international humanitarian award for his work with the Virtual Guantanamo team who also brought us Wallsickness, a memorial to the walls that divide us and how we have systematically built them up and torn them down. How do these virtual teams evolve over time as relationships extend beyond the platform? The Wallsickness team is one example of a solid partnership sustained over years while other groups find their footing as new 501(c)3 organizations.
There are a few rare leaders who can gather a group of people and enjoy that space together over a long period of time, enriching each others lives in ways that we rarely reach in the real world. Collaborations are more common, requiring great glue and gumption to form a sustainable community that grows and evolves with the people involved. Enrichment can take so many forms, like the support spaces created by the Ability Commons or the International Health Challenge created by the Texas Obesity Research Center. The people behind these groups are just as fascinating as the beautiful places they create together; a conversation with Nany Kayo of Native Lands or Eme and Gentle of Ability Commons reinforced my belief in these spaces as viable for true social change.
The new Foundations 
sim brings avatars new life in a handful of ways, providing an encyclopedic museum of the various lifeforms we know and understand now while offering maps of conservation areas and local community building efforts throughout Chicago. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has been a unique presence in Second Life over the last few years as leaders in philanthropic exploration into virtual worlds, choosing not only to build their own presence but to give to other leaders to grow and explore what we can do together. Few institutions have the foresight to allocate resources to these brave new worlds and it has been a joy to learn and grow with the Digital Media and Learning staff at the MacArthur Foundation this year.
Craig MacFound welcomed attendees at Monday’s event, speaking about Doctor Ludovico (Douglas Thomas) and his definition of Network Imagination as it relates to the freedom and agency of invention shared with copresence available in virtual worlds such as the new Foundations sim. “This notion of community and imagination and the way they intersect motivates our presence here”, Craig MacFound noted as he expressed gratitude for the work of Aimee Weber studios bringing “beauty, imagination and playfulness” to the new Foundations sim.
In Draxtor’s video seen above he hits on four key affordances as outlined by Thomas’ upcoming paper from the USC Network Culture Project. The communities we work with in Second Life embody 1) Awareness 2) Desemination 3) Organization and Action and 4) Intercultural Dialogue that breaks through traditional media resources into the daily lives of their members. Each of our communities has learned to leverage at least one of these affordances very well to grow a community of likeminded avatars who care about political advocacy, health or engagement with their tribal brethren like the Native Lands project has provided in these photos of their Veterans Day honoring dedication and drum circle.
We share a desire to connect people and resources with our friends at Global Kids who have created RezEd and the Justice Commons. Barry Joseph and Rik Riel hosted a discussion at Monday’s mini-conference that speaks to the future of these platforms for community building; listen to their podcast below and stay tuned for links to the USC Network Culture podcast of Monday’s panel with these amazing community leaders.
Virtual Civics
Posted a new video today from the MacArthur Foundation events in Second Life on Virtual Civic Liberties with legal professor Jack Balkin speaking with Jonathan Fanton. Hosted by USC with Global Kids, filmed by yours truly.
The post-event discussion on the practicality of these discussions for growing future communities was fruitful on all sides. We all agree that we need measurable goals and documentable material along with community dialogue; the emergence of these new media come new questions on how to best handle issues of governance and community process.
It’s the wild west all over again and you’ve got a front row seat — come join In Kenzo for another round of etheric civic engagement.
