Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
Transcript from an episode of Metanomics, a weekly broadcast on the serious uses of virtual worlds.
This episode sees host Robert Bloomfield interview Mark Kingdon, CEO of Linden Lab. Tony O'Driscoll starts the episode with a review of the enterprise uses of virtual worlds.
The video for this episode can be viewed at:
http://www.metanomics.net/index.php/show/setting_the_stage_i
n_conversation_with_mark_kingdon/
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
110507 Second Life's Economic Architecture Metanomics TranscriptRemedy Communications
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
This document summarizes an interview with Robin Gomboy about Reaction Grid, an OpenSim virtual world grid. Some key points:
1) Reaction Grid targets education and business users, offering affordable private grids and sims for training and collaboration.
2) It does not have an in-world economy at the request of partner Immersive Education, but users can sell items through external websites.
3) Reaction Grid aims to cultivate a positive culture through leadership, PG-only content policies, and classes on "gridizenship" that teach respect and etiquette.
4) Early users like ThinkBalm Innovation Community and educators are helping shape best practices for using virtual worlds in business and
041408 Linden Labs Past Present And Future Metanomics TranscriptRemedy Communications
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
Transcript from an episode of Metanomics, a weekly broadcast on the serious uses of virtual worlds.
This episode sees host Robert Bloomfield interview Mark Kingdon, CEO of Linden Lab. Tony O'Driscoll starts the episode with a review of the enterprise uses of virtual worlds.
The video for this episode can be viewed at:
http://www.metanomics.net/index.php/show/setting_the_stage_i
n_conversation_with_mark_kingdon/
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
110507 Second Life's Economic Architecture Metanomics TranscriptRemedy Communications
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
This document summarizes an interview with Robin Gomboy about Reaction Grid, an OpenSim virtual world grid. Some key points:
1) Reaction Grid targets education and business users, offering affordable private grids and sims for training and collaboration.
2) It does not have an in-world economy at the request of partner Immersive Education, but users can sell items through external websites.
3) Reaction Grid aims to cultivate a positive culture through leadership, PG-only content policies, and classes on "gridizenship" that teach respect and etiquette.
4) Early users like ThinkBalm Innovation Community and educators are helping shape best practices for using virtual worlds in business and
041408 Linden Labs Past Present And Future Metanomics TranscriptRemedy Communications
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
February 28th cyborg to borg—cont’d, with michael chorostDoug Thompson
Robert Bloomfield welcomes Michael Chorost once again, as his guest on Metanomics. The discussion during Michael’s last visit centered on his book, Re-Built and his experience of receiving a cochlear implant. As a science writer, he knew how the implant worked, yet it was a fascinating journey to share his experience of stepping up to Cyborg status, utilizing lines of code and an implanted physical device to regain the ability to hear. His new book, World Wide Mind has just been released and further explores the integration of humans and machine coupled with the connective potential of the internet. It’s been widely praised in reviews including The New York Times, Wired Magazine, New Scientist, and The L-Magazine. All agree that the science is dazzling, and the interwoven account of his personal journey to become a more complete human, emotionally speaks to how this merge with technology might affect us all.
Click here to watch video http://www.metanomics.net/show/february_28th/
Two analysts discuss concerns about Second Life and Linden Lab. They see problems with flat user growth, unstable software releases, and poor communication. They believe Linden Lab needs new leadership with business experience to address these issues. Alternatives like Qwaq and Metaplace are seen as more suitable for enterprise use due to their focus on stability, security, and integration with other business tools and platforms.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
This document summarizes a Metanomics podcast episode from September 30, 2009. The episode discusses social media and virtual communities. Guest Chris Abraham initially criticized Second Life but later recognized the passion of its community. He sees potential for simulation and collaboration in virtual worlds. Abraham believes Twitter allows quicker crisis response than blogs. While immersive, Second Life lacks elements that attract youth. Virtual communities have engaged Abraham since the early 1990s.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
The document discusses using games and virtual worlds to change how people work and businesses compete. It summarizes an interview with Byron Reeves, who argues that playing games at work can increase productivity and engagement in the same way napping does. Reeves discusses how virtual worlds can be used to actually conduct work by incorporating game elements like avatars, metrics, economies and competition. He argues the social engagement and interactions enabled by avatars in virtual spaces can increase engagement in work.
The document discusses using games and virtual worlds to change how people work and businesses compete. It summarizes an interview with Byron Reeves, who argues that playing games at work can increase productivity and engagement in the same way napping does. Reeves discusses how virtual worlds can be used to actually conduct work by incorporating game elements like avatars, metrics, economies and competition. He argues the social engagement and interactions enabled by avatars in virtual spaces can have real psychological impacts.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
Schemas for the Real World [Madison RubyConf 2013]Carina C. Zona
Social app development challenges us how to code for users’ personal world. Users are giving push-back to ill-fitted assumptions about their identity — including name, gender, sexual orientation, important relationships, and other attributes they value.
How can we balance users’ realities with an app’s business requirements?
Facebook, Google+, and others are grappling with these questions. Resilient approaches arise from an app’s own foundation. Discover schemas’ influence over codebase, UX, and development itself. Learn how we can use schemas to both inspire users and generate data we need as developers.
--
META
Where: Madison Ruby Conference 2013 (Madison, Wisconsin, USA)
Date: August 23, 2013
Video: http://www.confreaks.com/videos/2627-madisonruby2013-schemas-for-the-real-world
Second Life Next: Dusan Writer's 2010 SLCC Keynote PresentaionDoug Thompson
My Keynote Presentation from the Second Life Community Convention 2010.
To view the video of the presentation fast forward to the latter half of this video:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8922472
And this:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8925416
This document summarizes the 100th episode of Metanomics, a virtual world podcast hosted in Second Life. It discusses the new episode celebrating the milestone, announces an upcoming thank you party for viewers, and introduces the guest Joshua Fairfield, an expert in virtual law, who will discuss Linden Lab's new Second Life Terms of Service. It also mentions a contest announced by the producer seeking visions of the future of media production and broadcasting.
This document summarizes the 100th episode of the Metanomics podcast. It discusses the new Second Life Terms of Service and interviews law professor Joshua Fairfield as a guest. Some key points:
- The episode celebrates reaching 100 episodes of Metanomics since it started in 2007.
- Linden Lab recently announced new Second Life Terms of Service that focus on treating virtual items as licensed rather than owned.
- Fairfield analyzes the new Terms of Service and says they represent both an evolution towards more corporate control of virtual worlds as well as taking privacy more seriously.
- He notes the Terms move away from the idea of Second Life as a place where users can truly own virtual land and items
Facebook accounts function as "cyborg counterparts" to users. The document argues that a person's Facebook account takes on aspects of their identity and personality separate from their real-life identity. As users continually update their Facebook profiles and interact on the site, they are simultaneously shaping both their online identity on Facebook and their "second self" or cyborg counterpart. The widespread implementation of the "Like" button further enhances this process by cataloging users' interests to refine their Facebook profiles and cyborg identities over time. The document examines this phenomenon through the lenses of theorists like Sherry Turkle, Amber Case, Frank Biocca, and Ollivier Dyens to argue that humans are becoming more integrated with technology through sites like
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
In conversation with author paul ford on media, the web and life onlineDoug Thompson
Whether code or copy, Paul Ford speaks the language. A true digital native, Ford took Harper’s Magazine to the Web, converting its 250,000 page archive to an on-line powerhouse; he’s written for NPR, TheMorningNews.org, XML.com, and the National Information Standards Organization’s Information Standards Quarterly.
Click here to watch video
http://www.metanomics.net/show/all_digital_in_conversation_with_author_paul_ford_on_media_the_web_and_life/
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
February 28th cyborg to borg—cont’d, with michael chorostDoug Thompson
Robert Bloomfield welcomes Michael Chorost once again, as his guest on Metanomics. The discussion during Michael’s last visit centered on his book, Re-Built and his experience of receiving a cochlear implant. As a science writer, he knew how the implant worked, yet it was a fascinating journey to share his experience of stepping up to Cyborg status, utilizing lines of code and an implanted physical device to regain the ability to hear. His new book, World Wide Mind has just been released and further explores the integration of humans and machine coupled with the connective potential of the internet. It’s been widely praised in reviews including The New York Times, Wired Magazine, New Scientist, and The L-Magazine. All agree that the science is dazzling, and the interwoven account of his personal journey to become a more complete human, emotionally speaks to how this merge with technology might affect us all.
Click here to watch video http://www.metanomics.net/show/february_28th/
Two analysts discuss concerns about Second Life and Linden Lab. They see problems with flat user growth, unstable software releases, and poor communication. They believe Linden Lab needs new leadership with business experience to address these issues. Alternatives like Qwaq and Metaplace are seen as more suitable for enterprise use due to their focus on stability, security, and integration with other business tools and platforms.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
This document summarizes a Metanomics podcast episode from September 30, 2009. The episode discusses social media and virtual communities. Guest Chris Abraham initially criticized Second Life but later recognized the passion of its community. He sees potential for simulation and collaboration in virtual worlds. Abraham believes Twitter allows quicker crisis response than blogs. While immersive, Second Life lacks elements that attract youth. Virtual communities have engaged Abraham since the early 1990s.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
The document discusses using games and virtual worlds to change how people work and businesses compete. It summarizes an interview with Byron Reeves, who argues that playing games at work can increase productivity and engagement in the same way napping does. Reeves discusses how virtual worlds can be used to actually conduct work by incorporating game elements like avatars, metrics, economies and competition. He argues the social engagement and interactions enabled by avatars in virtual spaces can increase engagement in work.
The document discusses using games and virtual worlds to change how people work and businesses compete. It summarizes an interview with Byron Reeves, who argues that playing games at work can increase productivity and engagement in the same way napping does. Reeves discusses how virtual worlds can be used to actually conduct work by incorporating game elements like avatars, metrics, economies and competition. He argues the social engagement and interactions enabled by avatars in virtual spaces can have real psychological impacts.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
Schemas for the Real World [Madison RubyConf 2013]Carina C. Zona
Social app development challenges us how to code for users’ personal world. Users are giving push-back to ill-fitted assumptions about their identity — including name, gender, sexual orientation, important relationships, and other attributes they value.
How can we balance users’ realities with an app’s business requirements?
Facebook, Google+, and others are grappling with these questions. Resilient approaches arise from an app’s own foundation. Discover schemas’ influence over codebase, UX, and development itself. Learn how we can use schemas to both inspire users and generate data we need as developers.
--
META
Where: Madison Ruby Conference 2013 (Madison, Wisconsin, USA)
Date: August 23, 2013
Video: http://www.confreaks.com/videos/2627-madisonruby2013-schemas-for-the-real-world
Second Life Next: Dusan Writer's 2010 SLCC Keynote PresentaionDoug Thompson
My Keynote Presentation from the Second Life Community Convention 2010.
To view the video of the presentation fast forward to the latter half of this video:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8922472
And this:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8925416
This document summarizes the 100th episode of Metanomics, a virtual world podcast hosted in Second Life. It discusses the new episode celebrating the milestone, announces an upcoming thank you party for viewers, and introduces the guest Joshua Fairfield, an expert in virtual law, who will discuss Linden Lab's new Second Life Terms of Service. It also mentions a contest announced by the producer seeking visions of the future of media production and broadcasting.
This document summarizes the 100th episode of the Metanomics podcast. It discusses the new Second Life Terms of Service and interviews law professor Joshua Fairfield as a guest. Some key points:
- The episode celebrates reaching 100 episodes of Metanomics since it started in 2007.
- Linden Lab recently announced new Second Life Terms of Service that focus on treating virtual items as licensed rather than owned.
- Fairfield analyzes the new Terms of Service and says they represent both an evolution towards more corporate control of virtual worlds as well as taking privacy more seriously.
- He notes the Terms move away from the idea of Second Life as a place where users can truly own virtual land and items
Facebook accounts function as "cyborg counterparts" to users. The document argues that a person's Facebook account takes on aspects of their identity and personality separate from their real-life identity. As users continually update their Facebook profiles and interact on the site, they are simultaneously shaping both their online identity on Facebook and their "second self" or cyborg counterpart. The widespread implementation of the "Like" button further enhances this process by cataloging users' interests to refine their Facebook profiles and cyborg identities over time. The document examines this phenomenon through the lenses of theorists like Sherry Turkle, Amber Case, Frank Biocca, and Ollivier Dyens to argue that humans are becoming more integrated with technology through sites like
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
In conversation with author paul ford on media, the web and life onlineDoug Thompson
Whether code or copy, Paul Ford speaks the language. A true digital native, Ford took Harper’s Magazine to the Web, converting its 250,000 page archive to an on-line powerhouse; he’s written for NPR, TheMorningNews.org, XML.com, and the National Information Standards Organization’s Information Standards Quarterly.
Click here to watch video
http://www.metanomics.net/show/all_digital_in_conversation_with_author_paul_ford_on_media_the_web_and_life/
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
The document summarizes an international project exploring how entrepreneurs and small-to-medium enterprises use and could use virtual worlds to improve competitiveness. The project has 9 partners from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the US working across academia, industry and the public sector. Over two years, the project will examine best practices in virtual world innovation and entrepreneurship, the future of virtual worlds for entrepreneurship, and create a virtual center for entrepreneurship and innovation.
Kevin Werbach was the co-leader of President Obama's transition team for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In this discussion, he discusses some key issues facing internet policy in the United States. Specifically, he notes that the U.S. currently lacks a coherent national internet policy. However, the Obama administration is looking to develop such a policy to enhance broadband access and connectivity. Werbach also highlights gaps in broadband access and speed between the U.S. and other developed nations that a new policy could help address.
VicRoads, a government authority responsible for vehicle, driver and roads administration, explored virtual worlds, both conceptually and hands -on in the Lab at Swinburne University of
Technology. Melbourne Australia, 1st July 2010.
1) The document discusses how organizations can create value through social media by strengthening relationships with customers and employees. It provides examples of companies that successfully use social media to engage communities and encourage collaboration.
2) New technologies and an emerging "digital native" workforce are driving changes in how knowledge is shared and work gets done. Organizations need to adapt by becoming more open and collaborative through social media.
3) When used strategically, social media allows organizations to build their brand, innovate with public input, make work fun, and develop ideas through global networks. This represents a shift from traditional hierarchical structures to more dynamic collaboration.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
PDF VERSION: Transcript from an episode of Metanomics, a weekly broadcast on the serious uses of virtual worlds.
This episode sees host Robert Bloomfield interview Mark Kingdon, CEO of Linden Lab. Tony O'Driscoll starts the episode with a review of the enterprise uses of virtual worlds.
The video for this episode can be viewed at:
http://www.metanomics.net/index.php/show/setting_the_stage_i
n_conversation_with_mark_kingdon/
Metanomics Transcript May 27 2009, Measuring Value in Virtual WorldsDoug Thompson
This document summarizes a discussion from the Metanomics podcast about virtual teams and organizations.
1) Tony O'Driscoll from Duke University kicks off the discussion by looking at recent NSF research on virtual organizations and sociotechnical systems. This research examines how and when virtual organizations can enable scientific and educational work.
2) The main guest, Dr. Mitzi Montoya from NC State University, then presents her research on measuring the effectiveness of virtual worlds using her scale of "perceived virtual presence." Her research finds that the more present users feel in virtual worlds, the greater the effectiveness of training, collaboration, education, or presentations.
3) The discussion concludes by considering which industries
The document discusses a report by ThinkBalm, a boutique analyst firm focused on the use of immersive technology in the workplace. The report, called "The Enterprise Immersive Software Decision-Making Guide", aims to help large enterprises deciding whether to use new immersive technologies. ThinkBalm studied many different immersive software vendors and platforms, testing them out themselves. They found the types of people interested were changing from early adopters to more mainstream business decision-makers just starting to explore the potential. The guide seeks to distill ThinkBalm's experiences testing different technologies to help these decision-makers navigate options.
ThinkBalm is a boutique analyst firm focused on the use of immersive technology in the workplace. Their recent report, "The Enterprise Immersive Software Decision-Making Guide", aims to help businesses choose immersive software solutions. ThinkBalm conducted the study by testing various virtual platforms themselves and through their Innovation Community of over 400 members. The report is intended to distill their experiences into an accessible guide for business decision-makers unfamiliar with immersive technologies. ThinkBalm is funded through traditional analyst consulting services provided to immersive technology vendors.
This document summarizes a radio program called Metanomics that discusses expanding access to education through technology.
[1] The program interviews two professors, Rebecca Clothey and Kristen Betts from Drexel University, about their virtual conference called "Education for Everyone: Expanding Access Through Technology".
[2] Rebecca Clothey organized the conference which features on-demand presentations and live events from March 23rd to 25th discussing trends in technology that have expanded education opportunities. Presenters will discuss projects from around the world using technology for distance learning.
[3] The interview discusses the opportunities and challenges of online education. While technology provides more access, digital divides still exist due to lack
2010 & next second life, virtual worlds and the state of the unionDoug Thompson
Its been a decade of advances for virtual worlds, ending with a year that many won’t forget. As the technologies allowing immersive experiences expand, Second Life has come to a cross-roads of sorts, with Linden pulling the plug on its enterprise product and raising the price for educational and non-profit institutions.
Click here to watch video
http://www.metanomics.net/show/december_13_2010_next_-_second_life_virtual_worlds_and_the_state_of_the_uni/
Mitch Kapor, chairman of the board of Linden Lab, was interviewed by Robert Bloomfield. Some of the key points discussed include:
- Kapor saw potential in Philip Rosedale's idea for a virtual world where users could create content, even though it was deemed too risky by most venture capitalists at the time.
- Second Life has grown tremendously from its origins but retains the core idea of an infinitely expandable simulation created by its users.
- Kapor remains actively involved in Linden Lab as well as other startup projects, and sees potential for virtual worlds to be used increasingly for business applications.
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
Episode 190: Creating Authentic & Inclusive Experiences for Your WorkforceWorkology
The world is moving quickly and changes are happening in the way we live and work fueled by technology combined with a new awareness. We are more conscious of other types of people and lifestyles of fellow citizens not just in the US but on earth. Our responsibilities as business leaders and HR is to create workplaces that are inclusive and many of us struggle with how to get started as well as how to get the executive support to make that happen. Today, I’m joined by Frances West, she is internationally recognized thought leader, keynote speaker, strategy advisor and women-in-technology executive. Frances has held many global executive positions from marketing, sales to business development and strategic partner management. She was IBM’s first Chief Accessibility Officer and received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts in Boston for her work in accessibility research and digital inclusion.
This document summarizes a discussion from the Metanomics podcast about the upcoming Second Life Community Convention (SLCC).
The SLCC is an annual real-world conference and social event for the Second Life community held in August. It allows community members to meet face-to-face, network, and discuss their work in Second Life. This year's convention will be held August 13-15 in Boston. Early registration discounts end on July 3rd and hotel rooms are filling up. The convention features tracks on a variety of topics related to Second Life like business, education, art, and technology. Content from the convention will also be streamed virtually in Second Life.
This document summarizes a discussion from the Metanomics podcast about the upcoming Second Life Community Convention (SLCC).
The SLCC is an annual real-world conference and social event for those engaged with Second Life. It allows participants to network, learn about new developments, and discuss the future of Second Life. This year's convention will be held August 13-15 in Boston. Early registration discounts end July 3rd and hotel rooms are filling up. The convention aims to capture many aspects of how Second Life is used through various topic tracks. There will also be a virtual component, with streaming of some sessions in Second Life itself. The discussion focused on the importance of the community coming together at a time when Second Life
Metanomics is a weekly Web-based show on the serious uses of virtual worlds. This transcript is from a past show.
For this and other videos, visit us at http://metanomics.net.
The document provides a summary of several presentations and events at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in 2013. It discusses topics around digital health technologies including wearable sensors and tracking devices, gamification and big data, 3D printing applications for prosthetics, and the potential of geolocation services to provide useful health insights. The president of Razorfish Healthware believes technologies discussed at SXSW will radically transform healthcare by eliminating waste and improving outcomes.
Reuben Steiger is the CEO of Millions of Us, a social media agency that was one of the first to market in Second Life. Millions of Us has since expanded to build content in other virtual worlds like Sony Home and license virtual goods. Reuben discussed why Millions of Us is no longer active in Second Life, primarily citing issues with metrics, scale, and attracting advertisers due to Second Life's smaller user base compared to other platforms. He also noted control issues were not as big a hurdle as initially thought for brands in Second Life.
The document discusses the locations and structures of the Mayans, Aztecs, and Incas. The Mayans were located in southern Mexico and Central America and built temples, pyramids, plazas, roadways, homes, and monuments. The Aztecs were located in Central America and Mexico and their cities included chinampas (floating gardens), palaces, underground tunnels, large buildings, homes, and stalls. The Incas inhabited South America and built homes from precisely cut stone blocks.
Language Lab uses Second Life to teach foreign languages for profit. They have built an entire virtual city with various buildings and public spaces to immerse students in the target language. The city is meant to provide opportunities for natural interaction between students as they accomplish tasks, similar to how the founder learned languages through necessity while playing games and in real-life situations abroad.
Similar to 070109 Virtual Worlds And The Enterprise Metanomics Transcript (20)
This document summarizes a discussion on the Metanomics podcast between Robert Bloomfield and Paulette Robinson. Paulette Robinson is the founder and director of the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds, which brings together government, industry, and academics to explore uses of virtual worlds. She discusses the recent virtual worlds conference hosted by the consortium, as well as a new virtual government environment project that awarded contracts to four virtual world platforms to provide secure virtual training and collaboration services to the US government.
The document summarizes an interview on the podcast Metanomics with Paulette Robinson, the founder and director of the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds. The consortium brings together government, industry, and academics working with virtual worlds. Robinson discusses the recent annual conference which saw participation of over 3,500 people across multiple virtual and real world venues. She highlights several collaborations that have formed, including MilLands for the military and the vGov project, which aims to create a secure virtual world environment for all of government.
Jesse Schell discusses his concept of the "Gamepocalypse", where gaming elements are increasingly integrated into everyday life through emerging technologies. As an example, he describes how future toothbrushes may have sensors that track brushing quality and display it as part of a game or leaderboard. While some see this as an invasion of privacy, Schell believes many people will opt into such systems. He remains optimistic that games could positively influence society if designed well, but acknowledges the realities may be complex.
This document summarizes a discussion between Robert Bloomfield, Barry Joseph, and Marc Weiss about Marc and Barry's upcoming HBO documentary called "Meeting Online". Marc explains that the documentary will tell personal stories of people who met online and how those relationships developed offline. Barry encourages viewers to submit their own stories to the documentary's website. They discuss some examples of stories already submitted, including one woman who met her partner through World of Warcraft and Second Life.
The document summarizes a discussion between Barry Joseph and Marc Weiss on the Metanomics podcast about their documentary "Meeting Online" for HBO. The documentary will feature personal stories submitted online about relationships that began online and extended into real life. Barry Joseph's organization Global Kids is helping collect stories, including from Second Life. Joseph and Weiss met when Joseph contacted Weiss about a job after reading a newspaper article about Weiss's new nonprofit Web Lab.
The document summarizes a discussion between Robert Bloomfield and Tom Hale of Linden Lab about recent announcements from Linden Lab regarding changes to Second Life. Some of the key announcements include the rollout of the new Second Life Viewer 2, which is now the standard viewer, changes to the new user orientation and registration processes, and clarification of maturity ratings and terms of service. Tom Hale discusses his role as Chief Product Officer at Linden Lab and explains that the announcements reflect Linden Lab's strategic focus on improving the experience for new users and welcoming more new residents to grow the Second Life ecosystem. Hale also provides details on changes to Linden Lab's internal processes to support larger, more iterative releases.
The document summarizes an interview between Robert Bloomfield and Tom Hale of Linden Lab discussing recent announcements from Linden Lab. Key points:
- Linden Lab announced the new Second Life Viewer 2 which will become the standard viewer, replacing Viewer 1.23. They also announced changes to orientation, terms of service, and registration processes.
- The announcements reflect Linden Lab's strategic focus on improving the experience for new users and making Second Life more welcoming to bring in new residents.
- Tom Hale discusses changes to Linden Lab's internal processes to support the large Viewer update, including dedicated teams, design firms, user testing, and shorter release cycles going forward.
This summary discusses a virtual world podcast called Metanomics that took place on March 17, 2010.
1) The guest on the podcast was Tom Higgins from Unity Technologies, who discussed Unity's game development software and vision to make powerful tools accessible to all developers.
2) Unity offers various licensing options for its software, including a free basic license and paid Pro licenses starting at $1,500 per seat. Add-on licenses allow developers to deploy games on platforms like iPhone.
3) Unity has over 110,000 registered users since making the basic license free last October, though not all are active developers. Some major clients include Electronic Arts, Disney, and Lego. Unity aims to democrat
This summary discusses a podcast called Metanomics that was filmed in Second Life and broadcast weekly. The guest on this episode is Tom Higgins from Unity Technologies, who discusses Unity's game development software and goals. Some key points:
- Unity aims to make high-quality game development tools accessible to all developers through its free basic licenses and competitive pricing for pro licenses and platform add-ons.
- Unity has grown significantly in the last year to over 110,000 registered users since making the basic license free.
- Unity's vision is to make "author-once, deploy anywhere" a reality, allowing developers to build games once and deploy them across platforms with some adjustments.
- The Unity
The representatives from Linden Lab discussed the recent release of the Second Life Viewer 2.0 beta and Linden Lab's new product marketing strategy. They explained that Viewer 2.0 and new Shared Media capabilities were launched along with Snowglobe 2.0 to provide more viewer choices for residents. The goal is to improve the new user experience and attract new residents while continuing to support the current community. They discussed plans to gather feedback during the beta period and launch a broader marketing campaign once Viewer 2.0 is complete.
Douglas Rushkoff was interviewed on the podcast Metanomics about his upcoming PBS Frontline documentary "Digital Nation".
The documentary is integrated with a website that has been active for over two years, collecting additional footage and stories from the public. This allowed the public to participate and influence the direction of the documentary. After it airs, the website will continue hosting discussions on technology topics each month.
During filming, Rushkoff was surprised to hear Philip Rosedale of Second Life believe the virtual world would be indistinguishable from reality within 10 years. He was also surprised by research showing advantages in negotiations from having a taller avatar in virtual worlds, and kids believing they really experienced virtual reality simulations.
The document discusses a Metanomics podcast episode about using narratives and storytelling in virtual worlds. It introduces three guests: Jena Ball, who creates immersive "Story Quests" in Second Life; Christina Galanis, who directs a regional health information exchange that is using Second Life; and Brent Ward from Research Triangle Institute. Jena discusses her Story Quests, including one telling the story of an HIV-positive character named Uncle D to educate and reduce stigma. Christina explains how her organization is using Second Life to explain health information exchange, having expanded Jena's Uncle D story across multiple virtual worlds. Brent then discusses collaborations like those happening in New York at Research Triangle Park.
The document discusses a Metanomics podcast episode about using narratives and storytelling in virtual worlds. The episode features three guests: Jena Ball, who creates immersive "Story Quests" in Second Life; Christina Galanis from a regional health information exchange that is using Second Life; and Brent Ward from Research Triangle Park. Jena discusses her Story Quest about a character named Uncle D to educate about HIV/AIDS. Christina's organization worked with Jena to expand the Uncle D narrative in their Second Life region. Brent discusses collaborations similar to what is happening with the health organizations in Second Life.
This document summarizes a discussion between Robert Bloomfield and Tyler Cowen on the podcast Metanomics. Some of the key topics discussed include:
1) Tyler Cowen's view that autistic thinking styles are well-suited to online environments and activities like blogging, collecting information, and imposing order on disordered information.
2) Cowen's argument that concerns over technologies like Google making people less able to focus or engage in deep reading overlook the ability to choose focus or multitasking.
3) The trend toward shorter, bite-sized cultural works and whether this represents a positive development, with Cowen arguing it allows for more individual control and variety while not replacing all long-form
This document summarizes a discussion between Robert Bloomfield and Tyler Cowen on the podcast Metanomics. Some of the key topics discussed include:
1) Tyler Cowen's view that autistic thinking styles are well-suited to ordering and making sense of large amounts of information available online. He sees similarities between autistic traits like focus and information collecting and how many people interact with the internet.
2) Cowen argues that concerns over technologies like Google making people less able to focus or engage in "deep reading" overlook how individuals can choose to use technologies. He believes people are still reading long-form works and that shorter formats allow ideas to spread more quickly.
3) The discussion touches
This document summarizes a radio program called Metanomics that discusses the problems of digital memory and the internet's inability to forget. The guest, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, authored a book called "Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age" which examines how the permanent nature of digital information can negatively impact people's lives and reputations through stories like Stacy Snyder, who was denied her teaching certificate due to an old photo online, and Andrew Feldmar, who was banned from the US due to an old article found through an online search. Mayer-Schönberger argues that the ability to forget is important to being human and discusses solutions like making digital information more ephemeral rather than promoting total digital
The document discusses a Metanomics podcast that explores the use of virtual worlds for enterprise. It summarizes Linden Lab's announcement of Second Life Enterprise, which allows companies to host their own private Second Life servers. It then discusses how virtual worlds can foster collaboration and innovation in global workforces. Finally, it previews a panel discussion on these topics from the Enterprise 2.0 conference.
Ocean lotus Threat actors project by John Sitima 2024 (1).pptxSitimaJohn
Ocean Lotus cyber threat actors represent a sophisticated, persistent, and politically motivated group that poses a significant risk to organizations and individuals in the Southeast Asian region. Their continuous evolution and adaptability underscore the need for robust cybersecurity measures and international cooperation to identify and mitigate the threats posed by such advanced persistent threat groups.
Driving Business Innovation: Latest Generative AI Advancements & Success StorySafe Software
Are you ready to revolutionize how you handle data? Join us for a webinar where we’ll bring you up to speed with the latest advancements in Generative AI technology and discover how leveraging FME with tools from giants like Google Gemini, Amazon, and Microsoft OpenAI can supercharge your workflow efficiency.
During the hour, we’ll take you through:
Guest Speaker Segment with Hannah Barrington: Dive into the world of dynamic real estate marketing with Hannah, the Marketing Manager at Workspace Group. Hear firsthand how their team generates engaging descriptions for thousands of office units by integrating diverse data sources—from PDF floorplans to web pages—using FME transformers, like OpenAIVisionConnector and AnthropicVisionConnector. This use case will show you how GenAI can streamline content creation for marketing across the board.
Ollama Use Case: Learn how Scenario Specialist Dmitri Bagh has utilized Ollama within FME to input data, create custom models, and enhance security protocols. This segment will include demos to illustrate the full capabilities of FME in AI-driven processes.
Custom AI Models: Discover how to leverage FME to build personalized AI models using your data. Whether it’s populating a model with local data for added security or integrating public AI tools, find out how FME facilitates a versatile and secure approach to AI.
We’ll wrap up with a live Q&A session where you can engage with our experts on your specific use cases, and learn more about optimizing your data workflows with AI.
This webinar is ideal for professionals seeking to harness the power of AI within their data management systems while ensuring high levels of customization and security. Whether you're a novice or an expert, gain actionable insights and strategies to elevate your data processes. Join us to see how FME and AI can revolutionize how you work with data!
In the rapidly evolving landscape of technologies, XML continues to play a vital role in structuring, storing, and transporting data across diverse systems. The recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) present new methodologies for enhancing XML development workflows, introducing efficiency, automation, and intelligent capabilities. This presentation will outline the scope and perspective of utilizing AI in XML development. The potential benefits and the possible pitfalls will be highlighted, providing a balanced view of the subject.
We will explore the capabilities of AI in understanding XML markup languages and autonomously creating structured XML content. Additionally, we will examine the capacity of AI to enrich plain text with appropriate XML markup. Practical examples and methodological guidelines will be provided to elucidate how AI can be effectively prompted to interpret and generate accurate XML markup.
Further emphasis will be placed on the role of AI in developing XSLT, or schemas such as XSD and Schematron. We will address the techniques and strategies adopted to create prompts for generating code, explaining code, or refactoring the code, and the results achieved.
The discussion will extend to how AI can be used to transform XML content. In particular, the focus will be on the use of AI XPath extension functions in XSLT, Schematron, Schematron Quick Fixes, or for XML content refactoring.
The presentation aims to deliver a comprehensive overview of AI usage in XML development, providing attendees with the necessary knowledge to make informed decisions. Whether you’re at the early stages of adopting AI or considering integrating it in advanced XML development, this presentation will cover all levels of expertise.
By highlighting the potential advantages and challenges of integrating AI with XML development tools and languages, the presentation seeks to inspire thoughtful conversation around the future of XML development. We’ll not only delve into the technical aspects of AI-powered XML development but also discuss practical implications and possible future directions.
HCL Notes and Domino License Cost Reduction in the World of DLAUpanagenda
Webinar Recording: https://www.panagenda.com/webinars/hcl-notes-and-domino-license-cost-reduction-in-the-world-of-dlau/
The introduction of DLAU and the CCB & CCX licensing model caused quite a stir in the HCL community. As a Notes and Domino customer, you may have faced challenges with unexpected user counts and license costs. You probably have questions on how this new licensing approach works and how to benefit from it. Most importantly, you likely have budget constraints and want to save money where possible. Don’t worry, we can help with all of this!
We’ll show you how to fix common misconfigurations that cause higher-than-expected user counts, and how to identify accounts which you can deactivate to save money. There are also frequent patterns that can cause unnecessary cost, like using a person document instead of a mail-in for shared mailboxes. We’ll provide examples and solutions for those as well. And naturally we’ll explain the new licensing model.
Join HCL Ambassador Marc Thomas in this webinar with a special guest appearance from Franz Walder. It will give you the tools and know-how to stay on top of what is going on with Domino licensing. You will be able lower your cost through an optimized configuration and keep it low going forward.
These topics will be covered
- Reducing license cost by finding and fixing misconfigurations and superfluous accounts
- How do CCB and CCX licenses really work?
- Understanding the DLAU tool and how to best utilize it
- Tips for common problem areas, like team mailboxes, functional/test users, etc
- Practical examples and best practices to implement right away
Have you ever been confused by the myriad of choices offered by AWS for hosting a website or an API?
Lambda, Elastic Beanstalk, Lightsail, Amplify, S3 (and more!) can each host websites + APIs. But which one should we choose?
Which one is cheapest? Which one is fastest? Which one will scale to meet our needs?
Join me in this session as we dive into each AWS hosting service to determine which one is best for your scenario and explain why!
For the full video of this presentation, please visit: https://www.edge-ai-vision.com/2024/06/building-and-scaling-ai-applications-with-the-nx-ai-manager-a-presentation-from-network-optix/
Robin van Emden, Senior Director of Data Science at Network Optix, presents the “Building and Scaling AI Applications with the Nx AI Manager,” tutorial at the May 2024 Embedded Vision Summit.
In this presentation, van Emden covers the basics of scaling edge AI solutions using the Nx tool kit. He emphasizes the process of developing AI models and deploying them globally. He also showcases the conversion of AI models and the creation of effective edge AI pipelines, with a focus on pre-processing, model conversion, selecting the appropriate inference engine for the target hardware and post-processing.
van Emden shows how Nx can simplify the developer’s life and facilitate a rapid transition from concept to production-ready applications.He provides valuable insights into developing scalable and efficient edge AI solutions, with a strong focus on practical implementation.
5th LF Energy Power Grid Model Meet-up SlidesDanBrown980551
5th Power Grid Model Meet-up
It is with great pleasure that we extend to you an invitation to the 5th Power Grid Model Meet-up, scheduled for 6th June 2024. This event will adopt a hybrid format, allowing participants to join us either through an online Mircosoft Teams session or in person at TU/e located at Den Dolech 2, Eindhoven, Netherlands. The meet-up will be hosted by Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), a research university specializing in engineering science & technology.
Power Grid Model
The global energy transition is placing new and unprecedented demands on Distribution System Operators (DSOs). Alongside upgrades to grid capacity, processes such as digitization, capacity optimization, and congestion management are becoming vital for delivering reliable services.
Power Grid Model is an open source project from Linux Foundation Energy and provides a calculation engine that is increasingly essential for DSOs. It offers a standards-based foundation enabling real-time power systems analysis, simulations of electrical power grids, and sophisticated what-if analysis. In addition, it enables in-depth studies and analysis of the electrical power grid’s behavior and performance. This comprehensive model incorporates essential factors such as power generation capacity, electrical losses, voltage levels, power flows, and system stability.
Power Grid Model is currently being applied in a wide variety of use cases, including grid planning, expansion, reliability, and congestion studies. It can also help in analyzing the impact of renewable energy integration, assessing the effects of disturbances or faults, and developing strategies for grid control and optimization.
What to expect
For the upcoming meetup we are organizing, we have an exciting lineup of activities planned:
-Insightful presentations covering two practical applications of the Power Grid Model.
-An update on the latest advancements in Power Grid -Model technology during the first and second quarters of 2024.
-An interactive brainstorming session to discuss and propose new feature requests.
-An opportunity to connect with fellow Power Grid Model enthusiasts and users.
How to Interpret Trends in the Kalyan Rajdhani Mix Chart.pdfChart Kalyan
A Mix Chart displays historical data of numbers in a graphical or tabular form. The Kalyan Rajdhani Mix Chart specifically shows the results of a sequence of numbers over different periods.
OpenID AuthZEN Interop Read Out - AuthorizationDavid Brossard
During Identiverse 2024 and EIC 2024, members of the OpenID AuthZEN WG got together and demoed their authorization endpoints conforming to the AuthZEN API
HCL Notes und Domino Lizenzkostenreduzierung in der Welt von DLAUpanagenda
Webinar Recording: https://www.panagenda.com/webinars/hcl-notes-und-domino-lizenzkostenreduzierung-in-der-welt-von-dlau/
DLAU und die Lizenzen nach dem CCB- und CCX-Modell sind für viele in der HCL-Community seit letztem Jahr ein heißes Thema. Als Notes- oder Domino-Kunde haben Sie vielleicht mit unerwartet hohen Benutzerzahlen und Lizenzgebühren zu kämpfen. Sie fragen sich vielleicht, wie diese neue Art der Lizenzierung funktioniert und welchen Nutzen sie Ihnen bringt. Vor allem wollen Sie sicherlich Ihr Budget einhalten und Kosten sparen, wo immer möglich. Das verstehen wir und wir möchten Ihnen dabei helfen!
Wir erklären Ihnen, wie Sie häufige Konfigurationsprobleme lösen können, die dazu führen können, dass mehr Benutzer gezählt werden als nötig, und wie Sie überflüssige oder ungenutzte Konten identifizieren und entfernen können, um Geld zu sparen. Es gibt auch einige Ansätze, die zu unnötigen Ausgaben führen können, z. B. wenn ein Personendokument anstelle eines Mail-Ins für geteilte Mailboxen verwendet wird. Wir zeigen Ihnen solche Fälle und deren Lösungen. Und natürlich erklären wir Ihnen das neue Lizenzmodell.
Nehmen Sie an diesem Webinar teil, bei dem HCL-Ambassador Marc Thomas und Gastredner Franz Walder Ihnen diese neue Welt näherbringen. Es vermittelt Ihnen die Tools und das Know-how, um den Überblick zu bewahren. Sie werden in der Lage sein, Ihre Kosten durch eine optimierte Domino-Konfiguration zu reduzieren und auch in Zukunft gering zu halten.
Diese Themen werden behandelt
- Reduzierung der Lizenzkosten durch Auffinden und Beheben von Fehlkonfigurationen und überflüssigen Konten
- Wie funktionieren CCB- und CCX-Lizenzen wirklich?
- Verstehen des DLAU-Tools und wie man es am besten nutzt
- Tipps für häufige Problembereiche, wie z. B. Team-Postfächer, Funktions-/Testbenutzer usw.
- Praxisbeispiele und Best Practices zum sofortigen Umsetzen
Your One-Stop Shop for Python Success: Top 10 US Python Development Providersakankshawande
Simplify your search for a reliable Python development partner! This list presents the top 10 trusted US providers offering comprehensive Python development services, ensuring your project's success from conception to completion.
Main news related to the CCS TSI 2023 (2023/1695)Jakub Marek
An English 🇬🇧 translation of a presentation to the speech I gave about the main changes brought by CCS TSI 2023 at the biggest Czech conference on Communications and signalling systems on Railways, which was held in Clarion Hotel Olomouc from 7th to 9th November 2023 (konferenceszt.cz). Attended by around 500 participants and 200 on-line followers.
The original Czech 🇨🇿 version of the presentation can be found here: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/hlavni-novinky-souvisejici-s-ccs-tsi-2023-2023-1695/269688092 .
The videorecording (in Czech) from the presentation is available here: https://youtu.be/WzjJWm4IyPk?si=SImb06tuXGb30BEH .
Introduction of Cybersecurity with OSS at Code Europe 2024Hiroshi SHIBATA
I develop the Ruby programming language, RubyGems, and Bundler, which are package managers for Ruby. Today, I will introduce how to enhance the security of your application using open-source software (OSS) examples from Ruby and RubyGems.
The first topic is CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures). I have published CVEs many times. But what exactly is a CVE? I'll provide a basic understanding of CVEs and explain how to detect and handle vulnerabilities in OSS.
Next, let's discuss package managers. Package managers play a critical role in the OSS ecosystem. I'll explain how to manage library dependencies in your application.
I'll share insights into how the Ruby and RubyGems core team works to keep our ecosystem safe. By the end of this talk, you'll have a better understanding of how to safeguard your code.
070109 Virtual Worlds And The Enterprise Metanomics Transcript
1. METANOMICS:
THE FUTURE OF WORK: VIRTUAL WORLDS AND THE ENTERPRISE
JULY 1, 2009
Metanomics is a weekly broadcast on the serious uses of virtual worlds. Visit
http://metanomics.net. Metanomics is owned and operated by Remedy Communications.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Hi. I’m Robert Bloomfield, professor at Cornell University’s
Johnson Graduate School of Management. Each week I have the honor of hosting a
discussion with the most insightful and the most influential people who are taking Virtual
Worlds seriously. We talk with the developers who are creating these fascinating new
platforms, the executives, entrepreneurs, educators, artists, government officials who are
putting these platforms to use. We talk with the researchers who are watching the whole
process unfold. And we talk with the government officials and policymakers who are taking
a very close look on how what happens in the Virtual World can affect our Real World
society.
Now naturally, we hold our discussions about Virtual Worlds in Virtual Worlds. How else
could we find a very real place where a global community can convene, collaborate and
connect with one another. So our discussion is about to start. You can join us in any of our
live Virtual World studio audiences. You can join us live on the web. Welcome, because
this is Metanomics.
ANNOUNCER: Metanomics is filmed today in front of a live audience at our studios in
Second Life.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Hi, and welcome again to Metanomics. What would work be like
in 20 years? Our guests today Margaret Regan, of the FutureWork Institute, predicts that
the typical worker will be spending less than half of their time in the office and a lot of their
time communicating with colleagues and customers through wireless technologies. The
people we work with will be far more diverse than they are today, and the workplace will
have to adapt to new generations of very different attitudes and outlooks. What does all of
this mean for our jobs and for the Virtual World industry? Stay tuned to find out.
2. Thanks to all of you who are attending Metanomics today, including those viewing live on
the web. Join in with your comments and your questions.
ANNOUNCER: We are pleased to broadcast weekly to our event partners and to
welcome discussion. We use ChatBridge technology to allow viewers to comment during
the show. Metanomics is sponsored by the Johnson Graduate School of Management at
Cornell University and Immersive Workspaces. Welcome. This is Metanomics.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Before we talk with Ms. Regan, we are delighted to welcome
back Tony O’Driscoll, our Metanomics learning correspondent. Tony’s been very busy
lately as he finishes a new book with Karl Kapp and prepares for the second 3D Teaching,
Learning and Collaboration Conference in San Jose this fall. Let’s take a few minutes to
put Tony O’Driscoll In The Spotlight. Tony, welcome back to Metanomics.
TONY O’DRISCOLL: Good to see you again, Rob.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Great. I know that you just finished your book Learning in 3D:
Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration, which is going to
come out in January of 2010. For starters, what’s the one thing you want people to take
from this book?
TONY O’DRISCOLL: I think the most important thing that Karl and I realized, as we
looked at a lot of the cases over the last 18 months, is that this is not your grandfather’s
learning environment, Rob, and that the affordances of the 3D contexts provide many
more opportunities to enrich the learning experience than we’ve had in the past.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: So specific examples that you’d like to emphasize?
TONY O’DRISCOLL: I think, you know, it’s featured in our book and also was featured in
3D TLC, some of the stuff that Margaret will be talking about in terms of how the
affordances of a 3D virtual environment allow people to experience diversity and inclusion
issues in a much more visceral way is one really, really good example of how some of the
3. mechanisms and macrostructures, as we call them, of the 3D environment allow people to
have a richer experience in the environment than you could ever hope to have in a
classroom role-play setting for instance.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: You mentioned just then macrostructures, and I had a chance
to look at chapter four of your book, and you talk about these four macrostructures. You
say instructional designers should be sure they’re activating within a 3D learning
environment: agency, exploration, connectedness and experience. So could you maybe
just pick one of these, agency maybe; what exactly is that, and how do people take
advantage of that macrostructure in a 3D environment?
TONY O’DRISCOLL: Basically when we started to look at all the different attributes of the
technology and started to turn that into an instructional-design methodology, if you will, or
architecture, one of the things that makes this environment different is that each of us has
agency through an avatar, which means we have the ability to operate the avatar within
the environment and take action and have interaction. And, to a certain extent, in other
2D flatland collaborative applications, you don’t have that agency. You might be able to
rustle up in a modicon or something, but you don’t really have as much agency. So it all
begins, I think, the value proposition of 3D begins with agency, particularly when you’re
talking about immersive learning environments. There is some discussion, as you well
know, about what good is an avatar, and do you really need an avatar, that the
3D environment doesn’t necessarily need to leverage avatars. I think, for 3D learning
experiences, the notion of agency is absolutely critical.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Do you see avatar and agency as being very tightly linked?
TONY O’DRISCOLL: Yeah.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Can you have agency without the avatar?
TONY O’DRISCOLL: Oh, I think you could have agency without the avatar, particularly
interacting with, let’s say, 3D data, but I think if you’re looking for--this is where the others
fold into each other, Rob. If you’re looking to create an experience like some of the
diversity and inclusion experiences Margaret will no doubt be talking about today, the
4. avatar’s agency and also even appearance could play a role in the learning that’s driven
home through the activity. So yeah, in this case, I think how you position the avatar, what
kind of persona that avatar takes on and the activities they engage in can all be shaped
and configured, if you will, to drive home a pretty significant learning experience in the
virtual context.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Now you have talked about these macrostructures, but you also
have other ways that--you’ve organized the features that people are trying to take
advantage of in Virtual Worlds. You also talk about various sensibilities, for example.
Could you walk us through the larger model?
TONY O’DRISCOLL: Yeah. So within agency exploration connectedness and experience,
what we tried to do was tie it to two things. One is a set of what we call 3D learning
archetypes, which are if you want to think about them as reusable learning objects that
can be used over and over as instructional vehicles. So for instance, a treasure hunt or a
guided tour or a conceptual orienteering activity or a critical incident, those would fall into
experience. If we’re talking about the sensibilities, we talk about the sensibilities of the
technology itself. There’s a sense of self, which ties very closely to agency. That’s the
kinship you feel with your avatar.
There’s a sense of space and the pervasiveness of practice, which is tied to exploration.
There’s the enrichment of experience, which clearly links to the experience
macrostructure. And then, in terms of connectedness, there’s the power of presence,
which we feel right here right now and the depth of distance. Both of those are really
coming together in this Metanomics show today. And finally, this one is most germane, I
think, to Second Life with the capability to co-create artifacts or experiences.
So what we’ve tried to do with this chapter four, which is the one I sent you, Rob, is
essentially line up what are the eight design principles that you should be adhering to in
developing learning, how those overlay onto the four macrostructures of agency,
exploration, connectedness and experiences, what are the specific 3D learning archetypes
that you can employ and kind of snap together, to create a rich 3D learning experience
and what technical affordances or sensibilities are being leveraged from the perspective of
the platform that you’re using to make those 3D learning experiences come to life. That’s
essentially the crux of the matter, as it relates to this book.
5. ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: We had a question. Someone wanted a reminder on the title of
the book. It’s called Learning in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and
Collaboration. And, again, that will come out in January of 2010. So a very early book tour
for you, Tony.
TONY O’DRISCOLL: Yeah.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Thanks for talking with us about it. I’d like to move on and talk
about the 3D Teaching, Learning and Collaboration Conference in San Jose, which is in
late September. I was at the first 3D TLC Conference in Washington, D.C. in April, and I’m
wondering: What lessons did you take from that first conference? What will you be
keeping, and what will you be changing for this next one?
TONY O’DRISCOLL: As you well know, with the community that comes to 3D TLC,
there’s not much control that I have, apart from just trying to be the orchestrator of content.
They’re all going to Twitter, whether you want them to or not. They’re used to the back
channel in the Virtual World, and they’re going to demand it. But I have asked for kind of a
big screen so that people can all see the Twitters as they float by, because I’ve seen that
being used quite successfully in other conferences.
In terms of the content itself, we’re always looking for more content and great examples. If
you have them, either email them directly to me or submit them through the [chart?]. I can
tell you right now we’ve had twice as many submissions so far as we did for the first
3D TLC. And the first 3D TLC kind of had to take on a panel format to accommodate the
number of submissions we’ve had. So I’m also looking for ideas on how you can get more
content into a two-day format. What we did in the past, as you well know, Rob, is we had
panels with three people on them. And we’re trying to think of some other creative
approaches to get more content across.
The other thing I’m pushing for pretty hard is having a virtual component to the
Conference, above and beyond the Twitter screen, but maybe a more 3D virtual
component to the Conference. So those are the things I’m working on at the moment. And
any and all ideas are welcome from the community.
6. ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: And you’re still looking for speakers.
TONY O’DRISCOLL: Sure. If there are any ideas, concepts, case studies, it is going to be
very case-study focused. What did come out from 3D TLC, Rob, as I think you’re aware,
was, people liked to see the practical applications of the kind of things that Margaret and
others are doing to leverage this technology for business benefit. So that is going to be a
recurring theme.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Okay. Great. Well, I think that’s about all the time we have for
this opening segment, but, Tony O’Driscoll, thanks so much for joining us, telling us about
your book on learning in 3D and the upcoming Conference. Everyone can check. I believe
the website is just 3DTLC.com. Is that right?
TONY O’DRISCOLL: That’s right. And also there’s the folks at Virtual Worlds News have
broken out a 3D TLC blog as well because they’re getting a lot of news items that they
feel--they want to give it its own channel.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Great! Well, I’m always glad to see enterprise applications of
Virtual Worlds, to get some traction. So congratulations on having such a successful first
conference. They asked for an encore, and I fully expect to be there myself.
TONY O’DRISCOLL: Thanks, Rob.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Okay. Thanks for joining us on Metanomics, and I’m sure we’ll
see you again next season. Okay. Now it’s time for our main event. Our main guest today
is Margaret Regan, president and CEO of the FutureWork Institute. The FutureWork
Institute is a global virtual web of alliances that models and co-creates flexible, inclusive
workplaces. I am, of course, taking this from their official documents, and I am very much
looking forward to hearing what that actually means. I do know the Institute operates in
four continents: North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America, as a global incubator of
innovation and change. And it particularly focuses on addressing diversity, work-life
balance, the future of organizations and their employees. Margaret, welcome to
Metanomics.
7. MARGARET REGAN: Thank you very much, Rob. It’s a pleasure to be here.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: I guess just for starters, tell us a little more about the
FutureWork Institute. What exactly do you do?
MARGARET REGAN: Well, as you said, we are a global consulting firm. We’ve been in
existence for over 20 years, first as the global diversity practice of Towers Perrin. And, as
of seven years ago, we spun off about a hundred people around the world into the
FutureWork Institute. And what our tagline line says is that we translate future trends to
transform organizations. And because we operate on four continents and we work a lot
with large companies, what we do is prepare them for the workforce and the marketplace
of the next ten years. So for the last 20 years we have been studying the next ten years,
wherever we are. In 1990, it was 2000, then 2010, etcetera. And we have a particular
specialty coming from our roots in Towers Perrin, in diversity and inclusion and human
resource trends.
So this takes us very often into broad culture change issues because, if we’re going to
prepare for the workplace of the future, we have to make sure, with a much more diverse
workforce, that everyone there feels welcome or valued. And, of course, that takes us into
sensitive issues, issues of race and ethnicity and gender and sexual orientation, religion,
generational differences, people with disabilities. And all of the things that sometimes
make people feel like an “other” in an organization.
So when we work with our clients, we are actually engaging them in three different ways.
We’re looking for a mind shift. We’re looking for a heart shift. And we’re looking for a skill
shift. And the mind shift comes when they see the compelling business case we make for
the changing workforce in the marketplace. The heart shift comes when they hear the data
from our organizational assessments, when many of their employees are actually
speaking very emotionally of not feeling included because they happen to be different from
the majority. And the skill shift comes from our education and training around creating a
more inclusive workplace. So that’s what we do.
Who we are is a little bit different. Who we are is a virtual global consulting firm that
8. operates in three different ways. We have a principle called “My Job, My Way.” Another
one called “My Business Our Way.” And the third one called “My Perks Our Way.” So as
you can see, we are modeling what we think work will be like in the future, as we consult
the companies on how they can prepare for that future.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: You mentioned that you have a close relationship with
Towers Perrin, and I’m just wondering. They were in the news just this week. They’re
having some major organizational changes there: a merger with another firm. Do you see
that affecting FutureWork Institute?
MARGARET REGAN: Actually, it might have seven years ago, but right now they’ve
announced a merger with Watson Wyatt. Towers Perrin was an investor in FutureWork
when we spun off seven years ago, but, in these seven years, we’re really developed our
own reputation. We’re out on our own. We’ve paid back their investments, and so it really
won’t impact us, except that I was a partner there for 15 years so I definitely have very
close relationships with some of the other partners there, who will be very much impacted
by it. So on a personal level, yes. On a business level, we really have been operating on
our own for the last seven years. So on a business level, it won’t, but on a personal level,
we’re certainly concerned to see them succeed in this new merged company.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: And let’s move on to some of the things that you’ve been writing
lately. In particular, you wrote an article for Money Magazine’s thirty-fifth anniversary issue
on the future of work. The headline, which no doubt an editor wrote rather than you
personally, but it was “Goodbye Wired Desks, Hello Wearable Wireless Networks.” And
then you say in the article by the year 2042, quote, “There will be no workplace as we
know it.” What forces do you see driving us that way, other than just the fact that wireless
technology exists and presumable will get better?
MARGARET REGAN: Well, I know when I give a lot of presentations on the future of
work, it frightens people a bit. If they like change, they love it. If they don’t like change,
they basically say, “When can I retire?” So I generally start talking about maybe in the next
five years, before I go to 2042, and what we’re really seeing is that people will work, first,
about 40 percent of their time in the office, 40 percent of the time at home, and then
20 percent in what we call the third place, which could be Starbucks, the local park, an
internet café, anyplace where they can get a wireless connection. But we will be
9. connected all the time, and that will blur the work and life boundaries even more than
they’re blurred today.
The virtual reality experiences that we’re going to talk about today will be integrated into
this real life so people will attend meetings, participate in business-learning simulations.
They’ll travel to distant places, and they’ll create their digital clones or avatars, but they
won’t be necessarily physically going anyplace.
When I was talking about 2042, as they asked me to do for that particular article, and I
said we’ll go from wired desk to wireless personal wearable networks so we’ll
communicate from everywhere, and it will really have little meaning to demand that
someone comes to work. This is the face time that we hear about in so many of the focus
groups that we do today. So we will have left behind the role-based, the rote application of
the job description, and work will feel more like a Hollywood movie.
And, if you think about it, managers, directors and team members come together around a
specific project. They collaborate intensely, and then they disband. That’s the Hollywood
movie production schedule, and that’s what we’ll see. And we’ll have smart machines
that’ll do everything that can be programmed into them. And there will be jobs that exist
that will demand problem-solving, managing teams, they’ll probably go global virtual
teams, and creating new ways to make life easier. We’ll see a lot more outsourcing and
home-choring, which is doing it within the home. And you’ll see people outsourcing part of
their personal life to concierge-type assistance in India. MyManInIndia is one of them. And
people in other countries will be glad to perform personal tasks for you while you sleep.
So work will look very, very different, and there will be few people coming into the office
with their manager insisting that they make sure they’re there at 5:00. And we will also
have a new generation taking the power as the baby boomers rewire themselves, who will
understand that work is really about results and not about physical presence. Right now
that is a very tough concept to get across to most people in power. It won’t be so tough 20
years from now.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: As you talk about this, I see lots of challenges both to
businesses and to the employees. I’d like to start with a couple issues facing employees in
10. the future of work. And the first one is, I hope you don’t mind my pointing out that I got an
email from you about this Metanomics event at about 3:30 in the morning. And so as we
go global, do we get to sleep?
MARGARET REGAN: Yes. I think one of the things I’ve been studying a lot, although
people who know me don’t quite believe it, is the importance of sleep as we live in this
world where we have an umbilical cord of the electronic tether all the time. And you got an
email from me at 3:30 in the morning because, when you run a global firm, many of your
clients are up, and that’s the beginning of their workday. Now the question do I get some
sleep, I actually do. If I go to bed at 3:00, I do not get up at 6:00, and everybody who
knows me knows that. So I do arrange my life so that I get at least six, seven or
sometimes even eight hours of sleep a night.
And I think that’s very important because what the studies are saying about our
always-connected life is that people are taking the time from one or another end of the
day. They are either staying up later to get their work done or getting up early in the
morning, and they’re cutting back on the sleep that they need. So when you look at the
younger generation, the Millennial, the Gen Y, the studies on this generation say they are
the most overtired generation that we have, and they are sleepy at work at least two days
a week because of the time and the multitasking that they’re used to doing with texting,
watching television at the same time they’re working. So it is a very big concern in this
always-on world, that people’s health will suffer from the lack of sleep.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Okay. And now a related question actually comes from an
audience member Devon Alderton, who asks, “Won’t there be multiple revenue streams,
less of the traditional full time employment that most people have now?” As we go virtual,
as you talk about this sort of film production model where people come together on a
project and disband, that sounds like a very stressful life. We’re all going to be seeking
very short-term jobs without the job security and the benefits that we know and love, those
of us who are employed in this economy. So how do you see that playing out?
MARGARET REGAN: We actually do a lot of focus groups around the world on this issue
of job security, long-term jobs, etcetera, and we do see that we’ll be moving from these
long-term relationships to more situational employment relationships. And people will build
portfolio careers with multiple employers. Now if we talk to the different generations at
11. work, every time I speak to a large audience in a company, I say, “How many of you been
here 10, 20, 30 years?” And the hands are still going up at 30 and 35 years. And then I
ask the question, “What about the newest generation coming in? How many of them do
you think will be here for 20 years?” And the audience shouts out, “Probably none.” Which
is a very big concern to the companies that we work with, who are used to these long-term
careers. And, if you look at the statistics just in the United States, the baby boomers
tended to stay on a job an average of 8.9 years. The Generation Xers, 2.8 years. And the
Millennials or the Gen Y, which is the youngest generation at work, 1.8 years.
So for a younger generation who are going to have ten careers in their lifetime and maybe
six or seven of them don’t even exist yet, the idea of staying at one company for 20 years
doesn’t make much sense. And there is another social dynamic that plays out here. When
we talk to the Gen Y’s in their focus groups, they will say, “Our parents stayed with a
company for 20 years for job security. They got laid off. The psychological contract was
broken. We don’t think it’s a good idea to put all of our eggs in one basket, as the saying
goes, for one company. And we think it’s better to build our portfolio skills by concentrating
on “me incorporated” so that I can have, as I move from employer to employer or go into
my own business, which a lot of people aspire to, I am building these portfolio skills, and I
am not doing the same job over and over again for ten or fifteen years.” So there will be a
different definition of job security. There will be a different definition of what loyalty means.
And I know it’s hard for a lot of people who’ve grown up in the traditional work world to
see, but when we talk to the younger generation, even in large companies, they really do
not see themselves as dedicated completely to their company. They are committed to the
work. They’re energized. They’re excited about it, but they do not see themselves there 15
or 20 years. Now I’m speaking in generalities. I do not mean everyone. I do mean what the
research is saying about how differently people look at loyalty, job security, etcetera, and
it’s even in this recession we’re finding that the Gen Y’s will stay longer, but they’re still
looking around for something that helps them balance their work and life more. And when
you see the switch, the research says that the boomers were more work-focused and work
came first. The Gen Xers are more in between work and life as important. And the Gen Y’s
are definitely more life-focused as the primary focus. So the switch in how you look at work
is going to bring a big switch into how we do our work.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Let me turn to the challenges facing the businesses, and
12. another audience member MrsAishaLaDon Xenno gets at this by talking about why face
time is important, and she says, “They want to watch you and micromanage. So if I’m
leading a global virtual team, the type that you describe, where people are not coming into
the office, how do I maintain control and make sure that what’s happening is what I want to
happen?”
MARGARET REGAN: This issue of face time is a very big generational debate we have
all the time. We have baby boomer managers who do walk around the office at night, to
see who is there. And when we run what we call generational debates in live debates, the
younger generation says to them, “Why do you care where I am? I actually can get this
work done better if I’m at home. Maybe if I put my child to bed and then do it for a couple
of hours after. All you should care about is that you have the resulting deliverable at 9:00
the next morning when you need it.” And the future will have to have managers that
manage by results and who do not believe that presence equals performance.
It is one of the biggest issues we have when we work with executive teams on this issue of
work-life flexibility, my job my way, DeLoitte calls it “mass career customization,” where I
kind of design my career and how I relate to work very differently from the person next to
me. But you will see more of that because, if you see what’s happening in the four
generations, the baby boomers are rewiring themselves. They’re not necessarily retiring,
but they don’t want to work the way they did and just live to work. The Gen Xers are
absolutely going through the work-life frustrations as they try to get flexibility, and they
have to model their life on their baby boomer managers.
And the Gen Y’s are coming in and saying, “If you don’t give me flexibility, I’ll just go
someplace else.” So we have three or four different generations asking for a new way to
work, and the paradigm that’s shifted is that the workforce has changed dramatically over
the last ten to fifteen years, but the workplace in many of our large organizations has not,
and it will have to shift as we look at the future.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Well, thank you. The first item on my agenda was just to look at
the future of work and hear your ideas, and those are fascinating ideas. I guess I’m almost
a baby boomer. I’m just, I think, a hair young, but certainly there’s some things in there
that excite me, some things that make me a little nervous, but I think we’re all going to look
forward to the next five, ten years.
13. Let’s then move on to what appears to be a central part of what the FutureWork Institute is
doing today to help companies deal with the challenges of today, and a lot of that, as you
mentioned, focuses on diversity issues. And a good deal of that addresses something you
call micro-inequities. What are those?
MARGARET REGAN: Yes. Micro-inequities is a word that’s really come into the diversity
and inclusion vocabulary probably in the last four or five years, and the two most popular
topics globally when we do training around diversity inclusion are how to manage across
four generations at work. And then how to deal with the micro-inequities that happen every
day to people. Micro-inequity is what it sounds like: little inequities. They’re the everyday
acts of exclusion, of devaluation and discouragement that are very often unconscious
when people do it. They’re subtle slights that really sap people’s energy. They can be a
gesture, a tone or snub, but what they do is, they de-motivate employees, and they erode
trust. And they also really impair productivity and performance.
If you’re looking for innovation, they kill innovation. They disconnect team members, and
they absolutely sabotage diversity efforts. We just recently did a global survey on what are
the micro-inequities that impact people in different parts of the world. One of the biggest
ones right now is when you are telling somebody something that you’re very emotional
about and it’s really important to you, and they take out their Blackberry, their PDA or
something, and they’re checking their messages while you’re telling them something
because they’re multitasking. And what people say is, “It’s really devaluing my time and
me when I’m not important enough in what I’m saying for you to just look at me and have a
conversation.”
The other one we hear a lot that goes on at meetings is where somebody offers an idea,
the manager dismisses the first idea pitched and says, “Great. Thanks. Now who wants to
get the ball rolling?” Or many women say they put an idea forward; it doesn’t seem to be
heard. Five minutes later, very often a man puts it forward, and the manager will say,
“Great idea. Let’s go with that.” And the woman will say, “Am I invisible? Didn’t anyone
hear me?” The message is, “Why should I take your idea seriously?” So it’s not a big thing,
but, when that happens over and over, it grinds exceedingly small, and it’s very wearing on
people.
Another one we see a lot is that he counts. You don’t count introduction. So two people
will be being introduced, and you’ll say, “This is Jane who graduated from Penn State. She
14. runs all our terrific marketing campaigns,” etcetera, etcetera. “And this is Fred. He’s from
Bridgeport. Shake his hand.” So you go on and one about one person, and then the other
person gets a very kind of short, to the point, not very excited introduction. They’re very
little things, but when they happen over and over and when I am a person of color,
suppose I’m a Black person and you’re constantly coming up to me and saying, “You’re so
articulate. You’re so articulate,” that’s nice, but the rest of that sentence can be, “You’re so
articulate for a Black person.” And so for someone who is a young Black man, who has
always been articulate, who comes into a workplace, and he’s told that over and over, and
he notices that other people aren’t told that, it begins to be wearing. Or you look at a
Chinese person [CROSSTALK]
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Could I ask?
MARGARET REGAN: Go ahead.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Actually another audience member Bevan Whitfield is saying
there’s never an excuse for rudeness. And one of the things I’m wondering is, a lot of the
things you’re describing are, frankly, just plain rude and could happen to, you know,
anyone could say them to anyone. But then there’s the other layer to it, which is that
people would be systematically rude in these little ways to people of certain races or to
women or whatever. Do you see the bigger issue being, you know, dealing with the
diversity aspect of it? I probably do rude things by pulling out my Blackberry to everyone.
Are you focusing on both of those or more the diversity aspects?
MARGARET REGAN: Yes. We actually start by focusing on the overall micro-inequities I
was talking about. And the Blackberry is a big one. And, by the way, everyone doesn’t
agree that it’s rude. We have big debates on this. We have some cultures where
everybody does it so it’s okay. Other cultures where it’s not okay. And we have CEOs
telling people--we had one CEO who sends around an envelope, and you have to put your
Blackberry in there so you won’t do it. Somebody else has been putting a dollar every time
they take it out because there are cultures who feel it’s rude. There are cultures who feel it
is just the way we do business. But it does happen. I just saw somebody say people with
disabilities it happens all the time.
15. I was running around the world a few years ago. I hurt my leg, was in a wheelchair for
about six weeks. It was just amazing the way people talked to me. I went to give a speech
at a large hotel in Florida, for a big client, and they actually paid for my husband to wheel
me in because I couldn’t walk. I had really, really hurt my knee. And, as I got the door, the
bellman started to shout at me, “For people like you, we have this,” and he was shouting.
And so my husband said, “She is neither deaf nor is she mentally incapacity in any way.
Why do you insist on shouting?” And he kept doing that. And during those whole six
weeks, when I was quote “a person with a disability,” I can’t tell you how many micro-
inequities that I felt that made me very, very uncomfortable, and I realized I really wasn’t
good at this. So people with disabilities, as one of your participants said have it happen to
them all the time. But they do very much impact people.
If you look at levels of engagement connected to micro-inequities, and you look at even
global studies of people who are fully engaged, mildly engaged or disengaged at work,
you will see the people with the highest percentage of disengagement will say they are the
subjects of constant incivilities on micro-inequities. And, by the way, we don’t talk about
them because it’s not sexism, racism. It’s not any of the isms. It’s the more subtle things
because we’ve gotten more sophisticated about our isms. So it’s the more subtle things
that we do that really impact how people feel every day about coming in to work.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: This leads very naturally into the next topic I want to discuss,
which is: How do you, at FutureWork Institute, help firms deal with this? And we really
haven’t talked about Virtual Worlds at all. What role do Virtual Worlds play in that?
MARGARET REGAN: Okay. I’ll start by saying how we basically help companies and
then talk about the role of Virtual Worlds. As I said, we deal with the mind shift, the heart
shift and the skill shift. And, in the mind shift, we do a tremendous amount of research
globally on what these trends are, depending on the industry we’re working in, the country
we’re working in, so we have these multimedia presentations we do, to really wake
executives up, who are mostly baby boomers, about how quickly these changes are
coming.
For example, last week, in the middle of one of my speeches, I said, “Just look at this
week.” What happened in Iran got all over the world with Twitter. Michael Jackson’s death
meant that so many people went to where they get their news first, which was to Google,
16. that Google thought it was a virus and shut down. When you see how quickly this is
coming upon us, you need to really look at the whole landscape of the workplace and the
marketplace and realize that you need to change. And so we do a lot of mind-shifting that
way. We do scenario planning for the future, where people look at the trends that will
impact the future and what it means for their business.
When we get to the emotions of the heart, we do a lot of organizational assessments. We
have people of all the different groups, affinity groups, African Americans, Asians, people
with disabilities, gays, lesbians, whatever group is in the workforce, who tell us what they
feel like being in this company and what the climate for diversity inclusion is. We do
surveys so we have the quantitative part. And then we interview executives. We put all the
data together really to move people to say, “This is our house, and people don’t feel
included here.”
And then we have to take them to the skill shift, if you think about head, heart and hands,
we have to take them to, “So what do you do? How do you deal with the micro-inequities?”
We do a lot of coaching, lots of mentoring programs, putting together diversity councils,
employer resource groups. We help people measure the progress and measure the
climate for inclusion.
And, in all of that, when you ask about the role of Virtual Worlds and what led us there, it
was really about four different things coming together at the same time. First of all, we are
the FutureWork Institute so our clients always expect us to be ten years ahead and to lead
them into the future of training and learning and collaboration. Then the economy hit, and
many of our clients had to cancel large meetings or anything that required travel, any kind
of travel and lodging because those costs just went--nobody was allowed to move. Put on
top of that the desire to be green, and then the diversity component of that is that much of
our diversity work that deals around an emotional reaction to being an “other,” if you want
to get to the heart part of it, requires people to walk in the shoes of someone who is very
different from them. And that’s hard to do.
We do exercises in our real training where you get a card, and, for that evening, you have
to think you’re that person, and come back the next day and discuss how your life would
have changed at home, how your manager would have acted differently, how your
colleagues would have acted differently. So we do that in live training. But when we came
17. to the Virtual World, we found a way to do diversity simulations that would allow people to
enter into that world by having an avatar of a different race, gender, generation, etcetera,
and going around the world and talking to people as that person. So those are the things
that led us into the Virtual World, and we have been, for about the last three years,
working on three different platforms in the Virtual World with our clients. So that’s really
what brought us into the use of the Virtual Worlds, as a way to get people to understand
some of the diversity issues that we talk about, in a very different way.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: I understand you personally don a number of different avatars
of different races, genders, outfits and all that, and so you’ve experienced this very
personally.
MARGARET REGAN: Yes, I certainly do. It’s part of the research that we have been
doing about how you are received in this large world, if you just take Second Life, if you
appear as a different kind of avatar from what you are. And I’m not talking about furries
now or other types of avatars that I know are prevalent in Second Life. I’m talking about
someone from a different race or gender. So when I first appear, if I’m appearing at a
client meeting, I look like I do now in a business outfit. But, if I’m just Futura Cosmos, I
actually have an outfit that has the FutureWork template, my logo, on it, and I kind of fly
around the world that way. But I’m still a white woman.
If I want to really experience something different, I then turn into a number of different
people. I morph into an African American Gen Xer in a business suit, and I get a very
different reaction when I go around to talk to people in the World of Second Life. Then
sometimes I go right into being an African woman in native dress, and I get a completely
different reaction. Or, I might be a younger African American millennial, and I get a
different reaction. I have avatars; I morph into an Argentinean Gen Xer, which I’m just
doing the generations. The hardest one for me to do and even create in Second Life was a
Black woman who was older. As you know it’s very hard to kind of look older in Second
Life.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Yes.
MARGARET REGAN: So I actually had to have someone make this one for me, even to
18. have the hair that might be more typical. So I do have another avatar, and when I go out
as an older Black woman, I have some very interesting conversations. I have a group of
Gen Xers. I have Puerto Rican Xer and Italian Gen Xer, an Irish Gen Xer. I’m a French
baby boomer. I’m a Swedish Gen Xer, Brazilian. I have another one that’s a Chinese older
baby boomer that gets a very different reaction from my young Japanese millennial one.
The Middle Eastern boomer that I have is a person who wears long garb and is quite
different looking from many Second Life avatars, and she has very interesting
conversations. And then I end up with a Latina boomer. The most unusual one I have is a
Maori Tribe millennial, a Malaysian and then an Indian Xer. All of these are personas of
Futura Cosmos.
The experience I have is completely different when I am those people. Last week--go
ahead.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Well I was going to say, this brings up a question that
Valiant Westland posed earlier. All these people are coming in--and we’re doing business
virtually, and presumably Virtual Worlds won’t be just for diversity training, but people will
actually be collaborating in them. And this is Valiant’s question: Do you see the rise of
Virtual Worlds breaking down the micro-inequity barriers that you’re talking about by
potentially eliminating subconscious judgments made about age, sex, etcetera? Or will
they just have their own micro-inequities as Metaverse engineers suggests?
MARGARET REGAN: Yes, I think it’s both. I definitely see and when I talk to people and
people come up to me when I speak to large audiences, they will tell me, people with
disabilities especially will tell me that, in the Virtual Worlds, especially in Second Life, they
can fly, run, walk. They can run businesses, etcetera. And they can meet lots of other
people. If you look at the people who are agoraphobics and can’t go outside the house,
they can practice doing that. So you have many people who can lose some kind of a
disability behind an avatar. You also have very interesting reactions.
I had an older Black man who came up and told me that he experienced so much
prejudice in his life that his son does not experience because his son operates globally
with lots of friends behind an avatar, and he’s very knowledgeable about technology. So
he teaches people much older than him, who are White and very traditional, that would
never have listened to his father at the same age. So he said to me, “I do see the positive
19. part of it.” So that’s one thing.
On the other hand, then there are other micro-inequities that come about, about how you
should look in these Virtual Worlds. At the conference that Tony did, one of professors
talked about sending out some students dressed in these outfits that looked like Kool-Aid
bottles. And she sent three of them into one of the clubs in Second Life, to see how long
they would last, looking like that. And they came back, as she explained it, actually
emotionally changed by the experience because they were rejected by people in that club,
saying, “You’re not like us. What are you doing here?” And she thought it would take them
15 minutes to come back, and they came back in five minutes, feeling really terrible about
being an “other.” So it’s another kind of rejection by how you decide to present yourself
and whether or not other people will accept you as a furry or a dragon or, you know, a
Kool-Aid person. So I think it goes both ways. In some ways, it’s very helpful. In other
ways, other micro-inequities will come about in that World.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Okay. Fascinating stuff. There are so many questions from the
audience chat, but we’re running out of time, and I wanted to move on to a last topic that is
your three-step approach to introducing people to Virtual Worlds. That you first bring them
into Unisfair and then into ProtoSphere and then into Second Life. We don’t have a whole
lot of time, but if you could just quickly sort of walk us through what you do and why you do
it.
MARGARET REGAN: Yes, I’d be happy to. This was great learning for me because our
audience are corporate executives who buy our services. But the learners are corporate
managers, many of whom are baby boomers, and I refer to them as digital immigrants, as
opposed to the digital natives who are coming in from the younger generation. And so
what we have to do is, we have to meet them where they are and move them to the next
stage. So if I take our clients and the client example and start with the first stage of
Unisfair. This was our client Sodexho, a very large client who usually has a diversity
summit every year in Paris. They fly executives in, etcetera. It’s a wonderful event.
This year, as most of my clients did, they had to cancel because of the cost of bringing all
those people together, but they said to me, “This is such an important event for us. We
have to find another way to do it.” So we introduced them, not to Second Life, by the way;
they asked us, “Can we all meet in Second Life?” They wanted to bring a thousand people
20. in, who had never been there before, for this meeting. And, because I know all these
different Worlds, I said, “Not yet. You’re not ready for that. You’re just graduating from
WebEx. And, if you want to go the next step from WebEx, go to another platform.” So we
used Unisfair. And Unisfair, different from the other Worlds, is web-based. They think that
they have avatars. And when you look at the visual of Unisfair, there are actually no
avatars there, but all my clients think they’re avatars. They’re actually shadow people, but
they really think they’re avatars. And that’s fine because it at least feels like a Virtual
World.
There you do an approach that’s called video/audio SimuLive so you can record part of it,
and then you go live, talking to thousands of participants, and you hope the technology
works and luckily it did for us. The good part of that is, you can do a whole event, as we
did. We did a global inclusion summit, with people from four or five different continents.
We had close to a thousand people there in one day. And it’s now up on demand for
fifteen hundred people a day can come in and have that same experience so it makes it
very cost-effective.
What they experience when they go in is, they come into the main hall. I appear. I actually
just kind of come out of nowhere, and I appear, not as an avatar, but as myself walking on
the path of this Virtual World. I welcome them, and then I disintegrate. I disappear. They
go into the conference center. They hear their executive’s speech. We have panels from
all over the world. They go into exhibit halls. We had interactive theater, which we
recorded beforehand. They all go into a networking lounge, and then they can collect
documents for the resource center. That’s what we called stage one.
We had a very successful event, and it was Sodexho, and it was Microsoft people who
came in. We had a great learning from that event, which was--we had all kinds of topics
set up in the networking lounge so people could talk about all these diversity topics. All
anyone wanted to do was stand in the lounge, find their friends, talk in many different
languages about what a cool thing this was, how they could use it, wasn’t this great and
basically just do a lot of social networking.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: I’m just paying attention to the time and hoping we can hear just
a little bit about stage two in ProtoSphere.
21. MARGARET REGAN: ProtoSphere is our second level. It is designed for an enterprise.
It’s secure. You do have avatars. They’re much easier to manipulate. It has [voice chat
and text?] chat. You can share applications. We have a generational training simulation in
there. And there people can have their own spaces to collaborate, to work. There’s a
Wikipedia. We have a client who’s using this to bring in all their [MBAs?] from different
parts of the world and to onboard them into the company. And that is very successful, and
that is what we suggest if people do not want an open World like Second Life, but they
want their own secure World.
The third stage, we did this for Cisco who wanted to use Second Life to bring all of the
women together from all of the women’s networks. And that’s where we have FutureWork
Island, which has the amphitheatre, a lot of simulations on diversity aspects, a World Café.
You can go on a [Paradigm Blanket?] and work in different parts of the World. There’s a
building on the Future workforce and workplace. And you can also come in there and
choose one of the 16 to 20 avatars we have alive on FutureWork island and go through
the simulations, without having to go through a lot of the “Come on to orientation island,
build your avatar,” which frustrates a lot of our clients. So we go from there [CROSSTALK]
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: And, of course, the people have the experience first with
Unisfair and then with ProtoSphere.
MARGARET REGAN: Yeah. So some of them are ready for--
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Gentle introduction.
MARGARET REGAN: Right. To be ready for Second Life, you have to be a company
[AUDIO GLITCH] where you’re already meeting people [in there?] so it’s not so strange.
It’s very hard to take a company like Sodexho, which is more traditional, and move them to
the third stage. So they were very happy with stage one. They’ve done recruiting in
Second Life, but for a meeting of a thousand people, there was no way to get through the
firewall, the learning curve, etcetera.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Well, fascinating views today on the future of work, on the
nature of diversity and micro-inequities, the role of Virtual Worlds in training companies
and changing hearts and minds and skills in the business world, not in politics. So thank
22. you, Margaret Regan, for joining us today on Metanomics. It was really fascinating stuff,
and I hope we’ll be able to get you back.
MARGARET REGAN: Thank you. I enjoyed it.
ROBERT BLOOMFIELD: Now it’s time for our regular closing comment, Connecting The
Dots. Earlier this week, former Metanomics producer, Lynn Cullens, passed me some very
welcome news about Peggy Sheehy. Peggy is a library media specialist and instructional
technology facilitator at Suffern Middle School in New York State. And, as viewers of
Metanomics know, because she’s been on twice, she’s been working tirelessly to bring
students and teachers into Second Life. So what’s the news? This week, Peggy Sheehy
won the Making It Happen Award, which is issued by the ISTE, the International Society
for Technology in Education, and was conferred during their big convention just this week.
The name of the award is a pun, by the way, because Making It Happen can also be read
as Making I-T Happen, and that is exactly what Peggy has done, by bringing what by now
must be more than a thousand students into Second Life.
From the ISTE website, I read, quote, “Making It Happen is an internationally recognized
awards program for educators in the field of educational technology integration in K-to-12
schools. The program identifies and rewards educational technology leaders around the
world for their commitment and innovation. Commitment and innovation indeed. This is a
real honor for Peggy, and it’s a success not just for Peggy, but for thousands of educators
who are active in Second Life and see Virtual Worlds as an important part of the future of
education. As John Lester, Pathfinder Linden, said on Metanomics last summer, the
educators in Second Life are an unusually innovative and collaborative group, and
businesses have a lot to learn from their successes.
One thing we can learn, and this is my point today, is that we need to change the way we
talk about the current technological state of Virtual Worlds, just like some people, because
of their jobs, have to change the way they talk about the weather. Now everyone’s
probably heard the old saw that everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does
anything about it. Well we, who are active in Second Life and other Virtual Worlds, are
constantly talking about the platforms that feel like our homes or our classrooms. And we
talk about them like people so often do about the weather.
23. We make small talk about firewalls and crashes, the problems with search, and we debate
whether clunky interfaces are a bigger problem than high bandwidth demands. Just like
we would complain about rain or snow and debate whether it’s the heat or the humidity
that makes us feel so uncomfortable. There’s some entertainment value in that, but it’s not
all that productive. But when we are trying to, as Peggy’s award says, when we’re trying to
make it happen, we need to sound more like airline pilots and air traffic controllers. These
people talk about the weather, not because they’re going to change it and not for small
talk, but because they have to live with it and work around it. So we need to make sure
everyone knows which squalls are on the horizon, which storm clouds will pass first so that
we can plot our trajectories and use the right de-icing tools.
What Peggy has shown us is that, come hail or sleet or freezing computers, we can work
with the inclement weather that Virtual Worlds are continually handing us, and, as the
award says, make it happen.
Linden Lab says they’re going to remake their interface and make many, many other
changes, and I fully expect they will. And other Worlds will come forward with their
solutions too. The clouds will disperse, but right now we need to keep on our raincoats,
keep close tabs on the weather patterns and keep up the hard work because, when our
fair-weather friends and colleagues come into a Metaverse of sunny skies and stable,
approachable Virtual Worlds, we will need to have already figured out what these Worlds
are good for, what exactly is that “it” that we want to make happen and how we can do it in
a way that achieves our goals as educators, businesspeople, civil servants, political
activists. That isn’t easy to do, and I’m happy to see that people, like Peggy Sheehy, who
are doing it so well, are getting the recognition that they deserve.
Speaking of recognition, I would like to close by noting that this will be our last show for
the spring 2009 season. We’ll probably have a special event in late July, to explore some
new developments in the industry and then start up again in late August or early
September. For right now, at the close of the season, I’d like to give a number of people
the recognition that they deserve for making Metanomics happen throughout our spring
season. Obviously, special thanks to our friends at TreetTV for filming and broadcasting;
Remedy Communications for producing and promoting the show, particularly Joel Foner
and Dusan Writer.
24. Thanks especially to the long list of people who don their bad-weather gear every week
and work in the blustering winds of live machinima. So in no particular order, thanks to our
avateer, JenzZa Misfit, who makes us look so real; to Gentle Heron, for voice to text
translation; Transcriptionist Writer for complete text transcriptions; Jennette Forager, for
overseeing our volunteers. And, of course, our many volunteers--I hope this is a largely
complete list: Alleara Snoodle, Beryl Greenacre, Dev Alderton, Evansmom Goodspeed,
Farqot Gustafson, Ozzie Wozniak, Gwyneth Writer, Jane2 McMahon, Lyna Lagios(?),
Nanny KO(?), Tammy Nowotny.
And then, of course, we have our event partners: JenzZa Misfit, at Muse Isle; Cindy Ecksol
and Rose Springvale, of the Confederation of Democratic Simulators; Bevan Whitfield, at
Rockliffe; Hydra Shaftoe, at Orange Island; Stella Costello and Larry Pixel, at NMC
Outreach. And finally, special thanks to Bevan Whitfield for tirelessly promoting
Metanomics, along with many other fascinating events of interest to our Metanomics
community, events run by Nokia, Rockliffe University and any number of other venues and
organizations.
I apologize for anyone I left out. Metanomics is one: it really does take a village, and I just
don’t have that good a memory. So if I left you off, thank you. Thanks, of course, to our
audience and community who join us every week. This is Robert Bloomfield signing off.
Take care. And, I hope to see you at the Second Life Community Convention in
San Francisco. Bye bye.
Transcribed by: http://www.hiredhand.com
Second Life Avatar: Transcriptionist Writer