• Actualités de la République Démocratique du Congo in the best Weblog category
• Diário de um Sociólogo from Mozambique in best Portuguese blog

Recently, when Joshua S. Fouts (a.k.a Schmilsson Nilsson in Second Life) who directs the USC Center for Public Diplomacy was interviewed by John Jainschigg for Grid Talk on Second Life, much of the latter part of the talk was spent discussing issues of digital divides with the audience.

Schmilsson noted that among other infrastructure challenges in Africa, “40 countries on the African continent do not have reliable Internet access. Thus, they are not a part of our conversations here. This is a major problem.” The conversation that followed covered a number of the hotly debated issues around the role of technology in situations where food, water, clothing and medicine are pressing needs.

This is an ongoing debate at Uthango’s Virtual Africa project (for more about this see Africa’s Second Life, Our Virtual Reality). Uthango are also coming up with creative ways to connect global virtual communities. They are currently organizing a BLOG CARNIVAL. The Grid Talk discussion on Public Diplomacy indicated there is much interest from Second Life residents in the topic of Infrastructure development in Africa. The blog carnival is an opportunity to connect this conversation to the wider online community and African bloggers in particular. Alanagh Recreant of Uthango explained:

We believe that Africans offer a unique perspective on global issues and all stops should be pulled out to increase their authentic presence in virtual worlds.

The BLOG CARNIVAL topic is: “Infrastructure as an Enterprise Enabler in Africa.” The carnival is managed by the acclaimed blogger Benin Mwangi (currently with African Path and respected writer for Global Voices Online, Africa Ready For Business).

It is really simple to participate by using the little form provided here:

http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_1680.html

Do you have any article or would like to say anything about INFRASTRUCTURE development in Africa? (This could include IT infrastructure or property or any other kind…)

Choose a blog article to share, and note its Permalink URL.
Fill in the other fields (hint: copy and paste!), and hit Submit .

Uthango’s Virtual Bike-a-thon

Uthango Social Investments is blazing the trail for African participation in immersive virtual worlds like Second Life while continuing to work at all levels of community development, on-line and off-line. Part of the registered not-for-profit company’s work include asset-based community development to identify gaps and find resources for adequate infrastructure, such as small business ‘incubators’ and shared community ICT facilities.

Another related ongoing project from Uthango in Second life is the [e]bizikile fundraising drive for a specific Opportunity Center in a Cape Town community for unemployed job seekers. Uthango’s Directors speak about transference from SL to RL and vice versa. They point out the [e]bizikile project could be an example of their attempts to do just that! Real life bicycles are also for sale as part of the project and will be donated to an African family in rural Africa.

“In many parts of Africa, bicycles (and mobile phones) are the appropriate technology to drive the local economy,” says Enakai Ultsch of Uthango.

Second Life residents can purchase virtual African bicycles designed by Shukran Fahid of !BooPeRFunK! for L$250 and next year, participate in a grid-wide virtual bike-a-thon (for more Ambling in Second Life). I picked up my bike at the November 15th launch party.

Second Life will be “bigger than the web” and we’re “moving away from being a lab and into an operating system.” These bold statements by Philip Rosedale, in his keynote address at SLCC, inspired my questions in the interview Philip very graciously gave for Ugotrade that morning. Philip is wearing the “Missing Image” T-shirt, created by Millions of Us, that he opened his jacket to reveal during his speech.

The interview is divided in two parts. Part one looks at the possibilities for Second Life in Africa. Part two looks at how Linden Lab “can stop being a lab.”

You can read a full transcript of Philip’s keynote here.

Philip was very present at SLCC. He visited panels, discussed, debated, and answered pressing questions from residents and the press about all aspects of Second life. A stream of admirers seemed to follow him wherever he went asking for autographs, and for pictures of themselves standing next to the man who founded the virtual world that has come to mean so much to them.

But, these quotes, “bigger than the web,” and going from “a lab into an operating system,” certainly got the conversation going.

This is bigger than the Web. That’s a bold statement. How can I defend the statement that what we’re all working on is going to be bigger than the Web.

The essence of Philip’s argument, it seemed to me, hinged around two points. One, that Second Life allows a new form of global communication between cultures that is not limited, like the old Web to predominantly hyper-linked text that you need to be very literate to read and that you visit alone without any way of sharing your experience with others there at the same time.
For example:

[In Second Life] you get to explore it [Tokyo] using a geography and topology that you grew up with. Anyone on the Web, no matter how illiterate, understands it. Want to know more? Walk forward. And the best part, that you don’t see in this picture [screen of Tokyo on Second Life], is there will be other people there.

And secondly, the opportunity Second Life gives people to join a global virtual economy free of “fees and tariffs and taxes.”

I really believe the one thread that I see a lot of lately is that the rapid growth outside the US is confirming a lot of things. The fact that SL is so flat and globalizing is going to be a huge change agent. Globalization involves fees and tariffs and taxes. None of that is going on here. That’s going to be part of the pressure that’s going to drive an enormous amount of interest.

In response to a question by Prokofy Neva who asked about Second Life’s influences on First Life (see transcript), Philip elaborated on the power of Second life’s small but thriving economy (with the caveat, “That’s a big enough question that I obviously can’t say perfectly that I know.”)

shrinking of the communication sphere is one of our biggest influences. And then the other is the entrepreneurial early phase. SL is still very early and small. The thing that makes it grow is the success of individuals in two ways. Being able to find and connect to each other and those individuals who are able to work together. There are about 1000 people who make $1000 or more each month. That’s critical mass. That’s the real-life impact we’re having today. We’re creating jobs and opportunities at a small scale, but at a scale that’s large enough to be irreversible.

After the keynote, I was so excited by the implications of Philip’s projections for the future of Second Life that before I turned on my recorder there were about ten minutes of informal discussion on how Second Life could help the developing world, and Africa in particular. What follows is a transcription of the recorded interview with some editing of my rambling questions!

The unrecorded portion of the interview was a mini brainstorming session on broadband connectivity in Africa, and how Second Life could be made available to Africans. Africans have shown the world how mobile phone technologies can be used for virtual banking and to create new economic opportunities in areas with no banking infrastructure.

“Well over 80% in Egypt and South Africa alone, according to a report by the UN’s Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad)” rely on mobile phones to run their small businesses (BBC News).

Philip talked with me about the role of Second Life in positive global development at VW2007. And, if Africans had access to the global virtual economy of Second Life and its rich immersive forms of collaboration and communication, all our first lives and second lives might become immeasurably richer.

Africa is often called the “missing link” because until now it has been left out of the global broadband revolution. But, there are many new initiatives to get Africa connected, and to find ways to deliver cheaper international bandwidth.

Well over half of the countries on the continent now have some kind of broadband offer delivered through DSL, wireless or satellite.

If you are not tuned into connectivity issues in Africa yet, the best source for information on African connectivity, that I know, is the Balancing Act News network. For up to date information on the state of the African internet in various markets Balancing Act has (pay for) publications they make available at special rates for students and universities. Also, there is a download zone for longer research publications. If you go into these reports and the data provided you will see, not only is there are some very interesting Data Bandwidth forecasts for (2006 – 2011), but also of particular interest, may be, the paper, “African Broadband, Triple Play and Converged Markets.”

Well enough pre-amble here is my interview:

INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP ROSEDALE

Part One (my questions in bold type):

How could Second Life bring the benefits of a virtual economy to Africa?

It seems that if there were a few computers, even not individual computers but shareable cafe style computers. And then there was also a mechanism where you could redeem Linden dollars for something – you were talking about phone minutes, or a local currency. If you had that minimal point of infrastructure broadband access and an individual, I suppose to co-ordinate that bank transfer mechanism – my understanding is no-one can use Pay Pal to withdraw money from banks in Africa today, so you would need a person that could pay you in minutes or in local currency. But I think, if those two things were done, and you built a cluster of machines in an area there you might actually be able to see people log in, create accounts, and create jobs for themselves.

Yes, in Africa people use mobile phones to send money to each other in areas were there are no banks or ATMs for miles. And local entrepreneurs set up kiosks where people can redeem their minutes for currency…

Well we could probably make it possible even for people to trade Linden dollars. It would be relatively easy to trade Linden dollars for phone minutes directly. I mean if there is a phone company running a back bone there where that is quite common, it would probably to fairly simple to make it possible for somebody to take Linden dollars even on our site and say redeem them as phone minutes on the exchange. That would be something that we could potentially do, if there was a way to pay for phone minutes in the US in dollars and essentially get minutes on the phones there. We could allow someone to go to our exchange and put Linden dollars up for sale, get dollars back and have them basically put in their phone as minutes.

Given the current high rates for broadband in many parts of Africa, do you think it would be possible to organize and fund the introduction of Second Life in a community there, at least a proof of concept, even before these hoped for changes in broadband costs and connectivity have occurred?

I think the thing that I am a little skeptical about in that is, if you fund a program like that and then you come back and you say, “Wow we can give jobs to people in Africa if only broadband didn’t cost anything,” I would be rather frustrated by that because then you can’t just snap your fingers, nobody is just going to relent and say broadband is free in Africa now. I guess an interesting problem in all this is, if cheap broadband is absolutely necessary, I think you need the cheap broadband first. You can’t really use Second Life to argue that people should have cheap broadband somewhere, you need to provide it.

The thing to demonstrate is a wholly entrepreneurial model. Where I guess you could charitably help the world develop are those places where you can show an operational model that soup to nuts makes money for someone. I mean if someone could go into Africa somewhere and make money by allowing people in Africa to have the jobs using something like Second Life then you’ve got it. So the trick is how to finagle that. It seems that the connectivity is the key problem there.

Part 2:

At this point in the interview, I took sometime explain to Philip how interested and excited I am about the future role of Second Life in reducing the world’s carbon footprint through large scale energy monitoring, facility management, network control centers and other projects that link Second and First life in sensor/actuator networks for the mutual benefit of both.

I have blogged a lot about the potential of such real/second life integrations, so I launched into a rather long preamble that I won’t transcribe here, as there I have many posts on this topic. But, Philip quickly teased out the main question hidden in my long intro about such projects that must have secure and powerful communications between Second and Real Life!

“You mean how quickly are we going to open things up?” he asked.

Yes, I said. And, is it all going to happen at once or are there steps that can happen first, like will people be able to back up their own assets soon?

Well I think backing up assets is something that will be very soon. We are working on it right now, so that you can do much better off line back up of assets. But, that only covers one piece of it. You still have a state, how much money you have, the various flags and global markers that are on things are not things you can back up and restore. But I am not sure what else you have in mind……

Well I know Second Life can be incredibly useful not only for facility management and energy monitoring but for city and an environmental planning. And for these applications you need to be able to import large scale architectural models, for example?

With the open source code you will basically be able to do any kind of object importing and exporting you want. And the open source that is available on the site today will allow you to do multiple imports of CADs.

But, I think I have heard from architects that using the current tools to do this is a very long and complicated procedure?

I think in the next couple of quarters we will probably have rich interchange formats for objects – we like that. But I can’t tell you anything too specific about it right now.

When will it be possible to own islands on our own computer and connect to the main grid asset server?

That is the nearest term thing that we are going to try to do with respect to opening up the back end of the system. So that what we want to do is to allow people to, even before we are able to open source all the technology, we will probably find ways to have people operating servers outside of our building. We probably will not, until we reach the full open source point, have enough security in place to trust un-trusted individuals to run servers on the grid. But initially what we can do is we can establish a relationship with larger companies of operators that we would be able to trust with everyone’s assets in second Life.

Yes, its a good interim thing…

Yes, it’s a great interim thing! What I would like to do is have servers operate internationally as soon as possible so that people in Australia, for example, put their land on servers that are hosted in Australia. So that is something that we are working very hard on right now.

So how will Linden Labs make money after the opening sourcing of everything?

It is easy for us to make money this is just one of those things. If there are network effects, which push everyone to being in one single world, we can charge fees where appropriate for registering or connecting to that world. So even if we don’t host a server for example, we can still charge you whatever we like for attaching your server to the grid. We control the registry, we control DNS if you want to be to the North East of somebody else’s island only we can put you there, even if it is your computer, even if you are the one hosting it.

So that is a fine model. It is similar to DNS. It is one in which we basically we provide a global function to people, naming and the allocation of spaces, and charge a fee for it. And, that will actually look relatively similar to the business today. So we should be able to let people run their own servers, charge them a fee for attaching those servers to the grid, run some of our own servers that we collect if you will the whole fee for and it all works fine.

But if you open all the protocols then other people can do that?

No, because they won’t be able to get a hold of you. There is only one world that you have the name that you have in Second Life.

So they will have to set up competing worlds, if they don’t link to Second Life, closed of to your grid and then who would want to be there because no-one else would be there?

There is a powerful network effect behavior there. New York will always be the largest city in the continental United States. It has been that way for 200 years. So if you are the largest virtual city, you will always remain the largest virtual city. And, we are. So that means we can open up everything we are doing without the kind of risk that you might normally see.

So are you going to open up everything all the protocols?

Yes, everything.

So some people will just go off and do their own thing?

There is a good place for lots of little or purposeful applications to be built. But the internet was completely open protocols to begin with. I notice it is not fragmented. There is only one internet. Big surprise [said with irony!].

Thanks so much Philip, perhaps you could say it one more time about going completely open source!

Yes, open, open!

*********

Doing what they love & getting paid for it on Motarati Island.

The picture below shows Toby Rainbow and Suku Ming from Ponitiac’s Motarati Island in Second Life, and the USA in First Life. I met them while they were standing patiently in the long line of residents waiting to speak to Philip after his keynote at SLCC. They built a stock car racing track that caught the attention of Pontiac. Now it is part of Motarati Island. And, you can find them there everyday doing what they love, and getting paid for it!

Anshe Chung (picture from Rik Riel’s Flickr stream) spoke live from China at the grand opening celebration for the new Non-profit Commons island in Second Life. Anshe expressed her passion for using virtual worlds to connect globally.

Anshe Chung is SL’s first millionaire, a global metaverse entrepreneur, and donor of the island and buildings that house the NPC. Anshe described some of her own early experiences in virtual worlds and the power of the immersive social experience. She has seen virtual worlds and the internet enable people, previously forgotten and disconnected, to become connected to a global economy, and to meet other people on a more even footing. She talked about how people isolated from the world economy use rural internet cafes in China to socialize globally and make things of value in in virtual worlds.

Anshe, through her own portals on Second Life and other ventures, has been responsible for getting a vast number of people involved virtual worlds. She explained that she hoped the Non-profit Commons in SL could extend this process of finding new ways to connect technically, socially and emotionally to the members of non-profits.

Connecting Virtually: What makes the experience in Second Life so compelling?

Christian Renaud of Cisco uses the term “networked virtual environments” in the blog description of Cisco’s new Virtual Worlds Blog saying:

We believe that these environments offer an excellent new tool in our collaboration toolbox, alongside established technologies like IP Telephony, Web Collaboration, and Telepresence.

And, in my view, the time is just around the corner when “networked virtual environments” will be the tool par excellence for global collaboration and much more. This is one of the founding inspirations of the Ugotrade blog.

SuezanneC Baskerville, makes a fascinating comment to Christian’s post drawn from her recent post Virtual World moguls meet across shared Surface in Metaverse Poker Room. She suggests “that it would be interesting to see Linden Lab link it’s San Francisco and Boston offices using Cisco’s Telepresence system.” Christian’s Renaud’s response to her comment is also a must read. He notes his own experiences with wall sized video conferences, “bumping into colleagues in our break-rooms in our Technology Center offices in Raleigh and San Jose…..”

But, of special interest to me, is Christian’s comment on one of the key aspects of virtual worlds or “verses” as he likes to call them.

The “serendipity” of virtual worlds is a key part of the paradigm shift that Second Life has brought to “over the network interaction.” Christian explains:

One of the areas that we are constantly striving to improve is how you make an ‘over the network’ interaction as valuable and signal-rich as an ‘over the desk’ interaction. One of those variables, which is a key attribute of virtual worlds (or ‘verses, as I call them), is serendipity. I can’t very well bump into you on a telephone call, or (other than your example above) on a Telepresence call, however I can bump into your avatar in Second Life easily. How do we facilitate this serendipity, perhaps even nudge you in the direction of someone with shared interests? Food for thought.

“The Serendipity of Second Life”

And, just to press home a point on this “magic of Second Life,” I had a serendipitous encounter on SL only minutes after reading Christian’s comment. I bumped into a rising Japanese Electro/techno/house star, Shingo, on Virgin EMI Music Japan.

Risso Little is new to Second Life. I had gone to Virgin EMI Music Japan to follow up on some interesting posts on Japanese sims by my friend Al Kronos. While we were chatting an earthquake struck Tokyo, and my new found friend’s eighth floor apartment started to shake. I had just gone to his My Space. And, I was listening to one of his excellent tracks when this happened. (Click here to listen)

Well to make a long story short, Rizzo and I were very relieved when the shake up was over. I offered to take him shopping (yes, I know, what was I thinking? “I shop therefore I am”). But, nevertheless in a few short hours Shingo gave me an introduction to some Japanese areas in Second Life. And, I took him around some of the American and European sims. Here we are chatting with a group of Japanese fashionistas waiting to earn Linden dollars modeling dresses in panels. Later, I connected Rizzo Little to Nat Mandelbrot (of Cruxy Player fame) who is pioneering new ways for musicians to extend the experience of their music in Second Life.

Thinking on a global scale – Second Life is not “empty space.”

The casual drop-in approach to Second Life taken by some main stream journalists, and their resulting cursory view from afar, has created a lot of misunderstanding in recent months about how Second Life works to connect people globally, in completely new ways, for business, pleasure and social change.

Story Geek recently wrote an excellent post pointing out that stories in “Wired and the L.A. Times have deemed Second Life (SL) a failure because of it being empty” misunderstand this new virtual landscape that appears empty to a casual glance even though it is actually teeming with life and economic activity.

Story Geek gives an excellent analysis of why a high level glance at a virtual environment misinforms the observer much the way such a high level glimpse might in the real world perceive Canada as empty. And so, Story Geek quips, “Maybe all businesses should pull out of Canada also.” Story Geek points out some of the specific ways that Second Life’s teeming economy and bustle of activity might not be apparent to a drop in observer. And, he points out:

by understanding the mechanics of the world you get a clearer picture of how the residents exist, inter-relate and consume.

Reflexive Architecture: Experiencing People in the Global Reaches of Virtual Space

3D Experience architect Keystone Bouchard is currently engaged in exploring through reflexive and responsive architecture new ways for people to experience other people’s presence in virtual space. As Story Geek noted, mis-perceptions of emptiness can arise in virtual environments for many reasons, e.g., because Second Life is an open 24/7 space with people arriving from multiple time zones at different times of the day.

In a Gallery of Reflexive Architecture, to be exhibited as part of the new Library Gallery exhibition on Info Island by the artslib group, Keystone is showcasing some of his work with scripter Fumon Kubo. Keystone has posted a video composite of several machinima pieces each describing a different installation in the gallery, such as Rippling Prims, Prim Decay, Sudden Space, Restless Spheres, Carvable Prims, Visible Traces, Moving Tiles, Interactive Glass, and The Cacoon. Some include sound as an integral part of the experience, which is best experienced first-hand (SLurl … subject to change).

The picture below is of Sudden Space.

Keystone explained to me:

One thing I’ve struggled with is the idea that people think sims are ‘always empty’ just because there wasn’t someone there the instant they visited. But in actuality, these places are flooded with people flowing through them. The difference is, we’re on a global scale now most websites are ‘empty’ most of the time too. So, I wanted to build in a system that illustrates that you’re not alone, a relatively low-impact way of measuring how spaces are used as well.

Keystone took me through the reflexive 3D experiences he has created. Here is a short selection of some of the comments he made.

Visible Traces

Each one of us should have a different color and they follow our trails. Right now I have them set to last 2 hours so, we can see visible traces of people who have been here before us. I can already see in the first day this has been here that some of the corner installations are overlooked, so, its meaningful feedback

Rippling Prims

I’ve wondered how this one will behave with many avs present so far, its only been tested with 2 but, its created a nice little space for us where nothing was before.
On Demand Architecture = Prim Ripples.

Carvable Prims
This explores the idea of avatar movement gradually ‘carving’ the architecture. Every time an avatar appraoches, the ‘wall’ elements move a slight bit away so, over time, the high traffic areas become larger.

It was based on a conversation Theory Shaw and I had a while back one of those monumental ‘What If?’ conversation

Keystone and I discussed how reflexive 3D experience architecture will take on new value and meaning when it can be laced with data from the real world. The potential of virtual world/real world intergrations to provide a doorway to a sustainable future is a key theme on Ugotrade. And, I have discussed this many times, including here, here, and here in some depth.

We are on the cusp of virtual revolution that will shift the world away from models of communication, representation, and production that emerged in the industrial age.

In Second Life we are beginning to see Global initiatives like EOLUS One put together the kind of global collaboration that will make virtual environments the stage for planning, designing and managing real life buildings and cities in new collaborative and participatory ways. And once built, these cities will stream back into Virtual Worlds as data that is responsive to our needs and the needs of the environment.

Then 3D experience architecture will emerge as not only a beautiful expression of a new era of global communication and collaboration, but as a a tool par excellence for benefiting communities and people, and creating a sustainable future.

Thinking Globally: How Can Developing Countries Benefit from Virtual Worlds?

An important question that came up at the non-profit commons launch was how non-profits in developing countries can utilize virtual worlds. This is a topic I discussed with Alanagh Recreant of Uthango Social Investments in this post. Also see this interesting article on Uthango’s work in the South African national newspaper Cape Argus. And, please see Uthango’s new blog, Africa’s Second life , Our Virtual Reality, to learn about the first event of Uthango’s African Round Table Initiative, in Second Life, Aug 24th.

These are exciting times for Non-profits on Second Life and the fact that facilitating developing countries participation in virtual worlds seems high on the agenda is very encouraging.

MacArthur funding a non-profit track (see press release) at the SLCC convention which Rik Riel will be blogging.

The Grand Opening of Non-profit Commons on Second Life

There are some excellent blogs on the non-profit commons launch. Ruby Sinreich live blogged it. And, Rik Riel has posted some great pictures on his blog and more here. Susan Tenby (avatar Glitteratica Cookie) talked about TechSoup’s work in Second Life – 300 group members and thousands of avatars have come to their weekly meetings. Coughran Mayo from Preferred Family Healthcare spoke (via Skype), and Glitteractica Cookie (Susan Tenby of TechSoup), Jeska Linden (NP liaison for Linden Labs), and Anshe Chung live from China.

Evonne Heyning (avatar In Kenzo) elaborated on some of the specific ways the Non-profit commons on Second Life will be a portal bootstrapping the non-profit process on Second Life with efforts like, an “office in a box,” to help non-profits get up to speed fast on Second Life. Go visit nonprofitcommons.org on the web and in Second Life:
slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Nonprofit%20Commons/130/125/22/ to find out more.

After the panel there was a tour of the 32 nonprofits who have offices at NPC. Here I am at Yehoodi, the swing dance society run by Rik who is DJing real time. The swing music was great. And, I didn’t have to wait long before I landed a very dashing dance partner -Dore Junot (film maker Salvador Luna in RL) who I gather was the video guru for the mixed reality panel (photo below of the live event, “Jeska and Susan in two worlds,” from net2photos flickr stream)

I met with Ansi Orochi (a.k.a. Ansgar Schmidt, Lead Architect, Virtual Worlds, IBM Research and Development) on Sawubona on Second Life to ask him the question: “What Are The Most Important Characteristics of Web 3D?” Sawubona, is in a very early stage of development – the first official press release isn’t due for a month. But, it is already clear that this is going to be a ground breaking social music project in Second Life, combining global collaboration and technological innovation to raise money and awareness for a township project in South Africa.

An IBM mainframe has been harnessed to Second Life to allow Second Life residents to remix songs live in Second Life and even add their own voice. South African musicians have donated songs. And, musicians from all around the world and singers, drummers, guitar players and other musicians have contributed tracks that can be recombined in Second Life. The aim is for musicians from around the world to come to together to produce news songs. They will use the Sawubona to remix and collaborate to form virtual bands that will produce CDs and eventually go on a concert tour. The sale of these CDs and other spin off products will also go towards the township project, as will the proceeds from a stadium concert of Sawubona musicians during the 2010 World Soccer Cup, South Africa.

Many IBMers and T4-Media members have been donating time to this project. Jacqueline Wolff, Communications, IBM R & D Germany, responsible for Podcast and Videocast, is working with Ansi. She will produce a blog and podcast about the activities of Sawubona.

Sawubona felt like an auspicious place to discuss “the web as virtual world.” One of the characteristics of Web 3D, in my view, if it is to play a role in positive global development, is that it will emerge from such collaborations across community, culture and business.

Ansi is Eolus McMillan’s partner in the development of the EOLUS One initiative. EOLUS is pioneering, in Second Life, cross industry, academic and community collaboration to prototype large scale facility energy management, building planning, and retail 2.0 projects. EOLUS One aims to harness Second Life as a global creative context bringing communities and corporations together on designs that will benefit communities and the environment.

“The Web As A Virtual World.”

I began my discussion on Web 3D with Ansi by asking him some questions on a recent report in Business Week which, while acknowledging the place of the leaders on the road to Web 3D, Second Life, Google Earth and IBM, focuses on the first requirement of Web 3D – an agreement on open standards.

I was glad to see Business Week this week move on from reporting Second Life as though it was still 2005 (an era when Second Life was still seen as a game, see this earlier post) with this story, “Just Ahead: The Web As Virtual World:” And, BW finally gets to the crux of the matter, at least in topic selection:

Google (GOOG ), Second Life creator Linden Lab, IBM, and a bevy of additional companies are moving toward the day when you can stroll around a 3D Web–and not just their own sites–using a virtual replica of yourself that you’ve created. They are working to establish technical standards, open to all programmers, that would allow the entire Internet to become a galaxy of connected virtual worlds.

The BW report mentions that standards groups like the Web 3D consortium are meeting to develop open standards. And, in 18 months, “an interoperable avatar likely will be approved by the I.S.O., an organization that has verified technical standards like the JPEG, a shareable format for digital images, for its 157 member countries.” But the missing piece, in my view, is to link the discussion of open standards to an understanding of what the characteristics of virtual worlds will be most important when “technical standards, open to all programmers, that would allow the entire Internet to become a galaxy of connected virtual worlds.”

Cory again confirmed to BW that Linden Lab will open source the server code in a year or two so:

developers will be able to modify it to create their own Second Life-like sites and build connections so that a store or other application in one virtual site could interact with those in others

But, I was a little surprised by BW statement that Cory Ondrejka of Linden Lab had indicated:

The company has not decided whether it will hand the code to a standards body to oversee or will write it, get it working, and hope to set a de facto standard the way Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT ) Windows trounced Apple Inc.’s (AAPL ) platform by opening up in the 1980s.

I hope to talk to Cory in depth about this soon as a “de Facto standard” does not seem in keeping with many other statements Cory has made re Linden Lab’s approach to making LL’s Second Life protocols available for the greater good.

Open standards are perhaps even more important to corporations than open sourcing the server code. And, Ansi was clear that while he is very impressed with what Linden Lab has done, and is doing, he thinks:

The world has learned and understood the value of open standards in contrast to proprietary approaches from some companies in the recent years. Creating de facto standards does not help anyone except the company creating them.

I will be doing a series of posts asking many people: “What Should Be The Characteristics of Web 3D.” Hopefully, there will many perspectives on this conversation from many quarters.

The mission of Ugotrade is to explore virtual realities role in creating a better planet. And, Second Life continues to provide more stories than I can keep up with in this regard. Philip Rosedale’s commitment to Second Life’s potential role in positive global development was clear to me back in April. And, Second Life continues to reveal new possibilities in this regard every time I log in.

Second Life – the most open and only truly user generated virtual world to date – already exhibits most of the characteristics that constitute a paradigm shift in global communications and knowledge production that can change the world completely much as Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type printing did, Ansi noted. He put it succinctly:

The main characteristics of the paradigm shift (to Web 3D) have already happened in Second Life.

Virtual Worlds are, in Ansi’s view, the Gutenberg 2.0 revolution. Gutenberg’s invention brought knowledge to the masses. But, virtual worlds and WEB 2.0 technologies can go a step further connecting us to each other in an immersive environment that is capable of transmitting whole cultures and reimagining communication in ways never possible before.

Wikipedia notes A&E Network ranked Gutenberg #1 on their “People of the Millennium” countdown, and in 1997, Time–Life magazine picked Gutenberg’s invention as the most important of the second millennium.^[2

There seem to be a lot of interesting comparisons that could be made between Philip Linden and Gutenberg.

Gutenberg’s picture below (right) with picture of Philip Linden from Torley Linden’s Flickr stream (left) – “Philip Linden has many talents among them, typing while holding a flute :-)”

While it is still the infancy of Virtual World development, Linden Lab’s Second Life has in Ansi’s view laid down the ground work for on the chief characteristics of “the web as a virtual world.”

Web 3D should not only include increasingly sophisticated levels of avatar interaction (that will include level of body language communication not available yet), but new ways to handle digital rights so avatar’s can travel between virtual worlds.

One of the reasons Linden Lab has much work to do before open sourcing is to develop ways to protect, when the server code is open sourced, the hard work existing residents of Second Life have already put into the vast amount of assets they have developed in Second Life.

Second Life has a sophisticated and powerful micro-economy that currently includes the protection of intellectual property rights and the ability to easily share, give away or sell objects easily. Being able to handle digital rights for an interoperable avatar on Web 3D goes beyond the mere establishing of open standards but into the core characteristics that can make a vibrant virtual economy work. Linden Lab has uniquely created just such a vibrant virtual economy on Second Life. And, how this is integrated with open standards might well be the billion dollar question re the future characteristics of Web 3D.

Last week, Philips Design presented their real life strategic philanthropy initiative, “Philanthropy By Design,” in Second Life, begging the question: What role can Second Life play in corporate and community collaborations for: “Promoting social empowerment through knowledge sharing, creativity and co-design?”

Host PhilipsDesign (picture above) presented and led a discussion on The Chulha Smokeless Stove project.

The Chulha Smokeless Stove is a low tech stove “that would tackle the respiratory problems affecting the health of millions of people (especially women and children) in the developing world who still cook indoors using biomass fuels.”

The aim was to design, develop and test an appropriate solution to local cooking habits in rural and semi-urban contexts of India. The goal was to provide a wood-burning solution that is easy to access (easy to distribute-install-use-maintain) locally produced and distributed low cost for replication and scalability able to reduce indoor pollution

Key to the concept of strategic philanthropy, and The Chulha project, is design co-creation “involving people who will benefit from the result of what is being created. ” ARTI (Appropriate Rural Technology Institute), self help groups, local entrepreneurs, and potential users joined the Philips team as “stakeholders” in a concept definition workshop.

Working with “stakeholders” – a new model for co-creation

The Rivers Run Red’s press release back in December described Philips Design’s goals in Second Life to “gain feedback on innovation concepts, engage residents in co-creation and gain a deeper understanding of potential opportunities in this virtual environment.” And, Mark Wallace 3pointD, astutely commented:

At least we’re moving from a time when companies took no outside input at all to a time in which they’re actively seeking it. It’s arguable whether they’ll need to start paying for this kind of feedback, but for the moment it makes for a very interesting experiment. I look forward to seeing results.

Well Philips Design have been paying participants for their feedback with the recently completed, “My Second Life” Research Project. Now they are looking to expand their network and have issued a call for Second Life free lancers, builders, scripters and other Second Life creatives.

But, the Philanthropy By Design initiative suggests a new approach to co-design, one that separates itself both from unequitable farming of free labor, and direct pay, by working with co-creators who are also “stakeholders.”

the program channels [Philips] design talent to develop meaningful and sustainable solutions that can contribute to a better future for all. It also opens up new perspectives in co-creating value through cooperation with public bodies and social players with complementary expertise and values.

Second Life residents input on Philanthropy By Design

The presentation on The Chulha project, a well developed real life example of “stakeholder” collaboration, drew an attentive Second Life audience (that included Pathfinder Linden) into a lively debate, and raised some interesting questions, on how a model of “stakeholder” co-creation might work both within Second Life development projects, and in projects that link Second Life to Real Life.

Alanagh Recreant of Uthango Social Investments who is an active participant in social investment projects on Second Life helped me cover the event. Alanagh is pioneering SL’s role as an enabling platform for social innovation, taking the visionary extra step of including Second Life in their strategies for poverty relief, crossing digital divides, and economic/social development in Africa (please see my previous posts here and here).

And, Sonja Finney, also from Philips, thanks for passing on the chat log and your story. Sonja is from a different department of Philips. She met the Philanthropy By Design team on Second Life. When she discovered the asimpleswitch.com initiative, she created her own way to spread their message/initiative through Second Life. Sonja explained to me:

A dear friend from Philips Design [Yel Oh] made a energy saving lamp for me, with the url attached to it. And, since July 6th I give it to people I meet and who are interested in it, a light bulb. A new way to create awareness.

Thanks Alanagh and Sonja!

Some highlights from the discussion:

First up were questions on basic concept of “strategic philanthropy” described by Host PhilipsDesign as follows:

Rather than giving money to worthy causes, an increasing number of companies are choosing to help communities by donating their products or expertise to special projects while supporting the company’s objectives to enhance brand image, strengthen employee engagement, increase trust and customers loyalty, and even develop new ways of working and innovative solutions. Known as ‘strategic philanthropy,’ this approach is driven by the desire to combine social responsibility commitments.

Llanddewi Taurog energized the debate with a series of friendly, but provocative, challenges to which Host and Yel responded:

Llanddewi Taurog: Just to play a devil’s advocate here: although strategic philanthropy sounds all very noble, it can also seem like a pretty sleazy way to penetrate new markets. what do you think about that?
Host PhilipsDesign: Of course it is nice to create new businesses but to reach this group of people you really need to design something they can afford and want to buy.
Llanddewi Taurog: Are you making money out of it?
Yel Oh: no we are not making money out of it…….. and we have given away the designs to local entrepreneurs

And, an interesting discussion was initiated by Alanagh Recreant on “the supply chain between the manufacturer and local entrepreneurs” and how local NGO’s (ARTI in this case) are actually getting involved in manufacturing and distribution. And, “How do local entrepreneurs get started without micro-finance?” Also….

Cor Laval: How do you avoid that these local entrepreneurs make more profit and not meet the primary role of the design: as cheap as possible for as many people as possible?

There was no specific answer to this question but a consensus formed on the idea that basic market forces -especially in poor areas – would determine what was viable.

Product Life Cycle management was a hot topic of discussion. But, no-one speculated much on the role that Second Life might eventually take in collaboration, design co-creation, and product life cycle management. Or, how RL/SL integrations like the EOLUS initiative might facilitate Philanthropy By Design projects in Second Life. This is an interesting topic for future discussions!

Second Life residents were enthusiastic about Philips’ real life strategic philanthropy and eager to hear more.

Llanddewi Taurog: Maybe we could work together [in Second Life] on a real life project with philanthropy by design someday?

Alanagh Recreant: It is not often that you find a company that works closely with NGOs and uses their local connections. That is what I really admire….It taps into the heart of civil society in a way that respects community linkages.

Also, Philips Design’s current plans include an impact study that will run from October 2007 to October 2008 to verify the benefits the Chulha Stoves claim to deliver as well as their limitations.

The complete Second Life meeting will be summarized by Philips Design, and transcripts of the chat distributed to members of the Philips Design Friends group and also made available at the Co-creation experience . The first Philips Design presentation, in Second Life, “Designing experiences together with people”, will also soon be made available.

Bringing Philips’ Co-creative Model to Second Life

After the presentation, I discussed the Philip Design’s goals in Second Life with HostPhilips (Wendy) – who has a background in product design and is now a full time innovation consultant with Philips Design focusing on virtual worlds, especially Second Life; and, Yel Oh, also from Philips Design, an innovation director with a background in interaction and experience design who has been running real life creative processes for over 12 years.

In Second Life the idea of global cooperation and collaboration for a sustainable future is being picked up in many quarters and the role of virtual worlds in eco-sustainability is being advocated and debated (see Earth2Tech).

Recently, Jonathan Fanton, President of the MacArthur Foundation, and Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab, appeared in Second Life to talk about the future role of philanthropy in virtual worlds (also see Jonathan Fanton’s post).

And, EOLUS One Initiative (see here and here) is initiating RL/SL integrations and energy management projects that bring Second Life into the forefront of a vision fo a sustainable future. And, Uthango Social Investments (here and here) has many exciting social investment projects in development. And, these are just some of the stories I have covered on Ugotrade. There many other initiatives taking root in Second Life.

Inspired by the audiences’ response to this presentation, Philips Design is currently considering dedicating a future co-creation session in Second Life to Philanthropy by Design. Yel Oh explained they see SL as the perfect place to develop a co-creation community with so many creative people converging in an immersive 3D environment. And, indeed, at the end of the talk a number of participants expressed interest in working on a real life product with Philips. Members of the Philips Design Friends group are automatically kept up to date of upcoming events or you can check the events and activities board at the Philips Design Co-creation experience on Virtual Holland 3.

Some of the events Tara5 Oh attended in Second Life last week!

Cube Inada at Star Base C3

Last week, I attended a SciFi Trivia contest at StarBase C3. And, I had a long chat with Cube Inada whose has been believing and working in the 3d web experience for 20 years. I hope to include some of this conversation in a future post that will look at the past, present and future of the 3D internet. Cube has a very interesting museum displaying his two decades of work on 3D experiences. Cube offers quite different perspective on the future of Web3D from the one I usually present. Second Life is my focus because its unique emphasis on user generated content offers possibilities for technosocial innovation that auteur developed virtual worlds cannot, even if such auteur or developer built virtual worlds become linked via the web.

But, please visit StarBase C3 where you will have fun in a highly developed 3D experience that Cube, a professional game developer, has ported to Second Life. You will see virtual worlds from a perspective not usually shown on Ugotrade. And, you can buy a spaceship to travel around Second Life in style.

Getting in the conversation with ESC and Millions Of Us

On July 19th, Satchmo Prototype (a.k.a Chris Carella from Electric Sheep Company) on the left in his low prim avatar discussed with panelists Beth Coleman, MIT, Robin Harper, LL, and Susan Wu, Partner at Charles River Ventures, “Togetherness: what drives the virtual human connection?”

John Swords has posted the audio stream http://sc8.spacialnet.com:17524].

And, on the same day, I caught panelists, Celebrity Millionsofus, Eric Rice (a.k.a. Spin martin), Jeska Linden and Ziggy Figaro talking about how voice will affect marketing in Second Life, at the New Globe Theater, Milions Of Us. The picture on the right is Eric Rice playing with his avatar.

Millions Of Us Offers Land for Cool Ideas

And, check out the Millions Of Us, You Have Co0l Ideas, We Have Land offer: See the Millions Of Us blog for details of the offer:

Social media is all about participation, right? In that spirit, Millions of Us will be opening up land on several of its sims in order to host the coolest projects you can come up with. We own 8 perimeter sims, clustered around the central eponymous sim — and that’s where we invite interested and motivated residents to help us fill those sims with fantastic Second Life content.

BlogHer Conference on Second Life

And, I attended the BlogHer conference on Second Life. On the left is 57 miles of metaversed on a panel about blogging from SL. He was a brave lad to talk about blogging at BlogHer.

Second Life Relay For Life

KK Jewell of arcspace (pictured here left) gave me a window into the world of architecture on SL in several wonderful chats – the topic of another post. And, we both attended the American Cancer Society’s Second Life Relay For Life.

Barnardo’s On Second Life

Please see Veejay Burn’s post on his excellent blog Mindblizzard to read more about Barnardo’s efforts of Second Life.

Through our good friend Aleister Kronos Veejay and I were tipped that BBH (Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty ) and RRR (rivers run red) are bringing another Charity 2.0 event to Second Life.

Peter Rogers from the Ad Agency BBH let us know that each year BBH is sponsoring a good cause, and this year it’s Barnardo’s, which is a charity organization that stands up for children in need.

I met with Alanagh Recreant (a.k.a. Dorette Steenkamp) from Uthango Social Investments, on Virtual Africa in Second Life. And, while Uthango’s Virtual Africa initiative has barely begun yet – terra forming is first on the agenda – there is already a very special feeling of possibility, and great things to come. Uthango has already put out tender to all the listed developers on the Linden Lab website. And, many of Second Life’s top developers, PR companies, marketing experts, and consultants have offered services, as well as pro bono work.

The core of the USI strategy for poverty relief in Africa does not primarily revolve around Second Life. But Uthango uses Second Life as an enabling platform for social innovation. By doing this, they are taking the visionary extra step of including Second Life in their strategy to make an impact in the lives of the people they benefit.

A participatory social media convergence bringing mobile, Web 2.0 and Second Life together for community engagement, is happening now and will – in itself – make the first steps to addressing the exclusive nature of 3D-platforms. And, USI is determined not to let the digital divide that is exasperated in Africa by expensive, inadequate/non-existent broadband coverage (for now) widen any further. While significant moves are afoot to bring broadband to large swathes of Africa, often known as the “missing link,” because of the lack of connectivity, access is still a big problem for all but the most privileged.

Uthango’s concerted effort to tackle inequality and social injustice in South Africa goes beyond advocacy for connectivity to other divides – economic, educational and access to opportunities as well.

Investment is our passion – to draw attention to investment opportunities for people in Africa.

But, Uthango is pioneering the inclusion of participatory new media and advocacy for connectivity in their vision. And, while broadband remains prohibitively expensive in Africa, they are preparing the way with projects utilizing mobile connectivity. Mobile phones have become a powerful tool for creative economic development in Africa (see African Uptimist). Uthango has a participatory social media initiative in the works that will link three very diverse communities – two with 65% unemployment and lack of resources, and the other an affluent sea-side community with better infrastructure.

We plan to institute an inter-cultural and civil engagement program across these communities, using video-blogging, mobile, and upload to a central server, and link it up to Google Earth. There will be a community portal, initially linked to computers at the schools and library and ultimately with an upload facility from mobile phones – a mobile magazine linked to the portal with community events. Ultimately, this extensive and integrated social network will be linked to Second Life. Meanwhile, innovation from the more inaccessible SL will be channeled back via the more modest communication framework in real life. This RL/SL convergence for social gain will be a unique example of an integrated ICT approach to development.

Uthango are working with partners and professionals in Second Life to explore the commercial value for companies and individuals and the social benefits for institutions such as universities and schools, in their preparation for Virtual Africa. A key initiative on Virtual Africa will be a Bottom-of-the-Pyramid Innovation Center (see ‘Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid’ by C.K. Prahalad). Uthango are serious about seeking ways to bring community voices into Second Life while broadband issues are addressed.

But the plans for Virtual Africa also include creating one of the most sophisticated ecosystems on Second Life that will extend to the wildlife to ensure an exciting, educational experience: Eagles swooping, lions hunting, zebras reacting and mirroring wildlife patterns as closely as possible whilst highlighting endangered species and indigenous cultures. The vision of Second Life/Real life integrations possible for Virtual Africa goes well beyond educational and immersive goals into a vision that includes health, travel, adventure, e-commerce, environmental monitoring, and even disaster management.

Virtual Africa will be a key place for Uthango to bring attention to their Real Life work in poverty reduction, and collaborate with others on the goal of social investment in Africa. There are many initiatives already planned that will both bring in the Second Life Community to Uthango’s work, and make connections to Real Life projects – including concerts, a Second Life Bikeathon, publishing parties, and much more.

A new global market is emerging. The sellers are intelligent, energetic and pragmatic young African leaders with innovative projects in their respective fields. The buyers are equally intelligent, energetic and pragmatic young Westerners yearning to apply pragmatism to their idealism. The market place is new media, where stories are told, opportunities are elucidated, connections are made, and action is taken. (Joshua Goldstein, African Path)

From the Blogosphere, to Twitter, to Facebook, to Second Life!

I first met Yee, who is from Jinjiang, China and a recent graduate with a Business Diploma from HELP College University, in the blogosphere. Yee’s blog caught my attention and I linked to him in a post, “Bridging On Line Off Line Worlds.” And, Yee’s comments on my post re the task of bridge blogging were so wise that a connection was born.

Then we became friends on Twitter where I followed the obstacles Yee faced keeping his blog open to world despite the GFW (Great Firewall) of China. Then last night Yee joined Facebook. We instantly struck up a messaging exchange that covered everything from the role that religions played in American culture to how participatory media, blogs, social networks etc. could play and important role in intercultural communication. This is what Yee had to say on this topic.

There are many many English language learners in China. But a large number of them just take this language as a means to pass the exam or a “certification” for better job occupation, once they achieve these goals some of them will probably stop learning, in a word, they do not treat English as a tool for two-way communication. So you can see there are many many translations of English-to-Chinese blogs in China. But, there very few Chinese-to-English blogs.

To encourage participatory media in China, I think it’s important to help Chinese English learners realize that English is not only a means for graduation or better jobs. It’s a tool for communication! In addition, they must have confidence to use it properly

The obstacles: According to my experience, all Chinese people welcome the behavior of translating their posts or profiles or business documents into English. They have a strong desire to be understood by the world. However, things are not always so easy, as our logic and mind and culture are quite different from foreigners. And, culture conflict happens from time to time and sometimes conflict leads to bigger misunderstanding. Besides, on the internet, there is a Great Fire Wall which was founded by the Chinese Gov to block “sensitive info” from abroad.

I had asked Yee a little while ago if he had ever explored Second Life. I said I would love him to write about his experiences in SL for Ugotrade. Well in a matter of minutes after our Facebook exchange Yee had logged into Second Life for the first time. And so I met his avatar Yee Heron on Scope Cleaver’s sim.

It is hard to describe the excitement of meeting Yee for the first time in Second Life. The gulf of culture and geography and even the GFW of China seemed to dissolve as his avatar materialized in world.

Here is a picture of Yee, Scope Cleaver, Miko Omegamu (Scope’s right hand!), and I greeting Yee only minutes after he logged on and got his Second Life Avatar.

There were a few obstacles to getting Yee’s avatar fully rezzed. And, whether it was due to network connection issues, or the need for more memory on his lap top, chat was lagging and SL was taking a while to rez for Yee. Yee did mention that HiPiHi will not let him log in and was giving a message that he has not enough memory. Interesting that it was easier to get in SL from China than HiPiHi. But, we managed despite the technical obstacles to show Yee some of SL, including Scope Cleaver’s awesome virtual furniture store in Second Life, EOLUS One, and where to shop for cool clothes! And, here is a snippet of our chat as Yee saw Scope’s work on Second Life.

[23:29] Scope Cleaver: This is the office furniture building
[23:29] Scope Cleaver: I seel modern furniture here for Second Life residents
[23:29] Scope Cleaver: sell*
[23:29] Yee Heron: wow,so cool
[23:31] Scope Cleaver: the building looks empty but it’s only to hold all the production and hard work I’ll be doing on the coming months hehe
[23:32] You: Yee Scope is what they call a metabrand
[23:32] Scope Cleaver: in the making
[23:33] Yee Heron: IS Miko your partner, Scope??
[23:33] You: scope makes products and architecture just for the virtual world
[23:34] Scope Cleaver: Yes she is Yee
[23:34] Scope Cleaver: Been working in SL for a bit
[23:34] Yee Heron: cool, you do your business just as real
[23:34] Scope Cleaver: Yes indeed
[23:35] Scope Cleaver: You’ve been here less than half an hour and you look better than I do.
[23:35] Miko Omegamu: lol
[23:35] Yee Heron: are you a full time SL business woman?
[23:35] You: I know it is amazing Yee!
[23:35] Scope Cleaver: Should I work on my AV?

Yee stayed on Second Life for a couple of hours or more. And, we talked until the time difference meant I really had to leave to sleep. Welcome Yee to Second Life! We all look forward to seeing you again soon. And, as Scope Cleaver said:

[23:43] Scope Cleaver: Good luck Yee, and give SL a chance and it will reward you

Today, I had what felt to me like a ground breaking meeting with Alanagh Recreant on Second Life (a.k.a. Dorette Steenkamp in Real Life). Dorette Steenkamp is Executive Director of Uthango Social Investments, Cape Town, South Africa. Uthango is the first African-based NGO with a presence in Second Life.

You can visit Uthango’s newly established offices on Second Life here! SLurl: Uthango in Second Life.

Ginsu Linden, Linden Lab, told me earlier this month there was interest from Africa in the Linden Lab Global Provider Program. So, I was very excited to meet Alanagh in person, or rather in the pixels, and hear that an initiative to create an access portal and community for Africans on Second Life was actually underway.

“Not exclusively [for Africans] but with the exclusive aim to promote access to virtual reality.”

Uthango have just begun establishing their presence in Second Life. Their current offices are a first base from which to address the digital divide. But, please watch for more news about Uthango projects on Second Life to be announced shortly!

Uthango is an investment company specializing in finding and creating sustainable programs – connecting corporate/government with communities through collecting local intelligence and translating it to the business sector. But, “we only work at the invitation of communities. We are a relationship broker and bridge-builder between diverse interest groups to create mutual benefit.”

Uthango is serious about access for all. They will be working in parallel at establishing internet hubs in communities. And, they are seeking partnerships with mobile telecoms on mobile applications for Virtual Africa, and to develop links between mobile space and Second Life.,

They are putting together an Uthango Global Advisory Board that will be an innovation team both socially and commercially – to put out and receive ideas concerning producing a viable Virtual Africa Platform.

It is so exciting to see the first steps towards realizing a vision for a Virtual Africa being taken by Uthango. This group is deeply experienced at working on the ground with rural communities on sustainable development and poverty relief. And, they are expert at creating commercial partnerships with social value.

Uthango won the Centennial Award from Rotary International for Sustainable Projects in Communities in 2005, for District 9350, and The National Impumelelo Innovations Awards in the same year for Innovation in Private/Public Projects for their micro-enterprise project affecting a community of 45000.

I am especially impressed with how Alanagh, while very committed to expanding the possibilities for mobile technologies in sustainable development, is equally committed to the idea that Africans should not be excluded from high quality internet connectivity, access, and the potential that Second Life, as an immersive virtual world, has for Africa.

These are exciting times for African innovation!

Tags: Second Life | Virtual Africa | Africa on Second Life | Uthango Social Investments | Web 3.D | Linden Lab | Linden Lab Global Provider Program | Sustainable Development | Digital Divides | Poverty Relief | African Innovation | Africa Sustainable Development | Ginsu Linden | Alanagh Recreant | Web 2.0 | Dorette Steenkamp | mobile phones in Africa | mobile phones and sustainable development | mobile space and Virtual Worlds | Mobile Phones and Second Life | Metaverse | Virtual Reality | Virtual Worlds | World 2.o | virtual realities |

Jonathan Fanton, President of the MacArthur Foundation, and Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab, appeared in Second Life to talk about the future role of philanthropy in virtual worlds (also see Jonathan Fanton’s post.) The tireless crew of USC Center On Public Diplomacy (see my previous post for more on Anna Annenberg and Sitearm Madonna) did an amazing job of hosting this event that used four sims to bring so many people together (perhaps up to 250 at peak).

A recording of the event can be found at the MacArthur site for Digital Media and Learning here , a great post from Rik Riel here, and a call from Prokofky Neva for a new philanthropy here. But, the high point for me was the emphasis Jonathan Fanton put on Africa – developing access, connectivity, and bringing Second Life there.

In response to a question about using the combined energies of Linden Lab and The MacArthur Foundation to help Second Life to bring opportunities and training to communities in isolation – cutting out the middle man so to speak, Philip Linden said:

while they had nothing planned yet, this question was a fabulous example of the kind of barrier reduction that Second Life enables………cutting the costs of collaborating with people to close to zero sometimes.

And, Philip added:

I would love to work on ways, with the MacArthur foundation, to enable that.

Jonathan Fanton responded:

That question is a great example of what I hoped would come out of this conversation which is a series of concrete ideas that we could look at and develop into a program or two.

One of the challenges we face is being sure that places in the world that are remote, where people are desperately poor, that some of those people have access to the technology that enables them to come in and be part of Second Life. The MacArthur Foundation along with other foundations has a partnership for higher education in Africa working now in a dozen countries. One of the principle pieces of that initiative is to expand bandwidth at a lower cost and to get high quality internet connectivity through the continent of Africa.

Also, Jonathan Fanton described “being in the Google office and looking at the map of the world,” and :

how he remembered where inquiries were coming in ….and it is shocking to see that Africa was totally dark, just one or two places where Europe and the United States and places in Asia were bursting with activity. So, we have a real challenge in this world to get to the places where people most need us.

This project of developing high quality internet access and the opportunity to access virtual worlds like Second Life for all, especially people from remote and isolated communities, has been a prime motivation for much of my writing on Ugotrade.

The Magic of Second Life – talking one on one with Jonathan Fanton and Philip Linden

Both Philip Linden (above) and Jonathan Fanton stayed after the event to chat one on one with people (although Philip L. had to leave for the office fairly quickly).

I sent an IM to Jonathan Fanton about an African initiated Virtual Africa portal to Second Life (see next post!). And, I got an instant response. Not only did Jonathan Fanton himself want to stay in touch with project. He immediately sent contact information for the person most involved with Africa at The MacArthur Foundation.

“Africa Open For and In Business:” TED Global 2007

Soyapi Mumba writes about the mood at TED Global 2007 that convened in Arusha, Tanzania in early June:

everyone I met was determined to solve Africa’s problems without waiting for governments or donors. So I’ve come back energized and connected to the right community that will hopefully keep me motivated.

The picture above shows William Kamkwamba. His presentation was a highlight of TED Global 2007. Ethan Zuckerman who blogged every session of TED Global, and summarized in his post, “A New Wind Blowing In Africa.” Also, he noted the debut of William Kamkwamba’s Malawi’s Windmill Blog. William has begun blogging with the help of someone he met at TED.

Ethan Zuckerman writes about William:

He discovered a pair of books on energy, one of which included the design for a windmill, and he began work on a five meter tall windmill near his family’s home, built from scrap timber, an old bicycle frame, and blades made from PVC pipe heated and pounded into flat blades.

Innovators Meet On Second Life

William’s spirit of innovation and can do, will do, is the same kind of energy that has built Second Life. One of the points Philip Linden made again today at the MacArthur Foundation talk is one that is very relevant when considering Second Life’s potential in positive global development. Second Life hasn’t been built by corporations or institutions – it is ordinary people, with their boundless ingenuity, that have built the world’s first user generated metaverse, and its vibrant economy.

That is Satchmo Prototype (aka Chris Carella, Creative Director of The Electric Sheep Company) center in his low prim avatar for the always crowded Geek Meet. And, to his left is Robbie Kiama (from Lithuania) of Meta Mart (I am not sure who is typing?).

I hope one day I will meet William at one of Metaversed’s, now famous Friday Geek Meets on Second Life This week Cisco Systems’ Christian Renaud, Amazon Web Services Evangelist Jeff Barr, and Ogoglio’s Trevor Smith, all presented on The Future of the 3D Web, and fielded challenging questions from a large group of Second Lifers.

Or, perhaps, William and countless other African innovators would be interested in the Wikitecture project on Architecture Island. This week Clear Ink’s Keystone Bouchard, (aka Jon Brouchoud) gave a Wikitecture demnstration on Architecture Island on Second Life.

Clear Ink tried to make arrangements to stream TED Global into Second Life, but logistical obstacles held sway. Clear Ink did stream the spring TED 2007 conference into their Allston sim HERE (SLurl). And, Cameron Sinclair, 2006 TED Prize winner, Executive Director of Architecture for Humanity, co-editor of the book ‘Design Like You Give A Damn‘ and contributing writer for Worldchanging.com was joined by Sun Microsystems founder John Gage in a live audio discussion in Second Life.

“Its a great time to be a reader of African blogs.”

Ethan Zuckerman also notes:

William’s not the only new African blogger to appear on the web this week. Ike Anya and Chikwe Ihekweazu have both leaped onto the scene with their new blog, Nigeria Health Watch, which looks at public health issues and innovations in Africa’s most populous nation. Welcome, guys. It’s a great time to be a reader of African blogs – if you’re not getting your daily dose, take a spin by BlogAfrica, Afrigator or Global Voices and make sure you’re getting your recommended daily allowance of African innovation.

There are some really great roundups now of the TED Global 2007. There is an awesome look at the blogging of TED Global here from Benin Mwangi. His post for Global Voices is packed full of excerpts from a huge storehouse of insightful writing that came out around the conference. Benin Mwangi notes that Jen Brea’s site (she is also a Global Voices author), Africabeat, describes an overall feeling that she found emanating from attendees at TED 2007 — that the time has come for the continent to write her own story.

Also, you can find some of the following bloggers first thoughts from home here. This is just some of the bloggers that wrote about TED Global.

Afromusing, Bankalele, Mentalacrobatics, Ethan Zuckerman, Mweshi, Afrigadget/White African, Africa: The Next Chapter.

“Put Africa Back In The Computer”

Afrrican Path writes up the presentation of Kwabena Boahen at TED Global. Boahen is researching “Why aren’t we seeing computers challenge the brain?” He is looking at ways to overcome the obstacles to Alan Turing’s 1946 prediction, “In 30 years, it would be as easy to ask a computer a question as to ask a person.” (Also see Extropia DaSilva’s interesting essay on Mitch Kapor’s (angel benefactor of Linden Lab in the early days) “bet centered on a question: Will the Turing Test be passed by a machine by 2029? Ray Kurzweil said ‘yes’, Kapor said ‘No’ and whoever loses will donate $20,000 to a charity selected by the winner.”

Afrrican Path writes:

Why is the brain so much more efficient, using a hundred thousand times less energy than a computer? Boahen believes it’s all in the wiring. Computers put all data through a central bottleneck, either a CPU or an I/O processor. Brains, on the other hand, are networks – each neuron connects to hundreds of other neurons, and there is no central bottleneck. Computers are serial, rigid, while the brain is parallel, fluid. Or as Brian Eno said in 1995, “The problem with computers is that there is not enough Africa in them.”

Ethan Zuckerman noted:

Boahen’s presentation ended with a picture of a steel drum – what happens when you put Africa in the piano.

Boahen’s goal is to put Africa in the computer, generating thought, creativity and dynamism. It’s likely a long road from the artificial retina to an African computer, but Boahen is walking that road.

Tags: Second Life | MacArthur Foundation | Philanthropy | Virtual Worlds | Web 2.0 | We 3.D | Jonathan Fanton | Philip Rosedale | Linden Lab | digital divide | TED Global 2007 | TED 2007 | TED Global | Africa | Virtual Africa | Google | Philip Linden | African blogs | African bloggers | Turing Test | Kwabena Boahen | African Computer | World 2.o | African innovation | sutainable development | wikitecture | Geek meet | internet access | connectivity | positive global development | virtual worlds | virtual reality | metaverse |

On Wednesday, I met with Ginsu Linden (a.k.a. Ginsu Yoon – photo on the the left from Joi’s Flickr stream) to talk about Second Life’s global role.

Ginsu Linden is Linden Lab’s vice president, business affairs – generally overseeing international market development, business and corporate development, and developer programs.

Ginsu was in Asia when we met on the pontoon at Aleister Kronos’s quiet seaside retreat on Second Life, where sculpted prim icebergs sparkle among the palms. Aleister is a well known Second Life blogger and Senior Enterprise Architect in Real Life. He is also a Second Life artist. He spends some of his time quietly pottering around in his lovely sculpture garden, fine tuning his creations.

Once seated opposite Ginsu in this quiet corner of the metaverse, the sound of the waves lapping in the background, the continents between us seemed to vanish.

I know that those of you already familiar with immersive worlds already understand how compelling they are in ways that are very personal and hard to quantify. But, it is a very difficult to transmit this to people who haven’t experienced it.

The social/immersive qualities of virtual worlds tap into ranges of human experience and modes of expression beyond text and speech. This is one of the key contributions virtual realities make to new forms of global communication.

The only immersive virtual space (for the moment at least) that allows for the full user created expression of entire cultures or personal identities is Second Life.

“Second Life is so immersive that it can transmit more than just text. It can transmit entire cultures” (Ginsu Linden)

I asked Ginsu a number of questions on several topics including: When are Linden Lab’s open sourcing the servers and/or setting up server farms outside the US? What were his thoughts about the intersection of virtual worlds and mobile space? How would virtual worlds create new channels of global commerce? But, it was the clear to me, the most important understanding I took from the interview was not just answers to questions on issues of scaling, open sourcing, virtual commerce and the guiding principles behind Linden Lab’s global provider program. Rather, I gained a better overall sense of how virtual worlds could come of age as a truly positive global phenomena. While commerce may well be the driving force in the development of virtual worlds and Second Life, it is the non-commerce related experience of virtual worlds that is really something to write home about. Ginsu made the point clearly:

I think that there’s a good argument to be made for the value of non-commerce related experience in SL.

It’s really interesting to watch digital cultures spread in SL, and this is not something that is closely tied to a virtual economy…. it’s great to watch people in different countries interact in SL.

People always make the comparison of SL to a 3D web, but one of the things that is quite different is that on websites today, you do not see people from different countries interacting much.

People on the Internet tend to stay within their own cultures, because websites are still primarily a text-based medium.

But SL is so immersive that it can transmit more than just text, it can transmit entire cultures. So you see this very interesting effect where people from other countries are quite eager to interact with each other, similar to the way people are quite keen to travel if they have the opportunity.

Argentonia

Ginsu’s remarks resonated strongly with an experience I had doing a little tourism on Second Life just recently. I met, and spent some time with Dmian (pictured above), who showed me around the new Argentonia sim. I had come to find out about the virtual elections to be held there. They were blogged by Pablo Mancini. But, after meeting Dmian, not only did I get an insider view on the elections both in Real Life and Second Life, but I experienced a taste of the Buenos Aires music scene. Dmian Munro has started a virtual band in Second Life. Please check out his video blog and myspace.

There is much more to say about this experience and Argentonia, so I will return soon. But, please see the Argentonia blog and this video to get the flavor of a mixed reality event Argentonia style. I mentioned Argentonia to Ginsu. And, he said he had not heard about this sim yet. Second Life is expanding so fast no-one, not even a God can keep up!

Linden Lab’s Global Provider Program

I asked Ginsu what he thought it was about Second Life that makes SL more pervasive, or even Web 3D.

Ginsu replied:

This is just my opinion – in each country, the best efforts will really be made by local providers who will build locale-appropriate content on the Second Life grid. I would not say that SL has to be “more” or a “replacement” for anything. People are always obsessed with declaring something else dead. But look at the media landscape today – oral tradition, books, plays, radio, TV, movies, Internet – each of these things was supposed to be the “death” of something else – and yet we still enjoy all of them.

I asked Ginsu whether when he said local provider he meant the Kaizen model. Kaizen has recently launched Second Life Brasil:

Yes, Kaizen is the first to launch in the global provider program.

I continued: “And, what has made them successful?”

First of all, they are very committed to the effort and willing to move quickly and flexibly. They have spent a lot of time understanding their goals in SL, and have built their own tools to manage their efforts.

I have always believed that it is folly for anyone to believe that a company in SF is going to know what everyone around the world wants. The likeliest source for local product is local providers.

“How do you feel Linden Labs are giving Global Providers maximum autonomy and the benefits of being on the Second Life grid? Are there lag problems from the server farms being so far away?”

I think the point of SL as a service platform is that it should be maximally configurable to the needs of the local provider. There can be several local providers in a single market, they can compete on their services and configurations, let the market decide what works. Yes, local servers would improve some aspects of performance. That’s a frequent request and one which we’d like to satisfy. Like anything, it takes some work to accomplish.

“And you can satisfy that before LL goes open source right? The two are not mutually dependent?” I asked.

I don’t think the two are mutually dependent.

Right at the beginning of our conversation, I asked Ginsu when Second Life would go open source server side. I sort of blurted the question out the minute I saw him hoping, of course, for a major Ugotrade scoop! And, he said:

We have generally announced our ambition to open source server code. However, this is in the speculative stages and I can’t commit to any time-line yet.

Certainly we think open sourcing server code would be a very compelling way to spread SL.

There are many people who said we would never open source the client. I suppose if you look at our track record, it sometimes takes us quite a while to deliver on our ambitions. However, I think it would be unfair to say that we don’t try to achieve what we’ve promised.

Oh well, I was a little disappointed not to rock the blogosphere with some big news. But, maybe next time!

Since the interview I have spent some time thinking about the global provider program and trying to understand more about it. It is clear that even key Second Life movers and shakers find it less than self evident.

Second Life Portugal?

Gwyneth Llewelyn, important metathinker on Second Life, and Business Manager of Beta Technologies had a number of comments when I asked her about the global provider program:

Well… the issue that we ask is: why a “global provider program” at all? The client can be tweaked easily (it already supports Portuguese by default) The registration API already allows you to create whatever accounts you wish, from your own website, and you can have avatars dropping on “your” island. So… what this program gives you, is mostly a discount on islands (negligible — people like Anshe Chung get better) and being allowed to use LL’s “Second Life” logo, with some restrictions, on the site. As for how successful Kaizen is, I have no idea, but they surely have a HUGE continent!! …… That’s why we’re being careful ourselves… we don’t want to be “SL Portugal” unless we understand what that means (it’s not our core business, although we have the means to do that if we think it’s worth it )

What this will allow is providing added value ie. customer support and targeted content towards specific communities. In essence, what Anshe (and so many others) have been doing for years now.

This is only a tiny snippet of what Gwyn had to say on this issue. She made many astute observations on this and other key debates re the growth of Second Life, including the hot issue of the interpretation statistics. If Gwyn doesn’t write up the rest of these observations herself, I will in a later post! Gwyn has a fascinating post up at the moment on the growth of Second Life in Portugal and the recent conference on Second Life held locally, at the University of Aveiro, 1º Workshop on Communication, Education and Teaching. This is a must read for all interested in education, culture, and commerce on Second Life. Gwyn notes:

people [in Portugal] are getting their master’s thesis and doctorates in Second Life. Very surprising for a country which practically just had one representative (Eggy Lippmann) for a couple of years and still has only 50.000 users on SL today — many of which quite recent, as the Portuguese media just “woke up” to Second Life less than half a year ago.

Here’s Jorge Lima a.k.a. Eggy Lippmann.

I also chatted with Aleister Kronos and Veejay Burns about the Global Provider program. And, Aleister did have some thoughts. Veejay was exhausted after a long day in Real Life and retired early. I will let him break the interesting news about what he accomplished in RL! Aleister blogged Kaizen for 3pointD.

The three of us could see some special features that Kaizen offered Brasilian Second Lifers. For starters, you can’t buy L$ thru Linden Lab using Brazillian Reals, but you can through Kaizen. Although there has been some concern in the blogosphere about this. Meta Bronca wrote: “Many users felt wronged by the potential currency exchange monopoly established by the partnership IG-Kaizen.”

The blogosphere seems well overdue for a post (is there already one I don’t know about?) on the state of virtual currencies, and the global implications of their development.

Al pointed out that Kaizen actually gives IT support to a Second Life viewer also. Anshe Chung, The Electric Sheep Company and others have created portals, but do not supply a modified viewer. If there is a bug in the viewer a Brasilian reports it to Kaizen. So Kaizen is an IT service too.

The Linden Lab Global Provider program is just starting out, so I am sure we will be hearing more about it in the future.

Second Life Africa?

Ginsu Linden mentioned that Linden Lab has interest from several countries in Europe and Asia. I was disappointed not to hear Africa on the list yet. But, after reading this post Ginsu sent this encouraging message:

We actually have gotten inquiries from Africa as well. It’s been busy here.

I picked up a story on Ugotrade from Mutumwa Mawere in a previous post. Mawere writes in his column in Zim Daily about the benefits virtual worlds in general, and Second Life in particular, might bring to Africa. And, I recently read an interesting post on African Computer Game Development. In particular, Africa the MMORPG a project reportedly in limbo seems very interesting.

Some Cool Upcoming Second Life and Mixed Reality Events.

From Keystone Bouchard:

June 14, 10AM PST Chris Luebkeman : Future Challenges: Global Creative Contexts

Population shifts, increasing scarcity, and the wanton consumption of arable land and natural (renewable and nonrenewable) resources amount to what could prove to be a significant global dilemma – a dilemma of disastrous proportion. Yet trends in design and an ever-increasing focus on conservation and environmental issues suggest that we are headed for a collective change. This program considers the impact of global drivers of change on sustainable creative contexts, explores potential implications, and provides attendees with examples of design work that is already responding to the challenges.

Attend this event on Autodesk Island HERE (SLurl).

Also see the Autodesk press release.

Sergio Palleroni and Phil Bernstein on Architectural Sustainability last Thursday on Autodesk Island.

Check out Clear Night Sky for the discussion Sergio Palleroni and Phil Bernstein gave on Autodesk Island.

And in New York City!

For more see The Cruxy Blog.

I spent some time hanging out in the Cruxy Sky Box on Second Life yesterday. It was a lot of fun. And, I saw how Second Life may well be becoming THE happening place for hip bands to express themselves. I have to admit I haven’t been paying enough attention on this front. And, just a few of the things that Nat Mandelbrot mentioned in my short visit re creating experiences around the music in Second Life, e.g., fan made music video and reinventing “album art,” got my imagination firing. I will post more on this.

Fizik Baskerville (a.k.a Justin Bovington) says:

“Web + TV + Print + Virtual Worlds = Powerful”

This week Virtual Life and World 2.0 entered a new era with Destroy TV and virtual lifelogging in full swing, and the opening of the Sky News sim on Second Life. Sky News launched with a live event and live simulcast from the Guardian Hay Festival. Sky News has partnered with Rivers Runs Red on this watershed project for Second Life. And, the impressive Second Life replica of the real life Sky News headquarters was packed for the launch.

Web 2.0 is a mindset that leaves behind the negative forces of monopolies, and one-way communication. Web 2.0 is not a new version of the internet but the coming of age of the original vision of the internet to serve the interaction and cooperation amongst people (see Daniel Orsolic). And, it will be very interesting to see how Sky News develops 2.0 concepts, e.g., citizen journalism, user generated content on Second Life. For a good round up of a range News 2.0 phenomena see, “What is news 2.0 to you?” It is very exciting to see mainstream news media beginning to explore the collaborative potential of Second Life.

The 2.0 view has now been expanded to all aspects of our world – you can google news 2.o, sex 2.0 (I didn’t actually check the links on this), and enterprise 2.0 – lots of buzz about that (and if you want an inside view on what enterprise 2.0 is about check out IBM on Second Life). And, then there is World 2.o to encompass all the 2.0ed phenomena.

The 2.0 movement can be understood as a drive to revise the world into something better (Orsolic). And, part of the magic of Second Life is that the social and immersive qualities of SL are the quintessential expression of the 2.0 principles of user generated content, community, and collaboration – the heart and soul of 2.0 culture.

I was fortunate to log on, Sunday, at almost the exact same moment that Fizik Baskerville (a.k.a. Justin Bovington), CEO and Executive Creative Director of Rivers Runs Red, arrived in Sky News on Second Life after a 5hr road trip back from the live event (picture above). And, despite being, “at it for 48hrs,” he took the time to talk to me. Also, I saw on my Twitter stream that he even visited Destroy TV later! As the live event was held in the morning, UK time, I missed it. I am a New Yorker, and while virtual worlds herald the death of geography, I am not ready yet for the end of sleep!

But, Epredator, Andy Remblai and Aglernon Spackler from IBM (see Eightbar ) were all there, and three Lindens. And, you can catch up with what happened at the event on Second Life on the
Eightbar blog. Also see a very good post on MindBlizzard, and Sky New’s own advert/machinima for the event. The video grabs below are from this. On the right is Justin Bovington.

Rivers Runs Red now has a team dedicated to Sky News 24/7. Justin explained to me:

a dedicated content team will be on hand for updates – just like breaking news it need to be a 24/7 approach. We’re going recreate scenes when needed. We could in the future reproduce courts etc. Augmented reality – we are really into that. We have partnered with Sky News because they want to explore it too…..adding value, as in Second Life compliments, not detracting from another medium.

We can now step into the news room as it happens. The headlines are specially updated 5 times a day. Future events like the Hay Festival will also be incorporated, plus a lot of surprises to come. Sky News is very excited you just had to watch Sky News over the weekend to see the enthusiasm for all this [also see Adam Boulton’s Weblog].

The Level Playing Field and The End of Geography

On Thursday of last week, I went to hear Mitchell Kapor (avatar on the right) and Philip Rosedale speak about The Level Playing Field Institute and Second Life. Philip Rosedale described how:

He was lucky enough to find Mitch at a time when no-body really would have gotten behind what we were doing – the idea of Second Life itself was something that was just outright crazy at the time that Mitch first made his investment in Linden Lab. And, for several years to follow, when Second Life was but a few hundred people using it, Mitch and a small group of angel investors that he inspired were the ones who believed.

Philip Rosedale spoke on the role of Second Life in creating a better world.

Second Life is changing the world, at least in part, by lowering the barriers to doing things for a lot of people around the world. There are people who are able to learn new things, and make new careers for themselves, to change their lives fundamentally because they have access to this environment in which the costs of doing things are reduced to almost zero. And, the barriers between people and the kind of reasons and judgments that people make about each other are virtually eliminated. And, we are left in this new world in which we all have the same opportunity. And what we are seeing in Second Life is that if you give everybody the same opportunity everybody does well. And that’s something that is very exciting and maybe surprising to some people out there in the world to see. But, it isn’t surprising at all for me. And, I really know it isn’t surprising for Mitch, and for The Level Playing Field Institute.

Mitchell Kapor spoke on the “death of geography”

We have lived under the tyranny of geography for all the millennia of human history. And, if you wanted to get together with people you really had to be in the same room. I am in a room full of people and I am part of an event on Second Life………..this is the future that we are making together. You are all pioneers in how we will make this new world.

Then, via IMs to Brainy Aleixandre of the Levelers (the LPFI’s Second Life group), Mitch Kapor fielded questions about the work of The Level Playing Institute. To learn more, please go to the web site. Mitch Kapor presented an open invitation for dialogue and collaboration. Also, see The Levelers blog.

In response to a question that came in from Real Life from a student in SMASH (see picture below from Smashcast blog), “What was the spark you saw in Philip?” Mitch made some interesting comments. Some things he mentioned were:

passion, determination and creativity …… and in addition [Second Life] has never been just a business, never been just about making money, building something bigger, or being successful. Integral, and we saw this very early on, was that it was about making a difference, about making a better world. And, we also see that from our students [in SMASH].

SMASH (Summer Math & Science Honors Academy) is one of the innovative projects to come out of The Level Playing Field Institute.

World 2.0 and Virtual Life

The virtualization of life – the joining of physical and virtual space in meaningful ways – begins to manifest the full possibilities of a 2.0 world. Something that is quite unexpected to some people is that this, the linking of the virtual and the physical, is the key to creating a sustainable future.

Bruce Sterling imagines how computers can help us find a way out of an industrial society that is not sustainable and is thoroughly inequitable.

The Emergence of Virtualized Communities

Many projects are still in the research stage. See Ian Hughes’s report on his visit to Tweakfest, and the IBM Zurich Lab, for some interesting examples of research into linking physical and virtual space. The work of Jeffrey Huang and his Swiss House project seemed particularly interesting to me.

The aim here to connect swizz ex-pats with their home country and fellow swiss in other countries. This ‘house’ is in Cambridge, MA between Harvard and MIT. The aim is to create a physical space but have the presence and linkages to other spaces, not by one video conference screen but lots of types of walls, projections, virtual/real world tools.
There are some pictures here of the sort of space created.

Uber Lifelogger

Then there is MyLifeBits, the ultimate lifelogging project from the legendary computer scientist Gordon Bell.

For the past seven years, Bell has been conducting an audacious experiment in “lifelogging”–creating a near-total digital record of his experience.

For an excellent report and a guide on How To Build Your Own MyLifeBits see Fast Company. And, if you really get inspired, you can follow some links in earlier posts on Ugotrade that will give you clues on how you could virtualize your data on Second Life in meaningful ways!

Virtual Space is the New Infrastructure:
Africa Pioneers Mobile Banking.

The development of mobile banking in Africa is showing that economic obstacles created by lack of physical infrastructure and difficulties with currency exchange can be overcome by innovative use of the mobile virtual space. Trading in minutes is so successful in Africa that major banks are setting up m-banking divisions (thanks Neil Caudwell for this link).

GigaOM writes:

While, most in the developed world fret about developing elegant and complex mobile transaction systems – folks who need mobile banking figure out things on their own. Using a little bit of common sense.

Read the full story over on iAfrica.com

Enterprise 2.0 meets Sports 2.0 for a Virtual Tennis Match

As Tara5 Oh, I went to IBM 7, Monday morning, where I met Andy Remblai, Laronzo Fitzgerald (builder and scripter), and Iorek Rasmuson – a tennis fan interested in technology who said he’d come to watch another Second Life first:

I’ve used the IBM online scoreboard for Wimbledon before and I guess this is the next generation.

Andy and Laronzo were working on the build which is open to the public, but still in an early experimental stage. Iorek and I were enjoying virtual tennis despite the appalling weather at Roland Garros. And, it was very interesting meeting the IBM virtual architects (see the IBM on Demand Scoreboard here).

Ian Hughes, who has pioneered this tennis project with others at IBM, sent me a message from Second Life earlier, in response to my questions about when tennis on Second Life would open to the public:

The tri board has schedule, completed matches and matches in progress, the main court will be showing live current match (all being well) or a replay of a match some videos and other things around. We are doing this quite gently as its the first tennis one we have gone public with.

Ian Hughes now has a post and video up describing Tennis in Second Life – Roland Garros. And, 3PointD has an interesting interview with Epredator (Ian Hughes). Virtual journalist, Walker Spaight, does some participatory exploration. Epredator invites you to come on over and take a look.

I mentioned earlier in this post that if you want experience enterprise 2.0 from the inside you may want to visit the IBM sims on Second Life. The IBM Impact 2007 SOA (Service Oriented Architecure) conference (see my earlier post) was an extraordinary example of the convergence of enterprise culture, 2.o thinking, and virtual worlds. SOA is particularly interesting re an understanding of Enterprise 2.0. SOA might be described as IT solutions with a Web 2.0 attitude. Although, there are convergences and divergences between SOA and Web 2.0 as Dion Hinchcliffe explains.

Be there!

The Destroy Television project continues, and it seems anything can happen and does. I dropped in this weekend and found out that hanging with Destroy seems to be a good way to meet interesting people.

Tags: Virtual Reality | Augmented Reality | Mixed Reality | Second Life | Virtual Worlds | Web 2.0 | Enterprise 2.0 | News 2.0 | Sports 2.0 | World 2.0 | The Internet | Sky News | The Hay Festival | Philip Rosedale | Mitchell Kapor | Gordon Bell | SMASH | The Level Playing Field Institute | Destroy TV | Lifelogging | Business 2.0 | Virtualized Reality | Virtual Life | Virtual Communities | Virtual Banking | Mobile Phones in Africa | m-banking |