The Click Heard Round the World

Celebrate Your Freedom, Americans!

Happy Independence Day, fellow Americans!  Hurray for freedom, democracy, and fries!

Video: Rik on Metanomics Show yesterday

For those interested in seeing me speak on the USC Public Good in SL Community Challenge yesterday on the Metanomics Talk Show in Second Life, SLCN.tv has released a quicktime video of the entire show.  It's kind of a long download, so I recommend cueing it up and fast-forwarding to around the half-way point to cut to the chase.

The rest of the show is really interesting as well, touching in intellectual property issues in virtual worlds, hacker and gamer culture, and a review of the new Age of Conan MMORPG.  Check out the entire show here.

Global Kids teens produce machinima film on educational racism in China, Brazil and the US

I'm proud to announce that our teens in our Virtual Video Project at Global Kids are about to unveil their latest machinima film on how racism effects access to education in three countries: China, Brazil and the United States. The film, "Race to Equality", will premiere on Thursday, June 26th, at 6:00 pm at the Sony Wonder Technology Lab in Manhattan. The public is welcome to attend the free screening, but seating is limited.

The Sony Wonder Technology Lab is located at 550 Madison Avenue (at 56th Street).

Click on the jump for the complete press release...

AMD ad campaign features Global Kids "Playing 4 Keeps" program!

The computer processor maker AMD launched today the "Changing the Game" ad campaign at http://innovation.amd.com/learn/. I'm proud to say that this campaign prominently features Global Kids' Playing 4 Keeps game program and will also be running in upcoming issues of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Austin American Statesman.    The latest P4K game being released soon, called "Tempest in Crescent City," will focus on the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina.  Can't wait to play it!

Other non-profits supported by AMD are Girlstart (Austin, TX), Institute for Urban Game Design (Washington DC), Science Buddies (Carmel, CA) and Games for Change (New York, NY).

2 jobs available for community development project in Boston using Second Life

Gene Koo of the Berkman Center at Harvard wanted me to pass around these job notices for an innovative project called "Hub2":

"Hub2 seeks to enable local neighborhoods to participate more meaningfully in the design and development of their own public spaces. Residents engage in a process that employs 3D tools and  problem-solving techniques to articulate a common vision reflecting the participants’  values. Over the next 3 months, Hub2 will work with Allston residents and stakeholders, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and Harvard’s Allston Development Group to design Library Park. Hub2 seeks enthusiastic and community-minded staff to pioneer this cutting-edge program. "

Hub2 is looking for a "Youth Coordinator" and "Project Coordinator." Check the two job descriptions for more info or visit http://hub2.org/.

OECD wants to know how the internet can make the world a better place

Here's an interesting use of online video to facilitate public participation in international policy making.  The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has asked the "YouTubers" to submit their visions of how the internet can be used to "make the world a better place" which will be responded to by member states of the OECD.  This is done to coincide with the OECD Ministerial Meeting on "The Future of the Internet Economy" in Seoul Korea. 

I hear that you only have seven more days to submit your question.  So get those webcams rolling!  I'll try and think of something smart to submit -- probably something on supporting new forms of democracy and citizen engagement using ICTs.

VIDEO: Justice Sandra Day O'Conner spearheads "Our Courts" initiative at Games for Change Festival

The honorable Justice Sandra Day O'Conner just gave the keynote address at this year's Games for Change Festival at the New School.  Justice O'Conner announces that she is spearheading the launch of a new interactive website called "Our Courts" that will help educate young people about the judicial system in the United States. The project is being guided by the always impressive James Paul Gee, which assures me that it will be implemented in a way that best integrates youth interests, concerns and motivations.

Justice O'Conner notes that by next September the fundamental aspects of "Our Courts" will be available on the website.

I am uploading video of her talk now, which hopefully will be available soon at this link.

Where to find non-profits in Second Life

A crowd of non-profit folks at an NPC regular friday gathering

For the past few days, I've been compiling information and consulting others to find out where all of the main pockets of non-profit groups and networks can be found in Second Life.  Follow the teleport links to see the amazing diversity of social benefit activity that goes on in the metaverse.  This doesn't even include all of the non-permanent, one-off stuff that happens nearly every day in Second Life -- from benefit concerts for individual SL residents to workshops on important social issues.  Here is my (tentative) list of non-profit spaces where you can find several groups gathered on a single sim or island:

• Better World Island (teleport link): A funky, eclectic sim hosting among other builds the amazing Camp Darfur (teleport link).
• Commonwealth Sim (teleport link and website link and social network site): A lovely wooded sim that hosts dozens of non-profit groups representing environmental, political, and social welfare groups from around the world.
• Kula sims (Steleport lin): Four sims loosely associated with Creative Commons and Joi Ito that are often made available for ad hoc, non-profit efforts.
• Info Island Archipelago (teleport link and website link): Amazing archipelago of seemingly hundreds of libraries and non-profits organized by the Alliance Library System under the leadership of Lori Bell.
• New Media Consortium (teleport link and website link): NMC works with both for-profit and non-profit entities related to education, including many major universities and research institutes. 
• Non-Profit Commons (Plush Nonprofit Common teleport and  Aloft teleport. website:nonprofitcommons.org) :Home to about 80 non-profits from around the world, and host of a fun weekly gathering of groups every friday at 8:30AM PST.
• Progressive Island (teleport link): As you can imagine, home to politically minded groups on the left end of the spectrum, including the leftist bloggerfest YearlyKos in SL.

Other notable islands:

• OneClimate Islands (teleport link): Primarily focused on activities of OneClimate group, but plans to host several groups focused on climate change.
• SL Relay for Life / American Cancer Society (teleport link and website): The much celebrated Second Life Relay for Life organizes hundreds of individual parties, fashion shows, art gallery openings, auctions and of course a relay  to benefit the American Cancer Society.

For a more comprehensive listing of individual non-profits in SL, see the Non Profit Commons wiki page.  Feel free to add and supplement the info there, which is what a wiki is for!

Use these links, the next time someone says that Second Life is all about gambling and sex.

Teaching teens about Darfur in Second Life

Last night I helped out my colleague Shawna with the "Deconstructing Darfur" workshops that she has been facilitating this month in Teen Second Life.  The goal of the workshops series is to help a small group of young people to learn about Sudan, the conflict and resultant humanitarian crisis there, what the international response has been and finally to design their own activist effort from within Second Life.  Yes it's ambitious to say the least, like everything we do at Global Kids.

We were fortunate enough to have two great speakers come into the Teen Grid (well, at least speak via streaming in Skype chat) to engage with the workshop participants.  The first speaker was Catherine Wagner of the Save Darfur Coalition, speaking about her work with high school students around the United States.  She gave lots of great ideas for actions that the teens could take.  Then we brought in Mohsin Mohi-Ud Din of Human Rights First, talking about in particular the role of China in providing small arms to Sudan while also profiting enormously from Sudan's oil reserves, found largely in the Darfur region.

It's always great seeing the teens engage with the material and ask hard questions of the guest speakers.  Now they are all fired up about China, so we'll see what social action results from this.

YouTube issues me a "non-takedown" notice for violating copyright for machinima video?

I just got a notice of violation of copyright from YouTube for one of my machinima videos, which you can see above.  Instead of the usual takedown notice though, here's what they sent me:

UMG has claimed some or all audio content in your video Elfay Pinkdot's Jazz Party in Second Life. This claim was made as part of the YouTube Content Identification program. Your video is still live because UMG has authorized the use of this content on YouTube. As long as UMG has a claim on your video, they will receive public statistics about your video, such as number of views. Viewers may also see advertising on your video's page.

The copyright holder, Universal Music Group , is asserting ownership of the audio track that I use on the machinima video noted above.  I'm clearly in the wrong, since I don't own the rights to use this song in my video.  But instead of yanking the video, UMG is allowing me to continue to use the track, as long as they can put advertising alongside it on YouTube. 

I guess this represents a positive step forward?

The full notice from YouTube follows.  (Yes, I know I should have turned off the UI before shooting the video.  It was one of my first machinima!)