Society and Information Technology in Second Life

Wednesdays, January 9 - July 30, 2008, 4-6, SLT/PT, 7-9 pm ET

on Berkman island in Second Life - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Berkman/114/70/25

Course homepage - http://socinfotech.pbwiki.com

 

Instructor: Scott MacLeod (not on Harvard's faculty) = Aphilo Aarde (in Second Life)

http://scottmacleod.com/papers.htm

 

 

 

 

 

30 Apr 2008 Soc and Info Tech class transcript

 

 

[15:59]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Andromeda

[15:59]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Evus

[15:59]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Aphilo

[15:59]  You: Hi All!

[15:59]  Andromeda Mesmer: Hi Boston

[15:59]  Evus Alter: Hello

[15:59]  You: Evus, Andromeda, Boston

[15:59]  Claryssa Schmidt is Online

[16:00]  Andromeda Mesmer: Hi Aphilo

[16:00]  You: I just attended a culture of virtual worlds conference

[16:00]  You: at UC Irvine.

[16:00]  You: One of the interesting things that came to mind for me was

[16:00]  Andromeda Mesmer: I hope you get to report on it to us?

[16:00]  You: . . . is that a multiverse may be emerging

[16:00]  Andromeda Mesmer: I'd agree

[16:00]  You: where individuals and groups are creating virtual worlds

[16:01]  You: - from games to individual worlds -

[16:01]  You: some or many of which may connect

[16:01]  You: in a variety of ways

[16:01]  You: The conference was organized by

[16:02]  You: Tom Boellstorff, in part,

[16:02]  You: who has written the first anthropology of Second LIfe

[16:02]  Juria Yoshikawa is Online

[16:02]  You: called "Coming of Age in Second Life

[16:02]  You: : An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human

[16:03]  You: As the first anthropology of virtual worlds

[16:03]  You: this book is ground breaking

[16:03]  You: It's published by Princeton, and Tom studied at Stanford

[16:04]  You: The book is named after Margaret Mead's famous book "Coming of Age in Somoa"

[16:04]  You: and structured, chapter-wise, after Evans-Pritchards well-known ethnography

[16:04]  You: called "The Nuer"

[16:05]  You: Two other social theorists have begun to explore related aspects of virtual worlds

[16:05]  You: Castronova, partly from an economics perspective

[16:05]  Andromeda Mesmer: There are anthropology groups in SL.

[16:05]  You: and T.L. Taylor from a socioogical perspective

[16:05]  You: In fact, Andromeda,

[16:05]  You: Tom is the editor of the American Antrhopologist

[16:06]  You: which is funding a virtual project in world

[16:06]  You: Tom Boellstoerff's SL avatar name

[16:06]  You: is Tom Bukowski, if you every find anything germane to your interests

[16:06]  You: While Tom is looking at the virtually human,

[16:07]  You: another theme that emerged at this "Cultures of Virtual Worlds" conference

[16:07]  Draxtor Despres is Online

[16:07]  You: at UC Irvine was that of avatar agency -

[16:07]  You: which we've explored in previous classes here

[16:07]  You: Many people at the conference are studying games

[16:08]  You: both from a linguistic perspective - identifying emerging pidgins, and the interesting

[16:08]  You: liguistic emergences due to different keyboards

[16:08]  You: and also the linguistic significance of modal verbs, for example, in gaming environments

[16:09]  You: Programs like OpenSim

[16:09]  You: were not talked about in any papers

[16:09]  You: and only about 7 people there are actively building or developing worlds

[16:09]  You: but the emergence of a multiverse, or metaverse

[16:10]  Boston Hutchinson: What do they use for their software platform?

[16:10]  You: may herald a new phase of internet connectivity

[16:10]  You: Wow - World of Warcraft - and Second Life

[16:10]  You: were most studied, but there are a very large number of games out there.

[16:10]  Boston Hutchinson: Is there an open source version of WoW?

[16:10]  You: And many were touched on

[16:10]  Draxtor Despres is Offline

[16:11]  You: I didn't see one mentioned

[16:11]  You: Also underexamined in this conference was the significance of platforms that allow one to build

[16:11]  You: and the emergence of worlds of building and other innovating tools

[16:11]  You: I find this aspect of virtual worlds most exciting

[16:12]  You: I didin't hear any papers on emerging virtual worlds or tools

[16:12]  You: Were any of you there?

[16:12]  You: Welcome to "Society and Information Technology"

[16:13]  You: http://socinfotech.pbwiki.com is the course's wiki

[16:13]  Andromeda Mesmer: Not me.

[16:13]  You: Tonight we'll continue to examine

[16:13]  Andromeda Mesmer: One more thing to add-

[16:13]  You: the digital divide, continuing from last week

[16:13]  You: Yes, please -

[16:14]  You: Before we begin let's talk a little more about cutlures of virtual worlds

[16:14]  Andromeda Mesmer: A friend said that the various dialects of English in Sl were converging -- so it was harder to tell whether somebody was from the US, UK, Australia -- common abbreviations.

[16:14]  You: which I suspect each of you has some experience with

[16:14]  01 Hifeng: i have Twinity beta account, but i didn't logged in yet...

[16:14]  Andromeda Mesmer: And also pointed out -- that the worlds where you can't build are BORING.

[16:15]  You: In this course in SL, I find the ability to create conversation through type chat a rich, shared, potential knowledge production tool

[16:15]  01 Hifeng: maybe even useless for some uses Andromeda :)

[16:15]  You: For some, Andromeda, I agree, but many find them fascinating

[16:16]  Keane Koga is Offline

[16:16]  You: I would posit that they are different kind of 'flow' experience - vis-a-vis csikszentmihalyi

[16:16]  You: Why did you download Twinity 01 Hifeng?

[16:17]  01 Hifeng: hmmm, Twinity's concept sounds interesting...

[16:17]  You: What innovations do all of you see in virtual worlds, that escite you?

[16:17]  01 Hifeng: it's supposed to be connected to someones rl ;)

[16:17]  You: Can you tell a little about Twinity, Hifeng?

[16:17]  01 Hifeng: so no fantasy accounts like some have in sl

[16:18]  You: I see - but alts - or alternative avatars, etc. - are part of virtual worlds - part of their culture

[16:18]  Draxtor Despres is Online

[16:18]  01 Hifeng: you can have one (?) avatar that represents you based on rl

[16:18]  01 Hifeng: and in-world locations are based on rl cities

[16:18]  Abigail Tinkel is Online

[16:19]  Seeker Schussel: why relish the restriction ?

[16:19]  You: One difficulty, beyond terms of service, and norms, - is that this is difficult to 'regulate'

[16:19]  Seeker Schussel: freedom is the name of the game

[16:19]  01 Hifeng: yes, i believe it could be difficult to regulate xD

[16:19]  01 Hifeng: but it's quite interesting

[16:19]  You: Beyond the ability to build for free in OpenSim and then potentially connect that world to Second Life

[16:20]  You: How else will worlds connect, that people have seen?

[16:20]  You: Open Sim is very similar to SL

[16:20]  You: Here's the web page - http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page

[16:21]  You: And here's the metaverse roadmap

[16:21]  You: http://www.metaverseroadmap.org/

[16:21]  You: where some of what's ahead may unfold

[16:21]  You: Who else goes into other virtual worlds regularly?

[16:21]  You: Anyone?

[16:22]  You: Let's return, then, to the Digital Divide

[16:22]  Evus Alter: When I found about second life I thougth that I had enough to do with my first life

[16:22]  Boston Hutchinson: Just OpenSIm, running on my own computer

[16:23]  Evus Alter: now you tell me that there are more?

[16:23]  You: :) - yes, there are many more

[16:23]  Evus Alter: yikes

[16:23]  Andromeda Mesmer: :) growing and multiplying.

[16:24]  You: and they may all join - which to engage and use, in terms of learning tools, in terms of accessing media - concerts, talks, night clubs?

[16:24]  You: It's an exciting time

[16:24]  Veeyawn Spoonhammer is Offline

[16:24]  Andreas Gundersen: i am wondering how the interface would look like in the future

[16:25]  Andreas Gundersen: logically it schould be easier to operate than 2d

[16:25]  Annette Paster is Online

[16:25]  Andreas Gundersen: more possibilities

[16:25]  You: I think that there are so many possibilities Andreas

[16:25]  You: and this is open to envisioning and innovating

[16:26]  You: What takes off and finds multiple users - SL seems to have around 50,000 regularly, and WoW more

[16:26]  You: isn't obvious

[16:26]  Habchick Kornberg: h

[16:26]  You: I wonder if we'll use something like http://brainfingers.com

[16:26]  You: to communicate with our screens, and for building

[16:27]  Andreas Gundersen: logically the architecture here should represent the flow of information

[16:27]  You: With brainfingers, you use a headband - no phonemes or gestures -

[16:27]  You: to communicate with a screen -

[16:27]  You: you can pick letters from a keyboard to spell things

[16:27]  Andreas Gundersen: but it seem to be a kind of eclectism

[16:27]  You: words

[16:27]  You: Yes, Andreas

[16:28]  You: But the Internet has been shaped by an eclectic process -

[16:28]  You: you could argue that all of the innovations over the past 50 years have been accidental and allowed for synergies and convergences

[16:29]  You: that were selected for because they were cool - a hacker and technomeritocratic ethos shaped the INtenret

[16:29]  You: (I argue this)

[16:29]  ThePrincess Parisi is Offline

[16:29]  You: We explore and find interest new ways of using these technogloeis and shaping new ones

[16:30]  Andreas Gundersen: I look at it another way

[16:30]  Andreas Gundersen: like a virgin ground to implement ideas

[16:30]  You: Jonathan Zittrain - of the Oxford INternet Institute, and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School

[16:30]  Andreas Gundersen: develop methods

[16:30]  You: worries in his recent book about "The Future of the Internet: and How to Stop IT"

[16:30]  Juria Yoshikawa is Offline

[16:31]  Veeyawn Spoonhammer is Online

[16:31]  You: about Lock down - where information appliances become function- focused

[16:31]  Andreas Gundersen: www also was in a stage of chaos - from the design point of view- at the beginning

[16:31]  You: and the creative environment of generative technologies dissappears

[16:31]  You: How do you see it Andreas?

[16:32]  Andreas Gundersen: as a new ground for architects :)

[16:32]  You: Re the WWW, Tim Berners-Lee shaped it basically single-handedly in 1989

[16:32]  Andreas Gundersen: where information is the building material

[16:32]  You: by writing html and http and posting it to a BBS

[16:33]  You: bulletin board system, and graduate students disseminated it

[16:33]  You: Then the browser wars took off, in the early 1990s, that led to the popularization of the Internet

[16:33]  You: There's been an amazing amount of serendipity in the development of the Interent

[16:34]  You: where individuals shape a key technology

[16:34]  You: Yes, Andreas

[16:35]  You: I agree, Information generation and processing are central to the developments

[16:35]  You: of the Information Technology Revolution

[16:35]  Boston Hutchinson: Corporations might want to create function-focused appliances so they can control the business model and revenue, but if users want something else, and startups can build what users want, the users should win--as long as a monopoly or duopoly (like ISPs) doesn't get control.

[16:36]  You: Very much so Boston

[16:36]  You: Jonathan Zittrain suggests that this process can lead to sterile technologies

[16:37]  You: Yes, and it's the hackers and programmers and end users that keep the process freedom oriented

[16:38]  You: This course does suggest that there is an information technology revolution that is taking shape

[16:38]  You: and that this paradigm shift is as significant as previous industrial revolutions

[16:39]  You: and to recap a little

[16:39]  You: before turning to the Digital Divide

[16:39]  You: this inforamtion technology revolution's paradigm shift

[16:39]  You: has 5 aspects

[16:39]  You: 1 this IT revolution is about information generation and processing

[16:40]  You: 2 it's pervasive, invades, and influences every domain of socioeconomic action

[16:40]  You: 3. it's characterized by networking, of companies, people, and mentalities

[16:40]  You: 4. it's main quailty is flexibility, where the system is such that it can reorganize and reprogram components without disintergration

[16:40]  You: 5. technological convergence occurs in an intergrated system, which is opening, not closing, and which is only bound by technological development

[16:41]  You: I think these points reflect your thinking Andreas - do they?

[16:41]  You: If you want to read more -

[16:41]  You: http://socinfotech.pbwiki.com/Jan%2023%202008%20Soc%20and%20Info%20Tech%20class%20transcript

[16:41]  You: that's the 3rd transcript from this class

[16:41]  Andreas Gundersen: yes, but i must see a 3d search engine better than google to see the revolution ;)

[16:42]  Seeker Schussel: Hey Al

[16:42]  You: I use the term revolution in relation to previous industrial revolutions

[16:42]  Boston Hutchinson: I agree. The invention of 3D search is really important

[16:42]  You: and in the sense of paradigm shift

[16:43]  You: And, also, the revolution ahead is up to us to shape through innovations

[16:43]  Evus Alter: Each technological revolution has taken us to places not imagined by the creators

[16:43]  You: I think the metaphor of infancy for the Internet development is apt

[16:44]  You: Yes, Evus, and what's significant about them is the idea of synergies -

[16:44]  You: where 2+2=5

[16:44]  You: in the 2 previous industrial revolutions

[16:44]  You: innovations in energy in the first came together to form railroads and factories

[16:45]  You: and after steam and energy,

[16:45]  You: the 2nd industrial brought about astounding synergies in early telecommunications (the radio was in 1876), metals and chemicals

[16:46]  You: But, let's start again with the digital divide

[16:46]  You: Please add comments, questions and observations

[16:46]  You: they enrich the conversation

[16:46]  You: Your general and specialized knowledges and inquiries add greatly

[16:47]  You: and type chat becomes potentially a kind of engine for synergies that may emerge from idea exchange in a virtual world

[16:47]  You: So I think the Digital Divide is best understood in terms of Global Inequality

[16:48]  You: and in last weeks class we looked at a number of aspects of this

[16:48]  Draxtor Despres is Offline

[16:48]  You: http://socinfotech.pbwiki.com/Apr%2023%202008%20Soc%20and%20Info%20Tech%20class%20transcript

[16:48]  You: But now let's turn to the consumption side

[16:49]  You: of looking at the digital divide in terms of global inquality vis-a-vis production and consumption

[16:49]  You: One significant trend that has emerged even more with the info tech revolution

[16:50]  You: is that individualization has increased and extended as a social process

[16:50]  You: in advanced economies

[16:50]  You: and on a part time basis in most of the world

[16:50]  You: And individualization has taken place in urban informal economy

[16:51]  You: accounting for between 50% and 75% of the economy

[16:51]  You: Informal means not covered by labor - and informatic

[16:51]  You: And concurrently, there's a development of over exploatation - an increase of this phenomenon

[16:52]  You: It directly relates to immigration

[16:52]  You: and is realetd to paid child labor outside families

[16:52]  You: Urban child labor

[16:52]  Joseph Tisch is Online

[16:52]  You: may affect 250 milion children between 6 and 14

[16:52]  You: and is one of the main forms of overexploitation

[16:53]  You: It involves a process of reverse integration

[16:53]  You: and - an increase in the criminal economy

[16:53]  You: How you measure teh increase depends on where you start from

[16:53]  SamBivalent Spork is Offline

[16:53]  You: in rich, relatively low exploitation countries,

[16:54]  You: or in poor, over-exploited coutnries

[16:54]  You: The export of illegal immigrants from eastern Europe to western Europe is one example

[16:55]  Abigail Tinkel is Offline

[16:55]  You: where in this instance, a very large % of women are exploited in the form of prostistitution

[16:55]  You: around 2000

[16:56]  Robyn Proto is Online

[16:56]  You: In relation to overexploitation

[16:56]  You: the information economy takes on unique characteristics

[16:56]  You: In terms of global migration -

[16:57]  You: It's more limited than it looks in California, for example

[16:57]  You: IN Europe, there is some increase of immigration, but it's still lmited

[16:57]  You: According to the United Nations, overall, between

[16:57]  ruth Lynagh: wheres yr fox suit?

[16:58]  SamBivalent Spork is Online

[16:58]  You: 150 and 180 million people are venturing outside of countries out of 3 billion potential emigrants is just a fraction

[16:58]  You: But in Africa and Middle East

[16:59]  You: the destination away from the home country

[16:59]  Flux Fotherington: I can't hear you speaking ruth

[16:59]  You: is much greater

[16:59]  ruth Lynagh: yeah i canhear you

[16:59]  You: Let's take a break now

[16:59]  Flux Fotherington: follow me into a less crowded area

[16:59]  You: and come back in ten minutes

[17:00]  Andromeda Mesmer: 10 minutes, OK. We may be disconnected briefly from SL.

[17:00]  You: where we'll look at some mechanisms of these forms of consumption

[17:00]  Michele Mrigesh is Offline

[17:00]  You: See you in 10 minutes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[17:10]  You: Hi All

[17:11]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi

[17:11]  You: Here's the transcript from the first part of the course

[17:11]  You: http://socinfotech.pbwiki.com/April-30-Soc-and-Info-Tech-class-transcript

[17:11]  You: And here's a list of

[17:12]  You: List of massively multiplayer online role-playing games

[17:12]  You: of which, 'technically,' Second Life

[17:12]  You: is one - it's also an emerging society

[17:12]  You: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MMORPGs

 

[17:13]  You: There are lots of virtual worlds - how they

[17:13]  You: will come together as a metaverse, or ir they will are an interesting set of questions

[17:13]  You: Are there any questions or thoughts from the first half of class?

[17:14]  You: This class is a SL group - Soc and Info Tech ~ Aphilo on Berkman

[17:14]  Robyn Proto is Offline

[17:14]  Andromeda Mesmer: Just want to say that the businesswoman, Anshe Chung, is working on ways to transfer money from one synthetic world to another. In SL, she owns a lot of property, and was featured in business stories as the first virtual millionaire.

[17:15]  You: Please join this group if you'd like further notices

[17:15]  You: Interesting

[17:15]  Andromeda Mesmer: She invests in businesses, and obviously thinks this whole areal will be profitable.

[17:15]  Andromeda Mesmer: I mean -- virtual businesses -- what she invests in.

[17:15]  You: At the "Cultures of Virtual Worlds" ocnference I just attended at UC Irvine

[17:15]  You: a number of anthropologists are focusing on that question as well

[17:16]  You: the anthropologist Malinowski in the 1920s

[17:16]  You: in the Trobriand Islands near New Guineau

[17:17]  You: oberserved how ritual arm bands and necklaces took on unique and speciic histories through generations, that become items of value traded in a a kind of economy called a Kula Ring, a ritual trading process

[17:17]  You: I wonder how we'll

[17:17]  You: see measruements of value take on new signficances in virutal worlds

[17:17]  You: Will they always be in terms of currencies ?

[17:18]  Boston Hutchinson: Will anything last for generations?

[17:18]  Andromeda Mesmer: Probably -- barter is not as efficient as currencies.

[17:19]  Boston Hutchinson: Will SL still exist in 20 years?

[17:19]  You: Yes . . . Gold as a standard was separated from currencies in the 19th century

[17:19]  You: There is a frontier quality - is there a better metaphor - in the development of virtual worlds

[17:20]  You: A renaissance quality - where worlds are being born in a kind of cultural, artistic and intellectual flourishing

[17:20]  You: ? - such as occurred in ancient Greece and the Italian Renaissance

[17:21]  You: And how will the creation be made easy and far reaching?

[17:21]  Andromeda Mesmer: Well, the artists have lots of opportunity to be very very innovative. They do things that are impossible in RL.

[17:21]  You: An extremely large number of artists emerged in the Italian Renaissance

[17:22]  You: Expecially in making new tools, languages, and codes

[17:22]  You: infinite possibility?

[17:23]  You: The free programming language "Scratch" developed at MIT, that allows a kind of Drag and Drop programming -good for learning

[17:23]  Draxtor Despres is Offline

[17:23]  You: As more and more folks become capable programmers, we can shape things at will -

[17:23]  Sonja Strom is Online

[17:24]  You: This doesn't happen in a "locked down" environment, to cite Jonathan Zittrain

[17:25]  You: The history of this IT revolution and their effects on society highlight the signficance of these flexibilties around networks

[17:25]  You: To be able to make and sell things in multiple worlds with a common currency will be very significant

[17:26]  You: Does your orc in World of Warcraft want Anshe Chung's new design for housing made in SL and sold from Open Sim?

[17:27]  You: What kind of business plan would bring in consumers from teh developing world to begin to shape their designs, thus rewriting the global socioeconomic geometry?

[17:27]  Alexicon Kurka is Offline

[17:28]  You: But let's return to questions of consumption, especially vis-a-vis the over exploited

[17:28]  You: Boston?

[17:28]  You: Other Questions?

[17:28]  Boston Hutchinson: Is there a lot of labor from the developing world in the virtual worlds?

[17:28]  You: Observations?

[17:28]  Andromeda Mesmer: If you consider China as developing -- yes.

[17:29]  Andromeda Mesmer: There are the Chinese "gold farmers" who work in WoW.

[17:29]  Boston Hutchinson: Are they in SL also?

[17:29]  You: I think companies China have hired Chinese game players to play gaems where individuals can make financial gains in virtual worlds.

[17:29]  You: Yes

[17:29]  Andromeda Mesmer: I haven't heard of them in SL.

[17:29]  You: Does anyone have knowledge of this?

[17:30]  Andromeda Mesmer: We have suspicions about programmers from -- possibly S. Korea or Japan creating programs to get money from camping. If one programmer controls say, 20 such programs, then it would be worth his while.

[17:30]  You: So, vis-a vis the digital divide and global inequality, the trend of massive migration is accelarating

[17:31]  You: I see

[17:31]  Andromeda Mesmer: One thing Anshe Chung has done is hire programmers and artists in her home province of China.

[17:31]  You: Makes sense

[17:31]  Boston Hutchinson: I'm not familiar with pay scales in SL, but would imagine that they don't match RL. And if 3rd world labor (possibly very skilled) gets into SL, a lot of changes could happen.

[17:31]  Andromeda Mesmer: She follows German labour codes, and treats them very well.

[17:31]  You: Building is also scalable.

[17:31]  Andromeda Mesmer: She has an interest in developing her home province, making it more prosperous.

[17:32]  Andromeda Mesmer: Well, some people make enough for a RL living.

[17:32]  You: And she is a significant player in shaping Second Life entrepreneurialism, I suspect, due to her experience and success

[17:32]  Andromeda Mesmer: Anshe Chung makes enough to hire RL programmers to watch her properties -- apparently they are well paid.

[17:33]  You: Data or URLs for this, Andromeda?

[17:33]  Andromeda Mesmer: About the programmers in RL -- in Germany I think -- that was personal communication, that they were very well paid.

[17:33]  You: So, in the last 25 minutes,

[17:34]  Andromeda Mesmer: Other than that -- there have been lots of stories about her businesses in SL, and she also writes.

[17:34]  You: let's continue with migration and mechanisms

[17:34]  You: Yes, she is a kind of legend in SL

[17:35]  You: So the trend of migration as a form of consumption, by the overexploited is continuing

[17:35]  You: And there are 2 kinds

[17:35]  You: 1 People who look for better opportunity - and can leave freely

[17:35]  You: and 2 - those who escape

[17:36]  You: Until now, there's been an accentuaion of inequality with the increase in productivity that has accompanied the

[17:36]  You: information technology revolution

[17:37]  You: So, there is a connection, a direct one, that relates globalization, information technology and poverty.

[17:37]  You: ... vis-a-vis consumption

[17:37]  You: MECHANISMS

[17:37]  You: The global economy is extremely flexible

[17:37]  You: It's based on an organ

[17:38]  You: that's shaped by a network of communication

[17:38]  You: the transportation of which is powered by the World Wide Web

[17:38]  You: Everything that is valued in rich countries

[17:38]  You: can connect to the WWW and the Global Economy

[17:38]  You: and discard the others

[17:39]  You: So what occurs, there is a linking up of what is valuable

[17:39]  You: and a delinking of what is not

[17:39]  Michele Mrigesh is Online

[17:39]  You: And what is valuable changes over time

[17:39]  You: E.G. in Sao Paolo, Brazil,

[17:40]  You: there's the largest concentration of manuracturing employing 20 million

[17:40]  You: It used to be the most advanced industrail city

[17:40]  You: in metal works, in stell

[17:40]  You: but most of the traditional manufacturing

[17:40]  You: and most of Sao Paolo are now trying to survive

[17:40]  You: and work in the urban informal economy

[17:41]  You: In the state of Sao Paolo there are dynamic areas

[17:41]  You: Campasinas - these areas are dynamic

[17:41]  You: and they have University links, especially with biotech

[17:42]  You: But other areas are very low tech

[17:42]  You: int he way they connect with the world

[17:42]  You: And within Sao Paolo - the financial center is connected to the WWW but the other nearby areas are not

[17:43]  You: Provided that the WWW system is so flexible and networked

[17:43]  You: LEAN production is promoted here

[17:43]  You: so that fat is cut - which means devalued work

[17:43]  You: In the Internet it's extermeley important

[17:44]  You: and even in terms of the diffusion of Intenret

[17:44]  You: to be connected

[17:44]  Curious George is Online

[17:44]  You: If you're not, it's like being in the INdustrial economy and not having electricity

[17:44]  You: So the global digital divide

[17:44]  Abigail Tinkel is Offline

[17:45]  You: is Internet-based

[17:45]  Curious George is Offline

[17:45]  You: And uneven diffusion of interent access throughout the world reflects the digital divide

[17:45]  Draxtor Despres is Online

[17:46]  Andromeda Mesmer: Aphilo - worth adding here that the Chinese said, they have slightly more people connected to the internet than in the US.

[17:46]  You: In the early 2000s

[17:46]  You: Thanks

[17:47]  Champler Snook is Offline

[17:47]  You: In 2000 North America had about 42.6% of the worldwide connections - out of a total of 406 million WWW worldwide users

[17:47]  You: - about 6.4% of the world population at the time

[17:47]  You: and western Europe had 24%

[17:48]  You: Asia (including Japan) had 21%

[17:48]  You: Latin America had 4%

[17:48]  You: Eastern Europe had 4.7%

[17:48]  You: the Middle East 1.3%

[17:48]  You: and Africa 0.6%

[17:48]  Daisyblue Hefferman is Offline

[17:49]  You: This represented a static stituation through much of the 1990s, but it is changing

[17:49]  You: The Internet is no longer an American phenomenon

[17:50]  You: And America is now a minority in terms of WWW use

[17:50]  You: Australia has 2.4% of total internet users, with a relatively small populations

[17:50]  You: There are huge differences throughout the world

[17:51]  You: India has increased dramatically

[17:51]  You: Next week, I'll provide sites with current statistics for comparison

[17:52]  Andromeda Mesmer: Here's what the Chinese said April 25 -

[17:52]  Andromeda Mesmer: April 26, 2008 (IDG News Service) China has proclaimed itself to be the world's largest online market, with a total of 221 million Internet users as of the end of February, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported Thursday.

[17:52]  You: In the last ten minutes, are there

[17:52]  You: observations, questions, thoughts?

[17:52]  You: Yes, Andromeda

[17:52]  Jon Seattle is Offline

[17:52]  You: What's exciting and where value is added is in

[17:53]  You: innovation

[17:53]  01 Hifeng is Offline

[17:53]  You: but that also makes business plans less certain

[17:54]  You: And much of the innovation has emerged in countries with legacies of free speech, and knowledge orientations

[17:54]  You: at least at the University levels

[17:54]  You: Where do you think innovation will occur moving ahead, besides in virtual worlds?

[17:55]  You: And what predictions might you make about far reaching innovations ahead?

[17:56]  You: The pace of change and innovation over the past 50 years has been amazing

[17:56]  You: relative to previous industrial revolutions

[17:56]  You: Andromeda?

[17:56]  Andromeda Mesmer: Well, there will be more progress as we more more and more into the virtual environment. You can see this in SL, in their Virtual REality Room -- one of my picks actually. A whole wall of a room in a house presents some scene far away from the person -- like a city, mountain.

[17:57]  Andromeda Mesmer: I was going to arrange for a tour of the Virtual Reality Room when I gave my presentation, but there wasn't enough time.

[17:57]  You: Yes, virtual worlds will see innovation, and the degree, perhaps that this will facilitate remarakable advances

[17:57]  Andromeda Mesmer: However, after tonights discussion is over -- people can go there, see what it looks like

[17:57]  Boston Hutchinson: SOunds interesting. Is it live, like a webcam?

[17:58]  You: in every area of academia - philosophy, law, sociology, anthropology, the languages, the sciences, medicine, is amazing . . .

[17:58]  Andromeda Mesmer: No -- but you can walk around, to a limited degree. It doesn't quite fit into SL because it is far more photorealistic. But it is totally amazing.

[17:58]  Andromeda Mesmer: I had a chance to talk with the owner.

[17:58]  Andromeda Mesmer: He said that would come to RL in about 15 years.

[17:58]  You: Would you like to do a presentation next week in the second half of class, Andromeda?

[17:59]  Boston Hutchinson: OLED wallpaper?

[17:59]  Tom Bukowski is Online

[17:59]  You: We could all teleport there

[17:59]  Andromeda Mesmer: But for now -- if you want to look out over Paris in you SL house -- you buy one of his packages.

[18:00]  You: Interesting

[18:00]  Boston Hutchinson: Interesting. How does it differ from putting a photo of pParis on the wall?

[18:00]  Andromeda Mesmer: Yes, I could do a presentation for next week. I can try to get the owner to say a few words too

[18:01]  Andromeda Mesmer: He is in France, so there may be a time problem. But it doesn't hurt to ask.

[18:01]  You: Great

[18:01]  You: That would be interesting

[18:01]  You: Let's chat during the week about this, but please do ask.

[18:01]  A group member named Spider Mycron gave you Life Heartbeat Gallery, Epirrita (32, 28, 597).

[18:02]  You: Well, I'm staying with friends tonight while traveling so I need to leave.

[18:02]  Claryssa Schmidt: thanks Aphilo

[18:02]  You: Thank you for coming.

[18:02]  Andromeda Mesmer: It might actually be more convenient for the owner to show up to talk at 4 pm rather than 5 pm.

[18:02]  Boston Hutchinson: Thank you!

[18:02]  You: Let's talk about this this week. . .

[18:03]  You: I'll post this transcript . . .

[18:03]  Draxtor Despres is Offline

[18:04]  Claryssa Schmidt is Offline

[18:04]  Boston Hutchinson: I'd like to see the Virtual Reality Room, Andromeda.

[18:04]  Andromeda Mesmer: Would you like to see it now?