Jane McGonigal: Gaming for the Greater Good
"Games are the most elevated form of investigation." - Albert Einstein
Jane McGonigal's core premise "Reality is Broken and Game Designers Can Fix It" is a bold statement. But far from blowing things up, her Avantgames are collaborative environments designed to solve real world problems. These include "A World Without Oil," and the recent "Evoke," a collaboration with the World Bank.
Creativity and Collaborative problem-solving provide the cornerstones of her enterprise.
Here she is at TedTalks.
Jane McGonigal on Gaming for Good by Suzi Boss WorldChanging: Change Your Thinking
Monday, May 17, 2010
Girl Warriors: Dallas Jessup
Sometimes socially conscious viral media emerges from unlikely sources, outside of institutions and non-profits. 15-year old Dallas Jessup, a martial arts black belt at a private school in Oregon, decided to share her self-defense skill set with as many viewers as she could possibly reach following a news report of a girl's abduction and murder from a local mall. Jessup's video, "Just Yell Fire" morphed from a student production to a full-blown professional adult endeavor with donated production talent, and celebrity tie-in participation (two cast members from "Lost"). The video is freely downloadable on the Web, and any girl who requests a DVD receives a pro bono copy. Within a year of its debut in 2007, the site received over 5 million hits, with 415,000 downloads and DVD give-aways. 8.3% of the downloads originated in the Middle East. So what made "Just Yell Fire" take off like wildfire?
Everyday hero(ine)s like Dallas Jessup are beginning to find their way into the Internet newstreams, successfully trending toward viral awareness of their efforts. Yet viral campaigns like these, while boosted by luck and serendipity, do have certain key elements, and the tagline "Just Yell Fire" is part of the catch on success.
Jessup remains a dogged speaker and teacher who continues to amplify her own message through public appearances across the country. Here is coverage of a recent workshop in Portland, Oregon.
Al-True-isms: Al Gore and The Carbon Footprint
Photo of Planet Earth courtesy Apollo 17 crew, NASA, 1972.
In the late 60s, the first photographs of Earth taken from outer space were published for global view. This image of our planet provided a Eureka click of awareness about its startling beauty and fragility in a galaxy of multiple planets and stars. Its appearance coincided with an era of Civil Rights, Women's Rights, and the birth of the modern day environmental movement. In some ways, this marks the beginning of the global brain era, the collective awareness of our interconnectivity within a habitat shared by billions.
In the new millennium, a global warming message found heightened expression through the Internet. With the completion of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" (2007), the greening of American messaging moved from special interests to the mainstream. See the trailer:
Utilizing the three-tier media approach explored extensively in Obama's campaign, Gore's team used the MoveOn.org and TrueMajority networks to spread the word about his film, as well as traditional print and television media sources. The trailer travelled pass-it-on email trails, increasing the buzz. The film not only played to sold-old audiences in movie theatres, it won an Academy Award for Best Documentary, catapulting its message into the homes of millions.
Following his well-publicized chad-driven defeat by Bush and company in 2000, Gore decided to withdraw from traditional politics to become a spokesman not just for one country (the US) but the world, winning the Nobel Prize for his efforts. Here Gore speaks in 2008 on climate change and human behavior.
Additional Reading:
"Top green stories of the ‘00s" Grist, December 2009
The "Yes We Can" of Obama's HOPE
HOPE. So O. So much a part of the 2008 Obama message. There's something resonant about the ring of Obama's name, O-land, the O era, the O-Ring, the land of Open Source networks, web 2.0, the land of Opportunity, and Open door policies.
The cover of the post election cover of The New Yorker of November 17, 2008 featured the ‘O” in The New Yorker illuminated, hovering over Washington, D.C.’s Lincoln Memorial like a full moon beacon, a halo, a wedding ring. It’s as if the American public collectively married Obama’s message. This O-ring represents the inner circle and the outer circle and all the rippling circles in between. It says, “We’re all in this together, this “Yes We Can” moment of change that joins hands with MLK’s “I Have a Dream” and transforms the operative pronoun from “I,” a singleton hero of social change, to the collective ‘we’. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech broadcast on August 28, 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. projected forward to a possibility, a future not yet seen. “I Have a Dream that one day…” and this dream rested on the booming voice of one man, a leader, a singular visionary leader.
Obama’s “Yes We Can” exists in the present tense of possibility, like a mantra of hope, an incantation that transcends the jaded visions of the previous generation. Led by a “we,” the statement is less fragile than “Yes I Can” would have been. A We emerged in the 2008 election as a Grassroots collective, a we enhanced by Internetworks. That We transcends a nation of "I" and "me" to a wikiworld of "we" communities. It is the transitional viral meme of 2008, ushering in a new era of Hope.
Comedy Centralized: Viral Videos and Laughter
As tricksters, fools and clowns from the royal court onward, comedians have served a political role, though often from the sidelines. In the new millennium, the role of comedians shifted in pop culture, due in part to the pass-it-on power of YouTube culture, which has expanded viewership of comedy clips to the tune of millions through Facebook, blogs and email embeds. In the past decade, American comedians have "centralized" in the political arena, taking on censorship, network news, freedom of speech, race, gender and gay rights.
For many, comedians such as Jon Stewart, Tina Fey and Stephen Colbert played a key role during the 2008 elections. Yet the seeds for comedic involvement in politics began in the 2004 election, with Jon Stewart controversial appearance on "Crossfire":
The video clip was viewed and re-viewed by millions as a pivotal shift, when the "Fool" (Jon Stewart/comedian) took on the role of mouthpiece for viewers fatigued by bi-polar politics. Ratings for popular "Daily Show" soared after this episode, and throughout the interval from 2004-2008 both Stewart's show and "The Colbert Report" provided much scathing and hilarious commentary on all things Washington and political.
With the announcement that Sarah Palin, then governor of Alaska, would serve as John McCain's Republican running mate for Vice President, Saturday Night Live's former head writer Tina Fey sprung into parody mode. Her impersonation garnered an Emmy and over 9 million YouTube views. NBC has since disabled YouTube embed codes for these clips, but here is one extant URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE2gE-VVjBI (ah, the Golden Age of YouTube is over!)
Here is Tina Fey's take on her own performance during a 2008 interview on "The David Letterman Show":
While Fey downplays her role in "swaying" the elections in this interview, many commentators credited her with exposing weaknesses in the Palin/McCain ticket.
The viral activity of sharing comedy clips continues, with Comedy Central well aware of the boost in ratings provided by the shareware concept. The major networks, as evidenced by NBC's dismantling of embed codes and the like, are not convinced that freely shared clips fits with their advertising/profit model. It remains to be seen which model works best for longevity in a changing media landscape.
For many, comedians such as Jon Stewart, Tina Fey and Stephen Colbert played a key role during the 2008 elections. Yet the seeds for comedic involvement in politics began in the 2004 election, with Jon Stewart controversial appearance on "Crossfire":
The video clip was viewed and re-viewed by millions as a pivotal shift, when the "Fool" (Jon Stewart/comedian) took on the role of mouthpiece for viewers fatigued by bi-polar politics. Ratings for popular "Daily Show" soared after this episode, and throughout the interval from 2004-2008 both Stewart's show and "The Colbert Report" provided much scathing and hilarious commentary on all things Washington and political.
With the announcement that Sarah Palin, then governor of Alaska, would serve as John McCain's Republican running mate for Vice President, Saturday Night Live's former head writer Tina Fey sprung into parody mode. Her impersonation garnered an Emmy and over 9 million YouTube views. NBC has since disabled YouTube embed codes for these clips, but here is one extant URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE2gE-VVjBI (ah, the Golden Age of YouTube is over!)
Here is Tina Fey's take on her own performance during a 2008 interview on "The David Letterman Show":
While Fey downplays her role in "swaying" the elections in this interview, many commentators credited her with exposing weaknesses in the Palin/McCain ticket.
The viral activity of sharing comedy clips continues, with Comedy Central well aware of the boost in ratings provided by the shareware concept. The major networks, as evidenced by NBC's dismantling of embed codes and the like, are not convinced that freely shared clips fits with their advertising/profit model. It remains to be seen which model works best for longevity in a changing media landscape.
The Optimism of Creative Commons
In April 2010, I saw Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, speak at The New Museum, as part of the Stuart Regen Visionaries Lecture Series. Nerd alert. I thougth I'd buy a ticket and waltz in, but no, it was sold out (an exclusive members' event, so un-wiki-like, really...), but I waited patiently, my name at place #3 on the waiting list...like I was waiting for The Stones or something. Except I finally did get in.
As I was heading down the stairs to the lecture hall, I passed Mr. Wales on the stairwell, chatting on his cell phone. So not a celebrity type, just a normal looking guy, not even a corporate suit. Just a man wrangling with someone who was late to his talk. "So, you're not going to make it, then?" Ok, cool. I saw Jimbo.
Apparently that's how everyone in Wikipedia-land addresses him. "Why'd you do that, Jimbo?" "What's up with that, Jimbo?" There's a level of humble accessibility to the man that actually surprised me, given his level of influence. Did you know that Wikipedia launched a fundraiser this year that raised 7.5 million to keep Wikipedia going? Read the thank you note.
There you'll see his vision statement: "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge." A bold sentence, yes, but well in keeping with the big picture of the entire creative commons philosophy, one which ties in with Elinor Ostrom's research on collaboration and resource management, and runs counter to the fear of scarcity inherent in many modern economies. There is a lot of talk about tribes (and twibes) in internet jargon these days and as new age-y as it might sound, there is a lot of value in spinning these words. The Internet and Creative Commons operate on tribal principles.
Here is the Nobel Prizer winner, Elinor Ostrom, on Commons philosophy (alas, only 10,000 + views...she deserves a better quality video!)
The main takeaway I gleaned from Jimmy Wales' New Museum talk echo the core of the wikipedia philosophy: "it all boils down to trusting people." This is the root system of "the commons." Wales also stated that from his experience working on this collaborative experiment since the early 00s, that "only 1/10th of 1% of people are incapable of collaborating". What do you think of this? Do you find that surprising?
The optimism of this message resonates. In addition to the commitment to collaboration, Wikipedia has not wavered on any form of censorship. Unlike Google, who initially agreed to certain forms of censorship, Wikipedia has never compromised with China or other governments in this way. As a country dedicated to freedom of speech, Americans often lose sight of this key privilege. With the export of Internet technology, and other forms of knowledge-based shareware, the possibilities for a set of global rights akin to those experienced in democracies could be witnessed in our lifetime. Do you agree?
Below is a slideshare presentation by the Chinese blogger Isaac Mao, who has dealt with censorship and continues to share ideas on the Commons....When you click on his name above, you will find a sample blog post in which he addresses the censorship in Bing versus Google and other search engines...
This visual example gives some idea of Mao's core philosophy, if tantalizingly lacking in voice-over:
Despite the censorship of the Chinese government, Mao continues to speak out for free speech, shareware and global educational open sourcing on the Internet. Free speech continues to be a good virus, facilitated by Web 2.0 and beyond.
As I was heading down the stairs to the lecture hall, I passed Mr. Wales on the stairwell, chatting on his cell phone. So not a celebrity type, just a normal looking guy, not even a corporate suit. Just a man wrangling with someone who was late to his talk. "So, you're not going to make it, then?" Ok, cool. I saw Jimbo.
Apparently that's how everyone in Wikipedia-land addresses him. "Why'd you do that, Jimbo?" "What's up with that, Jimbo?" There's a level of humble accessibility to the man that actually surprised me, given his level of influence. Did you know that Wikipedia launched a fundraiser this year that raised 7.5 million to keep Wikipedia going? Read the thank you note.
There you'll see his vision statement: "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge." A bold sentence, yes, but well in keeping with the big picture of the entire creative commons philosophy, one which ties in with Elinor Ostrom's research on collaboration and resource management, and runs counter to the fear of scarcity inherent in many modern economies. There is a lot of talk about tribes (and twibes) in internet jargon these days and as new age-y as it might sound, there is a lot of value in spinning these words. The Internet and Creative Commons operate on tribal principles.
Here is the Nobel Prizer winner, Elinor Ostrom, on Commons philosophy (alas, only 10,000 + views...she deserves a better quality video!)
The main takeaway I gleaned from Jimmy Wales' New Museum talk echo the core of the wikipedia philosophy: "it all boils down to trusting people." This is the root system of "the commons." Wales also stated that from his experience working on this collaborative experiment since the early 00s, that "only 1/10th of 1% of people are incapable of collaborating". What do you think of this? Do you find that surprising?
The optimism of this message resonates. In addition to the commitment to collaboration, Wikipedia has not wavered on any form of censorship. Unlike Google, who initially agreed to certain forms of censorship, Wikipedia has never compromised with China or other governments in this way. As a country dedicated to freedom of speech, Americans often lose sight of this key privilege. With the export of Internet technology, and other forms of knowledge-based shareware, the possibilities for a set of global rights akin to those experienced in democracies could be witnessed in our lifetime. Do you agree?
Below is a slideshare presentation by the Chinese blogger Isaac Mao, who has dealt with censorship and continues to share ideas on the Commons....When you click on his name above, you will find a sample blog post in which he addresses the censorship in Bing versus Google and other search engines...
This visual example gives some idea of Mao's core philosophy, if tantalizingly lacking in voice-over:
Despite the censorship of the Chinese government, Mao continues to speak out for free speech, shareware and global educational open sourcing on the Internet. Free speech continues to be a good virus, facilitated by Web 2.0 and beyond.
The Global Brain
Image from: www.alwaysthetwain.com
The Global Brain Trust
We are part of a collective Brain Trust that now includes Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, Flickr, Tumblr and StumbleUpon, among many other forms of daily use software. Our use of technology as a participatory archive for the human experience is unprecedented. Through these portals, we share personal, national and global news. It equalizes, universalizes and empowers.
We are active participants in an information revolution taking place at exponential speed. The changes are so rapid, and our willingness to adapt so keystroke fast, we are now hard-pressed to imagine a world without Google (1998), Wikipedia (2001), Facebook (2005), or YouTube (2006). How did we communicate prior to the arrival of these user-friendly technologies? And what does their fluent adaptability say about our collective need and desire to communicate, to influence, to participate, and to share? What impact does access to these tools have on our worldview, our sense of possibility?
The mega-speed of social media news streams matches our adaptability to new technologies. We are part of an information revolution without enough time to acknowledge and absorb the pace of the evolution. Messages, suggestions and imperatives course through the multi-leveled Internet airwaves as we influence our circles of friends and they influence us, making us powerful participants in news making.
As a Eureka invention, Web 2.0 has sparked a light bulb of idea-sharing with more people than any other time in history. While akin to the invention of the Guttenberg Press, radio, or television in communications breakthrough, the adaptability quotient has been remarkably fast. The difference is the speed with which it has been adopted. How many years did it historically take technologies to reach 50 million users? Radio? 38 years. Television? 13 years. Even the Internet took 4 years, and the iPod, 3 years. Facebook, on the other hand, added 100 million users in less than 9 months, while iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months. Exponential is an understatement.
The popularity of iPhones and Blackberrys now means that 80% of Twitter activity originates on handheld computer devices. In this way, we have become Human Sensors, reporting on the everyday, everywhere. What this means for citizen watchdogs transcends the Rodney King video phenomenon with a level of upload immediacy and instant broadcast previously unimaginable. For those in the Third World who never had access to landlines or laptops, cell phones are being used as data collectors and mini computers for transmission of important news, often reporting to global recipients what is censored in their own countries. The recent elections in Iran are just one example.
Despite the preponderance of reports on wars, disasaters, epidemics, murders, economic woes--- proliferated by traditional news media outlets, and the gossip tendencies of the tabloids, most people want to share good news. About themselves, their lives, about other people near and far, about leaders, do-gooders, comedians, artists, musicians, heroes and about solutions to the problems and puzzles of sustainability.
Social media and Web 2.0 have allowed millions of people to share their own brand of news, from funny YouTube videos to family photos to reviews of films, restaurants, as well as how-to activism for net neutrality, health care, environmental and social causes of all kinds. People want to be in the Facebook, Stumble Upon hub for social reasons, but because there they find Hope, and info-endorphins in the form of laughter.
With unprecedented access to the Global Brain of information now provided by Wikipedia and Google searches and YouTube, we stand poised as a global civilization to plant seeds for the greater good at an unforeseen level.
Additional Reading: "Subtle Nudges for Social Good" by Alana Conner, Pop Tech, Stanford Center for Social Innnovation
Social Media’s True Impact on Haiti, China, and the World by Ben Parr, Mashable
Social Media: The Viral Revolution
"Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do." --Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, p. 7
Social Media has ushered in a communications revolution. Every day, we contribute to an information stream of multimedia memes and sound bites that is part of a historic shift in technology on par with the invention of the printing press, photography, film, radio, and television. We have adapted so quickly and so seamlessly, it is difficult to imagine a world before Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Is is becoming increasingly clear that the technology itself a viral phenomenon. Marshall McLuhan famously wrote "The medium is the message." As applied to social media the message itself has viral qualities.
In this second clip, Harvard Economist Yochai Benkler, Author of The Wealth of Networks (2006) discusses Internet economies of information and influence. His ideas have been influential in acknowledging and measuring the power and growth of Internet economies of information. While the book is published by Yale University Press, Benkler, a Creative Commons advocate, offers the book as a wiki-esque learning experience for free via wikimedia. (click on title above to access...)
Social Media has ushered in a communications revolution. Every day, we contribute to an information stream of multimedia memes and sound bites that is part of a historic shift in technology on par with the invention of the printing press, photography, film, radio, and television. We have adapted so quickly and so seamlessly, it is difficult to imagine a world before Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Is is becoming increasingly clear that the technology itself a viral phenomenon. Marshall McLuhan famously wrote "The medium is the message." As applied to social media the message itself has viral qualities.
In this second clip, Harvard Economist Yochai Benkler, Author of The Wealth of Networks (2006) discusses Internet economies of information and influence. His ideas have been influential in acknowledging and measuring the power and growth of Internet economies of information. While the book is published by Yale University Press, Benkler, a Creative Commons advocate, offers the book as a wiki-esque learning experience for free via wikimedia. (click on title above to access...)
What Do You Meme?
What is a Meme?
Memes are ideas that replicate from brain to brain, person to person. They are contagious messages capable of shifting human behavior to the tune of thousands, even millions, especially now, in the social media era.
The word "meme" comes from the Greek for "that which is imitated" and shares a root with the Greek Goddess of memory Mnemonsyne, the mother of the nine Muses.
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"Mnemosyne" (1881) by Dante Gabrielle Rossetti
David Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene coined the term "meme" in 1976. A more recent version is Internet Meme, which spans the domain of viral videos, emails, articles and messages which have traveled through the Web. The Dipity site provides real time tracking of cultural Internet Memes.
What remains a mystery is why some memes replicate quickly, why others are slow to catch on, but have staying power nonetheless and why others prove contagious with smaller groups and communities.
Susan Blackmore explains the nature of memes in a TedTalks from 2008. She is the author of the 2000 book, The Meme Machine.
Memes are ideas that replicate from brain to brain, person to person. They are contagious messages capable of shifting human behavior to the tune of thousands, even millions, especially now, in the social media era.
_Rossetti.jpg)
"Mnemosyne" (1881) by Dante Gabrielle RossettiThe human brain contains "mirror neurons," part of our primal design to imitate, to copy ideas. The arrival of web 2.0 software marked a turning point in technology facilitating this aspect of human nature. Social media allows us to replicate memes faster than the speed of lightning.
Susan Blackmore explains the nature of memes in a TedTalks from 2008. She is the author of the 2000 book, The Meme Machine.
What is a Good Virus?
"We have the power to imagine better." --JK Rowling
"Small acts, when multiplied by millions, have the power to transform the world." --Howard Zinn
“What’s a virus? A virus is just a string of nucleic acid with attitude.” --Dan Dennett
A Good Virus is a social media wiki and participatory archive for story-sharing, reporting, linking and how-to demos for creating successful viral messages for the greater good.
It traces successful millennial message campaigns created by social entrepreneurs, visionaries and collectives that have deftly used social media to initiate contagious social change via Web 2.0. Along the way you will encounter viral messages that have taken to the Internet in epidemic ways, pollinating thousands, then millions with their how-to solutions and strategies for possibility, hope, and calls to action.
• Where do good viruses originate? What do they look like? Who starts them?
• How do some messages become epidemic?
• How do social media tools serve as conduits for viral enthusiasm?
• How does a message transform from static noise to sticky meaning that inspires change?
Just as biological viruses use the DNA of the host to replicate themselves, Social Media, including Facebook’s “share” button and the Retweeting of Twitter can easily manufacture viral messages. Web 2.0 software provides a petri dish for duplicating “memes” that can be passed from one computer to another for further pass-it-on replication.
These message-viruses or meme-viruses have the potential to create epidemics of all kinds. The type of content is up for grabs, which is why visionaries have such a unique opportunity to shape the web’s cultural laboratories.
A Good Virus samples social change taglines, images and videos that have been cut and pasted into our digital existence influencing political outcomes, consumption patterns and taste. In this sea of “memes,” ideas pass from person to person to person, taking on a life of their own.
With social media tools adapting and sending messages and new technologies at an exponential rate, as noted by Nick Bolton in a recent New York Times "Bits" blog post "Has Viral Gone Viral?"
Clearly what we say matters to the potency of solving global puzzles of sustainability and justice. A Good Virus is dedicated to spreading the memes of those who are masters of communication for the greater good, who talk the talk but also create nuggets of information that translate in a single spin cycle and lead to significant solutions, actions and social change.
Altruism is contagious. Enthusiasm is contagious. These are the foundations of A Good Virus. It’s a big experiment and millions are playing along, seeking solutions to global community and survival using the most creative tools available. Catch the epidemic.
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