voyeurism

sprachlos

umm...

:-P

a tribute to the volunteers and builders of the SS Galaxy Community Gateway in Second Life

this video commemorates the Community Gateway of the cruise liner SS Galaxy in Second Life.

the Gateway welcomed newbies and provided them with an Orientation experience, between 11 May 2009 and 19 August 2010. in total, approximately 25000 new avatars visited the Gateway over this period.

the cruise liner SS Galaxy herself remains open to welcome you, as part of the United Sailing Sims adjoining the Blake Sea in Second Life.

the soundtrack to the video is an original composition by Ludvaig Lindman, and is entitled Seasons - Piano Solo.

the accompanying Flickr set is here.

the Orientation was designed and built by DBDigital Epsilon, Sanspareil London, Dacob Paine, kirilvalkanov Runner, NikolaDamyano Absent, and Veritas Raymaker.

volunteers included alf Nagy, Avotar Newey, Connor Whitman, Crystalmom Bunnyhug, Drago Xenga, esti Brandi, JC Macintyre, Kureha Emerald, LuNaTiX Rossini, Mikhail Zeitman, ricky Rebane, Shadow Faith, and sporting Arriaga.

the Captain and crew of the SS Galaxy owe a debt of gratitude to all who invested of their time and energy to make the Community Gateway of Galaxy Quest a place where so many happy memories were made :-)

on trust and branding in the age of social media - a study in contrasts

this morning, i experienced an interesting contrast in understandings of trust and branding, at two separate dealerships in the local car industry here in Singapore.

both visits were spontaneous, and - therefore- unannounced.

at Trans Eurokars (i'm deliberately not including the hyperlink, as any publicity can be construed as good publicity), they had brought in a left-hand-drive unit of one of their new models, as a preview for potential customers (while the right-hand-drive units were being homologated by the local regulatory authorities).

i arrived at the showroom actually pretty keen on being positive about the car, as i nearly bought its predecessor back in 1999, and my cousin actually owned two.

i was therefore quite prepared to overlook the fact that the rear lamp units had obviously poor panel gaps, as water had clearly condensed in them; further, i didn't really mind that the boot couldn't be opened because the battery had ostensibly run flat.

after about ten minutes in the showroom, i was still feeling perky and therefore i remarked to the salesperson that i would like to take a photo - i made this remark more as a courtesy, than as a request for permission.

the salesperson's facial expression betrayed a lack of understanding and concern, so i went on to attempt to assuage him that "i am trying to help you publicise".

to which he replied that he needed to seek clearance from his supervisor first.

this threw me, and i was further disappointed when i saw the salesperson and his supervisor having a non-brief conversation (with glances in my direction).

i therefore promptly walked out of the showroom and drove off.

*****

i drove to the Citroën showroom, which is managed by Cycle and Carriage.

my intent of going there was actually to see the C3, which is being launched in Singapore this weekend.

when i entered the showroom i was greeted by one of the salespersons - admittedly a friend of mine - who promptly (and totally without any initiating on my part) invited me to drive her own personal car - a newly-delivered DS3 1.6 THP with the 6-speed manual gearbox.

of course, i kindly declined (it was her own car, after all) and thanked her for her magnanimity.

she pressed on, however, so i followed her and got into the passenger seat.

she said "no, you drive" and handed me the keys.

i held the passenger door open for her.

she then floored me with "no, you go ahead on your own - i trust you"

needless to say, i verified with her, just in case i had misheard.

she insisted she was fine with me taking her own freshly-minted DS3 Turbo unsupervised.

*****

the moral of the story?

i had really wanted to promote the car that Trans Eurokars had brought in, but in the end i find myself blogging about my experience at the dealership, for all the wrong reasons - as a direct result of their Ludditic attempt to exercise total control of their brand, based on an anachronistic (mis)understanding of trust and social capital in this age of viral marketing and social media.

the irony is that i as a middle-aged politically-liberal academic, i believe i fit into the typical demographic profile of the marque's target clientele.

in contrast, at Citroën Cycle and Carriage, i went in with no intention of test-driving anything, but was instead entrusted with someone's precious personal car, and given carte blanche to go where i liked, and how i liked.

vive la France :-)

... not a book

it's been four months' in the (hand)crafting, but Scott Nedrelow's rather excellent Book for iPad has finally arrived at my doorstep :-)

chuffed, i am :-)

thank you, Scott, the wait's been well worth it :-)

additional reading:
- la trahison des images (Magritte, 1928-9)

gestalt realities :-)

having come - just as i have - from (what has been described by Grace McDunnough as) the Miracle SLCC 2010, i give you no prizes for guessing what the first thought that came to my mind was, when i saw this sign at Boston's South Station :-)

it literally took me half a minute to appreciate the rorschach-esque provocation of this sign :-P

SLCC 2010 - the best testament

total strangers?

avatar or atomic?

real or virtual?

you be the judge :-)

the power of Second Life to bring people together through shared experiences

SLCC 2010 my presentation on the Six Learnings framework in action (recording)

the one-hundred-and-eighty-fifth episode of ventriloquy is a recording of my talk yesterday on the Six Learnings framework during the recent Second Life Community Convention 2010 (SLCC 2010).

this is a follow-up to episode 160, from which you can access the complete paper.

please do join me as i share my ideas with the very supportive audience both in Boston and in-world, in this 51 MB download.

the links to the YouTube videos referenced, are embedded in the file.

much gratitude to Peggy Sheehy (SL: Maggie Marat) for her excellent facilitation of the session :-)

the Six Learnings of Second Life(TM) in Action (SLCC 2010)

View more presentations from Kenneth Lim.

SLCC 2010 my takeaways from the first day

it's very late as i write this, so i'll just (for now) content myself with journaling the most salient takeaways from the sessions i attended on the first day of SLCC 2010.

from Linda Kelley's (SL: Delia Lake - one of my heroes and inspirations (it was a thrill to get to chat with her in person)) speed-sparks session on 'Almost like being there: Second Life experiences informing Real World action':
- (on Camp Darfur) "i knew all the facts, but facts don't really change behaviour"
- (a good starter-question for learners, aligned with affective learning, would be) "if I lived there, I would ... "
- (a rejoinder) "[the spatiality of Second Life provides] a setting that gives meaning to fact"

from Peggy Sheehy (SL: Maggie Marat) presentation on 'Teaching teens in Second Life: No Avatar Left Behind":
- (on the place and opportunity for reflection in learning in Second Life) "... reflection is _built_in_ into in-world activity ..."
- (on why we teachers invest so much time and money and believe so passionately in what we're doing, with respect to homo ludens (Huizinga, 1971) and ludic architecture) "gaming to learn, to learn to game"

Technorati Tags: assessment, education, games, geography, learning, place, Second Life, Six Learnings, SLCC10

SLCC 2010 Dusan Writer and the Future of Social Geography

Dusan Writer in his keynote at SLCC 2010 yesterday, talked about the future of social geography, in that he was describing a shift away from social media, to social space.

i was quietly cheering him on.

who better to be co-participants in social space and narrative architecture, than geographers in general, and geography teachers in particular :-)

as i post this, it's exactly six hours before my own presentation. if you're reading this and you're at SLCC, i invite you to join me at the Whittier Room. i'd be very pleased to meet you :-)

Technorati Tags: constructivism, education, geography, learning, Pathways, Second Life, Singapore, Six Learnings, SLCC10, Starling Project

SLCC 2010 Philip and the education community have a conversation :-)

thank you, Philip, for taking the time to talk, share, listen, and learn with us.

:-)