Robin williams Joins the TechSource Blog Team (Part 2)
[13:13] Maxito Ricardo: Now I'm going to spend the rest of the day imagining Info Olympics Events.
[13:13] Greylin Fairweather: lol
[13:14] Maxito Ricardo: Retrocon is the marathon.
[13:14] Maxito Ricardo: Reference is Greco-Roman wrestling
[13:14] Greylin Fairweather: rofl
[13:14] Greylin Fairweather: that would be hilarious
[13:14] Greylin Fairweather: For me the greatest bit of the whole virtual world thing is that, as a parent of 2 kids under the age of 5, I get to be home with them and, frankly, am more productive than I would be in a politics-driven cubicle.
[13:14] Maxito Ricardo: great point
[13:15] Maxito Ricardo: Lots of us in SL seem to have young families.
[13:15] Maxito Ricardo: We have four kids, and three of them are three years old.
[13:15] Greylin Fairweather: and I get access--direct access--to a lot of brilliant minds and thinkers that I would not otherwise get to engage with.
[13:15] Maxito Ricardo: So, often when the kids are in bed, I pop into SL as a way to get away while still being within earshot.
[13:15] Greylin Fairweather: I have a 2 year old and a 4 year old
[13:16] Maxito Ricardo: That must be fun.
[13:16] Greylin Fairweather: Yes! We've left the discos for SL lol
[13:16] Maxito Ricardo: My kids are all hopped up on Easter candy at the moment.
[13:16] Greylin Fairweather: haha mine too
[13:16] Greylin Fairweather: no leaving our kids with unreliable babysitters
[13:16] Maxito Ricardo: no need to invest in nanny cams
[13:16] Greylin Fairweather: exactly, waste gas, etc
[13:16] Greylin Fairweather: Did you go to Life 2.0 at all?
[13:16] Maxito Ricardo: no, I didn't
[13:16] Greylin Fairweather: omg it was amazing
[13:17] Greylin Fairweather: all these guys, Nick Yee, Castronova, whose work I love, right there, super stuff
[13:17] Maxito Ricardo: Oh, I love Castronova's work
[13:17] Greylin Fairweather: and that's the great thing about these places, they're filling with useful interactive content.
[13:18] Greylin Fairweather: Yeah! He talked about the exodus to the virtual world
[13:18] Maxito Ricardo: I agree...perhaps faster than the Web filled up with useful interactive content?
[13:18] Greylin Fairweather: perhaps, the way tech moves
[13:18] Greylin Fairweather: but everything we learn here, can be applied out there.
[13:18] Maxito Ricardo: He studies how VW economic activity is having an impact on the real world economies.
[13:19] Greylin Fairweather: Yeah : ) Loved Synthetic worlds
[13:19] Maxito Ricardo: Hey, we could blame the current recession on SL!
[13:19] Greylin Fairweather: lol nah
[13:20] Greylin Fairweather: although...I would spend more money out there, if it made me look that much better with a click
[13:20] Maxito Ricardo: lol
[13:19] Maxito Ricardo: What do you think librarians will be doing in VW's in, say, ten years?
[13:20] Greylin Fairweather: I think that they'll be interactive testing grounds that help us make or improve quality interactive, participatory libraries.
[13:20] Greylin Fairweather: I love the whole third space concept
[13:21] Greylin Fairweather: and anyone who has been in here reads it and thinks, yep, that is what this place is.
[13:21] Maxito Ricardo: VW's are a quick, inexpensive protyping lab.
[13:21] Greylin Fairweather: Where can I safely meet strangers and exchange ideas?
[13:21] Maxito Ricardo: right
[13:21] Greylin Fairweather: They are, and most useful when we carry the ideas out
[13:22] Maxito Ricardo: I've only felt really creeped out in SL only once.
[13:22] Maxito Ricardo: I guess I need to get out more often!
[13:22] Greylin Fairweather: haha
[13:22] Greylin Fairweather: Well and you can always teleport here
[13:22] Greylin Fairweather: Dr. Loertscher was telling me that video games were being blamed for all sorts of ills, obesity, etc
[13:22] Greylin Fairweather: but I think the truth might be somewhat the reverse
[13:23] Maxito Ricardo: yes, teleportation adds a certain edge to any in-world interaction
[13:23] Greylin Fairweather: lol
[13:23] Greylin Fairweather: I think that people are scared, and there are few third places (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place), so we stay in.
[13:24] Maxito Ricardo: yes, we all seem to be hunkering down in our real lives.
[13:24] Greylin Fairweather: and since we're in so long, people have developed excellent things to do indoors
[13:24] Greylin Fairweather: supply and demand lol
[13:24] Maxito Ricardo: Do you think virtual worlds have created another aspect of the digital divide?
[13:25] Greylin Fairweather: I think there is a divide anywhere...
[13:25] Maxito Ricardo: yea, any tech advance is going to create a divide.
[13:25] Greylin Fairweather: hopefully technology will drop in price so that more people can afford it
[13:25] Greylin Fairweather: but I'm sure the TV created a digital divide at some point
[13:25] Maxito Ricardo: Until you get to the point where 99.9 percent of the households have adopted that tech
[13:26] Greylin Fairweather: right
[13:26] Greylin Fairweather: there needs to be some infrastructure to make that happen
[13:26] Maxito Ricardo: Virtual worlds seem to be a great place for collaborative networking.
[13:26] Greylin Fairweather: It is unfortunate that some areas don't have access to high speed access. That is to me, a denial of their right to information.
[13:27] Greylin Fairweather: I would never have been contacted by Sun without it.
[13:27] Maxito Ricardo: "Access" is another thorny concept I ponder often.
[13:27] Greylin Fairweather: I think how many years I wrote papers for instructors that no one ever saw, I never got feedback etc
[13:27] Maxito Ricardo: Yea, no comments box for anyone who reads to comment.
[13:27] Greylin Fairweather: Here everything I do is seen and I get lots of feedback lol so I strive to make better work than ever.
[13:28] Maxito Ricardo: In college, we rarely shared our papers with our peers...weird
[13:28] Greylin Fairweather: and it has made me more relaxed about revisions and input
[13:28] Greylin Fairweather: I heard the term "mobsourcing" the other day and loved it
[13:28] Maxito Ricardo: Every info object becomes a work in progress...never finished unless everyone moves on to something else
[13:29] Greylin Fairweather: You make something, you want input? You want to improve it? Mobsource it for free.
[13:29] Maxito Ricardo: mobsourcing...love it
[13:29] Greylin Fairweather: There are millions of people in search of a purpose.
[13:29] Maxito Ricardo: Everyone has two cents to give
[13:29] Greylin Fairweather: everyone really
[13:29] Greylin Fairweather: exactly
[13:29] Greylin Fairweather: Focus groups, shmocus groups
[13:29] Greylin Fairweather: lol
[13:29] Maxito Ricardo: Seems like we need better ways to tap into the wisdom of crowds.
[13:30] Greylin Fairweather: This is it
[13:30] Greylin Fairweather: right
[13:30] Maxito Ricardo: Reading umpteen comments to a blog post isn't very efficient.
[13:30] Greylin Fairweather: one way
[13:30] Greylin Fairweather: and how can we do this in real life?
[13:30] Greylin Fairweather: instead of one painting on the wall, how about an lcd screen with a voice thread of art
[13:31] Greylin Fairweather: how can everyone participate?
[13:31] Maxito Ricardo: Or make it really easy for people to provide feedback and updates.
[13:31] Greylin Fairweather: Yes!
[13:31] Maxito Ricardo: Like a mashup that charts the spread of sickness in a neighborhood.
[13:32] Maxito Ricardo: As David Pogue at the NY Times wrote, now you find out that all your neighbors have been sick only after you're all well again!
[13:31] Greylin Fairweather: How many times have you let your local reference librarian know how they can better serve you?
[13:31] Greylin Fairweather: I have never done it, have you?
[13:32] Greylin Fairweather: I'm a librarian and half the time they intimidate me
[13:32] Greylin Fairweather: lol
[13:32] Maxito Ricardo: Yea, the RW library service interaction doesn't really invite feedback.
[13:32] Greylin Fairweather: Right, use the international technology to unite the local community.
[13:32] Greylin Fairweather: but I guarantee in here you'd get feedback
[13:33] Maxito Ricardo: That's true
[13:33] Maxito Ricardo: If I had a nickel for every time I had to announce I'm bald in-world by choice...
[13:33] Greylin Fairweather: So what happens in here that makes it easy to give it and what can we do in real life to make it easier out there
[13:33] Greylin Fairweather: Yeah I don't really have white hair
[13:33] Greylin Fairweather: lol
[13:34] Maxito Ricardo: Yes, I don't get a sense that people who are really active in virtual worlds have "written off" the real world.
[13:34] Greylin Fairweather: No, quite the opposite
[13:35] Maxito Ricardo: They always want to bring the good stuff back to real life and real needs.
