http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Tarina/~3/56243959/

So it went. I changed the style of my slides completely and communicated mainly with images. Thanks to Garr Raynolds for some advice. I talked about the meaning of reflection in relation to organizations and how social software could help people cope with all the changes. It was not flawless: a half-empty room (although it was about 70 people or so), heavy spotlights and I configured my timer incorrectly, ending up rushing the ending a bit. Otherwise I think I did a fairly good job, although I’ve done better recently.

Well, a lot of people asked for the slides after my talk, so here they are. I also recorded my talk and I will post it online later on. Now where the eye-candy:

Teemu Arina @ OEB: Blogs as Reflective Practice [PDF, 1.7MB]

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Tarina/~3/56767897/

The title of this post is from the slides of Leo Sang-Min Whang. Virtual experiences are about identity building, group-cohesion and community. His slides include very interesting data on Korea’s largest MMORPG called Lineage. In virtual worlds people have various lifestyle orientations, different ways of participating in the virtual gaming world:

• Social orientation


• Traditional Norm orientation


• Out-law orientation (anti-social)


• Role Play orientation


• Achievement orientation


• Materialism


• Hierarchical orientation


• Discriminatory attitude


• Individualism

More of that + interesting charts in Consumption in Virtual World: identities, lifestyles and item trading.

I also find Virtual Economy Research Network’s bibliography section very useful. Keep your eye on their site if you are interesting in virtual economies, I know that Vili Lehdonvirta is following this space closely.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Tarina/~3/59923777/

Howard Rheingold has created a wiki for Participatory Media Literacy.

Teaching young people how to use digital media to convey their public voices could link youthful interest in identity exploration and social interaction with direct experiences of civic engagement. Learning to use blogs, wikis, podcasts, and digital video as media of self-expression, with an emphasis on “public voice,” should be considered a pillar - not just a component—of 21st century civic curriculum.

I agree. A wiki for coming up with ideas on what such a curriculum could include is a welcome. Some content that doesn’t fit the wiki format could perhaps be entered into LeMill.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Tarina/~3/63434102/

Got my Nintendo Wii a few days ago. I was lucky to order it just in time to get it before christmas. My last Nintendo console was a SNES and after that I got an Xbox. I’ve turned my back to Microsoft once again for lack of innovation. I did it with operating systems and now I’ll do it again with games.

My friends who dislike gaming have fallen in love with this thing. The fact that you are free to lie down the way you like (hands separated, unlike with traditional controllers) or stand up and play naturally like you would in real life, I see lots of potential for innovation with this revolutional device.

This is just another simple idea how innovations develop. You unlearn the sort of de-facto standards the industry is rigged with and come up with something new. It’s so incredibly hard to pass down familiarity in any business, yet when you see the results it’s obvious.

I wonder what’s the potential for learning with this device? Well, if Nintendo does something like Microsoft with their Xbox 360 XNA development kit by opening up the console for home grown applications, we might witness wonderful ideas coming alive. I would imagine controlling any 3D learning application would be natural for anyone with this piece of fine design. I’m afraid though, that we need to wait for someone to crack the security protection and install Linux into that thing.

Wii has clearly stolen some design advice from Apple. That gives me a good reason to leave PC and become a Mac.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Tarina/~3/64177808/

The Economist, “Consumer technologies are invading corporate computing”:

In the past, innovation was driven by the military or corporate markets. But now the consumer market, with its vast economies of scale and appetite for novelty, leads the way. Compared with the staid corporate-software industry, using these services is like “receiving technology from an advanced civilisation”

Well said. It’s interesting how easy to use tools created by consumers to consumers are considered as more advanced than anything we have in place at organizations today. The article cites an Arizona State University director, who uses publicly available consumer technologies including Gmail, Skype and iTunes to operate part of their university’s IT.

Another quote I like is that “security concerns are red herrings thrown by ageing IT bosses trying to justify their salaries”. I agree. Many IT security concerns that force organizations to setup their own systems rather than outsourcing them are just unrealistic fantasies. I could compare the security risk of Google Gmail to the risk of your plane crashing: both are possible scenarios but the likelihood is just a statistical fantasy.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Tarina/~3/64973191/

Our Dicole Knowledge Work Environment runs on Nintendo Wii, now that they released the Opear browser. How cool is that?