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Monday 5th November 2007 3:07 am
Josh Fouts on Foreign Policy 2.0: Building Vibrant Communities Across Techno-Cultures
How can the 3-D Immersive Web and virtual worlds be used to better facilitate international understanding?
I had the opportunity last week to speak at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City as part of a presentation on the proposed Foundation for International Understanding and as an effort to update them on our MacArthur Foundation-supported project, Role of Foundation in Virtual Worlds.
The intimate gathering included a high-level coterie of our nation’s diplomatic intelligentsia, including Amb. David M. Abshire, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Amb. Edward Ney, and was chaired by David Morey who lead the Council on Foreign Relations’ Task Force on Public Diplomacy.
I brought along three leaders in the 3-D Immersive web culture space: the Oracle on High himself, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Chairman Emeritus, IBM Academy of Technology and visionary behind leading IBM into the virtual worlds space; Mike Wing,Vice President for Strategic Communications Worldwide at IBM; and Ms. Rita J. King, CEO of DiP who chronicles the evolution of vibrant virtual communities with a focus on the emergence of a new global culture based on creativity and collaboration and is collaborating with us on our grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
The premise of the conversation was to discuss the launch of a new non-profit effort to fund efforts on behalf of the United States to build bridges between disparate cultures and the U.S. around the world, the nominally titled “Foundation for International Understanding.” I was invited to offer insight into how the 3-D Immersive Web can be used to this end.
The bulk of the discussion focused around a debate on the nuances of what public diplomacy is and is not and whether a Foundation for International Understanding should even be considered public diplomacy.
I found these dialogs to be beside the point. The point most critical in my mind that was not fully discussed was the fact that technology and technology adoption are spreading around the world at a rate far faster than our governments or foundations are paying attention to. Our tools for engaging audiences in a way that is relevant to them are far behind the way that generations are learning about each other and the world. Or, to look at it another way the U.S. education system is preparing our children for a State of the Art 1950 workplace. Don’t we deserve better?
At the presentation I cited a story that Rita J. King had mentioned to me earlier about an encounter she had with a Muslim woman in Second Life. She met the woman in a Synagogue in Second Life. Rita asked the woman how and/or why she got there. The woman responded that Second Life was the only place that she as a Muslim woman in 2007, could visit a Synagogue without persecution.
The ONLY place in the world she could visit a Synagogue without making others uncomfortable, or feeling persecuted.
As our world struggles with increasing disparity and lack of understanding between cultures, it behooves us to ensure that every viable venue possible is opened to better facilitate understanding. The 3-D Immersive Web and virtual worlds provide a unique opportunity to explore this potential.
Earlier, the week before, I received a notice about ”Second Moscow”—that is a virtual rendering of Moscow in Second Life. The Moscow build, while interesting in and of itself, included an interesting statement in the press release of its announcement, “Members believe that the culture exchange of nations in the virtual world can change real life.”
In a 2002 report by the Pew Research Center, Andrew Kohut said that of the many things that the world hated about the U.S. technology was consistently one of the items that the world appreciated about the U.S.
What can we learn from this? What can we learn about how technology can help us to learn not only about ourselves, but about the world? And how we can better communicate with and, most importantly, LISTEN to the world?
As a start, on November 14th, the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, is helping with an event lead by Common Sense Media with support from the MacArthur Foundation to explore what kids are learning in virtual worlds. Kids are not just learning about each other, but they are learning about the world. What messages are they receiving? What lessons are they learning with their fresh approach to these worlds? And what can we learn from them? More importantly, I hope to learn what kids can teach us.
And this is just the beginning. On November 26th we will be bringing Connie Yowell and Julia Stasch from the MacArthur Foundation into Second Life for the launch of a series of conversations with the virtual worlds communities about what they do as program officers and what they could be doing in the virtual space.
I hope you will join us for these and many other discussions to come!
Category: Unexpected
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