January 30, 2006
Avatars Among Us
Breathing a Second Life into the Keynote
"DEMOCRACY ISLAND -- There are certainly more glamorous ways to spend a Friday night than watching an animated version of a computer engineer discuss approaches to harnessing collective intelligence. But, for more than 25 people who showed up here last week to hear computing pioneer Douglas Engelbart address a Silicon Valley futurist group, the promise of intellectual stimulation prevailed.
In exchange for insights on the concept of the dynamic knowledge repository, audience members watched a speech delivered by a gray-haired, suit-and-tie clad avatar bearing a more than passable resemblance to the man best known for inventing the computer mouse. The talk, held at a virtual locale known as Democracy Island in the multiplayer online world Second Life, drew a less realistic audience. Some in the crowd weren't even human, sporting features like antennae, fur and wings..." From Avatars Among Us by Joanna Glasner, Wired.
Related: Lessig in Second Life
and Letters From Second Life [blogged by ray cha on Future of the Book]
as well as Giving a PowerPoint Presentation in Second Life.
Posted by jo at January 30, 2006 09:50 AM
