From ZoomLabWiki

Planning: UN Forum on Our Community Humanity in the Information Age

Note: This event occurred on November 28-29, 2006 and is now documented on

http://och-forum.blogspot.com/

event dates: November 28-29, 2006

Hello, all!

Welcome to the wiki for the UN Forum on Our Community Humanity in the Information Age!

For more information on what a wiki is and how to use it, scroll down the page to General wiki info.

This wiki page is dedicated to the coordination of selected forum events.

Webcast

At the meeting on Thurs, Nov 9, Serge mentioned that the webcast will be coordinated through a partnership with Syracuse University. The application, which is downloadable and free, will enable presenters and viewers to chat, view or present (via webcam or video). The Syracuse Uni crew will probably also be providing crew for the webcast however that it is to be confirmed.

Questions for Serge:
1. Since the the panels on Nov 29th will be in two different rooms, how will that be dealt with in the webcast? Will there be two crews and two different streams?

2. Can the outgoing streams be encoded as QuickTime instead of RealPlayer, so that they can be streamed into the Second Life virtual environment? Access to a QuickTime server can be provided via a colleague and we can facilitate this being done.

Remote speakers

confirmed:
Both Ross Powell and Tim Naish are Co-chief Scientists for the McMurdo Ice Shelf Project:
Tim Naish (Antarctica New Zealand)
Dennis's colleague. He is a scientist located in the Antarctic region doing work on climate change. He'll be speaking on the "Respect for Nature and Sustainable Development" panel.

Ross Powell (Antarctica New Zealand)
Ross Powell is an American and Co-Chief Scientist of the multinational ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) Drilling Project. He is a Distinguished Research Professor of Geology at Northern Illinois University in the USA.

Ross's high-latitude research career of over 30 years has concentrated on understanding how the various types of glaciers and ice sheets work under different climatic regimes and the distinctive sedimentary records they produce. He uses this information to understand how glaciers and climate have changed in the past by interpreting long geological records extending back in time in order to better understand how ice sheets may behave under warming climate. He is currently plying this knowledge in the MIS project to better predict future changes of the Ross Ice Shelf and West Antarctic Ice Sheet. He has worked in Africa, Alaska, Antarctica, Australia, Canada, Chile, New Zealand and Svalbard. Ross works on committees that plan and lead international high-latitude science initiatives and is involved in outreach efforts to broaden and clarify understanding within communities, and business and political leaders about global warming and its possible consequences.

Franziska Seel (Toronto, CA)
Franziska is the MDG Program Adviser for Taking IT Global. She coordinating all activities of TIG related to the Millennium Development Goals, including the creation of a monthly theme page on the MDGs, the development of a Campaign Kit and the coordination of a team of regional youth editors who are actively soliciting articles of and interviews with youth leaders, who are contributing to the achievement of the MDGs through project work, awareness campaigns or advocacy work. She will be giving a presentation about Taking IT Global's MDG work and other youth initiatives that use ICTs to contribute to the achievement of the MDGs. http://www.takingitglobal.org/themes/mdg/

to be confirmed:
Sher Doruff (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Josephine's colleague. Sher is an expert in the field of networked collaboration & culture. She is currently creative director of the Sensing Presence department of the Waag Society/for old and new media in Amsterdam and is a core member of the development team of KeyWorx, a distributed, multi-user, multi-channel performance platform. Working in the digital arts since 1986, she has collaborated on projects intersecting many areas of performing arts practice. Sher also coordinates the Augmented Performance Practice module of the Dance Unlimited postgraduate program in the Netherlands and is a researcher with the ARTI lectoraat of the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. Her research centers on the experience of the virtual & performativity in networks // collaborative online culture. Her articles have appeared in books, journals and electronic journals.

ALSO: the Waag Society/for old and new media in Amsterdam will be hosting an audience for the webcast and sending the stream of Sher Doruff from the Waag, located in a beautiful 15th century castle in the center of Amsterdam. It now houses the Waag offices and a multimedia streaming theater on the top floor.

Second Life integration

In a post-meeting huddle on Nov 9, we (Josephine, Luma, Deborah, Hugo, Serge, and later Bhaskar) talked about holding a virtual forum in Second Life. That way we can target a youth population that could participate remotely from within the virtual world Second Life. ZoomLab, in cahoots with Polytechnic University, is prepared to offer the Kids Connect island to host the event.

If you don't know what Second Life is, check out the What is Second Life? page.

On that page there are quite a few resources related to Second Life, including the following articles that you may find enlightening:

Good intro article describing SL
http://futuretag.net/index.php/Slgp1

Since pics tell a better story, here are some pics from a recent symposium - the Impact of Digital Media Symposium, held 18 oct 2006.
I and my partner Dan Winckler were panelists. There's also a shot from our Kids Connect project. The images will give you a good idea of what having a symposium in Second Life would be like.

view of audience at the Second Life Educators panel session in the Impact of Digital Media symposium. Click to look at it in actual size.

view of the live webcast of the MacArthur Foundation's announcement of their $50 million investment in digital learning. Almost 60 avatars were here. Click to look at it in actual size.

Here's a shot from our Kids Connect project. Pictured here: the first meeting between the NY and Amsterdam students - NY students showed the Dutch students the Welcome video they had made for them. Click to look at it in actual size.

That's me sitting in the middle and Dan in the background on the Second Life Educators panel in the Impact of Digital Media symposium. Click to look at it in actual size.

Here we are giving our presentation on the Kids Connect project on the Second Life Educators panel in the Impact of Digital Media symposium. Click to look at it in actual size.

Lunchtime workshop for youth on 29 nov

working title: MDGs Media Mashup
date: 29 nov 2006
time: 2:00-2:45pm
location: TBA

We'll be holding a workshop for teens, geared toward raising awareness of the Millennium Development Goals via fun activities like creating a 30-second TV spot, storyboarding an online game, and making a skit or a song.

There will be ~150 participants. It will be scheduled for the 2:00-2:45pm slot on the 29th. We'd like to keep it fun and light, while also giving a voice to the younger participants.

So, in an effort to integrate user-created content and expression through media, we are planning on conducting the activities listed below, focusing on media, tech, and the MDGs. We've invited some really interesting people to facilitate the workshops and have a good range of activities planned, including creating a 30-second PSA spot to game design for raising MDG awareness.

We will also be recording some video spots in which the youth participants talk about their thoughts on the sessions. The spots will be mixed together, which can then be viewed by the audience at large, as well as the fact that it will provide some archival footage of the workshop.

Hugo mentioned a youth media organization (DCTV | ProTV) which may want to get involved with this and provide equipment and crew.

Facilitated by Luma Alsaleh, Marlon Barrios-Solano, Sandra Behar, Tina Gongsakdi, Debra Cole, Hugo Berkeley, Josephine Dorado, Medard Gabel, Idrissa Mamane Rabiou, Johnny Ramos, Ben Robison, Bhaskar Sahrawat, Robert David Steele (Vivas), Naveena Swamy.

The workshop will be divided into the following activities:

Activity 1:
Show pictures of men and women in printed ads, and let the student themselves explain how these picture may promote hatred, stereotypes, , tolerance, equality/inequality of individuals.
Facilitated by Idrissa Mamane Rabiou and Bhaskar Sahrawat.
Key lesson/value: Tolerance and Media.

Activity 2:
News Reporting
What's wrong with our news today? What is credible? How do you make sure that the news you read are from good sources? How can and should you filter news? Share articles with students - local and international
Facilitated by Hugo Berkeley (A Normal Life), Debra Cole, and Johnny Ramos (ProTV).
Key Lesson: Freedom and Media

Activity 3:
Violence and Media
Ask students to list number of shows and ask them to categorize them in which they feel which ones promote violence and which don't. Compare the results of the students to the results that have been published by the Parents TV Council.
Facilitated by Luma Alsaleh an Sandra Behar.
Key Lesson: Violence and Media

Activity 4
Technology Safety and Media
Let students create either a skit, radio pa, poem, song, etc in how to battle the Internet predators and how to create safer places where young ppl can chat.
Also explore and discuss what the fascination and problems with chat rooms such as myspace. com are.
Key Lesson: Solidarity and Media

Activity 5
Environment and Media
Ask the students to brainstorm ways of using media to raise awareness of environment issues. Explore ideas for sites, TV spots, blogs, etc.
good example: thinkMTV has a site called 12 steps to the environment
Key Lesson: Respect for Nature and Sustainable Development

Activity 6
Music and Media
Students explore methods of using music as a vehicle to promote peace and the MDGs.
Facilitated by composer/programmer/violinist/media artist, Ben Robison. Ben co-founded Musicians Alliance for Peace, which holds an annual global network of concerts for peace called the Music for Peace project.
Key Lesson: MDG awareness

Activity 7
Movement and Media
Description to come. Facilitated by Marlon Barrios-Solano. Marlon is a programmer, choreographer, dancer, video artist and teacher and works primarily in interactive art and performance.
Key Lesson: MDG awareness

Activity 8
Game Creation for MDGs
Ask students to come up with a concept and storyboard for a game that will raise awareness of one or all of the MDGs.
Facilitated by Tina Gongsakdi, Video Hub producer; Medard Gabel, game designer for Design Science Lab; Robert Steele, founder and CEO of oss.net; and Naveena Swamy, game designer/co-founder RoboTech Center®
Key Lesson: MDG awareness

Reception for youth forum evening of 28 nov

Deborah and Elaine would also like to have a reception for the youth forum participants on the evening of the 28th.

I suggested Ava Lounge which is on the rooftop of the Dream Hotel, at 210 West 55th St (between Broadway & 7th Avenue).
The views and the ambiance are lovely. Check out pics on their site -- click on "AVA Garden" to view the rooftop lounge.
I just need to confirm with their events coordinator Liz Hartman and then we're good.

Links

Blog for the Our Common Humanity Forum - for the forum participants: post ideas, questions, thoughts here

Our Common Humanity Forum Programme - forum schedule

Blog for the Our Common Humanity partners - for the forum partners: meeting notes and other agenda are posted here

Check this out -- a company called Taking IT Global made some online games related to learning about the MDGs.

UN Millennium Development Goals

UN Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Declaration

Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID)

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