Government in the Metaverse - Public Works Group Blog

August 25, 2012August 26, 2012

Virtual Worlds Help Demonstrate Root of Public Apathy

Fleep recently summarized the promise she saw in the Second Life community, the change that transpired there over the last few years, and her decision to focus her involvement in a different virtual community or platform. (You can read her article here: Why Anyone Who Cares. . ..) And based on the comments she received and what I have read online, her experience seems to be one shared by many who followed a similar path in that virtual world. But at the root of her article, I saw something else that was intriguing and provides great insight into public apathy.

In local government we are constantly bemoaning the lack of public involvement in the community. We can't understand why no one seems to care, becomes involved, or attends meetings. If you have ever wondered this I suggest you read Fleep's post and imagine she is talking about any city in the the physical world. Because she could be describing exactly what happens to those who try to get involved and make a difference in their own cities and towns.

It all starts out much in the same way it started out for Fleep in Second Life. A person becomes excited about the promise and the opportunity to help create something different – something that could be so much better. In the physical world this could come about because there is a change in leadership such as newly elected officials or a change in a prominent and influential community within the city. Or it could occur because of a major change that brings about a significant shift in management or development of that city. Whatever it is, it's enough to motivate someone to invest time, perhaps money, and for some, their heart and soul for the cause. This person does this because these new leaders seem to share their dream or vision and by doing so they inspire the person's dedication and commitment. They also provide opportunities for involvement and contribution to the cause. The foundation of this effort is to make the world a better place. For some of us, this is almost an impossible opportunity to pass up.

If someone chooses to go down this road, they begin to share thoughts and feelings similar to those expressed by Fleep:

"Everywhere you looked was innovation.
Everyone you met was experimenting, trying new things, pushing new boundaries.
Anything seemed possible. Maybe even probable."

As Fleep said, it is "an exciting, heady time." Perhaps you know of someone who has made this type of commitment for your city or town or perhaps you have done so yourself. If so, you might be able to guess what happens next.

Eventually things begin to shift. Perhaps there is a change in leadership. Or someone who has a lot of control in the community and had only up to this point been watching becomes involved, possibly because all this new innovation and change is starting to negatively impact the good thing they had going on for themselves. Unfortunately for all the obvious challenges to innovation, change, and progress, there are many more forces behind the scenes that will make sure change does not happen if it starts to actually make a significant difference.

So eventually the person who had invested everything in this cause starts to realize something has changed. They begin to hit roadblocks or look around and realize no one left shares that dream or vision. Or perhaps the new leadership makes sure they are no longer able to contribute or help out. For many of the reasons Fleep has given, the person will most likely give up and move on. And most do. Those of us who have been this person or those of us who have known people who have gone down this road will most likely not allow ourselves to be sucked in again by promises and dreams. We have come to the conclusion that it's not worth it. Primarily because no one else seems to care and all our work and effort is undone by others. And apathy takes root.

But there is another profound point to all this in a great post by Botgirl that was written in response to Fleep's: My take on the future. . .. In the end, the person who has given it all only to see it carelessly cast aside might be tempted to blame those who grabbed the helm and changed course. But as Botgirl points out, "if there has been a failure, it is ours." The true failure is because the majority will not make an effort to do anything to prevent it. And they will not even recognize or acknowledge they have the power or ability to do so. Or if they do, they do not know how. We have allowed this apathy to become ingrained in our culture by beating down those who try to make a difference until they give up and others witness the futility of their efforts.

Apathy has been our legacy in our physical space. Will we allow it to become our legacy in our virtual communities too? Or will we create the opportunity to overcome apathy in both spaces by following Fleep's vision to "learn from our experiences in virtual worlds to make the real world a better place, too."

July 18, 2012

Virtual Worlds Ramp up Civic Engagement

After launching a community planning effort in the virtual world of Second Life, I’ve begun to experience a few things I don’t think many of us in government would have thought possible. Like probably many of you working in government and planning, I’ve been amazed that so few people really get involved in a constructive manner in how their city works. There’s been so many council meetings I’ve attended where the only person in the audience was the newspaper reporter and sometimes even he didn’t show up. The planning workshops didn’t attract many more. Yet the Bigfoot show comes to town and everyone shows up at their town hall meeting to passionately share Bigfoot stories!

Unfortunately when people do show up at city meetings, many are usually hesitant to really share or open up. Whether it’s group dynamics or the seemingly heavy hand of government we just seem to receive a more muted response than what is desired. Or like the open forum in a newspaper, it gives people a platform to complain or rant without trying to help find solutions.

Now, I’ve been a member of the Second Life community since late 2006 so I knew enough to not assume the experience there would be the same. But I certainly was not prepared for what has been happening and what it might mean. We’ve started out using a typical planning process with surveys and community meetings. So far we’ve had two meetings in Second Life where where we had roughly 8 or so people show up each time to discuss and share their thoughts about Second Life. And there’s been about 59 surveys filled out. (You can read a summary of the meetings here. The surveys are found here.)

Discovering Outstanding Engagement

What is quickly becoming apparent from the meetings and surveys is that the people who attend and share are focused, open, honest, constructive, understanding, helpful, caring, dedicated, passionate – all those things those of us in government sit on the edge of our seats hoping to see in our planning meetings. I was blown away by the insights and thoughtful statements and observations people made. Even though I’ve spent years there and know the community is amazing, I guess I never saw it expressed in a context I could compare to something I know very well in the offline world. And it got me really thinking and looking into how people here interact for the good of the community.

Constructive, Always-on Community Discussions
I began noticing in a new way all those people in virtual worlds who take the time to share their thoughts online, particularly those in Second Life. This seems to have occurred almost since the creation of that world. So that on any given day, you can find people sharing their ideas and observations about the place on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. And the people taking the time to do this end up creating thoughtful posts with the goal of helping advance our knowledge and success of the community. You can tell they care very much and are invested and passionate about the place. Even when they are analyzing or commenting on a perceived problem, they are also trying to suggest solutions. Then the community jumps in and adds to the discussion. Yes, there might be people in that group who are mad, upset, angry, or exhibiting any other negative emotion. But what typically happens in those cases is the community often reacts and many times ends up creating a constructive discussion out of it.

Have you ever seen this dynamic in an offline community? To the extent it has stretched in Second Life? And in the manner where the people inspire each other in a circular process of sharing, discussing, considering, sometimes acting on an idea, and then sharing again. It’s the engagement those of us in government hope for everyday.

It’s Not Just Second Life
Now, after seeing this, I started wondering why does the engagement and planning process work so wonderfully, well at least so far at this planning stage, in a virtual world, but is so difficult in a traditional setting. And I want to share that I have not just observed this in Second Life. About the same time this planning effort was started, I also began helping a community planning process in another grid. And even though that grid has a much different focus and purpose, we are experiencing the same tremendous level of success with working together for the good of the community.

So What’s the Secret?
I think part of the reason people are better engaged in meetings in virtual worlds could be that the setting prevents them from being influenced by any physical appearances or reactions. It also seems to relieve people about any concerns over what others might think of them or their ideas. They feel safe. Unfortunately in traditional meetings there is always the person who dominates the conversation or people who probably unintentionally end up influencing people’s input. Virtual worlds seem to dampen this and force a type of equalization.

I also wonder if discussions in virtual worlds are more efficient and better focused because discussion can always occur through typing rather than speaking. People can also type privately to each other to discuss what is being said in the public chat which could help them better develop a viewpoint before sharing it publicly.

Or perhaps part of it is that going to a physical meeting is so much more demanding than just logging onto a computer. With the computer, you don’t have to worry about how you’re dressed, you can sit comfortably at home, and if your kids need you or something else comes up, you are available and can always log off.

Are Virtual People More Motivated?
But then I started wondering about the actual people – the people in our traditional meetings are also good, responsible, caring people who have a vested interest in their community. Are they really so different from the people who inhabit virtual worlds as some have suggested? Even Philip Rosedale, the past CEO, touched on this topic. He is quoted as saying, “the problem with creating an immersive 3-D experience is that it is just too involved, and so it’s hard to get people to engage,” he said. “Smart people in rural areas, the handicapped, people looking for companionship, they love it. But you have to be highly motivated to get on and learn to use it.”

Based on the people I have met in Second Life, I’ve not really seen the same limiting demographics he mentions so I can’t really comment on why he chose those specific types of people. But it’s the rest of the quote that is much more interesting to me, particularly as I go through this planning process. He mentions the difficulty of engagement while I see the opposite with people already in Second Life. So I wonder if he is talking about the difficulty of engaging those who are not yet in Second Life. And many of us in Second Life could probably agree with this – it’s extremely difficult to encourage people to join Second Life. But once people are in Second Life and take the time to figure it out, they get it and seem to become highly engaged community members. So does Philip’s last sentence help explain this? Is the ability to be highly motivated and stick with something and learn it the filter that creates a more engaged community? Perhaps these are the type of people who might put self-interest aside and devote their own time to the betterment of a place they love. I am not sure if this is it, but do believe it is something to consider.

And This Means What to Government?
While I’ve been inspired by this deeper, yet far from complete, understanding of the fabric of the Second Life community and virtual worlds in general, I can’t help but wonder how it will impact our offline world. Because I believe at some point it will. And I am not sure if “offliners” are ready for this type of true engagement. Hopefully I’ll get time soon to explore this further in another blog post along with what it could mean to Linden Lab as the creator, host, and manager of our community.

June 9, 2012June 9, 2012

SL9B and Community Planning

This month, the community in Second Life celebrates its 9th birthday, otherwise known as SL9B. This seems to be the first year that the celebration is not sponsored or hosted by Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life. Instead, this year, Linden Lab announced the theme of the birthday would be community and that the community should host their own individual celebrations. The reaction from many people at first seemed to be disappointment, but it quickly changed over to a determined effort to put together a central location similar to what was done in the past. This was thanks to the efforts of a group of organizers and sponsors who donated space and time and talent to get the land set up for the event and a website to support the activities. They quickly put out a call for exhibitors and volunteers that has been answered by hundreds of people. This is one of the many aspects of Second Life that fascinates and captures me – the ability of the people there to get something done in an organized and collaborative and efficient and quick manner. If only we had this capability in our offline communities.

Anyway, I had not participated in a Second Life birthday since I think SL5B. And I wasn't sure about participating this year until I saw how the community pulled together to organize this event and really thought about the community theme and where I might fit into all that. It seemed the perfect time to begin putting together a community plan!

If you've read my previous posts on this, you're probably aware I have thought for some time a community plan is exactly what we need at this point in our development. Normally in an offline community, this process would be started by city planners. But there's no virtual planners on staff at Linden Lab so there's no one to reach out and suggest we start the process. Over the last few months, I talked about the idea with some other members of Second Life who also thought it would be worthwhile. But I don't think any of us were sure it could be done without their involvement.

But after watching SL9B unfold, I thought, if we can have our own birthday celebration, why can't we create our own plan? Something else that inspired and convinced me to apply and volunteer was a set of videos created by Crap Mariner. Dressed as "Death" he put together a series of videos to promote SL9B and explain what was going on. Glossing over these, someone might at first dismiss them as goofy fun, but I would encourage people to really watch them and think about their message. What he has accomplished with these deserves a whole other blog post by someone who is more adept at analyzing motivation, marketing, and promotion. Here's one of the first videos (so far he has created 18 videos):

Anyway, I ended up applying to exhibit and fortunately was accepted! Basically the community plan exhibit, which is named Virtual Vision 2020, explains and promotes the idea and development of a community plan for Second Life. I'm hoping people will stop by to share their thoughts and ideas about the community, where they'd like to see it go, and how they think we can get there. There's also a website set up to support development of the plan and to offer a place where people can leave feedback: Virtual Vision 2020 .

I am also hoping that a friend of mine, Vanish Firecaster, will add more information to the exhibit that will help people explore what it means to be a citizen of a virtual world. He recently posted, World of Democracycraft, highlighting an essay by Cory Doctorow: "Why Online Games are Dictatorships." If you are a member of Second Life or any other virtual community, I'd suggest checking it out.

SL9B will be open from June 18-27. Make sure you stop by to visit the Virtual Vision 2020 Exhibit, share your thoughts and ideas, pick up a mini Avatar Birthday Fountain, or just say hi! And be sure to thank the sponsors and organizers – they have put together an amazing event!

May 20, 2012October 15, 2012

FCVW 2012 Conference – Keeping up with the Future

Last week, I attended the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds annual conference. I realize the theme for the conference was "Inspire the Future," but an underlying theme I sensed was "Keeping up with the Future." Our society and the technological changes are hitting us at an exponential rate. Like one of the attendees said to me, imagine being Socrates teaching in Greece in the centuries before Christ. You would start out your class with an introduction to the two new discoveries that might have occurred that year. Today, there's so much happening, no one can follow it all even in one field. But I still think the two themes complement each other. While many there were attending in order to learn and keep up, they are also the same people who will or have done things to inspire future work and changes.

One of the interesting aspects of being at this type of conference is that you get a sense you are watching these future developments occuring before your eyes. One of the sessions I attended on the Workshop day was FIRST RESPONDER: Virtual Platform Immersive Training Project. Because I am considered an emergency responder and have taken many classes in this area, it was definitely a workshop not to be missed. The session was led by Dr. Paula Smith, chief operating officer at the Catastrophic Planning and Management Institute. Dr. Smith shared with us the work they have accomplished in delivering emergency response training in an immersive environment. Because many in the audience are also working in this area and involved in collaborations on a global level, I believe important ideas were shared and the potential of future partnerships formed. The key points I took away from the session was that their work is based on recognized systems such as NIMS and ICS and they have increased learning retention rates by 29% to 39% using this technology and approach. You can learn more about their classes at their First Responder Virtual World Immersive Training Website.

Unity3D

One of the other two workshops I attended focused on developing online training using learning concepts of Robert M. Gagne. And the other was a three-hour introduction into the use of Unity3D. Unity3D was a hot topic throughout the conference so I expect to see even more learning environments developed with that platform in the future. And it seems there is some promise in the future of development tools being created for Unity3D that will make it even easier to build and link to existing data. As for the workshop, it was well attended, and the presenters – Eric Hackathorn and Julien Lynge – did such a great job the time flew by so fast. Eric and Julien, along with Eric's father, Richard, are all awesome innovators who you definitely want to keep an eye on if you are looking for inspiration. You can check out their work through Fragile Earth Studios, a project of NOAA.

Online/Game Characters

Jesse Schell, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and author of The Art of Game Design, led off the keynotes with a discussion of The Future of Virtual Characters. His insights and interesting presentation style pushed us to rethink the definition of avatars and how we are represented online. I enjoyed his pronouncement that "Mario is a terrible friend" because each time you play any of his games he acts as if it was the first time you have met. He seems to have totally forgotten all those adventures you shared saving princesses, winning races, or defeating monsters. Schell imagines a time when online characters will recognize you and remember your shared experiences. They will age with you and perhaps become one of your most trusted companions because they will listen and interact with us. Another interesting concept he shared was based on a book, The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen. The key point was that companies can fail or lose ground to newer, smaller companies because they let customers drive their innovation. He pointed out that customers who seem comfortable with a product might not realize the benefits of a newer product and might discourage a company from developing it. This leaves the door open for another company to bring the product forward and attract the customers away.

Virtuality

Randy Hinrichs, CEO of 2b3d, covered a history of how we got to where we are today with virtual technology and where we might be going. I liked his points about mentor networks and certification of online work so we can approach it with more trust. James Blascovich followed up with a presentation about the Mind, Brain, and Virtual Reality. His work explores how the mind processes real and virtual images and how the distinction does not really matter to our brains – both can be perceived as real. The day concluded with a panel discussing the future of health applications in virtual worlds. There's been a lot of work done in this area. One of the interesting ideas proposed during the talk was that because games for health have been proven to be so beneficial, insurance companies may one day receive claims for patient game play.

The NTER Online Course Tool

The last day of the conference began with Dr. Michelle Fox of the Department of Energy sharing information about NTER. This is an online framework people can use to develop and deliver online training and education. There was a lot of good information presented about how the tool works and how people can use it to deliver courses. I just don't think I can do it justice in a short synopsis so I would encourage you to view it yourself, along with all the other sessions, at the link I included at the end of this post. Even if you aren't interested in developing courses, you might still want to check out their site because people have listed courses there for you to take. Right now there are classes covering blower doors, hazards, insulation, pumping, steam, building science, and many more topics.

MOSES

The next panel discussed their work on MOSES, an open simulator-based grid set up by Douglas Maxwell. Douglas is an engineer, staff researcher at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and huge innovator who has done amazing things over the years to showcase and develop the use of 3D immersive spaces by government. Dr. Kay McLennan is a professor who teaches economics and business practices at Tulane University. Kay has been a great friend to me and fellow virtual world explorer ever since we met a few years back on her sim in Second Life. Kay has always produced amazing high quality work in the 3D space and was one of the winners in the Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge. I was not as familiar with the work of the other two panelists, Robert Daniel, an adjunct professor at George Washington University, and Andrew Stricker, with the Air University. So it was interesting to learn more about the projects they have developed in MOSES.

Learning and Security

The final two sessions covered learning and security in virtual worlds. Dr. Reneta Lanisquot, with New York City College of Technology and one of the learning panelists, suggested we are at the "Pong" stage with virtual worlds. She also shared how adding a more "fun" element like Alice to a computer programming class significantly made a difference in learning and in future performance of students. In the security session, I really liked how Dr. Barbara Endicott-Popovsky with the University of Washington emphasized the need for people to consider the unintended consequences of technology. If we did this more across all disciplines we could save ourselves a lot of time and money and problems as a society.

Final Wrap Up

The conference ended with closing remarks from both Randy Hinrichs and Paulette Robinson. Of course, everyone in virtual worlds in government knows Paulette – she is a tireless innovator with the National Defense University (NDU) who has inspired and supported many of us to pursue and leverage 3D immersion within government. Without her and the backing and support of Dr. Robert Childs, the Chancellor of NDU, we would not be able to attend such a great conference. The other cool part of the end was that the National Highway Institute won the government project award for their work with delivering bridge training and a geotechnical conference through a virtual setting. And as a civil engineer, I look forward to continued use of 3D immersive tools within that agency.

I can't complete a true summary of the conference though without mentioning all of the very incredible and inspiring people who I either met or reconnected with while there. And there were also the many more who participated online. There were just so many, I wish I could list them all, but don't want to take the chance I might miss one. I look forward to continuing the conversation online as we continue to inspire, help each other keep up, and celebrate each other's innovations.

If you want to listen to any of the main conference sessions yourself, they are available at http://www.ndu.edu/icollege/fcvw/2012post.html

And below is a stream of the tweets about the conference:

May 15, 2012

Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds Annual Conference

For several years, the National Defense University (NDU) has been sponsoring the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds Conference. This annual event explores government use of 3D immersive technology. Although the event is great to attend in person, many people are not able to travel to Washington DC and instead attend the event online through several different channels. This year, parts of the conference will be live streamed to the Web. I've embedded a viewing window below in case anyone wants to check out the conference on Thurs., May 17, or Fri., May 18. If you want to check out the other ways to attend "virtually," you can follow this link: http://www.ndu.edu/icollege/fcvw/live.html.

Watch live streaming video from ndustreampremium at livestream.com

May 7, 2012

Gov Games & Civic Guilds

As a result of my participation last year in a course held by Boise State University (BSU), I gained the opportunity to create my own courses using 3D Game Lab – an online game-based learning platform hosted by BSU. My primary goal in doing so was to offer information and resources to citizens in our community in an easy to use and fun format that was accessible 24/7. To begin, I chose to create a course on drainage and flooding because this is a topic about which we seem to get a lot of calls or questions. But now as I am nearing completion of the course and getting ready to roll it out for use, I realized there is no good place or centralized location to offer information about serious games designed specifically for citizens. And while regular games have numerous fan sites all over the place where players can talk about the games and exchange ideas and opinions, there's nothing for players or users of these "gov games."

So I figured if our city needed a place to promote our game and a place where people could discuss the game and offer feedback, other agencies could probably use something like this too. And how much better it would be if we could all be located in one place. That way anyone interested in serious gaming related to government and community would not have to search all over the Internet. And if there was a type of guild site for these games, people could go there to see reviews of games, discover new games, or just interact with others who are interested in civic gaming. The members of this guild site could also become a type of Civic Guild which might then offer opportunities reaching beyond only online interactions!

In the end, I was not really sure how much of a need for this was out there or if it would actually work the way I envisioned, but I went ahead anyway and set up a GovGame Directory and Civic Guild site. You can visit the sites by clicking the links below. Because this idea is still somewhat in Beta form, it would be great to get feedback on whether or not people think this would be beneficial, and if so, how the sites could be improved. And feel free to submit your favorite GovGames through the directory site so we can add them to the listing. I know I'll be adding ours once it's finally completed.