Virtual Cultures

Some thoughts on culture

Really rough notes on how I've come to view culture... both online and offline. And both. 

My wife, the religious studies ph.d, sez I'm becoming a "bootstrap anthropologist".

Sigh.

These topics need to be developed fully, there's a lot more here, but wanted to get the concepts rolling, so to speak.

I have come to look at culture as a combination of:

1) development of new strategies for success in life and as a group - what works for us? What might work better?

2) information about what strategies work in life and as a group - ooooh Britney does that!  That'll work for me...

3) systems for achieving status (I'm a leader, I'm a comic, I'm a bridge builder, etc.)

4) systems for collaborative accomplishment (a really powerful component of human experience, I think, see WoW or Burning Man or the Armed Services... or even, online discussions like this. We're hard wired to find a place in the group we're in and contribute to its success, and it feels gooood)

Some thoughts on Twitter

I've been playing with Twitter lately, and wanted to jot down a couple of quick thoughts.

First, I'm really enjoying how you get to know people on Twitter... "ambient intimacy" isn't it for me, it's more a "playful intimacy" or something similar. It's light, non-demanding, surprizing, fun... the best qualities of the social tech discoveries that (not too long ago) got called Web 2.0. Fun. Light...

Second, it's a great way to ... meet people? Connect with others who seem interested in the same things, topics, people and such. People who think you're interesting! Delightful.

Community community community: especially in tough times

Reprinted from the Mary Margaret newsletter... but it's a good piece and wanted it to get more eyes.

One of the odd offshoots of the rise of the internet was the creation of an entirely new profession: the Community Manager.  And while still in its infancy, Community Managers do something that's likely critical to your game's success: they work with your community of players.  They're there every day (and often nights), connecting people, putting out the messages that will help your game thrive, helping to nourish a positive supplementary game experience, and bringing back all of the info they gather to your dev and marketing and CS and QA teams.  They're doing their best to grow a huge asset for your game: the community.

 

Virtual Worlds Workshop cancelled... for now

The Virtual Worlds Workshop scheduled for next month has been cancelled, though I'm sure there will be new efforts in the future - it's a great project, and a great team (Ted Castronova, Lee Sheldon, and others...). I'd been scheduled to give a keynote, and was working on something that would work in the keynote speech Ted gave at AGC (it was AGC then... ah, the good old days!), an inspiring talk that referenced Tolkein, and after which I had to go introduce myself. I love a great talk. 

Anyway, I'm still thinking about community, virtual worlds, and the impact of the new social media out there now... stay tuned.