John Perry Barlow, Electronic Freedom Foundation, February 1996
We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere
may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular,
without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.
Cory Ondrejka, creator of the online world Second Life, has a talk on IT Conversations that I was listening in the car today. Actually the talk was so good I listened to it a second time while at the gym. The thing that struck me was the idea that it is now possible to create compelling digitals worlds where people can easily interact with the environment with other people. These worlds can be complex and self-organizing. When the participants in these spaces are given the proper tools they often work actively to build new objects and experiences for themselves and their fellow inhabitants. The worlds he is describing may often end up in the "game" category, but they are far more than mere games. They are complex systems with social structures, economies, and other elements of real-world human interaction.
I have yet to see any "learning system" that spontaneously invites this type of active participation -- maybe we are using the wrong models?
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