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[media] Virtual Worlds Collaborate to Spread Kofi Annan’s Message About International Justice: Global Kids Plays Lead Role in Bringing Event to Online Communities 

Submitted by olpadmin on Tue, 06/03/2008 - 13:38

NEWS RELEASE

Global Kids
137 East 25th Street New York, NY 10010
www.globalkids.org
212-226-0130

Contacts:

Jonah Kokodyniak, Global Kids, 212-226-2116, Jonah@globalkids.org
There.com: Aimee Yoon, Dotted Line Communications, aimee@dottedlinecomm.com, 646.678.4980
Second Life: Peter Gray, Lewis PR, secondlife@lewispr.com, 415.992.4434

For Immediate Release:

Virtual Worlds Collaborate to Spread Kofi Annan’s Message About International Justice: Global Kids Plays Lead Role in Bringing Event to Online Communities

On March 20, 2008, spearheaded by Global Kids, Inc., a unique collaboration amongst virtual worlds, which combined report audiences of over 10 million users, streamed live from the Waldorf Astoria where Kofi Annan received the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s first award for international justice. While Annan spoke before a live audience of 1,200 people in New York City, hundreds more watched and discussed the live speech across four virtual world communities, creating the largest massively multiworld simulcast to date.

The Affordances of Virtual Worlds and 21st Century Learning Environments 

Submitted by olpadmin on Thu, 05/01/2008 - 05:35

Below is a reposting of an article from MacArthur's Digital Media and Learning, in which Connie Yowell asks: What can we learn from young people about why they find virtual worlds so appealing?

[In the Media] Comparing Apples and Oranges in Virtual Worlds 

Submitted by olpadmin on Mon, 04/28/2008 - 06:06

Below is a post from the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning blog in which Barry Joseph writes about Comparing Apples and Oranges in Virtual Worlds.

Global Kids reflects on lessons learned from a massively multiworld simulcast of Kofi Annan’s receipt of the MacArthur Award for International Justice.

Not all virtual worlds are created equally, even those with the greatest potential to host educational content. On March 20th, Global Kids hosted the first massively multiworld simulcast across four virtual worlds, bringing a live speech by Kofi Annan after receiving the first ever MacArthur Foundation ‘s International Justice Award to Second Life, Teen Second Life, Whyville, and There.com, not to mention the web.

To see what I am talking about, please watch the brief video below:

[ijc] Massively Multiworld Simulcast of Kofi Annan 

Submitted by olpadmin on Fri, 04/18/2008 - 13:42

On March 20, 2008, Global Kids produced the simulcast of Kofi Annan receiving the MacArthur Foundation's first international justice award. The simulcast was broadcast not just to the Web, but to four online communities within virtual worlds, each within its own simultaneous but unique event: Second Life, Teen Second Life, Whyville, and There.com

[staff] My Testimony For Congress (had I been asked)... 

Submitted by bjoseph on Thu, 04/03/2008 - 19:26

On April 1st, the 110th Congress Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held a hearing entitled Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium.

Listening to the testimony, it was hard not to imagine what I might have shared were I asked to testify. It might have gone something somewhat like this:

Chairman Markey, Ranking Member Stearns, and Members of the Subcommittee, we at Global Kids are honored to have this opportunity to share our experiences as experts working with youth and virtual worlds.

To provide background, in 2006, following extensive research into the educational potential of virtual worlds, Global Kids became the first nonprofit to develop a dedicated space for conducting educational programming in Teen Second Life (TSL). Specifically, Global Kids is conducting intensive leadership programming for youth, bringing students from its New York-based programs into the space, and streaming the audio and video of major events into the world. This work has received significant funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, among others, and been conducted in partnership with many other organizations, including UNICEF, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the International Criminal Court.

[There] We were at There.com 

Submitted by Selen on Tue, 04/01/2008 - 00:07

On March 20th, Kofi Annan accepted the MacArthur Foundation's International Justice Award at the gorgeous Waldorf Astoria Hotel, NY. While the participants were enjoying the night and experiencing the uniqueness of this first time ever event at the hotel, Global Kids were broadcasting the event in different virtual worlds as well as on the Web. One of the virtual worlds was There.com. There.com is a 3D social world where members can make friends, communicate with each other, customize their avatars, shop, host events, play games, and many more other things which are mainly social.

With a lot of help from Betsy Book, Director of Product Management at THERE, the event was hosted at Orangutan Stage in There.com. The members of There.com came to join us for this exciting event on May 20th and listen to the talk given by Kofi Annan, and the award ceremony from their computers with hundreds of others in different places. In front of their computers, There.com members experienced this unique event which is a step to bring the same experiences/events into different virtual worlds for different types of users, and share global values, human rights and justice in this case.

[IJC] Official Opening of the International Justice Center Today! 

Submitted by Rik on Thu, 03/20/2008 - 06:00

IJC launch logo
Welcome to the website of the International Justice Center, a virtual clearinghouse for public education and action in support of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and related human rights concerns. Based both here on the web and in the virtual world of Second Life, the International Justice Center will host news, information and live events in support of the ICC.