The MacArthur Foundation's Virtual World Plans

This weekend Global Kids will be sponsoring a philanthropy and non-profit track at the SLCC under a grant from the MacArthur Foundation. In June it gave a $550,000 grant to USC's Center on Public Diplomacy to sponsor a year's worth of discussion on virtual worlds. It's all a part of a larger 5-year, $50 million initiative to study digital media and learning that launched in 2006. We spoke with Program Officer  Ben Stokes about the Foundation's plans for the rest of the year with USC, the five years of the Digital Media Initiative, and its general goals.  "We don't have all the answers yet," he said. "One of the roles of foundations is to ask the right questions. That's  particularly important with virtual worlds. One of our main goals at the end of our year-long commitment is just to have a better idea of what the right questions are."

The Foundation has been involved in education for a long time, but Stokes says it was growing frustrated with the way reform was proceeding. "We felt like we weren't getting the ROI that the public deserves," he said."A lot of the school work was interesting, but then it had to be changed every few years when funding didn't work out from the state. And then they thought, 'Well let's look in games. They seem like they'll be big in the future. But they found that it's not the future. It's now.'"

He cites examples of children teaching other teaching how to play or create thing in virtual worlds, a kind of peer-to-peer education, as an inspiration. And when the Foundation noticed students who might not succeed in school creating prolific amounts of Harry Potter fan fiction and engaging and learning from peer criticism, it knew it needed to move into the digital space.

The digital learning initiative was announced in New  York and simulcast in Second Life.

"Right from the beginning, virtual worlds were interesting to us," said Stokes. "Virtual worlds are interesting for a couple of distinctive advantages. One is that they're multi-modal. They're inherently not just text, not just visual. They're spatial, but there's also text and people, so they're social. I think also the international component is interesting. They can't help but be that way because they're open."

Stokes outlined three strategic goals: understand what's different for kids in digital learning, examine what can be done in learning environments, and figure out how to translate that to learning institutions.

"We feel like there are very few educators who get this stuff," said Stokes. "One of our goals is just to figure out how to describe what's happening, and we don't want it to be hype. Should we be funding schools,  after school programs, libraries, church programs? Mostly if you want to get involved in virtual worlds, you do it on your own. One of our goals is to have the education sector be able to make intelligent decisions about whether virtual worlds are something they want to get involved in."

But beyond simply using virtual worlds as education tools. The Foundation is interested in helping to shape the very development of the space. While corporations are leaping into social networks, Stokes explained, the virtual world space is still in a wild west stage.

"We feel like we might have more influence as people who are looking out at the greater good," said Stokes.

Stokes cites an interest in exploring the legal issues surrounding virtual worlds, like property rights, global laws, and even the IP considerations of personal fabrication devices like 3D printers. The foundation is also examining how to establish and regulate relationships between virtual platforms.

"We're also interested in relationships between virtual worlds," said Stokes. "If I have one world that has different rules, can I take something from Second Life to it?  If I'm going to spend a lot of time creating something impressive for Second Life and it goes under, did I lose all my time or can I use that creation elsewhere? Interoperability is an important issue for us. It's not about any one world, but about the state of virtual worlds."

While the major investment is in the digital media initiative—for example, sending USC representatives to a conference in Mexico on immigration to discuss what it means to have digital migrants--the Foundation is also incorporating virtual world elements into projects across its other initiatives, including promotion, education, and interaction.

Right now, though, said Stokes, "The only commitment we have is to explore."

Comments

[Nobody Fugazi/Taran Rampersad]

I'm very critical of these endeavors, enough so that some call me cynical. On one hand, I do believe that virtual worlds can be great for the future - but honestly, when you look at the global population figures and internet penetration around the world (less than 1/5th, markedly less with broadband)... it does seem a little ridiculous, doesn't it?