Archive for September, 2007

Next Entries »

Expression Therapy

Published September 6, 2007 creative therapy , virtual worlds 1 Comment

A comment from Sol overnight about the therapeutic benefits of virtual worlds reminded me of the benefits found in art therapy.Way back in my final year of high school, my art research topic was “expression”. I studied the Expressionists and interviewed Art Therapists from psychiatric institutions who use art as a means of helping individuals deal with emotion.
Later I studied the ability of capturing a “sublime” moment on canvas and in animation. As you can see, I love the use of art and new media to delve into the psyche, the potential for the visual to encapsulate emotion and provoke response. At one point I wanted to become an Art therapist myself.

Virtual worlds offer amazing potential to provoke this kind of emotional response. I wonder if this aspect has really been exploited yet? As Pranab Sharma pointed out in a recent post, user-generated content is a compelling interaction in virtual worlds like Secondlife.

Could virtual worlds offer an opportunity for people to deal with emotion in a traumatic situation? If we taught people getting psychiatric care how to use Secondlife, not just from a collaborative aspect (which I believe is happening already) but from a more tactile, physical, visual response. Imagine an exhibition in secondlife of object created by people who have trouble expressing themselves in the real world.

It also makes me wonder how much people under-estimate user generated content as a significant emotionally engaging interaction between the user and their virtual experience.
Landscape art has a long way to go in secondlife. I don’t quite understand why art galleries in secondlife tend to be two dimensional. The abstract landscapes I have seen (such as that by Spillebeen Mayo) are far more engaging -compelling in a virtual world due to scale and design.

One day I would love to visit a virtual abstract landscape created by a community of people who were able to process emotions in the creative process. I think the outcome could issue a challenge to levels of creativity found in virtual worlds and maybe even help individuals in society a little :)

Community Shepherds

Published September 5, 2007 virtual worlds 3 Comments

I was greatly inspired today by the Art of Building Communities by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, thanks to Luis Suarez (thanks so much Luis!) It’s a great post with a lot of wonderful content on the challenges faced in building virtual learning communities.

It got me thinking. People want to connect. People want to express themselves. People want their voice heard. Sometimes, they just need a little encouragement to help them get there. Technology and the pace of life can just seem so overwhelming that anything2.0 appears to be a monolithic task to complete. Change and adoption of a new way to do things is never an easy task. Social media, given the right context and the right support can become a wonderful learning medium, fostering expression, knowledge management, communities and renewing passion for learning.

To help achieve this, a Shepherd is needed. Somebody to lead, to guide, to give others a sense of direction and protection.

Do you see an opportunity to help somebody improve their ability to communicate, collaborate and develop using blogging, wikis, virtual worlds and other social media? Are you taking a proactive role in fostering successful adoption of the tools out there? Do you simply instigate and evangelise, or do you think about the momentum and structure required to help individuals create and sustain virtual communities? Have you helped somebody to “find their voice” recently? I am very grateful to friends and colleagues who have helped me to find mine. And I am still learning ;)

Not all of us have natural shepherding abilities, but we all have the ability to encourage.

What difference can you make to individuals needing to express themselves, and to develop better virtual communities around you today? The simple efforts of one person can make a huge difference to the culture of an organisation. What can you do?
Oh, and if you’re seeking help in gathering momentum for change- a wonderful book “Our Iceberg is Melting” by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber. Enjoy!

Information Vortex

Published September 1, 2007 virtual worlds 3 Comments

Is the force of the information vortex sucking you in?

Social media is fun. Especially for people like me who are click-happy and love a graphical interface and personality to information. What might appear to be a frivolous timewaster (again, like the web 10 years ago) is actually giving me some control over the sometimes volatile nature of the information vortex. A central point of virtual gravity, if you like.

The thing is, I find I am helping others to understand social media is there to “work for you, not *make* work for you”. A little blogging, a little tweet, engage in some interaction and see what (more) pertinent information comes your way. Harness the tools with your team and see how it could improve your social dynamics and knowledge management capabilities.

The first step is demystification, removing the geek mystique. The next is to empower your employees with the tools, a code of conduct, and time management2.0. Finally, it needs to be said that people need to feel confident, to find their own voice, a reason for posting information. Empower others to express and innovate in a collaborative environment of trust and relationship. The power of a collective is only as strong as the individuals therein.

No doubt there is still room for improvement to the tools available. Wikis need to have a better GUI, perhaps more akin to Facebook publishing. Info-portals (graphical RSS templates) to personalise groupings of wikis, blogs, tweet-groups links and personal requirements. Still, I would rather use these tools than email most of the time.

There are many benefits of using social media – so if you feel like you are spiralling out of control in an information vortex, put on your web2.0 jet boots and make the move towards a future of expression and innovation.

« Previous Page

Subscribe to Wonderwebby

Subscribe by Email

Twitter: wonderwebby
About Wonderwebby - by Jasmin Tragas - daydreamer - concept shaper - mother - digital do-gooder

2010 WonderThemes

LIVE - PLAY - CREATE
View Jasmin Tragas's profile on LinkedIn
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Disclaimer: the postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent my employer’s positions, strategies or opinions.

wonderlinks

Add to Technorati Favorites

Recent Readers

View My Profile View My Profile View My Profile View My Profile View My Profile

 

September 2007
M T W T F S S
« Aug   Oct »
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930