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Inspiring Words for Women’s Opportunity

Last month 26 women from around the world took a moment to write an inspiring sentence. Each woman has shared something unique - please take the time to read the message on each slide.
Here they are!

THANK YOU to these amazing women for their contributions!
Alison Spencer, IBM Australia
Amy Palko, Less Ordinary, Scotland
Anita Pahor, Women’s Opportunity Director, Australia
Beth Kanter Social Media for NonProfits
Bonnie McEwan Owner, Make Waves: Impact Marketing for Nonprofits USA
Cindy Lenferna de la Motte, Director at Fashion Collaborative, Australia
Danielle Johnston, Business Director, Committee for Melbourne, Australia
Debbe Kennedy, Founder, President, and CEO Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies, USA http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com http://www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com
Janette Toral, digitalfilipino.com Australia/Philippines
Joanna Young, Confident Writing, writing coach, Scotland
Kieran Cannistra, Innovation Editor IBM, USA
Linda Griffin Founder ClearWind LLC, USA
Lindy McKeown, eLearning Consultant, Australia
Lynne Wenig, Scope President (2005 – 2007) Australia
Marigo Raftopoloulos
Michelle Zamora , AP SOA Marketing Leader, IBM, Australia
Nina Simosko, Global Chief Operating Officer, SAP Education USA
Penni Russon, Author, Australia www.pennirusson.com
Phaedra Boinidiris, CEO, WomenGamers.Com USA
Renee Wolforth, Attorney, Washington, USA
Dr Robyn McMaster Sr VP MITA International Brain Based Cente
Sacha Chua, Canada/Philippines
Shai Coggins,Co-Founder & Community Strategist, b5media.com
Silvia Guccione, Director, Pomodoro Italian Cooking School, Australia
Suzanne Male, Publisher, Smink Works Books, Australia
Sacha Chua, Philippines and Canada

If these slides impact you, please consider making a donation of $10 to invest in a group of women in the Philippines.

And share these inspiring slides on your blog or Facebook etc… thank you!

The meaning of a personal online brand

Published July 19, 2008 inspiration , virtual worlds 3 Comments
Tags: brand, debbe kennedy, greater IBM, navel gazing, online, others, personal, secondlife, ted childs

Last night I attended a Greater IBM Connection (alumni) virtual party in Secondlife where Debbe Kennedy was launching her new book. During the proceedings Ted Childs, former VP of Diversity at IBM made this wonderful observation about Debbe.

: Ted Childs in Secondlife

He spoke of her passion for people and how he saw her career progress - not by putting herself first - but by always thinking of how to improve things and progress things for other people.

What a wonderful quality to be known for. Sometimes in this web2.0 space I’m cautious not to begin too many sentences beginning with “I”. Although I know it can be “all about me” in the web2.0 world I hope that my focus also can be about others. When does personal expression and conversation turn into pure navel gazing with an audience?

So while I challenge myself, let me also ask you. What is your personal online brand doing for others? Is your brand all about you? Have you seen any examples of personal brands that speak less of the person and more of other people?

48 hours, 5000 words and 12 cubes of ice

Published July 11, 2008 lifelogging , virtual worlds , web 2.0 5 Comments
Tags: absorbing writing, lifelogging, social media, virtual world, web2.0, writing

In response to a group writing project (competition) for Absorbing Writing: Writing Workshops In Italy, “Your ideal writing weekend”.

Image originally uploaded by Curious Expeditions

48 hours to go. Ready to rock ‘n’ roll I take a deep breath and flick my wrist in web flinging Spidey-action, launching my holographic laptop. Or maybe cup of tea first. Flick off. Boil. Pour. Flick on…..ahhh.

Needing some tunes to inspire, I casually wave my finger through the air and the screen ripples as I open Last.fm. The song randomly served up reminds me of my husband and our cheeky little monkeys so I dip into their lifestream to see what they are up to. Laughter. Screaming. Smiles. Chaos….Sweeeeet.

47 hours and 50 something minutes to go…I begin. I’m using a combination of voice recognition, typing and a slightly manic hand waving gesture with my LifeWriter. The words find some form and characters begin to bloom, but the words come to a screeching halt as it hits 3pm and I hit a wall. I decide to do a bit of quick research by diving into a virtual world through a new tag and character portal - and find some inspiration amongst talking lilies and a kid with a seriously augmented reality, who is mashing up some brew of philosophy, hacked data and geographic locations. I dip out as soon as I find myself caught up talking to a Penguin about the recipe for corn flake cookies.

12 hours to go, fast forward through some coffee, more writing, more coffee, a nap, a short walk for fresh air listening to an episode of This American Life. Oh, and a burst of late night tweeting. I’m nearly there and enjoying the long bursts of wordiness in between online social interactions. Looking out to the countryside, I try to remember what it was like when words were captured with a typewriter or a pen.

1 hour to go. Time to sit down and read my own cooking with a fresh pair of eyes, before I power off all devices to enjoy the stillness out here. I tweet to @kellypuffs on the other side of the planet to ask her how to make the perfect G&T. “Naturally, with 12 cubes of ice!” she replies.

InWorld Art Therapy

Published June 17, 2008 creative therapy , virtual worlds 3 Comments
Tags: art, art therapy, communication, Ginger Poole, healing, masters, therapy, virtual, virtual worlds, youth

I was recently introduced to colleague Ginger Poole, a User Experience specialist and Information Architect who is completing a Masters in virtual art therapy.

“I feel that with ten million girls shopping for Barbie in 3D and two million Webkins in 3D worlds, the next generation sees 3D worlds the way teens now see Text Message and YouTube. It will be expected that everything will be virtual world from shopping to researching. Art therapy has a great opportunity to be of help to a generation in the media they are accustomed to, we just have to figure out how it works and how kids are relating to it. It’s time to start researching what works and what doesn’t’ work now.”

Ginger studied fine arts and worked in graphic design for ten years before moving into web development. “It was an exciting time to be involved with technology and I put down my personal art.” Five years later, during a personal crisis, she picked up her camera and started to take photos of children and discovered other forms of art could give her the same therapeutic benefits. So she made the decision to study art therapy, “I decided I wanted to help others find that comfort and healing too.”

” Group virtual world art therapy (InWorld Art Therapy) is entirely new. I have found only one person working in this medium so I would love to hear from anybody who might be interested or already trying this out. I will be doing the first research in September..”

” My target audience is high school students that refuse to come to a group therapy session or are more open to electronic means of communication than verbal.

Ginger expects students to:

be more willing to reveal more when “hidden” behind an avatar
practice social skills like assertiveness, honesty, empathy as practice for face to face encounters
feel a sense of community and relationship (compared to being online alone)
express themselves through 3D art which may more familiar to them

Although not intended to be a substitute for in-person art therapy, it provides an alternative for youth who don’t like the idea of participating in traditional art therapy. “Also, safety is of utmost concern. InWorld Art Therapy can only be conducted if you know the person’s real name, location and cell phone number and of course if the person is a minor, with parental consent.”

If you know of anybody else working in this field, please leave a comment. What do you think about using virtual worlds for therapy?

Training Spiel

Published June 13, 2008 learning , virtual worlds , web 2.0 3 Comments
Tags: australia, global, Information Age, interview, learning, social media, training, travel, virtual worlds, wonderwebby

Imagine this - it’s your first interview about all this social virtual worlds and learning business and you are working from home. Suddenly - just minutes before the call - a storm hits and your house is blacked out. You have no web access. No chat access to the IBM Communications representative. No lights. You scramble through the dark to find the only (non digital) telephone that works. You find your elbow tangled up in the phone cord in the rush. The wind howls. You’re alone. The phone rings. “Hello?”

Actually, the interview itself was pleasant. I can’t recall what on earth I jabbered about in the dark, but it must have been something like this..

“You can’t just take a course and dump it into a virtual world,” according to Tragas. Instead, whole new frameworks for learning need to be developed. IBM already hosts training applications, including induction courses for new employees in India, China and Brazil, on its islands in Linden Labs’ Second Life. The expert who is actually training the new staff can be located anywhere in IBM’s network, says Tragas…

According to Tragas virtual training is particularly attractive to organisations with a widely spread workforce, where the cost of bringing together employees and expert trainers in a single venue for a period of time can be prohibitively expensive and environmentally unfriendly. More organisations therefore are exploring virtual alternatives, not just for the savings, but because of their immersive and engaging nature. This is also making virtual worlds an interesting approach for scenario planning.

Read more in the Information Age article “Fast Learners” by Beverley Head

Avatar Affinity

Published January 15, 2008 virtual worlds 8 Comments
Tags: avatar, connection, immersion, secondlife, virtual worlds

One of the things I really enjoy about Secondlife is the connection I have with my avatar. The process of creating my avatar, finding outfits, a skin, the right hair, accessories helped me learn to navigate and connect with Secondlife. The connection with my avatar is fundamental in giving me an immersive virtual world experience. I can express my mood differently with the click of an inventory change and my interaction with others is more captivating because of their expressed individuality.

Other virtual worlds have not given me the same connection. Even having the ability to select from a small smorgasbord of avatars in Active Worlds doesn’t seem to help, I want the ability to customise and be animated. In the same way, I find it difficult to relate to other avatars there, it doesn’t seem to be as “freestyle” as Secondlife.

Do you have an affinity with your avatar? Does your avatar selection help you connect with and be immersed in your virtual world environment?

Virtual Culture

Published October 25, 2007 virtual worlds 0 Comments
Tags: , art, artists, community, culture, marcus westbury, not quite art, secondlife, virtual worlds

Is culture the very thing that creates community and life in a virtual world?

A recent series on the ABC “Not Quite Art”hosted by Marcus Westbury grabbed my attention recently. I caught the episode in Glasgow where artists were doing great stuff in old factories, fostered by communities of artists. I liked how Marcus seemed to capture the essence of a vibrant creative community injecting life, art and culture into a hollow industrial shell. I couldn’t help but think of the parallels with virtual worlds, Secondlife in particular. From the ABC site:

Marcus puts forward the question of whether you can buy culture by building an iconic building or even franchising a McLouvre or McGuggenheim? Or is culture a messy, dirty thing that comes from the bottom up, refuses to behave, is borderline illegal and breaks a lot of occupational health and safety rules?

Sometimes when you wander around Secondlife you sense this “culture” - a community living outside the rules. Obviously this is where traditional marketers got it wrong. Imagine McSponsor walking into a real life burgeoning underground arts & culture scene and dropping in a building, flashy logos, and changing the rules. Uh-huh.

So how do you retain that vibrant culture in a growing community? I personally think culture grows when you heat it up, mix it up, foster it, infuse it. Just don’t try to change the essence of it.

What do you think?

Inspiring Artists

Published September 21, 2007 virtual worlds 2 Comments

When things look good, I love to look. Many thanks to Roo Reynolds who posted the following artistic Secondlife machinima by AM Radio on Eightbar.

Also kudos to my former lecturer John Power for this magical machinima.

I think it just goes to show the potential for creative types to bring a special aesthetic quality to 3D virtual worlds. I really think we have only seen the tip of the creative iceberg. That really excites me.

I wonder what kind of virtual world networking events are happening to introduce artists to worlds like Secondlife? In 1996 I set up some forums between artists, designers and multimedia technical folk through AIMIA (Australian Interactive Multimedia Industry Association.) The purpose was to showcase the latest and greatest from pioneers in the interactive media field. It would be great to see a “how to secondlife” session for artists at Horse Bazaar - which reminds me I only have a week left to see best of the independent games festival at ACMI

If you have a chance, take a look at how these artists interpret the gaming metaphor.

	wonderwebby on Notes from Physical and Virtua…
	Jen Okimoto on Notes from Physical and Virtua…
	pvdugas on 5000 words then she pause…
	5000 words then she … on 50,000 words just for fun
	wonderwebby on Inspiring Words for Women…
	Gavin Heaton on Inspiring Words for Women…
	Less Ordinary » A T… on Inspiring Words for Women…

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Archive for the 'virtual worlds' Category

The meaning of a personal online brand

InWorld Art Therapy

Avatar Affinity

Virtual Culture

Inspiring Artists

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