Category Archives: SecondLife

Mixed Reality Deliberation

The goal of Hub2 is to introduce a deliberative process into community meetings that currently does not exist. Who do this by integrating Second Life into the existing community process. We believe that the affordances of the tool and the … Continue reading

Posted in boston, cities, citygovernment, civic_engagement, gene_koo, hub2, mediated urbanism, mixed_reality, net-locality, placeofmedia, SecondLife | Leave a comment

Digital Birmingham

The City of Birmingham, UK is working on a significant transformation in image. As it is described on the Digital Birmingham site, the city seeks to transform its industrial past into a digital future. The initiative seeks to tie together … Continue reading

Posted in cities, city, citygovernment, mediated urbanism, placeofmedia, SecondLife | 4 Comments

Hub2 Works With Harvard

For the last several weeks, Hub2 has been working on a project in the Allston neighborhood of Boston. With full support from the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) and funding from Harvard’s Allston Development Group, we have begun work on the … Continue reading

Posted in boston, citygovernment, civic_engagement, gene_koo, hub2, mixed_reality, placeofmedia, SecondLife | 1 Comment

The Geography of Virtual Worlds

I’m editing a special issue of the journal Space and Culture on the “Geography of Virtual Worlds.” Here’s a draft of the introduction. It’s still in process, but it might give some sense of what I think will be a … Continue reading

Posted in article ideas, games, geography, hub2, placeofmedia, second life, SecondLife | 4 Comments

Urban Communication Foundation Award

Last week I was in Chicago at the National Communication Association conference. I never used to go to this conference, but over the past several years I’ve been attending a pre-conference seminar with this group called the Urban Communication Foundation. … Continue reading

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Community Networks

In class last week, we spent about 90 minutes arguing over the merits of community networks. The real question was: why would we want network technologies overlaying physical space? Don’t we have enough “connection?” Shouldn’t urban planners and architects help … Continue reading

Posted in boston, city, citygovernment, civic_engagement, Community_Informatics, hub2, net-locality, placeofmedia, SecondLife | Leave a comment

Reality: To Augment or Mix?

One of the things I’ve been struggling with lately is the premise that the addition of the virtual onto individual consciousness somehow alters that consciousness such that it cannot integrate the virtual into its horizon. Let me try putting it … Continue reading

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Hub2 – Entering the Design Phase

For the last four weeks, we’ve been doing some general thinking about how cities, digital networks and virtual worlds might fit together. We’ve talked about the relationship between play and urban spatial practice, and we’ve pondered the general success of … Continue reading

Posted in boston, city, civic_engagement, hub2, SecondLife | 1 Comment

Hub2 gets under way

The Hub2 initiative started this week in the form of an upper-division class at Emerson College. The community class is set to begin next Tuesday. At this point, we are enrolled to capacity, and are quite eager to get started. … Continue reading

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Putting Theory into Action

Everything is going full speed ahead. The Boston Redevelopment Authority has agreed to fund the first phase of the Hub2 program. They’re going to pay for student tuition, evaluation, TA support and design. It’s great news and we’re thrilled that … Continue reading

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