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- Walden III: Digital Utopianism and the Virtual World
Walden III: Digital Utopianism and the Virtual World
Voting Summary (Elevator Pitch):
Walden III is an academic experiment that would explore whether Virtual Worlds, such as Second Life, can better facilitate the exchange of cultural artifacts across borders more harmoniously and equitably than the real world.
Supporting organization:
The Institute for Multimedia Literacy, University of Southern California
URL:
http://iml.usc.edu/
City:
Los Angeles
State/Region:
CA
Country:
90007
Project Vision Statement & Potential Social Impact:
Walden III is an attempt to minimize the impact of corporate cultural hegemony on global culture. Primarily speaking, it would attempt to alleviate the effects of cultural imperialism on the developing world - allowing those who are so often marginalized a more active voice in creating what will inevitably become our global culture. At the same time, Walden III would create an architecture that would allow anyone who actively participates in content creation and consumption to better understand how culture is changing, on a global scale, through the advent of digital technologies.
Sustainability (financial) model:
Apart from start-up funding (used to purchase an island and virtual materials), Walden III would incur little financial needs throughout its existence as it utilizes a pre-existing digital structure. This aside, a funding cushion would be ideal for unanticipated issues. Although the project itself would cost only "x" amount of money to make, having a flexible and fluid financing structure would open up endless possibilities for what Walden III could become. All Virtual Worlds contain their own economies, and although Walden III would attempt to mostly exist outside of these economies, being able to participate in them from time to time would be essential.
Potential obstacles:
The digital divide is still firmly in tact, and although many in the developing world are gaining access to computers and digital technologies, there still remains a large question of the demographic Walden III would initially a) attract and b) sustain. There is a very particular ideological and social-economical demographic who would be attracted to Walden III and that must be taken into account. Lack of a global language is another obstacle, and although English is the obvious choice for communications, that in itself is the result of cultural imperialism.
Resource Needs:
Walden III would benefit from dedicated server space and the various amenities that come from larger funding. Apart from these digital needs, Walden III absolutely needs abundant human resources, both in VW and out. Human resources are where Walden III would thrive, both conceptually and practically.
The price for a VW in Second Life would be approximately $2000 for a server, plus $150 per month in maintenance fees. As such, Walden III would minimally incur $2,450 of start-up funds.
Key Milestones:
Milestone 1 - Week 1: Architecture construction - Constructing the initial space should be completed within a week. This will be a collaborative effort to best facilitate the various needs of different cultures.
Milestone 2 - Month 1: Month 1 Retrospective - A panel of distinguished scholars and thinkers would help the Walden III team analyze their efforts and better understand how to improve upon existing the structure.
Milestone 3 - Month 2: Month 2 Retrospective - A panel of distinguished scholars and thinkers would help the Walden III team analyze their efforts and better understand how to improve upon existing the structure.
Milestone 4 - Month 3: Project Showcase - A project showcase will be open to the public to explore and participate with the world of Walden III.
Although these are general milestones for Walden III, much more specific milestones would be decided as a group by the Walden III team. An intricate set of goals is essential to the project, but to prescribe one view would be counter-intuitive to the ideological nature of Walden III.
Project Summary:
Walden III utilizes Virtual Worlds to create an environment that fosters meanigful and equitable exchange of cultural artifacts. It is within the structure of a digital environment that we can better understand and facilitate exchange of global culture. Walden III would attempt to be a model for future online cultural collaborations and exchanges.
