Scott MacLeod's Anthropology of Information Technology & Counterculture: Foja Mountain Pigeon: Very glad you're joining our 'Information Technology and the Network Society' course beginning on Thursday, September 19th at 7am PDT (west coast USA) while in India, Course logistics, Some advantages of Second Life and other interactive virtual worlds

Hi Eha, and All,

Very glad you're joining our 'Information Technology and the Network Society' course. You're the tenth person to email that you'd like to participate, and Google + group Hangouts, where we'll meet from 8:10am to 9am PDT (west coast) can accommodate up to 10 people in real time video for free. And thank you for recently adding yourself to our Google group here -

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!members/information-technology-and-the-network-society - which we'll use and explore for conversation and idea sharing during the semester. And thank you also for adding your SL avatar's name (get avatars here - http://secondlife.com) to the Google Docs' spreadsheet, - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvXsWjm5CIcbdFVaUjdLNUE3dkc5bFhFam9HV0pQOXc&usp=sharing - and looking forward to meeting you on Thursday, September 19th in 'real time.'

Arna (a gmail address will probably make things easier) and Khush,

You're welcome to participate in this "Information Technology and the Network Society" course, as well, but I'd ask you to wait possibly please until 8:20a PDT (west coast time) to join the G+ Hangouts in video. Each Hangout will be broadcast (and recorded), and Google just introduced a Q&A tool (for up to 1 million concurrent users) for Hangouts, and you may also be able to converse in text chat as the 11th and 12th people in this course in the Google + Hangouts. If not all ten people, who have already first registered for the course, attend on any given Thursday, say by 8:20am, then feel free to join the G+ hangout for interactive conversation possibilities (via the Conference Method -http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_Method_of_Teaching_and_Learning - which, as a beginning, involves people talking with one another, as a far-reaching mode of learning and idea generation).

Please add yourselves to the google group and the spreadsheets above, as well as get a SL avatar. Tomorrow, Thursday, we'll meet on Harvard's virtual island in Second Life at 7am PDT (west coast time) -

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Berkman/165/212/25

- for the first hour, and in a Google + Hangout for the second hour at 8:10am PDT, accessible here -https://plus.google.com/u/0/115890623333932577910/posts - and for which I'll also send an invitation. You'll find all this course information, and much more, on this page - http://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2013/09/information-technology-and-network.html.

All, active, course, participants' email addresses are above.

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Hi Jessika, and All,

I'm sorry Second Life seems to be blocked by Indonesian internet filters.

Keep trying at different times for the next while. Neal Stephenson's brainchild (in his novel "Snow Crash") of SL is a) stimulating imagination-wise, b) buildable, c) has voice and text for 40, d) with avatar communication being fascinating (e.g. anonymous, pseudonymous and actual names and information about our real life selves), and e) is 'other' enough to make it interesting in the digital age, and f) such virtual worlds will develop. Holding the course on Harvard's island has advantages as well.

It's great to have, especially, these two different forums for the conference method.

And, ITatNS people, please add your avatar names to the spreadsheet, and test Second Life for yourselves. I was actually also have problems teleporting to Harvard's island earlier today from within SL, but was able to search under "World" in the menu for "Berkman" and then successfully teleport. SL has its 'weather' but it's also interesting.

These two venues are really valuable as teaching spaces (partly because they generally work without too many glitches and they're free).

And thanks for adding your avatar name, Jessika. Please add your avatar names here, All, so we can find each other - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvXsWjm5CIcbdFVaUjdLNUE3dkc5bFhFam9HV0pQOXc&usp=sharing .

Keep me/us posted how access proceeds, Jessika. It would be great to be able to converse in both 'spaces.'

See you all Thursday from 7am-9am west coast time.

Regards,
Scott

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Sphere and Cris,

Sphere, and all, there is a Second Life group for this course called "Society and Information Technology," or similar, from previous years, and please join it, and/or I'll point people to it tomorrow from within SL. Cris, turn down the music on Harvard's island in SL for now with your volume button, and we'll seek to find the controls for this tomorrow. Jess how's access to SL in Indonesia going?

All, please begin to read "Networked" (MIT 2012), the first chapter of which you'll find here - http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/networked - and here, toward the bottom, of the main course page - http://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2013/09/information-technology-and-network.html.

And please, all, procure or order the book "Networked" and proceed with reading the chapters that follow the first one.

Here, too, is the 'Network Society,' wiki, Subject page at World University and School -

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Network_Society - for us to teach to (e.g. to your web camera, like Sal Khan does), share resources or ideas, and with which also to innovate (among many related-to-this-course wiki Subject pages at WUaS - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Network_Society#World_University_and_School_Links).

On Thursday, in the first hour, we'll get connected, and begin to explore "Networked," in terms of the conference method, and introduce ourselves (hopefully, in SL, via group texting a fair amount in the beginning, rather than using voice), and in the second hour (in a G+ Hangout), we'll begin to examine how the information society began, and where we all would like to head with this course, bringing the book "Networked" into conversation with this course on "Information Technology and the Network Society."

Curiously, and unfortunately, and also unusually, I didn't have internet access on my laptop this morning, but am looking forward toward the course with you and us all meeting tomorrow together in cyberspace.

See you soon :)

Best,

Scott