Creativity vs. Innovation in Second Life

CS 855 held two excellent class sessions in Second Life tonight. We borrowed the Take a Position concept from Global Kids and examined some common myths about innovation from the books The Myths of Innovation and Ban the Humorous Bazooka: And Other Roadblocks and Speed Bumps Along the Innovation Highway ("Ban" is available from Books 24x7 at the CTU Library).


Students discussed the concepts and myths associated with creativity and innovation while standing on platforms that represented Myth or Truth. After examining nine myths, the class observed that the definitions tend to blur as a series of small creative efforts contribute to innovation.


Both classes ended with a short building session that covered intermediate building skills. Next week's classes (at the same time and location) continue to weave the class concepts with social media experiences in a virtual world.

Check out the Week 5 News forum post for more information on how your futuring and innovation assignments are being evaluated.

Let me know if you are interested in prototyping your class project or need a Second Life session at another time.

Second Life Futuring and Innovation Class

Nine CS 855 students valiantly navigated Tuesday night's class in Second Life, studying camera controls, the profile, how to use Voice over IP, chat logs, sharing content, gestures and drinking hot cocoa.

*makes a note to add more gadgets to the next class*

The discussion shifted from SL mechanics to reflect on social media and how people collaborate online. Our use of the Web 2.0 tools and Second Life helps us to understand today's capabilities and to envision what will be needed in 10-15 years.

With a nod to famous futurists, Winston Churchill's observation that the future was "one damn thing after another" [1] made us ask why anyone would pursue a career in forecasting. Yet, given the $200 billion spent annually on predictions, it is no small wonder that many feel that the 85% (or higher) failure rate is well worth the risk.

Weather forecasting was noted as one of the more successful prediction systems in W. Sherdan's The Fortune Sellers. Why is the weather important to technological innovation? Its direct influence on the physical environment affects other systems and their outcomes.

Upcoming assignment: As you start to design an audio podcast, two presentation styles that came to mind were Ask Dr. Science and Bill Nye The Science Guy. In your podcast, tell us about your favorite futurist (real or fictional), or share tips about a Web 2.0 tool.

Tip: Keep it short, offer new information and have a great time sharing your ideas!

Don't forget to post feedback about Dr. Rheingold's video from Monday's discussion.

Class ended with a description of the Programmatic Research paper and information regarding the final doctoral defense. Next week, we will continue our discussion of socio-technical futuring and discuss additional virtual world capabilities.

[1] Sherdan, W. A. (1998). The Fortune Sellers: The Big Business of Buying and Selling Predictions. John Wiley & Sons, New York, p.7.

Howard Rheingold on Why use forums?

Howard Rheingold's latest video reminds me of the cognitive overload associated with subscribing to forums. It also explains why my replies answer a variety of questions in a single message.

If you are new to embedding media in posts, checkout his video called the Social Media Classroom: Why use forums?

In addition to his videos, he has a historical perspective on the future of the Web as it was envisioned in 1996. Intriguing and fresh, Dr. Rheingold's explorations are well worth reviewing and he offers glimpses into his current research at hrheingold over Twitter.