Bridging the Divide: Connected Communities and the Enabled Society

January 23, 2006

I've been invited to give the fourth in the Urban Learning Space's Learning Seminars series, on the seamless integration (or lack thereof) between our physical existence and our increasingly important virtual identities:

The When: Thursday 26th January 2006
11.30am - 2.00pm (includes lunch)

The Where: The Lighthouse, Mitchell Lane, Glasgow, G1 3NU
Gallery, Level 5.

Contact: Alison, or on 0141 225 0107.

As we individually and collectively communicate and interact, moving between our physical and virtual worlds, we need to refine and integrate our knowledge of both into our lives, to create and maintain who we are, beyond just our physical selves and our immediate communities. So how do we bridge the divide between the two, and what tools are around to help us do this? Who are we and how do we prove who we are, beyond our physical presence? How do we connect with virtual communities and knowledge networks and how do we ensure that these are integrated into our physical lives, and vice versa?

Enhanced Realities for Natural Spaces

June 21, 2005

One question, of many, from the Urban Learning Space Play, Mobility and Learning forum at Oran Mor:

Does providing digital experiences around natural spaces – parks and wilderness places – devalue or supplant the experience of visiting them?

Any space has multiple layers of perception – whether it's the geology of Yellowstone behind the spectacular geysers, the history of London embodied in Regent's Park or the song of the warblers in the Norfolk Broads, every visitor, physical or virtual, experiences a level of detail according to their experience and existing knowledge. What digital enhancement of physical spaces can do is help engage people with further levels of detail beyond their assumptions, it can add persistence to individual and collective stories generated around a place, it can extend effective access to a place and, above all, it can help engage visitors far beyond their initial intent. That engagement is self-selecting – not everyone who experiences a physical place will engage with it and many who can't experience it at any given time wish to engage with it. Creating a digital overlay - an "Enhanced Reality" for a virtual place can both help engage the uncomprehending and extend the physical boundaries of the place. In doing so, understanding of structure, causality and process can only be improved.