avad

Pier 10- avaDarlene- submitted to Google's Project 10tothe100 in October 2008.
based on a dream

A chain of retail spaces offering internet, gaming and edu-tainment activities to engage the masses in a global movement of collaboration, fun-draising and problem solving. To creatively engage as many individuals and their communities as possible in the race to achieve the Millenium Goals by 2015.

Pier 10 GIGAcenters (Global Interactive Gaming and Activity Centers) are designed to introduce and familiarize the masses with creative cutting edge technology while engaging them in activities which inspire and empower them in a networked world. Part cybercafe, arcade, gym, entertainment center, interactive science museum. Dome ceiling center, projection events. Mixed-reality/ virtual reality events. Serious Games. Virtual Worlds/SecondLife. Future Visioning. Mapping. Cascade effects. Lotteries. A real-time LCD display clock (as seen for the national debt) showing funds being raised and channeled in various GIGAcenters around the world, projects being funded with bells and recognitions on maps.

I envision scenarios such as this: "Johnny, 15, and his local GIGA-C team have just this year collectively funded 32 wells in Africa, 16 schools and are playing towards the grand ___ in the regional GIGA-C tournaments.
"Therese, 37, has incorporated a 20minute 'Cycle-for-a-Cause' or Treadmill Cause into her day for 5 months resulting in better health while raising $3,300 for her favorite charity organization."
"Atlanta's Pier10 GIGAcenter has topped the charts in weekly funds raised."

We realize how easily (and enjoyably) we can collaborate to solve problems and end suffering.
An option to a night out at the movies, or alone at the home computer, etc.

Those who spend time at the Pier10 GIGAcenters benefit from being personally and actively involved in the most important goals of our time, seeing their impact and feeling part of a strong and positive global movement for a better world.
The nonprofits benefit by receiving steady waves of funding that can allow them to carry out and expand the much needed work they are doing around the world, assisting countless numbers of people and bringing us closer and closer to accomplishing the Millenium Goals.

while beloved Cloudpad wiki is down I will keep what I have of this here as well. The dream that started it all for me, that I totally believe is coming true and I have been watching come true:

In 1999 I had a dream so powerfully inspiring that it changed my life, setting me on a mission to understand and help manifest the concepts within it. Keep in mind that at that time I did not use computers,the internet,or email at all, but the dream showed me web portals and avatars, so it was Quite bizarre for me.

In this dream (had and written down in bookjournal Thursday March 25th, 1999) I was glancing amusedly through a horoscope section of a magazine and catch the blurb for Sagittarius: "You may befriend a scientist...". This made me smile in anticipation for the rest of the horoscope. When I get to it, the photo lay-out shows a laboratory of some sort, a man looking at something in the foreground in labcoat, a woman in the background (not me- perhaps the Sagittarius?) with reddish upswept hair. I start to read the column of text that runs down the left side of the page...when suddenly I found myself reading what seemed to be very direct,specific and personal instructions. "This is not the time for socializing. You need to reread those science texts. You need to find out why _____ and _____ + ____ do what they do. (At that point the instructions were no longer just text but became beautiful and mysterious moving diagrams showing spherical particles that somehow became superimposed and holographic as the text 'narrated'.) I was to find out what would happen if everyone did something specific at the same time. (again mysterious and beautiful holographic diagram)

It then went on to show what would be possible with this understanding......strangely it was business ideas- huge- which I looked at cynically thinking that's the bias the magazine would have...having to promote this money wheel. It mentioned computer programs and a real store called Pier10 which would take all the ideas of certain stores/spaces (Pier1, body shop, nature company, discovery, barnes and noble, Disneyworld(!) 10 steps further.. A commercial space (both a social space and marketplace) to be launched in tandem with a huge immersive '3D web portal', graphically as beautiful and detailed as any of the best computer games I had ever glimpsed! Both these concepts were seen in elaborate detail and they were rich with novelty that I can elaborate on, but the important theme they shared was an emphasis on a 'new collaborative movement for a better world and inspiring the masses to participate'. Called Pier 10, they were set up in such a way that 10% of profits (including entry fees) were distributed to a network of charities and due to the volume of traffic this was a continually inspiring amount in itself. Secondly, they were both interspersed with interactive and informative activities and displays that were designed to inspire individuals about their positive individual roles and the feasibility of the goal of the movement.

When I woke, I was dumbfounded by the vividness of all I had just seen and I tried to write down as much as I could. Over the next years I read anything I could get my hands on that seemed to relate to these ideas. And as I filtered through them, certain topics amplified:

• ENTANGLEMENT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entanglement) seems to be what the diagrams were describing. (what Einstein termed 'Spooky action at a distance')
• EMPATHY (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy) (Pierre Omidyar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Omidyar) mentions a "Reaching down into the very source code of humanity and changing a few critical lines" and I want to yell YES YES!I think there has to be a vision...so compelling...that it thwarts the natural tendency to selfishness...rewiring the pleasure-centers of the brain to connect to benevolent action strongly...a new vision of the self...as part of a benevolent organism....)
• THE TIPPING POINT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipping_point) ( scale-free networks, hubs, etc as described in Linked (http://www.nd.edu/~networks/linked/), Emergence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence), Sync (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0786887214/qid=1129065393/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-5144733-2544611?v=glance&s=books&n=507846))
• THE GLOBAL BRAIN (http://www.peterussell.com/GB/Chap8.html) and greater problem solving capabilities
• SYMBIOSIS in evolution (I am especially fond of Lynn Margulis' works (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-5144733-2544611) in this area)
• VIRTUAL WORLDS as microcosms which affect the macrocosm
• Memory palaces and shared memories as empathy tools
• GIVING (10%) a voluntary vow to connect oneself to charitable causes as a tool for continuous empathy action

Serendipity sped things along as it tends to do.... I am a visual artist, and have been exploring the ideas in my mixed media materials as I've gone along, creating works which in their abstract way articulate more than I feel able to in words. (Feel free to visit my works online at my art website (http://www.darlenecharneco.com) ) Yet I would need to work amongst people devoted to bringing this particular dreamvision to reality for the benefit of humanity and not just for corporate profit. I don't feel this dream was for 'me', it was just a glimpse at something that would evolve...but a strong feeling I had was that it was necessary to make sure it evolved as a 'benevolent and symbiotic organism'. For this I am willing and ready to work. I had peeked at the virtual worlds in the making over the early years (The Palace, AlphaWorld) ...could see the direction..yet never felt they were coming that close to the dreamvision until I explored SecondLife.com in 2004 and it blew my mind with its potential. Over subsequent years I have been watching it evolve and trying to be a part of that evolution towards what I saw in the dream. Collaborating with others from The Omidyar Network, we brought about the experimental 'Better World Island'. Online Social networks have been making the connections needed with Friendster and then Myspace...and now Facebook is poised to bring on the Tipping Point with its Causes application and fundraising games. (unfortunately changed.). It is thrilling to see it evolve. Soon I think the brick and mortar spaces will be developed and the portal with a philanthropic focus. YOU are a part. see Pier10

Timeline of Pier10
[edit]
Timeline
1999: Dream of Pier10
2000-2001 :I try to express through mixedmedia artworks- create show entitled 'Beyond Words' with mixedmedia pieces Connecting Islands, Entanglement, Awaiting a Vision, etc.
maintain online journal at OpenDiary.com (lost:()
research early virtual worlds and visual chatrooms :The Palace, ActiveWorlds/Alphaworld, SIMS, SIMCity, The Psychology of Cyberspace by John Suler PhD http://www-usr.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/psycyber.html
2001:ManTransforms conference.
(article on visionary architect Paolo Soleri links me to upcoming conference 'ManTransforms'in NYC which has as speakers many of those that seem related to the dreamvision including Brian Greene. I feel pushed strongly to go. It is held at the old church which houses the Angel Orensanz Foundation- a space I connected to emotionally for the Jeff Buckley memorial service I had attended. The entire experience is dreamlike. Video snippets from my favorite films are spliced together for an intro: Powers of Ten, Baraka, Pi, I seem to know what each speaker is going to say just before they do. When Joseph Firmage speaks, the dreamlike feeling is almost unendurable. He speaks of his OneCosmos endeavors. Meet Paolo Soleri, John Perry Barlow , Jaron Lanier, Akim, others) . Waking Life film (!).
2001- August 11- Dream of NYC destroyed http://www.dreamjournal.net/index.cfm/do/journal.getdream/dream_id/62292
Sept 11- twin towers crash. world is shocked and called together.
2002 : begin experiment of giving 10% of my income to causes/charities that I want to support
join and begin writing online at Livejournal.com , connect with and begin online correspondence with Eliav Eini,Scott Powell and John Stone Eyeclectic (Seagullman), research into entanglement, symbiosis, network theory (Albert-Laszlo Barabasi's Linked )
November :create 1st 3D model of Connecting Islands/Threads of Empathy for 9/11 Huntington memorial proposal. miss deadline by minutes.(!)
2003 : more readings in network theory. SYNC: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order - Steven H.Strogatz, Emergence- Steven Johnson
join Friendster, an online social network which has the connections model as their logo.

2004:July join and explore SecondLife and get VERY excited about VERTU (Virtual Economies Realizing True Usefullness)
Sparkleworld show @ ScopeMiami- artworks which try to express aspects of dreamvision, aerial views, mapping virtual worlds
Google buys Keyhole (satellite imagery) for launch of Google Earth
December 26- Tsunami devastates South Asia. Amazon.com created donation portal on their site to speed aid donations from the masses.It works.
2005: January- join The Omidyar Network, write about my dream, connect with Tom Munnecke whose ideas/writings are what I am looking for. http://avad.livejournal.com/85267.html
meet in SecondLife first time with Tom Munnecke, Pierre Omidyar, Pam Omidyar and Evonne Heyning, Julie Martineau, others
Networked Theory of a Better World
Start 10%Club on ONet and on Livejournal http://community.livejournal.com/10percentclub/profile to try to engage others in experiment
Better World Island is launched in SecondLife / Sue Braiden
brainstorm Pier10 for BetterWorldIsland http://www.cloudpad.org/wiki/index.php?title=Pier10/on_BetterWorldIsland&redirect=no
August 29, 2005- Hurricane Katrina devastates New Orleans. The world is shocked and brought together to aid.
2005: Uplift Academy conference in Boston http://www.flickr.com/photos/docsearls/65790264/ try to express important parts of vision. wonderful group of inspiring people in fields of philanthropy and technology.
Omidyar Network forums on Serious Games, virtual worlds
join, research and participate in Myspace

2006 : Uplift Academy workshop in NYC: New Media and Infectious Good http://www.flickr.com/photos/munnecket/sets/72157594319229070/
join Flickr.com and research more on archiving and memorypalaces, tagging
2006-2007 : Gameland show @ MorganLehmanGallery, showing Self-Archiving Library Temple (regarding Flickr.com evolution vision) and Islands of Common Interest, Attractor, more
2007:Evonne Heyning inspired by Connecting Islands artwork, invites me to give a talk on SecondLife on MemoryPalaces with Mnemosign(Eliav Eini) for NMC New Media Consortium event http://sl.nmc.org/wiki/NMConnect
watch and research rapid growth in SecondLife for education and nonprofits, and in SeriousGames
2007 : Omidyar Network closes. I and other members move/regroup to Razoo.com, Ned.com and Facebook
2008 : Facebook enrollment increases exponentially, networks overlap and merge rapidly.
research and participation in Causes application efforts and fundraising games (Lil Green Patch).
2008 October: Google launches Project10tothe100, call for ideas. http://www.project10tothe100.com/index.html I submit this for Pier10: http://avad.livejournal.com/265477.html .
2009 Facebook networks expanding at amazing rate. Twitter fundraising campaigns hugely successful.'Birthday wish' fundraising experiments. NonProfit Commons archipelago in Second Life housing social benefit organizations from around the globe.http://www.nonprofitcommons.org/content/about-nonprofit-commons
2010 Earthquake in Haiti. Global community pulsing messages and aid through all online media and social networks. New Texting campaigns raise millions in a few hours through small donations using cellphone. Facebook and twitter surges. SecondLife events and focus. Kinect evolves bodytoavatar connection controllerfree gaming. WikiLeaks global controversy and awareness. debates on remote viewing and rights. RSA Animate series: The Empathetic Civilization video shared throughout cyberspace: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g
2011 Self-Assembling MemoryPalace exhibition at ChristinaRayGallery (find that Christina also attended the ManTransforms conference in 2001)- display new works relating ideas of memorysharing, self-assembly, virtual worlds and biological evolution. 'Epic Tale of an Idea'. 'Scent memory Formula CR3'. Facebook Memories function evolving (timeline). Oliver Sacks talk at MOMA: Islands of the Colorblind (more clues on plant communication and evolution and sensory perception). Kinect bodytoavatar puppeteering evolving within SL. Steven Johnson's book 'Where Good Ideas Come From: A Natural History of Innovation'. Islands of Memory body of work at Solar with talk.
2012 Pondview Estates artwork/Islip Museum works...vision...forest fires and long cycles, Hurricane Sandy births Occupy Sandy movement, creation/completion of The Book of Hope- Page 8 (Re-Nature) and spanish translation , carrying this piece circumnavigating the Empire State Building (!), Heart & Mind NYC, Mayan elders, native american elders, reading Chemical Communication, moths/snails, metamorphosis, larvae, Half The Sky movement, more Perceptions artworks (evolving vision)
2013 Fatemapping artwork, more insect connections, Forest Readings (nailprayer artworks), Chimeras and Consciousness, Darr Reilly (WISE), coming March 4th on Facebook: Half The Sky- The Game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Ahpocmjs0&feature=youtu.be , 10%Club step by small step, new members +reminders, more rapid network weavings/Mundillo/textiles, giving talk at PechaKucha/Parrish Museum, connection to Meg Rivers through Dorion Sagan/Lynn Margulis towards The Evolver Network (TEN), Nature Memorymapping workshop at South Fork Natural History Museum (SOFO), more Perceptions (strata/layers).
2014 vegetarianism, gut flora/microbiome shifts, Memorymapping workshop at Watermill Center: Connecting Spaces, MOTH night at SOFO, closing of WVFT, NYC and Museum of Native American Indian with JS Eyeclectic...serendipities and crystallographies...ongoing important correspondences, intention textiles, abundant Prayers and Weaves, ongoing and more abundant 10%ing, Krupa's visit and subsequent crowdfunding for a geodesic dome for Sankalpa in India, MycoReadings/Mycelium, Man and Microbe, Survival of the Sickest, Ebola crisis, phenomena/channel with Cora, Diatomaceous Regeneration, CoHabitat talk and exhibition in Vermont, Mycophilia book, Hawaiian Bobtail Squid studies with symbionts Vibrio bioluminescence, Befriending a Scientist, quorum sensing, Epidemic of Absence, Buckminster Fuller Challenge award to Living Breakwaters, --> Missing Microbes book and concepts.
2015: Buddha's Smile School in Varanasi- waking life/dream connection to Karen Kotske, Rajan and Serene Celia (cilia) - sale of/release of Book of Hope page 8 ReNature and Waking Sumer...pulses of more and more 10%s. Complete Prayers Golden 4ft, new 4ft Prayerweave. Secret Chambers book, more Lynn Margulis/Dorion Sagan readings, research into Ending the War Metaphor with host/microbe interactions, beginning the Green notebook, more Forest Readings/walks/observations, rereads of Empire of the Beetle, reshare of important article http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/the_body_politic1/P1/ ...
Chris Milk: How virtual reality can create the ultimate empathy machine- recreation of Syrian Refugee Camps, The CrowdRise Giving Tower uses virtual reality app to show the collective impact of everyone giving back on #GivingTuesday. The Giving Tower grows taller and taller as people from around the world donate to their favorite causes. ... Syrian Refugee crisis continues- intimate firsthand stories shared through expanded networks, connecting individuals closer...
to be continued..


related links:
• Microphilanthropy (http://www.givingspace.org/papers/microphilanthropy.htm)
• VERTU (http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/VERTU)
• New Media Consortium- Secondlife/youtube (http://youtube.com/watch?v=K8wm_1TIHGA)
• Educational uses in SL- youtube (http://youtube.com/watch?v=qOFU9oUF2HA)
• MacArthur Foundation to push the possibilities of SecondLife (http://abolition2.blogspot.com/2007/06/macarthur-foundation-to-push.html)
• NPSL: Nonprofits in Second Life/TechSoup (http://secondlife.techsoup.org/about)
[_pw9_]
nvnv (http://nvnv2006.com/)



Retrieved from "http://www.cloudpad.org/wiki/index.php/Dream"

Glitter Speaks Before Congress on Nonprofits in Second Life
Posted April 1st, 2008 by penguin kuhn in TechSoup's NPSL

"TechSoup's own Susan Tenby, Senor Manager--Online Community Development , aka Glitteractica Cookie, gave a prepared testimony before the the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet today about the potential of Second Life for nonprofits. Her testimony was part of today's hearing: "Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium". read the article

Dubai. trying to wrap my head around it all. The enormity. The crazy shaped artificial islands (next post). But let's start with Dubailand, shall we? This huge sparkleworld tomorrowland is 'real' and growing SO fast now.


read about Dubailand's Themed Worlds

and within there, there will be a 'Virtual Games World'. yes.hmmm.


Tomorrowlands

what is real, what is virtual, hybrid, a sparkleworld, an everywhere, a tomorrowland, a dream, a theme park, a yuan ming yuan, a dreamland, an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, a Pier10? A Pier 10 amusement park? Who's dreaming, who's awake?
fallback portal: http://avad.livejournal.com/82316.html#cutid1

"Kiva.org, a micro-finance organization, has funded nearly 17,0000 loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries and last week crossed the $11 million rank. Kiva.org has already had a very big year, funding about $9 million worth of loans so far, and having been featured in the mainstream media including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Oprah and on ABC News. With the assistance of dedicated volunteers, Kiva also maintains a presence on different social networking sites and has recently established a presence on Second Life through the Techsoup Nonprofits Commons Project..."

please read the full post on Beth Kantor's Blog :
Kiva in Second Life: Interview With Official SL Volunteers

Oh I'm so excited. B and I logged on last night on the 7dayfreetrial for Second Life. The possibilities are endless. His mind is blown. I'm trying to stop myself from my egoful 'I told you so-ing'. Yes I dreamt this back in 97 (when I was not involved with computers at ALL- not even email). The dream was intricate and detailed ...about the power of charity/philanthropy memes within this bizarre, completely engaging immersive 3d environment portal to be.
Since then I have been on a sort of quest..and now the graphics have evolved to be engaging enough (you'll be wowed) and it all seems to be coming together!! Look!:

"Morgantown, WV -- June 4, 2004 -- On May 28, thirty or so people gathered for a charity auction to raise funds for the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF). They bid on a variety of items, including one of a kind couture from the world's top designers and a set of sculptures from an up and coming artist, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars. What makes this event so unique isthey gathered in the online world of Second Life(r) and the hundreds of thousands they raised were in the game's currency -- Linden dollars -- that were then converted to US$900 on the currency exchange site Gaming Open Market (GOM).

This event was the culmination of a month-long fundraising campaign launched in Second Life by Virtual Economies Realizing True Usefulness (VERTU), a virtual non-profit organization founded by player Sarah Einstein. Einstein, who is known in world as Bhodi Silverman, started VERTU as a way to bring real world philanthropy to the gaming community. Says Einstein, "I wanted to create a way for the virtual community to participate in real world efforts for social justice and to bring awareness of these issues into Second Life."

The EFF campaign, VERTU's first, raised over $1,700.00 during a month of activities that included parties, auctions and even lectures with EFF's Activism Coordinator, Ren Bucholz, on topics such as Exporting American IP: Trade Agreements, Treaties and Policy Laundering. "This is a great example of what can happen if technology users aren't treated solely as 'consumers.' I'm really happy to have been a part of this," says Bucholz about the campaign."
READ all about it, see links and project ahead!!!!