“But you’re not supposed to use it that way!” - Exploring how people shape technologies to empower online communities

John Lesterhttp://johnlester.me

IDRAC - Nov 19, 2016

But you’re not supposed to use it that way!Exploring how people shape technologies to empower online communities

Bio

John "Pathfinder" Lester has been working with virtual worlds and online communities since the 1990s, creating online patient support groups at Massachusetts General Hospital for people dealing with neurological disorders, developing online immersive learning environments for students at Harvard, and helping build communities in Second Life that assist people living with disabilities. He worked at Linden Lab for 5 years where he founded Linden Lab's Boston Office and led the development of the education and healthcare markets in Second Life while evangelizing the innovative use of virtual worlds in research, art and immersive learning. John has also worked on multiuser virtual world development using the Unity platform, built bespoke multiuser VR worlds for education using the Oculus Rift, and dabbled with artificial life in augmented reality.

John continues to follow his passion for online communities and virtual worlds through his consulting and contracting work, designing and building immersive learning experiences using platforms such as Opensimulator and Unity. He also serves on the board of directors of Virtual Ability, a non-profit organization that enables people with a wide range of disabilities by providing a supporting environment for them to enter and thrive in online virtual worlds like Second Life. At his day job, John works as a Product Manager at OpenText where he does R&D in unstructured data analytics and enterprise information management. For more information about John and general contact info, please see http://about.me/pathfinder.

Presentation

John Lester has been working with online communities and virtual worlds since the early 1990’s, beginning with modem-powered BBS systems through early web-based forums and chatrooms and continuing with immersive multiuser 3d virtual worlds. Focusing on education and support, John has experienced a wide range of use cases and insights into how human behavior simultaneously shapes and is shaped by these tools. In this presentation, John will tell his story of how a continuing quest for more emotional bandwidth and perceptual immersion was enlightened by communities of people who often used technologies in completely unexpected and breathtakingly beautiful ways.

Stories are far better.

Four Stories1) The Club2) The Guy from NYC3) The Faces4) The Safe and the Scary

1) The Club

1) The Club

1) The Club

● Web-based simple chat rooms at MGH in 1994● Patients dealing with Multiple Sclerosis scattered across the

world in different timezones● Coordinating their self-injection of Avonex in chat rooms● Real-time support before/during/after the injection● Making it a social event

2) The Guy from NYC

2) The Guy from NYC

2) The Guy from NYC

● Young-onset Parkinson’s diagnosis in 1991● MikeNYC - started visiting in 1994● Eventually going public in 1998 and meeting in NYC● Developed many close friendships● Pseudonymity, not Anonymity

3) The Faces

3) The Faces

3) The Faces

● Moebius Syndrome - weakness/paralysis of facial muscles ● Limited facial expressions in the physical world● Users added custom emoticons in web-based chat ● Expanding to The Palace in 1999 gave them avatars with

malleable faces

4) The Safe and the Scary

3) The Safe and the Scary

3) The Safe and the Scary

● Brigadoon - 1st non-profit private island in Second Life ● Created in 2004 to support people dealing with Asperger’s

Syndrome and Autism● Building peaceful safe spaces for support● Building terrifying public spaces for practice● Confidence gained in the virtual environment translated to

confidence in the physical world● The Sojourner went on to help build more communities...

Lessons from Stories

- Magic happens in real-time multiuser malleable (in-situ content creation) environments - People squeeze emotional bandwidth out of whatever they can get their hands on- People use tools to create both comfort and challenges- Encourage Pseudonymity (masks), not Anonymity (invisibility) - Don’t just cultivate communities. Cultivate the creation of new ones.