A Metaplace townhall on April 30 with Louisiana State Legislators

We’ve just returned from a fascinating townhall in Metaplace, featuring Louisiana State Representative Nancy Landry, Louisiana Superintendent of Education, Paul Pastorek and Metaplace founder and President, Raph Koster in conversation with a group of Louisiana middle school students. The event was organized by 3D Squared and F. Margret Atkinson.

The conversation covered an enthusiastic and informed cross-section of topics including how politics work and the future of digital education in Louisiana. Raph Koster began with an important point: “I think the thing that most strikes me about an event like this is the fact that citizenship is the same whether it exists in the real world or a digital framework.”

Coincidentally, the Louisiana State Legislature and the Office of Governor Bobby Jindal is discussing this very week the future of Louisiana’s digital education investment strategy. The legislature has added language to support and augment the work of 3D Squared and LITE (about which Rita J. King wrote recently in VentureBeat). But the funding is not guaranteed. Based on the powerful, transformative experience we just had attending the Digital Workforce Initiative, we believe that the kind of work that 3D Squared and LITE are doing is critical in helping to prepare students for work in a 21st Century Economy. The concept is so powerful and visionary, we believe it can serve as a template for national and global economic and educational transformation.

There are a couple of key Louisiana legislators who will have an impact on whether LITE and 3D Squared receives funding for next year. We encourage you to contact them and tell them to vote in support of renewing funding for LITE and 3D Squared.

Rep. Karen Carter Peterson
larep093@legis.state.la.us

Mike Michot
Louisiana Senate Finance Chairman
mmichot@legis.state.la.us

Rep. Paige Cortez
pcortez@stomas.com

Steven Moret
Louisiana Secretary of Economic Development
moret@la.gov

Raph Koster offered these words at the end of the discussion: “[A]s our society’s tech capabilities grow, I think it’s wonderful to see that our society — and legislators — and principals and school superintendents, and teachers — are willing to invest in that literacy so that future voters, citizens, will be able to participate to the best of their ability using this new technology.” (Raph also blogged about his experience here.)

Rita J. King's new column in Venture Beat magazine.

Rita J. King has a new column on Venture Beat about her experience working in virtual worlds and observations on the incredible work of Spencer Zuzolo and Joe Castille of 3D Squared leading and innovating in the field of digital learning and education at their Digital Workforce Conference in Lafayette, Louisiana. DIP will be presenting at the conference on Saturday, discussing the power of immersive virtual environments for education and economic development in a global context.

3DSquared's Metaplace Headquarters.

By Joshua S. Fouts

DIP‘s key interest is the transformation of the global culture and economy and the role that digital culture is playing in that transformation. We also have a keen interest in the Gulf Coast. DIP’s Rita J. King spent 2006 working on, “Big, Easy Money: Disaster Profiteering in America’s Gulf Coast.” It is the position of DIP that one of the most immediate benefits of the Internet is that it can provide meaningful work to people who live in local communities that lack a thriving economy yet need inhabitants to stay and continue working together toward improved local infrastructure.

Cue: 3DSquared

And so it was that on my second night in Metaplace I ran into an avatar named Joe Castille. Joe found me exploring one of his worlds which had a voice component. The world took text and translated it into voice. (In Metaplace people can create multiple worlds of their own. Metaplace itself does not yet have a voice feature.)

I learned that Joe is based in Lafayette Louisiana and part of an organization called 3DSquared. 3DSquared is a Louisiana-based non-profit dedicated to “workforce development for the game and digital media industry.” It is lead by Spencer Zuzolo, an academic and game developer who splits his time between Lafayette and Austin, where he teaches game design. Joe invited me to the 3DSquared headquarters in Metaplace, a geodesic dome with sleek office furniture and a nice park surrounding it. The place was abuzz with avatars, many of whom, I learned, were interns and students participating in 3DSquared and involved with its parallel venture, GameCamp. As I chatted with the students and Joe, I asked to learn more about why they found Metaplace to be such a robust environment. Joe directed me to Spencer Zuzolo.

Spencer, by phone, has a casual, jolly voice that translates into compelling narrative on the various videos they’ve posted on Gamecamp’s website. He is immensely concerned about the transformation in the economy and how to prepare tomorrow’s workforce to adapt to it. “How to engage the students and connect them to parents, teachers and students. Part of it is language,” he explained. And that language lies in the culture of games. From that was sprung the idea of Spencer’s other baby, a project of 3DSquared called Gamecamp. Gamecamp is “a summer program for high school and middle school students interested in careers in the video game industry.” Students from all over the US come to Louisiana for an intensive course in game development instruction. Spencer said they already have students coming from China, Europe and possibly, if they can find the time, the Middle East.

But he is firmly committed to the Gulf Coast. “We believe in our work in Louisiana,” Spencer Zuzolo told me. “We believe the problems can be fixed by intertwining this kind of training in a 21st century economy.”

I’ve been hearing Rita J. King talk about that ever since we’ve been collaborating on the development of a new global culture and economy. I’ve seen her give presentations about disaster management, cultural preservation, rebuilding and job development potential through virtual worlds to conference crowds in the Gulf Coast to a mixed response of confusion, irritation and completely rapt fascination. When she heard about 3DSquared’s work she announced immediately that we would be setting aside time to work with them.

Next week in Lafayette they are hosting a Digital Workforce Initiative conference in which DIP will be participating. The conference is an opportunity for 3DSquared to explain their work to community and political leaders for whom games are still very foreign, if a necessary evil that their children love.

Joe described how the Gulf Coast, which is not so much in the headlines here in the US, (save for its governor Bobby Jindahl) is still reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. “We have the largest outmigration of any state in the Nation. And 100,000 skilled labor jobs are unfilled.” That has been a lethal combination on the Louisiana economy.

“We’re using metaplace as ‘the first rung’ of the skill ladder for teaching virtual world development,” Joe told me.

I’m amazed and excited about the work of 3DSquared and Gamecamp. I’ve since visited dozens of worlds by their students. And the videos on the website are another interesting testament well worth watching.

As we’ve written before, the best way to engage a culture is to take it on its own terms. 3DSquared and Gamecamp understand that there is a new generational culture developing; a culture which will have effectively grown up on games and the Internet. And the educational system needs to be prepared for how to best communicate with that culture.

Metaplace is an excellent first step.