Environmental Engineering Reference
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dumbed-down, sub-intellectual culture. This fear is probably unfounded for as Jenkins
(2007) argues in a discussion of ongoing research at the University of Southern
California. He notes that young learners often exploit the emerging digital tools to
the full, going far beyond cut and paste, and are likely, because of their collaborative
experience of digital knowledge production, to be highly critical consumers of
information garnered from wikis and elsewhere. This means that the digital divide
really concerns the uneven access to new digital technologies, which leads to
inequalities in the acquisition of new media literacies - Net-based social skills and
cultural competences.
The virtual world of Second Life (Web 3.0), established by the San Francisco-
based Linden Lab in 2003, is still one of the best known cyberworlds in operation.
Its popularity has declined markedly in recent years as virtual worlds have clearly
not realized all the creative communication and networking possibilities that many
expected of them. In 2007, the University of Southern California Center on Public
Diplomacy ran an iCommons Summit in Second Life. Its aim was to mix the real
and virtual worlds for both actual attendees of the summit in Dubrovnik and those
who could not be there. By doing this, the global diversity of the conference was
enlarged, enabling participants to more broadly learn, collaborate, and share
knowledge and experiences. Unlike the conventional diplomacy operating between
states and international organizations, public diplomacy starts from the premise of
a two-way dialogue involving the shaping of messages a country wishes to present
overseas and understanding the ways the messages are interpreted by diverse cultures
and societies. Public diplomacy helps develop the tools of listening, conversation and
persuasion. Second Life has been used by activist groups as a resource for public
education and campaigning. The United Nations, Greenpeace International and Better
World Island offered users the opportunity to view global problems relating to war,
environmental degradation and human suffering, and seek ways to rectify them.
A parallel event to the Live Earth concerts was held in the Center for Water Studies
in July 2007, and in December the NGO OneWorld hosted a virtual meeting of the
UN Climate Conference in Bali on Second Life. Research has suggested that virtual
engagement with the world's real-life problems could positively enhance social
understanding and stimulate political action (Davis, 2007), although more attention
now seems to be applied to the possibilities afforded through gamification.
Empowerment through communication, fun and games
The relatively new phenomena of citizen journalists, online newsrooms and independ-
ent media centres are a potentially liberating force in the mediapolis. The increased
potential for participation, direct action, free expression, dialogue and engaged critique
is a welcome alternative to the dominance of corporate and state media, of Fox
News and the failure of traditional editorial policy to cover issues not meeting the
narrow criteria of newsworthiness or the ideological restrictions of 'due impartiality'.
Citizen media projects may not always be commercially successful, but blurring the
distinction between producer and audience is a useful antidote to the blurring of
editorial and advertising/funding criteria in many commercial operations. A citizen
journalist does not need a great deal of technical skill to post a comment or upload
an image from a camera phone, though to set up a site does require significant tech-
nical knowledge and understanding. One famous example of this is the Independent
