This is my friend Ashok — he owns the aptly titled and fantastic Marindian restaurant called Avatars.  Every year, he has a celebration at 2656 Bridgeway in Sausalito where he serves a fantastic dinner to as many people as possible on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  For FREE.  From 4 PM to 10 PM.  Yesterday he told me I couldn’t come unless I brought at least 20 people.  This is his way of saying “Thanks”.  I think its a beautiful idea — I will be there with my family.  Please twitter this and help me out.  Last year he served 1100 people.

Ashok, owner of Avatar's

What Will the Inauguration be Like?

I had an interesting experience on Saturday night.  My sister and I were in a candy story in San Francisco, where I found some amazing toy robots.   In the last month, my son and I have been obsessed with robots.  I made him a costume for Halloween and I’ve been taking pictures of all robots I see in my travels.

In any case, there I was in the candy store, taking each one out of the box and comparing their relative merits.  Finally, I chose one and looked at the price:  a very fair $21.  Here’s where it gets interesting though.  My sister appeared at my shoulder and said the following words, “Oh, you don’t need to buy it, just take a picture of it.”  Times are tight, and her logic was so sound that I obeyed.

As we walked away, I began to try to unpack what had just happened.  I saw an object that I liked and after investigation, decided I wanted to buy it.  But instead, I took a picture of it, which in a sense, virtualized it and allowed me to satisfy 75% of the buyer’s impulse.  I now have something to remind me that I saw the robot and that robots, or classic robots, make up part of the tapestry of my personality.  Included in that tapestry are songs (already virtualized), movies (already virtualized) and all manner of cultural and personal relics and encoders of ideas.

What this points to, I don’t know? In times like these, its nice to know that I can seperate things that  I want to embrace and remember from what I really need.

I’ve often thought that there’s a set of things that become interesting if you work in virtual worlds that collectively might comprise an aesthetic.  Things like avatars, anime, dolls, theater, economies and reward systems, cosplay, gachapon and Burning Man.  This is evidenced often for me in the Flickr feeds of my friends and colleagues

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My Son Theo looking very "virtual world"

I’m not sure what any of these have in common, but clearly there’s a shared set of principles, both aesthetic and rules-based that are predominant in virtual worlds but are beginning to assert themselves in the real world. As a father, what I find fascinating is how much these principles have to do with very childlike impulses for role-play. Also, as a father, I must confess that we are using virtual world principles to raise our children. Most of this is done by all parents (”If you pee in the potty you can have a candy”). The question is really how much you raise the bar. Right now, Theo has a whole economy that he’s defined, which measures his good deeds (sharing, being a good listener, etc.) and gives him stars. He can spend these stars as he wishes. Last week he traded in 20 for a $14 skateboard. Anyway, does anyone see these linkages? Is there a virtual world aesthetic?

I’m super proud to announce the launch of a project we’ve been working on for a while.  It’s a Facebook app built using Scenecaster that plays a lot like Myst.  We hope you enjoy it and look forward to seeing you in the Quest.

Opening Screen -- You'll Need Your Friends to Find Eternal Life

Being in the online industry and having a daily goal of figuring out how to help brands and entertainment companies reach people online, I obviously work under the auspice that people are spending more time online, so reach them in the location where they are.

Because I am immersed in these worlds, I am often asked (generally by an older inquisitor) whether I think the Internet, and more specifically virtual worlds / social networks, is causing kids to become anti-social, creating an eco-system that hinders their ability to converse face-to-face and disallows their ability to learn. Generally, my response is simple. There is good and bad to every new technology, but I believe the pros of the social internet far outweigh the cons. That when I was a kid, my world was confined to my class and my soccer team, but now kids are more aware of the world around them than ever before.

In support of my thoughts, I found this BusinessWeek article particularly interesting, as it describes how the Internet, although may be causing many kids to stop reading books “cover to cover,” has actually made them more able to parse information quickly and turn that analysis into personal thought, rather than following the line of a book directly with no choice in its outcome. Kids today expect to be part of the conversation. They require the conversation to be had. And they are not afraid to share their opinions. I don’t think anyone can argue this is a detriment to the future of society.

Can it be argued that people reading books less is generally a bad thing? Are we beginning to engage in a time where kids stop reading classics we all read in high school? Perhaps. But are they becoming stupider? Are they becoming less social? I think the answer is unequivocally no. The article itself says that the # of students taking AP classes has increased 75% from 1999 to 2005. I imagine you can find a statistic that leans the other way, but I welcome your thoughts.