Virtual Meetings in Second Life with Gentle Heron and Real World Meeting Coverage at United Nations

We had a special guest meeting in Second Life with  Gentle Heron where we had a chance to learn a great deal about how people with disabilities are able to use second life. She pointed out that from her avatar you would never know she sits in a wheel chair and is living with Multiple Sclerosis.

During this meeting we learned more about how people with disabilities are able to use virtual worlds. In some case they are able to travel virtually to other worlds. There was a box in the center of the room that contained a number of virtual destinations we could travel to. I found it interesting how teachers could use Second Life to share with students and also rules related to youth.

For example you must be 18 years of age to access Second Life. There is a limited option for 16 year old youth where they have limitations to what they are able to access. In addition there is potential to have place in world where younger children can access but with strict limitations to the region specific to their special access.

We also had another guest Esme who many of us had taken course with previously. Gentle Heron was curious about Jokaydia grid. I believe Jokaydia was a great place to begin and learn many skills in a relatively close environment. Rarely did we find visitors or distractions. It was described as sandbox. I see the Second Life world is much more developed with a greater number of visitors. It was noted that this could be a way to meet people speaking other languages. Portuguese surprisingly was a top language along with Spanish and English. Gentle Heron noted that there were also a lot of German speakers.

When I arrived to the destination I found a couple of characters and as we all had new names I asked it they were here for class. Then one spoke Spanish and I realized the other who was trying to communicate was not a native English speaker. As it happened one stumbled into our meeting and when addressed they did not respond. Suddenly there was a lot of loud background music as the visitor had their microphone with music piping through unknowingly and apparently efforts to speak English did not connect. I do think they realized they had landed in the middle of a meeting then left.

The lesson here was to be aware of your surroundings. I t was interesting to listen to Gentle Heron who brought back memories of a good friend who had MS. At work we pay attention to accessibility and have frequent meetings that require attention to details and access.

She mentioned Education initiatives from Australia and this week at work we hosted a forum on education with very special guest speakers to include the former Prime Minister of Australia, the Director of CERN along with many different panels and advocates for education.

I was working as a Photographer at this event where a colleague Frances from IISD took this image. I am actually seated at the table in the center. It is interesting to note that this room is accessible with ramps to take you to the podium on the dais. You can follow this link to see where I work this is the news group IISD that covers our programs http://www.iisd.ca/hlpf/2015/

HLPF 2015 participants heard a keynote address from H.E. Julia Gillard, Former Prime Minister of Australia,and Chairman of the Global Partnership for Education.

You can see examples of my photos on the slide show of our offices web here https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/

Note the photos on the slider change as the images from the High Level Political Forum is what I had been covering.

The connection here is that all the speakers were stressing the value of education especially to starting early and the value of ICT. Internet Communications to play a bigger role in our work and the key to success is education. Virtual meetings now take place using Video Teleconference as the image below the Secretary General participate in our meeting held in NYC while he was on mission in Norway

L-R: H.E. Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Norway; UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; and H.E. President 

Paul Kagame, Rwanda, adressed HLPF 2015 via remote video from Oslo, Norway

We could have meeting virtually as avatars. I think the possibilities to level the playing field could provide new solutions by removing cultural bias and eliminating hierarchy.