Digital Ethnography

After viewing the teaser I posted to YouTube, several people have requested a look at a full World Simulation video, so I posted the full 22 minute video from this past Spring semester. For those who are unfamiliar with the world simulation, it is a massive experiment in education created for (and by) my Introduction to Cultural Anthropology class at Kansas State University. Each semester I teach 200-400 students. They are divided into 14-20 groups and asked to create their own realistic cultures. We then work together to create the parameters that will allow us to simulate the past 600 years of world history, from colonization to corporate globalization, all in the span of 75-100 minutes. This video was created in a mad weekend of video-editing. We watch the video together and then discuss what worked, what didn’t, and why, and then we reflect on how the world works, our role within it, and how we can live in ways that create a better world. For more on the philosophy of the World Simulation, go here. For more on the basic rules, go here and here.
The video is in three parts:

Part One shows the basic setup and illustrates some of the basic symbolism used in the simulation:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/kS7XRDCzd7k" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Part Two shows the transition from colonization to globalization:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/QKvbr81YMeI" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

And Part Three shows the conclusion:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/nWcue7OpzZ4" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

The simulation ends very differently each year as we allow it to run into the year 2100, giving students a chance to try out solutions to global problems that have emerged during the simulation.

I should also mention that we have also started experimenting with some really interesting add-ons, cell phones using 2D barcodes to expand the simulation beyond a single room, live “markets” using Google spreadsheets, the possibility of building a version inside Second Life and more. I’ll keep you all posted!