This morning I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Alberto Cottica in the lovely Kublai sim in Second Life. Alberto, or Mr Volare in Second Life, is the manager of Kublai, a project of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development. Kublai is, in his words, "a community of people from the creative industries, which help each other refine their ideas and write them down into solid project documents that can be used in communicating with the outside world, fundraising, etc."
Alberto and I had a great conversation about Kublai, why virtual worlds are helpful for building collaborations and trust, and why "creatives" have a hard time writing project proposals. Read the full account after the jump...
Launched in Spring of 2008, Kublai consists of about 1,000 people so far, who stay in touch through a variety of channels. The purpose of Kublai is to facilitate Italian "creatives" (artists, filmmakers, designers, computer programmers, etc) to get involved in various social and economic development projects within Italy. Alberto explained that creatives often have difficulty in successfully submitting proposals for government development projects, which often require specific knowledge, jargon, and connection to specific networks of institutions to successful compete.
Meanwhile, economic development projects don't benefit from the input and involvement of these creatives, who can often find "out of the box" solutions to social and economic problems.
To confront this dilemma, Kublai seeks to help creatives navigate the arcane government processes and put together "bulletproof" proposals. Second Life is one of a number of channels that serve this goal. Here's Alberto describing how Kublai uses Second Life:
Uses of Second Life for Kublai:
- Conferences on topics of general interest that might attract a wider public
- A "Help Desk" for people who are working on proposals
- Socializing which makes work-related interactions more effective
- Internal coordination among the Kublai core team
I asked Alberto for a specific example. He described a project proposed by a small entrepreneur in the northern coast of Sicily who happened to have access to an old art deco cafe in his town. His idea was to renovate the cafe and convert it into an art, tech, civic engagement space. Through connections that he made in Second Life via Kublai, he was able to team up with an architect in northern Italy who helped him design the space, as well as a marketing person in Milan who helped him promote the idea.
I was very struck by how much Alberto emphasized the emotional, psychological impact that the Kublai network has on its members. Alberto explained that he knows how hard it can be to be a struggling artist, because he started in this work as a musician trying to make a difference:
If you are the only person running a music festival in a tiny village in the mountains of Calabria and everyone around you is saying you to get a steady job, you need people that you can talk to about your dreams. Kublai is the non-territorial community for people who are very lonely in their territories.
Later on in our discussion, Alberto talked about his initial assumptions about how the Italian artistic community in Second Life would react to Kublai:
In other words, in-world / in-game communities of practice don't necessarily want to translate their virtual endeavors into real world actions or projects. Instead, they prefer to keep these aspects of their lives seperate and distinct. This is an interesting insight for other nonprofits seeking to partner with existing communities within virtual worlds.
Finally, Alberto described some of the future plans of Kublai in Second Life and beyond. Next Monday, September 14, they will hold another public conference in their sim (details forthcoming.) After that, they hope to connect with other international networks of creatives that might connect strategically with the Kublai network. There are obvious language barriers, since the business of Kublai is conducted primarily in Italian. But they are exploring various tools for translation that can help bridge this divide.
For more information about Kublai, see their website at http://www.progettokublai.net, visit their Second Life island at this teleport link, or email info@progettokublai.net. Thanks, Alberto, for spending the time to explain your project for Betterverse!