University Video Description from USC: Mar. 11, 2010: Dean’s Series on Sustainable Innovation: Exploring Virtual Worlds and Network Culture

Dean Ernest J. Wilson III welcomes Douglas Thomas, associate professor of communication. Under his leadership, the USC Annenberg School was one of the first scholarly explorers of emerging virtual worlds such as Linden Labs Second Life. Examining everything from tweens and reproductive health to the role of foundations in virtual worlds, an interdisciplinary group of collaborators came together under the aegis of the Network Culture Project. USC Annenberg became a hub for applied research on games and culture and the future of learning in the 21st century that has helped a wide range of organizations from foundations to the U.S. State Department formulate their own virtual strategies. Join Doug Thomas for a journey through the challenges of working on and in virtual environments.