Our reality is also our virtual experience

Helen Mitchell

Why I’m igniting…in the next 5 minutes

Time travellingTonight we’ll go back and then forward again…how

we connect beyond space & time…

Daily life in Herculaneum, Italy, 79AD

Does what we want and need really change much?

The one constant is…

• Disruptive innovations, changing…– Business models– Culture– Spread of ideas,

beyond geography– Social interactions

For us, it’s the digital age

Once upon a time, I studied virtual communication

This is what I saw

This is what some thought

Where does ‘virtual’ come from?• “Being something in essence or fact”

• 14th Century: from Medieval Latin virtuālis  effective, from Latin virtūs virtue

A current disruptive innovation“the virtual revolution”

Yet…Face-to-face as the ultimate?

• What if it’s not possible?• How do I build trust?

Second Life Image credit: NMC Second Life / New Media Consortium

It’s pretty much all ‘virtual’ anyway

• Ever since we began recording our thoughts

• Writing is… – “the translation of sound into a

visual code” - Marshall McLuhan

Consider mobile technology

Things that change how we connect

• Printing press

• Telephone

• Web

• Social media

Printing press

• Mid 1400s: Growing literacy, eager for more • “Information revolution”…and power shift• “Democratisation of knowledge”

Telephone• The transactional became the conversational – over time• Needed new social customs

Web

• Tim Berners-Lee’s proposal approved in 1989: “Vague, but exciting”

• Vision = social & collaborative

• Remember… “Why do I need a website?”

Social media

• Mass communication to participatory communication

• Flattens hierarchies and control of ‘the message’

• And it’s still new for a lot of people

• Some people don’t like it…

It’s changing our brains…

How we’re really using it…

They’re just new tools - our response makes it work

• “… the real revolution is in this later and prolonged phase

of ‘adjustment’ of all personal and social life to the new

model of perception set up by the new technology.”

- Marshall McLuhan (1962)

We are here

Reality - it’s up to us

• Virtual works best with our humanity

• Our behaviours make the difference

• Find ways to ‘see’ each other,be with each other

• Our opportunities are great– Individuals

– Organisations

Find me

@helmitch

helmitch.blogspot.com

linkedin.com/in/helenmitchellaus