Global Culture

The World Without Oil website launched today. But before you panic keep reading:

WORLD WITHOUT OIL is an alternate reality event, a serious game for the public good. It invites everyone to help simulate a global oil shock. People participate by contributing original online stories, created as though the oil shock were really happening.

While it is a game, the end goal is quite serious as their own site explains:

WORLD WITHOUT OIL aims to help fill a huge gap in our nation’s thinking about oil and the economy. As people everywhere grapple with the problem of growing global demand for petroleum, no one has a clear picture of oil availability in the future, nor is there a clear picture of what will happen when demand inevitably outstrips supply. That will depend in large part upon how well people prepare, cooperate, and collectively create solutions. By playing it out in a serious way, the game aims to apply collective intelligence and imagination to the problem in advance, and to create a record that has value for educators, policymakers, and the common people to help anticipate the future and prevent its worst outcomes. ‚ÄúPlay it, before you live it.‚Äù

Almost a year ago, in my post a convenient solution: community living I had written about The End of Suburbia, a documentary that addresses this scenario. The producers of this Alternate Reality Game have taken the web to create a new form of mass-media that may produce more lasting effects and engage people in a more effective way. As I had explained in my post lonelytv:

for a new generation of viewers, viewing is not enough. Participation is a must. The Lonelygirl15 phenomenon provides a preview of the type of interactivity that the audience is demanding. Unscheduled snippets of action, very short, cuasi-serialized but easily interchangeable, many different levels of stories that may appeal to different participants, alternate channels to get involved whether providing comments or producing additional snippets of content and endless hooks to plug-in their own ideas into the story. In this new medium there are no rules on how to consume the message, which distorts the message itself and provides creative license to the audience. Assuming there are smart producers listening to all the feedback, the evolution of such a venture is largely based on what the audience wants.

Already, the volume of contributions from participants is such that it may be hard to keep up with what is happening across the entire scope of the event, so to understand the full story it is necessary to exchange information with other participants and share the pieces of content uncovered by each. Only this way it may be possible to see the whole picture. A great way to promote a healthy community around an important issue.

Via O’Reilly radar