I was interviewed by Edy and Whisker for their Zombie Tech Podcast. We chatted about the history of Geeks without Bounds, how it was conceived, the role of social media vs traditional media, and how virtual volunteers can help.
We also talk about the ideas and applications that come out of hackerspaces, hackathons, gameification, and crisis mapping. We discuss the ramification and the ethics involved in the applications, IT departments and of course Zombies! Visit Zombie Tech to stream the whole episode or download the Diggz Zombie Tech Episode 22 mp3 here.
It was pointed out to me by my friend (who prefers to remain nameless…no really) that I have been neglecting Diggz.org lately. This is very true. I’ve been busy working on other things like Tropo.com, GWOB.org and traveling quite a bit for both. Here and there I’ve had the opportunity to play some piano.
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to get back into the habit of posting content to Diggz.org. In the spirit of that, I’ve recorded a new edition of Johnny Diggz Live. I hope you enjoy…
When I was young, I loved the the movie “The Last Starfighter“…I loved the idea that some random suburban kid could backdoor his way into saving the entire galaxy by simply excelling at playing a coin operated video game (really well). Perhaps in retrospect, this was a bit of self-indulgent thinking…as I spent many a formative year dumping quarters into coin-operated video game machines.
My very first job was as a paperboy for the Philadephia Bulletin. I’d deliver newspapers on my bicycle and I’d collect tips. Many times tips came in the form of quarters. And I’d spend those quarters on video games…like Asteroids, Space Invaders, Defender… Galaga.
When The Last Starfighter came out in 1984, the Philadephia Bulletin had been out of print for two years. The Bulletin was just an evening newspaper published daily in Philadelphia from 1847 to 1982…no big deal. I was 13…my paperboy days were long gone. But when I saw The Last Star Fighter for the first time I thought it was the coolest thing ever, mostly because I could relate to the main character, Alex Rogan. Alex gets an opportunity, granted by “The Music Man” himself, Robert Preston, because he’s a smart geek. The opportunity is to save the galaxy using the skills he’s displayed by #winning the #highscore at a coin-operated video game near his local laundrymat called (appropriately) The Last Starfighter.
Well, today is my birthday and I have an opportunity to help out a very real version of this concept. It’s a project we’ve been working on at Geeks Without Bounds called “GameSave”… a competition challenging teams of game developers to create a game that teaches and trains players (in advance) in basic emergency relief and disaster mitigation techniques.
If John Travolta and William Hung had a baby…Johnny Lee is back on stage at Baby Grands Dueling Pianos . This time with even more dance moves and even more of teh awesome. Enjoy…
Thursday, January 19
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