A few months back, ETC head Drew Davidson and I were talking about possibilities for his ETC Press. We’ve known each other informally over the years through listservs and such, but we hadn’t yet done that “in person” thing.
He asked if I’d come talk about The Cult of Me: How Social Technologies Will Save the Media, a book that posits the idea that storytelling is undergoing a shift. Of course, I leapt at the chance. They have a first-rate operation there, a graduate program that teaches leadership, project management and critical thinking through the application of technology.
More than that, the place is Mecca for creative nerds. The environment puts you in the mood, the one where you feel connected to a past and compelled to make something for the future. It’s hard to describe unless you have been in that place. But trust me, that feeling exists.
This media gadget is the first thing you see when you enter the building:
Off to the left of this, in the waiting room, is Robbie the Robot:
Along the main entry way, towards the elevators that take you to the student labs and floors, there are storytelling kiosks set up that showcase some of the convergence work the groups are doing. This is the Ben Franklin Interactive Experience, which combines text, audio, theater and video production into one:
When you exit the elevator, you enter the heart of the ETC. Drew told me that one of the aspects that makes the ETC so cool is that every inch of the building is part of — or can be a part of — a project. When the doors opened, I got a glimpse at what he meant. The students did a project that was meant to replicate space:
If you look at the end of the hallway there, you can see a few other friends. On the left of the Enterprise is C3-PO, who as it turns out, is a professor at the ETC. (Well, Anthony Daniels is.) In the middle is our friend Klaatu from The Day the Earth Stood Still:
But it’s not all fun and games at the ETC. Okay, that’s a lie. It’s all fun and games at the ETC, but there is practical work that comes out of this environment too. The college has two Microsoft Touchscreen computers that are being used by software developers: