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Tech Story 2

The Wild West of the Internet… And the Digital Citizen Ship

In the first installment of Tech Story we looked at the educators in the classroom and their opinions of

technology, how the differing experiences and opinions of technology was affecting tech integration in

the classroom… But what of the students that were taught in those classrooms five years ago?

The heroes of the classroom are undoubtedly the teachers, but what of the young charges they care for?

When Andy went off to college in 2010 he was 17, so would be 25 today; Bonnie was 4, so would now

be 12. I wonder what their Digital Footprint would look like, something that may depend on how

technology was used and whether or now Digital Citizenship was taught at their school.

…The Toy Story toys didn’t go to school, I wonder how their Digital Journey in the “Wild West” that is

the internet has panned out.

Is Sherriff Woody at home in this alien environment?

Or is this more Buzz Lightyear’s terrain?

…Will the aliens be the unsung heroes that save the day and tame the Wild West?

We consider these questions by exploring examples from New Power (@ThisIsNewPower) and adapting

them to the world of Toy Story and other memorable Pixar films and characters.

Can the Offline Past Help Predict the Online Future? Page 2

A day in the life of the internet? …Or the plot to a Toy Story movie? Page 3

The Wild West of the Internet… Excellent News! What Fun! Page 4

The Wild West of the Internet… And the Digital Citizen Ship Page 5

o The Pokemon Go Years… Old West Meets New Wild West Page 6

o The Wilderness Years Page 7

o The Adolescent Years Page 8

o The Baddies Page 11

o Lord Business Page 14

o Politics Page 20

o How the Wild West Will Be Won Page 27

What has Nature’s Metropolis (And ISTE2018) Got to do with the Internet?

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Can the Offline Past Help Predict the Online Future?

Deaf to Young Peoples’ needs?

A few years ago when walking home there were a group of 10-15 teenagers ahead of me. From a

distance it looked like there were lots of hand gestures, which made it look like an argument was taking

place… and might erupt into violence any minute.

As I got closer, it became apparent that it was a group of deaf teenagers signing to one another outside

the local centre for deaf people.

I was ashamed of the assumptions that I had made, but don’t think I’d be alone in making this

assessment about a group of young people walking around town today.

When I was a lad…

“When I was a lad” (…As the saying goes) 10-15 young people together may have been going to/coming

from a football game because of the parental social norm of

“Go out and play and don’t come back til dinner time”

There were all kinds of tribes and counter cultures – the gamers, the musicians, the rebels (Punks and

hippies)… just like there in every generation.

But more recently, ‘othering’ appears to either have driven our kids inside (Signs saying “No football,”

“no loitering”… but there are also fewer youth clubs and/or parents have less money.

Alternatively, the fear of others has given rise to “the taxi of mum and dad” being more popular as well

as the prevalence of more structured activities.

Where is the one place that young people could go that was ‘their space?’

Online with their computer games, being the one place they could go to chat with their friends?

And what kind of advice and guidance did parents and educators provide young people to use this space

safely and responsibly? Little and/or none?

We then question how and why the online world is now described as the ‘Wild West’ by some

commentators?

But just like the parents who said “Stop playing those games and do your homework, you won’t get

anywhere with those games” the juvenile and adolescent online antics will grow up with the early

residents and, as we will see, there are some vibrant, fulfilling and worthy online communities who are

doing some amazing things

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A Day in the life of the Internet?

Friends falling out due to jealousy because a new member has joined the group, a disagreement and

misunderstandings between two strangers thrown together in the same space, a bully making life

difficult for those who just want to play well, the need to break a few rules to deal with kids who are

playing with matches and fireworks, leaving the play room that your comfortable with to go on an

adventure… otherwise you’ll get left behind.

A grown up stealing kids toys and trying to sell them for a fortune, being like a kid in a toy shop, mortal

enemies not only making up… but finding they’re related, someone pretending to be a friend but only

interested in themselves, meeting friends that you didn’t know you had… some as loyal as a dog, and

saving an old loyal friend from being stuck in a box.

some dumb potato trying to pull off a great train robbery, Trolls on a train, an evil tech savvy leader

threatening to push a big red button that promises “Death by monkey,” some stupid pig using

technology to terrorize law enforcement officers, being labeled in the wrong box, panic about change,

the promise of the sunnyside of a new place… only to find lots of trouble, but finding a new home and

stronger bonds

This could easily be a day in the life of the internet, but it happens to be the plot of the three Toy Story

films, and it all turned out all right in the end

A day in the life of the internet?

…Or the plot to the three Toy Story movies?

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The Wild West of the Internet… Excellent News! What Fun!

Popular culture loves covering the life of pirates and the Wild West, so you’d think that

we would relish the thought of going into the “Wild West of the Internet” to either

1) Round up a posse to deal with the baddies: The Bullies, The Trolls etc and ‘run

‘em out of town,’ Or

2) Taking a stand… and a beating, getting up, dusting ourselves down… then give

chase to make sure the treacherous online outlaws are run out of town, right?

To give a couple of examples, how much fun would it have been for

The passengers of the Niantic who paid a fortune to go

from Connecticut to strike it rich in the gold rush

The owners of the Niantic, who’s ship was intentionally

ran aground when the crew mutinied on the first trip

President Trump’s ancestors moving to California to

take their chances in the Wild West to run a brothel

when he was thrown out of Germany.

The early settlers of Chicago when the speculators speculated… people bought land, and the

banks called in their loans

There were about 20 years of “The Bad Old Wild West” and California seems to be doing OK, if not

better than most towns, cities and/or states, today. According the news over 28,000 retail jobs have

been lost in the UK this year… with more announced on a weekly (If not daily!) basis.

Can we learn from the Old West (As well as early online communities) to

help predict where online will end up?

Through the examples of New Power, can we get a glimpse of what the

Wild West would look like if it was initially settled and inhabited by kids

and college frat boys who ran the town?

Through the internet can we get a sense of the uncertainty of life in the

Wild West?

“There’s a New

Sherriff in Town”

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The Wild West of the Internet… And the Digital Citizen Ship

The story so far… Andy has finished college and Bonnie is more into video games and technology than

playing with the old fashioned toys today.

Woody, Buzz and the gang have been playing around with technology over the years, with mixed results.

They did not attend school, so have had to figure Digital Citizenship skills out for themselves

… and they aren’t sure some of the other toys, kids (Or adults for that matter!) have had any #DigCit

lessons. There appear to be some pretty mean comments, platforms and people out there.

Hold onto your hats kids, we’re in for one heck of a ride… It may remind some people of the train trip

that they took to Chicago in the old Wild West days.

The toys have known that kids like Andy and Bonnie have been

connecting online for years, but policy and law makers are late to the

party… so are trying to play catch up. We heard of one kid who was

running rings round the police (Aqsa Mohammad) and politicians, like

FELTAG’s Matt Hancock, are looking for tech companies and search

engines do more.

Some educators and policy makers have not taken too much notice

of social media, either the possibilities or the dangers… And/or some

have focused more on the dangers rather than the opportunities.

With more and more people living more of their lives online, the

grownups have been paying more attention… especially as some of

the High Streets are starting to look like an old west ghost town.

Some people travelling along the internet superhighway now want to blow the internet up.

Some because they are trolls… some because they don’t like the changes it’s having on their business…

some because they don’t understand how the West was won… and some are like the evil one eyed Bart

who try to get illegal aliens to help him blow stuff up and ruin our fun.

Like Chicago and California, with time and effort, the online world will become more settled as well.

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The Pokemon Go Years… Old West Meets New Wild West

We’ve had great fun Playing Pokemon Go and were sad that we hadn’t

heard of Ingress before we did, adventures like Operation: A Series of

Tubes sure sounded fun – but a little dangerous for kids and toys!

Through Pokemon Go we found out about “Ingress for Kids” @SpyQuest

and have been introduced Sam and Rebecca… We’ve told all the other

toys about Spy Quest too.

Woody told us all about The Site of the Niantic, the company that created

Ingress and Pokemon Go … “Those were the days” says Woody, with a nostalgic look in his eyes.

“Yeah I’m sure the owners of the Niantic would agree… or the Captain who got stabbed as the crew

abandoned ship… Have you listened to The Armada of Broken Dreams” Ham shoots back sarcastically

“Remember that time one-eyed Bart blew the train bridge up in search of gold?” says Mr Potato Head,

also looking nostalgic

“Then technology saved the Old West with trains, the telegraph and other innovations… just like the

Space Ranger’s gizmos and gadgets that saved that train from One Eyed Bart” Buzz replies.

“…And but some of us copied the Space Rangers technology“ Ham begins, but is interrupted

“And we would have got you with our big red Death By Monkey button… if it wasn’t for those pesky

kids” Mr Potato Head answers, with an eye patch now covering one eye

Using tech to follow the exploits

of Ingress, looking for Pokemon

and being @SpyQuest agents

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The Wilderness Years

Andy had left for college and Bonnie had a clear out and the toys were left homeless. We didn’t feel like

repeating the whole Sunnyside experience… so we looked for a place to call our own.

Like any young person will tell you, having an “Empty” for the weekend can be exciting, as can going to

university and not having the same house rules.

But we needed a way to make some money and, as you will see, we did go off the rails a little… But we

were not the only ones. Loads of kids Andy and Bonnie’s age were going off the rails online as well.

But Woody, with the help of Ham’s obsession with Wikipedia, reminded us that these experiences were

no different to the Old West:

Check the similarities between what was said when people like Stinky Peter were looking to make a

quick buck in Chicago… With what “PayPal Mafia” member, Peter Thiel, had to say before all things

“DotCom” settled down in the late 1990s

Believing Chicago was about to become the terminus of a major canal, land agents and speculators

flooded into town, buying and selling not only empty lots along it’s ill marked streets… stories abounded

of men who bought land for more $1-200 in the morning and sold it for several thousand before the sun

set. Lots that had sold for $33 in 1829 were going for $100,000 by 1836. Such prices bore no relation to

the current economic reality. Only wild hopes for the future could lead people to pay so much for vacant

lots in a town where the most promising economic activity consisted of nothing more substantial that

buying and selling real estate. Speculators dreamed of what the land might someday be, and gambled

immense sums on their faith in a rising market. As the British traveler Harriet Martineau remarked, it was

as if “some prevalent mania infected the whole people.” William Cronon, Natures Metropolis

“One 40-something grad student that I knew was running 6 different companies in 1999 (usually, its

considered weird to be a 40 year old graduate student. Usually its considered insane to start a half-dozen

companies at once. But in the late 1990s people could believe that was a winning combination).

Everybody should have known that the mania was unsustainable; the anti-business model where they lost

money as they grew. But it’s hard to blame people for dancing when the music was playing; irrationality

was rational given that appending “.com” to your name could double your value overnight” Peter Thiel,

Zero to One

Just like when Chicago and California was being settled there were winners who struck it rich, others

who lost everything… just like there were good people, who rallied round people like Sherriff Woody to

form a posse, but others – like One Eyed Bart – tried to wreck havoc on frontier towns.

Based on some of the accounts of Chicago in the 1880’s we should be worried about the educators who

will be at ISTE this year… as well as all the toys and children who may have the misfortune of living in

“Dantes Hell,” but obviously this is not the Chicago of today.

The stories of early Chicago & the sunken dreams of the Niantic’s owner when the crew and passengers

fled the ship, which was then intentionally run aground, could easily apply to the internet today.

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The Adolescent Years

The Claw Challenge (#NewPower: Neck & Nominate… Ice Bucket Challenge)

The aliens early experiences online were pretty

adolescent (Some might say downright

childish!)… some of the antics were more than a

little dangerous!

They started out copying the kids with “Stuff

and Nominate” daring Mrs Potato head to shove

as many random items as she could into Mr

Potato head… Then nominate others make more

stuffed potatoes.

This was, understandably, criticized but the craze did take hold… But the aliens continued to have fun by

adapting the idea a little to create: The Claw Challenge. The rules were:

1) After being “called out” you had 24 hours to take the challenge

2) Make a donation to the Lost Toy Fund

3) Toys accepting the challenge must call out three other people

4) Those who choose not to take the challenge were called Chicken and

encouraged to donate more to the Lost Toy Fund

Stuff and Nominate… Went Viral (Check the number of views!)

You have been chosen! But some who got “Clawed out” were up for it more than others

Some were too chicken Lost Toy Fund Raiser?

“I already donated via

The Claw Challenge”

But will it be the fun loving

aliens that save the day in

the Wild West of the

internet?

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Rexit (#NewPower: Reddit Revolt)

Rex has always been ahead of the curve with technology… and a bit of a screen addict too. He and Trixie

created a forum for dinosaurs online to keep in touch, but the some online predators seemed intent on

devouring the online watering hole (Otherwise known as The Well) the peaceful herd had created: Rexit

The way that the RexitRevolt played out was pretty much exactly what happened to the birds on the

wire

Are there similarities between the For the

Birds and the #RedditRevolt?

“We screwed up. Not just on July 2, but also over the past

several years. We haven’t communicated well, and we have

surprised moderators and the community with big changes. We

have apologized and made promises to you, the moderators and

the community over many years, but time and again, we haven’t

delivered them. When you’ve had feedback or requests, we

haven’t always been responsive. The mods and the community

have lost trust in me and in us the administrators of Reddit”

Ellen Pao, Reddit CEO

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Potato Salad Kickstarter

Seeing all the fun that the aliens were having with The Claw Challenge and with Buzz and Slinky’s success

with crowdfunding. Mr and Mrs Potato head thought it would be a laugh to crowd fund a Potato Salad…

and got $55,000?

This is what a $55,000 Kickstarter potato salad party looks like

Boaty McBoatFace

With lots of tech savvy toys, you can imagine the fun we had when some scientists wanted the public to

name a boat.

We’ve become fans of animation that grownups enjoy, like The Simpsons. We love Grounds Keeper

Willie’s accent so… when we saw that Boaty McBoat Face was one of the suggestions, we got behind it.

“We want a name that lasts longer than a social media news cycle” Jo Johnson

At the parliamentary inquiry, those overseeing matters suggested that ‘the internet’ was trivalising

science. But we tend to agree with those awesome community builders and authors, Henry Timms and

Jeremy Heimans

“In this case, it’s fairer to say that science trivalised the internet” and that “The organizations unforgivable

sin was in abandoning poor Boaty at the precise moment it should have embraced her. The agency had

attracted hundreds and thousands of people – and much of the mainstream media – all of whom had a

vested interest in Boaty. Had it leaned in to all that engagement, and proudly smashed the champagne

bottle on the hull of Boaty McBoatFace, it could have built a community that would have delivered for

NERC for years. You might imagine a generation of Brits following Boaty’s adventures by GPS, school kids

greeting Boaty when she docked in their town. You could imagine T-shirts, mugs, avatars, video games,

cartoons. Boaty might have become the most participatory vessel in the world, capable of delighting the

public but also providing a portal of press and engagement with the scientific inquiry she pursued”

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The Baddies

So the toys had a bit of fun and we can imagine what the Old West would be like if it was populated by

kids. Unfortunately, there were a few opportunistic villains in town looking to exploit some of the most

vulnerable toys who were online.

Toy Terror ((#NewPower: Aqsa Mahmood Vs @ThinkAgain_DOS)

Obviously Sids Toys didn’t have the same fun experiences as the toys in Andy’s room. With toy shops

going out of business people like Al went online and found people were interested in these poor

mutilated toys.

He deals with the guys at Toy Soldiers, who have developed one of Oblivion’s neural chips for toys, and

ships them over… Unfortunately, some of the army guy guys have fallen in with this crowd too.

As you’ll see later on in our story, Jessie and Bo Peep stepped in to help some of these little monsters.

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Stolen Toys (#NewPower: @Invisible case study)

We’ve been reading about how to stay safe online and how to make online communities play nice… but

this sure isn’t easy! #NewPower has lots of tricks and tips, but thought we’d use our experiences of

having a stolen toy as an example of just how hard this is to achieve.

Using the New Power community circle, Andy and his mum might be the “Platform Owner,” Woody and

the gang are the “Super Users,” and the toys that help out at Al’s Toy Barn are “Users” – they all play

nicely together (Most of the time)… but they only feel safe once everyone is back in Andy’s room.

Take a look at the other people involved in the story: Al, Stinky Pete, Airport Staff, The Museum in Japan

and the general public… How easy would it be to get all those people to play nice with Andy’s toys?

No easy task! But that’s what social media platforms will need to be able to do before the “Wild West”

that is the Internet can be cleaned up. One glance at this image and you can see a lot of co-ordination

and collaboration will be needed. Can you imagine what would happen if these people were on Twitter?

“Building a passionate community and a well balanced triangle, structured with the

right incentives and feedback mechanisms” New Power

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Zurgbook

Obviously Buzz went through the whole “There’s good in you, I see it” phase with his Dad and, to his

credit, Zurg did have a “Do no evil” mission statement for his social media platform … But old habits die

hard and it soon became “Hear No Evil. See No Evil. Speak No Evil”

“Zurg’s initial reaction to claims of Zurgbook affecting Lord Business getting elected was

‘Personally, I think the idea that fake news on Zurgbook – which is a small amount of content –

influenced the election in any way is a pretty crazy idea’ Five months later he reversed course

and conceded it had played a role. And news kept dripping out: it admitted it had sold ads to

Russian backed operatives trying to manipulate opinion”

Some of the cowboys from the round up gang, went to Cambridge and learned about data and

analytics… Inadvertently got involved with politics and, unfortunately, got mixed up with the wrong kind

of “cowboys”.

Here’s one users experience trying to escape Zurgbook …and to get their personal data and life back.

Check all the snowflakes around the

globe creating a storm in a tea cup on

Zurgbook

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Lord Business

Ka-Chow & Kerching Vs You’ve Got a Friend in Me (#NewPower: Uber & LYft)

We’ve had our fair share of disagreements as we’ve made this transition from being taken care of by

Andy and Bonnie to becoming self-sufficient.

When the petrol heads from Radiator Springs joined us they created an uber-flashy service called Ka-

Chow, which they hoped would go Kerching! They used technology, data & cost to help lots of stranded

toys. Potato Head joined Ka-Chow, but disagreements ensued when he saw a memo about driverless

cars.

Mater felt that this was a little bit flash and felt that the service should slow down and be a little bit

friendlier… “Your friend with a car,” so teamed up with Barbie and their superb customer service to give

the Ka-Chow model a make over and face Lyft.

They reinvented Radiator Springs while providing a fantastic user experience with the incentives they

gave their drivers… Free car washes, tickets to The Piston Cup, meetups for drivers and users (But

suggestions for events like Tractor Tipping were rejected).

“The reason we’re so expensive is because you’re not just paying for the car – Your

paying for the other dude in the car” Lightening McQueen

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Star Digital Citizen Ship (#NewPower: @croberts68 & @RobertsSpaceInd #StarCitizen)

“When short sighted retailers didn’t make the change from offline to

online Toys’R’Us closed and a whole bunch of Space rangers needed a

home” Star Digital Citizen Ship Game advert.

With a need for a larger place, needing to pay the bills and find a way

to put up with all those insufferable

“I am Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger… we must destroy Zurg”

Stuff and a failed attempt to tell them they were toys and Zurg was

their dad… Buzz decided to use the Space Rangers expertise to make a cool real life space simulator

game that is:

“As close to being an astronaut without having to be good at math” said one fan of the game

When Buzz couldn’t raise the funds he got a massive response to his crowd fund campaign and is

designing a game called Star Digital Citizen Ship… Because it was online no one knew it was toys doing

the developing, and the efforts got $155 million in crowdfunding.

Mark Hamill will be one of the characters of the game… we’re all super excited about the Luke

Skywalker visiting the house one day.

A Dog Brew… for Cool Cats (#NewPower: @BrewDog)

Always one that’s been a little laid back and went with the flow,

without any adult supervision… and a little help from Bing Bong,

Slinky discovered the joys of battery acid and had a real Bing Bong of

a time.

When they saw the success of Star Digital Citizen Ship and the Potato

Salad Kickstarter, they created a Brew for Dogs with some pretty

funny marketing.

Bing Bong arranged for some soldiers drive a tank down town, he

projects images of Ken and Barbie on Stinky Pete’s box at the

Japanese toy museum… and fans of Dog Brew raised $10 million

Slinky and Bing Bong having some fun

marketing trips with Brew for Dogs

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ToyBnB… Belong Anywhere (#NewPower: @AirBnB)

The toys were concerned that losing a sense of belonging like

Andy’s soldiers did when they bugged out at the fear of the bin

bags coming out.

Some of the soldiers “scratched their own itch” and created ToyBnB to help other toys that were

earmarked for the attic (or worse) the trash to help them find and re-discover a sense of belonging.

We used to take belonging for granted.

Cities used to be villages. Everyone knew each other, and everyone knew they had a place to call home. But

after the mechanization and Industrial Revolution of the last century, those feelings of trust and belonging

were displaced by mass-produced and impersonal travel experiences. We also stopped trusting each other.

And in doing so, we lost something essential about what it means to be a community. After all, our

relationships with people will always be the most meaningful part of our lives. You just need to get to know

them.

That’s why Airbnb is returning us to a place where everyone can feel they belong

...Belonging has always been a fundamental driver of humankind. Belong Anywhere

We all had this kind sense of belonging in Andy’s room. However, at Sunnyside it felt like New Power’s

description of “paying our dues” and “Pledging loyalty and support to policies we didn’t agree with.”

In the 20th Century, participating in politics or social change could

feel like a test of will. To join a political party, you'd often have to

pledge your loyalty and support for a long list of policies, some of

which you might not actually agree with. To participate, you'd have

to show up to procedural meetings at your branch where your most

exciting moment might be seconding the motion to approve the

minutes from the last meeting. And for this privileged, you literally

"Paid your dues" - up front and then at a regular interval.

...The single most important factor behind the early success of GetUp! was how easy it was for people

(Frantic, information overloaded, but well intentioned 21st Century people) to participate. No member

dues, no pledges of allegiance to a platform, no immediate requirement to take to the streets. Rather,

GetUp! asked people, on joining, to sign a single petition on just one issue they cared about.

So we can see the value in what the guys at ToyBnB are doing

Participating in some organizations is like a test of will… Pledging your loyalty and all that

join-the-Dark-Side-of-the-force-Star-Wars-reference jazz

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The Linkedin Toy Library (#NewPower: @reidhoffman & LinkedIn’s Alliance)

We saw a survey that found that in the next year, if given the choice, 25% of 5 year olds would quit their

non-digital toys for technology. That figure goes up to 44% for 7 year olds.

With such a short play time with kids today we started a Toy Library service for toys who are popular

today and Link them with new playrooms for younger kids, so the idea of having one more play time and

the fear of having a Sunnyside experience are less likely and less daunting.

Our time with Andy, Sunnyside and Bonnie would be seen as a “Tour of Duty” and toys sign up to a

“Statement of Alliance,” were the toy community help each other as well as the kids the toys are placed

with.

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Electron Shakespeare… And Some Local Motors (#NewPower: @bethcomstock & @LocalMotors)

Mr Pricklepants is someone who’s used to being involved in great productions and giving great

performances like the ones in Bonnies’ room… and someone who’s been in not so great productions.

For example, one gig was called Egg Minder and it was like watching eggs in the fridge waiting for

something to happen… but it never did. Just more eggs arrived from time to time.

While he takes all productions and performances seriously, he’s able to say

“I failed at this and I’m still here”

One of the best performances that Mr Pricklepants gave was called “Electron

Shakespeare – The Bard on Four Wheels” which was an electrifying

performance for him and all involved!

Mr Pricklepants heard from Rusty over at planes about how GE’s Beth

Comstock had more than 1 million designers and engineers dream up a

lighter more efficient part

So we spoke to Doc and the pit crews at the Piston Cup about some ideas and designs for his plays and

Mr Pricklepants got a great set for his productions and the Pit Crews now create some funky local

motors

“It’s like everyone is driving mystery machines”

One proud owner of an upgrade and design makeover said.

Mr Pricklepants, who used to be heavily involved with all aspects of the

production said he is

“Now looking to distribute the decision making process as widely across his

network as possible… and improvise to respond to local conditions”

Mr Pricklepants method acting has really helped everyone with collaborating and creating ideas as he

can flow freely among artists, makers and robotics wizards to help people source new ideas from

unexpected places.

And… what about the car designers?

They have designed and developed a self driving minibus, a special vehicle

dedicated to the art of transporting pizza, a road legal monster truck… and

the world’s first high-way ready 3D printed car.

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Clown Chat (#NewPower: Hilarious Summary of Snap Chat’s Story & Founder Feeling)

Not all the online business ideas that the toys started worked out so well.

Chuckles, after seeing the success of Snapchat, thought that a “snap chat for clowns” could work well…

so he tried Clown Chat, here’s how the story went in pictures.

Chuckles wanted to address the fear that people had of clowns with some fun and friendly pictures. He

made some progress with the idea – not as much as had been hoped – but, just as he was ready to sell

the company, Clown Chat took off in all the wrong ways as people used it for the Killer Clown Craze and

the app simply compounded the stereotype Chuckles was trying to address.

There goes the sustainable business and any hopes of rehousing all Toy Clowns out there! “Be careful

with who you allow onto your platform kids!” is advice you can hear Chuckles giving throughout the

house.

Have a big idea Find a Co-Founder

Fall out with your Co-Founder

When things don’t go so well and you get left behind

After you turn an acquisition offer down

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Politics

Woody (#NewPower: GetUp, Obama Campaign & Podemos)

With a keen sense of justice, keeping the peace and not being afraid to take a stand, Woody has been an

activist on a number of causes over the years.

As someone who is not adverse to breaking some rules to address cruelty and injustice, when Woody

heard about Jereny Heimans and David Madden and their frustration at their elected representatives

and their plan to

“Rally people not just for a single passionate protest, but find a way to channel that passion

again and again… an ambitious goal for two people in their twenties who had never been

members of any political party and no formal political connections, but they had the advantage

of being too young to know any better… Today, GetUp is the largest political organization in

Australia, with more members than all the country’s political parties put together”

He was inspired. Given his experience with taking Sid on, he broke some more rules by following Wreck

it Ralph’s example and went film hoping to tell Lord Business not to be so stuck in his ways… to go with

the flow and to trust those master builders and let them do their thing.

An Olympic School Challenge

Word about how we helped Sids toys and how we helped the toys at Sunnyside reached Brazil and some

toys at Beatriz Ehlers Friedenreich school got in touch before the Rio Olympics.

The City had planned to bulldoze her school… we helped by following the school webcam so we could

let people know if/when the bulldozers were on site so people could get down there to protest and stop

them… the plan worked!

21

I Think We Can!

As well as never losing sight of what the priorities are regardless of the drama (We’re here for Andy!),

the good sheriff got excited with what the online world promised in the world of politics and the

optimistic “Yes we can!” message.

The campaign motto of “Respect. Empower. Include.” Was one that resonated with all the abandoned

toys. The election campaign was highly participatory… but was less so the case when the election was

over.

“If you want to see how I’ll govern… Just look at our campaign” Barack Obama.

Political Tech Observer, Micah Sifry called the lack of participation in the post-election movement as

“Criminal Political Negligence” when any support Obama looked for went as dark as Andy’s attic…

except when he was looking for donations.

Some saw this election campaign as a big failing, but Woody saw this for what it was… it was a step in

the right direction of the participatory and ‘citizen politics’ that would eventually take place.

Woody followed movements like the Scottish Independence Referendum, where again

there was lots of hope (…Over fear), but again the participation aspect only lasted long

enough to get 56 people elected, then it was back to business as usual – bail out their

buddies and leave “The People” to suffer the consequences.

Then, with the help of a Spanish Buzz, Woody followed the exploits of Pablo Iglesias

who – with his Citizen’s Assembly and its ‘Unprecedented exercise of direct

democracy’ with its online and offline public meetings and ‘circles’ where 100,000 took

part in crowd sourcing their manifesto and policies.

Before its second birthday Podemos ended up winning over 5 million votes and 69

seats in Spain’s parliament, breaking the country’s two party rule.

Ridiculous that we’re talking about toys in the world of politics? It’s no worse than the President sharing

tweets that a robot sent? Governments don’t set the political agenda: Bots do

22

Ken’s Castle (#NewPower: Leadership & ‘Old Power’)

Woody wasn’t the only person to get involved with politics, a few others have done… but for different

reasons.

Always interested in himself and materialistic things Ken built himself a castle, found some political

groups where they hark back to the “Good old days” when kids played with Toys and when he and

Barbie were the best selling toys of all time.

As can be the case, this is a rose tinted view of the past, as the Star Wars episode of the Netflix series

“The Toys that Made Us” detail the early struggles that Mattel had.

All that we ever observe when we see Ken online are arguments like the One Man Band musicians with

opposing sides trying to outdo one another… but with no economic value/benefit and no one winning.

“In the years since it was launched, GetUp has influenced the outcome of several additional key elections,

won a landmark ruling in Australia’s highest court that established new constitutional voting rights, and

helped to pass legislation protecting refugees and the environment. It has raised tens of millions of dollars

in small donations from its members to fund its work. Its been described as “Probably Australias most

important civil society actor.” Lamenting the disruptive impact the organization has had on the

established political order, the conservative commentator Nick Carter wrote that GetUp “Is to politics

what Uber is to taxis.” Today, GetUp is the largest political organization in Australia, with more members

than all the country’s political parties put together” New Power

“Don’t blame me,” “We don’t have any answers,” “We

don’t have any money… Unless it’s to bail the banks out”

Politicians during elections? Or the kind of influence

GetUp has on Australian politics?

23

Trash Talk… Bugging People and Speaking a Lot of Rubbish

Someone else who goes online to talk about politics and “The good old days” is Lotso.

He doesn’t get online much, but when he does it’s always to talk trash about the Toys at Sunnyside and

a lot of rubbish about how great the “good old days” were when he was in charge. Guess it makes sense

that he bugs people online, after all… you are what you eat ;)

Then Trump came along. There were some ugly spats online with Lotso during the 2017 election. The

whole

“If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you?

Seriously, OK?”

The Donald Trump said didn’t half appeal to Lotso.

Some of the Mrs Nesbit Space Rangers who we were not able to rehabilitate attended the odd Tea Party

to discuss all things politics… so did some of the old German World War II toys that Sarg and his buddies

used to fight in Andy’s playroom.

Spaced Out Toys

Another group that found the adjustment to the house quite challenging was the

space toys and toys who all had guns and used to play was all the time. Their idea of

fun wasn’t always ours and they got a bit rowdy, so we had to ask them to leave the

house.

They have their own place now and help the guys over at Grand Theft Auto… in their spare time they

swap stories about how they are all set as survivalists and share stories about the time they got

abducted by aliens.

24

The Trolls

What of the Trolls?

1) Digital Citizenship in education and the workplace has been patchy at best. So what do we expect?

2) Haters aren’t your problem… Ignoring them is.

“They’ve already tried by phone. They’ve already gone to the store.

They’ve already sent an email. And now they turn to social media as a last

ditch effort… Onstage haters already have one foot out the door when

they use public channels to blast your business. A response at this crucial

juncture is your chance to turn things around… [The customer may be]

using an onstage channel after being genuinely mishandled in an offstage

channel” Jay Baer, Hug Your Haters

“From the early grades Steve Jobs had been something of a troublemaker. Then one teacher, Mrs. Hill,

recognized he was really very bright, and bribed him to buckle down and study, using money, candy and a

camera building kit. Steve became so motivated that he even ground his own lenses for the camera. In the

Smithsonian oral-history interview, Steve said, “I think I probably learned more academically in that one

year than I learned in my life.” Quite a testimonial for how one teacher can change a students’ entire

history.

“I’m a very big believer in equal opportunity…equal opportunity to me more than anything means a great

education… it pains me because we do know how to provide a great education. We really do. We could

make sure that every young child in this country got a great education. We fall far short of that…I’m 100%

sure that if it hadn’t been for Mrs Hill in 4th grade and a few others, I would absolutely have ended up in

jail. I could see those tendencies in myself to have a certain energy to do something wrong. When you’re

young, a little bit of correction goes a long way.” Steve Jobs

What if, as Jobs highlights, there was a little bit of correction for before they became trolls?

25

How the Wild West Will Be Won

Bo Peep – Part-of-a-Set United Union (#NewPower: @aijenpoo & @DomesticWorkers )

There was much excitement when we heard Bo Peep had made her experiences of

being lonely and lost work for her. She’s helped lots of toys who, as the soldiers put it

“When the trash bags come out, we army guys are the first to go”

She helps toys that are the most marginalized and least powerful. Using her experience of helping lost

sheep… and keeping her flock together and safe, she’s created power for more toys.

Those toys that people were only popular or of interest to kids who were part of a set, as Bo puts it:

“The whole Part-of-a-set united union is basically set up as a platform to give voice to that

constituency of toys who are completely isolated”

Another group that also got organized was the team at the newly formed Bart-Zurg Hospital.

Bart-Zurg Hospital (#NewPower: @madelon_tilburg & @buurtzorg)

If you wanted to learn something about the future of how the gang has become self

sustaining and using technology, you might want hear about the the Bart-Zurg hospital –

a decentralized network of Barbie nurses who engage with toys on their own terms.

Like many of the toys they missed the ‘good old day’ of being played with and not having

to worry about where to live and finding ways to pay the bills… But, instead of being

angry about their change in circumstances… they found a way to do the work that

inspired them when they were in the playroom: caring for the other toys.

This started out with them spending loads of time on games like Theme Hospital. Then there was a big

bust up with a One-Eyed Bart and Zurg down at an abandoned Al’s Toy Barn, and lots of other toys got

involved, the Barbie Nurses patched the toys up and a new idea was born. That particular Al’s Toy Barn

was renamed to the Bart-Zurg Hospital.

They connected with other nurses and make decisions that matter for injured toys. Today Bart-Zurg has

over 10,000 health care toys, operating in 850 teams, serving 70,000 patients.

When the team got started they had to clean Al’s Toy Barn up because of the fight and because the

building had become what Stewart Brand calls a “Low Road Building.”

The nurses worked together to decorate, decide who’s going to find the chairs, who’s going to paint the

walls, it started to feel like their own place and a real hospital… and a great culture!

The toys found out new talents and things that they both liked and were good at… and have the same

kind of job satisfaction as when they were playing with their owners in the playroom.

26

ToysLikeMe (#NewPower: @PatientsLikeMe)

One of the reasons that the Bart-Zurg hospital has worked so well can be explained in a podcast that

Ham runs

“And this is the Buzz Lightyear patient site. Back in 2017, short-sighted retailers did not pay enough

attention to meet online demand and shops like Toys’R’Us closed”

Like the Barbie nurses, Ham also helps toys as he explains:

“There were lots of Space Rangers who were tossed out and, with more kids playing computer games

and spending time online, the toy fixers went out of business… Space Rangers trying to fly + lack of fixers

= ToysLikeMe to helps Space Rangers who lose a battle with gravity and prevents all the would-be-Mrs-

Nesbits out there from giving up.

The ToysLikeUs community helps Space Rangers accept that they are toys, assists with their

rehabilitation with what feels like an infinity number of misguided leaps of faith these space cadets

make… online and offline.

When these brave space adventurers accept that they are toys, Ham helps them get logged onto NASAs

open innovation projects where they can help the real astronauts who are seeking solutions as well as

with Buzz’s Star Digital Citizen Ship

27

Jessie – Helping Little Monsters (#NewPower: @LadyGaga)

Jessie saw what Zurg and Al was doing with Zurgbook and

Toy Soldiers… so set out to create her own social network to

help others in the house with their projects.

As she loves to Yodle, and was keen to help Sid’s old toys, a

natural place for her to hang out was with Lady Gaga and all

her little monster fans.

So, through Lady Gaga’s site, Jessie spends her time helping the toys with their confidence and artistry…

so the toys can share comments, art, ideas and stories with one another… what a natural collaboration

given that Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters confront body image expectations and grapple with questions of

their identity and being different.

“A little monster doesn’t judge or criticize what others are, regardless of their sexuality or skin

colour or other traits” and “Little Monsters embrace their own identity”

Obviously Jessie runs over to Woody with loud “YEEHAWs” any time Lady Gaga is encouraging the Little

Monsters to call their elected representatives… Like the time senators’ lines were flooded with so many

calls the switchboard was overloaded, and forced the Senate to update their system: a Gaga-Compliant

Phone System.

28

Bullseye & The Camel (#NewPower: @PerryChen & @KickStarter)

As we all know, good old faithful Bullseye can run like the wind. Now that the

West has been settled the one place he can get to run free and fast is in the

desert and he has come back with all kinds of tales about his adventures.

One day he was running like the wind and he got caught up in what felt like a

#NewPower storm, but the cause was a boy who was looking for his place in the world

and, like the old ‘49ers were looking to strike it rich… but not in California, in Egypt. The

King of Salem and a kind alchemist was helping him on the way. We were on the edge of

our seat as Bullseye told us that the boy turned himself into the wind before finding his

treasure.

On another adventure he came across a pilot who had crash landed in the

desert and there was a strange toy dressed as a Prince who said he was from

another planet and like those on the side of angels, who want to spread

compassion, promote pluralism, or defend science online… they must

constantly weed out all the baobabs, otherwise the space will get taken over

by those looking to supercharge hate and misinformation.

A caravan came along and the owner of the caravan asked all those looking to cross the desert if they

could help the pilot with any parts or expertise to fix his plane. Some offered money and others offered

assistance… and one little boy was staring into space and talking to the wind.

Before you knew it Rusty was in sight dropping off the parts needed… “Well look at that” said one of the

men traveling near the boy “As Alan Turing said…”

“Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine”

The parts that Rusty dropped off were of course, designed by some local motors.

Mr Pricklepants gave a fine speech about collaboration before the pilot would install all the parts.

The pilot thanked the caravan driver his name, Perry Chen he said

“Glad we could help to kickstart your engine”

He said as he waved off into the sunset and toward the oasis.

29

Buddyville – The Most Popular Room in the House… Well Played Lego (#NewPower: Lego)

The Lego room is by far the most popular room in the house. People of all ages come together, including

the staff at Lego, on all platforms. Whether it’s

Collaborating with one person on Lego Architecture

Co-Creating with over 10,000 MUPs with Mindstorm

Accommodating gamers with lots of great Lego computer games

Kids showing grownups how it’s done… how to stay flexible, go with the flow and have fun! The

way that Emit and the master builders did with Lord Business does.

Going from almost bankrupt in 2001 to bossing it with Henry & Jeremy’s New Power ideas, Lego

sure is showing people how they can bound and rebound and, in the process, find new ways of

doing things (Just like Piper does!)

From “You’ve got a Friend in me” to a fully functioning smart city made of Lego to showcase how

the Wild West is being settled with the Internet of Things…

Welcome to Buddyville

30

Wreck It Pixels (#NewPower: Reddit Place)

Hey Parents, Remember when you were young and your parents said

“Stop wasting your time on those computer games and do your homework?”

Seen how those games grew up with the kids and how the gaming industry is thriving today? Games like

Star Citizen is being the biggest crowdfunder ever? And the fact that some people have paid £30,000 on

Star Citizen…

Well remember all those crazy toys in this story who were doing “Stuff and Nominate” and “The Claw

Challenge” and having their RexitRevolt during the adolescent years?

Well a little later in the story the real world and online world came together as the guys from Wreck it

Ralph and Pixels joined the fun.

You see the trolls and the ghosts were not the bad guys, Pacman was. So the ghosts went onto #Rexit

…Pacman followed and ate up everything on the screen. Then we asked all the toys to collaborate and

make this a nice place… and use the space to create something.

Woody shouted “Draw” to encourage people to act and they took him literally. Toys were invited to

contribute pixel by pixel, to make one big piece of art. Early contributions were rude… but soon the good

guys cleaned it all up

“What was really amazing was seeing how quickly the community organized and started to self police

the canvas to keep it positive”

31

A stunning replica of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” appeared and, thanks to the help of others in the

community, survived an attack from a nihilistic group of black pixel brandishing contributors who called

themselves “The Black Void.” National flags were drawn; countries fought and then made peace. The

Lego fans inserted some bricks.

More than a million people laid 16 million pixels to create a complex, chaotic, collaborative

masterpiece… the biggest piece of group art ever.

The forces of light outnumbered and out organized the forces of darkness on Rexit Place– and they did

so by embracing collective action and through the strength of their core values. Rexit Place became a

metaphor for what a “full stack society” might look like – with many expressions of political, economic,

and cultural participation represented on one big digital canvas. Everyone who contributed felt like an

owner because each of those million people really was one. Building this kind of world will be messy –

and it certainly won’t be without pockets of distraction. But it is a world all of us can create together,

and it is one most worth fighting for.

Like the gaming industry the internet will grow up with the young people who first settled the “Wild

West” of the Internet and, just like the little guys who saved Woody and the gang from the furnace, it

will be the little guys – not the tech companies or the politicians – who will win the day.

1 Million Reddit Users create art with 16 million Pixels

32

How the Wild West of the Internet Was Won

You’ve heard the phrase “How the West was Won” have you ever heard the story about

How we almost lost toystory2

People today are now having discussions like 10 Reasons you should Quit Social Media.

In 2015 I wrote a post about #DigCit Vs the Trolls and these ideas were validated by both “Why Good

People Turn Bad Online” and New Power:

“The future will be won by those who can spread their ideas better, faster, and more durably. In a world

of fake news, climate change deniers, Holocaust deniers, anti-vaxers, and all manner of extremists, the

stakes are high. Those on the side of the angels, who want to spread compassion, promote pluralism, or

defend science, must first grapple with a painful reality: that new power can supercharge hate and

misinformation. In fact, those darker forces often start at an advantage because their provocations

compel our attention and our clicks. It isn’t enough to simply have the facts on your side. Truth needs

ACE”

Like Luxo Jr found, a ball is great fun to play with… until it bursts. The difference can be night and day.

The potential for collaborating online in a positive way is huge, but organizations like ISIS, Alt-Right and

NRA have been using “New Power” for longer and, as organizations like US Counter Terrorism now

realize, it will take efforts of many different groups to “Unslum,” as Jane Jacobs would put it, the

internet.

33

Happily Ever After? Creating Order Out of the Chaos…

Like Bonnie does with Andy… and as the Lego room and movie has shown us, let’s have the kids show us

how to have fun online… and the “Oldies” (And ‘Old Power’) can provide the benefit of their wisdom to

see if - together - we can figure the internet, which is having a Wild West moment, out. As young people

were the first to settle in this space in large numbers they have provided a glimpse or what the Old West

might have looked like if youngsters were in charge with Claw Challenges & Potato Salad crowd funding

etc.

Woody shows us how much fun the Wild West is, and the Toy Story toys have already navigated all the

arguments with technology, with all the “YOU ARE A TOY” stuff and have demonstrated how unsettling

it can be when the gang find themselves in unfamiliar territory like Al’s toy Barn and Sunnyside

"We’ve had thousands of years to hone our person-to-person interactions, but only 20 years of social

media. “Offline, we have all these cues from facial expressions to body language to pitch… whereas online

we discuss things only through text. I think we shouldn’t be surprised that we’re having so much difficulty

in finding the right way to discuss and cooperate online.”

As our online behaviour develops, we may well introduce subtle signals, digital equivalents of facial cues,

to help smooth online discussions. In the meantime, the advice for dealing with online abuse is to stay

calm, it’s not your fault. Don’t retaliate but block and ignore bullies, or if you feel up to it, tell them to

stop. Talk to family or friends about what’s happening and ask them to help you. Take screenshots and

report online harassment to the social media service where it’s happening, and if it includes physical

threats, report it to the police.

If social media as we know it is going to survive, the companies running these platforms are going to have

to keep steering their algorithms, perhaps informed by behavioural science, to encourage

cooperation rather than division, positive online experiences rather than abuse. As users, we too may well

learn to adapt to this new communication environment so that civil and productive interaction remains

the norm online as it is offline.”

"I place a great deal of faith in our young people, they don't have

as much trouble accepting new ideas"

Jane Jacobs

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