My Institute for the Future colleagues Jason Tester and Rachel Hatch have launched a new alternate reality game in collaboration with United Cerebral Palsy and AARP. Titled Ruby's Bequest, it's all about the future of caring in the United States. Ruby's Bequest takes place in the fictional 2011 community of Deepwell where folks are sharing their stories, solutions, and worries about how to best care for each other, in sickness and health. Participants have already contributed nearly 200 personal stories and advice about how we can work together to build better structures for caring, from elder care to health care systems to community involvement. Please check it out!
Ruby's Bequest
Set in the fictional town of Deepwell, Ruby’s Bequest begins with news of a sizeable bequest from Ruby Wood to strengthen the ecosystem of caring in the community. Charged with improving the town’s caring infrastructure the residents of Deepwell have created the online forum at www.rubysbequest.org to solicit the whole community and beyond to participate and achieve this mission. Participants are invited to share their own experiences on caring and care giving by logging on, creating a profile and contributing text, photos, videos, and other personal narrative. Subject matter provided in the fictional narrative will include things like “caring from a distance,” “tough conversations,” “making the system work (better!) and so on. These subjects are intended to spark further discussion and debate among the community at large about other aspects of caring.
“The caring infrastructure as we know it is changing fast. Federal and local services that we once relied upon–from adult day care to Medicare and Social Security–are quickly eroding,” said Jason Tester, IFTF researcher and lead developer of Ruby’s Bequest. “This means that more of the burden of caring will fall to individuals and communities in the near and long term. A key charter of the Institute is to encourage broader and deeper examination of our future now so that the public can help shape it and be better prepared to face it.”
Tell it to someone who cares.
It comes off as so sarcastic.
I’m still exploring this one, but I find that many of these artsy “alternate reality scrapbook/physical desk image” game/blog/community environments can be initially frustrating for those looking for conventional windows-style interfaces with regular menus and flow. While I get it about the intent of making it more approachable to a newbie than a typical blog interface, I’d love to find an example that makes the transition more seamless, evolutionary, and transparent.
It doesn’t help that the linked blog uses future dates for posts, breaking some tools that show items in chronological order or that make it easy to see what’s “new”.
On its particular topic of the future of caring, though, that’s where I live, so to speak, so I appreciate the focus of this project: helping people organize cohousing neighborhoods where they can know their neighbors and care for each other, “Beacon Hill” village-model support structures that help people stay in their own homes, and other models for community: Elders Guilds, Second Journey workshops, EcoVillages, Earth Elders forums, and the like.
I write about all of these in my “Aging In Community” chapter in the new book “Audacious Aging”, so I’m looking to forge additional connections in this area, and appreciate the inspiration.
#1 Davidget, gotta agree with you, that was my first thought. Maybe because I used to work with a guy, and whenever anyone would start to complain, no matter how mildly about no matter what, he’d say “here’s a dime, call someone who cares”. Made me laugh to think about that knucklehead after so long.
Is Deepwell conveniently close to any ice floes and/or polar bears? I have an Inuit-themed story in mind…
The ‘Tell it to someone who cares’ is being used in a uniquely literal sense.
Think about it.
I read it as IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) and did a doubletake. I was like “WTF?! Why does IETF care about caring?!”
-yo mama-