Harry Potter And The Professor of Cambridge: Henry Jenkins Talks Fan Culture In Second Life

Henry Jenkins as Dumbledore (mash-up from Henry's blog and holymeatballs.org)

I got your convergence culture-- right here.  This is the avatar of Professor Henry Jenkins, head of MIT's Comparative Studies department, and the man who literally wrote the book on the collision between old and new media.  He recently entered Teen Second Life as a guest of Global Kids, speaking about fan culture, specifically that based around the Harry Potter universe.  Here's a video of his insightful, wide-ranging talk.  At one point, he talks about J.K. Rowling's recent efforts to control her story and her characters, arguing that at a certain level, they should belong to her readers.  Appropriate to that topic, Henry's avatar was made up to resemble Professor Dumbledore, and his lecture was interspersed with Potter fan music, which he gamely danced to, along with teens made up to resemble other Potter characters (joined by a robot, and, of course, a Big Daddy from BioShock.)  It's not often that an intellectual of his caliber gets to see his ideas turned into such an immersive, tangible form-- or for that matter, do the twist with them.

Image mash-up credits: Henryjenkins.org and holymeatballs.org.