Joyce Bettencourt

Joyce Bettencourt is an artist, content creator & evangelist of online social media. She believes in the power of social media to raise social awareness, foster community, and spark creative collaboration through media like blogging, podcasting, video/machinima & virtual worlds, and has used mashups of all of these to create provocative art installations.

Joyce is the Web 2.0 specialist for Global Kids, which runs online digital media initiatives to prepare urban youth in becoming global citizens and community leaders. They have a presence in the online virtual world Second Life, where they use Teen Second Life as a tool for education, game development and issue advocacy, and partner with outside organizations such as the Field Museum, UNICEF, and the U.S. Holocaust Museum to bring their work to teens. She also developed and is chief editor of their widely read youth media-focused blog holymeatballs.org.

Her prior professional experience is as a visual artist and designer who has been involved in everything from corporate branding campaigns to collaborative street art performances. Her artwork has been shown in the United States, Australia and online through virtual exhibitions.