Transcript of August 24 Nonprofit Commons Meeting – Ethnography and Virtual Worlds with Tom Boellstorff and Celia Pearce

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting
August 24, 2012, 8:30 AM SLT / PST
Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater

AGENDA
8:30 AM Introductions
8:40 AM TechSoup Announcements
8:45 AM “Ethnography and Virtual Worlds” with Tom Boellstorff and Celia Pearce
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9882.html
9:35 AM Mentors Central
9:45 AM Open Mic / Announcements
http://nonprofitcommons.org

Introductions

[08:30] Zinnia Zauber: Welcome everyone!

[08:31] Ridvan-Researcher (ridvan.atolia): is it in voice ?

[08:31] Gentle Heron: All text, Ridvan.

[08:31] Ridvan-Researcher (ridvan.atolia): i cannot hear

[08:31] Zinnia Zauber: I am Zinnia Zauber, your interim Community
Manager here at the Nonprofit Commons.

[08:31] Ridvan-Researcher (ridvan.atolia): all right

[08:31] Buffy Beale: ok what is it with the front row vacancy? lol I’m
feeling lonely here…

[08:31] Zinnia Zauber: The Nonprofit Commons in Second Life is a
community of social benefit organizations managed by a community of
volunteers and sponsored by the nonprofit organization TechSoup
Global.

[08:31] Buffy Beale: aww Pooky ty 🙂

[08:31] Pooky Amsterdam: S;-D

[08:32] Zinnia Zauber: We like to to start our meeting with links on
how you can find us and then introductions.
[08:32] Zinnia Zauber: Here are the many ways to can get involved with the
Nonprofit Commons in Second Life:

Nonprofit Commons Blog: http://nonprofitcommons.org

Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/npsl

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons

Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life

Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/2tMEYh

http://flavors.me/nonprofitcommons

About TechSoup the sponsors of the Nonprofit Commons:

http://www.techsoup.org/stock/howtousetechsoup.asp

http://flavors.me/techsoup

[08:32] Zinnia Zauber: AGENDA

8:30 AM Introductions

8:40 AM TechSoup Announcements

8:45 AM “Ethnography and Virtual Worlds” with Tom Boellstorff / Tom Bukowski

9:35 AM Mentors Central

9:45 AM Open Mic / Announcements

[08:32] Buffy Beale: yay Grizzia and RR brave souls we are

[08:32] Ronnie Rhode: We love you BB 🙂

[08:32] Zinnia Zauber: Yay!, People in the front!

[08:33] Buffy Beale: awwww!

[08:33] Grizzla (grizzla.pixelmaid): Indeed!

[08:33] Zinnia Zauber: So, let’s have some introductions. Please state
your real name, where you are at, your org, your website and twitter
handle.

[08:33] HB Eternal: Harold W Becker, The Love Foundation, Florida,
http://www.thelovefoundation.com @lovefoundation

[08:33] Buffy Beale: Buffy Bye, Bridges for Women, Victoria BC Canada,
http://www.bridgesforwomen.ca @bridges4women

[08:33] Chayenn: Monique Richert, Protect Yourself 1, Inc., Baltimore,
MD , protectyourself1.org , facebook.com/PY1US . @PY1US

[08:33] Ronnie Rhode: Denise Harrison, The Garden for the Missing,
http://www.gardenforthemissing.org/ and SLURL Remora (203,148,21),
Project Jason, assistance for families of the missing,
http://www.projectjason.org.

[08:33] Zinnia Zauber: Our meeting transcripts are posted online.

[08:33] Buffy Beale: haha HB well done!

[08:33] Dancers Yao: Kara Bennett, Elder Voices, Los Angeles, CA
Health Care and Human Rights www.eldervoices.net

[08:34] Chad Mikado: Chad Gobert; National Service Inclusion Project @
UMass Boston; www.serviceandinclusion.org

[08:34] HB Eternal: Silver is good too Buffy

[08:34] Zinnia Zauber: Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond, Sequim Humanities
and Arts Alliance, Sequim, Olympic Peninsula, Washington.
http://www.sequimartsalliance.org
http://www.facebook.com/sequimartsalliance @renneemiko

[08:34] Glitteractica Cookie: Susan Tenby, Online Community Director,
TechSoup, SF CA USA @suzboop @techsoup @npsl

[08:34] Zotarah Shepherd: BEACH College, Santa Rosa, CA

[08:34] Pancha Enzyme: Marshall Dozier, University of Edinburgh, @mafrado

[08:34] Gentle Heron: Virtual Ability, Inc. www.virtualability.org

[08:34] Ronnie Rhode: Denise Harrison, The Garden for the Missing,
http://www.gardenforthemissing.org/ and SLURL Remora (203,148,21),
Project Jason, assistance for families of the missing,
http://www.projectjason.org.

[08:34] Par (parhelion.palou): Herbert Hoover, generic volunteer,
north of Baltimore, MD, no website, no twitter

[08:34] Ridvan-Researcher (ridvan.atolia): Ridvan Ata, Sheffield, UK
,The University of Sheffield, PhD Candidate,

[08:34] Pooky Amsterdam: Pooky Amsterdam CEO Pookymedia – Machinima
studio par excelleance – www.pookymedia.com – one video a million
words

[08:34] Grizzla (grizzla.pixelmaid): Chris Robinson, Georgia Gwinnett
College, metro Atlanta

[08:34] bulaklak: Michael DeLong, Senior Manager Online Community and
Social Media, TechSoup Global, www.techsoup.org, @MichaelDeLongSF
@TechSoup, San Francisco, USA

[08:35] Ozma Malibu: Sandy Andrews, Floaters Org, tech outreach to
those who would not otherwise have access, Arizona, Mexico and On the
Road; @ozma, still trying to get the website back up (long story)

[08:35] alebez: Ale Bezdikian, Online Community Coordinator, TechSoup,
SF, CA, @TechSoup,@alebez

[08:35] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): Ricky Davis San Antonio
@dyverse.steele http://loudcity.com/stations/dj-steele facebook
Ricky.G.Davis Health advocate and DJ

[08:35] Zinnia Zauber: Remember if you are ever late to the meeting,
still please introduce yourself to the group.

[08:35] Klara Otsuka: Clara O’Shea., University of Edinburgh, @claraoshea 🙂

[08:35] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): blog and website coming soon

[08:35] Katherine Cunningham (kcunning): Jodi Swicegood, RTI
International, RTP NC

[08:36] Peperi Franizzi: MacKenzie Stout, Owner/Operator Grid Wide
News www.GridWideNews.com

[08:36] Zinnia Zauber: Looks like we have a great group today!

[08:36] VesaV. (veilvali): Vesa Välimäki, student from Finland, no
twitter, no website!

[08:36] Brena Benoir: Brenda Bryan, Preferred Family Healthcare,
Kirksville, Missouri www.pfh.org, @brenabenoir

[08:36] Zinnia Zauber: How did you find out about the meeting today?

[08:36] Gentle Heron: Hooray for students!

[08:36] Pancha Enzyme: sled email

[08:36] Zotarah Shepherd: ooo 29 folks here!

[08:37] Aquiel Aero: sledu events announced this meeting

[08:37] Ridvan-Researcher (ridvan.atolia): SLED

[08:37] Bear (bear.silvershade): Bear Silvershade, artist and
storyteller.. Artropolis (135,177,60) inwrold and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bearsilvershade/ online

[08:37] Klara Otsuka: Pancha told me 🙂

[08:37] Pooky Amsterdam: SLEd = the best

[08:37] Zinnia Zauber: Wonderful! I am happy to hear that!

[08:37] Pancha Enzyme: 🙂 @Klara

[08:37] VesaV. (veilvali): From Second Life event listing.

[08:37] Zinnia Zauber: Super!

[08:37] Buffy Beale: welcome veilvali!

[08:37] Bear (bear.silvershade): referral from Gentle through a mutual friend

[08:37] Zinnia Zauber: Any more introductions?

[08:37] Buffy Beale: yay Bear welcome too

[08:38] Grizzla (grizzla.pixelmaid): I found out from the inworld announcement

[08:38] Tom Bukowski: Tom, still rezzing, can say hello in a few when
I’m chatting with folks

[08:38] Tori Landau: Hi, just waiting for everyone and everything to rezz °͜°

[08:38] Zinnia Zauber: Super!

[08:38] Buffy Beale: good to hear Grizzla and welcome

[08:38] Riven Homewood: Riven Homewood – I run a roleplay library in
Steelhead – I found out via an email announcement

[08:39] Zinnia Zauber: Remember our transcript will be posted online.

[08:39] Grizzla (grizzla.pixelmaid): Yeah, I’m about to declare SLED
list bankruptcy, I’m so far behind in reading it

[08:39] Pancha Enzyme: Hey Riven 🙂

[08:39] Bear (bear.silvershade) waves to Riven

[08:39] Zinnia Zauber: And, I know we all pick up new followers on
Twitter after the meeting, right?

[08:39] Riven Homewood: Hi Pancha 🙂 – Hi Bear – Hi Tom

[08:39] Zinnia Zauber: The mission of the Nonprofit Commons in Second
Life is to create a community for nonprofits to explore and learn
about virtual worlds, foster connections, and discover the many ways
in which nonprofits might utilize the unique environment of Second
Life to achieve their missions.

[08:39] bulaklak: Yes.

[08:39] Pooky Amsterdam: okay you persuaded me – @pookymedia

[08:39] Zinnia Zauber: hehe

TechSoup Announcements

[08:40] Zinnia Zauber: Now we have TechSoup Announcements!

[08:40] bulaklak: Thanks, Zinnia!

[08:40] Coughran Mayo: Dick Dillon, Innovaision, LLC St. Louis MO
@Coughran, @Innovaision

[08:40] bulaklak: Good day, folks!

[08:40] Glitteractica Cookie: good day

[08:40] Buffy Beale: yay bulaklak!

[08:41] bulaklak: Did anyone happen to attend this week’s OCTRIBE on
Wednesday, either in San Francisco or virtually by Adobe Connect?

[08:41] Buffy Beale: sorry to have missed it 🙁

[08:42] Adalace Jewell: sorry, i’m late. Adalace, RoSa Library
Brussels, http://www.rosadoc.be @adalace

[08:42] bulaklak: I, unfortunately, had to miss it, as well. But lucky
me (and you) that our team blogger Susan Chavez took fantastic notes.
I heard it was just a terrific conversation about engaging online
communities. I am looking forward to the notes once they are live. I
will share them with you all next week.
[08:42] bulaklak: Glitter, anything to add real quick about that evening?
[08:42] bulaklak: Any quick highlight?

[08:42] Nany (nany.kayo): Nancy McDonald Miller, Virtual Native Lands

[08:43] Glitteractica Cookie: no, I think the recap will cover most of it

[08:43] bulaklak: Great.

[08:43] Pooky Amsterdam: YAy Nany!

[08:43] Lowri Mills: I apologize for being late. Lowri Mills,
http://www.languagelab.com/

[08:43] bulaklak: So next Wednesday we have another cool webinar
coming up on the topic of e-readers.

[08:43] Nany (nany.kayo): Hey, Pooky! I can’t see anyone yet : )

[08:44] Fleep Tuque: Chris Collins, University of Cincinnati
http://ucsim.uc.edu and AvaCon http://avacon.org (we just recently
officially got non-profit status, yay!)

[08:44] bulaklak: Librarian Brenda Hugh will talk all about how
libraries are adapting to this quickly growing technology.

[08:44] bulaklak: Great, congrats, Chris, and welcome!

[08:44] Fleep Tuque: Thanks!

[08:44] Riven Homewood waves to Fleep

[08:44] Bear (bear.silvershade) waves to Fleep

[08:44] bulaklak: At any rate, that webinar on e-readers is Wednesday,
August 29 at 11am Pacific time
[08:44] bulaklak: And you can register here
[08:45] bulaklak: http://bit.ly/PZZzmh

[08:45] Pooky Amsterdam: Woah Fleep! Ahoy!

[08:45] Fleep Tuque: =)

[08:46] Buffy Beale: yay Fleep!

[08:46] Zinnia Zauber: Please introduce yourself as you join us at the
meeting. Real name, location, org, website, and twitter handle.

[08:46] bulaklak: Lastly, I just want to mention that we have
re-organized our discussion forum categories on TechSoup.org. As many
of you probably know, our forums are a fantastic place to get your
tech questions answered, and also to share your own expertise while
connecting with others.

[08:46] Oronoque Westland: Roberta Kilkenny, Hunter College, City
University of New York. Sorry to be late.

[08:46] bulaklak: We’ve trimmed down to 15 categories and added some
brand new things, such as a place to post all of your events, classes,
trainings, and workshops that are tech and social good related.
[08:47] bulaklak: Here is the link to the discussion forums
http://bit.ly/techsoupforums
[08:47] bulaklak: That’s what I’ve got for today. Thanks for coming
and enjoy the meeting, and your weekends!

[08:48] Glitteractica Cookie: the forums are a great place to get your
tech questions answered from a trustworthy panel of experts

[08:48] Delia Lake: oops, Linda Kelley, Pittsfield MA, Transitioning
to Green Foundation and here in sl the Center for Water Studies

[08:50] Zinnia Zauber: Great!

[08:50] Buffy Beale: sure is nice to see everyone today and an
invitation to join us every Friday at 8:30 AM 🙂

[08:50] Zinnia Zauber: Yes!

[08:50] Ethelred Weatherwax: Sorry I’m late. Dave Dexter. Neenah
Historical Society, Wisconsin USA

[08:50] Glitteractica Cookie: is it time for our speaker now?

[08:51] Zinnia Zauber: Next week we will have Ruthe Farmer Director of
Strategic Initiatives a the National Center for Women & IT,

[08:51] Zinnia Zauber: Yes!

“Ethnography and Virtual Worlds” with Tom Boellstorff and Celia Pearce

[08:51] Tom Bukowski twiddles his thumbs

[08:51] Zinnia Zauber: It is time!

[08:51] Tom Bukowski: But there are two of us hwere, which is great!
[08:51] Tom Bukowski: In fact, the woman on the cover of the book is
next to me here!
[08:51] Tom Bukowski: lol

[08:51] Zinnia Zauber: Please join us up front!

[08:51] Artemesia Sandgrain waves

[08:51] Pooky Amsterdam: Applauds!

[08:51] Buffy Beale: cheers!

[08:51] Riven Homewood: claps

[08:51] Klara Otsuka claps

[08:51] Zinnia Zauber: Yay!

[08:51] Tom Bukowski: Hey Pooky, Riven, so many friends

[08:52] Grizzla (grizzla.pixelmaid): yayyy

[08:52] Fleep Tuque applauds!

[08:52] Artemesia Sandgrain: Hi everyone…thank you for having us!

[08:52] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you for joining us!
[08:52] Zinnia Zauber: “Ethnography and Virtual Worlds” is the only
book of its kind – a concise, comprehensive, and practical guide for
students, teachers, designers, and scholars interested in using
ethnographic methods to study online virtual worlds, including both
game and nongame environments. Written by leading ethnographers of
virtual worlds, and focusing on the key method of participant
observation, the book provides invaluable advice, tips, guidelines,
and principles to aid researchers through every stage of a project,
from choosing an online fieldsite to writing and publishing the
results.

[08:52] Riven Homewood: Yes, thanks

[08:52] Zinnia Zauber: Tom and Celia thank you!

[08:52] Tom Bukowski knows Zinnia typed *every* letter of that by hand

[08:52] Zinnia Zauber: hehe

[08:52] Gentle Heron: /ne applauds for Tom and his respectful
pioneering work in virtual worlds.

[08:52] Tom Bukowski: aww Thank you Gentle, you are the best…

[08:52] Zinnia Zauber: We are thrilled to have you guys here!

[08:53] Artemesia Sandgrain: We’re really excited to be here and
amazed by the turnout!

[08:53] Tom Bukowski: Aww ty. We have never done this before – you are
our first audience talking about this handbook!

[08:53] Artemesia Sandgrain: Thank you to everyone for coming!

[08:53] Tom Bukowski: So we’ll try not to trip up lol

[08:53] Eliza (eliza.madrigal): 🙂

[08:53] Zinnia Zauber: Go for it!

[08:53] Tom Bukowski: So… Celia and I can maybe just talk a bit
about us and the handbook and then we just have a mellow Q&A?
[08:54] Tom Bukowski: Because you all are researchers too so this will be fun

[08:54] Riven Homewood: Will you be staying in text? Or using voice?

[08:54] Tom Bukowski: I believe they want us to stay in text – doesn’t
matter to me tho

[08:54] Riven Homewood: I prefer text, personally 🙂

[08:54] Gentle Heron: All text here, Riven

[08:54] Artemesia Sandgrain: Text

[08:54] Tom Bukowski: yep, np

[08:54] Riven Homewood: Cool

[08:54] bulaklak: Yes, we are all text. =)

[08:55] Tom Bukowski: btw if you click on the big box with the book
cover, you can get a free inworld copy of the first chapter

[08:55] Glitteractica Cookie: for a number of reasons, we remain a
text-based meeting

[08:55] Pancha Enzyme: oooh!

[08:55] Tom Bukowski: the book will be out for real in the next week
or so, maybe already is out lol

[08:55] Artemesia Sandgrain: Tom why don’t I start by talking a little
bit about what motivated us to do the book…

[08:55] Grizzla (grizzla.pixelmaid): If you want to hear their lovely
voices, come to the VWER meeting next week <- shameless plug :0)

[08:55] Bear (bear.silvershade): 500 clicks at once…

[08:55] Gentle Heron chuckles at Grizzla!

[08:55] Tom Bukowski: Please do… (starts humming the Brady Bunch
theme… it’s a story…)

[08:55] Artemesia Sandgrain: hehe

[08:55] Coughran Mayo:
http://www.amazon.com/Ethnography-Virtual-Worlds-Handbook-Method/dp/0691…

[08:56] Artemesia Sandgrain: Well one of the impetus’ for the book was
a special interest group that was called at DiGRA in 2007…DiGRA is
the Digital Games Research Association….
[08:56] Artemesia Sandgrain: TL was involved in calling a group on
ethnography for games and virtual worlds
[08:56] Artemesia Sandgrain: the room was completely packed….and
most of the people came because they wanted to know how to do it!
[08:57] Artemesia Sandgrain: Then Tom and Bonnie had organized an
event at UC Irvine, where they both work….
[08:57] Artemesia Sandgrain: and we kept noticing that people were
describing as “ethnography”
[08:57] Artemesia Sandgrain: methods…or in some case a lack of method…
[08:57] Riven Homewood: 🙂
[08:57] Artemesia Sandgrain: it was kind of being used as a catch-up
for just coming in world and watching people

[08:58] Tom Bukowski: *catch-all

[08:58] Artemesia Sandgrain laughs yes

[08:58] Riven Homewood: catch up works too 🙂

[08:58] Coughran Mayo: ketchup?

[08:58] Pooky Amsterdam: Must ward almost makes it

[08:58] Artemesia Sandgrain: It people were using it as an excuse to
do strange things such as deceive subjects or create inworld
experiments

[08:58] Riven Homewood: Some of those folks were pretty scary,
especially to a new avatar

[08:59] Artemesia Sandgrain: …so the four of us got together and
decided to do something about it!

[08:59] Artemesia Sandgrain: 🙂

[08:59] Tom Bukowski: Shall I say a bit about the writing of the handbpok?

[08:59] Artemesia Sandgrain nods

[08:59] Tom Bukowski: So as Celia noted, we realized this was a needed thing
[08:59] Tom Bukowski: that just calling something “ethnography”
doesn’t make it so
[08:59] Tom Bukowski: and people were in some cases doing unethical stuff, etc.
[09:00] Tom Bukowski: but also that some of the quantiative folks who
were less friendly to ethngoraphic stuff
[09:00] Tom Bukowski: were pointing a tthe random people claiming to
do ethnogrpahy
[09:00] Tom Bukowski: and saying “THAT is all qualitative methods get you”
[09:00] Tom Bukowski: So every writing project
[09:00] Tom Bukowski: involves all kinds of choices, limitationg
[09:00] Tom Bukowski: because you can’t do everything
[09:00] Tom Bukowski: and we made two BIG ones
[09:00] Tom Bukowski: that I think worked great.
[09:01] Tom Bukowski: First, the idea of a handbook on ethnographic
methods for viws
[09:01] Tom Bukowski: We actually went back to the original definition
of handbook
[09:01] Tom Bukowski: something you carry with you, into the field

[09:01] Gentle Heron: perfect!

[09:01] Tom Bukowski: so gotta be able to lift it with a hand, even an
avie hand lol
[09:01] Tom Bukowski: so we worked hard to keep it short
[09:01] Tom Bukowski: not like some of those “handbooks” that are 800 pages long
[09:01] Tom Bukowski: and try to be evrything to everyone
[09:02] Tom Bukowski: so to keep it short, we focused on ethnographic methods
[09:02] Tom Bukowski: even though some of us to quantiative reseach
too (Celia’s very good at that and is doing a cool vw survey right now
btw)
[09:02] Tom Bukowski: also fhte focus on vws
[09:02] Tom Bukowski: so sl, WoW, etc
[09:02] Tom Bukowski: but not Facebook, not email, not mobile phones, etc.
[09:02] Tom Bukowski: All very interesting, but we had ot make choices.

[09:02] Artemesia Sandgrain: …also not single players games….

[09:02] Tom Bukowski: So that focus was the first big decision
[09:02] Tom Bukowski: yes, Thank you Celia
[09:03] Tom Bukowski: Second one, which was REALLY cool, is the form
[09:03] Tom Bukowski: we started off thinking maybe an edited volume
[09:03] Tom Bukowski: but we realized wouldn’t work because we 4
really wanted to draw from our fieldwork experiences
[09:03] Tom Bukowski: (If you haven’ tread Celias book Communities of
Play you should it is awesome)
[09:03] Tom Bukowski: And you can check out my book Coming of Age in SL too
[09:03] Tom Bukowski: so anyway, we wanted to draw on all that
[09:04] Tom Bukowski: so decided it would be the 4 of us as authors
[09:04] Tom Bukowski: and started wthinking we’d each do chapters, etc.
[09:04] Tom Bukowski: but started writing together more and more
[09:04] Tom Bukowski: and made the HUGE decision
[09:04] Tom Bukowski: that the book, the whole thing, is collectively authored
[09:04] Tom Bukowski: we wrote the whole thing on google docs, and it
is in one voice
[09:04] Tom Bukowski: there is no Celia chapter or Tom chapter, etc

[09:04] Eliza (eliza.madrigal): neat

[09:04] Tom Bukowski: it was an incredible experience and I think the
flow works really well as a result
[09:05] Tom Bukowski: So now maybe Celia can talk about some of the
themese in the chapters real quick and then Q&A?

[09:05] Artemesia Sandgrain: Sure…
[09:05] Artemesia Sandgrain scratches head…let’s see if I can remember
[09:05] Artemesia Sandgrain: Haha

[09:05] Tom Bukowski: lol

[09:05] Artemesia Sandgrain: Well we start off talking about the
history of both ethnography and virtual worlds
[09:06] Artemesia Sandgrain: We all felt this was important because
ethnography has a very rich history…
[09:06] Artemesia Sandgrain: it’s been around for more than a century
as a scientific method
[09:06] Artemesia Sandgrain: or set of methods rather
[09:06] Artemesia Sandgrain: …and also we find that the newness of
virtual worlds tends to create this historical amnesia
[09:07] Artemesia Sandgrain: so we wanted people to be aware that
these things have been around for two decades
[09:07] Artemesia Sandgrain: and also point to some of the early
writing and research that was done
[09:07] Artemesia Sandgrain: We also attempt early on to tackle “Myths
about Ethnography”

[09:07] Tom Bukowski notes if you’ve never read Celia’s earlier book
“The Interactive Book,” it’s just wonderful

[09:07] Artemesia Sandgrain: 🙂
[09:07] Artemesia Sandgrain: (thank you Tom)
[09:08] Artemesia Sandgrain: As Tom mentioned, we noticed a lot of
quantitative researchers were making somewhat disparaging remarks
about ethnography
[09:08] Artemesia Sandgrain: and there are a lot of myths and
misconceptions about it that we wanted to refute

[09:08] Tom Bukowski ethnography = talking about yourself (for instance)

[09:08] Artemesia Sandgrain: So for those of you who have been doing
ethnographic research, you have something to defend yourselves with
now!

[09:08] Gentle Heron: That would make a book in itself!

[09:08] Artemesia Sandgrain: 🙂
[09:08] Artemesia Sandgrain: One of the most egregious is that
Ethongraphy is unscientific

[09:09] Maerian Dagger: (now we can be told to get a life in yet
another context, lol)

[09:09] Pooky Amsterdam: hahaha

[09:09] Tom Bukowski: lol

[09:09] Gentle Heron: Good one Maerian.

[09:09] Artemesia Sandgrain: Anyway I won’t go into details about that
but it’s a useful section.
[09:09] Artemesia Sandgrain: Tom why don’t you talk about the specific
methods chapters…

[09:09] Tom Bukowski: Can’t remember the order for sure lol
[09:09] Tom Bukowski: but briefly so we can get ot the Q&A…

[09:09] Artemesia Sandgrain: Yes…

[09:09] Tom Bukowski: We wanted to offer advice on the whole process
[09:10] Tom Bukowski: So we start with research design
[09:10] Tom Bukowski: You can’t do everything – what will you focus on?
[09:10] Tom Bukowski: How will you decide?
[09:10] Tom Bukowski: Then we talk about participant observation
[09:10] Tom Bukowski: Which note is not the same thing as just
leveling to 60 in WoW lol
[09:10] Tom Bukowski: and then interviews, focus groups,
[09:10] Tom Bukowski: archival work, when you might or might not want
to meet some interlocututors offline, etc

[09:11] Artemesia Sandgrain: One thing we focus on heavily is data collection
[09:11] Tom Bukowski: Then sections – two chapters – on ethics and
human subjects
[09:11] Artemesia Sandgrain: what kind of datat you actually want to collect
[09:11] Tom Bukowski: then some chapters on how to write up the
results of your research,

[09:11] Tom Bukowski: and particularly the issue of generalization

[09:11] Artemesia Sandgrain: Oh yes! Very important the human subjets stuff!

[09:11] Tom Bukowski: “So you just talked to these 50 or 100 people,
how do you know that it applies more broadly?”
[09:11] Tom Bukowski: That kind of thing, how to address that and
think about scope of claims
[09:12] Tom Bukowski: So you do’t overgenerlizat,

[09:12] Artemesia Sandgrain: …and also drawing in other researchers’ work.

[09:12] Tom Bukowski: *overgeneralize
[09:12] Tom Bukowski: But also don’t sell yourself short
[09:12] Tom Bukowski: and yes as Celia said, the importance of
colleagues and collaboration

[09:12] Gentle Heron: That’s a balance.

[09:12] Tom Bukowski: So we really had fun doing it and hope that
others will find it useful
[09:12] Tom Bukowski: It was certainly a great experience for the 4 of
us and something very different than what we usually get to do

[09:12] Artemesia Sandgrain: It’s really meant to be a very practical
guide…very nuts and bolts on how to do it.
[09:13] Artemesia Sandgrain: Shall we take questions?

[09:13] Tom Bukowski: Yep, looks like we have 15-20 mins for questions

[09:13] Artemesia Sandgrain: Perfect.

[09:13] Gentle Heron: Q- What can you learn from virtual worlds that
you can’t learn in the physical world?

[09:13] Tom Bukowski wonders if Gentle ever does *not* ask challenging
and profound questions lol

[09:14] Artemesia Sandgrain: 🙂

[09:14] Gentle Heron: Should I?

[09:14] Maerian Dagger: hehe

[09:14] Tom Bukowski: what’s your favorite color lol?
[09:14] Tom Bukowski: Okay, I’ll make a quick attempt

[09:14] Artemesia Sandgrain: Well one of the points of the book is
that the method itself is not that different between the real and the
virtual world….
[09:14] Artemesia Sandgrain: 🙂

[09:14] Tom Bukowski: oh good Celia first

[09:14] Gentle Heron: (even that second question was meant to be
challenging, Tom!)

[09:14] Zinnia Zauber: That color means a lot ot me!

[09:14] Pooky Amsterdam: blue

[09:14] Coughran Mayo: If you were a vegetable, what vegetable would you be?

[09:14] Artemesia Sandgrain: Tom…

[09:14] Pooky Amsterdam: artichoke

[09:14] Buffy Beale: lol Pooky of course!

[09:15] Tom Bukowski: Did “Tom…” mean I’m supposed to say something lol?

[09:15] Artemesia Sandgrain: Yes
[09:15] Artemesia Sandgrain: lol

[09:15] Pooky Amsterdam: *its the Question thing*

[09:15] Tom Bukowski: k lol
[09:15] Tom Bukowski: So Gentle’s question was:

[09:15] Gentle Heron: True, Celia, the methods aren’t that
different… but why bother with us in virtual worlds?

[09:15] Tom Bukowski: Q- What can you learn from virtual worlds that
you can’t learn in the physical world?
[09:15] Tom Bukowski: So one big thing is that – you can learn about
vws themselves!
[09:15] Tom Bukowski: What happens in vws matters
[09:15] Tom Bukowski: They are not going to take over our lives, but
they are here to stay
[09:15] Tom Bukowski: we’ll engage with them with mobile devices,
[09:16] Tom Bukowski: computers, in education, medical, gaming
[09:16] Tom Bukowski: and ethnographers – we have to follow the culture
[09:16] Tom Bukowski: so if people are doing stuff online, we gotta
learn how to study that
[09:16] Tom Bukowski: and then also because we can learn about human
nature, human culture, so many things through vws

[09:16] Artemesia Sandgrain: Yes and if I can add something…

[09:16] Tom Bukowski: just one quick thing
[09:16] Tom Bukowski: just was gonna add quickly

[09:17] Artemesia Sandgrain nods

[09:17] Tom Bukowski: so for instance, how people talk about but also
do gender in a vw, when you can change gender easily in many ways,

[09:17] Pooky Amsterdam: or species

[09:17] Tom Bukowski: that can tell us something about how people
think about gender in the physical world, because those ideas are
getting brought into the vw context and played with, transofrmed

[09:17] Artemesia Sandgrain: hehe

[09:17] Tom Bukowski: done for now

[09:17] Maerian Dagger: (meaningless of racism)

[09:17] Artemesia Sandgrain: I wanted to answer from a different angle…

[09:18] Maerian Dagger: (meaninglessness*)

[09:18] Artemesia Sandgrain: Much of what we do is driven by specific
research questions and these differ

[09:18] Tom Bukowski: isosoles?

[09:18] Artemesia Sandgrain: Acute!

[09:18] Gentle Heron chuckles

[09:18] Pooky Amsterdam: Right on right on

[09:18] Tom Bukowski: so long as not obtuse lol

[09:18] Artemesia Sandgrain: Tom comes from a traditional anthropology
background….
[09:18] Artemesia Sandgrain: he has a framework for understanding how
cultures work and is interested in how they work in simulated
environments such as this
[09:18] Artemesia Sandgrain: Whereas my background is as a game designer

[09:18] Gentle Heron: Maerian, I’m not sure there isn’t overt and
covert racism in virtual worlds, much like in the physical world.

[09:18] Artemesia Sandgrain: so my research questions tend to revolve
around the software design
[09:19] Artemesia Sandgrain: I’m interested in how people’s behavior
in groups intersects with the software design

[09:19] Riven Homewood: Sometimes racism takes different forms here
too – like discrimination against tinies or furries

[09:19] Artemesia Sandgrain: I’ve done a lot of comparative work
between Second Life and There.com for instance

[09:19] Maerian Dagger: true, different expressions and ultimately
meaningless. l

[09:19] Artemesia Sandgrain: Yes Riven let’s get to that in a minute!

[09:19] Maerian Dagger: fluidity is what I was refering to in context of gender.

[09:19] Artemesia Sandgrain: So what’s important is driven often by
our own research interests and areas of inquiry.

[09:20] Oronoque Westland: @Maerian…would you elaborate please…I
hear many claim that race has no meaning in VWs…I wonder how we can
explore that claim from an ethnographic perspective in a VW to test
its validity?

[09:20] Tom Bukowski nods

[09:20] Artemesia Sandgrain: I would like to tackle that question of
“racsim” as well
[09:20] Artemesia Sandgrain: One of the areas that I’ve researched is
“fictive ethnicity”
[09:20] Artemesia Sandgrain: I define this as an ethnic identity that
people adopt

[09:20] Nany (nany.kayo): lol, mee too, Artemesia

[09:20] Artemesia Sandgrain: in a fictional or fantasy context

[09:20] Maerian Dagger: there we go Artemisa. very interesting

[09:20] Fleep Tuque: (Love that term)

[09:20] Artemesia Sandgrain: So this started with Uru refugees

[09:20] Gentle Heron: Nany knows ALL about that!

[09:20] Maerian Dagger: love the term, too

[09:21] Artemesia Sandgrain: who were discriminated against when they
came to There.com
[09:21] Artemesia Sandgrain: just as real world refugees are often
descriminated against
[09:21] Artemesia Sandgrain: And there we can see an issue for
instance with shared resource…
[09:21] Artemesia Sandgrain: they were were a large group and caused a
lot of lag
[09:21] Artemesia Sandgrain: and this created some hostility from
their neighbors
[09:21] Artemesia Sandgrain: Tom and I have both noticed that furries
hare discriminated against in here.

[09:22] Tom Bukowski: yep…

[09:22] Artemesia Sandgrain: Tom maybe you can talk a little bit about
this as well…

[09:22] Tom Bukowski: Sure – just one quick thing
[09:22] Tom Bukowski: Many people who study race in the physical
[09:22] Tom Bukowski: world

[09:22] Lowri Mills: I have found that a global community of all
ethnic groups is more harmonious in a virtual world. Countries that
war, have individuals that work together, without politics of their
countries.

[09:22] Tom Bukowski whispers: Have talked about the idea of “racism
without race
[09:22] Tom Bukowski: That at a genetic level, we are on clines, there
are not distinct races, but racism is nonetheless real as are racial
identities

[09:23] Gentle Heron nods to Lowri…. and encourages her to share her
background and why she can speak to that.

[09:23] Tom Bukowski: and looking at what happens with race in a place
like sl, and as people noted how it can link up to even things like
speciies, gender…
[09:23] Tom Bukowski: that tells us something about the range of human
possibilities for discrmination that could be illuminating for both
vws and the physical world….

[09:23] Lowri Mills: I manage a school that has over 69 countries
represented and have for over 5 years.

[09:23] Tom Bukowski: stopping for now, Celia add more if you want and
also I think we ahve time for a couple moe questions…

[09:23] Artemesia Sandgrain: Yes and some of the research on community
talks about the fact that communities are by definition
exclusionary…to have an in-group you always have to have out-groups.

[09:24] Tom Bukowski: But how that “in and out” works can varyt

[09:24] Maerian Dagger: have you done some work about age and virtual
erm…phenotype?

[09:24] Tom Bukowski: some groups are more porous then others – why?

[09:24] Pooky Amsterdam: when people say everyone is beautiful here –
I htink well it just means a level playing field & then its not about
beauty anymore but WHO you are inside

[09:24] Gentle Heron: Although we humans clearly see and distinguish
among and discriminate against physical characteristics of other
humans, and although most humans can not distinguish one orangutan
from another orangutan, there is far less genetic variability in the
human genome than among the genomes of the great ape species.

[09:24] Artemesia Sandgrain: I’d like to address the question about age
[09:25] Artemesia Sandgrain: since that’s an area I’ve done quite a
bit of work in
[09:25] Artemesia Sandgrain: I’ve done several studies of players
primarily in the Baby Boomer demographic
[09:25] Artemesia Sandgrain: and found that this is a major population
in virtual worlds
[09:25] Artemesia Sandgrain: In fact I”m doing a demographic study right now!

[09:25] Gentle Heron hopes you are looking at disability status, Celia.

[09:26] Riven Homewood: LL won’t like that 🙂 – They work very hard
not to portray SL as an old folks world

[09:26] barbarathelibrarian Magic: (62 year old boomer here – very active in VW)

[09:26] Artemesia Sandgrain: 🙂

[09:26] Maerian Dagger: and issues of obesity. som many fat avis in here. 🙂

[09:26] Artemesia Sandgrain: Yes of course Gentle!

[09:26] Riven Homewood: 66 here 🙂

[09:26] Artemesia Sandgrain: Yes so I’ve found that there are quite a
lot of Baby Boomers playing games and in virtual worlds

[09:26] Gentle Heron: Hooray! Finally!

[09:26] Artemesia Sandgrain: many of them have disabilities of various
types which have a major role in why they are here.

[09:26] Oronoque Westland: yes, I am a boom boom boomer

[09:26] Maerian Dagger: <–55

[09:26] Artemesia Sandgrain: But also…my recent research shows that
older players are contributing to creative production here at a much
higher level than younger playres.

[09:27] Maerian Dagger: (I look just like this, really)

[09:27] Artemesia Sandgrain: Older players are more likely to be creative.

[09:27] Gentle Heron: We have so much more to draw from, Celia!

[09:27] Fleep Tuque: Question: Do you find that acceptance of virtual
ethnographies is growing, or as virtual worlds have sort of faded as a
fad, do you find it more challenging (in academia and elsewhere) to
have this kind of work published?

[09:27] Tom Bukowski: I can answer that

[09:27] Fleep Tuque: (Sorry have to go afk for a min, wantd to get it
out there in case missed the chance)

[09:27] Tom Bukowski: and then Celia can chime in

[09:27] Artemesia Sandgrain nods

[09:27] Tom Bukowski: np it will be in the chat
[09:28] Tom Bukowski: So first of all – it’s that hype cycle thing –
we are going through the trough of disappointment lol

[09:28] Artemesia Sandgrain: Haha….

[09:28] Tom Bukowski: As I think John Norton said – people always
overestimetae the short term impact of new technologies and
underestimate the long term impact

[09:28] Nany (nany.kayo): Actually, I learned at the recent Serious
Games conference that we have emerged from that phase, according to
Gartner

[09:28] Tom Bukowski: so I don’t think vws will be a fad, in various
forms they are around and growning

[09:28] Nany (nany.kayo): Serious Play conference, I mean

[09:28] Tom Bukowski: And it’s precisely when we get past the fad
stage we can start asking interesting questions

[09:28] Coughran Mayo: according to the newest version, we are just
beginning to emerge into the Slope of Enlightenment!!

[09:28] Artemesia Sandgrain: Yes and they’ve been a fad before…

[09:29] Coughran Mayo: at last

[09:29] Tom Bukowski: my first two books are about Indonesia

[09:29] Nany (nany.kayo): yep

[09:29] Oronoque Westland: I wonder if VWs are fading, or are they
just taking on new forms?

[09:29] barbarathelibrarian Magic: Kzero indicates we are on the
upswing from that

[09:29] Tom Bukowski: no one ever tells me – people have studied
Indonesia for 50 yhears now so why still do it? lol
[09:29] Tom Bukowski: So in terms of the acceptance and publishing, it
is still a big issue

[09:29] Eliza (eliza.madrigal): 🙂

[09:29] Tom Bukowski: for 5 years, until July 1 of this year
[09:29] Tom Bukowski: I was Editor-in-Chief of American Anthropologist

[09:29] Maerian Dagger: (some people acused Anthropology of being a fad…)

[09:29] Tom Bukowski: the flagship journal of the American
Anthropological Association
[09:30] Tom Bukowski: so I saw this up close
[09:30] Tom Bukowski: lol
[09:30] Tom Bukowski: Mariean

[09:30] Gentle Heron: Every session we hold where researchers report
on their findings to the Virtual Ability community, we pose more
questions than they offer answers. We’re not done yet!

[09:30] Oronoque Westland: interesting phrase – “Slope of
Enlightenment”- suggests an uphill climb

[09:30] Tom Bukowski: but anyway, there are lots of people in
anthropology still a bit afriad of technology, or just see people in
vws as losers lol

[09:30] Pooky Amsterdam: Parabola ofenlightment is scarier

[09:30] Tom Bukowski: and then with the rise of “big data,” which is
great for some stuff

[09:30] Gentle Heron: @Oro- it’s all about psychic entropy

[09:30] Tom Bukowski: some people claiming that the future is all numbers
[09:30] Tom Bukowski: but that said, I think there is more acceptance
[09:30] Tom Bukowski: that we need a broad RANGE of methods

[09:30] Pooky Amsterdam: 0 & 1? or are there others?

[09:31] Tom Bukowski: of questions and topics

[09:31] Nany (nany.kayo): Expected to be a long and not very steep
climb to leveling off.

[09:31] Artemesia Sandgrain: I want to chime in here when you’re done Tom.

[09:31] Tom Bukowski: there is so much to study and things change so
fast, but ALSO not everything is changing and we have to underrstand
that too.
[09:31] Tom Bukowski: stopping for now

[09:31] Artemesia Sandgrain: Two things.
[09:31] Artemesia Sandgrain: First about the research acceptability
[09:31] Artemesia Sandgrain: From my perspective it’s gotten A LOT better.

[09:31] Buffy Beale: that’s so great to hear!

[09:31] Artemesia Sandgrain: When I started doing this work there was
really only one or two journals to publish in
[09:32] Artemesia Sandgrain: Now there are multiple journals including
some specializing in virtual worlds

[09:32] Tom Bukowski nods, particularly when colleagues see how it
gets students interested…

[09:32] Artemesia Sandgrain: and also OTHER types of publications are
more open to what we do….

[09:32] Fleep Tuque: (I need a list of those journals!) 😉

[09:32] Dancers Yao: social science research methods have always been
part philosophy…virtual worlds offers more possible ways to explore
them

[09:32] Artemesia Sandgrain: So for instance we’re doing a panel on
the book at the Association of Itnernet Researchers conference
[09:32] Artemesia Sandgrain: SECOND…and this is about the virtual
world so-called “fad”
[09:32] Artemesia Sandgrain: Let me say one very simple thing: Don’t
believe the hype.
[09:33] Artemesia Sandgrain: For instance…
[09:33] Artemesia Sandgrain: Second Life was never as popular as
Linden’s PR machine mad it out to be
[09:33] Artemesia Sandgrain: and it’s certainly not unpopular now.

[09:33] Riven Homewood: Do you find that students actually are
interested? I hear so much about how young people hate SL

[09:33] Artemesia Sandgrain: Second Life is not the only virtual world
[09:33] Artemesia Sandgrain: 🙂
[09:33] Artemesia Sandgrain: They are also interested in games, and
worlds like Habbo

[09:33] Tom Bukowski: Yep, they don’t always find sl interesting but
it’s the general topic.

[09:33] Artemesia Sandgrain: I do a lot of research in There.com
[09:34] Artemesia Sandgrain: But I have students who are very
interested in SL as well.

[09:34] Riven Homewood: Is There still here?

[09:34] Artemesia Sandgrain: Yes it reopened a few months ago.

[09:34] Riven Homewood: Cool

[09:34] Tom Bukowski: Anthropologists spend years studying say a small
community in the mountains of Laos, and not everyone cases about Laos,
but the lessons learned from the research can have broader
implciations

[09:34] barbarathelibrarian Magic: <—is member of group in WOW –
Cognitive Dissonance

[09:34] Artemesia Sandgrain: Another myth….everyone thought it was
closed for months before it actually closed
[09:34] Artemesia Sandgrain: Yes and Tom makes a very good point

[09:34] Glitteractica Cookie: they say there were hundreds of VW at
one point (that conference about VWs quoted that stat, but I’d be
nterested to know how many are active now. Mnay in kids/toy realm are
thriving

[09:34] Artemesia Sandgrain: Just because a place is popular doesn’t
mean we should study it and vice versa.

[09:34] Riven Homewood: Me too, Barbara 🙂

[09:34] Nany (nany.kayo): SL is a fairly good platform for gaming. It
has some useful features.

[09:35] Maerian Dagger: <–first time in SL in over two years, spends
all her time in nonprofit in Inworldz

[09:35] Artemesia Sandgrain: Also SL is diverse….I’m doing some
research on RP now which is a new aera for me.

[09:35] Glitteractica Cookie: inworldz?

[09:35] Artemesia Sandgrain: Also can I add one thing about this place
as well???

[09:35] Nany (nany.kayo): SL is very good for roleplay games

[09:35] Tom Bukowski: arrrr

[09:35] Artemesia Sandgrain: One of my recent studies turned out this
finding that there is a lot of nonprofit work going on in Second Life.
[09:36] Artemesia Sandgrain: In fact some of our subjects for one
study were regulars here.
[09:36] Artemesia Sandgrain: Okay…I think we may be out of
time…Tom did you have anything else?

[09:36] Glitteractica Cookie: yes, we are all nonprofits here,
artemisia. Not sure of that much in terms of Nonprofit work outside of
the NPC in SL these days, but there used to be a lot

[09:36] Artemesia Sandgrain: Yes there is

[09:36] Tom Bukowski: I think time is about up. But thank you so much
for coming, Celia and I are so flattered by all this interest, and
would be happy to come back anywtime!

[09:37] Zinnia Zauber: This has been so wonderful!

[09:37] Artemesia Sandgrain: We had a pub for instance where all their
income went to a nonprofit.
[09:37] Artemesia Sandgrain: Yes! Really great to see so many people here!

[09:37] Riven Homewood: West of Ireland did that

[09:37] barbarathelibrarian Magic: I want to thank you for writing
this book, I quoted you in your passage about culture and changing
societies – in my dissertation

[09:37] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you guys! And, I hope that people know
that you will be speaking again soon!

[09:37] Tom Bukowski: Please do get the free copy of the first chapter
of our book by clicking on the box, or you can download it as a free
PDF from the princeton website

[09:37] Eliza (eliza.madrigal): great talk and questions, thanks Tom,
Artemesia, everyone

[09:37] Tom Bukowski: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9882.html

[09:37] Gentle Heron: Thank you Tom and Celia for presenting today.

[09:37] Zinnia Zauber: I have some info on your next inworld gig.

[09:38] Glitteractica Cookie: Yes, thanks very much

[09:38] Zinnia Zauber: SPECIAL MEETING: An Interview with Tom
Boellstorff (Tom Bukowski) and Celia Pearce (Artemesia Sandgrain). Tom
and Celia are authors of ETHNOGRAPHY AND VIRTUAL WORLDS: A HANDBOOK OF
METHOD.

[09:38] Riven Homewood: Thanks so much – really interesting and informative

[09:38] Buffy Beale: Always great to see you Tom and thanks again to
you and Artemesia for coming!

[09:38] Zinnia Zauber: AJ Kelton (AJ Brooks) will conduct this voice
interview in the VWER Formal Amphitheater.

[09:38] Artemesia Sandgrain: Thank you!

[09:38] Tom Bukowski: Thank you Buffy

[09:38] Peperi Franizzi: Thank you!

[09:38] Fleep Tuque APPLAUDS!!!

[09:38] Gentle Heron: darn, VOICE??????

[09:38] Zinnia Zauber: Where: BGSU Community 54/85/25
When: Thursday, 8/30/12, 11:30 AM SLT

[09:38] Tom Bukowski: oh yes, that will be fun too!

[09:38] VesaV. (veilvali): Very interesting indeed, thanks!

[09:38] Ridvan-Researcher (ridvan.atolia): thanks Tom and Artemesia
look forward to read it

[09:38] Zinnia Zauber: www.vwer.org

[09:38] Delia Lake: Thank you, Tom and Artemesia. this was great!

[09:38] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you guys!

[09:38] Bear (bear.silvershade): Thank you, this was an excellent presentation

[09:38] Zotarah Shepherd: Thank you both

[09:38] Glitteractica Cookie: agreed

[09:38] Artemesia Sandgrain: Thank you and thanks for coming eveyrone!

[09:39] Tom Bukowski: yw, thanks for much for this!

[09:39] Zinnia Zauber: Awesomesauce!

[09:39] Maerian Dagger: yes thanks so much. I am SO sorry I was late!

[09:39] Fleep Tuque: Thanks again Tom always great to see you in world. 🙂

[09:39] Tom Bukowski: Please im me, friend me, whatever anytime, hope
to have time to catch up with all of you more

[09:39] Zinnia Zauber: Please be sure to get your chapter of the book!

[09:39] Gentle Heron: Remember, latecomers, NPC posts transcripts of
their text meetings: nonprofitcommons.org

[09:39] Zinnia Zauber: It has been super having you guys join us!

[09:39] Artemesia Sandgrain: (Excuse me I have to scoot for a rw appointment)

[09:39] Tom Bukowski: it’s easier to read inworld if you rez it on
something, but you can also wear it as a HUD

[09:39] Artemesia Sandgrain: Thanks for having us Zinnia!

[09:40] Tom Bukowski: I gotta go too, but hope to talk to all of you soon!!!!

[09:40] Zinnia Zauber: A pleasure!

[09:40] Zinnia Zauber: Please take care!

[09:40] Tom Bukowski waves warmly and poofs

Open Mic / Announcements

[09:40] Zinnia Zauber: Okay!

[09:40] Zinnia Zauber: Before we continue on our agenda…
[09:41] Zinnia Zauber: I wanted to remind our guests to the Nonprofit Commons..
[09:41] Zinnia Zauber: We meet regularly on Fridays at 8:30 – 10:00 AM
SLT at the Plush Amphitheater. We believe that Second Life is a
wonderful place to educate, inspire, and work together to assist our
fellow nonprofit supporters. You do not have to be a tenant of the
Nonprofit Commons to get involved with our community. We welcome all
who wish to join us as partners, collaborators, and supporters.
[09:41] Zinnia Zauber: Just sharing about our community!

[09:41] Buffy Beale: Pass on the word… free office space for Nonprofits too 🙂

[09:41] Zinnia Zauber: Yes!

[09:41] Klara Otsuka: (Many thanks all, I have to leave now – but
thanks for letting me come along!) 🙂

[09:41] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you Buffy!
[09:41] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you!

[09:42] Buffy Beale: bye Klara 🙂

[09:42] Zinnia Zauber: Okay, so I am mixing it up a little today.
[09:42] Zinnia Zauber: Does anyone have any Open Mic Announcements. I
know Tank is first.

[09:42] Riven Homewood: I need to go too – thanks so much for doing
this – it was great to see you all again and be reminded of what an
active group you are

[09:43] Buffy Beale: nice to see you Riven thanks for coming

[09:43] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you, Riven!

[09:43] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): nods

[09:43] Fleep Tuque: (Bye Riven!)

[09:43] Zinnia Zauber: Tank, please share!

[09:43] Pooky Amsterdam: Thisis the <3 & soul of so much
[09:43] Pooky Amsterdam: bye Riven!

[09:43] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you Pooky!

[09:43] Glitteractica Cookie: We have four islands, not just this
amphitheater too, so check out our archipelago after the meeting

[09:44] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): I just started my radio
station and looking to share what the non profits both inworld and
real life so if you have any psa’s or any other type of recorded audio
that you would like to share such as poems etc
[09:44] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): please let me know
[09:44] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): also if you would to have
stream for your place let me know

[09:45] Zinnia Zauber: If you have every attended CommonGround, you
know how amazing Tank is as a DJ and sharing important info.
[09:46] Zinnia Zauber: Please show your support for his efforts!
[09:46] Zinnia Zauber: Anymore with that, Tank?

[09:46] Buffy Beale: cheering for Tank!

[09:46] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau):
http://loudcity.com/stations/urban-skribbles-radio
[09:46] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): that is the online page

[09:46] Zinnia Zauber: Super!
[09:46] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you!

[09:47] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): right now i have a psa
from chayen for protect yoursself1
[09:47] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): thats all

[09:47] Zinnia Zauber: Great!!! Gentle has some announcements.

[09:47] Gentle Heron: The transcript of Tom’s presentation at Virtual
Ability’s IDRAC2012 conference, titled “A Discussion about Virtual
Communities of Persons with Disabilities” is posted here:
http://www.virtualability.org/idrac2012

[09:47] Zinnia Zauber: Gentle, please.

[09:47] Gentle Heron: And a report of research done in Second Life!
MON Aug 27, 10am PDT/SLT
[09:47] Gentle Heron: “Benefits of Virtual Worlds for People with
Lifelong Disability”
PRESENTER: Kenyon Serenity, Researcher, Molde University College, Norway

[09:47] Buffy Beale: good one Gentle!

[09:47] Gentle Heron: Please join us at Sojourner Auditorium on Monday
to hear her report on her research study.
Virtual Ability (53,172,23)

[09:48] Zinnia Zauber: Great!

[09:48] Gentle Heron: (that’s all this week)

[09:49] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you Gentle!
[09:49] Zinnia Zauber: Other announcements?

[09:49] Buffy Beale: one little one
[09:49] Buffy Beale: 🙂

[09:49] Zinnia Zauber: Go for it Buffy!

[09:49] Buffy Beale: Today I’m 6 yrs old and it seems so long ago I
dropped that note on Glitters mailbox
[09:49] Buffy Beale: which led to her inviting me here 🙂

[09:50] Gentle Heron: Happy Birthday, Buffy

[09:50] Maerian Dagger: happy rez day Buffy

[09:50] Buffy Beale: for Bridges and I just wanted to thank you again
Glitter that day changed my life

[09:50] Zinnia Zauber: Happy Rez Day Buffy!

[09:50] Buffy Beale: in a good way
[09:50] Buffy Beale: and for Bridges too 🙂

[09:50] Nany (nany.kayo): Happy Rez Day!

[09:50] Zotarah Shepherd: Happy Rezday Buffy!!!

[09:50] Buffy Beale: long live TechSoup

[09:50] Glitteractica Cookie: Wow- I’m certainly glad I received that
note and invited you!

[09:50] Fleep Tuque: Happy rezday indeed!

[09:50] Zinnia Zauber: That is so amazing!

[09:50] Buffy Beale: lol hard enough to track RL birthdays so thanks

[09:50] Fleep Tuque: 🙂

[09:50] VesaV. (veilvali): Happy Birthday!

[09:50] Buffy Beale: you rock it Glitter

[09:50] Zinnia Zauber: Buffy! Buffy! Buffy!

[09:50] Glitteractica Cookie: Buffy is one of our biggest evangelists
and supporters across all of our activities

[09:50] Fleep Tuque: Oldbies unite!
[09:50] Fleep Tuque: 😉

[09:50] Buffy Beale: lol Z

[09:51] Glitteractica Cookie: her name comes up as a model online
citizen, a super user, when I’m describing one in meetings

[09:51] Buffy Beale: that’s it 🙂
[09:51] Buffy Beale: ohh Glitter ty

[09:51] Glitteractica Cookie: really… ask Bulaklak, I invoke yr name
all the time

[09:51] Glitteractica Cookie: 🙂

[09:51] Buffy Beale: this place is run by people who care and it’s the
best group I’ve ever been in
[09:52] Buffy Beale: in either life 🙂

[09:52] yumm group hug: Click while in use to get position setup dialog.

[09:52] Buffy Beale: ok that’s it thanks

[09:52] Zinnia Zauber: Well!

[09:52] Glitteractica Cookie: awww

[09:52] Zinnia Zauber: We need a group Hug for that!

[09:52] Maerian Dagger: I have found it very well organized and great
longevity. So I echo Buffy’s praise

[09:52] Buffy Beale: hahah yes!

[09:52] Glitteractica Cookie: thanks all

[09:52] Maerian Dagger: EVen though I am never around here. lol

[09:52] Zinnia Zauber: Join me up front for the hug!

[09:52] Maerian Dagger: I read the transcripts usually

[09:52] Glitteractica Cookie: a community is only as good as its
members and volunteers

[09:53] Buffy Beale: oooo ok and that’s great you’re here today Maerian

[09:53] Glitteractica Cookie: so thanks to all of you newbies and oldbies

[09:53] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): WOOOOOTASTIC

[09:53] Zinnia Zauber: if you click on the white disk below me you can hug us!

[09:53] Buffy Beale: yayy a group hug

[09:53] Zinnia Zauber: Come on!

[09:53] Buffy Beale: come click on the disk everyone 🙂

[09:53] Zinnia Zauber: Group Hug!!!

[09:53] Zinnia Zauber: Yay!

[09:53] Zotarah Shepherd: Yay

[09:53] Buffy Beale: haha an NPC first

[09:53] Zinnia Zauber: This has been amazing meeting!

[09:54] Buffy Beale: Z you might have to edit the disk and move it
aside to others can get it

[09:54] Zinnia Zauber: NPC Mentors Meeting: Fridays, 10:10 – 11 AM SLT
Want to learn new virtual world skills or find out how you can
volunteer at NPC, visit with the Mentors and they can help!

[09:54] Tori Landau: hugs and ty for great meeting °͜°

[09:54] Maerian Dagger: hugs to all and thanks.

[09:54] Tilly-Floss (hjeidi): ty all

[09:54] Pancha Enzyme: thanks all 🙂 see you again!

[09:54] Fleep Tuque: Great to see everyone and thanks again for the
reminder Gentle!

[09:54] VesaV. (veilvali): Oh, that meeting is soon!

[09:54] Gentle Heron: Someone lift your feet so folks can see the white disk!

[09:54] Maerian Dagger: I am going to poof off to the wild frontiers
of the grid….

[09:54] Zinnia Zauber: I think I messed it up

[09:54] Fleep Tuque waves!

[09:54] Pooky Amsterdam: Hugging you all

[09:54] Tori Landau: got to go, rl calls °͜° See you all on Mon!

[09:54] Zinnia Zauber: let me try again

[09:54] Buffy Beale: yayyy for the group hug

[09:54] Glitteractica Cookie: bye all

[09:54] Maerian Dagger: Thanks to you all for this.

[09:54] Pooky Amsterdam: will talk soon and ty so much for this amazing meeting

[09:55] Buffy Beale: bye Tori thanks for coming

[09:55] Fleep Tuque: (Hugs back Pooky!)

[09:55] Peperi Franizzi: Thanks everyone, I’m gonna head out too! 🙂

[09:55] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you everyone!

[09:55] Zotarah Shepherd: I think the SL group hug record is 40 so I
know this will hold all of us

[09:55] Peperi Franizzi: Looking forward to seeing you soon! 🙂

[09:55] Buffy Beale: see you Pep keep on writing 🙂

[09:55] Pooky Amsterdam: see you soon!

[09:55] Peperi Franizzi: thank you!

[09:55] Zinnia Zauber: Sorry!

[09:55] Gentle Heron: You just have to look between the feet to find
the white disk to click on then SIT

[09:55] Zinnia Zauber: I meses it up

[09:55] Fleep Tuque: lol, I’m in the middle!

[09:55] Fleep Tuque feels loves.

[09:55] Zinnia Zauber: hehe

[09:55] Buffy Beale: hehe yay Fleep feel the loveee

[09:55] Zinnia Zauber: Hugs hugs!

[09:55] Fleep Tuque: 😉

[09:56] Zinnia Zauber: See you guys next week!

[09:56] Zotarah Shepherd: Hugging is good for health too.

[09:56] Zinnia Zauber: lol

[09:56] Brena Benoir: lol

[09:56] Fleep Tuque: laugh tc all, have a great weekend! *poofs*

– End of Line –

Written by: Zinnia Zauber