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Below is an edited transcript of the 3/29/13 NonProfit Commons in Second Life meeting, featuring Ale Bezdikian and Michael DeLong, who discussed the annual Digital Storytelling Challenge, the importance of storytelling and highlighted ways to get involved in this year’s campaign.

 – http://www.tsdigs.org

 

Bios:

Ale Bezdikian

After studying journalism and comparative religion at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Alexandra (Ale) Bezdikian moved to San Francisco and began producing videos forMotherJones.com, as well as fronting their outreach communications department. She has been writing as a free-lance journalist for a few years, publishing in the Armenian Reporter newspaper as well as pro bono for various other niche publications around the Bay Area. Most recently, Ale is the Global Content and Community Coordinator at TechSoup Global where she manages their annual Digital Storytelling Challenge.

 

Ale is a self-proclaimed non-conformist, and a huge fan of old books, great photographs, graphic novels and visual storytelling.

 

Michael DeLong

Michael is the senior manager of online community and social media at TechSoup. He enjoys connecting with folks — and connecting them to each other — online. He is particularly interested in how you or your org has used technology effectively. Michael’s background is in communications and he considers himself “tech adjacent” more than a techie so his favorite thing is the story behind the technology. There’s always a human angle behind the bits and bytes

 

 

To view the full transcript, go to: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bfx7pCggZMcgyT3yWIiqhAXgRIElAT7twAoJF-bZG1M/edit

Slides are available at: http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/17877617

 

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: Feel free to start whenever you are ready!

 

alebez: Thanks, Rhi!

 

Hello, hello everyone! As you may know, I’m Ale Bezdikian and this is Michael DeLong and we’re part of the Global Content and Community team at TechSoup Global. We’re here to talk to you today about our annual campaign called the Digital Storytelling Challenge, but also to discuss digital storytelling more broadly.

 

It’s that time again!

 

That time of the year when TechSoup meets digital storytelling and we’re very excited. I made a Vine video about how enthusiastic things have been over here these days. https://vine.co/v/bDBdngxpa5g

 

Many of you have participated before, and we hope you will again. This year the challenge starts on April 2nd, which is next Tuesday, and will run through April 30th. I’ll get to the campaign in just a few. But first I wanted to discuss storytelling with a wider lens.

 

We need to ask ourselves, why storytelling?

 

For me, the most obvious answer is that we are visual creatures. And we love chronicling daily life. Any Instagram feed is testament to that, right? We photograph breakfast, road signs, sunsets, and precious moments in between life happenings.

 

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: if you are not familiar with vine, it is a iphone/ios app that takes brief, 6-second long videos and allows you to pause/start/stop recording to do a almost stop motion or quick segments recording

 

alebez: That’s my Instagram profile on the web, and you can see there, a cityscape, sidewalk art shot, my puppy. These are the things that matter to us.

 

Technology has made it possible to capture and share many of these tender moments in an instant, and oftentimes to a widespread and distributed audience. Many of us have gone mobile to capture and engage with the rest of the social world.

 

But what we’re talking about today goes a little bit beyond simply uploading a photo to Instagram or a video to YouTube. Although, those platforms should be considered as ways to showcase various components of the work that each of you do.

 

It’s what we do with those images and individual assets that we’ll talk about today – because we’re talking about digital storytelling more broadly, aren’t we?

 

Digital storytelling seems to be a buzz word these days. But what does digital storytelling mean in the nonprofit context?

 

THE STORYTELLER – Digital storytelling goes beyond simply capturing and logging static moments. Because really, it’s what we do with those moments – in this context, the images we string together and share with a purpose – that inspire someone to act.

 

This sort of storytelling requires there be a storyteller – someone who considers the many images around us, and arranges them in an order that speaks to your audience.

 

I would encourage you all to think about purchasing a few apps for your smartphone, or to put aside a small budget for a hand-held device/ flip camera type of thing. And take a small, manageable bite out of digital production.

 

you can start by interviewing your members at your next conference with your phone. You can use data to create stories using free tools. Infographics that become content.

 

It’s exciting, isn’t it?!

 

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes 🙂

          Buffy Beale: sure is!

          CarynTopia Silvercloud: yes, having documentation of your activities is invaluable

 

alebez: I want to be mindful to include infographics in this discussion, as they are an emerging digital storytelling medium.

 

I WOULD ENCOURAGE YOU TO THINK ABOUT WAYS TO:

• Transform Case studies 
• Use data driven stories: maps, timelines, charts
• Member spotlights
• Mission based stories
• Conference interviews

With this idea of Building a community of stories in mind.

 

At TechSoup, we have the Global Local Impact Map – a data driven map of photos, videos, and case studies that showcases impact across our network.

 

          Andy Evans: Fiction? Non fiction?

 

alebez: That is left to the storyteller, no? To decide.

 

Of course we want to educate and equip you with the tools you need to go out there and create a meaningful and effective story using tools that make sense for your need.

 

Whether that is using Machinima, using voice to narrate in Second Life, or even checking out other storytelling platforms at your disposal, we want you to start thinking about ways you can tell your story IN or WITH Second Life.

 

Storytelling in Second Life is possible, but somewhat limited. The folks at Linden Lab recently launched two interesting projects that may offer more dynamic storytelling options.

 

Earlier this year, they released dio – a web-based storyboard platform which allows users to “do something as simple as give you a visual tour of their house, or as complicated as telling an interactive fiction story or game.” Learn more here: https://www.dio.com/

 

And Versu: http://www.versu.com/ – an interesting choose-your-own adventure app whose goal is to have the social interactions you, as the reader, have with the characters to constantly be changing.

 

Have any of you heard of or tried these new platforms? Check them out. They look interesting.

 

          Zinnia Zauber: Yes, and no. But, want to! I like the choose your own adventure format!

          Frans Charming: yes both

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: what did you think of them Frans

          Buffy Beale: so interesting all these new apps coming out

          Frans Charming: Versu on the time trying it, was very limited as it didn’t have creation tools. The small stories allowed you change characters attitudes and behaviours towards each other. It could be interesting, It will need some one who can write well to make something compelling. Dio, is more visual and as such is easier to start in to, as you can just use your pictures to tell about.

 

alebez: Thanks for sharing, Frans!

 

          Zinnia Zauber: I thought they would be a great tool to help my video students storyboard their projects.

 

alebez: I’ll get back to it.

 

Now this teaser is an example of what I believe what digital storytelling done right looks like. When you have the chance you can watch it at:http://vimeo.com/27310311

 

This is the story of a Somali refugee named Hawo, who came to the United States and found that her new community in Shelbyville, Tennessee wasn’t welcoming of her and other Somalis. Which lead to conflict.

 

This particular piece of media was spearheaded by the efforts of a group called Welcoming America, and was meant to open the minds and hearts of community members by emphasizing the beauty of welcoming your neighbor.

 

          Andy Evans: Beautiful

 

alebez: Welcoming America created small clips and modules alongside toolkits and discussion guides to serve as education building tools and training resources on how to literally welcome your neighbor. Or make immigrants and others feel more welcome in your community.

 

If I may read from the description of this particular module to describe the purpose of this digital media – “These modules serve as tools designed to support community leaders – including educators, clergy, law enforcement, public officials and employers – who are helping to integrate newcomers from Muslim majority countries.

 

It was developed to deepen discussions, break the ice around difficult issues, build-bridges across faith and culture and enhance cultural competency among service providers.”

 

This is digital storytelling done right.

 

Here are a few more examples: 

• Out of sight, out of mind by Christopher Kitahara – an interactive portrait of Armenia’s first group home for orphans with disabilities: http://zeega.com/46324
• Waiting – a digital story by Nick Slie: http://youtu.be/0QWB2lJ4MQ4
• And check out some of our own digital storytelling past winners: http://bit.ly/tsdigs12winners

 

There are opportunities for storytelling all around us. Curating that, and funneling it back to the community you serve ultimately fosters trust and mutual respect between funders, donors, board members, and community members.

 

Now more than ever, nonprofits need to be able to tell their story digitally. Unfortunately, many lack the confidence, knowledge, or tools to get started, or need a little extra support or incentive to get going.

 

TechSoup wants to close that gap.

 

TSDigs combines instruction and friendly competition into a hands-on media making project to fill that hole with resources and education to embark into the digital storytelling space given where you are with capacity.

 

We hope to include more products used to create digital stories in our lineup of product offerings. Last year’s campaign featured product sponsorships from partners like Flip camera, Flickr, Adobe, and Survey Monkey.

 

This year, we’re highlighting additional cloud based tools and apps like Zeega, Vine, and WeVideo.

 

Many of you are TSDigs veterans, and know that during the TSDigs one month challenge, TechSoup hosts a series of webinars and interactive events, live Tweet Chats, and highlights content and tools to help nonprofits produce a 90 second video or a 5 picture Flickr slideshow.

 

I wanted to point out that this year, we’re allowing up to 90 second videos. Which is different from years past. This year, we’re very excited to include an “emerging media” submission category for organizations using games, mobile tech, apps, or infographics to tell their stories.

 

          Buffy Beale: that’s a great idea alebez!

          Andy Evans: I hope you will come back with more info as new tools are developed… maybe give us some “homework” to view certain videos too

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: love the idea of storytelling homework 😉  great – would think Second Life would fall under that 🙂

 

alebez: If you haven’t participated before, don’t worry, now’s the time to start! Our events and resources can guide you through the process of creating a video or 5 photo slideshow.

 

TSDigs is a teaching event, and created with beginners in mind.

 

The Challenge exists to give nonprofits a fun way to learn, apply, and gain the tools they need to go out and produce their own digital story, something they then can use regardless if they win.

 

TSDigs also serves as an opportunity to grow and connect our community and highlight our donation partners, especially those with digital storytelling related tools and products.

 

With these storytelling resources we aim to inspire action, inspire promotion, and to inspire community.

 

This is the timeline for upcoming events. We have a really amazing lineup of expert guests, judges, and partners. Which I’ll let Michael speak to a bit.

 

• April 2: Digital Storytelling Launch / Submissions OPEN
• April 4: Webinar: Creating a Culture of Storytelling (register)
• April 9: Tweet Chat: Storytelling with Data
• April 11: Webinar: How to Use Your Digital Story
• April 16: Tweet Chat: Storytelling Around the World
• April 17: Google+ Hangout: Meet the Judges!
• April 18: Webinar: Digital Storytelling Tools and Methods
• April 23: Tweet Chat: Storytelling and Social Sharing
• April 24: Google+ Hangout: Winners’ Circle!
• April 30: Submissions close at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time
• May 1 – 15: Community and expert judging
• May 28: Awards Gala live in San Francisco and streaming online in Second Life and beyond!

 

          Jen (jenelle.levenque): Are there times listed for the webinars and tweet chats?

 

bulaklak: Hi! So, I have been very focused on getting the challenge pages ready for public consumption, And they have been quite consuming *me*!

 

At any rate, as Alebez said, we have a lineup of partners, guests, and events all in the service of sharing the best digital storytelling tips and tools with you as possible. Our first webinar is next week on Thursday at 11am PT. And I am really excited about it. We’re featuring guests from Escondido Library and Global Fund for Women

 

alebez: As well as Lights. Camera. Help

 

bulaklak: It’s always exciting to feature folks from real organizations talking to their experiences there

 

I think experts are great, and we have plenty of those too, but I really enjoy letting folks share their own stories and showing you how you, too, can do this stuff.

 

          Andy Evans: Do u have a link to the upcoming webinar next Thursday?

 

bulaklak: yep, Here is the link: http://bit.ly/YGFKiH. Please do register.

 

          jlmorin: Wow, fantastic storytelling, Alebez! Let’s tweet that. Here’s the tweetable “Creating a Culture of Storytelling at Your Non-profit or Library” link:http://harvardsquareeditions.org/news/ BLAST IT!!

 

alebez: Awesome sauce.

 

bulaklak: If you would like any accessibility features such as live captioning, please let us know 72 hours in advance, you can see the whole timeline of events at www.tsdigs.org and links to register for the rest of the webinars will be available soon. Great, thanks Ale!

 

alebez: No problem. Visit tsdigs.org to check out some of the resources available, but also to enter your own digital story! And do watch another quick Vine video to promo the challenge: https://vine.co/v/bpvYdnpWtBa – come follow the robot and consider participating in some of the exciting happenings planned coming up.

 

Thanks everyone! This upcoming month should be fun. Stay tuned for more.

 

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: and last week with the mentors we talked on having a couple of machinima filming workshops here in Second Life, more details to follow on that

          Zinnia Zauber: Super! Thank you guys!

          CarynTopia Silvercloud: Oh, I am very interested in that!

 

alebez: That would fit in nicely.

 

          Andy Evans: Very interesting presentation… thanks!

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: message me if you want to help out with that. Any other questions for Ale or bulaklak or on digital storytelling or the challenge?

          Buffy Beale: We’ll have the grand celebration/screening night here in Second Life too right?

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes, awards night at our virtual drive in!

 

bulaklak: Yes!

 

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: I always look forward to at least one person showing up in a space ship 😉

         Jen (jenelle.levenque): Yay Drive-In

          Andy Evans: hahaha

 

bulaklak: This year we will have a cool event space at PARISOMA in San Francisco and will do the drive in in Second Life

 

          Buffy Beale: fantastic

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: great and live video stream for us coming from the venue?

 

alebez: Yes, we will. We’re also currently producing our first ever international tweetchat across timezones.

 

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: always a wondeful event both in the physical venue and here

          CarynTopia Silvercloud: all very interesting

 

alebez: Trying to string together a network of nonprofits, libraries and charities all over the globe, taking on different timezones to speak to various tools, tips, practices in each of their regions. Should be really fun and informative. Thanks for giving us the time.

 

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: let’s thank Ale and bulaklak for presenting today

          Frans Charming applauds! Thanks Ale and Bulaklak

          Andy Evans: Yay

          Zinnia Zauber: Rah!

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

This Friday, March 29th, Nonprofit Commons is happy to feature Ale Bezdikian and Michael DeLong, both members of TechSoup’s Global Content and Community team, who will discuss their annual Digital Storytelling Challenge, the importance of storytelling for your cause in general, as well as highlighting ways you and your organization can get involved in this year’s campaign.

 – http://www.tsdigs.org

 

Bios:

Ale Bezdikian

After studying journalism and comparative religion at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Alexandra (Ale) Bezdikian moved to San Francisco and began producing videos for MotherJones.com, as well as fronting their outreach communications department. She has been writing as a free-lance journalist for a few years, publishing in the Armenian Reporter newspaper as well as pro bono for various other niche publications around the Bay Area. Most recently, Ale is the Global Content and Community Coordinator at TechSoup Global where she manages their annual Digital Storytelling Challenge.

 

Ale is a self-proclaimed non-conformist, and a huge fan of old books, great photographs, graphic novels and visual storytelling.

 

Michael DeLong

Michael is the senior manager of online community and social media at TechSoup. He enjoys connecting with folks — and connecting them to each other — online. He is particularly interested in how you or your org has used technology effectively. Michael’s background is in communications and he considers himself “tech adjacent” more than a techie so his favorite thing is the story behind the technology. There’s always a human angle behind the bits and bytes!

 

 

Join us in Second Life!

 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, March 29th, 8:30 AM SLT / PST

Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater

http://bit.ly/NPCinSL

 

 

AGENDA

• 8:30 am Introductions

• 8:40 am TechSoup Announcements

• 8:45 am Mentors Central

• 8:55 am Power of Digital Storytelling & Launch of TSdigs Challenge

• 9:30 am Open Mic / Announcements

 

 

http://nonprofitcommons.org

 

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.

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

Below is an edited transcript of the 3/22/13 NonProfit Commons in Second Life meeting, featuring Marnie Webb, CEO of Caravan Studios, a recently launched division of TechSoup Global, focusing on developing and marketing social-benefit projects and software solutions to NGO’s around the world.

• http://caravanstudios.tumblr.com/
• https://twitter.com/caravanstudios
• http://slideshare.net/caravanstudios

 

Bio: Marnie Webb 

An experienced and passionate leader with a 20 plus year track record of using new technologies to help communities achieve their goals. Currently CEO of Caravan Studios, a division of TechSoup Global. Webb has also played a pivotal role in shaping how the nonprofit sector uses social media and other new technologies as a way to more effectively meet their individual missions and empower advocates to work on their behalf of their collective goals.

 

Named one of the Top 10 Silicon Valley Influencers by San Jose Mercury News, Webb is a sought after writer and speaker on innovation, community, and the social web. She may be best known for launching NetSquared, an ambitious and evolving global experiment that empowers developers and organizers at the local level to build and share innovative solutions to social challenges. Now six years old, NetSquared has an active community of more than 24,000 individuals around the globe and hosts regional meetups in 23 countries. Webb also writes the blog, Caravan Studios, and is the initiator of the NPTech tagging experiment. In 2008, she won NTEN “Person of the Year” award and was included in to the Nonprofit Times’ list of the 50 most influential leaders in the U.S. nonprofit sector.

 

          Glitteractica Cookie: and my awesome boss!

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: Let’s welcome Marnie , and start whenever your ready!

          Beth Ghostraven: This chat is shared at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ivn2RJ1xE4tylaeaGebwNah6_lSfqQC0izsokci0QhQ/edit?usp=sharing

          bulaklak Resident: hehehehe

 

 

MarnieWebb Resident: Hi. and thank you.

 

So, I’d like to talk with you to today about Caravan Studios a new division of TechSoup Global. (you’re all going to get a birdseye view of the homophones i mistype regularly)

 

John Cleese has a wonderful video on creativity. i really recommend that you spend 40 minutes watching it. it’s very worth it.

 

But there’s one bit that I particularly love. he talks about the idea that creativity happens when we have been resting our mind against a problem. so john cleese talks about creativity happening because we’ve been resting our mind against a problem and, at techsoup, we’ve been resting our collective minds against the problem of nonprofits and technology for 25 years. And that has lead us a lot of interesting places.

 

I don’t just want to share what we’re doing at Caravan. i want to step back a little a share some of the thinking that got us there

 

So, there’s a political writer from the 60s, td weldon, who said, and i’m paraphrasing, “there are issues and there are problems.” Issues are big systemic things that can’t be fixed, a lot of things like hunger, like poverty. Then there are problems, things within those issues that can be fixed and those are things that move or change the issue. They may be things like more shelters for people who are in dangerous situations. When we think about tech in social benefit, we’ve been thinking about it in that way. So, we believe that technology can be used to illuminate issues

 

There’s a group called apalachian voices that does just that, with a site called i love mountains: http://ilovemountains.org/. Put in your address and it shows the mountaintop that’s been removed by your power consumption. As in the actual mountaintop that’s affected by your power companies purchase of power

 

Tech can also be used to identify problems. See Click Fix: http://seeclickfix.com is a good example of that. it can let you find the things in your community that can be fixed and tech can be used to allow for action on the problems. Ushahidi is another great example, there after the disaster in japan they produced a site that helped people locate things like clean drinking water.

 

So we’ve been bumping against this way of thinking about technology via netsquared.org and our smart board members.

 

This quote is from caterina fake, one of the founders of flickr.com. I love it because she talks about the all work we did to make the web big. To make it easy to publish and share and all that publishing and all those tools that helped make the web big forced us to get good at search and adding metadata for tags. And now we’ve got to get good at making the web smaller.

 

This (NonProfit Commons in Second Life community) is a place to gather with likeminded individuals and we know that the people here care about some of the same things we do. More human-scaled. If i had to stumble my way through all of Second Life to find these individuals, i would be lost. But i can come here, to a place in second life.

 

Local is one way of making the web smaller and it’s a way we see a lot. And there are other ways…the increasing modularization of technology, the ubiquity of the tools. All of that helps us to make the web smaller and we can even carry it around with us.

 

And that leads us here. We need to stop thinking about the web. We need to think about what people need in specific spots; to illuminate issues, to idenity problems, to take action on problems and we need to build those things.

 

When i say we in these slides, i mean those of us helping build the capacity of the sector. We’ve adopted platforms, like this one and now we have to build things on those platforms

 

So, here we are. We’ve gotten big in various ways and we see that we have an opportunity to build more specific, more precise tools but we want to do it in a way that makes sense, with this idea of issues and problems that i talked about early.

 

And now we’re at Caravan Studios. We want to make the things so technology, so the connections of the internet are more precise and more actionable for the social benefit sector and help to make sure it actually gets to NGOs. We want to take the energy that goes to this sector. 

 

We’ve starting with something called the public good app house (there’s no url yet or i’d share it). We want to take the best of the code that comes out of places like hackathons, like corporate volunteering, like university projects and we want to work with the people who volunteered their time to develop it to get it done and then get it out to the communities and the organizations that can best use it.  

 

We’ve got a lot to figure out to make this happen, so we’re starting small about what they wish still worked. We are reaching out to hackathon organizers and talking to them. What came out of their event, but couldn’t get done or stopped working because some piece of the world changes, like twitter changed their api. Or a phone upgraded and there was no one to take care of the thing that got built. We want to take care of it. We’re also looking for specific communities that we can work with to build things that will help them.

 

Safe Night: http://www.slideshare.net/caravanstudios/safe-night-overview is an example of that

 

Safe Night is a mobile service that allows domestic violence organizations to crowdsource funds to cover hotel room stays when no shelter space is available. We’re building it courtesy of grants from Microsoft, Vodafone Americas foundation and Blue Shield of California foundation. And in concert with domestic violence service organizations in the state of California picking and choosing apps. We know we can do this at a small scale, but we want to understand what we need to do to do it at a larger scale.

 

          Sarvana Haalan: awesome!!

          Lowri Mills: Wow!

          01 Hifeng: interesting project, wow

 

 

MarnieWebb Resident: How do we need communities of engineers involved helping us vet the technical quality of the products? How do we get change agents to tell us what works for them? How do we do it in a way that allows other people to bring their ideas to the sector without ever talking to us?

 

There’s a lot to think about with regard to sustainability and rather than mud wrestle a thousand excel spreadsheets, we’d rather figure it out by producing things, sharing them and getting feedback, (we’re excited about safenight and would love to hear more of what you think)

 

Can you go the end of the deck, the slide with my tweet on it?

 

If you look at this deck on SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/caravanstudios/caravan-studiosoverview-tsgstaff, you’ll see that we’ve got some of the things we have to think about with regard to sustainability on it and if you think of others we’d love to hear them.

 

So here’s the thing about this and the other documents we’re sharing. This right here: that we’re learning at a great rate of velocity is what i love about my job. Every conversation, every meeting results in use getting new things to add into the hopper and it’s wonderful. It lets us refine and get more precise. But the “to do next” list is growing and growing. But here’s what it means for all the documents that we are producing; the grant proposals, and excel spreadsheets, and slide decks. It means by the time we hit share we’re probably already wrong.

 

One of the big reasons I wanted to share with this community, with all of you here, is being i think you can help inform us. Tell us the places that resonate and the places that don’t. Tell us where we can find more things and even more. I hope we can do some of this work together.

 

Thanks for giving me some time on your agenda. Super happy to answer questions here, but you can also reach out to us in all the usual ways: @caravanstudios, webb@caravanstudios.org, @webb, thanks.

 

 

          Namaara MacMoragh: thank you Marie for being here today 🙂

          Robo Mirabella: brava!!!

          Frans Charming applauds

          Zotarah Shepherd claps

          Glitteractica Cookie: applause

          bulaklak Resident: that was great!

          Buffy Beale: hearty applause!!

          CarynTopia Silvercloud: thanks, I applaud ways in which to work together

          jlmorin Resident: yay

          Beth Ghostraven: Yes, thank you so much for sharing this, Marnie!

          jlmorin Resident: applause

 

 

          Lowri Mills: Is there a place where shelters can share their space available in different communities?

 

MarnieWebb Resident: Lowri, domestic violence shelters don’t share space like that. Their locations are typically kept extremely secure.

 

          Lowri Mills: Yes, I have worked as an advocate for years. You can use their criteria for you website or the police stations they could call,

 

MarnieWebb Resident: Lowri, we’re looking a that for the second phase

 

          Serene Jewell: Sounds like a great project.

          Lowri Mills: Excellent project

 

 

          Buffy Beale: Question: Why did you pick the name Caravan, just curious

 

MarnieWebb Resident: Buffy, i love the idea of people coming together of traveling of spending time in a place and a caravan, for me, a caravan represents that. Plus, i like the way it sounds. Good, simple answer.

 

          Buffy Beale: and the Nonprofit Commons are now under Caravan Studios so that’s a great fit

          Glitteractica Cookie: yes, super happy that caravan is running NPC

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes

 

 

          Oronoque Westland: Is the idea that NGO’s bring suggestions to Caravan studios for Caravan to run with, or do the NGO’s reach out to Caravan for funding to so their own development?

 

MarnieWebb Resident: Oronoque, we want NGOs to tell us what’s hard in their job and what stops them and then we can work with them to come up with solutions. We’d bring those to volunteers to help get them done. We’re looking at things like hackerhelper: http://hackerhelper.wikispaces.com, to organize the information. But that’s a part we want to get better at. We don’t want to get in the way of orgs who can own their own tech. We want to help make things that a lot of orgs could use. Thanks, all for the feedback. i hope you’ll keep it coming as we continue this work.

 

 

          Serene Jewell: When it comes to things like hackathons and app development, I think it is important to build in tools for follow up and sustainability of the projects. Glad to see you are thinking about those things.

 

MarnieWebb Resident: Serene, we are but we’ve got to get better at how it happens. What i’d love is to be able to do community adoption projects so that we go into a place and help them use the tools in the way that make the impact they are looking for a lot for us to learn there

 

 

          Ozma Malibu: how do you want us to bring you the ideas? cos I know we each are thinking about our individual problems having to do with the issues we are committed to.

 

MarnieWebb Resident: Ozma, you can email them to us, tweet them at us or use the hackerhelper wiki: http://hackerhelper.wikispaces.com

 

 

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: so beyond being involved with the hacker helper wiki, what are other good ways for those here at NonProfit Commons to plug in to this

 

MarnieWebb Resident: to describe the issue? I’d ask you all that question actually. How would you like to be involved? How are you already involved? So, one of the things you all could do (just an example) is share the info on the hackerhelper wiki with local hackathons.

 

 

          Glitteractica Cookie: just a show of hands, say AYE if you are a person that goes to hackathons. Can you all shout out if you go to hackathons?

          Sarvana Haalan: I do in Baltimore, MD

          Lyre Calliope: Aye!

          Rhiannon Chatnoir has

          Ozma Malibu: just once (to a hackathon)

          Glitteractica Cookie: that’s four of you so far

          Sarvana Haalan: Woot

          Serene Jewell: yes, have done

          Sarvana Haalan: awesome

 

 

          Lowri Mills: This is a global application?

 

MarnieWebb Resident: Lowri, you mean safenight?

 

          Lowri Mills: yes, I work with people around the world

 

MarnieWebb Resident: lowri, the pilot will be in CA and then we’ll work on brining it to other states. I think we need to look at the way the issue manifests in certain countries, to be sure that it’s appropriate there.

 

          Lowri Mills: I was thinking also countries, This would work well in many countries and is needed. I have found most countries work well cross culturally.

 

MarnieWebb Resident: (I just mean, if there isn’t a safe way fo getting to hotels or there aren’t laws that help with that safenight could hurt). We’d very much like to take it to other places. We just want to be able to well-describe what it does. Anyone can also follow up with me at webb@caravanstudios.org

 

          Glitteractica Cookie: Just started following you on twitter, Lowri, so we can stay in touch

 

MarnieWebb Resident: Lowri, maybe we can follow up with a phone call?

 

          Lowri Mills: Great! I must go, but great job! I will send you my info

          Glitteractica Cookie: I got her contact info, will set it up

          Glitteractica Cookie: I got it from your SL profile

 

 

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: any last thoughts for Marnie? great, let’s thank Marnie then for coming to introduce Caravan to us

          CarynTopia Silvercloud: look forward to continuing conversation

          Buffy Beale: just to say thanks for coming and how much I appreciate that the Nonprofit Commons is still going strong thanks to the support from Techsoup

          Glitteractica Cookie: we’ve been in world since 2006

          Gentle Heron: Thanks Marnie

          Serene Jewell: Thanks for doing this, it could be very powerful.

          Zotarah Shepherd: Thank you Marnie!

          Ozma Malibu: This was great – inspiring and thoughtful – thanks for sharing

          Buffy Beale: and… a fine example of how we connect just happened again today

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes

          Buffy Beale: a meeting with Lowri resulted, who knows where it could lead 🙂

 

MarnieWebb Resident: thank you all for giving me the time today.

 

---

If you took pictures during the event, please share them on our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons or G+ Community: https://plus.google.com/communities/114212078390326305687, that would be great. Otherwise, tag them #NPSL

 

And tag your avatars in any photos posted!

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

This Friday, March 22nd, Nonprofit Commons is happy to feature Marnie Webb, CEO of Caravan Studios, a recently launched division of TechSoup Global, focusing on developing and marketing social benefit projects and software solutions to NGO’s around the world. 

 

About Caravan Studios

Caravan Studios believes in the power of community. Whether you define community by geography, by a shared desire for change, or by a common set of skills, they work to deliver projects that are aligned with needs and make real change.

 

Caravan Studios does this by listening through action: Creating and delivering the resources necessary for technology planning and implementation; organizing community needs in tools like the Hack for Good README Guides (http://hackerhelper.wikispaces.com), and by engaging deeply with issue areas over time.  

• http://caravanstudios.tumblr.com/
• https://twitter.com/caravanstudios

 

Bio: Marnie Webb   

An experienced and passionate leader with a 20 plus year track record of using new technologies to help communities achieve their goals. Currently CEO of Caravan Studios, a division of TechSoup Global. Webb has also plays a pivotal role in shaping how the nonprofit sector uses social media and other new technologies as a way to more effectively meet their individual missions and empower advocates to work on their behalf of their collective goals.

 

Named one of the Top 10 Silicon Valley Influencers by San Jose Mercury News, Webb is a sought after writer and speaker on innovation, community, and the social web. She may be best known for launching NetSquared, an ambitious and evolving global experiment that empowers developers and organizers at the local level to build and share innovative solutions to social challenges. Now six years old, NetSquared has an active community of more than 24,000 individuals around the globe and hosts regional meetups in 23 countries. Webb also writes the blog, Caravan Studios, and is the initiator of the NPTech tagging experiment. In 2008, she won NTEN “Person of the Year” award and was included in to the Nonprofit Times’ list of the 50 most influential leaders in the U.S. nonprofit sector.

• https://twitter.com/webb

Join us in Second Life!

 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, March 22nd, 8:30 AM SLT / PST

Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater

http://bit.ly/NPCinSL

 

 

AGENDA

• 8:30 am Introductions
• 8:40 am TechSoup Announcements
• 8:45 am Mentors Central
• 8:55 am Marnie Webb, CEO Caravan Studios
• 9:30 am Open Mic / Announcements

 

 

http://nonprofitcommons.org

 

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.

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

This Friday, March 8th, Nonprofit Commons is happy to feature Fred Fuchs who will discuss how to create engaging virtual projects.

Do people love your project? Do you have more participants than you could possibly want? Do people want you to stop talking and make them an avatar account so they can learn what you have to teach? Do people quickly lose interest in your project for some reason you can’t fathom? Would you like to build a virtual world project with a lot less stress?

There’s nothing magical about all this. Losing sight of the intended audience can reduce engagement and doom a project. The presentation presents ways to keep this from happening with a focus on projects in Starlight, Second Life®, and OpenSim virtual worlds, but is broadly applicable to many platforms.

Bio:

Fred Fuchs: Former “rocket scientist” Fred Fuchs founded Firesabre in 2006. FireSabre has become known for its expertise in building strong interactive 3-D virtual world educational training projects for K-12 and university clients. Recent projects include training simulations for the healthcare professions. The company also build projects for corporate training clients. While FireSabre started with a focus on Second Life®, more recently the company has developed projects for OpenSim, Aurora, web.alive®, Unreal, Facebook, Javascript, and Flash.

FireSabre has also developed a virtual world for learning called Starlight. This world operates on an enhanced Aurora-Sim platform, a next-generation OpenSim environment that’s more stable, high-performance and, in general, offers much more functionality. Starlight offers Vivox voice, groups, professional tech support, and offline message capability. It supports mesh. There’s also a web dashboard for browser-based account and world management functions. For more information, please see http://www.firesabre.com/starlight.php

FireSabre also helped create a project for New York-based Global Kids which was recognized in WIRED magazine and was nominated for an Annenberg Foundation Public Diplomacy Award.

Prior to starting FireSabre Consulting, Fred worked for Hughes Training, Inc., where he created training simulations for the International Space Station. Before Hughes, he worked in Compaq’s Graphics and Multimedia Group. Fred received his Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from University of Houston.

• http://www.firesabre.com

 

Join us in Second Life!

 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, March 8th, 8:30 AM SLT / PST

Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater

http://bit.ly/NPCinSL

 

AGENDA

• 8:30 am Introductions
• 8:40 am TechSoup Announcements
• 8:45 am Mentors Central
• 8:55 am  Fred Fuchs: Who Are We Building This Project For?
• 9:30 am Open Mic / Announcements

 

http://nonprofitcommons.org

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.

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

Below is an edited transcript of the 3/1/13 NonProfit Commons in Second Life meeting, featuring Aliza Sherman (Cybergrrl Oh) who discussed innovative and compelling ways to use QR codes as an effective marketing tool when used thoughtfully and integrated carefully into a campaign. 

To view the full transcript, go to:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FBcYnCPU3Mc28A5uYclBJsMgg0bTwLeCWqqMs26LdiA/edit

 

Today for our featured presentation we have Liz Dorland (Chimera Cosmos) and Adriana Sanchez (Adrianne Lexico) who will be discussing the theory and process behind the creation of the “Museum of Virtual Media”, a Second Life sim built collaboratively by their University of Washington class in the spring of 2012.

 

The museum is inspired by “Infinite Reality”, a book on virtual worlds technology and education written by Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson and takes participants through the evolution of media from ancient cave paintings into the future. 

 

 • https://www.facebook.com/MuseumOfVirtualMedia

 • SLURL: UW iSchool (111,128,43)

 

Adriana Sanchez (Adrianne Lexico in SL) holds a Certificate in Virtual Worlds from the University of Washington. She has been an EduNation Resident since 2010. She works at The Digital Trainer. Over 20 years’ experience teaching English and Spanish for Specific Purposes to adults in multinational companies. Currently training educators on the use of web 2.0 tools, social networks and 3D virtual environments to enhance task-based learning. As an E.learning and Virtual Worlds Specialist, developing instructional and multimedia materials for online courses and providing consultation on how to integrate LMS and 3DVLE for distance education.

 

Liz Dorland (Chimera Cosmos in SL) is currently the Communications Director for the Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center based at Washington University. Prior to moving to St. Louis in 2006, she taught general and organic chemistry for over 35 years, including 21 years in the Maricopa County Community College District in Arizona. She reviews frequently for the National Science Foundation and was a program officer in the NSF Division of Undergraduate Education, Directorate of Education and Human Resources (2003-2004). Areas of expertise include immersive virtual environments, social media, faculty use of technology, and research-based applications of visualization and history/philosophy of science in teaching. In July 2011, Liz was co-chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science and Education and is currently working with that community to produce an online report on lessons learned and recommendations for future research on visualization and learning. 

 • http://visualcv.com

Let’s welcome Chimera and Adrianne up, please take a seat and start whenever you are ready.

 

Chimera Cosmos: Thanks Rhiannon. Come on down Adrianne! I just realized I’ve never actually presented totally in text in SL! Thanks for coming everyone. Adri and I worked together on the slides and will be trading off.

 

UW Museum of Virtual Media 

• Liz Dorland (Chimera Cosmos)
• Adriana Sanchez (Adrianne Lexico)

 

UW 2012 Class Mentors

 

This is a high-up view of the Museum of Virtual Media

• Randy Hinrichs – professor
• Sicily Zapatero – mentor
• Stylianos Ling – mentor
• Vex Streeter – Scripting mentor

 

UW Class of 2012

 

Adrianne and I were part of the class of 2012, as you can see.

 

Students from four countries – avatar photos

 

The Museum of Virtual Media is a whole-sim project created by students from the UW Virtual Worlds Certificate Program Class of 2012. Chimera and Adriana are graduates of that class. Today we will tell you about the theory behind the museum, and the nature of our collaborative building process. Afterwards, those of you who are interested can come along with us for a tour.

 

The UW Virtual Worlds certificate class of 2012 met for 3 quarters in Second Life. Our 3rd quarter project was to construct the Museum of Virtual Media, based on the research and writings of Jim Blascovich (UC Santa Barbara) and Jeremy Bailenson (Stanford University).

 

UW Virtual Worlds Class – 3D Model of the MVM

 

The class is taught by Randy Hinrichs. Past TAs (and graduates of the program) include well known avatars Zinnia Zauber, Stylanos Mistakidis, and Sicily Zapatero.

 

Here we are (Randy and Chimera) at the after-graduation tour for friends and families. This was in May of 2012, and we are on the landing point of the MVM. After completing small group projects in the 2nd quarter, teams formed and chose sections of the MVM to design and build. 

 

The museum is multi-level with both ground and sky exhibits. The 3D model of the MVM sim was created before we started building to illustrate the spatial arrangement of the exhibits on multiple levels. You can still view it at the Landing Area.

 

Infinite Reality – the book that inspired the MVM. Blascovich & Bailenson do research on the effects of immersive experiences. Their book postulates a “Museum of Virtual Media” that would cover the history of immersive media since the beginning of human time. The MVM is partly based on their description. Jim and Jeremy toured our MVM and made suggestions during the building process.

 

Rhiannon Chatnoir: great that you got them to tour your build/ideas

 

Chimera Cosmos: Yes it was great. They were talking about whether they could use it for publicity.

 

Note the various images and ideas that “Infinite Reality” suggests, including the aging of Mark Zukerberg and other fantasies. Adriana will explore this further towards the end or our presentation. What does it all mean? Adrianne will discuss further at the end of the talk.

 

A Museum of Virtual Media – Exhibits described in “Infinite Reality”

• Storytelling
• Graphics
• Sculpture
• Theater
• Manuscripts
• Printing / Movable Type
• Photography
• Cinematography
• Electricity
• Broadcast Media
• Computers & the Internet

 

The MVM Landing Area

 

Start here to find information about what is available at the MVM. Adrianne will discuss different modes for touring and discovering later on. 

 

Collaboration Process – Leela’s Resource Platform

Yes, we divided up the topics. A daunting challenge! Leela Thoreau was elected to be our overall project manager. Leela constructed a platform with shared resourses: structural components, textures, signs, etc.

 

Storytelling (Zorreau Laviscu)

Zorreau’s Storytellling exhibit area is in the sky above the MVM, and is still under construction. The museum is still evolving, and we hope folks will continue to come back to visit.

 

Graphics (Cooper Swizzle)

Cooper and Merlin chose the Caves of Lascaux to illustrate early immersive use of graphic images by prehistoric groups. Merlin created a time machine simulation for the entrance.

 

Egyptian Cats & Easter Island Heads Sculpture: (Leela Thoreau)

Leela constructed multiple areas around the MVM with sculpture from different cultures, including a “create a sculpture” activity.

 

Sculpture from Easter Island – Photos anyone?

 

Leela and Nany designed much of the overall landscape of the sim, including plant selection.

 

I love the job they did in picking out the trees and such. And a lot of you know how I love to take SL photos. 🙂

 

The MVM is a great place for SL photography.

 

Theater (Tapio Ceriano & Leela Thoreau)

The Greek Theater is a space intended for meetings, plays, and other entertainment events can be held for the SL general public. 

 

MVM Tour for UW Class of 2013

 

Manuscripts, Printing & Moveable Type (Nany Kayo)

Nany’s exhibit is a maze made up of book covers and objects that represent the early days of printing. Look for the model of Gutenberg’s printing press.

 

The new UW Class of 2013 toured the Museum with us recently. Here we are in the Greek Theater.

 

Photography & the Camera Obscura (Ryland Bledsoe & Chimera Cosmos)

The Camera Obuscura was my 2nd quarter project, and it got carried over into the final build

 

The Camera Obscura was an early form of immersive visualization. The image is generated with mirrors that reflect an outside scene,and can be viewed on a round pedestal by groups of participants. 

 

Cinematography – (Chimera Cosmos)

Motion Pictures evolved from earlier immersive visual experiences: the Camera Obscura, Magic Lantern shows, the Zoetrope, the Mutoscope, and other early efforts at animation. 

 

Adrianne made these picture slides. She is a whiz at slide design. 😉 with our little avatar portraits

 

The exhibits include the work of Muybridge (Zoopraxiscope), the Lumiere Brothers (upper theater), George Melies (lower theater), and Thomas Edison.

 

Cinematography Exhibit Areas

The Lumiere theater shows one of the earliest films shown in public, L’arrive d’un train…and the unfamiliar apparition apparently frightened patrons and sent some screaming from the theater.

 

Watch out for the dangerous train inside the theater. Other exhibits include the Zoopraxiscope and some of the earliest stop-motion animation by George Melies.

 

Electricity – (Magnus Andersen)

Watch out for lightning, and don’t fall down from the sky! The Electricity exhibit is constructed on several transparent platforms. Learn about some of the giants in the early experiments with electricity. 

 

Fly up to see the exhibits in the sky on the Raven tour (with chat commentary), or teleport from any of the other exhibits.

 

Broadcast Media: Radio (Suzician Lewis)

The Radio and TV stations contain a number of role-playing activities where groups can participate together. The tour activities for the UW Class of 2013 included group assignments for photos to be taken of the participants.

 

Broadcast Media: Television

The TV station has props for group role-play in a news broadcast studio.

 

Suzician and Allison were my group partners. They were great.

 

Broadcast Media: Beach Film Set – Suzician Lewis, Allison Ashmoot, Chimera Cosmos

Suzician caught the shark.

 

Coming to the beach and Hollywood film set behind the radio and TV stations can be a frightening experience if you accidentally touch that shark!

 

Computers & The Internet (Merlin Moonshadow)

Merlin’s build is a 3-level maze with a futuristic storyline. You will be greeted by some computer techs who will guide you.

 

MVM Landing Area

 

The Future & Digital Afterlife (Adrianne Lexico)

Chimera Cosmos: Adrianne is going to take over now and tell you about her exhibit and the concepts behind Infinite Reality

 

Adrianne Lexico: I designed this exhibit to introduce the concept of digital afterlife media, a rich database of a real person’s biological components, unique and essential personality traits, memories, photos, videos and online documents. 

 

DIGITAL MEDIA OF THE FUTURE

 

As you can see I have become a fan of Tron!

 

Exhibit designed to introduce the concept of digital afterlife media, a rich database of a real person’s biological components, unique and essential personality traits, memories, photos, videos and online documents. Scientists are currently working on developing artificial consciousness and intelligence for human-inspired androids. An example of a human inspired android is the case of Bina48. 

 

I have prepared a list for you with some links I read for my research before designing this exhibit.   http://readlists.com/d4374aed/

 

Concepts like bio files, mind files, artificial intelligence, artificial consciousness may sound weird, thought-provoking, futuristic… This exhibit wants to invite you all to discuss, imagine, exchange ideas on the present and future of media. 

 

We can see that together during our tour…

 

LANDING POINT: The mission of the Landing Point is the entryway and point of departure for new visitors to the Museum of Virtual Media. It informs new visitors 1) where they are 2) what the museum is about, and 3) how to navigate from the Landing Point to

 

1) Explore:   The museum will include a variety of pathways that will let visitors find their own way through various exhibits, encountering surprises and unexpected serendipitous events along the way. 

2) Teleport: The Teleport device consists of a wheel consisting of  various exhibit area destination buttons. Visitors can quickly teleport from the Landing Point to these various destinations by clicking on the corresponding buttons.

3) Quest:   This section initiates a story experience lead by the Native American transformational guide, Coyote. This mythic character guides visitors through various museum sections via a virtual treasure hunt.

4) Tour:  This is a short introduction of all the exhibit areas that uses a flying raven accompanied by text descriptions that moves throughout the museum.

 

The Landing Point also provides two orientation videos that 1) outline the broad scope of the museum, using the Spoken Word, Written Word, Printed Word, Electronic Word, and Digital Word as a communications metaphors that tie together various eras of comm

 

Do our brains know where “reality” ends and “virtual” begins?: According to Bailenson and Blascovich, the mind treats virtual people just like physical ones.  We can demonstrate that virtual behaviors are real by measuring how people talk, how peo

 

Gentle Heron: Virtual vs “real” is a spurious dichotomy at best.

Zotarah Shepherd: That virtual is so real to us is one reason why the Matrix movies seemed so believable.

Buffy Beale: true enough

Zinnia Zauber: very

 

Chimera Cosmos: Those of us who have been in SL understand this better than most

 

Beth Ghostraven: the real part about SL is the people

Maerian Dagger: in my group we avoid using terms like “RL” we feel they muddy the perception of virtual reality. 🙂

Maerian Dagger: so we refer to inworld and outworld distinctions.

Buffy Beale: good point Maerian

 

Chimera Cosmos: I think RL is so tempting to use because it’s short and is so parallel to SL in construction

I only use it with others from SL who I know will know what I mean 🙂

 

Rhiannon Chatnoir: but as the museum suggests, art, theater, storytelling…all forms of another reality really

 

Adrianne Lexico: I think we have found the ghost. it is someone from Matrix Reloaded

 

Rhiannon Chatnoir: great, any questions / thoughts so far out there

 

Chimera Cosmos: yes, please jump in

 

Lynne (yt.upsilon): How long will the museum be online?

 

Chimera Cosmos: at least through next May, I think. The Maya sim that the class of 2011 built is still up right next to ours, so you get a 2fer

 

Zorreau Laviscu: What happens to the Museum after May?

 

Chimera Cosmos: UW pays for the sims

 

Zinnia Zauber: I am so proud of you guys! The museum is really amazing and people learn so much from it!

 

Chimera Cosmos: We will do an abbreviated tour for those who can stay. It would take hours to see it all!

 

Zotarah Shepherd: I wish such reat education filled builds could stay up for eons, if not in SL then some other grid where people have access.

Buffy Beale: me too Zo

Namaara MacMoragh: (agrees with Zotarah)

Lynne (yt.upsilon): Try Kitely.

[09:30] Maerian Dagger: My group has moved to INworldz. Amazing community, and our nonprofit can afford the tier there for 8 islands. 😉

 

Chimera Cosmos: It was fun to build, and it’s still a work in progress. I am adding interactivity.

 

Lynne (yt.upsilon): It’s Open Sim, but you get a free world and the ability to upload OARs. Time based billing, but 2 hours a month free.

 

Chimera Cosmos: Quite a few of the assets at the MVM were purchased from other builders. So a lot would not be able to transfer. I love kitely for experimenting.

 

Rhiannon Chatnoir: but could always reimagine the builds

Maerian Dagger: The museum looks great btw and both of you have very interesting bios! Thanks for your time and the work you do.

 

Chimera Cosmos: Yes, but none of us are expert builders.

Adrianne Lexico: I was a total newbie!

Chimera Cosmos: And quite a few have other full-time jobs. So it isn’t likely.

 

Thynka Little: I look forward to taking some time to explore it!

 

Rhiannon Chatnoir: any other questions, before we move to Open Mic and then the tour

 

Adrianne Lexico: and we can then take you to a tour? Great.- sorry for the inconveniences.

 

Beth Ghostraven: Will the slides be online?

 

Chimera Cosmos: I can put them on Slideshare slideshare.com/ldorland

 

Adrianne Lexico: That was our question for you! Do our brains know where “reality” ends and “virtual” begins? What do you think? yes? no?

 

Frans Charming: Nope.

Buffy Beale: not once one has been immersed, the feelings are real

Zotarah Shepherd: How do we know we are not in a VR now?

Beth Ghostraven: Buffy, exactly; that’s what people forget

 

Adrianne Lexico: do you agreee with that? Feelings are real, are they? Just opening a discussion here, not giving an answer…

 

Gentle Heron: Our brains create virtual understanding from sensory messages sent to them by our eyes/ears/etc. So is anything “real”?

Frans Charming: there aren’t fake feelings, if you feel it, it is.

Namaara MacMoragh: good point Gentle

Dancers Yao: spirit is real!

 

Chimera Cosmos: I think we in SL are sensitive to criticism from skeptics who have not experienced virutal reality. They don’t understand how “real” it is.

 

Zorreau Laviscu: I think it’s a good idea that we maintain a good relationship with Mother Earth as we begin to inhabit virtual worlds.

Zinnia Zauber: I like to use the term actual.

Buffy Beale: I agree Chim I just say to them try it then talk to me

 

Chimera Cosmos: same here Buffy – unless I’m dragging them in here myself!

 

Adrianne Lexico: Here we have some pics from movies where reality and virtual worlds co-exist, mix. We are now interacting in a virtual world…what happens with our identity? with the way we physically relate to others?

 

Stranger Nightfire: I have noticed that doing things like having my avatar float in a pond will have a relaxing effect upon my body in RL

 

Chimera Cosmos: but only the cool kids…

 

Buffy Beale: lol of course!

 

Lynne (yt.upsilon): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle

Buffy Beale: me too Stranger, or if I’m standing too long

Gentle Heron: “mirror neurons” Stranger

 

Chimera Cosmos: Yes, I used to sit by the waterfront on Jokaydia late at night and listen to the waves, very relaxing, and I’m totally obsessed with learning how to build the perfect waterfall!

 

Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes, virtual nature has a certain draw for me too

Maerian Dagger: we have a pool designed for that purpose in our lands that people soak in for healing and charge when feeling good. 🙂

Dancers Yao: our dreams are like virtual worlds

Maerian Dagger: sort of a community battery

Gentle Heron: So true, Dancers!

Lynne (yt.upsilon): “To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.”

William Blake

 

Adrianne Lexico whispers: WOW! That is so deep!

 

Gentle Heron smiles at Lynne’s Blake quote.

 

Jen (jenelle.levenque): I think among other things that’s why “waterfront” property goes for more in SL as well as RL

Rhiannon Chatnoir: nod Jen… interesting

 

Adrianne Lexico: According to Bailenson and Blascovich, the mind treats virtual people just like physical ones. We can demonstrate that virtual behaviors are real by measuring how people talk, how people emote, how people’s physiology changes and how they make decisions.

In virtual worlds we make use of Proximics which refers to the use of space and types of distance in interaction. There are three different distances: social, personal and intimate. We can also distinguish different aspects of this non-verbal behavior during interaction which includes the way people orient their bodies in conversation, the way they use gestures and eye gestures and eye contact.

 

Chimera Cosmos: Yes, I always think that those who refuse to try to understand have a lack of imagination in general. Oh yea — love waterfront and mountainside with a view

 

Lynne (yt.upsilon): Great point Jen.

 

Chimera Cosmos: just like where I would choose to vacation outside

 

Buffy Beale: location location location

 

Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes, all my mainland virtual land is either in a themed community, on a mountain, river, etc

Jen (jenelle.levenque): Yes Chimera, a mountain with a view of the ocean

Zinnia Zauber: I adore having a waterfront with my swing set!

 

Chimera Cosmos: that’s what I have on Phobos now!

 

Dancers Yao: If I do CPR in “real life” the person may or may not live. but in virtual worlds, I can animate them to be alive again with CPR

Zotarah Shepherd: Here we are all watched over by machines of loving grace… (I wish Richard Brautigan had lived to see SL)

Maerian Dagger: not however if the animating outworld person has died. Then if the inworld avi re-animates it must be with another person “at the wheel”.

Dancers Yao: I think people need to find new research methods for VW, not just apply the trraditional ones.

 

Chimera Cosmos: Yes, I did feel that Blascovich & Bailenson were rather noobish in SL for folks who are doing this kind of research. I do respect their work, but thought they could have spent more time acclimating heheh.

 

Maerian Dagger: yes…substitutions are needed for some interactions and better typists/writers are more successful perhaps at avoiding misunderstandings due to lack of suprasegmental phonemes (sorry for that last). lol

 

Chimera Cosmos: to be fair, their focus is not SL

 

Adrianne Lexico: Let´s see how we applied 3D instructional design methodologies of storytelling, gaming & learning archetypes. The museum is a 3D representation of Chapter 2. Hope you enjoy it!

 

Rhiannon Chatnoir: so we have some time to tour, let’s move on to Open Mic, and then we can continue the discussion more informally when we are touring the museum

 

Chimera Cosmos: thanks everyone

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir