Tag: Rhiannon Chatnoir

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NPC 7/12/13 Featured Presentation: Sami Petersen of SHIFT Scoliosis

 

For the July 12th, 2013 NonProfit Commons meeting we featured Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis in SL), who presented on her personal journey, her organization’s mission and the power of digital storytelling. Sami was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 11, underwent spinal fusion surgery at the age of 15, and now at the age of 16, is the founder of the nonprofit SHIFT Scoliosis. Her experience inspired her to give back to the scoliosis community and help others, while spreading awareness and educating others about the condition. She started SHIFT Scoliosis in order to make those goals come true. SHIFT Scoliosis’ video won for the Best in Health category in the 2013 TechSoup Digital Storytelling Contest.

    •    Sami’s scoliosis story: http://youtu.be/8O1Q62RH_OU

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

    •    http://www.shiftscoliosis.org

 

Below is an edited transcript of the presentation and you can read the full transcript at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YpRKGjfjB3n6bYdwlPclQ5NrYk01wSSIxWtIE4yi0sM/edit

 

           Buffy Beale: Cheering loudly!

           alebez: yaaaaaaaay! sami!

           Gentle Heron: Welcome Sami

           Zinnia Zauber: Rah Sami!

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): Thank you so much:)

 

           Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir): welcome Sami and start when you are ready!

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Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): Imagine being a child who has been living in a body that is changing & hurting & slowing you down. You can’t play like the other kids. You can’t stop it from changing. Your parents worry. People stare & laugh at you. Doctors offer to help you and your parents agree to treatment. This is all so new. It is scary! You play with your fingers & shiver. Will it be okay??

 

SHIFT Scoliosis believes every person is beautiful and perfect just the way they are regardless of whether or not they have health problems. Our goals are to provide information and support for individuals and families who are impacted by scoliosis. Our second goal is to provide education to those not touched by scoliosis to create a strong and supportive world community. By promoting knowledge of scoliosis and how it impacts those who are affected, we hope to encourage a better understanding of this condition which changes the lives of so many.

 

SHIFT Scoliosis has launched SHIFT image, a project which will aim to promote the self-esteem of people who have scoliosis by capturing beautiful, professional pictures of them. SHIFT image will also create personalized videos of individuals’ journeys with scoliosis. Photography and video images create a more objective concrete way to see an individual for who they really are. Because we believe that comfort and support should be given to everyone regardless of economic status. We are giving concrete comfort items to children and their families who live in impoverished conditions and who have limited access to healthcare. SHIFT started this project to help bring comfort to our families during the stressful times each of us endures on our scoliosis journey.

 

As part of our mission, we want to reach out around the world to educate and support. So for each worry stone that we sell, another stone will be given to an impoverished family dealing with scoliosis. This will be a family helping family connection and another way to build a global community. We also plan to launch a parent education campaign to promote parental awareness of early scoliosis signs through educational materials and outreach. SHIFT scoliosis acknowledges the importance of school screenings and seeks to support the movement to make sure school screenings continue to happen.

 

We want to SHIFT the way that scoliosis is currently viewed and show the world, and especially people with scoliosis, how beautiful life with this condition can be. Let’s join together for this effort because we are all united by this condition. Scoliosis doesn’t pick favorites because it is universal. Only together we can shift the way the world sees scoliosis! So that is our mission. 

 

Now I want to tell you about me and why I started SHIFT. SHIFT stands for Support, help and instruction for transformation. I started SHIFT shortly after my spinal fusion surgery to correct my 60 degree scoliosis curve. Scoliosis is a side to side curve in the spine. It affects 2-3 out of every 100 people, but only a tiny fraction of those progress to the point of needing surgery. I was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 11 during a school screening. At the time I was a very competitive swimmer and wasn’t going to let scoliosis get in the way of my goals and dreams of becoming an Olympic swimmer.

 

Over the next few years my scoliosis got worse and worse, and I became unable to swim at the age of 13 because my back pain was too severe. At 14 I was put into a back brace, which I wore for the next year and a half. Despite wearing it 24 hours a day; seven days a week, my curve continued to progress. In addition to pain, I suffered from embarrassment because of my curve. I didn’t want to tell anyone about my scoliosis because the stereotypical look of those with scoliosis. I hid the fact I had scoliosis for years, but finally decided that I wanted to share. I wanted to change the way that scoliosis is looked at, because there is nothing to be embarrassed about.

 

Despite all our efforts to control the progression of my curve, surgery was the only option left. I was not very nervous, more excited about how much better I would feel after my operation. I was beyond joyous that finally, after years of having so many health problems, I was going to feel better!

 

Shortly before my surgery I started a blog to document the progress I had made through recovery, but more importantly to show the world that scoliosis is not something to be embarrassed about and surly isn’t something to hide. Within just a few days I already had hundreds of followers and overwhelming support from people all over the world. I had people from all over who were asking me questions about scoliosis, telling me how grateful they were that I was sharing, and some even telling me that I was the first person that they told about their own curves.

 

On September 12th, 2012, I underwent full spinal fusion surgery to correct my curve. I went to an amazing hospital in NYC and was fused from T3-L4 and spent 6 days in the intensive care unit, and two additional days in the regular hospital. I felt so lucky to have such amazing help and support from my family. We live three hours away from the hospital and even with it being hard to not have the comforts of home; they were all there for me. We are a team! I also felt so lucky to have such an amazing surgeon and for all the other doctors, nurses and staff who helped correct my curve from 60-9 degrees, and who made my recovery go so smoothly.

 

After my surgery I felt so much better in countless ways. The whole experience inspired me to help other people like me who are dealing with scoliosis. I decided that I wanted to take it a step further than just blogging and that is when SHIFT was born. Since then I have already made some really amazing accomplishments and met a few of my many goals. I made a video of my scoliosis journey – documented through pictures. It is about 7 minutes long, so I am not sure if everyone has time to watch it right now, but here is the link to that 🙂 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O1Q62RH_OU

As part of my tech soup digital story telling contest entry, I collected photos from kids and adults all around the world who also have scoliosis. The pictures in this promotional video include those from Canada, South Africa, Poland, United Kingdom, Australia and the USA. I put them all together to show that scoliosis is universal and can affect anyone of any age, but also that even with scoliosis, people are still just as beautiful, perfect and strong as they would be without the condition. Here is the link to the video that won Best In Health for the storytelling contest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgSmkAzbVLc

 

           James at Lloud (lloud.laffer) is watching and admiring this videos!

           Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir): what was that process like, collecting other’s stories? and must have been powerful having others share.

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): It was amazing to collect their stories and photos. To see the transformation in these people who had gone through so much was just remarkable

 

           James at Lloud (lloud.laffer): Wow, the videos are so effective.

           alebez:  hiya everyone. and i’m so amazed at sami’s story.

           Leko Littlebird: Beautiful videos, so inspirational. Thank you so very much for sharing

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): Thank you so much!

 

           Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir): and as a btw, that is the video you entered into the TechSoup Digital Storytelling challenge, yes?

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): Yes the second one is 🙂

 

           Beth Ghostraven: storytelling is such an effective way of sharing information!

           alebez: We screened her story at the Awards Ceremony and Gala at the end of May.

           Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir): she won an award within the Health category for it.. and thanks to Ale (alebez) here today who helped organize and even hosted the real world awards ceremony

           Beth Ghostraven: Sami, yours is a great example of that

 

[09:40] Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): thank you so much everyone!

 

           Gentle Heron: Thank you for sharing your story Sami.

           James at Lloud (lloud.laffer): Stories are our culture and community.

           Beth Ghostraven applauds loudly!

           Frans Charming applauds

           Eme Capalini: Great job presenting too!

           Zotarah Shepherd: Wow Thank you Sami.

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): At SHIFT we have lots of opportunities for volunteering 🙂 Right now we have a project called snuggles for scoliosis where we are trying to raise money to send pillowpets to children in other countries who are going through surgeries

 

           James at Lloud (lloud.laffer): Can I ask – what video software did you use?

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): I used microsoft movie maker

 

           James at Lloud (lloud.laffer): Oh excellent! A personal and low cost software. What a great example for everyone.

           Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir): your story is great in showing how one person sharing their story can not only empower themselves, but help others to do the same 🙂

           Tava Longfall: Thank you for coming Sami

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): Thank you all for having me today! Feel free to ask me any questions- I am more than happy to answer:)

 

           Gentle Heron: QUESTION- How do spinal fusions work with your physical growth? Didn’t you get taller after the fusion?

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): I got three inches taller after my surgery because height I had gained grew into the side to side curve in my spine. I tell people I had the fastest growth spurt ever- 3 inches in 6 1/2 hours!

 

           Gentle Heron: I meant growth from child to adult, though.

 

[09:47] Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): For children who are not done growing, they wait to do fusion because the fusion would limit their growth. They use braces or growing rods. Growing rods are rods that are placed into the spine and every 6-8 months they are adjusted as the child grows

 

           Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir): so with your fusion surgery, they expected your growth in height was over

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): Yes. I was done growing before my surgery so it wont make a difference for my overall height 🙂

 

           Oronoque Westland: Your talk made me think of all the parents who yell at their kids to sit up straight…possibly yelling at kids with undiagnosed conditions

           Beth Ghostraven: oh, good point, Oro!

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): Yes, very true! Diagnosis at an early age is so important! Speaking of early diagnosis I made this to help people learn the signs of early scoliosis: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=294339837369098&set=pb.175692542567162.-2207520000.1373647908.&type=3&theater

 

           James at Lloud (lloud.laffer): Sami, do you think you will make more videos?

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): Absolutely!

 

           Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir): great to hear!

           James at Lloud (lloud.laffer): That’s great – SHIFT could provide a Youtube channel for the scoliosis community.

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): That is a great idea! We have a channel, SHIFT scoliosis, and already have some followers on there. 🙂

 

           Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir): any advice for others wanting to add videos and digital storytelling into helping with their nonprofits or other programs?

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): Yes – I think that when you make the video you have to imagine how you want it and then just have fun.

 

           Zotarah Shepherd: Does the fusion surgery mean that when you are elderly you will not have to worry about a tiwsted spine like many other old folks – like my mother – have?

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): @Zotarah– yes. Now that my spine is fused I wont have to worry about it curving at all in the future

 

           Zotarah Shepherd: Thanks Sami, I am glad for your future and amazing way you lift people now. You are so brave.

           Zinnia Zauber: This is wonderful! Thank you Sami!

           Tori Landau: Sami, you are an inspiration!

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): Aw thank you so much! 🙂 You are too kind!

 

           Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir): and any last advice for those wanting to add video and storytelling to their projects?

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): I think that having fun and staying positive is so important. I practiced a lot too before I made any real videos for SHIFT that way I was comfortable with the software. That helped a lot

 

           Glitteractica Cookie: thanks again

           Glitteractica Cookie: gotta run folks, bye all

           Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir): take care Glitter

           [Zinnia Zauber: Bye Glitter

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): By Glitter! Thanks!

 

           Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir): Sami It was great having you present today – let’s all thank her!

           Chayenn: thank you great presentation

           James at Lloud (lloud.laffer): thanks!

           Beth Ghostraven: .-‘`’-. APPLAUSE APPLAUSE .-‘`’-.

           Tava Longfall: Thanks for coming Sami

           Gentle Heron: Thanks Sami. Well done and best wishes.

           Beth Ghostraven: Thanks, Sami!

           jacmacaire Humby: Bravo!!!

           Zotarah Shepherd: Thank you so much Sami. You are inspiring! All the best.

           Frans Charming applauds

           Zinnia Zauber: Thank you Sami!

           alebez: Thanks, everyone! And thanks, Sami! You were great.

           Leko Littlebird: Thank you

           Zotarah Shepherd applaudes wildly.

           alebez: That was great, Sami. Thanks for joining us today.

           Oronoque Westland: Great presentation

 

Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis): Thank you all so much for having me! Thank you so much everyone 🙂  You can visit my website at www.shiftscoliosis.org 🙂 and follow us on facebook at www.facebook.com/samisscoliosisstory

 

 

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, please tag them #NPSL and tag your avatars in any photos posted!

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

Posted on

SHIFT Scoliosis for the July 12th NonProfit Commons Meeting

This Friday, July 12th, Nonprofit Commons is happy to welcome Sami Petersen (SHIFTscoliosis in SL), who will present to NPC on her personal journey, her org’s mission and the power of digital storytelling. Sami was diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 11, underwent spinal fusion surgery at the age of 15, and now at the age of 16, is the founder of the nonprofit Shift Scoliosis. SHIFT Scoliosis’ video won for the Best in Health category in the TechSoup Digital Storytelling Contest. 

About Sami Petersen: 

Sami Petersen is 16 years old and the founder of SHIFT Scoliosis. She was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 11 and underwent spinal fusion surgery at the age of 15 to correct her then 60 degree scoliosis curve.  She is now fused from thoracic level 3 to lumbar level 4 – almost her whole back!  Her curve was corrected to just 9 degrees and she no longer in extreme pain. The experience inspired her to give back to the scoliosis community and help others, while spreading awareness and educating others about the condition. She started SHIFT Scoliosis in order to make those goals come true! 

 

About SHIFT Scoliosis:

SHIFT Scoliosis believes every person is beautiful and perfect just the way they are regardless of whether or not they have health problems. Our goals are to provide information and support for individuals and families who are impacted by scoliosis. Our second goal is to provide education to those not touched by scoliosis to create a strong and supportive world community. By promoting knowledge of scoliosis and how it impacts those who are affected, we hope to encourage a better understanding of this condition which changes the lives of so many.

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Join us in Second Life!

 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, July 12th, 8:30 AM PDT / SLT

Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater

http://bit.ly/NPCinSL

 

AGENDA

    •    8:30 am Introductions

    •    8:40 am TechSoup Announcements

    •    8:45 am Mentors Central  

    •    9:00 am Featured Presentation – Sami Petersen / SHIFTscoliosis

    •    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

Posted on

Digital Inclusion and New Technologies for the June 28th NonProfit Commons Meeting

How can we use new technologies to provide greater equality in the 21st century? This Friday, June 28th, Nonprofit Commons is happy to feature Elle Waters (Nethermind Bliss in SL) who will be leading a discussion on digital inclusion as a civil right and highlighting the exciting innovations in technology that provide greater access for people with disabilities. She will discuss some of the history behind the fight for global accessibility awareness, and examples where accessibility has been successfully used as a powerful tool to create a better experience for everyone. Elle will discuss the paradigm shift from compliance to cutting-edge at some companies, and she will demonstrate pragmatic techniques using examples from newly launched and not-yet-published solutions from enterprise projects.

About Elle Waters

Elle has been working in online spaces for over 15 years, always with the goal to promote equality and collaboration on the web. After years of evangelism and leading projects within virtual worlds, online communities, and social media channels, she started a career as the web accessibility coordinator at a large Fortune 100 company. While there, she focused primarily on implementation strategies for design, development, and process teams across the enterprise. Working with internal and external teams to build a corporate program from the ground up, Elle built the business case and established accessibility as an integral part of both the design strategy and the software development lifecycle, institutionalizing the process and creating a framework for long-term success.

Now, many years later with many lessons learned, Elle supports the enterprise strategy and business development needs of Simply Accessible, a leading UX firm that delivers insightful and creative accessibility consulting to Fortune 500 corporations, educational institutions, public utilities, government agencies and other private sector clients. She works directly with clients to form strategic solutions to problems and outline a roadmap to ensure that their websites can be successful and sustainable in meeting or exceeding accessibility requirements.

When Elle presents publicly, she usually speaks on topics ranging anywhere from enterprise accessibility strategy to leveraging accessibility as a tool to inspire innovation and transform an organization’s culture. Occasionally, she indulges in discussions about the gamification of accessibility and motivational design. Past speaking engagements include CSUN, John Slatin AccessU, Code PaLOUsa and several accessibility camps across the country. When not looking to start a revolution, Elle enjoys virtual worlds, zombie lore, and video games.

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Join us in Second Life! 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, June 28th, 8:30 AM PDT / SLT

Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater

http://bit.ly/NPCinSL

 

AGENDA

    •    8:30 am Introductions

    •    8:40 am TechSoup Announcements

    •    8:45 am Mentors Central  

    •    9:00 am Featured Presentation – Elle Waters on Digital Inclusion and New Technologies

    •    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

Posted on

“Virtual Media Camp” for the June 21st NonProfit Commons Meeting

This Friday, June 21st, TechSoup’s NonProfit Commons in Second Life will be featuring a discussion led by our own community manager Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir in SL), who will be holding a virtual media camp and sharing insights on audio and video media skills to incorporate with virtual worlds. We will explore topics such as audio and video recording, streaming and mixed-reality, and discuss how these could be used for organizations.

 

Join us in Second Life!

 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, June 21st, 8:30 AM PDT / SLT

Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater

http://bit.ly/NPCinSL

 

AGENDA

    •    8:30 am Introductions

    •    8:40 am TechSoup Announcements

    •    8:45 am Mentors Central  

    •    9:00 am Featured Presentation: Virtual Media Camp

    •    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

Posted on

Meet the NPC Community: an SL10B Discussion 6/19

This Wednesday, June 19th, at 4:00 PM PDT/SLT several members of the NonProfit Commons in Second Life (NPC) community will be taking part in a “Meet the Community” discussion, as part of the Second Life 10th annual Birthday celebration (SL10B).

Join us for an hour long discussion, hosted by Saffia Widdershins as she talks to Buffy Beale, Gentle Heron, Rhiannon Chatnoir and Sarvana Haalan from NPC. They will share some of the community history as well as their backgrounds, mission and nonprofit activities within Second Life.

This discussion will take place in voice within the Auditorium located at the SL10B Community Celebrations sim: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL10B%20Astonish/71/24/24

  • Wednesday, June 19th, 2013
  • 4:00 PM PDT / SLT

more info at: http://slcommunitycelebration.com/schedule/auditorium-schedule/

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

Posted on

Celebrating and Discussing a Decade of Second Life for the June 14th NonProfit Commons Meeting

This Friday, June 14th, Nonprofit Commons is happy to welcome Saffia Widdershins, who will share with us some of the highlights of the resident-run Second Life 10th Anniversary Birthday (SL10B). The event kicks off this weekend, running from June 16th to June 29th, with twenty sims of community, creativity and events. 

Join us while we look back at a decade of the virtual world Second Life and look forward by discussing possible visions for the future.

 

Join us in Second Life!

 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, June 14th, 8:30 AM PDT / SLT

Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater

http://bit.ly/NPCinSL

 

AGENDA

    •    8:30 am Introductions

    •    8:40 am TechSoup Announcements

    •    8:45 am Mentors Central  

    •    9:00 am Featured Presentation – Saffia Widdershins of SL10B

    •    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. 

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Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

Posted on

NPC 5/24/13 Featured Presentation: The Exploratorium’s Virtual Museum and Immersive Science

For the May 24th, 2013 NonProfit Commons in Second Life meeting, we featured Paul Doherty (Patio Plasma in SL), Senior Scientist at the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco, CA.

About Paul Doherty:

Paul Doherty is a physicist, author, teacher, and the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the Exploratorium. He is the discoverer of the shape of Martian Snowflakes, was author of The Explorabook, and he loves teaching online courses.

    •    Paul’s website: http://www.exo.net/~pauld/

About The Exploratorium:

The Exploratorium uses the virtual world to prototype exhibits for the real world museum. For example, The new exhibit Twinkling Suppressor, which still works better in SL than RL, as well as the design for the human ride-able Newton’s cradle. (See images below.) They run mixed reality events streaming coverage of eclipses and planetary transits into Second Life while showing the virtual audience on screens in the real life museum. It allows them to build exhibits quickly following real life events, three days after the Tsunami in Japan, Emileigh Starbrook built a model of the type of reactor that was destroyed by the tsunami. A Japanese video producer then used this model in her program describing the failure of the reactor. When an asteroid threatened to collide with Mars in 2007 they made a model of the impact, and now in 2014 a comet threatens Mars again.

They also host Virtually Speaking Science in their sim, and present occasional Saturday Science lectures. The experience gained by presenting science lectures virtually has helped the Exploratorium gain insight as they run their online workshops for teachers. Their sister sim in Second Life houses the Splo Museum; having the Splo allows them to experiment with exhibits that might be too edgy for the real life museum, for example they have a building that houses virtual exhibits that make fun of exhibits at the physical museum in San Francisco. The sims are supported by funders both inside Second Life, as well as grants from foundations and individuals.

    •    The Exploratorium website: http://www.exploratorium.edu

    •    The Splo website: http://philo.exploratorium.edu/splo/index.htm

    •    Fabricated Realities blog: http://blogs.exploratorium.edu/fabricated-realities/

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Patio Plasma: Hl all great to be here!

The Exploratorium is the grandfather of hands-on Science museums. Located In San Francisco. Pier 15, 2 blocks from Linden Labs (feel free to ask questions in chat as we go along)

Gentle Heron: Welcome Patio.

Buffy Beale: cheering for you Patio!

Sarvana Haalan: Hello Patio…

Patio Plasma: We have a team to run our two sims, Exploratorium and sploland:

    •    Paul Doherty director

    •    Rob Rothfarb web guru and long time virtual world participant

    •    David Barker Graphic Artist

    •    Linda Shore head of science teacher workshops

    •    Emileigh Starbrook scripter and photoshop expert

    •    And more

I work with many up and coming exhibit builders, often college students

Sarvana Haalan: awesome!!

Zotarah Shepherd: I really enjoyed the Pi Day exhibit.

Chimera Cosmos digs for SL pic of Patio and Chimera at Pi Day years ago…hmmm

Patio Plasma: Why we use virtual worlds: 3D, motion, avatar based, interactive, social.

Our first project in 2006 was to stream live coverage of a total solar eclipse into SL. We did it again in 2008 from the Gobi Desert in China. I was the live coverage announcer on site for both eclipses and so missed being in SL We’ll do it again in 2017. But if you can go see it yourself. August 21. We did one event from a roman amphitheater in Turkey. It is great to see a total eclipse in person

Buffy Beale: wow!

Gentle Heron: aaugh that doesn’t look safe!

Patio Plasma: those are special safe glasses we gave to thousands of local viewers. One of my jobs is to teach people eclipse viewing safety

Here is the path of the August 21 2017 eclipse…GO SEE IT!

We find that people watch coverage much longer in the social environment of SL than they do on TV or on their home computers when alone [my boldface]

We do mixed reality bringing the virtual world into the museum and the museum into the virtual world.

Coughran Mayo: I’ll invite everyone to come to St. Louis!

Sarvana Haalan: safer 🙂

Gentle Heron: That is really important data

Gentle Heron: Now I want to know why!

Sarvana Haalan: an amazing use of virtual worlds

Patio Plasma: we had eclipse lovers from the isle of Man and Japan talking to each other inworld. We made a replica of the turkish amphitheater in SL for eclipse viewing. We had 3 amphitheaters in 3 sims to handle the crowds

Pathfinder Lester: you folks had a good poster about it at SIGGRAPH too 😉 http://www.flickr.com/photos/pathfinderlinden/207331909/

Patio Plasma: Models in Second life can really help people understand eclipses. Here I am with my head stuck in a 3D model of the solar umbra seeing what I would see if I really did that

Hi Pathfinder, yes we did.

And for many live programs we don’t just sit around we dance.

This was a total lunar eclipse program, after the eclipse I was so impressed with SL that I decided to build a museum here

Rhiannon Chatnoir: aww.. Midnight City ♥

Buffy Beale: I love SPLO

Xavier Thiebaud: I remember going there

Sarvana Haalan: Dance? I hooked. 🙂

Frans Charming points out that the left avatar on the photo Pathfinder shared is me and the right on is Jerry Paffendorf. 😛

Buffy Beale: lol Frans you’re everywhere!

Pathfinder Lester: nice

Buffy Beale: Path too 🙂

Sarvana Haalan: yes… the Hypergrid Jumping King

Rhiannon Chatnoir: lol.. yes Frans is always watching

Patio Plasma: yay frans

Aimee weber gave us space in Midnight City for our first museum. A visitor Kirra Ball, loved the museum so much she gave us a sim for 2 years. Now we have two sims supported by grants e.g. from Arthur Vining Davis foundation as well as individual donors. We are funded for 2 more years.

Buffy Beale: fantastic to get the funding, great going Patio

Grease Coakes: wow

Sarvana Haalan: Patio, do you find that getting funding to be a challenge?

Patio Plasma: It took years to get funding. Yes it is a challenge, we had to convince funders about the usefulness of education in virtual worlds. Many funders don’t have a clue…but they are learning. I was very happy when AVD decided to fund us

We taught classes in world for years before getting recognized. Where we created a dozen exhibits to celebrate pi day. We do that every year.

Sarvana Haalan: how many pints of blood did you have to sell? or how did you get the “bankers” to see the value of their investment?

Grease Coakes: I just put my children’s book on sale in SL for a low price

Serene Jewell: I love that poster – Pi Day, It’s IRRATIONAL! lol

Patio Plasma: (I have some great funny graphic artists on my SL team), Notice the Pie-eta

Sarvana Haalan: are any of your graphics on Pinterest?

Patio Plasma: Savana not yet but that’s a great idea. here is a flat exhibit from the RL museum

Sarvana Haalan: It is an excellent platform to share graphics an dposters

Patio Plasma: I wrapped the illusion on a cylinder and set it spinning. To my surprise the Heureka museum in Finland visited SL, saw the exhibit and built it in RL!

Grease Coakes: wow

Frans Charming: o/

Sarvana Haalan: cool

Buffy Beale: amazing that is!

Buffy Beale: usually the other way around 🙂

Patio Plasma: yes, the rotating version is really interesting. Here is the 2 meter tall version in RL in Finland

We prototype exhibits in SL, here is the toy Newton’s cradle

Gentle Heron: Prototyping is a smart way to use SL.

Patio Plasma: I made an avatar ridable Newton’s Cradle in SL Then made one in RL, each ball weighed 400 pounds (200 kg)

Grease Coakes: That looks fun

Jonathon Richter (wainbrave.bernal): watch your fingers!

Patio Plasma: the RL museum is open Thursday nights for adults only, we have 3 bars in the museum and show off new prototype exhibits.

I put my fingers between the balls to test them

Andy Evans: If you put seats on that, it would be a fun ride for kids

Jonathon Richter (wainbrave.bernal): gulp. and?

Patio Plasma: they are thin lexan balls and deformed around my fingers with no damage to me

Jonathon Richter (wainbrave.bernal): oh wow. lol

Patio Plasma: I do believe in safety and humor. The Splo museum is not called the Exploratorium so that we can make fun of the RL museum. Many museums have the exhibit “Your weight on other worlds” for SL the other world is earth.

Jonathon Richter (wainbrave.bernal): like the long bicycle chain exhibit: you guys really go the extra mile to figure out how to make stuff safe

Oronoque Westland: I prefer my weight in SL

Patio Plasma: yes the orginal exhibit would have ripped your arm off, the builder used 1 inch diameter chain links. We made some paint cans in SL that were so popular we made them in RL and they were stolen from our booth .

Grease Coakes: There’s a scale like that at the US air and space museum at the smithsonion in washington DC

Gentle Heron: eek!

Patio Plasma: We also respond to science events, 3 days after the Japanese tsunami we had a model of the damaged reactor built at 1/3 scale, it would have filled my sim! And held a fundraising dance for the victims.

Jonathon Richter (wainbrave.bernal): THAT is inspiring

Patio Plasma: We used an exhibit with 64 moustraps and pingpong balls to show a nuclear chain reaction model.

Merry Chase (merrytricks): That model looks too calm to be a disaster – needs some melty looking graphics.

Grease Coakes: Were any mice harmed in making the model?

Patio Plasma: really hard to get around the “Grey goo” fence in SL to make that exhibit work or at least a blue hazy glow

Frans Charming: I think the mice where saver since they traps where for once not used on them. 😛

Patio Plasma: In 2007 an asteroid just missed Mars, we made an exhibit to show what would have happened if it hit. I’ll give LANDMARKS AT THE END. In 2014 a comet may hit Mars the model will still be there. We believe in whole avatar participation…you can ride a comet.

Serene Jewell: cool

Patio Plasma: this exhibit was made by Amulius Lioncourt a great SL builder

Beth Ghostraven: Like FreeWee Ling’s exhibit, where you could ride into the sun

Patio Plasma: yes love freewee Ling”s work. You can also ride the big bang

We sponsor lectures in our sim, Virtually Speaking Science presents in our sim. And we have occasional Saturday Science lectures.

Xavier Thiebaud: where is sheldon in the picture?

Patio Plasma: Sheldon is dressed in Black. Doing these lectures has helped us learn how to give online workshops for teachers. In conclusion: Come visit our sims. and in San Francisco the new RL Exploratorium

Sarvana Haalan: I may have missed it but are your workshops in text or voice?

Patio Plasma: (image of an SL class on quantum mechanics) workshops are in voice. I love the ability to lecture in voice, and take questions in chat and IM

Beth Ghostraven: voice only, no transcription?

Patio Plasma: we record the lecture

Andy Evans: sorry if I missed this, do you have a link to the class schedule and a LM?

Serene Jewell: I live in San Francisco. Can’t wait to come see the new RL Exploratorium.

Rhiannon Chatnoir: do you have this slideshow up online anywhere?

Gentle Heron: You are so lucky Serene!

Beth Ghostraven: (I’m hard of hearing, that’s why I asked; all-voice is difficult)

Dancers Yao: Love the Exploratorium…saw a first example of the Internet there in 1994!

Patio Plasma: Hi Andy we are about to stop the classes for the summer but IM me and I’ll put you on the list for fall. Yes the exploratorium was the first museum on the web, in 1993 and the first in SL

Sarvana Haalan: Your presentation has been so informative and fascinating, Patio

Merry Chase (merrytricks): As a mostly- housebound person who loved the Exploratorium since I was a kid, I’m excited to learn about Splo but sad to think there can’t quite be a tactile dome here.

Patio Plasma: click the orange splo box for landmarks to the exhibits I showed. click the spaceship to see relativistic length contraction LOL. Click the higgs boson to make it decay.

OK questions?

Sarvana Haalan: cool!!!!

Andy Evans: You could even show quantum entanglement

Patio Plasma: good challenge re quantum entanglement , but yes I think I could.

Rhiannon Chatnoir: any other questions or thoughts for Patio?

Lynne (yt.upsilon): Is it okay for anyone to take students there?

Serene Jewell: What would you say has been your most successful exhibit in SL?

Spiral Theas: Wonderful stuff. And my apologies for TP-ing right into the front (how embarrassing!)

Buffy Beale: you’re among friends here Spiral 🙂

Beth Ghostraven: Spiral, I think we’ve all done that

Rhiannon Chatnoir: I know it has been great to watch what you and the Exploratorium has done.. from your early days of the eclipse events and the Splo opening in Midnight City

Patio Plasma: wow I think it’s a tie between the Mars cratering event and the big bang, we still have fun creating experiences for people in SL

Buffy Beale: It’s a wonderful place Patio and one of the first I visited when I was new, and still love going there

Sarvana Haalan: I must visit…

Chimera Cosmos: Yes, I went to Pi day back in 2008 for the first time, I think.

Patio Plasma: thanks Buffy. I still work with wildly creative people

Rhiannon Chatnoir: Patio, one question.. what do you think were your biggest challenges and pluses for translating work to a virtual space like Second Life

DMeta1: With all the new tech available now, will there be other types of web3d Exploratorium experiences or just in SL?

Serene Jewell: Thanks for bringing all that science and creativity into SL, Patio. I love showing the Exploratorium to people who aren’t familiar with SL. It helps them get an idea of what is possible in virtual worlds.

Chimera Cosmos: Even met Patio

Patio Plasma: yes Chimera

Buffy Beale: hiii Chim 🙂 didn’t see you there

Chimera Cosmos: I remember it well.

Chimera Cosmos: Hi Buffy

Patio Plasma: OH Dmeta yes we are looking at new experiences I just Used Oculus Rift the other day at Unity labs

Spiral Theas: I’m living in the Bay Area now too and am very much looking forward to going to the RL exploratorium – now with new-found interest and insight.

Spiral Theas: Exactly, Serene.

Patio Plasma: Spiral we are closed Mondays, open 10-5 other days and open to 10 PM Wednesday night for families and Thursday night til 10 PM for 18 year olds +

Rhiannon Chatnoir: great on trying the Oculus Rift, any quick thoughts on it and how you could see fitting in to exhibits/the museum

DMeta1: Nice, Oculus is cool and having much fun with the dev kit.

Dancers Yao: what did you think of Oculus Rift?

Zotarah Shepherd: I am in Sonoma. I have not been to the Exploratorium in years. I should certainly go again.

Patio Plasma: absolutely, it will allow people an amazing 3D interactive experience (It’s a little low rez at the moment ), and I always try new worlds.

Merry Chase (merrytricks): SF Native here – always loved the Exploratorium as a kid, brought my own kids there, and now am disabled and can’t go to RL museums – any advice on how the public can encourage more museums to do what you’ve done and create a virtual presense, as an ADD access measure?

Patio Plasma: but I still plan to stay in SL at least for the next 2 years of our funding, because of the great avatars here

Sarvana Haalan: This would definitely get my STEM young ladies excited about virtual worlds

Patio Plasma: Yes Merry, the new Exploratorium is pretty good for access, and I present at museum meetings everywhere showing what we do. but mostly they want complete control using closed sims.

Chimera Cosmos: Spouse and I went to the Exploratorium when in grad school at Berkeley in the early 1970s. hahaha

Patio Plasma: whereas the Exploratorium is willing to take its chances with human behavior and we have had little to no problems

Spiral Theas: Zotorah, Serene (and other Bay Area avis) – maybe we should find a way to all go for an Exploratorium visit together in RL?

Zotarah Shepherd: I would like to see an exhibit on Kitchen Science.

Chimera Cosmos gives away age (graduate young, I promise!)

Patio Plasma: (The RL exploratorium makes one new exhibit every 2 weeks on the average for the last 40 years, wait 10 years and see a totally new museum

Zotarah Shepherd: I’d like that Spiral

Sarvana Haalan: I so enjoyed the 70s, Chimera

DMeta1: I know of a group building a fan based mixed reality (web3d and onsite/LBS mobile) experience for the new SF exploratorium with tech being used by Danish museums and libraries. Those in virtual and real can play together and I can’t wait to try it out.

Chimera Cosmos: Heh. We’ve been married 42 years next month – since grad school!

Serene Jewell: It might be intereting for the Exploratorium to have permanent webcams mounted in some areas so that those who can’t make it in person can get a feeling for it.

Pathfinder Lester: I’ve got to head out. ty for the presentation, Patio. great to hear about all the work you’re doing!

Sarvana Haalan: Woot, Chimera!!!

Rhiannon Chatnoir: Let’s thank Patio for presenting to us today on the amazing work The Exploratorium has done!

Serene Jewell: I like that idea Spiral!

Lynne (yt.upsilon): Thank you.

Chimera Cosmos: Thanks Patio!

Andy Evans: Great

Patio Plasma: Thans for having me here. if you come to the exploratorium RL send me a note.

Spiral Theas: Thank you, Patio!! Great work!

Rhiannon Chatnoir: and for those in San Fran area.. AvaCon did set up a meetup site if you want to arrange something like that: http://www.meetup.com/avatarmeetups/San-Francisco/

Buffy Beale: Clapping madly!!!

Silviana Jenvieve: This has been both interesting and inspiring. Many thanks, Patio.

Serene Jewell: Thanks Patio! You rock!

Gentle Heron: Thanks Patio and all the Exploratorium staff. Great job using the virtual world for good.

Sarvana Haalan: Patio… this has been awesome. Thank you for sharing!!!

Chimera Cosmos: Bay Area folks – so jealous! Both of your potential get-together at Exploratorium AND on general principle for getting to live there

Dancers Yao: thanks so much for years of wonderful work

Frans Charming applauds

Chimera Cosmos: Yaay!

Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes Chimera.. I enjoyed my summer there last year.

Merry Chase (merrytricks): bravo

 

If you took pictures today, 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

Posted on

VWBPE: Beyond the Stage for the June 7th NonProfit Commons Meeting

This Friday, June 7th, Nonprofit Commons is happy to welcome back Kevin Feenan (Phelan Corrimal in SL) who will be giving us an update on this year’s VWBPE 2013 conference taking place July 24 – 27th across multiple virtual worlds, with presentations in Second Life, OpenSim, Unity/Jibe, and Cloud Party. 
 
 
Virtual worlds offer an almost endless palette of opportunities to perform and create in order to go beyond the stage. Engagement in storytelling, simulation, education, and other forms of expression are quite integral to multi-user virtual environments. Knowledge is constructed in many social contexts facilitated by virtual worlds.
 
Originally started as a grassroots educational conference, the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference brings together over 2000 educators, researchers, and institutional professional from around the world to discuss issues facing education and how virtual technologies can best be applied to solving these dilemmas. The conference is run as an open source conference and is free for anyone to attend.
 
Kevin Feenan is President of Rockcliffe University Consortium, an online not for profit organization dedicated to the development of knowledge emergence, organizational design, and leadership and technical studies based on virtual collaborative environments. A graduate of the University of Toronto’s EMBA program, Kevin’s 25-year IM/IT career has included management consulting, project management, business analysis, and software development for a variety of companies including the Government of Canada, Bell Canada, EDS, and Xerox.
 
Join us in Second Life!
 
Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting
Friday, June 7th, 8:30 AM PDT / SLT
Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater
 
AGENDA
    •    8:30 am Introductions
    •    8:40 am TechSoup Announcements
    •    8:45 am Mentors Central  
    •    9:00 am Featured Presentation
    •    9:30 am Open Mic / Announcements
 
 
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

Posted on

Building Community Solutions and Civic Hacking for the May 31st NonProfit Commons Meeting

This Friday, May 31st, TechSoup’s NonProfit Commons is happy to welcome back Marnie Webb, of Caravan Studios to update us on their recent idea/solution Generator sessions (http://caravanstudios.wikispaces.com/Generators) they have been running with civic and social organizations on topics such as disaster relief, animal welfare, violence, food rescue and more to come, 

 

 

And we will talk on this weekend’s National Civic Day of Hacking, a US nationwide event focused on people coming together from both the community, organizational and coder/designer level to try to work on solutions for current civic needs.

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About 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.

 

Join us in Second Life!

 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, May 31st, 8:30 AM PDT / SLT

Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater

http://bit.ly/NPCinSL

 

 

AGENDA

    •    8:30 am Introductions

    •    8:40 am TechSoup Announcements

    •    8:45 am Mentors Central  

    •    9:00 am Featured Presentation

    •    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

Posted on

TechSoup’s 2013 Digital Storytelling Awards Gala

Are you a techie or do-gooder interested in digital storytelling, online community, emerging technologies, or all of the above? You definitely won’t want to miss TechSoup’s 4th annual Digital Storytelling Screening and Awards Party on Tuesday, May 28 at 7pm PDT / SLT.

The event will feature a screening of top story submissions with an awards ceremony for the winners! Digital Storytelling videos came in from all around the world and even some from NPC community members.

Join us virtually at NonProfit Commons in Second Life, where we will get together for a mixed reality drive-in event, complete with our own red carpet and pixel popcorn!

Bring your favorite virtual vehicle or grab a seat in one of our’s, dress red-carpet snazzy and come ready to chat storytelling, have fun and network!

We will be streaming live the event from San Francisco and our virtual event and avatars will be up on the screen at the real event. And, If you will be in San Francisco, you can register to attend in person the red carpet event at PARISOMA!  More info on the live event: http://bit.ly/190qGoG

You can also watch the awards ceremony live streamed online (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/techsoup) and follow the action on Twitter, hashtag: #tsdigs

Come Celebrate Community Storytelling!

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir