A community-led project, providing space to meet and network, all to create a cooperative learning environment and foster outreach, education, fundraising, all in a virtual environment.
This Friday, April 19th, Nonprofit Commons is happy to feature members of the nonprofit Protect Yourself 1 (PY!), Executive Director Monique Richert (Chayenn in SL), Social Media Director Ricky Davis (TiltankTibedeau in SL) and Sustainable Development Director Jacques Macaire (jacmacairehumby in SL), who will discuss their innovative performance, social media and virtual projects focusing on HIV/AIDS prevention and environmental awareness. We will also welcome Bernhard Drax (DraxtorDespres who will premiere the latest episode of The Drax Files: World Makers, focusing on the Relay for Life fundraising event Fantasy Faire.
About PY1
PY1 is a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate people about HIV/AIDS and related diseases. Exploitation of the environment has led to increased human exposure to disease. To protect ourselves from this exposure, we must increase our awareness of threats to animals and our ecosystem. Protecting ourselves means creating new models for healthy living. The interdependence between Health, Wild Life and Environment is a priority at PY1.
To respond to these issues PY1 has focused on developing and sharing key programs, such as:
PROTECT YOUR LIFE, which includes three campaigns:
Safe2Live: a social marketing media campaign targeting youth ages 8 – 13
Great2Know: a college tour targeting young adults ages 16 – 24
Protect Yourself: a media campaign targeting adults
PROTECT WILD LIFE, featuring Project Arrowhead
PROTECT YOUR PLANET featuring BE A PROTECTOR
These projects tap into a need to look to the younger generation to see where technology use is headed in the future and to continuously seek out creative ways to keep youth knowledgeable and safe.
http://protectyourself1.org
http://twitter.com/Py1US
About BerhardDrax
Bernhard Drax aka DraxtorDespres creates interactive audio/video content and devises new media concepts for corporate and academic clientele. In addition to producing music for film, television and the web Bernhard has a solid background in radio news production and print journalism.
The Drax Files World Makers will be a semi bi-weekly show who examines the creative people behind the avatars who make the virtual world of Second Life what it is & move it forward with their passion and persistence.
Mixed reality interviews form the basis of a reportage that profiles designers, game-makers, role-players and fashion aficionados, musicians, artists and social-issue activists for whom the Second Life avatar is not a separate entity but a true extension of themselves with which they navigate the digital space.
The show will utilize real-life footage as well as machinima from within SL and feature self-taught hobbyists to dedicated pros from all walks of life, from all over the world and cuts across gender, ethnic and generational divides.
A world solely made by its residents – truly only their imagination can be the limit!
8:55 am Featured Presentation: PY!, Monique Richert (Chayenn in SL), Ricky Davis (Tiltank Tibedeau in SL), Jacques Macaire (jacmacaire humby in SL)
9:30 am Bernhard Drax (Draxtor Despres in SL)
9:45 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.
Below is an edited transcript of the 4/12/13 NonProfit Commons in Second Life meeting, featuring Opal Lei talking on how machinima can enhance storytelling.
Bio:
Opal Lei’s first machinima was a 30-second ad for her Mer Betta brand in 2010. Turning down an offer from a friend to produce it for her for a mere US$50, she chose to learn the basics of machinima filming in Second Life to create her own ad and immersed herself in a new form of creative expression. She helped film and edit MODA Primetime fashion shows and eventually taught machinima to new models at the MODA Modeling School. In 2012, she started two machinima series: “Talk, Like Dim Sum,” a talk show that is a follow-up to her book, and “Splo On The Go,” short clips which document the exhibits at the Splo Museum in SL.
Rhiannon Chatnoir: Opal will be doing a brief overview of process of Machinima. If you are having issues, go into Me –> Preferences –> Sound & Media. If you can’t hear voice let me know.. you can IM me for direct help
Andy Evans: I listen fast
Red (talkwithmarie): its fine..speed wise
AdrianneLexico: you are speaking fast but I think it is the “morning coffee” effect.
Opal Lei
Next thing to think about: who your target audience is.
You can incorporate prior content, like case studies, flyers, logos, existing videos into your machinima. You can also include real life footage or clips from games or other presentations or screen captures.
Next is to decide who will be the person talking. Think about text, voice overs, movement and flow of images or other elements.
You can also include a roleplay for storytelling in your machinima video.
How do you want the viewer to feel, is also important – worried? excited? moved? You need to connect with your viewers through emotion/feeling.
After you have collected everything you have, organize everything you have. Gather up your assets, sounds, clips, etc. and this will also help determine what your machinima
Rhiannon Chatnoir: as a btw – the TechSoup Digital Storytelling challenge is looking for a 90 second video.
Opal Lei
Editing is time intensive – allot enough time for this part of the process.
Next step is storyboarding, breaking down roughly the scenes and sections of the video. Think about your camera angles, who will be in a scene, how music or other media flows.
Think on the beginning and end and how to capture a user in the beginning of the machinima and the call to action and credits at the end.
If you only have still photographs, you can create video slideshow presentations. For this try using NCHPhotostage Slideshow Software – http://nchsoftware.com.
And for music you can go to http://freemusicarchive.org – pay attention to licenses, on how you can use that particular type of music.
If you need actors or someone do voiceovers for your machinima, join the Mamachinima group in Second Life and you can send out an IM call for avatars.
You can reach out to SL machinima groups like this to look for actors, voice actors, people to hire or help you film.
If on a PC – you can use the machinima capture software: Fraps
Fraps puts a watermark on the free version, and only allows you to record 30 second clips. You can edit out this watermark. Set your Fraps settings to at least 1280 x 720 capture which is HD resolution, YouTube accepts this.
Rhiannon Chatnoir: that would be 720p, and, if on a Mac you can use Snapz
Hazel (hazel.zapedzki): okay
Opal Lei
Experiment with Windlight settings to change how your footage is lit. You can get dramatic lighting beyond the normal Second Life world light settings
Some favorite Windlight settings to search for:
Bree Appleblossom
Nam’s Optimal Skin and Prim.
Al Supercharge: Space Navigator is a must and is great for Google Earth too
Opal Lei
For editing, if your on a Mac you can use imovie or on a PC you can use Lightworks, which is free or something like Sony Vega
Andy Evans: iMovie okay on the Mac?
Rhiannon Chatnoir: any other video editing software that people use here?
Rhiannon Chatnoir: I use Final Cut Pro X
Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): Microsoft movie maker can do very basic editing and its free
Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks Tank!
Frans Charming: yes – I have used movie maker in my first machinima. does the job.
Carol Rainbow (carolrb.roux): Camtasia
Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): i use cam studio recorder its also free
Al Supercharge: plus it outputs MS format .wmv condenses video to about 10% and then becomes uploadable to Youtube
Dancers Yao: Adobe for editing
Zinnia Zauber: Premiere
Rhiannon Chatnoir: great – thanks!
Opal Lei
if you have voice overs – you can upload accompanying text transcripts and captions to your video
focus on your video goal. Even in if you are putting in still images to a video, you can use things like fade in/out or other movement based transitions.
Andy Evans: Might be good to “story board” your machinima, shooting it first with simple drawings and voice over to test the actual time each will take and adjust for the final version.
Al Supercharge: and what is that stationary talkiing head lipsink software called again ?
Please keep your mic muted, til you are in the ‘hotseat’ and called on to express your goals and ideas (either in voice or text) and then everyone can type up their suggestions on what the person brings up while in the hotseat.
Try to write as much as you can in one text block and please try to not critique in your response,but rather build on, offer suggestions and help work on the ‘hotseat’ ideas.
Adrianne Lexico: is it really hot? ha ha ha, sorry! just kidding
Frans Charming: btw, if you trouble hearing some one, hover over their name, click the i icon that popups and you will get a info box with a volume slider.
Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks Frans
Opal Lei
if you want to be in the hotseat – touch the object and that will put you in a line to be in the hot seat and talk on your project ideas/goals. Feel free to grab a chair up here while on the hotseat.
Letty Pienaar: I am creating teaching videos – stories or everyday situations inserting questions and tasks. My aim is to get as many people interested in Second Life. So the videos should trigger interest
Opal Lei
Letty’s idea is to create stories for teaching purposes, for language teaching and main goal is to get people involved in learning SL and teaching languages. thanks Letty
Ozma Malibu: Where do you teach, Letty? What is your audience like? (thanks Frans!)
Adrianne Lexico: age groups? what do you teach? proficiency levels? kids, teens, adults?
Adrianne Lexico: teach English? as a foreign language?
Adrianne Lexico: So Machinima could take place in Berlin SL for instance as an immersive environment
Frans Charming: Or since you are teaching English do it in a English enviroment, Like Londen.
Adrianne Lexico: totally
Ozma Malibu: I have found that with new technology, it helps if I figure out the interests of the students and use those interests to grab their attention by showing them what they could do that relates to their examples.
Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes, there are several virtual environments already existing in Second Life, such as the Berlin project sims, or some of the city based sims within Second Life that you can use as your machinima backdrops while filming
Adrianne Lexico: I think she could then create a story with an itinerary, a tourist traveling from London to Berlin or viceversa?
Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes Adrianne, if anyone has SLurls to those sims, please share
Opal Lei: Do you have some of these stories already available, Letty?
Opal Lei: Maybe you can use one of them for your video.
Opal Lei: What is your goal for the specific machinima that you’re making for the contest, Letty?
Letty Pienaar: spreading SL to a wider audience
Adrianne Lexico: You have a beautiful voice, Letty! Lovely music choice as well!
Lynne (yt.upsilon): Remember you always need the sim owners permission to film.
Rhiannon Chatnoir: that is another thing you can ask in the machinima groups, on places that might be good to film in and always good to credit their locations in your video once you get permission
Adrianne Lexico: always credit!
Opal Lei: Less than 5 minutes left.
Rhiannon Chatnoir: the contest Opal is referring to is the TechSoup Digital Storytelling challenge, a great opportunity to share your work/mission in a focused way. DId anyone submit a machinima video last year or for prior TechSoup Digital storytelling challenges? I know Ozma and I submitted a joint one last year – on the Helios Education project she led – http://youtu.be/-VyWMRmTyT4
Lynne (yt.upsilon): I didn’t even know about the contest, sorry.
Letty Pienaar: neither did I
Rhiannon Chatnoir: you can find out more on it at http://tsdigs.org, 90 second video on your org/project that TechSoup does yearly
Adrianne Lexico: Watching your YouTube vids now 🙂
Letty Pienaar: 🙂
Adrianne Lexico: well explained and prepared, clear, friendly…
Letty Pienaar: I only posted the ones submitted in English not the German ones 😉
Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks Letty
Opal Lei: Hi, Lynne!
Lynne (yt.upsilon): What I “want” to do with Machinima is similar to Letty, but with a twist. I wish to support the people I help to learn English (adult ESL learners) but I want to get them involved too.
Lynne (yt.upsilon): Using my forums and sessions as inspiration I want to use machinima to illustrate points of English that are difficult to grasp without visual impact, but in a fun way.
Lynne (yt.upsilon): I have filmed some drama sessions in SL, but it takes sooo long.
Lynne (yt.upsilon): (Eventually I want them to create their own machinima too as I believe being creative beats simply consuming.) That’s my blurb. 🙂
Rhiannon Chatnoir: what do you think are your biggest needs – you mention on getting the process cleaner/neater
Rhiannon Chatnoir: do you have a link up online of your videos?
Letty Pienaar: That is a brilliant idea Lynne to separate voice from film.
Letty Pienaar: I have tried it and it worked well. to use Skype
Rhiannon Chatnoir: I have used skype for audio, or have captured in SL voice too.. that can be trickier depending on your camera angles, speakers volume, etc
Rhiannon Chatnoir: think most are coming from that angle here – using machinima for a project or promote their org or cause
Opal Lei: This suggestion is also for anyone who already has videos: You can rework/reedit what you already have and just do a collage of exiting video clips.
Rhiannon Chatnoir: if anyone here has captured audio for machinima or otherwise,how are you doing that? Through SL voice, skype or?
Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): if its just voice overlays you can use moviemaker you can actually record the audio while the video is playing in the program so you can get the timing correct
Letty Pienaar: Quality is better in Vimeo some people say
Opal Lei: I think there are more people in YouTube if you want to reach more people
Adrianne Lexico: I agree with Opal re. YouTube vs. Vimeo
Beth Ghostraven: Can you use Google Hangouts to record, too?
Opal Lei: Yes, Beth, I think so too.
Letty Pienaar: good idea, Lynne!
Lynne (yt.upsilon): 🙂
Rhiannon Chatnoir: there are other online video sites like Vimeo or blip.tv, they were set apart earlier on by allowing larger file sizes, in HD, etc. .. but over time YouTube has caught up to allowing this too. Though if you have a regular account and have that time limit.
Rhiannon Chatnoir: I love the idea of using the words rhubarb and banana repeated for SL lip movements
Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): google owns youtube so you are actually using youtube when using google hangouts
Rhiannon Chatnoir: that is another way to get video of an interview if you used Google hangouts
Letty Pienaar: 😉
Opal Lei: Thank you, Lynne!
Letty Pienaar: Thanks Lynne
Rhiannon Chatnoir: we should wrap up here… thank you Opal!
Opal Lei: I’ll stick around for a while if you have questions.
Adrianne Lexico: Thank YOU, Opal!!!
Zinnia Zauber: Thank you Opal!
Lynne (yt.upsilon): Thank you. I will explore the links.
Beth Ghostraven: Thank you!
Adrianne Lexico: Terrific presentation!!! A mini LECTURE on machinima for me!
Adrianne Lexico: Fantastic!
Ozma Malibu: That was wonderful. My mind is racing with ideas.
Adrianne Lexico: THANK YOU ALL!!!
Peggy Marconi (ruby.flanagan): Thank you for this fantastic presentation.
Adrianne Lexico: Thank you Rhiannon!!!
Letty Pienaar: thank you
Andy Evans: Really good session
Rhiannon Chatnoir: your welcome and thank you all for changing things up today and having us do voice during this 🙂
Join us this Friday, April 12th at Nonprofit Commons in Second Life to learn how machinima can enhance storytelling. Opal Lei returns to NPC to briefly talk about the process of creating machinima and to facilitate a mastermind group session, where you can exchange feedback about how to incorporate machinima in your organization or project’s storytelling.
Please note that Opal’s presentation will be partly in voice and partly in text, and feature a brainstorming session, so come ready to participate. Bring your ideas for the current TechSoup Digital Storytelling (http://tsdigs.org) challenge, whether you have them already fleshed out or not. Or just what you want to express in your machinima video. Get ideas, feedback, references, links, resources, and information from everyone in the group.
Prior to the meeting, please prepare a short paragraph that describes your organization and its goal, and another short paragraph about what your goals are for your video (i.e.: fundraising, awareness, documentation) and your vision for it (if you already have one).
Bio:
Opal Lei’s first machinima is a 30-second ad for her Mer Betta brand in 2010. Turning down an offer from a friend to produce it for her for a mere US$50, she chose to learn the basics of machinima filming in Second Life to create her own ad and immersed herself in a new form of creative expression. She helped film and edit MODA Primetime fashion shows and eventually taught machinima to new models at the MODA Modeling School. In 2012, she started two machinima series: “Talk, Like Dim Sum,” a talk show that is a follow-up to her book, and “Splo On The Go,” short clips which document the exhibits at the Splo Museum in SL.
8:45 am Mentors Central: JeroenFrans (Frans Charming in SL)
8:55 am *Featured Presentation: Opal Lei – Masterminding Your Machinima Story
9:45 am Open Mic / Announcements
* Please note, the featured presentation will be partly in voice and partly in text. Please arrive early (8:00 AM PDT) if you need any help setting up Second Life so you can use voice.
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.
Below is an edited transcript of the 4/5/13 NonProfit Commons in Second Life meeting, featuring Josephine Dorado (Josephine Junot in SL) talking on her recent work leading TechCamp international workshops and webinars for the US State Department on innovation, digital storytelling and leveraging games and virtual worlds for youth engagement.
Josephine Dorado is a social entrepreneur, strategist, producer, professor and Pilates instructor whose work focuses on innovation in hybrid online spaces. She was a Fulbright scholarship recipient and initiated the Kidz Connect program, which is a virtual cultural exchange program that connects youth internationally through creative collaboration and theatrical performance in virtual worlds. Josephine also received a MacArthur Foundation Award in Digital Media & Learning, and and continues to be involved with the Fulbright community as an officer of the Board of Directors in NY. She currently teaches at The New School and is the live events producer for This Spartan Life, a talk show inside the video game Halo. She balances her work in online spaces with her passion for teaching Pilates, combining a technology-infused life with a physical, embodied way of being.
Most recently, Josephine received the Selma Jeanne Cohen award for scholarly research in dance, recognizing her work using dance frameworks for online collaboration. Commissioned works include interdisciplinary productions for the ISEA and Romaeuropa Festivals as well as speaking engagements at SXSW, IgniteNYC, SIGGRAPH, PICNIC (Amsterdam), and IPZ (Istanbul). Her experience focuses on the convergence of physical with digital, arts with technology, and games with calls to action. She delights in architecting innovative transmedia experiences inspired by the collaborative methodologies behind games and theater.
Rhiannon Chatnoir: .. she is also an amazing friend/collaborator – start whenever your ready Josephine 🙂
XonEmoto: Welcome Josephine:)
Zinnia Zauber: Rah Josephine!
Beth Ghostraven applauds
Andy Evans: Compliments gratefully accepted
Josephine Junot: Thanks, Rhiannon! 🙂 Thanks, all!
Hi, all! I know some of you here – nice to see you all! Aw thanks for the kind words 🙂
As Rhiannon mentioned in the bio, I’m a social entrepreneur who’s been working with virtual worlds & virtual cultural exchange experiences for awhile now.
I initiated the Kidz Connect program in 2006, which is a virtual cultural exchange program that connected youth internationally through creative collaboration and theatrical performance in virtual worlds.
We used Teen Second Life in our first rendition of the program. In the virtual world, they created a hybrid virtual city which reflected the real life cities in which they lived (for example, a virtual city with aspects of both New York and Amsterdam), and then they created a story which they performed together in this hybrid virtual city.
Students creatively explore their own histories, and through innovative approaches to identity exploration, such as avatar role-playing and other theater-based activities, students engage in cross-cultural learning and interaction, playing the game of constructing who they are and making a mixed reality performance based on their interactions.
So mixed reality, avatar roleplaying & collaborative performance were at the heart of this program. In our pilot program, participants connected and created with other students in New York and Amsterdam via video streaming and in Teen Second Life.
This is a screenshot of the first meeting in which the New York and Amsterdam students met each other inside Second Life. In this shot, you can see them watching the video stream from NY which is being broadcast into our virtual performance space inside Second Life.
Frans Charming sees his alterego on the left.
Josephine Junot: heh – yes, Frans & Rhiannon were a big part of it – thx!
We also used other virtual worlds like MetaPlace (when it existed). AT the core of it, were ideals around ‘opening a window’ to another culture.
Lately, I & my collaborator Chris Burke have been working in Halo. We produce a talk show n Halo called This Spartan Life.
Beth Ghostraven: What is Halo?
LoriVonneLustre: cool
Josephine Junot: Halo is a first-person shooter game (video game).
Rhiannon Chatnoir: and on the Xbox gaming platform – they would record the show in
Josephine Junot: We don’t use it as a shooter game tho – but as a social space for a talk show.
http://about.me/ThisSpartanLife. Yes, we record the show in Halo & post it as a webisode and also produce it as a live mixed reality show for conferences
Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): goes and researches how to record stuff from xbox
DianthaPetrov: lol
Josephine Junot: Lately, I’ve been doing TechCamps, which are an initiative of the State Dept & Hillary Clinton, to assist civil society organizations worldwide by building their digital capacities
This is a shot from TechCamp Mumbai
They bring in trainers for different topics, and I focused on leveraging v-worlds & games for youth engagement
Kali Pizzaro: excellent
Josephine Junot: In the shot, my session’s participants are showing off their ‘game plans’
based on Nicole Lazzaro’s game plan strategy – http://4k2f.com (4 Keys to Fun)
Next shot is of someone’s game plan: you think about what kind of game you want, what audience it’s intended for & what effect /social action you want from it (players, cause, change)
Beth Ghostraven: sounds like Serious Games
Josephine Junot: yes, same principles
Each TechCamp is different, because you touch base with NGO execs & build a solution around them.
This shot is from a TechCamp Ukraine webinar we held in Google Hangout.
DianthaPetrov: I love Google Hangout… such a useful tool
Josephine Junot: me too!
I had been to a previous TechCamp Ukraine in Kyiv, Donetsk, and Kharkiv and then we followed up with participants’ action plans thru the Google Hangout webinar
I think we’re coming up on time, aren’t we? So l’ll wrap up.
The idea is to inspire ideas & action plans at the TechCamps, then follow-up with participants through these virtual platforms.
ok, so I’ll pause here for questions.
Sister (sister.abeyante): Question- did your TechCamps have a prerequisite skill level for participants? In other words, did participants have to be tech savvy before they could participate?
Josephine Junot: Nope, they are meant for NGO teams, teachers, social workers, etc of all skill levels. We give presentations first – on different topics like mapping, facebook, games, multi-platform journalism etc & then we hold sessions with the particpants to get an idea of how we can tailor solutions around them
Tab Scott: How would you compare SL and then using Halo for your work?
Josephine Junot: Halo is quite different. It’s really about “re-purposing” Halo to make it a social talk show space. Not as customizable as SL, but the gain is that you attract gamers that are a totally different audience.
Sister (sister.abeyante): And, another question related to capacity- where/how did you get hardware capable of doing this? Was it already onsite where you went?
Josephine Junot: @Sister – on capacity – since TechCamps are run by the State Dept they handle all of the sponsorship (there’s sponsorship from many orgs).
Andy Evans: Do the tech camps have goals? e.g. to generate marketable products or services
Josephine Junot: @Andy – the main goals for TechCamps are to teach people about different technologies & to help them to build action plans & solutions that further their missions
Andy Evans: Very good, thanks
Josephine Junot: Often times, since the TechCamps are usually held in emergent/developing cities, you’re also dealing with shifting perceptions, i.e., in Ukraine, we held a session ion integrating educational games into the Ukrainian school system – and the first step was getting the teachers to think entrepreneurially
Kali Pizzaro: how was the Internet access did that pose any challenges in Mumbai or was that not an issue
Josephine Junot: Internet access was excellent in Ukraine & ok in the conference hotel in Mumbai but outside of that was challenging (there was a bombing i Hyderabad the week before & I think they shut down a lot of public wifi nodes)
Kali Pizzaro: thanks
Josephine Junot: They’ve held TechCamps in places like Kazakhstan, Moldova, Fiji, Throughout Africa, etc too
Kali Pizzaro: sure so not insurmountable
Sister (sister.abeyante) wishes there was a similar effort in the challenged urban areas of the USA…
LoriVonneLustre: thinking the same thing Sister
Eyem Beck: agree with Sister and would add very rural areas….
Dancers Yao: yes..great need in US urban and rural areas.
Josephine Junot: @Sister – yes good pt
Rhiannon Chatnoir: and you can always resort to pen/paper prototyping of ideas/games would think … though poses questions on implementation of ideas for the NGOs if their access or tech skills might be limited
Sister (sister.abeyante): @ Rhiannon- exactly what I was thinking… the digital divide rears its head…
Rhiannon Chatnoir: there are some interesting orgs in the US that do work on youth engagement through games, media, etc.. check out Global Kids in NYC http://olp.globalkids.org
Josephine Junot: totally agree on the thoughts around rural outreach. TechCampstho were specifically around int’l outreach
Kali Pizzaro: Did you find a change to the students confidence before and after and how did you measure it
Josephine Junot: Yes, well – have run out of time but rest of slide deck shows some of the slides that I usually show – including more deets on the strategy/4 keys to fun & some examples
Rhiannon Chatnoir: thank you Josephine – I unlocked the presentation for those that want to peruse and if you can share online we will link to. Let’s thank Josephine for presenting today.
Josephine Junot: thanks, all!
VeriOddfellow: /applause
LoriVonneLustre: Thanks so much!
Andy Evans: Great presentation!
Sister (sister.abeyante): Great and thought provoking presentation!
Beth Ghostraven: Thank you!!
VeriOddfellow: Great stuff … your passport must look like a where’s where!
XonEmoto: THANK YOU :))) Great Talk!
Gaius Primmius (vanettda.lassard): thanks!
Kali Pizzaro: excellent work
Tab Scott: Thank you Josephine! clap clap clap
Eyem Beck: Thank you all.
jacmacaireHumby: Bravo!!
Dancers Yao: Thank you
Kali Pizzaro: 🙂
Frans Charming applauds
Em Ellsmere: applauds!
DianthaPetrov: thank you, Josephine! so inspiring
Andy Evans: Sound of virtual hands clapping
Serene Jewell: Great projects!
Kali Pizzaro: do you have any papers? links?
Josephine Junot: My pleasure! yes, here’s my site http://funksoup.com (thotechcamp stuff is not yet on it – need to update! 🙂
josephine AT funksoup.com & @funksoup on Twitter.
Feel free to ping me for any further thoughts – must run – thank you!
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
This Friday, April 5th, Nonprofit Commons is happy to feature Josephine Dorado (Josephine Junot in Second Life) who will report on her recent work leading TechCamp international workshops and webinars for the US State Department on innovation, digital storytelling and leveraging games and virtual worlds for youth engagement.
Bio:
Josephine Dorado is a social entrepreneur, strategist, producer, professor and Pilates instructor whose work focuses on innovation in hybrid online spaces. She was a Fulbright scholarship recipient and initiated the Kidz Connect program, which is a virtual cultural exchange program that connects youth internationally through creative collaboration and theatrical performance in virtual worlds. Josephine also received a MacArthur Foundation Award in Digital Media & Learning, and and continues to be involved with the Fulbright community as an officer of the Board of Directors in NY. She currently teaches at The New School and is the live events producer for This Spartan Life, a talk show inside the video game Halo. She balances her work in online spaces with her passion for teaching Pilates, combining a technology-infused life with a physical, embodied way of being. Most recently, Josephine received the Selma Jeanne Cohen award for scholarly research in dance, recognizing her work using dance frameworks for online collaboration. Commissioned works include interdisciplinary productions for the ISEA and Romaeuropa Festivals as well as speaking engagements at SXSW, IgniteNYC, SIGGRAPH, PICNIC (Amsterdam), and IPZ (Istanbul). Her experience focuses on the convergence of physical with digital, arts with technology, and games with calls to action. She delights in architecting innovative transmedia experiences inspired by the collaborative methodologies behind games and theater.
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.
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.
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
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
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Below is an edited transcript of the 3/15/13 NonProfit Commons in Second Life meeting, featuring Jim Lynch.
Today for our featured presentation we have Jim Lynch, Director of GreenTech for TechSoup Global.
Bio: Jim Lynch, Director of GreenTech, TechSoup Global
Over his long career at TechSoup Global, Jim Lynch has been involved in creating all of TechSoup’s environmental programs. Mr. Lynch leads TechSoup Global’s work to develop the computer refurbishment and reuse field in the United States and internationally. He has provided testimony on the humanitarian portion of the field to the U.S International Trade Commission. He has also participated in the creation and refinement of standards for the U.S. electronics recycling industry.
Mr. Lynch also directs TechSoup’sGreenTech program, which promotes technology and practices that reduce the IT environmental impact and carbon footprint of nonprofits, NGOs, and libraries worldwide.
Jim Lynch designed, in cooperation with Microsoft, the Community Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher Program for the Americas, which distributes low-cost Windows and Office software to recyclers and refurbishers. In 2005 he also started TechSoup’s Refurbished Computer Initiative, which supplies low-cost warrantied refurbished computers to U.S. nonprofits and libraries. His interest in computer recycling and nonprofit social enterprise began when he created and ran homeless education programs and computer training labs in the 1980s.
Jim Lynch has been interviewed extensively over the years on computer recycling and related issues by the Wall St. Journal, National Public Radio, PC World Magazine, and many other news outlets.
You can start when you are ready Jim
Glitteractica Cookie: And he’s been at TechSOup longer than I have! How long, Jimmy?
originaljimlynch: Happy Ides of March everyone! I’m originalJimlynch (Jim Lynch in the straight boring world), and this is my 1st time on 2nd Life. I’m TechSoup’s Green IT guy.
Let’s see I’ve been toiling away at Techsoup lo these 17 years
First off let me apologize for this presentation. It’s the one I presented (verbatim) to members of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on February 13th this year. The briefing was called “Turning E-Waste into Green (as in cash)”. It turned out that this was a briefing mostly for new members of the committee to get them up to speed in this environmental issue
The policy folks from the American Chemical Society invited me to present to Congress on “U.S. E-Waste Environmental Policy”. The American Chemical Society is a big trade association for chemists and chemical companies. They asked me to the dance because TechSoup has been a staunch advocate for electronics recycling and especially reputable refurbishment and reuse for 10 years now. It’s the grand missionary passion of my life.
Slide 2
You all probably know all about TechSoup Global’s mission to do whatever we can to provide the IT resources and knowledge that charities, NGOs, and libraries need. It’d be silly to reiterate that! What’s far less known is that we’ve long had an environmental mission to reclaim a bunch of the electronics out there that are getting wasted in our throw-away societies. The UN estimates that less than 10% of the world’s discarded computers and mobile phones are getting recycled in any way.
JimboWelles: (great school project would be a consistent collection of these items)
originaljimlynch: Great idea, Jimbo. Lots of schools do stuff around this type of recycling
It’s actually not our first time advocating for charities and libraries in high places like the U.S. Congress. Our Susan Tenby testified a few years ago on behalf of 2nd Life. When I got the invitation I decided to go for it – to make an appeal for “humanitarian electronics recycling and refurbishment.” Perhaps I should explain.
Slide 3
This is just the list of the stuff I covered in the 10 minute presentation
Slide 4
Don’t you hate it when people just read thru a presentation?
“Discarded electronics devices are one of the fastest growing parts of the solid waste stream.”
“About 27% of discarded electronics are recycled nationwide”
KomiSilverfall: why are such a low amount of electronics being recycled? Can’t they be reused?
originaljimlynch: Ah, reuse. We’ll get to that…
Our 27% recycling rate is up 9 percentage points from 2008, so at least in the U.S. we’re making some progress. Any idea which country has the highest recycling rate?
South Korea (85%) followed closely by Japan and Taiwan (both at 75%)
Gentle Heron re-asks Komi’s question: Why is the US so lagging in recycling electronics?
originaljimlynch: Any idea of the lowest?
KomiSilverfall: Africa
Jen (jenelle.levenque): UK
JimboWelles: its a space issue- USA has lots of space for landfills
Panny (panny.bakerly): Money?
originaljimlynch: A large share of the world is down around 1% – all of Africa and much of Latin America and Asia.
Why is the US lagging places like Korea?
Slide 5
This summary of what U.S. electronics recycling policy is composed of was the hardest part of this to boil down
The patchwork of 25 state laws – is obviously half the country, but it’s the big populous states. The problem is that all the state laws are different. Most state laws use the ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ model
I think you’ll see in all this that the policy stuff is kind of a mess and Congressional gridlock is basically why we don’t have a unified collection system like Japan and Europe.
JimboWelles: “the USA right to pollute” also- and to buy, use, throw away
KomiSilverfall: November 15 was America Recycles Day, and a great reminder about how important recycling is not only for the environment, but for jobs and the economy as well.
JimboWelles: yes
originaljimlynch: The jobs thing – that was mainly what the folks in Congress wanted to hear about
Marching on: The 2011 National Strategy for Electronics Stewardship – this is an Obama administration policy to push on the recycling industry to adopt environmental standards voluntarily and for the Federal government to buy energy efficient IT equipment, and encourage better designed electronic devices that are easily repaired and easier to recycle (called demanufacturing)
The Federal Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Electronics Challenge – this is the latest US EPA initiative aimed at original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and retailers to use certified recyclers. OEMs are on the hook in most states with laws to cover the takeback costs of recycling. The government doesn’t want them to take shortcuts by using cheap or disreputable recyclers
The R2 (Responsible Recycling) and E-Stewards certification programs – These are dueling recycling standards. R2 is the EPA initiated and largely industry-oriented stakeholder one that is now led by the industry trade association called ISRI. E-Stewards is the environmentalist led standard that prohibits exports of e-waste to most of the world. It is led by the environmentalist organization, Basel Action Network (BAN) in Seattle. Both standards are recognized by the Obama administration as being reputable.
Innumerable local, state, and federal environmental regulations – these are mostly landfill bans – the precursor to recycling laws. It turns out that municipalities are left with most of the costs to dispose of or to recycle all types of stuff that is thrown away, and that money comes from garbage collection, landfill and ‘tipping fees’.
The upshot of all this: There is no Federal law regulating electronics disposal and material recovery.
The latest effort was the 2011 Responsible Electronics Recycling Act (HR 2284 / S1270) – this bill failed in the last Congress. It will probably be reintroduced, but has little chance of getting to a floor vote in the Republican led House. It is mainly the policy position of the E-Stewards oriented environmentalists.
JimboWelles: could a municipality actually make money collecting recycleable tech?
Gentle Heron: Jimbo, the better question is: Would the recycling income be more than the cost of running the recycling program, or less than the cost of trashing the stuff?
originaljimlynch: Jimbo great question – it’s a loss unless there’s a law that subsidizes it. A scrapped computer that is ground down in to metal plastic and glass is worth about $3
The better money is in repairing and reusing this stuff – way more
JimboWelles: nods. show us how!
KomiSilverfall: In the U.S., 40-50 percent of raw materials come from recycled scrap. And although businesses make up a large amount of scrap recycling in general, recycled precious metals come in large part from consumer electronics.
JimboWelles: bingo
JimboWelles: and the jobs stay HERE
originaljimlynch: Nice! I didn’t know that stat.
Here’s a bit more about how the money works in this field: Slide 6 General Industry Characteristics
1,500 end-of-life electronics recycling companies in the US (I call them shredders)
1,400 IT asset disposal and refurbishment companies – 30% are noncommercial (Microsoft Registered Refurbisher Program)
The industry has two sides:
– End-of-life processing – the largest company is Sims Recycling Solutions
– IT Asset Disposal and Refurbishment – the largest company is Arrow Electronics
Most of the larger electronics recycling companies and refurbishers are now certified under R2 or E-Stewards – mostly R2 by around a 3 to 1 ratio
Because of persistent press about foreign e-waste dumping, the industry is eager to be reputable
Here’s the jobs bit: Job Creation Potential. It is a relatively high wage industry. Electronics recycling and refurbishment jobs tend to stay in the country and are regarded as green jobs. In the U.S., repair and refurbishment of electronics can create 200 times as many jobs as landfilling.
JimboWelles: can the costs be sustained by the income generation? ie. can a company make money on it
originaljimlynch: Repair and refurbishment creates around 10 times more jobs than shredding which relies on big machines
Companies do make money. Shredders need big volume though. The bottleneck in all this is that we’re bad at doing collections, Less than 10% of discarded cell phones are collected here in the US
Here’s the NPC angle: Slide 7 – Humanitarian Electronics Recycling and Refurbishment is the sweet spot for us
The industry is also active in providing low-cost computers to U.S. low-income families, schools, libraries and job training centers – the largest is Connect2Compete, but there are hundreds of others.
The Goodwill-Dell Reconnect Program has around 2,600 collection locations. Twenty-three entire states now covered, and 17 partial states are covered. It is mainly a free collection program for consumer electronics and collects several million pounds of electronics per year. It essentially offers free R2 or E-Stewards processing. Each Goodwill collection program is able to divert a portion of its collection for reuse and resale.
The Microsoft Registered Refurbisher Program provides very low-cost Windows and Office licensing to encourage this digital inclusion work. TechSoup worked with MSFT to develop that program in the early roaring zeroes (early 2000s)
These guys are my big heroes: U.S. based nonprofit programs like Interconnection in Seattle and World Computer Exchange in Boston are showing the way toward responsible export to many developing countries, mainly to schools in Latin America and Africa. Schools there badly need and want good used IT equipment. There are plenty of cheap (mostly Chinese) cell phones in places like Africa, but schools and NGOs there really want affordable laptops.
We advocate for a national law that is like the one in Illinois. It is notable because it has incentives for routing appropriate discarded electronics toward refurbishment, which is a higher form of recycling than material recovery, and would greatly increase the supply of good used IT equipment to charities, schools, libraries, and low-income families in the US and elsewhere.
JimboWelles: but eventually they need to be recycled somehow
Widget Whiteberry wonders about practices in California …. given the size of the state, good practices in CA could have an impact.
originaljimlynch: I think the install base on PCs is currently 1.2 billion and cell phones around 5 billion in use. 90% are not recycled in any way
Slide 8
I think I covered the certification rivalry between R2 and E-Stewards. I expect that within the next couple of years they’ll end up merging to become a single world standard. These voluntary standards tend to be a stepping-stone toward creating a proper recycling system. About 35 countries in the world have national recycling systems and the rest of the 160 odd countries don’t have systems, most notably China and India, and even the US and Canada. We’ll be participating in an event in June to introduce them to the African industry.
Slide 9: Resources: Probably the single best one to look at is the nonprofit National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER)
That’s me if you wanna chat more about all this
Glitteractica Cookie: but you could also just email community@techsoup or nonprofitcommons@techsoup and one of us will fwd to jim
Rhiannon Chatnoir: great, any questions for Jim?
Buffy Beale: Question: Is there anything we nonprofits can do to help the cause?
Widget Whiteberry: Question: Have you looked specifically at California?
originaljimlynch: Yes! There’s a group we’re part of called the Electronics Takeback Coalition
LoriVonne Lustre: Very informative. A world standard is needed.
Komi Silverfall: how does the organization thrive if their is no profits coming in??
Glitteractica Cookie: Question: which is the most reliable company to recycle phones? I am always a little dubious of those dropboxes in shopping malls that offer you money for your used phone. is that real and would it be recycled?
originaljimlynch: Great question. There’s lots of scamming still in charity cell phone recycling. The biggest and most reputable company doing it is called Recellular
Thanks for having me here in 2nd Life finally!
ray2009 Hazelnut: What about electronic bits that don’t work anymore, TVs, watches, radios?
originaljimlynch: The little bits… a huge question I don’t think I can type fast enough.
Rhiannon Chatnoir: more than happy if you want to add any extra information to post to our NPC blog
Jimbo Welles: (you are doing fine Jim)
Rhiannon Chatnoir: Yes, great that you could come into SL to join us all and thank you for your presentation
Buffy Beale: hearty applause! Thanks Jim and look forward to the day it’s a world standard
