Author: Nonprofit Commons

Below is an edited transcript of the 4/19/13 NonProfit Commons in Second Life meeting, featuring the nonprofit Protect Yourself 1 (PY!), who discussed their social media and virtual world projects focusing on HIV/AIDS prevention and environmental awareness.

 

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. 

 • http://protectyourself1.org 

 • http://twitter.com/Py1US

 

To view the full transcript, go to: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xacGekQRXQrczFdnmrr4GQBkOONjNFr1aI5vImxuetY/edit 

 

Chayenn: Good morning everyone

 

 

          Buffy Beale: clapping and cheering

          Zinnia Zauber: Rah! Rah! Rah!

          Zotarah Shepherd of BEACH College claps.

          Andy Evans: Good morning!

          Coughran Mayo applaudss

 

Chayenn: This presentation will be recorded by chrisrenaud,

jacmacaire Humby: Hi everyone

Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau) waves hello

 

Chayenn: Today we will present the PY1 programs and services In support of Earth Day, April 22, 2013

 

I would like to introduce you to liltank thibedeau – Ricky Davis, PY1 Social Media Director (best DJ) and jacmacaire humby – Jacques Macaire, PY1 Sustainable Development Director , who joined PY1 in 2012 to develop the BE A PROTECTOR Campaign

 

          Zinnia Zauber: Rah!

          Zinnia Zauber: Rah!

          Coughran Mayo: He IS the best DJ, that’s true

 

Chayenn: PY1 is a media-driven agency with a focus on providing HIV Awareness, Education and Prevention in innovative ways. PY1 has a history of development and implementation of social marketing media campaigns and services in Baltimore, Maryland and nationally.

 

In 2011, Sarvana Haalan convinced PY1 to join NPC /Second Life, Techsoup donated a space, Hydra Shaftoe built PY1 office on NonProfit Commons, and many avatars-friends contributed to PY1 virtual presence….

 

To have created a virtual office gave an opportunity to PY1 to network, collaborate, create events, fundraise, entertain, educate and promote its programs and services. Thanks to TechSoup, PY1 is exploring and utilizing the virtual world, Second Life, to forward its mission: HIV and STD Awareness, Education and Prevention, globally.

 

PY1 is a non-profit organization whose stated mission is to educate people about HIV/AIDS and related diseases. 

Exploitation of the environment has lead 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 the issues we are committed to developing and sharing specific actions to:

• PROTECT YOUR LIFE 
• PROTECT WILD LIFE 
• PROTECT YOUR PLANET

 

now i let Tank present our programs

 

          Zinnia Zauber: Rah Tank!

          Buffy Beale: waves hi

 

Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): thank you Chayenn and hello to everyone. I will be introducing and overview of the campaigns of protect yourself 1.org

 

PROTECT YOUR LIFE 

• Safe2Live: a social marketing media campaign targeting youth 8 – 13
• Great2Know: a college tour targeting young adults 16 – 24
• Protect Yourself: a media campaign targeting adults
• http://www.protectyourself1.org/ – py1.org

 

Safe2Live© Campaign uses:

• a Public Service Announcement 
• the Mobile Puppet Theater 
• our website, safe2Live.org
• a virtual world presence in JokaydiaGrid

 

as accessible outreach tools, for engaging and educating the most vulnerable demographic and target audience: youth ages 8-13.

 

Safe2Live© Campaign uses:

• a Public Service Announcement 
• the Mobile Puppet Theater 
• our website, safe2Live.org
• a virtual world presence in JokaydiaGrid

 

as accessible outreach tools, for engaging and educating the most vulnerable demographic and target audience: youth ages 8-13.

 

We believe that, by adapting Safe2Live intervention to a virtual world format, we have created a cost-effective and proven model, that can serve many more youth, not just in the Washington-Baltimore corridor, but literally anywhere.

 

Great2Know uses S.T.E.M., live speakers, music, video, DJ performances, social media networks to bring HIV awareness & testing to colleges around the nation.

 

The Protect Yourself Campaign is designed to impact adults and seniors with positive messages of responsibility and awareness, through various media, 

including a 5-minute Protect Yourself music video, a 30-second Public Service Announcement, and the multi-lingual Stop Signs Project.

 

The Project Arrowhead service encourages awareness and education for all youth, especially those living in high-risk areas where HIV and related diseases have an alarming infection rate. 

 

The service, using hands-on activities involving horses, yoga, health education, nature and ecology, delivers an overall message of social and personal awareness and responsibility, which helps youth to develop a sense of mutual respect for themselves, and the iconic wild Mustang.

 

We are currently using jokaydia grid to proved hiv aids awareness to youth in maryland and soon in africa and using social media to connect with college studens through science, technology enigeenering and mathematics (Stem) in a college tour

 

Chayenn: Yes the Jesuit’s association invited PY1 to Kenya to train educators and implement safe2live in 7 countries

 

Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): and now we will have jac for the earth day portion

 

          Zinnia Zauber: Rah Jac!

          Buffy Beale: cheering!

 

jacmacaire Humby: Hi everyone, Before I begin, I would like to ask you due to the difficulty of language, and in case you want to ask me questions, if you could do it after my speech, or by email or IM..

 

Thank you, it will be gentle.. I hope you don’t mind..

 

So.. Thank you for your invitation, and congratulations again to the organizers for all the work they do to prepare each week this friday’s meeting..

 

For those, who don’t know me, I’m Jacques Macaire, the Sustainable Human Development Director for PROTECT YOURSELF1 in U.S.A. http://www.protectyourself1.org and responsible of the campaign BE A PROTECTOR http://www.beaprotector.org

 

So, as you know, we can no longer ignore this reality.. The world with the wonders that it contains is unfortunately not expandable.. And to leave Earth to colonize Mars or other galaxies is not yet possible.. for now… So, we have no other choice than to do with this world and its limits..

 

That’s why THE EARTH DAY was created…

 

Some were not probably be born, but the first EARTH DAY http://youtu.be/WbwC281uzUs began April 22, 1970, and activated 20 million Americans from all backgrounds and has contributed to the launch movement for the defense of the environment. It’s from this point that laws such as the “CLEAN WATER ACT”, as well as many other innovative environmental laws have been possible.

 

Today, EARTH DAY is celebrated in more than 192 countries. More than 1 billion people now participate in the activities of EARTH DAY each year, making it the largest civic demonstration in the world. So feel free today to join the movement EARTH DAY 2013 http://youtu.be/s1cG_T0s280 or start to act at http://act.earthday.org/

 

You can also help to build a global mosaic, by including your face and leaving a message at to http://www.earthday.org/2013/

 

But this celebration of Earth Day Network must not stop there… You must use this day to ask if there would be no easy way to change..

 

You especially need to tell you, even if today is an important day, how to imagine what you could do during the other days of the year.. How are you going to decide today, what will affect you, your children, and all of us..

 

There are thousands of things to do to encourage the politics or the industry to move to a green economy, to inform or to inspire people to take action to ensure a healthy future, etc..

 

But you can, and that’s why I’m here today as well, join PROTECT YOURSELF1 http://www.protectyourself1.org , where we have created especially for you, the campaign BE A PROTECTOR http://www.beaprotector.org to offer you the opportunity to engage you locally, nationally or globally.

 

We’re still not quite ready, but the campaign BE A PROTECTOR http://www.beaprotector.org works to expand the definition of that called “sustainable environment” to include all matters that affect both the environment and our health, but also the things that affect us even closer, which are the economic and social aspects, through the creation of green jobs and investment..

 

Education will be, of course, a big part of our work.. Indeed, we are currently creating a map, where you could be part of a global movement of PROTECTORS who will work to protect our planet and humanity, and where you will become also a problem solver and an inspiration for everyone.

 

By adding your PIN on our map, you’ll show the strength that represent PROTECTORS and thus meet and interact with others like you, who wished to join the movement..

 

We will help you to create what we call an “INITIATIVE” and we will push you to train your family and friends to become co-actors.. You could meet our “TRAINERS” virtually, to start these initiatives.. And most importantly, we will teach you how to become yourself a TRAINER, to grow and help others to create their own initiatives

 

It’s time to create a common vision for a better and safer future. Environmental sustainability is possible if we all work together to change our thinking and our bad habits.

 

To join our efforts or learn more about becoming an active participant in the initiative and connect with other communities in your area, don’t hesitate to contact us at info@beaprotector.org or feel free to IM jacmacaire humby for all the explanations which you will consider necessary If someone wants to help us to organize this, don’t hesitate to contact us..

 

Open to all suggestions, thank you again for your attention.. Have a nice day  🙂

 

Chayenn: sorry about the slide show it seems someone click on it. thank you all. do you have questions

 

          Zinnia Zauber: This is all wonderful, Chayenn! Thank you very much!

          Gentle Heron: Thank you all for presenting today.

          Buffy Beale: that’s fantastic, a great initiative Chay

 

Chayenn: thank you – we are a good team

 

          Lynne (yt.upsilon): How do you cope with people who really don’t care?

          Zinnia Zauber: Rah teamwork!

          Buffy Beale: Question: Did you meet here at the Nonprofit Commons and decide to work together on this?

 

Chayenn: yes, yes we did, to create a new program with JAcques and Tank works on Great2Know as social media director

 

          Buffy Beale: that’s great!

          Zinnia Zauber: Super!

          Jens Nerido: Thanks for your presentation…..I will share it with my network…

 

Chayenn: thank you, do not hesitate to contact us

jacmacaire Humby: Thank you.. 🙂

Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): I met chayenn a the mentors meeting and helped her set up protect yourself 1;s presence here . thanks Jac remember if you have any questions about earth day or sustainable development please email or IM Jac. If you would like a copy of the slide show please contact me or if you have any questions about using social media for your nonprofit you can contact me

 

          Dancers Yao: thank you for your work…excellent

          Buffy Beale: applauding!

          Zinnia Zauber: Rah Chayenn!

          Zotarah Shepherd applaudes

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: great – thanks everyone from Proftect Yourself 1 (PY1)

          Tori Landau applauds and many thanks

          Serene Jewell: Thanks for all the information.

 

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

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 (Tiltank Tibedeau in SL) and Sustainable Development Director Jacques Macaire (jacmacaire humby 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 (Draxtor Despres 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 Berhard Drax 

Bernhard Drax aka Draxtor Despres 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!

• http://draxtor.com/
• https://www.youtube.com/user/draxtordespres

 

Join us in Second Life!

 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, April 19th, 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 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.

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

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.

• http://www.youtube.com/user/OpalLei
• http://www.youtube.com/user/TalkLikeDimSum 
• http://www.youtube.com/user/SploOnTheGo 

 

 

          Zinnia Zauber: Rah Opal!

          Dancers Yao: claps

          Lynne (yt.upsilon): Yes.

          Andy Evans: yes!

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks Opal

          Adrianne Lexico: yes!

          Carol Rainbow (carolrb.roux): yes

          Dancers Yao: yes

          Panny (panny.bakerly): yes

          Carol Rainbow (carolrb.roux): morning

          Zinnia Zauber: yes

          Esparanza Freese: yes

          Lynne (yt.upsilon): Coffee.

          Red (talkwithmarie): lol

          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

          Adrianne Lexico: 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 NCH Photostage 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

 

          Beth Ghostraven: there’s a machinima group? 

          Andy Evans: Excuse me, it is http://www.fraps.com/

          Hazel (hazel.zapedzki): its not free

 

Opal Lei 

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.

• http://youtu.be/44nx6CzZFYI

 

          Al Supercharge: 1080p ?

          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 ?

          Al Supercharge: http://www.reallusion.com/ CRAZYTALK

 

Opal Lei

… moving on to the masterminding session

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.

 

          Letty Pienaar: Christel Schneider

          Letty Pienaar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPHTknDn9Fo

          Letty Pienaar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQO9TLdBTVM

          Letty Pienaar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km_afd0_dEI

          Adrianne Lexico: thanks, Letty!

 

Opal Lei: Yes!

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?

          Lynne (yt.upsilon): http://youtu.be/oTeuicnY74o

 

Opal Lei: Have you tried to record using Skype?

 

          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 🙂

 

 

Resources mentioned:

Photo slideshows:

• http://nchsoftware.com/slideshow

Music: 

• http://FreeMusicArchive.org

Actors and voiceovers: Mamachinima group in SL

Recording tools: 

• Fraps: http://Fraps.com

Editing:

• Sony Vegas: http://SonyCreativeSoftware.com (not free)
• Lightworks: http://lwks.com

 

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

And tag your avatars in any photos posted!

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

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.

• To view the full transcript, go to: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d-b2YaEveF0_6-YtcVUM2lP4jg-9vj8-t39iQpXtY30/edit?usp=sharing
• Slides are available at: http://www.slideshare.net/funksoup

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. 

• http://funksoup.comhttp://funksoup.com
• Twitter: @funksoup

 

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: .. she is also an amazing friend/collaborator – start whenever your ready Josephine 🙂

          Xon Emoto: 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?

          LoriVonne Lustre: 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

          Diantha Petrov: 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.

 

          Diantha Petrov: 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…

          LoriVonne Lustre: 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. TechCamps tho 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!

 

          Veri Oddfellow: /applause

          LoriVonne Lustre: Thanks so much!

          Andy Evans: Great presentation!

          Sister (sister.abeyante): Great and thought provoking presentation!

          Beth Ghostraven: Thank you!!

          Veri Oddfellow: Great stuff … your passport must look like a where’s where!

          Xon Emoto: 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.

          jacmacaire Humby: Bravo!!

          Dancers Yao: Thank you

          Kali Pizzaro: 🙂

          Frans Charming applauds

          Em Ellsmere: applauds!

          Diantha Petrov: 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 (tho techcamp 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!

 

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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

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

 – http://www.tsdigs.org

 

Bios:

Ale Bezdikian

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

 

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

 

Michael DeLong

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

 

 

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

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

 

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

 

alebez: Thanks, Rhi!

 

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

 

It’s that time again!

 

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

 

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

 

We need to ask ourselves, why storytelling?

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

It’s exciting, isn’t it?!

 

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes 🙂

          Buffy Beale: sure is!

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

 

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

 

I WOULD ENCOURAGE YOU TO THINK ABOUT WAYS TO:

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

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

 

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

 

          Andy Evans: Fiction? Non fiction?

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

          Frans Charming: yes both

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: what did you think of them Frans

          Buffy Beale: so interesting all these new apps coming out

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

 

alebez: Thanks for sharing, Frans!

 

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

 

alebez: I’ll get back to it.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

          Andy Evans: Beautiful

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

This is digital storytelling done right.

 

Here are a few more examples: 

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

 

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

 

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

 

TechSoup wants to close that gap.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

          Buffy Beale: that’s a great idea alebez!

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

alebez: As well as Lights. Camera. Help

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

alebez: Awesome sauce.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

          Zinnia Zauber: Super! Thank you guys!

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

 

alebez: That would fit in nicely.

 

          Andy Evans: Very interesting presentation… thanks!

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

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

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

 

bulaklak: Yes!

 

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

         Jen (jenelle.levenque): Yay Drive-In

          Andy Evans: hahaha

 

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

 

          Buffy Beale: fantastic

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

 

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

 

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

          CarynTopia Silvercloud: all very interesting

 

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

 

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

          Frans Charming applauds! Thanks Ale and Bulaklak

          Andy Evans: Yay

          Zinnia Zauber: Rah!

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

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

 – http://www.tsdigs.org

 

Bios:

Ale Bezdikian

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

 

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

 

Michael DeLong

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

 

 

Join us in Second Life!

 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

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

Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater

http://bit.ly/NPCinSL

 

 

AGENDA

• 8:30 am Introductions

• 8:40 am TechSoup Announcements

• 8:45 am Mentors Central

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

• 9:30 am Open Mic / Announcements

 

 

http://nonprofitcommons.org

 

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

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

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

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

 

Bio: Marnie Webb 

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

 

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

 

          Glitteractica Cookie: and my awesome boss!

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

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

          bulaklak Resident: hehehehe

 

 

MarnieWebb Resident: Hi. and thank you.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

          Sarvana Haalan: awesome!!

          Lowri Mills: Wow!

          01 Hifeng: interesting project, wow

 

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

          Namaara MacMoragh: thank you Marie for being here today 🙂

          Robo Mirabella: brava!!!

          Frans Charming applauds

          Zotarah Shepherd claps

          Glitteractica Cookie: applause

          bulaklak Resident: that was great!

          Buffy Beale: hearty applause!!

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

          jlmorin Resident: yay

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

          jlmorin Resident: applause

 

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

          Serene Jewell: Sounds like a great project.

          Lowri Mills: Excellent project

 

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes

 

 

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

 

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

 

 

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

 

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

 

 

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

 

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

 

 

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

 

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

 

 

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

          Sarvana Haalan: I do in Baltimore, MD

          Lyre Calliope: Aye!

          Rhiannon Chatnoir has

          Ozma Malibu: just once (to a hackathon)

          Glitteractica Cookie: that’s four of you so far

          Sarvana Haalan: Woot

          Serene Jewell: yes, have done

          Sarvana Haalan: awesome

 

 

          Lowri Mills: This is a global application?

 

MarnieWebb Resident: Lowri, you mean safenight?

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

          Glitteractica Cookie: I got it from your SL profile

 

 

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

          CarynTopia Silvercloud: look forward to continuing conversation

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

          Glitteractica Cookie: we’ve been in world since 2006

          Gentle Heron: Thanks Marnie

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

          Zotarah Shepherd: Thank you Marnie!

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

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

          Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes

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

 

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

 

---

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

 

And tag your avatars in any photos posted!

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

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

 

About Caravan Studios

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

 

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

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

 

Bio: Marnie Webb   

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

 

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

• https://twitter.com/webb

Join us in Second Life!

 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

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

Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater

http://bit.ly/NPCinSL

 

 

AGENDA

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

 

 

http://nonprofitcommons.org

 

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

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir