Author: Nonprofit Commons

On Friday April 1, we at the Nonprofit Commons had a great conversation with master machinimist IllBixby Cerveau / aka Frank Dellario in the real world, head of Pixel Valley Studios , formerly of Ill Clan Studios. He is an award-winner machinima producer, responsible for major digital video productions for CBS, MTV, and Intel among many others. IllBixby came by the Nonprofit Commons to talk with us about how nonprofits can benefit from professionally produced machinima , and how to think about this new medium.

Among some of IllBixby’s key points:

Why machinima is important for audiences outside of Second Life:

Second Life is an experience. Being here in this meeting for example, is a dynamic experience for us. But for someone outside of SL, we’re just standing around and I’m waving my hands on an imagionary keyboard. Machinimsts, we think of the final product, a flat, 2D video that we need to shoot, and edit so that it conveys to some degree this experience.

What machinima does for nonprofits:

The point [of machinima] is to convey, as best we can, the sense of “being” here to someone watching a video of what is an experience. [W]e think of what it will be like in the viewer’s chair sitting in front of a computer, watching your video on YouTube. The result is what we convey, and keeping them interested, intrigued, so they watch the whole video, and get your message.

Why he likes working with nonprofits:

Though the “big boys” may have lots of money, nonprofits are, for some reason, by nature, awesome clients . We know you have constraints. What we love about nonprofits, is they are always willing to talk, “Hey this is my budget, or we’re trying to to X, what do you suggest?” Maybe you just have existing footage, or one shot that we can shoot, that will help out your video project. So please, don’t feel limited in talking to us, machinimists in general, just because of your money constraints.

For more info see their website, contact Frank Dellario at frank@pixelvalleystudio.com, and follow them on twitter @pixelvalley.

Written by: rikomatic

This week we have a very special Nonprofit Commons meeting on Friday April 1 at 8:30am PST. We are fortunate enough to have two of the winners of the 2011 Federal Virtual World Challenge talking about their projects and the challenge, which was announced at the end of March. And we will also be joined by award-winning machinima producer Frank Dellario / SL : IllBixby Cerveau of Pixel Valley Studios , telling us about professional machinima production and nonprofits.

Agenda for Nonprofit Commons Meeting April 1, 2011

8:30 Introductions

8:40 Professional Machinima for Nonprofits – Frank Dellario, Pixel Valley Studios

9:00 Report on 2011 Federal Virtual World Challenge

Archivist Llewellyn and Curiousity Scientist, Curiousity AI

Anders Gronstedt, Hurricane Shelter Simulation

9:20 Discussion about Best Tools and Resources for Machinima – Rik (time permitting)

9:30 Open Mic

That’s tomorrow, April 1, starting at 8:30am PST at the Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater (teleport link.) See you all there!

Written by: rikomatic

While the Nonprofit Commons is a Second Life-based community, we are always interested in what is happening in the larger virtual world space, including OpenSim worlds and web-based worlds.  One of the most exciting developments is the new Kitely virtual world on-demand service.

I spent a few minutes today checking out the new “Kitely” that recently launched in public beta.  For nonprofits and educators, Kitely presents a new option for holding virtual events for up to 100 avatars at a fraction of the cost it would take rent similar space in Second Life.

Here are some of the principal features:

• Inexpensive: Kitely charges based on a very reasonable $0.20 per user per hour. So a 100 person event that lasted an hour would cost just $20.  A similar event in Second Life might easily cost you hundreds of dollars to rent.  There is no setup fee, and a very modest storage fee.
• Web to World: You can provide a URL to your world, that will allow most users to access it within a few minutes.
• Rapid Sim Creation: Developers can import entire sims with all of their assets using the OAR archive function, which is widely used in OpenSim worlds already.  Free and inexpensive OAR files are also available on the web for a non-expert user to import for example an entire Mayan village or a science lab.  There is also a pre-made conference facility or you can start with a blank slate.
• FaceBook Identity Verification: Avatars are linked to actual Facebook accounts, which makes account creation just a matter of allowing the Kitely website to access your Facebook credentials.  Your users can access your world using their existing Facebook account, rather than go through a new account creation process. (NOTE: there is currently an issue with Mac users where their username and password are not being passed correctly to the SL viewer.)
• Cloud-based Service:  Kitely makes use of Amazon’s cloud-computing server facilities, meaning that your world should load very fast, and then get archived when it is not in use.

 

The typical video and audio streaming and embedded media functions seem to work identical to Second Life and OpenSim.

What Kitely currently lacks:

• Voice: There is no facility for bringing in voice chat or VOIP, but the developers are giving this a high priority.
• Commerce: There is no virtual currency enabled yet.
• Hypergridding: Avatars can not teleport to your world from other OpenSim worlds at this point.

So who should consider Kitely?  For organizers of events, under 100 participants, Kitely might serve your purposes quite well.  It is inexpensive, quick and easy to setup, and enables your audience to quickly get into your world without too much fuss. I.e. if you wanted to invite virtual participants to your real world conference, Kitely might make it easier for your attendees who don’t mind connecting through their Facebook accounts.  Or a regular college course conducted virtually might work well in Kitely.

But for ongoing exhibits and spaces that you will want to be around for months at a time this might not be the best solution.  And if you want to involve the larger ecosphere of virtual users, creators, and professionals, a more popular platform like Second Life might be a better bet.  Finally, if you have privacy and security concerns about you or your users sharing their Facebook identity with this service, Kitely probably won’t work for you.

But don’t take my word for it. Head to Kitely.com and create your own world yourself.

Written by: rikomatic

We are very happy to announce that this Wednesday, at 7pm, we will be featuring at TechSoup’s next Online Community Meetup  Jeska Dzwigalski, Director of Content for Wikia and former Director of community at Linden Lab  / Second Life.

Jeska oversees marketing, content and community development for over 165,000 active wiki communities, with over 2 million users. Previously, she spent 6 years at Linden Lab leading Community and Product development projects within the virtual world of Second Life. Visit www.Jeska.org and @jeskad on Twitter, for more info.

Jeska will do a brief presentation on Encouraging Community Collaboration, followed by guided discussion on that and other large community management challenges.

SF Online Community MeetUp is the free monthly gathering of online community managers, enthusiasts, and innovators to meet and discuss tools and strategies for building and managing effective communities.

We will be live-streaming the event in SecondLife at the Nonprofit Commons amphitheater (teleport link), and tweeting using #octribe (online community) tag.

See you all there!

Written by: rikomatic

At the Nonprofit Commons, we are devastated by the loss of life and destructive impact of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan last week.  There is a vibrant and active Japanese community in Second Life, some of whom have come to our NPC meetings to update us on the relief efforts there.

Meanwhile, we are heartened to see that Second Life residents and organizations have responded to the tragedy through various fundraisers and virtual goods to help the people of Japan recover from this disaster. Here are a few that we know about.

Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life, are encouraging residents to contribute to Japan relief through the purchase of virtual teddy bears.  So called “Linden Bears” have long been a prized item in the Second Life community, typically only available directly from staff members of Linden who give them out.  These Japan-branded bears are available on their online marketplace here.  Each bear costs between L$300 and 3,000, which is the equivalent of about US $1 to $10.

In the Kowloon sim of Second Life you can purchase a number of nice items, the proceeds of which go to aid the Japan recovery effort.  Head to this teleport link to check it out.  New World Notes has info about other fashionable items you can purchase for your avatar that assist in Japan relief.

There are several other fundraiser and support events in Second Life happening over the next few days:

• Pacific Crisis Center: More than 400 brands come together to offer products, with proceeds going to disaster aid relief. Participating designers have created new and exclusive items with 100 percent or 50 percent of profits going to the AmeriCares charity to help in Japan and the Pacific. Shop, donate, enjoy.
• Japan Resort: Gather and discuss the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
• Radar Magazine Fundraiser: From March 16 to April 16, Radar Magazine will be hosting and sponsoring a series of events to help raise funds to benefit victims of the Japan earthquake and pacific tsunami relief fund in conjunction with Red Cross. Events include a market with items from some the of top creators in Second Life, a special runway show featuring one-of-a-kind items, and an auction of items featured on the runway.

If you hear about others happening, please send them our way!

Written by: rikomatic