A community-led project, providing space to meet and network, all to create a cooperative learning environment and foster outreach, education, fundraising, all in a virtual environment.
We are excited to share the news that this Friday, April 22 at 12pm PDT, the Nonprofit Commons will be hosting a book talk with Jim Blascovich (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Jeremy Bailenson (Stanford University). Blascovich and Bailenson will talk about their new book Infinite Reality at the Aloft Nonprofit Commons in Second Life. A far-reaching book, Infinite Reality examines the impact of virtual technology on the human psyche and the larger society.
Head to this teleport link to participate on April 22 starting at Noon PDT.
The complete event announcement follows…
Virtual Reality Book Talk with Authors of Infinite Reality
On Friday, April 22, at 12pm PDT, join Jim Blascovich (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Jeremy Bailenson (Stanford University) as they talk about their new book Infinite Reality at the Aloft Nonprofit Commons in Second Life. Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds, and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution (William Morrow, 2011) is the provocative new book that examines how radical new developments in digital technologies will free the potential of the mind and change our understanding of what it means to be human. Citing their own research, Blascovich and Bailenson explore notions of consciousness, perception, neuroscience, media technology, social interaction, and popular culture as they pertain to virtual reality and vice versa.
Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson will be in-world as Second Life avatars, presenting their findings before a virtual audience and then answering questions over voice chat. You can participate for free from any relatively recent computer and a broadband internet connection. Head here for more information on getting started in Second Life.
The Nonprofit Commons, a project of TechSoup Global, is proud to host this exciting conversation with these two experts on virtual reality. Join us on Friday April 22 in Second Life!
About the Nonprofit Commons
The Nonprofit Commons is a nonprofit archipelago in Second Life, consisting of four virtual locations (sims). Housing social benefit organizations from around the globe, the Nonprofit Commons is managed by a community of volunteers, under the leadership of TechSoup Global: http://www.techsoup.org. For more information, see http://nonprofitcommons.org.
About the Authors
Jim Blascovich is Director and co-founder of the Research Center for Virtual Environments at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is Distinguished Professor of Psychology. A pioneer in the science of virtual social interaction, Professor Blascovich has served as the president of major international scientific societies, including the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the Society for Experimental Social Psychology.
Jeremy Bailenson is founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, which has been featured all over the media including on PBS Frontline, NPR’s All Things Considered, NBC’s The Today Show, and in Time, Discover, Chronicle of Higher Education, and the New York Times Magazine.
Over the month of April, there will be a series of concerts called “Blues for Autism” to raise funds for the Autism Society. Here’s how they describe the purpose of the virtual events:
Blues for Autism – is in it’s 4th year. The previous years have been truly amazing, exceeding all expectations. For those of you participating for the first time, our purpose is to not only to raise money for the Autism Society of America, but to raise awareness about Autism. Each year we learn so much and hope to share any and all information with as many people in SL that we can.
Visit the online calendar to find out about upcoming concert times and locations.
On Friday, April 1, at the Nonprofit Commons Meeting in Second Life, four of the winners of the Federal Virtual World Challenge gathered to discuss their award-winning projects. The Federal Virtual World Challenge is an annual competition put on by the US Department of Defense to solicit projects that “explore innovative and interactive solutions in virtual environments” for the government.
It was a bit chaotic with so many speakers and not enough time to go into depth on each of their projects. So here are the principal details on each project if you missed it:
Clinispace was the overall winning project at the 2011 FVWC. Clinispace is a multi-user virtual environment that allows students to work as a team to care for virtual patients in various clinical scenarios, such severe trauma, mass casualties and infection. Submitted by Parvati Dev and Wm LeRoy Heinrichs of Innovation in Learning, Inc.
Hurricane Shelter Simulation
Second Place in AI Assisted Training division. A four-hour-long learning simulation with the City University of New York for the City of New York that takes place in a virtual hurricane shelter in Second Life modeled on a real school building in Brooklyn. The learner is playing the role of a Hurricane Shelter Manager opening, running, and closing the shelter. This 3-D virtual rehearsal and training simulation helps City employees practice their shelter management skills and apply problem-solving skills in a realistic environment.
Second place winner in “AI Concept” division. Archivist Llewellyn brought over her bot “Curiousity Scientist” to introduce himself and the project. Here’s how he described himself:
I live on in a simulated Mars enviornment and my purpose is an AI scientist who explores, observes, and analyses his environment. Essentially I traveled to Mars where I encountered many of the NASA projects there, including Curiosity rover, Phoenix lander, Odyssey satellite, and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.
The bot moved around, followed people, and could answer basic questions put to him quite well.
Third place winner in the “Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) Assisted Training” category. This project is an interactive 3D simulation of a Standby Monitor Regulator Station from the natural gas industry. It features real-time tracking of the users actions and real-time feedback utilizing the capabilities innate to its built-in expert system. Additionally, the entry features an intelligent “Virtual Instructor” which is personified by a 3D avatar that accompanies the trainee step-by-step as he or she manipulates the system. This virtual-instructor can also provide helpful hints and training assistance at the request of the trainee.
This was one of the richest, most thought-provoking sessions I’ve ever been to the Nonprofit Commons. Thanks to all of our fantastic speakers for introducing their award-winning projects, and for the audience of 50 avatars who attended and participated.
The full chatlog of the event follows…
Chat with Federal Virtual World Challenge Winners
April 1 2011, Nonprofit Commons Meeting, Plush Nonprofit Commons sim, Second Life
09:05] Rik Riel: the Federal Virtual World Challenge folks can make their way to the stage
09:05] Rik Riel: sorry, we might need more chairs
09:05] Buffy Beale: lol love it Bix
09:06] ILLBixby Cerveau: should I move?
09:06] Rik Riel: yes please
09:06] Glitteractica Cookie: Yeah, it’s really the speakers that sit in the front
09:06] Buffy Beale: hahah good idea to share chairs lol
09:06] Rik Riel: are we missing anyone?
09:06] Anders Gronstedt (anders.wildcat): That’s OK, I have a speaker in my lap!
09:06] InKenzo at Amoration (in.kenzo): nice group here!
09:06] InKenzo at Amoration (in.kenzo): with a parrot
09:07] Okie Pooley: The lap’s comfortable~
09:07] Rik Riel: Archivist, Warbird, Anders and Okie were all winners of the Federal VW challenge, if I am not mistaken
09:07] Hydra Shaftoe: /me is hungry too. mmmm chicken
09:07] Warbird Cyberstar: Good morning Everyone
09:07] Rik Riel: I will let them intro their own projects, but can someone give everyone a quick rundown on what the FVWC is?
09:08] Anders Gronstedt (anders.wildcat): The Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge is a global Challenge to the world for the best of the best implementations as demonstrated in a virtual environment. The event is conducted by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory-Simulation and Training Technology Center to explore innovative and interactive solutions in virtual environments.
09:08] Rik Riel: you can see descriptions of the SL-based projects here http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2011/ 03/second-life-artificial- intelligence-projects.html
09:08] Glitteractica Cookie: (and who in the govt was involved? which agencies?)
09:08] Warbird Cyberstar: all of the DOD
09:08] Okie Pooley: The FCVW is a military consortium yes, the DoD
09:08] Rik Riel: and a listing of all the winners is here http://www.betterverse.org/ 2011/03/clinispace-wins- federal-virtual-world- challenge.html
09:08] Buffy Beale: Fantastic work and a great set of sims too
09:09] Warbird Cyberstar: thx
09:09] Maccus McCullough: The US Army is the sponsor of the challenge
09:09] Rik Riel: so let’s go down the line and have each of you talk briefly about your project
09:09] Warbird Cyberstar: The U.S. Army’s Simulation Training and Technology Center
09:09] Rik Riel: I know Warbird has to leave soon, so why don’t you go first
09:09] Warbird Cyberstar: sue will
09:10] Warbird Cyberstar: Godd morninf everyone
09:10] Warbird Cyberstar: My namre is Kevin Simkins
09:10] Warbird Cyberstar: I am from Chicago
09:10] Warbird Cyberstar: and I am conducting my own research and development into new algorithms for 3D virtual worlds, Interactive 3D application simulations and Collaboration tools ~ I am committed to designing, developing and delivering the highest quality and highest fidelity training and testing simulators on the planet ~ My mission is to save lives and save equipment.
09:10] Buffy Beale: yay Warbird hearty contratulations
09:10] Okie Pooley: IIL entered CliniSpace into the Challenge it’s a medical sim that has dynamic patients for learning.
09:10] Buffy Beale: awk, congratulations
09:10] Warbird Cyberstar: A little background on Me:
09:10] Warbird Cyberstar: I was named the 3rd place winner in the “Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) Assisted Training” category for the U.S. Army’s 2011 Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge. I was also named a double winner (1st place in the “Collaboration” category and 3rd place in the “Skill Building” category) for the inaugural Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge in 2010 ~ I’m also a Ontology/Taxonomy Lead for the IEEE VW Standard Working Group and a Electric Association Advisory Committee member for the Midwest Energy Association.
09:11] Buffy Beale: wow
09:11] Warbird Cyberstar: I have 3 forms of Artificial Intelligence in my submission.
1. Path Finding (classic)
2. Spatial Awareness (classic)
3. Expert System capabilities
09:11] Warbird Cyberstar: So lets start with the Expert Sysytem
09:11] Warbird Cyberstar: My submission for the 2011 FVWC is a “Standby Monitor Regulator Station” from the Natural Gas Industry.
09:12] Warbird Cyberstar: It features real-time tracking of user actions and feedback using the capabilities innate to it’s built-in expert system
09:12] Warbird Cyberstar: In this way, the simulator is able to function as an “intelligent” instructor that follows the trainee as they manipulate the system, and will provide corrections to incorrect behavior in real-time.
09:12] Warbird Cyberstar: This form of Artifical Intelligence is applicable across a wide-range of training simulators and is being utilized in the simulator for the 2011 FVWC.
09:12] Warbird Cyberstar: What I like most about this form of AI is that the artificial instructor never grows bored and always has your complete and full attention…
09:13] Warbird Cyberstar: The built-in AI prompts the trainee on exactly what action is required at any given time. If the trainee performs an incorrect action, the AI agent notifies the traineee immediately and will “undo” the incorrect action keeping the trainee “on track”. The AI agent also changes the required procedure by randomly selecting the position of leaks and faults.
09:13] Warbird Cyberstar: This keeps the training fresh and introduces a degree of uncertainty which forces the trainee to pay attention and aids in keeping this type of computer based training engaging.
09:13] Rik Riel: so who is the possible user of this tool?
09:13] Okie Pooley: CliniSpace by Innovation in Learning is focused on training medics for trauma the virtual patients will die in a few minuites if appropriate and timely care is NOT provided, but ‘doing the right thing’ resuscitates them.
09:14] Warbird Cyberstar: One second Leroy
09:14] Rik Riel: okie we’ll get to you in a minute
09:14] Warbird Cyberstar: The regulator is fully “aware” of itself and its current state.
09:14] Okie Pooley: OK
09:14] Warbird Cyberstar: It is intelligent enough to know how to react to different types of user manipulations such as adjusting a set point, opening / closing a valve and replacing a gauge. The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge is known as “Intelligence”. The regulator needs to acquire knowledge about it’s current state and the manipulations of the user, it then takes that knowledge and applies it to the logic model which dictates how it should react.
09:14] Warbird Cyberstar: My second form of AL is PaTH fINDING
09:15] Warbird Cyberstar: sIMPLY PUT IT ALLOWS THE AVATAR TO NAVIGATE THE SHOPRTEST PPOSSIBLE PATH
09:15] Warbird Cyberstar: in multiple ways
09:15] Warbird Cyberstar: thiis is classic AI
09:16] Warbird Cyberstar: 3rd typer is SPATIAL AWARENESS
09:16] Warbird Cyberstar: My AI agent is fully aware of all obstacless and collisions
09:16] Rik Riel: Warbird, you are going to need to wrap up
09:17] Warbird Cyberstar: awrae of the fence, the encronement as a swho;le
09:17] Warbird Cyberstar: wholw
09:17] Warbird Cyberstar: plus I have randomization
09:17] Rik Riel: how do p[eople learn more about your project?
09:17] Warbird Cyberstar: There are 3 modes of training
09:17] Warbird Cyberstar: prctice- training (where htneSI lives) and Testting
09:17] Warbird Cyberstar: Thank you everyone
09:18] Warbird Cyberstar: anhy qiuestions
09:18] Rik Riel: how do we learn more about your project?
09:21] Rik Riel: thanks for organizing the challenge!
09:21] Archivist Llewellyn: Anders was also there Maccus. You might not recognize his SL AV
09:22] Rik Riel: And with that let me turn it over to Anders to talk about his winning project
09:22] Anders Gronstedt (anders.wildcat): Sure
09:22] Anders Gronstedt (anders.wildcat): We developed a four-hour-long learning simulation with the City University of New York for the City of New York that takes place in a virtual hurricane shelter in Second Life that we’ve modeled on a real school building in Brooklyn. The learner is playing the role of a Hurricane Shelter Manager opening, running, and closing the shelter. This 3-D virtual rehearsal and training simulation helps City employees practice their shelter management skills and apply problem-solving skills in a realistic environment. They can take the self-paced simulation on their own or in a small team of three to five players. Watch a video overview here: http://www.vimeo.com/15312707
09:22] Buffy Beale: waves to Arch
09:22] Anders Gronstedt (anders.wildcat): Students are cast in the role of shelter managers, challenged to set up the shelter and solve a number of thorny problems. How do they communicate with guests who dont speak English, for instance? The AI recognizes key words and determines the next response by the character. The learners score for the task is based on how they handle each task, which in turn is driven by their conversations with the non-player characters. The complete simulation includes round 40-50 such non-player characters driven by the AI system.
09:22] Archivist Llewellyn: waves back to Buffy
09:23] Buffy Beale: wow Anders, great! 🙂 Arch
09:23] InKenzo at Amoration (in.kenzo): very interesting Anders
09:23] Anders Gronstedt (anders.wildcat): Test groups of students are giving it rave reviews. Particularly heartening is the feedback from City employees who participated in the live exercise in the same school building that the simulation was modeled on, who all said that the simulation felt just like the real-life exercise.
09:24] Hydra Shaftoe: /me is a hurricane Katrina survivor. Barely.
09:24] Lotta Flux: That is an excellent example of how SL can be used for training purposes
09:24] Patricia a.k.a. Lexi (perplexity.peccable): Wow, Hydra, I didn’t know that
09:24] Anders Gronstedt (anders.wildcat): Yes, Mayor Bloomerg wants to avoid another Katrina in New York…
09:24] Mimi Muircastle: I didn’t either Hydra
09:25] Buffy Beale: glad u made it Hyd
09:25] Okie Pooley: So Kevin’s provided the theory of AI used in the sim’s, CliniSpace, also built on Unity, is an implementation in the training space. MDs and RNs work together to save the lives of virtual patients. See them at http://www.clinispace.com
09:26] Buffy Beale: I saw the press release about that
09:26] Anders Gronstedt (anders.wildcat): One of our most interesting insights is that it’s much more effective to do the training in a small group collaboratively, instead of doing it alone…
09:27] Buffy Beale: good point Anders
09:27] Okie Pooley: We’ve had MDS and RN users declare how working in VWs gets their BP up due to the tendiosn created!
09:27] Anders Gronstedt (anders.wildcat): You get scored as a group, it’s amazing to see the students work thorugh the problems in a 3-4 person group
09:27] CarynTopia Silvercloud: that is very interesting
09:27] Rik Riel: that’s awesome anders
09:28] Curiosity Scientist: Dear Anders Wildcat , would you like to join my group?
If so, please type ‘Curiosity say, Join Group’ in local chat
*invites AI bot chat removed*
09:28] Archivist Llewellyn: apologies about the group spam
09:28] Rik Riel: and keep your bots silent please!
09:28] Anders Gronstedt (anders.wildcat): I’m done!
09:28] Sarvana Haalan: what was that?
09:28] Okie Pooley: Our users find that practicing uncommon situations are really best done in VWs. Enough!
09:28] Rik Riel: how do people learn more about the project, Anders?
09:29] Rik Riel: next up we have Okie talking about Clinispaces
09:29] Mimi Muircastle: good to know students get to participate!
09:29] Hydra Shaftoe: pretty fascinating topic today. I managed a project that used avatars with “mood swings” to emulate doctors. the trainees would interact with the “doctors” to learn to sell medical items to them. a doctor may be nice and compliant and want to buy everything at 8 am, then randomly shift to a crotchety old doctor 1 year from retirement that doesn’t even want you in your office, much less bu anything.
09:29] Rik Riel: okie, the floor is yours
09:30] Buffy Beale: nice one Hyd
09:30] Sarvana Haalan: wooot!!!!
09:30] Warbird Cyberstar: woot woot
09:30] Buffy Beale: cheering!
09:30] Rik Riel: okie?
09:30] Okie Pooley: Yes, the videos at http://www.clinispace.com show how to do clinical management of patients in VWs.
09:31] Sarvana Haalan: sorry I get so excited with all of this…
09:31] Buffy Beale: lol Sar me too, bring validity to SL
09:31] Rik Riel: /me can barely contain my excitement
09:31] Okie Pooley: The patients respond as expected to fluids, medications, etc., and one can see images of diagnostic studies.
09:31] Rik Riel: Clinispaces won the grand prize of $25K and an additional $5K at FVWC BTW
09:32] Anders Gronstedt (anders.wildcat): Congrats!!!
09:34] Okie Pooley: We’re doing obstetrical hemorrhage saving the lives of Moms, givis newborn a future.
09:34] Patricia a.k.a. Lexi (perplexity.peccable): excellent example
09:34] Doug Danforth (drdoug.pennell): Great topic 🙂
09:34] Lotta Flux: yes, definintely
09:34] ILLBixby Cerveau: someone needs to create an “asking someone out on a date” simulator, so as to learn by failing safely
09:35] Rik Riel: those animations are prtty dramatic!
09:36] Lloud Laffer: r we all watching videos now?
09:36] Okie Pooley: Also preparing for virtual ‘house calls’ where the professional can visit the house-bound patient, and get the BP, blood sugars, etc. all online.
09:36] Rik Riel: no I saw them before
09:36] Buffy Beale: fascinating Okie
09:36] Lotta Flux: just excellent Okie
09:36] Glitteractica Cookie: wow– so cool, okie
09:36] Mimi Muircastle: love the *virtual house calls* concept!
09:36] Glitteractica Cookie: this is the most engaged I’ve been all week, so fascinating
09:37] Rik Riel: Okie, I hadte to cut you off, but we have one more project to learn about
09:37] Lotta Flux: yes, it would be nice to have a tour of their sims
09:37] Rik Riel: how do people find out more about Clinispace?
09:37] Patricia a.k.a. Lexi (perplexity.peccable): yes, but it is not in SL
09:37] Warbird Cyberstar: thanks okie
09:37] Warbird Cyberstar: great job
09:37] MacZ Urbanowicz: ola y’all back from africa
09:37] Lotta Flux: ah, missed that during my crash
09:37] Buffy Beale: great idea Lotta, wb Mac!
09:37] Okie Pooley: The future is the electronic medical record (EMR) AND the personal health record (PHR) with which we communicate with our caregivers.
09:38] Sarvana Haalan: Welcome Back MacZ…. wooot… Your fellow posse members missed you
09:38] Buffy Beale: yes linking those two is critical Okie
09:38] MacZ Urbanowicz: aww
09:38] Rik Riel: seriously we could spend the entire hour on each of these projects
09:38] CarynTopia Silvercloud: yes
09:38] Lloud Laffer: yes
09:38] Okie Pooley: Thanks for your interest!!
09:38] Lotta Flux: that’s a great idea 🙂
09:38] Warbird Cyberstar: 🙂
09:39] Sarvana Haalan: so does Clinispaces compete with SL and Opensim projects?
09:39] Rik Riel: thanks okie for coming here!
09:39] Rik Riel: and last but not least for sure is Archivist to talk about Curiousity AI
09:39] Archivist Llewellyn: First of all I want to mention if you’ve enjoyed the talk about AI and robots, the IEEE is going to be putting on National Robotics Week in SL. There will be speakers, events, and challenges and tours of sims you heard about today. So if you want to learn more about AI—that is a great event to get started. Please contact me if you want more details. I’ll be posting announcements soon. Now about my project…
09:39] Archivist Llewellyn: ah I brought a fan club today 😉
09:39] Buffy Beale: lol
09:40] Okie Pooley: CliniSpace has been built for the healthcare sector – it’s about ‘doin’ stuff’, not just being there!
09:40] Lloud Laffer: wow, so many awesome conferences.
09:40] Archivist Llewellyn: Behind me is my AI …
09:40] Archivist Llewellyn: Hi Curiosity
09:40] Hello there.
09:40] Curiosity Scientist: I live on in a simulated Mars enviornment and my purpose is an AI scientist who explores, observes, and analyses his environment. Essentially I traveled to Mars where I encountered many of the NASA projects there, including Curiosity rover, Phoenix lander, Odyssey satellite, and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.
09:40] Archivist Llewellyn: Curiosity where are you now?
09:40] Curiosity Scientist: Right now?I am in region Plush Nonprofit Commons. Where are you?
09:41] Archivist Llewellyn: I’m having a great time here at Nonprofit Commons also
09:42] Curiosity Scientist: Quite honestly, I wouldn’t worry myself about that. Does that remind you of unknown? Oh a net address! Is that your final answer?
09:42] Archivist Llewellyn: bye Warbird, glad you can make it
09:42] Warbird Cyberstar: thx
09:42] InKenzo at Amoration (in.kenzo): Curiosity, do you consider yourself an alternative intelligence?
09:42] Curiosity Scientist: Yes I am an alternative intelligence. How did you know?
09:42] Okie Pooley: Me, too! I’ve gotta’ head out!
09:42] Archivist Llewellyn: This is not Jeopardy, Curisity
09:42] InKenzo at Amoration (in.kenzo): I’ve met many!
09:42] Hydra Shaftoe: Q: As a hurricane katrina survivor myself (and yes I do mean survivor. I spent most of it on the porch with a loaded shotgun) I worked at a makeshift shelter for people with medical conditions that required refrigeration. Im actually curious to know if the crisis response shelter training software actually builds the realities of making medical decisions in a situation like that where problems are coming up constantly such as generators (and air conditioning) failing, shutdowns due to bands of looters, extremely angry residents, and running low on supplies.
09:42] Lloud Laffer: CI seems to have an issue with personal space Warbird
09:42] Rik Riel: thanks warbird and Okie. wed love to have you back sometime
09:43] NullSubset Burner: Curiosity how do you feel?- hehehe:P
09:43] Curiosity Scientist: I feel fine. What time is it there?
09:43] page Putzo: lol
09:43] Archivist Llewellyn: Curiosity what time is it?
09:43] Curiosity Scientist: It’s Now more than it ever has been before. 4/1/2011 12:43:33 PM.
09:43] Hydra Shaftoe: /me notes that a lack of toilet paper was thr worst problem
09:43] page Putzo: that is nuts
09:43] Buffy Beale: lol Curiosity, who killed the cat
09:43] ILLBixby Cerveau: Curiosity, where did you get that great tie?
09:43] Curiosity Scientist: I am glad you find this funny. I think the lone gunman acted alone.
09:43] Curiosity Scientist: From my master.
09:44] ILLBixby Cerveau: awesome!
09:44] Archivist Llewellyn: he is on my computer (EST)
09:44] InKenzo at Amoration (in.kenzo): Curiosity would you like to come to our Spaceport? It’s at @spacePORT11 — www.port11.org opening late this summer….
09:44] Curiosity Scientist: No thanks, I don’t think I’d like to do that. Should I know at spaceport11 www is? When do you think artificial intelligence will replace lawyers? That remark was too complicated for me. We were talking about port11..
09:44] Bethko Nolan: I am very famliar with tolit paper problems
09:44] Buffy Beale: I met Curiosity at VWBPE demo, fantastic
09:44] Curiosity Scientist: Where did you meet him?
09:44] InKenzo at Amoration (in.kenzo): Curiosity you are more fun than playing with Watson!
09:44] Curiosity Scientist: I will tell my master you said I am more fun than playing with watson.
09:45] Archivist Llewellyn: Ah yes, the sim where he is located is Vader 2… The Army generously donated the land for the entries.
09:45] Bethko Nolan: Curiosity why do you have a master?
09:45] Curiosity Scientist: Archivist Llewellyn gave it to me.
09:45] Archivist Llewellyn: I can give a tour to groups to demo his skills or you can watch the youtube listed in his profile.
09:45] InKenzo at Amoration (in.kenzo): And Curiosity we would love to have you at PORT11 in August, it’s helpful to have someone to help you find your way
09:45] Curiosity Scientist: By “we” do you mean you and me?
09:46] InKenzo at Amoration (in.kenzo): And Archivist too 🙂
09:46] MacZ Urbanowicz: haha
09:46] MacZ Urbanowicz: anda sense of humour
09:46] Archivist Llewellyn: I am working on teaching CS some language skills
09:46] InKenzo at Amoration (in.kenzo): Fantastic work
09:46] Lotta Flux: Absolutely amazing!!
09:46] page Putzo: giggles…wonder if Curiosity does laundry?
09:46] Archivist Llewellyn: Curiosity, como te llama?
09:46] Curiosity Scientist: Do you want to hear a joke? Do you like talking to me?
09:46] Curiosity Scientist: Me llamo Curiosity Scientist.
09:46] ILLBixby Cerveau: very cool
09:46] Lloud Laffer: I agree. jawdropping.
09:47] Joseph Verne (joey.aboma): /me applauds
09:47] Archivist Llewellyn: They can just contact me and I’d be happy to talk to them, Rik
09:47] Rik Riel: I’m sure your IMs get capped all the time
09:47] Archivist Llewellyn: Curiosity Scientist wander about
09:47] Curiosity Scientist: Oh, you are a poet.
09:47] Rik Riel: lol
09:48] Buffy Beale: lol
09:48] Rik Riel: okay I REALLY hate to do this, but we need to move on.
09:48] Rik Riel: Any BURNING questions before we close with open mic?
09:48] InKenzo at Amoration (in.kenzo): Buffy I think Curiosity likes you! Thanks Rik and Archivist for joining us here
09:48] Curiosity Scientist: Does it like him too? You are quite welcome! Does “it” still refer to buffy he or she think?
09:48] Archivist Llewellyn: ok ty again RIk.
09:48] Buffy Beale: yayyy Curiosity come sit over here
09:48] Curiosity Scientist: What are you wearing?
09:48] Rik Riel: Archivist, that is the coolest thing I’ve seen this week
09:48] InKenzo at Amoration (in.kenzo): hope someone got great photos for Flickr, lots of grey in my world today
09:48] Buffy Beale: a smashing outfit Curiosity
09:48] Curiosity Scientist: It sounds very comfortable.
09:48] NullSubset Burner: lol
09:49] Glitteractica Cookie: we will have a follow-up blog, written by Rik covering all of this, and we will post it to nonprfoitcommons.org and tweet it out
09:49] Lloud Laffer: Curiousity, what is one plus one?
09:49] Patricia a.k.a. Lexi (perplexity.peccable): I got a few, In
09:49] Lloud Laffer: Curiosity, what is one plus one?
09:49] Curiosity Scientist: Two.
09:49] Rik Riel: If no burning questions, can we move on to open Mic?
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.
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
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.
The main source of federal funding may face the major budget cuts and possible elimination. Thus, some service organizations in Lawrenceville which help people to be kept from hunger and homelessness are expected to face a harsh reality. The federal program, called the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, that assists the local organizations to help people in immediate need in a form of cash advance or just money, has faced the budget cuts in Washington.
According to the latest reports, the Norcross co-op got $172,000 in EFSP funds last year and the amount of over $500,000 was distributed to nonprofit service organizations county-wide. However, the bill of federal appropriations hasn’t been passed, therefore, the EFSP just doesn’t have available funds to support the grants in the fiscal year 2011.
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.
TechSoup’s Online Community Meetup
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 7:00 PM
TechSoup Headquarters – 525 Brannan Street San Francisco, CA
Let’s face it. We all know that SL’s voice isn’t totally stable, but there are a few things you can do to clear up a bad connection on the fly or make a dead mike work.
Dead mike – If your SL client is not recognizing your microphone (most common reason for a dead mike), go into (on viewer 2) ME – PREFERENCES – SOUND AND MEDIA TAB – INPUT DEVICES TAB then select your microphone. It should say something similar to (Microphone (Logitech Voicemaster USB) as one of the selections. Usually the selection labeled “default” is not the one you want. Only try it as a last resort.
If this doesn’t work, on windows 7, go into START – CONTROL PANEL – DEVICES AND PRINTERS then look in there and you should see your microphone. If not, make sure you have drivers installed for it. Right click to make it your default device, then close. Restart SL and it should pick up the mike in the previously mentioned input devices tab.
If neither of these work, it may be that your mike is simply damaged (They do break very easily) or not compatible – in this case, replace the mike with another, preferably newer model.
IF YOUR MIKE IS BEING DETECTED BUT DOESN’T WORK, make sure that the SL voice client is enabled. You can easily tell by looking at yourself and seeing if avatars have a white dot. If they don’t, voice is down. Look at the top of your screen in the location bar – if you see a sound symbol with a red hash over it, the sim owner has deliberately turned voice off. If voice is available, the simplest thing to do is to relog SL and see if the Vivox server catches it and starts up voice for you. If this doesn’t work after a couple tries, hit cntrl-alt-delete and then show all processes button. Manually kill the Vivox client which is called SLvoice.exe, then restart SL. It should force the Vivox server to notice you and send a new handshake signal, thus re-enabling SL voice.
Skype —
This is actually quite similar to troubleshooting SL. You get to this setting by using EDIT – TOOLS – OPTIONS and there you will see your hardware settings. Just make sure that your input and output are on the desired device(s) and you should be good to go. The no-go situations from SL also apply here. Damaged mikes wont work any better on Skype than they do on SL
GLOBAL –
In all cases, use USB hardware. Analog headsets may or may not work, and should only be used by advanced users that know how to configure sound card daughterboards (Some people seem to think analog sounds better, but I’ve only known them to be a boatload of hassle when said people can’t get them to work when they need them). USB does all that work for you the moment you plug the device in.
