“Future Trends in Tech” for the January 4th NonProfit Commons Meeting

This Friday, January 4th, NonProfit Commons will be featuring a discussion by our own community manager Joyce Bettencourt (Rhiannon Chatnoir in SL), who will be presenting an overview and sharing insights on exciting trends in technology. We will explore topics such as crowdfunding, gamification, big data, alternate input devices, augmented reality and 3D printing and discuss how these innovations could be used for organizations. 

Join us in Second Life and share your thoughts on innovations in tech!

 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, January 4th, 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: Future Trends in Technology
  • 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

Transcript of the December 14th NPC Meeting Featuring: Lori Sheppard (Skylar Smythe)

[08:36] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Welcome everyone to this week’s Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting!

[08:37] Rhiannon Chatnoir: The Nonprofit Commons in Second Life is sponsored by TechSoup Global and is a program of the TechSoup Global Community & Social Media team.

 

[08:37] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Today’s Agenda:

 – 8:30 am Introductions

 – 8:40 am TechSoup Announcements

 – 8:45 am Mentor’s Central 

 – 8:55 am Main Speaker: Lori Sheppard (Skylar Smythe in SL): “Creative Social Strategy for Non-Profit Organizations”

 – 9:30 am Open Mic / Announcements

 

[08:37] Rhiannon Chatnoir: First a few links to start off the meeting.

[08:37] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Here are the many ways to can get involved with the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life:

 

 – Nonprofit Commons Blog: http://nonprofitcommons.org

 – Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com

 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/npsl

 – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons

 – Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life

 – Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/2tMEYh

 – http://flavors.me/nonprofitcommons

 

About TechSoup the sponsors of the Nonprofit Commons:

 

 – http://www.techsoup.org/stock/howtousetechsoup.asp

 – http://flavors.me/techsoup

 

 

— INTRODUCTIONS —

 

[08:38] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Morning all! Happy Friday and let’s start off with Introductions!

[08:38] Buffy Beale: Buffy Bye, Bridges for Women, Victoria BC Canada, http://www.bridgesforwomen.ca @bridges4women

[08:38] HB Eternal: Harold W Becker, The Love Foundation, Florida, http://www.thelovefoundation.com @lovefoundation

[08:38] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Please state your real name, location, org, and the ways we can find you online.

[08:38] JT Christos: John Goltz, The Love Foundation, Florida, http:www.thelovefoundation.com, @lovefoundation

[08:38] HB Eternal: LOL Buffy

[08:38] Zinnia Zauber: Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond, Sequim Humanities and Arts Alliance, Sequim, Olympic Peninsula, Washington. http://www.sequimartsalliance.org http://www.facebook.com/sequimartsalliance @renneemiko

[08:38] Dancers Yao: Kara Bennett, Elder Voices, Inc. Los Angeles, CA Health Care and Human Rights www.eldervoices.net

[08:38] Loren Alunaia (reeveskd): Keith Reeves, distanSLab Educational Technology Resource Center, Washington, D.C. http://www.distanslab.org.

[08:38] Sarvana Haalan: Sally S. Cherry, Baltimore, MD, http://Facebook.com/CHAREproject, Email: sally@CHAREproject.com

[08:38] Gentle Heron: Virtual Ability, Inc. www.virtualability.org

[08:38] Buffy Beale: hehe HB we both jumped in too soon

[08:38] Andy Evans: Andy Mallon, First Opinions Panel in SL…- Chief Bottle-Washer, Social Research Foundation, New York, NY http://www.socialresearchfoundation.org/

[08:38] Chad Mikado: Chad Gobertwww.serviceandinclusion.org

[08:39] Glitteractica Cookie: Susan Tenby, Online Community and Social Media Director, TechSoup, SF CA USA @suzboop @techsoup

[08:39] Ozma Malibu: Sandra Andrews, Floaters Org and now Floaters @ The Millett House Gallery, tech outreach in AZ, Mexico and On the Road, @ozma

[08:39] Rhiannon Chatnoir is Joyce Bettencourt, Boston MA area, Online Community Manager of NonProfit Commons in Second Life, http://joycebettencourt.com, http://twitter.com/RhiannonSL

[08:39] bulaklak: Michael DeLong, TechSoup Global, San Francisco, CA, USA @MichaelDeLongSF @TechSoup

[08:39] JoJa Dhara: JoJa Dhara, Holland, www.metameets.com www.jojadhara.com @jojadhara

[08:39] Chayenn: Monique Richert, Protect Yourself 1, Inc., protectyourself1.org, facebook.com/PY1US. @PY1US

[08:39] alebez: Ale Bezdikian, Online Community Coordinator, TechSoup Global, SF, CA – @TechSoup, @alebez

[08:39] Skylar Smythe: Skylar Smythe, Freelance Social Media CRM and Writer | www.socialmeskylar.com @skylar_smythe

[08:39] Ethelred Weatherwax: Dave Dexter, Neenah Historical Society, Wisconsin USA

[08:39] CarynTopia Silvercloud: Caryn Heilman, Topia Arts Center, www.TopiaArts.org in the Berkshires of NW, MA

[08:39] AnnaMina Alter: AnnaMina Alter, Digital Navigator

[08:40] Gentle Heron likes AnnaMina’s title.

[08:40] AnnaMina Alter: smiles

[08:41] Rhiannon Chatnoir: any more introductions?

[08:41] Rhiannon Chatnoir: OK

 

 

TECHSOUP ANNOUNCEMENTS —

 

[08:41] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Let’s move on to TechSoup Announcements!

[08:42] bulaklak: Hello, people! So excited to be here today. I love today’s topic – social media. Very near and dear to my heart.

[08:42] bulaklak: First just a little ‘housekeeping’ as they say. We will be around next week, but then TechSoup will be closed from December 24 – January 1. So no NPC meeting on the 28th. And next week I’ll have some more info on what this means for requesting donation for your org during that time.

[08:43] bulaklak: Next, I want to make sure to get in another plug — are you tired of them yet? — for the Microsoft Windows 8 Apps for Social Good contest. Remember there are three cash prizes totaling $40k at stake. We’ve already started to see some excellent submissions rolling in. Check them out and read all the contest details here: http://bit.ly/QKexib

[08:43] bulaklak: And if you’re curious about what makes for an excellent submission to this contest, Susan Chavez, whom you may remember from her visit here last spring to talk about the Facebook time line changes, wrote this nifty blog with loads of good information about what the judges will be looking for: http://bit.ly/TSmeid

[08:43] Sarvana Haalan: woot!!

[08:43] bulaklak: Speaking of our blog — as well as the NetSquared blog, TechSoup for Libraries, and the TechSoup Global blog — don’t forget that you can subscribe by RSS and never miss an update: http://bit.ly/Z5PvO3

[08:44] bulaklak: Last, I just want to let you all know that we are revamping our weekly newsletter By the Cup a little bit, and will be featuring more community-driven content. So, just as for the Local Impact Map, I want you all to think of great stories you might want us to feature. This will be a little less formal than the LIM, so have a little fun with it, too. More on that later, but just wanted to get you all thinking about stuff we could surface.

[08:44] bulaklak: And that’s all I’ve got for today!

[08:44] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Thanks Bulaklak!

[08:45] Rhiannon Chatnoir: do we have anyone for Mentor’s Central today?

[08:46] Zinnia Zauber: We have Sar today!

[08:46] Buffy Beale: cheers for Bulaklak!

[08:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir: great!

 

 

— MENTOR’S CENTRAL —

 

[08:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Then let’s move to Mentors Central & welcome Sarvana up!

[08:46] Buffy Beale: wooot Sar!

[08:47] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and if you joined us late, feel free to introduce yourselves still

[08:47] Sarvana Haalan: just rezzed back in

[08:47] Will Burns (aeonix.aeon): Aeonix Aeon | Will Burns – Vice Chair for IEEE Virtual World Standard Group P1828

[08:47] CarmenLittleFawn: GM Sar, Lorna Hawkins, Drive By Agony, (Keeping Kids Safe), California

[08:47] Sarvana Haalan: seats are not rezzed yet 🙁

[08:48] Buffy Beale: welcome to the new folks 🙂

[08:48] Zinnia Zauber: No worries, you can be outstanding! Instead of sitting.

[08:48] Sarvana Haalan: can you see me

[08:48] Zinnia Zauber: Yes!

[08:48] alebez: looking good, sar

[08:48] Orange Planer begins hearing the rock opera “Tommy” in his head.

[08:49] Sarvana Haalan: ok… I will start while I rez 🙂

[08:49] Sarvana Haalan: As gadget loving ava, I am always checking out new gadgets and links. I am currently testing… the Lumiya Viewer

[08:49] Mia (praxislady.witt) grabs headphones off Orange, hmm

[08:49] Rhiannon Chatnoir: we can see you – so all good on our end and thanks Sar

[08:49] Sarvana Haalan: lagging

[08:50] Sarvana Haalan: A little about… About Lumiya

Lumiya Viewer is a Second Life grid client for Android phones and tablets. It is recognized as a Third Party Viewer by Second Life. Lumiya runs entirely on the phone without requiring you to use special in-world objects or external services.

[08:52] CarmenLittleFawn: aww she crashed

[08:52] Zinnia Zauber: aww

[08:52] Zinnia Zauber: Well, we wanted to do discuss different phone apps and this was a start.

[08:52] Rhiannon Chatnoir: 🙁

[08:52] Orange Planer: hey, I can throw in an informational tid-bit while she relogs.

[08:52] Rhiannon Chatnoir: sure

[08:53] CarmenLittleFawn: 🙂

[08:53] Brena Benoir: Brenda Bryan, Preferred Family Healthcare, Kirksville, MIssouri, www.pfh.org, @brenabenoir

[08:53] Rhiannon Chatnoir: we have had a few crashes in SL today it seems

[08:53] Zinnia Zauber: info nugget away Orange

[08:53] Mia (praxislady.witt) giggles

[08:53] Rhiannon Chatnoir: we can give a minute and if she can’t make it back in.. we can swap things around

[08:54] Orange Planer: A security company recently did a manual inventory of android apps on Google’s site that use SSL, which is what http”s” means. SSL is the security layer used to encrypt your data between your computer and the website in question. 41 of the 100 apps they found that use SSL had weak implementations and are unsecure.

[08:54] Orange Planer: So, the next time you’re looking for a cool Google app…

[08:54] Orange Planer: think twice.

[08:55] CarmenLittleFawn: I heard this the other day Orange

[08:55] Orange Planer: Technology is awesome: but technology used blindly is not awesome.

[08:55] Mia (praxislady.witt) nods head at Orange

[08:55] Gentle Heron: That is a great saying, Orange.

[08:55] Rhiannon Chatnoir: btw Sarvana is trying to log in.. she pasted me her text though into skype in case not

[08:56] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Why don’t we move to our Main speaker and then we can have Sarvana pick back up before Open Mic if she is back 🙂

[08:56] Shirley Márquez Dúlcey (shirley.marquez): Hi everyone… I’m Shirley (in both worlds), I was a track leader at SLCC 2010 and 2011, right now I’m figuring out what is next in my life

[08:56] Loren Alunaia (reeveskd): Lumiya is a handy Android app for mobile use, but even minor connectivity interruptions can pull the avvie off the grid. Handy for quick conversations and check ins, though! I use it regularly. 🙂

[08:56] Orange Planer: More info: http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerability-management/167901026/security/news/240144260/top-mobile-vulnerabilities-and-exploits-of-2012.html?cid=nl_DR_daily_2012-12-12_html&elq=053d04bcd7d645408adb060399588f08

[08:57] Rhiannon Chatnoir: but I do love the talk on apps.. really dovetails with TechSoups app challenge – do you have the contest link handy Bulaklak?

[08:57] AnnaMina Alter: ty Orange

[08:57] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and yes, thank you Orange

[08:57] Orange Planer: Moral of the story: “Do you have antivirus protection on your android phone?”

[08:58] Zinnia Zauber: Great Orange

[08:58] CarmenLittleFawn: very good info

[08:58] Orange Planer: Welcome back, Sarvana.

[08:58] CarmenLittleFawn: wb Sar

[08:58] Skylar Smythe: wb Sarvana.

[08:58] Rhiannon Chatnoir: oh – she is back!

[08:58] Tori Landau: Yay, wb Sarvana

[08:59] Rhiannon Chatnoir: am sure the world is probably rezzing around her

[09:00] Rhiannon Chatnoir: OK – well still a good idea then to invite up our main speaker

 

 

— FEATURED PRESENTATION: LORI SHEPPARD (SKYLAR SMYTHE) —

 

[09:00] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Let’s welcome Lori Sheppard (Skylar Smythe in SL), who will speaking to us about the importance of content, appropriate social channels and multimedia tools to create qualitative interaction with your community online. She will also answer questions regarding outsourcing and social media best practices.

[09:00] Rhiannon Chatnoir: First a bit about our speaker…

[09:00] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Bio: Lori Sheppard (Skylar Smythe) is a freelance marketing professional from Toronto, Ontario Canada. Actively engaged in online communities since 1995, she provides social media management and onboarding to organizations in the UK, Canada and the United States and is a Senior Writer for ShesConnected.com, Canada’s largest network of business bloggers and brand ambassadors. 

[09:01] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Lori – Please come up and grab a seat in front!

[09:01] Zinnia Zauber: Rah Skylar!

[09:01] Mia (praxislady.witt) claps for Lori

[09:01] Skylar Smythe: haha managed to sit without falling… woot!

[09:01] Gentle Heron applauds for Skylar

[09:01] Buffy Beale: Cheering!!!

[09:01] Skylar Smythe: Thanks very much Joyce, and thank you for inviting me to talk with everyone today. It’s a great pleasure to be here leading the discussion on social media for the Non Profit Commons.

[09:02] Skylar Smythe: Good morning everyone. Welcome to what I hope is a less like a lecture and more like an idea sharing opportunity. For those of you that use Twitter I would like to encourage you to follow along in the Non Profit Commons feed @NPSL. For this presentation we are going to be using the hashtag #NPCSocial.

[09:02] Glitteractica Cookie: we are happy to have yo uhere

[09:02] Skylar Smythe: Thank you Glitter!

[09:02] Skylar Smythe: I’m going to be posting some questions to engage everyone in discussion on Twitter, and I will be responding to questions there after we are done. If you know someone who was unable to attend, be sure to give them the hashtag so they can review later if they’d like.

[09:02] Glitteractica Cookie: i don’t think we’ve ever had a live tweeting backchannel for an NPC presentation. Good idea

[09:03] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes

[09:03] Skylar Smythe: So let’s begin.

I’d like to start by taking a poll of our non-profit agencies to determine who is using social media within their organization. If you are, type YES in the general chat so we can see.

[09:03] CarynTopia Silvercloud: yes

[09:03] Rhiannon Chatnoir is

[09:03] CarmenLittleFawn: yes

[09:03] Skylar Smythe: Yes.

[09:03] Coughran Mayo: Para Espanol, 2

[09:04] Dancers Yao: yes

[09:04] Buffy Beale: yes

[09:04] Skylar Smythe: Okay great. To get a sense of how long you have been using social media professionally, please tell us the year that you set up your social media channels by typing the year into general chat.

[09:04] Jen (jenelle.levenque): YES

[09:04] Jen (jenelle.levenque): 2011

[09:04] Skylar Smythe: 2006

[09:05] Buffy Beale: 2009

[09:05] CarmenLittleFawn: I think 2005

[09:05] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Unless you count SL

[09:05] CarmenLittleFawn: wb Sar

[09:05] Rhiannon Chatnoir: if I think back to media to forums 1995, if I think back to media and social sites 2005

[09:05] Tori Landau: 2009

[09:05] Dancers Yao: 2007

[09:05] CarynTopia Silvercloud: 2007

[09:05] Mia (praxislady.witt): 2006

[09:06] Will Burns (aeonix.aeon): I decline to say on account it would reveal my age, and it’s impolite to ask an avatar their age. Unless you’re in the Amsterdam sim.

[09:06] Buffy Beale: lol Will

[09:06] JoJa Dhara: 2007

[09:06] CarmenLittleFawn: giggles

[09:06] Skylar Smythe: That’s wonderful. So we know that non-profits are engaging on social media channels almost unilaterally. But what we are going to take a look at is HOW well you are engaging and what you might do differently.

[09:06] Skylar Smythe chuckles at Will

[09:06] Orange Planer: Eh, I don’t care. I started using chat rooms in 1985.

[09:06] Rhiannon Chatnoir: or in an AOL forum.. though that sates an avatar too

[09:06] jacmacaire Humby: Hi everyone.. sorry to be in late.; A lot of problem to connect today in SL from France..

[09:06] Mia (praxislady.witt): @Will, we won’t tell (crossing fingers)

[09:07] Will Burns (aeonix.aeon): Depends on what you define as social media.

[09:07] Buffy Beale: good point Will

[09:07] Will Burns (aeonix.aeon): Modern incarnations?

[09:07] Orange Planer: If I’m being social, it must be media!

[09:07] Will Burns (aeonix.aeon): Or the original precursors

[09:07] Skylar Smythe: For this discussion, I mean formal communication platform on Twitter, G+, Facebook etc. Not specific to online communities like SL or GeoCities, mIRC et al.

[09:07] Shirley Márquez Dúlcey (shirley.marquez): Compuserve and AOL forums were certainly precursors of modern social media

[09:08] Mia (praxislady.witt): yes, good question Will, I would side with Orange at 1985

[09:08] Will Burns (aeonix.aeon): Modern Social Media. gotcha

[09:08] Rhiannon Chatnoir: nod – anyone who was using online forums and MUDs / MOOs is direct precursor to varied social channels of today

[09:08] Shirley Márquez Dúlcey (shirley.marquez): and Usenet

[09:08] Will Burns (aeonix.aeon): forums, BBS systems, etc

[09:08] Skylar Smythe: Most virtual world users are enterprise users of online communities dating back to the late 1980’s and early 90’s

[09:09] JoJa Dhara: when internet started

[09:09] Glitteractica Cookie: i was on bbs in early 90s

[09:09] Skylar Smythe: I want to share my rockstar moment with you.

[09:09] Skylar Smythe: When I was in New York city in May, I attended the Mayo Clinic’s conference “Connecting Healthcare and Social Media” at the Roosevelt Hospital. I was there with my host, a Second Life non-profit called Southern Tier HealthLink (NY HealthScape). I have been working with NY HealthScape and assisting their Executive Director Christina Galanis for three years now using virtual worlds, machinima and social media to expand their scope of communication and educate on the benefits of electronic health information exchange.

[09:09] Will Burns (aeonix.aeon): oh the sweet sound of the dial-up modem… I remember it fondly with bleeding ears.

[09:09] Skylar Smythe: The first night when we were in New York, I had my rock star moment. I sat beside this really cool guy who was even more passionate about social media than I was. He made the big mistake of asking me if I had any ideas HOW non-profits and health care institutions could use social media. I talked his ear off that night at Rosa’s Mexicana in Manhattan, and after I was done giving him about a million different ways non profits could integrate social into their marketing, Christina let me know I had been talking to Lee Aase, who as you know is the director and head hauncho of social media for the Mayo Clinic.

[09:09] Rhiannon Chatnoir nods to Will

[09:10] Skylar Smythe: I think I almost choked on my churro. (heh heh)

[09:10] Loren Alunaia (reeveskd): LOL

[09:10] Loren Alunaia (reeveskd) laughs!

[09:10] Buffy Beale: lol

[09:10] Will Burns (aeonix.aeon): oh nu!

[09:10] Sarvana Haalan: smiles

[09:10] Skylar Smythe: I have worked with the Ontario College of Pharmacists since 2005 and was responsible for setting up and outlining best practice for their member feed on Twitter. Like most non-profits, they understand that there is the potential to engage qualitatively both within the profession as well as externally to the public and media.

[09:11] Skylar Smythe: The College is going through what most non-profits in Canada and the United States are experiencing at this exact moment. The realization that they SHOULD be social but a fear that they may not do it “the right way”. Other institutions I have talked to are frustrated because they don’t know how to approach social engagement, and are not seeing any quantitative results from their investment in social media communication.

[09:11] Skylar Smythe: Is that true for your organization?

[09:12] Buffy Beale: somewhat yes

[09:12] CarmenLittleFawn: yes

[09:12] JoJa Dhara: yep

[09:12] Mia (praxislady.witt): yes

[09:12] Gentle Heron: We polled our community members. They pretty much don’t use social media. So we aren’t going there at this time.

[09:12] Shirley Márquez Dúlcey (shirley.marquez): Quantitative results are always a challenge unless you do direct selling or solicitation

[09:13] Skylar Smythe: That is a good point Gentle. Social is not a perfect fit for every niche but some engagement is still expected by your audience and community. It varies depending on the sector.

[09:13] Sarvana Haalan: many orgs do not want to wait for the “engagement”… they want instant results or they stop support th eongoing effort

[09:13] Ozma Malibu: (Regardless, without social media we don’t reach our audience. It’s how we communicate.)

[09:13] Skylar Smythe: You are right Sarvana 🙂 That is the challenge for CRMs such as myself to show that ROI.

[09:13] Will Burns (aeonix.aeon): Suppose you ask them if they’re that nervous about attending a cocktail party. If not, tell them that’s how to approach it.

[09:14] Sarvana Haalan: *supporting the ongoing effort

[09:14] Coughran Mayo: so “pre-loading” helps, Will?

[09:14] Skylar Smythe: Let’s take a look at a great infographic I found called “How Non-Profits Relied on Social Media in 2012”. It was published two days ago on Mashable and I really recommend sharing this link with others because it has some amazing stats. 

http://ow.ly/g6Bju

[09:14] Skylar Smythe: Fact: 98% of non-profits are on Facebook. #NPCSocial @NPSL

[09:14] CarmenLittleFawn: ty

[09:14] Sarvana Haalan: awesome

[09:15] Skylar Smythe: Fact: 68% of individuals will investigate a non-profit their friend shares or discusses the organization through a social channel. #NPCSocial @NPSL

[09:15] Skylar Smythe: Fact: Fundraising that is integrated with Twitter yields almost ten times more revenue than other types of campaigns. #NPCSocial @NPSL

[09:15] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:15] Skylar Smythe: Fact: #GivingTuesday is a non-profit movement on Twitter designed organize requests for support #NPCSocial @NPSL

[09:15] Will Burns (aeonix.aeon): I mean – It’s not a passive communication of push, it’s actual engagement dictated by the whims of the crowd and what they feel is important to share. Just be the conversation instead of trying to dictate it.

[09:15] Will Burns (aeonix.aeon): which is why Lori is awesome at it

[09:16] Skylar Smythe: Exactly Will! I’m going to get more into the importance of two way conversations in social.

[09:16] Skylar Smythe: The real gem in this infographic is the “how”. When non-profits who are experiencing a lot of success using social media were asked how they were achieving their communication goals and harnessing the power of social, they gave three top reasons.

[09:16] Skylar Smythe: 1. Coming up with a detailed social media strategy

2. Having Executive Management make social media a priority

3. Dedicating a current or new (personnel) position for social media

[09:16] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:16] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:16] Skylar Smythe: A few things to think about as you are developing your strategic plan for the new year. If you want to see some tangible results from your social media engagement, you have to not only put organizational effort into it but you have to formally integrate it into your overall marketing and communication plan.

[09:17] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:17] Skylar Smythe: Q1: What do you think are some of the administrative challenges to formalizing social media strategy for non-profits? #NPCSocial @NPSL

[09:18] Skylar Smythe: Even with these encouraging statistics, we know that social media is still being under utilized in social, health and educational sectors. It’s not working as hard as it could for most of the organizations that use it. Frequently I see non-profits who have disproportionately high expectations of their social media efforts without putting in the necessary attention and effort to making their online sharing engaging.

[09:18] AnnaMina Alter: Lack of admin buyin

[09:18] Orange Planer: 1) Who does it? 2) What are they communicating? 3) Which platforms would be most effective? 4) Deciding it’s relevant to the business.

[09:19] Gentle Heron: finding the TIME!

[09:19] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Amen Gentle

[09:19] Skylar Smythe: Very good point AnnaMina. Bang on there. Care to elaborate?

[09:19] Chad Mikado: keeping up with it

[09:19] Orange Planer: Skylar – I’d like to comment on that, too.

[09:19] Skylar Smythe: Please do.

[09:20] Orange Planer: “Lack of admin buyin“: “We aren’t doing it because the administration didn’t buy in to it.”

[09:20] Orange Planer: That’s a copout comment:

[09:20] Orange Planer: The administration decided it wasn’t relevant.

[09:20] Skylar Smythe: Not always.

[09:20] Orange Planer: the point is to look at why the adminsitration didn’t agree.

[09:20] AnnaMina Alter: In our setting admins are fully occupied and not SM literate themselves… their world does not yet include that element

[09:20] AnnaMina Alter: Time / staffing issues

[09:20] Skylar Smythe: My experience is that high level decision makers frequently are less socially educated on communicating using these new channels. So they don’t see the value in it because they don’t understand it.

[09:21] Orange Planer: That’s not “buy in.” That’s “I am too busy.”

[09:21] Skylar Smythe nods at AnnaMina

[09:21] Orange Planer: Saying “someone doesn’t buy in” is a blame thing. it doesn’t look at the reason why someone isn’t doing what one wants.

[09:21] Orange Planer: I never use that phrase for that reason.

[09:22] Skylar Smythe: When I approach non-profits and executives, the first thing we hurdle is the value proposition. Once they understand what is to be gained from it, they jump on board pretty fast. Often it just takes some translation and “proof” of it working successfully in the sector for other organizations.

[09:22] Jen (jenelle.levenque): “buy in” is a symptom not a cause

[09:22] Buffy Beale: It adds more workload on already overworked staff so it’s been a lower priority

[09:22] Skylar Smythe: Often social can be easily added to a communication designate.

[09:22] Orange Planer: in my company’s case, the vast majority of the target audience doesn’t use computers

[09:22] Skylar Smythe: Or affordably outsourced (shameless plug)

[09:23] Buffy Beale: grins

[09:23] Skylar Smythe

[09:23] Loren Alunaia (reeveskd): ( Nicely played, SS. 😉 Stone cold killer! )

[09:23] Skylar Smythe: Outsourcing is (while we mention it) a great way for SMEs to get professional social account management.

[09:23] Skylar Smythe: And it is an option many explore. You’ll have to take my word on that 😉

[09:24] Skylar Smythe: Q2: How many hours per week does your non-profit organization spend communicating on Facebook, Twitter or other social networks? #NPCSocial @NPSL

[09:25] Will Burns (aeonix.aeon): There is always an army of kittens with tineh netbooks willing to post cat pictures on Facebook for you

[09:25] Skylar Smythe: I spend 4 hours per week (for example) managing the Twitter stream for @nyhealthscape

[09:25] CarmenLittleFawn: not enough these days about three hours

[09:25] CarynTopia Silvercloud: 2

[09:26] Buffy Beale: 3

[09:26] CarynTopia Silvercloud: I had a lot of trouble with Google + and primarily use Facebook

[09:27] Skylar Smythe: Facebook and Twitter are the top channels for most businesses.

[09:27] Skylar Smythe: Augmented by other social feeds including Instagram and Linkedin

[09:27] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:27] Skylar Smythe: Q3: How would you rate your current satisfaction with your organizations overall social engagement? #NPCSocial @NPSL

[09:28] CarmenLittleFawn: low satisfaction

[09:28] Jen (jenelle.levenque): On a 1 to 10 I’d say 2

[09:28] Mia (praxislady.witt): Facebook is questionable these days due to security issues and excessive ads, hmmm

[09:28] CarmenLittleFawn: true

[09:28] Skylar Smythe: Do you find you are talking and few people are listening?

[09:28] Skylar Smythe: or reacting?

[09:28] CarynTopia Silvercloud: less costy than direct mail and as a result more valuable in climate of uncertain fundraising

[09:28] CarmenLittleFawn: wb Rhi

[09:28] Skylar Smythe: WB Joyce xo

[09:29] Loren Alunaia (reeveskd): For those of us working in education there’s also a stigma with Facebook that makes it challenging. Not to say we shouldn’t use it – huge user base – but there are some concerns there.

[09:29] Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks and crashed all – sorry

[09:29] Shirley Márquez Dúlcey (shirley.marquez): It’s in the nature of communication from organizations that a lot of it is one way…

[09:29] Shirley Márquez Dúlcey (shirley.marquez): people are listening but feel that they don’t have anything useful to add to the conversation so they stay quiet

[09:29] Skylar Smythe: There are always concerns regarding best practice. And they are legitimate. Each agency will formulate their own guidelines.

[09:30] Skylar Smythe: You are 100% right Shirley. Don’t base the success of your engagement on reactions alone. Many people like to read, and learn but may not respond.

[09:30] Skylar Smythe: Sharing of information is valuable to create the centrifugal viral effect. That’s always the hope for some of your content is that it “catches fire” that way and creates awareness for your organization.

[09:31] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:31] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:31] Skylar Smythe: Like most organizations you probably realize that your social engagement is more broadcast in nature. If you are posting links of information in your Twitter feed or interesting industry articles in Facebook, you are simply broadcasting. You are not engaging with your audience. And frankly if your audience wanted to find those links themselves they could.

[09:31] Mia (praxislady.witt): sometimes lurking is a sport, yet benefit from data shared?

[09:32] Skylar Smythe: You got it Praxis. I’ve seen data that suggests 60%+ are intuitive lurkers.

[09:32] Gentle Heron: That is a good point, PraxisLady.

[09:32] CarmenLittleFawn: nods

[09:32] Second Life: Items successfully shared.

[09:32] Skylar Smythe: Here is what is critical to remember.

[09:32] Skylar Smythe: Don’t be a one way social conversation! Non-profits can engage qualitatively by responding to questions, providing clinical or educational informatics and still keep it real by being conversational in their social feeds.

[09:32] Mia (praxislady.witt): 🙂

[09:32] Shirley Márquez Dúlcey (shirley.marquez): it can be useful to check how often your posts are being retweeted or shared on Facebook… though if they’re really specific to your organization you may not see much of that

[09:33] Loren Alunaia (reeveskd) must politely excuse himself, as his enthusiasm for this topic is outpacing his laptop battery; Cheers, friends! Great topic, will follow in backchannel!

[09:33] Skylar Smythe: Thank you for joining us!

[09:33] CarmenLittleFawn: tc Loren

[09:33] Skylar Smythe: Metrics are useful but they are only part of the sum of your ROI for social media engagement.

[09:33] Orange Planer: That’s true, Skylar. If yo ubecome a one-way conversation, people will tune you out.

[09:34] Orange Planer: “They aren’t talking to me, so they aren’t important.”

[09:34] Skylar Smythe: Exactly!

[09:34] Glitteractica Cookie: Is there an easy automated way to see how things are re-shared that you are aware of? What tool do you use to track this stuff across your networks?

[09:34] Mia (praxislady.witt): agree, Orange

[09:34] Skylar Smythe: I apologize I do not have the link, but recently wrote on a piece where it revealed that 80% of major brands do not even take the time to respond to questions, comments or discussions on their social feeds.

[09:34] Skylar Smythe: What kind of impression does that make?

[09:35] Glitteractica Cookie: i am always incredulous when I tweet to a company and they don’t respond

[09:35] Orange Planer: You mean like the sub shop I complained to on their facebook page when their delivery food stank?

[09:36] CarmenLittleFawn: this is true skylar and it makes you wonder are they reading any of the info or just using it for marketing

[09:36] Skylar Smythe: I am offended when they don’t respond to me. And I often let them know 😉

[09:36] Skylar Smythe: In your social you have a responsibility to engage in a two way conversation with your audience that acknowledges their attention and their feedback.

[09:36] Ethelred Weatherwax: And do they respond when you let them know?

[09:36] Skylar Smythe: Yep 🙂

[09:36] Rhiannon Chatnoir: well that poses the question, specially if you do make the jump for your business/org into social media.. that it shouldn’t be something passive, you have to engage with those that reach out if you can. Even a negative response can be turned around

[09:36] Orange Planer: Yeah, I called them. They put a comment into my record stating “talk with manager.”

[09:38] Skylar Smythe: Social media strategy and content planning is part of your communication mix. It requires a formal action plan and thoughtfulness toward your target audience, consistency of posting (frequency) and a touch of “human” always in your conversation.

[09:38] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:38] Skylar Smythe: So how do we do it better?

[09:38] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:38] Dancers Yao: For health care, we’ve found that because medical insurance in the US doesn’t often cover things like telehealth, it is hard to use social media to suggest possible places to find health care that is online, eg people who are homebound.

[09:39] Gentle Heron nods to Dancers.

[09:39] CarmenLittleFawn: mmmhmmm

[09:39] Skylar Smythe: You can provide links and ask your audience to provide feedback on the relevancy or usefulness of those links… to create conversation.

[09:39] Gentle Heron: I think that’s what Skylar means by “thoughtfulness toward your target audience.”

[09:39] CarmenLittleFawn: like that sky

[09:39] Skylar Smythe: I want to provide a few tips before we wrap up for you to consider.

[09:39] Skylar Smythe: 1. Focus efforts to grow audience on Twitter first. It is the easiest social network to develop a solid follower base. Include your Facebook and other social channel links weekly in your Twitter feed, and invite your followers to join you there.

[09:40] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:40] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:40] Skylar Smythe: 2. Develop a hashtag [#] in Twitter that is unique to your organization and use it consistently with your communication campaigns or topic matter to build following.

[09:40] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:40] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:40] Skylar Smythe: 3. Host weekly Twitter parties that allow your organization to communicate within the profession and with the people it serves. By allowing your followers that direct conversational access, you build community around your social presence. Click here to learn more about hosting a Twitter party: http://www.twitterpartyguide.com/what-is-a-twitter-party

[09:41] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:41] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:41] Skylar Smythe: 4. Shake up your communication mix! Don’t rely on text based engagement, blog posts or articles alone. Use multimedia such as music, video and interactive presentations in SlideShare or Prezi that can be imbedded in your content for interactive sharing. Be the opposite of boring and put some effort into making your sharing personable and fun.

[09:41] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:41] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:41] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Glitteractica posed this question earlier, what are your favorite tools to measure and interact with your social media outreach

[09:41] Skylar Smythe: 5. Get your staff involved! Keep the ‘social’ in your social media. If you are having a major event, utilize your internal staff to promote the event in their own social channels using an appropriate #hashtag. Ask for positive contributions from staff members about the day-to-day things that make your organization exceptional or “moments” and have them post to Facebook.

[09:42] Skylar Smythe: .]

[09:42] Skylar Smythe: .

[09:42] Skylar Smythe: Sorry between windows 😉

[09:42] Skylar Smythe: I use Hootsuite reporting to gather metrics for my clients on a monthly basis Glitter.

[09:43] Skylar Smythe: I can tell how many impressions or clicks each link has received for them, as well as evaluate monthly growth of their audience, retweets, shares and other statistics.

[09:43] Mia (praxislady.witt): curious, how does that help the educational community plz?

[09:43] Glitteractica Cookie: oh you use the hootsuite report they send you?

[09:43] CarmenLittleFawn: likes this idea

[09:43] Glitteractica Cookie: the PDF one that hootsuite emails to u

[09:44] Skylar Smythe: Educational communities, Health providers, Regulatory Colleges are all engaging for different reasons Praxis. Increase awareness, fund raising, education, increase enrollment… there are are quite a few practical applications and benefits.

[09:44] Ethelred Weatherwax: Staff?

[09:45] Skylar Smythe: Yes 🙂

[09:45] Skylar Smythe: Staff can contribute posts to the social media designate for approval, and then publishing.

[09:45] Skylar Smythe: When your audience sees contributions from your staff… it creates a personal relationship between your organization and your audience.

[09:45] Ethelred Weatherwax: That was a rhetorical question. There is no staff.

[09:46] Skylar Smythe: Oh hah 🙂

[09:46] Skylar Smythe: Poor fellow.

[09:46] Skylar Smythe: xo

[09:46] Skylar Smythe: Get Creative!

• Have staff contribute their favourite holiday recipes on Facebook. Include a sentence about the contributing staff member and what they do within your organization.

[09:46] Skylar Smythe: • Create a holiday play list in YouTube of your favorite songs. Instructions for creating a playlist in YouTube: http://ow.ly/g6Arp

[09:47] Rhiannon Chatnoir: we have to wrap things up with today’s conversation shortly

[09:47] Rhiannon Chatnoir: so any last points or comments from everyone

[09:47] Skylar Smythe: Thanks everyone.

[09:47] CarmenLittleFawn: ty sky 🙂

[09:47] Skylar Smythe: I hope I’ve inspired some new ideas and thoughts.

[09:48] CarmenLittleFawn: 🙂 yes u have

[09:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: this has been a great conversation though and think would be great to have you back for a deeper, part two of this!

[09:48] Dancers Yao: thank you

[09:48] Buffy Beale: That was fantastic Skylar thank you, it’s given a lot of food for thought!

[09:48] Tori Landau: Have learnt a lot, thank you.

[09:48] Gentle Heron: Thanks Skylar.

[09:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Let’s thank Skylar for presenting today!

[09:48] Shirley Márquez Dúlcey (shirley.marquez): Thank you, Skylar

[09:48] bulaklak: thank you!

[09:48] Glitteractica Cookie: I think it would be a great blog recap

[09:48] Skylar Smythe: I’d be happy to Rhia. Thank you for the invitation.

[09:48] Tori Landau: Applauds

[09:48] Zinnia Zauber: Wonderful!

[09:49] Mia (praxislady.witt): Thank you Skylar :)) *claps*

[09:49] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you Skylar!

[09:49] Namaara MacMoragh: thank you Skylar

[09:49] Skylar Smythe: I’d be happy to write a guest post for you Rhia if you like in follow up.

[09:49] Chayenn: very interesting thank you

[09:50] Skylar Smythe: I did not knock Rhia off the grid for more air time 😉

 

 

— OPEN MIC & ANNOUNCEMENTS —

 

[09:50] alebez: I wanted to see if there were any more announcements, as Rhi comes back to us.

[09:50] Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks Ale

[09:50] Rhiannon Chatnoir: lol no Skylar

[09:50] Skylar Smythe: wb Rhia.

[09:50] alebez: welcome back

[09:50] CarmenLittleFawn: wb Rhi

[09:50] Gentle Heron: I have an event for tomorrow I can announce.

[09:50] Rhiannon Chatnoir: so any quick announcements.. feel free to share

[09:50] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Gentle 🙂

[09:50] Gentle Heron: December Holiday Poetry delivered in voice and text. Saturday, Dec 15, 1pm SLT.

[09:51] Gentle Heron: Come get in the mood for Hannukah, Winter Solstice, Yalda, Yule, Christmas, New Years….

[09:51] Gentle Heron: whatever we celebrate in winter is shared through poetry.

Cape Serenity Library

[09:51] Gentle Heron: Cape Serenity (84,123,23)

[09:51] Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks – anyone else?

[09:51] Gentle Heron: (done)

[09:51] Tori Landau: I have two if I may please

[09:51] Namaara MacMoragh: Etopia is having a holiday hunt. I have a giver I’d like to put out if that’s okay.

[09:52] Zinnia Zauber: me, please.

[09:52] Rhiannon Chatnoir: sure TOri

[09:52] Namaara MacMoragh: oops… so sorry

[09:52] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and then Zinnia

[09:52] Rhiannon Chatnoir: that’s ok Namaara

[09:52] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Raises hand

[09:52] Tori Landau: Firstly, if you wish to participiate in the festive gift exchange that is cross group/community, please give me your name br Sat 15th and…

[09:53] Tori Landau: *Tuesday 18th – Open Session at 1.15pm slt / 9.15pm GMT

Informal discussion exploring how joining virtual worlds can impact upon identity, to what extent do we role play, perhaps even without being aware of it and the extent to which changes are a natural adaptation to experiencing a new world. Location is the rooftop of the communal building at Deep Think West.

[09:53] Tori Landau: Deep Think West (74,53,37)

[09:54] Rhiannon Chatnoir: ok

[09:54] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Zinnia?

[09:54] Rhiannon Chatnoir: then Jen

[09:54] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you!

[09:54] Zinnia Zauber: CommonGround is Dec 20 from 5 to 7 PM SLT!

[09:54] Zinnia Zauber: GOLD!

[09:54] Buffy Beale: oooooo

[09:54] Zinnia Zauber: CommonGround is a fun and informative networking party here at the Nonprofit Commons to promote about what nonprofits, educators, humanitarians, scientists, and artists accomplish in Second Life.

[09:55] Rhiannon Chatnoir: woo hoo – great color

[09:55] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Jen?

[09:55] Zinnia Zauber: So dress up and get down in GOLD!

[09:55] Rhiannon Chatnoir: oops

[09:55] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you!

[09:55] Jen (jenelle.levenque): I have a menorah in my office (# 1) and will be lighting the candles each night at sunset (EST) which is approximately 14 SLT. Everyone is welcome.

[09:55] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Done

[09:55] JoJa Dhara whisper bye and thks for great meeting…of to dinner..hugzz xx and great weekend

[09:56] Rhiannon Chatnoir: good to know – lots of great ways to share community here during the holidays

[09:56] Rhiannon Chatnoir: well Let’s wrap things up for this week’s meeting

[09:56] Rhiannon Chatnoir: And again, here are the many ways to can get involved with the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life:

 

Nonprofit Commons Blog: http://nonprofitcommons.org

 

 – Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com

 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/npsl

 – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons

 – Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life

 – Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/2tMEYh

 – http://flavors.me/nonprofitcommons

 

About TechSoup the sponsors of the Nonprofit Commons:

 

 – http://www.techsoup.org/stock/howtousetechsoup.asp

 – http://flavors.me/techsoup

 

 

Thanks everyone and see you next week!

[09:56] CarmenLittleFawn: Bye Joja

[09:56] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and thanks again to Skylar

[09:56] CarmenLittleFawn: ty for the information again sky

[09:56] Buffy Beale: thanks Rhi, another great meeting!

[09:56] Skylar Smythe: Thank you all. It was a real pleasure.

[09:57] Shirley Márquez Dúlcey (shirley.marquez): Thank you Rhiannon!

[09:57] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Thank you Skylar

[09:57] Rhiannon Chatnoir: I will put up photos on our facebook group – so if you see your avatar – tag yourself!

[09:57] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you!

[09:57] Zinnia Zauber: We have the Mentors Meeting at 10 right here!

[09:57] Tori Landau: Thanks Rhiannon

[09:57] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and the transcript will be going up of course on the NPC blog http://nonprofitcommons.org

[09:57] Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks all

[09:57] Glitteractica Cookie: thanks!

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

Transcript of the December 7th NPC Meeting Featuring: Ginny Mies of TechSoup

[08:34] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Welcome everyone to this week’s Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting!

[08:34] Rhiannon Chatnoir: The Nonprofit Commons in Second Life is sponsored by TechSoup Global and is a program of the TechSoup Global Community & Social Media team.

 

[08:35] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Today’s Agenda:

 – 8:30 am Introductions

 – 8:40 am TechSoup Announcements

 – 8:50 am Featured Presenter: Ginny Mies: “Technology’s Impact on Disaster Relief”

 – 9:30 am Open Mic / Announcements

 

[08:35] Rhiannon Chatnoir: First a few links to start off the meeting.

[08:36] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Here are the many ways to can get involved with the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life:

 

 – Nonprofit Commons Blog: http://nonprofitcommons.org

 – Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com

 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/npsl

 – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons

 – Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life

 – Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/2tMEYh

 – http://flavors.me/nonprofitcommons

 

About TechSoup the sponsors of the Nonprofit Commons:

 

 – http://www.techsoup.org/stock/howtousetechsoup.asp

 – http://flavors.me/techsoup

 

 

— INTRODUCTIONS —

 

[08:36] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Morning everyone, let’s start off with Introductions!

[08:35] Sarvana Jonstone: Sally S. Cherry aka SarVana Haalan, Baltimore, MD, http://Twitter.com/SarVana (SarVana Haalan’s backup :-))

[08:36] Zinnia Zauber: Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond, Sequim Humanities and Arts Alliance, Sequim, Olympic Peninsula, Washington. http://www.sequimartsalliance.org http://www.facebook.com/sequimartsalliance @renneemiko

[08:36] Andy Evans: Andy Mallon, First Opinions Panel in SL…

Chief Bottle-Washer, Social Research Foundation, New York, NY

http://www.socialresearchfoundation.org/

[08:36] Par (parhelion.palou): Peter Tolliver, north of Baltimore, MD, generic volunteer, no org, no twitter, no website

[08:36] Dancers Yao: Kara Bennett Elder Voices Los Angeles, Ca Health Care and Human Rights www.eldervoices.net

[08:36] Rhiannon Chatnoir is Joyce Bettencourt, Boston MA area, Online Community Manager of NonProfit Commons in Second Life, http://joycebettencourt.com, http://twitter.com/RhiannonSL

[08:36] Buffy Beale: Buffy Bye, Bridges for Women, Victoria BC Canada, http://www.bridgesforwomen.ca @bridges4women

[08:36] Chayenn: Monique Richert, Protect Yourself 1, Inc., Baltimore MD, protectyourself1.org, facebook.com/PY1US, @PY1US

[08:36] Gentle Heron: Virtual Ability, Inc. www.virtualability.org

[08:36] Orange Planer: Orange Planer, network administrator for Homeowner Options for Massachusetts Elders, at a website I’m embarrassed to post because it’s so out of date: http://www.elderhomeowners.org

[08:37] Sarvana Jonstone: sorry for being a bit forward… Sally S. Cherry aka SarVana Haalan, Baltimore, MD, http://Twitter.com/SarVana (SarVana Haalan’s backup :-))

[08:37] bulaklak: Michael DeLong, TechSoup Global, www.techsoup.org, @mmdelong @TechSoup, San Francisco, CA, USA

[08:37] Orange Planer: And I’m sorta becoming it’s CIO as well. :-O

[08:37] Ronnie Rhode: Denise Harrison, The Garden for the Missing, http://www.gardenforthemissing.org/ and SLURL Remora (203,148,21), Project Jason, assistance for families of the missing, http://www.projectjason.org.

[08:37] Brena Benoir: Brenda Bryan, Preferred Family Healthcare, Kirksville, MO www..pfh.org, @brenabenoir

[08:37] Rhiannon Chatnoir: if you just joined us – please introduce yourself 🙂

[08:37] alebez: Ale Bezdikian, Online Community Coordinator, TechSoup Global, SF, CA, @TechSoup. @alebez

[08:38] Ozma Malibu: Sandra Sutton Andrews, Floaters Org (tech outreach to have-nots), locations in Arizona, Mexico & On the Road, @ozma

[08:38] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Ginny Mies, Content Curator at TechSoup 🙂

 

— TECHSOUP ANNOUNCEMENTS —

 

[08:39] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Let’s move on to TechSoup Announcements!

[08:39] bulaklak: Hi, all! Happy Friday.

[08:39] Zinnia Zauber: Welcome Penelope!

[08:39] Rhiannon Chatnoir: we won’t be having a Mentor’s Central today – so you have a bit of extra time 🙂

[08:39] Buffy Beale: yay for Friday and welcome Penelope too 🙂

[08:40] Orange Planer: Oooh, more food shows up!

[08:40] bulaklak: Thanks, Rihannon!

[08:40] bulaklak: So first we have a webinar coming up on Tuesday 12/11 where tech trainers will share their experiences.

[08:40] bulaklak: Here’s the copy:

[08:40] bulaklak: Our tech-training pros will highlight resources that allow libraries and nonprofits to share expertise with one another on how to train patrons on technology. From ABLE to WebJunction, hosts Brenda Hough and Stephanie Gerding will take you on a tour of a web places and virtual spaces that exist to make training better. Guests will be invited to share their favorite resources, too.

[08:40] Tori Landau: Hurriedly flaps up out of Orange’s way

[08:40] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and.. a few more are coming in – so feel free to slip your introductions in during 🙂

[08:41] bulaklak: Aaand, here is the link where you can register: http://bit.ly/U6AQck

[08:41] Orange Planer: What if your CEO is a luddite who considers email to be an interruption and would rather stand in front of a fax machine for 2 hours?

[08:41] bulaklak: As always, this webinar is free. It will be recorded and available as an archive. AND if you would like it to be live captioned, just let us know 72 hours in advance and we are more than happy to do that for you.

[08:41] bulaklak: I think that is a whole other webinar, Orange

[08:41] bulaklak: But a good one!

[08:42] Orange Planer: I’m looking forward to that announcement.

[08:42] bulaklak: I also want to share the results of the latest ReStart Romania challenge. There are some really terrific projects coming out of the challenge to use tech to make Romanian government more transparent and accountable.

[08:44] bulaklak: For example, in Romania, the fact that half of Romanian buildings are not accessible has contributed to a 97% unemployment rate for the disabled

[08:44] bulaklak: One of the winning projects is an interactive map to highlight all the accessible buildings and push for more

[08:44] Orange Planer: Who is running that initiative?

[08:44] bulaklak: Here is the link with all the winners and a cool inititiative where Romanian activists share the things that piss them off

[08:44] bulaklak: http://bit.ly/SNxqO7

[08:45] bulaklak: This was a joint effort of TechSoup Romania and a number of partners including Microsoft and the US ambassador to Romania

[08:45] bulaklak: Lots more at the link!

[08:45] bulaklak: http://bit.ly/SNxqO7

[08:45] Rhiannon Chatnoir: great

[08:45] Orange Planer: OK, but not the Romanian government itself.

[08:45] Orange Planer: :-/

[08:46] Orange Planer: Gotta start somewhere.

[08:46] bulaklak: We’re excited to have Ginny Mies with us today. So in light of that — one of the awesome things she does as a content curator at TechSoup is help put together our weekly newsletter By the Cup

[08:47] bulaklak: It’s a great way to keep up with everything we are doing, which is always a lot!

[08:47] bulaklak: You can sign up for that newsletter if you already haven’t here: http://bit.ly/A4WcQ9

[08:47] bulaklak: And while you are at it, sign up for our New Product Alert, too!

[08:47] bulaklak: Since I have a few extra minutes (thanks, Rhiannion) I will just mention a few last things!

[08:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: 🙂

[08:48] bulaklak: As you are all super smart and helpful people, I want to remind you that you can help our community out any time by sharing your smarts in our TEchSoup discussion forums

[08:48] bulaklak: And one of the ways we make that easy is by posting open questions on Twitter with the hashtag #TechSoupDYB

[08:49] Orange Planer: Ooh, more phishing vic… I mean people to help!

[08:49] bulaklak: Or, if you go to our forums, you can search by that tag and find open questions

[08:49] bulaklak: Lol Orange.

[08:49] Zazoom Zimminy whispers Kyle Reis, Grants Managers Network, NYC

[08:49] Orange Planer: Never whisper, people might not hear you.

[08:49] bulaklak: Answering questions on our forums *is* actually a great way for consultants to establish visibility and credibility

[08:49] bulaklak: (As long as you don’t self-promote too much!)

[08:50] bulaklak: And lastly!

[08:50] bulaklak: Just another quick reminder about the ongoing Microsoft Windows 8 Apps for Social Good contest

[08:50] Rhiannon Chatnoir: nod – would love to see some synergy between the forums and here at NPC

[08:50] bulaklak: Remember there are two $15k cash prizes at stake, and one $10k prize, as well!

[08:51] Orange Planer: That’s USD, not lindens.

[08:51] bulaklak: Yes, thanks, Orange.

[08:51] bulaklak: Here is the link again with all the juicy details

[08:51] bulaklak: http://bit.ly/QKexib

[08:51] bulaklak: Thanks, all!

[08:51] bulaklak: Have a great meeting and a great weekend!

[08:51] Sarvana Jonstone: Do consultants have to be members of TechSoup to answer questions?

[08:51] Glitteractica Cookie: Great update, Bulaklak!

[08:52] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you bulaklak!

[08:52] Rhiannon Chatnoir: on the forums Sarvana? no

[08:52] Rhiannon Chatnoir: or comments via the twitter channel.. no.. so feel free to jump in

[08:52] Sarvana Jonstone: Great info… Bulaklak, thanks

[08:52] bulaklak: Oh, sorry Sarvana

[08:53] Rhiannon Chatnoir: though you need a forum account.. so sign up then contribute!

[08:53] bulaklak: Yes, to post in the forums you do have to register to be a forum member . . . but you don’t need to register your org

[08:53] bulaklak: You don’t need to be a 501c3

[08:53] bulaklak: It only takes a few minutes to fill out a profile

[08:53] bulaklak: and get started!

[08:53] bulaklak: 🙂

[08:53] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and a cross conversation would be wonderful – to see the expertise here help out there

[08:54] Sarvana Jonstone: excellent

[08:54] bulaklak: In fact, here is a handy link with more info on how to register and get started: http://bit.ly/register-ts-forums

[08:54] Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks bulaklak!

[08:54] Orange Planer: I have only one question.

[08:54] Rhiannon Chatnoir: on the forums?

[08:55] Orange Planer: Nah, never mind, I’ll just cause trouble asking it.

[08:55] Rhiannon Chatnoir: ok

 

— FEATURED PRESENTER: GINNY MIES OF TECHSOUP —

 

[08:55] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Time for today’s main speaker!

[08:55] bulaklak: Yay, Ginny!

[08:55] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Let’s welcome Ginny Mies, who will speaking to us about how mobile technology, web apps, and mapping software have become enormously helpful in sharing news and spreading information about disaster relief efforts such as after Hurricane Sandy.

[08:55] alebez: woooooot, ginny!

[08:55] Rhiannon Chatnoir: if you want to come up here Ginny and grab a seat

[08:56] Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks!

[08:56] Rhiannon Chatnoir: a bit about Ginny:

[08:56] Gentle Heron: Welcome Ginny.

[08:56] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Bio: Ginny Mies is a content curator at TechSoup. Before coming to TechSoup, Ginny was a Senior Editor for PCWorld. She covered mobile phones as well as consumer advocacy issues for both the website and print magazine. She’s currently in home stretch of the Master of Library and Information Science program at San Jose State University.

[08:56] Rhiannon Chatnoir: ready whenever you are to start, your slides are behind you and let me know if you need them advanced

[08:56] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Thanks Rhiannon!

[08:56] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Hi everyone, I’m Ginny and I want to thank you all for having me here. I’m new to Second Life so bear with me 🙂

[08:56] Orange Planer: Congrats, Ginny. Here’s hoping you pass the orals for your masters.

[08:56] Buffy Beale: Yay Ginny!

[08:57] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Mobile technology, web apps, and mapping software have become enormously helpful in the sharing news and spreading information about relief efforts after Hurricane Sandy and other disasters or emergency situations.

[08:57] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): For a TechSoup.org article (http://bit.ly/Sn7YhA), I researched the ways in which people used technology and social media to share important information and later connect with their community to help with rescue and clean-up after the hurricane.

[08:57] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): I wanted to share some of the interesting info I found with you all.

[08:58] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Thanks 🙂

[08:58] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Texting campaigns have played a huge part in disaster relief for a few years now.

[08:59] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Residents affected by Sandy looking for shelters could text SHELTER and their zip code to 43352 (4FEMA).

[08:59] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): A few disaster relief agencies and organizations also have apps for the iPhone, Android phones, Windows phones, etc.

[08:59] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): The Red Cross hurricane app uses GPS to find the nearest shelters.

[09:00] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): FEMA’s apps for Apple, Android, and Blackberry provided weather information as well as tips for what to do during and after a hurricane.

[09:00] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): TechSoup partner Esri had an interactive map (which is no longer up) that showed the flooding and weather information post-Sandy.

[09:01] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): You could access up-to-date information on flood warnings, storm surge, shelters, and more.

[09:01] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): The Google Crisis Response project (http://www.google.org/crisisresponse/) has a slew of resources for both responders and those affected by disasters.

[09:02] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Google’s Hurricane Sandy map showed areas with power outages.

[09:02] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Communities could also create their own custom Google Maps for identifying where help is needed.

[09:03] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Tweak the Tweet (http://faculty.washington.edu/kstarbi/TtT_Hurricane_Map_byEvent.html) is a layered map that shows the locations of disaster-related Twitter hashtags.

[09:03] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): This is one of the most interesting uses of mapping technology I found.

[09:03] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): For example, you can see where people have tweeted about flooding by clicking blue dots, which correspond to #flood, #water, and #surge hashtags.

[09:04] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): You can also find out where volunteers are needed via the #need hashtag layer.

[09:05] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): I think I accidentally skipped my second slide so I’m going to go back 🙂

[09:05] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Here we go

[09:05] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Twitter has proven itself time and again as an excellent method of communication in times of crisis.

[09:06] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): During the hurricane, communities kept each other updated by using hashtags like #Sandy on what was happening in their neighborhood.

[09:06] Rhiannon Chatnoir: nod

[09:06] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Community members are now using hashtags like #SandyVolunteer to find out where they can help out.

[09:06] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Government agencies, such as FEMA, also used Twitter to get the word out about the storm starting a week before it hit.

[09:06] Sarvana Jonstone: aewsome

[09:07] Sarvana Jonstone: *awesome!

[09:07] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): But I think the rest of the world really saw Sandy’s impact through Instagram.

[09:07] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): According to mobile app’s founder Kevin Systrom, more than 344,000 images have been posted with the hashtag #sandy.

[09:08] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Instacane (www.instacane.com) is an independent site that is tracking all photos with Sandy-related hashtags.

[09:08] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): I’m going to now skip over to my last slide

[09:09] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Recovers.org is a simple tool that helps affected communities create websites to organize disaster recovery efforts.

[09:09] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): The Lower East Side Recovers (https://lowereastside.recovers.org/) is an example of this tool in action.

[09:10] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): The site is a resource for both those affected as well as volunteers who want to find ways to help out.

[09:10] Glitteractica Cookie: does this presentation live ont he techsoup slideshare page

[09:10] Rhiannon Chatnoir: not sure – but can be put up there if not

[09:10] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Not yet 🙂

[09:11] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): The nice thing about Recovers is that you can build web pages fairly quickly–which is essential during a time of emergency.

[09:11] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Occupy Sandy (www.Interoccupy.net/Sandy) is an offshoot of Occupy New York.

[09:11] Orange Planer: What?

[09:11] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): err Occupy Wall Street

[09:12] Orange Planer: Again

[09:12] Orange Planer: Wait?

[09:12] Orange Planer: “Occupy” a hurricane?

[09:12] Orange Planer: What does THAT mean?

[09:12] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): The group coordinates recovery to neighborhoods affected by Hurricane Sandy via special neighborhood hubs where community members can exchange information and volunteer goods or services.

[09:13] Rhiannon Chatnoir: the social movement started at Occupy has been often directing itself at relevant community inatiatives.. in NY they have been helping with post hurricane Sandy

[09:13] Orange Planer: Relevant to finance?

[09:13] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): One of my friends, who has been very active with recovery relief in the Rockaways, has been making soup and sandwiches in her kitchen in Brooklyn and then driving to the Rockaways and delivering the food door-to-door to those in need.

[09:13] Andy Evans: I read a lot of the Occupy Wall Street people were helping out in Staten Island

[09:14] Orange Planer: That sounds to me more like an organization that doesn’t have a focus.

[09:14] CarynTopia Silvercloud: The occupy sandy site was the one I found to be most relevant to informing me about relief efforts immediately after the hurricane

[09:14] Rhiannon Chatnoir: no they just happen to have started in the Wall St area, but the social/activism structure has proven useful for organizing other efforts too

[09:14] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): The idea is that the government agencies aren’t doing enough for relief efforts so Occupy Sandy/Wall Street are stepping in to take action

[09:14] Ozma Malibu: I liked how easy it was to donate funds to grassroots efforts. Also loved the “wedding registries” (Sandy and Sandy) with lists of needed items you could buy.

[09:14] Orange Planer: How transparent are the grassroots organizations?

[09:15] Zazoom Zimminy raises hand

[09:15] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): TechSoup has a variety of technology-related disaster planning and recovery resources for nonprofits and libraries.

[09:16] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Check out our Disaster Planning Resources Page (http://home.techsoup.org/pages/disasterplanning.aspx), which includes a link to our Disaster Planning Guide

[09:16] Rhiannon Chatnoir: did you have a question for Ginny.. Zazoom?

[09:16] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): I’m currently working on an updates to it that include information on creating a backup strategy for your mobile devices.

[09:16] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Sure, does anybody have any questions or comments?

[09:17] Buffy Beale: fantasic information thanks!

[09:17] Zazoom Zimminy: yes, thanks. I was wondering how you go about curating the information available as the problem with disasters seems to be too much noise and not enough signal

[09:17] Zazoom Zimminy: Did you have a process for verifying the quality of resources around things like volunteering, the veracity of information coming in, etc.

[09:17] Gentle Heron agrees with Zazoom. The thing I think about social media is, it divides the information by multiplying the information providers. There’s too much out there with too little specifics, and nothing coordinated

[09:17] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Great question!

[09:18] Zazoom Zimminy: if anything, this is where curation is so critical

[09:18] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): I have a few friends who are active in disaster relief/recovery efforts in the Jersey Shore and Rockaways

[09:18] Zazoom Zimminy: and it needs to be timely

[09:18] Ozma Malibu: Grassroots groups & transparency: lots of images posted of the work they were doing and we could follow on FB etc.Also, donate where you trust. I donated to the U-Hungry Cafe people cos they had a good track record e.g. with Katrina.

[09:18] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): So I asked them what resources they found useful, timely, etc.

[09:18] Orange Planer: Are these people audited?

[09:18] Rhiannon Chatnoir: what was their response back

[09:19] Zazoom Zimminy: so really the best way, finding local people you trust, trying to have your ear as close to the ground as possible

[09:19] Zazoom Zimminy: tapping networks

[09:19] Orange Planer: I’d rather buy the goods myself and drive them over.

[09:19] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): They said that following Twitter hashtags and other location-based sources were the best way to find out where help was needed

[09:19] Rhiannon Chatnoir: there is something to be said of trust networks…via either the info coming from an org or a person you know / trust

[09:19] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): InterOccupy and the Recovers.org sites were also fast and easy way to obtain information

[09:19] Ozma Malibu: yes, Zazoon, find locals you trust, tap networks. Or yes, Orange, drive out yourself.

[09:20] Orange Planer: Until you’ve got one person who runs a group by the power of personality.

[09:20] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): BUT, I’m not sure if you guys read about this, there was a guy on Twitter spreading false information. Saying that hospitals were on fire and certain streets were flooded

[09:20] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): So you can’t always trust what you read

[09:20] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): on social media

[09:20] Gentle Heron: I think that was Zazoom’s point.

[09:20] Ethelred Weatherwax: David Dexter, Manchester UK, arriving late and leacing early

[09:21] Rhiannon Chatnoir: One of the most interesting/amazing relief efforts was one that began as initially some SMS phone postings on Facebook, that bled to related interest/disability groups of a couple that due to the ‘no power’ were in essence stranded without resources and in need of supplies, aid and a way to use a ventilator

[09:21] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Right, so I think Interoccupy.net and Recovers.org sites stepping in to organize and verify some of this information was important

[09:21] Rhiannon Chatnoir: that evolved quickly in to someone creating a google doc that was collaborated on and shared

[09:21] Rhiannon Chatnoir: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I2qc7n6YFasKCFz_3rr_Ue3Xwu-3KvTZJXT4…

[09:21] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): That’s really interesting, Rhiannon

[09:21] Rhiannon Chatnoir: that is the doc if you want to see how that worked

[09:22] Ozma Malibu: wow

[09:22] Orange Planer: Yes, I saw that site.

[09:22] Rhiannon Chatnoir: a great example of your network rising up to aid you.. or friends of friends of friends… etc

[09:22] Gentle Heron: That person in the news was a member of Virtual Ability. We’ve used Google docs before to help them out. In fact, that’s how Nick got to New York City.

[09:22] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes and one of the co-organizers of the disability group GimpGirls

[09:22] Ozma Malibu: wow, again

[09:23] Rhiannon Chatnoir: all started from an SMS post to facebook to friends

[09:23] Gentle Heron: Yes Aleja is the head of GimpGirls in SL.

[09:23] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): A few of you messaged me to let me know that my link to TechSoup’s Disaster Planning site wasn’t working. Here’s the fixed link http://bit.ly/QUQpFW

[09:23] Zazoom Zimminy: awesome, thanks

[09:23] Gentle Heron: But this is an example of where even the government info sites were not helpful. They gave out information that was inaccurate as far as help for people with disabilities was concerned.

[09:24] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): I’m curious — do you organizations have disaster plans in place?

[09:24] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): *your

[09:24] Orange Planer: Or just use this: http://home.techsoup.org/pages/disasterplanning.aspx

[09:24] Rhiannon Chatnoir: good question

[09:25] Gentle Heron: The public shelters in Philadelphia were supposed to “take anyone” but they were not capable of taking in people with severe disabilities (one was told “We’ll take your parrot, but not you. You use a ventilator.”) and there was NO source of information for these people who needed more help than most of us.

[09:26] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes – the elderly were also severely impacted.. once power went out and they were essence trapped in high rises unable to walk down stairs

[09:26] Gentle Heron: I think that’s a good question Ginny. Since my organization is mainly SL based, with no RL activities, our disaster planning may be a bit different than those orgs who are location based. But yes, we have some planning in place.

[09:26] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Yes, a few of my friends’ grandparents live in the Rockaways and had trouble evacuating and finding shelter.

[09:26] Rhiannon Chatnoir: this can fuel a lot of discussion on how to make cities smarter and better prepared to handle disasters…hopefully

[09:27] Rhiannon Chatnoir: on that note Gentle, just loss of power is huge for any org that relies heavily on online technology

[09:27] Gentle Heron: Indeed it is, Rhiannon.

[09:27] Gentle Heron: as is back up for record keeping

[09:28] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): DeYes, backing up is crucial — a disaster can be spilling water all over your laptop 🙂

[09:28] CarynTopia Silvercloud: In my neighborhood in the West Village there was already an org that had been organizing around getting a hospitIn my neighborhood in the West Village, NY I was already in contact with an org that had been organizing around getting a closed hospital opened and that org was able to send out email to its members to organize help for seniors trapped in high rises

[09:29] Zazoom Zimminy: And don’t park your trains in Hoboken next time, NJ Transit

[09:29] CarynTopia Silvercloud: I could trust the info becuase I knew the people and the org

[09:29] Gentle Heron: HAHAHA

[09:29] CarynTopia Silvercloud: then I was able to send that info to my community in the Berkshires so they had a trusted source

[09:29] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Wow, that’s really interesting, Caryn.

[09:29] Rhiannon Chatnoir: at least not all of them Zazoom 😉

[09:30] Rhiannon Chatnoir: How many of you here were either effected directly or indirectly from Sandy?

[09:31] Gentle Heron: Some of our community members were, but not the organization’s offices.

[09:31] Zazoom Zimminy: me raises hand

[09:31] Andy Evans: Indirectly – I live in NYC…. wife had to get a rise to her job at the NYC DEPT OF Environmental Protection

[09:31] Rhiannon Chatnoir: I know Caryn, Zazoom.. some of us were more on one end of the storm or another or effected by colleagues we work/interact

[09:32] Zazoom Zimminy: more than half of our town was without power more than a week after the storm, though we only lost for two days

[09:32] Dancers Yao: collleagues affected

[09:32] Zazoom Zimminy: Had lots of neighbors over warming up and watching X Factor

[09:32] Zazoom Zimminy smiles

[09:32] Zazoom Zimminy: go Carly!

[09:33] Rhiannon Chatnoir: I had a good friend in Hoboken who they shared power charging in their hallways while they had it and shared info via cell on where to find resources/food

[09:34] Rhiannon Chatnoir: SMS usage becomes huge in an effected area would think

[09:36] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): SMS is a great way to stay in touch, but you have to watch the battery life on your phone 🙂

[09:36] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): in case there’s no power

[09:36] Andy Evans: Is it true SMS may work when the phone lines are clogged?

[09:36] Orange Planer: Yes, Andy.

[09:36] Buffy Beale: Sorry everyone have to leave early, great presentation thanks Ginny!

[09:36] Orange Planer: SMS depends more on IP through the phone network than on internet-IP.

[09:37] Zinnia Zauber: Take care, Buffy!

[09:37] Sarvana Jonstone: Local teams from “Somebody Cares Baltimore” and my church, Mountain Christian Church are going back and forth helping in the recovery. Twitter and text messages have been our communication for updates

[09:37] Buffy Beale: waves byee

[09:37] Sarvana Jonstone: Take care Buffy

[09:37] Orange Planer: Multiplexing that way is more robust.

[09:37] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Sarvana, do you use Twitter lists/groups to share info with one another?

[09:38] Rhiannon Chatnoir: you can use tools that help message many at once, like Group.me in those efforts Sarvana

[09:38] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and thanks Buffy for coming

[09:38] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and yes, twitter lists!

[09:38] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Group.me is awesome

[09:38] Sarvana Jonstone: we are using Twitter which bounces to Facebook… especially if request for expertise or items are submitted

[09:38] Andy Evans: What is GroupMe?

[09:38] Glitteractica Cookie: what is group.me? (jinx)

[09:38] Rhiannon Chatnoir: it is a way to set up SMS groups Andy

[09:39] Andy Evans: Wow

[09:39] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): It is an app that lets you text a designated group of people

[09:39] Rhiannon Chatnoir: so you could add people’s cell numbers and then have your own SMS chat between all members of that group

[09:39] Sarvana Jonstone: will check it out… the teams are scattered between NYC and NJ…

[09:39] Rhiannon Chatnoir: there is an app you can use. but you can also use the SMS number for your group and just send a text message to that as well

[09:40] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): I relied on it when I was a journalist to coordinate coverage of an event. I’d imagine it would be really helpful for coordinating volunteer efforts

[09:40] Rhiannon Chatnoir: if you werent able or didnt have a smart phone

[09:40] Sarvana Jonstone: sounds like a much needed tool… Thank you… will share with the team leaders

[09:40] Rhiannon Chatnoir: great for use during events/conventions as well.. to plan things collectively and share info quickly to all

[09:41] Rhiannon Chatnoir: https://groupme.com

[09:41] Rhiannon Chatnoir: any other questions for Ginny

[09:41] Sarvana Jonstone: so much work to be done… TV does not tell the story

[09:42] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Agreed!

[09:42] Sarvana Jonstone: Thank you Ginny… Awesome presentation!!!

[09:42] Andy Evans: Fantastic presentation

[09:42] Gentle Heron: Thanks Ginny. Very interesting presentation.

[09:42] Zinnia Zauber: thank you Ginny!

[09:42] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Thank you all for having me!

[09:42] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes, mainstream media is often hardpressed to keep up with the speed of infosharing online

[09:42] Zazoom Zimminy: thanks!

[09:42] Tori Landau: Many thanks Ginny!

[09:42] Dancers Yao: thanks great info

[09:42] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes great to have you here – thanks Ginny!

[09:43] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Ginny also writes a lot of posts to the forum.. so another good reason to visit there

[09:43] Rhiannon Chatnoir: I have a link to her forum profile on the NPC blog entry about today’s presentation

[09:43] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and you can find her other content there

[09:44] bulaklak: Thanks, Ginny!

[09:44] bulaklak: Great presentation.

 

— OPEN MIC & ANNOUNCEMENTS —

 

[09:44] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Let’s move on to Open Mic!

[09:44] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Does anyone have any announcements today?

[09:45] Rhiannon Chatnoir: if not we can end earlier… but if you have any events/info to share

[09:45] Orange Planer: Nothing here.

[09:46] Toxic Templates New Releases: MESH VIOLETTA BOOTS-SEMI EXCLUSIVE-10 SETS AVAILABLE ONLY-Realistically Textured,Mesh Over Ankle Boots, Laced Front, Strapped Sides, Metal Accents  /pngs/psds/mesh-Want removed?IM Alexxis Decuir-MP: http://bit.ly/XxSiO9 or Direct Trans Only

[09:46] Zinnia Zauber: CommonGround is next Thursday

[09:46] Zinnia Zauber: Our color theme is GOLD!

[09:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes!

[09:46] Glitteractica Cookie: excellent presentation

[09:46] Glitteractica Cookie: i hope we recap it and point to it on the site

[09:46] Tori Landau: What is commonground please Zinnia?

[09:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and will add her slides

[09:47] Zinnia Zauber: CommonGround is a fun and informative networking party here at the Nonprofit Commons to promote about what nonprofits, educators, humanitarians, scientists, and artists accomplish in Second Life.

[09:47] Zinnia Zauber: It is from 5 to 7 PM SLT on Aloft.

[09:47] Rhiannon Chatnoir: usually there is a theme.. this time being Gold

[09:47] Zinnia Zauber: We aim for the Third Thursday of each month.

[09:47] Tori Landau: oh shame, sounds great, u fortunately I’ll be in bed, have a great time everyone °͜°

[09:47] Zinnia Zauber: New color themes each month, this time GOLD.

[09:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: great if you want to informally meet up with other NPC community members, network and chat

[09:48] Zinnia Zauber: An effective way to connect with a new audience and promote your organization’s mission is to attend our two networking parties at the Nonprofit Commons – Wharf Ratz Tuesday Night Extraordinary Dance Extravaganza and CommonGround.

[09:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: will there be a Mentor’s meeting after this Zinnia?

[09:48] Sarvana Jonstone: According to my twin, SarVana Haalan… “CommonGround rocks!!” LOL, LOL

[09:49] Zinnia Zauber: A very brief Mentor Meeting.

[09:49] Rhiannon Chatnoir: ha

[09:49] Rhiannon Chatnoir: anyone else with announcements?

[09:49] Tori Landau: is wharf ratz also 5 to 7pm slt?

[09:49] Zinnia Zauber: So, let’s start that in 5 minutes.

[09:49] Zinnia Zauber: Wharf Ratz Tuesday Night Extraordinary Dance Extravaganza is 7 to 9 PM SLT.

[09:49] Zinnia Zauber: Every Tuesday!

[09:50] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Lets close this week’s meeting – please feel free to stick around for the Mentor’s meeting afterwards

[09:50] Rhiannon Chatnoir: And again, here are the many ways to can get involved with the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life:

[09:50] Orange Planer: So, some weeks there’s wharf ratz (2 hours), CommonGround (2 hours), and the NPC meeting (2 hours).

[09:50] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Nonprofit Commons Blog: http://nonprofitcommons.org

 

 – Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com

 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/npsl

 – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons

 – Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life

 – Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/2tMEYh

 – http://flavors.me/nonprofitcommons

 

About TechSoup the sponsors of the Nonprofit Commons:

 

 – http://www.techsoup.org/stock/howtousetechsoup.asp

 – http://flavors.me/techsoup

 

Thanks everyone and see you next week!

 

[09:50] Sarvana Jonstone: Excellent meeting!!!

[09:51] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes – and again much thanks to Ginny and a great discussion too 🙂

[09:51] Penelope Lowtide (ginny.lowtide): Thanks everyone! I must go now and put together next week’s By The Cup newsletter. Take care all!

[09:52] Rhiannon Chatnoir: take care and bye Ginny

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

Pooky Amsterdam: “The Future of Machinima” for the November 16th NonProfit Commons Meeting

This Friday, November 16th, Nonprofit Commons is happy to feature Pooky Amsterdam. Moving beyond live production of shows and professional videos Pooky is heading up a major International Film Festival’s busy 3 Day schedule, this weekend – She will be talking to us about the 5th Annual Machinima-Expo 2012 and what it will hold, and also what it possibly means for the future of machinima as a medium. 

Bio: Pooky Amsterdam, CEO of PookyMedia.com has been working in the field of  Virtual World Entertainment and TV for the past decade. The producer and writer of thousands of shows over this period, she is a leader in this field.  Since 2008 she has been a driving force for using Second Life as a media platform. With a portfolio of work credited to the PookyMedia team, the films she produces portray a full range of genre from Music and fashion to educational films. Recently PookyMedia has been working on more Public Service Announcements for the State of California, that are helping children and adults eradicate the threat of airborne pests. Yes, they are starring a mosquito, named Pesky.

 

Join us in Second Life!

 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, November 16th, 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 Centra
  • l8:55 am Main Speaker: Pooky Amsterdam
  • 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

Transcript of the November 9th NPC Meeting Featuring: Opal Lei

 

[08:36] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Welcome everyone to this week’s Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting!

 

The Nonprofit Commons in Second Life is sponsored by TechSoup Global and is a program of the TechSoup Global Community & Social Media team.

 

[08:36] Buffy Beale: hi there 🙂

[08:36] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Today’s Agenda:

  • 8:30 am Introductions
  • 8:40 am TechSoup Announcements
  • 8:45 am Mentor’s Central 
  • 8:55 am Featured Presenter: Opal Lei, “Getting the Code You Need” 
  • 9:30 am Open Mic / Announcements

 

[08:37] Rhiannon Chatnoir: First a few links to start off the meeting. 

 

Here are the many ways to can get involved with the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life:

 

  • Nonprofit Commons Blog: http://nonprofitcommons.org
  • Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com
  • Twitter: http://twitter.com/npsl
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons
  • Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life
  • Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/2tMEYh
  • http://flavors.me/nonprofitcommons

 

About TechSoup the sponsors of the Nonprofit Commons:

 

  • http://www.techsoup.org/stock/howtousetechsoup.asp
  • http://flavors.me/techsoup

 

— INTRODUCTIONS —

 

[08:37] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Happy Friday all! Llet’s start off with Introductions!

 

Please state your real name, location, org, and the ways we can find you online.

 

[08:37] Buffy Beale: Buffy Bye, Bridges for Women, Victoria BC Canada, http://www.bridgesforwomen.ca @bridges4women

[08:37] HB Eternal: Harold W Becker, The Love Foundation, Florida, http://www.thelovefoundation.com @lovefoundation

[08:37] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Bruce Hestley, Transgender American Veterans Association, Akron, OH, http://www.tavausa.org, http://www.facebook.com/#!/TAVAUS

[08:37] Buffy Beale: lol HB slipping today 🙂

[08:37] Zinnia Zauber: Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond, Sequim Humanities and Arts Alliance, Sequim, Olympic Peninsula, Washington. http://www.sequimartsalliance.org http://www.facebook.com/sequimartsalliance @renneemiko

[08:37] Gentle Heron: Virtual Ability, Inc. www.virtualability.org

[08:37] Dancers Yao: Kara Bennett, Elder Voices, Los Angeles, CA Health Care and Human Rights www.eldervoices.net

[08:37] Pathfinder Lester: John Lester, Chief Learning Officer, ReactionGrid, Montreal Canada http://about.me/pathfinder

[08:37] Zotarah Shepherd: BEACH College, Santa Rosa, CA

[08:38] Andy Evans: Andy Mallon, First Opinions Panel in SL; Chief Bottle-Washer, Social Research Foundation, New York, NY http://www.socialresearchfoundation.org/

[08:38] Chayenn: Monique Richert, Protect Yourself 1, Inc. Baltimore MD, protectyourself1.org. facebook.com/PY1US . @PY1US

[08:38] alebez: Ale Bezdikian, Online Community Coordinator, TechSoup, SF, Ca. @TechSoup, @alebez

[08:38] Glitteractica Cookie: Susan tenby, Online cxommunity and Social Media Director, TechSoup, @suzboop @techsoup @npsl, San Francisco, CA USA

[08:38] Rhiannon Chatnoir is Joyce Bettencourt in the Boston, MA area; Community Manager of TechSoup’s NonProfit Commons in Second Life; find me online at http://joycebettencourt.com & http://twitter.com/RhiannonSL

[08:38] Ethelred Weatherwax: Dave Dexter. Neenah Historical Society, Wisocnsin USA

[08:38] Ozma Malibu: Sandy Andrews, Floaters Org, tech outreach in Arizona, Mexico and On the Road, @ozma

[08:38] CarynTopia Silvercloud: Caryn Heilman in the Berkshires of NW MA in Adams, MA, Topia Arts Center, www.TopiaArts.org, create@TopiaArts.org, @topiaartscenter

[08:38] Orange Planer: Orange Planer, Homeowner Options for Massachusetts Elders http://www.elderhomeowners.org

[08:38] Atalanta Visage: Jennifer Siegel, National Service Inclusion Project, Boston, MA www.serviceandinclusion.org

[08:38] Orange Planer: I should probably create an orange.planer@elderhomeowners.org account.

[08:38] Adalace Jewell: @adalaceRoSa Documentation centre Brussel (Belgium) http://www.RoSadoc.be

[08:38] Coughran Mayo: Dick Dillon, Innovaision, LLC St. Louis MO @innovaision, @Coughran

[08:39] Zotarah Shepherd: Good to see you Orange

[08:39] Carl Solutionary (carlicann): Carl Icann http://carlicann.wordpress.com and Events @ http://interoccupy.net/ovw17 – I am hosting a Poetic DRUM CIRCLE on 9AM Sunday… Themes for Next 2 weeks are NO MO’ GMOs and Seed Freedom! (Do your causes align??? Thank You!)

[08:39] Patio Plasma: Patio Plasma, San Francisco Exploratorium, patioplasma@gmail.com

[08:39] Frans Charming: I’m Jeroen Frans, The Vesuvuius Group. Amsterdam.

[08:39] Brena Benoir: Brenda Bryan, Preferred Family Healthcare, Kirksville, MO www.pfh.org, @brenabenoir

[08:40] Grasshopper (ines.ogura): Ines Puspita German International School Indonesia

[08:40] Ronnie Rhode: Denise Harrison, The Garden for the Missing, http://www.gardenforthemissing.org/ and SLURL Remora (203,148,21), Project Jason, assistance for families of the missing, http://www.projectjason.org.

 

TECHSOUP ANNOUNCEMENTS —

 

[08:41] Rhiannon Chatnoir: It is time for TechSoup Announcements!

[08:41] alebez: Hello everyone, alebez here again to give you a few TechSoup updates for the week!

[08:41] alebez: I’ll keep it short and sweet today.

[08:42] alebez: I wanted to first say “Appy Friday” ya’ll! Every Friday is an appy friday here at TechSoup.

[08:42] Buffy Beale: yay alebez!

[08:42] alebez: This is a new theme born out of our Windows 8 Apps for Social Good contest and will continue throughout the campaign and beyond as a content theme to follow on social media and on the TechSoup blog. Every Friday is our day to discuss innovation and trends in the mobile space, as well as apps to note in the nonprofit and library world.

[08:42] alebez: We have an upcoming webinar that speaks to mobile trends in our nonprofit community. Consider joining us on 11/29 for part II of our popular Transforming Communities through Apps webinar: http://bit.ly/VjEO7u

[08:43] alebez: For more ‘Appy Friday goodness, check out a blog post roundup of recent stories about Apps for Youth, Election Time Apps, Gamification Apps and more! http://bit.ly/AppItUp

[08:43] alebez: And finally, I wanted to remind everyone that the Windows 8 Apps for Social Good contest is in fact live. We even have our first submission! Very exciting.

[08:43] alebez: The prototype submitted is for a mobile game based on the East African boardgame, Mancala. The game is called Bao the concept is the more you play the game the more this app makes through ads, and the money is donated to an organization that works on improving the lives of the people in Malawi.

[08:44] alebez: you can learn more about bao here: http://bao.win-rt.com/

 

And you can check out more of the submissions as they come in at http://www.netsquared.org/

 

The contest is open from November 5 – February 28.

 

[08:44] Orange Planer: That’s a long time.

[08:44] alebez: So if you have a great social good app idea, know a developer or two, and can swing a submission to this contest, the prize is 15K

 

Ok, that’s all she wrote folks. Have a great meeting.

[08:44] alebez: It is a long time, Orange.

[08:45] Orange Planer: 15K lindens or $15K USD?

[08:45] alebez: 15K USD.

[08:45] Ellie Edo: hmm

[08:45] Ellie Edo: thats interesting

[08:45] Glitteractica Cookie: makes it a bit more appealing, no? 😉

[08:45] Ellie Edo: iphone app?

[08:45] Gentle Heron: What is the source of the prize money?

[08:46] alebez: It really does. It can be mobile or web app

[08:46] Glitteractica Cookie: We receive the prize money from Microsoft, and we are running the contest for them

[08:46] Glitteractica Cookie: why do you ask, Gentle?

[08:46] Orange Planer: Does it have to be a Windows 8 app?

[08:46] Ellie Edo: morals, perhaps?

[08:46] Gentle Heron: just interested, Glitter.

[08:46] Glitteractica Cookie: ok

[08:46] Glitteractica Cookie: this is part of our Win 8 campaign

[08:47] Orange Planer: OK, so it does need to be a Win8 app.

[08:47] alebez: Yes, it does have to be a windows 8 app

[08:47] Ellie Edo: ok, forget that then lol

[08:47] Glitteractica Cookie: the point of the contest is to launch Win 8

[08:47] Orange Planer: Oh come on, Ellie.

[08:47] alebez: it must be submitted to the Windows marketplace as part of the contest

[08:47] Orange Planer: Win8’s an excellent interface.

[08:47] Ellie Edo laughs

[08:48] Ellie Edo: “sorry” (looks contrite)

[08:48] Orange Planer: It’s only “hard” if you’re used to doing things the hard way.

[08:48] alebez: Ok, great. That’s all for me. Have a great meeting all!

[08:48] Orange Planer: Which is what we’ve done before tablets got here.

[08:48] Orange Planer: Thanks, alebez.

[08:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Thanks Ale

[08:48] Buffy Beale: thanks Ale

 

— MENTOR’S CENTRAL —

 

[08:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: on to Mentor’s Central!

[08:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Today for Mentor Central we have Gentle is speaking today on Helping Volunteers Succeed.

Let’s welcome her up and please start whenever your ready.!

[08:49] Zinnia Zauber: Rah Gentle!

[08:49] Gentle Heron: I want to encourage my fellow NPCers, especially those who are in the Mentor Group, to consider making a little “book report” on something they have read recently, either on the net or on paper.

[08:49] Zotarah Shepherd: Yay Gentle

[08:49] Buffy Beale: yayy Gentle!

[08:49] Gentle Heron: And it contains several BIG HINTS!!!!!

[08:49] Gentle Heron: This information is from “Helping Volunteers Succeed” by Allen Liff. It is a short document addressed to a potential volunteer.

[08:49] Gentle Heron: I was looking for information on the internet about how to help my own SL community (which is entirely volunteer, we have no staff!) work more efficiently.

[08:49] Gentle Heron: It begins with The Volunteer Inventory:

[08:50] Gentle Heron: Three Elements of a Successful Volunteer Experience:

[08:50] Gentle Heron: •Addressing an issue of personal interest.

•Applying my skills & experiences to a challenge

•Contributing to the association, profession, etc.

[08:50] Gentle Heron: These are all seen as benefits to the volunteer. The volunteer should be able to answer these questions before applying for a specific volunteer position.

[08:50] Gentle Heron: Also, the staff member of the organization for which the volunteer will be working should be able to answer those same questions.

[08:51] Gentle Heron: Developing Groundrules for the Partnership between Staff and Volunteers.

[08:51] Gentle Heron: This is a set of four questions that could be answered jointly.

[08:51] Gentle Heron: How do you want to be treated?

How do you want to treat others?

[08:51] Gentle Heron: How do you think I want to be treated?

How will we resolve conflicts?

[08:52] Gentle Heron: Of course, any work requires a plan. That leads us to:

[08:52] Gentle Heron: Making a Plan for Volunteer Tasks. This covers three areas: clarity, readiness, success.

[08:52] Gentle Heron: CLARITY:

[08:52] Gentle Heron: •Do we agree on the facts? 

•What opinions or assumptions do people hold? 

•Are we clear about the roles of staff and volunteers?

[08:52] Gentle Heron: READINESS:

[08:53] Gentle Heron: •Do we agree on a path forward plan and accountability? 

•Do we have the right mix of resources and skills?

[08:53] Gentle Heron: SUCCESS:

[08:53] Gentle Heron: •Do we share and are we committed to the same goals? 

•How will we know if and when we have succeeded?

[08:53] Gentle Heron: And finally, a diagnostic tool for health of a volunteer operation. These questions will help identify issues and initiate corrective actions.

[08:53] Gentle Heron: NINE QUESTIONS VOLUNTEERS SHOULD ASK:

[08:53] Gentle Heron: 1. Do volunteers know what is expected of them as volunteers? Are staff and volunteers in agreement about: a) which activities and functions should be done only by the volunteer; and b) those activities and functions that should be done only by staff?

[08:54] Orange Planer: I am SO stealing this.

[08:54] Gentle Heron smiles at Orange.

[08:54] Gentle Heron: 2. Do staff provide volunteers with the materials and support they need to do their work well?

[08:54] Gentle Heron: 3. Does staff understand and appreciate the priorities of the volunteer?

[08:54] Gentle Heron: 4. In the past three or four months, have volunteers received recognition or praise, from staff for doing good work?

[08:54] Gentle Heron: 5. Does the staff at staff seem to care about volunteers as persons? (e.g., Do I have a friend at staff?)

[08:55] Gentle Heron: 6. Is there someone at staff who encourages volunteers individually, either to take on a new challenge or to learn from a failure?

[08:55] Gentle Heron: 7. Do volunteer opinions count with staff?

[08:55] Gentle Heron: 8. Does the staff feel the work of the volunteers is important? Do they make volunteers feel important?

[08:55] Gentle Heron: and finally

[08:55] Gentle Heron: 9. In the last few months, has someone on staff checked in to see how volunteers are doing and whether they are meeting their goals?

[08:56] Gentle Heron: SO several things to think about, whether we manage volunteers or whether we are asked to volunteer for an organization we belong to.

[08:56] Coughran Mayo: Brilliant!

[08:56] Gentle Heron: Thank you and happy reading.

[08:56] Zinnia Zauber: This is wonderful!

[08:56] CarynTopia Silvercloud: thanks very helpful

[08:56] Zotarah Shepherd: Thank you Gentle

[08:56] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you so much Gentle!

[08:56] Buffy Beale: all good reminders Gentle thanks!

[08:56] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Thanks a heap Gentle

[08:56] Mia (praxislady.witt): Haha, The mistress of organizational skills, our Gentle :))

[08:56] Zinnia Zauber: A great checklist to use!

[08:56] Gentle Heron: You’re all welcome.

[08:56] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Yes – great stuff .. thanks Gentle 🙂

[08:57] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Let’s thank Gentle for leading Mentors Central today!

[08:57] Dancers Yao: thank you

[08:57] Pathfinder Lester: thanks Gentle

[08:57] Glitteractica Cookie: thanks and great stuff

 

— FEATURED PRESENTATION, OPAL LEI: GETTING THE CODE YOU NEED —

 

[08:57] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Time for today’s main presenter…

 

[08:58] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Welcome Opal Lei, who will discuss with us today the why, what, who and how of obtaining LSL scripts for your organization’s virtual presence.

 

[08:58] Rhiannon Chatnoir: First a bit about our speaker…

 

Opal Lei (aka Lea Tesoro in real life) now calls herself an author after publishing her book “Love, Like Dim Sum” (www.LoveLikeDimSum.com). But, once upon a time, she called herself a techie. Prior to discovering SL, she worked in the software industry for 14 years, including a stint at Microsoft, where she documented APIs and coded basic snippets for the .NET SDK. Her first LSL scripting project was a docent game for the International Spaceflight Museum. As her alt Treasure Box, she had also choreographed and coded the burning of the Burning Life/Burn2 temple for four years. 

 

http://www.virtuasapient.com

 

[08:58] Gentle Heron: YAY Opal!

[08:58] Zinnia Zauber: Rah Opal!

[08:58] Opal Lei: Hi, everybody.

[08:58] Opal Lei: This prim behind us is a media-on-a-prim.

[08:58] Rhiannon Chatnoir: thank you Opal, start whenever your ready 🙂

[08:58] Opal Lei: Thank you, Rhiannon

[08:58] Opal Lei: If you prefer to view the stream directly, you can go to …

http://www.opallei.com/livestream.html

[08:59] Opal Lei: It only has the slides. If you can’t view it, all the information will be in chat anyway.

[08:59] Opal Lei: LiveStream will first show you an ad, so you might want to get that started to get past the ad before we get to the good stuff.

[08:59] Buffy Beale: Cheering for Opal!

[08:59] Opal Lei: I received 13 responses to the survey. Thank you very much to those who responded.

[08:59] Opal Lei: Based on the results of that survey,

[08:59] Opal Lei: • Most of you want to learn basic LSL. My apologies to the intermediate and advanced scripters in the audience. The first part might bore you but the latter part might be a little interesting.

[09:00] Opal Lei: • Most of you have not hired any scripters. Of the three who have, two are happy and one is not.

[09:00] Opal Lei: • I couldn’t prioritize which topics to focus on. Based on the weighted average, they all got approximately the same ratings.

[09:00] Opal Lei: And you asked many questions!

[09:00] Opal Lei: therefore,….

[09:00] Opal Lei: * I’m going to spend more time on “Deciding when to modify a freebie script and when to leave it alone.”

[09:00] Opal Lei: * I will briefly touch on “Deciding when to hire, when to purchase off the shelf, and when to do it yourself.”

[09:01] Gentle Heron: /cheers for the first topic

[09:01] Opal Lei: * I will also quickly skim over “Choosing the right scripter if you decide to hire.” And someone had great questions related to that.

[09:01] Opal Lei: * And because some of you might get volunteer scripters, I’ll spend more time on “Effectively sharing your vision with a scripter to get the results you want.”

[09:01] Opal Lei: Even if you prefer to write your own scripts, stick around for that last topic.

[09:01] Opal Lei: In the end, I’ll answer the questions you wrote in the survey. I’ll try to address as many of them as I can.

[09:01] Opal Lei: Let’s get started…. Please let me know if I’m going too fast.

[09:01] Sarvana Haalan: Sally S. Cherry, MT(ASCP), Baltimore, MD @CHAREproject, @SarVana

[09:01] Opal Lei: Why scripts for non-profits?

[09:02] Opal Lei: You give away notecards, landmarks, free shirts, whatever.

[09:02] Opal Lei: You direct people to your website or to YouTube or Facebook.

[09:02] Opal Lei: You play an automatic slideshow.

[09:02] Opal Lei: You track your visitors.

[09:02] Opal Lei: You give them an “experience” to emphasize the need that your organization addresses.

[09:02] Opal Lei: You engage them with a “game”.

[09:02] Opal Lei: You add interactivity to your displays.

[09:02] Opal Lei: You illustrate a concept.

[09:02] Opal Lei: And so much more.

[09:02] Opal Lei: I know that many of you use simple freebie scripts to do the basics of what you need to get done.

[09:02] Opal Lei: So, let’s talk about freebie scripts. …

[09:02] Opal Lei: TOPIC 1: Deciding when to modify a freebie script and when to leave it alone

[09:03] Opal Lei: If you can combine the functionality of two or more freebie scripts in one prim, reduce lag by combining them into one. I’ll explain why….

[09:03] Opal Lei: There are two ways a script can take up server resources . . . time and space . . . processing time and memory space.

[09:03] Opal Lei: If a script is compiled WITHOUT Mono, each instance of a script takes up 16kB of memory for both code and data.

[09:03] Opal Lei: If a script is compiled WITH Mono, the FIRST instance of a script takes up 64kB of memory. Other instances of the same script in the sim take up space for the data only.

[09:04] Opal Lei: So, if you use two separate scripts that could have been combined, you use twice the memory in the server.

[09:04] Opal Lei: Compiling with Mono makes sense if you will use the same script at least four times in the same sim, if you have a large script, and/or if you will hold a lot of data.

[09:05] Opal Lei: (( Now, I’m sorry I started with something that technical. I apologize. ))

[09:05] Gentle Heron: Just one question: what is Mono?

[09:05] Opal Lei: If you have any questions, just throw it out and I’ll try to explain.

[09:06] Opal Lei: In the olden days, the only way to compile scripts is with the old LSL engine.

[09:06] Opal Lei: Mono is a more efficient engine.

[09:06] Orange Planer: Mono is the compiler used to turn LSL into binary programming code.

[09:06] Opal Lei: THank you, Orange. 🙂

[09:06] Opal Lei: On to the next point….

[09:07] Opal Lei: If there is a conflict in user interaction, keep them separate or use alternate interactions. For example, ….

[09:07] Opal Lei: If both original scripts use touch as a trigger for an action, you can change the combined script to perform different actions depending on the face touched.

[09:07] Opal Lei: For example, you can have the code from ScriptA respond only if the user touches Face 0 of the prim.

[09:07] Opal Lei: And the code from ScriptB responds only if the user touches Face 3.

[09:08] Opal Lei: When it rezzes, here’s an example of an object where touching a different side sends you to a different website.

[09:09] Opal Lei: kk, i set it for sale for 0L.

[09:09] Opal Lei: Feel free to take a copy.

[09:09] Orange Planer: Nice.

[09:10] Opal Lei: You can also make it depend on the area touched on the same face.

[09:10] Orange Planer: Really nice.

[09:10] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you, Opal!

[09:10] Opal Lei: I’ll do some shameless self promotion and rez the poster for my book.

[09:10] Opal Lei: The poster itself has only one prim.

[09:10] Opal Lei: The buttons are part of the texture.

[09:11] Opal Lei: But if you touch the area assigned to each button, the script behaves differently.

[09:11] Opal Lei: And that’s only using one side of the prim.

[09:11] Opal Lei: If/When you are comfortable with coding menus, you can use a menu system to allow users to select the action.

[09:11] Opal Lei: That’s another option to save prims and scripts.

[09:12] Opal Lei: However, a menu system adds additional steps for the user,

[09:12] Opal Lei: … is not intuitive for non-native speakers of the language used,

[09:12] Opal Lei: … can be restrictive because each button displays only 12 characters,

[09:12] Opal Lei: … is a little more complex to code, and

[09:12] Opal Lei: … is a little more complex to code, and

[09:12] Opal Lei: … uses up more resources.

[09:12] Orange Planer: Is prone to repeating itself?

[09:12] Orange Planer: Sorry.

[09:12] Opal Lei: lmao

[09:12] Opal Lei: That was a copy-paste error. 😀

[09:13] Opal Lei: Third point on the topic….

[09:13] Ellie Brewster: So if it uses up more resources, is there really a gain in using fewer prims?

[09:13] Opal Lei: If the scripts are too complex, leave them alone or test the script extensively.

[09:13] Orange Planer: No, Mono uses less.

[09:13] Opal Lei: Ellie, did you mean the … Thank you, Orange.

[09:13] Opal Lei: The memory is already allocated to the script.

[09:13] Orange Planer: if the script does not use Mono, then it’s definitely worth using less prims to use fewer resources.

[09:14] Ellie Brewster: ty

[09:14] Opal Lei: The reasons why to avoid messing with more complex scripts is that two scripts might use the same variable name differently and cause problems when combined.

[09:15] Opal Lei: If you don’t know everything that a script does, be very cautious about modifying it.

[09:15] Opal Lei: Code is very picky. Even using the wrong capitalization or missing a single dot can cause the compiler to throw an error at you.

[09:15] Opal Lei: Or worse, the compiler would say that it’s fine, but it doesn’t work like you expected.

[09:15] Opal Lei: And you can sit there and cuss at it all you want, only to cuss at yourself after you realize you made a type.

[09:15] Opal Lei: typo*

[09:15] Opal Lei: like that.

[09:16] Opal Lei: Any questions on that topic?

[09:16] Opal Lei: kk, next topic …

[09:16] Orange Planer has some familiarity with coding, but not LSL

[09:16] Opal Lei: TOPIC 2: Deciding when to hire, when to purchase off-the-shelf, and when to do it yourself

[09:16] Opal Lei: Of course, if you cannot afford to hire, you can look for volunteers or do it yourself.

[09:16] Opal Lei: Generally, I recommend doing it yourself for simple scripts and hiring someone if the project is beyond your level of comfort.

[09:16] Opal Lei: But how would you know?

[09:17] Opal Lei: In Topic 4, we’ll talk about sharing your vision with a scripter.

[09:17] Opal Lei: I recommend going through that process, even if you don’t think you need someone else.

[09:17] Opal Lei: Because it will clarify the project and will help you decide.

[09:17] Opal Lei: There aren’t many off-the-shelf scripts available in the market.

[09:17] Opal Lei: And I’ve seen scripts that are too expensive for what they do.

[09:17] Opal Lei: There are some systems that are worth it, however. Systems that do not have to be customized much, like teleporters, vendors, security systems….

[09:17] Opal Lei: On the other hand, they tend to be laggier because they use additional code that you’d probably use only once when you set up, but they continue to use up resources.

[09:18] Opal Lei: And scripters are probably not going to give you their proprietary code, so you would not be able to customize it to fit your needs, except for the customization that is built-in.

[09:18] Opal Lei: I’m going to move ahead to the next topic.

[09:19] Opal Lei: If I’m losing you, let me know.

[09:19] Opal Lei: TOPIC 3: Choosing the right scripter if you decide to hire

[09:19] Opal Lei: Depending how big the project is, depending on your budget, and depending on your negotiations, these are some of the qualifications that you’re looking for:

[09:19] Opal Lei: * Skill level that is appropriate for your project

[09:19] Opal Lei: Check if they’ve done something similar to your project.

[09:19] Opal Lei: They should be able to demo or describe past projects, whether sold in retail or done in custom projects.

[09:20] Opal Lei: Even if your project is something new to them, if they’ve done a wide variety of projects at different

[09:20] Opal Lei: levels of complexity, they can probably handle yours too.

[09:20] Opal Lei: There is a certification program but I haven’t looked into it: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Scripting_Certification

[09:20] Opal Lei: * Problem-solving skills

[09:20] Opal Lei: Ask them if they have encountered an interesting coding problem and how they solved it.

[09:20] Orange Planer: i run the group for that, Opal.

[09:21] Orange Planer: bug me later.

[09:21] Opal Lei: Oooh, cool, Orange! Let’s chat.

[09:21] Opal Lei: 😀

[09:21] Opal Lei: If not, give them a problem to solve and ask how they would solve it without coding.

[09:21] Opal Lei: More importantly, ask them WHY they chose that solution.

[09:21] Opal Lei: * Coding practices

[09:21] Opal Lei: Generally, if a scripter/coder is paid by the hour, you own the code and you should receive the scripts with full perms, so you can modify it in the future.

[09:21] Opal Lei: For that reason, you need someone who writes code that is “clean”, well-organized, well-commented, and easily understandable.

[09:22] Opal Lei: Good professional coders will submit code that someone else can more easily modify later down the road.

[09:22] Opal Lei: Ask them to write a short script for you, and you define what the script does. When you view the code, you should be able to get a sense of what each section does, based on the variable names, the function names, and the comments within the code.

[09:22] Orange Planer: Hear har

[09:22] Orange Planer: hear

[09:22] Opal Lei: at least a vague sense at the minimum.

[09:22] Orange Planer can’t emphasize the “clear, well-commented” aspect.

[09:22] Orange Planer: enough

[09:22] Opal Lei: There are a few topic suggestions from the survey that I’d like to address quickly in this section.

[09:23] Opal Lei: Q: Why prices may vary significantly between scripters:

[09:23] Glitteractica Cookie: (sorry i have to jump out early for a mtg., see u all next week)

[09:23] Ellie Edo: If onlythe Lindens had stuck to that when they statred SL !

[09:23] Rhiannon Chatnoir: this is good advice for those looking for coders outside of Second Life too!

[09:23] Opal Lei waves at Glitter.

[09:23] Opal Lei: LSL scripters come from all over the world. Cost of living in their area is a significant factor.

[09:23] Orange Planer: Ellie, talk to me about that.

[09:23] Ellie Edo: cleann documented mosdifiable code

[09:23] Opal Lei: Some may be experienced coders and they already know what they’re worth.

[09:23] Opal Lei: Others might be just learning and building their portfolio or reputation.

[09:23] Opal Lei: Some do it for a living. Others do it for fun.

[09:23] Opal Lei: Some may be lowering their prices to compete.

[09:24] Opal Lei: Let me add….

[09:24] Opal Lei: When you create scripts that are meant to be sold off-the-shelf, you have the advantage of the software business model.

[09:24] Opal Lei: You invest a lot in the first copy of the product, and all subsequent copies that you sell have almost no cost.

[09:24] Opal Lei: This is true whether you’re selling a script or a virtual piece of clothing. And you can sell an infinite number of copies, theoretically.

[09:24] Opal Lei: On the other hand, if you do custom software, you’re selling your time, which is a very limited resource.

[09:25] Opal Lei: The second part of the suggested topics….

[09:25] Opal Lei: Q: Advantages/disadvantages of choosing an individual scripter vs a company, e.g. price may be lower for individual but availability and ongoing/future support more reliable from a company

[09:25] Opal Lei: I think it may depend on the scripter and the company. Some companies have been around for a while and their longevity is a good sign.

[09:25] Opal Lei: But it also depends on what the company guarantees they would do.

[09:25] Opal Lei: Do they review each other’s code? Do they test each other’s code? What sorts of tests do they do? How good is their best scripter? How good is the scripter they’re going to assign to your project?

[09:25] Opal Lei: You might not want to reject an individual scripter who’s at level 10 in favor of a company whose scripters are only at level 5.

[09:26] Opal Lei: And the last part of the suggested topic…

[09:26] Opal Lei: Q: How to estimate reasonable costs

[09:26] Opal Lei: Estimates are very difficult to do. Like anything else, the more experience you have, the better you can estimate.

[09:26] Opal Lei: A good scripter will help you fine-tune the requirements, then code it, then test the code, then document the project both for the end user and for the person who will be maintaining the code.

[09:26] Opal Lei: A good scripter will also give you status updates, and even submit partial code at milestones that you agree on.

[09:26] Opal Lei: All these take time. And for a custom job, you’re paying for their time.

[09:26] Opal Lei: Actually, this is a great segue to the next topic.

[09:27] Opal Lei: Before you can estimate, you have to first define the job. The more detailed the definition, the better the estimate.

[09:27] Opal Lei: If your budget is limited, you can work with the scripter to define the priorities of the features. Then make sure that they implement the features you *need* before they implement the features you *want*.

[09:27] Opal Lei: Depending on your negotiations, you might also be able to come to an agreement on an estimate and the scripter would absorb the time cost if they don’t get it done within your agreed maximum cost.

[09:27] Opal Lei: Any questions before I move to the last topic?

[09:28] Opal Lei: Sorry, I forgot to move the slides forward. Oops.

[09:28] Opal Lei: TOPIC 4: Effectively sharing your vision with a scripter to get the results you want

[09:28] Opal Lei: In my first job after my undergrad, I learned a lesson that I still remember to this day, …

[09:28] Opal Lei: *** What the customer asks for is not necessarily what they need. ***

[09:28] Opal Lei: We were told to dig out what they really need.

[09:28] Opal Lei: A system could have all the bells and whistles. …

[09:28] Opal Lei: It could even be 100% bug-free (although computer science purists will say there is no such thing). …

[09:28] Opal Lei: But, if it doesn’t meet the customer’s needs, it’s a failure.

[09:29] Opal Lei: In software development, several specifications (or specs) are created to communicate what the customer needs to the development team.

[09:29] Opal Lei: Specs that define the problem that the product will solve and the customers that it will serve.

[09:29] Opal Lei: Specs that define the behavior of the product from the customer’s point of view.

[09:29] Opal Lei: Specs that define the internal data structures and technical components that the product will have.

[09:29] Opal Lei: Specs that define the tests that will be done on the code.

[09:29] Opal Lei: Essentially, you will need to write an abbreviated version of all those specs rolled into one.

[09:29] Opal Lei: Even if you’ll be writing your own code, I recommend this process anyway.

[09:29] Opal Lei: Think of it as something like writing a business plan or a project plan. Or a storyboard for a film.

[09:30] Opal Lei: It will help you think through the project, so you can see where you might need help or what you need to learn.

[09:30] Opal Lei: I still do this for myself too, because it keeps me focused and helps me make the little decisions when I

[09:30] Opal Lei: choose how to implement a piece of the code, or what features to include.

[09:30] Opal Lei: It also reminds me why I chose to solve a problem one way, instead of another way.

[09:30] Opal Lei: It also reminds me why I chose to solve a problem one way, instead of another way.

[09:30] Opal Lei: Eventually, you can rewrite the document as instructions for how to use the script.

[09:30] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Also helps you to develop modules for plugins later

[09:30] Opal Lei: Yes!

[09:30] Opal Lei: Specs go through several edits and iterations.

[09:30] Opal Lei: Sometimes even while the coding is already being done.

[09:30] violeta222: sobre o que vcs falam?

[09:31] violeta222: e uma palestraW

[09:31] Opal Lei: Before coding starts, ask your scripter to review the specs and suggest changes.

[09:31] Opal Lei: Your scripter can tell you what can or cannot be done within the limitations of LSL.

[09:31] Opal Lei: And s/he can recommend alternate solutions or approaches that are more efficient or more effective.

[09:31] Opal Lei: Invest as much time as you can on the spec before coding starts.

[09:31] Opal Lei: Work with your scripter to fine-tune the spec.

[09:31] Opal Lei: The later you make a change in the design, the more expensive it gets, in terms of time and money.

[09:31] Opal Lei: And the more likely that bugs would get introduced into the code.

[09:32] Opal Lei: A good spec makes coding straightforward, so coding itself takes less time to do.

[09:32] Opal Lei: With a good spec, the scripter doesn’t have to second-guess your needs and preferences.

[09:32] Opal Lei: So, here are some of the things that you need in it and why.

[09:32] Opal Lei: This is not a complete list, and some may depend on the project itself.

 

[09:32] Opal Lei: 1. YOUR GOAL

  • What is your goal for the project?
  • Do you want to educate? Entertain? Add interactivity?
  • Increase traffic to your parcel? To your website?

Segment your target audience. By knowing who would be interacting with the object/script, you’ll be able to define the features and the behavior better.

 

[09:32] Opal Lei: 2. USER INTERFACE

  • Exactly how do you want the user to interact with the script?
  • What would the object look like? What would the textures look like?
  • How will the script be triggered to do something? Touch? Proximity? Collision? Chat? Sitting? Paying?
  • Do you need a blue menu system? A chat-based system?
  • Do you need them to type something in chat?
  • What needs to be done to process what they type?

 

[09:33] Opal Lei: 3. DESIRED RESULTS

  • Do you want the script to say something in chat? To collect information? To listen?
  • Do you want to change the configuration of the prim? How?
  • Do you want to give inventory?
  • If giving inventory, how many items are you giving away?
  • Are there conditions when you give some items and other conditions when you give other items?

 

[09:33] Opal Lei: 4. DATA HANDLING AND STORAGE

  • Do you need the script to hold data temporarily, like visitor UUIDs or other settings? For how long? How much data? Why do you need to store the data?
  • Do you need to validate any data? For example: If you ask for an email address, you’d look for the “@” in the string that the user enters.
  • Do you need to handle sensitive data that must be secured? How secure?

 

[09:33] Opal Lei: 5. INTEGRATION WITH OTHER SYSTEMS

  • Do you need to save data to an external database or to customize a website for the user?
  • If someone else is coding the web application and database, how is the data formatted? Are there restrictions in length and data types?
  • Will there be other scripts in the same object? What do they do? What are the triggers for those scripts? Could the triggers cause conflict; i.e.: same triggers used?
  • Does the script need to interface with another script? Are the scripts in the same prim? Same object but different prims? Different object? Outside normal chat range? Outside shouting rage? Outside the sim? Outside SL?

[09:34] Opal Lei: If possible, give your scripter a copy of the object where the scripts would reside. Better yet, have them collaborate with your builder. The script design and the object design must work well together.

[09:34] Opal Lei: The years when I scripted the Burning Life / Burn2 temple as my alt Treasure Box, I couldn’t start planning the burn, let alone start scripting until after Damanios Thetan gave me a copy of the temple that he built.

[09:35] Opal Lei: I didn’t change the design, but I had to reconfigure how the prims were linked together, in order to make the collapse of the structure more realistic and to group components that burned similarly.

[09:35] Opal Lei: For example, I separated the glass parts from the wood parts and from the metal parts.

[09:35] Opal Lei: So, don’t leave your scripter in the dark when it comes to the final object where the scripts would go.

 

[09:35] Opal Lei: 6. ACCEPTANCE TESTING

  • What tests will you perform before you accept the project as satisfactory?
  • Each criteria must be specific and the whole test plan must be comprehensive.
  • If you don’t know how to test code, you can hire a separate tester who is not associated with the scripter, so you’d get an independent opinion.
  • Your tester can write this section for you.

 

[09:35] Opal Lei: If you want to get a copy of the expanded version of this LSL spec-writing guideline as a pdf file, just fill out the post-talk survey with your feedback.

[09:36] Opal Lei: Here’s the link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/R3VDKJV

 

[09:36] Opal Lei: But don’t go there yet.

[09:36] Opal Lei: Are we out of time?

[09:36] Opal Lei: Did everybody fall asleep?

[09:36] Rhiannon Chatnoir: aww

[09:36] Zinnia Zauber: This is great, Opal!

[09:37] Ellie Edo: nope. somegood advice there

[09:37] Zotarah Shepherd: Taking notes

[09:37] Orange Planer: No, I’m glad I’m recording hte chat because there’s so much detail.

[09:37] Opal Lei: Oh good. 😀

[09:37] Orange Planer: You’re giving us a complete working plan to implement a solution.

[09:37] Rhiannon Chatnoir: still awake here.. lots of great advice for SL and programmer/coders you might need beyond SL

[09:37] Sarvana Haalan: an excellent presentation

[09:37] Patio Plasma: yay Opal

[09:37] Opal Lei: Thank you all.

[09:37] Andy Evans: Excellent

[09:37] Andy Evans: May I make a comment?

[09:37] Zotarah Shepherd: Very helpful.

[09:37] Rhiannon Chatnoir: any questions for Opal

[09:37] CarynTopia Silvercloud: thanks

[09:37] Opal Lei: I’ll post the answers to some of the questions I got from the survey.

[09:37] Opal Lei: Andy, please go ahead.

[09:37] Rhiannon Chatnoir: great

[09:38] Andy Evans: It might be instructive to have an archive of:

 

Name of purchaser

Name of Scripter

Custom scripts that were done – the purpose, type, description of project

Time frame from initial discussion to completion

Final costs

Recommendations from the purchaser & scripter – what they might have done differently or what could have saved costs; what decisions were made and why along the way

 

[09:38] Sarvana Haalan: Thank you … I understand some aspects of scripting a lot better

[09:38] Opal Lei: Good point, Andy.

[09:38] Opal Lei: Glad to hear Sarvana.

[09:38] Opal Lei: Oh, let me answer one question fromthe survey.

[09:39] Orange Planer: You mean an “after project wrap-up,” Andy?

[09:39] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and of course we will have the archive of this up on http://nonprofitcommons.org so you can reread

[09:39] Rhiannon Chatnoir: please do Opal

[09:39] Opal Lei: ty, Rhiannon

[09:39] Opal Lei: Q: What are the best current resources for learning more about scripting?

[09:39] Andy Evans: Yes, an after project wrap up

[09:39] Opal Lei: The LSL portal in the Second Life wiki should be your bible: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSL_Portal

[09:39] Opal Lei: I still refer to it every time to look up the correct spelling of a function name and/or to check the parameters it requires.

[09:39] Opal Lei: I still refer to it every time to look up the correct spelling of a function name and/or to check the parameters it requires.

[09:40] Opal Lei: An older resource is lslwiki.net, but I’m not sure how up-to-date that is. However, some of the functions are better described there than in the SL wiki.

Don’t read it all at once. Just take the time to look up the one or two functions that you need.

[09:40] Opal Lei: DISCLAIMER: I cannot vouch for nor recommend any of the following individuals, groups, sites or organizations, because I have no connections nor interactions with them.

[09:40] Orange Planer: and play with them a lot until you’re comfortable with them.

[09:40] Opal Lei: College of Scripting: Horsa (57,243,84)

[09:40] Opal Lei: Builder’s Brewery (buildersbrewery.com)

[09:40] Opal Lei: Groups: 

“Scripting Mentors” looks like a good one to join.

Search for “scripting” in Groups.

[09:40] Jen (jenelle.levenque): If it’s a new function to me then I usually tinker with it outside my main coding til I’m comfortable with it

[09:40] Zotarah Shepherd: I start with scripts I have bought that are no mod or too complex for me to change and tell a scripter a scripter – like this one only changed to do that… so at least there is a starting point.

[09:40] Opal Lei: YouTube:

 Search for “lsl scripting tutorial”.

[09:41] Opal Lei: A website that generates LSL based on your answers to multiple choice questions: 

http://www.3greeneggs.com/autoscript/

[09:41] Sarvana Haalan: I used Builders’ Brewery a lot

[09:41] Opal Lei: Are you happy with them, Sarvana?

[09:41] Zinnia Zauber: I love that site!

[09:41] Sarvana Haalan: yes… there were a major help when I starting building a couple yrs ago and still is

[09:42] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes .. that was made by Ann Enigma, Hilary Mason in real life who is now the head data scientist for http://bit.y

[09:42] Sarvana Haalan: *they

[09:42] Rhiannon Chatnoir: that LSL script generator

[09:42] Sarvana Haalan: awesome

[09:42] Rhiannon Chatnoir: oops http://bit.ly

[09:42] Rhiannon Chatnoir: well let’s thank Opal for presenting today

[09:42] Opal Lei: I’ll put up the answers to the rest of the questions that came in the survey in a website page and send it to Rhiannon to include with the chat log.

[09:43] Zotarah Shepherd: Thank you Opal

[09:43] Jen (jenelle.levenque): ********APPPLLLAAAUUUSSSEEE********

[09:43] Opal Lei: Thanks, everybody and Rhiannon!

[09:43] Sarvana Haalan: wooot… Opal Lei is a Superhero for sure.

[09:43] Patio Plasma: Yay

[09:43] Rhiannon Chatnoir: am hoping to have her back for a followup .. a scripting 201 😉

[09:43] Sarvana Haalan: Thanks

[09:43] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you Opal!

[09:43] Zinnia Zauber: This was super!

[09:43] Dancers Yao: thanks so much

[09:43] Patio Plasma: also for writing particle scripts try this free website http://particles-lsl-generator.bashora.com

[09:43] Opal Lei: Oooh, Thanks, Patio!

 

— OPEN MIC & ANNOUNCEMENTS —

 

[09:44] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Let’s end things off with Open Mic & Announcements

[09:44] Rhiannon Chatnoir: anyone have anything to announce?

[09:44] Zinnia Zauber: me, please!

[09:44] Rhiannon Chatnoir: go Zinnia!

[09:44] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you!

[09:44] Zinnia Zauber: We will not have a Mentors Meeting today because we are going to VAI!

[09:44] Zinnia Zauber: Here are the details!

[09:45] Zinnia Zauber: Accessible Instruction in Virtual Worlds

Presenters: DanielG Tigerfish (PATINS Project) and Gentle Heron (Virtual Ability)

FRI Nov 9, 9:45am SLT

[09:45] Zinnia Zauber: Sojourner Auditorium, Virtual Ability Island

Virtual Ability (53,172,23)

[09:45] Zinnia Zauber: Many educational institutions are exploring the use of virtual worlds for instruction. As with any new technology, accessibility is a concern. Virtual worlds are not websites, nor are they physical environments. What accessibility issues exist in virtual worlds? How can they be made accessible for instructional usage?

[09:45] Zinnia Zauber: One of the speakers will be presenting from an instructional environment inside Second Life. The other will present from the PATINS conference in Indianapolis. The two audiences will be able to interact after the presentation.

[09:45] Rhiannon Chatnoir: oo field trips!

[09:45] Zinnia Zauber: So! That starts right away!!

[09:45] Zinnia Zauber: I hope you can join us!

[09:46] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you!

[09:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir: any other announcements?

[09:46] Sarvana Haalan: I posted it on my FB page… will tweet it out

[09:46] Andy Evans: Great meeting, thanks!

[09:46] Zinnia Zauber: Great! I am heading there now! Super Meeting!

[09:47] Zotarah Shepherd: Great meeting Thank you so much.

[09:47] Rhiannon Chatnoir: if no other announcements, we can end things earlier today

[09:47] Sarvana Haalan: I have an announcement

[09:47] Sarvana Haalan: An invite to read my Wego Blog post from last week… http://virtual-sarvana.blogspot.com/2012/11/national-health-blog-post-mo…… Virtual Ability is featured in it

[09:47] Mia (praxislady.witt): yes, very informative :))

[09:48] Patio Plasma: excellent info

[09:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: next week we should be having Pooky Amsterdam present 🙂

[09:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: And again, here are the many ways to can get involved with the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life:

 

Nonprofit Commons Blog: http://nonprofitcommons.org

 

 – Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com

 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/npsl

 – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons

 – Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life

 – Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/2tMEYh

 – http://flavors.me/nonprofitcommons

 

About TechSoup the sponsors of the Nonprofit Commons:

 

 – http://www.techsoup.org/stock/howtousetechsoup.asp

 – http://flavors.me/techsoup

 

Thanks everyone and see you next week!

 

[09:48] Mia (praxislady.witt): bye *waving*

[09:48] Dancers Yao: thanks for the meeting…bye everyone

[09:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes bye all and thanks again to Opal!

 

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

Opal Lei: “Getting the Code You Need” for the November 9th NonProfit Commons Meeting

This Friday, November 9th, Nonprofit Commons is happy to feature Opal Lei, who will discuss the why, what, who and how of obtaining LSL scripts for your organization’s virtual presence. 

 

Maybe you settled for freebie scripts that do not do enough or off-the-shelf scripts that include code that you do not need and just cause lag. Maybe you have a great project idea, but you are intimidated by scripters who speak techno-babble. Maybe you can’t decide whether to hire someone or to learn LSL yourself. Maybe you’ve tried hiring someone and they ended up creating something utterly different from your vision.

 

Opal will squeeze as many tips as she can to help:

  • Decide when to modify a script and when to leave it alone
  • Decide when to hire, when to purchase off the shelf, and when to do it yourself
  • Choose the right scripter if you decide to hire
  • Effectively share your vision with a hired scripter to get the results you want

 

Opal has created a survey to help tailor this presentation for those attending, please fill out before November 8: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Z2HJDMY.

 

Bio: Opal Lei (aka Lea Tesoro in real life) now calls herself an author after publishing her book “Love, Like Dim Sum” (www.LoveLikeDimSum.com). But, once upon a time, she called herself a techie. Prior to discovering SL, she worked in the software industry for 14 years, including a stint at Microsoft, where she documented APIs and coded basic snippets for the .NET SDK. Her first LSL scripting project was a docent game for the International Spaceflight Museum. As her alt Treasure Box, she had also choreographed and coded the burning of the Burning Life/Burn2 temple for four years.   

http://www.virtuasapient.com

 

Join us in Second Life!

 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, November 9th, 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 Main Speaker: Lea Tesoro (Opal Lei in Second Life)
  • 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

Transcript of Novemeber 2nd Meeting Featuring: Anna Jaeger

[08:32] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Welcome everyone to this week’s Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting!

[08:32] Rhiannon Chatnoir: The Nonprofit Commons in Second Life is sponsored by TechSoup Global and is a program of the TechSoup Global Community & Social Media team.

 

[08:32] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Today’s Agenda:

 – 8:30 am Introductions

 – 8:40 am TechSoup Announcements

 – 8:45 am Mentor’s Central – featuring Ozma Malibu on the NPC wiki

 – 8:55 am Featured Presenter: Anna Jaeger, “Cloud Technology and the NGO Community” 

 – 9:30 am Open Mic / Announcements

 

[08:33] Rhiannon Chatnoir: First a few links to start off the meeting. 

 

Here are the many ways to can get involved with the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life:

 

 – Nonprofit Commons Blog: http://nonprofitcommons.org

 – Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com

 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/npsl

 – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons

 – Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life

 – Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/2tMEYh

 – http://flavors.me/nonprofitcommons

 

About TechSoup the sponsors of the Nonprofit Commons:

 

 – http://www.techsoup.org/stock/howtousetechsoup.asp

 – http://flavors.me/techsoup

 

— INTRODUCTIONS —

 

[08:33] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Morning everyone, let’s start off with Introductions!

 

Please state your real name, location, org, and the ways we can find you online.

 

[08:33] Buffy Beale: Buffy Bye, Bridges for Women, Victoria BC Canada, http://www.bridgesforwomen.ca @bridges4women

[08:33] HB Eternal: Harold W Becker, The Love Foundation, Florida, http://www.thelovefoundation.com @lovefoundation

[08:33] CarynTopia Silvercloud: Caryn Heilman, Topia Arts Center in the Berkshires of NW, MA, www.TopiaArts.org, @TopiaArtsCenter

[08:33] Buffy Beale: heh heh HB 🙂

[08:33] HB Eternal: Go Buffy!

[08:33] Zinnia Zauber: Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond, Sequim Humanities and Arts Alliance, Sequim, Olympic Peninsula, Washington. http://www.sequimartsalliance.org http://www.facebook.com/sequimartsalliance @renneemiko

[08:33] Ronnie Rhode: Denise Harrison, The Garden for the Missing, http://www.gardenforthemissing.org/ and SLURL Remora (203,148,21), Project Jason, assistance for families of the missing, http://www.projectjason.org.

[08:33] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Bruce Hestley, Transgender American Veterans Association, Akron, OH, http://www.tavausa.org, http://www.facebook.com/#!/TAVAUS

[08:33] alebez: ale bezdikian, Online Community Coordinator, TechSoup, SF, Ca. @TechSoup, @alebez

[08:34] Diantha Petrov: Lori Wahl http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/sl/

[08:34] Dancers Yao: Kara Bennett , ElderVoices, Los Angeles, CA, Health Care and Human Rights www.eldervoices.net

[08:34] Chayenn: Monique Richert, Protect Yourself 1, Inc., Baltimore, MD , protectyourself1.inc., facebook.com/PY1US , @PY1US

[08:34] Gentle Heron: Virtual Ability, Inc. www.virtualability.org

[08:34] Par (parhelion.palou): Phred Phlintstone, generic volunteer (no org), north of Baltimore, MD, no twitter or website

[08:34] Hour Destiny: Morris Cox, Nevada, @morriscox

[08:34] Atalanta Visage: Jennifer Siegel, National Service Inclusion Project, Boston, MA www.serviceandinclusion.org

[08:34] Ozma Malibu: Sandy Andrews, Floaters Org tech outreach, active in Arizona, Mexico and On the Road, @ozma

[08:35] Rhiannon Chatnoir is Joyce Bettencourt, Community Manager of the NonProfit Commons in Second Life, http://joycebettencourt.com, @RhiannonSL …located in the Boston, MA area….which is a bit squishier post Sandy

[08:35] Rhiannon Chatnoir: If you joined us late, feel free to introduce yourself

[08:36] Carl Solutionary (carlicann): Professor Carl Icann, Rockcliffe University, http://carlicann.wordpress.com — I am hosting another Poetic Drum Circle at Burning Life on Sunday 9am SLT. This week’s theme is Election & Democracy Poetry. Location: Teleport to Burning Man- Black Rock (55,199,25) (DO NOT CLICK THIS!!!)

[08:36] Andy Evans: Andy Mallon, First Opinions Panel in SL

Social Research Foundation, NYC in RL

[08:36] Rhiannon Chatnoir: 🙂

[08:37] Sister (sister.abeyante): Sister Patrice Colletti, SDS Milwaukee, WI *** @SisterAbeyante http://4equalrights.blogspot.com/ *** @TechTips4Usds http://techtipssds.blogspot.com/ *** as well as a volunteer with Virtual Ability, Inc. http://www.virtualability.org

 

— TECHSOUP ANNOUNCEMENTS —

 

[08:37] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Let’s move on to TechSoup Announcements – today Alebez will be speaking

[08:38] alebez: Hello everyone, alebez here to give you the TechSoup updates for the week! Bulaklak sends his love, and also me. 🙂

[08:38] alebez: It was an exciting week at TechSoup and in the community!

[08:38] alebez: Windows 8 launched, we have announced a winner to our Technology in Action social media campaign, our goal was to generate stories to include on the local impact map – we got 28 entries!

[08:39] alebez: And if you’ve watched the news recently, hurricane Sandy is making headlines left and right. Not in a good way.

[08:39] alebez: Our content team thought it was important to address our community affected by hurricane Sandy, so our team came together worked hard to create hurricane Sandy disaster relief resources.

[08:39] alebez: But disaster preparedness doesn’t start or stop with just natural disasters. We also included a whole lot of content on technology’s impact on disaster relief.

[08:40] alebez: You can check out the roundup of those resources here in this bundle: http://bit.ly/SADU4I

[08:40] alebez: The winner of our Technology in Action campaign was Get set, Go – a non profit based out of Wisconsin, but whose main arm is its Women’s Learning Center in Cambodia.

[08:40] Buffy Beale: that’s so innovative alebez for using the map, well done to TechSoup!

[08:40] alebez: 28 orgs submitted really amazing photographs showing how technology activates their organization and helps fulfill their mission.

[08:41] alebez: You can view some of the great photos, and the winning submission here: http://bit.ly/PjIIux

[08:41] CarynTopia Silvercloud: thanks for the disaster relief efforts- much appreciated

[08:41] alebez: And finally, I wanted to announce the coming launch of the Windows 8 Apps for Social Good Contest. The contest goes live on Monday.

[08:41] alebez: Whether you are a hacker at heart, a social do-gooder, a youth activist, or a developer with an innovative mind and skills to implement, this contest seeks to bring together innovation with the means to create. Now’s the time to pow wow with your developer friends to make that great app idea you had one time happen.

[08:42] alebez: The prizes are great.

 

There are 3 categories of prizes: Best Overall Windows 8 App: $15,000; Best Overall Windows 8 Phone App: $15,000; People’s Choice App: $10,000

 

[08:42] alebez: Important Dates

  • Project submissions: November 5 – February 28
  • Public voting: March 1 – March 15
  • Winners Announced: March 25

 

[08:43] alebez: Ready to get started? Here’s how to proceed.

[08:43] alebez: Create a Windows 8 app focused on social good (collaborations encouraged!)

Publish the app in the Windows Store – http://bit.ly/TXv4K9

Register the application project on the contest website (will be http://www.netsquared.org/challenge/windows-8-apps-social-good-contest when the contest goes live on Monday)

Check out the other apps, then vote on your favorites in March!

[08:43] Hour Destiny: I’m going to a code camp next Friday. Why doesn’t TechSoup have a Code Camp sometime?

[08:43] alebez: That’s a great idea, hour. and one we are currently exploring 🙂

[08:44] alebez: please let us know about your experience!

[08:44] alebez: that’s all folks!

[08:44] Frans Charming applauds

[08:44] Hour Destiny: It’s my 3rd year and counting.

[08:44] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Thanks Alebez!

[08:44] alebez: thank you all

 

— MENTOR’S CENTRAL —

 

[08:45] Rhiannon Chatnoir: on to Mentor’s Central!

[08:45] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Today for Mentor Central we have Ozma Malibu speaking to us about the NPC wiki. Let’s welcome her up and please start whenever your ready.

[08:45] Ozma Malibu: OK!

[08:45] Buffy Beale: yay Oz!

[08:45] Gentle Heron: YAY Ozma!

[08:45] Zinnia Zauber: Rah Ozma!

[08:45] Ozma Malibu: haha. thanks.

[08:45] Par (parhelion.palou): Yay, Oz … even if you were responsible for the hurricane

[08:45] Ozma Malibu: Well. The Mentors Corner today will emphasize a useful TechSoup resource that is especially for us in the NPC.

[08:45] Ozma Malibu: I know, alas, the hurricane. (I am a Sandy too.)

[08:46] Ozma Malibu: Anyway.

[08:46] Ozma Malibu: Please don’t click the display btw. It may advance if you do.

[08:46] Ozma Malibu: The resource is the Nonprofits in Second Life Wiki, at http://npsl.wiki.techsoup.org

[08:47] Ozma Malibu: Seriously. Don’t click it.

[08:47] Ozma Malibu: …thank you… 🙂

[08:47] Ozma Malibu: Anyone can access the wiki for information

[08:47] Ozma Malibu: (here it is)

[08:48] Ozma Malibu: BUT if you want to be an editor, you must first create an account, and then ask Rhiannon for editing permission.

[08:48] Ozma Malibu: (up there at the top is where you create an account)

[08:49] Ozma Malibu: The NPSL wiki is full of useful information, all in one place. You can send new members here

[08:49] Ozma Malibu: (saves time and is fun for them)

[08:50] Ozma Malibu: But,, you’ll also find much that’s new and interesting no matter how long you’ve been a resident here.

[08:50] Ozma Malibu: (so check it out)

[08:51] Ozma Malibu: Here for instance are the Upcoming Events.

[08:51] Ozma Malibu: Transcripts of meetings. Blog posts.

[08:51] Ozma Malibu: There is an #npsl twitter feed that you may want to contribute to.

[08:51] Glitteractica Cookie: (sorry I’m late… Susan Tenby, Online Community and Social Media Director, TechSoup, SF CA USA logging in from Maui, Hawaii @suzboop @techsoup

[08:52] Ozma Malibu: At the top, you’ll find buttons to the NPSL presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

[08:52] Ozma Malibu: so useful.

[08:52] Ozma Malibu: Over on the left, in the Navigation section, you’ll see the Mentoring link. Click on it!

[08:53] Ozma Malibu: well, wait til you get to the actual wiki please.

[08:53] Rhiannon Chatnoir: 🙂

[08:53] Ozma Malibu: A bit of history: this was originally the Docent section, and that title lives on in the page tA bit of history: this was originally the Docent section, and that title lives on in the page title.

[08:54] Ozma Malibu: ah didn’t think that went through.

[08:54] Ozma Malibu: Now, some parts of the Wiki need to be periodically updated, and so the Mentors are currently updating the list of available Mentors, which is on the siki.

[08:54] Ozma Malibu: We’d like to invite all of you to volunteer. There are three levels of Mentors, so any amount of expertise and any amount of time you can give are just fine.

[08:55] Ozma Malibu: If you think it sounds like fun but have cold feet, you can also just attend Mentor meetings and sign up later.

[08:55] Ozma Malibu: To serve as a welcome wagon mentor, all you have to do is to take new members under your wing and be friendly. If you have building skills, etc., that is wonderful, but it is not necessary.

[08:55] Ozma Malibu: Instructors have skills of one kind and another, and when a newbie is stuck on a Second Life question, an Instructor can help the necessary skills. You don’t need to possess many skills to volunteer for this position – sign up for what you know!

[08:55] Ozma Malibu: Mentors’ Mentors are people with great skills, and little time. When the Mentors are working with someone who needs help, and don’t have sufficient skills yet for a particular problem, they can call on one of the Mentors’ Mentors for advice. Again, you can just sign up for the specific skills that you want to offer.

[08:56] Ozma Malibu: So, Mentoring is a great way to fulfill your volunteer obligation to the NPC, have fun, learn a lot, dream a lot, and it’s a further opportunity for networking. Remember, Mentor meetings happen every Friday. right after this one.

[08:56] Ozma Malibu: And please do check out the the wiki – often!

[08:56] Ozma Malibu: thank you!

[08:56] Frans Charming applauds

[08:56] Ozma Malibu: that’s all!

[08:56] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you very much, Ozma! This was great!

[08:56] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Ozma – Thanks for leading Mentors Central today!

[08:56] Hour Destiny: If only there were an app for that. 🙂

[08:56] Brena Benoir: Brenda Bryan, Preferred Family Healthcare, Kirksville, Missouri, www.pfh.org, @brenabenoir

[08:56] Sister (sister.abeyante): Thanks, helkpful info

[08:57] Buffy Beale: yay Oz that was great!

 

— FEATURED PRESENTATION: ANNA JAEGER —

 

[08:57] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Time for today’s main presenter

[08:57] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Welcome Anna Jaeger of TechSoup (Sage Ovetcher in SL), who will speak to us today on TechSoup’s recent Cloud Technology Survey and the primary advantages, barriers and motivations that nonprofits, libraries, and NGOs from around the world reported for moving their IT to the cloud.

[08:57] Glitteractica Cookie: Le W00t!

[08:57] Glitteractica Cookie: go anna!

[08:57] alebez: anna!

[08:57] Sage Qvetcher: Thanks, Susan

[08:57] Rhiannon Chatnoir: a brief bio:

[08:57] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Anna Jaeger, the Director of Microsoft Program and Special Projects, was also the co-founder of the GreenTech Initiative at TechSoup Global. GreenTech’s mission is to help nonprofits and libraries reduce their environmental impact through the effective use of technology, including cloud technologies. Prior to her work on the Global Cloud Survey, Ms. Jaeger lead TechSoup Global’s IT Engineering Department, which implemented and maintained all enterprise software and websites.

[08:58] Sage Qvetcher: Hello all and thank you for the chance to share the results of our survey with all of you.

[08:58] Glitteractica Cookie: Hey Sage!

[08:58] Glitteractica Cookie: I love yr last name

[08:58] Buffy Beale: cheering!

[08:58] Glitteractica Cookie: Qvetcher… Second Life/Jewish spelling

[08:58] Sage Qvetcher: Thanks! Me too.

[08:58] Glitteractica Cookie: 🙂

[08:58] Sage Qvetcher: It fits me so well.

[08:58] Glitteractica Cookie: ha ha

[08:58] Ozma Malibu: love it

[08:58] Gentle Heron: It’s a great name, however it’s spelled.

[08:59] Sage Qvetcher: My name is Anna Jaeger and I am a director at TechSoup Global in San Francisco.

[08:59] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Love Yiddish

[08:59] Sage Qvetcher: Well, make sure to kibbitz during the presentation then.

[09:00] Sage Qvetcher: This will be a brief presentation of a tiny sliver of our data. 

If you have questions, comments or want to delve deeper, please feel free to reach out to me afterwards at anna@techsoup.org.

[09:00] Rhiannon Chatnoir: presentation slides are up behind you – let me know if you need any help advancing

[09:00] Sage Qvetcher: thanks

[09:00] Sage Qvetcher: Trying to pan

[09:00] Sage Qvetcher: but it is slow

[09:00] Sage Qvetcher: Next Slide (2):

My goals for this presentation are:

Understanding what organizations from around the world have said about the advantages to, barriers of and motivators for using cloud computing.

[09:00] Rhiannon Chatnoir: lots of avatars present….makes things slower

[09:01] Sage Qvetcher: Familiarize you with the types of applications and the specific applications nonprofits are already adopting.

[09:01] Sage Qvetcher: Let you know how to find more information.

 

Given the mountain of data we collected, this final bullet is most critical.

[09:02] Sage Qvetcher: Why did we do a global cloud survey?

[09:02] Sage Qvetcher: We wanted to gauge how NGOs worldwide are currently using cloud products and services

[09:03] Sage Qvetcher: Measure how NGOs perceive barriers to and advantages of cloud computing adoption 

 

Understand these organizations’ future plans for cloud computing adoption

[09:03] Sage Qvetcher: Help capacity-building organizations, consultants, donors, and foundations better support the social benefit sector in making informed decisions about whether cloud-based solutions are right for them.

 

I also think the final bullet on this slide is the most important.

[09:03] Sage Qvetcher: I promise the slides will get more visually interesting in a moment. 🙂

[09:04] Sage Qvetcher: but not yet

[09:04] Sage Qvetcher: We needed to pick a definition that was short, easy to understand and easy to translate. We couldn’t be all inclusive without greatly expanding the length of the survey

[09:04] Sage Qvetcher: So, we focused mostly on software as a service (SaaS).

[09:05] Sage Qvetcher: The survey was conducted in the 1st half of 2012

We published the survey in 21 languages and received 10,593 usable responses from respondents in 88 countries.

[09:05] Sage Qvetcher: We released the report in September 2012

The full report is available online, free of charge

Our executive summary is published in 19 languages

And in addition, we have 25 individual country-level reports

[09:06] Glitteractica Cookie: That is so impressive, it bears repeating! nearly 10,600 answered surveys!

[09:06] Sage Qvetcher: Here is the breakout of responses by region:

  • Europe: 37%
  • US/Can: 33%
  • Asia: 13%
  • S. Africa/Egypt: 4%
  • Aus/NZ: 4%
  • Undefined: 6%

[09:06] Sage Qvetcher: 74% from the highest GDP category (>$20K per capita)

[09:07] Sage Qvetcher: How is my speed? Am I going too fast or too slow?

[09:07] Rhiannon Chatnoir: doing fine

[09:07] Sage Qvetcher: Everything I am presenting here today is available in the report

[09:07] Glitteractica Cookie: doing great, Sage!

[09:07] Sage Qvetcher: I will give you the URL to the full reportand the translations at the end of the presentation

[09:07] Sage Qvetcher: Thanks.

[09:08] Sage Qvetcher: As you can see, our data is heavily focused on Western countries and rich countries

[09:09] Sage Qvetcher: However, in the report, we did break out some of the data by country and by region and by country GDP

[09:09] Sage Qvetcher: We did that so that you could see how individual countries differed from the average data set

[09:10] Sage Qvetcher: Given the nature of the outreach, the questions asked, and the fact that the survey was taken online, the survey sample skews toward those working in organizations that have access to the Internet and are engaged with cloud computing.

[09:11] Sage Qvetcher: uh-ohConsequently, cloud usage levels reported here may be higher than actual levels among all NGOs.

[09:11] Sister (sister.abeyante): Sage- I’m wondering- how did NGOs select themselves to participate? How did you connect with them?

[09:11] Sage Qvetcher: Ah! Good question

[09:12] Sage Qvetcher: They did self-select and self-identify

[09:12] Sage Qvetcher: However, we did outreach in our normal means, which means that we were targeting NGOs, libraries and other social benefit orgs. 

  • 90% of respondents worldwide are using cloud computing.
  • 79% say the greatest advantage is easier software/ hardware administration.
  • 60% say lack of knowledge is the greatest barrier.
  • 53% report plans to move a “significant portion” of their IT to the cloud within three years.
  • 47% say cost-related changes and ease of setup would be the greatest motivators for moving their IT to the cloud.

[09:13] Sage Qvetcher: Keep in mind that these numbers represent only the respondents

[09:13] Sage Qvetcher: We are not saying that 90% of all NGOs aworld wide are using the cloud.

[09:13] Sage Qvetcher: Familiarity with many of these applications is not surprising. 

Facebook, Gmail, Skype and Twitter are common words in everyday vernacular.

[09:14] Sage Qvetcher: However, it is interesting to note how different actual usage of these applications is.

[09:14] Glitteractica Cookie: ppl don’t even realize they are using the cloud, often

[09:14] Sage Qvetcher: You can see here that Twitter usage dropped to 38% from a familiarity percentage of 90%. So, most people have heard of twitter, but only 1/3rd use it at their nonprofits.

[09:15] Rhiannon Chatnoir: very true Glitteractica

[09:15] Sage Qvetcher: Yes, our study found that people didn’t know what the cloud was and when they were using it.

[09:16] Sage Qvetcher: People indicated that they didn’t use the cloud for collaboration and then in another question indicated that they use Skype and web conferencing tools like ReadyTalk and WebEx.

[09:16] Sarvana Haalan: Like how fols refer to it… Up there… in the cloud…. of th ecloud

[09:16] Sage Qvetcher: NTEN calls this the “Hidden cloud”

[09:16] Sarvana Haalan: *folks

[09:16] Sage Qvetcher: While it is not surprising that ease of use and access featured highly as advantages (79% reported it as a major advantage). It was interesting that cost also was noted as a major advantage (62%).

[09:17] Sage Qvetcher: Survey respondents identified costs and data security (54%) as both advantages and barriers to cloud computing.

[09:17] Sarvana Haalan: I am consern about content rights in the cloud 🙂

[09:17] Par (parhelion.palou): Data security is NOT an advantage to cloud computing

[09:17] Sage Qvetcher: You should be.

[09:17] Sarvana Haalan: *concern… sorry can’t spell today… smiles

[09:18] Sage Qvetcher: Well, data security may be an advantage for nonprofits who have their data on a server sitting on the floor in their bathroom (true story) or on their back porch

[09:18] Sage Qvetcher: It is really dependent on the situation

[09:18] Orange Planer: Sorry I’m late.

[09:18] Orange Planer: Data security?

[09:18] Hour Destiny: Encrypt before sending to the cloud.

[09:18] Sage Qvetcher: If you are Free Tibet, it may not be an advantage, but a concern.

[09:19] Sage Qvetcher: BTW, please remember

[09:19] Sarvana Haalan: excellent idea Hour… thanks

[09:19] Sage Qvetcher: We are reporting what people cited in the survey. I am not saying that any of these are or are not an advantage or concern for any of you.

[09:20] Sage Qvetcher: Lack of knowledge was the group of barriers that were reported at the highest rates (60%). 

30% of respondents said they didn’t know enough about cloud computing to know what the barriers are.

[09:20] Sage Qvetcher: Lack of knowledge was consistently reported as a barrier across geographies and organization sizes.

[09:20] Hour Destiny: Cloud == hosted services.

[09:20] Sage Qvetcher: The only barrier cited more frequently by smaller organizations was lack of knowledge.

[09:20] Sage Qvetcher: Medium organizations were on average 10% more likely to cite any barriers to cloud computing adoption.

[09:21] Sage Qvetcher: Large organizations were 18% more likely to cite barriers. 

Respondents at large organizations cited all the barriers to cloud computing adoption (except lack of knowledge) at higher levels than other organizations.

[09:21] Sage Qvetcher: Noncontrollable Externalities like “unstable electric grid” and “lack of dependable internet connection” were cited by 34% of respondents. Even in some of the wealthiest nations.

[09:21] Sister (sister.abeyante) nods on that one!

[09:21] Sage Qvetcher: We also did some individual interviews and were able to include those in the report.

[09:21] Sage Qvetcher: NGO voice: “When you’re talking about broadband in South Africa, you’re not talking about broadband in somewhere like San Francisco. You’re talking about something that’s probably about a quarter of the speed.” Technology Development Manager, South African NGO

[09:22] Sage Qvetcher: Cost factors and Ease of Setup factors were reported most frequently (47%) as changes that would most motivate organizations to move more of their IT to the cloud.

[09:22] Sage Qvetcher: Interestingly, even though 60% of respondents indicated that lack of knowledge was their greatest barrier, only 37% cited training as something that would help overcome the barriers.

[09:22] Sage Qvetcher: Large organizations cited more motivators overall for moving to the cloud than smaller organizations. In particular, they reported cost-related changes, making integration easier, the reduction of security risks, and providing remote management at higher-than-average rates.

[09:23] Sage Qvetcher: Medium-sized organizations reported making integration easier, adjusting their budget, and providing remote consulting at higher-than-average rates.

[09:23] Sage Qvetcher: With regards to timeframe…

[09:23] Sage Qvetcher: 53% plan to move a “significant portion” of their IT to the cloud within 3 years

[09:24] Sage Qvetcher: However, 36% have no plans to move to the cloud

[09:24] Sage Qvetcher: India, Africa/Middle East, and Mexico report the most accelerated reported timeframes with 74% of respondents in India reporting that they will move to the cloud within 3 years.

[09:24] Sage Qvetcher: Specifically, our data indicates that the more cloud-based apps respondents say are being used at their organization, the more advantages they report to using cloud computing and the faster their reported timeframe is for adopting cloud-based apps in the future.

[09:25] Sage Qvetcher: Medium-sized organizations reported the most aggressive timeframe for moving IT to the cloud, with 22% reporting they plan to move a significant portion of their IT to the cloud within one year.

Medium-sized organizations were defined as organizations with 10 to 44 full-time staff and volunteers.

[09:25] Orange Planer: I’m sure those virtual people will be of great help.

[09:25] Sage Qvetcher: You can also see in the lower left of the slide, that several of the nations from the lowest GDP tier reported the fastest timeframe for adopting cloud technologies. What does that mean for organizations in those countries? How might we need to tailor educational content differently in those countries?

[09:26] Sage Qvetcher: The top three or four application types on this list are not surprising: File storage/Sharing, email, data backup/recovery and office productivity like Google docs and Office365.

[09:26] Sage Qvetcher: These were closely aligned with the types of applications that were reported to be already in use in the cloud.

[09:27] Sage Qvetcher: What have we learned?

We need to offer more precise solutions. Solutions that work in verticals and minimize configuration.

[09:27] Glitteractica Cookie: i’m surprised online collab and communication is not on that list

[09:27] Orange Planer: Things that save money directly will be first on the list.

[09:27] Orange Planer: That is – those things that eat up the most storage.

[09:27] Sage Qvetcher: I am sure they are there, perhaps just lower down.

[09:27] Sage Qvetcher: But yes, it is surprising that they are not higher up.

[09:28] Sage Qvetcher: I am guessing it is because when thinking of adoption

[09:28] Glitteractica Cookie: yeah, maybe we need to add on our findings that we need to promote those apps better, via techsoup

[09:28] Sage Qvetcher: people first think “how can I make what I already do easier?”

[09:28] Orange Planer: No.

[09:28] Orange Planer: They will think “how can I save money.”

[09:28] Sage Qvetcher: They don’t think of collaboration as something they do on computers.

[09:28] Sage Qvetcher: Collaboration is 5th on the list

[09:29] Sister (sister.abeyante): Collaboration using technology as an interface is strongly influenced by the cultural context, too.

[09:29] Rhiannon Chatnoir: we are ahead of the curve in that regards.. I imagine all of us here think of collaborating online and in the cloud

[09:29] Sage Qvetcher: Very true

[09:29] Sage Qvetcher: We still have significant externalities that impact organizations’ ability to take advantage of technology. Externalitites like no reliable power or no reliable internet. We need to be supporting the good work that organizations like Inveneo are doing to help make those externalities a thing of the past.

[09:29] Sage Qvetcher: We also need to support those organizations that can connect but, for whatever reasons, have not yet done so.

[09:30] Ozma Malibu: so interesting!

[09:30] Sage Qvetcher: As you all know from your experiences here…

[09:30] Sage Qvetcher: Training is something everyone needs. And it’s hard. We know we need it. But it’s hard to make “go to a technology training class” the most important thing on the to-do list. We have to figure out how we, as capacity builders, leverage technology and our relationships across a number of sectors to offer answers to questions on demand, create mentorships, office hours for experts who are willing to donate their expertise. We need to think about how we get knowledge to people where and when they need it. And how we do that when getting the answer is urgent.

[09:30] Sister (sister.abeyante): Agree, Sage, or take a lead in creating solutions that can use the available techologies- in Africa, for example, the major growth is use of cell phone based techologies, not in using internet/computers.

[09:30] Sage Qvetcher: Exactly

[09:30] Sage Qvetcher: Answers must be locally relevent

[09:31] Carl Solutionary (carlicann): Can you take questions?

[09:31] Sage Qvetcher: And culturally sensitive

[09:31] Sage Qvetcher: Sure

[09:31] Sage Qvetcher: We need to know more about the technology usage of the organizations we all serve. We all know bits and pieces of the usage. And surveys, like this one and like NTEN’s State of the Cloud, help us. But we can also do a better job of thinking through the strengths and capacities we each bring, fitting those together so that we can get to solutions that work on the ground for the organizations we serve.

[09:31] Carl Solutionary (carlicann): What are the implications of the Cloud and this survey on Corporate Social Responsibility? And corporate use of NGOs in their advertising?

[09:33] Sage Qvetcher: Well, we hope that CSR groups will leverage the data to make better choices for their philanthropy

[09:33] Sage Qvetcher: We are working with the TSG donor partners to use this data to provide resources for NGOs and libraries

[09:33] Sage Qvetcher: Mostly, we are focusing on getting training out there.

[09:34] Sage Qvetcher: Making knowledge available so that NGOs can make informed choices.

[09:34] Sister (sister.abeyante): I imagine the training question is a “cart before the horse” question sometimes too- an org that needs training, but can’t access it because… they do not yet have the training to access it!

[09:34] Sage Qvetcher: We hope that corporations and foundations will use this data to offer the right resources at the right time.

[09:35] Sage Qvetcher: Yes, or they don’t have the internet access to be able to access the training

[09:35] Sister (sister.abeyante) nods

[09:35] Sage Qvetcher: It will take a village to get many of the world’s NGOs up and running in a safe way on cloud technologies

[09:35] Sage Qvetcher: I hope that these survey results might help some of you do just that with regards to the cloud and how NGOs are using it or want to use it.

[09:35] Orange Planer: I think Sister is saying that some organization’s employees aren’t internet savvy enough to understand how to use online training effectively.

[09:36] Sage Qvetcher: Absolutely

[09:36] Sage Qvetcher: In those cases, we need other orgs who are on the ground who first help get NGOs equipped to use computers

[09:36] Gentle Heron agrees with Sister. Sometimes the TOPIC of an online event is the motivator for people to learn the technology. We need to consider that as well.

[09:36] Sister (sister.abeyante): Yes, Orange- or they don’t yet have a clue what is possible becuase they don’t yet have the tech to find out what’s “out there” too.

[09:36] Sage Qvetcher: We need orgs like Inveneo who get orgs connected.

[09:37] Sage Qvetcher: As Allen “Gunner” Gunn from Aspiration has said, “The cloud is not a fad.” We need to help social benefit organizations “Adopt the cloud on their terms, not someone else’s terms.”

[09:37] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes

[09:37] Glitteractica Cookie: agree

[09:37] Hour Destiny: I’ve suggested for some time a “wizard” to help NGOs find what they need/want. Maybe I’ll actually build it some day.

[09:37] Sage Qvetcher: TechSoup can put resources out there, but we are not the org who can get to the ones who don’t have computers or internet access.

[09:38] Sage Qvetcher: A wizard would be lovely.

[09:38] Rhiannon Chatnoir: any other questions for Sage

[09:38] Sister (sister.abeyante): Great idea, Hour- I guess I am even one or two steps prior to that… an org that doesn’t have a computer connected to the internet or a person who knows how to use it…. but would multiply their impact localy if they did.

[09:38] Sage Qvetcher: Thank you for your time today. Does anyone have any more questions or comments?

[09:38] Sage Qvetcher: Also, think of libraries and other places with public access computers

[09:39] Ozma Malibu: that is wonderful work you have done, Sage.

[09:39] Sage Qvetcher: Those are GREAT resources for the newbies.

[09:39] Sage Qvetcher: Thank you Ozma

[09:39] Sister (sister.abeyante): True- and those do not exist in many countries/ cultures/ comunities.

[09:39] Hour Destiny: You also need to overcome the fear that TechSoup is “too good to be true”.

[09:39] Sage Qvetcher: Well, surprizingly, a lot do

[09:39] Sister (sister.abeyante): Thanks, Ozma- excellent info and wow, what a great research!

[09:39] Sage Qvetcher: Telecenters are in many many places

[09:39] Sage Qvetcher: Check out telecentre.org

[09:40] Sage Qvetcher: They have resources for public access computers

[09:40] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Thanks Anna/Sage for presenting to us today

[09:40] Sage Qvetcher: I encourage you to read the report. It is free

[09:40] Diantha Petrov: Thank you

[09:40] Sage Qvetcher: Thanksto all of you.

[09:40] Diantha Petrov: This is great information

[09:40] Sister (sister.abeyante): Wonderful!

[09:40] emilia Avindar: thanks for the info 🙂

[09:40] Buffy Beale: cheering! great info ty

[09:40] Ozma Malibu: I will read it.

[09:41] Ozma Malibu: great joy that someone is doing work on this level.

[09:41] Glitteractica Cookie: i think we (techsoup) can help folks believe in the truth of techsoup and trustworthiness if we position ourselves more aligned with nonprofits. We are a nonprofit, and not many ppl see this b/c we have a corporate voice more often than not,unfortunately (my opinion)

[09:41] Sister (sister.abeyante): Will you post your entire powerpoint to the NPC blog?

[09:41] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Transcript of this will also go up on the NPC blog so if you missed any of it, you can catch u pon it there

[09:41] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and if Anna is ok with it, we can post her powerpoint?

[09:41] Glitteractica Cookie: nonprofitcommons.org is the URL of that blog, for those of you who don’t know

[09:42] Gentle Heron: Glitter, that’s an interesting observation, and important I believe. How can TechSoup create its image as a “fellow nonprofit”?

[09:42] Glitteractica Cookie: we should have this up on the techsoup slideshare page as well, if we don’t already

[09:42] Sage Qvetcher: Absolutely

[09:42] Sage Qvetcher: Post away

[09:42] Sister (sister.abeyante): Thanks, Sage!

 

— OPEN MIC & ANNOUNCEMENTS —

 

[09:42] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Lets move on to Open Mic and Announcements

[09:42] Sage Qvetcher: Also, we will be hosting webinars on elements of cloud computing, like security and cost.

[09:42] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and thanks again Sage … will put the slides up then as well

[09:42] Sage Qvetcher: Thank you

[09:42] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Anyone have any announcements for today

[09:43] Gentle Heron: I have one.

[09:43] Rhiannon Chatnoir: go ahead Gentle

[09:43] Gentle Heron: This Sunday, November 4, at 1pm SLT, Virtual Ability sponsors a presentation titled “Interprofessional health care education: Application to health literacy.”

[09:43] Gentle Heron: The presenters will be talking about the recent All Together Better Health (ATBH) conference in Kobe, Japan.

[09:43] Gentle Heron: You might think… health literacy–doesn’t apply to me or my interests.

[09:43] Gentle Heron: But these presenters will be talking about COLLABORATION, and that’s what we’re all about, right?

[09:43] Gentle Heron: Please attend if you can: Sunday Nov 4, 1pm SLT, Sojourner Auditorium, Virtual Ability Island.

[09:43] Gentle Heron: Please let me know if you want the promo notecard which includes all the info plus speaker bios plus LM and SLURL.

[09:43] Gentle Heron: (done)

[09:43] Zinnia Zauber: Cool!

[09:44] Orange Planer: I have one also.

[09:44] Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks.. anyone else

[09:44] Rhiannon Chatnoir: OK, go Orange

[09:44] Orange Planer: I now have an official excuse to be here.

[09:44] Orange Planer: I am now the network administrator for Homeowner Options for Massachusetts Elders, whose information can be found here: http://www.elderhomeowners.org/

[09:45] Rhiannon Chatnoir: congrats 🙂

[09:45] Buffy Beale: yay Orange!

[09:45] Hour Destiny: Gratz!

[09:45] Tori Landau: Congrats Orange °͜°

[09:45] Ozma Malibu: congratulations!

[09:45] Orange Planer: Essentially, we assist elderly homeowners to stay in their homes when they face financial difficulties such as badly-done reverse mortgages, predatory lending, among others.

[09:45] Orange Planer: H.O.M.E. is registered as a non-profit organization in the TechSoup website.

[09:45] Glitteractica Cookie: maybe we could create a story on your org on our local impact map

[09:45] Orange Planer: I’d love to do that.

[09:45] Rhiannon Chatnoir: 🙂

[09:46] Glitteractica Cookie: ok, we will connect you with the techsoup staffer who is running that

[09:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks Orange for letting us know

[09:46] Sage Qvetcher: Yay!

[09:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Tori.. you had an announcement?

[09:46] Tori Landau: Ty Rhiannon….

[09:46] Tori Landau: Open University’s rooftop bop is Wed 7th Nov at 1pm slt

[09:47] Tori Landau: with DJ Anjoux Herbit spinning live and taking requests °͜°

[09:47] Tori Landau: chance for everyone to just chill and mix

[09:47] Rhiannon Chatnoir: 🙂

[09:47] Tori Landau: at Deep Think

[09:47] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Thanks Tori

[09:47] Tori Landau: rooftop of communal building at Deep Think West… nearly forgot to say where lol

[09:48] Gentle Heron: Tori, you might way what Open University is….

[09:48] Tori Landau: eek – forgot – not 1pm, 2pm slt

[09:48] Orange Planer: Well, I assume it’s Open, not Closed University….

[09:48] Gentle Heron: might *say

[09:48] Tori Landau: Open University is a university based in the UK that specialises in distance learning

[09:49] Tori Landau: www.open.ac.uk

[09:49] Gentle Heron loves the idea of open education!

[09:49] Rhiannon Chatnoir: nod

[09:49] Tori Landau: has a rl campus at Milton Keynes, some parts of which are reflected in the design of Deep Think

[09:49] Rhiannon Chatnoir: also want to mention that Next week we have Opal Lei as the featured presenter on scripting and getting the code you need for your organization’s virtual presence.

 

To help tailor this presentation for NPC, Opal requests that you fill out a survey before November 8: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Z2HJDMY.

 

[09:50] Rhiannon Chatnoir: so if you have coding/scripting questions …. please fill out this coming week 🙂

[09:50] Zinnia Zauber: Opal rocks!

[09:50] Buffy Beale: sounds great

[09:51] Rhiannon Chatnoir: any other announcements

[09:51] Rhiannon Chatnoir: if not, lets close this week’s meeting …

[09:51] Rhiannon Chatnoir: And again, here are the many ways to can get involved with the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life:

 

Nonprofit Commons Blog: http://nonprofitcommons.org

 

 – Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com

 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/npsl

 – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons

 – Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life

 – Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/2tMEYh

 – http://flavors.me/nonprofitcommons

 

About TechSoup the sponsors of the Nonprofit Commons:

 

 – http://www.techsoup.org/stock/howtousetechsoup.asp

 – http://flavors.me/techsoup

 

Thanks everyone and see you next week!

[09:51] Sage Qvetcher: Thank you

[09:51] Buffy Beale: thanks Rhi great job!

[09:51] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Thanks again Sage

[09:52] Zinnia Zauber: Great meeting!

[09:52] Glitteractica Cookie: Thanks Sage!

[09:52] Sarvana Haalan: sorry I was late… checking in… Sally S. Cherry, Baltimore, MD @SarVana/@CHAREproject

[09:52] Tori Landau: Many thanks and hope to be here next week again as missed some weeks

[09:52] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Mentor meeting next I believe

[09:52] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you Sage and Ozma this week!

[09:52] Glitteractica Cookie: yes, thanks all

[09:52] Tori Landau: bye everyone °͜°

[09:52] alebez: thank you!

[09:52] Zinnia Zauber: Mentors Meeting at 10! Please join us!

[09:52] Rhiannon Chatnoir: great and thanks all

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

Anna Jaeger: “Cloud Technology and the NGO Community” for the November 2nd NonProfit Commons Meeting

TechSoup Global recently released the findings from our 2012 Global NGO Cloud Survey. This Friday, November 2nd, Nonprofit Commons is happy to feature Anna Jaeger of TechSoup, who will discuss the primary advantages, barriers and motivations that nonprofits, libraries, and NGOs from around the world reported for moving their IT to the cloud.

 

Bio:

Anna Jaeger, the Director of Microsoft Program and Special Projects, was also the co-founder of the GreenTech Initiative  at TechSoup Global. GreenTech’s mission is to help nonprofits and libraries reduce their environmental impact through the effective use of technology, including cloud technologies. Prior to her work on the Global Cloud Survey, Ms. Jaeger lead TechSoup Global’s IT Engineering Department, which implemented and maintained all enterprise software and websites. 

 

More info on the TechSoup Cloud Survey: http://forums.techsoup.org/cs/community/b/tsblog/archive/2012/09/12/cloud-technology-and-the-ngo-community.aspx

 

Join us in Second Life!

 

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, November 2nd, 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 Main Speaker: Anna Jaeger
  • 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

Transcript of October 26th meeting – featuring John (Pathfinder) Lester

 

[08:33] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Hello and Welcome everyone to this week’s Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting!

 

The Nonprofit Commons in Second Life is sponsored by TechSoup Global and is a program of the TechSoup Global Community & Social Media team.

 

[08:33] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Today’s Agenda:

 – 8:30 am Introductions

 – 8:40 am TechSoup Announcements

 – 8:45 am John Lester: “To Invent the Future, we must Build Dreams” 

 – 9:30 am Open Mic / Announcements

 

[08:34] Glitteractica Cookie: Good Morning

[08:34] Rhiannon Chatnoir: 🙂

[08:34] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): Morning

 

[08:34] Rhiannon Chatnoir: First a few links to start off the meeting. 

 

Here are the many ways to can get involved with the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life:

 

 – Nonprofit Commons Blog: http://nonprofitcommons.org

 – Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com

 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/npsl

 – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons

 – Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life

 – Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/2tMEYh

 – http://flavors.me/nonprofitcommons

 

About TechSoup the sponsors of the Nonprofit Commons:

 

 – http://www.techsoup.org/stock/howtousetechsoup.asp

 – http://flavors.me/techsoup

 

— INTRODUCTIONS —

[08:34] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Hello everyone, let’s start off with Introductions!

[08:34] Zinnia Zauber: Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond, Sequim Humanities and Arts Alliance, Sequim, Olympic Peninsula, Washington. http://www.sequimartsalliance.org http://www.facebook.com/sequimartsalliance @renneemiko

[08:34] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Please state your real name, location, org, and the ways we can find you online.

[08:34] HB Eternal: Harold W Becker, The Love Foundation, Florida, http://www.thelovefoundation.com @lovefoundation

[08:34] Andy Evans: Andy Mallon, First Opinions Panel in SL; Social Research Foundation, New York, NY http://www.socialresearchfoundation.org/

[08:34] Gentle Heron: Virtual Ability, Inc. www.virtualability.org

[08:35] Delenn Daines: Judy Kelly, Biology Dept. Henry Ford community college, dearborn MI

[08:35] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko): Jerry Buchko, MA AFC | Counselor, Coach, & Tutor of Personal Finance in Private Practice | http://www.linkedin.com/jerrybuchko | @jerrybuchko

[08:35] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Bruce Hestley, Transgender American Veterans Association, Akron, OH, http://www.tavausa.org, http://www.facebook.com/#!/TAVAUS

[08:35] alebez: Ale Bezdikian, TechSoup, SF, Ca. 94110 @TechSoup, @alebez

[08:35] bulaklak: Michael DeLong, TechSoup Global, www.techsoup.org, @TechSoup @mmdlong, San Francisco, CA US

[08:35] Glitteractica Cookie: Susan Tenby, Online COmmunity and Social Media Director, TechSoup. Logging in from Maui, Hawaii this morning, and it’s 5:30am (ouch!) Aloha! @suzboop @techsoup @npsl

[08:35] Dancers Yao: Kara Bennett, Elder Voices, Inc Los Angeles , CA Health Care and Human Rights

[08:35] CarynTopia Silvercloud: Caryn Heilman, Topia Arts Center in the Berkshires in NW, MA, www.TopiaArts,org, @topiaartscenter

[08:35] Ozma Malibu: Sandy Andrews, Floaters Org (Arizona, California & On the Road), @ozma

[08:35] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): Ricky Davis, San Antonio, TX DJ STEELE, HIV/AIDS Peer support, DJ and now SL clothing designer conguering mesh next

[08:35] Pathfinder Lester: John Lester, Chief Learning Officer, ReactionGrid. @Pathfinder http://about.me/pathfinder Montreal, Canada

[08:36] Rhiannon Chatnoir is Joyce Bettencourt, Community Manager for NonProfit Commons, Boston MA, @RhiannonSL, http://joycebettencourt.com

[08:36] Kate Miranda: Kate Miranda, Music Island at Sea Turtle Island in SL, Arts Administrator in Toronto in RL

[08:36] Desmond Kestrel: Peter Bellin, Aethervirtual.com (for profit, forgive me!), Anaheim California, info@aethervirtual.com

[08:36] Kim Anubis: Kim Rufer-Bachwww.themagicians.us

[08:37] Sarvana Haalan: Sally S. Cherry, MT(ASCP), Baltimore, MD, @CHAREproject, http://sallyscherry.com

[08:37] Violet Meadow (nancy.hilltop): greetings nancy hilltop been rp playing instruments for tips at my linden home and pool and giving it to virtual ability

[08:37] Atalanta Visage: Jen Siegel, National Service Inclusion Project, Boston, MA www.serviceandinclusion.org

[08:37] Rhiannon Chatnoir: If you joined us late, please still introduce yourself!

[08:37] Shailey Garfield: Shailey Minocha, The Open University, UK http://www.linkedin.com/in/shaileyminocha

[08:38] Chimera Cosmos: I’m a fluffy cloud to me. Am I dressed???

[08:38] Rhiannon Chatnoir: you are

[08:38] Chimera Cosmos: good 😉

[08:38] Carl Solutionary (carlicann): Carl Icann – EDU resources @ http://carlicann.wordpress.com and Events @ http://interoccupy.net/ovw17 – I am hosting a Poetic DRUM CIRCLE at BURNING LIFE 9am SLT Sunday @ Burning Man- Black Rock (72,184,2)

[08:38] JoJa Dhara: joja dhara www.jojadhara.com www.metameets.com

[08:38] ChrisG Techsan: Chris Gibson TSTC vushi….www.vushi.org

[08:38] Brena Benoir: Brenda Bryan, Preferred Family Healthcare, Kirksville, Missouri, www.pfh.org @brenabenoir

[08:38] jacmacaire Humby: Jacques Macaire Humanbe http://www.humanbe.com Action Tank and Council on Sustainable Development France and International @Humanbe

[08:38] ChrisG Techsan: www.vushi.org

[08:39] Bevan Whitfield: Bevan Whitfield, Rockcliffe University www.urockcliffe.comSLACTIONS, slactions.org

[08:39] JoJa Dhara: BEVAN!!!

[08:39] JoJa Dhara

[08:40] Chimera Cosmos: Liz Dorland – Washington U in St Louis but on sabbatical in the UK – U Sheffield ATM

[08:40] Bevan Whitfield: hey there 🙂

[08:40] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Thanks everyone..

 

TECHSOUP ANNOUNCEMENTS —

[08:40] Rhiannon Chatnoir: It is time for TechSoup Announcements!

[08:40] Chimera Cosmos: Great to see so many SL friends here 🙂

[08:40] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Bulaklak

[08:40] bulaklak: Hiya, all!

[08:40] bulaklak: Great to be here on this October day.

[08:41] Zinnia Zauber: Wonderful Peeps here!

[08:41] bulaklak: So just a few announcements from TechSoup land.

[08:41] bulaklak: We have a new product in our donation program, for eligible 501c3 nonprofits and public libraries

[08:42] bulaklak: npOffice – that will provide non-profits with a professional assessment to determine whether eligible organizations and libraries could benefit from migrating to Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud-based office and email platform.

[08:42] bulaklak: it includes o A telephone interview resulting in a detailed implementation proposal for migrating to the Office 365 platform

[08:42] bulaklak: more information about that here

[08:43] bulaklak: http://bit.ly/S0z78N

[08:44] bulaklak: I also want to point to a new blog entry on our TSG “enterprise” blog by Alicja Peszkowska

[08:44] bulaklak: TechCamp is a program under Secretary Clinton’s Civil Society 2.0 Initiative to galvanize the technology community to assist civil society organizations. With the support of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Fundacja TechSoup organized TechCamp Sarajevo in close collaboration with the Office of eDiplomacy of the U.S. State Department

[08:44] bulaklak: Alicja, who works in our Warsaw office, attended the camp and wrote some cool stuff about her experiences

[08:44] bulaklak: Please read more of those here

[08:45] bulaklak: http://bit.ly/Uzhy5i

[08:45] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko): Very cool 🙂

[08:45] Pathfinder Lester: nice

[08:45] bulaklak: Alicja is very cool =)

[08:45] Glitteractica Cookie: yes!

[08:45] bulaklak: So that’s all I’ve got for today!

[08:45] bulaklak: Have a great meeting and a great weekend!

[08:45] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Thanks bulaklak

 

— FEATURED PRESENTATION, JOHN LESTER: “TO INVENT THE FUTURE, WE MUST BUILD DREAMS”  — 

[08:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Time for today’s featured presenter….

[08:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Welcome John (Pathfinder) Lester, who will speak to us today on the key features of next generation virtual worlds and best practices on how to build truly engaging simulations within them. He will also give an overview of ReactionGrid’s “Jibe” platform

[08:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir: John’s focus is on 3D Simulations and Virtual Worlds for Learning. His background is in neuroscience research and medical education, and he previously worked at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and Linden Lab. John is currently the Chief Learning Officer at ReactionGrid Inc. (http://reactiongrid.com), helping clients develop new systems for immersive learning using next-generation virtual world platforms that integrate with the web and mobile devices. For more information about John please see http://about.me/pathfinder

[08:46] Zinnia Zauber: Rah Pathfinder!

[08:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir: take it away when your ready Pathfinder 🙂

[08:47] Pathfinder Lester: Thank you! I’m very excited to be able to chat with everyone today.

[08:47] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko) claps. 🙂

[08:47] Pathfinder Lester: I’ll be going through some slides that you can see on the pictureboard behind me.

[08:47] Sarvana Haalan: Wooot… Pathfinder!!!

[08:47] Pathfinder Lester: For about 20 min.

[08:47] Pathfinder Lester: Then we can have Q and A.

[08:47] Gentle Heron: Welcome Pathfinder.

[08:47] Pathfinder Lester: So, here we go

[08:47] Pathfinder Lester: next

[08:48] Pathfinder Lester: whoops

[08:48] Pathfinder Lester: there was a disturbance in the force

[08:48] Gentle Heron chuckles

[08:48] Pathfinder Lester: but i am back

[08:48] Delenn Daines: LOL

[08:48] Chimera Cosmos: May the Force be with you!

[08:48] Pathfinder Lester: Anyway, I find it interesting how many people have 3d-type images as their desktop

[08:48] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko): Yes, I’d rather be “out there” in that picture…. 😉

[08:48] Pathfinder Lester: next

[08:48] Pathfinder Lester: I think it’s because we want this.

[08:49] Pathfinder Lester: We always crave 3d environments.

[08:49] Pathfinder Lester: And no, that’s not my RL desk.

[08:49] Pathfinder Lester: I live in Montreal. We do not have palm trees. 😉

[08:49] Pathfinder Lester: next

[08:49] Kate Miranda: Or “Metaphors be with you” as we writers say.

[08:49] Pathfinder Lester: But when we simulate things in software, we’re always recreating things like this…

[08:50] Pathfinder Lester: folders….files….2d desktops

[08:50] Pathfinder Lester: we are constantly recreating what already exists

[08:50] Pathfinder Lester: next

[08:50] Pathfinder Lester: in 3d

[08:50] Sarvana Haalan: smiles

[08:50] Pathfinder Lester: we dream of navigating places like this

[08:50] Pathfinder Lester: So I’m going to talk a little bit about dreams today…

[08:50] Pathfinder Lester: as well as what I think are key best practices and feature for “next generation” virtual worlds.

[08:51] Pathfinder Lester: next

[08:51] Pathfinder Lester: I see 3 key features for virtual worlds to really break out as a global phenomenon with many broad applications.

[08:51] Pathfinder Lester: I’ll go thru each of them

[08:51] Pathfinder Lester: next

[08:52] Pathfinder Lester: I think we can all agree that the Web has become as ubiquitous as electricty.

[08:52] Pathfinder Lester: It is something we simply expect to be available, anywhere we go, just like electricity.

[08:53] Pathfinder Lester: So I believe it follows that any next generation virtual world platform *must* be able to exist as part of the Web.

[08:53] Pathfinder Lester: embedded in pages

[08:53] Pathfinder Lester: and also accessible on mobile devices.

[08:53] Pathfinder Lester: this image is an example of Rutgers embedding a virtual office in their website

[08:53] Pathfinder Lester: they hold office hours there. 🙂

[08:53] Pathfinder Lester: next

[08:53] Pathfinder Lester: Second, I think next generation virtual world platforms must not only live *on* the web…

[08:54] Glitteractica Cookie: i agree

[08:54] Pathfinder Lester: but that they must also *integrate* with the web

[08:54] Pathfinder Lester: By that I mean they need to integrate with web-based applications and databases.

[08:54] Sarvana Haalan: indeed

[08:54] Hour Destiny: http://awesomium.com/

[08:54] Pathfinder Lester: This pic is an example of how, when you walk up to a model of HIV in a virtual world…

[08:55] Pathfinder Lester: there’s a script that goes to wikipedia and loads their page on HIV right on the same screen.

[08:55] Pathfinder Lester: I think the key is to leverage all the existing web-based content and web-based apps….

[08:55] Pathfinder Lester: That way your virtual world application can be part of a larger ecosystem.

[08:55] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko) nods.

[08:55] Pathfinder Lester: next

[08:55] Gentle Heron: since it is anyway

[08:55] Shailey Garfield: sure, I agree

[08:55] Pathfinder Lester: And lastly

[08:55] Pathfinder Lester: but definitely not least-ly

[08:56] Sarvana Haalan: welcome to my world… smile

[08:56] Pathfinder Lester: Next generation virtual worlds *must* focus on deep engagement and really capturing people’s imaginations.

[08:56] Pathfinder Lester: At the end of the day

[08:56] Pathfinder Lester: it’s all about content.

[08:56] Pathfinder Lester: Same with any medium of expression.

[08:56] Pathfinder Lester: This montage is all from SL.

[08:57] Pathfinder Lester: Over the years I’ve seen a number of places in SL that I think really capture this “deep engagement” idea.

[08:57] Grizzla (grizzla.pixelmaid): Preach it, brother!

[08:57] Shailey Garfield: Content and how different media (audio, video, text) are combined to deliver it.

[08:57] Pathfinder Lester: Like a virtual recreation of ancient egyptian temples, where you can explore living history.

[08:57] Sarvana Haalan: amen

[08:57] Pathfinder Lester: Or a giant human larynx that you can fly through to understand the complex anatomical structure.

[08:57] Pathfinder Lester: I know you’ve all found places like this in SL and probably other virtual world platforms.

[08:58] Shailey Garfield: yes, or the cell in Genome Island.

[08:58] Pathfinder Lester: It kind if punches you in the gut when you see it. You feel a visceral engagement and amazement.

[08:58] Pathfinder Lester: Shailey, yes!

[08:58] Pathfinder Lester: great example there too.

[08:58] Pathfinder Lester: next

[08:58] Pathfinder Lester: So.

[08:58] Pathfinder Lester: What we end up creating in virtual worlds (or any new medium, to be honest)….

[08:58] Pathfinder Lester: is most of the time a recreation of the familiar.

[08:58] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko): lol

[08:58] Pathfinder Lester: Safe.

[08:58] Kate Miranda: It’s not all visual though. It is the communities that keep us here.

[08:58] Pathfinder Lester: Recognizable.

[08:59] Pathfinder Lester: This is ok.

[08:59] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko): You can just feel the joy there…. 😉

[08:59] Pathfinder Lester: Because familiar makes us feel safe. And feeling safe is not a bad thing, fundamentally.

[08:59] Pathfinder Lester: But…

[08:59] Pathfinder Lester: The deepest engagement does not happen when we feel completely safe.

[08:59] Pathfinder Lester: It happens when we see something bizarre and when we are *challenged* by our environmetn.

[09:00] Pathfinder Lester: That’s just how we our brains are wired.

[09:00] Shailey Garfield: and if we can see value in it

[09:00] Pathfinder Lester: Our brains kick into high gear when we’re challenged.

[09:00] Pathfinder Lester: Shaily, yes

[09:00] Pathfinder Lester: next

[09:00] Chimera Cosmos: challenged within our capabilities, at least 🙂

[09:00] Pathfinder Lester: So, with virtual worlds, I think there *is* value in recreating *some* of the familiar.

[09:00] Glitteractica Cookie: agree, I’ve been looking for those sims (like human heart you could walk through or schizophrenia simulator) for years now. Those told the SL story best.

[09:01] Gentle Heron: actually Chimera, I think the challenge has to be a tiny bit stretching what we think our capabilities are.

[09:01] Pathfinder Lester: Things like chairs and desks are cultural touchstones.

[09:01] Pathfinder Lester: They ground us.

[09:01] Pathfinder Lester: next

[09:01] Chimera Cosmos: yes, a bit stretching, but not overwhelming

[09:01] Chimera Cosmos: and with support 🙂

[09:01] Pathfinder Lester: But I believe the trick is in walking the razor’s edge…

[09:01] Pathfinder Lester: balancing enough *familiar* with enough *truly fascinating*.

[09:01] Pathfinder Lester: This pic is from an employee training world we built for Microsoft.

[09:02] Pathfinder Lester: They loved this part of it where employees could run around a fantasy-type space and explore.

[09:02] Pathfinder Lester: yet, at the same time, they were answering very standardized questionnaires.

[09:02] Sarvana Haalan: I think to have been a bit conservative with my designing 🙁

[09:02] Pathfinder Lester: a balance between familar and fantastical

[09:02] Pathfinder Lester: It’s very tough to find that balance. But I think it’s well worth it.

[09:02] Pathfinder Lester: next

[09:03] Pathfinder Lester: And I think the BEST place to look for inspiration for finding that balance is in human dreams.

[09:03] Pathfinder Lester: Our dreams are often a perfect mix of familiar/mundane and fantastical.

[09:03] Pathfinder Lester: We’ve all had dreams where we’re doing something normal, then something crazy happens.

[09:03] Pathfinder Lester: And those are always the most engaging types of dreams, in my opinioin.

[09:04] Pathfinder Lester: Like this pic on the slide

[09:04] Pathfinder Lester: “I was looking at the sphinx, then suddely the jet car from buckaroo banzai drove up to me…”

[09:04] Pathfinder Lester: classic mix of dream reality/surreality

[09:04] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko): (hmmm… connecting design of sim spaces with Jung… 🙂

[09:04] Pathfinder Lester: So I think as designers…

[09:05] Pathfinder Lester: as people thinking about how to deeply engage visitors to virtual worlds….

[09:05] Pathfinder Lester: I believe dreams are a good template to explore. 🙂

[09:05] Pathfinder Lester: next

[09:05] Pathfinder Lester: so build dreams

[09:05] Pathfinder Lester: places that are a mix of familiar and fantastical…

[09:05] Pathfinder Lester: next

[09:05] Pathfinder Lester: And be sure to explore the full emotional spectrum of dreams…

[09:06] Pathfinder Lester: They include moments of peace and contemplation

[09:06] Pathfinder Lester: like this pic of me in my forest retreat in my Jibe demo world. 😉

[09:06] Pathfinder Lester: next

[09:06] Pathfinder Lester: and then moments of action/chaos

[09:06] Pathfinder Lester: this is a pic of a meteor shower also in my Jibe demo world

[09:06] Pathfinder Lester: Virtual environments are as malleable as dreams.

[09:07] Pathfinder Lester: So I think it’s important to explore the full range of emotional states in them.

[09:07] Pathfinder Lester: again

[09:07] Pathfinder Lester: it’s about finding balance

[09:07] Pathfinder Lester: between everything.

[09:07] Pathfinder Lester: next

[09:07] Pathfinder Lester: So a bit about what I’ve been doing at ReactionGrid.

[09:07] Shailey Garfield: I think that meaning is important for engagement

[09:07] Pathfinder Lester: We have been working to do 2 things

[09:08] Pathfinder Lester: 1) we build and provide a general purpose virtual world platform called “Jibe”

[09:08] Pathfinder Lester: it has many of the features I think are key to next generation virtual worlds

[09:08] Pathfinder Lester: and 2) we actually build worlds and consult to help others build experiences,

[09:08] Pathfinder Lester: focused mainly on immersive learning and simulations.

[09:09] Pathfinder Lester: So we make tools and then use our tools too.

[09:09] Pathfinder Lester: next

[09:09] Pathfinder Lester: back

[09:09] Pathfinder Lester: next

[09:09] Pathfinder Lester: that’s a pic of what Jibe is

[09:09] Pathfinder Lester: lol

[09:09] Pathfinder Lester: don’t worry

[09:09] Pathfinder Lester: it’s complex. but that’s the point.

[09:09] Hour Destiny: Ah, SmartFox Server. I have that. Also works for Unity3d.

[09:10] Pathfinder Lester: it’s not monolithic. it’s an ecosystem of tools.

[09:10] Delenn Daines: will it be on the test?

[09:10] Pathfinder Lester: some of them are commercial “best of breed” tech we’ve chosen. like unity3d and smartfox

[09:10] Pathfinder Lester: and other parts are written from scratch by us

[09:10] Pathfinder Lester: the point is…it’s modular

[09:10] Hour Destiny: And you’re in a different market than HeroEngine.

[09:10] Pathfinder Lester: which means, over time, as we look at using WebGL and HTML5, we can grow beyond Unity3d.

[09:11] Ellie Brewster doesn’t see voice

[09:11] Pathfinder Lester: I think any next generation virtual world needs to be like that. Flexible enough to swap out parts so it can evolve to take advantage of new tech.

[09:11] Pathfinder Lester: voice is in there

[09:11] Pathfinder Lester: we use Vivox

[09:11] Pathfinder Lester: but are also exploring teamspeak as a voice platform too

[09:11] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko) nods.

[09:11] Pathfinder Lester: integrating it all is hard

[09:11] Pathfinder Lester: it’s easier to build monolithic code

[09:12] Hour Destiny: Tried looking at Awesomium?

[09:12] Pathfinder Lester: but in the long run, modular system are more future-proof. they can evolve more easily.

[09:12] Pathfinder Lester: Hour, I think our CTO has looked at that. I haven’t tho.

[09:12] Pathfinder Lester: next

[09:12] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko): But it’s harder to evolve if you fall behind the tech curve …. 🙂

[09:12] Pathfinder Lester: This slide is just a pic of my Jibe demo world, which you can explore whenever you like.

[09:12] Pathfinder Lester: next

[09:12] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko) nods.

[09:13] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): < is scared of giant chickens

[09:13] Pathfinder Lester: and this pic shows examples of you could embed something like a pre-existing web-based whiteboard with Jibe

[09:13] Pathfinder Lester: or a google slideshow

[09:13] Pathfinder Lester: the point is, scripts in the virtual world can communicate with scripts running on the webpage

[09:13] Pathfinder Lester: bidirectionally

[09:13] Ellie Brewster: what about seeing things together, at the same time?

[09:14] Pathfinder Lester: that’s truly being not just *on* the web, but being *part* of the web

[09:14] Pathfinder Lester: Ellie, what do you mean exactly?

[09:14] Pathfinder Lester: You mean synchronizing events between avatars?

[09:14] Ellie Brewster: The dragon, it spits fire, but I see it differently than someone else in the same space.

[09:14] Ellie Brewster: Your dragon, I mean.

[09:14] Pathfinder Lester: Gotcha. Yes, you have the option to make an event either “local” or “networked”

[09:14] Ellie Brewster: We don’t see it at the same time

[09:15] Ellie Brewster: Ah! thank you

[09:15] Pathfinder Lester: For many things in my demo world I just left things “local”

[09:15] Pathfinder Lester: that’s actually a very useful feature. for example….

[09:15] Pathfinder Lester: In one project we worked on, we had NPCs that everyone would see behaving and moving around like everyone else

[09:15] Pathfinder Lester: (a networked event)

[09:15] Pathfinder Lester: But, we also wanted each person to have their own personal guide helping them around the world.

[09:16] Pathfinder Lester: We made each personal guide a “local” event. Only each person saw and heard their own personal guide.

[09:16] Pathfinder Lester: So there’s the option of two realities. That’s actually common in things like MMOs.

[09:16] Pathfinder Lester: Some things, everyone sees at the same time and the same way.

[09:16] Hour Destiny: Propbuckets.

[09:16] Pathfinder Lester: Some things, each person sees only their unique “instance” of reality.

[09:17] Pathfinder Lester: next

[09:17] Pathfinder Lester: So, moving on to broader ideas

[09:17] Pathfinder Lester: I think the most important thing to watch with virtual worlds to get an idea of next generation applications is the artists.

[09:18] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko) nods.

[09:18] Pathfinder Lester: Artists are ALWAYS the ones who figure out the true range of new media tools.

[09:18] Pathfinder Lester: There are many artists in SL who do this.

[09:18] Pathfinder Lester: pushing boundaries

[09:18] Pathfinder Lester: so, whatever new virtual world platform you are exploring….

[09:18] Pathfinder Lester: I would encourage you to find the artists. 🙂

[09:19] Pathfinder Lester: I know there are some really amazing things happening with Cloud Party and artists

[09:19] Pathfinder Lester: and also on Opensim

[09:19] Pathfinder Lester: it’s worth keeping an eye on them

[09:19] Pathfinder Lester: this slide is a pic of some immersive art that has been created using Jibe. you can visit it too

[09:19] Pathfinder Lester: next

[09:19] Pathfinder Lester: This is my last slide. 🙂

[09:20] Pathfinder Lester: I think the real future of virtual worlds in general will lie at the intersection of virtual spaces and physical places.

[09:20] Pathfinder Lester: the intersection of Augmented Reality and Virtual worlds

[09:21] Pathfinder Lester: There’s a lot happening right now with Augmented Reality, but I think there’s a single serious roadblock.

[09:21] Kate Miranda: Artists and the adult industry have been pioneers here, just as they were on the internet at large 🙂

[09:21] JoJa Dhara agree

[09:21] Pathfinder Lester: I think the roadblock is the fact that our mobile device are tiny screens we have to pull out of our pockets to see.

[09:21] Grizzla (grizzla.pixelmaid): like using Lumiya

[09:21] Pathfinder Lester: For things to really take off, I think we need something like Google’s Glass hardware.

[09:21] Pathfinder Lester: Something we wear.

[09:22] Pathfinder Lester: Something that gives us a seamless malleable view of the world.

[09:22] Pathfinder Lester: It’s interesting tho….

[09:22] Pathfinder Lester: The first demo videos of Google Glasses are really not innovative at all…

[09:22] Pathfinder Lester: they are just applications that already exist on your phone…now stuck on your face

[09:22] Pathfinder Lester: maps, reviews, chat, pics, etc.

[09:22] Pathfinder Lester: But that’s common with any new tech

[09:23] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): or maybe integrating the phone Applause!! with a tablet app and/or game system apps

[09:23] Tank Thibedeau (liltank.thibedeau): APPLAUSE!!!

[09:23] Chimera Cosmos swats things away from face…

[09:23] Pathfinder Lester: we just use it like old tech at first. over time, new applications arise

[09:23] Pathfinder Lester: For example, imagine looking at a wall in the physical world

[09:23] Pathfinder Lester: and seeing it change. fade away. and you see a new room where the wall used to be. a fully virtual room.

[09:24] Pathfinder Lester: you can talk to the avatars/people sitting in that room just as easily as if they were physically there…

[09:24] Hour Destiny: I was able to use a WiiMote with a jailbroken iPhone to play a GameBoy game. 🙂

[09:24] Pathfinder Lester: I think the future lies in creating such malleable places. Blends of physical and simulation.

[09:24] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko): Question: What are your thoughts about where IO devices fit relative to future worlds & “must have”, e.g. BCIs and natural motion capture vs. mouse+keyboard?

[09:24] Frans Charming: Or have real people be replaced by their avatar.

[09:24] Pathfinder Lester: And all of the work everyone here has done with virtual worlds will be critical in building that broader future of malleable reality, in my opinoion. 🙂

[09:24] Pathfinder Lester: next

[09:24] Pathfinder Lester: That’s it.

[09:25] Frans Charming applauds

[09:25] Pathfinder Lester: My slides are also on slideshare at http://slidesha.re/PvQkeR

[09:25] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko) applauds.

[09:25] Pathfinder Lester: and you can grab a copy of the board behind me if you wish.

[09:25] Pathfinder Lester: questions

[09:25] Gentle Heron: What a great vision, Pathfinder. Thank you for sharing.

[09:25] Pathfinder Lester: >

[09:25] Pathfinder Lester: ?

[09:25] Chimera Cosmos: Thanks Path – was going to ask about slideshare!

[09:25] Zinnia Zauber: Yay! Thank you!

[09:25] Pathfinder Lester: I saw Jerry’s question

[09:25] Pathfinder Lester: IO devices

[09:26] Xon Emoto: Thank you John. Great talk!

[09:26] Octagon for Creative Exploration: Creative Coaching Oct.29 at 3pm SL!

[09:26] Ozma Malibu: Thanks for catching us up, and reporting from your vision of the future.

[09:26] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Any questions for Pathfinder

[09:26] Ellie Brewster: Really encouraging, John

[09:26] Pathfinder Lester: I think the real future of IO devices will be machines learning how to interpret our desires rather than us learning how to enter information into machines.

[09:26] Second Life: You decline ‘Creative Coaching, Oct. 2012’  ( Prism Lila (51,231,24) ) from Octagon for Creative Exploration.

[09:26] Ozma Malibu: (What about nonverbal communication? With the virtual room.)

[09:26] jacmacaire Humby: Bravo!!

[09:26] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko): Can you elaborate, John?

[09:26] Xon Emoto: John, are you experiencing an upswing in adoption of the avatar interface?

[09:26] Pathfinder Lester: So for example….imagine if your google glasses could sense from your body language/blood pressure/whatever that you are anxious becuase you are lost.

[09:27] Pathfinder Lester: it could then toss up a map before you have to ask for it.

[09:27] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko): Hmmmm 😀

[09:27] Pathfinder Lester: that’s kind of the ultimate IO in my opinion. understanding intent and desire without having to be explicit about it.

[09:27] Ozma Malibu: machines reading our minds then.

[09:27] Pathfinder Lester: ozma, kinda yes!

[09:27] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko): Well machines interpreting our output… 😉

[09:27] Pathfinder Lester: Jerry, yes

[09:27] Gentle Heron: Pathfinder, kind of like a virtual wife then, anticipating and fulfilling?

[09:28] Pathfinder Lester: that’s more of what I mean

[09:28] Ozma Malibu: BFF

[09:28] Xon Emoto: Ok, once we have that, our avatars will just come along naturally:)

[09:28] Pathfinder Lester: our body language is so complex

[09:28] Pathfinder Lester: we send so much data nonverbally

[09:28] Glitteractica Cookie: i’m interested to know if any nonprofits are using any of the tech you spoke about yet. (google glasses, new VW tech that is in reaction grid)

[09:28] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko): @Xon, I think so… would make the tech more transparent to the user.

[09:28] Pathfinder Lester: Google Glasses are not yet availble to the public

[09:28] Pathfinder Lester: but they will be soon

[09:28] Frans Charming: For people interested in a future with Google glasses type devices and it replacing what you see in Real Life, I will recommend the book Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge. It’s a amazing novel.

[09:28] Sarvana Haalan: cool

[09:29] Pathfinder Lester: Frans, yes. That’s a great book

[09:29] Rhiannon Chatnoir: no… they werent even available when I was at Singularity University this summer to play with

[09:29] Rhiannon Chatnoir: they are still under wraps for the most part

[09:29] Xon Emoto: ty Frans

[09:29] Pathfinder Lester: I think once Google Glass-type devices are out there, we’ll see a real revolution happen. A blended reality where many of our dreams of virtual worlds will be able to take root and grow.

[09:30] Rhiannon Chatnoir has hugged Verner Vinge

[09:30] Pathfinder Lester: It will just take probably about 10 years, methinks.

[09:30] Frans Charming: :O

[09:30] Pathfinder Lester: But all the skills you all here have learned…

[09:30] Rhiannon Chatnoir: at Singularity.. he spoke to us

[09:30] Desmond Kestrel: suspects less than 10 years

[09:30] Hour Destiny: I suspect we’ll see nonprofits using VWs before VR, mostly because with VWs they can interact with other organizations.

[09:30] Pathfinder Lester: in how to create virtual spaces and explore them….

[09:30] Ozma Malibu: I guess I will have to read Rainbow’s End again. It made me cry.

[09:30] Pathfinder Lester: those skills will be critical when exploring how to innovate in the future.

[09:30] Gentle Heron: Very very true, Hour!

[09:31] Pathfinder Lester: any other questions?

[09:31] Chimera Cosmos: I think that virtual spaces that are tied to the outside world have their own limitations. I favor a future with options for multiple kinds of immersion. 🙂

[09:31] Pathfinder Lester: Chimera, I agree.

[09:31] Chimera Cosmos: For different purposes and situations

[09:31] Chimera Cosmos: and people

[09:31] Pathfinder Lester: Imagine being able to switch your glasses into “fully simulated” mode

[09:32] Delenn Daines: Let’s take a virtual field trip to your jibe world John

[09:32] Pathfinder Lester: Delenn, I hold regular office hours in it

[09:32] Ellie Brewster: me/imagines herself falling down the stairs wearing google glasses

[09:32] Delenn Daines: cool

[09:32] Pathfinder Lester: lemme find the page and schedule…

[09:32] Rhiannon Chatnoir: maybe a followup field trip would be nice.. when is your next office hours

[09:32] Rhiannon Chatnoir: k

[09:32] Chimera Cosmos: so right Ellie! I can do that just checking email on my phone LOL

[09:32] Pathfinder Lester: http://becunningandfulloftricks.com/office-hours-and-tutorials/

[09:32] Delenn Daines: thanks

[09:32] Gentle Heron: Deleen, we did that at a recent business conference set up by AgileBill Firehawk. I suspect that session is still online at Metaverse TV.

[09:33] Pathfinder Lester: I have an office hour today at noon PDT

[09:33] Pathfinder Lester: so if you visit at that time, I’ll be there 🙂

[09:33] Rhiannon Chatnoir: great

[09:33] Rhiannon Chatnoir: 🙂

[09:33] Pathfinder Lester: i think my time is up, so I’ll sit back down now

[09:33] Pathfinder Lester: ty for inviting me to speak today

[09:33] Pathfinder Lester: it’s great to see many familiar faces too 🙂

[09:33] Rhiannon Chatnoir: thank you Pathfinder !

[09:33] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko): Great presi, John! Thank you! 😀

[09:33] Grizzla (grizzla.pixelmaid): Thanks for this! Really good info.

[09:34] Frans Charming applauds

[09:34] Pathfinder Lester: my pleasure

[09:34] JoJa Dhara: Thank you for this inspiring speech 😉

[09:34] Glitteractica Cookie: Great presentation as usual, Pathfinder

[09:34] Gentle Heron: Thank you Pathfinder. Fascinating as always.

[09:34] Ellie Brewster: Really helpful, Path, thanks

[09:34] Shailey Garfield: Thanks, Pathfinder; fascinating and inspiring, as always!

[09:34] Xon Emoto: TY John, so encouraging 🙂

[09:34] Delenn Daines: thanks path, very interesting lecture

 

— OPEN MIC/ANNOUNCEMENTS —

[09:34] Rhiannon Chatnoir: It’s time for Open Mic!

[09:34] Frans Charming: Hi, I showed a ‘Twitter Garden’ last week, that displayed tweets in floating text and I promised to share the code. You can find the code and instructions here. https://github.com/VesuviusGroup/Twitter-Garden-SL

[09:34] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Does anyone have any announcements to make

[09:34] Jerry Buchko (jerrybuchko): Thanks, Frans 🙂

[09:34] Rhiannon Chatnoir: ok Frans – thanks

[09:35] JoJa Dhara: Cool Frans thk

[09:35] Rhiannon Chatnoir: anyone else?

[09:35] Zinnia Zauber: I do

[09:35] Rhiannon Chatnoir: ok Zinnia

[09:35] Gentle Heron: I do also.

[09:35] Zinnia Zauber: It is Ozma’s Rez Day!!!!

[09:36] Zinnia Zauber: Ozma is amazing and we celebrate her today!

[09:36] Gentle Heron: Thank you for sharing that code, Frans. You are most kind.

[09:36] Frans Charming: Happy rezziversary! 😀

[09:36] Gentle Heron: Hey Congrats Ozma!

[09:36] Rhiannon Chatnoir: aww… happy Rez Day Ozma

[09:36] Brena Benoir: Woohoo Ozma! Happy Rez Day!

[09:36] Morgaine (morgaine.borgin): Thank you all and congrats Ozma

[09:36] CarynTopia Silvercloud: Thanks!

[09:36] Brena Benoir raises hand for open mic

[09:36] Ozma Malibu: Why thank you! I am having a perfect day, thus far.

[09:36] Bevan Whitfield: Happy Rez Day Ozma !

[09:36] Rhiannon Chatnoir: any other announcements

[09:37] Bevan Whitfield: Rockcliffe University is doing its 6th Open House tomorrow from AM – PM

[09:37] Brena Benoir: Our Halloween Party will be at Wharf Ratz on Tuesday October 30 from 7 to 9pm with DJ lilTank

[09:37] Gentle Heron smiles at Bevan.

[09:38] Rhiannon Chatnoir: as a reminder we hold weekly meetings, same day/time.. so join the TechSoup.org group if you want announcements and IM me if you are interested in speaking

[09:38] Chimera Cosmos: Oh! My Rez Day is Nov. 1. Almost forgot!

[09:38] Chimera Cosmos: Last year I DID forget.

[09:38] Carl Solutionary (carlicann): Happy Rez Day!

[09:38] Rhiannon Chatnoir: any links Bevan for the ROckliffe U open house?

[09:38] Frans Charming: Happy early Rez day!

[09:38] Kim Anubis: happy rezday 🙂

[09:38] Ozma Malibu: Yay us Fall babies, Chimera. 🙂 Happy rezday.

[09:38] Zinnia Zauber: Happy Rez Day Chimera!

[09:39] Chimera Cosmos: My Rez Day is the same day and year as Eshi Otawara. Now if only I had her artistic talent….hehe

[09:39] Chimera Cosmos: Well, it isn’t for a few days yet.

[09:39] Violet Meadow (nancy.hilltop): i’m playing violin for tips at my linden home from 6-8am sunday money goes to virtual ability

[09:39] Ozma Malibu: Hah well Chimera you certainly have talent, just use it in a different and also important direction.

[09:39] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Gentle… you have an announcement

[09:39] Chimera Cosmos: Thanks Ozma 🙂

[09:40] Chimera Cosmos: Back atcha

[09:40] Gentle Heron: ***

If anyone wants to see how a virtual world can be used for medical education, I invite you to participate in research by Indiana University.

[09:40] Gentle Heron: Medical and nursing students are studying a curriculum about communication and teamwork.

[09:40] Gentle Heron: The researchers are asking for volunteers to become “virtual patients” to observe and critique the students.

[09:40] Gentle Heron: If interested, please IM me and I’ll send you a couple of notecards, one describing the study, the other the sign up demographic notecard to return to Kali Pizzaro.

[09:40] Gentle Heron: (that’s all)

[09:40] Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks

[09:41] Rhiannon Chatnoir: any others?

[09:41] Chimera Cosmos: Oh! I heard from Kali Pizzaro that you were working with the IU folks Gentle. Cool!. Cool!

[09:41] Carl Solutionary (carlicann): me!

[09:41] Gentle Heron: Yup Chimera! It’s so exciting.

[09:41] Rhiannon Chatnoir: ok, Carl

[09:41] Carl Solutionary (carlicann): I host a very fun event every Sunday… 

and this week we are at Burning Life … the SL version of Burning Man… 

 

I am hosting a Poetic DRUM CIRCLE at BURNING LIFE 9am SLT Sunday @ Burning Man- Black Rock (72,184,2)

 

I’d love to do a drum circle here at NonProfit Commons too!

[09:41] Carl Solutionary (carlicann): Meet some “Burners” on Sunday! It will be a hoot!

[09:41] Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks

[09:42] Chimera Cosmos: Oh right…Burn2 – I have to get back over there before it’s all over.

[09:42] Carl Solutionary (carlicann): ends on Sunday! fyi

[09:42] Frans Charming: oh wow. I wouldn’t have even known,

[09:42] Rhiannon Chatnoir: good to know

[09:43] Chimera Cosmos: Yeah, and we are traveling all day Sunday. So that leaves today and tomorrow. Yikes!

[09:43] Chimera Cosmos: When are the Temple burns? Sunday?

[09:43] Rhiannon Chatnoir: any more announcements before we wrap things up for this week

[09:44] Ozma Malibu: Mentor(ing) meeting?

[09:44] Carl Solutionary (carlicann): Main Website for Burning Life http://www.burn2.org/

[09:45] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Zinnia.. mentoring meeting following this?

[09:45] Glitteractica Cookie: Thanks all for a wonderful mtg

[09:45] Zinnia Zauber: yes

[09:45] Rhiannon Chatnoir: And again, here are the many ways to can get involved with the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life:

 

Nonprofit Commons Blog: http://nonprofitcommons.org

 

 – Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com

 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/npsl

 – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons

 – Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life

 – Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/2tMEYh

 – http://flavors.me/nonprofitcommons

 

About TechSoup the sponsors of the Nonprofit Commons:

 

 – http://www.techsoup.org/stock/howtousetechsoup.asp

 – http://flavors.me/techsoup

 

 

Thanks everyone and see you next week!

[09:45] Zinnia Zauber: Mentors!

[09:45] alebez: Thank you all!

[09:45] Zinnia Zauber: Let’s have a 5 minute break

[09:45] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and again.. thanks Pathfinder for speaking

[09:45] Frans Charming applauds

[09:46] JoJa Dhara: thank you..have a grand weekend!

[09:46] Zinnia Zauber: Everyone is invited to Mentors Meeting!

[09:46] Pathfinder Lester: My pleasure Rhiannon. TY for inviting me.

[09:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir: next week we will have Anna Jaeger speaking on Cloud services and the survey TechSoup did

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir

Transcript of October 19th meeting – featuring Jeroen Frans

 

[08:32] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Welcome everyone to this week’s Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting!

[08:33] Rhiannon Chatnoir: The Nonprofit Commons in Second Life is sponsored by TechSoup Global and is a program of the TechSoup Global Community & Social Media team.

 

[08:33] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Today’s Agenda:

  • 8:30 am Introductions
  • 8:40 am TechSoup Announcements
  • 8:45 am Mentors Central – 
  • 8:55 am Jeroen Frans: “Tools for Virtual Engagement”
  • 9:30 am Open Mic / Announcements

[08:33] Rhiannon Chatnoir: First a few links to start off the meeting.

[08:34] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Here are the many ways to can get involved with the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life:

 

 – Nonprofit Commons Blog: http://nonprofitcommons.org

 – Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com

 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/npsl

 – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons

 – Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life

 – Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/2tMEYh

 – http://flavors.me/nonprofitcommons

 

About TechSoup the sponsors of the Nonprofit Commons:

 

 – http://www.techsoup.org/stock/howtousetechsoup.asp

 – http://flavors.me/techsoup

 

 

— INTRODUCTIONS —

 

[08:34] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Again – Hello everyone, let’s start off with Introductions!

[08:34] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Please state your real name, location, org, and the ways we can find you online.

[08:34] Buffy Beale: Buffy Bye, Bridges for Women, Victoria BC Canada, http://www.bridgesforwomen.ca @bridges4women

[08:34] Chayenn: Monique Richert, Protect Yourself 1, Inc., Baltimore , Maryland, protectyourself1.org, facebook.com/PY1US, @PY1US

[08:34] Orange Planer: Orange Planer – I’m a dude who eats people.

[08:34] Orange Planer: But not here.

[08:34] Zinnia Zauber: Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond, Sequim Humanities and Arts Alliance, Sequim, Olympic Peninsula, Washington. http://www.sequimartsalliance.org http://www.facebook.com/sequimartsalliance @renneemiko

[08:34] Dancers Yao: Kara Bennett, Elder Voices, Inc Los Angeles, CA Health Care and Human Right www.eldervoices.net

[08:35] Gentle Heron: Virtual Ability, Inc. www.virtualability.org

[08:35] Ethelred Weatherwax: Dave Dexter. Neenah Historical Society, wisconsin USA

[08:35] Frans Charming: Jeroen Frans, Amsterdam, Vesuvius Group, twitter.com/Frans

[08:35] Jerry Buchko: Jerry Buchko, MA AFC | Counselor, Coach, & Tutor of Personal Finance in Private Practice | http://www.linkedin.com/jerrybuchko | @jerrybuchko

[08:35] Brena Benoir: Brenda Bryan, Preferred Family Healthcare, Kirksville, Missouri, www.pfh.org, @brenabenoir

[08:35] alebez: Ale Bezdikian, TechSoup Global, SF, ca. @TechSoup, @alebez

[08:35] Ozma Malibu: Sandy Andrews, Floaters Org, tech outreach in Arizona, Mexico and On the Road, @ozma

[08:35] Maika Giordano: Mari Carmen Gil, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

[08:36] bulaklak: Michael DeLong, Online Community and Social Media, TechSoup Global, www.techsoup.org, @mmdelong @TechSoup, San Francisco, CA

[08:36] Nicki Clary: Nancy Smyth, University at Buffalo School of Social Work

[08:36] Rhiannon ChatnoirRhiannon Chatnoir is Joyce Bettencourt, Community Organizer of NonProfit Commons (@NPSL), Boston, MA area – http://joycebettencourt.com, @RhiannonSL

[08:36] Adalace Jewell: @adalace RoSa Library Brussels (Belgium) www.rosadoc.be

[08:37] CarynTopia Silvercloud: caryn Heilman, Topia Arts Center, www.TopiaArts.org, @TopiaArtsCenter in the Berkshires of NW, MA

[08:37] jacmacaire Humby: Hi everyone

[08:37] Rhiannon Chatnoir: if you are just coming in, please introduce yourself 🙂

[08:37] Jerry Buchko: Hi Jac

[08:38] Buffy Beale: hi Jac

[08:38] jacmacaire Humby: Jacques Macaire HUMANBE http://www.humanbe.com Action Tank and Council on Sustainable Development France and International @Humanbe

[08:38] Ronnie Rhode: Denise Harrison, The Garden for the Missing, http://www.gardenforthemissing.org/ and SLURL Remora (203,148,21), Project Jason, assistance for families of the missing, http://www.projectjason.org.

[08:38] jacmacaire Humby: Hi Jerry and Buffy

[08:38] Namaara MacMoragh: Gloria Kraegel with Brain Energy Support Team, WA http://greatkreations.com, http://brainenergysupportteam, @go4victory

[08:38] Orange PlanerOrange Planer waits for a vampire to attack Buffy

[08:39] Rhiannon Chatnoir: and Glitteractica will be joining us too – she is resintalling the SL client

[08:39] Buffy Beale: lol why me?

[08:39] Orange Planer: Buffy – the vampire slayer – of course.

[08:39] Buffy Beale: oo

 

 

TECHSOUP ANNOUNCEMENTS —

 

[08:39] Rhiannon Chatnoir: It is time for TechSoup Announcements!

[08:40] bulaklak: Howdy, folks!

[08:40] Buffy Beale: yay bulaklak!

[08:40] Frans Charming: Hi

[08:41] bulaklak: Just a quick poll here . . . how many of you have heard of or been involved with the Foundation Center?

[08:41] CarynTopia Silvercloud: Topia Arts Center has

[08:41] Gentle Heron: heard of only

[08:41] Zinnia Zauber: I have

[08:42] Zinnia Zauber: I won an award from them way back.

[08:42] bulaklak: w00t!

[08:42] bulaklak: That’s great, Zinnia

[08:42] Zinnia Zauber: 🙂

[08:42] bulaklak: So the news today is that TechSoup has partnered up with the Foundation Center

[08:42] Nicki Clary: I’m aware of it…haven’t been involved with it

[08:43] Nicki Clary: Partnerships are great..congrats

[08:43] bulaklak: We will be pooling resources to create more educational opportunities for nonprofits, foundations, and other orgs

[08:43] bulaklak: We’ve both been collecting lots of data around nonprofits for years

[08:43] Namaara MacMoragh: That’s great

[08:43] bulaklak: So we are also putting our data nerd heads together to do something with it

[08:43] bulaklak: I don’t know exactly what that part is going to look like yet

[08:44] bulaklak: But the goal is to “leverage” that data so that it informs other decision makers about policy

[08:44] bulaklak: For both nonprofits and the populations they serve

[08:44] Buffy Beale: That’s great news about the partnership

[08:44] bulaklak: Foundation Center has a press release on its website with some more details here: http://bit.ly/RIa0HU

[08:45] Praxis: you ore mty hero!

[08:45] bulaklak: And stay tuned for more details to follow in the months ahead!

[08:45] Zinnia Zauber: That is great! They are such a super resource!

[08:45] bulaklak: “Big data” is a trendy term, but we’re committed to figuring it all out at TechSoup, now with the help of the Foundation Center

[08:45] bulaklak: Thanks, all! That’s all I’ve got for today.

[08:45] bulaklak: Have a great meeting and a great weekend!

[08:46] alebez: wooot!

[08:46] Frans CharmingFrans Charming applauds

[08:46] Frans Charming: Have a great weekend as well.

[08:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir: great and thanks bulklak!

[08:46] Maxwell Spielburg: Pathfinder!

 

— MENTOR’S CENTRAL —

 

[08:47] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Let’s move on to Mentors Central

[08:47] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Today for Mentor Central we have Gentle Heron. Let’s welcome her up and please start whenever your ready.!

[08:47] Buffy Beale: thanks bulaklak and yayyyy Gentle!

[08:47] Zinnia Zauber: Rah Gentle!

[08:47] Namaara MacMoragh: YAY Gentle!

[08:47] Gentle Heron: Thank you all kindly.

[08:47] Maxwell SpielburgMaxwell Spielburg applauds

[08:47] Gentle Heron: Please note the presentation slides behind the stools.

[08:47] Gentle Heron: I’ll raise them up a tad to make it easier to see.

[08:48] Gentle Heron: Is that OK for everyone now?

[08:48] Dancers Yao: yes

[08:48] Zinnia Zauber: super!

[08:48] Nicki ClaryNicki Clary nods

[08:48] Gentle Heron: OK then I’ll begin.

[08:49] Gentle Heron: Hello NPC friends. This is a ‘how to’ presentation!

[08:49] Gentle Heron: Today I want to show you how to avoid having me repeat this presentation. I want to encourage each of us to step up and share something they know about as part of the Mentor Corner series.

[08:49] Gentle Heron: Each week someone (far too often Gentle or Zinnia) shares a short piece of information.

[08:49] Gentle Heron: You too can share! Here’s how to make it even easier than those old high school book reports we all used to dread.

[08:49] Gentle Heron: First, choose a topic.

[08:49] Gentle Heron: Make it something you’d like to hear about. Perhaps you already know about this topic, or maybe it’s something you’d like to know more about.

[08:50] Gentle Heron: Both ways work.

[08:50] Gentle Heron: Since we’re talking about this as a book report style presentation, you may already have an article to tell us about. I have a whole file of them on business topics…. Just ask and I’ll find one for you.

[08:50] Gentle Heron: But you can also find your own. Educause has a GREAT series titled “Seven Things You Should Know About…”. I really like their seven standard questions they answer for all their topics.

[08:51] Gentle Heron: Their topics are mostly tech topics: http://www.educause.edu/research-and-publications/7-things-you-should-kn…

[08:51] Gentle Heron: But if you don’t want to do a seven-item long report, try Googling something shorter.

[08:51] Gentle Heron: …

[08:51] Gentle Heron: When I Googled “5 steps to…” I got information on risk assessment, studying, fighting stress, accomplishing goals… (as well as how to winterize my car or hide a pimple!)

[08:51] Gentle Heron: “4 steps to…” found me articles on successful Facebook marketing, starting an exercise habit, and effective performance evaluation.

[08:52] Gentle Heron: This is the work, making an outline of the article. But it’s easy if you’ve read something that is listed as steps, because those are your outline entries!

[08:52] Gentle Heron: The first entry in your outline should be the introduction. The last should be your conclusion. In between, just list the author’s steps.

[08:52] Gentle Heron: Put your outline into PowerPoint slides. If you need help with this step, ask a Mentor. We’re happy to help.’

[08:53] Gentle Heron: You don’t even need to do this step, if you don’t want visuals with your presentation!

[08:53] Gentle Heron: …

[08:53] Gentle Heron: If you chose to do a PowerPoint slideset, you’ll probably want some pictures.

[08:53] Gentle Heron: Please be mindful of copyrights. Choose images that are copyright free.

[08:53] Gentle Heron: One great source of copyright-free images is the Morgue File (perfect name for Halloween, right?)

http://morguefile.com/

[08:53] Frans Charming: 🙂

[08:53] bulaklak: 7 steps to giving a 7 step presentation

[08:54] Gentle Heron: Glad you lijke that one, Frans. Right you are Bulaklak

[08:54] Gentle Heron: Write out the text you’ll be presenting in Local Chat.

[08:54] Gentle Heron: Basically, you are now filling in your outline. Don’t just use the words of the article. Add your own examples.

[08:54] Gentle Heron: Bring the slides and text into Second Life and prepare your presentation tools.

[08:54] Gentle Heron: Again, Mentors (I’m looking hard at Jen and Zinnia here!) are happy to help.

[08:54] Zinnia Zauber: We are here for you, man!

[08:54] Gentle Heron: And you’re ready to schedule your Mentor Corner “book report” with Zinnia.

[08:55] Gentle Heron: It’s as simple as that, really.

[08:55] Gentle Heron: I promise, you’ll be glad you shared your knowledge with the rest of us at NonProfit Commons.

[08:55] Gentle Heron: (and you really won’t want me to repeat this presentation, will you?)

[08:55] bulaklak: This is also a good place for copyright-free images: http://search.creativecommons.org/ (although some rights reserved in certain cases)

[08:55] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you so much, Gentle! It means a lot to us if you present!

[08:56] bulaklak: That was super helpful! Thanks, Gentle!

[08:56] Gentle Heron: Please contact me if anyone wants some articles out of my extensive collection. Just give me the topic.

[08:56] Buffy Beale: you’re the best Gentle!

[08:56] Zinnia Zauber: We all have unique insight to share and it is fun to be in the spotlight!

[08:56] Rhiannon Chatnoir: thank you Gentle!

[08:56] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you Gentle!

[08:56] Ozma Malibu: Thank you Gentle!

[08:56] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Amazing as always 🙂

[08:56] Nicki Clary: thanks so much Gentle

 

 

— FEATURED PRESENTATION —

 

[08:57] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Time now for todays featured presenter!

[08:57] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Lets all Welcome Jeroen Frans, better known as Frans Charming in Second Life, who will speak to us today about tools for engagement in Second Life and focus specifically on the newer possibilities that are available, such as web integration, temporary attachments and teleport agent.

[08:57] Maxwell SpielburgMaxwell Spielburg applauds

[08:57] Gentle HeronGentle Heron thinks of Frans as “Prince Charming”

[08:57] Rhiannon Chatnoir: start whenever your raedy

[08:57] Frans Charming: hi everyone. So lets get this thing started

[08:57] Nicki ClaryNicki Clary applauds too

[08:57] Zinnia Zauber: Rah Frans!

[08:58] Coughran Mayo: Go for it, Frans!

[08:58] Frans Charming: I tried to get prince but it was taken.

[08:58] Frans Charming: Hello everyone, I’m Jeroen Frans in Real Life and you can see what I’m called here. 😛 

Just like last week’s presenter I’m also from the Netherlands. I’m a Second Life member since january 2005 and in January 2007 Amulius Lioncourt, Rhiannon Chatnoir and I started a development agency called the Vesuvius Group.

[08:58] Coughran Mayo: You told me Frans meant “prince” in German

[08:58] Frans Charming: Our first client was the Ramapo Middle school, and that was actually before we founded our company.

[08:58] Frans Charming: Since then we have worked with a wide range of clients like: Morpheus Media, BeliefNet, Ymere; institutions like the San Francisco Exploratorium, the Chicago Field Museum and the World Bank Institute; educational organizations like the University of Southern California, Global Kids, and Kids Connect; and non-profit entities like Virtual Ability. And lately we have been working with Catea, Georgia Tech’s Center for Assisted Technology and Environmental Access.

[08:59] Frans Charming: This work has also included integrating virtual spaces with web 2.0 tools, social media web portals and streaming of multimedia content.

[08:59] Glitteractica Cookie: SUsan Tenby, Online Community and Social Media Director, TechSoup Global, Logging in late due to SL client reinstall, logging in from Honolulu Hawaii

[08:59] Frans Charming: Ah welcome Susan.

[08:59] Frans Charming: Now that’s out of the way, Lets move on the subject of the talk. Rhiannon has asked me to talk about ‘Engagement’ tools, and more precisely new tools that LL has provided us with that we can use to give information or otherwise engage with your visitors in SL. I know most of you aren’t scripters or builders. I hope to achieve that after this talk, you will have a good idea what’s possible and work with content developers/scripters to work on your dreams.

[08:59] Glitteractica Cookie: Mahalo! (thx in Hawaiian)

[08:59] Buffy Beale: Hi Glitter and yayyy Frans!

[09:00] Frans Charming: I was exploring these islands to see what you are using tools wise, I saw for instance little use of Web on a Prim, even though most 3rd party viewers support that, and definitely the most popular ones. So I’m curious why that hasn’t been adopted as much yet? What have your experiences been with trying to use it here in NPC?

[09:00] Frans Charming: or a opinion about it?

[09:01] Coughran Mayo: I like that tool

[09:01] Zinnia Zauber: We have it in our offices, when it works, it is wonderful!

[09:01] Frans Charming: Hahaha

[09:01] Coughran Mayo: you can do a lot with it

[09:01] Ozma Malibu: I have been afraid it would be too slow.

[09:01] Coughran Mayo: but yes, sometimes it leaves people out

[09:01] Jerry Buchko: I don’t have an office here, but I have experimented with web on a prim.

[09:01] Nany: Easy to overlook required login, which can make the experience frustrating for visitors.

[09:01] Gentle Heron: We’ve used it minimally during presentations, but it can be laggy.

[09:01] Nany: ie, they dont see anything and don’t know why

[09:02] Frans Charming: Yes it does ask a bit extra from computers.

[09:02] Jerry Buchko: I’m using the SL native browser so found that it has certain limitations, e.g. doesn’t display PDFs.

[09:02] Frans Charming: True we run in to that problem as well.

[09:02] Orange Planer: Just set it to open links in an external browser.

[09:03] Ozma Malibu: Still it’s a nice idea that I can try again after we get the Floaters website back up. We have the perfect place for it in the office.

[09:03] Nany: the floating bars are fugly, too

[09:03] Gentle HeronGentle Heron laughs at Nany’s assessment.

[09:03] Jerry Buchko: I am wondering how much HTML5 can be run in the native browser….

[09:03] Frans Charming: There is a option for a smaller bar, btw. maybe that would be less ugly?

[09:03] Nany: just dont want to many of those in your scene, is all.

[09:03] Ozma Malibu: anything that floats is good with me 🙂

[09:04] Frans Charming: (rezzing twitter garden)

[09:04] Nany: Even the smaller ones can be ugly if there are more than a few in view

[09:04] Orange Planer: Part of the problem with web on a prim is if you have many pages in an area that have videos or play music.

[09:04] Jerry Buchko: Also find that sometimes the viewer doesn’t handle links properly, e.g. won’t let me advance beyond the first page of Google search results…?

[09:05] Frans Charming: That’s odd Jerry. Good to know.

[09:05] Maxwell Spielburg: i am glad you guys find these things useful

[09:05] Frans Charming: I agree Orange, people need to moderate how much they use it.

[09:05] Orange Planer: Personally, I’ve used web on a prim to display the certifications page on the wiki in meetings. Very useful.

[09:05] Jerry Buchko: @Frans, Could just be specific to my end, but haven’t figured out why.

[09:05] Frans CharmingFrans Charming nofd

[09:06] Frans Charming: *nods

[09:06] Frans Charming: There are also other interesting or fun ways to bring in information from the internet. You can use RSS feeds or search results. Here I rezzed a stone garden that polls twitter for the search term NPSL. Every minute it updates life from twitter the latest tweets mention NPSL. If you have twitter you can send a tweet with NPSL in it, right now, and it will appear shortly in the gardens floating text.

[09:06] Buffy Beale: ooooo that’s neat

[09:07] Frans Charming: If you like, you might want to walk around in it, for a better view.

[09:07] Jerry Buchko: I love this non-standard way of displaying something like a Twitter stream… 😀

[09:07] Frans Charming: 🙂

[09:07] Rhiannon Chatnoir: so have fun tweeting with the NPSL tag about the meeting.. it should show up – neat

[09:07] Frans Charming: Instead of twitter you could be showing the titles of your blog posts, or the titles to your latest flickr pictures. Btw, it works by LSL and a web based scripting(PHP). The LSL script makes a request to my website, which then in turn performs the search to twitter, cleans up the search result before sending it to my LSL script. I will be releasing example code how to do this in the following days on https://github.com/VesuviusGroup/

[09:08] Buffy Beale: I see my npsl RT 🙂

[09:08] Frans Charming: 😀

[09:08] JoJa Dhara: cool

[09:08] Orange Planer: Awesome, Frans!

[09:08] Frans Charming: It’s like magic.

[09:08] Orange PlanerOrange Planer loves free code!

[09:08] Zinnia Zauber: Awesome!

[09:09] Frans Charming: Btw, if I show something and you have awesome idea, or a question, please share.

[09:09] Frans Charming: Is anybody else here using a nonstandard way of bringing in web content?

[09:10] Gentle Heron: Frans, you just saw how I do it in a presentation.

[09:10] Frans Charming: True.

[09:10] Gentle Heron: When we have persistent posters, I put the pertinent URLs into local chat when the person looking at the poster clicks it.

[09:10] Gentle Heron: URLs on a notecard are less useful.

[09:10] Orange PlanerOrange Planer blinks

[09:10] Gentle Heron: But can be copy pasted

[09:10] Orange PlanerOrange Planer has just thought of an idea for VAI’s announcement board.

[09:11] Gentle Heron: however URLs on a static poster are pretty much worthless.

[09:11] Frans Charming: Yes, Gentle, sharing in chat makes sense.

[09:11] Frans Charming: Orange, dare to share you idea?

[09:11] Frans Charming: *your

[09:11] Jerry Buchko: I’ve created a desk space that allows me a display on the desk surface as well as 3 side by side monitors…. more of a recreation of RL than nonstandard

[09:12] Orange PlanerOrange Planer is rethinking his “idea.” Errr. Might just be garbahje.

[09:12] Frans Charming: Aww, ok.

[09:12] Frans Charming: Ok moving on to a actual new thing.

[09:13] Jerry Buchko: Though in RL, I don’t have a display built into my desk, nor 3 side by side monitors… 😉

[09:13] Frans Charming: Often we like to give people who visit our areas some fun interactive attachment, Like a drink or a goofy hat. But often, especially for newbies, it is hard to find them in your inventory and wear them, not to mention that we all collect a ton of those things sitting pointless in our inventory because of this. My inventory has 25k items, modestly small compared to many, I think Rhiannon here must be up to 100k 😛 . Tell me, for the brave, how big is your inventory?

[09:13] Nicki Clary: 44K

[09:13] Nicki Clary: I’m a virtual hoarder

[09:13] Buffy Beale: 20K 🙂

[09:14] Gentle Heron: 62 K but pretty well sorted except for notecards. (Those are my BANE!)

[09:14] JoJa Dhara: 22k

[09:14] Ozma Malibu: Ah. Where do I find the size?

[09:14] Frans Charming: wow Joja, really, that’s small.

[09:14] Jerry Buchko: Haven’t the foggiest idea

[09:14] Rhiannon Chatnoir: surprisingly 41,004 items

[09:14] Gentle Heron: Good job Joja!

[09:14] Xandi Mars: 57k

[09:14] Frans Charming: At the top of the inventory window

[09:14] JoJa Dhara: 😉

[09:14] Orange Planer: I have 10K. But we’re all nothing compared to a couple people I know who have over 200K.

[09:14] Gentle Heron: Ozma, it’s usually at the top of the inventory window, under the word INVENTORY

[09:14] Jerry Buchko: Ah thanks… 14K, rounding up

[09:15] Ozma Malibu: no, not there

[09:15] Frans Charming: A new function that was released this summer will solve this problem, it is called temporary attachments, it works through LSL call. A object with this function will ask your permission if it allowed to attach, when accepted it will attach automatically, but it wont show in your inventory. It is only temporary Attached.

[09:15] Orange Planer: Ozma – in Search, search for a letter, that’ll fill in the number.

[09:15] Praxis: me had 100k, mostly learning items but when LL upgraded their servers, me lost 75%, with no option of redeliver :((

[09:15] Frans Charming: (rezzing a coffee Machine)

[09:15] Gentle Heron: oh drat, Praxis!

[09:16] Frans Charming: Here on my side, you see a red coffee machine, if you click it you can select your beverage of preference and the beverage will ask you permission to attach itself. Give it a try. I have not tested it yet with so many users, so lets see if you can break it.

[09:16] Nicki Clary: that’s awful Praxis

[09:16] Coughran Mayo: worked!

[09:16] Jerry Buchko: Cool 🙂

[09:16] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yay – morning coffee 🙂

[09:16] Frans Charming: It seems to go a bit slower, but seems to work ok. yay

[09:17] Gentle Heron: The animation even over-rides these sit animations.

[09:17] Jerry Buchko: Oops, spilled a bit of coffee trying to clap… 😉

[09:17] CarmenLittleFawn: perfect

[09:17] Nicki Clary: of course, drinking this while sitting in SL is a recipe for spilling it

[09:17] Frans Charming: 😀

[09:17] Rhiannon Chatnoir: ha

[09:17] Jerry Buchko: This would be great to include in a meeting space… 🙂

[09:17] Frans Charming: you i’m pouring it down,

[09:17] Frans Charming: This makes the flow of attaching situational items somewhat different but a lot simpler for the new user. If you want to detach the cup, you can just click on the cup. 

Some of you might have noticed that you can Copy the coffee machine. That’s intended, it’s a freebie for you to take with you.

[09:17] Delia LakeDelia Lake hates it when she dumps coffee all over her head

[09:18] Jerry Buchko: Awesome, thanks Frans.

[09:18] Rhiannon Chatnoir: gifts!

[09:18] CarmenLittleFawn: thanks Frans 🙂

[09:18] Gentle Heron: darn, copy doesn’t work for me

[09:18] Frans Charming: ohno.

[09:18] Frans Charming: Let me set it for sale.

[09:19] Frans Charming: should be for sale for 0.

[09:19] Buffy Beale: that works 🙂

[09:19] Frans Charming: great

[09:19] Coughran Mayo: Got it!

[09:19] Nicki ClaryNicki Clary is wondering if she’ll get a caffeine rush

[09:19] Gentle Heron: Thank you Frans, now it works.

[09:19] Gentle Heron: Only a virtual one, Nicki.

[09:19] Praxis: TYSVM

[09:19] Delia Lake: ty 😉

[09:19] JoJa Dhara: hmm item 22.001

[09:19] Frans Charming: (rezz TwitterHud)

[09:19] JoJa Dhara: 😉

[09:19] JoJa Dhara: thks

[09:19] Nicki Clary: thanks Frans

[09:19] Orange Planer: “Tools for virtual engagement.” Doesn’t that sound warlike?

[09:20] Jerry Buchko: Got it. Thanks, Frans.

[09:20] Glitteractica Cookie: not at all

[09:20] Rhiannon Chatnoir: ha

[09:20] Pathfinder Lester: lol

[09:20] Frans Charming: Besides just cups, you can also temporary attach HUDs this way. This can be great for sim wide events, where you want to provide a map or a schedule of events, that is simple to attach. Over here on my side you can see a new box a TwitterHud, if you click it, it will ask you to attach. It will attach to the right of your screen, and shows the mobile twitter page with my latest tweets.

[09:20] Orange Planer: Speaking of events….

[09:21] Frans Charming: Normal websites look kinda small and squashed on hud, especially because we don’t want a HUD to fill the whole screen, for a HUD with web on a prim you could create specific small web pages that are catered to the form factor.

[09:21] Orange Planer: And seeing that Pathfinder is here….

[09:21] JoJa Dhara: (brb.. rl madness)

[09:21] Jerry Buchko: Oh very cool! 😀

[09:21] Glitteractica Cookie: Orange, we have open announcements at end of meeting

[09:21] Orange Planer: I had an idea that one could use pathfinding nonplayer characters to lead people to the events at a region.

[09:21] Glitteractica Cookie: please save taht for the open mic session thanks

[09:21] Praxis: Twitter HUD, PLZ?

[09:22] Frans Charming: Praxis you don’t get it when you click it?

[09:22] Frans Charming: Orange, yea I’m not talking about pathfinding today, but that sounds like a great idea.

[09:22] Gentle Heron: Praxis, I had to “touch” it

[09:22] CarmenLittleFawn: awesome Frans ty 🙂

[09:22] Praxis: the RL URL?

[09:23] Jerry Buchko: So you could basically do the same thing for a web based chat window right?

[09:23] Frans Charming: To detach the twitterhud you might ahve to click the ground firts and then right click the hud to select detach.

[09:23] Jerry Buchko: And this would display an active chat even as I’m moving around in SL space…

[09:23] Nany: HUD filling the whole screen briefly is actually kind of a cool effect in some cases.

[09:24] Nany: works for immersive stories

[09:24] Frans Charming: Yes, there a definitely cases where it could be cool nanny.

[09:24] Jerry Buchko: @Nany, Yes. It would be cool if the HUD could be minimized & maxed on click or key command…

[09:24] Frans Charming: @jerry, that is possible to some extent to do.

[09:25] Jerry Buchko: Cool! 😀

[09:25] Nany: Jerry, there are good examples of that here in SL. Good game at Mad Pea uses that effect very well.

[09:25] Frans Charming: (rezzing bookmarker)

[09:26] Jerry Buchko: @Nany, Thanks for the pointer. Love to see examples of stuff like this.

[09:26] Frans Charming: You don’t necessarily need webhosting for small webpages for a HUD or a inworld screen. It is actually possible to host small and simple webpages inside second life. One of our clients wanted a way to store small lists of links inside SL. This virtual bookmarker here stores the urls and hosts the webpages inside the scripts in the prims.

[09:27] Frans Charming: We created four categories of items that you can select by clicking on the books, it will actually change the category showed for everyone, but you can also browse and click links within the page, which will be just locally for you. It was intended for a small office space, and I’m not sure what will have happen if we all start clicking the books. 😛

[09:27] Orange Planer: Holy mackerel, that is one long URL!

[09:27] Frans Charming: That’s the trick Orange, the url is the actual part of the content.

[09:28] Frans Charming: You can describe html inside the url.

[09:28] Frans Charming: Btw you might ahve to click the screen to see the webpage.

[09:28] Virtual Bookmarks (0.9.6) (NPC): Right click this link to open it in your external browser: 

 http://www.techsoup.org/stock/download/TSSQualForm_US.pdf

[09:28] Jerry Buchko: It worked 🙂

[09:28] Frans Charming: As you can see the books actually move and open when you click.

[09:29] CarmenLittleFawn: 🙂 yes

[09:29] Frans Charming: And we made a special category for links to pdf, to open them outside sl

[09:29] CarmenLittleFawn: nice

[09:30] CarmenLittleFawn: impressive

[09:30] Frans Charming: But, to reiterate, is taht the small list pages, are hosted from inside SL.

[09:30] Virtual Bookmarks (0.9.6) (NPC): Right click this link to open it in your external browser: 

 http://www.techsoup.org/stock/download/TSSQualForm_US.pdf

[09:30] Nicki ClaryNicki Clary agrees with Carmen

[09:30] Orange Planer: I’m confused.

[09:31] Frans Charming: I’m not able to give you all access to add content, but it possible to add new content. and remove it too.

[09:31] Orange Planer: The HTML displayed is a set of links elsewhere on the Internet, or links in SL?

[09:31] Frans Charming: The link go to content to outside of SL.

[09:31] CarmenLittleFawn: nods ok

[09:31] Frans Charming: The page itself is hosted from SL.

[09:31] Praxis: does it matter what view is used to enable all that is shown, plz?

[09:32] Orange Planer: OK, so the page is hosted from the text in the URL of the prim.

[09:32] Orange Planer: It just needs to be formatted correctly to work, yes?

[09:32] CarmenLittleFawn: good ? Praxis

[09:32] Frans Charming: What do you mean with View, Praxis?

[09:33] Praxis: oppps, typonese stepped up, it should read viewer, sorry

[09:33] Frans Charming: Orange I can answer it more fully later.

[09:33] Frans Charming: This webserver in a prim not totally my own creation as it works with Void Singer’s Teacup LSL webserver. http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Teacup

[09:33] Orange Planer: I would LOVE to have a discussion with you about it. Hit me up anytime.

[09:33] Frans Charming: Lastly I want to show and talk about the new teleport function. Often we have wanted to teleport in a group automatically for tours, or provide a HUD that give a list of teleports in a sim or for large events. And we ended up having to type a slurl in chat, or get several popups or the worldmap that opens to teleport. With TeleportAgent function in SL, we can give any object we own/attachment the right to teleport us.

[09:33] Frans Charming: What this means is that for instance we can create a HUD/attachment that has to ask only once for teleport permission and then is able to teleport you with a simple click on a location on the HUD, or by some other input. A tourguide could for instance give these objects and have people be teleported on his command, by a script that interfaces with the scripts in the objects.

[09:33] CarmenLittleFawn: ohter views, like phonenix, or Singularity not ever body use sl viewers

[09:34] CarmenLittleFawn: otheR*

[09:34] Frans Charming: (Rezzing item)

[09:34] Gentle Heron: Frans, that also sounds useful for helping people who have difficulty maneuvering in SL because of poor or nonexistent keyboarding and mousing.

[09:35] Frans Charming: Caveat, this teleport function doesn’t work with a temporary attachment, so when you click the Box on my side it will actually give you a hud that have to wear from your inventory. Once you attach the HUD you will get a popup asking permission to teleport. If you confirm, you can use the HUD to teleport between the Vesuvius Sim and this Sim. (watches everyone disappear :P)

[09:35] CarmenLittleFawn: Very nice

[09:35] Frans Charming: Yes gentle.

[09:35] Frans Charming: This can be used for instance for roleplay too. You could design a area where people have to wear this, and when they bump into a door, they will be teleported to another room. SciFi role players actually use this so they can walk in the Stargates or Teleporters to automatically be teleported.

[09:35] Rhiannon Chatnoir: try to hold off on testing it and teleporting away

[09:35] Buffy Beale: lol Rhi

[09:36] Frans Charming: hah.

[09:36] Gentle Heron: talking to an empty room here, Rhiannon

[09:36] Frans Charming: I’m at the end.

[09:36] Frans Charming: So questions.

[09:36] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes we can do some quick questions… will you be around after too for any deeper ones?

[09:36] CarmenLittleFawn: the ? about other viewers pls

[09:36] Frans Charming: Yes I will stay here for more questions

[09:37] Frans Charming: Carmen all this what I showed is based on server code, so it works with other Viewers too. And most 3rd Party viewers have Web on a Prim.

[09:37] Kayleeen: ciao

[09:37] Jerry Buchko: lol, very cool 🙂

[09:37] CarmenLittleFawn: 🙂 ty

[09:37] CarmenLittleFawn: very nice

[09:38] Buffy Beale: QUESTION: Frans I love the twitter garden but will it affect the sim here if it’s used by a lot of offices?

[09:38] Kayleeen: good afternoon

[09:39] CarmenLittleFawn: waves kay

[09:39] Buffy Beale: or maybe we could just put out one for NPSL

[09:39] Frans Charming: Well it is a scripted things so lots of it will have some effect. But it could be negated, by slowing the updates down when the sim is going slower.

[09:39] Orange Planer: Let me check stats.

[09:39] Rhiannon Chatnoir: I think In Kenzo had Frans put out the twitter garden in the past for events

[09:39] Buffy Beale: ok thanks it seems a fun way to bring in more content

[09:40] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Lets thank Frans for speaking to us today!

[09:40] CarmenLittleFawn: clapping, clapping ty very much Frans

[09:40] Nicki Clary: Thanks so much!

[09:40] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you Frans!

[09:40] Gentle Heron: Frans, this was wonderful! I have lots of new ideas of ways to use these tools in my community. Thank your for sharing.

[09:40] Coughran Mayo: Very Useful Info!

[09:40] Xandi Mars: ty

[09:40] Frans Charming: I know it was a lot to take in, so feel free to im me later or stay after to ask questions.

[09:40] Zinnia Zauber: He helps us all become more bright!

[09:40] Buffy Beale: great going Frans thanks a lot!

[09:40] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes thank you

[09:40] Frans Charming: 😀

[09:40] Delia Lake: ty Frans. this was great!

[09:41] Nicki ClaryNicki Clary applauds

[09:41] Jerry Buchko: Yes, very cool! Some very creative ideas 🙂

[09:41] Orange Planer: Considering there’s 38 of us here today… there is some lag, but it’s not bad. There’s ~.125 ms spare time on the region and script time is running anywhere form 9 to 14 ms.

[09:41] Pathfinder Lester: nicely done

[09:41] Frans Charming: Glad you appreciate it. 😀

[09:41] Zinnia Zauber: Not just with LED lights, I still have mine from SLCC you gave me!

[09:41] Praxis: YES, VERY INFORMATIVE *CLAPS*

 

 

— OPEN MIC & ANNOUNCEMENTS —

 

[09:41] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Now, it’s time for Open Mic

[09:41] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Does anyone have any announcements today?

[09:41] Brena BenoirBrena Benoir raises hand

[09:42] Rhiannon Chatnoir: I wanted to also say – while we have a good crowd here… I will be sending out emails to those who have offices here on the new Memo of Understanding

[09:42] Rhiannon Chatnoir: if you want a heads up prior to that, the new Memo is up at http://npsl.wiki.techsoup.org/How+to+Become+a+NPC+Member

[09:43] Rhiannon Chatnoir: also if you are interested in becoming a member here at NPC – have a look

[09:43] Rhiannon Chatnoir: OK, Brena 🙂

[09:43] Brena Benoir: NPC Halloween Party at Wharf Ratz on October 30 from 7-9pm SLT

[09:43] Buffy Beale: hand up Rhi

[09:43] Brena Benoir: Also Thanks to all those who came out to support Common Ground Monethly Networking last evening.

[09:43] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes thanks everyone on that

[09:44] Rhiannon Chatnoir: ok, Buffy

[09:44] Buffy Beale: I don’t know if it was mentioned last week, but I recently found out that DJ Earnshaw has passed away

[09:44] Buffy Beale: DJ was one of our mentors here and was so helpful for many

[09:45] Nany: Good guy

[09:45] Zinnia Zauber: Yes, great guy!

[09:45] Buffy Beale: he did a lot of the scripting and helped me so much when we were making the teleport systems

[09:45] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes, am still looking for any thoughts/comments on DJ so we can post a tribute on our NPC blog

[09:45] Gentle Heron: He definitely will be missed in many places in SL

[09:45] Ozma Malibu: yes, he loved to help

[09:45] Buffy Beale: I’ll miss his amazing talent and his special presentation tools he made for us

[09:46] CarmenLittleFawn: 🙂

[09:46] Rhiannon Chatnoir: if others have thoughts.. feel free to share now.. will paste these to that post… or IM me if you are more comfortable

[09:46] Buffy Beale: I was wondering what had happened to him because I noticed he wasn’t coming and he was a regular, and I’m very sorry the sad news

[09:47] Buffy Beale: thoughts to his family and know that he contributed much to the NPC

[09:47] Buffy Beale: he will be missed.

[09:47] Buffy Beale: thanks, that’s it

[09:47] Praxis: cANCER IS DIFFICULT FOR ALL TO DEAL WITH

[09:47] JoJa Dhara: Sigh so true

[09:47] Orange PlanerOrange Planer notes obvious undiscovered capslock issue

[09:47] CarmenLittleFawn: it surely is

[09:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: yes

[09:48] Dancers Yao: yes it is

[09:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: thanks Buffy on that

[09:48] Ozma Malibu: I knew he had health issues but he didn’t let that slow him down here, just explained that he couldn’t travel

[09:48] Buffy Beale: you’re welcome, I’ll really miss him, he was brilliant and could script like nobody I know

[09:48] Rhiannon Chatnoir: 🙂

[09:49] Rhiannon Chatnoir: anyone else have any announcements

[09:50] Rhiannon Chatnoir: if not we can close things up for this week – next week Pathfinder (John Lester) will be presenting

[09:50] Rhiannon Chatnoir: And again, here are the many ways to can get involved with the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life:

 

 -Nonprofit Commons Blog: http://nonprofitcommons.org

 – Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com

 – Twitter: http://twitter.com/npsl

 – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons

 – Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life

 – Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/2tMEYh

 – http://flavors.me/nonprofitcommons

 

About TechSoup the sponsors of the Nonprofit Commons:

 

 – http://www.techsoup.org/stock/howtousetechsoup.asp

 – http://flavors.me/techsoup

 

[09:50] Rhiannon Chatnoir: Thanks everyone and see you next week!

Written by: Rhiannon Chatnoir