Avatars on Duty

FROM SLNP LISTSERV:

In keeping with our mission of improving communities by the
application of knowledge, which unleashes the power of nonprofits,
foundation, and individuals, the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for
Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership (http://www.johnsoncenter.org)
at Grand Valley State University (http://www.gvsu.edu) is offering
Avatar on Duty service (AvOD) to the Philanthropic community in Second
Life. We will have various Avatars available to answer specific
questions related to effective philanthropy and nonprofit leadership.

The AvOD will be available to answer questions in regards to effective
practices and research on specific topics related to philanthropy and
nonprofit leadership.

Our schedule for July and August is as follows (times are in Second
Life Time - SLT):

July 9 from 6 am to 7 am SLT
July 14 from 10 am to 11 am SLT
July 16 from 6 am to 7 am SLT
July 21 from 10 am to 11 am SLT
July 23 from 6 am to 7 am SLT
July 28 from 10 am to 11 am SLT
July 30 from 6 am to 7 am SLT
August 4 from 10 am to 11 am SLT
August 6 from 6 am to 7 am SLT
August 11 from 10 am to 11 am SLT
August 13 from 6 am to 7 am SLT
August 18 from 10 am to 11 am SLT
August 20 from 6 am to 7 am SLT
August 25 from 10 am to 11 am SLT
August 27 from 6 am to 7 am SLT

Please send a message (IM) to 2020Vision Obviate (Real Name - Ashima
Saigal) or email her at saigalas@gvsu.edu if you have any questions.
We look forward to hearing your questions and how we might help you to
grow your organization's mission.

Teleport to us directly at http://tinyurl.com/3mn9ya and we look
forward to seeing you In World!

Virtual Worlds and Democracy

Face to Face - A Council of Eve Online Gamers - NYTimes.com

"Imagine an airline that encouraged its frequent fliers to elect their own representatives to hammer the company about baggage handling, inept gate agents and interminable delays. Imagine a sports league in which a group of fans had regular meetings with the commissioner to discuss salary cap and rules changes. Unthinkable, right? Yet that is just like what is happening in Eve. Dozens of players from around the (real) world nurtured their constituents, presented their platforms, shook every virtual hand, kissed every virtual baby and spread the inevitable unflattering rumors about their rivals as they campaigned for a seat on the council."

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Call for Papers: Culture of Virtual Worlds

CALL FOR PAPERS
Journal of Virtual Worlds Research
Special Issue: Culture of Virtual Worlds
Deadline: September 30, 2008
Publication Date: November 20, 2008

Guest Editors
Mark Bell, Indiana University
Mia Consalvo, Ohio University

* jvwresearch.org *

Early users of virtual worlds trumpeted their potential to bring together like-minded groups to create community, to encourage social activism, and to explore facets of identity. Over the past 20 years, we have seen virtual worlds develop from text-based to graphical, and from 2D to 3D interactive spaces. Some spaces have focused primarily on game-related activities, from MUD through Ultima Online and World of Warcraft, while others have concentrated on social aspects of being, allowing users to define their own goals, and often create many parts of the spaces they inhabit--from LambdaMoo to The Palace and Second Life. Virtual worlds have also become big business at the same time as some worlds remain resolutely tied to different goals. Yet what of the cultures that have grown up in, around, and through virtual worlds in this same time period? What do we know about that culture, or more accurately, those cultures and how to define them?

Individuals, groups, and corporations are exploring the potentials of virtual worlds, and what is created in that process says as much about our everyday lives as it does about our times spent online. But what do we know? Because of their richly detailed spaces, virtual worlds tend to encourage specific sorts of participants and players, along with expectations about behavior and culture. Yet at the same time, we cannot know how participants will create a livable space, develop a unique culture, until it happens. How is that process occurring in today's virtual worlds? What do we know about past virtual worlds to guide us? We are slowly learning about how identity shifts and mutates online, yet isn't as free-floating as early theorists claimed. What of users who are in game-centric versus non-game centric places--how does game versus non-game make a difference in who uses the space, how, and why? Likewise, we now see virtual worlds with transnational user bases. How does that impact the culture, the creation, and the experience of virtual worlds. What happens when virtual worlds emerge, when they expand quickly, and when they die, either slowly or suddenly? What happens to users and how do they make sense of those experiences? How do developers play a role in managing all those expectations, and how much *can* they actually control? These questions are only the tip of iceberg, just as today's virtual worlds are at the forefront of emergent design of 3D spaces.

This special issue of the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research is dedicated to exploring the issue of culture in virtual worlds. We welcome articles from academic researchers and practitioners in areas such as communications, sociology, psychology, anthropology, information systems, political science, game studies and cultural studies.

Topics of interest include (but not limited to):
• Definitions of Virtual Cultures
• Ethnographies of Virtual Worlds
• Social mechanics and networking in Virtual worlds
• Historical development of Virtual Worlds
• Identity
• Differing goals of play versus non-play centric spaces
• Emergent practices, player-generated content, activities
• Dynamics of economies
• "Serious" uses of Virtual Worlds
• Transnational game spaces, player groups

Guidelines and Deadlines
We welcome submissions in the form of essays, papers, original research, interactive online exhibits with accompanying detailed descriptions, and other forms of scholarship.
For specific submission instructions visit: http://jvwresearch.org.

Deadline for Submission: September 30, 2008
Publication: November 29, 2008

For further information contact:

Mark Bell, Indiana U, typewriter@gmail.com
Mia Consalvo, Ohio U, consalvo@ohio.edu

About the Journal
The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research is an online, open access academic journal that adheres to the highest standards of peer review and engages established and emerging scholars from around the world. The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research is a transdisciplinary journal that engages a wide spectrum of scholarship and welcomes contributions from the many disciplines and approaches that intersect virtual worlds research.

Editorial Board
Edward Castronova, Indiana University, United States
James Paul Gee, Arizona State University, United States
Steve Jones, University of Illinois at Chicago, United States
Jorge Peña, University of Texas at Austin, United States
Joseph Straubhaar, University of Texas at Austin, United States
Kathleen Tyner, University of Texas at Austin, United States
Natalie Wood, Saint Joseph's University, United States

Editor
Jeremiah Spence, University of Texas at Austin, United States

Associate Editors
Mark W. Bell, Indiana University, United States
Sun Sun LIM, National U. of Singapore, Singapore
Suely Fragoso, Universidade do Vale do Rio do Sinos/Unisinos, Brazil
Joe Sanchez, University of Texas at Austin, United States
Amanda Salomon, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Henry Segerman, University of Texas at Austin, United States
Yesha Y. Sivan, Shenkar College & Metaverse Labs, Israel
Stephanie Smith, NASA JSC Learning Technologies, United States
Caja Thimm, University of Bonn, Germany
*******************************************

Burn MacBook Burn

Since my last post, I've been without my computer. Not that I've been a consistent poster, but so far it looks like it's going to be a while before I'm back.

Reading and Listening

Thanks to Mr. Crap I've added the Beat Chicks Podcast, but I couldn't get myself to add SLCR - Second Life Children Radio. It creeps me out.

What I'm Reading Today

Social Media Learning Packages : nodestone
Looking forward to their thoughts on social media and nonprofits.
epredator's blog - The real life of a metaverse evangelist: My CV as a Tag Cloud - CV 2.0 ?
Wondering if a CV like this would be useful.
Botgirl's Second Life® Diary: The impact of immersive worlds on human emotional processes. Part 1 of a series
Botgirl's Second Life® Diary: The impact of immersive worlds on human emotional processes. Part 2 of a series
Botgirl's Second Life® Diary: Part Three of the series formerly known as The impact of immersive worlds on human emotional processes
Botgirl just GETS it. Even if you don't agree, she makes you think.

Zombies As Social Commentary

I was watching Shaun of the Dead with a friend and realizing that my generation's obession with zombies is really a social commentary on consumer culture. So in case you don't understand what's going on, here's a breakdown in plain english:

Social Networks & Millennials Pushing Mobile Tech

Millennials are using their mobile phones to be social - in other words, the mobile phone is an extension of their social selves. Now the challenge is to set-up infrastructure *cough twitter status* and a revenue model that pays for these services. From Go Mobile Young Millennials, Go Mobile - GigaOM & Virtual Worlds News: In-Stat: 230M Mobile Social Networkers by 2012

I personally think the next big apps will be the ones that ties the various social media together and allow a user to keep track of them in applications that unify their social media tools like oh say Digsby.

Research on Presence in Virtual Worlds

Thanks to malburns on Twitter I have this great site: Keho : the place for Presence wiki. Presence is an importent concept for virtual world research and they have a companion site that allows researchs to collaborate: PeachBit. I need to look at them both more closesly, but I'm wondering if copresence is included or if there is a distinction made.

Social Media in Plain English

Now we can finally understand them Web 2.0 thingys.

Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

From the Mail Bag

Join us at this Thursday May 29, at 7pm in Second Life for Tim Johnson!

Krazy Talk! Industry Giants Speaker Series - Tim Johnson
Presented in conjunction with the Krazy! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art - Vancouver Art Gallery.

May 29, 2008 7:00 pm
At the Great Northern Way Campus Virtual Centre for Digital Media - University Project region - home to the Masters of Digital Media Program!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20Project/150/84/23

http://mdm.gnwc.ca/

Tim Johnson - Animated Feature Director
Tim Johnson made his animated feature film directorial debut in 1998 with Antz, Dreamworks' first computer-animated comedy. Most recently, Johnson directed the lauded DreamWorks feature, Over the Hedge, staring the voices of Bruce Willis and Garry Shandling.

This session will be simulcast free of charge in mixed reality in our Virtual Centre for Digital Media - tickets are available for the first life event by contacting the Vancouver Art Gallery. www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

So You Want to Read a Good Blog on Virtual Worlds

Then you are in the wrong place my friend. ;-) Try here:
Hiperia3D News: 7 Good Virtual Worlds Blogs

Went Nuts for Web 2.0 Sites

God! I should be sleeping. Before you ask, YES I did look into all of these and I forgot a few before this post. *sigh* I drink more coffee; so, I can stay awake at work; but, I stay up late; so, I need more coffee.


Sandy — your free personal email assistant
Music Celebrities Pop Culture and Movies - Social Media Community - Buzznet
Vimeo, Video Sharing For You
hakia Search Engine Beta
Wikia - Wikis from Wikia - Join the best wiki communities
Radar: Instant Picture Conversations
Worth1000.com | Photoshop Contests | Are you Worthy™ | home page
FotoFlexer - The world's most advanced online photo editor
drupal.org | Community plumbing
Amazon Web Services @ Amazon.com

Another Podcast I'm Liking

EscapePod added the the first installment of PodCastle: "Come Lady Death"ome Lady Death
I have to say I wasn't expecting to like this because I don't particularly like Fantasy, but this story was so good that I was late for work. So, check it out. I think you'll find it as enjoyable as I do.

Event: Another Nonprofit Commons Sim Launched

Join in the Celebration of the Launch of the Second Nonprofit Commons
Sim

Nonprofits, supporters to host mixed reality grand opening celebration
in San Jose and in the metaverse on May 28th

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 starting at 10:00 A.M. PT/SLT, in the new
second Nonprofit Commons location:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/aloft%20nonprofit%20commons/100/68/25
<http://slurl.com/secondlife/aloft%20island/100/68/25>

Highlights:

* Grand opening May 28 of the Nonprofit Commons 2/ALOFT, our
second sim housing a large community of nonprofit organizations

* Mixed-reality event, to include a live presentation, a
demonstration of the new Second Life Nonprofit Commons island to
attendees at the NetSquared Conference
<http://www.netsquared.org/conference> in San Jose, and events within
Second life

* Live peformances all day within Second Life, with over 8 hours
of music from musicians around the world

* Media is invited to attend in-world event as well as to San
Jose, and phone interviews are available upon request

This second of two Nonprofit Commons nonprofit sims was generously
donated by TakingITGlobal <http://www.takingitglobal.org/> . Like the
first Nonprofit Commons sim on Plush, a virtual space for nonprofits,
managed by TechSoup <http://www.techsoup.org/> , Nonprofit Commons 2
creates and houses a community of social benefit organizations in the
online virtual world of Second Life. This community of practice is
entirely volunteer-run and hosts organizations from across the globe. To
date, they have created a community blog
<http://www.nonprofitcommons.org/> , Google Group
<http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life> and a
resource-rich wiki <http://npsl.wikispaces.com/> , and have held
mixed-reality events, workshops, and regular weekly town hall meetings
<http://npsl.wikispaces.com/Weekly+Meetings> . This international
community is a hub for charities to share best practices, work together
on innovative ways to benefit their causes, and network with
organizations from across the globe.

The Gala event will be a mixed-reality launch party, complete with
networking, a panel of speakers, and tours of the Nonprofit Commons.
This live event will take place in the real-world of San Jose,
California as part of the NetSquared Conference
<http://www.netsquared.org/conference> , and within the virtual world of
Second Life. These events will occur simultaneously and will also
feature interactivity between the two worlds. Following the
mixed-reality event, we will have an afternoon and evening full of live
entertainment in Second Life. Audience members in the Second Life
portion of the event will include Nonprofit Commons residents, their
invited guests, and media representatives. Don't miss this interactive
collaboration, connecting the virtual world with real-world issues.

Event details:

* The mixed-reality event takes place Wed.May 28th in Second Life,
broadcast live from the NetSquared conference in San Jose, 10:00 am-
12PM PST (SLT), online in Second Life
<http://slurl.com/secondlife/aloft%20island/100/68/25> , and is hosted
by TechSoup <http://www.techsoup.org/> , Nonprofit Commons
<http://www.nonprofitcommons.org/> and NetSquared
<http://www.netsquared.org/> .
* Second Life entertainment will continue throughout the day, into the
evening at the Nonprofit Commons 2:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/aloft%20nonprofit%20commons/100/68/25
<http://slurl.com/secondlife/aloft%20island/100/68/25>

Event activities:

10am- 11:30am PST/SLT (Second Life Time): Nonprofit Panel and Q & A
session

11:30- noon: Tours of the Nonprofit Commons offices in Second Life

Noon-->: Activities continue in Second Life throughout the afternoon
and night with major concerts, poetry readings, tours, dancing, and
games.

Information and Inquiries: More information about the real-world
NetSquared conference can be found on the NetSquared site
<http://www.netsquared.org/2008/conference> .

Please RSVP via email to Megan Keane (megan megan@techsoup.org>
@techsoup.org megan@techsoup.org> ) for in-world attendance to
this event or IM Penguin Kuhn in Second Life. Join the TechSoup group,
in-world to receive announcements about this event and future nonprofit
events in Second Life.

******************************************************

About the Non Profit Commons

2 Locations:
NPC1- Plush Non Profit Commons:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Nonprofit%20Commons/128/178/26
<http://slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Nonprofit%20Commons/133/232/76>
NPC2 - Aloft Non Profit Commons:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/aloft%20nonprofit%20commons/100/68/25
<http://slurl.com/secondlife/aloft%20island/100/68/25>

Members of Non Profit Commons meet each Friday at 8:30 PST/SLT at Plush
Nonprofit Commons Ampitheater. Visitors are always welcome to join us
in making a difference one pixel at a time.

Nonprofit Commons (NPC) consists of two virtual locations (sims) housing
over 65 social benefit organizations, managed by a community of
volunteers, under the leadership of TechSoup. The NPC1 sim was donated
by Anshe Chung Studios and NPC2 sim donated by TakingIT Global. NPC was
designed to lower the barriers of access to Second Life, to create a
community of practice for nonprofits to explore and learn about the
virtual world, and to investigate the many ways in which nonprofits
might utilize this unique environment. Through this community, we
provide free office space to qualifying groups, meet and collaborate,
create a cooperative learning environment and foster outreach,
education, fund-raising, all in a virtual space. We focus on providing
an accessible entry-point to Second Life and on creating a community of
NPOs, not just having NPOs live separately and exist separately
in-world. We believe that Second Life is a wonderful place not just to
entertain, but also to collaborate, educate, inspire and assist our
fellow avatars (and the humans behind them). We welcome all who wish to
join us as partners, collaborators or supporters.
-----------------

About TechSoup

TechSoup is a nonprofit organization that helps other nonprofits acquire
and use technology to better serve their missions. We are working toward
a time when every nonprofit and NGO on the planet has the technology
resources and knowledge they need to operate at their full potential.
Through our Website, nonprofits will find a broad range of software
donated by leading tech companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Symantec,
Intuit, and Adobe, along with content and community forums targeted
specifically at a nonprofit audience. The NetSquared conference
showcases social Web innovations that nonprofits can use to dramatically
increase their reach and impact.

Please Take This Survey RE: Business in SL

Sent to me via a listserve:

I'm working on a project to explicate users willingness to do business in SL. The results of this study should be useful in understanding the determinants of SL users decision to conduct business in the SL environment. I would really appreciate if you can help me in filling out a survey. The survey is very short and it will take about 10 minutes.

Please note that your responses are confidential and your participation is anonymous.

Here is the link to the survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=6VLGGoY9V9w5gb2m2hK4Qw_3d_3d

oohpppps...I'm absolutely broke, hence I'm unable offer a LUCK DRAW incentive. However, I will be willing to email the results of my survey to any one that is interested.

Thank you for your anticipated response. If you have any queries about the survey, I can be reached via email and the telephone number provided below.

kindest regards

Adesegun Oyedele
College of Business Administration
Department of Management, Marketing and International Business
The University of Texas-Pan American
1201 West University Dr.
Edinburg, TX 78539-2999
e-mail: adeseguno@yahoo.com
Phone: (956) 381 3383
Fax: (956) 381-2867

The Gold of Virtual Worlds

When businesses employ geographically dispersed employees, they have to overcome the challenges of culture and lack of social contact. It seems that Second Life and other virtual worlds can provide a medium where social interactions can be provided, while also allowing for cultural differences (example bowing, deferring to superiors when using email or phone).

Yet, what's really interesting is that these are game environments; so, one should be able to to create your own workplace rules that everyone must follow. Since it's a game-like environment and people are conditioned to follow game rules, individual may follow those rules. So you could make different workplaces based on different rules of the game. STAPLER FIGHTS MANDATORY!

Australasian Virtual Worlds Workshop 2008

Call for Participation

Workshop Dates: 28th and 29th November 2008

The Australasian Virtual Worlds Workshop is an event for Australasian researchers, educators and business people involved in virtual worlds, to meet and discuss topics related to virtual worlds.

The aim of this workshop is to build local capacity and virtual world expertise that connects with global expertise.

This workshop builds upon foundations established by the Second Life Discovery Day held in 2007 at Monash University, Australia. Proceedings from that workshop are available at the website http://www.avww.org.

Participants are encouraged to submit an abstract, presentation or panel proposal. Presentation formats that encourage active participation by attendees are preferred.

Selected authors may also be invited by the conference committee to write up their presentations for publication in a special issue of a journal after the workshop.

The workshop discussions will be mixed reality events held both at Swinburne and in Second Life to facilitate local and international participation.

== Important Dates ==

Submissions Open: June 2nd 2008
Submission Deadline: August 1st 2008
Email Notification: September 15th 2008
Workshop Dates: 28th and 29th November 2008
Journal publication: late 2009

== Presentations being accepted ==

You can submit a 30 minute presentation proposal on a topic related to virtual worlds. Suggested areas are:

- Using virtual worlds for education
- Current research into virtual world technology and the uses of virtual worlds
- Virtual world implementations
- Conducting business using virtual worlds
- Tools for working in and with virtual worlds (hardware & software)

The proposal should be submitted at http://avww.org/?q=cfp

== Contact ==
Lead conference organiser: Sukunesan Sinnappan

David Egger' TED Wish

I find it interesting that the author who wrote the short story "Where Were We," which details two characters inability to give away a large sum of money in Africa, is supporting this wish: Once Upon A School » Challenge

More Scripts for Doors

So it seems that I could post nothing on this blog and still get hits because of two blog posts about scripting doors in SL. So that I can die and live on in my blog posts, I have yet another post about doors. Enjoy the link to scripts you can use to create a door with an 11 button key pad door. Key Pad Door - Second Life Wiki

Exploring

I finally got a chance to check out Whimsey:


I'm thinking this is a nice place to hang out. I especially like the view of the dunking bird from here.

Links for Today

Brands and Worlds. Who’s the Daddy? : Kzero
    This is an excellent article on RL brands and virtual worlds. Trys to answer the question: "Do brands need VW?"
How Second Life Affects Real Life - TIME

This article summarizes research on how having an avatar affects how you view yourself in RL. For example, if you have a "good-looking" avi, you will feel more confident in RL. What does it mean when you have wings I wonder?

Share videos, Create compilations, Add slides and annotations | Omnisio

This piece of online software looks interesting if you want to do a video presentation with slides. I get annoyed when you get to see the speaker whose talking about certain slide, but you don't get to see the slides in the video.

Vara Software : ScreenFlow - Professional Screencasting Studio

I'm thinking I need to download this for some screencasting fun. Although, I first need a reason to screencast. *sighs* Never mind.

Call for Papers League of Worlds Conference Oct 2008 Hong Kong

The International Conference on Exploring Virtuality
5th Annual Colloquium on Online Simulations, Role-playing, and Virtual Worlds

October 13-17, 2008

Hong Kong University
Hong Kong, China

Future worlds: Virtual worlds today and tomorrow

Call for Papers

About the League of Worlds
The League of Worlds (LoW) annual colloquium brings together people engaged in the creation of virtual worlds and real-time simulations for educational and training purposes. Our mission is (1) to stimulate and disseminate research and analysis regarding the theoretical, technical, and curricular developments in; and (2) to contribute towards the development of coherent frameworks for the advancement, application and assessment of educational and social uses of role-playing, simulations, and virtual worlds. Our primary areas of interest include:

• Theoretical analysis
• The development of practical applications
• The documentation of framework projects and case studies.
• LoW5 Theme
• "Future worlds: Virtual worlds today and tomorrow."

Hundreds of virtual worlds exist to serve youth, educational, and corporate markets, yet few offer anything more than a glimpse of how technological innovations such as virtual worlds may lead to new forms, methods, and modes of communication, collaboration, and creation. We are experiencing unprecedented growth in the funding and development of virtual worlds, but toward what purpose?

This year, we will consider the opportunities and challenges the proliferation of virtual worlds offer today, and contemplate what they hold for tomorrow. In many ways, the future of virtual worlds depends on how early adopters decide to use them to advance and to extend their organizational mission. But what factors will influence which platforms and worlds survive and which ones do not?

About the colloquium
The League of Worlds colloquium is not an ordinary conference.

The League of Worlds brings together creators of virtual worlds and real-time simulations for educational, artistic, and creative purposes. Participants share a passionate interest in advancing theory and praxis in creative, educational, and cultural contexts. The League of Worlds is committed to exploring complex, networked social spaces, such as Second Life, Croquet, Metaverse, Fablusi, Active Worlds and other simulation and/or role-playing platforms, as they relate to questions of virtuality vs. reality, identity construction in new media technologies, and other key questions. In particular, we invite research into framework projects and case studies and strongly encourage exploration with pedagogical or other practical applications. Both creative and technical studies are welcome.

Participants are expected to challenge one another to take a fresh look at the questions that arise when people meet in virtual territories to play, to learn, and to share. Participation is purposely limited and there will be no concurrent sessions. Instead, participants will engage in an ongoing dialogue about virtual environments, integrating their own perspectives and expertise into the conversation.

Proposal categories
The League of Worlds colloquium is designed to support sharing and meaningful reflection. Participants should allow one another the opportunity to share experiences, to demonstrate technologies, and to think critically. To facilitate these activities, the colloquium review committee is interested in submissions on the following topics:

• Technologies used to create and manage virtual environments (tools, hardware, software)
• Vision for what virtual environments could be (architecture, metaphors)
• Teaching and Learning in virtual environments
• Role playing and simulations
• Social constructivism
• Communication and collaboration
• Serendipitous interactions and learning
• Community formation in virtual environments (interaction, presentation of self, presence)
• Culture (development of, artefacts)
• Administrative/technical support issues in virtual environments
• Change (Advocacy for, dissemination and sharing of research, how change takes place)
• Resources (to create and/or support any of the above themes)
• Research (on virtual env of what you are doing with virtual environments and how it relates to one of the above themes (including description of practice and relevant research)

Explanation of how this summary can contribute to the dialogue theme planned for the colloquium.

Paper submissions are double blind peer-reviewed. All accepted papers, the colloquium program, and a list of attendees will be published on the colloquium website. Papers should be between 2500-5000 words (4-8 pages).

Contac t information for each
Affiliated institution(s)
Job title(s)
Brief description of experience with virtual worlds, simulations, and/or role playing technology
Submit all proposals in Word, RTF, PDF or HTML format to:
Dr. Stephen Bronack at bronacksc@appstate.edu

Please refer to the League of Worlds website for information regarding fees, facilities, and accommodations: http://www.leagueofworlds.com


Hope you will feel free to distribute this revised version to interested parties.
League of World

Important Dates

Paper submission - summary and explanation July 20, 2008
Registration Deadline September 5, 2008
Final Draft Due September 5, 2008

Dreams of Zombies Dancing in Their Heads

Between One Eighteen Migration episodes, I'm finding that I startle to noticing that I'm being drawn to zombie media: Shawn of the Dead, Thriller, Army of Darkness, The Serpent and the Rainbow...hell, I even stumbled over an old Eclectic Review podcast about them. *sighs* Is it JUST me? I think it's time to get some help.

"Coming of Age in Second Life" Event

Yesterday, I went to an event that I learned about from Botgirl's Second Life® Diary about the book Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human by Tom Boellstorff. It was a great discussion and I received permission from the event coordinator and author to post the chat.

Enjoy.

Email from Edward Castronova

Some of you may have been following the Arden project:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v445/n7123/full/445018a.html
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i44/44a02501.htm

I'm pleased to announce that the project has come to fruition. With generous support from the MacArthur Foundation, we have created a fun game environment and used it to conduct a month-long experiment. Our experimental question (kept secret up to now) was: Are fantasy game players economically "normal"? Or on the contrary, when they make themselves into elves and dwarves and hobbits, do they stop taking economic decisions seriously? We created two virtual worlds, one an exact copy of the other, except that in the experimental world the price of a simple healing potion was twice as high as in the control. If people are taking prices seriously in this fantasy environment, they should buy fewer of the potions when potions are more expensive.

At stake here is the entire idea of using virtual worlds as a Petri dish. If fantasy gamers behave in ways that violate our most basic assumptions of economic normalcy, then it makes no sense to use virtual worlds to study large-scale economic behavior. If, conversely, fantasy gamers seem to be normal economic agents, then perhaps some of the behavior in virtual worlds does indeed generalize to the real world. If so, then we can consider using virtual worlds to conduct controlled experiments at the macro scale of society, where our most pressing problems seem to live (natural resource management, intercultural mistrust, information security, disease).

The initial findings of the Arden experiment will be released during the International Communications Association meetings in Montreal next weekend. The session we're part of is this one:

"High Density Session: The Web 1.0, 2.0, and Beyond"
Time: Sat May 24, 3:00 - 4:15pm
Place: Le Centre Sheraton / Drummond West

See the entire schedule for Saturday here:
http://convention3.allacademic.com/one/ica/ica08/index.php?click_key=3&cmd=Multi+Search+View+Program+Load+Scheduled+Times&schedule_day=2008-05-24+00%3A00%3A00&PHPSESSID=e76b3aa3a0d5c7b574ab10b60c31733e

In this format, eight presenters will each have 5 minutes to describe her or his work. Then we will go to our posters, pasted to nearby walls, where each of us will answer questions about the findings. I'll be standing at my poster; thus if you have a particular interest in the Arden project and its findings, please feel free to attend this session and see them first hand. Fresh off the internets, as it were.

I will collect comments from the ICA meeting and use them to revise the paper we're writing, before sending it off to a journal. This will occur sometime in June. At that time we will also release the paper as a Working Paper. An announcement about the paper will be sent to this list.

Thank you for your time,

Ted

Call for Paper and Pathfinder Linden Speech

Call for Papers/Participation

Please join us in a workshop on learning and research in Second
Life(R) on October 16, 2008 in Copenhagen at Internet Research 9.0 (http://wiki.aoir.org/index.php?title=About_IR9.0
)

Paper Deadline June 15th.

Second Life is a 3d virtual environment created by Linden Lab (R)
which has captured the attention of researchers and teachers from
around the world from a variety of disciplines.

This workshop aims to improve the understanding of Second Life as a
Learning and Research environment. It will bring 35 researchers
together to collaborate, discuss and workshop diverse topics related
to research and learning in Second Life. We will pursue a full-day
schedule in which participants will discuss their work and interests
on four different topics: learning in Second Life, integrated
learning, the contributions of research to the community and ethical
research methods. How can we better enable learning in this sphere?
How can we better enable research?

Our honored keynote will be Pathfinder Linden

Researchers are requested to submit papers and short biography to slworkshop08@gmail.com
, which will be selected and distributed amongst participants before
the workshop. First invitations will be offered to those who provide
full papers for consideration.

These papers have two purposes: first is to provide a common platform
for understanding our research and teaching and second submitted
papers may be considered for publication in an edited volume being
produced in relation to the workshop, or possibly in peer reviewed
publication derived from the workshop (these are currently under
discussion).

Subsequent invitations will be made based upon research/teaching
statement and biography with priority given to people submitting full
papers. If you are interested in participating, please send an email
containing your information to slworkshop08@gmail.com.

Decisions will be made by August 1st, barring incident. There is a
limit of 35 participants at the physical meeting; the event will be
simulcast into Second Life which will be organized by Jason Nolan.

We welcome professionals, faculty and graduate students to participate.

This workshop is sponsored by Linden Lab, creators of Second Life, and
is organized by Jeremy Hunsinger, Rochelle Mazar, Aleks Krotoski and
Jason Nolan. Lunch, coffee breaks and the room is included in
participation. (And you'll probably get a t-shirt!)

*We are also seeking additional sponsors, please contact jhuns@vt.edu
if you would like to sponsor this workshop.

Links for Today

An Engine Fit For My Proceeding · An Illustration of the Cosmology of the Grid

Has a great diagram of the stakeholders in SL.

Exodus to the Virtual Workplace, Part 1 « The ARCH
Exodus to the Virtual Workplace, Part 2 « The ARCH
Exodus to the Virtual Workplace, Part 3 « The ARCH

Second Life Community Convention » Welcome!
    Ooooo! I wanna go too!

I want to be a drunken scientist TOO!

There is a Second Life promotion of the film Iron Man where you can get a free suit and enter a competition in creating something special with that suit. Winner gets $100,000L!

"What is the place of the embodied human agent in the virtual world?"

That's the questions Featherstone and Burrows try to answer in the book "CYBERSPACE/CYBERBODIES/CYBERPUNK: CULTURES OF TECHNOLOGICAL EMBODIMENT." A review of the book is at EBSCOhost. What interests me is that they though that synthetic worlds "[have] the potential for intellectual disembodiment and transcendence of flesh and bone (Gerhard et al, 2004)." What amazes me most is that the book was written in 1995! *shakes his head*

Gerhard, M., Moore, D., & Hobbs, D. (2004, October). Embodiment and copresence in collaborative interfaces. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 61(4), 453-480.

Escape Pod Episode

I just finished listening to a great Escape Pod podcast about the Hugo award nominee. I HIGHLY recommend you give it a listen.

The Blue Book: A Consumer Guide to Virtual Worlds Is Now Available Free from the Association of Virtual Worlds

The Association of Virtual Worlds has just released its new title The Blue Book: A Consumer Guide to Virtual Worlds listing over 250 virtual worlds and is pleased to offer it free to anyone who is interested in the rapidly growing field of virtual worlds.http://www.associationofvirtualworlds.com/publishing.htm

SL Book Fair

A friend of mine would like help getting the word out about this event. If you have a blog, please post or link to this one. Thanks.

SL Book Fair 2008
25-27 April
Book Island and Publishing Island

SLURLS FOR EVENT AREAS:
Book Island Stage - SLGuides, Virtual Learning Centre - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Book%20Island/190/217/36
Cartland Court Stage - Rez Magazine - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Book%20Island/126/146/36
Beach Area - Third Life Books - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Book%20Island/196/33/24
Publishing Island Stage - SL-Newspaper.com - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Publishing%20Island/18/84/36
SLGuides, Virtual Learning Centre - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Publishing%20Island/182/114/29


EVENT SCHEDULE:

Friday 25th

2pm Opening Ceremony (Cartland Court)
3pm Marylmagner Munz reading from The Big Secret by Mary Magner (Beach Area)
3pm Threik Wilkinson reading from The Courage of Intimacy by Keith Ainsworth (Open Books)
3pm Kabbalah Today - live Kabbalah concert and Q&A session (Publishing Island stage)
4pm tbc.
5pm Madddyyy Schnook - Building for Beginners (Slguides Virtual Learning Centre)
5pm-7pm - DJs Shannah Halberd and Rat Halberd from Simkast (Cartland Court)
7pm Poetry and prose readings from INKsters and ANON magazine (Publishing Island stage)

Saturday 26th

6am discussion: Death Penalty, Right or Wrong? Selina Greene (Beach Area)
7am tbc
8am Nebbisk Oh - 'Fictionary' game where you make up definitions to fool your opponents. (Beach Area)
9am Madddyyy Schnook - Marketing and Sales in virtual worlds (Book Island stage)
10am Babu Writer - Amazon and POD - what's going on? (Publishing Island stage)
10am Selina Greene - the RL Book publishing process - talk and Q&A (Book Island stage)
11am Cricket Gears - How Art and Music Can Change the World (Cartland Court stage)
12pm Trinity Dechou, Voodoo Buwan - Rez Magazine debate on inworld Publishing (Cartland Court stage)
1pm Noble Charron - Characterization - the Soul of the Story - Lecture and Q&A by bestselling author, Michael A Stackpole (Beach Area)
2pm Elan Neruda - Paying the Bills While Paying Your Dues: a partially practical guide to writing genre fiction for a living (Publishing Island stage)
2pm-4pm Miriam Antonelli DJ (Cartland Court)
3pm Madddyyy Schnook - Building for Beginners (SLGuides)
4pm Diana Allandale - Promoting Yourself, from and Author's POV, workshop with author Diana Hunter (Beach Area)
5pm Wilbur Rich - reading

Sunday 27th

6am discussion: What's SLove got to do with it? RL/SL relationship pleasures and pitfalls. Selina Greene (Beach Area)
7am DJ Doubledown Tandino spins his signature blend of nujazz and house in a live turntable mix (Cartland Court)
8am discussion - What makes a book a cult book, rather than just a good book? Selina Greene (Beach Area)
9am Jilly Kidd hosts readings from writers in the Written Word group (beach area)
10am Sean Voss - Author Sean Percival, The Second Life In-World Travel Guide talk, Q&A (Book Island stage)
10am Madddyyy Schbook - Building for Beginners (SLGuides)
11am Simeon Beresford - Literary quiz (Book Island stage)
12pm Poetry and prose readings from INKsters and ANON magazine (Publishing Island stage)
1pm Kitumscheid Writer - the publishing process for illustrated books, based on experiences from her book, Pirate's Alphabet (Publishing Island stage)
1pm-3pm - DJ Ravishal Bentham from Kona Radio (Cartland Court)
3pm - Diana Allandale - The Ins and Outs of Writing Erotica workshop with author, Diana Hunter (Beach Area)
4pm Arton Tripsa - The Writing Life: The Creation Of A Novel, a talk/Q&A with Jane Watson, author of the Hindustan Contessa (Book Island stage)
5pm Closing ceremony and afterparty (Cartland Court)

Sick

I've been sick for about a week. Just as I started this post, Crap Mariner tweeted about the "Creeping Crude." Seems like an appropriate description.

Stuff From My SL Inventory

The Red Stick International Animation Festival is a RL convention for animation business and acts to provide animators, directors, students, artists, designers, writers and educators with a forum in which they can share their knowledge and skills and promote the art of animation

http://redstickfestival.org/

Free School

So I've been Rest of Lifeing a lot lately - medical issues, blah blah blah. Anyway, I got this notecard and thought I'd share:

1. Organizing without organizations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgeYWY09LE8

Author Clay Shirky on his book "Here comes everybody: the power of organizing without organizations": (video about 45 minutes; a short intro to the book is available at Apr 3rd entries for The Colbert Report's page at comedycentral.com)

2. Ubiquitous freeschooling

http://www.schoolofeverything.com/

Exactly what it sounds like. A social networåking-based, rl-focused freeschool for everything.

A short intro to School of Everything is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd4TMZIGTlw

Synthetic Worlds and Collaboration

Terra Nova asks some interesting question: "What is the added value of a virtual synthetic world like Second Life? And where will this lead in 2008?

"Terra Nova: Collaboration in the Virtual World

Sunday Afternoon Matinee

Some videos I'm watching this afternoon:

Torley's Tip on Particles


Two Machinama





R. Kelly's "The Storm is Over Now" (Wishful thinking).


And Ask Ninja!

Beautiful Just Beautiful

Bjork Video

Second Life Struggles with Direction

The rumor in the SL grapevine is that the recent changes (trademark policy, CEO, and Cory Ondrejka quitting) are preparation for going public. Also, that an internal struggle  regarding whether they should use open standards or closed might be the impetus for these changes as well. The Economist has a great article that should help them realize the need for open standards: Internet communities | Break down these walls | Economist.com

Avatar or God?

I love this quote from » Avatar Is Not A God - Living in the Metaverse

"Having an avatar doesn't make a human god nor goddess. Having an avatar is an opportunity to be in the digital environment, to manifest in a form different than the native one. As gods give life to their creations, our humans give life, imagination and feelings to us, the avatars. Praised they be :)"

Read Me if You Want To Start a Business

I really enjoy reading Arminas's posts because he writes about busniess AND particle effects - my two favorite things in SL. Here are two posts he wrote on running a club in Second Life:
Second Effects: The Economics of Second Life Clubs, Part 1
Second Effects: The Economics of Second Life Clubs, Part 2

I think it's a great read if you want to understand how to think about running business in SL.

Podcast on Virtual Money

Here's a intersting podcast on virtual money - have a listen while you walk in the nice weather this weekend (or I hope it's nice weather where you are): The Daily PWN » Blog Archive » The Daily PWN 42: Game Money PWNS USD

Gender and Second Life

Xirconnia Morphett is working on research regarding gender and virtual worlds. It's interesting so far, but she/he could use some assistance on her/his wiki:

2007 Second Life Conference Presentation
Presentation Transcript
My Days as a Dude

Check it out!

First Interdisciplinary Research Workshop on Free Culture

CALL FOR PAPERS

"The First Interdisciplinary Research Workshop on Free Culture presents a unique opportunity for scholars with various backgrounds, whose work contributes to the promotion or study of an emerging Free Culture, to present their research work to a multidisciplinary audience of academic peers and practitioners. It will be held in conjunction with the fourth iSummit, one of the largest annual events for the Free Culture and related movements. Our aim is to provide a platform for scholars to communicate their findings to an audience that extends beyond individual disciplines because we believe that the wider participation in the creative process (and consequently in the formation and dissemination of our modern culture) enabled by new Internet technologies, innovative legal solutions and new business models, are far-reaching and therefore deserve to be examined through the lens of multidisciplinary inquiry."

http://www.icommons.org/isummit08/commons-research/

A Bunch of Links

It's Friday and I don't want to work at work, nor at blogging; so, I'm giving you all a bunch of links to enjoy. Hopefully this will help you pass the time and you'll be yelling "whoo hoo I'm done" soon.

Lainy Voom Machinima

I love Lainy's stuff as you can tell by my posts. Enjoy them yourself.

Social Research Foundation

The group has been researching users of SL (whoop did I just use a trademark to promote a product! TOO BAD!) since 2003, and they have a GREAT report analyzing users of Second Life.

Gwyn’s Home » Second Life® Bloggers Require Clarification

Gwyn says, "Tell us that you won't sue us for promoting YOU product and we won't be pissy. " Well she says it lots better. *grin*

Second Life Library Project » Blog Archive » Infoisland Universe

Video! I loves video.

inSL Reactions (What Is This Crap?)

A link to links re: inSL trademark issue. :-P

Modeling Real Life in Virtual Worlds « The ARCH

Another video, but this one's on architecture in virual worlds.

R TM (What Is This Crap?)

Get one! Wear one!

Well that's it for now. *sigh* I guess I should try to find lunch and then organize my staples.

Blogged with Flock

Wanna get Lindens for answering questions about your SL relationship?

I just got this email from a resident who's doing an educational project in SL. If you are interested in helping out, let him know:

"I am an undergraduate psychology student at Minnesota State University of Moorhead and am having trouble recruiting people who are in a current relationship on SL. Can anyone give me any advice on where or how to recruit around 250 participants to take a survey. The participants will even get paid in Linden. Thank you so much

Benjamin Erie (Benjamen Leakey - inWorld))
Minnesota State University of Moorhead"

Robbie Dingo's New Machinama

"Don't look at me little puppet!"

So which is it? Is the avi my puppet or am I the puppet of my avi? Second (Real) Audience vs. Real (Second) Audience

The quote in the title is from a movie. I'll give you a prize in-world if you know what movie it's from. Email, IM, call, or comment to give me your answer.

ReLIVE08 Conference

I'm excited to read about the upcoming conference regarding Researching Learning in Virtual Environments (ReLIVE08). Too bad it's in England. The keynote speaker is Dr Edward Castronova the author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games and Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality. The subjects for the conference are:

• Crossing boundaries and making connections

• Opportunities and challenges of virtual worlds for learning and teaching

• Approaches to research

• Implementing and sustaining innovation

Virtual Worlds and Collaborative Work: Survey Results

SRI Consulting Business Consortium's research program on virtual worlds has just published a report on VW work. The results are interesting and I'm sure VRWorkplace would agree with them: that VW will be a role in certain types of collaborative work, research and development should embrace this medium, and that ease of use will be important for the future success of ANY VW platform. Knowing this I wonder, "How does SL manage to continue to prevail?" LOL!

Virtual Worlds and Cultural Differences

I just finished reading a great article on cultural differences when using email. It seems that in East Asian countries workers avoid using email to communicate with their superiors because it seems disrespectful. They fax them. I would say that Second Life would allow people to work while respecting cultural differences. East Asian workers could bow, wear business attire, or whatever makes them more comfortable when addressing their superior.

And finally, my workforce can feel comfortable working with me by wearing wings and falling to their knees when I enter a room. *grin*

Social Workers in Social Worlds

For those of you who are interested in social work in SL *cough NICKI cough*, then this site is for you. It's a couple who have put together a group and some resources for exploring SL from a social work perspective.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

AI in SL (God I love Acronyms)

I had posted about research on bots creating an envrionment where people feel they are not alone. Now it seems Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is experimenting with Artificial Intelligence in Second Life: Child-like intelligence created in Second Life Does anyone have a SLURL for where we can check this out or isn't it public?

Architecture in the Metaverse

It seems that I missed this great event for SL achitects, but at least we have the web page. http://archidemo.blogspot.com/

Rezzable: How Dinos Became Extinct

The scientists were only partly right: it was a meteor shower and volcano, but it was brought on by an alien rave gone wrong. I bet that alien got grounded when it got home.

Dharma Talk

I went to a Dharma talk by kusaladharma Demar, a RL Buddhist monk in SL, whose studied for 11 years and came to SL simply to teach the Dharma.

kusaladharm speaking:




A shot of him with the group in the background.

Parcel Media Video Tutorials

I love the new parcel media feature on the Release Client.

Here are the links to Torley's vid-tuts on the subject:
YouTube - PARCEL MEDIA: Play webpages, movies, & more - Second ...
YouTube - PARCEL MEDIA: Make your own media screen - Second Life ...
YouTube - PARCEL MEDIA: Click actions - Second Life Video TuTORial

I hope you get to enjoy them as much as I do.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Exploring

Nicki and I explored two builds. The first one is called Tunnel of Light from Rezzable. This build requires the Windlight Release Candidate viewer to enjoy the effects and textures. This was my first time using the Windlight viewer and I spent A LOT of time being dazzled by the pretty lights and water before I realized I should take snapshots. Here are a few from the experience. I HIGHLY recommend giving it a try even if you've never used SL's test software before.









It was an amazing experience. I'm hoping to get better at taking snapshots to capture the great stuff in SL.

Then we moved to Loscusolus (130, 170, 22). This was a build that made me think of greifer attacks as an artform. I won't ruin some of the fun stuff, but know that you'll prolly have to relog a few times.

Here are some shot of what happens when you click on some poseballs:

Nicki Shooting Me Like an Arrow



Um ah...no comment



You too can be a part of an art piece:








I hope you enjoy them both.

Scripts for Reflexive Architecture

I love enchanting a build. Scripts are the magic of our time; so, to that end, I include this link from « The ARCH to a script that will allow a prim to change color based on an avatars position. Enjoy!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Blog Readers are Like Cats with Lasers?

So the reason why I should stop allowing comments on my blog is that you all would be powerless to read them. All 2 of them. Yes, you are in my power. LOL! "Why We're Powerless To Resist Grazing on Endless Web Data - WSJ.com

Second Life Scripts for Doors

So, in a prior post I wondered aloud why we would need doors with hinges. I was posting this because I was building my skybox and not totally satisfied with my options for scripts. I'm an okay scripter, but since I'm self-taugh, I often don't know WHY something doesn't work. So, I broke down and used a script with a rotating door on hinges. This script is the best, open-source, script I could find that EASILY allows one to create a door like RL. You need to follow the directions exactly as they are on the webpage and in the script. Make sure you type "/door closed" and "/door opened" because any other spelling won't work. In all other ways, this script is the easiest way to make a door.

Thank Timeless Prototype for making this script available and donate to him via paypal, if you find it useful.

Once I have time, I'm hoping to combine Timeless' script with some sort of locking mechanism. I found one, but I can't find it again. LOL! OH! You might want to check out Bob Sutor's blog for other ways to make doors. He's got a section on building by example that's very useful.

Terra Nova: Virtual Worlds 101: Draft Syllabus

I've been reading a lot of articles on virtual worlds and feel like I'm beginning to be competent in this area. Edward Catronova, the author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games and Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality, knows a lot about the subject. Yet, he's asking us to help him with his syllabus for class. If you have any comments, please check it out.

View Original Article

Ma.gnolia tags: Virtual_Worlds, Education

Blogged with Flock

Conversations with 3D Visual Support in SL

World Cafe combines facilitated conversation and visual thinking to promote new ideas, links, and understanding. Often their work shows a visual pattern of living relationships: conversations, relationships, and mental processes and paradigms. Now they are taking this process and way of thinking into Second Life. They had an event recently that used their process:

"There have been other brief World Café forays into Second Life, but this was the first I know of that used a process so close to the ‘real’ World Café format."

Yet is wasn't really SL centric because the recorder created a graphic offline in 2D. I would say that SL is a great envrionment for a 3D version of visual pattern creation. You could create the map in-world using the building tools in SL. You would need to have an amazing builder, but it could be done.

I once played primtionary, which is pictionary but you create the pictures with 3D objects. I was surprised at how thought provoking it was and how it made one think of things in different ways. Spatial thinking was one new way because you could "feel" a spatial difference. I used colored boxes, and set-up in a hierarchy to give a sense of familial relationships with the addition of a blinking color script - everyone in the room knew that the blinking box was grama. I think this could work in SL as well.

Virtual Workplaces

I believe that one of the more common office workplaces will be through virtual worlds. Yet, this has implication on how to manage people in these environments. Electric Sheep has a post about the advantages of virtual worlds and research. Talking about people, he said:

"By far the most interesting things we’re learning are about people, how they interact with each other and their environment, and how they adapt to new technologies."

What I find interesting is how people's behavior changes based on this new technology and what that means for collaborative work. How they adapt is more important to me than what they actually do there.

Dave Elchoness, VRWorkplace, and the Association of Virtual Worlds

Once I started doing research on virtual worlds, I felt there weren't a lot of people who GOT what I was talking about. Then through Twitter I met VRWorkplace. He's actually developing a business around what I'm reading. I've had a lot of esteem for him, but now he's gone and made something pretty amazing: Association of Virtual Worlds. It's a social networking site for people doing business in virtual worlds. It has a rich group of people already (various experience and perspectives) with only 326 people connected and growing. I would recommend keeping an eye on this one. 

Visit Association of Virtual Worlds

The SaLamander Project

I really enjoy exploring in SL, looking at the different builds, seeing how architects and enchanters create amazing things. One of the difficulties of exploring in SL is having a stack of landmarks and coming to them a month later to think wha? What was that? Why do I care?

SaLamander Project is a wiki that is attempting to: "Creat[e] a Community-built index of Second Life content, activities, and tools of educational value." I particularly like that they have organized their SLURLS based on learning engagement types; so, I can find sites based on how I wish to experience SL that day. NICE!

Be A Second Life Librarian

Maybe I just have SL jobs on the brain, but I found this post at the Second Life Library Project about getting skill to be a virtual librarian and couldn't help but link to it. I wonder if they are giving away free sexy librarian avis?

The Chicken Fight (A 100 Word Story)

I was listening to the 100 Word Stories Podcast and thought of one, which I had to make right away. I hope you enjoy it.

The Chicken Fight

Bots to Enhance Copresence

With all the talk about bots over at New World Notes, first here as a salvo against land barons; then here as a defense for using them; and even here regarding possible positive uses, I thought: "My god we don't have enough info about bots!" 

My personal experience with bots was a transaction between me and another fairly new resident trying to sell me a parcel of land at a VERY generous price, but he couldn't figure out how to sell direct; so, after he listed it and a second before I could buy it, three bots showed up to purchase it with the quickest drawing bot winning the purchase. Felt like something out of Westworld.

I was reading an article called, "Embodiment and copresence in collaborative interfaces" and was reminded of the bot issue in Second Life. In Second Life, we don't have as many interactions with bots as one would in World of Borecraft - um, I mean Warcraft (WOW). Yet, bots with even limited AI have the ability to create copresence, which is the feeling of being with someone. So if one can feel copresence with a bot, one can certainly do so with an avatar, which means VRWorkplace does make sense, when he says "That there's something more "real" about sharing a virtual space with someone than looking at their face on a webcam."

I think using AI laden objects would be a valuable way for business to create a feeling of copresence for their customers or even to create serious games. I've been sharing an idea with others about a sim for people to learn about social issues that would have bots who move the avatar through the various learning activities - similar to receiving quests in WOW. I hope someone tries that approach or if they have already, to send me a SLURL 'cause I'd love to see it. 

Jobs in SL

I have been trying to find a way to make some modest Lindens in SL, but I haven't committed to the cause totally. I've had a couple of jobs and yes, bless me father for I have primmed. I camped three times in my 2 year existence - please forgive me. I was a piano player at the opening of a ballroom for 3 hours. That was okay as an SL job (made $500/hr), but it was more beneficial because of the people I met. Then, I had a job with a RL organization assisting them with a build. Paid much, much, much better, but cut into my SL enjoyment. Now over at Second Effects is a post for a job I'd really like. It has involvement with the residents, isn't a part of the sex industry - although there was that stint as a table dancer, but I think the $10L Nicki gave me were out of pity - and supports cool products. I hope that it is effective for him and more businesses consider providing jobs to residents like this. I'm sure consumers would like the assistance.

Why Doors On Hinges?

If we can have scripts that allow us to change properties of prims on doors, why do we make them so complicated by having them rotate, which involves rotating the prim and fixing that it moves ever so slightly over each time? Why not simply make a script that makes the door change texture from a door to alpha, and change properties from solid to phantom? Then people walk in and the door goes back to normal on a timer. Would someone who has free time (I can't WAIT to have some) get on that please?

Museum of the Real

A while ago, as I was building a replica of an Asian-inspired house, I was listening to Under the Radar (I think it was Episode #1) and Radar's conversation with Crap Mariner. Crap talked about his struggle to understand those who, when faced with the ability to create the incredible, choose to recreate the Real. And I thought, "Yeah man, WTF is up with THAT!" Then searched for the exact texture for a rice paper door I saw in a book.

So I'm still reading "The Emerging Geographies of Virtual Worlds" and Taylor talks about the desire to capture that which seems to be disappearing and allow others to experience it; or to create a space that one cannot be exposed to in the Real unless one is of a certain socio-economic background. He calls it the "Museum of the Real (Taylor, 1997, pg. 185)." So I think that's the answer. There is a desire to protect that which we lose or have what we can't in ROL (Rest of Life); yet, I'd much rather have an Asian style house that listens for the command, "Autobots! Transform!" and turns into a robot. *grin*

Modern Day Shamanism

While reading "The Emerging Geographies of Virtual Worlds" the author invoked the feeling that virtual worlds create a shamanistic quality by flying over virtual geographies (Taylor, 1997 pg. 185). That got me thinking about furries and their desire to transform themselves into wolves, tigers, etc. That's another example of the desire for a shaman like experience. Then I got thinking about how children are entertained by anthropomorphic characters: Mickey Mouse, Thundercats (Hooooo!), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the list goes on and on. Even literature and religion use these to explain morales: Animal Farm, Jataka Tales, Aesop's Fables.

So what does it say about our culture, when we use anthropomorphic characters to entertain and teach morale issues, then expect people once they come of a certain age to "grow up?" I don't know the answer, but it gives me pause before I start getting pissed about stuff like this [NSFW](which still freaks me out, but I don't HATE on em now).

Challenges for Managers in Text-based Interactions

Even when using avatars, text-based interactions can be difficult. One often feels they need to be more and more precise with their words, which can filter out important emotive content that would have been expressed with body language or vocal quality. So what are managers to do?

Well, I think that managers can learn a "right-brain" approach to this issue from the spirit of narrative medicine. The literature has shown that as students become more scientific in their approach to medicine, their empathy decreases. The idea is that using a patient's story can get analytical information from a patient that may not be produced using only traditional methods of inquiry. How does this relate to managing in synthetic worlds?

Managers should not only communicate hard facts, but also stories to paint a picture of what success means to the team, how one's actions relate to the whole, and the ideal situation to strive for. Stories coupled with hard facts can relate a richer message in text-based interactions. Of course, you could just switch to voice if that's available. LOL! ;-)

Linden Fears in 2008 (Nazi Style)

"A bunch of pirates have reverse engineered the server code. It runs better than our code. :-O"

 

Architectural Inspiration

Second Life Architects have plenty of in-world inspiration, but they may find new inspiration by watching T.E.D. talks on the subject. T.E.D. :

"... stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader."

I've found their talks to be inspiring. Click around and enjoy.

My Tiny Life (FREE)!

This is an important book that covers every level of virtual interaction: sociology, geography, law, gender, economics, history, sex, and virtual life in general. The reason why I value this is because of something Ezra Pound said about good literature being News that stays news. Even though this is talking about a text-based virtual space, it still applies now with 3D synthetic environments. AND IT'S FREE!! Julian Dibbell talks about how it came to be free, but not Creative Common. Which reminds me, I need to add a CC license to this place. /me adds it to his list of to-dos.

Architects Weigh In on Import and Export Issues

The architect's dilemma's are many. Over at The Arch, one issue is being put to the community in order to garner support towards advocating for importing and exporting information in and out of Second Life:

"Having had a number of conversations over the year with people about this, I can say with confidence, that SL’s lack of portability is the number one hurdle for our demographic and the main reason why many people never come back. Although speculation, I would imagine this is a major hurdle for other groups as well."

If you find this to be important to you as well, read the article and way in on the discussion.

Lainy Voom's New Movie "The Dumb Man"

Oh my god, this is JUST beautiful:


The Dumb Man from Lainy Voom on Vimeo.

Virtual Training

The military has been training soldiers using synthetic environments, which I think business should take notice. The literature on virtual work (i.e. using email, chat, wikis, blogs, etc) show that the first thing a virtual group should have is training together. Start training your virtual workers in synthetic environments to give people a sense of esprit de corps, facilitate trust, and to understand their 'real world' reactions:

"Face-to-face communication is usually the benchmark for what communication should be. 'Why do we want to train people using a virtual environment?' generals ask me. The reasons are this: You can record the environment. You can elevate the levels of stress and moderate the other variables. You can record and play it back to see the human performance in real-time. You can use that as a talking point to illustrate later all these training objectives that are tied to non-kinetic engagements and objectives. The tools we provide help them train faster."

I wish I could have said it better. :-)

So it begins..

This angel has been wandering confused and amazed at all he sees in Second Life for over two years. Architects, who fashion objects from primitive shapes, and Enchanters, who breathe life into these objects, have inspired this angel to search for understanding and skill with these arts.

The hope is that through learning I will provide meaning for my wandering existence. Having been cast here in the virtual firmament with no understanding of where I am or why I'm here, I'm anxious to understand the mysteries that my rezzing has wrought.