Running a conference - one idea (from the BlogHer Conference in SL)

Saw a cool thing at the blogher conference - a sign with help for using the multi-media. What a great idea especially if you want to do an event that will attract new SL users - like many of the students in class. People in the audience were giving advice - how to turn the video stream right side up, how to deal with lag. Then someone noticed the sign and started pointing people to it to save screen space. Everyone got better use of the media and new users didn't have to out themselves as newbies

DIane Gayeski came by the island for a few minutes. She is new to SL. Very cool that she is trying out the virtual worlds.

posted by Kim Chihuly on Park Communication using a blogHUD : [permalink]

redecorating the welcome center - it needs signage. And I put a notecard dropbox so people could request more info. Of course - now i need a notecard giver with info on the different programs - I'll use that script from the syllabus class - that should work out great

posted by Kim Chihuly on Park Communication using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Everybody here is Press

someone at the live event in Chicago just said that - interesting concept with a host of issues - lots of people blog anonymously - if htey don't want to be "outed" then they can't talk in a meeting? Can't have their pic taken? Kind of a new area for conference attendance.

At the conference

Here are a couple of notes from the opening - audio problems, the video stream didn't work (they originally were doing something with flash - you can't do flash in SL I think it's just qt)) but they're working on it - but things to learn for any conferences we do - test the audiovisuals before hand

Cool stuff - nice big space so easy to move around and get to the chairs and see the screen, good exhibitor space wiht interesting mix of booths - lots of neat designs for the booths themselves as well as business ideas. They gave all the participants some cash when we signed in the first morning so we could buy some stuff from the vendors. Since a lot of people are brand new to sl this was a very cool idea - they could buy some neat clothes or donate to non-profits and learn a new SL skill.

Going to BlogHer in SecondLife

I ust signed up for the SecondLife part of the BlogHer conference for next weekend. We're supposed to introduce ourselves on our blogs. So here is mine.

I teach at Ithaca College. I have students in all of my classes blog - about topics in their field, as research notes for qualitative research class, to share ideas. I blog about SecondLife since that's what I am fascinated by right now. To me blogging is a way to share cool things I find. It's also a place to get my thoughts down so i can go back to them and reconsider them, combine them. I always lost those little notebooks and diaries you were supposed to use to write down big thoughts (or shopping lists) - i can't lose the blog. The password, maybe, but not the blog. See you all in SecondLife.


blogme2007

New features in the left hand column

In SL my avatar wears a blue bracelet on her left arm. It's from SquawkNest and it lets me type in SL and have the text show up in Twitter. I put a twitter feed widget in the left side of this blog so you can see little bits of what i'm doing inside SL as I do it. That's probably the only place I"ll twitter from. Since this is my SL blog, the twitter feed will let me share more frequently about what i'm doing in world.

I like widgets. I also added a search box for creative commons media. It's not SL related but it's an interesting widget. It may not stay around - i may move it to my homepage. On my homepage i now have a Meebo widget so folks can IM me right there. And I have a flower greenhouse widget from a new advertising project that's really pretty to look at. And here - the twitter and search widgets.

Enjoy

Starting to build on the Indy Media Center island

I started playing with BackHoe - flattened out the terrain, made a little ridge. Want to do more playing around. But man you ahve to be careful where your avatar is standing when you upload - i accidentally wiped out the Park Communication island. I had flown a few feet back to see the whole indy media center island and accidentally crossed the border. So - poof - my mountain and small hills disappeared. Linden Lab support guys are great - they had it back within the hour.

I started building a conference center space on the Indy Media Center island. I put in a space where you could give a talk and 2 halls for photo/graphics display. And then outside I have been working on a garden. I went on a tour of a knot garden and took that idea to our island. I built one garden square and then copied it to make a bigger square. and so on. Then i put a big tree in the center and some lights around the edge and paths through out. It's really formal right now. Maybe on another side i will make a less formal, more curvy garden. There are a lot of trees, shrubs, and flowers. I need a fence tho. I think i will play around with some metal textures to make a fence.

Last Presentation Update

Two more seniors presented their research results last night. They conducted an online survey about Facebook and students reactions to it, including whether they'd be willing to pay for it (less than 2% said they'd pay!)

Since Sarah Naylor and Ekta Batra aren't skilled SecondLife users, we streamed their presentation in world. It was a good test for me too - turns out we need microphones and a more powerful computer than my poor little laptop to run these presentations.

They were a little nervous at first - talking to the camera is new for them. But they got progressively more confident. They answered questions from the small but interested audience. One person encouraged them to consider publishing their article.

Another Student Presentation

Mike Palumbo, known in SL as Shmapple Patrono, presented the results of his independent study project on intellectual property and other legal issues in virtual worlds on the Park Communication island on Tuesday. The topic seems to be very popoular; his talk attracted a lively crowd. Mike dealt with a variety of tough questions. Some he could answer, and others he'll have to take to law school (which he starts in the fall).

Mike identified a variety of issues that residents of virtual worlds need to consider. He interviewed lawyers in world and visited a variety of law related spots.

We've gotten some local television attention

Two tv stations from Syracuse came down to Ithaca last week to film class and talk to students in my qualitative reserach class. The students thought it was neat to be interviewed and to get to show off what they've learned about SL.

Here is a page from CH9 with 2 stories - a general story about the qualitative research class using SecondLife and a second story about how political candidates are using SecondLife, featuring some research and quotes from students in the class. Not sure how long the link will work.
http://www.9wsyr.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=81957841-8eab-41ad-8a4d-96d2f9a8ae5f

Here's a link to the story from CH5 Syracuse - it's just the text of the story.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18488491/
They came down and interviewed several students about their experiences.

Research Presentation in World

Austra and I presented the results of our research on religion in SL tonight. We had a few people attend. They asked good questions and gave us lots of encouraging feedback. It was really stressful tho - whew. You don't get clues about pacing that you might get in RL - like polite coughing and foot shuffling. Everyone looks attentive (and young and beautiful) in SecondLife.

Austra - a senior about ready to graduate - is getting to be an old hand at conference presentations. She presented her own research at a state level conference, this research at the annual meeting of the Popular Culture Association, and now this in world presentation. She answers tough questions well. She dressed up the area with a slide show of pictures of churches, and a collection of items she's collected at churches through out SecondLife. We put together a landmark laden notecard and a notecard dispenser. We need to add some text to the notecard for people who come to the display when we're not around.

I hope to get the students to do more of these presentations next year - and not wait till the end of the semester when everyone is stressed. I think the students in qualitative research could do presentations about their observations. And in audience research - it would be interesting to get them to present about their companies in world or about the pros and cons of different media - and invite folks from different marketing companies.

We have 2 more presentations on Tuesday. I'll post about them Wednesday and put up more photos.



And - the last picture is one i took of Austra's avatar buried in the dirt - it should be labeled "when terraforming goes horribly wrong" - ha ha! Our benches kept sliding down a little hill. I was trying to raise the land up just a little and smooth it out. Poof - I buried Austra up to her neck when she was away from her computer!

Dr Dobbs Life2.0 Conference

I got to go to the conference a couple of days last week - I do love live events in SL - chance to hang out with people from all kind of companies and backgrounds. This one had great speakers too - Mitch Kapor (creator of Lotus 123) and Philip Rosedale were keynoteres. There were tours of interesting builds, sessions with scrpters and builders. All designed to give people a better understanding of what's going on in world.

Check out my Slide Show!

Another live event

We streamed a talk onto the island today from the RL auditorium. David Macauley was there. What a great speaker. He is famous for his architecture books like Castle and Cathedral. He's working on a book about the human body. He held everyone's attention for over an hour.

A few people came by the Park Communication island to watch part of the talk. We wanted to see if the stream would stay up - and it did. One thing we need is at least 2 computers - one for the broadcasting software and one to use to run SL to interact with visitors and help them get hte video stream going. If we every got a lot of visitors it would be nice to have someone greet them, give them a welcome pack with notecard about the event and maybe an event tshirt. The greeter could offer people Teleport links if needed and just generally answer questions.

We're learning a little more with each presentation. We reached out to a few groups - we'll do more of that in the future. I need to get things on the schedule early enough we can try for some blog coverage - like being in New World Notes and their calendar post each week. I know that's where I find neat stuff to do.

Streamed a presentation live

Saturday morning, David Spiegelman from New Line Cinema gave apresentation to about 25 students on campus in Ithaca. We also streamed it live on the internet and into Secondlife. Here are a couple of pictures. It went pretty good. We had 4 or 5 people come by, including one from Australia (it was 1:30 Sunday morning there).

Thursday 4/26 at 7:30pm EDT (4:30 SLT) we're going to stream author David Macauley. Stay tuned for more details about that.

Do these people think they're funny?

I was trying to explain SL to someone the other day (grown up, academic) and they're first comment was - oh i already have too much to do in my first life. FOllowed by the equally weird comment - but it's not real, why would you do that?

This happens all the time. I point out that movies, music, tv, books - not real. And we pay for those - - for the experience, for hte mental pleasure. And that SL is the same way except instead of following someone else's story, you get to make your own. You control what happens, you build stuff to suit you and your interests.

DOes anyone else get this type of comments? Any ideas how to address them - short of snorting in disgust and walking away (my first instinct)

Cool stuff coming up

I figured out how to make water - and made 2 fountains. (pictures will be here the next time I"m on SL) I didn't add any sound yet. There are scripts for making a texture move to simulate moving water. I used it on an umbrella I built too - very trippy. One of hte fountains has a waterfall. I want to make a creek too - just to see if I can.

We're going to have a lot of stuff going on in sl over the next 3 or 4 weeks. We have a couple of guest speakers, the students will be presenting the results of their research, and we're having a reception for faculty to show them SL. I hope to get our experimental film festival into sl too - to show their movies if nothing else but to get them in to talk about their work and hopefully meet sl people about their movies.

Went to a conference to present our religion research - which still needs a lot of work - and quite a few people were interested in SL. I hope to hear from some of them soon - see about getting projects going. I'm also talking to folks from Mansfield University about projects. They were into podcasts to promote their school early on - I think they will be good to work with.

Virtual Worlds Conference

I got to go to the 1st annual virtual worlds conference in Manhattan in 3/28-29. The coolest part was seeing people in rl that I'd met in sl. I got to meet Greeter Dan from CNET and Adam Reuters from Reuters. I met a couple of LIndens, a couple of folks from Electric Sheep, saw Aimee Weber. Exciting!

Then there were a ton of panels - some got repetitive (maybe a one day deal?) maybe it will take a bit of time for the market to grow to include more companies, more builders,more folks with cool projects that they're willing to talk about (that was an issue this time - companies were like we have this cool projects but we can't tell ya how much it cost or the traffic - talk about aggravating!)

One thing to consider is the variety of virtual worlds - they have different target audiences, different concepts of openness, different economic models. Gotta understand the range better before recommending any one to a client (that was one big take away message)

I'll be writing up my notes - trying to make some sense out of all the talking and projects.

first griefer attack

on our island. What a jerk.

He built way way up - like over 500 meters. The only way i could get up there was with my jetpack. THen he was throwing out self-replicating items. That made a really awful noise.

I had to call for linden help. They showed me how to ban him from all the estates (property) I own. And how to return all his crap. Good to know for future disturbances.

To be on the safe side I turned off building and scripting for awhile. Hopefully he will get bored and go elsewhere (he = male avatar)