Working on a research project

with another prof and a student...we're going to different branded islands/sites looking for things they're doing, signs, events, any evidence company comes in world...


The PR prof, Arhlene Flowers, looked for PR statements - who's in SL and why, what do they hope to accomplish, their goals - and found quite a list of companies who have done something in SL

Then the student, Jordan, and I have gone to allthe sites for those companies and taken pictures, recorded branding elments we saw, looked for evidence of events, employees regularly schedule, for how the company uses the site

We've looked at about 30 sites - not everybody but all the companies for whom Arhlene found PR statements

There are some pictures from the project on the side of the screen in the Flickr badge.

SL Down

It happens - not as frequently as it used to - whew

But occasionally SL goes down - and the secondlife.com homepage puts up this great graphic - somebody had to take the time to build these avatars for the picture -i love a company that plans ahead

just sort of related to sl

http://www.quicksprout.com/2007/09/19/build-a-facebook-profile-you-can-be-proud-of/

a blog post about how to make better use of your facebook profile to connect in your industry - reach outside of your network, add apps to look cool, keep your porfile up to date...

I wonder if the profile in SL is similar. I hear a lot of people say they look at other avatars' profiles - i have very little in mine. Maybe it's a place to promote the school;s islands, my blog, our classes... Gotta figure out how to get pictures and links into the profile. And then get hte students to update theirs too

panel on protecting brands in SL

I"m at a panel put on by millions of us about protecting brands in sl

Here are my notes from the panel....

one of the speakers (haver cole) is a community director for metaversatility
one is reporter for Virtual news nework
how should brands enter sl - observe the virtual brands first - how are they deploying nad presenting their brands, they have experience already reaching customers, handling transactions, advertising
then see if you can interact with them, engage with existing products (like the coke experience contest)
bring brand in slowly, respect the existing sl community, sl branding not hte same as rl branding, in sl hav eto understand where the commuity is and how to intract with them, so you have to observe, spend time here

SL as a platform with cache - can't just come in anymore and get pressclaim to be the first - that doesn't work anymore, gotta think out side the box in sl to be successful (and most didn't)
good to have real world/sl connection - coldwell banker was innovative with their open house in sl built on a rl house
hotel chain - turkish luxury hotel - ?riksoft? - in sl now
not so good to recreate the real world product, he thinks its better to create sl specific products, things designed for virtual owrlds, will get press, and could develop into new revenue streams -- oen goal is to get sl residents to stop being anti brands and to being pro-brands, people tired of real life recreations, in sl products don't act same as in rl so recreations not the same, look at hte brands and services you provide in rl, your companies expertise and values - and see hwo you can bring those things into sl to meet a need

one speaker said sl residents more brand savvy than in rl?

brand management avenues in sl - profiles, how you present your self, brand as your complete identity

now pricing is artificially low in SL - no higher priced luxury brands
soon - prices are going to change, her ewill be higher priced luxury brands

griefing and brands - bad or do rl people just say oh those wacky sl people? - some brands are sort of afraid of the residents, islands give control, a llot of rl people don't care, sl has built in security tools - just like in rl, use the tools to protect yoruself, - turn off scripts, bounce people, ban people

crisis management in sl - in rl reactive, in sl process and control issues, can be a bit more proactive by making sure brands propoerly positioned, probably be some company coming in (as the first) to do sl crisis pr

best way to maintain good relationships with sl residents - keep watching, keep learning, brands will change a little in sl from rl to better take advantage of sl strengths, to be doing stuff that's most appropriate in sl, meet real demands in sl, kep doing new stuff, be interactive, new events, but also doing new things, new ways to connect with people, new ways for peopel to interact with the brand

how do you get your brand known in sl - you hav eto findyour audience and speak to them directly, use viral marketing, connect iwht bloggers, get pics on flickr so people get yused to seeing it and seeing hte name, show up to social events with your brand identity , doesn't have to be expensive project

look at malls and shops run by sl residents as distribution channels - why build up island and recreate what they do - can you work with them, distribute thru them

mainstream press not into sl - reporters probably not going to come into sl to talk with you about your sl brand, so ya need to have things in sl that are relevant to rl, to attract new users, want to amke sure any mainstream media coverage is about yoru brand, not about how hard it was for the reporter to get there or about griefing, but reporters always looking for weird/different thing to quote

fil out your profile - users look at that, put pics in the profile of you in different places around sl, show you're in the community reaching out

if you send out a press release, be available on talk on the phone about it with reporters

more from the life 2.0 conference

The Scripting workshop this weekend at the Life2.0 conference was great. My brain hurt afterwards

The speakers were all prepared with examples and demonstrations - tho the piggy disappeared too quickly for me to see it (and from what i heard it was never seen again). There were 2 big screens where the speakers notes were displayed. The Dr. Dobbs folks are going to make those available after the conference.




The subject of scripting was covered from the basics - built in functions, events nad states, even how to assign values to variables (local and global). It continued thru scripting to have objects communicate with each other and with avatars. Turns out you can script email messages. Then it got deep and fast and I got lost. But i have a base now so i can go to the online resources (which the speakers pointed out and provided links to) and they will make sense.



A big thanks to the Dr. Dobbs folks. Another great event. And the fun continues all week with speakers and beach parties and sponsor exhibits. Including Sun - check me out with my Sun balloons.




I got a free tshirt too but haven't put it on. I need to update my branded avatar (weather channel backpack, nbc scarf, crayon mug and now java tshirt and sun balloons.

More on events

Going to the Life 2.0 conference in SL sponsored by Dr. Dobbs Journal in SecondLife

They have the amphitheatre straddling 2 sims (I think) and they have upped the number of avatars allowed on one sim to 80. We had 72 avatars hanging out this morning tho by the end of the scripting lessons this afternoon it was down to about 50. But still - 50 is more than in the past.

Here are some issues I've noticed with conferences -things we need to watch for in the future...

- they had name tags - interesting idea but people played with them thru out the presentation whihc was kind of distracting. And they took up a lot of screen space if you loaded the default info (name, title, company). But it was a good idea to see who was from where since this was a professional conference (altho not everyone acted professionally)

the course materials in a box - one of the best ideas around - we could look at each script the speaker was working with and we have them to study afterwards. It was a quick couple of hours so not much chance to play with the scripts or to put notes in them for later.

People who want to chat or to make comments need to be encouraged to use a back channel like the group IM. With all the text from the objects we were playing with and the side comments, it was sometimes tough to see the speaker.

It's a week long conference. THey've been promoting it on their website. It's conceivable that people might come into sl just for the conference. SO the dr. dobbs folks scheduled a newbie Q&A session for a couple of hours. Thought that was a great idea. I think i need to do that on the island - have some time where people know someone will be there to answer questions

I've seen this at a couple of conferences - signage! how to use voice, how to turn on th estreaming media. Probably need a sign now that says you're not using voice or audio but only text. People seemed confused. Most things on the dr. dobbs island are done using voice so the confusion was understandable. The promotion for hte conference mentioned voice too (the dr. dobbs folks said later in the week (with the main speakers) they'd go voice.




They had a networking "breakfast" at their beach party area. Some people tried out voice. It was kind of awkward this morning - we'll see how it goes tomorrow. But having some social events for this kind of long conference seems to be a good idea. The NMC folks had some social areas and time for people to hang out and talk.

If the conference is taking place at different places on an island, signage and maps are a good thing. SO is a teleport map. So is a big copy of the program. NMC did that too - even if it's on the web since some people can't easily go back and forth between SL and the web.

Have official people there - who can speak for the organization, for intro's, to do a little policing, to help attendees find what they need. Dr. Dobbs has Rissa and John and they were present when they needed to be.

and just a side note - some of the voice/anti-voice rivalry is just weird. Use it or not. It's not a religious decision.

ANd lag happens. Sometimes it's on SL end, sometimes on your end. You have to deal with it - not complain to everyone around you. Log off and come back in - that helps sometimes.

ALl in all - a good event so far. And I'm trying to pick up ideas about having events along iwth the info on scripting in LSL.

We're going in

The semester is starting (ok we're in week 3 already! yikes)

Today the students in qualitative research methods started in secondlife. And it all went smoothly this semester. The computers downloaded the viewer software quickly, everyone found a last name they liked. We had to deal with taking off face tattoos and wigs once they started playing with their avatars.

Side note - why does LL even bother with the different avie choices when making accounts? As soon as ya get onto orientation island you are shown how to play with your appearance. And people don't know as new users about tattoos and attachments versus clothes.

Students were going thru the orientation island tasks. I showed them a little about search.

The semester seems to be starting off well. Here's a pic of one student with his torch

Planning an Event

Thursday morning at 10am (New York time) which is 7am SecondLife time, John Scott will be on the Park Communication island to talk about his latest project, Scouts are Cancelled about poet John Stiles. John will talk about making documentaries and about some ethical issues that came up while making this movie.

We don't have a reputation for events yet - hopefully if we can get several going for this semester that will change. The better known we are, the more people will come and the more fun events will be.

Here's what I did to promote the event so far
- sent email to the mailing list for educators in SL
- sent in world IMs to groups related to film, movie making, poetry, and Canada
- emailed an influential blog that runs one or two posts a week about upcoming events
- added it to the SL calendar under arts & culture and discussion
- put up clips from the documentary in a special place on the island along with a notecard that probably needs to be beefed up
- asked a student to make a tshirt to give to attendees

Another conference in world

The SLCC - SecondLife Community Conference - is this weekend in chicago and in SL on a lot of different islands. I've been hanging mostly on artificial isle, the main site for hte conference in world. There are different tracks and (supposedly) audio streams for each. They've had serious issues iwth their audio - the conference organizers are blacking it on the hotel's internet infrastructure.

i've mostly been going tohte business trck - some of thepanels I missed because the audio went down. They say they're recording them to listen to later. That will be good.

I heard some good stuf tho - one thing we have to do is improve drastically the new user's experience if we want to grow the user base of SL. Groups are setting up their own orientation experiences and LL is very supportive of that development. I think this is something we could study in qual - the kids will be in that category (new users) so we can study ourselves. I need to come up with some ideas about how to study it.

Here's a pic of some of us listening to hte stream and chatting - that's me in the pink hair.

Creativity Conference Wrap Up

Here are a couple of notes I made during the closing of the NMC Creativity conference held this week in SecondLife (it was amazing by the way - can't say enough good things about the organizers, the organization, the presenters, the presentations, the interactive workshops - all just too much for for words).

Creativity is (or is helped by) collaboration, conversation, conversation, community, complexity, connections, cooperation

when you're creative - it leads to more creativity

in SL we can share the output of our creativity with other SL users

for creativity to besuccessful - there needs to be an atmosphere of acceptance, of play, no restrictions, and tools that let you be creative

SL has the tools - gobs of scripts, building tools, ability to import textures and sounds and animations - we just have to learn how to use them and then get out of the way and let things happen

The teacher is no longer the sage on the stage or even the guide ont he side - someone said we should be the "meddler in the middle" stirring up students so they're more creative, putting out tools and letting them use the tools to learn --- we have to be willing to try new things, to change

One of the tools in secondlife is the ability to make movies, to create sets, costumes, gestures for your actors/avatars. It's a powerful tool - another place to tell stories, to express themselves. Here's the set I built for a machinima I want to make.



Another tool - the ability to build and script (program). Here's a shot from a workshop about live music in SL - we got instruments that have animations built in to make it look like we're playing the instruments




Lots of ways to be creative - theatre, poetry performances, live music, immersive environments, things to do, different ways to "be". You can even create a new culture - like the elven culture.

NMC Creativity COnference

This has been a great conference. Way too many cool things going on - one after the other. I"m sitting in my office at home - and i'm exhausted. SO many new things to play iwth and try out and go shopping for. Things to try on the islands - i can't wait.

Here are a couple of pictures - from workshops, from the plaza, from around the island:

NMC Creativity conference starts tomorrow

I'm excited. I got to sign up for one of a series of intensive multi-day classes on making art in SL - I picked Machinima. other choices included photography and sculpture. I was drawn to the sculpture class (hey - my SL last name is Chihuly) but figured we could get some use from the machinima if we get some more students involved in Park Island.

and it's all in SL. So the registration fee was tiny compared to wht other conferences cost with travel and hotel and meals.


Here's the schedule for the conference

I just found out i have to have a story idea before the first class - oh man - homework!

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.