Global Kids' Online Leadership Program

Hello everyone! As some of you may know, I was lucky enough to attend the Second Life Community Convention in Chicago this year with Global Kids. During my 3 day stay, I attended various panel discussions and even moderated a teen panel on Saturday about the CRC Machinima Camp that was held in Second Life. It was an absolute blast!

A little while after I had arrived and checked into my room at the Chicago Hilton, Tabitha gave me a ring on my cell and gave me her room number - where we were set to practice for the panel the next day. By this time, Brooke Barmy and I had already met up in the lobby and had gone to explore the pub in the hotel, where we were reunited with my friend Saeya Nyanda (an adult resident), who I had met previously at SL Views in March. It was so nice to see her again! She introduced us to a few of her friends seated at the table with her - Haver Cole, Menno Ophelia, and Canimal Zephyr who were all very pleasant and welcoming. Afterward, we proceeded to go register and grab our swag. On the way, I met the lovely moo Money aka Machinima Guru for the first time as well as Aesop Thatch, who transferred to the Main Grid earlier this year. It was so nice to see their real life avatars up close!

After we registered and received our SLCC goodie bags, we headed straight toward Tabitha's room where all the teen GKids were gathered. I was so excited to meet my fellow GK colleagues for the first time. I knocked on the door and was greeted by Tabitha, who gave me a very gracious hug. Also in the room was Lucky, Nafiza, and Angela who gave us their friendly greetings and were very happy to meet us! After some casual conversation, we went straight to work and started practicing for our panel the next day. Tabitha timed us as we took turns practicing orally and revising different aspects of our overall presentation and what needed to be covered.

As soon as we finished practicing for an hour or so, we all headed to the lobby to group up with the rest of the team who I hadn't met yet. Once we made it down there, I was introduced to Cathy GKid who I had never even spoken to before then. She is so charismatic and lovely - I made sure to give her a big bear hug as soon as I realized she who she was. As I turned around, after speaking to her, I recognized Meghan Deana aka Meghan GKid who also recognized me instantly and just pounced toward me! I've known Meghan since she was a Linden and we are good friends - I adore her, so it was just the icing on the cake to meet her in real life for the first time. As soon as the initial giddiness of meeting Meghan wore down (after a couple hugs), I met Barry Joseph, who is just as lively and personable in real life as he is in virtual form. Rafi also introduced himself to me after Barry did - it was great to finally meet him; I have probably worked with him the longest of any other GK staff member in-world. It's very interesting to note that personalities don't differ much from the virtual world to real world, which is fantastic. Makes you feel less awkward once you start talking.

Once everyone had been introduced to each other at the Hilton, we decided to head out for some dinner. We were all starving at that point and decided on eating at a quaint little tavern-pub. It was really nice to sit at a table with Rafi, Cathy, Meghan, Barry, and Brad Lewis from Learn & Serve America. When we finished our hearty meals, we walked back to the hotel and to the Machinima Viewing hosted by BuhBuhCuh Fairchild. After viewing many wonderful machinima videos, including my favorite of the evening titled "Watch the World(s)" by Robbie Dingo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxVDVggLqsA). At the viewing, I finally met Rhiannon Chatnoir and Claudia Linden, both of whom I interact with in-world on a fairly regular basis. They were both lovely, and after meeting them, we were off to the next event of the evening.

The next event was the "Volunteer Meet & Greet" hosted by Misty Rhodes, where we were all given a Second Life "bling" pendant that glowed bright green. Misty Rhodes is an absolutely fabulous hostess, making everyone feel welcome at all times. She was great! Also at the meet & greet, I was reunited with Blue Linden, who I had also met at SL Views earlier this year. It was great to catch up with him and meet his lovely lady Laura who was a hoot. She and I talked a lot during the course of the weekend. Even though she isn't involved in Second Life, she knows so much about it (thanks to Blue :P). Also at the meet & greet, Rhiannon introduced me to her fellow colleagues at The Vesuvius Group - Amulius Lioncourt and Frans Charming. I also met a very interesting woman who is known as Forcythia Wishbringer "Queen of the Elves" in Second Life. She was telling me about her expansive estate of fantasy-themed islands that she rents out to other residents. I quickly made friends with her and we spoke a lot over the course of the weekend. Some others I met and spoke with at the meet & greet include: Jade Lily, Rose Karuna, Guss Plisskin, Kim Anubis, Asri Falcone, Tao Takashi, and the infamous Prokofy Neva. Oh, and I finally had the chance to speak with Philip Rosedale, who was asking me what improvements I would like to see happen on Teen Grid specifically. My response was to make it easier for adult accounts to collaborate with teen accounts by allowing them to join groups and trade inventory normally, etc. He even took it down on his notepad, yay!

Saturday started off with a nice self-serve meal with the GKids and GK Staff followed by Philip's keynote/opening speech, which was insightful and amusing (he was wearing a missing image t-shirt). After his speech, we headed to the education track to listen in on Connie Yowell's keynote, which was fabulous. Because we were a little short on time, we went back to Tabitha's room to practice a bit more before our panel took place. So, after practicing for about an hour again, we headed to lunch, where Claudia Linden ate with us and shared a few details about LL's approach to solving the cross-grid connection dilemma. Claudia is such an intelligent lady, and it felt wonderful to give her some one-on-one feedback on the "possible" features she was discussing with us. Once lunch was finished, it was time for our panel! We were all ready for it at this point, but I can attest to having a few butterflies fluttering around in my belly. I still knew that we would do fine.

Moderating the panel was a new experience for me - in the real world anyway, but I feel confident enough to say that I did a decent job. We all pulled it off very well, and the 3 other panelists (Lucky, Nafiza and Angela) did an excellent job giving the audience insightful commentary about the program and their experiences. They also eloquently answered questions from the audience toward the end of the panel. Also, during questions, one man representing the organization ECPAT International asked how to go about advocating about child exploitation in a virtual world like Second Life. I used the example of the maze that was built in SL last year by the campers in our first summer camp program to end child sex trafficking. It just so happens that the money we raised during the maze project within Second Life and converted to real money was donated to this gentleman's organization last year. He had no idea! What a coincidence.

Finally, our panel was over! After attending a few other panels that evening and chatting with a few newly found friends; Angela, Lucky, Nafiza, Tabitha, Malarthi, Brooke, Chilko, Blue, Iridium, Laura, and I went to Lou Malnati's pizzeria, which is famous for Chicago deep-dish. Mmm, it was so good! What was even better though, is the guest appearance that Philip made as we were eating! He just popped right in and had a seat at our table. It was so awesome of him to do that and all of us enjoyed his company and his stories of Linden hazing rituals *cough* - joking.. :P When we had finished our meals and were walking out of the restaurant, I noticed someone who looked very familiar and was trying to place where I had seen her before. It finally hit me! She was a person I had seen on YouTube before and found to be quite interesting, so I walked straight up to her and asked if she was "grafinia" - her YouTube username, and she was in shock. Jumped up out of her seat and gave me a hug, then took a camera out of her purse and started filming our encounter. Haha, I thought that was great.. I couldn't believe I had recognized her. I didn't even know she lived in Chicago. What a coincidence! Just goes to show how interconnected we all are in our lives. The online world does translate into reality in many ways!

Later that night when we made it back to the hotel, Brooke and I hung out to chat with Iridium outside for a bit. Others who were gathered infront of the hotel were Moo, Plastic Duck, BuhBuhCuh, Everett Linden, Sidewinder Linden, and Shaun Altman - all of which I had a chance to speak with. We had some great conversations that night. Everett, Brooke, and I had a chance to discuss and propose new features to better improve the SL forums and the way they're moderated. After being out there for a couple hours, it was time to hit the hay, and I must say I hit it pretty hard, because I didn't wake up until 10ish the next day.

On Sunday morning, after a late breakfast, I went to go say farewell to my GK friends, as they were leaving on an afternoon flight back to NYC. It was sad to see them go, but the memories of the fun we had will always stay. I attended a few panels that afternoon, and somewhere along the line between panels, I was introduced to Pituca & Garth Fairchang, who have to be the sweetest couple in all of Second Life! They were so humble and kind - sharing their stories as early pioneers and how they met in Second Life. I even invited them to have dinner with us, and they accepted. So, my mom, Blue, Malarthi, Peggy Sheehy, another educator whose name escapes me (sorry!) and the Fairchangs all had dinner together. What a wonderful end to a marvelous weekend. Dinner was fantastic, as was the conversation. After saying our goodbyes, I stuck around with Blue in the lobby for a bit, and had some casual conversation with him and a few other residents who popped up, but then went back to my hotel room. The next day was my journey back home and I miss SLCC already, but I will try to make it next year. If you weren't there this year, you should also try to make it next year!

- Mercury Metropolitan

Posted by Mercury at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This past weekend I traveled, along with GK staff and 3 of our fabulous youth leaders, Angela, Nafiza and Grace, to the third annual Second Life Community Convention (SLCC 2007) held in Chicago. We arrived Friday afternoon after a surprisingly easy flight! The unfortunate souls traveling in to town the night before were delayed for hours due to awful Chicago weather. Thankfully, the weather returned to normal for the weekend, and we had a glorious time.

Friday night I attended the machinima social, followed by the volunteer meet’n’greet. These events were a wonderful combination of meeting up with old friends, and some intense social networking! As a former Linden employee, it was so great to finally see many of my old coworkers again and tell them more about the projects I’m working on here at Global Kids. I was also able to meet many of the people I’ve been working with through Global Kids, such as my roomie Cathy Arraguin and Youth Venture’s Adam Aberman! It’s so nice to be able to put a face with a name

One of the favorite things about this year’s SLCC was how many residents from TSL made their way to Chicago! Some of them I’ve worked with at Global Kids, but others still remember me as Deana Linden from my days as a Liaison on TSL. I answered to at least 3 different names all weekend!

Saturday began the panels, food and fun! Starting with Connie Yowell’s keynote, the tone of the day was intense. So many ideas and concepts were being exchanged and discussed. Next was the teen machinima panel, expertly moderated by Mercury Metropolitan. Angela, Nafiza and Lucky most eloquently told about their experiences using machinima made in Second Life to help raise awareness of various global issues. The day wrapped up with the high-energy Best Practices in Education panel by Barry. I think we really woke the crowd up with this one!

Saturday evening I spent catching up with friends and making so many new ones! Second Life attracts the most interesting and diverse people, and for the third year in a row I have come away with fantastic friendships. Through the years I have always had friends and even coworkers known only through the Internet, but I always find that having the time to sit down and talk with these peers face to face only deepens the connection.

By Sunday we were all running on reserved energy. Our last two panels seemed to fly by, and I was pleased that we were still able to grab a very attentive audience, as I am sure they were getting close to information overload!

Leaving was sad, as I know I won’t see many of these amazing people till next year’s conference, but my energies were tapped. Can’t wait to do it again next year!

Meghan GKid and Mercury Metropolitan

Angela, Nafiza, Mercury, Adam, Cathy, Chilko, and Rafi

Posted by Meghan at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From August 24 – 26th, 2007, GK staff traveled to Chicago along with Nafiza, Angela and Grace, three exceptional youth leaders from different after-school programs, to share their experience in Teen Second Life on the all-teen machinima panelists. What an amazing experience it was for us! It was my first time to Chicago. The beautiful architecture and the clean wide streets of Chicago made me felt right at home.

Throughout the weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting folks from Linden Lab, representatives from other non-profit organizations doing youth work in Teen Second Life, and teens in Teen Second Life whom I’ve always enjoyed talking and working with but never had the opportunity to meet in-person.

For weeks leading up to SLCC, our teens worked hard in preparation and we were in the middle of wrapping up the five-week long CRC (Convention on the Rights of the Child) Machinima Camp. Everyone was excited for us and was thrilled for the opportunity to share their machinima videos and the fun behind it all. Angela and Nafiza spoke wonderfully and passionately about the Virtual Video Project after-school program, which I co-facilitate and co-developed since last fall. I couldn’t be more proud of their accomplishment. Grace represented the ten CRC machinima campers from around the world, and spoke openly and happily about her experience with the campers and with Global Kids overall. Meeting Mercury Metropolitan, our GK remote intern for the first time, was a highlight of my trip. We have been talking on a weekly basis since last December, and he opened up my eyes to the world of possibilities in TSL as a mentor and a friend. Thank you again to all the teens that make my work worthwhile, enjoyable and ever-growing possible.

I spent some time thinking about what I’d like to share after my trip to Chicago, and I think it comes down to a wonderful quote heard during one of the panels. The community works because of the people. Talking and sharing about my professional experience with others that are new to Second Life or are interested in Global Kids’ work in Teen Second Life, is what I am learning to do each day and each moment. I have met more friendly, helpful, open-minded and wonderful people in Second Life than I ever expected. Putting a face to a voice, an avatar appearance, or an email correspondent is something I will continue to look forward to in my life. The SLCC not only brought together residents of Second Life, either long-term “beta-testers” or brand new “noobs”, but also friends and coworkers and for some even, loving couples.

I want to take this chance to thank the folks at MacArthur Foundation for making this trip possible and my work overall with teens on TSL. I have learned so much from teens in the way they communicate, interact and appreciate each other's work, that I feel humbled to work with them on an everyday basis. I want to thank the folks at Linden Lab, for providing a space to share a community of recreation, education and inspiration for all walks of life.

Thank you to Global Kids for encouraging the next generation to think outside the box, and allowing me to follow.

Until next time,
Tabitha

A few pictures from SLCC:

Furry!

Minutes before their presentation

Nafiza and Angela standing outside the hotel

Brooke Barmy and I at dinner...it was so nice to see you finally Brooke!

Gk teens with Ben Batstone-Cunningham, founder of Alt Zoom Inc.

Posted by tabitha at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, the CRC Machinima Camp just ended last week. It was great that I got to help out during the Machinima Camp because originally I wanted to join but could not because when it started when I was still in the Summer Institute. So volunteering with Global Kids to help around the camp was great.

In addition to that, the campers are fantastic; they were very enthusiastic about finishing their films. It was great to see what they produced from just the raw film to the edited versions with sounds added. It was also nice to see all of them put together as a final film. I think they did a great job at it.

It was also nice to see all their creative ideas, and I also got to learn more about the Convention of the Rights of the Child. This was all done to celebrate its 18th birthday! As Alex Struminger made me realize during the Social Track in SLCC, once the convention turns 18, there will be no child that has not lived under this convention! So it is a special year for the Convention of the Rights of the Child.

It was nice to see Lucky present the final product at the Second Life Community Convention. That was a good way to end camp, I really wish that the audio streaming would have worked so they could hear her present, but unfortunately it did not.

However, there will be another screening of the movie, and it will be in the theater on Global Kids Machinima Island. So do not miss it! It will be on Monday, September 10th, at 1-2PM SL time (4-5PM eastern time)! We will even have some of the campers speak about their short one-minute films. So it will be exciting to see them show off their work. So please make time for the event!

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 6:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Walkthrough of Our Journey:

I was among one of the few teens that got the wonderful privilege to go to Chicago, with Global Kids, from August 24th to August 26th to attend the Second Life Community Convention. It was an exciting experience because I would also get the opportunity to present “A Child’s War,” which was a machinima we made in Global Kids’ Virtual Video Project. The reason this was significant was because we filmed this machinima in Second Life; in addition, this experience was much different from the Service Learning Conference I attended in New Mexico because people actually knew what Second Life was and “Machinima” did not necessarily need much explaining. Overall, the experience was absolutely great, and I feel very fortunate to be among the few that got to go with Global Kids.

On Friday, getting to Chicago itself was an interesting experience. There was some kind of storm, or in general the weather in Chicago was bad, so we were delayed a bit. Thankfully, it was not by much time, and we arrived to Chicago pretty smoothly and in very good time. When we arrived we spent some time checking into the hotel and then practicing for our panel, which was on the next day. Also during panel practice we got to meet some of the teens we knew from Teen Second Life and never got to meet them in real life. We got to meet Ryan (Mercury Metropolitan), Brooke Barmy, Chilko Tardis (who I met for the first time at SLCC) and Malarthi Behemoth. I always worked with Mercury in some way because I had met him the first day I entered TSL and he has always been there with Global Kids helping them. Brooke, I knew because he helped us so much with making all the props for “A Child’s War.” Then we registered for the convention, which took about 35 seconds!

So, before going off to dinner, we got to meet a couple of people—including “Draxtor Despres,” who is the news director from Virtual Worlds Radio Network; he approached us because he had watched “A Child’s War” and wanted to interview us. It was interesting to meet him because he was from Germany, and he had seen our machinima and liked it; the reason meeting him felt so fulfilling was because we produced machinima, like “A Child’s War,” to raise awareness about the issue globally—and seeing someone who had watched it from Europe really made me feel like we actually reached our goal.

So after dinner, we got to go to the Machinima Social, and I got to see Ben/Buhbuhcuh Fairchild (Alt-Zoom Studios) again; it was good to see a familiar face outside of Global Kids, and Ben is really talented and fun (and a very positive thinker, and a calm person). So after Machinima Social, I met Susan Tenby, who is the Senior Online Community Manager of TechSoup. She was interested in working with teens, so it was great meeting her. After that, we went off to the SLCC Meet and Greet. Although we did not RSVP, we got in because we were teens, which was totally awesome and everyone was really nice. I got to meet Moo Money and Claudia Linden; Claudia is really nice and it was great to know that she had seen our work as well. Also, this was the first time I met Blue Linden, and all I can say is that…he REALLY is tall. He seemed like a very nice—and popular—guy, and he seemed very sincere and calm as well. I also met…a number of people, and it’s hard to remember all of their names (but having some of their business cards right beside me helps), amongst them were Kimberly Rufer-Bach and Jonathan Sturges. I had to leave early because I wanted to get at least a good about of sleep because our panel was the next day, also I felt tired easily because Chicago (Illinois) was an hour behind us, so when it was 11 it felt like it was 12. So I went to bed early, and fell asleep almost instantly!

The next day, we had breakfast and then went to listen to Philip Linden (Philip Rosendale) speak. He really is a good speaker, and he seems to firmly believe in Second Life becoming something even greater than the World Wide Web, because it in some way bridges certain digital divides. He explained that a person can try to find out information about a country or their news through the World Wide Web, but then it may require them to be fluent in that language and also very literate. However, when it comes to Second Life, you can meet people from different parts of the world and they will be able to communicate in English. So in that way, it is somewhat like globalization and creating a flat playing field for all people and giving them equal access to the same things.

I thought it was a good point, however, I did find flaws in his ‘theory’ or my perception of his theory anyway. Second Life, although it is an absolutely great tool for learning/teaching/communicating, cannot reach out to everyone. Even people in the United States may have computers that are not compatible with Second Life. Also, in places like third-world countries, people are going to be first concerned about getting their first lives together and stable. Also, Second Life is a privilege that many of us have the opportunity of using; that is why I feel that it is necessary to use it to raise awareness about all the global issues that there are, and all those people who are being exploited—because they are the people who do not have the same privileges that we do, and that is why it is important that the world recognizes the trouble they face. Also, in some way, Second Life can make the digital divide even greater; this is because not everyone can have access to it. Some people do not have the right kind of computer, and others do not even have computers, however they may be able to get internet access. So in that way, it does not exactly exceed the World Wide Web. Nonetheless, it is a good point, and he does make a strong argument.

Afterwards, we got to go see the speech that Connie Yowell made. She is a great speaker and gave a very good speech. Some of it is actually in the video of clips from SLCC that Barry put together. Afterwards, it was time to do some more prepping for the Panel, especially since it was coming up very soon. This time, Chilko, Rafi, and Barry watched us as we practiced. Barry also did a little video of us before we were going to speak on the panel to see how we felt before and after the panel. The video is located here.

Speaking on the panel was somewhat nerve-wrecking, and scary...even though I have spoken at the Service Learning Conference in front of a larger number of people. However, I think it went pretty well. We got some great questions and feedback from people. We also learned that Peggy Sheehy/Maggie Marat (aka Meghan's mom) had shown our work to her kids in her school and it inspired them to do something like that, which is shown at the end of the video Barry put together. That was really a great for us to hear that because we also wanted to inspire others to take some kind of action to raise awareness about the issues that are going on. So, to end the panel like that, was absolutely great. Also, after the panel, Douglas Gayeton from "Millions of Us" approached us and gave us his card and told us about machinima internships with them. So it was really amazing. Also, in addition to that, Angela and I got interviewed by Draxddtor Despres from Virtual Word Radio Network. So it was really an amazing experience.

Later that day, we got to have a dinner party with Blue Linden to celebrate Lucky's birthday! I thought it was a perfect way for her to celebrate her sweet sixteen. We went to dinner with Blue, Laura (who is so wonderful and kind), Chilko, Barry, Malarthi Lucky (of course), Ryan, Brooke Angela, Tabitha, me and of course our surprise guest--Philip Linden. It was an interesting dinner because we really did not expect to have dinner with the CEO of Second Life, but it was really amazing to get to spend that time with someone so important. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and watched a scary movie (The Messengers) just for the fun of it. Afterwards, we went to bed and had a good nights sleep.

The next day was great too! I got the opportunity to meet Alex Struminger; it was great meeting him because he was from United Nations Children's Fund, and I was involved in the contest they had with Global Kids in Teen Second Life and also the CRC Machinima Camp. However, the way I met him was slightly strange because he had presented the World Fit For Children video (which I so ironically happened to be in) during the Social Track, and that is when Tabitha introduced me to him. He seemed very interested in the work that Global Kids was doing and all the things I had been involved in. So it was great to meet him. In some way, after that, it was slightly sad because we had to say goodbye to everyone and leave Chicago to get back to New York. Overall, it was a fun experience and I really hope that more teens get the opportunity to go to the next SLCC with Global Kids and speak on behalf of Global Kids and all the great opportunities that they are giving us teens. I also look forward to continuing to be with Global Kids and using machinima for purposes of raising awareness.

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On Saturday we only had six presenters/moderators. Today we had double that, so it was a day of rich content and fascinating examples and questions raised from a variety of perspectives.

The non-profit panel was streamed into Second Life (yeah! ) but began with no project (boo!). After a little scrambling around, the track leads pulled it off and we had a fascinating panel. John Lester/Pathfinder Linden introduced the track and spoke to the importance of non-profits active within Second Life. The presenters that followed each spoke about their organization and their work in Second Life. Some are just beginning while others presented stories of unexpected and dramatic growth. There was barely enough time for the question and answer session afterwards, which might explain why the panelists were swamped by people three deep wanting to talk with them afterwards. About seventy people attended the panel. I was delighted that the final question was asked by Simon Stevens, who has cerebral palsy, the creator of Wheelies, a SL-club for people to feel comfortable about disabilities; we had met before when he participated in SL Big Brother and it was great to meet him in person.

I posted many of the Powerpoints on Slideshare.com the evening before, a sort-of social network for Powerpoints. I thought it was fascinating that, as a result, before Alex Struminger from UNICEF even shared his Powerpoint in person it had already been viewed over two dozen times online.

By Sunday I was beginning to get a clearer picture of the divide I was, well, not so much concerned about, but more paying attention to coming into this event, this idea of the convention versus the conference. I came to see the convention, driven bottom-up by fans, being more about the person. I am there for myself and I expect the event to speak to my extra-curricular interests. While I came to see the convention, developed top-down, as being more for a professional or a field. This was not CALLED a convention, but much of the event was developed or treated like one. My interest was to see how the two interacted and I found that, overall, they lived quite well side-by-side. I had expected more tension between the two but only saw it around the presence of the Leather and Lace Masquerade Ball.

ABC’s coverage of the convention contrasted the business side with the social side. I think this was their attempt to make the distinction I made above. However, their distinction is flawed, as anyone who knows Second Life can tell you, and as panelists from Connie Yowell to Larry Johnson discussed: Second Life is so powerful because it is a social environment. Whether you came to the convention for business or pleasure, it’s all about harnessing that social space, what Yowell called its “Collective Creativity.”

It was so exciting to moderate the funders panel, four impressive people from four impressive organizations. More importantly, I like all of them – they are all great people, willing to spend their time to mark a space in the timeline and help define these beginning challenges to philanthropic work related to virtual worlds. There were some great questions, from OneWorld.org and Prokofy Neva.

Overall, I met people from England, Thailand, Germany and Australia who are all doing fascinating work with whom we might collaborate and, through our online presence reflecting this thread, heard from folks in Hong Kong and South Africa. I was really surprised but delighted with all of these non-U.S. voices and the ways they are exploring the applications of virtual worlds.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted – I introduced Brad from Learn and Serve as Chinwe from Robert Wood Johnson – but I could not have been more pleased with how all five of presentations were received nor how hard both the Global Kids staff and youth leaders worked to bring the work of non-profits into the spotlight. I am excited now to work with Cathy and Rik, who both left the SLCC with strong analyses of what they heard, as they each develop their thoughts, and re-connecting with those I met for the first time whose work overlaps with our own.

Posted by Barry at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ABC News published a lengthy online article about the Second Life Community Convention. Global Kids had the final word, through our own Rafi Santo. Go Rafi!

Whether Second Life and other virtual worlds can extend themselves beyond the often-eccentric, always-colorful personalities here this weekend, will determine how much money the army of business-card wielding techies here will profit from it all.

It may not happen during this generation. But for today's youth, going onto a virtual world will be as normal and mainstream as logging onto the Web, speculates Rafi Santo, who works on educational initiatives in Second Life's teen grid where only people ages 13 to 17 are allowed.

"Ten years ago, how many kids did you know that had cell phones? ... Today, how many kids do you know that don't text 1,000 times a day, that don't have MySpace?" he asks.

"It's going to age in. That's how it's going to come to fruition," he says.

Read the full story

Posted by Barry at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

And I thought I was tired yesterday!

I realized why it might feel stranger to meet people in person whom you only knew remotely from Second Life than from other online venues. With other venues – like the phone, Skype, AIM or email – you never lose sight that you have never had an embodied experience of being in the presence of the other. But in Second Life you do, fooling you into thing you HAVE actually been in the presence of the other. So when you meet in the real world, marking the first time you have ACTUALLY been in their presence, it feels odd because it is as if you “presence sense” had been “fooled” into thinking you had already done so.

In any case, we ran the first three of the five Non-Profit and Philanthropy presentations, and they all went great!

The day began with Connie Yowell’s keynote. You would never know she just arrived from Singapore and had not yet slept. Her presentation was insightful and inspiring. She offering a useful framework, a paradigm shift, for understanding virtual worlds’ impact on education, and emphasized the importance of teaching the paradigm rather than simply throwing technology at a problem. The room seemed packed – 150-200 people – and was very well received. A number of people told me it set the right tone for the conversation to come.

Twittering during the conference was again a new experience. It was a great way to learn what was going on in the other tracks, or when one ended earlier or later than the one I was attending. I could find out where my staff was and who was speaking with ABC. I could also call them together when we needed to meet or just hang out after hours. I found it very useful. We could use it to comment on Philip Rosedale's presentation while it was going on. However, the person generously twittering almost every ten minutes overwhelmed me and I had to eventually remove her from my list.

The second presentation was Mercury Metropolitan moderating Angela and Nafiza talking about the Virtual Video Project program, Lucky talking about the Convention on the Rights of the Child Summer Camp, and both screening their videos. Angela has been rather mellow all weekend but the MOMENT she got on the panel, and had that mike in her hand, she was a goofy ball of fire. Nafiza gave a magnificent presentation, clearly depicting the program and her passion for all she learned. Lucky gave an excellent overview of the summer camp. And Mercury did a great job moving them through their presentations, asking them questions about why they can’t find such a program within their schools, and talking questions from the audience (of about 50, with Brooke Barmy running around with the microphone). It was also fantastic to screen all the videos from this past year – 16 in all, over twenty minutes in all – and watching them with an audience. They look great.

The part that sucked – and it REALLY sucked – was the loss of the audio stream into Second Life. They hotel actually lost their Internet connection for HOURS. It was insane. We had teens organized on the teen grid following different tracks and their was no sound coming through. None of our panels came through today at all. I just hope PhreakRadio was still able to capture the audio, as more than those who could be here should benefit from the presentations and some deserve to be transcribed.

The final presentation was our Best Practices in Education panel. The limited 30-minute time frame was quite a challenge but I just used that to amp-up our plans. We got off to a fast start and distributed the Moo cards while screening the Incomplete History of the Teen Grid Video. I hope people found it useful. We then instructed everyone to look on the back of their card and to then find the others with the same time and Best Practice number. It was wonderful to watch people get up, run about, and self-organize. We helped the teams build their 4x4 puzzles to “reveal” details of their best practice and provided them with material to tape it to a sheet and write some reflections around it. After a few shared their best practices and reflections we posted them on the wall. I was really pleased with how everyone took the exercise seriously and all they came up with on their sheets.

At night most of the teens came together - Angela, Nafiza, Lucky, Mercury, Brooke, Chilko, and (finally got to meet) Malarthi – with Tabitha, Blue, his lady, Iridium, and myself to celebrate Lucky’s recent birthday. Blue took us to a pizza place so excellent he orders pizza from them… in San Francisco! To our surprise and delight Philip Rosedale joined us, chatted with us about the teen grid, brain synapses, and saltines, and cover the bill. Very sweet! He seemed to like my idea of a Press Crawl of the teen grid and said he would speak with Catharine. We had lunch this afternoon – most of the teens – with Claudia, who spoke about some of the thinking since Philip announced on GK Island last march about an all-age space, and asked the teen’s advice. We shared some of that with Philip and further explored the idea.

I did not go the Ball afterwards but certainly enjoyed watching all the costumes go by.

p.s. I just remembered! One of the coolest thing today was meeting a fellow from ECPAT, an amazing organization in Thailand (yes, he flew all the way) that works to end sexual exploitation of teens. He attended and asked a great question of the teen machinimists, was interested to learn of last year's Maze Against Child Sex Trafficking, and was totally surprised to learn that the money raised from the maze was donated to... ECPAT! That was awesome to tell him.

Posted by Barry at 1:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The following are Barry Joseph's reflections during our work at the Second Life Community Convention.

FRIDAY EVENING POST

The SLCC has barely begun, yet I am already exhausted, elated, and nearly horse. My head’s spinning.

Traveling to the conference was quite an adventure, what with yesterday’s storm that, at last count, had killed a dozen people and caused untold damage (why is there always a storm when I come to Chicago?). Many travelers to the convention found their trips cancelled, delayed, or made it without their luggage. We were lucky enough to travel during a calm and had no difficulties.

However, using my new Twitter account, I got to experience a cross-section of the community traveling from all around the country. Twitter allows me to get SMS messages posted by people I “follow” – sort of like getting photo captions (but without the caption). All day I got message like: “Waiting at gate 3d at Hartsfield,” “finally landed in chitown,” and “Still on the damn runway in Newark waiting for clearance to takeoff.” It made it feel like we were traveling together, on separate adventures converging on one location. Very dramatic.

When we arrived at the hotel, a nice Hilton overlooking Grant park, it was filled with bicycles. I mean, everywhere: on the stairs, in the hallways… it turns out this weekend is a triathlon and this hotel is where everyone is staying. Could that be a more ironic pairing? One event is about the physical body while the other is about the virtual. And, as one SLCC attendee commented to me, it’s not hard to tell the two groups apart.

We got our rooms and registered for the conference. Joyce has done a beautiful job creating the SLCC program. The parts about the Non-profit and Philanthropy thread also came out fantastic (MacArthur is not mentioned in the two sponsor sections, however, but the small Non-profit schedule card that Joyce created that volunteers stuffed in the welcome bags looks amazing).

Then it began. The Oh-You’re…-Scream-Hugs. And they continued all night. After working with Cathy Arreguin since early winter on a weekly basis (and whom will be writing our report on the education track), we finally got to meet for the first time in person. Equally exciting was meeting Mercury Metropolitan, Global Kids teen intern who has been working for us ½ time for the past year, for the first time. And his mom! Totally amazing. And then there was Kim Annubis, who, amongst other things, created the first Global Kids island, Aesop Thatch, the legendary former-teen grid architect, Brooke Barmy with whom we have worked with many times in the past year. All of the people, from Randall, to Flip, to Jeremy, who have been coordinating the SLCC. And, of course, the Lindens: Catharine. Jeska. Claudia. By the end of the night, as I mentioned above, my head was spinning.

Working with people remotely over long periods of time is not new for me. I’ve been doing it since I was a teen (over two decades at this point). And there is always that amazing energy when you meet someone in person for the first time with whom you already have a deep relationship; it’s like putting one hand in hot water and the other in cold. Your experience of the moment is in conflict with what you know to me true. It FEELS like you are meeting someone for the first time, but you just KNOW that’s not the case. And then, like a good hour spent at the 10th Street baths jumping back and forth between the extreme hold and cold, you enter a euphoric state, having integrated the two and moved beyond. Or something.

This evening many of us attended the invite-only machinima social, organized by Moo Money and BuhBuhCah (who also sponsored it). It was lovely. Not only did we get to socialize but Moo organized a wonderful collection of machinima. Some were well known and fun to see for the first time on a screen, like Robbie Dingo’s “Watch the World,” (people applauded as soon as it began, it has touched us all so deeply), and ones that were new to me (like this hilarious one about SL meeting someone’s dream of wearing hamburgers).

It is also great to see so many teens here. Not just the three Global Kids Leaders we are chaperoning, and Mercury and Brooke, but also Chilo and others I have spied. It’s an honor to get to spend time with them here and, to be honest, I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in their shoes. It’s exciting just to imagine.

Finally, Joyce delivered our Moo cards and stickers. We each got a new set of Moo business cards. Those are always fun to trade. We also got our first batch of GK Moo stickers, which are stamp size. One promotes the MacArthur blog, one the Global Kids’ one (“You got served at HolyMeatballs.org”), and one is just the GK logo (which has been the most popular). It’s been fun sticking them on people’s badges (BuhBuhCah let me put one on his computer and Pathfinder Linden has one on the back of his iPhone!).

But the best best best of the Moo cards are the puzzle cards we created for our Education Track presentation tomorrow. 12 sets of 16 cards which, when combined, create a beautiful image describing a variety of best practices. I can’t wait to watch people put them together and explore them tomorrow.

Posted by Barry at 11:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Below are brief biographies of some of the panelists and moderators in the Second Life Community Convention's Non-profit and Philanthropy Thread:

Adam Aberman. Prior to becoming Youth Venture’s Director of Global Digital Strategy, Adam was the Executive Director and Founder (and currently Board Member) of icouldbe.org, the non-profit Internet-based career mentoring program that has served over 5,000 teens nationwide and in Tanzania www.icouldbe.org. Adam is also the Principal and Founder of The Learning Collective, a consulting organization that strengthens practices of youth-serving organizations. Prior to establishing icouldbe.org, Adam was a Regional Coordinator for the New York City Department of Education. Adam began his career in education as a Spanish bilingual public school teacher in Los Angeles. Adam received a B.A. from Vassar College and a Master's in Public Policy, with an emphasis on Education, from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Outside of work Adam enjoys hanging out with his lovely wife, Karlene, his fantastic newborn daughter, Phoenix, and his meaty dog, Sausage, and doing yard work & oil painting at their home in the West Adams district of Los Angeles.

Nafiza Akter is a rising star at the Academy of American Studies in Queens, New York. She has been an avid participant in multiple Global Kids after school programs, and she worked on the annual Global Kids youth conference in March 2007. Nafiza is a member of the Virtual Video Project, attended Global Kid's Summer Institute at the Council on Foreign Relations, and assisted on the Convention on the Rights of the Child Summer Machinima Camp.

Anna Berthold, Technical Producer - Virtual Worlds/Candidate for a Master's in Public Diplomacy at USC

Anna Berthold is the Technical Producer of the Public Diplomacy and Virtual Worlds Project at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. Anna's background is in the fields of international conflict and new technology. She received her B.A. in International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Southern California.

From 2003-2006, Anna conducted extensive research on the genocide in Darfur with special emphasis on the moral and legal responsibility of the international community to intervene. During that time she also received certificates in International Humanitarian Law, International Tracing, International Relief and Development, Disaster Relief, and International Services from the Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Academy.

In 2005 Anna worked as a terrorism research analyst at the Center for Defense Information in Washington D.C. where she monitored, analyzed and reported daily international terrorist activity and other issues of importance to U.S. defense. While at CDI, Anna published a number of articles regarding military and security concerns in Afghanistan and reported on the Afghan Parliamentary Elections.

In 2005, having spent the previous six years doing freelance web design and programming on the side, Anna founded ALaraB Productions, a company specializing in web and graphic design, 3D modeling, animation and videography.

Anna is currently enrolled in the Master of Public Diplomacy Program at USC which encapsulates her various research interests in human rights, conflict resolution, terrorism, and new technology into one field of study. In January 2007, in order to further incorporate her passion for new technology, Anna took on her current role as Technical Producer of the Public Diplomacy and Virtual Worlds Project at USC's Center on Public Diplomacy.

Lucky Figtree is a sixteen year old high school student who became a member of the Teen Second Life community in early January of 2006. When Global Kids opened in the teen grid, she quickly became involved. She's attended both of their online summer camps, and completed a year of the Digital Media Youth Advisory. Apart from Global Kids, she helps with managing the two private islands Eden and Alcove for Alex Harbinger, and most recently, she's opened her own animation shop, 'Luckamations'.

Tori Horton is the Project Manager for the USC Center on Public Diplomacy Virtual Worlds and the Public Good project, which analyzes the opportunity for virtual worlds to provide a new and natural platform for philanthropy through digital communication and cross-cultural interaction that occurs in these worlds. Support for this project comes from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Tori has worked at the Center for over two years, first as an Assistant to the Director and then as Assistant Director of Budget and Administration. Tori is in her second year as a student in the Public Diplomacy Master's Program. Her areas of interest include narrative, nation branding, and culture exchange.

In 2005, she directed a German student exchange program in the Pasadena area to facilitate cultural dialogue between German students and American host families.

Prior to her time at USC Tori earned her undergraduate degree in Humanities and English from Brigham Young University. While attending BYU, she worked as a youth guidance counselor, served as a PRSSA public relations officer, and lived abroad on a student education program in Vienna, Austria. Her time abroad involved studying German and teaching English to Iranian families. Tori's public relations experience covers both the profit and non-profit sectors.

Bradford H. Lewis, ACSW (SL: Bradford Raymaker) is a Program Officer for Learn and Serve America at the Corporation for National and Community Service, an independent federal agency where he has served for over 13 years. He manages a grant portfolio in the North Central region of the United States as well as working on youth voice, community-based issues and technology initiatives. As a member of the Steering Committee for the National Service-Learning Conference, he helped to bring Second Life residents into the conference this past year through two-way streaming, and is planning for inclusion of mixed-reality workshop sessions in this year’s conference. He has been a panelist or speaker at Games for Change and Games for Health and is active on the Serious Games listserv. Mr. Lewis received his Master’s Degree in Social Work (MSW) from Columbia University in 1983 and then worked in New York City and Connecticut for the next 10 years. Positions he held included directing youth leadership/after-school/service-learning programs, teen travel/residential summer camps, and Assistant Executive Director of a community YM-YWHA. He also served as a Governor's appointee on the Connecticut Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee and more recently as Adjunct Faculty at the University of Maryland Graduate School of Social Work and Field Instructor for the Howard University Graduate School of Social Work.

Pathfinder Linden (aka John Lester) joined Linden Lab in 2005, bringing experience in online community development as well as a background in the fields of healthcare and education. Previously he was the Information Technology Director in the Neurology Service at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he pioneered the use of the web in 1993 to create online communities for supporting patients dealing with neurological disorders. He also held an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School, where he created online collaborative environments for professors and students to advance the case-based teaching method in medical education. John currently serves as the regional supervisor for the Boston offices of Linden Lab.

Barry Joseph, Global Kids, Inc., Director of the Online Leadership Program, holds a BA from Northwestern University and an MA in American Studies from New York University. Barry came to Global Kids in 2000 through the New Voices Fellowship of the Academy for Educational Development, funded by the Ford Foundation. He has developed innovative programs in the areas of youth-led online dialogues, video games as a form of youth media, and the educational potential of virtual worlds, combining youth development practices with the development of high profile digital media projects that develop 21st Century Skills. He has also worked with GK's development program to secure funding from a number of foundation’s and corporations. Barry has served on the steering committee of the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning initiative and his writing will appear in the Foundation's Ecology of Games volume in 2007. He has spoken at numerous conferences and published articles in a wide variety of publications.

Allyson Knox manages Microsoft’s US Partners in Learning Michigan, Massachusetts, and Mid Tier grants. Prior to Microsoft, she worked at the US Chamber of Commerce as a senior program manager in workforce development. A Michigan native, she worked at the regional and state levels in Michigan on issues and programs related to economic and workforce development. As a research associate at Michigan State University she wrote about the development of The Young Spartan Program - a university-urban school district partnership. She received her BA in English from the University of Michigan, MA in Adult Learning from Michigan State University, and Ed M in Technology in Education from Harvard University.

Mercury Metropolitan is a 17 year-old male who first joined Second Life in June 2005, and resides on the "Teen Grid." He has been working for Global Kids as a remote intern since summer of '06, and has since proved to be an invaluable resource - offering his knowledge and expertise about the virtual environment, and playing an integral role in the development of several educational programs and events on the Global Kids estate. On his spare time, Mercury serves as a resident volunteer - helping to orient new residents with the user interface, and also holds a voluntary position as moderator of the Teen Second Life forums.

Chinwe Onyekere, M.P.H., is a program officer on the Pioneer Portfolio. Before joining RWJF in June 2002, she was a researcher for a joint Harvard Medical School and Weill Medical College of Cornell University project, "Cultural Competence in Health Care." For this project, she investigated the emerging frameworks of and practical approaches to cultural competence.

Onyekere also has research and program experience in health care disparities, pediatric chronic care issues, social determinates of health, and international health. She has worked on projects with the Office of Research on Women's Health at the National Institutes of Health, Management Sciences for Health, and Children's Hospital in Boston.

Onyekere received a master's degree in public health from Columbia University, Division of Sociomedical Sciences, and a B.A. in political science from Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

Angela Paez is 17 years old. She is currently training to be an aviation technician at Aviation High School in New York City.

Benjamin Stokes is a Program Officer at the MacArthur Foundation. He works on the five-year, $50 million initiative that examines how digital media is changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. Previously, Benjamin co-founded Games for Change (G4C), the central organization advancing games media for positive social change.

Alex Struminger works with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on strategies for producing, promoting and distributing the organization's messages and media products through "new media" and broadcast channels. Recent projects include the "World Fit for Children" event in December 2006, which was the largest United Nations event to be held in Second Life, and the first UN event to be held in Teen Second Life.

Mr. Struminger has been executive producer of multimedia web sites, videos and online promotional campaigns. He also has a deep understanding of technology, Web 2.0, and the convergence between off-line and on-line initiatives. In addition to his work with UNICEF, Mr. Struminger has consulted on technology projects for AT&T, the US Department of Commerce, Intel, Accenture and the City University of New York (CUNY). He has lectured on "new media" and information architecture at the CUNY Institute for Software Design and Development, the University of Hartford and the Rhode Island School of Design. He has been an invited speaker at the World Wide Web Artist Consortium (WWWAC) in New York, the Center of Nonprofit Excellence in Charlottesville, VA, and at UNICEF's global new media summit in New York.

Susan Tenby, Senior Manager of Community Development, TechSoup, devised and has managed the TechSoup community forums since 2000 and is responsible for the strategy and direction for the organization's community initiatives. She launched The Nonprofit Commons sim in Second Life, with the Nonprofit Second Life volunteer community (NPSL) on land and buildings, donated by Anshe Chung Studios, in 2006. This non-profits-only sim hosts 32 organizations for free, lowering the barrier of access to this virtual world. The group has a blog, wiki and shared community tagging project using the tag "NPSL" on del.icio.us, Technorati, Flickr and others. They hold regular, weekly in-world meetings that teach SL best-practices to nonprofits. Susan runs monthly online community meet-ups in San Francisco; organizes and speaks at conferences on Nonprofits in Second Life such as Games for Change on Virtual Activism in June '07 and Using Second Life as an Innovative Marketing Tool at Supernova, 2007. After SLCC, Susan will be speaking on a panel she organized at the California Association of Nonprofits. Susan also writes about online community building and has been interviewed in several publications with International reach about her work in SL.

Connie M. Yowell is the Director of Education in the Foundation's Program on Human and Community Development. In this role, she focuses on grants relating to public education, and on the implications for education of young people's use of digital media.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Yowell was an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where her work included the study of reasons why Latino youth drop out of high school. Previously she worked as a Policy Analyst in the Office of Policy and Planning of the U.S. Department of Education. Before that Yowell was a Research Assistant at the University of California at San Francisco and at Stanford University.

Yowell earned her bachelor's degree from Yale and her Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Posted by Barry at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

All year I have been having a problem with sound in Second Life.

Sometimes surrounding sound, like wind when flying, didn't come through. Other times it would not play streaming audio attached to a plot of land. This made it REALLY difficult when recording live events or making machinima with teens.

It came to a head this summer due to the CONSENT! project which relies on pre-cached audio from our students. It almost never worked for me. We could never figure it out.

Yesterday we tested it hard, with many people, on many machines, and learned that:
- It either worked for people all the time, or was inconsistently non-working with the same people
- It did not matter what machine the person used - they either found it working or did not
- The ones who tended to find it working were running Windows and the ones who did not were on Macs.

For a while we thought it was a Mac client problem. We also found a bunch of information about pre-cache sound problems. We figured it was one or the other, neither of which we could fix within CONSENT!

Then I remember I had been having sound problems earlier. I tried to fly and heard no sound. We put a sound file into the parcel and I heard nothing. I realized then it has to be all connected. Was it my preferences? My computer? I didn't know.

When I spoke with Concierge this afternoon they plugged in something about the wind sound not working and found a page that said to:
- Open the program Audio MIDI Setup. I've been on a mac forever and had never seen this before.
- Change the audio output from 96000 to 44100.
- Restart Second Life

I literally expected nothing to change, maybe if anything the wind sound would return.

But it all worked.

Audio on a parcel works.

All of the students sounds in CONSENT! work PERFECTLY now, after months of frustration.

And, finally, once again, I can hear myself fly.

Thank you to all the teens and Lindens (you know who you are) who helped out.

Posted by Barry at 9:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well SL was down today for the last day of camp, so it’s been cancelled until Monday where we will fill out a survey and sum up the camp. We also might be playing games and have a small dance party, not sure but it would be nice. I have loved blogging everyday of the last 5 weeks. It's been great fun to keep everyone up-to-date and creating diaries of what happened, etc.

Great news is that now my final final version of my 1 minute machinima movie is finished and up on blip.tv!

I have watched it and everything I want is there. I thought it went well planned and was well produced. I feel really happy that I have achieved something from this camp in the last 5 weeks. To me it’s been a great experience and I would love to come back again to future camps and GK events.

This is the link to my final machinima, I hope you enjoy it and would kindly make a nice comment.
http://www.blip.tv/file/348547/

Posted by Daniel Voyager - SL Intern at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Throughout the last week the teens have been working hard to gather all their sounds and put the finishing touches on their videos. The campers have been scattered as to where they are individually with their own machinima. For example, Lucky really had no background sounds she wanted in her movie and wanted music to play in the background, so she was one of the first campers to be done with their movie. Although many of the campers are so close to finished with their part and now are waiting to see the final product for themselves, the campers were still busy in camp! They spent a lot of the time in camp gathering their sounds. But we did get a chance to take group pictures:

Another fun thing that the campers got a chance to do over camp is take some play to really enjoy the last few days they have with one and another. So they all played "Busted!" and it was great to see them playing with each other because they seemed to enjoy that little break from all the work and the stress of school starting.

This is a picture of the game being started off:

This is a picture of the group of the points when the game was coming to an end:

The campers also did a little video taking a bow, which is up on Blip! They were each filmed for about 3 seconds and they decided on an animation they wanted to do. This is a screen capture from Blip of Mike 'taking a bow,' in which he decided to use a pogo stick instead of a regular animation.

Before taking their props off of Global Kids' Machinima Island, the campers also took one last final picture of themselves in front of their sets. This is an example of Echolon in front of his set, which was a village:

Overall, the campers have been working hard on sending in their sounds, and explaining what kind of specific edits they want done to their Machinima's. Most of their final products is up on blip! So please go take a look at them, and feel free to leave comments because the campers are really looking forward to feedback from the public. Also, feel free to take a look at Global Kids' Flickr set on the CRC Machinima Camp to see more pictures in full quality!

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey everyone! I'm so sorry that I haven't been posting. I've had to deal with a lot of serious offline issues; and I haven't had much time. =[

Camp is already over!
Whattt!?
It's gone by way too fast =[

Everyone has worked so hard on their machinimas; and I believe most are finished. Yay!
I'm so proud of the way mine came out :] Nafiza did an amazing job helping me, and filming. Kudos to Fizzy!!

We were asked to create an object at camp today, to reflect on our machinima.
For mine, I recreated the blackboard that was used on my set. I made a texture to represent the article that I used for my machinima; and over the top of that- text to represent this year of camp; and all the fun memories.
Everyone else's reflections were awesome, and really fun to see :)

Posted by Lucky - SL Intern at 7:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ok. Today there were fewer campers here, which was strange. But I think they might be starting school so that's fine. Today started in the workshop room and we did a status check. As it stands now my movie is almost complete, I just have the dialogue to go. I should be finished soon. Update that 6 out of now 10 people have completed everything so well done them :). Our task today was called Reflection Piece Task, where we had to build something to represent our set or something about our time in camp. We had an hour to do this. Then we gathered back outside the meeting room and started to show and tell about what we had built, etc.

Also, it’s our last day at camp tomorrow. I feel sad because I don't want it to end and it’s been exciting to do this camp in Second Life. The 5 weeks have gone by so fast, but I have enjoyed each moment of it and will never forget it with the campers and the great staff. Also, we are going to have an extra class next Monday after tomorrow to do a survey and plan for the CRC machinima camp party that will be the 10th of September between 1-2pm SLT, I think.

This is my homework for today:

This is an image of my reflection piece which is a factory similar to the one in my machinima because it represents Tom, in my scene, going to work. The condition is horrible inside, and he has to build boxes and work so hard. But then chooses to go and visit his old school later and ask for an better education. In school and work he is very disappointed.

As this is from article #28

Posted by Daniel Voyager - SL Intern at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is an image of my reflection piece from today's workshop. It's a doll house making machine. I made it because it's something everyone would probably remember and what we did with the doll houses had a good point.

Posted by CRC Machinima Michael at 4:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is an image of my reflection piece from today's workshop. It is one of the classroom desks that was used in my machinima. The cigarette is there to show that kids will get involved with drugs, and the government should find ways to stop it from happening. This build reflects article #33 in the CRC.

Posted by CRC Machinima Colby at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, my Machinima is finished
...
http://blip.tv/file/346494/

Posted by CRC Machinima Scott at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey Guys,

Well, it's week 5, our final week at camp. What a great time we have had planning, storyboarding, filming, reviewing, playing games, and getting to know each other. Today was our 3rd to last day of camp, which means this Wednesday is our last day at camp after that its finished. Today we spent the day gathering ideas, sending off our last sounds and music to the GKids staff. We were then told to remove our sets from the camp. This we will be used for something else I am sure in the coming months.

After 12pm SLT we went to a place and one of the members of staff shot a 3 second film of us, one by one, as a finished product. Mine was to do the /hey gesture which worked well. After that we were told that some final movies were being uploaded and then it was the end of today.

Ideas for Wednesday: Have a dance floor and party, play games including Busted, building anything contests, maybe a couple of good contests, watch some movies at the theatre, or have a money prize task or something. Anything really which is great fun and we will enjoy. I think for wednesday, maybe bring in some special guests like GKids or Lindens, etc.

I will be bloging tomorrow and everyday of this final week. Check back for updates and I hope you have enjoyed all the blogs I have made since day 1. :)

Posted by Daniel Voyager - SL Intern at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For our last day of CRC Machinima Camp on Wednesday, we should have a big party to celebrate all of our hard work. We have finally finished working on our machinimas. It is harder than it looks. It took 4 weeks to make a 1-minute machinima. I cant wait to see the finished products.

Posted by Nick - TSL Intern at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I don't know why, but I have completely forgotten to blog most of the time on the camp, but here I am again now that I was reminded ^^ So, camp is ending in a few days and it has been cool. I sent my last sounds in today, and will send the credits in a moment, too.

Posted by CRC Machinima Calade at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was thinking that, since it's the last day, we should reflect on what we did for the past 5 weeks. To do that, we should put a water cooler up to discuss things.
We should also play games and such.

Posted by CRC Machinima Colby at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week, we had a great time playing games like Busted! and Bitris. We also got our sounds in for our movies. I would think that playing games in which you feel like you are gambling is illegal is TSL, but I guess it isn't

Posted by CRC Machinima Colby at 3:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi! It's Echo. I would like to give a big thanks to all the people who were helping out in my machinima. I know you all waited on me a lot and I know it wasn't very organized, but I think it turned out very well. OK, so I would like to thank Mk, Nafiza, Tabitha, Mercury, and I think either Totem or Bb. Thanks again guys! Sorry but the reason I'm not sure if it was Totem or Bb is cause it was rushed during filming and I forget!

Posted by CRC Machinima Mikael at 12:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was a good day. From 11am everything went well, and again we did final check-ups on how we want our money given to us and our updated progress on filming and sending music. We were also told to come up with titles for our movies. I picked "Better Conditions for Tomorrow." I have done these things and now I am working on just adding new features. Then after 12pm PDT we played a game which was called Busted that the campers have not played for a while and was not known for a while on the Teen Grid. Its on the comeback with others.
So then after 12:40pm we gathered back and we did a special wrap up activity where we had to post the following below:

Something I learned about myself this summer is that I can work in a group and I know how to make a machinima and make sure I can meet deadlines.

What I will miss most about camp is the great campers because they're great fun to be with for 5 weeks. Also, I will miss coming everyday at 11am and taking part in everything, including working in groups or pairs.

My Favorite experience from camp is when we had to make doll houses and the GKids were asking us to work faster, etc. Also, watching Mercury be the funny teacher when she was angry in my movie.

A new skill I now have is that I can create a machinima and how to put it all together.

Something I didn't know before, but do now is that child rights is a major issue in the world today.

Another Great Day! Friday, tomorrow our last time it will be on a Friday! Then it's week 5 from Monday - :)

Posted by Daniel Voyager - SL Intern at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One thing I will miss about this camp is the nice people and the fun activities we played, the organization and the hard work we put into all of our machinimas.

Posted by CRC Machinima Mikael at 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Something I learned about myself this summer is that I’m more capable of doing things than I thought…

What I will miss most about camp are the games and the activities and builds we did! So fun…

My favorite experience from camp was when we built our stages for the machinimas! I’ll never forget that!

Something I didn’t know before but do now is how to make machinimas in a better, and more fun way, and now I know more about children’s rights!

Posted by CRC Machinima Jordan at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

What I will miss most about this camp is that I will not be able to share my ideas with people around the world as easily and create machinimas anymore. This is mostly because school starts soon and I will have no time to make many machinimas.

Posted by Nick - TSL Intern at 3:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My favorite experience from camp is the fact that I was able to interact with other people around the world, while at the same time learning new things and having fun.

Posted by CRC Machinima Isaac at 3:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A new skill I now have is that I am able to create machinima videos, and now I know how to make a movie set in SL, and I understand the work that goes into creating one.

Posted by CRC Machinima Colby at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What I will miss most about camp are the people and getting to sit around and talk about almost anything with them. And also the fact that I'm not in school so I have the time to do this kind of stuff.

Posted by CRC Machinima Michael at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, after a lot of work, I have finally finished the draft for my movie. It looks great so far, and the sounds and dialogs will make it even better! This has been very exciting.

Posted by CRC Machinima Colby at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have a lot of people I would like to thank for making my machinima possible:

The Global Kids staff (especially Tabitha, for running the camp, and Meghan for filming and editing my video.)
Con Georgette (extra)
Bam Dean (extra)
Daniel Voyager (I borrowed his set)
bbelevenslashsixtytwo Ayres (I borrowed his set too)
The Lindens (They make Second Life go)
My parents (for letting me be in this camp)
Machinima Guru/Moo Money (for helping with the machinima)

I think that’s all! Thanks everyone!!!!

Posted by Nick - TSL Intern at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The following is the full text from the video produced for the SLCC 2007's Non-Profit and Philanthropy Thread's video presentation: The Incomplete History of Education in Teen Second Life

Disclaimer: The following timeline was produced using content posted at the SL History Wiki (slhistory.org/index.php/Teen_SL); if anything is missing or incorrect, please change it on the site.

FEBRUARY 2005

TSL Beta launches, for teens 13-17; Open only during Linden Labs office hours.

JANUARY 2006

TSL leaves Beta; Open 24/7; Blue Linden in charge; Global Kids creates in-world journal to document best practices and offer analysis - The Holy Meatballs of Divine Spongiform.

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2006

The first public sim for education by an outside organization opens: Global Kids Island.

MAY 2006

HolyMeatballs.org is launched documenting Global Kids work in Second Life; Save Darfur campaign begins in TSL, distributing thousands of free wristbands.

JUNE-AUGUST 2006

Claudia Linden joins Blue, focusing on Sub-estates used mostly by educators; Camp Global Kids 2006 creates maze against child sex trafficking; Kids Connect summer project begins, an international performing arts collaboration; Suffern Middle School begins their presence in TSL, with 800 students and 15 eighth-grade teachers, covering subjects ranging from math to family consumer science to art, health, and social studies.

SEPTEMBER 2006

Global Kids publishes Education in Second Life Best Practices document.

OCTOBER 2006

First live dual grid video stream when MacArthur Foundation announces new $50m Digital Media and Learning Initiative; Global Kids receives $900k for series of programs over three years which include prominent use of TSL.

NOVEMBER 2006

The first Who’s On Second Podcast by Wayne MacPhail; Global Kids’ Virtual Video Project launches at Museum of the Moving Image; International Criminal Court Scavenger Hunt launches; U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Darfur Photo exhibit opens; Social Contract proposed by Global Kids to eliminate the Linden Curtain.

DECEMBER 2006

The “Pacific Rim Exchange” (PacRimX) launches; The Global Kids Guide To Presenting In Teen Second Life released; UNICEF's A World Fit For Children Festival and Build Contest is held; Henry Jenkins lecture/dance party on games and learning.

JANUARY 2007

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum presents Mia Farrow speaking on the crisis in Darfur; audio and images of her avatar streamed from the main grid.

FEBRUARY 2007

Eye4You Alliance opens publicly to TSL residents; MIT’s Beyond Broadcast conference in TSL; Global Kids launches two new islands, one for Machinima and one for Serious Games.

MARCH 2007

Eye4You alliance holds week-long festival in SL in conjunction with national event; Global Kids begins distance learning program in TSL with McKinley Tech High School, Washington, D.C.; Global Kids begins development of SL Professional Development Curriculum; National Service Learning Council simulcasts annual conference into TSL; Global Kids celebrates one year anniversary - The majority of the events, activities and builds were created and run by teens; The NOAA Glacier comes to TSL; Representatives from Learn & Serve America and the National Youth Leadership Council speak to teens through a live audio stream on service-learning; Live simulcast from the annual Global Kids youth conference.

APRIL 2007

Moo Money comes to GK island to offer Machinima classes; Remote talk through Second Life at the Non-Profit Technology Network Conference rated best conference presentation; Linden Lab responds to teen and adult requests by reorganizing the grid; TSL-YA (Youth Advocates) forms, beginning the development of the Y.A.M. Seal of Approval to hold adult educators accountable to teen residents; Global Kids’ Virtual Video Project launches first set of machinima PSAs; Global Kids receives funding from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to partner with YouthVenture in TSL to bring health-related youth entrepreneurship into Second Life; Dubai American Academy builds a presence on Kids Connect Island.

MAY 2007

A Child's War launched by Global Kids, a 6.5 minute SL-based machinima about child soldiers in Uganda made by GK Youth Leaders through a year-long after school program; James Paul Gee presents on avatars and identity while wearing teen-created avatars.

JUNE 2007

Eye4You Alliance holds weekend-series of Machinima classes; Global Kids intern program begins series of teen-led educational programs.

JULY 2007

Virtual Curation Program begins, a summer collaboration between Global Kids in NYC and Washington, D.C. youth at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; Launch of the Convention on the Rights of the Child Machinima Summer Camp, run by Global Kids for UNICEF.

AUGUST 2007

Global Kids' after school program, Playing 4 Keeps, releases the year-end final project CONSENT!, produced by the Digital Refinery, a game in Second Life about unethical medical prison research on African American males since World War Two; Global Kids publishes updated version of the Education in Second Life Best Practices document; the Virtual World Campus launches, providing rental spaces and support for educational initiatives.

The Non-Profit and Philanthropy Thread rocks the third annual Second Life Community Convention!!!

Posted by Barry at 11:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Global Kids (and staff) who made the camp possible and helped with the production of my video
Machinima Guru
Echolon Syaka
Crazy Binder
WolfHeart Cooljoke
The Lindens, who managed to keep the servers running for the majority of the camp

Posted by CRC Machinima Michael at 4:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello! Well it’s now the middle of week 4. Well today we had log in issues to start off with because of SL’s downtime for maintenance. After about 15 minutes we gathered in the workshop room to go over some things and what is going to happen in the next few days. For example, we are planning to host a party next month, and if we want a check or receive our stipend in Linden dollars for participating.

I am glad to say I have collected of all my sounds for my machinima, and maybe some extras. Our task today was to comment on other campers’ rough cuts that they made, and also to thank all the campers and anyone involved for helping us out.

Sadly there is only a week to go until week 5 - time flies!

Here are all the names of people I would like to thank for helping me make my machinima:

Rafi Gkid
Tabitha Gkid
Meghan Gkid
Nafiza Gkid
Barry Gkid
Radhika Gkid

Mercury Metropolitan
Storm Basiat
JOEY Alexandre
bbelevenslashsixtytwo Ayres
Nicholas Kit
Mk5793 Zeluco
Calade Lamington
Echolon Syaka

Thanks so much everyone!

Posted by Daniel Voyager - SL Intern at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've finally finished filming! I was surprised how good it turned out! Now it's time to edit!

Big thanks to my actors:
Vince Bosen
bbelevenslashsixtytwo Ayres
James Canto
Narutosep Acropolis

And of course Meghan Gkid for filming it all!

Posted by CRC Machinima Scott at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was a research day for me as I am now looking for sounds and music, I am now in the editing stage so I hope to get it complete soon so we can be ready to show off!

I am happy because my rough version of my machinima is now up! Here is the link on blip TV:

Daniel Voyager's first cut

Also if you need help on finding music please visit the following websites:

http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/
http://sounddogs.com/default.asp

Also I am adding photos from the past 3 weeks so here is my Flickr page:

Daniel Voyager's Flickr page

Another great day at camp today, can't wait until it’s all completed and finished. Also excited for the big party at the end which will help wrap it all up.

Posted by Daniel Voyager - SL Intern at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been forgetting to blog for a bit so here is a collective post of the last week or so.

My filming is going great! I am done now. Meghan Gkid was a really good camera lady and I think I was a good director. I played the lead role in all of my scenes. Meghan even came on a Saturday to help me get my filming finish quicker, which was great (3x thanks).

The camp so far has been great. I met a lot of new people and made a lot of new friends. I can’t wait to see everyone’s finished films. There are some really good filmmakers in the bunch.

Camp is now almost over (8 days left) which is not so good. I don’t want it to be over because it is so much fun. Also, once it is over I have to go back to school.

Well, that's all I have to say for now.

Blog ya later,
Nick

Posted by Nick - TSL Intern at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am finally finished filming! Yay! It took a while, but it was a lot less stressful than I thought it would be because I had most of what I needed done, and I made sure that my actors knew what they were supposed to do. All of my actors were from my personal friends list, since everyone in the CRC Machinima Camp group were busy with their own movies. The people who helped out were:

Angus Milland
Nafiza GKid
Nicholas Kit
ArwenEvenstar Dagger

The link to my unedited clips is here:

Totem's first cut

Overall I think it was successful, although I think I could have been a bit clearer in my storyboard. Regardless I think it will turn out great!

Posted by CRC Machinima Isaac at 1:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, now that the campers have begun to film their movies, the best way to show how this all progressed is through showing the storyboards, then the set or build, and finally a rough-cut of raw footage edited without any sound effects added.

Calade:

This is where the main character will pass by this and see the posters:
The Storyboard:
The Set/Build:

This is when the family sits down to watch TV:
The Storyboard:
The Set/Build:

This is where the main character will walk up the stairs to his room:
The Storyboard:
The Set/Build:

A rough-cut of Calade's raw footage put together is now posted here!

----------------------

Lucky:

This will be the shot where the disabled student will struggle to get up the stairs:
The Storyboard:
The Set/Build:

This is a shot of the classroom scene:
The Storyboard:
The Set/Build:

This is the final shot when the camera zooms into the blackboard:
The Storyboard:
The Set/Build:

A rough-cut of the raw footage of Lucky's movie can be found here!

----------------------

These are just some of shots of Calade's and Lucky's build's and storyboards, to see more, please visit Global Kids' Flickr!

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 1:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We are excited about a great article on the pioneering work being done by Suffern Middle School's Peggy Sheehy (who just so happens to be the mom of GK's own Meghan Deanna) within Teen Second Life. And thanks to Peggy for the shout-out: "For teachers interested in getting started, Sheehy said, projects such as Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative are starting to offer curriculum ideas specific to Second Life."

Read the article at: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21101

Posted by joyce at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is bbelevenslashsixtytwo Ayres's storyboard:

Scene 1: The child wakes up from sleep

Scene 2: The child greets and talks to his mother

Scene 3: The child goes to work

Scene 4: He is working

Scene 5: He returns home after a hard day's work

Scene 6: He plays with his friends

------------

This is Nicholas Kit's storyboard:

Scene 1: The narrator is introducing the storyline

Scene 2: The parents fight over custody of Owen in court

Scene 3: Flying to Europe, the sad ending, and the children's rights violation!

------------

Mk5793 Zeluco's storyboard:

* Note: For a fuller version, please go to here.

------------

Daniel Voyager's storyboard:

Scenes 1-3: The child goes to work

(For full version click here)

Scenes 4-6: A look at school-life for the child

(For full version click here)

Scenes 7-9: Standing up for a right

(for full version here)

------------

Scott Deharo's storyboard:

Scene 1: A child is working and plastering bricks.

Scene 2: Children playing

Scene 3: This is repeated; the first two scenes (or similar ones) go back and forth.

------------

Echolon Syaka's storyboard:

Scene 1: Two different scenarios

Scene 2: Cries for help and kidnapped children

Scene 3: The kidnapped children and the ending...

------------

Lucky Figtree's storyboard:

Scene 1: One disabled girl struggles to get around and having trouble using her locker

Scene 2: On her way to class

Scene 3: Within the classroom

------------

Calade Lamington's storyboard:

Scene 1:

Scene 2:

Scene 3:

------------

Dragonlord949 Kit's storyboard:

Scene 1:

Scene 2:

Scene 3:

Final Scene:

------------

Totem Gufler's storyboard:

Posted by Nafiza - TSL Intern/VVP at 5:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So, I finished filming my machinima yesterday and now I'm collecting all kinds of stuff needed for editing. Apparently I'm catching up with the others pretty well. :)

Posted by CRC Machinima Calade at 5:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey Everyone!

Great news today! I managed to get all of my scenes completed on time. We first gathered in the main workshop room for a while, after that we were given details about next week being shorter than usual, and that all sounds and music must be submitted by the Wednesday. Then Rafi Gkid and I along with my excellent extras came to my set and started scenes 5 to 9. It took from 11:20PDT to 1:20PDT to get the final scenes completed, which was fun to do while we packed so much in. After that the next thing I plan to work on is finding sound effects, sounds, music and dialog that I am working on now. I hope to have it all done by Wednesday while in the editing process.

Just wanted to say thanks so much for all my extras and GK staff for all your help, you have all done a great job helping me to get to this stage and I am looking forward to the final product. And good Luck to the rest of the campers and thank you all for making this an excellent camp!

Posted by Daniel Voyager - SL Intern at 6:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow, today was fun, most of the day all I had to do was sit at a desk on a set, so I spent most of the time talking to people on Skype and looking for sounds for my machinima video. Plus I got a video of Ryan beating up Nick (actually, it was bb in nick's AV) and a picture of Nick as a girl (bb again, but it would be easier to explain that way ) Plus, we all got a free facial animation tool, which is pretty cool!

Posted by CRC Machinima Michael at 4:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have not blogged in a while! But I am done with the filming process now and moved to the editing process! Camp really has been fun! As I speak (well type) we are on week 4, which is unbelievable! It passed by so quickly; it did not feel like 4 weeks to me. Tabitha and everyone are working hard to get the movies cut done and ready, so far so good! I can’t wait to see everyone’s work, I know they will all be great.

Posted by CRC Machinima Jordan at 2:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well another week has ended. This week has been great because we have completed some amazing tasks and challenges this week. Friday was a good day because I managed to start filming, and this time the actors came (they did not on Thursday) so it was not a problem. I have finished scenes 1 to 4 now and I am planning to get scenes 5 to 9 done on Monday next week, so then I can edit it and add features, etc. We got straight to work and right into filming when we arrived today and I now think everyone is filming and that we should be finished no later than Wednesday.

Only 2 weeks left now! It’s flying by so fast. I hope it goes well for the rest of the time.

Have a great weekend everyone see you all next Monday for another exciting week!

Posted by Daniel Voyager - SL Intern at 5:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, today we started filming, and it went very slow. Since half the people that were going to be filmed weren't there, we had to get two more people who had no clue at first on what they need to do, so the first scene alone took almost an hour even though I gave them notecards telling them what to do which they obviously didn't understand. But eventually we got it; hopefully it'll be something close to what I wanted.

Posted by CRC Machinima Michael at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been so busy that I have forgotten to blog...Well, here we go anyways ^^ So, week three is over and I'm a bit late from schedule because of my previous absences. My sets are nearly done and I will finish them over the weekend. Tabitha has my storyboard now and things are looking good.

Posted by CRC Machinima Calade at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, so I have my set built, and I've started to shoot my film. Unfortunately, the sim seems to be having major issues, so I hope it comes back up.

Posted by CRC Machinima Colby at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)