Conferences

[conf] Microsoft's Research Group's Social Computing Symposium 

Submitted by bjoseph on Tue, 09/18/2007 - 16:23

We were invited to attend the Microsoft Corporation's Research Group's Social Computing Symposium in Redmond, an invite-only event with around 80 or so folks from the for-profit, academic, and online world. There is an amazing collection of people here who have accomplished tremendous things in the online world over the past 20 years. It was great to meet a number of fellow MacArthur grantees whom I only know from MacArthur's Spotlight blog and exciting (intimidating?) to meet so many heroes from the field. For example, at lunch I had someone who made my favorite EPCOT rides on one side and on the other the fellow who created the Beast, the first ARP game back in 2000 that, more than anything else, indoctrinated me to the world of social computing.

Of most interest were the presentations - a combination of academic studies, web 2.0 product demos or reviews, and musings about the present and future of social computing. Presentations were short and, at the end of each day, we voted for those we most want to give back-to-back five minute "lightening round" presentations created on the spot. Very effective process.

[slcc] Overview of Non-profit and Philanthropy Thread at the Third Annual Second Life Community Convention 

Submitted by bjoseph on Sat, 09/15/2007 - 00:07

From August 24-26, 2007, in Chicago, Global Kids coordinated the Non-profit and Philanthropy Thread at the Third Annual Second Life Community Convention.

This serves to collect all of our posts, photos, videos, audio, and more in one location. We will be adding to it over time, so please watch this space.

Teens listening to the SLCC Social Track on GK Island

GENERAL INFORMATION

  • Speaker Bios

    PHOTOS

  • View all Global Kids' related photos and sets on Flickr
  • All Flickr photos with the thread tag: slcc07gk.
  • All Flickr photos posted to the the Second Life Community Convention pool

    • [sl/teen] My impressions on Interdependence Day V 

    Submitted by olpadmin on Tue, 09/11/2007 - 16:09

    Interdependence day - Mexico City

    Yesterday, I was given the opportunity to attend the first day of Interdependence Day V, a conference that’s taken place every year alter Sept. 11, 2001. This year, it’s taking place in Mexico City, which is where I live. =D

    Why Interdependence Day? After the Sept. 11 happenings (in the US), a lot of people have focused on discussing terrorism, war and loss. This conference proposes to think about the consequences of it all on interdependence: the dependence of individuals, groups and countries of each other.

    The reason why I was there yesterday is Second Life. There was a panel on the role of virtual worlds in this interdependence being streamed into the MG, and with participants both in-world and offline. It was very nice to see people that I’ve never spoken to but had actually heard of, like Mark Wallace (even if I didn’t recognize him right away). The presentations were brilliant. Sadly, a lot of the people in the audience, not getting to know the principles and practices in SL, were quick to openly classify virtual media as a set of banalities where all that 100% of the people care about is fashion and pornography.

    [conf] Barry presents to NSF LIFE Science of Learning Center 

    Submitted by bjoseph on Thu, 09/06/2007 - 17:45

    Barry presented OLP's work in Second Life to the NSF LIFE Science of Learning Center, in the College of Education, University of Washington.

    Barry presents to NSF LIFE Science of Learning Center

    [slcc] My SLCC Experience! 

    Submitted by Mercury on Fri, 08/31/2007 - 02:27

    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!

    [slcc] Meghan's reflection from Chicago 

    Submitted by meghan on Thu, 08/30/2007 - 20:51

    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 biggrin.gif

    [slcc] Tabitha's reflection from Chicago 

    Submitted by tabitha on Thu, 08/30/2007 - 19:12

    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.

    [CRC] End of Camp! 

    Submitted by VVP Nafiza on Wed, 08/29/2007 - 23:40

    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.

    SLCC: Second Life Community Convention 

    Submitted by VVP Nafiza on Tue, 08/28/2007 - 19:27

    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.

    [slcc] Barry's commentary from the SLCC - Sunday 

    Submitted by bjoseph on Tue, 08/28/2007 - 05:02

    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.