Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

Below is the video from Global Kids two week celebration in March of 2007 observing our year anniversary in Second Life.

Post and read comments on YouTube.

Posted by Barry at 5:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

TSL resident Nic385 created a simple answering machine for us on GK Island, so teens could leave us one line messages. Here are a few we received during the recent birthday celebration:

Kirbit Allen said, 'THANKS FOR GLOBKIDS!!!'
Jay Clostermann said, 'Global Kids Rocks!'
Killer Mills said, 'why is there a random turkey here?'
Moose Crossair said, 'Hiya. I’m showing Olivia Gray that its ok and its not gonna hurt her to leave a message'
Olivia Gray said, 'Recording machines scare me cause they are scary....and they growl.'
Ivan Ortega said, 'happy birthday, one year guys keep it up! wt!!!'
Gompy Zapedzki said, 'Hi i think that you are awesome.com'
Markus Vanbeeck said, 'I think this is quite a place... a little more people, and it would be perfect!'
Kinzie Lutetia said, 'hi. just asking if u think pie is good'
Master Sakai said, 'this place is awsome when's the party though?'
Rihanna Vanalten said, 'i like fish head...NOT'
Issabella Sanders said, 'Your Awesome Barry Keep Up The Good work ~Your Friend issabella sanders~'
Angelo Apps said, 'Gkid!! Happy Birthday... Cant say enough to let yall know how appreciative i am of you guys... Peace out...'
Cuteboy Dix said, 'I like ya place very supporting'
Paco Rahja said, 'No soup for you!'
jayco Bing said, 'This place rules!'
Zack Voom said, 'GK IS AWESOME! YAY! HAPPY ONE YEAR BDAY GK!!'

Posted by Barry at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday was an interesting day. People went to the global conference but what I got to do was film the event!

So much fun handling that...beautiful...expensive...very expensive camera. It was amazing, the camera had depth of field focus and all sorts of beautiful features not available to me on my little camcorder. The Depth of field was what really amazed me its the one thing camcorders lack that I want so bad.

But now about the conference. It was a really exciting event. The performances were so powerful. My personal favorite was Queen God Is and what she said. I thought it was very passionate and powerful.

It was a joy to be there and aid in the filming of the event. Nice job GK!

Posted by VVP Idan at 4:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The final event of our two week festivities celebrating the start of GK's second year in TSL was a day long youth conference, streamed live from New York City.

The Global Kids annual conference is always one of the highlights of the year - an all-day affair led by Global Kids youth leaders for over 600 teens. The topic this year was global environmental concerns.

We streamed the event into both Global Kids Island and, with the help of the NMC, to educators on the main grid as well. This was our first time handling every aspect of a live video feed into TSL on our own, and it went really smooth. We even had one of our youth leaders from the machinima program, Idan, run the camera all day. We were very pleased.

Below are some photos and the schedule for the day.

Continue reading "[sl] Global Kids annual youth conference in Second Life
" »

Posted by Barry at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

UNICEF posted to their site a great write up on the Global Kids conference and various workshops held. Read the full text below or view it here.

At Global Kids Conference, high school students debate environmental issues UNICEF Image

© UNICEF USA/2007/Gallegos

A participant at the 2007 Global Kids Annual Conference in New York takes notes during a workshop on water.

By Rachel Bonham Carter

NEW YORK, USA, 26 March 2007 – Six hundred teenagers gathered in New York on Friday to debate environmental issues at the 2007 Global Kids Annual Conference entitled, ‘Do you know where your environment is?’ While experts from UNICEF and other organizations helped to guide discussions, the event was entirely youth-organized and youth-led. 

“The opportunity for a young person to go to a conference that is completely run by and for youth can be a transformative experience,” said Global Kids Online Leadership Programme Director Barry Joseph. “It shows them the possibilities of what can happen when youth are given the resources and are supported to be in charge and make a difference.”

The day was split between group workshops in the morning, which focused on ‘indicators for a healthy, sustainable environment’, and separate sessions in the afternoon, which covered a variety of issues, including:

• The impact of war on the environment
• Environmental justice
• Global warming and climate change
• Food, water, children’s rights and the environment.

Global Kids

The 2007 Global Kids Annual Conference was streamed live in the virtual online world, Second Life.

Online in Second Life

“I was very impressed with the young facilitators,” said UNICEF Programme Advisor Donna Goodman, who spoke at the workshop on water. “The kids were very well prepared and well-informed. The value of working with kids in industrialized countries is to raise awareness.

“The water cycle on this planet is all connected so the more kids that know how they can support each other and connect to kids around the world, the better. Youth advocacy is really the key to meeting the Millennium Development Goals,” added Ms. Goodman.

Students from over 50 public schools and youth organizations took part in the conference at the New School in Manhattan. It was also streamed live online in the virtual world Second Life, where it reached young people and educators around the world. The aim was to help young people examine local and global perspectives on critical environmental issues and potential solutions.

UNICEF Voices of Youth member Mariel, who is from Mexico, took part in various events in Teen Second Life last week in the build-up to the conference. She helped to raise awareness of the event by facilitating online discussions amongst youth and by hosting tours of the virtual buildings created in Teen Second Life during the UNICEF World Fit For Children contest, which was held in December 2006.

Posted by joyce at 1:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As part of the two weeks celebrating GK's one year anniversary in Second Life, Ryan Dayton built not one, not two, but three birthday cards for over 220 teens to sign.

Thank you all for taking the time to drop by and adding your name to the card! We look forward to our next birthday. With this year's volcanic eruptions, birthday cake making contests, live audio and video panels and more... I can't wait to see what we do together next year!

Birthday card 1 of 3

Birthday card 2 of 3

Birthday card 3 of 3

Posted by tabitha at 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hiya! I'm nik385 Doesburg, a GK Intern. Global Kids interns host events monthly on Global Kids Islands.

This month, as party of their birthday party, I hosted parties on the thirteenth and the twenty second. I had a lot of fun running the music stream as a DJ, and hosting a few games of hud-Bitris. People seem to like to dance on things a lot.

I learned a few things though. I need to advertise my events better, as at the second party there was a very low attendance, because it was not following a large event, and I hadn't advertised.

I had a free music download system running that allowed me to download requests as long as they weren't inappropriate. After the first party we played hud-bitris.

At the second party Rafi got "Ruthed" which is when an avatar reverts to the default avatar shape, but keeps it's skin and clothing.

We had a lot of fun at both, and I had fun hosting them and look forward to hosting events again soon. I had some trouble getting images on the Global Kids image stream, so I had to use a backup account. Hopefully, by next time, I will have everything working properly.

nik385 out.

Posted by Nik - SL Intern at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After much anticipation, the melting glacier of NOAA main grid fame has arrived on GK island. We held an event on Tuesday located there, engaged in some great discussion about what NOAA is, why sea levels rise, and what it all means for the world. It was followed by an incredible debate, GK style of course (involving flying!), during which the teens showed us just how much they knew and how passionate they are about environmental issues.

Check out this great post by Kate, one of the educators that works with GK on our island:

Global Kids do Global Warming

This week is Global Kids' first birthday in Teen Second Life, which surprised me as I thought they had been around for a lot longer. To celebrate they have been running special events. Last night we saw the trademark GK volcano erupt, and this evening we were treated to an interactive glacier that shows how the sea levels rise as the glaciers melt. It was a fantastic session, with Rafi (one of the adult members of staff) asking interesting and challenging questions.

For the second part of the event, platforms appeared, one central one, and three others with textures that said either 'agree', 'disagree' or 'not sure'. Rafi said out a statement and the rest of us had to stand on the platform that fitted how we felt. We had to be prepared to defend our position too.

Continue reading "[sl] NOAA Glacier arrives on GK, sparks debate about global warming" »

Posted by Rafi Santo at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

From March 12 - 16, 2007, 15 residents in Teen Second Life competed in the first annual Birthday Cake Making Contest on Global Kids Island, organized by teen resident Jay Clostermann. Each day teens worked on their cakes and invited their friends from all over the world to come and check out the event. Visitors were asked to examine the cakes and to vote for their favorite one.

On Friday, March 16, 2007, Tabitha Gkid along with 25+ residents announced the winners of the contest followed by a brief discussion on the event.

Continue reading "[sl] Birthday Cake Contest Winners!" »

Posted by tabitha at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hello! Let me introduce myself. I am Jay Clostermann. I am an active Global Kids volunteer in the world of Teen Second Life. The past few weeks have been quite fun, as I have been volunteering in the Global Kids 1 year anniversary in Teen Second Life. There have been cake baking contests, debates, scavenger hunts, a new island and much much more! I am hoping to write a post at the end of the celebration about all the fun, so stay tuned to Holy Meatballs!

I have been mostly volunteering, and managing the GK Cake Making Contest. We had a lot of fun, and a lot of participants! (Don’t forget also the delicious cake eating!) I will display these cakes in alphabetical order of the creator.

Continue reading "[sl/teen] GK Birthday Cake Making Contest" »

Posted by Jay - SL Intern at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight, Blue and Philip Linden presented on GK island about the past, present, and future of TSL, as part of Global Kids two week long celebration of our first year in Second Life. It probably had the most participants ever at a live Global Kids event in TSL.

To extend the reach of the event, we not only held the event on GK Island, but we held the Interview NOT in the public chat but within the IM chat of the Global Kids group; that way we could invite people to listen in from all over the grid. We had never tried that before - we had less control over people talking out of turn - but it still went fairly well. Meanwhile, teens on GK island could use the public chat as a backchannel and sent questions to TSL resident Mariel VoyUNICEF. Along with Mariel, TSL resident Lucky was also kind enough to blog about the event.

Below are a few photos from the event. You can also view all of the photos on Flickr.

The transcript follows:

Continue reading "[sl] Blue and Philip Linden present on GK island about past, present, and future of TSL" »

Posted by Barry at 8:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight, as part of Global Kids birthday party in TSL, we hosted a debate about the role of adults in online teen spaces (which quickly became about the role of adults in TSL).

TSL resident Mariel, from Mexico, reported:

"...the debate was very useful because, no matter that we didn’t really get to an absolute consensus, the whole Teen Grid community (and also the adults who are interested in running projects in it) will have a stronger basis to work on now that we’ve found the points at which both perspectives meet." [read more from Mariel...]

It was a very rich and honest discussion, and involved a number of panelists and a very active audience. Below is an abridged log from the discussion.

But first, some photos!

Continue reading "[sl] Teens debate role of adults in Teen Second Life" »

Posted by Barry at 6:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Wednesday March 14, 2007, as part of the one year anniversary celebration in TSL, GK leaders gathered up on the GK event stage to reflect on their experience with Global Kids through various activities and programs, and talked to teens from all over the world. The GK leaders shared about their accomplishments, provided examples of their past work in TSL, and encouraged teens to get involved with future GK activities. Some of the teens are from our after-school programs based in NYC, while others participated in other activities such as the UNICEF World Fit for Children Festival.

Below is a short excerpt of the dialogue during the panel:

Continue reading "[sl] Teen panel talking about GK programs in SL in the past year" »

Posted by tabitha at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hi everyone!

For this week only, 15 teens are busy competing in the Birthday Cake Making Contest on Global Kids Island, a first time initiative that we hope will become an annual event. The baker with the highest votes will win $1000 Linden (roughly $3.50 USD) and we will announce the winner on Friday, March 16, at 6pm EST. Good luck to all the participants!

Here are some examples of the cakes:

Made by Redsamba Hall. With splashing white fireworks and a rotating number 1.

Made by Draverm Young. Want a slice?

Made by Angeleart Kubo. With fireworks and animated flags!

To see more, go to this link

Posted by tabitha at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

TSL resident Zack Voom posted a video on YouTube, dedicated to Global Kids, for our own year anniversary in Second Life. It documents his building, in-world, of a birthday cake as part of our anniversary contest.

Along with the video, he sent this note:

HI! My name is Zack, a 14 year old machinima maker, SL builder and SL scripter. I am a big fan of GK Island(s) and felt that, out of my care (and boredom), I would take part in GK's birthday bash. The video I am sending you is of me building my GK birthday cake. The music is legal and made by Torley Wong (Linden). Enjoy :D

Posted by joyce at 8:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

+++++ Anniversary Celebration+++++

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLOBAL KIDS!

February was GK's 1 year anniversary in TSL (woo-hoo!), and we want to celebrate it with you! Which means not only do we want you to help out, but we need you to pass the word and invite others to the grand celebration.

Some major highlight of the festival will include a birthday cake making contest, a live audio discussion on the history and future of the teen grid featuring Blue Linden and a secret SURPRISE visitor, a beautiful and giant photo montage displaying all of GK’s work in the past year, and last but not least, a live streaming of our annual Global Kids Youth Conference so all of you can SEE us in real world!

The New Media Consortium (NMC) from the main grid will be co-locating these events on their campus in the main grid, so they can listen in and participate in the events across grids with us!

For more photos, click on this link

Below is the list of events and schedule of the 1 year anniversary festival, see you there!

Continue reading "[sl/teen] GK celebrating 1 year anniversary on Teen Second Life" »

Posted by Mercury at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The month of February has been extremely exciting! We've been getting ready for our 1 Year Anniversary in Second Life, which will take place later in March. There will be 2 weeks set aside for these events, and we are making them as fun and engaging as possible. Wooo!

Here is some of the content that has been created for the 1 Year Anniversary so far:

This is a photo montage I created with images from previous events and happenings that we've held on GK island. Clicking on a title directs the user to the Flickr album associated with it.

I created this birthday card for GK, and Ryan Dayton is in the process of scripting it so that people can click it to leave their signature.

Here are some balloons I made for the events. Click on them dispenses the various balloons.

Brooke Barmy built this miniature replica of our volcano with billowing smoke.

As you can see, we've been really busy and are looking forward to the anniversary events that are scheduled for the week of March 12 - 16 and March 19th - 23rd. I still cannot believe it has been a year in SL already! It feels like just the other day that Global Kids Island popped up, and since then we have added 2 others. Isn't expansion just wonderful? =D

- Merc

Posted by Mercury at 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)