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9 Views
20:12:29 05/30/11
Stories using Social Media Storify
[LESS INFO] 9 VIEWS | ADDED 20:12:29 05/30/11
What is Storify?
Storify is a way to tell stories using social media such as Tweets, photos and videos. You search multiple social networks from one place, and then drag individual elements into your story. You can re-order the elements and also add text to give context to your readers.
Why should I make stories with Storify? Millions of people are sharing content through social media. But these streams of information are quickly lost in the never-ending stream of updates. With Storify, you can put together the best Tweets, photos and videos to make stories that will be remembered.
Can't I just do this now with my regular blogging platform? It's a pain and takes a lot of time. You can cut and paste text, download and then re-upload photos, copy links to original sources, attempt to format that to look nice by going back and forth between previews and editing modes, etc. We make it easy to do that by just dragging-and-dropping, creating beautiful, simple stories. We preserve all attribution and metadata for each element. We let you notify all the sources quoted in a story with one click, a great way to help it go viral. Stories with Storify are interactive, and your readers can re-Tweet or reply to the people quoted in stories. Also, Storify's API opens up new possibilities for developers to display stories in new ways and on different devices.
What should I Storify? That’s up to you! You can create a story around an event using social media from people who were there, or put together a story using your own Tweets and photos. If you’re a business, you can use it to compile what people are saying about your product. You can also make an online scrapbook from a wedding or party with posts from your friends.
Can I use other sources? We have an API for that and will be opening up the platform to many other sources. We also plan to let you use different algorithms to search for social content. Please stay tuned and let us know what other sources you would like. I ’ve created a story with Storify, now what? You can point readers to the version on your profile page at http://storify.com/your_username. But you can also take the embed code from that story and put it on any Web site, much like you would embed a Youtube video. Because it’s an embed, you will always get attribution as the source and you will be able to see where your story is embedded and how many views it gets. When readers re-Tweet elements from your story and interact with it, you’ll get the attribution as the curator.
Isn’t there an issue with copyrights to use all this stuff? We use publicly available content in accordance with the terms for use provided by the sources we are searching. The content we display has been made public by the original creators. We also maintain links to original sources to make sure they always receive attribution for their work. And we even help you notify the content creators that they are now part of your story. You own the content you create with Storify, so it's ultimately your responsibility to make sure that you have appropriate licenses for any work depending on your use.
What about this feature that notifies the people I quote in my story with @replies on Twitter, aren't I spamming all my followers? We also don't like spam! The @replies don't show up in the timeline that your followers see unless they are following both you and the other person who you've @replied to. This is a feature that Twitter itself created to prevent clutter of people's feeds. Also, we always let you decide whether to send the @replies and to whom, so it's up to you whether you want to use the feature. We will never send tweets from your account without your permission.
What are you doing to help content creators? We care deeply about the debate over how to compensate content creators. That's why we always attribute original sources, as a first step to make sure people are credited for their work and can see how it's used.Having these metrics will help creators identify their best strategy. Should they continue giving it away for free to get exposure or should they monetize part or all of it? Providing these metrics to content owners is the first step for monetization. We are also looking at having paid content sources in Storify, please contact us at info@storify.com if you're interested
Will Storify work with my content management system (CMS)? As long as you can embed any kind of Javascript on your pages, you can embed a Storify story.
Will Storify work with my Wordpress blog? Yes for self-hosted Wordpress blogs! But not for now if your blog is hosted by Wordpress.com. Storify also works with Wordpress MU, but you may have to install a plugin to allow Javascript in blog posts.
Will Storify work with my Tumblr/Posterous site? Storify works with Tumblr and Posterous just fine, please feel free to embed and share your stories there!
How does Storify affect search engine rankings and affect SEO? Stories on Storify.com are optimized for SEO, because we link to all the sources used. We are working on a solution to optimize for SEO on embeds. However, our main focus is optimizing for social sharing, which is the fastest growing way that readers are discovering content.
What happens if someone deletes something they’ve posted? If it’s a Tweet, we keep a copy on our own site and it won’t be removed from your story. For other forms of rich media like photos and video, we simply link to the source so that content will not appear in your story if it's removed by the original creator, as would happen for any embedded content.
What about Storify on the iPad and other devices? Our drag-and-drop interface is ideal for the iPad and touch interfaces, we're working on it!
What does “Storify” mean?
It’s actually an obsolete word that used to be in the dictionary that means “to form or tell stories.” It’s also a word that was used internally at The Associated Press, where our co-founder Burt worked as a correspondent. Editors sending messages to reporters asking them to do a story would regularly write: “Can u pls storify?”
7 Views
16:53:00 01/10/10
Plant A Million Trees By Surfing the Web - Mokugift
[LESS INFO] 7 VIEWS | ADDED 16:53:00 01/10/10
Nerd Stalker interview with co-founder Hans Chung of Mokugift at a recent Failcon conference in San Francisco.
http://www.mokugift.com/ About mokugift
Our Mission
* To create fun and meaningful gift experiences that benefit the environment.
Our name
Definition: mokugift [mōe-koo gift]
* moku means "tree" in Japanese.
* moku means "island" in Hawaiian.
Our mission
Our mission is to foster environmental solidarity by making it easy and rewarding for anyone to fight climate change and by providing the tools to inspire others to do the same. Mokugift makes it possible for concerned citizens, even those lacking access to planting space, to plant real trees for $1 apiece, either for themselves or as gifts to others. Gifting a mokugift tree is similar to sending an e-card, and recipients can display their trees online at Facebook, MySpace, MyYahoo, iGoogle and other popular Web sites. Award-winning nonprofit organizations specializing in agroforestry project—which restore depleted lands and boost the agricultural productivity and incomes of indigenous peoples in some of the poorest parts of the world—plant the actual trees purchased via mokugift.
Why trees?
Trees and forests help regulate the climate by absorbing heat-trapping carbon gasses, and there's a growing consensus that tree planting in tropical latitudes is one of the most efficient way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. On average, each tree planted in the humid tropics absorbs 50 pounds of carbon dioxide every year for at least 40 years, amounting to one ton over the course of the tree's lifetime.
In addition, although the majority of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere comes from burning fossil fuels, unsustainable, slash-and-burn agriculture and other poor land-management practices have resulted in forestry itself becoming a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions. Restoring tree cover through agroforestry programs, and ensuring that local communities receive a fair share of the benefits, is the most effective long-term approach to the problems of deforestation and land degradation.
Our platform
Mokugift is not just a Web site for planting/"gifting" trees but also a platform that enables individuals to inspire others to plant trees. Visual and interactive elements make receiving a mokugift tree fun, uplifting and memorable. Businesses and nonprofits can also leverage this technology to reward and motivate customers, donors or employees. As an eco-reward, mokugift is a great way to motivate up-sells and tap into growing environmental awareness and interest in sustainable lifestyles.
Mokugift provides personal Web pages (Tree Islands) that track and display tree-planting achievements. As individuals plant trees themselves or "gift" trees to friends and associates (who in turn receive their own Tree Islands), the system tracks how inspiration spreads from one person to another. You receive recognition not only for the trees you've planted but also for those planted by your friends and their inspired friends (3 degrees). You can see the total number of people you've inspired and the total number of trees planted by them. You can also see which friends you've inspired and their individual achievements. Active promoters of tree planting are rewarded with free tree planting.
Mokugift is an excellent fit for companies looking to reinforce a brand's environmental equity and reward customers for making environmentally responsible choices. To learn more about how businesses and institutions can use mokugift for rewards and incentive programs, click here .
Mokugift provides a fast and easy fundraising option for schools, religious groups and non-profits. Your members can promote tree planting online in support of your organization and mokugift takes care of all order taking and processing. Your organization will receive 50% of all proceeds. Focusing on online promotion makes it easier and more effective for your members.
Partnerships
Mokugift is an official partner of the United Nations Environment Programme's "Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign. Launched at the Climate Convention meeting in Nairobi in 2006, the campaign originally set a goal of planting one billion trees but has since issued a new target of seven billion trees—roughly one tree for every living person on the planet.
"We are honored to partner with mokugift as part of the UNEP Billion Tree Campaign. Mokugift is taking creative approaches with its online gifting service and iPhone application to help the Billion Tree Campaign achieve a target of seven billion trees. In the spirit of the Billion Tree Campaign, mokugift empowers ordinary people to be part of the solution." — Satinder Bindra, Director, United Nations Environment Programme
Mokugift seeks to expand distribution through partnerships with relevant sites and services. We have, for instance, partnered with eBase Solutions in a joint venture to bring mokugift to Japan (mokugift.jp). Please contact us about partnerships via our contact form, and we will get back to you promptly.
Artists & Athletes Program
The idea: to inform, inspire and empower fans to plant trees in support of UNEP's Billion Tree Campaign. By visiting Artist & Athlete Tree Islands on mokugift.com, fans can plant trees and send a message to the artist or athlete. Anyone planting a tree with a participating artist or athlete can see their message posted on the Tree Island, along with the number of trees they've planted. For their part, artists and athletes can build goodwill by offering to plant a tree for each tree they receive as a gift. To help generate awareness, mokugift is approaching media companies for PSA ad spots and encouraging interested artists and athletes to participate in the spots and assist with outreach.
News
Please refer to our blog for the latest news about mokugift: mokugift.blogspot.com
Participate
Mokugift's affiliate program offers rich media ads that are engaging and stylistically consistent with our Web site. To join our affiliate network, click here .
Founders
Mokugift co-founders Hans Chung (Idea Guy) and Krates Ng (Build-It Guy) are high school friends who both gravitated to the San Francisco Bay area's technology sector. The selling of "virtual gifts"—teddy bears on Facebook, roses on dating sites—sparked the idea for mokugift. Why not have virtual tree gifts represent real trees planted in places fighting deforestation?
Their pursuit of online tree "gifting" coincided with a growing awareness that climate change was no longer just an abstract scientific and public-policy topic, but also a lifestyle issue calling for tangible action on the part of ordinary people everywhere. In researching agroforestry and prospective tree-planting partners, they realized that planting trees not only benefits the environment (by absorbing greenhouse gas emissions) but also can serve as a foundation for sustainable economic development for communities that have been adversely affected by poor land-management practices. Conceived as a social venture focused on customer experience, profit and tangible, positive benefit to the environment and society, mokugift launched on November 20, 2007.
Prior to mokugift, Hans founded CrispAds, a blog advertising network that wound up being acquired by a lead-generation company. He also worked at consulting firms such as The McKenna Group, as a strategy consultant for technologies companies including Japan's NTT. Hobbies: martial arts, cooking, furniture design. Residing in San Francisco's SOMA District, Hans has been on a mission to reduce his apartment's power consumption. He takes public transportation to work and the gym, and shops for local groceries at the farmers' market and Mission District grocery stores.
Krates is a typical startup engineer, preferring to join a team early on. Prior to mokugift, he was with a real-time computer server monitoring company, Wily Technologies, which was acquired by Computer Associates. Before that, he was an engineer at Andromedia (acquired by Macromedia, which, in turn, was acquired by Adobe). Hobbies: ice hockey, triathlon, cooking, scuba and travel. Krates lives with his wife and cats in the San Francisco Bay area, drives a Honda Civic Hybrid, eats less meat than before, recycles everything he can, and shops for local groceries at the farmers' market.
9 Views
15:01:28 10/28/09
MacVoicesTV #957: MacVoicesTV at BlogWorld - Chuck La Tournous Talks Social Media from the Corporate Perspective
[LESS INFO] 9 VIEWS | ADDED 15:01:28 10/28/09
From BlogWorld 2009 in Las Vegas, RandomMaccess boss Chuck La Tournous takes some time out from the many conference sessions to discuss the rise of social media from a corporate perspective, and explains why your company isn't too far behind the curve, no matter what you have or haven't done. Chuck also compares and contrasts Macworld with BlogWorld, reveals the real value of trade shows, and discusses how social media has affected some news stories, and how the people at the center of the stories have used (or not used) social media to their advantage.
6 Views
01:15:36 02/12/08
Virtual Worlds Libraries Education And Museums Conference Saturday March 8 2008 In Second Life
[LESS INFO] 6 VIEWS | ADDED 01:15:36 02/12/08
“Virtual Worlds: Libraries, Education, and Museums”Saturday, March 8, 2008 in Second Life - New Media Consortium Conference Center.http://www.alliancelibraries.info/virtualworlds/Purpose of the Conference: To provide a gathering place for librarians, information professionals, educators, museologists, and others to learn about and discuss the educational, informational, and cultural opportunities of virtual worlds. Please note: Although the conference will be held in the virtual world Second Life, presentation and paper proposals about LEM developments in other virtual worlds are encouraged. Tentative Schedule 9:00 a.m. Second Life Time (Pacific Time) "Ancient Mesopotamia: Engaging Online Resources from the Oriental Institute," Presented by Wendy Ennes and Lisa Perez Wendy Ennes, Teacher Services and e-Learning Coordinator for the Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago, will present information about the new, engaging website Ancient Mesopotamia: This History, Our History. In this highly useful online resource, students and educators can learn about various aspects of Mesopotamian culture. They can participate in the interactive "Dig into History", playing the role of an archeologist or a museum curator. Also, they can peruse the "Learning Collection", zooming in on various teacher-selected artifacts. Teachers can also locate primary source materials, lesson plans, and recommended learning activities. This presentation will be useful to teachers, librarians, students, and history aficionados. This presentation is brought to you in collaboration with the Chicago Public Schools Department of Libraries and Information Services. "Persistent Worlds: Will They Ever Go Away?" Presented by Dr. Susan Hazan Now that Second Life has hit the front page of Newsweek it seems Neal Stephenson's vision of the Metaverse has crossed over -- from being a fringe fantasy land for pure escapists to a persistent world for play, commerce, creativity and exploration. It's time to take a close look at this synthetic world. Presented by three leading avatars directly from Second Life, this panel will showcase some of the leading cultural institutions from their 3D graphic locations, and will explore how they welcome visitors, guests and colleagues in-world. "The State of Librarianship in Second Life" Presented by Lauren Pressley This session examines the idea of librarianship in Second Life, specifically focusing on reference practices and the development of a library's presence in a virtual world. The session will conclude with a discussion of possible virtual world library services that have not yet been designed and implemented. "Reflections in Wonderland" Presented by Alison (Wynne Merlin) Williams & Mary (Merry Mayo) Hudson This paper takes a reflective approach concentrating on the authors' explorations of Second Life. These explorations were undertaken as part of a project to assess how the university library might operate in such an environment to support student learning. An introduction briefly outlines the project and we then go on to describe our initial experiences of Second Life, and of participation in courses and meetings. In the light of these experiences we reflect on the possibilities offered by this type of environment, before concluding with our thoughts on the way forward. "Reconstructing Maya: Student Created Poems" Presented by Beth Ritter-Guth (SL Desideria Stockton) The students in College English II: Literature at Lehigh Carbon Community College are creating interactive poems to celebrate the poetry of Maya Angelou. Conference participants will be able to view the work of students, meet them, and construct a poem of their own. The workshop will require the use of voice and participants should download a free recording program like Audacity. Students will showcase their interactive poem "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou. A notecard with the instructions on how to build the poem will be provided, and participants will work together to create a collaborative poem using WAV files, objects, and scripts. 10:00 a.m. Second Life Time (Pacific Time) "Voice vs. Text Chat: Solutions for Teaching/Presenting in Two Languages Simultaneously" Presented by Chris Haskell As voices ring out over the virtual landscape, some oppose vocal communication for its technical imperfections, infrequent use, and VW cultural bias. Educators, presenters, and facilitators in the Metaverse need solutions to communicate in both "native" languages. This session demonstrates tools and techniques currently being employed to engage multiple learning and communication styles in this expanding virtual space. "Immersion Environments and Recreational Learning: Opportunities for Informal Education on the Virtual Landscape" Presented by Aldo Stern and JJ Drinkwater When the residents of an online three-dimensional platform such as Second life are able to create their own immersion environments, learning opportunities abound. Experience with a number of recent experiments has indicated that the educational potential of these builds comes not just within the context of a formal, institutionally-managed didactic approach, but also--and in some cases, more successfully--in the context of informal, self-directed learning opportunities. Panelists Aldo Stern and JJ Drinkwater draw upon their real world backgrounds in the museum and library fields, along with their extensive experience in a variety of experimental collaborative educational, cultural and recreational environments created on the SL platform, to discuss the relative success of traditional "classroom" approaches in various builds, and the surprisingly vibrant informal learning dynamic that has developed alongside--or as an alternative to--the attempts at structured, hierarchical didacticism. The panelists also will seek to explore how what has transpired in-world is analogous to the real world living history/reenacting "hobby" movement of the 1970s-1990s and other recreational self-directed learning opportunities, and consider issues of how institutions and organizations might utilize the potential of online creative platforms in the future to more effectively foster and encourage self-directed learning, and to integrate it into their programming in ways that it could compliment and enhance more traditional approaches to engaging and educating diverse audiences. "Whatcha Gonna Do?: An Academic Health Sciences Library in Second Life Embraces New Roles" Presented by PF Anderson (Perplexity Peccable); Gillian Mayman (Gillian Oh); Anne Perorazio (Kaiya Qunha); and Jane Blumenthal (Wrenaissance Jewell) Academic health sciences libraries support the educational, research, clinical, and service missions of the universities and healthcare institutions of which they are a part. In the recent past, this has meant primarily building print and web-based collections of health and research information, and providing classes and services that facilitate the use and integration of these collections into the skillset of the local academic healthcare community. In Spring of 2007, the University of Michigan Medical School purchased an island in Second Life. In supporting the activities associated with this initiative, we have found that many of the activities and services we have traditionally offered are not immediately relevant in the new environment, are needs that are being filled by others, or are beyond the scope of what is possible with the resources currently available to us. Examples of these might include teaching how to search Medline, offering classes relating to health skill sets, building collections of health information. Similarly, many of the activities and services we have found ourselves embracing in Second Life are hard to imagine ever happening in our real life libraries. Examples of these might include building freebie collections, teaching classes on how to make clothes, setting up a Spirit Shop for the university (along with making the inventory), hosting in-world and out-world events to engage community, setting up a patient support group, as well as helping folks navigate Orientation and Help Islands. Here we present information about the similarities and differences between what we do in which environment and why we do or do not offer similar services in the other environment, as well as discuss the planning process and skill sets required. We would particularly like to focus on tools that have formed the basis of our community building efforts, which have largely depended on resources that bridge Second Life and the broader online and analog environments. So, when it comes to leading the way in a new and emerging technological environment, what are librarians going to do? Our answer: whatever needs to be done. "Interaction, Visibility and Searchability in Virtual Worlds: The Possibilities, Benefits and the Future" Presented by Namro Orman Interaction with the Web should be a major focus point for libraries in virtual worlds. Resources, news, and communication are needed, and not only with Second Life Residents. The merging with other social networks looks promising, but a lot can be improved/gained inside Second Life as well to make library services and resouces more visible, and findable, also on the Web. This goals of this session are to improve awareness of current possibilities, to show developments, and to offer a sketch of the future. "The 3D3C Metaverse" Presented by Yesha Sivan Dr. Yesha Sivan, founder of Metaverse Labs, is interested in interoperability. He also has been looking into how virtual world simulations can interface with the real world. 11:00 a.m. Second Life Time (Pacific Time) "Applying Distance Educational Theory to Virtual Worlds" Presented by Rebecca Hedreen Current adult educational theory is student-centered and those students have experience, abilities, and preferences that affect or control the learning process. This presentation will show (and tell) you how to use these theories, and the practices that spring from them, to improve your Second Life presentations. In the process, we'll cover some techniques that also improve accessibility and decrease the chance that a technological glitch will ruin your work. "The Museum Phenomenon in Star Wars Galaxies" Presented by Annie Platoff Annie Platoff, the Director of the Wookiee Cultural Center, the premier Wookiee museum in Star Wars Galaxies, will discuss the museum phenomenon in Star Wars Galaxies. "My Life as an Avatar (So Far)" Presented by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle This presentation is intended for teachers, librarians, and those who work in museums; as well as amateur history buffs. In this discussion I will provide an account of how I came to portray one of the best known authors of the Victorian era; the development of a plausible "back story" to cover my inadequacies; my successes and failures in Second Life; my views on the educational potential of ReCreationism; and, finally, my advice to aspiring ReCreationists. "The Festival of European Languages in Second Life" Presented by Birdie Newborn (Birdie Newcomb in SL) This session will look at the Festival of European Languages recently held on Belle Isle in Second Life. It was a venture in outside-the-classroom education. It was a 6-hour festival over half the island with a schedule of speakers, demonstrations, booths, and a giant map of Europe with landmarks to every known language community in Second Life. 6:00 p.m. Second Life Time (Pacific Time) "Self-directed Group Learning in Virtual Worlds" Presented by Nick Noakes This will be a mix of an interactive discussion session on the affordances of Virtual Worlds with respect to self-directed group learning, followed by a tour of Boracay sim to see one way self-directed group learning can be implemented. "Virtual Museums: When Do They Become "Real"?" Presented by Annie Platoff With the launch of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs), players were given the opportunity to build their own communities within the confines of virtual worlds created by the game developers. When Star Wars Galaxies was launched in June 2003, players were also given the opportunity to manipulate their environment. SWG Developers not only allowed players to place structures within the landscape of the game, but also gave them the opportunity to decorate the interiors of their buildings. It wasn't long before players began to open their own museums. At first, the museums were nothing more than decorated houses containing developer-made paintings and objects. Eventually, however, the museums evolved and now there are quite a number that include interpretive labels, thematic exhibits, and more. While some of these museums are quite well known within their communities, they are virtually unknown by those who do not play the game. That is not the case for the museums in another virtual community, however. The emergence of museums in the virtual world of Second Life has been the topic of much discussion in the museum community. Also launched in 2003, Second Life presents itself as a 3-D virtual world rather than a game. In the world of Second Life players can create just about anything they can imagine and add it to the environment including, of course, museums. Some of those museums have been replicas of real-life museums created by private individuals. Other museums in this virtual environment were created as initiatives of established real-world museums. But there are some museums in Second Life that only exist in that virtual landscape. The International Space Museum, one such museum, has spawned a real-life non-profit organization to support the work of the virtual museum. All of this activity in virtual museums brings with it some interesting questions for members of the museum community. Are virtual museums "real" museums? And if they are, what are the implications for established real-life museums? This paper will examine a variety of museums in two virtual environments ? the MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies and the virtual world of Second Life. It will apply established definitions of what is a museum and determine which of those virtual museums appear to meet the criteria. Finally, it will draw conclusions about the "realness" of virtual museums and the potential of these institutions for reaching new audiences. "An Overview of Science-Related Stuff in Second Life" Presented by Dr. Troy McConaghy (Troy McLuhan in SL) Troy will give examples of how Second Life is being used for science education, public outreach, prototyping, and research Intendend Audience: Scientists, science educators, science librarians, and science museum professionals. "Immersive Education: New Models for Lifelong Learning" Presented by Kevin Roebuck Open source technologies for virtual worlds, on-line games, and new media have tremendous potential to offer new models for lifelong learning. Sun Microsystems Global Education & Research Group has formed a new community to explore these new immersive worlds and their application with the Project Wonderland 3-D tool-kit, Project Darkstar Game Server and SunSPOT sensor platforms. The new Sun Immersion Special Interest Group has announced a joint initiative with the Immersive Education Initiative at Media Grid including a $25,000 set of "Immersion Grants" to see pilot projects in K12 schools, community college, and higher education institutions. This session will feature Kevin Roebuck, Community Manager for Immersive Technologies at Sun, to give a brief overview of the communities activities, initiatives and worldwide projects in open source and open content for Immersive Education. 7:00 p.m. Second Life Time (Pacific Time) "Using Second Life to Enhance Student Research and Presentations" Presented by Robert Walker The presentation will look at an exciting Second Life assignment being used at Labette Community College in the Music Appreciation classes to enhance student presentations. This assignment could easily be adapted for use in any class that requires students to research and present that research to the class. It is useful for both onground and online classes. Students are given the following assignment, using Second Life, prepare a museum exhibit on the following composer. You should include written information, audio, images and perhaps video. Your presentation should not only include biographical information about the composer, but information about the period that the composer was writing. That information should include people of historical interest, other artists of the period, clothing and architectural styles of the time. This presentation will show the mechanics of managing an assignment like this. What tools do the students need? What knowledge/tools does the instructor need? These concerns will all be discussed and examples of previous semester projects will be reviewed as well as the assignment and the rubric. "Virtual Worlds for Learning" Presented by Ann Crewdson and Sachin Patil Virtual Worlds offer a quick and inexpensive ways of simulating information artifacts(in libraries and museums) into multi-faceted synthetic learning environments that merit interaction, immersion and information equally. The Federation of American Scientists, as part of its "Virtual Worlds for Learning" research program, has created a Virtual World Sim (Mesopotamia) in Second Life that leverages collective intelligence by enabling interdisciplinary communities of scholars such as archeologists, librarians museologists, historians, technologists, artists, and academia to share data and their expertise. The prototype has developed a web-integrated inworld tool, called Medulla, to collaborate on 3D content creation, peer-review the content for authenticity and edit it continuously based on new academic & research findings. In the near future, this tool will support functionalities for incorporating game-like features to make simulation experience more interactive and engaging. This presentation will describe content creation & management processes we have developed to collect, render, manage, evaluate and preserve digital assets for 3D virtual environments. Attendees, mainly librarians and museum administrators, will learn how virtual worlds together with web technologies can be used for a wide variety of learning opportunities, scholarly interaction, and the collection, development and management of digital assets for 3D virtual environments. "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants" Presented by Rochelle Mazar This presentation will demonstrate and explore the ways that digital objects have been archived in older virtual environments, their contribution to a competitive gift economy, and the kinds of lessons those practices bring to bear on the work being done by librarians and educators in Second Life. In text-based MOO spaces, object archives function as museum spaces, shops for finding useful objects to use in one's own builds, and as a structure that reinforces and supports a functioning gift economy. In worlds without built-in money economies, archiving and "generics" organization allows new users to see what has been built before, to take advantage of that older work by taking their own copy of these generic objects to build upon, and provides a form of feedback and recognition for those who build the best objects across the entire MOO community world-wide. With a long tradition of including the builder's name as part of the object, a successful builder can build a reputation across many different virtual worlds as others request archived copies of their objects. This gift economy encourages builders and programmers to donate their work for use by others as well as to create more and better generic objects for general use. Their active participation in the gift economy thereby assists in the creation of richer online spaces for all. Could this model work in Second Life, in spite of its existing money economy? This presentation would consist of audio content detailing the structure of these digital archives and their use, as well as detail about the gift economy and how it encouraged more and better objects to share with the community, and would include discussion with participants about its pros and cons and feasibility for use in Second Life. 8:00 p.m. Second Life Time (Pacific Time) "Education on the Teen Grid: The View from Eye4You Alliance Island" Presented by Kelly Czarnecki (Bluewings Hayek in SL), Anthony Curtis (Stone Semyorka in SL), and Beth Kraemer (Alice Burgess in SL) So what's it like to be an educator on the teen grid? Eye4You Alliance Island has been a source of education, creativity and fun on the teen grid since 2006. Librarians, professors, authors, technology specialists, subject matter specialists, and teens from around the world are involved in projects ranging from classes about SL and RL skills; recurring events like book discussions, space talks and island management meetings; special events like the recent literary festival, last year's college fair and craft fair; and a host of other activities. The presenters will provide an overview of what it's like to be an adult educator on the teen grid, describing the challenges and opportunities, and will discuss recent activities and plans that are underway. We'll compare the experience with education on the main grid and discuss our view of the future of education for teens in Second Life. The presentation may also incorporate comments from the teen residents themselves. "VW Libraries and Education: The Purpose and the Potential" Presented by Valerie Hill (Valibrarian Gregg in SL) Virtual worlds seem to be exploding into existence online. For everyone from toddlers to senior citizens, a virtual world beckons. Valibrarian Gregg, a Second Life librarian (and real life school librarian) shares her journey learning in a virtual world to help understand the purpose and potential for librarians and educators. Read some of the latest Virtual World news at iVinnie.com. "Providing Library Services in Second Life" Presented by Margaret Ostrander and Anne Mostad-Jensen Margaret Ostrander will share her research in progress exploring information seeking behavior in Second Life. All research is taking place in-world, combining structured interviews and ethnographic fieldwork. Research questions include: What are the information needs of everyday Second Life residents? What kinds of information are people in SL utilizing, and how do they go about finding it? This research explicitly studies SL residents in non-library contexts. A more robust understanding of such "native" information seeking behavior can help inform SL library services. This research is under the supervision of Dr. Michael Stephens of Dominican University (Illinois, U.S.A.). Read more about Margaret's research at Librarian Dreamer. Anne Mostad-Jensen will present her research in progress focused on the new user's experience in Second Life. Research questions include: How do new users approach and use virtual worlds? What are the information needs of new users and what are their information seeking behaviors? Research subjects will be observed while utilizing the Second Life interface for the first time, accompanied by pre- and post-interviews. This research will inform how libraries in Second Life can help meet the needs of new users. This research is under the supervision of MLIS faculty member Dr. Joyce Yukawa of the College of St. Catherine (Minnesota, U.S.A.). Both Anne and Margaret will share their findings to date, along with learnings about the methodologies and research instruments they have adopted.CREDITS: This machinima was filmed on location with the help of avatars in the teen grid and main adult grid of Second Life: Info International, Talis, and Eye4YouAlliance Island, funded by the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (PLCMC). http://infoisland.orghttp://www.talis.comhttp://www.plcmc.org/teens/secondlife.aspMachinima: Bernadette Daly Swanson / HVX Silverstar in Second LifeMusic: Revostock.com
