Gather in Groups for a Gathering

This article is another in our series: The Avatar's Guide to Gatherings  Subtitle: You don't have to be a geek to use Second Life.  You may use it for:

• classes (as teacher or learner), 
• conventions. (The Second Life Community Convention could be in Second Life.), 
• symposia (ADVANCES IN GREEN SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY).  

This article gives suggestions on how to help groups of non-geeks get into Second Life.  Without trying to remake them into geeks.

(Disclaimer: I am half geek.  I speak both geek and English.  Here I try to keep everything in English. The instructions here are written for novices so you can copy them out and give them to your supervisor.)

Gathering a flock of people in SL

This job starts with a leader, preferably somebody who has experience managing such a gathering in the physical world.  So we start with advice to the leader. 

Leader Self-Prep in SL

Get into Second Life and get comfortable working in that environment.  A good place to enter Second Life, especially for groups, is at the Rockcliffe University Consortium, Gateway page. The Gateway page tells you what to expect when you click on the link.  You will have to download the viewer software and sign up for a free account.  Once registered, you will arrive at the entry point on the Rockcliffe campus.) 

The entry point is surrounded by panels offering information you will need.  Click on them to get their contents.  In particular, get the Hobo Kit and pay attention to the starter section.  This offers the information you will want to give to the beginners you will be helping into Second Life.  The information is organized into notecards, each name starting with the word hobo. To use the kit, you click on a notecard, copy it to your inventory, and find all the copied notecards by searching on the word hobo.  You can respond to questions and requests for help by offering the appropriate card(s). 

For planning a gathering, you will also want to look at the intermediate part of the Hobo Kit.  That is a separate notecard at the bottom of the Starter section.

Networking

To find people who could help you in planning to lead an academically related event, look in the Rockcliffe Directory.    Some of these people, such as Thinkerer Melville, may help in connection with any event that involves bringing newcomers into Second Life.  For incoming student groups, we expect to be able to provide experienced helpers for the first group of people you bring in.

How do you contact people?

Search (Bottom screen, middle) > People > Type name, press search:
You get profile.  You can send IM and/or offer friend link.

These instructions are in the Hobo Kit, Starter section,under You & Your Friends.  The most recent verson on the Hobo KIt is always available at Cookie Welcome Center.  The content of this series is also being published in the Hobo Kit, Intermediate section.

With a little advice from your friends, pick a helper group for yourself and the people you are bringing in.  A helper group includes some experienced people and a large number of beginners.  The beginners get help by typing a request for help into the group IM channel. Generally some experienced person will be able to give help.

Recommended helper group for people coming in at Rockcliffe: Rockcliffe University Student Group

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Leader -- Prep for newcomers to SL

Newcomers will have to create individual first names. You may want to assign a prefix for all participants to put in front of the name for easy ID. Thus they may use names like: XYZSamCatch, XYZEarea51, etc.

Get everybody you can on Skype

Skype is free for talking via internet, anywhere in world.  It will run on Windows or Mac.  Many people on internet already have Skype. Skype will handle conference calls with several parties, but start with n=3 and work up.  Problems will increase with increasing numbers of people.

Choose an advance team

In forming this team, you want to find tech-savvy early adapters.    Even better would be people who have experience with multiplayer online games.   At least they should be comfortable on the web.  Start by giving them the assignment below.

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Instructions to newcomers -- Prep assignment:

Videos

SL Intro Level 1

SL Intro Level 2

Watch these videos before you start. Watch again a day or 2 after you start.   If you still have questions after a week, go back and watch again.  Be sure you can find on your keyboard the keys mentioned in the videos.  Keyboards can have different placements for keys.  Some keys can have different effects depending on the toggle state of keys like Caps Lock and Num Lock.

The naming of avatars.   You will need to create a first name and select (from a list) a last name. There is no easy way to change the name once registration is done. So plan the first name in advance.  If you choose a common first name, it may already be taken.  You can still use it by adding a few numbers  or letters after it  If you choose a first name that is long or hard to type, you may later regret it.

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Tune in again for the next episode when I will give detailed instructions on how to bring an advance team into Second Life through the Rockcliffe University Gateway. 

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Art

Video of Grand Odalisque
Presented by Ideajuice Studios
Ideajuice Studios specializes in the emerging art of machinima - videos filmed in real time in Virtual Reality.

Outfacing and communicating in the outworld

Live from Second Life

Geo Meek is regularly streaming live video from Second Life onto the web   Here is a link to the stream.  If he is not streaming live, you will see something he previously captured live and archived.   Last Friday he captured parts of Art Plays Around event and got over 1000 hits in a few hours.  That capture may still be archived.

Social Network Especially for Writers, Publishers and Book Lovers
By Jilly Kidd

Jilly Kidd: I've just set up a Written Word social network a bit like Facebook but especially for Writers. You can use it to network, chat, and post info on your events and activities.  It's brand spanking new so I hope you'll join me in the excitement of being the first on a social network - and it's just for us writers and book loving folk!

Twitter?

I have been testing Twitter as a way for networks to communicate in the outworld.  I find a number or my friends there and they are sometimes using it for notifications that we use notices and IMs for inworlld.  But the messages have to be short.  And I am not sure how ofter people will check Twitter in the long run.