Tai Chi @ MU
Updates from March, 2015 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Serra Qendra
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Fanny
It's Getting Comfy In My Tent
Neeva! You proved that you received the Trophy last week for a good reason. I love the idea that you made a light with it. So creative!
Thank you very much also for your kind words. It is a great honor and I promise that I will wash my feet before the next photo (I blame Izzy for this as she asked for the photo and I had no more time … and … yes …).
So, this will be the place for the Trophy until next Friday!
Good Night to you all 🙂
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Neeva
I thought adding a light would be a meaningful addition since you taught us about that in your class. It looks like the trophy is just the thing to light your tent.
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paypabak writer
Marvelous! Well deserved, too.
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Izzy
Animated GIFs on a Prim?
FeelsEmpty Resident came to crit class tonight. They’re making cool animated GIFs!
http://newhive.com/metypeself/familyAnd would like to put them in SL. Feels is totally new to prims and stuff.
Here’s a 2008 post on how to do it:
http://www.peregrinesalon.com/anim/Here’s a 2010 post:
https://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Discussions/Is-there-a-way-to-upload-animated-gifs-as-textures/td-p/182707Feels might come by tomorrow, Thursday. If anyone can help them get stuff on a prim that’d be so cool. He can work at Collaborateopolis for now. (I can find him space if he wants to rez a bunch)
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Veyot
Here’s another good page. I sent it to feelsempty.
http://www.sl-inspiration.com/2014/08/creating-anumated-gifs-for-second-life.html-
Izzy
Thanks Veyot! I found that page also, but didn’t like it because it’s media on a prim. Media on a prim is cool, and in fact the MU Schedule Kiosks use it, but many viewers won’t let it autostart, and it can be sluggish to load, so I think it won’t be satisfying at all the way FeelsEmpty’s web page is.
I guess even with the texture animation there will still be SL texture load times to deal with, so Feels’ installation will probably never load as fast as the web page, but at least you won’t have to click every face and give it permission to run.
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Tiffany Mosienko
Thanks for posting! This info is very useful!
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Izzy
Feels got it to work and it’s really cool… Natsu helped him… sounds like they may have done it a different way… I’m trying to get them to do a little post on how they did it
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Paypabak Writer
I’m giving tours of the campus!
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Neeva
Loved your blog post. Where do I sign up for a tour? I have been riding around campus on the bikes you can get at the coffe place. That’s a fun fast way to see the changes that happen every day around here.
The dojo is really a nice quiet spot in campus. I go there to slack and hide from izzy when she starts assigning work :D.
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Izzy
slap!
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rmarie beedit
The bikes are amazing. You can get out of ANY pinch. Stuck in a mobius strip? Just pedal harder and you’ll fly out of there! Stuck in a prim maze? Ride faster! I haven’t checked to see if you can fly, but you can definitely make Y turns!
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Paypabak Writer
Handier than motorcycles, which is how I started out and there weren’t as many obstacles.
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Vanessa
## Jane’s Walk Adelaide https vimeo com 76495132
Jane’s Walk – Adelaide
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Vanessa
BomBaebs’ #RapAgainstRape
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Izzy
Graphic Design 13 – Gimp 4 Dummies
Photoshop is kind of the Graphic Design standard and many MU Learners use it every day.
If you get paid to do RL design work, Photoshop isn’t expensive at all. But if you don’t, it’s a damn expensive piece of software!
Gimp is the free & open alternative. We should have a Gimp class. IDK if anyone we know actually knows Gimp. If You do, we’d love to have you facilitate a Gimp Party!
But if not, let’s just learn it together! We can start the class and fumble around and use MU/Talk or Slack to post screenshots and tips on what we figure out.
Does anyone know Gimp?
What Day / Time would anyone like the Gimp Party to be scheduled for?
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Neeva
I think you mean we should have a gimp “party.” Right? See post below.
What would People love to learn about gimp? I used it some before I got my nifty student-priced version of Photoshop.
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Myra
I use Gimp a lot, but I certainly don’t know* it. The most common use of it in SL is texturing, so I’d like to learn how to use it better for UV mapping and AO mapping of textures.
There’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to do this with PS, here:
https://sldesigner.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/putting-the-fabric-on-full-perm-mesh-templates/It would be nice to have a class on how to do the same thing in Gimp. There are some freebie full perm things on the market we could use for demo purposes.
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Elle
I have to second what Myra said, “I use GIMP a lot, but I certainly don’t know it” It’s a powerful program, but also complex with a non-intuitive user interface. I think the same could probably be said for Photoshop, which I have hardly ever used.
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Izzy
I don’t actually know how many people want to learn Gimp. I do know that for people without the resources to buy it, Photoshop can be very expensive. Gimp is free and open for everyone. So it’s really a desirable platform.
I do know that Oona is someone who really wants to be doing graphics but can’t afford Photoshop and doesn’t know Gimp. She’s been hosting at KATYPERRYOPOLIS! and would love to make fliers for events there but doesn’t have Photoshop and is lost with Gimp.
Part of the reason I expelled all the students, fired all the faculty, and then invited everyone back as learners is that if we are to make progress on our many journeys here at MU, then we must take charge. Nobody needs to be the or an expert to help someone else. So far I’ve done what I can to facilitate Kinesiology 88, Studio Art 1, Studio Art 12, and University 101, and believe me, I’m not even remotely an expert on any of those topics.
If Myra knows a little, Elle knows a little, and Oona has some desire, that sounds like more than most of our classes start with! I’d encourage the 3 of you to pick a time, invite the campus, and see what can be collaboratively learned. If that causes an expert to crawl out of the woodwork, awesome! But if not, I bet Oona’s desire plus whatever Myra and Elle might know might be enough to let Oona make KATYPERRYOPOLIS! fliers. Since she’s wanted to do things like that for a long time, that’d be a great result for MU’s semester @LEA23!
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Elle
That sounds ok to me. If Oona wants to get us some specifics on what she’d like to be able to do/create before hand it would be helpful. I can role play a GIMP co-teacher. 😉
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Izzy
Awesomesauce!!! 😀
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Oona
How about how to make a flyer? Is that a thing you can do in Gimp? I have been trying to figure out how to put stuff on a tee-shirt without much success if that is something anyone has knowledge of.
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Myra
Gimp wouldn’t work well for flyers, because it’s not a publishing tool. It doesn’t do layouts and such. In fact, it’s horrible for handling text.
T-shirts, yes, that it does.
Oona. I mostly make furniture, but the principles of applying textures are mostly identical. Clothing requires a little more tweaking. I don’t think I want to teach a course, but I’m happy to explain it and load you up with links. : )
It’s not too hard once you get the hang of it. Once you do, you’ll realize you could spend hours fussing with a texture to get it just the way you want it. Are you sure you really want that? Prepare yourself for the time sink known as SL building! j/k : )
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Neeva
How about a gimp learning party where we can ask questions of each other as we all try to make a poster or other work of art. I know people who use gimp for book covers. You can definitely make a flyer with it. Let’s pick a time and get Oona going and learn stuff.
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Neeva
Here is a super super basic tutorial on how to make a poster in GIMP.
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Myra
Here’s one on how to make a flyer in Gimp:
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Myra
Yes, I know that invalidates my comment about Gimp not doing flyers, but it further validates my first point – I don’t know Gimp.
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Elle
Well after many incantations, slacks(?), help from Izzy and rmarie (ty!). My GIMP 101 class is on the calendar.
GIMP 101 – Learn basic skills in GIMP open-source software. This class will provide an overview, discussion, optional sharing and support. The course will have a strong guided self-study component. Guidance for further learning on your own and a simple weekly hands-on assignment will be provided at each class.
Class will meet Saturdays 10 – 11 am SLT @ Tullia 14 for 4 weeks.
Class starts Saturday March 28th @ 10 am SLT.Oona, Myra and Neeva are most welcome continue their discussion then. 🙂
Good tutorial links are also welcome.
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Izzy
Schedule of Parties
Oona, Art, and MediciUniversity Resident were having a conversation today, and they came up with an interesting question, why are they called “Classes”?
MU doesn’t have “Students” or “Faculty” anymore, but we still have “Classes”?
Effective today, MU will no longer have any “Classes” or gawd forbid “Courses.” We will still have learning experiences, but they will be called “Parties”.
TIRED: “Schedule of Classes”
WIRED: “Schedule of Parties”-
Oona
But but but, i like classes!
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Izzy
it can be your secret Oona. Whenever anybody says “Party” you can just think “Class” in your mind.
Somebody sez,
Party @ KATYPERRYOPOLIS!
Oona hears,
Class @ KATYPERRYOPOLIS!
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Oona
haha i like this idea. 🙂 🙂
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Tiffany Mosienko
Highly Recommended – Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education, March 18-21
I have attended Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) in the past as an attendee, as a volunteer, and I have encouraged my students to attend. It has been a rewarding experience in years past – highly recommended for anyone engaged in teaching and learning in virtual worlds. This conference attracts speakers from all over the world, all of whom are working in distance education and virtual communities. If you’ve never attended a conference in Second Life before this one is exceptional. If you’ve never attended a conference at all, this is a great introduction to the variety of talks you can experience at a professional conference. Many lectures and discussions are done in voice with additional text chat and visual presentations. No matter what the topic, I always learn something new or gain a perspective. I’ve also made friends and personal contacts here. Check out the VWBPE website at http://vwbpe.org/ for event details and calendar. A worthy writeup is here: https://avataric.wordpress.com/2015/03/16/vwbpe-conference-this-week/ The conference takes place Wednesday through Sunday with lectures, a machinima showcase and otherworldly experiences. Some of the events take place in second life, others elsewhere. Some of the events are streamed onto the web live and also archived for offline viewing. Tip: like a real conference, you cannot attend all the events since they occur simultaneously – do not attempt – pick a few things and check it out what you can.
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Izzy
Fantastic Tiffany! And yes, something this huge is very cool, but also intimidating in the scope and vastness. You’re probably right just to focus on a few interesting things.
I’d definitely encourage MU peeps to go, and perhaps to try to go together. If there’s something interesting at 7pm, I might take our Wed SLT Evening Crit Class over there.
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Elle
Thanks for posting this Tiffany. I’ve attended in the past and encourage people to go. I concur with just pick out the few events that interest you the most.
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Vanessa
From Primary to Mediated Experience – and Back
Talk by Domenico Quaranta
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rmarie beedit
“The more we experience mediation, the more we realize the importance of primary experiences. If you don’t believe me, try virtual sex.”
The above line – despite the snicker factor – illustrates the difference between primary and mediated in context really nicely. There’s often a need to juxtapose the virtual against RL, or to place it in context with RL – to have RL frame the meaning of the virtual.
What are some examples of virtual art that is 100% primary even though it’s virtual? Is that possible?
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rmarie
I don’t think you have to talk about or have done cybersex to answer that question either ! I just thought it was an interesting analogy.
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Izzy
Utopia in Four Movements
I noticed that Tiffany and I were both using the word Utopia, and I couldn’t help but think of the remarkable film/performance Utopia in Four Movements by Sam Green and Dave Cerf. It’s a feature-length work. Here’s the first few minutes:
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Tiffany Mosienko
This was really great. Thanks for posting, Izzy.
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Elle
Utopia, it’s such a great word! Thanks for sharing that, Izzy.
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Tiffany Mosienko
Nigger and Bitch
I don’t like the words nigger and bitch. Music that uses these lyrics is a turn-off for me. Despite their use in contemporary popular culture, its impossible for me to disassociate the negative connotations. Lately at Medici University, a lot of these lyrics are being played in heavy rotation at Katyperryopolis and elsewhere around campus. (More …)
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rmarie
There was some interesting commentary by an African American professor about the frat guys who were taped doing racist chants, and her perspective on how those guys and the community might have learned from it, by discussing it together. I’m zooming this weekend, but in light of your comments I thought it could be interesting to share. All the best Tiffany! Thank you always for your forthrightness. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mariadixonhall/2015/03/a-teachable-moment-how-ou-failed-transformation-101/
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Tiffany Mosienko
That is a really interesting set of viewpoints in light of the expulsion of those students at Oklahoma. Thanks for sharing.
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Izzy
Thanks Tiffany. I’m a poor choice of “rebuttal speaker” to your post, since I agree with you. I always have, and still do, find the misogyny, homophobia, and general misanthropy found in many, but certainly not all, hip hop lyrics disturbing, degrading, offensive, and not promoting the kind of world I want to live in. As for the specific KPO! shows you reference, I have chosen not to attend them. My presumption, perhaps partly correct and partly incorrect, is that those who do choose to attend are ok with those lyrics.
Even though I personally find the material offensive and troubling, simply dismissing it as “hate speech” or anything of that ilk, is, I fear, also narrow-minded.
Again, I’m a very poor person to make this argument since it’s not my own perspective and I don’t really understand it. But after so many years of hip hop, I think we have to recognize the voice, representation, and empowerment this music, “troubling lyrics” included, holds for so many. It may be oppressive to some, but it is empowering to others. I’m sorry my own ignorance of hip hop culture doesn’t allow me to make a better articulated argument here. Still, I do think this music is important.. Perhaps not to me. Perhaps not to you. Perhaps not to Medici University. But to the larger culture? Yes, it very much seems to be. We can’t “ban” or “moderate” this expression without disenfranchising peeps who, in many cases, have been among the most disenfranchised in our culture.
It has become clear to me that the reason Utopia can never exist is that there is no such thing as a “general” or “universal” Utopia, there are only specific Utopias. My Utopia is very likely going to be your Dystopia and visa versa. And so we are left in our Utopialess universe, perhaps a bit like sinners cast out of heaven, destined to live out our days in the dystopia of the real. RL or VR, I think the best we can do is to have as much tolerance and inclusivity as we can.
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AlexandreLois1
What’s so bad about the word Negro ??? I don’t understand. In Russia, everything is called black , “Negro”.
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Tiffany Mosienko
Negro has an anthropological meaning, and refers typically to people of African decent. Its literal meaning, translated from French or Latin is black, as you’ve pointed out. In American English, nigger is most commonly and historically a racist insult. In polite American English conversation, it is referred to as “the n-word”: for example, when talking about the word’s historical meaning in literature and/or in racism. It is almost never used in casual conversation. More recently the use of the word nigger in rap and hip hop music among African-Americans re-politicizes the word, with the effect of creating race-based class empowerment while serving as a reminder of historic racial and class inequality. In this meaning it is typically meant to offend as it empowers, as most insults do.
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Neeva
Sorry if this posts double, I guest my first one didn’t go through.
This bitch don’t mind the word if it’s not used maliciously. I claim my bitch energy: to not always be nice, to be independent minded, to be a powerful, sometimes dominant force with goals of my own. To bark and bite, to own my sexuality and desire.
Language changes over time. Words of disrespect can be reclaimed and turned into words of pride. I suspect there is an undercurrent of that happening with some uses of bitch and even nigga in music. Britney Spears, ” you gotta work, bitch” for example. Sure, not all uses are respectful, the haters still gonna hate, but there is more nuisance with these terms then some might think.
Finally, I just want to shout out to our awesome and hard-working DJs. They are volunteers and doing a great job for us. I think it is unrealistic for them to screen for every occurance of any possibly offensive term in commercial music they play. They are working hard enough already getting out requests and doing the great work that they do. So no shame and no blame for our DJs. Just love and praise for for my best bitch Myra and my honorary boy bitch NSANE
That said, I’m totally on board with Tiffany’s underlying idea that the world could use more civility and respect of others in language and deed.
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Izzy
An interesting point that Neeva almost makes is that for a community that likes to listen to music and dance, we sure do have very few DJ’s holding up… haha… well… holding up Katy’s giant head! 😛
Seriously though, if more peeps with diverse cultural backgrounds and musical tastes would like to DJ, that enriches our experience, expands our diversity, and it gives us more opportunity to dance!
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Neeva
Autocorrect worked its random magic on my post substituting the word nuisance when I meant to write “nuance”. I guess there is lots of nuisance in the bitch and other words, since they are frequently used in not nice ways. Of course there is certainly a lot of nuisance in auto-correct software too.
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Tiffany Mosienko
Thank you for your thoughtful comments, Neeva. I agree that actions are more important than words. The contexts are also important as you have pointed out. I certainly do not want to alienate or chastise the DJs. Community-making is a broad subject and not done easily with more than a handful of perspectives.
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Tiffany Mosienko
Learning never ends. I ran into these two articles today, quite independently from one other, though I understand this is part of a national discussion going on right now in America (errr, the latest in a series of discussions . . .)
http://www.alternet.org/culture/why-white-people-freak-out-when-theyre-called-out-about-race
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/15/the-privilege-of-checking-white-privilege.html
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Izzy
Big Avatar On Campus
The awesome Zsophia is working on getting our MU Honor Roll up to date — Go Zsophia!
Which inspired me to add a new Big Avatar On Campus (BAOC) award. Emma’s working on the trophy now. It will be a perpetual trophy where the recipient adds their name or other elements before passing it on.
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Myra
Gratz, Neeva! You so deserve this. To show how you’ve inspired me, here’s a mini tower of love:
♥
♥
♥
♥
♥Is there a tower of BAoC trophies sometime in the near future?
Gratz, again.
Myra
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Elle
Yay Neeva! Congratulations!
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Neeva
Awwwww. /Blush. Thanks! But better than getting the award will be next week’s chance to give it. I know some very worthy BAOCs already, but if you know someone who is really having a breakout week let me know.
We have this great sim, blogs, studios until June. The Universe has given us this really unexpected gift. What happens now is in our hands. As an artist, writer, photographer, of any level of skill, this is a amazing opportunity to try more, risk more, create more, learn more, and teach more than you ever have before. It’s a chance to make a supportive community. To build a mini-Renaissance from the ground up. So catch fire. Have fun. Show up and do stuff. And let me know what you are doing so i can cheer you on.
Neeva
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Neeva and 
Tiffany Mosienko, and 
rmarie beedit, 
Elle, 
Myra, 
Oona and 
Izzy
Photo Lighting Workshop w Fanny on Saturday!
Photo 66 – Virtual Lighting
Beside your interest there are some requirements:
- your graphics card should be able to run Advanced Lighting Mode;
- you should be using Firestorm for viewer;
- you should know how to take a snapshot;
- you should know how to create a prim;
Still there?
Ok 🙂
The very most of us take photos and, no matter if real or virtual, photography is always about light. So this is what this class is going to be about as well: The different light sources existing in Second Life, how and when to use, and, maybe most interesting at all, how to build them ourselves.
Date and time: Saturday, 14th March, 10:00 – 12:00 am SLT
Place: My studio at MU, Nostradamus 20
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Neeva
I was soooooo hoping there would be some photography classes! Yay!
Pearl Grey
The First Four Photo/Story Collaborations
Neeva Torok, Veyot, Paypabak Writer and Elle Thorkveld have each written something to go with some photographs I took. I’ve organized each entry into it’s own page on my MU blog. Here’s the link to the first one; the other three are in the next posts when you scroll forward.
Everyone is welcome to participate. It can be in any medium. The original instructions are in a post I linked to here a few days ago titled Invitation to Collaborate.
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Neeva
That worked really well Pearl! I loved seeing the different things everyone saw in your pictures. Elle’s story is very hiku-like, Veyot and paypabak each add their own rich imaginations. The way you gave each version it’s own post really frames each collaboration better now.
rmarie
Classes
Greetings, some new classes have been posted to the class schedule page! Don’t miss ’em.
Organizer: Neeva
Event: USA Today bestselling fantasy author Anthea Sharp has agreed to come to MU and talk/answer questions about her work and about the new era of digital publishing. She has been traditionally published, but hit the best seller list independently by selling her novels directly through Amazon, Apple, and other outlets. She can come Sunday March 29. 10:00 SL time (unless another time works better for us). She’s a great resource for aspiring writers. Her Feyland books combine the fairy realm with virtual reality. Antheasharp.com is her website. She also writes historical romances about artists and musicians and has had numerous short stories published.
Time: Sunday March 29. 10:00 SLT (unless another time works better for us)
Organizer: Zsophia
Event: This is a basic Second Life Safety class with information and tools you can use!
Times:
This is a single class that I will be repeating
Tuesday MArch 17 at 7pm
Tuesday April 14 at 7pm
Tuesday MAy 12 at 7pm
Tuesday June 9 at 7pm
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Neeva
March 29 at 10am SL time for getting together with Anthea Sharp
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rmarie
Noted, Neeva. We’re trying to work it out so people can add their classes directly to the left-side calendar. It requires some special setup in the blog.
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AlexandreLois1
shadow Bach
shadow Bach
we Bach entangled in this 3 D world. His shadow following me. We are in a harsh crystal from which there is no escape. It’s time to enter and you there.
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Elle
Nice Alexandre! I like the music and the visuals. They work well together.
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Veyot
I bought a cool song from AlexandreLois1 to use in a machinima. I wrote about the filming on veyot.tumblr.com
Paypabak Writer
Another post, instead of a lecture, something to talk about: what is your consuming passion in blogging/writing?
Discuss here or there.
Pearl Grey, and -
Neeva
Thanks for the link to your blog post. What you said about your blog not being read by many of the people you know resonates for me. I have found that when I’m making art or writing or producing other creative work, I don’t need a huge audience. Just a few is ok. Most of the joy is in the act of creation itself + the magic ingredient of a friend or two who sees the work. With my studio at MU I know my neighbors will see
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Pearl Grey
My writing passion changes like a river flowing at times. With blogging, whatever I’ve done has to be good enough as it is. I’ve gone back and deleted or hidden posts but I never edit them. Even when I write stories, they tend to be very narrative without much of a direction at all. With chronic pain, fatigue and varying degrees of brain fog, my writing is affected, of course. And that’s where habit and momentum come into play. When I can manage to do something I usually enjoy, why wait and wait until I feel at the top of my game to do it again? I don’t want to regret missing my life. I honestly feel benefits from just writing about whatever sparks my interest at the time, (or maybe what I need to get out). And who really can deal with interacting with a huge amount of readers in a blogging environment? It’s wonderful to come across writing by someone who has a clear and authentic sounding voice. And when I discover their writing, I’m pleased they have stuff to read from their past, that they didn’t give up along the way.
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Paypabak Writer
I had an acquaintance IM me last night reassuring me that she follows my writing and enjoys it. My heart just melted! It really does feed the passion to get someone to respond. Another blogger to whom I often link or quote (and make comments if nothing else, devoted a post to my Scripturient response: https://serenhaven.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/passion-or-what/
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rmarie
A Nice Mental Jog
“You see what you want to see. You might think it’s speaking to you, but it’s just your imagination.”
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Izzy
Yeah… I know a certain smarty pants skull around campus you could say the same of!! O_o
AlexandreLois1
Mathematical art
Mathematical art
We will move together! We shall understand that the mean formula for music and painting. Contact me inworld and we begin an exciting journey to Alice. White Rabbit is waiting for us!
Pearl Grey
Invitation to Learners
Here’s something you can participate in at your own pace and in your own time. I took four photographs that can be illustrative of a story alone, in combination, or all together. You can write a short story, make a photograph or short machinima.
This is an experiment for me as I’ve never done anything like this. It’s outside of my comfort zone. But I’m willing to see how others might respond. If you want to participate and don’t have a WP blog, no worries. There are details about note cards, etc. in the post.
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Neeva
Awesome Pearl! I’m looking forward to this.
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Neeva
Here is my story from your pictures, Pearl. Feel free to post it where you like.
“Let me show you my movie” he said, fiddling with the projector. “It’s about a dog.”
But she could see only a swirl of light against the screen.
“Is this all?”
He shrugged apologetically. “I had no script”
“That can be remedied,” she said. (She was a practical woman). “I’ll just sit right here and type you one. You said it was about a dog?”
“Yes, it’s about a dog”
She clacked for awhile on the keys of the ancient typewriter. The script began to take shape. It was the story of a man, a woman, and a peculiar, overstuffed chair. It was the story of stairs that defied gravity and lead to the unknown. It was the story of a chandelier of cut crystal that forever danced its light across a dusty floor.
“Thank you,” he said at last when she had finished and they were standing together at a respectful and chaste distance. “Thank you, But it was supposed to be about a dog.”
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Pearl Grey
Copy/pasted in the comments! This is a lovely story! And thank you for going first.
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Myra
That’s so cute. Clever.
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Pearl Grey
We have three great short stories so far!
Izzy
Izzy
Raspberry Kerfuffles OMG!
Raspberry Kerfuffles, OMG!
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Neeva
I dream of a cityscape where the buildings look just so but on a ginormous scale and the colors dazzle your eyes with their crunchy, saturated goodness.
Izzy
Sugata Mitra – a school in the cloud
Izzy
She was eating a raspberry kerfuffle — with a fork! — and she had on the biggest smile I’ve ever seen, the whole time she was eating the thing!
Newton are discussing. -
Newton
Sublime!
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Paypabak Writer
My favorite flavor!
Pearl Grey
We Got Blogged
I noticed this yesterday: http://temioyen.slmame.com/e1508055.html
In my virtual world, no one seems to have much of an understanding about what MU is. I share links and attempt to explain sometimes but there’s likely no adequate way to do so.
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Paypabak Writer
Some good guesses about the design of the campus. I wonder if language made it tricksy for her to discuss it with anyone she found. She seems to have visited early on, as far as the Katy Perry head goes. For myself, I visit and try to report what I see and talk to people, fellow learners, to get what they’re doing. It’s still coming together.
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Izzy
Aww, it’s a sweet write up.
Layout of the campus. It should be possible to use sky boxes with distance each other, but these could be set intentionally dense to develop through friendly competition? Comparing with other LEA projects providing a full SIM for each artists or UWA art project with three dimensional layout, this looks a bit crowded. May be enough for students?
How funny that she thinks it’s crowded compared to LEA or UWA, when, of course, my single biggest lament so far is that we’re nowhere close to the density of an RL city. I wish we could reach that kind of density / critical mass / eyes on the street / community… alas… I don’t think we can get dense enough! 😀
Penny Patton — who I was lucky enough to spend a couple hours with last weekend and who will probably come give an MU Visiting Artist talk sometime before the semester is over — continues to preach that almost all builds in SL are grossly over-scale creating less immersive experiences that eat up land and land-impact (prim counts) and cost more money for a worse experience!
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Paypabak Writer
I agree with Penny, but at the same time, why in a world where we fly and teleport, do we need walls? I saw a design of the American Library Association’s island back in 2008. It was pretty cool: based around a lake, like Epcot Center, but with various levels and platforms, taking advantage of what we can do in a virtual world rather than trying to recreate an actual world. And considering the Lab effed up on scaling to begin with, that’s a pretty good move.
The trouble with the kind of density you seem to be aiming for isn’t so much prim limitations as an actual population tends to crap things out. Sixty people on a moderately primmed out island tends to be the limit.
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Izzy
60 would be great! 30 would be fantastic! Most of the time MU has less than 6!
Yes, you’re right about walls. Actually though, Tiffany had a powerful insight on this in one of the comments on the original Kerfuffle post (not the tastier Raspberry Kerfuffle follow-up post)
We bring into the virtual realm what we know – we must, because its all we can do. Virtuality can take on new forms, however, virtuality almost always most closely resembles what we have in the real world, to a degree, because without those “hooks” into reality, we’d be completely lost.
http://mediciuniversity.co.uk/talk/there-has-been-a-kerfuffle-in-the-force/#comment-242
Or as Ray Kurzweil put it in The Age of Spiritual Machines, “We want to solve all of our ‘problems’… just not too quickly…”
Even simpler than your ALA Island, I love the hair shop Analog Dog. Instead of walls and boards, she built a beach and hung hair all over the water. You just wade around as you look for the ‘doo you want.
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Paypabak Writer
Another post on my campus wanderings:
Yves
Zone of Immaterial Transcripts
Immaterial
You are invited to participate in a ritual for a Zone of Immaterial Transcripts this Sunday at 8am SLT.
Tiffany Mosienko
There has been a kerfuffle in the force. Perhaps the first learning of the MU year was the following: people have different views on things. It was related to class participants of Cafe Sophistry that a chat transcript would be released on the web after the discussion had taken place. This did not sit well with at least one class participant. The Cafe Sophistry blog currently lists the chat transcripts as pending review of participants. I did some research and found some friendly help on the SL forums: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Everything-Else/Can-I-post-a-chat-transcript-from-SL-onto-the-web/qaq-p/2909416 Two questions come to mind 1) does MU have a clear policy on content of classes and specifically sharing content that may contain otherwise private privileged information shared between individuals “rolepaying” an education space in a virtual world? 2) As MU asserts affordances and vulnerabilities in a virtual world relating to said same “roleplaying” of an education space does MU have a clear policy on resolving disputes, in trust, between individuals, and potential legal issues arising therefrom?
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Newton
Well, to be fair, one person merely waxed philosophical about whether people would be as forthcoming if they knew their words would be posted to a blog later on. Then I started to worry about it and wanted to make sure the participants understood that. Is it enough to state at the end of a class that the transcript will be posted?
Good question about policy, Tiffany. Could this be something the coordinator gets sign-off on (“Would you prefer to have transcripts sent privately in class or etc?”)…
As of now, as for Café Sophistry, it’s all there to read.
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Izzy
There’s a lot that could be said about this question technically, but I think the focus here is more “personal” that “technical.”
Sincere apologies in advance if I’m reading this totally wrong, but Tiffany, your language, so academic, convoluted, and dense, that I have almost no idea of what you’re truly saying, I think is a very circuitous way of saying,
Newton, IDK you were going to post my conversation everywhere, forever, and I wish you’d take it down. Or at least would have said so in advance so I could self-censor or not attend.
If I read that way wrong, I’m very, very sorry. It’s my best guess. My writing is convoluted enough that I shouldn’t be critiquing anyone else, but Tiffany, yours was really convoluted. It’s ok to be annoyed, offended, or hurt. But I’d suggest, if possible, being clearer and more direct about that.
Since I’m someone who wants to document everything, my own bias would be to publishing transcripts. ATM the experience of MU is “hot” vs the “cool” of the web. But one year from today the only way anyone will ever know this place existed or that we thought about anything, is via this legacy of web documentation. So I’m for documenting as much as possible.
Still, if the class were “how to stack prims,” I think publishing a transcript would be a more simple case. In something like a Crit Class where emotions can be on the line, or an Identity exploration like Cafe Sophistry, much as I value documentation, I do see how it could be too invasive to the participants.
To some degree, where the chat was held matters. In 1-to-1 IM, or in a Group IM of 4-5 peeps, I think there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. If the chat is in the VB Friends group chat, then potentially any of 270 group members could be listening. And in open Local Chat, theoretically anyone could be listening and rebroadcasting.
Those might be reasonable norms. Still, I think the nature of the topic matters. I think if Tiffany isn’t comfortable with the transcript of her chat published:
- she might say so more clearly and directly
- Newton then should probably take that chat down
As for “Official MU Policy,” I hate to have to have the bureaucracy of that, but realistically it’s probably wise. I guess the course syllabus, and the start of meeting announcement, should specify where the conversation will be held, for example:
- Due to the potentially private nature of today’s discussion, I will create a Multi-person chat for the [5] of us participating. Any of us might save the chat log for personal review later, but none of us should publish it in any publicly accessible way. Although we are online, this should be considered a private conversation.
or
- Today’s class will be held in Local Chat. It could be potentially heard and accessed by anyone. One or more participants or nearby non-participants might hear this discussion and anyone might post a transcript of all or part to their blog. If you aren’t comfortable having your name associated with a comment or question, you can privately IM your comment or question to the facilitator and s/he can enter it into the discussion as an anonymous statement.
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veyot
I was the person who objected. Newton told us at the end of class that he was planning to post the transcript. (I should have spoken up right then of my concerns, but I didn’t.) But when I read the transcript, I realized that at the next class discussion, I would only listen, but not say a single word. So I told Newton that I thought that posting the transcript would prevent people from attending the classes.
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Elle
I agree with veyot. I was surprised at the end when Newton said the transcript would be posted. That is the first time that has occurred in SL for me. Yes, anyone could potentially post from any chat so it is something to be aware of. However I do think that a class should state in the initial announcement if transcripts will be posted and again at the beginning of the class.
Thinking about this after the class I realized I was considering not attending the next one and if I did go I probably won’t add much. That outcome seems counterproductive to having an open discussion of an interesting topic.
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Newton
Sorry everyone. The transcript of yesterday’s local chat has been removed. I notecarded the individual class participants with it yesterday.
In the future, if anyone decides to attend again, I’ll only send it by notecard to people who were actually at the class. If someone shows up late, they will not receive it and they will not be able to proceed with the class.
I do hope you come back on March 29 with some thoughts or that you’ll contact me privately with any other concerns about that particular class. Again, I very much apologize.
Let the policy discussion rage on!
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Neeva
What a great discussion. It always amazes me how much second-order learning takes place around the formal class. As a culture and a species we are currently debating and evolving norms around privacy on the Internet and in social media–and here we are in our little corner of the that Internet working through the same issues in a personal, hands-on way.
In a dynamic place like MU I think the most important policies are the policies you create for yourself and bring your interactions with others. In a teacher role, I’m reminded that people care about where their words and images end up. if I want to duplicate or publish to document and share the experience, making that clear up front is ideal. negotiating it during the learning isn’t bad either. In a student role, I think my policy will be to be generous and share my thoughts and works with other participants, to not to take myself too seriously, to keep it fun, and to be brave enough to make a lot of mistakes, both publicly and privately.
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Tiffany Mosienko
I really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to comment. At Izzy’s request I’ll clarify my point. I was, in fact, being rhetorical, and I was not trying to influence policy one way or the other on my own behalf as may now be clear. My personal view is that everything I do in SL may be broadcast widely on the internets, and my behavior is “adjusted” accordingly to a degree. We are all at different levels of learning in many different fields, inlcuding virtual identity, the topic at Cafe Sophistry.
Virtual spaces give us affordances (that is, agency, or the ability to act in certain ways we might not in the real world). That’s what those who push virtual worlds and technologies harp on. It is a basic tenet of technological determinism. Technology affords us this opportunity . . (to make an alternative University) . . . therefore . . . .we do it. But reknowned MIT anthropolgist-psychologist-author-technologist Sherry Turkle has taught that for every affordance a technology provides, there is a (perhaps equal and opposite) vulnerability that is created.
If MU is going to be an education space, it must be aware of the role it is playing by hosting such a space and setting down rules or affordances with sensitivity to the inherant vulnerabilities. “There are no rules – that’s the only rule” is a dangerous game because virtuality and reality are inexorably intertwined – as was discussed at Cafe Sophistry. I have not done a complete census, but its pretty clear that there are various levels of technical, aesthetic and emotional maturity present at MU. And that is great for diversity and certainly welcome. I am sure we all have great things to learn from each other.
SL policy is based on “community standards”. This discussion already references rules and regulations of the SL Terms of Service (TOS). MU must define its own community standards as other sims do, in order to be a viable enterprise. This will become abundantly clear when someone opens an “educational” “rape” “clinic” next to the surrogacy center, and begins “teaching” there.
My two questions were: does MU have a community standards policy (and yes, the suggestion is that yes, it should), and 2) in the event of an issue with teaching, learning and or otherwise existing at MU does MU “have my back” if a dispute should arise to amicably resolve those issues to the best of its ability. This is the role of an University administration.
We’ve come a long way in answering those questions already. At the challenge of taking myself too seriously as Neeva pointed out, it is possible that MU “cover its ass” by pinning a disclaimer on its stuff saying, “everything you do and see at MU is a community project, subject to some community standards, namely X,Y and Z. Everything you do and say here may become a photo, video, chat transcript etc in someone else’s art project on someone else’s blog, and subject to the rights and limitations of the laws and community standards of your federal, state and local, etc. Play nice. If you have an issue, please see the Provost’s secretary.”
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veyot
I am going to start making that collage with some ocean waves and all of us floating. And maybe I will play a toddler for a day to change my opinons about toddlers! .
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Newton
Glad to hear it Veyot – and really looking forward to seeing it! Hugs.
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Izzy
I shiver at the thought of MU becoming a rule-bound bureaucracy. My RL university drives me crazy in its conservatism. In one of my recent scoldings because another college felt one of our student projects was disruptive, the director of the school of art actually encouraged me to have students do their projects off campus where they could enjoy greater freedom.
I couldn’t believe he actually said that. But he was completely serious. Students have less freedom for art “experiments & improvisations” off campus than on!? What the hell is the university for????
kk, having duly vented, I think this “Edge Case” makes clear that we do indeed need a “Privacy” or “Disclosure” or something like that, policy. Rather than simply post something, we should create a draft, post it, and have it open for a comment period. We could either have a short comment period so as to get the policy operational ASAP. Or we could say that the draft will be policy until the comment period closes, and then have the luxury of a longer comment period.
I can write a draft myself if necessary. But perhaps Tiffany, you, or another person here, would like to try penning a draft. Whatever person or committee drafts it, we can post it here on MU/Talk and then solicit community comments. We can incorporate those comments in a revision and then have it be our policy.
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Izzy
ATM we’re thinking mostly about text transcripts. Will this policy want to cover photography also? I’ve always felt that avatars in public spaces were photographable. Perhaps we will want to regulate that? As far as I know, Garry Winogrand never got a model release from anyone.
Should our policy be any different, or give any consideration to the fact that we are avatars? So in Tiffany’s case, she’s made some degree of SL-RL linkage. In my case, I haven’t made any linkage to a living typist. So publishing a transcript or photo with Izzy’s words or likeness doesn’t implicate anything about any RL person anywhere. Does that make a difference? Or do avatars want privacy, not only with respect to their typist, but privacy or absence-of-publicness for the avatar’s thoughts and likeness?
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Elle
Linden Lab has an official Snapshot and Machinima policy:
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Snapshot_and_machinima_policy
So we are bound by that at the least restrictive. I’m guessing MU is the landowner for now, so could define permissions in the covenant if they are needed (like giving machinima permission on the land)
Personally I won’t want to make it more restrictive.
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Newton
Removing but mentioning the fact that it was local chat – I think what I would do in the future is to just make sure I get an answer from all participants, to the idea of sharing the post on the blog. The concept was that nobody really reads the blog, so it’s hardly all that public, but of course it’s publicly accessible.
The purpose of the class was an art class, but the sensitivity of the subject warranted more scrutiny in the matter for sure. Not all classes have that dynamic, and I think the organizer, as part of planning the course, should ponder privacy as the situation warrants and make agreements with the participants as discussed above. Common sense pending formal accreditation.
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Newton
“The blog” meaning my blog, not this blog!
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Yves
I would like to propose a possible solution to this dilemma.
I propose, a Transcript of Immaterial Sensibility.
Since our encounter was at 8am SLT Sunday last, I propose that we meet exactly 1 week later, at 8am SLT Sunday next. We will meet at the offices of MU/Creativity magazine at Maria-12, overlooking the waters of the Eleonora Slough.
On arrival, participants will perform the following actions:
1 – Shake hands and agree that any discrepancies were due to honest misunderstandings and not any sort of deception or malice.
2 – Each participant should bring 1 gold ingot and give it to me to perform the ritual. I will bring a hard copy printout of the transcript of our discussion.
3 – I will burn the transcript.
4 – I will take the transcript ashes and the gold ingots and throw them off the edge of the MU/C studio, down the Eleonora Gorge, and into the waters of the Eleonora Slough below. (I may keep some of the ingots as an artist’s fee for performing this action)
5 – We will declare the waters of the Eleonora Slough to be a Zone of Immaterial Transcripts.
6 – We will depart.-
Elle
LOL! Then there is that approach. 😉
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Tiffany Mosienko
@ Izzy: I guess I sort of talked myself into a corner there! OK I’ll try to have something on the weekend
@ Newton: common sense is so elusive and very different for individuals of different cultures
@ Elle: yes, we are all bound by LL policies, but not everyone reads the rules, or has any expectations that others have
@ Yves: I do believe the mistakes were honest. I didn’t get the feeling of malice, just a differing set of agendas for the individuals in the group
@ all: it is not my intention to have a complex bureaucracy or technocracy, it can be very simple, and no matter what the rules are, people will either follow them or break them. This is more of a discussion about self-governance, and why that might be important. We bring into the virtual realm what we know – we must, because its all we can do. Virtuality can take on new forms, however, virtuality almost always most closely resembles what we have in the real world, to a degree, because without those “hooks” into reality, we’d be completely lost.-
Izzy
Wow Tiffany, your final @all statement is fantastic! Not simply about this issue, but about virtuality! haha, I complained your initial post was written a bit densely, but here in a single paragraph you’ve explained so many different things, and even a path to the future! 😀
In The Age of Spiritual Machines, Ray Kurzweil writes that “we want to solve our problems, but we don’t want to solve them all, too quickly!”
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Tiffany Mosienko
Medici University Community Standards (Draft Proposal)
Medici University in Second Life and on the web are bound by certain rules of behavior. All learners should familiarize themselves with the Second Life Community Standards policy: https://secondlife.com/corporate/cs.php which includes sections on intolerance, harrassment, assault, disclosure, maturity and (disturbing the) peace. Medici University in Second Life is a Moderate rated sim, and so no Adult activity is allowed. Since the purpose of Medici University is to create a learning community, behaviors and expressions ought to be of an educational nature. No vending as allowed by LEA rules (reference needed). Learners are encouraged to report any issue that contradicts these guidelines to the Provost. The Provost shall be the final arbiter of all disputes.
Izzy
Happy Convocation Day Everyone!! 😀
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Izzy 11:56 on 22/03/2015 Permalink |
this is so great!
Neeva 15:22 on 22/03/2015 Permalink |
Let me just say……..Yay!