Saturday, January 29, 2011

2013 PROMO: Promote your events -- Chestnut Rau

Promote your events
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A recent post on this blog
Promote your events: short checklist

Comment by  Chestnut Rau JANUARY 26, 2011
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Chestnut added a thoughtful comment to the original post.  Here I present the comment (under the Chestnut byline) to make sure it gets the attention it deserves. - SE
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I spent two years writing about events for New World Notes and feel pretty qualified to comment on this post. What you have said about the notecard is spot on and people would do well to heed your advice. Having said that I would add a number of important points.

1) You need to get the word out about your event in advance! The day before or the day of is too late. A week to ten days in advance you want people to hear about your event.

2) Send the notice to bloggers! There are plenty of people who will write about your event if you just let them know.

3) Use social networks! Plurk is very Second Life focused and you should also make good use of Twitter.

4) Put your event in Linden Lab's event list! Its a little cumbersome to use but people check it when they are looking for something to do.

5) A day before your event send a reminder. Do NOT spam your groups and your FL or people will hate you forever. One notice a week in advance, one the day before and social networking or group IMs that say "come now! Here is the LM" is enough. 
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FL= friends list-- SE

6) To reiterate: spam=bad. gentle reminder=good.

7) Use complete sentences in your note card and if you are not a good writer then have someone proofread your notices! Typos are embarrassing and unclear writing will not produce the results you are after.

8) If you are going to do lots of events ask experience event planners for advice or consider hiring someone to help.

9) Put on an entertaining event and you are on the way to building an audience. If your event is disorganized or not fun you will have a hard time getting people back for a second time.

Wow that got long winded. I guess I have a thing or two to say on the subject. I should think about doing some posts on my own blog on this topic.

Chestnut Rau
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Valuable advice.  I get to add a few comments here;
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The original post is only a small part of what I have in the inworld Hobo Kit at Cookie.  The length represents another promotion principle:  Don't overload your page.  I will later be posting several more kit articles with more specific suggestions about particular aspects of this subject
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Plurk is very Second Life focused and you should also make good use of Twitter.
I use Twitter and Facebook extensively, as do many of my friends.  I don't use Plurk.  I think I have an account there, but prefer Facebook for its large audience.  I have spent a little time building up a friends list. 
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Send the notice to bloggers!  
Don't just send a notice.  Send usable copy, following the suggestions in my post.
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group IMs that say "come now! Here is the LM" is enough. 
No.  Not enough for active people.  I get several event notices a day.  If I got one like that, I would not know which event it meant.  So I would ignore it.  What I want at the time of the event  is an IM with the event or performer name, the time of the event, and the slurl.
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Video-Machinima
      

*****
  • What do we do in Virtual Worlds? 
  • Search on page with Google Chrome: Ctrl+f, search bar upper right 
  • Google search this blog, column on right
  • or put site:virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com at the end of the search terms
  • Annotated screen shots made with Jing
  • Creative Commons License, attribution only.
  • Second LifeLindenSLurl, and SL are trademarks of Linden Research Inc.
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  • Ads are  from Google
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Thursday, January 27, 2011

2013 EDU: A model for educational games?

Search for the Sy: model for educational games?
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Watch on YouTube
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The search for the SY caught my attention.
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for several reasons.
  • It is a game of exploration and discovery.
  • It is designed to allow collaborative exploration.
  • It displays a backstory, a clear story line, and some interaction with characters. 
  • It leads the player to illustrate the work of an anthropologist or archaeologist.
These features look like aspects one would want as a basis for educational games.
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First off, it is interesting.  Read these comments: 
Division Street / Divided Path:
"The Search for the Sy opened recently at IBM Exhibition C. It's an interesting build, both for its own sake and for its connection to recent discussions on the nature and future of Second Life."

Honour's Post Menopausal View: Search results for the sy:
"Forgive me if I have to do a little victory dance here. I've mentioned before how awful I am at hunts and quests but having gotten a tour of The Search for the Sy I felt compelled to go back and attempt to carry it through."

Search for the Sy « Ahuva’s Blog: "In-Land Search for the Sy is one of the current exhibits at the IBM Exhibition Space in SL. It is among the most interesting and creative exhibits/builds I have seen in SL. It is beautiful."
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Second, it illustrates the work of an anthropologist or archaeologist

In fact, Annabelle Fanshaw, the main creator of the game, had input from a professor of anthropology as she wrote the backstory.    More generally, most aspects science can be cast as stories of exploration and discovery, at least at the introductory level.  It is this kind of thing that leads me to imagine the creation of educational games based on real scientific investigations.

Virtual worlds give experience, the web only gives information
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Annabelle recently gave me a tour of the game--behind the scenes.  I had originally intended to play at least though the opening part of the game as a player, so I could report on the experience.    But I haven't had the time to do more than I reported in the links above. And I don't think I am very good at these games anyway.

So when Annabelle indicated that the game would close in February, I decided to get the tour for the close..  Annabelle told me that she plans to open the build up for visitors about the beginning of February.  Visitors will be able to tour the build and see everything without having to solve the puzzles.

I hope Annabelle does other story games like this one.  It still reminds me of Myst.
*****
  • What do we do in Virtual Worlds? 
  • Search on page with Google Chrome: Ctrl+f, search bar upper right 
  • Google search this blog, column on right
  • or put site:virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com at the end of the search terms
  • Annotated screen shots made with Jing
  • Creative Commons License, attribution only.
  • Second LifeLindenSLurl, and SL are trademarks of Linden Research Inc.
  • This blog is not affiliated with Second Life or anything else.  
  • Ads are  from Google
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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

2013 PROMO: WRITE: Collaborative blogging, invited articles. Overview

Collaborative blogging, invited articles
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Collaborative Blog: A blog in which some group of people work together in pursuit of an objective, possibly divided into several sub-goals assigned to different contributors.
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Interblogging: Two or more blogs carry on a conversation about their common interests.  Each blog carries its own posts, but links to the other(s).
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Comment collaborators:  People add thoughtful and carefully written comments to particular posts.  The primary author picks up the comments and uses them as a basis for new main article.
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Invited articles: People you know may provide content, particularly if you have many readers and if they have something they want to publicize.       
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If you aren't social media, you are old media
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Examples:
Comment collaborators: I sometimes pick up comments to articles on this blog. and post them on the article or in subsequent articles.
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Invited articles
I am glad to get content  for this blog on topics related to the mission of the blog:

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Video-Machinima
      

*****
  • What do we do in Virtual Worlds? 
  • Search on page with Google Chrome: Ctrl+f, search bar upper right 
  • Google search this blog, column on right
  • or put site:virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com at the end of the search terms
  • Annotated screen shots made with Jing
  • Creative Commons License, attribution only.
  • Second LifeLindenSLurl, and SL are trademarks of Linden Research Inc.
  • This blog is not affiliated with Second Life or anything else.  
  • Ads are  from Google
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2013 PROMO: Promote your events: short checklist

Event promotion checklist
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I hate to see people go to the trouble of preparing for an event and then have a low turnout because they did not promote it effectively.
- Here are my suggestions for effective promotion of an event:

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

2013 BIZ: S-tech is here. E-tech is last year

S-tech, the social internet, and 
the future of virtual worlds 
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S-tech is the social sciences: Economics, Sociology, Psychology.
Electronics don't buy things. People buy things.

2013 2ndHELP: Music and video, hear and see

What you need to know 
to hear/see audio and video  
Instructions for V3.x viewers. 
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Sound & Media
Preferences, Sound & media tab
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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

2013 2ndHELP: Defend your event from griefers. Beginner's tutorial

Defend your event from griefers. Beginner's tutorial
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Instructions here  apply to Viewer 3.3+, not necessarily to other viewers.
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Events may attract griefers, especially if they are well publicized and well attended.  Here are things you can do to protect your events from people who create problems, assuming you own or control the land.
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Strongest -- no public access
Create a group for attendees.   Restrict parcel or sim access to that group.  Sim access control is strongest.  Some griefing can cross into a restricted parcel if the parcel is not large. On an island, the access control can  extend to the whole island
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Controlled public access
Create a group for attendees.  Set parcel options to restrict these options to group only:  
  • Create objects, 
  • Object entry, 
  • Run scripts.  
These options will disable many griefing methods.  Some that remain possible are associated with an avatar that you can eject and ban.
OR
Create a meeeting parcel and a visitor parcel.  Restrict the meeting parcel to attendee group.  Restrict visitor parcel as above.  This method is used to keep people out of the main event area while letting them participate in chat and voice.
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Eject/ban from a parcel:
See that several people working with you (members of the group that owns the parcel) have the power to eject and ban people from the parcel.  You need at least two people and preferably three.   

If you see the offending  avatar:
Right click on the avatar, look for eject.  The ban option will be offered after you click eject.  If you do not see the ban option, change your activated group, preferably to the group that gives you the ban authority.  You may also need to change your group role to the role that gives you that authority.
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If you have only the name of the avatar:
World (top line) -- Place Profile --  About land -- Access -- Banned Residents -- Add
The add button will give you a new window -- enter the name -- Click Close.  
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Note:  You can also eject/ban from a private island if you are the owner or estate manager.  The methods are similar.  Place Profile --  Region/estate --Estate tab -- Banned Residents --Add

*****
  • What do we do in Virtual Worlds? 
  • Search on page with Google Chrome: Ctrl+f, search bar upper right 
  • Google search this blog, column on right
  • or put site:virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com at the end of the search terms
  • Annotated screen shots made with Jing
  • Creative Commons License, attribution only.
  • Second LifeLindenSLurl, and SL are trademarks of Linden Research Inc.
  • This blog is not affiliated with Second Life or anything else.  
  • Ads are  from Google
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Sunday, January 16, 2011

2013 ART: Ari's Privateer space sim (by Arcadia Asylum )

Privateer space sim
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The Arcadia Asylum Museum and Library recently announced the release launch of its new collection , featuring the works of Aley Arai from the famous Privateer space sim, bringing the total library collection to almost 600 pieces available for free to all.  
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Here are some pictures of Arcadia's Work..  Click on a picture to enlarge it.


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Saturday, January 15, 2011

2013 TKR: Brain Modules. The right part of your brain.

The right part of your brain
Self-help--Thinkerer

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Brain modules must be about using your whole brain.  Sort of.  That was a famous fad in psychology.  Not the idea of using parts of the brain.  People have always done that.  Even psychologists.  The fad part is talking about it.
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Use your head! They always tell you that. They never tell you how

Saturday, January 8, 2011

2013 1stHELP: Language of the Virtual Village

Language of the Virtual Village
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Note: some details here are specific to viewers of the  3.x class and may be different in other viewers.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

2013 HOBBIES: SLRR Mainline and Branch lines connected

SLRR Mainline and Branch lines connected
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Crumbie Junction with 
SLRR interurban car
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Report from Virtual Railway Consortium (VRC)
The SLRR Mainline and Branch lines on the Atoll Continent were connected to each other on the 30th of December 2010.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

2013 TKR: Education: The Secret of the Instruction Manual

If you want to keep a secret, 
put it in the instruction manual
Self-help--Thinkerer
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When all else fails, read the instructions. 
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This advice is reassuring. At least to those of us who don’t read the instructions until we have to. Here, in an effort to shed some light on thinkering, I present the four methods of handling the instructions when some assembly is required.
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Use your head! They always tell you that. They never tell you how