Did she Dupe the Desi???

WELL.

I have had one of those days in SL that was both productive and annoying, Fortunately, the annoying part was sandwiched in between two productive parts.

To start the day, I got to see some gorgeous furniture that Adey built. He is such a wiz now at this building, and it is like watching this amazing transformation. I wish I had the talent to build or script, but I don't. I am content to watch others be brilliant, instead :-)

Then my buddy, Rezon, invited me over to take a look at the place where he works inworld. This is an interesting story. Rezon found Literature Alive! on a day of exploring in SL, and was shocked to find that HIS local community college was the one behind it. The rest is history, but it is amazing how this virtual game connected people who live about 2 miles away from each other IRL. He called his boss over, PaulC (both are up there in the pic), and we were ready to start the tour when I decided to invite my educator friends. Well, you KNOW how it is when I stir up trouble (hehehe)!

This Hyperstring (LEWIS) place is amazing. It can run live feed or movies; it has a staff that will take care of everything while all the teachers show off their virtual goodies. It really looks like a REAL conference facility. Now, I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SAYING...why create something in SL that already exists IRL? Well, for one...we want our colleges to take this conference seriously, so, we need to host it somewhere "professional." Also, a lot of people have great space, but I think it is best to use a third party vendor. Why? Well, quite simply, it doesn't become one college's conference. I wouldn't even know wh oto pick, to be honest, as there are a lot of great spaces, and surely, someone would get offended. This isn't the Literature Alive! conference; it isn't the LCCC Conference. Since it is not at one college, everyone has equal voice, and I think that is a great way to start a new tradition :-)

My dream has been to hold an in-world conference for educational best practices. Audio Zenith/Chris Hambly inspired me with his ACHUB conference earlier this Spring. So, I tossed out the idea to see if anyone else wanted something like that...Desi should SOOO know better. Within 30 minutes, we had a committee formed (we STILL need volunteers, never fear!) and a date (Friday, May 25th).

We will be hosting the 1st Annual Best Practices in SL Education Conference on Friday, May 25th. The owner of the place, PaulC Beck (RL Paul Clevett of Hyperstring.net), was such a wonderful resource, and even gave us a great discount. We need to raise about 200 USD to cover the rental costs (that is 56K in Linden)...so PLEASE donate (we can exchange shameless promotion).

We are accepting proposals for inworld presentations (just like a RL conference), and there will be the ability to stream live or play MOV files. There are smaller rooms, a huge lecture hall, and a beach party place (we thought we heard Abba...but I was convinced it was the Stones). We will try to make it JUST LIKE a RL conference (with gift bags and registration lines!).

So, that was an EXCITING morning!

Then...drum roll...a reporter from SLNN contacted me...about a woman he thinks is scamming me. While I can't go into details or mention any names, please know that there are people in here scamming us. I am not sure if she really is scamming us; she has never asked me for any money, and all I did was host her content about her cause of choice. And, I refrain from any judgments of any kind about that sort of thing, as I just want to provide space to those emerging in SL. But, if she IS scamming me, I am really disappointed. To take someone's good nature and generosity and jump up and down on it is, well, sucky. Let's hope for the best; let's assume she is innocent. In any case, until she can show some sort of legitimacy, I won't host her content.

The day ended with a lovely and lively group at Lit Alive! talking about creating syllabi in a SL world. WE talked about a lot of issues, and we had no resolutions, but, we did at least start thinking about the ways the world will change. Next week, we will practice with the soap boxes! So, come on over and learn a new teaching tool!