Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

The lakes by the volcano are now in place and the three globes are being tested in their floating position. Three are made in preparation for heavy usage. The platforms by the globes are the work spaces for the Magicians, as they need somewhere to talk, leave their tools, and work.

I could not imagine what those green and red sticks could be. They were spinning on some invisible point, like hands on a watch. It turned out that since the Earth Chair and Globe would need to communicate within a certain distance, these spinning hands were design tools, marking the acceptable spaces to place the two.

Everything is starting to come together and I can finally see what they imagined all a long. It is everything we could have wanted, and more so. Smoke rises out of the volcano and the lava pours over the edge. Tropical trees populate the area around the lakes, swaying as if in a strong wind. A river separates the area, accessible by two bridges.

I bathe in the lava pools until my wife tells me to get out (as they are making her nervous).

I have to laugh when I recall how concerned I was, just days earlier, that the island would look too cartoonish in its design. Notice here how the lava produces smoke and the unfortunate trees are on fire, burning eternally. I did not know that this level of detail was possible, nor that the Magicians would pay such exquisite attention to it.

I love looking down at the volcano from above. It looks amazing, with the smoke rising and the lava flowing down. Compared with the raised lump of land from just a few days earlier, I can only marvel at the mastery of the team I was so lucky to find.

January has come to a close. In seven days we have to move the island from the main grid to the teen grid, for use by the teens, something no one has done before. Everything would have to be in place, tested again and again to make sure it works just right.

But of course, before the entire island becomes inaccessible to the main grid, we would need to invite in the adults and have a slamming farewell party!

Could it all be done in time?

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The one aspect of the island the Magicians are building outside the essay contest, and for free, is the Save Darfur wristband dispenser. The Save Darfur campaign is an offline campaign to pressure the Bush Administration to take a stronger role resolving the deteriorating situation in Sudan.

We received authorization from the campaign to make a virtual version in Second Life, offering replicas of their charity wristbands and note cards, when clicked, that offer information about the situation and the campaign. I am proud to be one of the first to wear one in SL. I hope the more I wear it the more it can serve as a reminder of what is going on.

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After a week, the Magicians were ready to show me some of the final versions of objects that would be featured throughout the essay contest. The contest essentially would be a series of activities, discovered through exploration, talking youth from a talking rock, to an Earth Throne that quizzed them on digital media issues, to a talking tree, and down into the volcano itself where they pat the bat, touch a crystal, and get this beautifully designed iguana.

During the activities various incentives are given, like the Global Kids t-shirt, a decoder ring, and more. This is all in the service of the Global Kids Digital Media Essay Contest. Each valid entry gets the applicant $2,500L, with a chance to win up to $200 US.

Over here I am meeting some of the talking objects for the first time. To the left is the globe that will rise from the lake when a teen sits on the Earth Throne. In the background, you can see the terraformed volcano beginning to take shape. To the right is the flowing lava that will be placed on the volcano.

Each seems pretty cool, but they are all still out of context. Since I lack any conceptual tools to put them together in my own mind, I have no choice but to be fueled by faith.

This is it! Say good-bye to my generic, temporary Global Kids design and say hello to the unknown that awaits. At this point, the entire island has been flattened and the volcano begins to rise in the distance.

The volcano will be the combination of terraformed land, textures, and placed objects. Here is the volcano, seen from above, showing the terraforming in progress, sans textures and objects.

One of the neat things about hiring a team to build in Second Life was that I could login and drop by any time to see how the work was progressing. I was careful not to make it look like I was watching over their shoulder - which was hard not to do in the most literal sense in this embodied environment - so I tried to be careful and only zoom in and out with minimum interference.

I really do enjoy the inner tube in Second Life. Once the basics of the land shape were in place, my favorite way to tour it was to rez myself a ride, hop in, and paddle around. I was amazed at how large the space felt. It took a few minutes to complete the tour. Since only a small portion of the island is dedicated to the essay contest and the work of the Magicians, the tube tour made it clear to me that we needed some form of physical barrier separating the contest from the rest of the island.

The separation had to be intuitive. I requested the addition of a river which could serve as a natural barrier... and additional place to tube. While touring around, I saw Alex in the distance doing... something. He walked the plains to greet me and invited me over.

Alex was working on the Earth Throne experience. To earn access to the volcano, a teen has to sit on the throne and answer the question posed by the globe that rises out of the water. The question is multiple choices and randomly selected from a pool of thirteen, each designed to raise issues about youth and digital media that could inform their final essay. With the proper answer, the teen gains one hour of volcano access and a fire amulet to wear around their neck. Here Alex is showing me for the first time how the globe rises and falls.

Alex was kind enough to pose in front of his globe and wave for the camera. He lives in Scotland.

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While the island was still under construction, I was invited to participate in a gathering in San Diego organized by the University of Wisconsin, sponsored by the Spencer Foundation, to develop a white paper about games and learning. It was a real honor to be in a room with such accomplished and cool people and learn what I might have to offer.

As chance would have it, Democracy Island was holding an all day event at the same time, which I did not want to miss. I would visit just long enough to capture a text log of the presentations. Ironically, one of the people with me in San Diego was Cory Ondrejka, SL?s VP of Product Development. As he presented Second Life on his computer, projected on the overhead, I tagged along, from my own machine, occasionally waving to the room and saying ?Hi!?

Democracy Island is an interesting concept. They describe themselves as, ?Offering government entities, interest groups, and SL residents a space for conducting citizen consultation. ?

This day of hour-long events jumped around, from the central meeting point shown here, to a display by a NYC community board of a proposed park for Queens, to a talk on nanotechnology, and much more. It was easy to take a seat, give my attention offline to the white paper meeting, click my keyboard occasionally to prevent myself from being kicked out due to inactivity, then capture the log at the end to save in a note card for future reading.

Democracy Island has a cool version of the United States Supreme Court. I have no idea what it is for but I loved the opportunity to sit behind the bench, pretend I was the Chief Justice, and imagine what I might do.

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Combining my Magic Wand with other objects and activities was teaching me a deeper understanding of play in Second Life.

For example, Rhiannon met me on empty GK Island, produced a car, got in the driver?s seat, and, with me by her side, off we flew (it was a rather special car). As she drove us around the island I tried to thwart her with my wand, tossing objects in her path - elephants, lightening bolts, columns of fire, falling explosives, metal cages and more.

I knew it was all just animation on my screen, but the embodied nature of the experience, and the playful competition of pitting my mind against hers, was a blast.

In this photo, we experimented with ?rezzing? as many objects as we could with my wand before crashing the server.

As you might have noticed, I wasn?t finding much time to explore the adult grid. When I did, I was always surprised by what I found.

Here is a place that made me sad: a dozen or so people dancing in place, not with each other, nor even themselves, but because the longer they did the more money they could earn. I don?t understand the economics, but from what I can tell all land owners earn money when people visit. As an incentive, land owners often pay people simply to sit on their territory, on a designated chair.

This creative entrepreneur took the idea to the next level, paying people to dance. Why did these dancers whore themselves for mere pennies? What a pathetic waste of time.

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The proposal from Kim?s team, now calling itself The Magicians, was excellent. They took our rough ideas, which bore no relationship to life in SL, and took it to places I could not have imagined. The work that lay ahead was thrilling, not only in its conception but in its tight two week timeframe.

However, there was more to be done than I realized. Many organizations have build islands within Second Life, but only in the adult grid, or for their own use. Global Kids would become the first organization to build an island for teens in Second Life; without being able to visit the space, the challenges presented to the Magicians were considerable.

We gathered on the undeveloped island to meet with Blue and Brent Linden to ask questions few had ever had need to ask. These would eventually be answered. The problems, however, lay with the ones no one knew to ask.

I had expected the Magicians to simply re-shape, or terraform, the island to meet their designs, and then stick all sorts of objects on it. All I would need to do is stop in now and then to take a peek. It wouldn?t be that simple. Due to the way land and objects are owned in SL, I was required to do some of the work. Not much, but it was fun to have a role. My avatar, Globalkids Bixby, would still own the estate, but the Magicians would be part of a group allowed to build and own objects on the land. (This mistake, which none could have foreseen, would lose us two precious weeks once moved to the teen grid. )In this photo, I am learning how to alter the estate settings so the Magicians could do their work. Gus, the main terraformer, used his version of a PowerPoint to take me through the steps.

I have produced many projects before, but never one in a 3D environment. I hadn?t realized this meant the sketches of ideas would be actual objects I could manipulate and move around.

Here is the centerpiece of the island, the volcano. The problem, of course, is that I had never seen a project in Second Life move from conception to completion. Would the island be as simplistic as this model? I had expected something with a greater level of detail. And why were there three globes?

Unfortunately, since this is a still image, you can?t see that the lava actually flowed down the side. As confused as I might have been, one thing was clear: I loved it!

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I was so excited to hold the brainstorming meeting. I prepared note cards in advance, so I could provided background information all at once, and used the Groups Voting tool to announce the meeting (a little bit of a cheat, but it?s all we are offered). I said it was B.Y.O.C. (bring your own chair).

A number of people came but, to my surprise, they were all from Kim?s team. It was clear to me I had found what I was looking for. If I recall properly, Gus on the left did terraforming, Alex on the right did scripting, Wynx next to him sculpted creatures, and Kim designed and managed them all.

I described the project, explained my (to me) outrageous idea of the essay contest living inside a giant volcano, and not being able to enter it until you took some quiz by a globe that rises out of a lake. They didn?t flinch, added their own crazy ideas, and promised me a proposal within the week.

While waiting for the proposal, Blue prepared me for what lay ahead. In part that meant learning more about the two grids. What would happen to my 17 year-old students when they turned 18? Would they just get the boot?

This location, in the main grid, is the one-way transit point between the two worlds. When a teen ?graduates? from the teen grid this is where they enter legal adulthood in the main grid - an old-fashioned boat with a dock. I am told there are often welcome parties to greet them.

You might notice that tower of cards. By now I had bought a copy of this amazing magic wand, which produces all sorts of objects and animations based on words in the chat box. So, as I told Blue about computers at our school having outdated video cards, the word ?card? triggered this tower, which, once built, promptly collapsed around us. This wand is SL at its best.

This wand, which costs a fortune within Second Life at more than $30 US, became by first Second Life toy. It was always fun to just leave it on and have physical objects ?rez? to emphasize my words. But I also learned how to summon objects at the appropriate moment and play with them. One of my first games was to combine two ?spells? - one for ?balloon? and one for ?Spiderman?. The first would cause colored balloons to fall from the sky, which would pop when you ran through them. The second made Spiderman appear, swinging in a circle overhead. The more times I said each word the more objects would appear. I tried to time it so the Spidermen would pop the balloons. Then I would say ?bubble?, select ?ride?, and me and my companion would gently float away above it all. I was learning what play meant in an embodied world with alternate physics.

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Before I left for the holidays, my request was submitted to create Global Kids Island.

We needed an island since upon completion the entire mass would be transported to the teen grid. And since it was being constructed by adults it needed to be made in the main grid. Or so we thought.

I selected one of a number of generic island shapes - a lake circled by a mountain range.

After Blue Linden created the island, Harry, here as a warthog, helped me get started. I added a circular landing pad, branded with the Global Kids logo, and we were ready to build. All we needed was a team.

In a few days our open meeting of Global Kids allies would be held on a floating glass platform above the lake.

I had no idea who would show up. In the meantime, as I wanted to learn what they were capable of, I hired Kim and her team to do two things for me. The first was to create a Global Kids t-shirt. I was not yet sure how we would use it, but I knew it would come in handy.

At first the color was wrong, but Rafi, the new associate in our online program, soon performed the color correction and we were set. I loved it. Now I could be branded Global Kids - not just with my name, but by appearance. And I could share it with others.

The second task was to make my avatar look like myself. Until now I had sported the generic male avatar all new residents receive.

I could have created some idealized or fantasy version of myself, or something outlandish or surreal, but in Second Life I was seeking to be no one other than just plain old Barry. I provided Kim with a photo, and a request for blue jeans and sneakers, and before long she delivered the goods.

On the left is me, with my old appearance, looking at Kim on the right, wearing the purple GK shirt and wearing my new face. It was a little shocking to be ?talking? to myself. When I look at this photo now I have ask myself which one is really ?me??

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We finally got the funding we wanted from the MacArthur Foundation! We can now run the Global Kids' Digital Media Initiatives, an essay contest on digital media in the teen grid.

What did that mean? It was time to buy an island! Linden Labs introduced me to Blue, seen here as a cat (a "furry"). Blue showed me around the teen grid, eerily empty as it was closed during school hours. I saw a teen-run mall, making a profit.

Blue runs the teen grid. He would become my liaison and, over the holiday, take us through the process of setting up our new Global Kids Island, built first in the main grid, then moved to the teen grid for the February launch. In the meantime, he gave me some cool flotation devices and we tried them out.

I learned Linden was holding a holiday festival. Residents temporarily received land to build something, to give back to the community. What a perfect opportunity - creative, motivated individuals showing off their work. Time to shop for a team!

I arrived and teleported to the region. I got a new t-shirt, ice-skates, and an amazing snowball thrower. I put on a snowboard, flew up a mountain, and swooshed down. For each item, I could click to learn it's creators and send them an IM.

I found this simple ice-fishing pool. Sometimes fish were pulled out, other times a junky boot. It looked fun. I said hi and asked where I could find my own rod. Margaret, on the right, told me it was from another region, next to her home. Cinta.

Cincta? That's my region! It turned out Margaret was my neighbor. I teleported, got a rod, and returned to fish and kibitz.

Rhiannon, the woman in red, was interested to learn about my work. "I went through my friends list and thought about those that might be good. I have gotten to know a lot of people through various creative projects." Has she ever! Before I left the festival I was already receiving IM's from interested parties.

I was also excited since I could hold the meeting in the daytime. You see, due to the NYC transit strike, I was forced to stay home that day. And I took the opportunity to explore the daytime social scene and build a new network whose hours matched those of my workplace. It had paid off.

I would be working on the Global Kids watery place and Rhiannon's friends would track me down and ask for a TP (teleport offer) to talk. Here's one from Kim, on December 20:

"Hi, Rhiannon Chatnoir suggested I contact you and join the Global Kids Allies. I've joined and I'm excited about the project. Please IM me so we can discuss the project! :)"

Kim liked our plans, but she was also different. She had a team that worked for $US. I had checked out SL a year earlier. There were teams then as well, doing remarkable work. They worked more out of passion for sharing and staring in their own creations. A year later, more teams existed. And they were organized. And they knew what it meant to work for a client.

"This sounds like a great project," Kim said. "I like working with the kids -- giving them opportunities."

As Kim described projects her team had built, one after another, they appeared above my swimming area. I could not only see them, but walk around, sit in and touch them. "Let me just find the right folders in the mess of my inventory," she would say. "I think I can just whip out this kitchen for starters."

Before long I realized we had passed some imperceptible point and the social dynamic had changed. Kim and I were no longer just chatting. We were in an interview. And when I was watching as she pulled out items and popped them back into her portable inventory was her resume, in full 3D.

Kim and I toured various locations she had build, one TP at a time. We went to a prohibition-era bar, a lava covered mountain, her home beside a frozen river, and this relaxing fountain.

At one point his guy appeared, just watching. Did EVERYTHING in SL have to be so public? "Hey buddy, I'm conducting an interview here," I wanted to say. "Fly back later."

I sent a private IM to Kim to ask her advice. How do we politely get rid of this buy? She wrote back: "Gus is one of my team members." She had sent him a private IM to join us!

When we finished our tour, she told me she looked forward to the meeting in January and would invite her team to attend.

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