Global Kids' Digital Media Initiative

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You can check out the video by heading to Mediasnackers.com.

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June 26th saw the premier of the latest machinima that was entirely shot within Teen Second Life and produced by the teens from the Global Kids' Virtual Video Program (VVP). The title of the machinima is "Race to Equality" and it focuses on the challenges faced by youth around the world in the pursuit of equal accessibility of education for all. The film exposes how racism relates to equal access to education.

The official premiere of the film, hosted by the teens themselves, was held at Sony's Wonder Technology Lab theater in New York City. The teens also held a Q&A following the film.

You can view the film directly and footage shot during the official premier below or directly on Youtube.

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We are excited to announce that the video of the launch of the Global Kid's International Justice Center is now available on YouTube, as well as at SLCN.tv. We got special permission from the YouTube administrators to post the full 39-minute recording of the event, which featured a dynamic interchange between the ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and the former foreign minister of Canada Mr. Lloyd Axworthy.

Please check out and rate up the YouTube version here or head to SLCN.tv to view a higher quality version.

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Yesterday, to celebrate the two year anniversary of Global Kids in Teen Second Life, with the support of Linden Lab, we held the first ever press junket to the GK Estate and announced the launch of three new projects.

View the chat log of the event, including the presentations about new projects from GK staff and those of D.I.D.I. Venturers too after the jump.
We announced the first four round of grants in the D.I.D.I. Initiative and heard from the youth receiving funds to create their own social ventures around health issues (partnering with YouthVenture and funded by Robert Wood Johnson), announced the upcoming Philanthropy in Virtual Worlds program focusing on global human rights and conservation issues (funded by the MacArthur Foundation), and did a virtual ribbon cutting on our new science island established to host our new high school science class (partnering with the High School for Global Citizenship and funded by the Motorola Foundation) and held a dance party to celebrate.

It was very exciting to have so many journalists and prominent SL bloggers present to hear from both us and TSL residents about these upcoming projects.

View photos from the event.

The first reporter to "file" his report is Adam Balkin, from NY1, the Time-Warner news channel in NYC whose content is broadcast around the country. The text can be read here or you can watch the news clip below.

As other reports come in, we will post them below. Thank you to everyone at Linden Lab who helped to support this event and everyone along the way who offered inspiration.

In the summer of 2007, Unicef and Global Kids launched the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Machinima Camp in the virtual world of Teen Second Life (TSL). Teens from around the world gathered together for five weeks to learn about children's rights, and produced ten 1-minute Machinima films on the issues they identified in the CRC. Each film is unique in its own way. We hope you enjoy them!

click below to view the videos:

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The following video was the year-end project for the Global Kids youth leaders in Queens, New York who spent the year working in Global Kids' Virtual Video Project, at the Museum of the Moving Image, funded by the MacArthur Foundation.

The video is based on research done by the youth about the situation of child soldiers in Uganda and the upcoming trial at the International Criminal Court.

You can watch their earlier piece about digital media and youth at here.

Read the youth leaders blogs here.

To learn what you can do about this issue, go to our recent blog entry about this.

Please help spread the link to the video, either here or on YouTube, and leave your comments for the Global Kids youth leaders below.

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After spend the school year learning the basics of creating machinima in Second Life, this week the youth leaders have completed their five 30-second long Public Service Announcements.

Each of the five teams selected a different issue related to digital media around which to create their PSA. Working on their own and with other teen residents of Second Life, they created their avatars, costumes, sets and props. Post-production was done on computers provided by the Museum of the Moving Image, who helped develop and teach some of the program.

The videos below are the students first attempt to create Second Life-based machinima around important social issues.

View it on YouTube here.

Also available for download and to be podcast:

• For pocasting on ipods


• For general use

UPDATE:

We have also been getting in some great comments on the PSA's read some below.

All of you keep up the great work. We look forward to your future input on the Main Grid. :) - KorbinKing

YAY! Well done, guys!!
Great PSAs!
And the DDR thingy is amazing, hehe.
- FaerieDevilish

Great work guys! Can't wait to see more from you!
- BlueLinden

Absolutely inspirational! I plan to take the first few minutes of each class in SL today to view these with my 8th grade students, and to pass the URl on to all the other teachers in my district!! Kudos!
- Peggy, Ramapo Junior High

I watched it this afternoon. Really great. Tell the teens I love what they're creating.
- Claudia Linden, Teen Grid Manager

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Below is the video from Global Kids two week celebration in March of 2007 observing our year anniversary in Second Life.

Post and read comments on YouTube.

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TSL resident Zack Voom posted a video on YouTube, dedicated to Global Kids, for our own year anniversary in Second Life. It documents his building, in-world, of a birthday cake as part of our anniversary contest.

Along with the video, he sent this note:

HI! My name is Zack, a 14 year old machinima maker, SL builder and SL scripter. I am a big fan of GK Island(s) and felt that, out of my care (and boredom), I would take part in GK's birthday bash. The video I am sending you is of me building my GK birthday cake. The music is legal and made by Torley Wong (Linden). Enjoy :D

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ABC News aired a piece on serious games in which they interviewed Catherine from Gamelab and showed footage and spoke about our game, Ayiti: the Cost of Life.

Click here to view the piece.

Here are some photos:

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Today, UNICEF launched, on their homepage, a fantastic 2.5 minute video reporting on last December's Global Kids UNICEF A World Fit For Children Festival. Click the image below to see what it looked like on the homepage.

The machinima for the video was created by both Global Kids staff and the youth leaders in our after school machinima program. (clearly, we could NOT be more proud, nor appreciative of UNICEF giving the student the opportunity to produce material that could be seen from the UNICEF homepage!).

Below is the video on YouTube:

Finally, the extended text of the video can be read in its entirety below or you can read it right on the UNICEF website.

Continue reading "[sl] UNICEF Launches News Video on GK Festival in Teen Second Life" »

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We taught the new GK Leaders how to fly in Second Life with the game - Bump the Barry! As Barry flew around, the teens did everything the could to bump into him. Check it out.

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