Join Rockcliffe’s Ten in Ten Celebration

Posted by On Filed under News & Announcements
Join Rockcliffe’s Ten in Ten Celebration

Rockcliffe’s ten-year tradition for supporting education, technology and community in virtual worlds has stood strong, like its iconic mountain in Second Life.

It started with a simple mission: to SERVE. In ten years, Rockcliffe has remained true to that ideal: Service, Education, and Research in Virtual Environments.

So this year, Rockcliffe is dressed in silver for its Ten in Ten celebration: Ten months and ten events on or around the tenth day of the month to commemorate the anniversary of when Rockcliffe became a non-profit.

Join us each month for a retrospective into Rockcliffe’s ten-year journey and the road map for its future travels. Be a part of Rockcliffe’s first annual Erudition Conference this October in Old Sacramento, California. Let us know if you are interested, so that we can add you to our mailing list. Don’t miss out on this very special event.

Ten in Ten Timeline

Here’s a sneak peek:

  • February – Early Years
  • March – Communities
  • April – Virtual Libraries
  • May – Inside the Avatar Studio
  • June – Virtual Tours
  • July – Tools and Accessibility
  • August – Professional Certification
  • September – Research and Conferences
  • October – Erudition Conference & Annual General Meeting (Join us in Sacramento!)
  • November – Open House and Membership

Rockcliffe likes to share its successes, and so we invite you to join us for our Ten in Ten. It’s time to come together and celebrate, learn about what we have to offer, and explore the possibilities of becoming a member.

Saturday – October 27, 2012: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM SL/PST Rockcliffe University 6th Open House

Posted by On Filed under Archived

Rockcliffe University welcomes you to our 6th Open House Event as we continue into our 7th year of education in Virtual Worlds. Please join us and meet some of our wonderful faculty members who will present and then follow with question and answer sessions.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20Library/243/12/29

10:00 AM: Open House Keynote Address with Phelan Corrimal (Kevin Feenan), CEO of Rockcliffe University

Phelan Corrimal will open this event with a brief overview of Rockcliffe’s past and future and will share his view of the state of education in virtual worlds.  Phelan’s insights always provide fertile ground for thought and discussion so please come to hear his views on where we are going and what to expect from Rockcliffe in the years to come.

11:00 AM: Virtual Philosophy with Pamala Clift

Pamala Clift is the host of “The Roadside Philosophers”, a group that she started in 2007 and the author of the book “The Roadside Philospher – A Novel, Maybe?”

We enter a virtual world and are suddenly thrown into a global community with vast cultural differences and expectations. Any entrance into a computer-mediated environment creates its own culture, expectations and philosophy. Topping that off with individual engagement levels (dissociative, immersive and augmentative) and the pot of emotions and conflicting perceptions can boil over.

Is there a ‘Right and Wrong’? Are we able to engage at each other’s level to observe and engage without pain? For over five years, The ‘Roadside Philosophers’ has been engaged in learning about global and virtual philosophy, and is still exploring its vast complexity.  The key is letting go of control comfortably.

11:30 AM: The One Big Soup Project with Muze Ackland

We help advance cultural understanding using 3D web technology. Via education, we can bring balance into virtual worlds with mutual cultural respect. Balance restores harmony in ecology, economics, political power, spirituality … and extends to the physical world.

Just as in nature, if one seemingly insignificant element is missing, it can adversely affect an entire ecosystem.

Each culture has something to add to this ‘One Big Soup’ which we call the world. This project is building a diversity network/explorers game which celebrates these cultures through music, art, architecture, cuisine, fashion, legends, history and language.

12:00 – 1:00 PM: Break

1:00 PM: How to Publicize Your Blog with Thinkerer Melville (Selby Evans)

Thinkerer has taught courses in psychological measurement, computer applications and systematic problem-solving. He has conducted research in pattern recognition and cognitive systems, and operated a consulting business for 25 years.

Are you writing a blog? Is there something important to you that you want to tell the world and are you publicizing it?

This presentation will help you learn how to get your story out, how to organize your thoughts and how to collaboratively blog on different social media venues.

http://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/

1:30PM: Project Management with AgileBill Firehawk (Willam Krebs)

Join AgileBill on for this session of the Rockcliffe Open House where we discuss a variety of virtual world platforms.  What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?  When would you want to use each?  Should a team just use one?  Come follow our steps and we show scenes from many worlds including OpenSim, VenueGen, avayalive engage, 3D-VirtualEvents, Jibe, Sococo, and Terf.

AgileDimensions: http://www.agiledimensions.com/blog/about/bio-agilebill-krebs/

2:00PM: Behind the Scenes of Rockcliffe University with Phelan and Dirk McKeenan

From simple beginnings in 2006 to sprawling virtual campuses in 2012, Rockcliffe University has been growing and expanding its borders.  Come learn about how Rockcliffe’s partnerships have been forged through the years with organizations and our wonderful faculty.  We will also discuss our courses and classes that have been developed as well as our current and future projects.

3:00PM: Virtual Library with Mel Krupinski

Mel is a law librarian who was introduced to Second Life by the dean of her law school in 2006. She helped build Cybrary City 2, Second Lifes’s first law library. She has now made the Rockcliffe Library into one of the largest and longest sustained research libraries in virtual worlds.

Mel continually updates our twelve-room library with current information about Second Life and first life resources with a huge wealth of information concerning business, marketing, law, the sciences, education.

The Rockcliffe Library maintains links to large freely accessible scholarly research databases and focuses on the idea of open source and open access to sources of information.

The Rockcliffe Open House on Oct. 27, 2012 also takes place during Open Access Week (Oct. 22-28, 2012) celebrated everywhere, including Second Life. After my presentation, we will be doing a tour of the library.

4:00PM: Closing Thoughts with Plelan, Founder of Rockcliffe

We will close this 6th Rockcliffe University Open House with with some positive thoughts about the future of education in virtual worlds.

Wed Dec 21, 8:30PM EST/5:30PM PST Innovation Games® with AgileBill in SpotOn3D (Dec 22 1:30AM GMT)

Posted by On Filed under Archived

Topic: Invent and Prioritize with Innovation Games®

AgileBill is a certified Innovation Games® facilitator.

Wednedsday Dec 21, 2011

5:30PM Pacific, 8:30PM Eastern, 12:30pm Thursday in Sydney
At the Agile Business Park in Spoton3d
http://bit.ly/agile3dbizpark11a

Note: Window users can also login to SpotOn3D with Facebook
http://on.fb.me/agile3dfb11a

We will take a field trip away from Second Life and into the Agile Business Park. This offering uses the same OpenSim base, but on a different ‘Grid’. It also can be run from the comfort of your browser.

Innovation Games® by Enthiosys is a set of business analysis tools used to prioritize and define requirements. It’s a structured set of techniques to overcome ‘writer’s block’.

This will not be a lecture. Some of you will bring a product to define, or set of requirements to prioritize, and will will work on it together.

Since some of you are new to virtual environments or the bizgrid, Agilebill has pre-made some avatars. Skype AgileBill4d for login info, or with other questions.

AgileBill will be there 30 minutes early to help you get setup. Come in early to allow time to install the plugin and get your bearings. He will be online in Spot3d as AgileBill4d Firehawk (send him a friend request and he will bring you to the the Agile3d island.

When you get into SpotOn3d You can search for (his Avatar) AgileBill4d Firehawk. Send him a friend request and I’ll bring you to the Agile3d island.

Virtual Worlds Representing in the Edublog Awards

Posted by On Filed under Uncategorized

Virtual Worlds Representing in the Edublog Awards

Since 2004, the Edublog awards have been offering a community driven people’s choice awards for blogs, social media and social networks centered on education. This year, social media nominations focused on education in virtual worlds was encouraged. Below are the virtual world nominations on the shortlist for the Edublog awards.

Best edTech blog – GridJumper’s Blog http://gridjumper.net/

Best twitter hashtag – #slpeeps

Best use of media/video/podcast – Knowclue’s Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education 2011 http://knowclue.wikispaces.com/Machinima+Through+Multiple+Lenses

Best educational use of a wiki – WoWinSchool http://wowinschool.pbworks.com/w/page/5268731/FrontPage

Best PD/unconference/webinar – Virtual Round Conference Table http://www.virtual-round-table.com/

Best educational use of a social network – Cognitive Dissonance http://cognitivedissonance.guildportal.com

Voting is open until December 13th at 1159 pm EST. The winners will be announced at Edublog Award Ceremony on December 14, 2011. For more information please go to http://edublogawards.com/

Dec 10, 9:30AM – 9PM SL/PST Rockcliffe Celebrates 5 Years in Second Life: Open House “Past, Present & Futures of Virtual Worlds”

Posted by On Filed under Uncategorized

Rockcliffe would like to invite you to celebrate 5 years in Second Life. Join us as we take a look at Virtual Worlds Past, Present and Future.

9:30AM – 10:00AM SL/PST Opening Keynote: Kevin Feenan (Phelan Corrimal), CEO of Rockcliffe University
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/5/13/31

10:00AM – 11:00AM SL/PST Rant Ugajin : Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and Prim Media in Second Life
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/5/13/31
Rant Agajin, from Ama Gi, will be presenting on the use of scalable vector graphics, prim media, and how SVG can be used to augment presentations within virtual classrooms.

11:00AM – 11:45AM SL/PST Agilebill Firehawk: Immersive Project Simulation Management Training
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Agile%203D/61/122/25

Join us as we learn how to manage projects using the popular “Scrum” stile of Agile Project Management. A simulation in the Agile 3d Factory will help you learn more.

12:00PM – 12:45PM SL/PST Agilebill Firehawk: Roundtable with Agile Scrum Lean Project Management
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Agile%203D/61/122/25

Bring your project management pains to a discussion that will offer you some cures. We will share what we learned the tour of the Agile 3d Factory, and highlight where skills can be added onto you resume.

12:00PM – 12:45PM SL/PST VWBPE Informational Session
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20Library/169/69/23

The Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference – now in its fifth year. Join us to learn about new opportunities for games and simulations, machinima, action research projects, and MOOCS – all new to this year’s conference. http://www.vwbpe.org/

1:00PM – 2:00PM SL/PST Kevin Feenan (Phelan Corrimal): Virtual Achievements in Education
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/5/13/31

Over the past five years Rockcliffe has participated in some truly pivital moments in the history of Second Life and the metaverse in general. Join us as I share our virtual collaborative achievements over the past five years and how Rockcliffe has helped to support the community.

2:00PM – 2:45PM Virtual Worlds and 3D Media Arts
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/5/13/31

Host: Mal Burns – Metaverse News Aggregator & Broadcaster https://twitter.com/malburns

Pooky Amsterdam: Virtual world media rich in color, immersive in experience which offers great opportunity for original real–time engagement. http://pookymedia.com/

Draxtor Despres/Bernard Drax writes music for TV, commercials and feature films.
http://draxtor.com

Tara Yeats: Machinimatographer, ersatz writer and all around smart-ass http://www.tarayeats.com

Gracie Kendal/Kristine Schomaker : Blow-dryer-wielding, polaroid-shooting new media, performance artist and painter who just finished publishing her 2nd volume of the 1000 Avatars Fine art book in RL. www.1000avatars.wordpress.com

2:00PM-2:45PM Pamala Clift – Roadside Discussion Where do you see the trajectory of Virtual Worlds headed? What other virtual worlds have you inhabited.. the good & bad. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Agile%203D/39/216/3

2:45PM -3:30PM Can Virtual Health lead to Real Life Wellness?
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/5/13/31

Host: Zinnia Zauber/Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond is an artist, instructor, and superhero♥ who promotes the importance of creative education and community participation in the arts that are active and inclusive. http://uniqueasyou.com/

Gentle Heron/Alice Krueger : President, Virtual Ability, Inc. www.virtualability.org

Brena Benoir: Preferred Family Healthcare, non-profit mental health consultant http://www.pfh.org/

Thinkerer Melville/Selby Evans: Blogger on arts, communications, social tech, and other things in virtual worlds. (obvious case of ADHD) http://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/

3.00pm – 3.45pm Hawc Decosta, Criminal Professor Police Budgets and the Recession: Is Your Public Safety at Risk?
http://slurl.com/secondlife/CJ%20EdTech/54/159/24

3:30PM – 4:30PM A Virtual Future
Casual conversation concerning the future of virtual worlds:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/5/13/31

Tab Scott/Terry Beaubois World-wandering amazing architect of Virtual Existences.

Ham Rambler/John Mahon bon-vivant, Barman and purveyor of the Best of Ireland in Second Life. http://www.dublinvl.com

Will Burns/Aeonix Aeon : A true master of prims and pixels, from academic to application for over fifteen years. Author, researcher and IEEE Object Interoperability Lead. (Darian Knight in other worlds ..). http://blog.andromeda3d.com , http://www.metaversestandards.org

4:30PM – 5:00PM Rockcliffe and the Future (Kevin Closing Keynote)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/5/13/31

Music at the George C. Dove Theatre: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/178/28/23
5:00-6:00PM Max Sabertooth: R&B, Soul, Country, Pop, Lite Rock, Jazz, Motown as well as Contemporary Country
6:00-7:00PM DJ Steve Rumsford: Covers 1950s-2000s rock, pop, urban, hip-hop, dance and classic jazz

Wed Nov 23, 4:30pm SL/PST Inside the Avatar’a Studio with John Mahon/Ham Rambler

Posted by On Filed under Uncategorized

In Conversation with John Mahon: Beagán agus a rá go maith
Wednesday November 23, 2011 at 4:30pm PST

John Mahon (aka Ham Rambler), an Irish commercial pilot now currently based in Reykjavik, Iceland.
In Second Life, Ham is the owner of Dublin Live, 3 sims devoted to a detailed recreation of Ireland’s capital.
Dublin Virtually Live is his vision and ongoing creation. These sims provide value as a convivial meeting place as well as a venue for business conferences and John has created a recruitment center.

The concept came from his first development in Second Life, the Blarney Stone bar, which opened in 2005 on the mainland, and hosted the first Music festival the same year.

On opening the Dublin sims, they were featured by Fox News, Irish TV News and print media, resulting in a major sponsorship contract with Tourism ireland.

John presented Dublin Virtually Live at the opening of the IBM Innovation centre in Dublin in 2009.
Among the innovative ideas featured in Dublin was the Live Simulcast of a Television program called ‘Let’s Talk Music’ from Malta, featuring major international singers, song writers, producers and composers.
He has spoken at a number of SLCC conferences and was a Track leader during SLCC 2010 . He has also been involved with the Metameets conference in Amsterdam and Dublin. Thanks to his involvment, Metameets was hosted by the Dublin Institue of Technology.

Wed Oct 19, 4:30PM SL/PST Inside the Avatar’s Studio: Login2Life

Posted by On Filed under Archived

This week, Kevin Feenan welcomes guests Bernhard Drax (aka Draxtor Despres) and Daniel Moshel, director of Login2Life.

Simultaneous Live broadcast at http://metaversetv.com/live/
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20Library/243/12/32

About the film Login2Life:

Login 2 Life portrays people who have found an alternate home in an online world. This is the starting point of a journey into fascinating virtual realities, meeting diverse human beings in different parts of the world who have one thing in common – they are savvy in using virtual worlds as an extension of their real lives. The film premiered on German ZDF October 17th before heading onto the international festival circuit.

About Bernard Drax

Bernhard Drax (aka @Draxtor) writes music for TV, commercials and feature films.

In the virtual world “Second Life” Bernhard regularly files machinima reportages on social and political issues. His story on virtual Guantanamo won the 2008 Human Rights Media Awards from ‘Internews’ in France.

His series on “Public Good in Virtual Worlds”, co-produced with the Network Culture Project at USC has been used in many classrooms to illustrate the possibilities of immersive 3D platforms.

As news director at NPR member station KAZU in Pacific Grove, California – from 2002 to 2004 and as consultant from 2004 to 2006. Bernhard was instrumental in transforming the local news operation by producing high quality local content as well as training reporters and technical staff. A champion of non-commercial radio news and culture, Bernhard still develops formats for public radio and TV, in the US and abroad.

Sponsored by the US Department of State, Bernhard also finished up a video series showcasing the use of virtual worlds in public diplomacy, focusing on the 6-month collaboration between architecture students from Cairo and USC in Los Angeles.

More info about BD at http://www.draxtor.com

A playlist with machinima focusing on educational use of virtual worlds: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=C505E316DB51834A

About Daniel Moshel:

Daniel Moshel is a gamer and an award-winning director. He was inspired to make this documentary by his personal experience. But this is about more than just gaming – this is about a new lifestyle, necessary for some, fun for most.

Bits and pieces of digital life, glimpses linked within a larger network, a personal view of what drives the people behind the screen to live, love and do business in a virtual world.

Facebook: http://facebook.com/urockcliffe
Twitter: http://twitter.com/urockcliffe

Wed Sept 28, 4:30PM SL/PST Inside the Avatar’s Studio: Architecting the Future

Posted by On Filed under Archived

This week, Kevin Feenan and our guest Terry Beaubois (aka Tab Scott) will discuss the challenges of architecting the future and its potential for effecting social dissonance.

Simultaneous live broadcast at http://metaversetv.com/live/
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20Library/243/12/32

Frank Lloyd Wright was once quoted as saying “A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his client to plant vines”. If God is truly in the details, as suggested by Ludwig Mies, then the next generation of avatars involved with virtual business, government, and education are going to have their work cut out for them. The balancing act between architecting the future, while at the same time having a wide variety of ‘horticultural tools’ to draw the eye away from a lack of attention to detail, has the potential to lead to social dissonance.

About Terry Beaubois

Terry (aka Tab Scott) is the Director of the Creative Research Lab in the College of Arts & Architecture, at Montana State University

Terry Beaubois (SL: Tab Scott) is an architect with over 35 years of professional practice. He is also a University teacher and researcher. Starting out in Second life in 2005, Terry designed a “Digital Collaboration for Architects” class in the College of Arts & Architecture at Montana State University. The success of the class gained international notoriety when Popular Science magazine wrote “…..a version of Beaubois’ classroom could become the standard for distance learning.” (Sept, 2006).

Recently, Terry has demonstrated a new After School Partnership technology for use by MSU Dept. of Education and Montana K-12 schools, for Homework help, Math-Science, Mentoring, and Book Clubs. One part of the demo featured an educator from the Northern Cheyenne Tribal area in Montana talking to pre-service teacher instructors at MSU-Bozeman.

Learn more about the REHAU-Montana ecoSMART House Project: http://montanaecosmart.com/

His Creative Research Lab was selected by the Montana Governor’s office as the lead agency for statewide education grants. Terry is a Montana Ambassador representing “Business-Government-Education” efforts in the state. He is also a member of The Triple Helix Association, an international organization headquartered in Turin, Italy, which promotes the study of the interactions between the academic, industrial and institutional (governmental) systems as means to foster technological innovation and economic growth.

On October 27, 2011, Terry will be appearing in SL at the in-world Second Life event called “Virtual Learning or Learning in Virtual?” – an international midnight-to-noon
conference exploring the promises and pitfalls of virtual space in the context of learning and education. Tab Scott will be conducting a workshop and be on a panel at the conference. Conference hosts are: Kim Holmberg, Isto Huvila and Olle Sköld and the host institution is Department of Information Studies, School of Business and Economics, Åbo Akademi University, ÅBO, Finland.

Upcoming Show

October 19: Draxtor Despres (Bernard Drax) and Daniel Moshel will speak about the movie Login2Life.

Wed Sept 7, 4:30 PM SL/PST Inside The Avatar’s Studio with Doug Thompson/Dusan Writer: The Art of the Story

Posted by On Filed under Archived

In Conversation with Doug Thompson (Dusan Writer): The Art of the Story

Wednesday, September 7 – 4:30 PM SL/PST (7:30 PM EST)
Simultaneous live broadcast at http://metaversetv.com/live/

Host: Kevin Feenan (Phelan Corrimal), CEO of Rockcliffe University

Rockcliffe Rotunda (Second Life), Rockcliffe University Consortium
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20Library/243/12/32

One of the most prolific writers on the subject of the metaverse, Doug Thompson has had a hand in a lot of the aspects that make virtual worlds tic including storytelling, transmedia, mobile media, social media, web development, advertising and more. Through his company Remedy Communications, Doug has helped to bring new perspectives to the virtual frontier.

This week Kevin and Dusan explore the role of narratives, how technology both enables social change, and the challenges still left to come.

About Doug Thompson

Doug Thompson (Dusan Writer) has over 20 years of brand strategy, market research, advertising, and digital media experience. He is CEO of Remedy Communications, a founding partner at Startled Cat (a studio for immersive storytelling) and has presented at conferences throughout North America on virtual worlds and the impact of technology on business and culture.

His work in virtual worlds has spanned the creation of community (Metanomics), blogging (Dusan Writer’s Metaverse), health (the creation of virtual environments for nursing and war veterans) and storytelling.

Currently, Dusan is working on projects that bridge mobile, virtual and social media; an initiative that is exploring the role of technology in improving the cognitive function of children; the use of robotic wheel chairs connected to Second Life; and the launch of immersive storytelling projects that build intergenerational community.

Upcoming Shows

September 28: Terry Beaubois (aka Tab Scott) Director of the Creative Research Lab in the College of Arts & Architecture, at Montana State University

October 19: Draxtor Despres and Daniel Moshel will speak about the movie Login2Life.