Robin Ashford's Posterous http://robinashford.posterous.com The primary focus of this blog is my work & explorations in Second Life posterous.com Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:10:00 -0800 IBM World Community Grid Live in Second Life http://robinashford.posterous.com/ibm-world-community-grid-presentation-live-no http://robinashford.posterous.com/ibm-world-community-grid-presentation-live-no

 

IBM World Community Grid Presentation Live Now in Second Life
Great group from IBM World Community Grid (WCG) presenting live here on the rooftop of the Karuna Resource Center on their FightAIDS@Home project.
The group in attendance was from around the globe...this is what Second Life does best. How else could people connect and share like this (don't even mention web conferencing programs as they simply do not compare-read on to understand).
After the short presentation and Q&A time, the IBM representative mentioned in my previous post on the World Community Grid, Bettina Cutler (Skippy Leafblower in SL) and I took all who were interested inside the Karuna Resource Center to tour the World Community Grid exhibit on the second floor. People appeared to enjoy the tour and Bettina somehow managed to get everyone together for a group snapshot. After our time in the IBM exhibit room an interested group headed out to the back deck to look over the Facing AIDS exhibit created for AIDS.gov, which I posted on earlier here.
It was an informative presentation and a good time. I look forward to continued collaboration with folks from the IBM WCG, many of whom had not been in Second Life before this World AIDS Day event.

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Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:01:00 -0800 World AIDS Day on Karuna Island in Second Life http://robinashford.posterous.com/world-aids-day-live-now-on-karuna-island-in-s http://robinashford.posterous.com/world-aids-day-live-now-on-karuna-island-in-s

 

World AIDS Day Live Now on Karuna Island in Second Life
Just listened to an incredibly moving audio message by Ryan White's mother, Jeanne White-Ginder. This is the opening World AIDS Day launch event on Karuna Island. The live music, by SL Cylindrian Rutabaga, has also been amazing. I'll try to get the audio file to post here later. The Karuna World AIDS Day event is off to a great start.

Please see this new post by Linden Labs to learn more about World AIDS Day on Karuna Island in Second Life taking place all day today: https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/learninginworld/blog/2009/11/30/world-...

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Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:15:00 -0800 IBM World Community Grid: FightAIDS@Home Presentation in Second Life for World AIDS DAY http://robinashford.posterous.com/ibm-world-community-grid-presents-fightaidsho http://robinashford.posterous.com/ibm-world-community-grid-presents-fightaidsho

As I mentioned in my previous post, December 1, 2009 is World AIDS Day 09 (WAD09). And as stated earlier, in Second Life (SL), as in other worlds, we are busy preparing Karuna Island for this major annual event. In this post I'll share about another Karuna partner, The IBM World Community Grid (WCG) and more specifically, The World Community Grid FightAIDS@Home project.

As stated on their site, "World Community Grid brings together people from across the globe who donate their idle computer time to create the largest volunteer computing grid benefiting humanity." 

The Karuna Resource Center houses a permanent World Community Grid FightAIDS@Home exhibit in an upstairs room of the Center that people are free to visit anytime. This was one of the first exhibits I put together (with Bettina, our IBM reps great inworld help) after accepting the National Library of Medicine grant funded position as Karuna Consumer Health Librarian. I strongly believe in this project and have participated by contributing my idle computer time since first learning about the wonderful work being done by this organization.

As part of the Karuna Island World AIDS Day events taking place in Second Life tomorrow, our IBM representative, Bettina Cutler, Program Manager, Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs, IBM Asia Pacific, has arranged to have an IBM WCG representative along with herself give a presentation on the rooftop of the Karuna Resource Center in Second Life from 3-3:30 PM PT (SLT). We will also have a short 3 min. FightAIDS@Home video available for viewing on the rooftop throughout the day.

I'm looking forward to this event and want to encourage anyone with a Second Life account to attend. This SLurl (Second Life URL) will take you directly to the grassy Karuna Resource Center rooftop. Of course Karuna Island is open to the public 24/7 so feel free to stop by anytime. Events will be going on throughout the day for World AIDS Day, and there are always interesting places to explore, fun activities, and information resources.

Update: A Linden Labs blog post with new video has just been published further highlighting Karuna World AIDS Day events.

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Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:08:00 -0800 Karuna Resource Center in Second Life-Facing AIDS Display for World AIDS Day 09 http://robinashford.posterous.com/karuna-resource-center-in-second-life-facing http://robinashford.posterous.com/karuna-resource-center-in-second-life-facing

December 1, 2009 is World AIDS Day 09 (WAD09). In Second Life (SL), as in other worlds, we are busy preparing Karuna Island for this major annual event. This year promises to be extraordinary. Click this link to learn more about the event: http://www.tvwsp.com/home.html

As the Karuna Consumer Health Librarian and the person responsible for the Karuna Resource Center on Karuna Island, I work to meet the objectives of the information resources section of our National Library of Medicine (NLM) funded grant. For WAD09 I worked closely with two organizations to prepare something to compliment and extend awareness of their work inworld (inside SL).

The project I'm showcasing in this post was coordinated with our AIDS.gov representative, Michelle Samplin-Salgado. Michelle and I met inworld and she shared about the AIDS.gov Facing AIDS Campaign. After reading about the campaign, I went about creating a type of inworld equivalent on the back deck of the Karuna Resource Center. An earlier display I'd created on WAD09 already out there would compliment this one nicely.

The snapshots here show the display, which is open to anyone with a Second Life account. There is a notecard with step-by-step instructions embedded in a couple of the signs for visitors. The instructions include steps on how an avatar can choose to "wear" one of the signs on the table and then on how to take a snapshot and drag it onto the photoboard. The outside world equivalent can be found here on flickr (Michelle and I included our snapshots in both inworld and outworld locations :) )

Below is the SLurl (for those with SL downloaded) to the Facing AIDS display on the back deck of the Karuna Resource Center (feel free to explore inside the resource center and the rest of the Karuna Island as well!).
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Karuna/24/5/23

Please IM Robin Mochi inworld with any questions/comments or if you need assistance. Comments welcome here as well.

Update: A Linden Labs blog post with new video has just been published further highlighting the World AIDS Day events on Karuna.

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Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:03:00 -0800 World AIDS Day Planning Meeting for Karuna Island in Second Life-Nov 21, 2009 http://robinashford.posterous.com/world-aids-day-planning-meeting-for-karuna-is http://robinashford.posterous.com/world-aids-day-planning-meeting-for-karuna-is

 

World AIDS Day Planning Meeting for Karuna Island in Second Life-Nov 21, 2009
  Excellent planning meeting tonight led by Jena Ball (SL Jenaia Morane), Karuna Island Project Coordinator, and Marty Keltz (SL Marty Snowpaw) from The Virtual Worlds Story Project (TVWSP). 
In attendance were RTI reps, IBM World Community Grid rep and more, all meeting to plan the World AIDS Day (Dec 1, 2009) events on Karuna Island in Second Life. This will be one of the best World AIDS Day events yet with excellent speakers, incredible music, storytelling, and live streaming video. Learn more about the event here: http://www.tvwsp.com/  
(Wish real life meetings were more like this snapshot.)

Links of some of those involved at this meeting and with this National Library of Medicine HIV/AIDS funded project :


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Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:02:00 -0800 Working on World AIDS Day Display-Deck of the Karuna Resource Center in Second Life http://robinashford.posterous.com/working-on-world-aids-day-display-deck-of-the http://robinashford.posterous.com/working-on-world-aids-day-display-deck-of-the
Working on World AIDS Day Display-Deck of the Karuna Resource Center in Second Life
Still experimenting but hope to create various signs for people (well, people's avatars, actually) to hold up and take a snapshot of themselves and then perhaps a photoboard to display them all in Second Life. Hope to complete this Saturday night or Sunday - will keep you informed :)


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