So, have you signed up? Have you created your avatar? Do you know what you’re going to look like, what your wingspan is and what colour your hair will be when you attend the opening of the iCommons Summit in Second Life?
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last little while, here are the basics: the USC Centre on Public Diplomacy, Linden Labs and iCommons have pooled their resources, and come together to bring the iCommons Summit in Dubrvonik, Croatia, to Second Life. During the In World summit, which will be held on the USC Centre on Public Diplomacy’s Anneberg Island, SL residents will be able to hear the keynote addresses, attend parallel sessions and view work from the Summit Artists in Residence.
Word about the Summit in Second Life is beginning to spread, so we decided to ask Sitearm Madonna, the iCommons Summit 2007 in Second Life Coordinator some questions about the planned summit:
What exactly will I see if I'm at the summit in SL?
Some of the In World Conference Features are:
Live video streams of the keynote addresses, recorded video streams of keynote and parallel session addresses, live dj / live music concerts and mixers before and after key addresses, information displays, art exhibits, free tee-shirts and information note cards and greeters who will answer questions and hand out welcome packs.
Live keynote highlights include presentations from Magnatune - the music company with the tagline, "We are not evil"; Larry Lessig, the founder of Creative Commons; Jimmy Wales, who founded Wikipedia; Yochai Benkler, the author of The Wealth of Networks and Cory Ondrejka the chief technology officer of Linden Lab and developer of Second Life.
There are also going to be live performances, the highlights of which are Smily Raymaker who is an original acoustic and vocal performer; Kurt Jano, a jazz, classical, blues and world music performer on piano, trumpet, harmonica and vocals; Al Hofmann, whose genre is fusion and who plays Midi Guitar; Etherian Kamaboko who plays electric roots and foo grass on drums and harmonica; Komuso Tokugawa who creates generative ambient and high energy music on electric guitar and harmonica; and Ricardo Sprocket who plays rock, country and blues and sings and plays piano.
How are the preparations for the Summit coming along?
Preparations are coming along nicely. (I have moments of exultation and of terror alternating regularly as we march down the preparation timeline!). I love the multi challenges of coordinating an event like this. The first challenge is how to take the iCommons mission and translate it for millions of new people (Second Life residents) to "get" and "take away" with them when the conference is over. The second challenge is to mirror a real world event in Second Life in such a way as to create an authentic conference experience for the residents. The third challenge is how to make a pleasant experience for new visitors to Second Life who have become first-time registrants for the purpose of attending the conference.
Fortunately we have some fantastic resources who are experienced with producing events like this in virtual reality and I have been calling them in left and right. And we have a fantastic "real world" conference planning team who have been sooo receptive to extending the conference into Second Life and so generous and enthusiastic as we show them our preparations.
What has the response been like from the residents of Second Life?
Well, the number one newspaper in Second Life, The Metaverse Messenger (A Real Newspaper for a Virtual World), took the iCommons in SL feature and made it their page one lead story. And several noted Second Life "bloggers" have posted the dates and commentary about last year's iSummit in RL (Real Life) and how it will be run this year in parallel in Second Life. We are in week two of what I call our "curiosity campaign", where we advertise the dates and ask questions related to the conference, like "What Music Company uses the tagline "We are not evil”? and "Who is Lawrence Lessig?"
Will SL residents be able to participate in the summit events? If I go, will I be able to ask Larry Lessig a question?
Short answer - yes! Long answer - the iCommons preparations team has arranged for a short question and answer session for each live keynote, which will include half the questions being taken from the Second Life audience. The session moderator will take the questions from both the real world and virtual world audience members and pass along selected questions to the speaker.
Will first time users be able to make it to the summit, and will there be guides to help them along?
Short answer - yes! We have set up a special Second Life registration page at http://www.pnewell.com/regAPI/RegAPI.aspx . Once you've registered, sign in to Second Life and you will start off on the USC Island. There are a number of signs around that will teach you about how to use Second Life and where to go next. If new residents register early, they can explore Second Life on their own and get more oriented. If new residents register on the day of the event, we will have greeters to meet and help them see the conference.
The real Summit is in a beautiful medieval city. Is this going to be reconstructed in SL for the summit?
Our hosting location, USC Public Diplomacy Island, is in mid-process of an internationally-themed, terraformed and landscaped four-simulator build. For iCommons in SL we are going to have courtyards and walkways for the video screens, art exhibits, concerts, dances, and info displays about iCommons. These will be located, like Dubrovnik, at a coastal location with a beautiful sea channel and an island visible across the channel.
I come from a developing country with lousy bandwidth. Will I be able to attend the Summit in Second Life?
Oh ack! (Second Life expression meaning, 'Let me think a minute on that'). Basic accounts are free but a valid email address is required. A good graphics card and a fast internet connection are recommended. If you have Cable or DSL internet you should be OK. Dial up is not recommended. The best thing to do is check out "system requirements" at this link: http://secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php.
Post-event UPDATE: We have some statistic tracking attendance of the iCommons Summit in Second Life:
iCommons SL Total Visitors Per Four Days (Unique Visitors):
14 - 17 Jun - 526
iCommons SL Visitors Per Day (Unique Visitors):
14 Jun - 105
15 Jun - 213
16 Jun - 169
17 Jun - 190
Thanks to all those who attended the event in Second Life, and to those who put in the hard work to make this possible. Looking forward to the iCommons Summit in Second Life next year!
tags: dubrovnik croatia media-events summit07 second-life
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