September 16, 2008
SLUM Brown Bag: The RL-SL Connection: Wizard, Mathematical Modeling, and the E8 Polytope
Friday, September 19
Noon to 1:00 PM, EDT
9:00-10:00 AM SLT
Temple of Sacred Geometry: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tibet/141/200/24
Garrett Lisi has achieved recent fame for his model of the E8 Polytope, the most recent claim to a model of a unified field theory for physics. We will see a 3-dimensional version of the model presented, along with the story of its development, by Wizard Gynoid, a Second Life artist who partnered with mathematicians on building the model.
On November 6, 2007, Garrett Lisi (sometimes referred to as a surfer dude) posted an article to arXiv that rocked the profession of particle physics. For more background information on this achievement and how this shows a changing future for academic publishing, look at this presentation on how social technologies empowered an important scientific voice that might not have been heard under the traditional publishing model.
Posted by pfa at 08:19 AM | Comments (0)
August 26, 2008
Rosania's Second Life Lab Highlighted in Science 2.0 Presentation
First I was delighted to see Jean-Claude Bradley and Andrew Lang's newest presentation appear in Slideshare; was delighted to see the range of Web 2.0 and social technologies illustrated. But then I noticed our very own Gus Rosania has his lab highlighted in the presentation. w00t! Way to go, Gus!
Here are the slides:
I have more pictures of Gus's lab and will try to get those posted.
Posted by pfa at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)
August 12, 2008
Our Own "Movie" Stars! - Public Health Video
A few weeks ago, shortly before the 4th of July, we had a second tour of Play2Train. This was a more interactive tour than our first visit, in which those who attended actually got medical garments, dressed up, and acted out parts of scenarios. It was a very exciting and engaging experience!
The visit served a second purpose as well, enabling the creation of sections in a video on public health outreach and education in Second Life. The video is now available. Take a look and see if you recognize yourself anywhere in the video. I do.
MBlog: UM HSL: Second Life and Public Health Video: http://mblog.lib.umich.edu/hsl/archives/2008/08/second_life_and.html
Click here to view the high quality Quicktime video version in a browser window.
Alternatively, you can watch the low resolution version from YouTube below.
Posted by pfa at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2008
VOTE - Annenberg will fund 3 of 5 SL community projects
Annenberg will be funding 3 out of 5 semi-final projects in their Community Challenge in their Network Culture Project Competition.
They are asking Second Life avatars to go to a survey and vote for which they want to see funded. I am working with one, so I have my own preference, but they are all good projects. The way the voting works, you actually have to choose three. Three are health related, one is connected to the Native American community. The five are (briefly):
- Ability Commons, a collaboration between Healthinfo Island (medical librarians), and Virtual Abilities and the Health Support Coalition (organizations that provide education, support and transition guidance in Second Life for persons with disabilities, health care consumer support groups, and support group leaders. (This is the one I'm supporting.)
- Interactive Accessible Home - a virtual model of a home embedded with accessiblity examples, suggestions and tips for modifying your own home to make it more accessible.
- Mauerkrankheit/Wallsickness - an art installation exploring the concept of boundaries and divisions, such as the US-Mexico border or Berlin Wall.
- Native Lands Culture Outreach - bringing together the RL Native American community in Second Life and providing information, education and resources about their culture from the truly informed.
- Texas Obesity Research Center - To extend the offerings of this University of Houston based organization into Second Life with information, education, and resources.
There is more information about all of these at:
http://networkculture.usc.edu/projects/21-network-culture-projects/61-community-challenge-finalists-announced.html
Please vote. If you are on Twitter or other email groups, please pass along the word. Feel free to forward this message. On Twitter, this is what I've been sending:
Annenberg will fund 3 of 5 Second Life community projects.
Read here: http://tinyurl.com/5c4vam Vote here: http://tinyurl.com/4olwah
Here is what the voting looks like.
An early draft of the notecard from Ability Commons is given below.
Let us, as academics and educators in Second Life, support the development of richer educational resources and projects in Second Life by voting. Thank you!
==========
Something wonderful is happening and with one small action you can be part of it. Our friends in the Health Support Coalition have a chance to win 300,000 Lindens from the Annenberg School to create a SL home for a wide range of peer support groups.
"Ability Commons" is the work of Gentle Heron, Carolina Keats and many of the 41 members of the Health Support Coalition, including "MDSLA," "Crohn's and Colitis Support, " "Open Gates Peer Support," and "Agoraphobia Support Group."
We need your help, right now. Please take 20 seconds to go to this website "http://tinyurl.com/4olwah" and vote for "Ability Commons." Rank them "1) Favored" and do your part to help us create an incubator for small and emerging groups.
Your vote will allow more people with disabilities and health issues to share our pleasure and purposefulness in Second Life.
Will you do more? Please forward this note to your friends - voting is open until June 30, and your help will make all the difference.
Thank you!
Our proposal is here:
http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/Ability_Commons
The Annenberg/USC site is here:
http://tinyurl.com/5mawlm
Posted by pfa at 07:16 AM | Comments (0)
April 02, 2008
Howard Rheingold at ISTE Island
For those of you who couldn't make it to the Howard Rheingold presentation tonight at ISTE Island, Scottmerrick Oh has put up some video excerpts.
Howard Rheingold in Second Life!: http://scottsecondlife.blogspot.com/2008/04/howard-rheingold-in-second-life.html
Howard presented to a capacity crowd, which maxed out the SIM at around 74 avatars. The topic was "Cyberspace is Social!" My favorite line was "critical mass of enthusiasts," which was given in the context of attempting to bring a literate level of use of social technologies into large academic institutions, also referred to as "knowledge factories." Here is one pic of Howard arriving for the presentation.
Posted by pfa at 11:26 PM | Comments (0)