Attending:
Mark Arnold, Rich Giles, Bonnie DeVarco, Margaret Corbit, Patrick McKercher
Immigration
Officer: Welcome to UNITE -
promoting educational collaborations through the Intercultural Education
Alliance and the setting for Summit 2003 virtual conference (November 21st).
This world is currently under construction.
Immigration
Officer: You are being joined by
Hypatia.
Rich: Hi Bonnie
Hypatia: hello rich
Hypatia: HI markus
Rich: he's just finishing an update to the
website
Hypatia: is this where you would like to
meet?
Rich: he'll be right with us
Hypatia: k
Rich: yep
Rich: I hope Margaret got the message in time
Markus: Hi bonnie
Hypatia: hi
Markus: join me again Bonnie
Hypatia: okay
Immigration
Officer: You are being joined by
Hypatia.
Markus: the flutes get to you after a
bit :-)
Hypatia: oh they did not download for me
yet
Hypatia: but I like your meeting area here
best anyway for talking
Rich: ahh, i changed it to a bump panel when you
walk onto the island
Markus: I think Rich might have already
made them so you have to strike the bump
Markus: ...right
Hypatia: I looked closer at the USGS
automatic GPS locator page
Hypatia: ahhh
Hypatia: and talked to my colleague who might
be able to set up a similar one on the open source page
Markus: did you get a chance to look at
the summary from Tuesday's meeting?
Markus: excellent Bonnie
Hypatia: so anyone can put in their
location and generate coords and a map
Hypatia: I printed it out and am looking
at it now
Immigration
Officer: You are being joined by
queenbee.
Markus: Hi Margaret :-)
Rich: Hi margaret :)
Hypatia: Hi Margaret :-)
Hypatia: snap
queenbee: hi all sorry to be late
Rich: it's fashionable
Markus: Patrick said he can arrive in
about 30 minutes
Hypatia: cool
Hypatia: well it is great to have margaret
here and we can talk about a number of things right away
Markus: http://www.aweduserve.org/iea/ I have made several updates to the website
based on input from the meeting Tuesday
Markus: right
Hypatia: good to have a better idea now of
the agenda for the 21st
queenbee: its really a very professinal-looking
site
Rich: The breakout overview was just my first
draft that Markus updated
Hypatia: We have not even begun speaking
about vlearn plans yet this year... it has been a hectic one so aligning with
similar themes and supporting what you are doing makes great sense esp in
nov/dec
queenbee: agreed
Markus: http://www.aweduserve.org/iea/chats.htm this has the logs and I also cleaned up the
summaries....in case you need to catch up Margaret
Markus: sorry to interupt
Markus: I agree Bonnie
Hypatia: so the three hour 21st event will
include a few breakouts
Rich: yes
Hypatia: and there will be a few days
prior for trainings 17th-19th
Rich: I have enlisted the aid of the AW
Peacekeepers who will work with the student ushers to provide all the
assistance we require for the event
queenbee: right, you want one from us on
SciCentr. Do you want it to focus on cross cultural?
Markus: if you look on the summary for
Tuesday's meeting I listed the breakout session ideas we had
Markus: http://www.aweduserve.org/iea/documents/chat_logs/iea_summary_10-21.htm
Hypatia: My thought is if we want to have
a vlearn presense too, in addition to biolearn and scicentr
Markus: if you scroll down Margaret you
will see the breakouts listed in the table
Hypatia: that we use vlearn in Dec as a
similar theme follow up
Markus: Right
Hypatia: smaller than we usually do
Rich: that's a good idea
Hypatia: i ran out of steam this year
Markus: hehe
Hypatia: and I think the rest of us really
love the idea of being a background support
Hypatia: :-)
Rich: hehe
queenbee: yes, I think we can arrange discussion
forums live for VLearn
Markus: Good help is hard to find
Rich: I'm hassling Rick to find out about the
voice over IP browser he has promised as an Alpha
Hypatia: cool ... that would be nice but
it would be great to keep your keynote a text delivery for logging
queenbee: he's in VIRAS world right now..
Hypatia: or transcribe in realtime
Hypatia: So basically, the cultures
represented in your culture islands are native american indian and what else?
Rich: yes, James's keynote is something i wanted
to talk to you about actually Bonnie
Hypatia: k
Rich: It appears he is filming on location on
the date of the conference :(
Markus: Yes I do like the logs, but we
plan to also make the keynote and other audio portions available on the website
as well
Hypatia: cool
Rich: which means he won't be near any internet
access
Markus: native american, aztec, Shinto,
Finnish
Rich: he's offered to provide us with an audio
or video file of his keynote
Hypatia: Isn't Patrick orchestrating
James' participation? Has he planned a
canned speech then?
Hypatia: ahh audio file would be great...
his talks are fabulous
Markus: (to queenbee) you mentioned
something about Native American groups you might know that would like to become
involved? Patrick also mentioned this.
Rich: Well i've been talking directly to James
about the technical issues, but Patrick suggested i speak to you to get your
experience on this issue
Hypatia: Aztec?
queenbee: yes, better to have good audio than to
have problems withfull video
Hypatia: regarding streaming the talk?
Rich: yes
Hypatia: I agree queenbee
queenbee: Yes, I have an American Indian School
team and they have an Indian mentor.
Rich: formats, best ways to do it inworld etc
Markus: Yes, we did that one as a Latin
American historical representation
Rich: keeping in mind that his keynote will be
timed with the SIETAR hookup, so they could play a video there, whilst we do
audio and static slides maybe here in AW
Hypatia: all good questions... when
Queenbee and I did a live realvid audio stream v2v four years ago, it was a bit
shakey but worked
Hypatia: better options now though
Hypatia: yes that sounds good
Markus: streaming media is evidently one
of the 3.5 features
Hypatia: and have Patrick be james in the
james avatar
Rich: right :)
Hypatia: do you have a media server that
can scale in realtime?
Rich: no one could tell the difference :)
Hypatia: true
Hypatia: but would be great to have him
live for a q and a
Markus: I think it would be nice to have
it that way with just the avatar and the voice...then we can include the real
video for DL on the website
Rich: our server capabilities aren't that good i
don't think, although we do have access to AW's servers, i'm not sure about
their capabilities
Hypatia: Yes, making sure that everyone
listens at same time... can it serve more than 100 at once?
Hypatia: for audio I mean
Hypatia: the real question is simultaneous
user support for the download/play
Markus: I think he will attend our
second summit if possible (VLearn) and maybe he can do a breakout there? He
would probably like to have a forum for going into KWeb more
Rich: i don't know, perhaps this is a discussion
we can take up via email to work out the details ?
Hypatia: sure but just wasn't sure if you
needed tech support from me in some way or just advice
Rich: possibly both :)
Markus: probably both :-0
Hypatia: well I would have my hands full
with realtime gis
Rich: right
Hypatia: and getting it into 3d
Rich: right, so i'll try to handle as much as
poss with your advice
Markus: we can work with Rick on this
audio / sim. user issues
Hypatia: but could consider telascience as
a location for serving voice
Hypatia: JohnG has a megaserver
Hypatia: I would like to suggest that as
only a backup plan if you can't get something going there
Hypatia: There is one other thing we have
learned
Hypatia: If I may ...
Hypatia: when you have a lot of newbies in
Hypatia: your venues have to be really efficient
Rich: right, my thinking exactly, we need a
backup as we know that nothing ever goes to plan :)
Hypatia: one year in Avatars, the world
crashed and crashed
Hypatia: and elevations for main venues
can be a problem
Markus: this was our reason for reconstructing
Unite
Hypatia: when lots of people come in
Hypatia: so this is at 120 meters
elevation
Hypatia: where we are now
Rich: yes, we've tried to build unite with that
in mind
Hypatia: and until I cached I kept falling
through
Rich: the main island is a single 5k zipped
ground object
Hypatia: cool
Hypatia: so the main venue is where?
Hypatia: in gz of unite?
Rich: join me
Hypatia: k
Markus: or just click on the world
queenbee: sweet
Rich: or that :)
Rich: it's all been custom designed, low poly
for the event
Hypatia: lovely!
Hypatia: and are we at 11meter height?
Markus: oh, just to throw in....we
talked yesterday about getting our exhibition spaces set up soon
Hypatia: or is this gz
Rich: yes
Rich: this is up from GZ
Hypatia: this is nice and very spacious
Hypatia: this is where james will speak?
Hypatia: and will you both be in Texas
live?
Hypatia: or just one of you?
Markus: we will make the teleports to
the breakouts around this area
Rich: GZ is down above the water, with bump
panels underneath to ensure newbies will be able to cache properly
Markus: I will be in Texas with Julie
Hypatia: cool
Hypatia: so Rich will be covering all
virtual logistics
Rich: I'll be here in Finland, coordinating the
tech support
Rich: right
Hypatia: the other thing queenbee and I
know well is how hard it is to orchestrate phys/virtual in realtime
Markus: I will be inworld during the
whole Summit though
Rich: i have teams of peacekeepers coming in
from AW, to help with technical issues
Hypatia: cool
Hypatia: and they will greet folks in
Centre?
Rich: yep
Hypatia: or is rick changing this venue
that day to the drop point?
Rich: teams will be dispersed to breakout worlds
to assist everywhere
Hypatia: great
Rich: you know last year at Vlearn 2002 we used
AW Gatekeepers ?
Hypatia: We had a cadre of students too
Rich: Bill set up a cit that has eject and PS in
centre and building world
Hypatia: and a few AW gatekeepers
Hypatia: good
Rich: i would ask that this cit could be added
to Biolearn and Scicentre for the day of the conference as well with PS and
eject
Hypatia: my experience with conferences
and queenbee should chime in here too... is that the hardest part is when folks
are moving from world to world
Hypatia: okay
queenbee: Sure, I think though that maybe we
want to use SciFair instead.... if that is ok?
Rich: that's fine
Rich: the cit is gatekeeper (6091)
Hypatia: Keep structure at beginning
pretty tight so you don't lose people before the keynote
queenbee: we can have Rick up the max user
number. And I could copy over the world that the American Indian team is
creating if we like.
queenbee: and if they give permission...
Rich: sounds great
Rich: with eject and PS rights we can also place
bots to pick up stragglers
Markus: I will be contacting Rick about
the event so if you just give me the world names and needs, I will arrange for
those with him
Hypatia: k
queenbee: good
Rich: the Peacekeepers can use the bots to
transport people who get stuck back in time for each event
Hypatia: who is facilitating the event...
i.e., announcing, etc.
Markus: just drop me a note and I will
add it to the 'Rick list"
Hypatia: is there going to be a
universe-wide announce of each new thing?
Rich: not sure about the announce thing
Markus: Have you done this before?
Hypatia: Rick can do a thing where the
announce can come from grand central station as a notice in all worlds
Rich: although with bots placed in each world we
can give 5 minute warnings in bold or something like that
Hypatia: bots can work well too... i
always have an aversion to too many bots
Markus: I was thinking if we had a bot
in each of the breakout worlds we could annouce that way
Markus: ...me too :-)
Rich: true, plus we need a backup in case the
bots fail
queenbee: you are welcome to run one in
scifair...
Hypatia: I prefer to do people
Rich: but the usher and PK teams could also
cover that in the event of bot failure
queenbee: yes, you need a human to coax people
along
Markus: We should have plenty of
coverage with the usher teams
Rich: each team will be 2 or 3 people on each
world, a Peacekeeper backing up one or two student ushers
Markus: 18-20 people likely
Hypatia: that is a lot... you must be
expecting multitudes :-)
Rich: nice to be optimistic :)
queenbee: which brings me back to a question I
probably asked before
Markus: we are hoping for around 100-150
inworld....and more sharing via projection
Hypatia: So when folks first arrive will
there be a general address by either of you in here?
queenbee: are they logging in at the conference?
Rich: not sure, we could ask Rick to change the
entry world for the day
Rich: but for 2 weeks prior to the conference i
will also be holding naviation workshops for all invitees
Markus: I thought we would use the first
20-25 minutes just to get them unstuck from trees and such...and then have a
general address...moving them into the first event (the cultural island tour
Rich: on a daily basis
queenbee: ok, well so that starts in about a
week. Do you have people signed up?
Rich: I will be handling most of the workshops
myself, but i'd be happy to take on volunteers (seeing as i'm always here) :)
queenbee: sorry, no I mean do you have
participants lined up already?
Rich: Invites have already begun to go out
Hypatia: I will be bringing the model
school folks in on the 17th for something else and will likely join you for a
little teaser for the conf
queenbee: great
Markus: Rafael is also going to help
with the workshops. he has several Latin American groups coming
Rich: great Bonnie
Hypatia: they don't have an auto
registration ... so did you say you were going to be able to get general
location specs through the mail in registration?
queenbee: Bonnie, let me know and maybe I can
log in from SC and shadow you for people coming by the booth?
Markus: yes we have the registration
Hypatia: It would be nice to get some of
that in advance... don't need names, just locales and numbers
Rich: You could also invite anyone you feel
appropriate margaret :)
Markus: http://www.aweduserve.org/iea/registration.htm
Hypatia: for our 6 degrees globes
Markus: Please Do! we are hoping that
the leadership will be our best recruiters :-)
Markus: I added that they include their
country and the number of participants from their location
Hypatia: bravo
Hypatia: I will also have a physical group
with me on the 21st so plan to do most of the gis work the two days prior and
then add on
Markus: I thought we could just do this
with by country?
Hypatia: well for america it is better to
do more granular
Hypatia: Patrik Svennson is coming to
dinner here on the 16th
Hypatia: and I will see if the Swedish
folk will be able to join
Rich: that would be nice
Hypatia: now there is an open source
blog-o-sphere we can do on a web page
Hypatia: but then I will replicate it on
the big globe in biolearn
Markus: Danne from Klara is in contact
with me and i know he works with different Swedish groups
Hypatia: Yes the Klara folks should come
too... I met them when I did the edu innov in Stockholm
Hypatia: after Umea
Rich: How do you think it would be best to
integrate Vlearn 2003 into the December event ?
Markus: I will talk with Danne, he just
emailed me yesterday asking how to help
queenbee: Have you all talked to the people from
Zateplus world?
Markus: no I haven't
Hypatia: nope
Rich: no
Markus: I don't know them well
queenbee: I think it is Croatian
Rich: oh. so is ENTER world
Hypatia: I was suggesting that we try to
set up a student competition to build their culture into a world but that would
have a longer timeline of course
queenbee: Maybe Rick Noll could encourage some
of these folks to participate?
Rich: well we could put out a call on the AWEDU
listserv as well ?
Hypatia: BTW the Model Secondary Schools -
the group I have on the 17th and will be working closely with next year is funded
by the Gates Foundation... I know you mentioned the idea of getting GAtes to
fund giving students computers
Markus: I have something I wanted to
mention about why we had originally wanted to have two summit date (one in
November and one in December)
Hypatia: is the awedu listserv still
working? I find it to be iffy
Hypatia: sometimes Bill has to foward
messages that don't go through
Rich: yeh, it can be a bit dodgy, seemed to work
last time i used it
Hypatia: Is the IEA a 501 (c)3?
Rich: The Gates foundation eh ? now there is a group i would like to get
closer too :)
queenbee: translation: official not for profit
with US Gov..
Hypatia: oh yes, oops forgot to define
queenbee: :-)
Markus: This first summit is just
suppose to be an eye opener.....but we hope to move it forward and actually
start the network and project planning initiatives through the IEA in December
Markus: yes it will be a non-profit
Hypatia: but not yet
Markus: I am working on registration now
Hypatia: so basically if funding for a competition
was sought you would need a nonprofit
Markus: right
Hypatia: not to say we have been all that
good at it in the past but to generate a competition, it would need to be done
that way
Markus: Yes, i have going through the
non-profit bible recently :-)
Hypatia: Queenbee, do you like the idea of
having a followup vlearn conf in dec (small) on same intercultural themes?
Rich: The idea being to invite back all
participants from the first conference to the follow-up
queenbee: yes, that is fine. If we are going to
try and make clear a differentiation between IEA and Vlearn, then I think we
could focus on studying the impact and designing to support this kind of
sharing in virtual worlds?
Markus: I was thinking we might target
trying to actually move the participants into some special interest groups and
develop a handful of initiatives that the IEA could then work to
support/promote and find funding for.
Hypatia: or basically to focus our regular
conference on ways that it gets tied close to the unite efforts
Markus: How could we work together to
accomplish goals of interest?
Hypatia: WEll here is my honest response
to the plan for the agenda
Hypatia: the big thing missing is the
takeaway
Hypatia: in other words, you should set up
the first 20 minutes with a strong lead in about what the IEA plans to do and
be
Hypatia: and how people can participate in
the months to come
Hypatia: and who your partner groups are
Hypatia: then the highlight of course is
James
Rich: give them some sort of lead in to
collaboration potential
Hypatia: and the islands... will students
represent the islands?
Hypatia: but set the stage for the next
year of your iea activities
Immigration
Officer: You are being joined by
Patrick M.
Markus: We just haven't had that much
advance time for planning
Hypatia: I think the structure of the
event day is great... just that you need a real solid first segment address
Hypatia: Either Rich or Markus
Hypatia: people can also be getting
navigation friendly
Rich: I think Markus would be best
Markus: The SIETAR conference was not
confirmed until mid-September and this really kicked off this project
Hypatia: well it all looks very good so
far... just that first 15 minute lead-in
Rich: My role has to be a little bit more in the
background i would think seeing as i also represent a for-profit group
Markus: I had planned to give an
address...but just wasn't sure if we should allow some time for people to
arrive and folks to get their feet under them just a bit
Hypatia: I tend to over-structure the
vlearn panels so that they are back to back but that is because without
structure you lose people
Hypatia: there is likely a better balance
than what we have struck in the last 5 years of doing it, right Margaret?
Hypatia: but really, if you want to keep
folks' attention, make sure you have a strong facilitator for the open times
Rich: Hi Patrick
Patrick
M: i have a sinking feeling
Hypatia: Hi Patrick!
Patrick
M: hiya
Markus: what is was thinking was was to
have a bit of time to just let things cache and for us to get people moving up
to this area....then a 7-8 minute address and head them off then to the island
tours
queenbee: yes, Bonnie is right, you need someone
throwing lots of energy into their keyboard and at least 3 people in constant
contact behind the scenes. Bonnie has been an amazing stage manager....
Hypatia: that sounds good too
Markus: Welcome Patrick
queenbee: The first year for example, the cable
to Europe broke and we lost Stuart one of our major presenters.
Hypatia: thanks queenbee... I tend to be a
real task master and then we always have lots of folks whispering support... we
rehearse all presenters
queenbee: year before last, Cinzia's computer
crashed...
Rich: This is partly why i wanted to hold as
many pre-conference workshops as possible, to help in the pre-caching and
navigation to cut down on these lead times into the main addresses
Hypatia: yes there is always murphy's law
Markus: don't we know it...seems
something always happens
Hypatia: yep that is why the venues should
be as efficient as possible
queenbee: And I found that a large silly avatar
hopping up and down at the appropriate teleport at the right moment helps....
Hypatia: heheheh yep
Rich: hehe
Markus: How about snoopy on his sopwith
camel :-)
Patrick
M: you can strafe laggasrds
queenbee: yup! make him a special and let the
guides use him
Hypatia: the precaching for your islands
are gonna be really key... I always use my 56k modem and old computer as a
gauge and the indian area which is gorgeous took quite some time to load
Rich: oh god... yes we have our avatar designer
working on some great new avatars
Hypatia: cool.... we also had to pull back
on our buckyball avatars last year becuase the poly count was kinda high
Hypatia: once you have 50 avs in a space
Rich: right, i remember that
Hypatia: gets sloggy
Markus: yes....we have not optimized the
cultural displays yet, but will
Rich: yes it will all be optimised as much as
possible
Hypatia: So maybe you want to go over the
james keynote tech questions with Patrick while we are all here?
Rich: we will close the world for a few days
prior to the conference to make sure it is all perfect
Rich: Yes, good idea
Markus: Is there something we need to
cover with Margaret before she goes?
queenbee: Thanks, Markus
Hypatia: Breakout protocol and needs
Hypatia: are still to be discussed I think
Hypatia: besides the peacekeeper bot stuff
we covered
Rich: ok, what other protocol issues are there ?
Hypatia: well what do you want us to focus
on... I know mine is the gis I discussed
queenbee: ok, so now I have to fess up and admit
that I realized that I will be on an airplane during the November summit, So I
am going to plan on having a pretty tight script for someone in my group to
present.
Markus: I did want to tell Margaret that
we have exhibition space here for her to display the CTC or other things she
wants to include in the exhibition space
Hypatia: intercultural theme
Rich: My breakout on showcase will focus on
browser features and media elements
queenbee: Yes, I can present info on work with
inner city and american indian teens
Hypatia: should we plan a 10 minute pres
and then move people to other venues during breakout or do one longer informal
one/
queenbee: the model for our program, SciFair
model with peer mentoring
Hypatia: I will show gis of this event and
also talk about virtual gis
queenbee: ok, Bonnie is model high school focus
on GIS?
Rich: I think a full 25 minute session on each
breakout world might be better
Hypatia: Katy may be interested in some
mapping...have you spoken to her yet?
Markus: excellent....the list of display
items for a exhibit are on the summary from Tuesday and in the Summit forum on
the website as well
Hypatia: well our model secondary school
group will be watching
Hypatia: but I will be doing gis set up
prior
Hypatia: they are all newbies
Hypatia: cool on exhibition page
Rich: I haven't spoken to katy recently, i think
she is on the Mailing list, Markus ?
Markus: http://www.aweduserve.org/iea/documents/chat_logs/iea_summary_10-21.htm
Hypatia: We have another group watching
too on a big screen ... mostly teched visionaries of various sorts
queenbee: Katy's participation is pretty much
outside of her funded research, so she may be swamped with toddlers and worK
:>)
Hypatia: Katy had said she would be
unavail for 2 months about a month or so ago but she does check email
Hypatia: she is doing a lot right now
Markus: I contacted her early, but not
recently...she emailed back and said she would talik with you Bonnie
Hypatia: but we have past work too that we
can show from the digital cities work with LinkWorld... virtual gps
Hypatia: oh okay then, we have not spoken
about it and I was unaware of that
Hypatia: so maybe I will follow up on that
Markus: I would really like to have a
nice exhibition area...and make it a highlight for people to come back to visit
to see things
queenbee: yes, if we could present it from your
"where on teh planet are you" perspective
Markus: It will be a good spark for
initiative ideas
Hypatia: love that question
queenbee: Now there's a takeaway... we tried for
that in the Vlearn Library space, but the critical mass of users just isn't
there yet....
Hypatia: yes we have to ahave the group
see themselves as a global community in realtime
Rich: we are working on producing some special
models that will show global locations as well
Markus: We will also include these
'exhibits' on the website in the 'participants' page
queenbee: ok
Hypatia: maybe I can bring the gis globes
into vlearn world so vlearn has a presense
queenbee: I really like that idea.
Markus: sure
Hypatia: for the cultural part, i have
always wanted to find a way
Hypatia: to show cultural iconography as a
part of gis
queenbee: whoa, cool idea
Hypatia: I have some good examples but not
enough time to transfer some of my high end things into this platform before
event
Hypatia: except maybe as screenshots
Markus: we don't want to overshadow
VLearn in any way...our hope is that this will help us coordinate efforts in an
effective way to further both
Hypatia: yes of course .... wasn't thinking about overshadowing at all, just appropriate location for the gl