Monday, February 1st, 2016 marks the official opening of team registrations for the 2016 Relay for Life of Second Life season. This year, core fund-raising activities will take place between March 6th and August 14th, 2016. The theme for this year’s season is “Once Upon a Cure”.
As with last year, teams are required to have Team Captain and Team Co-Captain, but this year, teams must comprise at least 5 people (inclusive of the captains), although it is not necessary for teams to already have 5 members when they register; additional members can be added to a team post registration. There will be exceptions made for smaller teams but prior approval from the Steering Committee must be obtained.
For 2016, teams will have the opportunity to attend a class with RFL of SL’s Fund-raising Advisors, who are tasked with primarily helping Team Captains become better fund-raising leaders for their teams. Classes will cover a range of topics, including setting and achieving goals, event promotion, using the fund-raising tools, etc.
An option is included on the team registration form for teams to indicate whether they would like to attend a class, which the RFL of SL Steering Committee note are a requirement for all teams participating in RFL of SL for the first. In addition, the Steering Committee note that other teams may be required to attend, based on their previous fund-raising totals.
RFL of SL 2016 Key Dates
February 28th – March 6th: Paint it Purple
March 6th: RFL of SL Kick Off
May 14th / 15th: Half Way There
July 16th / 17th:Relay Weekend
August 14th: Wrap Up
About Relay For Life of Second Life
Relay For Life of Second Life is an annual activity that takes place in Second Life in July each year. Volunteers form or join teams to have fun while fundraising and raising awareness from mid-March through mid-July. In July teams build camp sites and walk a track, just like a Real World Relay. Since 2005, Relay For Life of Second Life has raised almost US $3 million for the American Cancer Society.
About the American Cancer Society
For more than 100 years, the American Cancer Society (ACS) has worked relentlessly to save lives and create a world with less cancer and more birthdays. Together with millions of supporters worldwide, ACS helps people stay well, helps people get well, find cures, and deal with their journey against cancer.
A new Christian-focused machinima series filmed in Second Life, has its première on Monday, February 1st 2016. BreakOut Joyful Noise will air on the gospel / urban Dynasty Television and Charter Cable 198.
The series “centres on the town of Release and its residents. A cosy community filled with societal issues that resident’s experience. This series will address those topics that individuals struggle with in life and provide story lines that will encourage viewers to face those issues head on through the way of Jesus Christ.”
The 30-minute pilot focuses on 24-year-old Joy Jamison who works in a high-end boutique who is struggling with matters of self-image and faith.
The show has been written and produced by Exquisite Xpressionz, a group of Second Life residents comprising Keyia Hynes, Twylitedawn Keng and Wisdom Price, who have set themselves the goal “to educate, inspire, and entertain all users of the secondlife [sic] community; bridging the gap by promoting real world awareness and positive change.” Filming is by Rockford Ewing / Double Trouble Video Productions, with music by Creative Nation.
BreakOut Joyful Noise premières via stream on Dynasty TV / Charter Channel 198 at 06:00 SLT on Monday February1st, and features its own page on the Dynasty TV website. A teaser / trailer has also been produced, and is embedded below.
It’s time to kick-off a week of story-telling in voice, brought to our virtual lives by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s Second Life home at Bradley University, unless otherwise indicated.
Sunday, January 31st
13:30: Seanchai Crazy Eights Official Opening
Seanchai Library’s new installation at LEA 9, Crazy Eights will run through until the end of May and offer a range of reading, activities and events throughout. You can keep up with all that is happening via the Crazy Eights web page.
The path through the Story Forest at Crazy Eights will lead you to literary discoveries, courtesy of Seanchai Library
The formal opening features the first in a series of story-based (or story-inspired) art displays which will take place at the Crazy Eights East Meadow., Don Quixote – Words and Images.
Join Derry McMahon and Bear Silvershade beneath a windmill as they read from the story of Miguel de Cervantes’s Gentleman of La Mancha and surrounded by pictures by Derry inspired by Don Quixote’s adventures, which are simply superb (and which I had the good fortune to review in 2014, when some formed a part of that year’s Fine Arts Tour).
When running away, it’s always handy to have some idea of where to run to. In Claudia Kincaid’s case, the ideal place is the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. As her younger brother has money, Claudia decides he should come with her to help on the finances front.
The museum proves an interesting place to settle into, but when the museum purchases what appears to be an early work by Michelangelo, a statue of an angel, for the unbelievable price of $225, Claudia and Jamie, her brother, find themselves taking on the role of investigators.
Is the statue genuine? Has the museum bought itself a bargain, or is the statue something else? Digging into the matter, Claudia and Jamie are led to the remarkable Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, former owner of the statue and the owner of some remarkable files which promise to led Claudia into some discoveries about herself.
Monday February 1st, 19:00: Peter Robinson
Gyro Muggins returns to the universe of Larry Niven’s Man-Kzin Wars.
The Kzinti, are a warlike race Niven first introduced to the world in his 1966 story The Warriors. They permeated many of his stories set in the Known Space series, and well as appearing in his Nebula and Hugo award-winning Ringworld. In his stories, Niven references a series of conflicts between Kzinti and humans, but did not write about the wars himself. Such was the demand for more information on the wars, however, he allowed the Man-Kzin wars to become a shared universe series, with the majority of the stories written by other science-fiction authors such as Hal Codebatch, Poul Anderson, Dean Ing, Jerry Pournelle, S.M. Stirling, Greg Bear and others.
Peter Robinson is a short story written by Australian author Hal Colebatch, and forms one of 18 stories he has written for the series. It first appears in Man Kzin X: The Wunder War, and is one of four stories, all by Codebatch, which make up the volume.
In it, an expedition by the Institute of Knowledge on Jinx, funded by the Puppeteers sets of to explore a recently detected slaver stasis box, an artefact of the ancient Thrintun (Slaver) Empire. Arriving at their target, the team of mixed races, including human and Kzinti, discover that it is nine miles in diameter, the largest box ever discovered.
Tuesday February 2nd 19:00: Pearl
Faerie Maven-Pralou continue her reading of the first book in Lisa Pinkham’s the Doll Collection series.
Everything changes for Addy on her 12th birthday, when she receives a mysterious gift of a collection of dolls and an opal necklace imbued with magical powers.
Soon, Addy finds herself transported to a beach where she meets a mermaid, Pearl, and where she can swim with and talk to underwater fairies and enjoy the company of min-reading dolphins.
But all is not as safe as it seems; when Pearl vanishes and Addy’s magic necklace is stolen, Addy is left with no way home and without a friend – and she must confront the thief on her own, trusting that the magic which resides in her is enough to put things to rights.
Wednesday, February 3rd, 19:00: Silence of the Loons
While writers from the southern American states turn to tales of crime, inevitably the broiling heat of humid summer days is an ever-present backdrop. But when the stories of criminals and their ways are moved northwards to Minnesota, it is the brutal cold of hard winters which offers a frame for many of the tales.
In this collection, 13 of the state’s top crime writers present a series of tales of mystery, all of which are linked by the same 8 clues, which lead the reader through their dark twists.
Join Kayden Oconnell as he reads from this fascinating anthology.
Thursday, February 4th
19:00 On the Island
Shandon Loring opens the pages of the February book for Seanchai Library’s Crazy Eight’s Featured books reading, On The Island by Tracey Garvis Graves.
Anna Emerson, a 30-year-old English teacher accepts s position as private tutor to 17-year-old T.J. Callahan, a young man who has been undergoing treatment for cancer. For Anna, it is a plum assignment, requiring as it does travelling to the Callahan Family’s summer rental in the Maldives with the teenager. T.J., however, is less than happy; with his cancer in remission, he’d rather stay at home with friends, and not carted off half-way around the world with the dead weight of lessons to catch-up on.
Before they can reach their destination however, the pilot of the charter plane taking them to the Maldives suffers a heart attack, the ‘plane ditching in the Indian Ocean. Making it to a deserted island well off the beaten track, Anna and T.J. must work together to survive as days turn to weeks, and weeks to months without sign of rescue. As the time passes, Anna realises that her biggest challenge may not be caring for T.J. should his cancer return – but the fact he is growing into a young man.
Note: On the Island is also to be presented at Seanchai Kitely and Seanchai InWorldz. Check Seanchai session posts during the week for specific grid locations).
21:00: Seanchai Late Night
With Finn Zeddmore.
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Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule.
The featured charity for January / February is Heifer International, working with communities to end world hunger and poverty and to care for the Earth.
Dox Quixote – Words and Images opens Seanchai Library’s Crazy Eights series at LEA 9, 13:30 SLT, Sunday, January 31st, 2016
Opening on Sunday, January 31st is the latest chapter of Seanchai Library’s distinguished history of bring stories and literature to life in virtual worlds through the spoken word. Running through to May 31st, Crazy Eights is a full region installation located at LEA 9, where the Library will be presenting and hosting a range of special story telling events and readings from the world of literature.
The region has been beautifully landscaped by Caledonia Skytower with the support of Shandon Loring, to present a series of event areas, all distinct from one another but linked together and to the landing point by the Story Forest, where visitors walk between tall trees on a path apparently paved in the covers of books, and can discover more about stories, folk tales and more, as they stop at any of the 20 Story Stations lining the paths through the woods.
Crazy Eights: walk through the Story Forest to visit the themed areas of the region, stopping at the Story Stations as you go
The “eight” of the title Crazy Eights, refers to this being Seanchai Library’s eighth year of operation. It was founded in 2008 by Derry McMahon, a Master of Library Sciences in the physical world, after she toured Second Life’s existing libraries and found that while many were inspiring builds, most were empty and seemingly little used.
Derry realised that with all the rich immersive opportunities available in-world, people were unlikely to log-in simply to sit down and read a story or poem or extract from a novel on a note card or from a web page; reading simply doesn’t require a virtual space. It was from this realisation that she established Seanchai Library (“seanchai” – pronounced shawn-a-kee – being is a traditional Irish storyteller/historian): a place where people could come together and read and listen to stories from around the globe and covering all possible genres, giving literature in-world a voice.
Initially, Seanchai Library focused on gatherings which allowed this to happen, establishing a convivial atmosphere in which tales could be shared. But such is the nature of Second Life that it became obvious that more could be done to present literature as a living statement of the arts. Thus, Seanchai gave birth to Storyfests (now folded back into Seanchai’s core activities), which allowed staff and volunteers to organise special literary events, such as their Bard on the Beach and Halloween inspired Boofest series, without detracting from the Library’s core aim of brining stories of every kind to life.
Crazy Eights allows visitors to immerse themselves in both literature and traditional verbal story telling as an art form, and discover more about Seanchai Library itself. The Featured Book Area, for example, will be used to present a book a month through February to the end of May, using a 360-degree setting. The series launches on Thursday, February 4th at 19:00 SLT, when Shandon Loring, Seanchai’s Chief Storyteller, presents On The Island by Tracey Garvis Graves in a suitably tropical setting (see the image above).
Crazy Eights: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson feature large, through Seanchai Library’s popular Tea Time at Baker Street sessions every Sunday at 13:30 SLT from February through until the end of May, complete with the opportunity to learn more about those who have played the leading roles in the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories on stage, film, radio, and television down the years
Crazy Eights also present the opportunity for visitors to attend one of the Library’s most popular series of readings: Tea Time at Baker Street. Here, in a setting inspired set of the ITV Granada (UK) television series The Return of Sherlock Holmes, visitors can enter 221B Baker Street every Sunday and hear of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson. The first story, selected from the series will be The Adventure of the Empty House, the first story in the volume The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, at 13:30 SLT on Sunday February 7th.
Southward from here lies the Library Island, home to the Information Centre. Here visitors can discover more about weekly events at the Library’s headquarters at Bradley University, and about major productions such as Explore the Great Gatsby. Just a stone’s throw from this is the Storyteller’s Workshop, will hosts the first session on Saturday, February 13th, at 13:00.
Crazy Eights: the lounge at 221B Baker Street stands ready to receive guests
Crazy Eights officially opens, however at the East Meadow, an area devoted to stories based on or inspired by art displays mounted in the meadow.
Here, on Sunday, January 31st, at 13:30 SLT, Derry McMahon and Bear Silvershade will present Don Quixote – Words and Images, where guests are invited to sit beneath a windmill and listen to the story of Miguel de Cervantes’s Gentleman of La Mancha. On display around the meadow are pictures by Derry inspired by Don Quixote’s adventures, which are simply superb (and which I had the good fortune to review in 2014, when some formed a part of that year’s Fine Arts Tour).
Crazy Eights: the Story Forest path includes 20 story stations to be discovered by visitors
If you’re already familiar with Seanchai Library’s activities in-world, then you are going to enjoy exploring and spending time at Crazy Eights. If you’ve never attended an event or session by Seanchai Library, then Crazy Eights offers the perfect introduction to a group and their activities in Second Life and virtual worlds, as they keep alive the great tradition of story telling in voice.
PaleoQuest, July 2015, one of the more recent projects undertaken by the Moles of the LDPW – blog post
Saturday, 30th of January, 2016 marks the annual Mole Day celebrations in Second Life, and all SL residents are invited to attend festivities at the Bay City Fairgrounds, North Channel.
First held in 2010, Mole Day honours the members of the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW), affectionately known as the “moles”, who are responsible for the construction of the Mainland infrastructure in Second Life – the roads, railways, waterways, and so on.
Maximillion Kleen and Gospeed Racer will provide the entertainment at the 2016 Mole Day celebrations
“Moles” are resident builders, scripters and others who create new content on Linden Lab’s behalf and to the benefit of all. These Residents all have Second Life accounts with the last name “Mole”, and work under the auspices of the Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW).
The Moles have been responsible for some of the larger mainland development projects, such as creating many of the more famous sights in Nautilus and wells as undertaking initial development of Zindra, the Adult continent.
More recently they have been directly involved in projects such as PaleoQuest and Winter Wonderland. The Moles also develop Linden Homes regions on behalf of the Lab, including all of the parks and places to discover within them.
However, their very first project was developing Bay City itself – hence the City’s annual celebration honouring them.
This year’s Mole Day celebrations will take place on Saturday, 30th of January, 2016, three days earlier than the usual Ground-hog Day time for the event, so that full advantage can be taken of the weekend. Activities will start at 11:00 SLT, with a live performance by Maximillion Kleen, followed by music from KONA Radio’s Gospeed Racer.
Bay City History Exhibition
For Bay Citizens, one of the highlights of Second Life’s 10th Birthday Community Celebration in 2013 was a display highlighting the history of Bay City and the Bay City Alliance. It has long been hoped that the display could be brought back to Bay City.
Now, thanks to the generosity Sylvia Tamalyn, and the support of Bay City History Pavilion producer Marianne McCann, together with by Uccello and Angela Poultry-Seale and Laetizia “Tish” Coronet, the Bay City history exhibition now has a new home. and will officially open alongside of the Mole Day celebrations.
The Bay City History exhibition covers three floors and present visitors with a chronological history of Bay City – and more
Spread over the three floors of a converted office building, the exhibition boasts a chronological history of the city, as well as a Bay City poster display, a wall featuring past and present Ms Bay City winners, and a photo display of prominent places around the city, making the latest in a long line of visitor destinations in and around Bay City.
About Bay City and the Bay City Alliance
Bay City is a mainland community, developed by Linden Lab® and home to the Bay City Alliance. The Bay City Alliance was founded in 2008 to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest group for Residents of Bay City.
War of the Worlds, one of a long line of successful special events organised and promoted by Seanchai Library over the years
Welcome to the first in a news series and to a new departure for this blog – articles by guest contributors. In this series, and over the coming weeks, Caledonia Skytower examines the ins and outs and dos and don’ts of event promotion in a virtual world.
By Caledonia Skytower
1. Blasting the Myths
Second Life is like baseball, or rather like baseball movies. Is it really? There is an insidious myth in virtual worlds that if you create something that you believe is wonderful, and tell a few friends about it, people will (and should) come flocking from all parts virtual to see your brilliance, experience your events, fill your jars with awe-induced tips.
“If you build it, they will come”, may be a misquote from a certain Hollywood movie featuring Kevin Costner, Ray Liotta and James Earl Jones, but there are times when it feels like it is the motto by which many live by when developing something in a virtual world we want to share with others.
But here is the myth-shattering reality: it takes almost as much time and effort to promote something successfully, as it does to create it. Event and ongoing venue promotion is hard work. In managing Seanchai Library, which has decent and consistent success for a venue that does not have a single dance pole, I spend approximately 15 hours a week. Four to five hours of that, depending on the week, is in promotion – nearly one-third. It is enough to make you get tired of hearing your own promotional voice. You really cannot get tired of promoting if you want to build a meaningful presence, or have more than three of your BFFs attend your event or explore your creation.
Building something and sending out a few note cards and group notices, then hoping to luck and word-of-mouth might not fill your seats
There is no one single way to reach people – no silver bullet or easy answer. Why is that? Because people are diverse. They take in information and make decisions about where they spend their time in different ways. Just as there are different types of learners – people who absorb information best visually, audibly, and kinetically, etc – people look for and process news information in ways that suit how they personally are wired. It is more than just sending out a few note cards and IM bombing your friends list. If you want to build a healthy audience base, one with an ever-changing balance of faithful supporters and refreshing new pixels, you have to get information to people in a form and manner that taps into their natural habits. That is your job!
Back when I was artistic director of a non-profit performing arts company in the first-world, we used to print posters and would allot a certain amount of them to the cast and crew. This is a pretty fundamental strategy, because your number one audience source (pay attention to this!) is always friends and family. So you want your performers/artists to be passing the word – to be “roaring lions” as the saying goes. Actors especially, like keepsakes. A poster is a classic one. We had to keep reminding people that, unless their back seat had become some unique kind of public place with a lot of people coming and going, leaving posters in the back of the car was defeating the intent of the poster. Put the posters where people will see them!
Put your promotional material where people will see it – in-world and out-world
The same holds true with information of all kinds about places and events in Second Life. You have to figure out where people are looking for information, and you have to get your information there for them to see. You have to be clear and consistent.
This is something that Inara and I have discussed many times – how people can be so naive about promotion. To be fair, not all of them have had the experience that we have had: having both been virtual journalists and had some experience in promotion elsewhere. Most of us are consumers of such information, not the progenitors of it. So that is how this series was born, and I want to thank Inara for her support in publishing it.
I do not know absolutely everything about marketing and promotion. I am not even a marketing professional in first-life. However, over the years I have learned a thing or five, and what I know I will share. Some concepts do not change with technology or platforms, they just have to be re-applied appropriately in the new context. In this series of posts I will share everything from absolute beginner basics, to evaluating the success of your efforts.
Hang on, and have your pencils sharpened. Successful events and healthy region traffic will be your final exam.
NEXT POST: The Basics – Who? What? Where? When?
Catch the Entire Series
If You Just Build It… is a multi-part series. To catch up with everything, follow the links below.
Monday, February 1st, 2016 marks the official opening of team registrations for the 2016 Relay for Life of Second Life season. This year, core fund-raising activities will take place between March 6th and August 14th, 2016. The theme for this year’s season is “Once Upon a Cure”.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 