UWA @ The Nonprofit Commons

Photo Credit: Buffy Beale

On the 4th of November, UWA was invited to speak at the weekly meeting of the Nonprofit Commons, led by Rik Panganiban / Rik Riel (Community Manager, Nonprofit Commons in Second Life).

The event took place at the Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheatre, with a great group of people attending!

Photo Credit: Buffy Beale

As follows is a portion of the transcript of the meeting:

UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA IN SECOND LIFE
[08:53] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): ok Jay Jay can you come on down please?
[08:53] Buffy Beale: clapping for Jayjay!
[08:53] Jayjay Zifanwe: thanks Rik
[08:53] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Jay Jay is the School Manager of the Physics University of Western Australia
[08:54] Gentle Heron: YAY JayJay!
[08:54] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): and owner of the UWA presence in SL
[08:54] Secret Rage: woot JayJay
[08:54] Jayjay Zifanwe: thanks
[08:54] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): I've long been a fan of their machinima and art competitions
[08:54] FreeWee Ling: For every action there is a reactin ;)
[08:54] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): so I thought it was long past due that we have Jay Jay come here and tell us what they have been up to!
[08:55] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Jay Jay, can you tell us about how UWA got started in SL?
[08:55] Jayjay Zifanwe: sure
[08:55] Jayjay Zifanwe: well in 2007
[08:55] Jayjay Zifanwe: i was thinking of how to build the uni in 3d
[08:55] Jayjay Zifanwe: uwa i mean
[08:55] Jayjay Zifanwe: and i had at the time zero technical capability
[08:55] Jayjay Zifanwe: nothing has changed insofar as my technical abilities
[08:56] Gentle Heron: HAHAHA
[08:56] Jayjay Zifanwe: anyway a phd student asked me to provide server resources
[08:56] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): lol
[08:56] Jayjay Zifanwe: for a virtual world he wanted to build
[08:56] Jayjay Zifanwe: Chris Thorne
[08:56] Jayjay Zifanwe: and contact with him
[08:56] FreeWee Ling: You're up to at least 2.3..
[08:56] Jayjay Zifanwe: pointed me to the person with the technical capability to make things happen
[08:56] Jayjay Zifanwe: we started with the uwa virtual universe project
[08:57] Jayjay Zifanwe: which was on a single server at UWA completely built i house
[08:57] Jayjay Zifanwe: then in 2008, we won the Google earth Build you campus in 3d competition
[08:57] Jayjay Zifanwe: this gave us coverage in national newspapers
[08:57] Jayjay Zifanwe: and our vice chancellor took notice
[08:57] Jayjay Zifanwe: and we received funding to be able to start a presence in a virtual world for 3 years
[08:57] Jayjay Zifanwe: we chose SL
[08:57] Jayjay Zifanwe: and thats how it started :)
[08:58] Panny Bakerly: Are classes taught on line here?
[08:58] Jayjay Zifanwe: yes
[08:58] Jayjay Zifanwe: we have 2nd year units in the school of business
[08:58] Jayjay Zifanwe: using sl
[08:58] Panny Bakerly: Fantastic! Wish my school would do this.
[08:58] Jayjay Zifanwe: as well as masters by coursework units
[08:59] OnlyMeMe: what courses are tought in SL?
[08:59] OnlyMeMe: they are in SL and not just online?
[08:59] Jayjay Zifanwe: Buyer behavious and decision making in the masters
[08:59] Jayjay Zifanwe: and
[08:59] Jayjay Zifanwe: electronic communication strategy in 2nd year
[08:59] Jayjay Zifanwe: well those courses are subsets of the rl degree
[08:59] Panny Bakerly: How do the students find this type of teaching tool?
[08:59] Jayjay Zifanwe: they are not offered just as units on their own
[09:00] Jayjay Zifanwe: the enrolled students while taking the normal courses
[09:00] Jayjay Zifanwe: have these sl units as well
[09:00] Jayjay Zifanwe: as part of thir degree programme
[09:00] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): nice
[09:00] Panny Bakerly: Do the students like sl?
[09:00] Jayjay Zifanwe: they find it interesting
[09:00] Red (talkwithmarie): wonderfu;
[09:01] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): lets let Jay Jay give some background before hitting him up with questions
[09:01] Jayjay Zifanwe: but as with courses.... id say 85% focus on it during the running of the unit
[09:01] Panny Bakerly: sorry
[09:01] Jayjay Zifanwe: and after that they have other units in following semesters
[09:01] Jayjay Zifanwe: so the load overall on students is high
[09:02] Jayjay Zifanwe: what next rik?
[09:02] OnlyMeMe: what aspects of SL do they find interesting?
[09:02] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): So what let from that to the art competitions you alls sponsor?
[09:02] Jayjay Zifanwe: well
[09:02] Jayjay Zifanwe: 2 days before we launched the uwa presence to an rl audience at the Uni
[09:02] Jayjay Zifanwe: the director of the cultural precinct at UWA
[09:03] Jayjay Zifanwe: who is also the chairman of visual arts in australia,
[09:03] Jayjay Zifanwe: professor ted snell
[09:03] Jayjay Zifanwe: asked me what i could do for art
[09:03] Jayjay Zifanwe: if he gave me $1,000
[09:03] Jayjay Zifanwe: and i told him without hesitating and knowing 0% about art
[09:03] Jayjay Zifanwe: that i could run a year long art challenge
[09:03] Jayjay Zifanwe: now anyone with experience
[09:03] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): nice
[09:03] Jayjay Zifanwe: in sl
[09:03] Gentle Heron: Gentle Heron smiles.
[09:04] Jayjay Zifanwe: knows that is an absolutely crazy'response
[09:04] Jayjay Zifanwe: lol
[09:04] Jayjay Zifanwe: but through serendipity
[09:04] Buffy Beale: wow, great going to jump in there!
[09:04] Secret Rage: :)
[09:04] Jayjay Zifanwe: i met good people who knew about art who helped me
[09:04] LaPiscean Liberty: crazy like a fox :)
[09:04] Jayjay Zifanwe: like quadrapop Lane
[09:04] Jayjay Zifanwe: and like FreeeWee Ling
[09:04] Jayjay Zifanwe: who is sitting here today and is the current curator of art at UWA
[09:04] Secret Rage: cudos to both :)
[09:05] FreeWee Ling: (We just published some statistics about the last year in the art challenges. I have to run, but you can see the numbers here : http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/2011/11/fax-n-figgers.html
[09:05] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): oh yeah saw those, super interesting!
[09:05] FreeWee Ling: I think you'll be impressed :)
[09:05] Jayjay Zifanwe: ys. 850 + artworks across the year
[09:05] Jayjay Zifanwe: and now we have reached the grand finale
[09:05] Jayjay Zifanwe: all of you can participate and vote
[09:06] Zazoom Zimminy: Zazoom Zimminy whispers Kyle Reis, Grants Managers Network, NYC
[09:06] Jayjay Zifanwe: and anyone who votes for the grand finale could win L$5,000
[09:06] Jayjay Zifanwe: the overall winner for the art
[09:06] Jayjay Zifanwe: will win L$100,000
[09:06] Buffy Beale: that's amazingly wonderful!
[09:06] OnlyMeMe: how have the competitions benefited the University?
[09:07] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): So let's talk about that for a bit
[09:07] Jayjay Zifanwe: its not about benefiting the uni
[09:07] OnlyMeMe: in terms of financially and the Unviersity Mission statement?
[09:07] Jayjay Zifanwe: uwa is committed in a general sense
[09:07] Jayjay Zifanwe: to promoting arts
[09:07] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): What have you learned about SL from running these competitions?
[09:07] Jayjay Zifanwe: and what we have been able to do
[09:07] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): FreeWing, feel free to chime in
[09:07] Jayjay Zifanwe: is exactly in line with the philosophy of the uni
[09:07] OnlyMeMe: so, the Unviersity Mission statement probably says something about commitment to general intellectual endeavors, and this is how the program fits in?
[09:08] Jayjay Zifanwe: to Rik' question. we have learned that SL is an amazing place for collaboration
[09:08] Nany (nany.kayo): Jayjay, will new artworks be accepted into the competion or is this to judge artworks that have already been submitted?
[09:08] Jayjay Zifanwe: yes onlymeme, UWA has a commitent to promote and foster the arts in all forms
[09:08] Jayjay Zifanwe: curretly the grand finale round is running
[09:08] Jayjay Zifanwe: http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/2011/10/grand-finale-uwa-3d-open-art-challenge.html
[09:08] Jayjay Zifanwe: info is there
[09:09] Jayjay Zifanwe: it is a shortlist of the winners from every month
[09:09] Jayjay Zifanwe: so the current round is set in terms of artworks
[09:09] FreeWee Ling: I'm not involved with the university other than being a hired curator. JJ will have to address the benefits to UWA. But I can say that it has had a tremendous impact on getting people to take creative work in virtual worlds more seriously.
[09:09] OnlyMeMe: how does the competition benefit the individual entrants?
[09:09] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): nice freewing
[09:09] Jayjay Zifanwe: well in many ways
[09:09] OnlyMeMe: like, the artists who submit?
[09:10] Jayjay Zifanwe: many new artists who had never shown art before
[09:10] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): OnlyMeMe, hold off the questions for a bit till the end please
[09:10] Jayjay Zifanwe: started their 'art career' so to speak through the uwa challenges
[09:10] Jayjay Zifanwe: many have won lots of prizes
[09:10] OnlyMeMe: ok I will do that thank you for letting me know
[09:10] Jayjay Zifanwe: many are covered in the blogs and other places
[09:10] Jayjay Zifanwe: ok i'll wait for rik
[09:10] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): JayJay, we're here as nonprofit organizers and professionals and volunteers
[09:11] Jayjay Zifanwe: yes
[09:11] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): What can you tell us about how we might do similar type competitions for ourselves that we might not know?
[09:11] FreeWee Ling: The exposure is tremendous. The quality of work there is inspiring and artists feel it a privilege to be seen among the top artists in SL. It's an open competition so anyone could enter.
[09:11] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): how long does it take? who do you bring aboard? how do yo umanage it?
[09:11] Jayjay Zifanwe: oh are you planning to?
[09:11] Jayjay Zifanwe: it takes a lot of time, love and dedication
[09:12] Jayjay Zifanwe: it can be run by 3 people
[09:12] Jayjay Zifanwe: if the 3 are committed
[09:12] Jayjay Zifanwe: and willing to give of themsel;ves
[09:12] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): 3 people minimum
[09:12] Jayjay Zifanwe: thats what people like freewee have done
[09:12] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): that's good to know!
[09:12] Jayjay Zifanwe: well in general, i have run it with 2
[09:12] Jayjay Zifanwe: but its not easy
[09:12] Jayjay Zifanwe: who you bring aboard
[09:12] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): how much lead time do you need to organize it well?
[09:12] Jayjay Zifanwe: is something that
[09:13] Jayjay Zifanwe: you know through gut feeling only'
[09:13] Jayjay Zifanwe: lead time well
[09:13] Jayjay Zifanwe: i started the first 'year long' challenge
[09:13] Jayjay Zifanwe: with 2 days notice
[09:13] FreeWee Ling: lol. lead time..
[09:13] Secret Rage: :)
[09:13] Jayjay Zifanwe: lead time is
[09:13] Jayjay Zifanwe: hard to pin down
[09:13] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): I mean "ideally"
[09:13] Jayjay Zifanwe: the LEA
[09:13] FreeWee Ling: We mount a new show with roughly 70 entries every month.
[09:13] Jayjay Zifanwe: took a lead time of 1 year
[09:13] Jayjay Zifanwe: to get things going
[09:14] Jayjay Zifanwe: and i am part of the lea
[09:14] Nany (nany.kayo): I didn't know anything about the competition until now. Where was it announced?
[09:14] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): well we all know that isn't going to happen for most of our groups!
[09:14] Jayjay Zifanwe: id say its hard to run things proper
[09:14] Jayjay Zifanwe: if things are run by committee
[09:14] Jayjay Zifanwe: the leader needs to have vision, and be able to do things with almost a free hand
[09:14] Jayjay Zifanwe: and the hand that the leader uses must be tempered with patience
[09:15] LaPiscean Liberty: Amen
[09:15] Secret Rage: how well put
[09:15] eif (eifachfilm.vacirca): lol
[09:15] Jayjay Zifanwe: Nany it was and has been announced in every art group
[09:15] Gentle Heron: 100% correct
[09:15] Nany (nany.kayo): Thanks, Jayjay. Must have missed it.
[09:15] Brena Benoir: We need to emblazon that in to our grounds here.
[09:15] Jayjay Zifanwe: i've sent the NC to nany
[09:15] Jayjay Zifanwe: nany pls give to anyone else who wants
[09:16] Nany (nany.kayo): The competition itself is what I missed. I am a gallery owner who is mentoring an artist in SL
[09:16] Nany (nany.kayo): Looking for competitions exactly like this one
[09:16] Nany (nany.kayo): next time I hope : )
[09:16] FreeWee Ling: I have to run. Anyone with questions about the art program at UWA can IM me or JAyJay.
[09:16] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Outreach is always hard in SL, since there are so many disparate communities
[09:17] Jayjay Zifanwe: yes
[09:17] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): thanks for ocming FreeWing
[09:17] Jayjay Zifanwe: so the other focus
[09:17] Jayjay Zifanwe: has been media
[09:17] FreeWee Ling: FreeWee :)
[09:17] FreeWee Ling: By
[09:17] Secret Rage: bye Free
[09:17] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): lol, right sorry!
[09:17] Jayjay Zifanwe: if one looks at the webste for the grand finale
[09:17] Jayjay Zifanwe: and the list of judges
[09:18] Jayjay Zifanwe: you will see many from sl tv and news sites
[09:18] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): I think competitions are one of the best ways to create energy about your institution and cause
[09:18] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): We've done a few here, but probably need to learn how to do them better
[09:18] Jayjay Zifanwe: cool
[09:19] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Perhaps we could do a cause-based art competition in conjunction with UWA?
[09:19] OnlyMeMe: what percentage of regular SL players are artists?
[09:19] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): we might help put some money on the table
[09:19] OnlyMeMe: why focus on art competitions?
[09:19] Jayjay Zifanwe: sounds like a good idea
[09:19] Jayjay Zifanwe: no
[09:19] Jayjay Zifanwe: not only art
[09:19] Jayjay Zifanwe: we have a machinima challenge running now as well
[09:19] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): could be machinima
[09:19] Jayjay Zifanwe: we have research and teaching
[09:19] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): or photography
[09:19] Jayjay Zifanwe: as well as architecture
[09:20] OnlyMeMe: what percentage of SL players are content creators?
[09:20] Jayjay Zifanwe: with photography
[09:20] Jayjay Zifanwe: we managed to get 2 sl photos into an RL only calendar
[09:20] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): OnlyMeMe that's a hard question!
[09:20] Jayjay Zifanwe: first time it happened
[09:20] Jen (jenelle.levenque): I think almost everyone creates at least some in SL
[09:20] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): not even sure how to get that stat. but SL makes it easy for anyone to create.
[09:20] Secret Rage: not all though by any means...some never do
[09:20] LaPiscean Liberty: Every Avatar is a realtime camera person and all Avatars are builders, if not by object , then by relationship and social creatiobn. :)
[09:21] Jayjay Zifanwe: well said Lap
[09:21] Secret Rage: true LaP
[09:21] OnlyMeMe: do you think the economy in Australia has influenced your organization?
[09:21] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): well lets open it up for questions for the next few minutes.
[09:21] Jayjay Zifanwe: no the economy has had no impact
[09:22] OnlyMeMe: do you think that the projects in SL would continue even if somethign happened like a massive hard hitting recession?
[09:22] OnlyMeMe: or the Australian job market collapsed?
[09:22] Jayjay Zifanwe: well i have enough to guarantee the uwa position in sl till the end of 2012
[09:22] Jayjay Zifanwe: right now
[09:22] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): OnlyMeMe, maybe we could let some others get in some questions too? Thanks.
[09:22] Jayjay Zifanwe: the only thing that will change the uwa activities
[09:23] Buffy Beale: Question: are you looking at any other virtual worlds to use?
[09:23] Jayjay Zifanwe: is if the main driving forces leave
[09:23] Jayjay Zifanwe: or dont wake up tomorrow
[09:23] Secret Rage: smiles
[09:23] Jayjay Zifanwe: pathfinder linden
[09:23] Jayjay Zifanwe: contacted me yesterday
[09:23] Jayjay Zifanwe: to investigate another virtual world
[09:23] Jayjay Zifanwe: but in general
[09:23] Jayjay Zifanwe: we are in sl
[09:23] Jayjay Zifanwe: if we go to another it will be lock stock and barrel
[09:23] Jayjay Zifanwe: but right now
[09:24] Jayjay Zifanwe: we have a good edu group in sl
[09:24] Jayjay Zifanwe: and we are part of the australian virtual worlds working group
[09:24] Jayjay Zifanwe: AVWWG
[09:24] Jayjay Zifanwe: quite a number of journal papers etc published
[09:24] Buffy Beale: thanks Jayjay
[09:25] Jayjay Zifanwe: :)
[09:25] Buffy Beale: the nice thing about your contest is seeing all the creativity in one place, from so many different artists and builders
[09:25] Buffy Beale: such talent in SL for sure
[09:25] Jayjay Zifanwe: yes its amazng to get all the locations of all the artists
[09:26] Jayjay Zifanwe: i normally say when making the monthly winners announcements
[09:26] Jayjay Zifanwe: that we have artists from 6 of the 7 continents in the world
[09:26] Jayjay Zifanwe: we only missed out on antarctica
[09:26] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): haha
[09:26] Panny Bakerly: truly global
[09:26] Buffy Beale: truly amazing that is, to connect them too
[09:26] Buffy Beale: yes
[09:26] LaPiscean Liberty: Truely a world renown gallery then :))
[09:26] Secret Rage: :D
[09:26] Buffy Beale: yes LaPiscean!
[09:26] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): JayJay, FreeWee was talking about how the art competition made people outside of SL take notice. Can you say a bit more about how that happened?
[09:27] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Did you have real world events to show the artwork? Or just on the web?
[09:27] Jayjay Zifanwe: we did have RL exhibits
[09:27] Jayjay Zifanwe: 'in fact
[09:27] Jayjay Zifanwe: the former ceo of linden labs
[09:27] Jayjay Zifanwe: M Linden
[09:27] Jayjay Zifanwe: sent to me his RL artworks
[09:28] Jayjay Zifanwe: and we had an RL exhibit of his works at UWA
[09:28] Jayjay Zifanwe: along with an sl exhbit of his works in the sl presence simultaneously
[09:28] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): wow that's cool
[09:28] Jayjay Zifanwe: outside of SL
[09:28] Panny Bakerly: neat
[09:28] Buffy Beale: nice one!
[09:28] Jayjay Zifanwe: people took notice because of the machinima competitions
[09:28] LaPiscean Liberty: Shanghai World expo with machinima
[09:29] Jayjay Zifanwe: we had a competition where the goal was to film the artwork and create stories etc with the artwork they saw
[09:29] Buffy Beale: ooo Draxtor will be happy to hear that
[09:29] Secret Rage: :)
[09:29] OnlyMeMe: an idea might be to integrate the two, even compare an artists RL work side by side to the digital
[09:29] Jayjay Zifanwe: this greatly helped in getting the message out to people who did not have experience with sl
[09:29] Jayjay Zifanwe: and could see it on youtube first
[09:29] OnlyMeMe: so that people can look and notice the differences and similarities
[09:29] Jayjay Zifanwe: yes we had that too
[09:29] Jayjay Zifanwe: students from york university
[09:29] Jayjay Zifanwe: in canada
[09:29] Jayjay Zifanwe: have visited the uwa art gallery
[09:30] Jayjay Zifanwe: and their teacher gave them the task of selecting one artwork in sl
[09:30] Jayjay Zifanwe: and writing about it in comparison to an artwork they selected from rl from the 1970's
[09:30] Jayjay Zifanwe: we have news about that here http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/2011/10/york-university-course-uwa-challenge.html
[09:31] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): fascinating
[09:31] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Okay we are at about our time with Jay Jay
[09:31] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): feel free to ping him directly for more info
[09:31] Jayjay Zifanwe: thanks all
[09:31] Jayjay Zifanwe: been a pleasure
[09:31] Jayjay Zifanwe: do remember to go to uwa in the month of november
[09:31] Panny Bakerly: thankyou!
[09:31] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): How do people get a hold of you and stay in touch?
[09:31] Buffy Beale: great to have you come to speak with us Jayjay thanks!
[09:31] Jayjay Zifanwe: and vote for the artworks in the grand finale
[09:31] Red (talkwithmarie): awesome work!
[09:31] Jayjay Zifanwe: one voter will win L$5k just for voting
[09:32] Jayjay Zifanwe: just friend me ot join the uwa 3d art & design challenge group
[09:32] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Its great seeing how one individual can run with an idea and make it so global!
[09:32] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): that's very inspiring
[09:32] Buffy Beale: a good idea to encourage people to vote, well done
[09:32] Secret Rage:  clap, clap, clap!!
[09:32] Jayjay Zifanwe: this group secondlife:///app/group/cad9c421-8b96-f9c1-fb40-dade48c43fe4/about
[09:32] Jayjay Zifanwe: thanks again everyone
[09:32] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): as always, we publish these chatlogs to our listserv
[09:32] Buffy Beale: cheering!
[09:33] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Great stuff.