Rockcliffe University welcomes you to our 6th Open House Event as we continue into our 7th year of education in Virtual Worlds. Please join us and meet some of our wonderful faculty members who will present and then follow with question and answer sessions.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20Library/243/12/29

10:00 AM: Open House Keynote Address with Phelan Corrimal (Kevin Feenan), CEO of Rockcliffe University

Phelan Corrimal will open this event with a brief overview of Rockcliffe’s past and future and will share his view of the state of education in virtual worlds.  Phelan’s insights always provide fertile ground for thought and discussion so please come to hear his views on where we are going and what to expect from Rockcliffe in the years to come.

11:00 AM: Virtual Philosophy with Pamala Clift

Pamala Clift is the host of “The Roadside Philosophers”, a group that she started in 2007 and the author of the book “The Roadside Philospher – A Novel, Maybe?”

We enter a virtual world and are suddenly thrown into a global community with vast cultural differences and expectations. Any entrance into a computer-mediated environment creates its own culture, expectations and philosophy. Topping that off with individual engagement levels (dissociative, immersive and augmentative) and the pot of emotions and conflicting perceptions can boil over.

Is there a ‘Right and Wrong’? Are we able to engage at each other’s level to observe and engage without pain? For over five years, The ‘Roadside Philosophers’ has been engaged in learning about global and virtual philosophy, and is still exploring its vast complexity.  The key is letting go of control comfortably.

11:30 AM: The One Big Soup Project with Muze Ackland

We help advance cultural understanding using 3D web technology. Via education, we can bring balance into virtual worlds with mutual cultural respect. Balance restores harmony in ecology, economics, political power, spirituality … and extends to the physical world.

Just as in nature, if one seemingly insignificant element is missing, it can adversely affect an entire ecosystem.

Each culture has something to add to this ‘One Big Soup’ which we call the world. This project is building a diversity network/explorers game which celebrates these cultures through music, art, architecture, cuisine, fashion, legends, history and language.

12:00 – 1:00 PM: Break

1:00 PM: How to Publicize Your Blog with Thinkerer Melville (Selby Evans)

Thinkerer has taught courses in psychological measurement, computer applications and systematic problem-solving. He has conducted research in pattern recognition and cognitive systems, and operated a consulting business for 25 years.

Are you writing a blog? Is there something important to you that you want to tell the world and are you publicizing it?

This presentation will help you learn how to get your story out, how to organize your thoughts and how to collaboratively blog on different social media venues.

http://virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com/

1:30PM: Project Management with AgileBill Firehawk (Willam Krebs)

Join AgileBill on for this session of the Rockcliffe Open House where we discuss a variety of virtual world platforms.  What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?  When would you want to use each?  Should a team just use one?  Come follow our steps and we show scenes from many worlds including OpenSim, VenueGen, avayalive engage, 3D-VirtualEvents, Jibe, Sococo, and Terf.

AgileDimensions: http://www.agiledimensions.com/blog/about/bio-agilebill-krebs/

2:00PM: Behind the Scenes of Rockcliffe University with Phelan and Dirk McKeenan

From simple beginnings in 2006 to sprawling virtual campuses in 2012, Rockcliffe University has been growing and expanding its borders.  Come learn about how Rockcliffe’s partnerships have been forged through the years with organizations and our wonderful faculty.  We will also discuss our courses and classes that have been developed as well as our current and future projects.

3:00PM: Virtual Library with Mel Krupinski

Mel is a law librarian who was introduced to Second Life by the dean of her law school in 2006. She helped build Cybrary City 2, Second Lifes’s first law library. She has now made the Rockcliffe Library into one of the largest and longest sustained research libraries in virtual worlds.

Mel continually updates our twelve-room library with current information about Second Life and first life resources with a huge wealth of information concerning business, marketing, law, the sciences, education.

The Rockcliffe Library maintains links to large freely accessible scholarly research databases and focuses on the idea of open source and open access to sources of information.

The Rockcliffe Open House on Oct. 27, 2012 also takes place during Open Access Week (Oct. 22-28, 2012) celebrated everywhere, including Second Life. After my presentation, we will be doing a tour of the library.

4:00PM: Closing Thoughts with Plelan, Founder of Rockcliffe

We will close this 6th Rockcliffe University Open House with with some positive thoughts about the future of education in virtual worlds.

Topic: Invent and Prioritize with Innovation Games®

AgileBill is a certified Innovation Games® facilitator.

Wednedsday Dec 21, 2011

5:30PM Pacific, 8:30PM Eastern, 12:30pm Thursday in Sydney
At the Agile Business Park in Spoton3d
http://bit.ly/agile3dbizpark11a

Note: Window users can also login to SpotOn3D with Facebook
http://on.fb.me/agile3dfb11a

We will take a field trip away from Second Life and into the Agile Business Park. This offering uses the same OpenSim base, but on a different ‘Grid’. It also can be run from the comfort of your browser.

Innovation Games® by Enthiosys is a set of business analysis tools used to prioritize and define requirements. It’s a structured set of techniques to overcome ‘writer’s block’.

This will not be a lecture. Some of you will bring a product to define, or set of requirements to prioritize, and will will work on it together.

Since some of you are new to virtual environments or the bizgrid, Agilebill has pre-made some avatars. Skype AgileBill4d for login info, or with other questions.

AgileBill will be there 30 minutes early to help you get setup. Come in early to allow time to install the plugin and get your bearings. He will be online in Spot3d as AgileBill4d Firehawk (send him a friend request and he will bring you to the the Agile3d island.

When you get into SpotOn3d You can search for (his Avatar) AgileBill4d Firehawk. Send him a friend request and I’ll bring you to the Agile3d island.

This week, Kevin Feenan welcomes guests Bernhard Drax (aka Draxtor Despres) and Daniel Moshel, director of Login2Life.

Simultaneous Live broadcast at http://metaversetv.com/live/
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20Library/243/12/32

About the film Login2Life:

Login 2 Life portrays people who have found an alternate home in an online world. This is the starting point of a journey into fascinating virtual realities, meeting diverse human beings in different parts of the world who have one thing in common – they are savvy in using virtual worlds as an extension of their real lives. The film premiered on German ZDF October 17th before heading onto the international festival circuit.

About Bernard Drax

Bernhard Drax (aka @Draxtor) writes music for TV, commercials and feature films.

In the virtual world “Second Life” Bernhard regularly files machinima reportages on social and political issues. His story on virtual Guantanamo won the 2008 Human Rights Media Awards from ‘Internews’ in France.

His series on “Public Good in Virtual Worlds”, co-produced with the Network Culture Project at USC has been used in many classrooms to illustrate the possibilities of immersive 3D platforms.

As news director at NPR member station KAZU in Pacific Grove, California – from 2002 to 2004 and as consultant from 2004 to 2006. Bernhard was instrumental in transforming the local news operation by producing high quality local content as well as training reporters and technical staff. A champion of non-commercial radio news and culture, Bernhard still develops formats for public radio and TV, in the US and abroad.

Sponsored by the US Department of State, Bernhard also finished up a video series showcasing the use of virtual worlds in public diplomacy, focusing on the 6-month collaboration between architecture students from Cairo and USC in Los Angeles.

More info about BD at http://www.draxtor.com

A playlist with machinima focusing on educational use of virtual worlds: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=C505E316DB51834A

About Daniel Moshel:

Daniel Moshel is a gamer and an award-winning director. He was inspired to make this documentary by his personal experience. But this is about more than just gaming – this is about a new lifestyle, necessary for some, fun for most.

Bits and pieces of digital life, glimpses linked within a larger network, a personal view of what drives the people behind the screen to live, love and do business in a virtual world.

Facebook: http://facebook.com/urockcliffe
Twitter: http://twitter.com/urockcliffe

This week, Kevin Feenan and our guest Terry Beaubois (aka Tab Scott) will discuss the challenges of architecting the future and its potential for effecting social dissonance.

Simultaneous live broadcast at http://metaversetv.com/live/
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20Library/243/12/32

Frank Lloyd Wright was once quoted as saying “A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his client to plant vines”. If God is truly in the details, as suggested by Ludwig Mies, then the next generation of avatars involved with virtual business, government, and education are going to have their work cut out for them. The balancing act between architecting the future, while at the same time having a wide variety of ‘horticultural tools’ to draw the eye away from a lack of attention to detail, has the potential to lead to social dissonance.

About Terry Beaubois

Terry (aka Tab Scott) is the Director of the Creative Research Lab in the College of Arts & Architecture, at Montana State University

Terry Beaubois (SL: Tab Scott) is an architect with over 35 years of professional practice. He is also a University teacher and researcher. Starting out in Second life in 2005, Terry designed a “Digital Collaboration for Architects” class in the College of Arts & Architecture at Montana State University. The success of the class gained international notoriety when Popular Science magazine wrote “…..a version of Beaubois’ classroom could become the standard for distance learning.” (Sept, 2006).

Recently, Terry has demonstrated a new After School Partnership technology for use by MSU Dept. of Education and Montana K-12 schools, for Homework help, Math-Science, Mentoring, and Book Clubs. One part of the demo featured an educator from the Northern Cheyenne Tribal area in Montana talking to pre-service teacher instructors at MSU-Bozeman.

Learn more about the REHAU-Montana ecoSMART House Project: http://montanaecosmart.com/

His Creative Research Lab was selected by the Montana Governor’s office as the lead agency for statewide education grants. Terry is a Montana Ambassador representing “Business-Government-Education” efforts in the state. He is also a member of The Triple Helix Association, an international organization headquartered in Turin, Italy, which promotes the study of the interactions between the academic, industrial and institutional (governmental) systems as means to foster technological innovation and economic growth.

On October 27, 2011, Terry will be appearing in SL at the in-world Second Life event called “Virtual Learning or Learning in Virtual?” – an international midnight-to-noon
conference exploring the promises and pitfalls of virtual space in the context of learning and education. Tab Scott will be conducting a workshop and be on a panel at the conference. Conference hosts are: Kim Holmberg, Isto Huvila and Olle Sköld and the host institution is Department of Information Studies, School of Business and Economics, Åbo Akademi University, ÅBO, Finland.

Upcoming Show

October 19: Draxtor Despres (Bernard Drax) and Daniel Moshel will speak about the movie Login2Life.