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Rik Panganiban's Click Heard Round the World (10 unread)

July 04, 2008
9:55
Celebrate Your Freedom, Americans!
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Happy Independence Day, fellow Americans! Hurray for freedom, democracy, and fries!
July 03, 2008
9:38
I'm not getting older, I'm getting bad ass-er
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It's my mutha&%$*ing 39th birthday, folks!

In between coordinating a virtual fossil dig and heading to Cali for a family wedding, I haven't had any time to plan anything for my birthday, unfortunately. I'm hoping to rally the troops for some dance outing next weekend, though.

Meanwhile, here's some reasons why I'm not getting older, I'm just getting bad ass-er:
- I'm a lindy hopper -- BAD ASS
- I'm a b-boy -- BAD ASS
- I work and play in virtual reality -- BAD ASS
- I live in Brooklyn -- BAD ASS
- I help run the most amazing swing dance website in the world -- BAD ASS
Seriously, I feel so grateful for being given another year of a wonderful, rich life, and looking forward to what's to come.

[Photo Credit: Cliff Weissman]
July 02, 2008
22:29
Chicago and NY teens complete virtual fossil dig in Second Life today
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The I Dig Tanzania summer camp participants finished the virtual portion of their program today. Here's a picture of our New York IDT participants posing with Mark Kingdon, the CEO of Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life.

A dedicated group of 16 teens in Chicago and New York completed a week-long set of activities in Second Life, learning about paleontology, evolution, careers in science, Tanzanian culture and arts, and geography. Along the way, they also gained a number of valuable technical skills in Second Life, from virtual building to customizing their avatar to photography. It's been a heady and wild ride for all of us involved at Global Kids, the Field Museum in Chicago, and the researchers in Tanzania working together!

Here's a quick recap of the last day of the program, which started with hip hop and ended with virtual dancing...
The day began with -- surprise -- Second Life being down for maintenance. Shawna, Dominique, myself and our counterparts at the Field Museum in Chicago quickly devised a back-up lesson that didn't require Second Life. It involved giving the teens sets of questions to answer about Tanzanian culture and letting them view various YouTube videos to learn more. Once Second Life came back up later in the morning, we had the teens meet in their teams and collaborate on their answers before blogging about it later.

Then we got a real treat as a Tanzanian hip-hop artist came by named Eric. He explained various aspects of Tanzanian and Maasai culture that might have been confusing for the kids, such as the role of hip-hop in Africa versus hip-hop in America. Then he played a djemba drum provided by Dominique, then led us in a call-and-response song. It was so sweet.

We took a lunch break and then came back to talk again with the researchers in Tanzania, who at this point had returned from the field and were in Dar Es Salaam preparing their fossils to be shipped back to the States. I'm afraid that the satellite phone connection was so bad that the kids didn't get much out of this conversation. It's some solace to know that they will get to meet in person several of the research team when they all go to the Field Museum at the end of July.

The final, quite difficult task we assigned to the teens drew upon all their skills as builders, writers, photographers, online researchers, and collaborators. The task was to pull together all of the information that they had gathered at this point about their virtual fossil and present it as a museum exhibit with a diorama, a notecard of information, and a poster explaining their research process. The result was very impressive, showing how much they had learned and how well they worked together.

This is a picture of the virtual exhibit created by one team that really looks like it could be in a museum, complete with benches to sit on in front.

To work on their presentations skills, we had each team elect someone to speak on the team's behalf about their exhibit and what they had learned in the process. It was great hearing their voices, since for the entire program we had restricted them to just using text chat.

Finally, after the final exhibit was presented, it was time to party! We brought all of the teens to a picturesque pond area, where they had been fishing a couple of days ago, and set out a dance floor with pre-set dance animations. I threw on some African music, Barry handed out glow sticks, people set the environment to midnight, and the dance party was on!

To close the program, we brought everyone back to the campfire, took a group picture, and said our thank yous and "see you laters" to all the participants. Several of our New York teens seemed genuinely disappointed that they wouldn't be in Second Life after today, which was surprising to me given all the difficulties and frustrations they had encountered over the past five days. But I guess they were having a much better time than I had originally thought.

Here's a picture of most of our teens assembled together in Second Life in front of the virtual exhibits that they created together. Everyone really rose to the occasion, from my fellow GK staffers Dominique, Shawna and Joyce, to our SL builder Midnight Sun / Amulius Lioncourt, our counterparts in the Field Museum Johanna, Andy, Krystal, Katie, Audrey and Elizabeth, the Tanzanian research team Ken, Bill, Christian, Seb, Linda and Roger, and our 16 teens from Chicago and New York who all did amazing work.

Now off for some much needed rest before the long weekend! Whew!
June 30, 2008
22:27
I Dig Tanzania Day Two: fossil digging, synapsids, and fishing fun!
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Today was the second day of the " I Dig Tanzania" intensive summer camp that Global Kids is running with the Field Museum in Chicago. Today our intrepid groups of 16 teens in New York and Chi-town had a number of challenging tasks that we set out for them to make progress on their virtual fossil dig. You can read their own impressions of the day from their blog posts on Holymeatballs.org.

Here's my quick recap of the highlights...

The day began with more singing and language practice in Swahili, which the kids seemed to like. Dominique did a great job of getting everyone pumped for the day. Or maybe it was the fresh fruit and baguettes that he brought for everyone.

The most exciting part of the day was the actual fossil digging. To accomplish this, we had expert builder Amulius Lioncourt (aka Midnight Sun on the Teen Grid) create a fairly complicated set of tools for unearthing the fossils that the teens had to wear on their avatars to get to the fossils. Not only did the teens have to work together to cover the large area of their dig sites, they had to figure out the proper order of tools to use to not damage the fossils.

After finding a set of fossils, the teens got another chance to interact with the team of real life fossil hunters finishing their dig in Tanzania (hence the name.) The kids asked a number of really great questions, from how the scientists chose their tools to how many pieces of fossil do they need to find to identify a particular animal. After collecting a large set of questions, I talked to several of the researchers over Skype, which we streamed into Second Life so the teens could listen in.

Then the teens returned to the task of preparing the virtual fossils that they found. To do this, we showed them a video of how fossils are "stabilized" by paleontologists with a glue-like solution so that they can be transported safely.

Then the teens had to mix their own stabilizing solution using several possible ingredients set out on a work table. If they chose the right combination of ingredients, they were given a brush to treat their virtual fossils.

This is probably sounding pretty complicated at this point, but the kids really seemed to enjoy the tasks. And they were rewarded with shiny white "stabilized" fossils instead of the dingey brown ones that they had unearthed.

One of the toughest tasks of the day was learning how scientists classify the various forms of life using phylogenic charts -- maps of the evolutionary path of various creatures. The teens had to learn what a "synapsid" class of animal is, and create a sign describing a particular synapsid. Although this was quite a challenge for a number of our teens, they worked very hard on their task and produced some neat signs.

To close the day, we did a fun fishing exercise to teach them about Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa that borders Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The kids got to pick up virtual fishing rods and "go fish" in a lake that Amulius set up for them. Various kinds of fish, from tilapia to pike to Nile perch were caught by the teens in various quantities, to show how certain species have come to dominate the lake due to the introduction of non-indigenous species.

Such a rich and amazing day! Big kudos to my colleagues Shawna and Dominique for being such great educators -- particularly Shawna who soldiered through today despite having a nasty cold. And the Field Museum staff Johanna, Krystal, Kate, Andy and the rest were awesome today. And thanks to the Global Kids staff for being supportive and understanding as we took over the entire kitchen area of the office today.

Only two more days of camp left!
June 29, 2008
23:34
Global Kids and Field Museum launch innovative "virtual fossil dig" for teens in New York and Chicago
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Here's some video from the launch of the "I Dig Tanzania" intensive summer camp that I am helping facilite for the next few days.

Yesterday the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and Global Kids launched an intensive summer camp for a group of teens in New York and Chicago that we call "I Dig Tanzania." Sixteen teens volunteered to participate in this ground-breaking initiative that uses the virtual world of Second Life to educate them about Tanzanian culture and politics, scientific research and methodology.

My co-workers Shawna, Dominique and I ran the program from New York, working closely with several educators in Chicago. It's been a really fun collaboration, even done mostly over the telephone and virtually.

The challenges of managing a project of this scale are myriad. For the camp we need ten computers in New York and another dozen computers in Chicago all connected to Second Life, which given the bandwidth and computing requirements of SL is a tall order. On both sites, we set up large projectors to show video, which was streamed in-world instead of simply pre-loaded. Most interestingly, we are connecting the students with a team of field researchers searching for fossils in Tanzania right now, which involves receiving recorded video from the dig sites as well as coordinating a daily Skype conversation with the team that is then streamed into the Teen Grid of Second Life. Whew!

We've got three more days of virtual fossil hunting to go! Then in late July we pack our New York teens into a plane and take them to Chicago to meet their counterparts in person for the first time, as well as several of the researchers who will have returned from Tanzania by that time.
13:11
Effervescent and Sarah's wedding dance!
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Last night I got to celebrate the marriage of one of my dearest friends and fellow Yehoodi administrator Effervescent and his new bride Sarah Chu at SPQR in Little Italy. Here's the newlyweds enjoying their silly and sweet wedding dance.

After a busy day at work, it was wonderful to be among friends old and new, enjoy the fun swing music, drink and dine, and just feel the love in the room. Mazeltov, Eff and Sarah!
June 27, 2008
20:05
Brooklyn Bombshells take 3rd place Marching Group prize at 2008 Mermaid Parade!
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I'm proud to report that the Brooklyn Bombshell Revue took third place in the Marching Group division at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade this year! The competition was fierce this year, with amazing entrants all around. So that's quite a feather in our cap.

Congrats to all the winners, and all those that brought the mermaid luv! Click here for the full results from the Mermaid Parade. See footage of our award-winner performance here.
June 25, 2008
18:50
REMINDER: 5 Finalists in USC Public Good & SL Challenge need your votes by June 30!
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Just a quick reminder that the deadline to vote for the five finalists in the USC Network Culture Project's "Second Life and Public Good Community Challenge" is next Monday, June 30! The finalists are:
- Ability Commons: Proposers Gentle Heron and Carolina Yeats
- Mauerkrankheit: Proposers Ping Rau and Nonny Writer
- Native Lands Cultural Project: Proposer Boondoggle Gruppman
- Texas Obesity Research Center: Proposer Sirena Felisimo
- Interactive Accessible Home: Proposer Kathee Gibbs
For those that don't know, the larger SL community will help pick three winners out of the five, each of whom will receive L$300,000 to develop their project. Click the links to read about each proposal, and then head to this survey to pick your favorites. The winners will be announced on July 1.

Head to the Network Culture Project website for more info.
18:27
Yehoodi Talk Show #511: The Mermaid Parade, swingin in Denmark and Russia!
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The ~~mid-~~ late June episode of the Yehoodi Talk Show is finally available. Spuds talks about his recent trips to Copenhagen and St Petersburg while I blather on about the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. Plus we update folks on Frankie Manning's recent hip surgery.

All that and more silliness on this week's Yehoodi Talk Show. Check out all the fun here or go here to subscribe via iTunes.
June 24, 2008
10:39
Video: Rik on Metanomics Show yesterday
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For those interested in seeing me speak on the USC Public Good in SL Community Challenge yesterday on the Metanomics Talk Show in Second Life, SLCN.tv has released a quicktime video of the entire show. It's kind of a long download, so I recommend cueing it up and fast-forwarding to around the half-way point to cut to the chase.

The rest of the show is really interesting as well, touching in intellectual property issues in virtual worlds, hacker and gamer culture, and a review of the new Age of Conan MMORPG. Check out the entire show here.

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Rik Panganiban's Click Heard Round the World (10 unread)