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World of Warcraft as leadership incubator and education platform

December 28, 2010 by 1 Comment

Just a heads-up that I’ve written a small piece for the ABC Technology site on the use of MMOs in education and business. For the seasoned virtual worlds watcher there’s nothing earth-shattering in there, but it’s a useful overview for the newcomer or casual observer. Obviously these concepts don’t just apply to World of Warcraft (WoW), but as the behemoth in the arena it’s one of the better showcases.

I wrote recently on the lessons the latest WoW has for virtual worlds as well, if you’re interested.

For those of you out there playing through the new Cataclysm content, is there anything that’s really impressed you or frustrated you so far?

Filed Under: Business, Education, General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

2010 virtual worlds predictions review

December 21, 2010 by 5 Comments

It’s that time of the year again: looking back over the predictions made a year ago and seeing how right or wrong we were. We managed 7 out of 10 correct in 2009, so let’s see how it goes:

Prediction 1: OpenSim will continue or even improve on its growth trajectory – the momentum will continue, although a handful of larger grids are likely to have the lion’s share of that growth, with all the challenges that go along with it.

Pass – this has very much come to pass,and to some extent the growth challenges haven’t been major at this stage due to the number of grid options out there.

Prediction 2: Australia will have its first government funded virtual environment – a proposal is already underway to see this come to fruition. Education will be the focus, but the foresight of the proposal’s facilitators is likely to ensure it involves business, education and government in a collaborative partnership.

Fail – the proposal has stalled and although there’s a dedicated cohort of people still working at this, it certainly didn’t reach fruition during 2010.

Prediction 3: Closures – it’s not a desirable prediction to make, but unfortunately it’s also a fairly safe one. There’ll be company and/or platform failures. Some may be bought out, but like Metaplace in the past week, there’s going to be some outright shuttering of some environments. I have some specific ones in mind but don’t have the data to support naming them specifically as being on a ‘death watch’.

Pass – once touted as a Second Life competitor, There.com unfortunately closed its doors.

Prediction 4: Intellectual property disputes – The Eros vs Linden Lab action is likely to be resolved during 2010 and it will generate a large precedent in regards to virtual goods. Linden Lab will probably defend the action successfully, but the playing field will still have changed considerably.

Fail – the Eros case isn’t resolved as yet, so any precedents are far from established. Expect that to occur in the next few months though.

Prediction 5: Integration – Whether it be Second Life or Habbo Hotel, the level of integration between virtual environments and social media services will increase. Whether it’s a Facebook Connect sign-in or the ability to Tweet from Second Life, that functionality will move from the plugin / add-on phase to core architecture more commonly.

Pass – the Facebook connect option is spreading like wildfire, Linden Lab have done a lot of work this year in integrating logins between their web properties and Second Life itself, and the Twitter option is well and truly alive in Second Life (one example).

Prediction 6: ABC in Second Life – I don’t have any inside knowledge on this, and I really hope I’m proved wrong, but I can’t see the ABC continuing to fund its Second Life presence beyond 2010. For the past year, the majority of the activity on ABC Island has come from its tight-knit community, with support from ABC staff. With the burgeoning ABC Online continuing to grow, there’s always the risk that the Second Life component will be squeezed out. Please, prove us wrong on this one.

Fail – I’ve thankfully been proven wrong on this one so far.

Prediction 7: The mandatory ISP filter – If the legislation passes during 2010, there remains a real possibility of adult content in Second Life and elsewhere falling foul of the filter. There were some gob-smackingly naive acceptances of Linden Lab’s claim they’d heard nothing about being affected by the filter and therefore were not concerned. There’s a chance everything will be fine but given the blacklist isn’t defined, nothing is certain at this stage. Our prediction: Australia-specific verification mechanisms will need to be put in place for Second Life and other environments where content creation occurs.

N/A – The legislation is far from finalised so this prediction is neither right or wrong. More on that in the 2011 predictions next week.

Prediction 8: Taxation of virtual goods – 2010 will see the United States further formalise taxation arrangements in regard to virtual goods. I doubt the Australian Tax Office will make any substantive rulings in the coming twelve months.

Fail – If any further formalisation has occurred, it’s not been announced. The global financial crisis will have played a role there as well.

Prediction 9: Gaming worlds – 2010 is going to see the largest MMO launch since World of Warcraft: Star Wars The Old Republic. It won’t eclipse the incumbent but it will become the solid number 2 player in the short-term, with all bets off in the longer term. The second half of 2010 also sees the launch of the next World of Warcraft expansion, called Cataclysm. Head-to-head clashes in the MMO industry don’t get much bigger, and it’ll make for some fascinating times.

Fail – Star Wars the Republic is slated for an April 2011 release 😉

Prediction 10: Social games – this year saw social games like Farmville take off in a big way. There’ll be some significant fatigue from users with these platforms, but there’ll also be further innovation to make them more engaging and with easier integration of virtual goods without the spam-like accompaniments that plague people’s Twitter or Facebook timelines. Overall: continuation of exponential growth, albeit not at the same level it has been the past six months.

Pass – the growth has continued with some much needed Farmville alternatives. There’s been the fatigue factor which has led to some improvements.

___

Four out of nine (factoring in the non-applicable NBN legislation) isn’t a great result this year! I can claim it’s been a turbulent year for virtual worlds, and that’s true, but overall I’ve made the mistake of expecting progress too soon.

Over to you: what’s your take on 2010. Has it been disappointing, surprising or just plain evolutionary?

Filed Under: General News, Op-ed, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

Interview – Treet TV’s Wiz Nordberg and Texas Timtam

December 2, 2010 by 5 Comments

Treet TV are ground-breakers and Australia-based ones at that. I’ve been following them since mid-2007 (original profile here) when they were the Second Life Cable Network (SLCN), and they’ve been plugging away ever since, growing to arguably the world’s most credible and prolific virtual world TV production outfit. I say plugging away because even though they have a pretty solid track record now as innovators and quality content producers, establishing a wider profile within the Australian business sector has been a challenge.

Treet’s Mt Eliza-based founders, Gary Wisniewski (SL: Wiz Nordberg) and Grace Roberts (SL: Texas Timtam), caught up with me for a chat last weekend on everything Treet plus some broader themes. If you’ve thought about getting a team together to make your own show, read on as Treet are interested in new pitches.

Lowell: We last caught up in June 2007 when you were still SLCN TV – what are your strongest memories of those early times for you?

Wiz: Strongest memories?  Confusion. 🙂 No, really, I suppose the strongest memory is how “new” the idea was, of using a virtual worlds platform to create true television-like content, and the reaction of people to what we were doing. It was very fresh and very new and it seemed like there were limitless possibilities.

Texas: It was very exciting then. We were learning new things everyday and it was still in the glory days of Second Life hype so everyone around us was filled with optimisim about the opportunities.

Lowell: So has that confusion abated or just changed in dynamic?

Wiz: Well the dynamic has changed a lot. It is no longer new, and a lot has been learned – I was only joking when I said confusion actually.

Lowell: On learning: if you had to list a few key learnings over the past three years, what would they be?

Wiz: It seemed obvious to us that doing virtual worlds television was the right thing to try.   I have to say it was almost the opposite of confusion, but total confidence back then. Well, one thing we learned is that people in Second Life have almost boundless energy to create, and to us it is the reason to remain committed to Second Life despite many people’s negative feelings about it right now. We also learned to divide machinima into two broad categories: documentary and story telling. Documentary is easy. Storytelling is hard. I suppose the list could go on for pages.  After three years, you learn a lot of things!

Lowell: So for those who don’t know Treet TV, can you give an executive summary of what it offers today?

Wiz: Treet TV offers the largest collection of live television broadcasts and archives made almost exclusively in Second Life, documenting the activities, sports, lives, and stories of Second Life residents and creators.

Lowell: Your work is most recognised in Second Life but do you use other platforms / grids?

Wiz: We are starting to use OpenSim and you will see a lot more OpenSim based shows in the coming year. But almost everything is still done in Second Life.

Lowell: What are the limitations of OpenSim so far when compared to what you do in Second Life?

Wiz: The limitations don’t apply to us at Treet so much as they apply to those creating and participating in the shows.   Filming in OpenSim can be done as perfectly as we do it in Second Life. The main limitations show producers face are – there are fewer people and thus less diversity to pool upon for guests, interviews, lifestyle and sports content; there are fewer vendors of products, thus less available if you want to devise your own original show content; and stability is, incredible to say, not as good as Second Life, so the production reliability is lessened. But those things are changing fast, I should add.

Texas: OpenSim-based grids are just now gaining enough momentum to have enough users that will make for interesting viewing and stories to tell.

Lowell: Second Life has copped a lot of negative press: what do you see as its strong points and do you remain confident in its longer-term viability?

Wiz: The strong point of Second Life is that it is a new kind of virtual world, based upon an empty slate, where people can do and create what they wish without any limit to their imagination.  Arguably Linden Lab invented this type of world.   I am not sure they will end up playing a major role over time, but I am certain that this kind of world will survive, grow, and probably displace many many other types of virtual spaces. I am confident in the long term viability of such worlds. Not so much of Second Life itself. But today, Second Life is the best.

Lowell: Without going too negative ourselves, what is it about Linden Lab and Second Life that makes it likely to be overtaken?

Wiz: The need for Linden Lab’s product has grown beyond their ability to service it and respond to the market. This has to do with very early decisions they made before they realised what they really had. Some of those decisions will be hard to recover from, and I’m not sure they can.

Lowell: What in your opinion were those key decisions – architecture related, community related or others?

Wiz: Most are architecture related. Essentially, they locked themselves into an architecture where it takes approximately 25% of the resources of a fairly high-end server to support a gathering place with 100 people. Imagine for example, that you required  a full Xeon server to accommodate a website which would accommodate 400 people.   You would have a huge liability. This is the reason for most of their problems, including the inability to scale, and inability to create cheap land available to more people who perceive it as having much better ROI. I am not sure any amount of “thinking outside the box” in terms of their customer service and company structure can make up for that problem.

Lowell: The thing is, as OpenSIm evolves they may avoid some of those issues but not all – are the architecture issues really that solvable in the short-term?

Wiz: OpenSim has the same liability in terms of architecture, but it has the advantage of greater ROI with reduced cost. This will cause more people to engage with it, and more people can be involved in trying to rejig the architecture to solve some of these major problems. Open source groups have proven time and time again that “if there is a will, there is a way”, and I have a lot of hope for OpenSim because I think it will soon reach a tipping point where the necessary technology people will be able to truly hunker down and start making dramatic steps forward. In the short term?  No. 🙂 That means that those of us who are already at the limits of our patience need to be more patient still!!

Lowell: Let’s talk business for a while – I can imagine you still struggle with the credibility issue i.e. that a lot of the business / funding sector see virtual worlds work as R&D rather than ROI. Are you seeing that shift at all?

Wiz: Well, we don’t struggle with it so much at Treet. We are very committed to having a broad range of content creators producing shows. While there are surely revenue issues we now struggle with because corporate money is not flowing like it once did, this is a shared problem we all deal with. I also believe virtual worlds have been R&D all along. I think that any assumption that there was ROI was predicated by assuming a great deal of PR leverage for having “engaged in something new”. Once you remove the PR leverage, much of the ROI for many corporations didn’t hold up under scrutiny.

Lowell: So obviously without expecting explicit detail, what is Treet’s business model and strategy?

Wiz: Treet is like any other start-up gambling on the increasing trend to do something online which has never been done before. So, our business model evolves and changes over time and mostly is a model of “sustainability” at this point, mainly because there is so much R&D going on in the area we’ve chosen. I think the biggest limitation of any business model for a virtual worlds content company is the small size of the market.

Lowell: Which is a good lead-in to your shows – how many shows do you now produce?

Wiz: 12 shows are currently in production, 10 of them with weekly episodes that are aired live every Sunday and Monday. We have over 3000 archived episodes, not only of those shows, but of many shows no longer in production, or special events and features.

Lowell: What are your most successful shows, both as far as view statistics but also in regard to audience feedback?

Wiz: The three most successful shows in terms of feedback and numbers are Metanomics, Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe, and Designing Worlds….not necessarily in that order. Some shows actually have much greater consistency than those, with very loyal audiences, but haven’t achieved the high points those have. Two notables are the Best Practices in Education Series and the ISTE Eduverse series, both of which are short term productions and both achieved signifcant viewership and web buzz.

Lowell: Over your time producing such a large amount of content – have you discovered any unique trends on what works in SL as compered to more mainstream TV production? That is, have any of the shows worked really well when you thought they wouldn’t or vice versa?

Wiz: Comparing SL to mainstream TV is an interesting “apples and oranges” exercise.  The viewership of each is fueled by very different things. The “unique trend” is that Internet based TV is more dependent upon having an active community surrounding the content. Mainstream TV is more dependent upon a streamlined and efficient delivery channel. The former requires more social capital.  The latter requires more financial capital.

Lowell: On community: does Treet do active engagement there or is it more up to each show’s team to drive that?

Wiz: It is a combination.  Each of our shows is a partnership.   Treet works actively to build a community of those interested in “virtual television” and many people’s shows are discovered because there is crossover from the Treet community.  On the other hand, each show brings new communities to Treet, and this is probably one of the main ways Treet’s viewership grows, by having each producer’s community join in a larger community which has greater momentum. Three years ago it was the reverse.  Treet had no community and it was show communities which essentially “bootstrapped” Treet into having people who could cross-over into other communities.  Now, such crossover is the norm.

Lowell: On the partnership, how does that work? Where are the boundaries with creative control etc?

Wiz: We try our best to let our producers do what they want.  That’s the honest truth.  We try to let them envision the show, decide on the format, and drive the creative behind the shows with little or no intervention from us. We try to provide feedback about audience size, live viewership, and if we do exert creative control, it has more to do with the mechanics, such as trying to assure that shows are more “watchable” on the web, that intros are the right length, that advertising is used in ways that are most effective.

Texas: The Treet website offers the ability to include a much larger audience than could be achieved with only the Second Life residents. We can live stream to a much larger number of viewers via the web.

Lowell: So let’s say I have a great show concept and I approach Treet and you like it a lot as well. What happens from there?

Wiz: We are very interested in new pitches at the moment. We have a number of broadcast slots open because of the way we have rearranged our schedule. The main thing people with show ideas need to consider is that it is not about the idea or concept. A good concept does not make a show. A good, dedicated team, and a lot of effort in production make a show. A good concept helps because it makes it easier to attract people to the effort, and of course, once the show is produced, it makes it more appealing. But, building a team, and being realistic about the effort required at production are the most important things for people to consider. Two shows, “The Daily PWN” and “The Grid’s Honest Truth” are complete outside machinima productions which air on Treet.   Most people think Treet “wants” to produce everything.  That is not at all true, we are very receptive to people doing complete productions.   But – our requirements are rather stringent.

To be honest, the realities vary from show to show. For sports shows, there is no script, the main thing is being sure that announcers are ready, and that stats are prepared.  Some shows require a script, and there is a completely different team effort.  Some shows require 1 hour per week of pre-production, some shows require 40.

Texas: We are also keen to include serial stories to Treet. Not necessarily produced by us.

Lowell: Texas you mentioned serials and Wiz you mentioned earlier that story-telling is difficult – is that an area you’d like to do lots more in?

Texas: Yes, very much. Moving from a live broadcast model to post-produced drama / comedy is another exercise in “apples & oranges”.  :) But we are very interested in headed that way.

Wiz: Yes! We would love to have more people who are willing and interested in working with us on fictional series.

Lowell: Who are the core Treet TV team besides yourselves now?

Wiz: There are four of us that make up the core team right now, Wiz, Texas, August Lusch, and Yxes Delacroix. We have many other people assisting as well.

Lowell: Is Treet now a profit-making entity for you all? If so – what is your primary revenue source?

Wiz: No, Treet still runs in the red. It is funded by Texas and I. We do have a 24/7 studio which is unlike any other in the world, capable of doing these kinds of live broadcasts for anybody, so we are always interested in corporate work and other revenue, but ultimately, we are building a brand and an audience with Treet and revenue will require that it grow several times larger. As it is, however, Treet has over 100,000 monthly viewers across all our shows, but doing what we do is expensive, and even that many viewers doesn’t really generate enough revenue to fund this.

Lowell: Crystal-ball time: what are your ambitions for Treet in the coming 12-24 months?

Wiz: Expansion in two areas. First, to involve more and more independent machinima producers in Treet to take advatnage of our distribution and audience, and to add to the diversity of our content. Second, to move more and more into OpenSim specificaly and any other platforms we see that have “creator leverage” in the way Second Life does. We also have a couple interesting things we are doing that we can’t talk about . We also expect to continue to work more with Linden Lab – we have had many good joint promotions with Linden Lab and they have helped us fuel growth in many ways.

=====

A disclosure: I’ve appeared once on Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe and once on The 1st Question with Pooky Amsterdam.

Filed Under: Australian News, Business, General News, Profile, User-generated, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

Second Life in a web browser: beta launches

November 16, 2010 by 15 Comments

With minimal fanfare, Linden Lab have launched a beta of their ‘Second Life in a browser’ offering AKA Project Skylight. Found here, you can sign-up and check it out in a session lasting up to an hour.

As always, Tateru Nino has scoped it out in detail, noting that not surprisingly it’s a bandwidth hungry beast and that once you watch the 45-second intro video a selection process occurs that determines whether you get to sign up to check out the web-based browser or not. If you get the normal Second Life sign-up page then you’re out of luck. Like me.

For those who do get to have a look, post your thoughts / impressions so the rest of us can get at least a taste. For me, this is Linden Lab’s only shot in the locker to secure the longer term future of Second Life beyond its plateaued growth. The gloss is there with this launch, here’s hoping the substance matches.

Filed Under: General News, Software updates, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Great Truths

November 10, 2010 by Leave a Comment

1) No matter how hard you try, you can’t baptize cats.
2) When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don’t let her brush your hair.
3) If your sister hits you, don’t hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
5) You can’t trust dogs to watch your food.
6) Don’t sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8) You can’t hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9) Don’t wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
10) The best place to be when you’re sad is Grandma’s lap.

GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED:

1) Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.
2) Wrinkles don’t hurt.
3) Families are like fudge…mostly sweet, with a few nuts .
4) Today’s mighty oak is just yesterday’s nut that held its ground.
5) Laughing is good exercise. It’s like jogging on the inside.
6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fibre, not the toy.

GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD:

1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you’re down there.
4) You’re getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
5) It’s frustrating when you know all the answers but, nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
6) Time may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician.
7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE:

1) You believe in Santa Claus.
2) You don’t believe in Santa Claus.
3) You are Santa Claus.
4) You look like Santa Claus.

SUCCESS:

At age 4 success is . . . . Not piddling in your pants.
At age 12 success is . . . Having friends.
At age 17 success is . . . Having a driver’s license.
At age 35 success is . . . ..Having money.
At age 50 success is . . . Having money.
At age 70 success is . .. . Having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is . … . Having friends.
At age 80 success is . . .. Not piddling in your pants.

Have a wonderful day with many smiles

Filed Under: Email Joke Graveyard, General humor, Kids

When Love Fades

November 9, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Last night I was sitting on the sofa watching TV when I heard my wife’s voice from the kitchen

“What would you like for dinner my Love?… Chicken, beef or lamb?”

I said, “Thank you, I’ll have chicken.”

She replied “You’re having soup, arsehole. I was talking to the cat.”

Filed Under: Email Joke Graveyard, The Gender Wars

iLife 11 announced: iMovie returned to its former glory?

October 21, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Mr Jobs had another one of his announcement extravaganzas today, announcing a slew of new hardware and software. Australian Macworld have a great wrap on it all (Disclosure: I am a contributing writer for Australian Macworld), but aside from the understandable excitement on the Mac App Store and Mac OSX Lion, I was most taken by the update to the iLife suite.

Like a lot of iMovie users, I loved the 06 version, which was then arguably devolved to iMovie 08. I’ve actually gotten used to the 08 version but it still doesn’t make the grade in a lot of ways. It seems that Apple have actually heeded the outcry, with the 2011 iteration looking a little more like its grandfather. There’s also a bunch of new features such as storyboarding and simple trailer creation that will reflected in thousands of online video uploads.

I’ve got a review copy of iLife 11 on order, so watch this space, and the Apple guff on iLife can be found here.

In the meantime, a prediction: the new Mac App Store will see iMovie, iPhoto and Garageband plugins / add-ons for sale.

Filed Under: General Tech, General Tech, Music Tagged With: , ,

Overworked Deputy Sheriffs

October 15, 2010 by Leave a Comment

A few overworked deputy sheriffs were long overdue for a vacation so they decided to go on a mountain retreat. Since police officers are so underpaid, they decided to sleep two per room so they could afford the trip.

Now, nobody wanted to sleep in the same room with Daryl – he’s very well known for snoring and since it wasn’t fair to make one of them stay with him the whole time – they agreed to take turns.

The first deputy to bunk with Daryl and comes to breakfast the next morning with his hair a mess and his eyes all bloodshot, looking like he didn’t get any sleep. They said, “Man, what happened to you?” He said, “Daryl snored so loudly, I just sat up and watched him all night, couldn’t get any sleep!”

The following night it was a different deputy’s turn. In the morning, same thing – hair all messed up, eyes blood-shot, etc. They said, “Man, what happened to you? You look awful!” He said, “Man, that Daryl! Shakes the roof he’s so loud. I watched him all night.”

The third night was Frank’s turn. Now Frank was a big burly ex-football player; a man’s man. Said he wasn’t going to put up with any snoring… “We’ll see!” said the other deputies.

The next morning he came to breakfast bright eyed and bushy tailed. “Good morning, fellas! Wonderful day outside isn’t it?” he said. They other deputies were shocked!

They said, “Man, what happened?” Frank said, “Well, we got ready for bed. I went over and tucked Daryl into bed, then kissed him good night. He sat up all night just watching me. Didn’t snore at all!”

Filed Under: Email Joke Graveyard, General humor

UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge Grand Final: a triumph

October 13, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Over the past year, one of the most extensive and impressive virtual world art projects has been undertaken. I’ve written about it repeatedly here, for three reasons. First, it’s an Australian initiative driven by the University of Western Australia. Second, the scope of the project was enormous, encouraging submissions across a range of mediums. Third, the passion of the organisers was very hard to resist – each and every person was driven by their passion for art and progressing virtual worlds art.

On all three counts, it’s hard to argue anything but outstanding success. As an Australian initiative it’s rightly been lauded. As a showcase for the ways in which mediums such as sculpture, art, music and film can be mixed and enhanced, the exhibits speak for themselves. Finally, the organisation of the monthly heats and the grand final has been superb, let alone the day-to-day enthusiasm for the project by all involved.

My point? That virtual worlds art, as evidenced by the UWA competition, is in for a bright future. Nish Mip’s winning entry is stupendous, as is the majority of the works submitted. I was thrilled to be one of the large panel of judges, and it’ll be fascinating to see the ripples that radiate from such an intensive project.

The inexhaustible Jayjay Zifanwe has the full wrap, including lots of pictures, on the UWA in SL blog. Otherwise, read on for the full results, the winning machinimas and Jayjay’s grand final speech.

The full winner’s list:

UWA 3D ART & DESIGN CHALLENGE

GRAND CHAMPION, IMAGINE ART CHALLENGE, 61 points (L$75,000):
UMBRELLAS by Nish Mip

2nd Prize IMAGINE Grand Finale, 54 points (L$16,000)
THE LAST OCEAN by Nish Mip

3rd Prize IMAGINE Grand Finale, 44 points (L$15,000)
CHAOS IN ORDER by Igor Ballyhoo

4th Prize, IMAGINE Grand Finale, 38 points (L$12,000)
WILLOW by Bryn Oh

5th Prize, IMAGINE Grand Finale, 27 points (L$10,000):
TENDRILS by Glyph Graves

1st Prize, FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 63 points (L$75,000):
PATCH THIBAUD: UWA Cultural Precinct Nexus 

2nd Prize, FLAGSHIP Grand Finale,57 points (L$16,000):
DB BAILEY & PATCH THIBAUD: UWA Cultural Precinct Gallery & Labs

Joint 3rd Prize, FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 46 points (L$13,500):
DIJODI DUBRATT: UWA Bridge to the Future
NYX BREEN: UWA AxS LAB (Jan 2010)

5th Prize, FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 40 points (L$10,000):
HERICK STRAAF: Concept Building for AXS Lab (August 2010)

1st Prize, Overall IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED, 95 points (L$14,000):
THE ABYSS by Sharni Azalee

2nd Prize, Overall IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED, 73 points (L$10,000):
MEDUSA’S GAZE by pravda Core

3rd Prize, Overall IMAGINE ART- NON SCRIPTED, 37 points (L$5,000):
CONCENTRIC SHELLS by Ichiko Miles

PEOPLES CHOICE AWARDS

1st Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE (L$15,000):
UMBRELLAS by Nish Mip

2nd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE (L$7,000):
THE SATIRICAL POLEMICIST by Eliza Wierwight

3rd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE (L$5,000):
WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD by Lea Supermarine

1st Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP (L$15,000):
DIJODI DUBRATT: UWA Bridge to the Future

2nd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP (L$7,000):
NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB (July 2010), replaced the destroyed Dec build!

3rd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP (L$5,000):
NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB (August 2010)

1st Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED (L$8,000):
MEDUSA’S GAZE by pravda Core

2nd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED (L$5,000):
THE ABYSS by Sharni Azalee

3rd Prize PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART- NON SCRIPTED (L$3,000):
THE WHITE GODDESS TREE by Soror Nishi

MACHINIMA II: ART OF THE ARTISTS

Joint 1st Prize (L$55,000 each):
BRADLEY DORCHESTER – Art of the Artists

LAURINA HAWKS – No Tomb for the Arts

3rd Prize (L$30,000):
TUTSY NAVARATHNA – An Art Form is Born

The Aview TV Award (L$10,000):
FAKE JEWELL, Song of Medusa

Best Art Visualisation (L$10,000):
RYSAN FALL – MachinimUWA, Art of the Artist

Best Art Visualization, Single Artwork (L$10,000):
ED VESPUCCIANO – Lessons in Democracy

Best Crossover Impact (L$10,000) :
L1AURA LOIRE – CLICK, Immersive & Interactive Virtual Art

Best Story (L$10,000):
YESIKITA COPPOLA – Inspiracion

Best Editing & Message (L$10,000):
PIA KLAAR – Art of the Artists, A Closer Look

HONOURABLE MENTION PRIZE (3-WAY TIE, L$3,333 each)
SPYVSPY AEON, I Am Not A Robot
SUZY YUE, Across A Crowded Room
LASLOPANTOMIK YAO, City of Art

For the dedicated – the full speech:

Greetings everyone, and welcome to the University of Western Australia, or UWA as she is known and also welcome to the Grand Finale of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge & MachinimUWA II. As is tradition at UWA, I would like to acknowledge that the University is situated on Nyoongar land and that the Nyoongar people remain the spiritual and cultural custodians of their land and continue to uphold their values, languages, beliefs and knowledge.

Today brings to an end the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge which was launched on the 15th of August 2009, with 841 entries received across the IMAGINE Art Challenge and the FLAGSHIP Building Design Challenge. Today also sees the conclusion of MachinimUWA II: Art of the Artists and with this, we had 45 machinima submissions where the theme was to film the artworks submitted to the UWA Challenge.

Its been an absolute pleasure for me to work with all of you over the year, and especially to those who went above an beyond the call of duty to make all of this a success. Thank you quadrapop lane, curator of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, thank you Taralyn Gravois, thank you LaPiscean Liberty, thank you Raphaella Nightfire. Also much thanks to those who have provided support and sponsorship which raised the overall prize pool from L$100,000 to more than L$1,000,000 now across Art, Architecture and Machinima. So I would like to also thank the Cultural Precinct at the University of Western Australia, ShedworX.com, the Casey Family of Western Australia, the Residents of Artemesia, MidnightRain Glas, Phillip Vought, Bohemian Ghost, Gumby Roffo, Sasun Steinbeck, Galea Yates, Kip Yellowjacket and a host of others.

Before any further announcements, first on the agenda today is our Special Guest Speaker whom I would like to sincerely thank for agreeing to attend and address everyone at this event. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce the creator of the legendary Ivory Tower Library of Primitives, and Grand Finale judge for the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, Lumiere Noir.

(Lumi Speaks)

Thank you Lumiere, it was truly a privilege to have you here! At the end of all the announcements, we will have the privilege of hearing Mommaluv Skytower singing live, and this will be followed by super Art DJ, Eifachfilm Varcirca, who is the definition of a multi-talented artiste having also been part of the UWA 3D Art Challenge across the year as well as machinimUWA II !

First… will be the announcements for MachinimUWA II: Art of the Artists. MachinimUWA II grew almost by accident, out of a desire to honour the wonderful work that the artists of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge had created, and so the theme was, ‘create something that will take our breath away’. And the subject matter was the artwork of the Grand Finale of any of the works featuring in the July and August rounds of the 3D Art Challenge.

When the winners, it will be done in 1 minute intervals. We do invite everyone to comment and congratulate the winners and for the winners to respond before the next announcement (and if they could please use the SHOUT function :). Hopefully we can get pictures of you attending the event. If you do take them yourself, please email them to me at jayjayaustralia@hotmail.com. These will go into the UWA in Second Life Blog (www.uwainsl.blogspot.com), the Metaverse Journal, Prim Perfect Publications, the SL Enquirer, The Australian Trader and a number of other journals and blogs.

I want to thank our judging panel for their sterling work in looking through the incredible array of 45 entries. It was unbelievably hard to seperate things, and the panel was put to a great deal of work!

1. Professor Ted Snell (RL) – Director, Cultural Precinct, The University of Western Australia
2. Dr Carmen Fies (RL) – Second Life Lead: University of Texas San Antonio
3. quadrapop Lane (SL) – Curator of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
4. White Lebed (SL) – the founder of AppliedGameology.com
5. Jayjay Zifanwe (SL) – Owner of The University of Western Australia (SL), Creator & co-host of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
6. Iono Allen (SL) – Official Machinimatographer of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
7. Cisko Vandeverre (SL) – Reigning UWA MachinimUWA Champion
8. Dr Kim Flintoff (RL) – Lecturer, Instructional Design, Centre for eLearning, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
9. LividEye Yoshikawa (SL) / John Yap (RL) – Senior Media Producer, National University of Singapore
10. Michelle Glaser (RL) – Senior Project Officer, Department of Culture and Arts, Government of Western Australia
11. Ian Booth (RL) – Chief Executive Officer, Screen West, Western Australia
12. Raphaella Nightfire (SL) – Snr Writer Best of SL Magazine, Owner Sanctorum Gallery (SL)
13. Laetitia Wilson (RL) – Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts, UWA
14. Aaron Kennedy (RL) – Chairman, WAnimate, Raging Pixel Productions

Now to explain how the judging was done. Each judge listed their top 8 in order of preference. 8 points was allocated for a 1st place vote, 7 points for a 2nd place vote, and so on, with 1 points being allocated for an 8th place vote. The top 3 were taken as a straight aggregate compiling the individual rankings of the 14 judges. The special awards were then selected by discussion among the judges taking into consideration the overall rankings. There was also a special award provided by Aview TV & LaPiscean Liberty.

First of all, and you can see the trouble started here, we have the Honourable Mention Prize. This is a single prize of L$10,000. However, the judges were hopelessly deadlocked. And so it was, that we had a 3-way tie for the Honourable Mention Prize, which becomes L$3,333 each! And so the Honourable Mention Prize for MachinimUWA II, goes to:
SPYVSPY AEON, I Am Not A Robot

and The Honourable Mention Prize for MachinimUWA II, also goes to:
SUZY YUE, Across A Crowded Room

AND FURTHER, The Honourable Mention Prize for MachinimUWA II, also goes to:
LASLOPANTOMIK YAO, City of Art

Next, we have the special awards, and we start off with The Aview TV Award, with L$10,000 provided by Aview TV & LaPiscean Liberty. The Aview TV Award, goes to:
FAKE JEWELL, Song of Medusa

Commenting on this, LaPiscean said, “When identity and prose meet one another, the content is heartfelt. I know, because i was a Medusa in my time. At least thats why I so like the Song of Medusa, as if to say this Machinima was about myself. While a Medusa among Medusas, I shone and now that I’m not among Medusas, remaining one at heart, I still shine!”

Next, the Award for Best Art Visualisation (L$10,000), goes to:
RYSAN FALL – MachinimUWA, Art of the Artist

The Award for Best Art Visualization, Single Artwork (L$10,000), goes to:
ED VESPUCCIANO – Lessons in Democracy

The Award for Best Crossover Impact (L$10,000) goes to:
L1AURA LOIRE – CLICK, Immersive & Interactive Virtual Art

The Award for Best Story (L$10,000) goes to:
YESIKITA COPPOLA – Inspiracion

And, the Award for Best Editing & Message (L$10,000) goes to:
PIA KLAAR – Art of the Artists, A Closer Look

Now we come to the top 3 prizes, and we start with 3rd Prize. When all the statistics were done taking into account the judges rankings, this piece finished with 42 points, and 12 of the 14 judges listed this piece in their top 8. A wonderful whimsical story with a sublime message. The L$30,000 3rd Prize, goes to:
TUTSY NAVARATHNA – An Art Form is Born

Next we come to 2nd Prize. Now truly, for 2nd Prize, when I did all the calculations following the judges submissions, I got the shock of my life! I apologize to this person, but I just had to shake my head, I can’t believe this was selected for 2nd and so, the 2nd Prize of L$50,000, goes to:
NOBODY

Yes ladies and gentlemen…. nobody, because incredibly, we have a TIE for FIRST PLACE, on 60 points each. One of the 2 winners appeared on 13 of the 14 judges lists of top 8, while the other had 3 first place votes and 3 second place votes. No other piece had more than TWO 1st place votes and TWO 2nd place votes. So we had to recalibrate the prize, and put the 1st & 2nd Prize together and divide by 2, making that L$55,000 for each of the two 1st Prizes!

So, one of the JOINT-WINNERS of MACHINIMUWA II: Art of the Artists (L$55,000) is:
BRADLEY DORCHESTER – Art of the Artists

this machinima certainly took many breaths away! lets all enjoy the winning Machinima, so please turn on your media everyone, as we play it:

AND NOW, the JOINT-WINNER of MACHINIMUWA II: Art of the Artists (L$55,000) is:
LAURINA HAWKS – No Tomb for the Arts

a film of epic proportions, let us all enjoy it now!

We also had an viewer participation event, where we asked SL residents to predict who would be in the top 8, and to rank the order, and and we have 3 winners, 3rd (L$1,000) is Pia Klaar, 2nd (L$1,500) is EdwardIV Beaumont and the winner (L$2,500) of the viewer participation event is Beau Aie !

And now, we move to the Grand Finale of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge. Before announcing the winners here, there are a few things I do need said.

First please help me thank the curator of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge once again, who has for an entire year, magnificently marshalled the 841 entries that I allowed to come in at all times of the day and night with not a single day break as to when the works were submitted, and not a single day when the gallery was closed across the year. Ladies & gentlemen, quadrapop Lane.

And sadly, we have to announce that quadrapop will from today be stepping down as the curator of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge, as the Challenge comes to a full stop, and qpop will be able to get the great breat she deserves! Thank you quadrapop Lane!

I would also like to thank Taralyn Gravois for her great work in being the Director of the UWA-BOSL Amphitheatre, and looking after events held at the 4-SIM Theatre. Sadly, she is also stepping down today, as a number of other pressures wont allow her to continue in her role. Thank you Taralyn!

The Torch passes however. FreeWee Ling will take over as curator at UWA & Chantal Harvey will take over at this theatre! 3 Cheers for FreeWee & Chantal!

Now, what is there to take over at UWA? Well, I won’t have a NC to distribute for a few weeks yet, but basically once the curtain comes down today, the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge (L$1,000,000 Prize Pool), which again will run for one year will kick off. This will be a Grand Collaboration among the major art houses of SL, and aside from the top 3 monthly awards, in place of the Honourable Mention Awards, we will have a monthly Pirats Prize (selected by Merlina Rokocoko & Newbab Zsigmond), an Odyssey Prize (selected by Fau Ferdinand & Lizsolo Mathilde), an SL Arts Prize (selected by Gleman Jun & Sunset Quinnell), a Show & Tell Prize (selected by Florenze Kerensky & Barney Boomslang), a CARP Prize (selected by Josina Burgess & Velasquez Bonetto) and a BOSL Prize (selected by Frolic Mills & Giela Delpaso).

The rules for this will be simple. The theme is ‘Create something that will take our breath away’, and the prim limit is 100! As it always has been. So anyway, the receiver for the works is in the same location as before !

Professor Ted Snell, Director of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge whose 5 minute meeting with me 2 days before the very first mini-Launch we had at UWA in August 2009 sparked off these challenges said, It began with a rush but the entries just kept coming, rising from over thirty in the first month to a final total of over one hundred artworks in the final competition. What was most exciting was the obvious increase in
the standard of entries, the increasing sophistication of the conceptual basis of the works and the extraordinary skill in rendering them within the
virtual world. ”

As with the Machinima, I want to thank and acknowledge the judging panel. There were 23 judges in all, however 22 for either the Flagship or Imagine side as one of the judges, only looked at the Flagships, while another only looked at the Art.

JUDGING PANEL for GRAND FINALE of the UWA 3D ART & DESIGN CHALLENGE
1. Lumiere Noir (SL) – Creator of the Ivory Tower Library of Primitives
2. Sasun Steinbeck (SL) – Founder of the Art Galleries of SL list
3. Lowell Cremorne (SL), Owner of The Metaverse Journal
4. White Lebed (SL) – Founder of AppliedGameology.com
5. Phillip Vought(SL) – Art Philanthropist & Founding Patron of UWA-BOSL Amphitheatre
6. Lanai Jarrico (SL) – CEO SL Enquirer
7. Reslez Steeplechase (SL) – Founder First Call Musicians Co-op (FCMC), CEO Matters of Music Media Group (M3)
8. Mal Burns (SL) – Metaverse News Aggregator and Broadcaster
9. Apollo Manga (SL) – examiner.com Writer & Novelist
10. Raphaella Nightfire (SL) – Snr Writer Best of SL Magazine, Owner Sanctorum Gallery
11. Dr Gary Zabel (RL) / Georg Janick (SL) – University of Masachusetts
12. Saffia Widdershins (SL) – Owner and Editor of Prim Perfect Publications
13. Jordan Whitt (SL) – Editor in Chief, ICON Lifestyle Magazine
14. Rowan Derryth (SL) – Art & Design Historian; Writer for Prim Perfect Publications
15. Courtney Linden (SL) – Linden Lab
16. Paisley Beebe (SL) – CEO of Perfect World Productions TV
17. Bohemian Ghost (SL) – Owner of Summerland Estates
18. Jopsy Pendragon (SL) – Founder of the Particle Laboratory Learning Center
19. Professor Ted Snell (RL) – Director, Cultural Precinct, The University of Western Australia
20. Frank Roberts (RL) – The University Architect, The University of Western Australia
21. Jayjay Zifanwe (SL) – Owner of The University of Western Australia (SL), Creator & co-host of the UWA 3D Art & Design Challenge
22. Dr Chris Thorne (RL) – Co-Founder of the UWA (SL) & UWA Honourary Research Associate (RL) (judged Flagship only)
23. Frolic Mills (SL) – BOSL & CO CEO (judged the IMAGINE sections only)

First though, the results for the People’s Choice Awards. For the people’s choice, all of SL could vote for their favourite pieces across the month of September, and had to use a HUD (created by quadrapop) to visit all the builds rezzed across the grid, as it needed more than 30,000 prims to have everything up. And I need to thanks Caren McCaw & Nyx Breen (Annapurna), Dijodi Dubratt (Toor), quadrapop Lane (Poorlatrice), Kip Yellowjacket (Virtlantis), Lilli Field (Mysten), Phillip Vought (Acquitaine), Cuwynne Deerhunter & Eliza Wierwight (Patron) and the LEA for valuable space to rezz the works.

And so for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART- NON SCRIPTED 3rd prize goes to (L$3,000):
THE WHITE GODDESS TREE by Soror Nishi

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED 2nd prize goes to (L$5,000):
THE ABYSS by Sharni Azalee

And the WINNER for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED (L$8,000) is:
MEDUSA’S GAZE by pravda Core

Now we move to the People’s Choice Awards for the FLAGSHIPS

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP 3rd prize goes to (L$5,000):
NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB (August 2010)

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP 2nd prize goes to (L$7,000):
NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB (July 2010), replaced the destroyed Dec build!

And the WINNER for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, FLAGSHIP (L$15,000) is:
DIJODI DUBRATT: UWA Bridge to the Future

Now on to the IMAGINE ART SECTION

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE 3rd prize goes to (L$5,000):
WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD by Lea Supermarine

For the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE 2nd prize goes to (L$7,000):
THE SATIRICAL POLEMICIST by Eliza Wierwight

And the WINNER for the PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD, IMAGINE (L$15,000) is:
UMBRELLAS by Nish Mip

And now we come to the crunch. The overall juried Grand Prizes for the UWA 3D Art & Design competition. The results are extremely interesting, and I do need to explain how the Judging was done. Each judge listed their top 10 in order for IMAGINE & FLAGSHIP & top 5 for the non-scripted. Works receiving a 1st place vote were allocated 6 points, 2nd place 5 points, 3rd 4 points, 4th 3points, 5th 2 points, and 6th – 10th place votes received 1 point each. The winners are taken as a straight aggregate compiling the individual rankings of each member of the judging panel. No one individual had any greater influence than any other. Every single piece featured in the top 10 of at least 2 judges. Every single piece was also NOT in the top 10 of at least 2 judges. So there was great individual variability, however, when put together, I am staggered by how clearly the results come across.

First the Non-Scripted. I will reveal the aggregate points received by the winning pieces, and also of the ones which just missed out. The Prize winners will receive special trophies created by Miso Susanowa who won the Trophy Challenge some months back run by FreeWee Ling and the Residents of Artemesia. There are 3 prizes for the non-scripted. It was very close, between 3rd prize and the works in 4th – 6th. There was in fact a 3-way tie for 4th place in the non-scripted, these being:

4th (non-scripted) BLACK PEARL by Solkide Auer – 30 points
4th (non-scripted) THE NIGHT ORCHID by soror Nishi – 30 points
4th (non-scripted) BLOOM GLOW by Sledge Roffo – 30 points

All said and done, the overall IMAGINE ART- NON SCRIPTED 3rd prize, on 37 points goes to (L$5,000):
CONCENTRIC SHELLS by Ichiko Miles

For overall IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED 2nd prize, on 73 points goes to (L$10,000):
MEDUSA’S GAZE by pravda Core – 73 points

And the runaway WINNER for the overall IMAGINE ART – NON SCRIPTED, on an incredible 95 points (L$14,000) is:
THE ABYSS by Sharni Azalee

Now for the Flagship. There are 5 prizes, but I will reveal the relative positions and point allocations for the top 10 so everyone can get a sense of how things shaped up. Again remember, these are not ratings of artworks… these are more similar to how things work when selecting the MVP for a football game or the world footballer of the year. 6th through 10th place from the 23 builds overall fell as follows:

6th FLAGSHIP : HERICK STRAAF: Concept Building for AXS Lab (July 2010) – 30 points
7th FLAGSHIP : ELIZA WIERWIGHT: The Patron Gallery Build – 23 points
7th FLAGSHIP: OWL RAE (MOTH REXEN): Arcapelus Sanctuary – 23 points
9th FLAGSHIP: NYX BREEN: UWA AxS LAB (Feb 2010) – 20 points
10th FLAGSHIP: NYX BREEN: UWA AXS LAB  (June 2010) – 18 points

OK, so for the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 5th prize, on 40 points goes to (L$10,000):
HERICK STRAAF: Concept Building for AXS Lab (August 2010)

For the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 4th prize, goes to (L$12,000) :
NOBODY – as we have a tie for 3rd place on 46 points apiece

For the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, we have a JOINT 3rd Prize, and this goes to (L$13,500):
DIJODI DUBRATT: UWA Bridge to the Future

3rd Prize for the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, also goes to (L$13,500):
NYX BREEN: UWA AxS LAB (Jan 2010)

I had told Nyx a couple of times that this was my personal favourite of his many amazing builds!

Next the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, 2nd prize on 57 points goes to (L$16,000):
DB BAILEY & PATCH THIBAUD: UWA Cultural Precinct Gallery & Labs

And now for the winner. This build will remain on UWA grounds as long a UWA in Second Life stands, and will be looked as as a foundation for the design of the real Cultural Precinct Flagship build at UWA in a few years time.

The WINNER of the FLAGSHIP Grand Finale, on 63 points goes to (L$75,000):
PATCH THIBAUD: UWA Cultural Precinct Nexus 

Finally, to the IMAGINE Grand Finale. Again, there are 5 prizes, and I will reveal the top 10. Things were very close just outside of the prizes, and the gap between 5th place and the 3 way tie for 9th is only 6 points, and here they are:

6th IMAGINE: THE SATIRICAL POLEMICIST by Eliza Wierwight – 23 points
7th IMAGINE: CYBERSHARK by Igor Ballyhoo – 22 points
7th IMAGINE: ATOMIC-GO-ROUND by Atomic Gaffer – 22 points
9th IMAGINE: IMMERSIVE ART: THE MAZE by Alizarin Goldflake – 21 points
9th IMAGINE: 26 TINES by Bryn Oh – 21 points
9th IMAGINE: WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD by Lea Supermarine – 21 points

OK, so for the IMAGINE Grand Finale, 5th prize, on 27 points goes to (L$10,000):
TENDRILS by Glyph Graves

4th Prize for the IMAGINE Grand Finale, on 38 points, goes to (L$12,000)
WILLOW by Bryn Oh

3rd Prize for the IMAGINE Grand Finale, on 44 points, goes to (L$15,000)
CHAOS IN ORDER by Igor Ballyhoo

a real favourite especially among the machinimatographers, as it is the most filmed artwork

2nd Prize for the IMAGINE Grand Finale, on 54 points, goes to (L$16,000)
THE LAST OCEAN by Nish Mip

Now its a stunning result for 1st place, and in fact what happened with this was the reason why I decided to release the point totals of the cumulative judges rankings, and ensure that the prizes extended to the top 5, instead of what is was going to be initially, which was a top 2.

And so, the GRAND CHAMPION of the IMAGINE ART CHALLENGE, on 61 points (L$75,000) is:
UMBRELLAS by Nish Mip

Its almost unfathomable. To achieve what Nish has, in taking the Top 2 spots from amongst 772 artworks across the year. I cannot begin to calculate the odds against that happening. UMBRELLAS received SIX 1st place votes and only 2 other works received more than ONE 1st place vote being WILLOW & THE LAST OCEAN which each received THREE.

Congratulations Nish! Anyone wanting the full results, please send me an IM. Do check and link to the blog as well, as everything will be there in 24 hours http://uwainsl.blogspot.com/

The UWA 3D Open Art Challenge is now officially open! And with that ends the formal part of today.

Thank you so much Eifachfilm Vacirca for helping stream voice to all the 4 sims during the announcements!

I now hand the floor over to the incredible Mommaluv Skytower who has wowed many an audience with her incredible performances! Please give her a warm welcome all!

Filed Under: Art, Australian News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Diabetes, Second Life and health outcomes

September 29, 2010 by Leave a Comment

This story appeared over at Metaverse Health originally.

The Boston University Medical Center continues its work on health and virtual worlds, succeeding in gaining a US$950,000 grant from the US National Library of Medicine. The funding is for a study on the efficacy of using Second Life for Type 2 Diabetes education with African-American women versus more traditional face-to-face interventions.

You can read more detail on the study here, but there’s one key strength of the study that stands out for me: quantitative health data. Each participant will have cholesterol and ‘diabetes control’ blood tests taken before and after they receive the education sessions, as well as blood pressure readings.

The results of the study are likely to be be groundbreaking: either virtual worlds-based interventions for diabetes will be shown to be effective, or a very large challenge will be laid down to virtual worlds advocates if the results aren’t of the quantum expected. This is a study to watch.

Filed Under: General News, Health, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

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