OSCC Keynote 2

The Virtual Worlds Education Consortium began in January 2021 in Second Life and meets quarterly. As the metaverse expands, VWEC strives to explore evolving virtual spaces and has a VWEC Pavilion in Kitely to share resources for educators. Without collaboration and networking, newcomers in virtual worlds find it difficult to navigate to high quality immersive learning experience and often ask “where is everyone?”. Participants will discover the Virtual Word Database, VWEC Directory, and numerous educational opportunities in Kitely and other open sim environments.

By: Becky Adams / Elli Pinion, Kevin Feenan, Renee Emiko Brock / Zinnia Zauber, Valerie Hill / Valibrarian Gregg

Kisma shares her experience from a totally real life based painter to an art teacher using Zoom and now using the Metaverse. Learn the trials and outcomes she has gone through over the last 19 months in virtual art communities and how being a non-digital artist has impacted her full acceptance as a virtual artist, how do we overcome such a bias?

By Kisma Reidling / Juliette SurrealDreaming

Built across an inlet on the river Mersey and opened in 1715, the “Old Dock” revolutionized cargo handling at the port of Liverpool, bringing prosperity to the city through the Triangular Trade albeit at a tragic cost to the million-plus enslaved in Africa and transported by Liverpool ships to endure the hardships of plantation life in the Americas. This reimagining of the “Old Dock” focuses on the years leading up to the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and diverse sources are used to present a partial build alongside the stories of some of those who lived and worked there.

By Graham Mills

An island called Sustainability Hub has been developed to teach sustainability and agenda 2030 in middle schools during pandemic. The project was carried out at the University of Camerino, Italy, in the virtual world Techland (http://techlandgrid.it:8002).

By Michelina Occhoni / Michelle Techland

Welcome to the 9th annual OpenSimulator Community Conference. This year’s event features presenters across the globe who will be highlighting the user projects and core development work of the OpenSimulator platform. We will kick off #OSCC21 with an overview of the latest features in the OpenSimulator software update and conversation with Core Developers of the platform. Crista Lopes, Andrew Hellershanks, Ubit Umarov, Melanie Milland

Find out where the platform is headed and learn more about the developers who make the software happen!

After the onset of the Covid crisis, many of us expected 3D virtual worlds to be an obvious solution for connecting people. We discuss the challenges that still stand in the way. We present some possible solutions.

Ramesh Ramloll

Healthcare workers need to practice their skills to maintain competence, but this requires facility space, equipment and supervision. On the other hand, the high penetration of mobile smartphones and cellular network connectivity in many countries around the world makes virtual reality simulation training feasible. VR simulations can be engaged at the learner’s convenience with game-based automated feedback that is ideal for episodic learning.

However, many healthcare workers in resource-scarce settings have never experienced VR training. This presentation summarizes the lessons learned in development and feasibility testing of VR simulations among healthcare workers in a resource-scarce setting.

Rachel Umoren

Can undergraduate instructors and students in different areas of practice cooperate online to instill cross-disciplinary communication skills at the same time as they more effectively teach and learn their own subject matter?

College students from Montana State University Billings and Peninsula College Washington State were brought together by their instructors, online, in an authentic industry modeling scenario where a consultant group is hired by a corporation to improve performance, based on discussion with subject matter experts and studying work processes.

Operator and Designer students came together to focus on A) Effective visual communication cues in a dangerous operating environment, and B) Learning to communicate professionally across technical specialties.

Andrew Sullivan / Andy Sullivan , James Neville / Sitearm Madonna, Renne Brock / Zinnia Zauber

2020 brought us a terrible pandemic but an opportunity to provide high school students with an alternative form of interaction and productive participation. Hear how high school students participated and benefitted from a virtual prom on Avacon Grid and how a group of educators, in multiple remote geographic locations, volunteered their time and skills to make it happen.

Randall Deich / Logansan Deich, Tanya Martin / Gridjumper

While virtual worlds might be emerging pedagogy for many, as veterans we have an dystopic opportunity to show other educators how deeper learning can take place in immersive environments. Come join us for a discussion on how to showcase your worlds and once again open the portal to the creative, educational, technical, and experiential metaverse.

Chris Luchs / Abacus Capalini, Kae Novak / Kavon Zenoka

This panel will discuss the spontaneous social architecture and journey of the Virtual Harmony community. The Virtual Harmony community offers 12 Open Simulator grids supporting its work with small communities, immersive 3D courses, and learning simulations. Speakers will share their journey in the virtual community. Highlights will include an overview of Virtual Harmony’s Gemeinschaft framework for resiliency in times of dissociation.

Five areas of the Gemeinschaft framework to be discussed by the panel are: kinship and fellowship, psychological and spiritual nourishment, creative ideation of art-of-the-possible, collaborative design and creation of virtual habitats for Gemeinschaft, and harmonious healing and resiliency from co-living in Gemeinschaft. The concept of social dissociation will be briefly described along with healing recommendations.

Andrew Stricker / Spinoza Quinnell, Barbar Truman / Delightful Doowangle, Cynthia Colongne / Lyr Lobo,
Elizabeth Stricker / Algernon Loire, Francisca Yonekura/ Frankie Antonelli, JJ Jacobson / JJ Drinkwater, Kathy Flitter / Lyn Skylark

We’ve been escaping into virtual worlds for decades. With the resurgence of VR, now is the time to go to the next level. Let’s take a look at what is needed out of the software that will ultimately empower us to live our lives virtually.

Kalila Lakeworth

Andrew Stricker / Spinoza Quinell

Panel discussion moderated by Mal Burns

Adam Frisby, Caitlyn Meeks, Kalila Lakeworth, Lacie, Mal Burns

Too Laggy? Then check out this presentation by Bluezy Bleac on understanding “lag” and how to deal with it. He will be explaining the things that cause lag, the reasons behind each, and possible solutions for each of them.

Bleuzy Bleac

A presentation about A Dimension Beyond Inc. and how they have taken a different path on hosting OpenSim, Halcyon, and cybaLOUNGE grids. We will get into the in’s and outs of hosting DreamGrid OpenSim Grids.

We will talk about selling hosting in different ways and the in’s and outs of the different ways. A Dimension Beyond decided to do hosting differently and we will explain how it works. We will also share experiences in hosting Halcyon and cybaLOUNGE.

Myron Curtis / Darkeagle Darkstone
& Steve Lavigne

My owl says, “This presentation must be a keynote.” That is not true, it has to be THE KEYNOTE. In case you arrive on time to listen to the keynote from the beginning then you will know for sure what to answer when you are asked next time, “What do you do for a living?” Then you can answer, “I MAKE AMERIKA ART AGAIN.” And when the person shakes their head or even worse gives you a sign of stupidity, it will be time to tell the naked truth, “I USE OPENSIMULATOR.”

This presentation is based on social science. This presentation uses an AI. This presentation is Art. This presentation is disruptive. The “K” in Amerika stands for a reason, a reason that will be uncovered. In fact, this presentation is all about you. You, being a person who may have heard over the years, “Oh … Really? You still work with Opensimulator, isn’t that like old SL?” In fact, the person might be thinking: “How boring.”

Kisma Reidling / Juliette SurrealDreaming & Reiner Schneeberger / Art Blue

Storytelling is a wonderful means of getting our language learners excited. Recreating such a story in a virtual world would provide a great setting for roleplay and fanfiction. Yet, how difficult is it to recreate scenes of Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter or King Arthur and his Round Table in OpenSim? What about character creation? Changing avatar outfit, clothes and accessories?

When creating the scene, what building skills are required and when it comes to storytelling, what skills are required to come up with a captivating story? These main three challenges will be addressed in an EVO session and we hope to recreate collaboratively a story in OpenSim. Organised by TESOL America every year in January / February thousands of language educators mingle online to learn from each other in a free-of charge 5-week workshops. This year we invite participants to join us in creating story – and perhaps it is the story of EXCALIBUR…..

Heike Philp

This presentation from Infinite Metaverse Alliance® (IMA) and Thales Group discusses research and development progress towards improving open source code for: SceneGate and Future Viewer efforts, EchoVoice server and bridge applications, and a platform agnostic IMABox solution.

The discussion is focused on the development work progress to provide modernized solutions advancing virtual world technologies for everyone. The work of IMA and Thales is in general directed toward broadening use of the Metaverse for Public, Education, Industry and Government sectors but the community as a whole benefits from open source.

Frank Rulof & Lisa Laxton

Session will detail the results of a recent survey of educators (to find out about educators’ expected virtual world and virtual reality learning simulation use during the current pandemic-impacted academic year). Spoiler alert — most of the educators surveyed plan to expand their use of virtual world learning simulations (while the educators foresee a reduction in their use of virtual reality headset-based simulations).

Also, this session will explore the topic of “right sizing” virtual world learning simulations – as guidance [for new and experienced users] on how to maximize student engagement and learning outcomes.

Kay McLennan

The on-boarding experience for Virtual worlds such as OpenSim can be so frustrating for new users that they may never realize the power these environments have for social learning experiences. We argue that by using a very simple browser-based environment such as Mozilla Hubs or Frames by Virbela, we can demonstrate the potential of immersive learning and collaboration to new users.

By progressively showing the increased flexibility in more complex settings that address the shortfalls of the simpler environments, we can convert the frustrated user into an enthusiastic supporter of OpenSim-based worlds. We will present the progression from simple to complex using examples from a SJSU iSchool course and the use of the e-Campus room in Mozilla Hubs as a blueprint for getting people hooked on Virtual Worlds.

A Marie Vans / Amvans, Bethany Winslow

This presentation will highlight some basic best practices that have emerged over 15 years of bringing higher education students into VR environments. Then, areas where additional support and community could help stand-alone educators (with little institutional support) bring open-sim environments to expanded audiences will be raised, seeking to operationalize wiki-like areas of communication that could bridge educators and technologist through important shared concerns.

Topics integrate areas such as: professional and child-focused avatar creation, security, IT components, working with IT departments, institutional buy-in, instructional design support, and the like. The plea is to find collective and communal ways to share, develop and leverage a knowledge base that can facilitate conversations at the interstices of the expanding VR environments.

Eileen O'Connor / Eileen OConnor

Faced with evolving pandemic safety classroom protocols and procedures, and the ever present possibility (or probability) of a rapid switch to all online learning, educators across the academic spectrum are recognizing the need for flexible, adaptable online collaborative technologies that can alleviate the effects of Chronic Video Conferencing Fatigue (CVCF) and restimulate learner engagement.

For the past three years the SUNY Empire State College School of Graduate Studies has hosted half-day residency events in Opensim virtual reality as a means to introduce new students to the graduate programs to their peers, the faculty, and a broad range of interactive, immersive, collaborative technologies which they may consider for their individual degree programs.

The 2020 residency, held in October, hosted over three times the number of attendees than the previous year from a variety of different degree programs, a clear indication of the increased interdepartmental interest in exploring online interactive immersive technologies. Each successive annual event has incorporated participant feedback from the previous year into the programming development of the following event iteration This slideshow presentation outlines the iterative steps and methodologies involved in the creation of a large, successful, immersive, engaging and informative event in Opensim.

Scott Dolphin

Moderated by Maria Korolov

Planned Panelists:

Lisa Laxton

Mike Lorrey

Open Simulator is an open source project written and maintained by volunteers. But the people writing the code cannot test every facet of this huge project. They depend on “reporters” to try everything out, verify when things are fixed and report new issues. Any of us can be reporters but to be effective there are procedures you should go through. Don’t just whine “X doesn’t work! Fix it!” You should go through several steps to submit a good bug report. It is not easy! I’ll go through the steps with some war stores of experiences I have had reporting for OpenSim. I hope to encourage more people to help improve OpenSim by reporting bugs and I hope to show you how to improve the quality of your bug reports.

Kayaker Magic

Decentraland is a decentralized virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain. Within the Decentraland platform, users can create, experience, and monetize their content and applications, accessed by common web browsers.

Michael Lorrey / Mike Lorrey

With the sudden need for more virtual environments, everyone is scrambling to investigate alternatives. Open-source virtual worlds provide great opportunities but are best discovered through professional networking. The Community Virtual Library shares a plan for networking across the metaverse.

Becky Adams / Elli Pinion, Valerie Hill / Valibrarian Gregg

Panel Discussion – moderated by Mal Burns

Talking about Statistic usage of Open Simulator in the last year.

Mario Korolov

Our group has been developing applications for the Opensim virtual world platform for a number of years. We describe our goals, the design approaches that emerged, and our development processes. We share the best of our lessons learned. These stories from the trenches will be useful to individuals who (1) are interested in the behind the scenes aspects of our effort, (2) are looking into starting their own adventure in developing serious virtual world applications or (3) are interested in how we are facilitating virtual learning environments.

Ann Nowak, John Mela, Kevin Cozens / Andrew Hellershanks, Ludovic Lotoah, Ramesh Ramloll, Sue Caxton

The presentation looks at the history of swimming places in and along the River Mersey in the north-west of England. It shows how they developed from humble horse-drawn bathing machines via an innovative floating pool moored mid-river to what was the largest aquatic stadium in the world in its time. Swimming pools frequently occupy a cherished place in personal and shared memories and this suggests possible applications for virtual recreations.

Graham Mills

Isabel Valverde

“Hybrid Tech” means combining tools in optimal ways by playing to their strengths and mediating to their weaknesses, relative to the use at hand. In this session hybrid tech will be demonstrated via presenter narrative and audience participation using laptop and mobile devices to access Augmented Reality, Web 2.0, and Web3D applications and environments, all from within the OpenSimulator environment.

James Neville / Sitearm Madonna

We are going to Amerika. This was the call many of our ancestors followed and it is again to become the call. Let us give this call a voice. [You will hear, “We all living in Amerika. Amerika ist wunderbar.” ….] You heard Rammstein is singing: Amerika ist wunderbar. America is wonderful. We have this kind of a wonderful America for you. It is called AMERIKA.ART — Amerika Art is the new format for an immersive art show. It happens in virtual and in the real place, the village Amerika, Germany. Let us look at this place in the way Google calls Actual Reality. Then the concept of the immersive Art challenge will be outlined. It leads to a new term for the arts: Actual Virtual Reality and to a come together at the AVRDays 2022. The call for AMERIKA.ART starts in January 2021 and the presentation, the Grand Opening, will happen in May and June 2022.

Kisma Reidling / Juliette SurrealDreaming
Reiner Schneeberger / Art Blue

Welcome to the 8th annual OpenSimulator Community Conference. This year’s event features presenters across the globe who will be highlighting the user projects and core development work of the OpenSimulator platform. We will kick off #OSCC20 with an overview of the latest features in the OpenSimulator software update and conversation with Core Developers of the platform.

Find out where the platform is headed and learn more about the developers who make the software happen!

Crista Lopes, Cynthia Colongne /Lyr Lobo, Joyce Bettencourt / Rhiannon Chatnoir, Kevin Cozen / Andrew Hellershanks,
Melanie Milland, Robert Adams / Misterblue Waves, Ubit Umarov

LISA LAXTON & FRANK RULOF
This presentation from Infinite Metaverse Alliance® (IMA) and Thales Group discusses development of a new open source viewer for the OpenSimulator community focused on improvements in usability, accessibility, and interoperability. Development is driven by inclusive “design thinking” while adding capabilities for the future to address gaps in development aimed at the needs of new users and those with different abilities that may be digitally marginalized.

RACHEL UMOREN - Each year, there are 2.5 million newborn deaths, most of which are preventable. One of the top causes of neonatal mortality is when a baby does not breathe at birth. Newborn resuscitation training reduces newborn deaths, but knowledge and skills from in-person training rapidly decay, sometimes in a matter of weeks after training.

VALERIE HILL / VALIBRARIAN GREGG & ALYSE DUNAVANT-JONES - This presentation will share an overview of open sim projects developed by the Community Virtual Library. The CVL Hypergrid Resource Library, located in Avacon and Kitely, as well as several other projects will be highlighted.

Shocking Title for an OpenSim Conference I know, but let me tell you about my OpenSim Journey. This presentation will showcase the work I’ve done and then try to get answers for the depressing decline in schools and teachers interested in OpenSim collaboration and creation. Let’s talk about OpenSim and please change my mind.

KAE NOVAK & CHRIS LUCHS - Join us for an exploration of the liminal state or in-between state that exists between the metagame and players in games and virtual environments. This liminal state has now extended to transmedia experiences to include the LitRPG genre. This panel will discuss the exploration of the liminal state where a player (learner) can take advantage of the duality that facilitates deep learning and creativity.

ANABEL ORIGIN - Language Teacher & Lecturer
Our objective is to illustrate an example use case for the RezMela system.
We will focus on a few built creative scenes that can be shared by students in order to achieve specific gaming and learning goals.