Who's On Second?

Moving the Show

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:20:51 -0800

This podcast will be moving from podshow. Please visit http://rabble.ca/rpn/wos for future episodes and subscription.

Episode Thirteen - A Heart of Gold - Jackie Brosseuk

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 05:00:00 -0800

I first Riversong Garden, Jackie Brosseuk in real life, a couple of months ago, when she invited me to watch the sunrise over Betterworld Island.

Jackie and her inventor husband Randy Brosseuk, recently found themselves the owner of this uplifting plot of good energy. It's a strange journey for the Canadian couple, who in the real world, design and sell heavy industrial equipement used in alluvial gold mining and other applications. Well, that, and ship containers full of free tools and empowering technology to the South Pacific and more recently Africa.

Betterworld Island is a small Second Life Jewel. We've already met two Betterworld residents in this podcast.

In Episode Four I interviewed In Kenzo, who's Amortation Studio has build the calming and crystalline Manor Meta there.

And, in Episode Six, we met Delia Lake, who has established some beautiful eco-systems there.

Now Jackie is looking to the future. Manor Meta is moving to the NMC campus and Betterworld is exploring new ways that global aid groups like Care, the International Rescue Committee can come together and make positive change.

Jackie spoke with me about being at the crossroads on Betterworld Island from her home in Revelstoke British Columbia.

You can learn more about her work at http://www.omidyar.net/group/bwi/.

Episode Twelve - Social Profit in the Myst

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 03:55:00 -0800

I first met film maker and facilitator Bill Weaver on the idyllic Cortes Island on Canada's west coast. Bill was co-hosting the famous Media that Matters there at the Hollyhock Resort, which looks like Hobbit Town organically cross-pollinated with an upscale scout camp. But, these days, Bill is nutured a new, and as yet unnamed virtual island in Second Life. Right now it's just a precambrian hump of crags and rocks with some intriguing infrastructure in its bowels. But, Bill hopes it will be a space where for-profits and social profit groups can come together, meet well, and change the way each other work. He spoke with me about his new water-rimmed enterprise, via Skype, from his home in Victoria, British Columbia.

If you'd like to learn more about Media That Matters and Hollyhock you can at: www.hollyhock.ca.

Please contact me at wmacphail@gmail.com. My company website is w8nc.com.

Episode Eleven - Hypertext in the Memory Palace

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 05:00:00 -0800

Richard Smyth is the Library Media Specialist/Technology Coordinator at Catherdal High School in Boston. Over the past couple of months Richard and I have been corresponding, and it turns out we both cut our teeth in new media by exploring hypertext, even hypertext before there was a web to put it on. We were both fascinated by the postlinear possibilities for storytelling that was more like stream of consciouness than traditional tale weaving. Richard's been using hypertext, Multi User Domains and now Second Life to push the edges of writing, communicating and getting his students engaged with the art of self-expression. He spoke with me about hypertext and electracy (literacy for a web-enabled world) a few evenings ago, from his home just outside of Bean Town.

If you'd like to learn more about electracy you can at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electracy and you can find Richard's bio at http://www.anabiosispress.org/rsmyth/bio.html.

Please contact me at wmacphail@gmail.com

My company site is w8nc.com.

Episode Ten - Dancing With the Graces - Catherine and Alan P

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 05:00:00 -0800

Catherine and Alan Petersen are, in real life, a couple with a shared love of art. Catherine is an academic programs librarian and Northern Arizona University and Alan is the chair of the art department at Coconino Community college in Flagstaff Arizona.

Right now Alan's real life artwork in handing in the couple's Ceres Chenille South Shore Gallery in Second Life. It's gestural and evocative of the raw landscapes Alan has visited in his home state and Scotland. There's even a touch of quantum physics influence tossed in for good measure. But soon that work will be replaced by historical artwork curated by groups of Alan's students.

Alan and Catherine plan to bring students into Second Life and let them (with Catherine's help) not only research historical art, but put together real gallery shows in an unreal space. If you'd like to learn more about their gallery and Alan's work please visit:

http://www.apetersenpaintings.com/

You can contact me, or send me show feedback at wmacphail@gmail.com. Thanks for listening.

My company website is w8nc.com.

Episode Nine - The Island Where Anything Can Go Wrong

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 04:45:20 -0800

On Asterix and Obelix people prepare for the worst Second Life,and real life can offer. The islands are the home of Play2Train, a disaster simulator complete with hospitals, helicopters fire trucks and restaurants which can blow up at a moments notice. Play2Train is the Second Life component of the Idaho Bioterrorism Awareness and Preparedness Program, IBAPP for short. And, the technical implementation of the program is headed up by Ramesh Ramloll (Moriz Gupte in Second Life). Neill Piland is the director of the overall IBAPP program.
Ramesh is a research assistant professor in Institute of Rural Health at Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho. Learn more at http://irhbt.typepad.com/play2train.

Episode Eight - Blood Plagues and Red Rain - John Anderton,

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 02:28:00 -0800

I first met John Anderton in mid-December at Second Life exhibit I helped create for the Alzheimer Society of Ontario.

He was there as his avatar, Hygeia Philo, a striking redhaired woman in a natty business suit and a santa cap, doing a wicked job of nailing a concentration type game we had folded into the exhibit.

In real life John is the Acting Associate Director for Communications Science at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Within the CDC, he works in the National Centre for Public Health Informatics.

What that boils down to is that John gets to explore new media, like Second Life for the Centers for Disease Control, He's helping them get health information out to the public using emerging technology. Going to new worlds to deliver health messages isn't new to John. In the late 80s he took the CDCs message about AIDS into the gay clubs and bath houses where the message was needed most.

I spoke with him a couple of weeks ago, via Skype.

If you'd like to learn more about the CDC you can at www.cdc.gov/

If you're part of a educational or nonprofit group doing cool stuff in Second Life and would like to be featured in this podcast, or if you just have some show feedback please drop me a line at wmacphail@gmail.com.

In real life I run a company called w8nc (w8nc.com). I help nonprofits and educators with emerging technology, like Second Life. Let me know if I can be of service.

I'm Wayne MacPhail, Medium Helvetic in Second Life. Drop by if you're in game. Talk to you next time.

Episode Seven - The Undead Librarian - Floria Hand

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 20:47:37 -0800

This time out, a 3D world smackdown between Second Life and World of Warcraft. Abbi Ball is a librarian with three lives, her real life one in Palo Alto, California, her role as as reference guide on Info Island and her most unusual one, as an Level 60 undead priest in World of Warcraft. Massively multiplayer online games, the generic name for 3D spaces like Second Life, neither began nor will end with the Linden Labs creation.

There are nearly two dozen major MMOGs available today, most of them swords, scorcery and fantasy based. In the MMOG space, World of Warcraft is the undefeated champion, with about 60 per cent marketshare. And Second Life's recent, and problematic peak concurrent user level of 20,000 pales in comparison to World of Warcraft's 660,000 concurrent user numbers. But, despite their differences in popularity and audience, both Second Life and World of Warcraft have roots in text-only games that go back as far as the mainframes of the 1960s. Abbi's an expert on 3D worlds and their history. I met her, as Floria Hand in Second Life, on Info Island a short while ago and we got to comparing her adventures in World of Warcraft with her time spent in Second Life. I thought our chat deserved a podcast episode. You can visit Abbi's 3D world website at: http://www.web3d.net/.

Contact me at wmacphail@gmail.com My company website is http://w8nc.com

Episode Six - Riding the Orca - Linda Kelley

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:39:00 -0800

There are all sorts of landscapes in Second Life - hyperformalist, hyperactive, mechanical, Victorian and sometimes, just sometimes, gentle, natural and refreshing. Linda Kelley, Delia Lake in Second Life, has created a half dozen of those sorts of landscapes. Well, waterscapes, really. She's the Centre for Water Studies on Better World Island (Better World 24, 51, 22). They're tiny perfect habitats full of fish, mammals and flora Linda hopes remind us all how precious water is. In the real world Linda is a success consultant who believes how we move through the world and appear in it can shape and improve our progress, as individuals and as a species. She spoke with me, via Skype, from her home in Boston. If you'd like to learn more about Linda's real life work, check out cultivatingexcellence.com. If you're part of a educational or nonprofit group doing cool stuff in Second Life and would like to be featured in this podcast, or if you just have some show feedback please drop me a line at wmacphail@gmail.com. In real life I run a company called w8nc. I help nonprofits and educators with emerging technology, like Second Life. You can find a link to my company site w 8 n c.com in the show notes. Let me know if I can be of service. I'm Wayne MacPhail, Medium Helvetic in Second Life. Drop by if you're in game.

Epidsode Five - Leaps and Parachutes - Beth Kanter

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 20:25:00 -0800

Beth Kavka seems to be everywhere in Second Life. Well, everywhere there's a nonprofit, anyway. At a weekly gathering of nonprofits I attend she sports wide anime eyes, ornate kimonos and has about her the a multitasking dervish energy that can't fail to pull you in. Beth, her last name is Kanter in the real world, has been attracted to nonprofits and technologies for decades. She is a former flautist and arts administrator and now a professional blogger about the use of social media tools in the nonprofit sector. She also calls herself a digital immigrant coach.

If you'd like to learn more about Beth you can at bethkanter.org. If you're part of a educational or nonprofit group doing cool stuff in Second Life and would like to be featured in this podcast, please drop me a line at wmacphail@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you. I'm Wayne MacPhail, Medium Helvetic in Second Life. Drop by if you're in game.

Episode Four - The Green Fairy of Amoration Studio

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 20:13:00 -0800

Who's On Second? is a podcast about educators and nonprofits who have jacked into the online 3D community called Second Life. In each episode of this podcast, I'll chat with some of most interesting groups and individuals exploring this new online space. This time out, a former chaplin turned Second Life activist, artist and movie maker.
I first saw In Kenzo at a meeting of nonprofits in Second Life. She was hard to miss, being green about eight feet tall, and sporting spikey white hair and gossamer but very goth bat wings. In real life, the giant goblin is Evonne Heyning, a young woman who heads up the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Amoration Studio. Amoration tackles a wide variety of creative ventures for corporations, like Telus, a mobile phone company here in Canada, and a host of activist and nonprofit groups like Betterworld, a group which has created the powerful Camp Darfur simulation you'll hear Evonne mention in the interview. Evonne, In Kenzo, is as a machinima producer. Machinima are movies filmed inside virtual worlds like Second Life.
I began my interview with Evonne by asking about her multifaceted past. If you'd like to learn more about the studio visit http://evoamo.googlepages.com/amoration If you're part of a educational or nonprofit group doing cool stuff in Second Life and would like to be featured in this podcast, please drop me a line at wmacphail@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you. This podcast is a part of the rabble podcast network at rabble.ca. You can support this an other great podcasts on the rpn by becoming a rabble member. Please visit rabble.ca to find out how. I'm Wayne MacPhail, Medium Helvetic in Second Life. Drop by if you're in game.

Episode Three - The Homeless Professor - Harry Pence

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 03:41:00 -0800

In Second Life, John2 Kepler is a natty gent in a tweed cap and jacket with a swatch of rainbow on the front. In real life, John2 is Harry Pence, a Distinguished Teaching Professor of Chemistry at the State University of New York. He's 70 and has been a SUNY prof for 40 of those years. Harry's aways been ahead of the curve on technology and how it helps communities and students grow and learn together. I caught up with him just a month after he'd got caught up in Second Life. We began the conversation back with his earliest online experiences.

Episode Two: Code PINK - Women for Peace

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 03:45:00 -0800

CodePINK is a real world female social justice group, based in the U.S. CodePINK (www.codepinkalert.org) opposes the war in Iraq, all wars, really and uses absurdist humour, pink lingerie and solid activism to colour political debate. There are Code Pink chapters across the U.S., but the one in Second Life is probably the most rustic. It's a small cottage filled with posters, CodePINK attire and literature and art. The cottage was created by avatar Ana Herzog, Nancy Hill, in real life, a mother of two who also founded the Tucson, Arizona chapter of the fun-loving, but deadly serious group. I caught up with Nancy Hill this week to find out why she's intent on getting Second Lifers to think pink. Got an SL nonprofit or educator group you'd like me to feature on "Who's On Second?" Drop me a line a wmacphail@gmail.com or IM me in SL at Medium Hevetic.

Episode One: Health Info Island

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 03:41:00 -0800

Second Life (secondlife.com) is a 3D virtual world you enter via software on your computer. In Second Life you're represented by a virtual you, an avatar. Male or female, tramp, vixen, animal, average Joe or fashion plate, how your avatar looks is up to you. My avatar, named Medium Helvetic looks like a skinny bald old guy, because I'm too shy to make myself look like a cross between an extra from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a pole dancer, a combination that is surprisingly popular. My avatar, under my mouse and keyboard command can walk, run and fly, yes, fly, through hundreds of square miles of terrain, shops, houses and nighclubs. There are lots of nightclubs. But, there are also dozens of educational and nonprofit institutions, that have created storefronts and campuses, 3D versions of real campuses in Second Life. Why? That's what this podcast is about. In each episode I'll be talking to a Second Life citizen from the education or nonprofit sector about the whys, hows and wheres of Second Life. My first guest on Who's On Second goes by the name of Carolina Keats in Second, Carol Perryman in the real world. Carol is a Phd candidate at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information & Library Science, where she's focussing on evidence based medicine. Meanwhile, in Second Life, she's heading up the Health Info Island project a professional resource for citizens, real and virtual, who need help with vital life decisions.