These Forums came about because the ABC Friends felt they wanted to contribute to the life of the ABC Second Life presence.

Prior to the first Forum, a backgrounder document was distributed which outlined the reasons for the Forum, how it would run, and what would happen to anything that came out of it.

At the beginning of the Forum each person was issued with a list of the suggestions so far made during IM chat discussions.

The Forum was facilitated by Shai Khalifa, and Abi Goldflake represented ABC interests. A number of people turned up to take part and discussion was kept fairly close on topic.

Following is a summary of the suggestions made and the expansion of them – with what was decided at the time as a way to take the suggestion forward.

1. Ability to contact ABC admin.
part a) ABC Admin have a presence on the island at least once a week for consultation/chat (quadrapop Lane)

It was established that Admin was essentially ABC staff, but that ABC Friends admin had a role to play also.

Presence by ABC staff was suggested as regular time each week, preferably in the Australian after hours (when most people are inworld) to be effective.
It was pointed out that contacting ABC Friends Admin wasn’t difficult, but ABC staff was.

Weekly formal office hours for ABC Admin. Monthly scheduled ABC-Staff session.
And by adding more people to the ABC Friends Admin list there would be more people available from across major time zones. A weekly session could also provide added support to Admin people.

Volunteers could also meet newbies and show them around, welcoming people with a role that has limited abilities who can help and advise. ABC Friends Admin people need to have more abilities to be able to deal with issues that arise.

As an outcome of this topic, ABC Friends Admin was expanded and a number of people added to the role following a number of those present volunteering their time and services. Simon Kline offered to hold an orientation class for any new Admin staff.

part b) An SL blog on website (Juanita Deharo)
An SL section already exits on the website but doesn’t get regularly updated. As part of the ABC website a “Virtual Worlds” forum with an SL blog was suggested or at least a link to a third party moderated blog. As run/host/moderating a blog takes time, a third party might be a good way to to as there wouldn’t be so much pressure to moderate. SLoz was suggested as the Meta Journal already has a blog. Various people who volunteered for Friends Admin were prepared to work on this aspect, including tailored RSS feeds. Lowell’s had previously offered to host an ABC blog on the Meta Journal.

The blog could be used for announcements of weekly events, and editorial. with a weekly discussion topic and the ability for people to begin their own topics. Headings suggested “ABC Island Arts”, What’s on ABC Island”.

A link from the ABC website would be added to the forum when it’s created.

Various names for the blog were suggested:
ABCinSL, ABC;s Virtual Friends, ABC 3, SLabc, Little Aunty, ABC Pi, ABC 3.0, abc30, abc3d, ABCSL.

The following examples were put forward:
http://www.gianfarpeaks.com/public/index.php
http://www.freeforums.org

It was decided that further discussion on this would happen offline between the people interested in developing the name and the possible website.
Gary Hazlitt, Simon Kline,
_________________________

2. Some way of navigating around the island so that you can come back to start point easily. (quadrapop Lane)
Old style phone boxes were suggested around the island for people to go to to tp elsewhere or some other easily identifiable icon that’s an obvious transport station. The ability to get anywhere on the island from anywhere. Additional stations set up for events should also have tp back to base. A simple, easy-to-use tp board or ABC logos which tp back to base. It was decided that the existing map was not sufficient.

Lighthouses from Round The Twist were suggested constructed so that each segment goes to a different location, clearly labeled.

It was also suggested that more easily identification of what the island was for was necessary. For example, the words Australian Broadcasting Corporation, to differentiate it from other meanings of ABC in other countries.

It was decided that Admin staffs would take this issue on as it was something well within the existing skills of the group. The issue of use of the ABC lissajous logo was a concern.
________________________________________________________

3. Seek film makers and see what they’re doing, then have an ABC film night. (Nicci Lane)

This topic received a lot of animated discussion and is related to suggestions 4 and 13 of the list.

A “Tropfest”-like event was suggested annually – connected through SFAs i.e. Metro Screen, QPIX, Open Channel, MRCetc etc.

Categories to include machima to allow for gamegen films or SL films

Suggestions included a Doug Rickard Memorial, ABC characters created as giveaway avatars.

It was pointed out that something like SL demonstrates the usefulness of SL to be a film or drama storyboarding tool

The suggested names were SLopfest (most popular and suggested by Tai), Stropfest, It was also decided that it had to be upfront about being PG.

The festival could also be integrated into the Tropfest event as is done in other countries such as the Berlin Festival.

Various names for prizes were suggested. SLogies, SLoscars, SLammies, SLafis.

A meeting was suggested to specifically discuss further the concept of the Slopfest with Juanita recommended as taking carriage.

Abi offered to assist with payment for registering an appropriate website name for the festival (which became referred to as Slopfest by popular default).
____________________________________________________

4. Use the sim for Arts programs (Juanita Deharo)

Juanita was thinking of something like ‘Creative Australians’ when putting this suggestion forward.

Running an SL mirror of current exhibits was suggested and more ABC content either as a click through or streamed inworld.

It was suggested that the ABC island needs to do things which aren’t available currently in SL.

Building competitions which result in an exhibition were suggested including such things as speed-building (as held on DReams). ABC management to do the judging. Exhibitions to be only for limited time to preserve prims.

This issue relates closely to suggestion 13, so they were concatenated into the same discussion.

Changing artist residencies with exhibitions including visual, writing, architecture, photography, sculpture etc. An artist’s community.
Oz writers and other artists could benefit from somewhere to live that is not too expensive where during our waking hours there is a community. We need a place to showcase our wares. An artists’ village if you like, like Montsalvat. We have problems of isolation in the rl. We seem to have similar probs in SL. Time differences make it hard, currency exchanges make it more expensive.

It was suggested that one of the current problematic (laggy) environments be replaced with a ‘Friends Admin’-run competition/review/ehibition space

Art talks as with Artropolis. It was agreed that there were plenty of galleries in SL already. Possible tie-in with what’s on the Sunday Arts program for that week with some cross-pollination transcending SL and RL, or with radio programs such as By Design.

A separate meeting on Arts events was suggested following the generation of an arts program. No-one at this time is nominated to take carriage of the arts program or residencies ideas.

Abi offered for ABC to put some L$ towards prizes.

A poetry event was suggested.

A book club/discussion group was suggested. Sited in Laneways Library. A fair amount of support was shown for this suggestion, Alberik volunteered to take carriage of the idea.
_____________________________________________

5. Building tutorials from ABC friends (quadrapop Lane)

This could be part of the thrust of point 1A – the resident-friendly face of ABC Island.

It was pointed out that there already existed a number of tutorials, but not usually in Australian time zones. Also that there were already good youtube tutorials available. What was needed was coordination with links available from the Sandbox.

It was suggested that 8:30 AEDT after people had children in bed etc was a good time to schedule tutorials.

Various people volunteered to run tutorials including Angsty, Simon, Juanita, Clover.

It was suggested that ABC provide a learning space/centre where people can run classes, rotating main building skills such as textures, prims, scripting etc.

Angsty offered to coordinate the ABC Island teaching assisted by quadrapop.

The comment made by Abi about ABC appointing an events coordinator in the next week was received with much gusto by the assembled group. This person could liaise with all members of the group who were coordinating various aspects coming out of this discussion.

She also said that an ABC staff representative could be available in the evenings and weekends for a few hours a week. – which was also well received.

_______________________________________________

6. Aussie photographic work – at Melbourne cafe (Nicci Lane)
Point 6 of the list was generally covered in previous discussion about arts programs and events and therefore was not included specifically for discussion.
__________________________________________________

7. Scripts submissions for writer’s contests (Nicci Lane)

A writer’s studio could be a 2-week competition for example with a possible tie in to Slopfest, and part of the artist’s community, for example: scripts called for, these then filmed, and entered into the festival.

These could showcase Australian culture in SL.

This discussion was somewhat curtailed, but is closely associated with various other items already agreed for coordination.
________________________________________

As we’d covered a fair amount of ground in an hour and a half, it was decided to suspend things at this point and come back to discuss the remainder of the suggestions next week,
Thursday 27 March 8:30pm AEDT.
_____________________________________________
One common theme was the interface of SL and RL ABC programming. That there could be an interchange of broadcasting that includes each medium within the other. Various possible programmes suggested were: The Collectors, The Inventors as well as By Design, Sunday Arts etc.

It was also asked whether the island has to stay as is or whether it can change following a re-assessment of it’s current spaces. It was suggested that some structures could be removed to lower lag, and that some others could be more efficiently used. Abi stated that she would be happy to consider suggestions. This topic to be discussed at another time.

Discussion was also entered into about raising money for the ABC island to fund various activities. Including the use of Donation boxes. As ABC can’t take money the issue becomes complex.

A further topic raised was the ability of those outside of Admin to contribute objects to the Island such as a full original build. This would have to be transferred to an admin person for locating. It was generally agreed that any builds for the Island were to be original builds but that the purchase of items such as furniture was ok. It was also suggested that such builds could be part of a possible competition.

The use of specifically Australian plants only on the island was suggested, with Juanita pointing out that she creates them and that Top Dingo has created flowering gums. Also inclusion of Australian animals and sounds.