The 3rd Forum is scheduled for Thursday 3 April 08, at 8:30pm AEDT at the Amphitheatre. Shai agreed to facilitate.

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.

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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.

Apologies were made by Abi Goldflake and Lise ………… from ABC staff who were unable to make it to the forum but who requested copies of the Summary.

Prior to the commencement of the Forum, Shai Khalifa asked Abi to find out what the ABC position was on the new rules Linden Lab announced during the week on the use of the SL badging and logos. Abi undertook to find out and let us know.

Some discussion was had on this issue, but it was not part of the Forum topics for general discussion.

It was not until after the Forum and I was reviewing my notes that I realised that the suggestion by Juanita Deharo for more CSIRO talks had been missed.

Suggestion numbers 8, 10, 11, 12, 14 and 22 are related closely – being the topic of a sl/rl interface -
8. A jtv tie-in (Elsie Broek)
10. More science in general (Wolfie Rankin) with official guest hosts (Nicci Lane) and connections with ABC science shows (Juanita Deharo) eg “Sleek Geeks” (quadrapop Lane).
11. SL broadcasting eh. Rage (Nicci Lane) hosted from inworld (Wolfie Rankin)
12. Links to Good Game (Elsie Broek)
14. Connection with ABC Arts programmes (Juanita Deharo)
22. The Chasers to do a virtual show (Angsty Rossini)

Much of the discussion centred on the amount of commitment that is required to be able to produce for the ABC. It had been pointed out in the previous week by Abi that ABC programs didn’t show much support for interfacing with SL. Some discussion went on around possible scheduling of inworld programs and it was suggested that once a month might be a possibility (given the amount of time and effort required to produce a program) and that maybe multiple programs – each taking a month – but one per week being part of the Island content might work. Which would give something each week, across a variety of programming.

A suggestion that they be produced (as by Paisley Beebe) and shown on SLTV resulted in most of those present saying that they didn’t watch SLTV (Nicci Lane).

Streaming ABC programming into SL was not generally considered a good idea – and the meeting was encouraged to consider SL as a different medium to TV. Also, the issue of streaming content into SL was again raised and discussed and it was pointed out that ABC was not in a position to allow streaming.

It was generally agreed that content such as Rockit was a good use of SL.

The suggestion of production grants was made – either grants by ABC in way of support or from outside funding bodies.

There were a lot of tangential suggestions made to the point of ABC rl/sl content. Please refer to the Chat transcript for more detail on these. Many of them could be incorporated into the concept of artist community events as per Forum 1 discussion and more detail in this Forum.

However, it was considered that the integration of sl and rl was not the thing to do, and that without ABC current programs deciding to take SL, the integration wouldn’t happen.

The creation of inworld content for inworld use was seen as more possible (Simon Kline) – with possible SL mimics of RL programming such as Sunday Arts – though it was suggested that ABC personnel be asked to interview inworld – on what they think about emerging technologies (Trinity Coulter).

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The following suggestion created a lot of very positive discussion and is closely allied with discussions from Forum 1.

13. Writer’s studios given out like residencies in rl ( Arton Tripsa) with places to live around the island for artists (Gary Hazlitt) and an in-world arts coordinator (Arton Tripsa).

The discussion of what a Creatives Community would consist of resulted in many ideas including resident mentors on a 2-month cycle, that any builds required by Aussie ones, that the area be sited between the beach and the JJJ area, that it not be just visual arts.

A number of people also committed to contributing donations towards prize money. CaptainCrunch Hax stated “I would gladly offer a “Bounty of $L1000″ every quarter to provde community payment or prize for a competition held on ABC Island for the betterment of the island and SL.”, which summarises the purpose of the donations. Dirk Octagon offered 1000L, which was matched subsequently by Gary Hazlitt, Alberik Rotaru, Shai Khalifa, CaptainCrunch Hax, Arton Tripsa and Nicci Lane. Juko Tempel agreed to hold all moneys.

Juko undertook to see what the ABC position was on accepting donations for prizes. However, further discussion was around the philanthropic aspect of “sponsoring” or “patronage of” a project. And that the “prizes” weren’t just for the monetary value but more as a means of recognition of talent. The act of “sponsoring” could also be for residency resources.

CaptainCrunch Hax summarised the concept of donations in the following: “members of the (ABC Friends) community will/may donate L$ or obejcts as prizes for in-world competitions held on the island. These prizes would be pooled and maintained by the “ABC Admin” group (or delegated individual), and offerred as a prize pool for such compeitions.”

Arton Tripsa suggested ABC could reward artists by by publishing winning short stories and reading them on radio.

The creation of plaques may also be a way of acknowledging artists and could be tied with any sponsorship eg. Sponsored by Wolfie, or The Wolfie Bone Prize (Wolfie’s name being used for example only of course) or by Auntie.

A competition winner’s board was suggested by Cabsav Lane as a means of recognition.

The concept could be merged with the classes idea (from Forum 1) with established artists being asked to conduct workshops/masterclasses (Linc Nefarious). Les Murray was suggested on the topic of poetry.

Gary Hazlitt offered to take carriage of the project to establish the Creatives Community along with Juanita Deharo and Arton Tripsa. This group will liaise with others who have put forward suggestions on this issue from both Forums.
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15. Site for the Australia Council (Juanita Deharo)

This idea seemed to have a fair amount of support in relation more to applying for grants of various kinds, or assisting others to apply – to create content for SL. The instance of the Australia Council (Ozco) giving a grant for a residency in SL last year for $20,000 was cited.

It was pointed out by Juanita Deharo that Ozco were keen on new media, and that the possibility of ABC co-sponsoring grants applications be explored by the to-be-appointed ABC SL Events Co-ordinator.

As SilkCharm Sachertore had experience in applications, she offered to be part of the Creatives Community team to help people develop grants applications. Grants are considered to be not just money, but recognition, publicity and credibility to artists/creatives.

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At this point discussion led onto the use of Forums for discussing such things as artist programmes etc. It was pointed out that Forum 1 included discussion of the development of a blog which could be used as an offline discussion/debate platform.

Gary (who had carriage of the idea from Forum 1) wanted a name suggested, and SilkCharm Sachertorte suggested Aunties Avatars, which got general approval. Gary undertook to register the name and set up the site. Other people indicated their familiarity with Wordpress (used to create the blog) and Gary will liaise with them to create a team to manage the blog. These included Juko Tempel and Diag Anzac.
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Alberik Rotaru had offered in Forum 1 to take carriage of the Book Club but needed help with it so it was suggested that he get Gary to send a notice out through the group for assistance. Gary agreed.
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One of the key themes that has run through both Forums is the need for Community – shared knowledge, talent, skills – and places or avenues to let both the Community and others experience the outcomes.
Nic Nefarious stated: “the important thing is to build a community to arract people here to create and to experience” which seems to sum up the general feeling of both groups.

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Some discussion occurred after the Forum was concluded and will not be fully summarised here, but is contained in edited form in the Chat Log document.

One of the suggestions to come out of this discussion was for a third Forum be convened for SL Friends Admin to discuss the new roles and any other issues that may be relevant.

This was scheduled for Thursday 3 April 08, at 8:30pm AEDT at the Amphitheatre. Shai agreed to facilitate.