All change for OUtopia

Interview by Cadence Mhia with Niall Sclater, Director of Learning Innovation at the Open University.

(Photograph © OU 2009. Used by permission.)

On the 16th December Niall Sclater gave a lecture on Open Life 2 as the avatar Kismet Zapatero (his PowerPoint slides are available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ouvirtualworlds/5271287278/in/photostream/.

During the lecture several things were said that have raised concerns with the residents of OUtopia. The purpose of this interview was to clarify these points and give the residents of OUtopia a clear understanding of what our situation is and the likely consequences in the coming months. Before I begin, let me put his comments into the context of the various Real Life financial threats to the OU (including reduced funding and increased costs) whose cumulative effects will affect not only Real Life OU but also Second Life OU.

Financial threats to OU
1. April 2010: Since the start of Second Life the educational SL islands have enjoyed half price rentals. In April 2010 it was announced that the prices of these islands would double “All education and non-profit private regions of any type, purchased after Dec. 31, 2010, will be invoiced at standard (i.e. non-discounted) pricing. All currently discounted renewals which occur after Dec. 31, 2010, will be adjusted to the new price at that time.” (see http://www.betterverse.org/2010/10/linden-lab-doubling-price-of-virtual-land-for-nonprofits-and-educators.html) Thus, the cost to the Open University for OUtopia and the OU ocean that connects OUtopia to the main OU islands will now be doubled.

2. 08/12/2010: The government issued the “Changes to higher education funding and student support from 2012/13” document which states that “It is expected that all core funding will be cut for lower cost arts and humanities courses and an equivalent amount will be cut from funding for higher cost courses including medicine, dentistry and lab-based courses. (See page 7, http://www.parliament.uk/briefingpapers/commons/lib/research/briefings/snsg-05753.pdf)

3. 08/12/2010: The OU was named in the Universities at Risk report published by the University and College Union. It is named as one of 49 universities who are at risk of struggling to survive the recently announced changes in higher education funding and so may face merger or closure. The report cited three categories of risk with the OU being classified as being ‘medium high’ risk (the lowest of the risk categories ) (See Y. Cook’s article dated 08/12/2010 at http://www.open.ac.uk/platform/news/ou-news/ou-named-ucu-universities-risk-report).

4. 20/12/2010: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is sending out a letter to English universities detailing budget allocations for 2011-12 (with cuts expected to be around 6% on last year's funding). This will not include:
· the expected teaching budget cuts of up to 80% (planned for 2012) that universities hope to replace with annual fees of up to £9,000,
· the axing of teaching grants for all subjects (except for subjects such as maths, science and maths) which is expected by 2014.
During the Spending Review period it is expected that the higher education budget will be reduced by 40%, or £2.9bn, from £7.1bn to £4.2bn by 2014-15. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12019678

5. 20/12/2010: Universities minister David Willetts outlines the precise figures for 2011-12 in a written ministerial statement to Parliament. Critics warned that hundreds of jobs will go and dozens of courses will have to be slashed as the 6% cut announced today will be imposed from April 2011 – more than a year before universities start to get extra income from increased graduate tuition fees. The government wants to see in house payroll, property management and IT functions contracted out to the private sector. Shadow higher education spokesman Gareth Thomas said: ‘On the basis of conversations I have had with vice-chancellors, it is difficult to see how they could not cut courses and staff, so I am afraid student choice will suffer and the quality of their experience at university could be badly affected.’ (See article by Tim Shipman: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1339995/Universities-save-300m-2011--sparking-huge-losses-jobs-courses.html#ixzz18dqSrvay)

Interview with Niall Sclater
Q1. Does the university believe it is ‘at risk’ as stated in the recently published Universities at Risk report?
“The view of the senior management here is that the OU is not under threat of merger or closure. What is certain is that we are engaged in huge efforts across the institution to look at cost savings.”

Q2. When is the renewal of the OUtopia island?
“The invoice has just arrived and I will be paying it now. The lease is for a year so the island will definitely exist that long.”

Q3. Does the OU regard an island for socialisation as a permanent feature of their SL presence?
“We regard this as a fixed feature of the OU’s Second Life presence, if it can show it has enough users and it is self sustainable then it might eventually be more sustainable than the teaching and learning side.”

Q4. What do you envisage as the future of OUtopia?
“It will certainly be there until the end of July 2010 in its current form with its current level of support.
During the next few months we have got to decide whether we can justify its current level of support, the thing is costing us quite a lot from a support point of view. If the community can work out a way to sustain itself then it makes it much more viable. There may well be a future for the social community but the community has got to prove that it can run itself and it will not cost a lot of money. The cost per student is rather high (given how few students presently use it) so the bigger the community can grow the more it justifies itself. “

Q5. You mentioned in your lecture that the residents of OUtopia need to self organise – what do you mean by that and what would you like to see the residents do to enable OUtopia to become self sustainable?
“The residents need to raise their responsibility levels and get everyone organised. If things changed and OUtopia’s residents had a committee where you ran the place and you allocated responsibilities to people who were competent, and were enabled to make changes, then you could become self sustainable.

We need to look at a transition period from now to July 2011 during which the students move to control of the island including policing it. We need to ensure that any potential legal situations aising dealt with appropriately so the OU and the residents need to have appropriate mechanisms in place to deal with situations such as bullying.”

Q6. So an arbitrator whose role it is to resolve resident disputes would be appropriate then?
“Yes.”

Q7. Since the OU needs to monitor any situation that would cause them a legal liability or loss of prestige then would it make sense for it to be an OU member of staff who is both a member of OUtopia and one of the OU’s IT tutors ?
“It might well be but obviously we’d need to discuss with them whether they were prepared to take on that responsibility.”

Q8. We don’t have an ability to change and adapt the island – this ability would help develop a sense of ownership by the residents that is presently not there. Would it be possible for us to have more access to changing the island?
“You haven’t previously been given the power to make any changes but the present costs of making changes are unsustainable so it will need to be done by volunteers. We can potentially ask Ann and Greg over the next few months to train you up. ”

Q9. You are suggesting that we need to attract more students to the island. To do this it would be helpful to have access to the data on the present visitors to the island. We could use this data to find more support from bodies such as OUSA. Can we have access to that data?
“Yes, Greg has installed the person counter – we can check the actual stats as to how many people are using OUtopia and yes these can be made available to you.

This is absolutely brilliant. If you can garner support it gives the island much more future. We are unlikely to be able to justify paying people to keep OUtopia going indefinitely. The question is - can the community become self sustainable?”

Q10. Would you support SL information being put on student home?
“If it was up to me solely then I would probably say yes as I think it provides a valuable service to students. There was a pilot of SL however which was advertised heavily and far too many students tried to get in. That resulted in a lot of frustration by those who were unable to log in or were confused by the sheer number of avatars present. It has perhaps put off some in the university from further engagement with SL. I think very few people really ‘get’ SL and there are also some valid concerns about its technical robustness and accessibility. Somehow we’ve got to get the balance right here. We need more residents to make the community self-sustainable but not so many that it becomes unusable.”

Q11. A OUtopia Focus Group is in development that we hope can reflect the range of residents of OUtopia including undergraduates, postgraduates, tutors and alumni. Would it be possible for me to have access to Deep Think to lure over to us some doctoral students?
“I think that it’s a great idea. I can put you in touch with the person who is responsible for Deep Think Island.”

Q12. The new LOL will be set up so that people can send in their anonymous concerns so that the LOL can be used to help resolve any resident difficulties by directing residents to the appropriate Outopians or by speaking on their behalf if they wish to remain anonymous – what do you think of that idea?
“That’s a really good idea.”

Q13. Any further comments?
“It’s an exciting possibility that OUtopia can be run by the residents – perhaps the community has grown up now and can look after itself and let us see if we can facilitate that.”

Editorial Conclusion
As you can see from the above information, the OUtopia rental is being renewed now (so it is still being charged at the half price rate). As from December 2011 the rate will double and so we have to prove during 2011 that we are a sustainable community that causes little cost to the OU (and does not bring the OU into disrepute) if we are to survive. Niall Sclater indicates above that we have until July 2011 to create a stable self sustainable OUtopia. However, since paragraph 5 of the Financial Threats section above shows that the OU’s revenue stream will drop in April 2011 (and that the government wants university IT functions to be privatised) we don’t know what the consequences will be. The interview with Niall Sclater indicates that he wishes to be proactive in assisting us in moving towards a self sustaining destiny, however, we will all need to work to together and make some rapid changes if that goal is to be met.

If you have any further questions for Niall Sclater we will be happy to do a follow up interview – simply IM Cadence Mhia the questions in SL [or email me at cadence.mhia@gmail.com] and I will endeavour to ensure that as many are answered as possible.

PUSS IN BOOTS WOWS OUTOPIA

(Written by Delayne, theatre critic
Photographs by Tori Landau, for more photos see http://www.flickr.com/photos/ouvirtualworlds/5274224719/)

Puss in Boots - the latest offering from FOUtlights (the OUtopia amateur dramatics society), was a wonderful start to the final week before Christmas.

The final scene of the panto - from left to right: Sahiz De Vaye the king, Tarquin the troll, Whiny Aimhouse the fairy godmother, Harry the miller’s son, Turner the page, Puss (aka Princess Raunchia)

A feature of this very enjoyable production was the eternal theme of ‘nothing is what is seems’ rather appropriate since the SL world is literally a world of its own. Thus, normally in panto we have a principal boy played by a girl in a tight fitting costume, fish net tights and high boots whilst a feisty female plays the female lead. In this production Princess Raunchia (played by Elsbeth Biedermann) cleverly amalgamated both elements by being definitely female including the fish net tights! Titiana Haystack played Harry, the youngest of the miller’s sons who had inherited only three bags of flour and cat upon his father’s death. Again, panto convention was ignored as Titiana’s avatar favoured an obese miller’s son who sported a beard which worked well as a good contrast to Princess Raunchia.

Good and evil are always represented in panto usually via Fairy Queens and Demon King type entities though the cast chose not to follow ‘panto’s’ unwritten rule of Good entering from stage right and Evil from stage left. Puss in Boots, also changed the rules by making the fairy godmother (Whiny Aimhouse) into the bad fairy too. This role was also played by Elsbeth Beidermann who courageously stepped into the part at short notice due to Elsa Dickens being unable to perform on the night. All Evil panto characters either end up being redeemed or destroyed. So in this time honoured tradition the godmother’s fate was sealed by her unwittingly signing away her own fate (and losing her magical powers) when she signed false marriage papers. This allowed Turner (the page) played by Kered Rickena, to come into his own as the ‘dues ex machina’ character (literally the ‘god out of the machine’ so favoured in Roman comedy). So, at the end of the play Turner tidies up all the loose ends (rather appropriate given Kered’s role in OUtopia as the prim warden!).

The world of panto (like many of Shakespeare’s comedies) thrives on mistaken identities and rebirth in another form. Thus, Douglas (‘a game bird’) played by Kickaha Wolfenhaut, was the unfortunate rook destined to repeatedly become pie fillings for the king’s delight by being reborn into various forms e.g. bunny rabbit and finally a multicoloured haddock. The humorous dialogue between the cat (played by Hennamono Morpork) and the rook delighted the audience who saw only too well that the naïve rook was about to become dinner. Pantos have always entertained their audiences by showing the actors skill at quick changes and Kickaha’s changes were well thought out though (as we noticed at the end of panto party) Kickaha’s final change did leave him sporting a haddock’s tail!

On SL where the text is all (and what the text doesn’t say then the avatar must visually show) it was lovely to see that Hatshepsut Linette, who played the king, had given serious consideration as to how he should be portrayed. One wondered whether her interpretation was influenced by Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat’s use of a pharaoh based on the all-time king of pop – Elvis. Hatshepsut’s creation of the Elvis avatar (complete with rotund paunch) and his signature all white costume was a deft stroke and an absolute audience pleaser.

Congratulations to the writers of Puss in Boots (who at the moment we believe to be that world famous and prolific writer ‘Anon’). The dialogue abounded in puns including those within the character’s names, thus ‘Sahiz De Vaye’ appears to being a play on the phrase “c’est la vie” as the name of the king who cared little about life except food . No panto would be complete without the double entrendres (and there were plenty of those) and witty references that would be understood by their audience (in this case there were ample OU world, OUtopia and SL world references to go around).

Audience participation is a key feature of panto. The audience happily contributed ‘he’s behind you’ at just the right place in the production as well as taking pleasure in being designated the Marquis of Carapace’s serfs and confirming that they were working on the Marquis’ land. (At this point the audience contributed to the panto’s humour as only one person managed to avoid the typo’s that infected the rest of the audience in the heat of the moment and correctly named his ‘master’ as the Marquis of Carapace. Of all the responses perhaps Xara’s was the most inventive with her “carspace guy”.) By the later scenes there was some enjoyable bandinage between the audience and the panto characters too. Like others in the audience, one didn’t want to interrupt the flow of the text with too many audience comments but it was apparent that the humour was so good that few could resist inserting the odd comment and there were lots of ‘lol’.

All pantos rely on the unexpected and the odd hint was given in the text that maybe Harry, puss’s master was not actually that attracted to Princess Raunchia and that perhaps his tastes lay elsewhere. So, in the final scene we could look forward to the civil union between Harry and Tarquin (an excellent troll avatar wielding a giant axe in an exuberantly camp manner) played by Rocky Joans.

There were two notable costumes. The fairy godmother went for the girly floral look complete with outlandish pink wand along with very attractive pink and white organza gown). Harry, once he ‘came out of the closet’, wore a very handsome Georgian style dark green suit complete with very tight tights - very appropriate for his new self! Various sets were displayed from the rural idyllic (as the background for the demise of the rook) to the finale where the set emphasised the fairy tale nature of the panto by displaying a little girl’s version of the exterior of a castle that we would expect Barbie or My Little Pony to own - bright pink with fairy-tale turrets.

So, at last we reach the puss – who was very well played by Hennamono Morpork. The reliance on text enabled a joke that would not have been possible in RL. Thus, the audience was quite happily reading the pronunciation of Puss (as in the word ‘cat’) only to find it revealed later in the panto that it was actually Puss (as in pustular infected ulcers caused by his ill-fitting boots!). In true form the panto finished with an unusual twist – Turner, the lowly page, being raised to high estate by the Puss. (It turns out that Puss was actually the king’s daughter Princess Raunchia who had been bespelled by the evil Whiny Aimhouse. At last all the jokes about the princess being into drink and cigarettes that littered the start of the play make sense once it was revealed that the evil fairy godmother had taken the princess’s identity many years ago.) So, at the end, the princess declared her undying love for Turner. The page seemed quite keen on the idea too (which may have been a bit of a surprise to Xara who was killing herself laughing in the audience!).

Puss in Boots did raise issues of just how one effectively translates theatre onto the SL platform. The production relied on a HUD which failed in the last scene, however, the cast quickly and seamlessly rose to the challenge by inserting their character’s name before each piece of dialogue. Song and dance are always a feature of a panto and Puss in Boots finished with the cast enjoying a bit of River Dance.

All in all, Puss in Boots (directed by Eshala Tabacznyk and Kickaha Wolfenhaut) was a very enjoyable and funny panto and no doubt the audience is already looking forward to next year’s production.

Cast
Hennamono Morpork - Puss (a cat)
Titiana Haystack - Harry (a miller's son)
Hatshepsut Linette - Sahiz De Vaye (a king)
Elsbeth Biedermann - Raunchia (a princess)
Kered Rickena - Turner (a page)
Rocky Joans - Tarquin (aTroll)
Kickaha Wolfenhaut - Douglas (a game bird)

Special guest appearance:
Elsa Dickins - Whiny Aimhouse (a fairy godmother)

Events special

With the introduction of regular party nights and pub quizzes there have been quite a few events on OUtopia recently. Here we present a round-up of the latest events. Big thanks to Tori Landau for writing up the articles and providing some great snapshots of the events!

Pub quiz 3
Pub quiz 2
We're off to see the wizard...
Eshala's 2nd rezzday party

Pub quiz

The monthly pub quiz saw a new winner!

It was Friday 25th June and soon after 8pm I teleported to The Open Arms for the ‘Fourth Friday’ quiz. Being a very hot evening, residents had decided to sit outdoors and were already consuming both virtual and real alcoholic drinks apart from Kered who was having a mouse for tea. A real life power cut meant that our Quiz Mistress vanished without warning for a few minutes before the start of the quiz, however, the time was filled talking about iphones, acupuncture, hypnosis, liposuction, and queries from the new contestants about the difficulty level of the previous quizzes. With the return of Jadis, but no sign of Rocky appearing to defend his quiz crown, the instructions on how to take part were issued.

So that we couldn’t spy on her for answers, Jadis stood away from the contestants, but Kered sat on top of the fountain to try and gain an advantage. Perhaps due to this, newcomers were then told that because questions are asked at a fast rate there is no time for cheating and were then taught how to make a note card in which to save their answers. To make a note card, open the inventory, click Create on the top toolbar of the inventory, click on new note, change the description of the note, write in it whatever you need, click save at the bottom of the note, then find new note in note cards under recent items in the inventory, right click it and select rename (for quiz mine was ‘Tori’s answers 25/06’). At the end of the quiz we would swap note cards, Jadis would give each of us the answers on a note card and then via instant message we would give her the score of the person whose answers we had marked.

With note cards at the ready and several people jokingly asking if they got points for doing that, Jadis finally got the quiz underway. There were five categories: name the rivers these capital cities stand on, food & drink, science & nature, sitcoms and film quotes.

Of the fifty questions asked, see how you fare with this selection (answers at bottom of the page)

1. Cairo is on which river?

2. What shape is the pasta called rigatoni?

3. Which subterranean animal shares its name with a measurement of substance?

4. Look at the picture and how many of these sitcoms can you name?

5. Which film does this quote come from: "All the best people have bad chests and bone diseases. It's all frightfully romantic!"?

Perhaps due to the difficulty of the questions frying our brains we then had a major and amusing mix up over the note cards with more than one person marking another’s card and then Jadis receiving different scores for the same person. Eventually the situation was resolved and around 9.30pm the winners were announced: joint second with each winning $500 were Groovy Magic and your very surprised reporter and the winner was Jonno Stromfield who received $750 and the congratulations of everyone. Organising the quiz is time consuming so many grateful thanks to Jadis for doing it and educating us all in areas outside of our academic interests.

Friday 23rd July (fourth Friday) at 8pm is when the next quiz will be held and with Rocky promising to be there to fight for his crown it should be an interesting and fun evening. Please come along and join the regulars, the more the merrier! All of the photos from this quiz can be seen at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ouvirtualworlds/sets/72157624232166845/

Answers to quiz questions: 1. Nile, 2. Tube shaped, 3. Mole,

4. The sitcoms are:

4. (1) The Young Ones

4. (2) MASH

4 (3) Friends

4. (4) Only Fools and Horses

4. (5) Open All Hours

4. (6) Fawlty Towers

4. (7) Chance in a Million

4. (8) Just Good Friends

4. (9) Two point Four Children

4. (10) The Ghostbusters of East Finchley

5. Heavenly Creatures

We're off to see the wizard...

Tori Landau reports on the latest themed party on OUtopia

Our usual party venue is OUtopia’s green, so as instructed I arrived at the green just before 8pm on Saturday 8th May expecting to possibly see the Emerald City. Our Events Officer, however, had other ideas so below me and leading away from the green towards the Exhibition Hall was a yellow brick road. Following the yellow brick road I soon heard voices and began to question my sanity but inspection of the road revealed it to be the source of the audio clips from the film ‘The Wizard of Oz’ with “I’m melting. Melting! Oh, what a world! What a world”, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” and my personal favourite given that it was a university party, “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking!” The road’s ultimate destination turned out to be the OUbliette which is below the Exhibition hall on the seaward side and so after seeing that it was being guarded by flying monkeys I took a deep breath, readied my axe (I was a tin woman) and ventured inside.

As a lot of regulars were either busy in real life (tsk!) or having problems logging into Second Life, for a short while the party was a bit on the quiet side but thankfully some new students turned up and ‘got the party started’. Whilst admiring Jadis’s decor we instructed the new students on how to hear the music, dance and as Linden Labs new policy had come into effect there was an extremely useful exchange of information regarding how to update 3rd party viewers such as Emerald and also Viewer 2 of the standard viewer. It later transpired that out of date viewers had been the cause of the late appearance of some regulars.

Though not compulsory, some of us had dressed for the occasion with Quentin as the tin man, Jadis as Elphaba, Titiana as Dorothy, Angel as a beautiful blue-haired witch, and Rocky not only dressing as but behaving as the lion. GiroBatol fitted in perfectly as a wolf and by bringing on his alt we then had two wonderful sentient wolves bopping away along with the DJ’s very cute dance–containing wolf. Not wishing to disappoint (regulars will know that I nearly always change outfit half way through a party) I changed from being a tin woman to Dorothy and then much hilarity ensued when Xara and Kered arrived – both as Dorothy though Xara had black hair. With Xara’s dog Cassie doubling as Toto for the evening all that missing was the Scarecrow. The conclusion regarding the lack of a scarecrow was that perhaps he had been used by Kickaha for a real life barbecue... a raven’s revenge?

As we had new students to educate some absinthe was handed out ensuring that drunken dancing was again a feature of our parties. Quentin as always played great music and it was wonderful to see so many new students attending the party and having a great time.

When gently asked about the night’s festivities Rocky responded with, “I was vvvvery nervous going to the the Wizard of Oz ppppparty. The music was vvvvery loud and scccary but everyone was very kind and caring - apart from the nasty things behind the ccccurtains. I particularly enjoyed flying round the dance floor. Yours, The Cowardly Lion (please don't yell at me if you don't like these comments)”

Pub quiz

Tori Landau reports on the latest pub quiz.

Shortly before 8pm on Friday 28th May I teleported to my allotment and flew over to the pub. There was a distinct chill in the air so I found the rest of the Open Arms regulars inside and already helping themselves to sandwiches and beverages. Our Quiz Mistress for the evening, Jadis Mai, logged in on time ready to start the quiz; however, due to real life meals being consumed an executive decision was made to wait until 8.15pm. These 15 minutes were not without some excitement though due to the appearance of Kickaha’s alt, Loyd Grossman. The rumour had been that the beautiful red fox had been killed off by the raven; however, here he was in all his magnificent furry glory sitting on a barstool and conversing with OUtopians. It seems though that the raven still has the upper hand in the avatar stakes as just before the quiz started Loyd was logged out and a few minutes later the raven logged in... we thought it may have been to heckle the contestants, but no, he stayed away from the pub much to our relief (just joking Kickaha!).

Jadis sat away from the contestants so that we wouldn’t see the answers (and I think to have a sneaky drink) and then explained to anyone new to the pub quizzes how cheating would be avoided, which is basically that the questions are asked quite quickly so the answer is whatever pops into your head first. The next query from newcomers was how would the answers be recorded and marked. So, the quiz was already becoming educational for anyone who didn’t know how to make a note card in which to record answers. For anyone reading this who doesn’t know how to create a note card you open the inventory, click Create on the top toolbar of the inventory, click on new note, change the description of the note, write in it whatever you need, click save at the bottom of the note, then find new note in note cards under recent items in the inventory, right click it and select rename (for quiz mine was ‘Tori’s pub quiz answers 28/05’). At the end of the quiz we would swap note cards, Jadis would give each of us the answers on a note card and then we would give her the score of the person whose answers we had marked.

Again we were all individual contestants with no teams being entered and after checking this, Jadis started the quiz. There were five categories: Animal Groups, Capital Cities, Collectors, Inventors & Inventions and Sport.

Here is a small sample of the questions asked (answers at bottom of the page)

1. A shrewdness of ...?

2. Capital city of Spain is?

3. A Conchologist collects what?

4. Who invented jeans?

5. Who was the 1996 Formula 1 world champion?

With a bit of false start due to contestants not paying attention, complaints regarding the difficulty of the questions this time around (including accusations directed at the Quiz Mistress during the Collectors round that the words had been made up), swearing, the Publican and others coming in to see how brainy or not we all were and a few note card mix ups that made me think of ‘pass the parcel,’ this quiz night was a lot of fun and very different to last time around when we had all been very quiet and well behaved.

With everything sorted out and note cards finally marked, shortly after 9pm Jadis announced the winners in reverse order: 3rd was Lilac Lupindo winning $250, 2nd was Kira Gilgandra winning $500 and Rocky Joans was the winner (for the second time running) and received $750 and many congratulations. Many thanks to Jadis for organising and running the quiz.

Answers to quiz questions: 1. Apes, 2. Madrid, 3. Shells, 4. Levi Strauss, 5. Damon Hill

Eshala's 2nd rezzday party

Four Daleks and an Engagement by Tori Landau.

Sunday 2nd May and busy with finishing articles for the previous edition of LOL! for publication on the following day I sent some inventory items to Eshala... and then noticed that her rezzday was the following day. Initially, the thought was to have a surprise party so on Sunday evening Hatshepsut distributed note cards, QC was booked, Jadis enlisted to assist with decorating and I came up with a ruse to ensure that Eshala would be on OUtopia at 8pm the following evening. Monday morning arrived and realising that it was the official May day holiday I saw an opportunity to ensure that not only could Jadis and myself decorate throughout the day but that we could contact everyone about the party and so it became a May day party with a Doctor Who theme (Eshala had suggested having a party with this theme). Decorating began around lunchtime and thanks must go to Umbra who made a delightful dalek and to DavidMike who left his TARDIS as part of the decor. Jadis managed to find posters of the Ood, Cybermen, Daleks, K-9 and made a very clever sign that could be changed from reading Happy May Day to Happy Rezzday Eshala. Along with a weeping angel doubling as the dance ball and a spinning vortex dance floor the scene was set to spring the surprise.

The party started promptly and soon there were three sentient daleks (Prash, Joie and Johnt42) ‘ex-dance-inateing’ (thanks to Johnt42 for that!), three 10th Doctors (Kester, Jon and an unidentified someone) a 5th Doctor (QC), a 4th Doctor (Jonno), a weeping angel (me) and glamorous assistants of both genders all bopping away together in peace so it could be said that OUtopia lived up to its name. The rezzday girl arrived slightly late due to changing into a cyberman but thankfully she had not been fully assimilated as her emotions showed through when the true nature of the party was revealed to her via the sign and she was presented with her rezzday cake. “I forgot it was even my rezzday so the party came as a huge, and very lovely, surprise to me”, Eshala commented when armed with my sonic screwdriver I cautiously approached her for a quote.

A sentient K-9 then appeared in the form of Rocky who decided to guard QC’s TARDIS tip jar and threatened to bite the ankles of people who didn’t tip our wonderful DJ so it wasn’t long before the total reached $1000 at which point K-9 was happy enough and went off to dream and count electric sheep no doubt. Several new students came along so it was an opportunity to teach them about the OU in Second Life and there was also discussion of the Doctor Who and Torchwood sims.

A couple dance ball was then requested which proved very popular, caused me to become human and gave Lilac the opportunity to announce her SL only engagement to Kester much to the delight of the assembled partygoers. Lilac and Kester are having their SL only wedding at Kester’s home on 3rd July but there will be a party on OUtopia on 4th July. On behalf of everyone I would like to extend my best wishes to the happy couple for their SL life together.

After that the three sentient daleks started fighting and armed with sonic screwdrivers the rest of us attacked; the result being that the daleks blew up and Breen was hit on the head by a dalek part. And so, after a very eventful evening, the party ended in true Doctor Who fashion with the daleks defeated, Breen recovering from his battle wounds and the rest of us heading back into real life once more to sleep.

Welcome

Welcome to the latest edition of LOL! magazine.
As you can see we have a different format for you this time. Please do let us know what you think of it.
In this issue we have our usual regular features including tutorials on building and scripting. We also have a round-up of the latest parties and events plus exciting news about forthcoming events.
Hope you all enjoy it!

Contents:

Time gentlemen please
Happy Birthday OUtopia
Through the keyhole
Follow the yellow brick road
Getting creative
Pub quiz
Fame at last
Stig tests
New monthly events
Easter egg hunt
Partying for the Saints
Meet the resident
Quick pics
Keep out!
February parties
Competition

Quick pics

Our resident photographer Squiddlenuts Tigerfish presents a selection of the best snapshots from recent events and happenings on the OU islands.

Getting into the party spirit on St. Patrick's day

Exercising the grey matter at the pub quiz

Partying at OUtopia's 1st birthday party

Relaxing outside one of the village homes

The Time Ladies ready to defend OUtopia

A beautiful sunset over the village

Through the keyhole

LOL! editor Eshala Tabacznyk opens the door* to her OUtopia home to tell us about her favourite home comforts.

Meet the resident

Prash Mavendorf is the latest victim, I mean subject, of the LOL! interrogation.

Avatar name: Prash Mavendorf

Rezzday: 9th June 2008

Are you a student, tutor or both? Just a mere student.

How long have you been with the OU? Since Feb 2001.

Which degree are you aiming for? I completed my Undergraduate degree with Honours with the Open University in 2005, took a few years off (by doing some odd courses here and there) and am now working towards my Masters.

Favourite course so far: Hard to say really as I have so many. MT262 and M361 stand out the most because the course Chair was fantastic.

What brought you to Second Life? I can't remember the exact reason. I think I was introduced to Second Life by someone in OUSA. I love the idea of being able to interact with people in real time in a relaxed environment. I explored Second Life and got myself a bit lost and ended up in a few Country & Western / Rock Clubs to start off with.

Favourite part of the Open Life islands: The Circle outside the nOUbie Centre. It's a great place to meet people on an nightly basis. Great place to meet new students and visitors wanting to find out what we do as students and a University.

Best memory from your time on Open Life: Meeting the regulars and having a laugh (sometimes at my expense!). Making new friends (Squiddlenuts and PDunstan in particular) and meeting new people.

Favourite SL place away from Open Life: It use to be Oasis Outlaws and Utopia / Ravens Court. It use to be a great club when it was active, but now I hang around the nOUbie Centre on most evenings. I have a place in the Jaeger Region (run by Linden Labs). It's my home away from the OU! If you are able to find The Dog House, feel free to have a look at it from the outside and zoom into the building.

One piece of advice for newbies: There's quite of few I can think of. Learn how to use the Basics of Second Life, fly around, navigate, etc. Don't be scared to ask questions, we were all new once and we are always learning new things. No question is too stupid to ask. Treat people on Second Life as you would expect people to treat you in Real Life. If you show no respect, people won't respect you. Make plenty of friends on Second Life. You never know when you will rely on them later on.

Fame at last

The OU's SL community got together to pose for a picture for The Times to use in an article about The Open University.

The photoshoot took two attempts - they didn't like our first offering! - and you can see us in all our glory in the pic below.

You can read the article on The Times website here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/student/article7110689.ece

Easter egg hunt

The Easter weekend saw students and tutors turning OUtopia upside down in search of Easter eggs!

Across the village twenty eggs were hidden in locations ranging from the top of the tor to the bottom of the harbour steps. Residents taking part had to travel the length and breadth of OUtopia searching for the pretty eggs and several entrants remarked how they had found little places they never knew existed before. The organiser popped on to see how things were going and, thanks to a series of IMs, discovered that egg 09 was proving somewhat troublesome to find!

Tori admires her stash of eggs

The first folders full of eggs landed in the organisers inventory on Friday morning and continued to arrive at regular intervals throughout the Easter weekend. First person to find all 20 was pdunstan Greymoon (pictured below with a giant version of the infamous egg 09).

When all the entries were in it was decided to split the prize fund amongst the entrants who had found all 20 eggs while everyone who took part got a Easter-themed goodie bag. A plaque is currently adorning the wall near the bench outside the pub honouring those who successfully completed the egg hunt.

Competition

A new island has appeared but what is it going to be?

Snuggled in between Open University Island and Open University HRD is a new and mysterious looking island currently named Open University 2. Bearing a vague resemblence to a giant four-leafed clover at the moment it has prompted much debate amongst residents about what it is going to be.

We here at LOL! would like to hear your ideas about what it will turn out to be - the wackier the better! IM your suggestions to Eshala Tabacznyk inworld and we will publish the best of them in the next issue.

Stig tests

“Some say that he's a LSL experiment gone wrong, and that he only eats cheese...all we know is he's got Panache”


This month, The Stig test-drives a megaprim creation Web site.

Available from: http://www.megaprim.sl/

Cost: Free

Delivery: Immediate

Contents: megaprim of requested size

Permissions: Copy, Modify, Transfer

If you have ever found yourself searching for a megaprim of a particular size, you’ll find this site very handy and easy to use.
All you have to do is tell it the dimensions you want and it will give you a list to choose from.
Click on the one you want, and it will be delivered to you inworld.

If it’s your first time, you’ll have to verify your avatar identity by clicking on a link in an IM sent to you.
If the megaprim you want is a sphere, pyramid, cylinder or other shape, simply order a cuboid prim and change its shape in the build window.

Is there something you would like to see The Stig test-drive in a future issue of LOL!?
IM Stig Panache with details of the item and where to find it.

Getting Creative

Titiana Haystack presents the latest in her series of building articles

Charles Rennie Mackintosh Chair

Okay folks, we’ve made a bowl, a lantern and a coffee table, (not to mention a t-shirt texture to upload ( I said not to mention it!) and while making them we’ve learnt to rez, resize, position, and texture objects. If you don’t know how to do these you need to go back to the previous tutorials in LOL or on my website http://titihaystack.wordpress.com

Today we’re going to make a chair. Not just any chair, but a stylish Rennie Mackintosh one. I Googled chair images to get an idea of dimensions and patterns. This chair has more prims than anything we’ve done so far, but you will get practice in positioning prims, and you can carry this learning over to other stuff.

So here goes. First, rez the ubiquitous cube (or box as it is called in SL) This is going to be the wooden chair base. Leave the x and y dimensions at .500 and make the z dimension .100 Originally I textured it with mahogany, and just changed some selected faces to a pattern, but in the end I made all the faces the same by selecting Floor Tile 3 out of the Library. I coloured it a reddish brown so the pattern was only just visible. Your chair doesn’t have to end up looking like mine. You can improvise. I played around with the Flip commands later, and got an attractive pattern on the wood (not illustrated here)

We want to put a cushion in/on the chair, so the next thing is to hollow the chair to 80.

Next you need to duplicate the shape, so select it, and drag it up a bit while holding down the shift key. Take away the hollowness by changing Hollow back to zero, and change the colour to white. Now you can see the pattern. This is the cushion so it needs to be a bit smaller. Change the x and y dimensions to .40 and .40, then gently lower the cushion into its base.(It says use .45 by .45 in the illustration, but the maths tells me it has to be .40 by .40 for the exact fit!)

Now we need to make the legs. Go to the brown base, duplicate it again, and drag it up out of the way so you can see what you’re doing.

Path cut .250

You now need to rotate it so it looks like two legs. The first time I did this I had to rotate it on the x axis, but the next time it needed to be on the y axis. Just see which is correct for you. Rotate it by 90 degrees anyway, and it will be upright.

You will find that the legs are positioned in the centre of your base, so you need to move them to the edge. You can do this mathematically, by moving it half the distance of the measurement of the base[i] (if this makes sense) but I just judge it by eye. When you’re happy with the position, duplicate it again and drag the new pair of legs to the other side of the base.

You now have a stool and you could stop here if you’re feeling lazy.

But we are just doing more of the same for the chair back. Select one of the pairs of legs and duplicate by dragging up. Do this three times, and you will have a ladder back chair. Well done.

Now to link it. Select all by dragging around it all, you will see everything highlighted, (make sure it is) then click Ctrl L to link it. (Cmd L on a Mac) Or you could go to the toolbar and select .Tool 4 Link from the drop down menu. I think it’s worth learning keyboard shortcuts as it’s quicker in the long run.

I explained before about naming objects and taking them into your inventory. I said to click ‘Take’. However, since then I use Edit -> More ->Take copy, as then a copy goes into your inventory. It seems safer somehow. If you Take before you’ve named it, you’ll find it’s called ‘Object’, maybe among a lot of other Objects, (shame on you), but it will be the one that is boxed in grey. If you organise your inventory by Date it will be the top object too. I usually organise by Name, but Date can be handy if you’ve lost something nameless!

So there we have it. Another item for our Second Life. Looking at my chair, I think the legs are too fat to be elegant. I’ll leave that to you to sort out. Also, you could add thin vertical slats instead of the horizontal ones. Hey,it’s your chair. Give it six legs! Have fun, and let me know what else you would like to build. See you inworld.

Keep out!

Commander Quandry brings us the latest in his series of scripting articles.

Keep Out!

Something I have been asked about a few times over the last few weeks is the locking of doors – or more to the point, making a door only work for the owner.

This technique is simple to implement and, since it is done through the touch event, works to stop anything working unless it is the owner doing the touching. So you can stop others from switching on your lights, or starting your swing, etc.

The code we will use is put into the touch_start event method for this example. However, it could equally be used in a collision event, or listen event, for objects that respond to being collided with or spoken to.

Create yourself a prim and add the New Script to it. We will edit the touch_start, that is already present.

The basic touch_start looks like this:-

touch_start(integer total_number)
{
llSay(0, "Touched.");
}

When the object it touched it says – Touched – in local chat. We will change this so that it says hello to it’s owner by saying, “Hello Master”. And to anyone else it will say, “Go away, you are not my Master”.

There are two functions we will use for this. Before explaining those just a word about the touch_start event. This event is designed to be able to handle several people touching it at once (or within an event cycle). The integer total_number identifies the number of touchers. We will not be using it for this example, but if our object we a notecard giver, with multiple choices of notecard, this allows the object to present the menu of notecard to several people and respond to the right person in each case.

The first function we will be using is the llDetectedKey function. This takes one parameter, an integer, and works for touch or collide. This parameter is asking the function to tell it who was the person who touched it, and the integer says which person touching we want. In our example we are only interested in the first person touching the object, so we pass 0 as the parameter.

The second function is llGetOwner and returns the key of the objects owner. By comparing these we can decide whether it is the owner doing the touching. Let’s take a look at the script:-

touch_start(integer total_number)
{
if (llDetectedKey(0) == llGetOwner())
{
llSay(0, "Hello Master");
}
else
{
llSay(0, "Go away, you are not my Master");
}
}

It is fairly simple to see what is going on here.

On touching an object the touch_start event method runs. We compare the llDetectedKey with the llGetOwner and if they are the same we use llSay to say hello to the owner. If they are not the same it says something different.

By using this comparison we can open a door, or start a swing, or anything else we want to do on the basis of ownership.

This has been a short article because the technique is simple – however it can be used very effectively for lots of things.

As always please contact me if you need any assistance with scripting. Commander Quandry in world, adr@rossers.net out of world.

Time gentlemen please

LOL! introduces your new pub landlord

Avatar name: Prash Mavendorf

Role: Pub Landloard at the Open Arms.

What inspired you to be the landloard? Being a non-alcoholic drinker in Real Life, I felt at home taking this role. I will be able to remain sober (despite some Second Life pictures showing me in less favourable drinking positions), serve good drinks and good food. I love being around people and love to chat about loads of things. My general knowledge may not be great, but I do know a thing or two about the Open University (especially as I have been with them for 9 years). I can try and help point you in the right direction for help and advice. If you can't trust your friendly pub landlord for advice, who can you trust?

What are your plans for the pub? I have a few ideas. Nothing set in stone just yet. I'm hoping to introduce some Glass of white wine / fruit-based drinks for the ladies and more pints for the gents (ok, that's enough of the Al Murray talk. lol). I am hoping to put a juke box style device in the pub so that the punters can listen to a radio station of some choice. Further down the line, I am looking to host events such as League Pool (outdoors), League Darts and more frequent pub quizes. These are just ideas at the moment, nothing concrete, and would welcome ideas from the community. Don't worry, I won't be banning smoking in the pub (unless it's banned anyway!).

Will you be offering food and other drinks? I hope so. I would like to introduce some non-alcoholic beverages, choice of sarnies and snacks and other nibbles. I don't think I will be doing Curry nights just yet. But ideas are always welcome. It may take a while to get it right, so please hang in there.

Happy Birthday OUtopia

Tori Landau reports on OUtopia's big day.

Difficult to believe but one year has flown by since the excitement and fun of having a social island began. To mark this auspicious occasion we did what we do best – have a party!

So on Saturday 10th April at 8pm I meandered over to the green to see rezzing in front of me a striped circus tent complete with beautifully written sign saying ‘Happy Birthday OUtopia’ above its entrance. The fun began and since this was a fancy dress party some of the fun involved playing ‘guess the av’. For a start there appeared to be no sign of our wonderful Events Officer until a pink iced cupcake (complete with candle) was spied zapping a dance ball. The little cupcake had been busy as the interior of the tent was furnished with straw, rotating lights and an upper walkway.

The outfits were brilliant and while the gents chose outfits of power as Quentin was King Henry VIII, Jonno was a knight, Kered chose to be a Sheikh, Lazarus wore his devil avatar and Kickaha, who had returned to being a raven after spending several weeks as a red-haired woman, turned into a large, spider type monster. The ladies, however, were either clad in something fun such as the aforementioned cupcake, cowgirl (Eshala), a chick (me), Bender the cartoon robot (Squiddlenuts) a fairy (who else but Elsa) or in elegant spring outfits such as Firestone, Jasmine, Lilac and Jen.

The great music provided by Quentin included the Open University’s anthem, ‘Crazy Nights’ along with popular oldies and contemporary tunes. As usual some mayhem ensued although for once the absinthe was not consumed. When the raven disappeared for a while Jen attempted to set fire to the tent, but thankfully for all of us the tent had passed the latest British Standards in fire safety and stubbornly refused to ignite.

One of the new students, Jasmine Pheocene, said that, “I would just like to say that it was a great party! I really enjoyed myself and everyone was really welcoming! Roll on the next one! Oh and thank you to everyone who made it happen xxx”

Follow the yellow brick road

The first of our new monthly party nights takes place on OUtopia on Saturday 8th May.

Pub quiz

It was a beautiful, sunny evening when some residents gathered for OUtopia’s first pub quiz on 6th March. A collective decision was, therefore, made to sit outside and hope that a wind would not pick up and drown out our Quiz Mistress for the evening, Jadis Mai.

Before we began, however, there was the issue of how to avoid cheating which Jadis assured us would be impossible as we would not have time to cheat; answers would be whatever came into our heads first. Then there were the questions of how to record our answers and how would they be marked. So, for those of us who didn’t know how to make a note card in which to record our answers, the quiz was already proving to be educational. For anyone reading this who doesn’t know how to create a note card you open the inventory, click Create on the top toolbar of the inventory, click on new note, change the description of the note, write in it whatever you need, click save at the bottom of the note, then find new note in notecards under recent items in the inventory, right click it and select rename (for quiz mine was ‘Tori’s answers’). At the end of the quiz we would swap notecards, Jadis would give each of us the answers on a notecard and then we would give her the score of the person who’s answers we had marked.

Finally we were ready to begin and after checking that we were all individual contestants with no teams being entered, Jadis launched into the quiz. There were five categories: 20th Century, film songs, general knowledge, music and places. So dear reader let us see how you fare with a question from each section (answers at bottom of the page)

1. James Earl Ray was responsible for whose death in 1968?

2. Which film is ‘Show me heaven’ by Maria McKee best known for?

3. Which children's TV show did Roy Castle present?

4. What is the home country of Van Morrison?

5. Which English county with a sea border has the shortest coastline?

Silence mostly reigned during the quiz itself as we scratched our virtual heads although one avatar was heard to mutter that most of their answers were ‘pass’ and they hoped that in the places category that ‘pass’ may be an actual answer. After the quiz ended and answers marked with some role reversal going on as students marked tutors’ note cards, Jadis announced the winners in reverse order: Joint 3rd were Strangie Vaher and Jemsyn Fairlady, 2nd was Kered Rickena and, trumpet fanfare please, Rocky Joans was the winner. Congratulations to Rocky and many thanks to Jadis for organising and running the quiz.

The next pub quiz is at 8pm on Friday 28th May so im Jadis Mai if you wish to enter as either an individual or part of a team. Hope to see you there!

Answers to quiz questions: 1. Martin Luther King's, 2. Days of Thunder, 3. Record Breakers, 4. Northern Ireland, 5. Durham

Partying for the Saints

St Patrick’s Day and St George’s Day parties by Tori Landau

17th March and 23rd April were St Patrick’s Day and St George’s Day respectively so as OUtopia’s representative I decided that we needed to learn about and celebrate the special days of Ireland and England (as if OUtopians need an excuse to party).

With the help of Kickaha, Hatshepsut, Kered, Kira , Jonno and Arthur Arkright, decorations and outfits were found, megaprims supplied, levelled and transformed for the dance floors, dance balls given and cunningly disguised, the Irish jig dance transferred to everyone, St George’s flag vendor made and very importantly music supplied via a music url.

On St Patrick’s Day R2D2 became an honorary Irish droid whilst supplying drinks to fairies and leprechauns who had been busy taking chocolate coins from the pot of gold while spinning through the shamrocks. PDunstan and MDunstan engaged in synchronised dancing as a couple but perhaps the Absinthe had effected Kered and Xara as several times Xara was caught on camera giving Kered a kick making me wonder what the usually impeccably behaved Kered had done. To the sound of Riverdance belting across the dance floor, harmony was restored as couples and singles alike joined in a group jig on the gold floor. Of the evening’s shenanigans, Elsbeth Biedermann commented, “"it was a fantastic party, and we all had a wonderful time, to be sure, to be sure ;-)".

On St George’s day, 3 avatars met on the green for a chat at 5pm and then the idea of a party was raised (talk about last minute) but with the wonders of modern communication contact was made with a good number of people and lots of fun had. Oddly enough dragons and knights were popular attire although the dragons veered on the side of caution and not only wore armour but air danced to avoid Sir Rocky’s swinging sword. For the first time ever that your reporter can remember she found herself wearing the exact same outfit as a guy (Prash) although I quickly managed to find shiny boots and belt. Several ladies (Xara and Elsa to name several) came as elegant maidens prompting queries from the male knights as to whether or not they needed rescuing. With the flags fluttering in the breeze and roses wafting past us, we partied to not so late as usual but, Hatshepsut Linette said, “The venue was resplendent with flags of St George around the perimeter of the dance floor, which was itself a giant flag. Fabulous idea. Unfortunately, I was not able to stay to the end, but gather all those present had a fantastic time.”

New monthly events

Introducing new monthly events on OUtopia

February parties

With a Valentine’s Ball and the FELS (Faculty of Education and Language Studies) party for new students the week from 13th to 19th February was a busy time for our Events Officer Jadis Mai and DJ Quentin Calvert.

The theme for the Valentine’s Ball was ‘Enchantment under the Sea’ from the film ‘Back to the Future’ and Jadis built an amazing set on OUtopia’s green that would have been fit for a film itself. With sharks circling above as opposed to around us this time, jellyfish floating about, wrecks and treasure on the sea floor and some residents dressed as mermaids (Jadis and Xara) or other sea creatures (Kered), we really were transported into another world. Other residents chose elegant attire with Lilac looking radiant in red and Elsbeth shimmering in silver. Our DJ was clad in a white suit for a while before changing and revealing that his true love was the England Rugby team by wearing their t-shirt and playing ‘Swing low sweet chariot’ by UB40. Hennamono meanwhile rezzed a cube, river danced to cover it up and then proceeded to raid the treasure chest! “It was pawsome!” according to our publican at the time, McDude Snoodle and although I was only there for the 2nd half due to an electricity failure in rl (yes, that place!) I wholeheartedly agree!

For the introduction of the language students to SL Jadis decided on ‘Alice in Wonderland’ for the theme which took me back to when I first came to the OU sims and talked to a raven and a tiger cub at the sandpit. With the green covered in giant mushrooms, a caterpillar doubling as the dance ball and butterflies flitting about it was up to some of the councillors to fill the roles of Alice in Wonderland characters. Alice was provided by Elsbeth with Jadis being the Chesire cat and your reporter as the Queen of Hearts... there was only one person who could ever be the mad hatter of course and the role was duly filled by Kickaha. The overall effect was slightly hallucinogenic with fairies appearing, our DJ as Willy Wonka, a wolf bopping around, an ‘Avatar’ avatar appearing, a pipe smoking multicoloured owl and to complete the effect, Titiana’s head appearing under a mushroom although thankfully she was back together shortly afterwards. Of the night’s festivities, pdunstan Greymoon said, “Was the first party I managed to get to. Had an awesome time, with a great DJ playing cool music. Haven't missed a party since!!”

So that no-one has an excuse to miss our official parties from now on the second Saturday of each month has been designated as the party Saturday with the next party being on 8th May at 8pm on OUtopia’s green and the theme is the Wizard of Oz. Hope to see you all there and that you give me plenty to report on for LOL!