For those who asked me about the story of Sunvibes - here is a talk I gave at the Non Profit Commons in 2016.
( check the video at the end of the post to hear the story and see the slides )
Slide 1 - Osho quote
Warm greetings to all from South Africa - my name is Szavanna - a Hungarian living in South Africa since 1997 - and I am here to tell you the journey of the OpenCafe/Openbuilding/Sunvibes project - how it all started out as an RL project in 2001 and how it changed over the years.
Slide 2 OpenCafe
The OpenCafe project started out as a small training initiative in 2001 teaching people basic computer skills. After 1-2 years we decided to start using Linux as our operating system and explored various different distributions ( Red Hat, Slackware, Mandrake, Suse... ) till we eventually stopped at Ubuntu - which is what we use since 2005.
We received some funding from the Shuttleworth Foundation which enabled us to create an Internet Cafe with about 20 work stations running Ubuntu in a thin client setup.
We used this cafe to teach local visitors, students, teachers, and anyone else basic computer skills with the help of OpenOffice tools. To train we used the course management system called Moodle that you are probably familiar with.
Slide 3 - Freedom Toaster
We also had a Freedom Toaster - which is basically a computer-based "bring and burn" facility - preloaded to dispense digital materials including the latest versions of various Linux distributions, and other open source software packages, music, literature and other materials that are freely sharable and come in handy for those with slow or no Internet connections.
We also helped artists to create their online presence, explained how to create and use basic websites and blogs to keep in touch with their clients and fans and also spent time explaining how to use Creative Commons licenses when publishing their content.
Slide 4 - 5 - OpenCafe in SL - Non Profit Commons, Africa Live, Geo Island
While exploring the various uses of Creative Commons licenses I came across some info on the net about Creative Commons meetings at a place called Second Life. So I went ahead and installed the viewer and started my first days as an avatar in a virtual space. I didn't find the creative commons meeting - I ended up at the Non Profit Commons sim - where I found info about applying for space to create a virtual presence for our OpenCafe - so I applied and our virtual journey started out with the help of the NPC back in 2008. Coming back here in 2016 - brings back so many fond memories of the first months in SL - and the days I spent at the NPC.
Slide 6 - TIC Course
Once settled in this virtual world I came across a teacher training project and I joined them to complete a course that would enable me to teach in Second Life. The course was very well organized and I learned quickly - I was amazed how well one could use this world to give on knowledge and skills - and was looking forward to holding my own classes.
Slide 7-8 - OpenBuilding @ Geo Island 2009
Shortly after the completion of my training course I was offered free space on the sim of the Geography-Geology Department at Illinois State University by Zeppo Romano who was a lecturer at that university at the time. I named the building school OpenBuilding and set out with the creation of a cultureal building project - which enabled people to learn basic building skills while getting to know about different cultures. We had classes to learn to build a West African talking drum, a West African tea set, a Ndebele hut from South Africa, and bindis from India and many more fun builds.
Slide 9 - Start of the Sunvibes project 2013
In 2013 - I decided to revisit the ideas I have tested in SL and started a new project called Sunvibes - where the focus was on music - each musical event was dedicated to a different part of Africa, India ... or beyond. We learned about different cultures, traditions, languages, musical instruments, musical styles - like the ragas of India or zulu guitar styles, over these 3 years we have explored all continents, and had fun discovering new artists regularly, new dances, I find musical explorations to be a great way to explore the world, a great tool to relax and let go after a day's work in RL.
Slide 10 - African Dream sim @ InWorldz
One day a friend and me decided to set out on a journey to a new grid called InWorldz. We had to get a new account, new avatars - and spent days learning the ways of a new metaverse. In a few weeks we were quite comfortable with the new setup and decided to start out with a new African initiative - the African Dream sim in InWorldz. It took a while to understand what it means to have a sim - how to plan and create the new space - gather and create all the content we needed. Once ready with most of the material we lauched our sim and invited old and new friends to join us in enjoying the new space - many friends from SL created accounts - and came over to explore our sim @ InWorldz. Once at InWorldz - I was curious to see what other grids are out there and so I spent quite a long time exploring grids like the OSgrid, Craft grid, The Great Canadian Grid and started enjoying hopping from one grid to the next on the hypergrid.
Slide 11 - Sunvibes Workshop
Back in SL I was generously offered space by WIsdomseeker to recreate my teaching project and after so many musical events I restarted creating my cultural building classes that often includes a musica twist as well - so often our events are just as musical as they are creative and lots of fun. Our workshop has all the materials one needs to start out with building - and putting dreams into prim form - you will find free and full perm textures, scripts, objects, fractal images - the material grows continuously and includes content you will find online for all your virtual projects regardless of which grid it is on.
Slide 12 - Sunvibes grid
While maintaining our presence in SL as Sunvibes - a new hypergrid enabled grid is being created called Sunvibes grid - it is still under development but has already taken shape and you are welcome to visit using any hypergrid enabled grid like OSgrid - contact me for the grid address.
That's the summary of our journey in a "nutshell" I hope you enjoyed this presentation on the the journey of the OpenCafe and Sunvibes projects and hope that you will come visit our at Inspiration Island today and in the coming weeks, months to follow our progress in SL and on the hypergrid.
Slide 13 - Inspiration Island
Many many thanks to Wisdomseeker for all her support over the years - thank you for including me as part of the Whole Brain Health team. Remember to visit the Lotus build on our island for an overview of all activities - it gives a great idea of all the projects and events we have.
To find out more about the Sunvibes project please visit : http://sunvibes.blogspot.co.za/ and http://sunvibes-workshop.blogspot.co.za/ and to read about our sim's activities - please visit : http://youcanwriteit.typepad.com/whole_brain_health/.
Thanks for listening - it is great to be back at the NPC - the sim where our virtual journey started!
This is by no means a complete summary of all the projects I have been involved in, I might add a few updates to this summary later on. :)
