Second Life Celebrates World AIDS Day with New Island
Thanks to a generous contract from the National Library of Medicine and the tremendous support of the Alliance Library System as project administrator, a brand new island dedicated to HIV/AIDS education, outreach, and support will open in Second Life on December 1 - World AIDS Day, 2008.
Please join us at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Karuna/60/106/26
Note that the island will be open to the public on that day.
Christened Karuna, a word taken from an early Indo-Aryan language, the name of the island embodies the desire to remove harm and suffering, and to bring about the well-being and happiness of others.
Karuna team members include AIDS/HIV support group leaders as well as AIDS content information experts and educators, ensuring that the best, most recent, evidence-based information is available. The project objective is to empower individuals in healthcare decision making. Through this project, one-to-one health information reference services are provided by experienced medical and consumer health librarians.
In addition to providing infomation resources, support, and networking opportunities, Karuna is built around a Garden of Experience, where the experiences of those dealing with HIV/AIDS will be shared in a variety of formats including poetry, photos, music, and video. For more information about this project, see http://www.karunasl.info.
We are proud to be working with other organizations in this effort, including AIDS.gov, the University of North Carolina Center for AIDS research, Community Outreach, Dissemination, and Education Office (CFAR), and most recently, by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
Together, we work to ensure that the idea of community is foremost. Individuals are at the heart of Karuna, and it is through sharing tales and human connections that we find our best selves.
Agenda
All times listed are Pacific Standard Times
Location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Karuna/60/106/26
Note that the island will be open to the public on that day
10-10:10 Story to Live By (Jenaia Morane)
10:10-10:20 AIDS/HIV Support & Experience (Ricken Flow)
10:20-30 Health in Second Life (Pathfinder Linden)
10:30-10:40 HIV/AIDS in the U.S. (Miguelz Rajal & Ellechim Fizzle)
10:40-10:50 Karuna: The Project and the Vision (Carolina Keats )
10:50-11:00 Questions and Answers
11:10 – 11:45 Tours of Karuna
11:45 – 1:00 Lunch break
1:00 – 3:00 Story writing workshop and posting of stories
5:00-5:15 Closing Ceremony – Candle of Hope is lit
6:00 – 8:00 Dance with live DJ
8:00 – 9:00 Music: Live performance by Cylindrian Rutabaga
Event Speakers
Jena Ball / Jenaia Morane
Jena/Jenaia is a freelance journalist, editor, and educator who teaches nature and memoir writing in both lives. She will open the World AIDS Day ceremonies with a story that illustrates the importance of narrative in all our lives. Jena is also the leader for the Karuna story project, which will form the heart of the island.
Ricky Davis / Ricken Flow
Ricken was diagnosed with full-blown AIDS in 2000, but after three months on medication was showing no more symptoms. His doctor started using him as an example on how well medications can work. He also began to talk to patients, which was the start of his volunteer career. Karuna, which means compassion and mercy, is something he strives to bring to his work in Second Life every day. He will talk about his experiences both in his first and Second lives helping others learn about and come to terms with living with HIV/AIDS.
Miguel Gomez has worked combating HIV/AIDS for twenty-three years. Since 2006, Mr. Gomez has served as the Director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS), Office of HIV/AIDS Policy’s, AIDS.gov, an information gateway to Federal domestic HIV/AIDS and new media information and resources. In this role, Mr. Gomez works across HHS to increase the use of new media tools to promote HHS agencies programs, policies and resources.
John Lester / Pathfinder Linden
Pathfinder Linden joined Linden Lab (the creators of Second Life) in 2005, bringing experience in online community development as well as a background in the fields of healthcare and education. His primary focus in on leading Linden Lab’s Proactive Education and Healthcare Mentoring Program, acting as a general resource and academic evangelist for people using Second Life for teaching, academic and healthcare research, and scientific visualization.
Carol Perryman / Carolina Keats
With more than 20 years in libraries, consumer/medical librarians Carol Perryman is currently a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina School of Library and Information Science. She has served as Project Coordinator for three Second Life projects and advisor to a fourth, all funded by the National Library of Medicine, and administered by Lori Bell, Director of Innovations at the Alliance Library System in East Peoria, Illinois.
Michelle Samplin-Salgado, MPH / Ellehchim Fizzle has over eleven years professional experience in health communications, public health, project design, and management, with a specific emphasis on emerging technologies. Ms. Samplin-Salgado has managed the design and development for both federal and partner organization’s online activities. As a consultant at John Snow, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts she currently serves as the New Media Strategist for AIDS.gov.
Media Contacts & Other Links
Carol Perryman/Carolina Keats, Project Coordinator, AIDS Information and Outreach in the Virtual World (Karuna)
Email: cp1757@gmail.com
Research site: cperryman.com
SL blog for Healthinfo Island: http://healthinfoisland.blogspot.com/
Lori Bell/Lorelei Junot, AIDS Project Administrator, Alliance Library System
Email: lbell@alliancelibrarysystem.com or lbell927@gmail.com
Phone: (309) 694-9200 ext. 2128
Alliance Library System web page: http://www.alliancelibrarysystem.com/
Ricky Davis/Ricken Flow, AIDS/HIV Support Group Leader
Email: rickenflow@gmail.com
Jena Ball/Jenaia Morane, Karuna Story Project Leader
Email: jenaia.morane@gmail.com or jball@thenatureofwriting.com
Phone: 626-445-4566
Web: www.thenatureofwriting.com
Blog: www.daysofoursecondlives.com
Additional Resources
World AIDS Day: http://www.worldaidscampaign.org/
AIDS.gov: http://aids.gov/
AIDS.gov Blog: http://blog.aids.gov/
Alliance Library System: http://www.alliancelibrarysystem.com/
Alliance Virtual Library: http://infoisland.org/
Health Info Island Blog: http://healthinfoisland.blogspot.com/
Info Island Blog: http://infoisland.org/
National Library of Medicine: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/
Sexual Health Sim in SL: http://sl-sexualhealth.org.uk/
Metaverse Messenger (article): http://www.metaversemessenger.com/
pdf/2008/10/MM20081014.pdf
Images of Karuna on World AIDS Day, 2008
Karuna Grand Opening, World AIDS Day 2008
Jenaia Morane, Karuna’s Story Project Leader
Ricken Flow, on the experience of AIDS
Miguel Gomez of AIDS.gov speaking on the AIDS pandemic at the Karuna opening.
Carolina Keats, Project Coordinator
For more images see our photostream here.
SL World AIDS Day in the Media
BBC interview with Jenaia Morane about World AIDS Day and Karuna
Dec 8 2008
Karuna island opens (Rez Libris)
Nov 25 2008
HHS’ AIDS.gov to Use Blogs, Virtual Worlds, and Social Networks to Deliver HIV Information
November 18, 2008
HIV/AIDS education island opens in Second Life on World AIDS Day (December 1)
November 14, 2008
Karuna opening for World AIDS Day
World AIDS Day Contributors
Thank you to all those whose time and considerable skills are given to help make Karuna a real presence in Second Life, and to make World AIDS Day, 2008, a success. You’re making a difference!
Samia Bechir is the designer of the beautifully designed and created tee shirts for World AIDS Day
History in SL: SL addict since February 2007
SL activities: Clothes designer (especially lingerie) since July 2007; French Helper and “Noobs Godmother” in the French Cooperation group since September 2007; Second Life Mentor and Mentor Linguist (languages : English, French, Typonese, Macintosh) since November 2007; part-time builder and full-time shopaholic.
Says she: “And I’m nuttier than a fruitcake, so… deal with it.” (we should all be so nuts, Samia!)
Cylindrian Rutabaga aka Grace Buford is our featured singer/songwriter who will help us celebrate the opening of Karuna on World AIDS Day on December 1, 2008. Always on tour in the virtual world of Second Life, her music engages the heart and mind of her audience: there is feeling and the feeling is shared. Life’s experiences, be they good or bad, are the fuel and passion that underpin Grace’s unique style of songwriting and it shows. From a rhythmic acoustic song about facing negative thoughts in a battle for the mind to a flowing, ethereal keyboard that exposes the vulnerability of facing change, Grace’s music and live performances are an emotional ride that will leave you spellbound and wanting more.
As with those shining lights of previous generations of folk/acoustic rock acts, Grace’s influences are broad, she is open-minded, curious and not a believer in musical boundaries defined by genres Grace creates what she feels.
Email
Web presence:here and here
Blog
Barb Carson aka Barbara Newman-Zitka, MD is our talented terraformer who laid the groundwork for Karuna, and then announced that she was donating her time. How kind was that?
About Barb: BS Biology Adelphi University 1988; MD State University of New York Syracuse 1994; Board Certified by the American Board of Radiology 2000; Private practice General Diagnostic Imaging since 2000.
Says she: “I discovered Second Life in May 2006 and quickly developed an interest iinVirtual Real Estate, community development, and landscape design. My interests now center on terrain design and consulting on sim development, although I still have virtual real estate properties.”
The Tell Merlin aka The Tell, a live rock band from London (UK), has graciously donated their time and energy to perform for World AIDS Day. They are “fundamentally a pagan rock band and would appeal to environmentalist, lefties, hippies, punks, rockers, and of course goths. The Band has developed into our current lineup from an acoustic duo formed in 2002. We are currently working to get our Album ‘Part of the Story ‘ Mastered and pressed.
Web presence
Mulder Watts is a live performer in Second Life, playing originals on both guitar and piano. To benefit World AIDS Day, he plans to perform on November 30 at The Catcher in the Pie.
Seductive Dreamscape and Voodoo Shilton own the Catcher in the Pie arts centre, where
they run a variety of events and are always welcoming to new and old friends. They met in February and were inseparable from the start, seeing in each other a mirror image of what they wanted SL to be. They share passions for creativity and exploration of the unknown, and discover every day new things to be amazed about in SL and in RL. Voodoo is also a keen classical and jazz guitarist, and will be playing at the World Aids Day event.
Catcher In The Pie is a classy and funky venue where book groups are welcome to debate, live bands play on an intimate stage, and where one can see the best in SL and RL photography in the gallery. A fantastic place for new people to SL, with a friendly welcome to all, the cafe offers disabled access, with ramps all around the cafe and art gallery.
Verde Otaared (Holly Miller in RL) is not only our photographer extraordinaire, but a photographer, teacher and librarian in Second life. She teaches at The Photo Institute, writes and takes photos for the Metaverse Messenger (http://metaversemessenger.com). As well (and we’re wondering how on earth (or SL) she finds the time!), Verde is Assistant Multimedia Editor for RezLibris Magazine, a brand new SL Library publication (http://rezlibris.com). In real life, she has a PhD. in Biochemistry and will soon complete her MLIS. She works as a scientific informatics analyst at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Verde enjoys her work in Second Life because it gives her a creative outlet that was missing from her RL. She has a small photography gallery on Only Yesterday, and has documented the building of Karuna over the month of November 2008.
Dave Corbett (aka Darwin) is a ‘real life’ singer/songwriter who plays regularly in the 3-D online world called Second Life. All of his tips, minus a very small operating allowance, are donated to
charities and organizations such as Amnesty International, Save the Children, Sea Shepherd and Project Children, to name a few. He usually plays all original material for his performances.
Dave believes that Second Life is the perfect platform from which to promote awareness of such issues as human rights injustice, child abuse, animal rights, saving our planet and other forms of world peace and ecology. Second Life has given him the opportunity to share his beliefs and support, through his music and his voice. His primary focus is to get the word out - in his own words, ‘it’s all about the song’…
Lorin Tune kindly donated sound effects for our Sanctuary Cave in the mountain. Lorin has been generating natural and unnatural noises (also referred to as sound effects) and soundtracks for a wide variety of clients and mediums since 1976. He brought his skills to SL almost exactly 2 years ago with the intent of making SL sound better one noise at a time, whether you notice it or not.
Torben Asp composes and performs electronic music of an ambient/new age kind with a lot of inputs from other styles like classic music and artists like Jean Michel Jarre. To that, he says, add a lovely melody and some dreamy chords and you are well underway into the Recreative Universe of Torben Asp, where every tune has its own story to set you in the right mood. This is not only a Concert! - it’s an Experience!
http://www.torbenasp.com
Johnny99 Gumshoe lives to jam and jams to live in Second Life! His business, Johnny99 Jamz, provides live electric blues and screaming rock guitar over bass and drum tracks, including live machinima from the event at the event via QT movie or to the web via ustream.tv . Event notices are provided to members of the group, Johnny99 Jamz Live Electric Blues, and tracks are available at myspace.com/j99jamz , in iTunes for Johnny99 Gumshoe, and at http://youtube.com/j99jamz
Artel Brando was a second round finalist in the Best of SL music contest as well as the first SL Music Hall of Fame artist of the month. He performs Rock\Grunge\Metal performs on electric and acoustic guitars. His music is heard regularly in Second Life and more information can be found from his website at http://www.myspace.com/artelbrando . Says he, I’m from Chicago and have been playing guitar and writing songs for over 20 years and singing even longer.
Judi Newall has been a great help with everything from building flowers and crystals to finding music and film makers. Says Judi: I have been in SL 2 years now. I’m a librarian in RL and SL, occasionally found fishing at my home at Alien Isles, Unknowable. I know a little about a lot of different things in SL and have met some wonderful creative people here. The librarian’s motto is “I might not know, but I bet I can find out!” Just ask 