Report on the Justice Center Community Forums on March 26

[Rik Panganiban]

Report on the Justice Center Community Forums on March 26

Approximately 25 avatars participated in two Community Forums which took place in the Justice Center Amphitheater on Thursday, March 26. The goal of these forums was to solicit suggestions and feedback from Second Life residents on what would be the most strategic and needed uses of the Justice Center to support global justice and human rights concerns. We had three excellent presentations by Hayduke Ebisu of Commonwealth Island, In Kenzo of Camp Darfur / Amoration and Nonny Writer of Gone Gitmo talking about their respective initiatives to bring real world issues into the virtual world.

Among the suggestions and ideas that came out of the forums:

    * Education about the International Criminal Court should be the first priority. Many people don’t know what the ICC is, or have misconceptions about it.

    * Integrate educational content into the environment. Immersive experiences can galvanize people to action.

    * Aesthetics matter.

    * Virtual demonstrations can have real world impact.

    * There’s already lots of activity on social issues, but dispersed across the grid.

    * Bringing real world events into SL is attractive to people because it enables them to attend events that they normally could not, and the backchannel conversations enhance the experience.

    * It’s difficult to demonstrate and measure real world impact of virtual builds and experiences.

    * Hold mock trials with different teams of university students

    * People want to have fun. Integrate entertaining activities to draw people, like music festivals, art shows, etc.

If you would like to contribute your own ideas and feedback on how to best use the Justice Center to support the ICC and related human rights concerns, please feel free to comment on our blog or email me at rik[at]globalkids[dot]org.

A lightly edited transcript of the two forums can be found at this link: http://www.holymeatballs.org/2008/03/report_on_the_justice_center_c.html .

Regards,

Rik Panganiban

___________________________________

Rik Panganiban

Second Life Producer

Online Leadership Program

Global Kids

email: r...@globalkids.org

tel: +1 212 226 0130 x139

second life: rik riel

http://www.globalkids.org

http://olp.globalkids.org