2009.06.30 19:00 - Scripting Spirits Around Us

The Guardian for this meeting was Eos Amaterasu. The comments are by Eos Amaterasu.

It's just Eos and the pavilion for a while

Eos Amaterasu sits in time, in space, in knowing

Storm arrives, and gives Eos a few tips about the pool

Eos Amaterasu: Hi Storm!
Storm Nordwind: Hi Eos
Storm Nordwind: I'm not going to stay long. I really should be sleeping! :)
Storm Nordwind: But with my long-range vision I could see you were by yourself
Eos Amaterasu: These are also late times for me, but it's hard for me to make the others
Eos Amaterasu: I guess you're the author of much that is here
Storm Nordwind: I guess I am :)
Eos Amaterasu: You can see for miles and miles.... :-)
Storm Nordwind: I remember learning to play that when it came out :)
Storm Nordwind: What time is it for you?
Eos Amaterasu: 11:14 pm
Storm Nordwind nods
Storm Nordwind: 3:14am here
Eos Amaterasu: !
Eos Amaterasu: You're in England?
Storm Nordwind: At present, for another few weeks
Storm Nordwind: Before I go, do you know about how to manipulate the pool (accordingly to your whim/taste)?
Eos Amaterasu: No, say more :-)
Storm Nordwind: Let me demonstrate
Storm Nordwind: And I will reveal all in IM
Storm Nordwind: Low fountain
Storm Nordwind: No pool
Eos Amaterasu: whups!
Eos Amaterasu: Look mom, no pool!
Storm Nordwind: And a cosy session
Storm Nordwind: Back to default
Eos Amaterasu: This is really playing with being :-)
Eos Amaterasu: Is that different appearances of the same object?
Storm Nordwind: hehe!
Storm Nordwind: perhaps
Eos Amaterasu: I guess this could startle people!
Storm Nordwind: It startles them even more if you start like this and they're sitting in the middle and you put the pool back!
Storm Nordwind: When I first built this place a year ago, it only looked like this with the tall fountain.
Storm Nordwind: Some people found the fountain distracting and others wanted it more cosy sitting closer
Storm Nordwind: By convention, the guardian on call chooses! :)
Eos Amaterasu: Hmmm, interesting

Storm describes the systems supporing the Play as Being pavilion

Eos Amaterasu: The pool knows when someone is close by
Storm Nordwind: Yes it does
Eos Amaterasu: It starts or stops recording
Storm Nordwind: That's a separate control
Storm Nordwind: There are five mechanisms built into the pool
Storm Nordwind: One is the recording and that's entirely separate
Storm Nordwind: One you've played with
Storm Nordwind: Another controls the bell on the 15 minute boundary
Storm Nordwind: Another controls the sound volume
Eos Amaterasu: ambient sounds?
Storm Nordwind: And there's a scanner for my remote radar HUD which tells me how many people there are in all the Kira locations
Storm Nordwind: No the fountain sounds
Storm Nordwind: Oh... and a sixth...
Storm Nordwind: The ON AIR signs are controlled too
Storm Nordwind: And they force the pool to go back to this default when they switch OFF AIR
Eos Amaterasu: the scripts can call each other
Storm Nordwind: yes they do
Storm Nordwind: I sometimes forget just how much is going on here!
Eos Amaterasu: I like these kinds of "magical" objects/containers
Storm Nordwind nods

Eos describes World Café, and possible supporting scripting magic

Eos Amaterasu: I was working on doing World Café with some people here
Storm Nordwind: Please tell me more
Eos Amaterasu: that could use some magic objects in the cafe, such as a table that knew about its chairs and their occupants
Eos Amaterasu: and could set up an IM for each table, so just the people at the table could converse
Eos Amaterasu: and then when they switch tables and talk with a new set of people that table would do the same
Eos Amaterasu: Do you know World Cafe, how it works? It's a form for working with large groups of people
Eos Amaterasu: where you have them break up into groups of 4, each around a cafe table
Storm Nordwind: No I have not come across it so far
Eos Amaterasu: for twenty minutes or so, all discussing the same topic, something that matters
Eos Amaterasu: and then they switch tables, find new partners, for another twenty minutes
Eos Amaterasu: and then a third time
Storm Nordwind: Sounds intense
Eos Amaterasu: usually one person stays behind at each table to pass on some of what went on before
Eos Amaterasu: and there's also doodling/drawing on a pad of paper ont he table
Eos Amaterasu: and finally a "harvest" at the end, where people get up and pull out key things to share
Eos Amaterasu: it can bring ouit "the wisdom in the middle"
Storm Nordwind: It sounds like the fastest typers might dominate
Eos Amaterasu: I think in SL it could be done really well - at the moment the logistics are intense
Eos Amaterasu: so that's why a cafe with "magic" would be great
Eos Amaterasu: It's a form that is good when there are lots of people
Storm Nordwind: You are saying this does not yet exist in SL, but it does in RL?
Eos Amaterasu: This has been happening in RL for years
Eos Amaterasu: and there's a place here in SL, called "Third Life" actually, that's the SL home for the World Cafe people
Eos Amaterasu: But I worked with one of them recently, Lucida Skytower, to do a World Cafe that was simultaneous with an RL cafe and a Skype cafe :-)
Storm Nordwind: Interesting
Eos Amaterasu: Circle forms like here work for small numbers of people
Eos Amaterasu: Cafe is an interesting experiment with working with large numbers - it's had some success
Storm Nordwind: The cosy 8 here works best for that
Storm Nordwind: How large?
Eos Amaterasu: IN RL, up to hundreds
Eos Amaterasu: The RL component last week had 210 people
Eos Amaterasu: About 12 or so in SL, and 12 on Skype
Storm Nordwind: And what is the purpose? Experiement? Therapy? Discovery? Problem solving?
Eos Amaterasu: It's a group discussion, contemplation of a "question that matters"
Eos Amaterasu: We had some cafes here on, for example, the question of boundaries in SL
Storm Nordwind: Sure, but why discuss? Is there a group purpose? Or are people invited to find their own purposes, if any?
Eos Amaterasu: I guess usually there's a context. But for example, you could discuss the funding of health care
Eos Amaterasu: That's a political, economic, societal issues
Eos Amaterasu: The Triple World Cafe was considering genuine wealth, communities, and complementary currencies
Eos Amaterasu: It's a form for dialogue, which could be part of considering action, behavior, strategy...
Storm Nordwind: It seems an interesting technique
Eos Amaterasu: I think the form used here is quite interesting, and seems to work well
Storm Nordwind nods
Eos Amaterasu: A circle, an overall theme, good logistics (how the "container" works and opens up and protects the conversation)
Eos Amaterasu: and also good ritual (90 secs pause every 15 minutes, with the bell(s), the fountain
Eos Amaterasu: It's all important (congratulations!)
Storm Nordwind smiles
Storm Nordwind: Please excuse me now. Sleep calls! :)
Eos Amaterasu: Thanks for the conversation, Storm!
Eos Amaterasu: 'night!
Storm Nordwind: My pleasure :)
Storm Nordwind: Namaste
Eos Amaterasu: :-)