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Blue Myanamotu

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Everything posted by Blue Myanamotu

  1. From May 21st-28th, the Builders Brewery Relay for Life team will be holding its third annual silent art auction to benefit the American Cancer Society. We are looking for artists that would like to donate art to the event. All proceeds from the event go to the American Cancer Society. If you are interested, please fill out the form here. If you have any questions, or do not hear from us within two days of filling out the form, you can send Blue Myanamotu an email at blue.myanamotu@gmail.com Thank you, and see you at the Art Festival! 
  2. Hi Everyone! The Relay Wizards team is holding a silent art auction from June 20-June 27 as a charity fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. The event will be hosted at the Builder's Brewery, and will kick off with a black tie ball from 1:00-3:00 pm SLT. We are looking for artists, writers, photographers and poets who would be interested in donating some of their pieces to this fundraising event. If you would like to participate, please contact either Explorer Dastardly or Blue Myanamotu in world, or you can fill out the form online. We will do our very best to promote your work, and really appreciate your kind donation! If you are a poet or writer, we are planning an open poetry event to highlight your work. You can then donate the piece (via texture, or even collaborate with a builder) for the auction. Also, if you know of anyone who would be interested in helping us out, could you please send this info their way? THANK YOU! Both Explorer and Blue will be collecting pieces and brief artist bios for the event up until June 13th. To see some of the details from last year's event, you can check out the info here: https://virtuosity1111.wordpress.com/?s=auction Thank you so much for reading, and for your time! Sincerely, Blue Myanamotu and Explorer Dastardly Relay Wizards for SpUnKy team American Cancer Society Relay for Life in Second Life
  3. I realize I am a few months late in my response to this thread, but perhaps my response can offer some insights for others thinking of doing surveys well, anywhere! To give you a little background, I myself am a PhD student. However, I have my certification in program evaluation, and am frequently on research teams that collect and analyze data for a variety of education-related programs. -I also mentor and am deeply involved in developing an online class for research methods in online spaces (due to teach in Summer 2015, if all goes well). Surveys, unless they are open-ended, are best at collecting demographic data that describe your study population. This information is primarily quantitative, and it's handy for being able to sample large populations very quickly (which, as I've read in this thread, is the reason why they get so abused). Survey data is normally used to report on trends/theories that we already know exist, confirm/refute hypothesis, and again, are generally descriptive. They are NOT, however, useful for collecting emergent data, or for describing complex situations, like behavior. In these cases, and as people have pointed out already, you need a qualitative approach for this - observations, field notes, and interviews tend to be standard fare for a qualitative approach. Also, in order to study anything on virtual behavior, you really need to: Identify your population that you want to study - there are SO MANY communities in Second Life, and behavior is based on context. Fill out an RSRB (or you may know it as an IRB). The language is VERY strong about doing any kind of research on minors, and for a virtual study, you must address this specifically in your proposal. Now, if you're doing a study for a class (as people have said, to complete a homework assignment), it isn't necessary, since the data may ONLY be used for a class project and it is not reported outside of that scope. HOWEVER, in my opinion, even if an RSRB is not necessary, it is the researcher's responsibility to be ethical, confidential, and of course, do no harm. Make sure you have a good set of research questions first. What are you trying to find out??? Your questions guide your methodology! If you're trying to describe the demographics of a population, than a survey works. But if you're trying to study behavior, I don't think a survey is really going to help you deeply understand what's happening. If you are not sure what your research questions are? Than you really HAVE to start with an ethnographic study - rule of thumb: A MINIMUM of 3 one-hour observations, complete with field notes and transcriptions, followed by coding and categories to identify threads, before doing a little research to identify theories. You have to know what's out there, and what you want to study first. Surveys become little more than fluff if you don't understand a bit about your population. If you DO decide to do a survey, than at that point, you SHOULD know enough about the population and have developed a rapport with them such that you won't even need to worry about reaching your participants. ie. They will understand why you are there, what you're doing, for what reasons. Your survey questions should be vetted out to at least one or two people so that they can give you input (never use a survey question that isn't useful to your study - it wastes peoples' time and pisses them off). In terms of resources, my favorite survey tool is Google Forms, which is free, and it gives you similar graphical stats like Survey Monkey. Plus, you can upload it onto a spreadsheet or SPSS. Lastly, please don't be a parasite. That's why people have such a bad taste in their mouths when it comes to grad students and researchers. If you're going to study a community, figure out how you're going to give back! For example, can the people that own the sim get feedback and useful data to help them? Can you help them manage the sim? Perhaps write up stuff for them, or make a website for them? Research should be reciprocal, and researchers should give back to their participants as much as participants give to them (if possible). For example, I am setting up a pilot study for a community here in Second Life. In order to give back, I develop talks for them on a weekly basis to help attract more people to their venue and bring up their traffic. By doing that? I get to help them as much as they help me. ^.^ This is probably a lot more than you were asking for. However, I think it's important for any researcher studying virtual worlds to know. Some references to help you: Boellstorff, T., Nardi, B., Pearce, C., & Taylor, T. L. (2012). Ethnography and virtual worlds: A handbook of method. Princeton University Press. Kozinets, R.V. (2010). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Orgad, S. (2009). Question two: How can researchers make sense of the issues involved in collecting and interpreting online and offline data? In:A. Markham and N. Bayme (Eds). Internet Inquiry: Conversations about Method (pp. 33-53). New York: Sage Publications.
  4. I've been a lecturer at MOM for the past few weeks, and we've touched upon feminism, education, and the recent Ebola outbreak. I consider myself a nonconformist, and I DO go against the grain of much popular "hive mind" collective thinking - preferring to do my own research and think on my own as opposed to following popular opinion. I've had a fairly good turnout of people who come for the lecture, then stay for the discussions. To me, it is truly a meeting of the minds, in that I've had many people disagree - they share what they are thinking, question my own line of thinking, and we ALL walk away learning more. In other words, it's been an incredibly insightful and transformative experience to lecture at MOMs, and I plan on continuing because I get to interact with a LOT of brilliant people there from all walks of life and backgrounds who aren't afraid to share and speak their minds. It's refreshing! (And I do this for free, by the way, because I do love the interactions I get with people there.) Now, one thing Starr and her team do is maintain an atmosphere of respect for everyone. We can differ in opinion, and in fact, most of us do. HOWEVER, we can also express our differences and thoughts in ways that do not slam, judge nor disrespect the opinions of others. I fully believe that this is a safe space to do so. Unfortunately, there are people that come in with strong opinions who want to WIN an argument and shut down people instead of listening, learning and discussing. In these cases, it doesn't benefit anybody. Not only that, it disrespects the opinions of others. We can talk and disagree without the degradation and humiliation of others who think differently. However, we can't learn HOW to talk in these ways without actually...talking. MOMs is a place where that talk is welcomed. Talk is messy, though...especially about important topics that are controvercial and aren't really talked about anywhere else. If you're a jerk about expressing what you want to say, you WILL be ejected, or that experience will be unpleasant for you - NOT because of what you are thinking, but it's because of HOW you're expressing it. If people are civil and respectful about expressing their opinions, MOMS is a great place to listen and learn, AND PEOPLE WILL LISTEN. However, no one likes whiners, complainers, people who get on their soap box to lecture without intellectual justification, or people who put down other people. Hence, Starr and her crew try and make it a good, safe place to discuss and talk for everyone. It's not a perfect system (because it shouldn't be anyways), and I'm sure some people will get their feathers ruffled, as we've seen in this thread. Also, I admit, I'm not there on the porch often, and I speak from my times when I've been able to lecture and share with others. Those have been very positive for me, and I've made a LOT of great friends through this venue. There's over 500 people who are members to MOMS. You can't make everyone happy. I also know that MOMs is looking for guest speakers and lecturers who are willing to commit time to professionally present to the group. They HUNGER for good information!!!! That said, if someone DOES want to speak up and be heard, there are opportunities for that, as long as it's done in a way that respects others. My impression is that Starr and her staff work very hard to create opportunities for people to meet and share information. To me, they're doing a wonderful job of doing that!!!
  5. Aww, thanks Kolby! ^.^ And actually, the sim owners, Asia Garnet and Roving Robonaught are donating that 150L to AICR as well. You can check out AICR here. We've set it up so that donations go directly to the organization so hopefully things are transparent. For me, I wanted to do it to just meet great people in the horsing community, and also well, a lot of us (like me) bought LE horses to support a charity, then they sit in bundles in our inventories. So now, I can donate to even another charity that does a lot of good. ^.^ I really hope I get to meet you there. -And please spread the word. Thank you!!! ^.^
  6. Attention horse breeders! We are holding a Gala event in the Happy Homeland Sim. There will be classes on genetics, horsebreeding, record keeping and filing tickets on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday we will have a charity auction to support the Association of International Cancer Research. The ball will be held Wednesday evening and everyone is invited to gather and socialize. If you would like to be a part of the auction and have your name out there as a supporter, please come by the sim and rent a stall. It is 150L for 50 prims for the 3 day event. Setup is today and tomorrow. You can donate a bundle/horse to the auction on Wednesday. For more details, go here to my blog, or go to the sim and see for yourself. Happy Horsing Everyone!!! ^.^ Send me a notecard if you are interested or have questions. Akemi Myanamotu or Blue Myanamotu THANK YOU!
  7. A new update! Upon hearing my situation, the Happy Homeland Auction House has been generous enough to allow us to host the Gala Charity Social on their sim! Which means, we need interested horse breeders and horse instructors who would be willing to teach and place horses for auction. Right now, we are waiting to hear from the charity - we have selected some very reputable, and viable charities to work with and I will update as I know more. However, to answer your previous questions: Event will be from May 23rd -May 25th May 23-May 24th we need instructors who would be interested in teaching one or more of the following classes: How to be an auctioneer, pricing horses according to the market, intro to horse breeding, joining helpful groups and where to get help. May 25th - we need auctioneers who would do shifts throughout the day of the event leading up to the Gala Ball. May 25th at 5 pm SLT - we are looking for a DJ and auctioneer for music and an occasional special auction. This may be a charity auction/silent bid board, depending on the details, which we are still working on. Instructors and auctioneers may have a stall with 50 prims, for free for the 3 days of the event. For others, stall rentals will be 150L for 50 prims for the three day event. Rental goes to the sim owner (who has allowed us to use her sim for free and is working with me to plan the event), whereas 90% of the auction money will go to the charity and seller keeps 10%. Sellers must provide their own food. I guess, the purpose of the social isn't to make money. It's a chance for people to get together in the horse breeding community, meet, greet and learn something. There's so many nice people in our community, but we rarely get to do anything other than sell bargain, so now... we can talk and teach horse, plus... those of you (like me) who bought LE horses to support a charity? Now we can get a chance to give back even more to another worthy cause. ^.^ I kinda liked that idea. Okay. I think I answered all the questions. ^.^ If not, please feel free to ask more. You can send me a notecard in-world to Akemi Myanamotu or Blue Myanamotu if you are interested in helping out or renting a stall and participating in the charity auction. Thank you everyone! Blue
  8. Hi Jazen! Thanks for the response. The sim that was originally going to host the event fell through, so I guess...I'm in need of finding a sim that would be willing to let us host the event for a week. But, what I originally thought to do was to allow stall/prim rentals to go to the sim owner. Then in terms of donated horses for the auction, horse owners take 10% while 90% goes to the charity. I've never done an event of this magnitude before, so any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. ^.^ I'll post as I know/learn more. Blue
  9. Thank you Identity and Thinkerer!!! I will definitely read up, and if others have suggestions please add. This is very helpful!!! ^.^
  10. On May 25th we are having a special all day auction, black tie ball and all day auction to benefit Red Cross Relief in Alabama. We are looking for good horse breeders who would like to participate in the auction and rent a stall prior to the event. Those that rent stalls will be featured. We ask that participants donate a horse to the auction. Horses must be 5+ traits, black or white, and/or limited edition/charmed horses. Here's your chance to donate money from your limited edition horses to a bigger cause. If you've bought LE horses to donate to a charity, now is your chance to use those horses to donate twice. Please send an notecard in-world to either Blue Myanamotu or Akemi Myanamoto if you are interested in participating. Thank you! Blue
  11. Hi Everyone, I want to throw a gala fundraising ball in my friend's sim. I noticed under events search tab, there are featured events and happenings. However, the only thing that I am aware of to publicize is through the community tab under events and onto the events calendar. Are there other places that we may post as well? What other techniques do you use to get your event publicized? Thank you very much! Blue
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