User:Thaumata Strangelove

Thaumata Strangelove

I came to Second Life in November 20015, when I was doing a bit of research about how permissions combined in a collaborative artistic space. I ended up sticking around. I spent quite a lot of time learning new skills here, and eventually met and married (in both lives) Kisa Naumova. We have often taken on freelance work here, building sims and managing other cool projects for all kinds of people, but mostly for British universities and other brick and mortar entities looking to get involved in virtual worlds.

SL Work

Jeans for Genes (Sept 09)

Jeans for Genes is a UK based charity which helps children and families affected by genetic disorders by funding support services and research into the causes and cures of these conditions. They run an annual event in the UK on October 2 where people wear jeans (to work and school) and donate £2 towards the cause. In 2009, they are also holding a grid-wide fundraising event, which I am participating in as a builder, promoter and all around get-it-done girl.

Ormesby Woods and Priory Schools (Autumn 2009)

Ormesby Woods and Priory Schools are real life elementary schools in the UK which are rebuilding in the next year. We work closely with school administrators, area technology evangelists and architects to convert the blueprints into a working scale model in SL. Ormesby is a school for children with special needs which made for an interesting build. Staff will then use the build to determine furniture orders, wall colors and accessibility, and perhaps as an online community home for students and parents in the future.

Acklam Grange iSchool (Spring 2009)

Acklam Grange School is an elementary school in Middlesbrough, England which is rebuilding this year. As with Ormesby, we worked closely with the staff and architects to ensure the Second Life model is to exact scale. Admins can then use the model to finalize real life building details. Teachers at the school are regularly using Second Life to educate their students, and will use the model to continue those lessons. Ground for the real life school broke in Spring of 2009. As Acklam is the first school using SL to teach younger pupils on a regular basis, it got a bit of press in the UK. You can see coverage of this build on the BBC site as well as on Gazette Live.

Leeds Metropolitan University (2009)

Mentor for LeedsMet's ongoing virtual worlds projects.

MUVENation (2009)

MUVENation is a great project designed to help educators educate in SL. I occasionally assist them with builds and events, including an in person panel in London about optimizing virtual classrooms.

Second Life Mentoring (2008-2009)

Volunteer for Linden Lab as a mentor for new and old residents alike. I particularly enjoyed working on Orientation Island, helping new users get acclimated, and answering challenging oldbie questions in the New Citizens Incorporated chats.

Emerge Island (Autumn 2008)

Emerge Island was mainly run by Kisa Naumova. I collaborated with them to build their freebie market and write educational training content for educators getting started in SL.

Flickr

For several years I was a moderator for the SL Flickr group. During this time, I helped them clarify their submission policies, community engagement, and moderation workflow. When we hit ten thousand members, I resigned from the moderation group to make more time for real life.

Orange Island (2008)

Guest speaker on Orange Island for panel about photography communities in Second Life. I also did a guest panel at Orange Island about Photography in Second Life.

SL4B

I had a small gallery of SL related artwork on the SL4B sim.

Other Channels

• Twitter (checked rarely)
• My SL Flickr stream
• Vizor Current project - WebVR