jokaydia’s Online Presence!

Yay! I’ve finally finished a full update of jokaydia’s online presence – which includes all the sites and spaces we use to support our inworld activities in Second Life out on the 2D web.  The aim of this work has been two-fold:

1. To update our web presence in readiness for what is shaping up to be a very busy virtual year, and
2. To further develop the jokaydia 3D PLE as part of our EduSquare project where I’m exploring how I can draw all of these resources into the 3D space.

Obviously the key webspace is this blog – and all jokaydia resources are linked from here. The site contains lots of info for both existing and prospective residents and updates on all of our activities, including:

• jokaydia Resources and Info including:
  • the Island Directory which provides an overview of the public and community spaces on the Islands of jokaydia. It includes a short description and Slurl for each space
  • the Current Residents Directory which provides information (opt-in) and SLurls to all of our residents – both individual educators and institution
  • the jokaydia Projects page which provides links and information to our current and past projects
  • the jokaydia Videos page which includes a range of videos created by our residents
• Administrative info including:
  • the jokaydia Booking Form which provides a form for those who wish to make bookings to use jokaydia Venues
  • the jokaydia Community Covenant which provides a full list of the community standards for our residential community, building on the Islands and code of conduct
  • the Contact Us page which provides a quick way to contact me and other members of the jokaydia Community
  • the Current Residents Form which allows residents to update their bio’s on the Current Residents page
  • the Rental Properties page which advertises our current land available on the islands.

I also use a number of other tools to ensure that we get the jokaydia message out loud and clear, and also record our events and activities for future reference.

The sites we use include:

• The jokaydia Facebook Group – a key part of the jokaydia communication strategy. I post all event announcements and news and info to the jokaydia Facebook Group. It is a useful to communicate both with those who are actively engaging in jokaydia events and activites inworld, but also as a way of getting the word out to those who are interested but not ‘avatarised’ yet!
• The jokaydia Flickr Group – a key part of our recording process. All residents, participants at events and visitors are invited to join the Flickr Group and add their images and machinimas to the community pool. We have also used the group to run community competitions – including the jokaydia Photocomp 08.
• jokay@Twitter – I am a twit-a-holic and find it a very useful way to connect with peers and colleagues, as well as promote my work.  I tweet about all jokaydia events, new blog posts and general virtual worlds news via Twitter.
• the jokaydia Wikispace – provides a simple and effective collaboration space for jokaydia residents and visitors. The jokaydia Wiki is open for editing and provides a space for all of our projects documents and resources.  It includes project pages for a number of our key projects, including:
  • EduSquare Project
  • jokaydia Mini Unconferences
  • Virtual Classroom Project
  • jokaydia Newbie Tours
  • jokaydia Roadtrips
• jokaydia on BlipTV – Several of the wonderful residents of jokaydia are active machinimists and regularly record events on the Islands of jokaydia. The best place to locate these videos is Blip.tv. They provide a fascinating overview of our development and a great record of all the events we’ve held on the Islands.
• jokaydia Events Calendar on Google – a key tool for keeping our calendar up to date, I have embedded the jokaydia Google Calendar on the blog and the wiki. Additionally, I’ve setup a Google Calendar tools inworld as part of the Timezone Wall display at EduSquare (SLurl) and at the jokaydia Landing Point (SLurl).
• SLeducation Wikispace – the SLeducation Wiki provides us with information and resources for use at workshops and presentations and is one of the largest SLed resources available. It currently holds just over 100 entries on educational projects being run in Second Life from around the world, along with presentation materials, newbie information and technical tips and tricks.

So where to now?

Now that our online presence is up to date and running smoothly, I will be working on explore ways to draw this content into the EduSquare build. Obviously RSS feed tools and URL givers will come in very handy, but I’ll also be exploring HTML on a Prim and various other tools including the Twitterboard tool, Facebook tools, BlogHUD and Flickr Screens. What fun! ;)

Additionally, I’ll be continuing with our Sloodle experiments and will develop a Moodle course for jokaydia residents to access and experiment with.

And finally, I am interested in raising the accessibility levels at Edusquare (and across jokaydia) and will be visiting Virtual Ability (SLurl) to explore best practice to scope out where we need to improve.

I hope everyone finds jokaydia’s new and improved online presence useful. I would love to hear your suggestions and feedback! ;)