Our second stop on Safari this week was to meet up with Frans Charming and Lyr Lobo of Avacon grid. Frans is the grid's tech guy, and Lyr is a consultant and Koshari Mahana: Hi Lyr, thank you for having us.
Lyr Lobo: Today is the kickoff of our OpenSimulator Community conference call for proposals. AvaCon sponsors and hosts the OSCC. This is our 14th year. You can submit a proposal for a talk here. Then we will go on to Primland, the documentation for that is here 
Thirza Ember: the building behind you is a piece of opensim history I think
Thirza Ember: I think that we are all here
Spax Orion: Nice to see another operator running YETI mono
Lyr Lobo: Welcome, everyone. This is AvaCon grid. AvaCon is a nonprofit organization devoted to encouraging community in virtual worlds. Frans here is our amazing mastermind behind the Web and scripted content on the grid. Itis a joy to share with the HG Safari
Frans Charming: We use this grid, sometimes for new users, in education or professional settings, so having some plain default avatars, is useful for that.
Spax Orion: I love building with prims
Francisco Koolhoven: Hi Lyr!
Lyr Lobo: I do too *grins*
Thirza Ember: how old is this grid? and how many residents?
Frans Charming: Close to those 14 years, i would say. We dont really have residents. The grid is mostly used as an introduction area, for non profits. Or used as a teaching platform.
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| Lyr Lobo and, with his steaming brew, Frans Charming |
Thirza Ember: Lyr, why did you decide to join this grid?
Lyr Lobo: I started as the keynote presenter in 2013 and never left... went to all of the organizing committee meetings, and fell in love with OpenSim
Sven Ingersoll: sounds like love-at-first-sight
Forest Azure: i should stop attaching stuff .. never get it off again
Lyr Lobo: you will login looking amazing next time, Forest
Forest.Azure: aww i thought i already did!
Lyr Lobo: and I've spoken at conferences here for Tulane University and AgileBill's Game Camp and others
Jade Serenity: i just love that Lyr
Frans Charming: we don't really have residents. The grid is mostly used as an introduction area, for non profits. Or used as a teaching platform.
Spax Orion: yes...
Lyr Lobo: Yes, by Nebadon
Thirza Ember: didn't Nebadon make it in the late paleolithic?
James Atlloud: Easily late paleolithic, before I was born
Cherry Manga: I miss Nebadon
Lyr Lobo: I do, too. We met in this building for many years to plan OSCC and other projects, like the federal Consortium of Virtual Worlds conference
Spax Orion: There are a few oars floating around which have similarities to this one??
Lyr Lobo: yes, Spax
James Atlloud: do ya ever approach an open door just when it decides to close?
Thirza Ember: all the freaking time
Sven Ingersoll: never
Cherry Manga: ahhahaa yes!
Thirza Ember: Lyr tell us about your avatar... the choices you made, the hat and dress
Lyr Lobo: I love steampunk designs and Lyr is my World of Warcraft avatar from 2004 -- an old timer... I like to play druids in WoW and love teaching here... I selected a short name that was easy for my students to remember and to write me...and I use Lyr Lobo as my Web persona
Cherry Manga: alliance or horde?
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| Cherry at a computer in the atrium, ordering Indonesian food |
Lyr Lobo: well alliance... night elf, but I play both sides now that we all get along, and have multi diverse guilds too, I play in educator guild that hosted World of Warcraft in School for 11 year old students as part of a National Science Foundation grant
Forest Azure: i think i was in wow around that time too
Lyr Lobo: frankly, I love skirts that swirl when you dance, movement is what amazes me
Sven Ingersoll: I've always been a fan of relative motion
James Atlloud: Could this group all fit in one of the classrooms?
Thirza Ember: James, show us where to go for a photo op
James Atlloud: in school I always sat in back so I could make trouble in class.
Thirza Ember: Sven is the naught student
Sven Ingersoll: chuckles... naughtical?
Frans Charming: We are exactly the right number.
Cherry Manga: those boards are too white, let's draw naughty things!
Thirza Ember: oh it's coffee, i thought Frans saw smoking something
Lyr Lobo: AvaCon supports a variety of projects... in the recent past, we worked on an AI Permeate project with MIT to work on a speech to text solution for use in Opensim, it was a volunteer effort with MIT students and part of our initiative to improve our experiences in virtual worlds
Sven Ingersoll: speech to text is fun
Thirza Ember: we definitely permeated today
Frans Charming: haha. I only drink coffee in OpenSim. in RL, its tea. lol.
Forest Azure throws a ball of paper to James
James Atlloud releases a frog towards forest
Cherry Manga: chewing on a piece of gum and squashing it under the table
Sven Ingersoll: is this going to be on the test?
Thirza Ember: Lyr, tell us about OSCC
Lyr Lobo: OSCC is your conference it is all about community. I'm speaker wrangler, which means that I review proposals and help assign speakers and panels, people speak on many subjects, including education, research, business, tech, and cool designs
Koshari Mahana: Where do people submit proposals?
Lyr Lobo: https://conference.opensimulator.org/call-for-proposals/
Nara Nook: It's fun. You all should sign up, I have done maybe half dozen or so
Lyr Lobo: Nara's wonderful writing community has hosted several breathtaking sessions with scripts, roles, and in 2015, with the learning Lab and a region of cool content... and handsome heroes, wondrous heroines, seeing books come to life, especially romances, is grand fun. the goal is to share what you love best about Opensimulator and your virtual world experiences
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| The auditorium regions of OSCC |
Thirza Ember: So right now the OSCC grid is up and running? can people visit? Or are you working on getting it ready for the next conference?
Frans Charming: We are working to get it ready. You can visit the landing region, and the Keynote region. The other regions are not accessible at the moment.
Lyr Lobo: the regions are still coming online. It is hosted by Univ of Southern California, Crista Lopes is working with them to unlock after she returns to her campus. For now, we're here on Avacon and if they do not unlock fast enough we will revitalize these spaces and make a command decision on where to host OSCC
Thirza Ember: so having 2 grids is an important resource
Forest Azure: why is cherry on the board?
Cherry Manga: camouflage
Sven Ingersoll: is this a boarding school?
James Atlloud: cherry is as cherry does
Lyr Lobo: Cherry's lovely designs grace many of the landing zones and other areas over the years and we are thankful for them
Frans Charming: Cherry was saying she wanted to put something naughty on the board...
Forest Azure: or maybe we are to study cherry?
James Atlloud: We all can learn a lot from Cherry
Lyr Lobo: James here is part of the organizing committee and makes the sessions come together with his streaming and great wit. AvaCon sponsors the Nonprofit Commons, a collection of 120+ nonprofit organizations from around the world, we've meet for 19 years every Friday to provide technology education and share the wonder of virtual worlds, both in Opensim and in SL. AvaCon was born out of the last group who organized the last SLCC...The SL community conference
Koshari Mahana: That's a long time Lyr.
Lyr Lobo: in SL, I've been there since 2005, but in virtual worlds, I designed a VR environment and ran experiments on how to make users comfortable in 1995-1997
We then jumped over to the second part of the tour, a nearby sim called Primland.
Lyr Lobo: PrimLand is a region devoted to a prim-building game
Cherry Manga: and there's food!
Jade Serenity: hahhahhahaha
Lyr Lobo: AvaCon works on projects that strengthen the use of virtual worlds by young people. Joyce Bettencourt / Rhiannon Chatnoir worked with Global Kids, to help young people work and learn in these spaces
Spax Orion: complete this course and you will be able to build anything from prims =D
Thirza Ember: this is really a piece of the past - nice it is still online
Spax Orion: I studied this build a few minutes ago... INSPIRING...
Dings Digital: prims are underrated - they make you feel good
Forest Azure: a prim a day keeps the doctor away
Koshari Mahana: I agree Dings, I like mesh but building in prims is very gratifying.
Lyr Lobo: We have a Google Doc all about this build, if you're interested in the details. You can download this OAR from a link on that last page
Thirza Ember: James is a surrealist coffee drinker
James Atlloud: Thanks to Cherry
Spax Orion: That is very kind of you to offer that. As a Fun Fair operator myself I can tell you this build is inspiring.
Frans Charming: That is great to hear Spax.
Lyr Lobo: I work for 2 universities at the moment and teach doctoral AI classes, mostly on research for healthcare and deep learning with Responsible use of AI at its heart, so I am a critic and teach ethics as well as technology and use virtual worlds whenever possible my research team and I worked in these worlds since 2008 and design serious games that use AI and virtual worlds to evaluate complex problems that have no solution in real life, such as space travel and life on Mars
Thirza Ember: in 2026 what is the reaction of your students when coming into contact with Opensim (compared with other games)
Lyr Lobo: they are in shock... doctoral students fear getting a bad grade as they must gain an A, so I studied with 800 13-year-olds in 2007 -2009 to learn how to support them in 40 minutes - the length of a class at school. I volunteered with the teens and learned a lot from them and how to get organized, the fact that our identities matter - getting comfy with your look, feel, movement
Thirza Ember: so once they are hands on they quickly learn to love the creativity?
Lyr Lobo: most do, quite a few of them went on to become leaders and designed their own solutions, a few did not, mostly those who are not fond of technology or gaming. A doctoral class has all types in it. Some prefer to program in assembler, while others are working on cybersecurity, data analytics, or imaginative solutions for a wide set of topics... quite a few study early detection of breast cancer using AI and other simulation environments
James Atlloud: awesome
Thirza Ember: The allegory of this build, that creativity is a path that can take you in unexpected directions, and every curve teaches you something. among apparently simple colors and forms, - I think it's beautiful
James Atlloud: There's also a sense of humor here which also helps.
HG Address hop://grid.avacon.org:8002/PrimLand/18/9/26
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