Caledon Oxbridge Q&A for 2014-12-21

15:00 Carl Metropolitan Welcome to Q&A with the Deans. You can ask us questions about Oxbridge, Second Life, Caledon, or anything you like. Some of those questions we may be able to answer!
15:01 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) A general update might trigger some relevant questions.
15:01 Carl Metropolitan An announcement to start with. Though we are still filling Dean and Assistant Dean positions, we have filled the Oxbridge Patron program ensuring our tier each month.
15:01 Wordsmith Jarvinen You can find past transcripts of these sessions plus the roles of the various deans at http://www.caledonoxbridge.org/qna_index.php
15:01 Beth Cooper-Pentewyn (beth.pentewyn) Excellent!
15:02 Wordsmith Jarvinen That as well as having tier paid until May.
15:02 Carl Metropolitan Also Larkylouz is now "Assistant Dean for Tutors" reporting to Wordsmith until we have a new Dean of Commons.
15:02 Gronk Seriman Congratulations, Larky!
15:02 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) Congratulations Larky
15:02 Beccha applauds
15:02 Glorf Bulmer EXcellent choice!
15:02 Persephonē ״Pommie״ Ploutodotes (pommiegranate) Congratulations Miss Larky!
15:02 Brace Coral Yay!
15:03 Beth Cooper-Pentewyn (beth.pentewyn) applauds.
15:03 Beccha congratulations, Miss Larky
15:03 Carl Metropolitan I also hope that the "Dean of Development" position will be easier to fill now that the responsiblities are not quite so overwhelming :)
15:03 Larkylouz Thank you
15:03 Carl Metropolitan (Development = Fundraising)
15:03 Wordsmith Jarvinen While that aspect has traditionally fallen under Dean of Commons, for the time being I've taken that under my wing .... and ... delegated it.
15:04 Wordsmith Jarvinen (the tutors)
15:04 Carl Metropolitan I wanted Brace Coral for Dean of Development but I could not steal her away from NCI :(
15:04 Brace Coral awwz :)
15:04 Carl Metropolitan She is annoyingly loyal. As an evil overlord I have to respect that.
15:04 Brace Coral lmao
15:05 Carl Metropolitan Hi Steadman! Welcome.
15:05 Wordsmith Jarvinen One should not be so absolute, Carl. Add "yet" or "at this time" on the end of that.
15:05 Brace Coral is still VERY tempted...
15:05 Steadman Kondor pardon me, i'm blind and cant grope my way to the seats
15:06 Carl Metropolitan She has her hands full, having just collected 1,500,000 L$ for NCI that they were owed by a client of their remote classes program--owed for over a year without payment! Now you see why I wanted to lure her away :)
15:06 Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) How much was left of the client?
15:07 Brace Coral ♫ ♬·.¸·´¯`·.¸.♥ Ⓐmazing Ⓑrace ♥·.¸·´¯`·.¸.♬ ♫
15:07 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) laughs
15:07 Persephonē ״Pommie״ Ploutodotes (pommiegranate) :D
15:07 Carl Metropolitan Enough to still afford an apartment on Central Park in New York City
15:07 Brace Coral mmmhmm
15:07 Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) Around the park or _in_ the park?
15:07 Brace Coral lol
15:07 Carl Metropolitan Around the park.
15:07 Gronk Seriman Ooo! It's the Brass Knuckes Collection Agency!
15:08 Tali Rosca Brace Knuckles.
15:08 Brace Coral if you have that link/follow thing Steadman you can link to me and sit on this bench :)
15:08 Gronk Seriman Yes!
15:08 Carl Metropolitan So. I see we have several of our new Patrons in the Audience today. Thank you guys!
15:08 Wordsmith Jarvinen Which brass brings us back to steampunk and Oxbridge.
15:08 Brace Coral bracepalms
15:08 Carl Metropolitan A snazzy plaque is currently in the works thanks to our Dean of Engines, Tali!
15:08 Carl Metropolitan As well as updated donation coins.
15:10 Wordsmith Jarvinen So, into future Sundays, you are still going to have to ask questions or be at the mercy of puns and bad junks of the remaining and soon to be deans.
15:11 Glorf Bulmer The remaining big hole in your number is Information... any word on volunteers there?
15:12 Carl Metropolitan We are still looking at that.
15:12 Larkylouz I'm sorry, Glorf, I don't understand your question?
15:12 Carl Metropolitan The three of us have been talking about candidates for the open Dean and Assistant Dean positions this week. We are going to meet again after this meeting.
15:13 Carl Metropolitan Larky, Glorf is asking about the Dean of Information postion.
15:13 Wordsmith Jarvinen That role includes both the faculty info packs and the tutorials, so it does take some fair amount of graphics skills.
15:13 Phrynne Does all of that need to be in the one position, or could it be split into two people?
15:13 Carl Metropolitan Need proficiency with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop or Gimp
15:14 Steadman Kondor the one person can coordinate and work with others too i would suggest
15:14 Tali Rosca We're looking at whether it will be possible to have some assistants, for all positions, really.
15:14 Carl Metropolitan That is the plan.
15:15 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) There is the additional task of keeping student information (Signs and notecards) up to date and clear
15:15 Larkylouz I hope to offer assistance and feedback with the packets, in particular. That and tutoring are quite related.
15:15 Steadman Kondor Well, i've offered my assistance already please let me know when as dean emiritus i can be of use.
15:16 Steadman Kondor i have not left SL contrary to what some staff thought they might have heard
15:16 Beth Cooper-Pentewyn (beth.pentewyn) Who is in charge of keeping all the notecards up do date that refer newcomers to other help centers if they speak another language?
15:16 Wordsmith Jarvinen The work can be spread, but hopefully they act as small teams in terms of staying current on information. That way it's harder for Oxbridge to end up with an information or procedure hole.
15:16 Carl Metropolitan One further announcement. I want welcome Josain Zsun as an Oxbridge patron. He had graciously agreed to be the first person on our Stand By list. Dean Wordsmith had signed up as a Patron, but since he found we had an extra on stand by, he asked if he could just cover our web hosting RL US dollar expenses instead. Which amounts to about the same as far as cost.
15:16 Carl Metropolitan So welcome Patron Josain!
15:16 Brace Coral Yay!
15:16 Larkylouz Awesome, Josain!
15:16 Persephonē ״Pommie״ Ploutodotes (pommiegranate) :D
15:16 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) Great Josain!
15:16 Glorf Bulmer applauds.
15:17 Josain Zsun blushes
15:17 Brace Coral Good job!!! XD
15:17 Beccha applauds
15:17 Phrynne applauds
15:17 Steadman Kondor thank you and welcome mr josain :D
15:17 Gronk Seriman Yay!
15:17 Carl Metropolitan You can activate a shiny new "Oxbridge Patron" tag under the "Caledon Oxbridge University" group if you choose to Josain.
15:17 Brace Coral ooooooooo!
15:17 Brace Coral :D
15:17 Josain Zsun Only because I heard there would be free beer and hot dogs.
15:17 Wordsmith Jarvinen So I've stepped back to Web supporter but have told Carl that, in the shortage of patrons, I'd step forward again. A backup patron.
15:17 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) Do we bow?
15:18 Carl Metropolitan Wordsmith is our Patron of Engines now :)
15:18 Wordsmith Jarvinen I think rather than bow, we can appreciate that we have and are a community.
15:19 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) And He got a beer too
15:19 Carl Metropolitan So that brings us up to date on Oxbridge announcement for the time being.
15:19 Larkylouz A most quirky, hardworking and entertaining community!
15:20 Carl Metropolitan Let's move into the questions.
15:20 Carl Metropolitan Hello Andrea! Another of our new Patrons!
15:20 Brace Coral Yay!
15:20 Andrea Jones (andreajonesms) Hello
15:20 Carl Metropolitan (as well As Larkylouz!)
15:20 Beth Cooper-Pentewyn (beth.pentewyn) Are there any plans for another Photography contest?
15:20 Carl Metropolitan That was Martini's "baby", but we will likely do it again.
15:21 Persephonē ״Pommie״ Ploutodotes (pommiegranate) Oh, that sounds like fun!
15:21 Beth Cooper-Pentewyn (beth.pentewyn) It is!
15:21 Carl Metropolitan I was going to talk to our Photography teacher first about it.
15:21 Carl Metropolitan It usually took place in the late winter, right?
15:21 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) I propose Professor Beth to have a role in that
15:21 Wordsmith Jarvinen We still have the build contest grounds as such also. I suspect that before too long we need to use them for that again.
15:22 Carl Metropolitan Not that I was going to ask Larky to run it; she's busy enough!
15:22 Carl Metropolitan That might be a good idea. I will want to coordinate whoever runs it with whoever becomes the Dean of Development too
15:22 Persephonē ״Pommie״ Ploutodotes (pommiegranate) With the changes, will the Gazette be continuing?
15:22 Carl Metropolitan I'm trying to balance decisiveness with the avoidance of micro-managing people we don't have yet.
15:23 Carl Metropolitan I believe that Steadman was going to take that over and it would be come the "Caledon Gazette" and spin off from Oxbridge.
15:24 Steadman Kondor I was open to it continuing and had awaited to see what the faculty was going to decide to do with it
15:24 Wordsmith Jarvinen In some form specific to Oxbridge there will some such also.
15:24 Tali Rosca Sauce mentioned that he might have a little more time in the new year and *just might* run the building contest again.
15:24 Steadman Kondor the former chancellor had indicated that she wanted it to have a much narrower focus, but now, with developments,
15:24 Beth Cooper-Pentewyn (beth.pentewyn) that sounds like fun too!
15:24 Carl Metropolitan Okay. We need to talk about that at more length Steadman
15:24 Steadman Kondor dean tali's vision of the role the gazette might play in building the community is closer to my original vision.
15:24 Carl Metropolitan I thought the spin-off was a done deal
15:25 Steadman Kondor so i do see a future in it. i am open to more discussion with the deans
15:25 Carl Metropolitan Good. Please email us this week.
15:25 Wordsmith Jarvinen I suspect that if there is a wider focus, there needs to be a separate domain, although where that is actually parked might be the same. The Guvnah requires a clear distinction between Oxbridge and Caledon itself.
15:25 Glorf Bulmer Sort of a Caledon Gazette with an Oxbridge Educational Supplement? Like the Times?
15:26 Steadman Kondor it's a possibility
15:26 Carl Metropolitan It is something we can discuss. It might be something that we could change or maybe there need to be two "papers".
15:26 Josain Zsun As long as COU is in the funnies and not the sports.
15:26 Steadman Kondor retaining the name, with some social reportage on caledon is another alternative
15:26 Wordsmith Jarvinen But, no information is going to be deleted and hopefully it will expand. Details to be worked out.
15:27 Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) And reporting about the patrson? :-)
15:27 Steadman Kondor the funnies and the sports are all most people read? lol
15:27 Persephonē ״Pommie״ Ploutodotes (pommiegranate) entertainment section :)
15:27 Carl Metropolitan In Caledon sports would be coverage of the annual Iron Sky races and the En Garde tournaments.
15:28 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) I like the Times Education Supplement analogy
15:28 Meora (menchor) what no reporting on the "fighting Dodos"
15:28 Tali Rosca I think having a paper covering such things with a wider focus would be a good idea, and serve the community well.
15:28 Persephonē ״Pommie״ Ploutodotes (pommiegranate) With any luck, no police blotter. I don't need people knowing which tree I ran my sled up
15:28 Tali Rosca But it is probably too wide to be branded as part of "Oxbridge University".
15:28 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) :D
15:28 Steadman Kondor on that note, miss beccha and I are holding an xmas social skate and dance at the Gazette HQ,
15:28 Josain Zsun especially if it's a Linden Tree
15:29 Steadman Kondor after this meeting at 4pm LST
15:29 Steadman Kondor SLT
15:29 Carl Metropolitan Linden Labs used to have a "Police Blotter" they ran on their website of actions taken against violators of the rules here. Way back when.
15:29 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) facepalms Josain
15:29 Steadman Kondor please feel free to join us, I will put the slurl in the group chat
15:29 Carl Metropolitan Okay... Next question?
15:31 Steadman Kondor is the faculty breaking for xmas and the new year?
15:31 Steadman Kondor or do we soldier on :)
15:32 Larkylouz I have my class scheduled for noon on the 25th. That may be pushing it, I don't know.
15:32 Wordsmith Jarvinen Well, the schedule for both weeks has a two-day holiday stripe with no classes.
15:32 Carl Metropolitan However, people are welcome to show up and help others as always.
15:32 Steadman Kondor 25th is boxing day for other time zones...
15:32 Beth Cooper-Pentewyn (beth.pentewyn) There are always lots of new residents during the holidays.
15:32 Wordsmith Jarvinen Note the schedule on the wall to your right.
15:32 Steadman Kondor it's good to have some activities for those who happen to have some free time to enter SL
15:33 Glorf Bulmer You have to assume people have RL commitments on those particular days, I think!
15:33 Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) I probably show up in those days.
15:33 Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) No promises on times, thought
15:33 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) We can always refer some new people to the skating in the area by the home point
15:34 Tali Rosca I'll also remind people that many non-English-speaking countries consider the 24th the holiday.
15:34 Wordsmith Jarvinen In the past couple of years, I've turned the music stream to holiday music off of Gabriel Riel's streams. If some faculty member should show up with dance balls ...... although we might have to become a building contest and move to village.
15:34 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) Beth and I will be traveling, but I will be inworld as much as I can, hiding from inlaws
15:34 Carl Metropolitan So no classes on 24th and 25th
15:34 Steadman Kondor @dean tali, yes the continent
15:34 Tali Rosca -It is common to consider the *eve* the day to celebrate.
15:34 Beth Cooper-Pentewyn (beth.pentewyn) I am going to slip out, since the region is at 20. I can read over David's shoulder.
15:34 Carl Metropolitan Right. We cover 24th and 25th
15:34 Carl Metropolitan Bye Beth
15:34 Josain Zsun will be in the I'net free New Mexico hinterlands for undetermined time.
15:35 Carl Metropolitan The downsides of a Homestead sim.
15:35 Carl Metropolitan The upside is not having to raise 75000L$ a month!
15:35 Carl Metropolitan Big upside.
15:35 Steadman Kondor that's a big upside
15:35 Carl Metropolitan Most places with full sims are constantly thinking about "paying for the sim" as opposed to "doing their mission"
15:36 Steadman Kondor our COU xmas social is in the village, so not impeded by those numbers
15:36 Steadman Kondor i thought before i left that a space for a second lecture hall was organised?
15:36 Steadman Kondor in the village?
15:37 Wordsmith Jarvinen That was in the village but up at the tayloring platform.
15:37 Steadman Kondor if so , well let that be my next question, are we transitioning busy classes there?
15:37 Carl Metropolitan We don't have any that need that yet.
15:37 Carl Metropolitan Other than perhaps Q&A :)
15:37 Steadman Kondor and why not hold the Q&A there then :)
15:37 Steadman Kondor i would love to see more patrons and more of the caledon community attend these
15:38 Wordsmith Jarvinen So, that is not intended as a functional lecture hall, and with Ravelli gone we don't have the creator.
15:38 Persephonē ״Pommie״ Ploutodotes (pommiegranate) Could do a fireside chat kind of meeting
15:39 Persephonē ״Pommie״ Ploutodotes (pommiegranate) That way, you wouldn't need a building
15:39 Brace Coral that sounds nice :)
15:39 Steadman Kondor there is already the stone circle the second meeting point
15:39 Steadman Kondor near the buildling comp site
15:39 Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) Would we have to bring sausages?
15:39 Steadman Kondor only silly sausages need be brought !
15:39 Larkylouz s'mores seem more holiday-ish
15:39 Persephonē ״Pommie״ Ploutodotes (pommiegranate) marshmallows
15:39 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) And Lagweiser beer!
15:40 Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) Okay, sausages and bonfire may be a Finnish thing :-)
15:40 Steadman Kondor SLower beer too
15:40 Brace Coral lol
15:40 Andrea Jones (andreajonesms) HI Ivan
15:40 Carl Metropolitan Okay. Moving on, from beer and sausages...
15:40 Carl Metropolitan Any more questions?
15:40 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) Hello Ivan... please do not take a seat
15:40 Ivan (ivanvorkosigan) neigh
15:41 Brace Coral is there a dean dresscode? because yall always look so swank
15:41 Carl Metropolitan No. We are just naturally swank.
15:41 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) I still think Tali's antlers need lights
15:42 Larkylouz is in Jeans Withdrawal
15:42 Brace Coral ha!
15:42 Josain Zsun Jean who?
15:42 Wordsmith Jarvinen And, while Caledon is Victorian (not strictly enforced), here we tend in that direction but are more like a space port in variety. As long as it's rated general.
15:43 Brace Coral very inspiring :)
15:43 Carl Metropolitan Oxbridge is General. Most of Caledon is Mature (though not adult)
15:43 Wordsmith Jarvinen Tali is a light unto herself.
15:44 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) on the subject of general
15:44 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) I had a talk lase evening with the Duchess of Templemore
15:44 Wordsmith Jarvinen The English translation of the Caledon motto is roughly: Civility, Tolerance, Innovation, Cake.
15:45 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) and she has insisted on welcoming new residents especially the young one
15:45 Wordsmith Jarvinen Oxbridge does inherit those principles.
15:45 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) so we can refer our young clients there
15:45 Larkylouz Duchess of Templemore?
15:46 Carl Metropolitan One thing we are going to be working on once the organizational chaos is settled is a new "Oxbridge Mentors" program, or "adopt-a-newbie" that will pair experienced Caledon residents who are interested with new users who want someone to help them out.
15:46 Carl Metropolitan I stole that idea from Brace, who stole it from Linden Lab, which used to call such people "Mentors" and "Greeters"
15:47 Wordsmith Jarvinen Although we will have to cautious with some of Caledon's mad scientists.
15:47 Glorf Bulmer Um... didn't the LL Mentor program come a bit unglued?
15:47 Carl Metropolitan Yes. But we are more competent than Linden Lab.
15:47 Meora (menchor) no oversight on the LL one
15:47 Wordsmith Jarvinen Many things that are unsupervised come unglued.
15:47 Persephonē ״Pommie״ Ploutodotes (pommiegranate) As long as the mentors are vetted
15:47 Ivan (ivanvorkosigan) How is a mentor different from a tutor?
15:48 Glorf Bulmer considers herself "Differently sane", thank you very much!
15:48 Larkylouz LOL
15:48 Wordsmith Jarvinen The tutors are assigned to Oxbridge itself. Mentors are per person.
15:48 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) Larky that is Elspeth Woolley
15:48 Carl Metropolitan Think of it as "adopt-a-newbie".
15:48 Glorf Bulmer And, yes, so long as lessons have been learned from the LL debacle, I guess that'll be all right.
15:49 Carl Metropolitan We want to have experienced caledon residents help people out with understanding SL and the steamlands and what and how you can do things here.
15:49 Andrea Jones (andreajonesms) alright us monster avi can gave our own ...
15:49 Andrea Jones (andreajonesms) nevermind
15:49 Carl Metropolitan Since we will be drawing on Caledon residents and Oxbridge helpers, the pool of potential volunteers will already be refined.
15:49 Brace Coral the difference is continued help and support
15:50 Carl Metropolitan But--that's for the near term future.
15:50 Brace Coral you check back in with someone, keep touching base, make sure they're ok, keep offering support
15:50 Carl Metropolitan And you check with the people who are being helped to make sure they are actually finding it helpful.
15:52 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) There seems recently to be a spate of interested and willing learners, and I have noticed a real willingness on the part of those in the plaza to be helpful
15:52 Wordsmith Jarvinen One might think of it in terms of large Italian "families" where resources depend on "connections". The mentor then acts as an expediter with those connection.
15:52 Glorf Bulmer I usually point out the plaza as a place where folks might be able to find answers to questions.....
15:53 Carl Metropolitan Also encourage people to use the group chat in COUG, as well
15:53 Carl Metropolitan They can nearly always find someone to help via that.
15:53 Glorf Bulmer And my oversized f-list mostly comes from new people I've offered to keep in touch with.... some of whom have gone on to great things in SL!
15:53 Carl Metropolitan Any last questions?
15:54 Steadman Kondor please join us at Oxbridge Village gazette HQ for an xmas party
15:54 Steadman Kondor Caledon Oxbridge Village (217,105,22)
15:55 Steadman Kondor for all faculty, gazette contributors, patrons, scholars, the whole COU community
15:55 Andrea Jones (andreajonesms) just a notice for the 18th of jan
15:55 Steadman Kondor :) hope to see you there soon, the party starts at 4pm SLT, shortly
15:56 Josain Zsun and no short jokes…
15:56 Carl Metropolitan Well, the deans have a meeting following this one, so you may not see us.
15:56 David Cooper-Pentewyn (deebeecooper) Puns are short
15:56 Carl Metropolitan But hopefully it will be short.
15:57 Glorf Bulmer is not sure she has any faculties left at the moment....
15:57 Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) Two hours past mdnight here, unfortunately.
15:58 Persephonē ״Pommie״ Ploutodotes (pommiegranate) waves and departs :)
15:58 Wordsmith Jarvinen Thank you all for coming and participating.
15:58 Carl Metropolitan See you all soon.
15:58 Carl Metropolitan Trivia will be on Tuesday.
15:58 Carl Metropolitan It's the 23rd!
15:58 Carl Metropolitan Goodnight everyone.
15:59 Gronk Seriman Thank you, Deans!
15:59 Brace Coral goodnight and thanks!
15:59 Glorf Bulmer Thank you, deans!
15:59 Beccha Thank you