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From Deb, 08/07/08
I was doing some reading today on VR and on-line learning environments, and this got me to applying that to our project. So, here are a few ideas for the project: 

1). Do we need to design an outside patio, or some type of social networking space, so that folks who have been thru the exhibit and meet and chat about it? Or if we anticipate perhaps instructors using it as an educational tool in a class, where they could instantly park and have a discussion?
2).If yes, is there a way that we could capture these chat logs, and possibly use that as qualitative evaluation data?
3). Do we need a library or den in the house where visitors could leave pictures of THEIR AT devices, UD features, thus creating an on-line catalog?
4). Would it be helpful to have a map of where all of the UD and AT stuff is...so that people don't miss anything? Or so that it becomes kind of like a treasure hunt?


From Deb, 08/04/08
Here's what I was thinking for the language on AT for the packet. I have so many more links that I could include, but perhaps this is too much already?


What is assistive technology?
	Assistive technology (AT) refers to a broad category of devices and strategies that can be applied to all aspects of life. Although the term assistive technology can be intimidating, by substituting the words helping and tools, the idea becomes much clearer. Assistive technology is meant to make life easier and improve its quality. The Assistive Technology Act of 1998, signed into law by President Bill Clinton, defines an assistive technology device as “any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.” However, numerous assistive technology devices and strategies can be helpful to many people, and not just to those with a disability.

Competition guidelines
	The following assistive technology devices are just a few of the thousand of possibilities. As part of the design project, it is expected that the builder will choose X of the provided X choices to include within the submission.(PDF REFERENCED HERE)
	In addition, it is expected that the design project will include other assistive technology design items not included in the provided list. The number and complexity of assistive technology devices is not specified. Creativity in choosing and building additional assistive technology devices will be part of the judges’ overall assessment of the project. The links below are related to assistive technology and are provided as a starting place for builders. These links provide examples of assistive technology devices and suppliers, as well as some additional general information.  Design builders may utilize these links as well as their own resources for this aspect of the project. (Brand names appearing here are for product identification purposes only. No endorsement is intended, nor is criticism implied of similar products not mentioned).

AARP (Make Your Life Easier with Helpful Gadgets)
http://assets.aarp.org/external_sites/caregiving/preparing/helpful_gadgets.html

Active Forever
www.activeforever.com

AliMed
www.aliMed.com

Catalog of Portable Electronic Devices for Memory and Organization
www.biausa.org/Pages/AT

Department of Health and Human Services (Fact Sheet: Assistive Technology)
http://www.eldercare.gov/Eldercare/Public/resources/fact_sheets/assistive_tech.asp

Gold Violin
www.goldviolin.com

National Aging in Place Council (Top 10 Product Ideas)
http://www.naipc.org/AGuidetoAginginPlace/Top10ProductIdeas/tabid/77/Default.aspx

North Dakota Interagency Program for Assistive Technology (Doodads, Gadgets, and Thingamajigs)
http://www.ndipat.org/publications/default.asp?ID=345

Sammons Preston
www.sammonspreston.com

Sears Health and Wellness
www.searshealthandwellness.com



From Deb: If building an accessible home is a little too big for us right now, what if we built Dorothy's house (or any old farm house from the Midwest) and then show how it can be adapted to be more accessible? This way, we could purchase an already-made home and use our internal resources to build the things we would need (a ramp, grab bars, stair rails, etc)? This is probably more realistic, in any event, as we discussed. Then, we could really put some time and effort into building a "dream house" that included both universal design and "going green". It would be neat to be able to compare the two, at some point, especially if we could do a cost comparison...

From Deb again: This came from an email LuAnne wrote to an architect in SL about the project. I read it and thought, there it is:...

"[The] objective is to raise public awareness of design features that can make it possible to remain in the home with physical challenges due to disabilites or aging."

Next meeting is 7-17 at 10:00am Eastern at 
http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/caregiving/
Agenda items:
 
goals and objectives
 
project design for:
phase 1: fair booth
phase 2: building competition
timeline
prizes and incentives
call for entries
judging rubric

On 7-15 LuAnn Sent this email message to Jon Brouchoud
He is author of ‘The Arch’ blog ( http://www.archsl.wordpress.com ), founder of Architecture Islands, an incubator for architects and designers in virtual worlds, and also leads the Architecture in Second Life community group. He is co-founder of Studio Wikitecture, a Web 2.0 based architectural collaboration methodology.

Hi Jon,
 
I hope you can spare a few minutes for me and offer some advice...
 
It looks like you are the architecture guru in Second Life. I work with the USA nonprofit educational organization, Cooperative Extension, (see www.extension.org). They would like to do an educational project in Second Life on accessible housing, universal design and assistive technology. I have several university professors involved at this point, and although they have little experience using SL, they can see its potential as an educational environment.  I, and some other staffers with more SL experience would assist them. Their objective is to raise public awareness of design features that can make it possible to remain in the home with physical challenges due to diabilites or aging.
 
They will have a whole sim available for this, and they are considering the possibility of having a builder competition, with contestants submitting a model home that incorporates these features. They would then have a showcase of homes, and a panel of judges made up of both professionals in this field and people in SL with disabilities would evaluate the entries based on some sort of rubric to be developed. A prize would be given (maybe an open space sim?), several top winners would become part of a permanent educational exhibit, the builders would retain ownership of the creation and the rights to market the designs. The event would be promoted heavily both in SL and RL. I attached a pdf copy of some resource material that would be made available to the contenstants.
 
So why am I telling you about this? Well, I would be interested in knowing whether you think this idea is viable. I would really appreciate any input you can offer. I have read your blog and looked at what you do, and I can see that you are an insightful person. Would this project be of interest to the architecture community in SL? (I have already verified that it is very much of interest to the disability community in SL.). Are you aware of any similar competitions in the past, and lessons learned from them? Do you have any insights into how best to go about this? Or, is it a completely silly idea? 
 
I am meeting again with the project committee on Thursday, and would love to give them your feedback then. If you are too busy to even give this any thought at all, just say so, and I will understand.
 
And received this reply:

Dear LuAnn,

What a GREAT idea!!!  Thanks so much for sharing this with me!  I think it could be a very exciting and viable project in Second Life.  

The only two areas where I would caution are in assigning award, and of the challenges of scale when building projects that represent real-life, in Second Life.  There is a good chance you already know these things but I'll say them anyway! =)

First the award.  I can say that the projects achieving the greatest participation, most enthusiastic response, and widespread blog and media coverage are those that offer a somewhat substantial prize for the top several entries.  I would say this would be the single most important factor in achieving a successful competition.  If there is budget allowed, I would recommend at least $2,500 as a first prize, with 3 or 4 other prizes (most innovative, etc.) with awards between $500 and $1000 each.  In sum, if you started with an award pool of about $5,000, I am confident you would get very widespread and high quality participation.  Without it, I know you can still get results, but you won't attract the higher end architects and designers, and run the risk of being 'just another low-paying competition' that the SL community has complained about in the past... in other words, without compensating competitors significantly, the project could even backfire, and derive negative publicity for not offering enough compensation in return for the risk of spending the time entering.  The higher you can offer as an award, the better your entries will be.  

Next is the scale issue.  I recommend stating from the start that all entries should be built at 1.5X real-life scale, based on the in-world metric system.  If you don't stipulate this,  you will get some entries that are built to exact real-life scale, which feel dauntingly tiny in Second Life (certainly not very accessible feeling!)... in fact, some regular avatars can't even navigate in 1:1 scale builds.  They're just too small.  Conversely, some people will build much, much larger... and you'll get builds that don't 'feel' realistic at all.  So, by stipulating a uniform 1.5x real-life scale that everyone can adhere too, you will achieve some regularity in the entries - so they can be more easily compared, apples to apples.  Anyone who replicates real-life projects in Second Life will say the same... 2x scale is often too big - 1x scale is too small... 1.5x scale is just right.  

I assume the group you talked to is the Heron Sanctuary?  If not, you might consider contacting them also: http://www.slnn.com/index.php?SCREEN=article&about=heron-sanctuary

It sounds like you have PR outreach under control, but just in case - I'd recommend preparing a notecard with a general outline of the competition to as many group owners as you can find... there are some educational groups that have thousands of members that would just love to work on something like this.  There are also hundreds of blogs (Hamlet Au just had a roundup list of all SL blogs on New World Notes..you might take that list and send a release to each of them).  Don't forget Adam Reuters and the CNN hud you can submit stories to, they get very widespread readership, obviously - and are very approachable, especially with projects like this.  

You might also encourage group-submitted collaborative entries - perhaps from universities..  kind of like the solar decathalon.  There are hundreds of universities in Second Life... just thinking... please take or leave whatever advice you think will be most helpful to you!

That's about all I can think of for now!  

I wish you the best of luck, and open an invitation to contact me any time with questions or ideas - I would be happy to share any thoughts or ideas I can come up with to make this project successful.  

Good luck!
Keystone / Jon



Steering Committee Meeting 7-17-08
Meeting Notes

attnded: Deb Sellers, Sarah Kirby, Larry Havenstein, LuAnn Phillips

[[Goals and Objectives]]

The goal is to raise public awareness of design features and assistive technology that can make it possible to remain in the home with physical or cognitive challenges due to aging, illness, or disability."

[[Objectives]]
education for current SL residents
pilot / demonstration project for eXtension SL education generally
Promote the Family Caregiving CoP
useful for agents in the counties as a video/live demo educational tool
self directed learners will subsequently visit on their own in SL for more 
	after attending a class where it was a demo
	after seeing a video
	through link on Family Caregiving web page
Provide a cost-effective physical model that can be upgraded and changed over time

[[Timeline]]
Fair booth by 7/28
Entry packet by 9/4, for conferences (SLCC and Galaxy)
Register by 10/1, 
judging 11/1 - ?
November is National Family Caregiver Month, tie to that
Event for announcing winners, mixed reality? (in RL and SL)

[[Project Design]]

Phase 1: fair booth

several objects to show some assitive tech
room with some build features-bathroom?
slide show of assistive tech items
link to the pdf of building features
poster about the larger project to come
link to web page (on Deb's site) (LuAnn will provide text and some SL pics)

phase 2: building competition

On one sim, 8-10 builders is realistic for prim allowance plus infrastructure
Need prizes and incentives
sponsor? have one builder do it gratis
try a call for entries with an appeal to altruism
we will still need some type of prize
We want to attract the elite builders like Barnesworth Anubis and Paige Raven of Cozy Homes

How many entries will we get? Can we get a second sim if this really takes off?

Can we have a category for student builders? Can we put this out through the universities? LuAnn has a contact at Cornell to ask.

[[Other]]

need more work on ways to measure outcomes, counters and surveys
Deb will work on the web page
survey-Deb and Larry
Deb measurements of assistive tech devices
Ownership and permissions on the entries
Think of a name for this competition—as Terry Meisenbach?
call for entries-Sarah will rough this out, look for examples
Entry form can be a pdf on Deb's web page
risk management/ legal issues, at least ask the questions of a legal expert
copyright issues, statement on entry form to this effect
are there guidelines for this type of contest?
Ownership issues

Have a display with entry packets at SLCC and Galaxy
judging rubric needs to be part of the packet

Next meeting 8/4 at 10 Central in connect
Agenda items
	Entry forms
	Judging Rubric
	Progress on web page
	Outcome Metrics

Notes taken by LuAnn Phillips