• July
  • 13th
  • 2007

Italian Team SL Experience

Can you imagine an island where all the students can come along, meet other teams, share their experience, dance on a big stage, listen to concert and so on?

ItalianTeamSL

If you can’t, please go straight to the Imagine Cup Gallery in SL! It’s open 24/7, it’s free and it’s awesome!!

Yesterday we had the second official meeting in SL; it was smaller then the first one, but we met really great people. There was Nishi (aka Caroline Phillips) dancing and making chicken-style evolution with us on the floor.
Then we met Rosie (aka Shirley Williams), lecturer from University of Reading (UK): she’s been fantastic and really kind. The Italian Team gave her a first short unformal presentation of their project Dattebayo; she listened carefully to the project and she had some really great feedback to share with us about presentation and possible future judges questions.

Italian Team

And of course we met some brillant friend (don’t want to call them competitors) from other country, such as Czech Republic, Germany, Portugal Russia, Malta, Ireland…

If you missed these event, there will be others on July 19th and 26th, from 19:00 to 21:00 (Central European Time).

See ya in Korea!

The Italian Team (Alessandro, Carlo Alberto, Davide, Melissa and Giorgio)

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  • July
  • 12th
  • 2007

Celebrate the countdown until the Imagine Cup finals!

The countdown has started – less than a month until the Imagine Cup finals in Korea. Based on positive feedback, we have organised three additional Second Life events, which will be held on July 12, 19 and 26. Join us on the Imagine Cup Gallery Island to experience the excitement, passion and creativity and to wish the teams well before they head off to Seoul! You can meet contestants from around the world and chat with them about their projects – share your excitement or just hang out and relax with your friends. The events start from 19:00 until 21:00 CET and will again feature plenty of entertainment. Celebrate the countdown with us and wish your favourite team good luck!

snapshot_2.jpg

Caroline Phillips aka Imagine Nishi and one of the Czech Imagine Cup finalists in front of the Korean Pavilion

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  • June
  • 30th
  • 2007

PARE.NeT in ImagineCup Island

Hi all :)
Finally, Imagine Cup Gallery that we were waiting impatiently, was opened. Thanks for creating Imagine Cup Gallery in SecondLife. As we are team PARE.NeT from TURKEY,

Team PARE.NeT

We had a unique experience that we’ve ever had about our project PARE.NeT. Because, there is no boundries in SL. Before world final, we met many people and project teams members, introduced our project and took feedbacks.
Concert, party and skydiving (flying without parachute :P) it was really amusing. Everything is virtual except feelings :)

PARE.NeT

We are in 9th region and introducing ‘PARE.NeT‘ with a short film and also with orange t-shirts :) Overview of the film consist of, what problem we are solving (parents’ educational problem), overview of our application and our message to the world (future of the world, our babies). Moreover, you can see Istanbul,TURKEY video at the beginning of our film. Timeless city… Everybody said that we had an amazing, awesome video. We met many people and project teams. We have a photo with spanish team below :) (taken by Stan)

PARE.NeT with Spanish Team

Everybody have a fun and unique experience in imagine cup island. We highly recommend you to visit imagine cup gallery on secondlife (just teleport 128/64/24) before world final in Seoul.
By the way, thanks Stan for taking our photos with spanish team :) and thanks all other friends. See you in Seoul and in SL Imagine Cup Galery. (www.parenet.net)

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  • June
  • 28th
  • 2007

Island Imagine Cup

Hey, I’ve just returned from the launch of the Imagine Cup Gallery!

Well, as a person who has attended (in different roles) all the Imagine Cup Finals since 2003 till 2006 I should say it was sort of a typical Imagine Cup event: lots of smart students, press, Microsoft folks, stands with awesome technology demos, some freebies (t-shirts), some entertainment (skydiving) and a live concert.

Yet, there was something really new this time: MICROSOFT BOUGHT A WHOLE TROPICAL ISLAND specifically to host an Imagine Cup event on it!

islandThe Imagine Cup Island appeared to be very beautiful. It is surrounded by the ocean and it has lots of nice sand beaches and evergreen palm trees!

Well, nowadays you don’t necessarily need to be Sir Richard Branson to buy an island. In Second Life you can get your own Necker for much less money than Branson paid in 1979.

So when I heard that the Imagine Cup is hosting its first event in the virtual world of Second Life I felt really excited!

The first prerequisite to attending this brand new kind of event was to create the virtual me. This is how
StanStanielStan Vonog, 24 years old (left), turned into Staniel Raymaker,
1 day old (right).

I decided to keep the white outfit our team was wearing at the Imagine Cup 2005 World Finals in Japan. I had two reasons for this: 1) I thought people would have a better chance to recognize me; 2) it was very easy to make these clothes -
no color, no texture, no design, just plain white.

When I teleported myself to 128/64/24 I appeared in front
of a Korean temple and an interactive video screen with Imagine Cup sign on it. I clicked the screen and it started playing an impressive video about Korea, the country of the 2007 World Finals. I really enjoyed the video and by the moment it finished I noticed that the party was going on.

Falleiry Rydell chatting with Staniel Raymaker at Imagine Cup 2007 Virtual Party

I was coming up to different people and asking the #1 Imagine Cup Question: “Where are you from?” I met people from the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, France, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, UK, Serbia, Russia, Germany, …. It was happening exactly the same way it is at physical Imagine Cup finals: you are walking around, getting to know each other, people have booths with projects, you can see demos, you can discuss, you can chat, you can even take ‘photos’ of each other (btw, I posted mine here). It was JUST THE SAME !!! And it was indeed VERY SURPRISING to me.

Looking at the Map of Imagine Cup Virtual Gallery with Gertje Paine from the Netherlands

The Imagine Cup Island itself is circular and there are 12 screens by the island’s perimeter. There are also maps all around the island, Microsoft and Imagine Cup flags, a concert area, a lounge in the center and even a skydiving attraction (you take a parachute, then you are skyrocketed 1000 meters high and then you dive with your parachute)

Serbian Team's video

Each video screen contains 2 presentations (either slides or video) from 2 different countries. The screens are interactive and once you come nearby or click it they start streaming high quality audio and video. The people on the screenshot above are watching the trailer of the Serbian project.

The pinnacle of the Imagine Cup Gallery Launch was the virtual live concert of Natalie Moody, a Swedish singer and compozer. She is 27, her real name is Therese and she does regular live performances inside Second Life. During the concert Natalie was interacting with the audience, singing her own and ABBA songs. I really enjoyed the virtual live performance and I believe this concept has an amazing future (and, by the way, this is what we are doing at Musigy)

concert
So to sum up - install Second Life, create your virtual self and come and see what’s on at the Imagine Cup Island at 128/64/24!

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  • June
  • 25th
  • 2007

Welcome to the EMEA Imagine Cup Gallery blog!

joe_wilson1.jpgThank you for joining us on the EMEA Imagine Cup Gallery blog! A warm welcome to all of you on behalf of the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition! This blog is designed to provide an open forum for discussion with Imagine Cup students participating in the Imagine Cup Gallery in Second Life, so we welcome and encourage your participation.

We have chosen to create an Imagine Cup Gallery in Second Life, for the first time since the competition was launched, as we felt this virtual world provides a particularly interesting new platform for student cooperation and learning, and that is what the Imagine Cup is all about.

Second Life is perhaps best known for enabling individual users to unleash their imagination and innovate, which is also in line with the aims of Imagine Cup. We are excited to be part of this trend and to further link students with all that is happening in Second Life. Through the Imagine Cup Gallery and through this blog, we hope you will reach out to other like-minded students to exchange ideas, chat and make new connections with people in geographically diverse locations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The Gallery and blog will remain open until the Imagine Cup finals in Seoul, Korea, on August 3.

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