NCI Alumni News

Alumni Association Networking

2007-07-29T20:21:00.000-07:00

Did you get your Second Life feet wet at New Citizens Incorporated? The NCI Alumni Association is here to help you stay in touch with your fellow NCI Alumni.

Group members will receive updates on NCI's current activities and schedule, invitations to participate in special NCI Alumni events, and news from our Alumni regarding their latest projects in Second Life. Additionally, NCI Alumni are invited to keep in touch with us and with your fellow alumni by submitting your Keeping in Touch notes to the NCI Alumni Association blog.

Opening a new store?
Launching a new product line?
Planning a great event?
Forming an interesting group?
Seeking collaborators for a project?
(Or staff? Or volunteers?)

Let us know!

The NCI Alumni Association is your chance to network with fellow alumni. Let us know what's new with you by submitting your Keeping In Touch notes as comments to this post.

Keeping in Touch notes will be reviewed by NCI Alumni Newsletter volunteers and posted to this blog as new entries. Feel free to include SLURLs to in-world locations as well as links to any graphics you would like included in your note.

Not a member of our Alumni group? The NCI Alumni Association is open enrolment and free to join. Simply look us up on the Groups tab of Second Life's in-world Search feature and click the Join button.

In-World Help

2007-07-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

Looking for a friendly face and a knowledgeable guide to help you navigate your early days of Second Life? NCI provides in-world, avatar-to-avatar help through our NCI Helpers who volunteer to staff the various NCI locations, welcoming new and old visitors to NCI alike and fielding whatever questions are thrown at them as best they are able.

You are welcome to drop in anytime of the day or night, say hello to our volunteers on duty (and other visitors!) and have a look around.

NCI Instant Message Help Channel

2007-07-29T19:54:00.000-07:00

NCI offers in-world Live Help through the IM channel of our main "New Citizens Inc." group. If you're lost in the metaverse or otherwise in need of Second Life related help, open up your New Citizens Inc. group IM and ask away. NCI Helpers are online and monitoring this channel, every hour that the SL grid is open, ready to help you!

Don't see us in your groups list? New Citizens Inc. is open enrolment and free to join. Simply click on your Search button to open up Second Life's in-world search screen, select the Groups tab, search for New Citizens Inc. and click the Join button. Welcome to NCI!

Education at NCI

2007-07-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

NCI offers a wide range of Second Life tutorials and information at our in-world campuses as well as on several of our volunteers' web sites, but the heart of our education program is our weekly schedule of in-world classes, taught by our wonderful NCI Instructor Team.

Overseen by NCI Education Director Rainbow Drake, NCI's Education program currently boasts 45 in-world classes each and every week! Covering a wide variety of Second Life topics and offered throughout the day, seven days a week, NCI is the place to go to learn about Second Life. Whether you're a new resident just getting your feet wet or an experienced veteran looking to sharpen the saw with more advanced skills, come check us out!

NCI Events

2007-07-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

NCI currently offers over 50 free events every week, scheduled at a wide variety of times in order to serve Second Life citizens all over the world! (Search for "NCI" in Second Life's Events listing for times and locations of our sessions for the current week.)

Our current events roster offers Second Life skills classes on the following topics:

Animations: Creation and Use
Animation Overriders
Avatar Makeovers
Basic Building
Building: Jewelry
Building: Flexi-Prims & Light
Building: Power Tools
Building: Prim-Efficent Homes
Building: Sculptured Prims
Building: Shoes
Starting a Business in Second Life
Basic Clothing Creation (working with appearance sliders)
Clothing Creation (working with textures and avatar UV maps)
Prim Clothing Creation
Second Life Consumer Skills
Basic Land Ownership
Advanced Land Ownership
Dealing with Griefers
New Resident Q&As (in English and German)
Second Life Photography
Search Menu Basics
Second Life Sex Education
Basic Scripting
Scripting: Sensors & Dynamics
Scripting: Inter-Object Communications
Introduction to Textures
Water Effects

as well as the following fun and informative social events, competitions and forums:

Beach Party and Q&A
Blitz Building Competitions (for new and old citizens)
NCI Business Forum
Newbie Salsa and Q&A
Show & Tell Competitions (for new and old citizens)

New Resident Mall

2007-07-29T16:21:00.000-07:00

The New Residents' Mall, located at NCI Plaza Kuula, is a place where you can take the knowledge you've gained out our classes or while practicing on your own, and try to make some money from it. We offer a simple vendor with arrows to flip between featured products. Text with the product name, the name of the seller, and the current price is displayed above each vendor. Right click to Pay the vendor the given price and the object is delivered instantly. This is a great way for inspired new residents to get their products visible to a very high traffic area and there is no fee to use this service for any resident under 120 days old. Up to this age the full purchase price is transferred to the seller.

For residents older than 120 days the vendors are still available but will collect a 50% commision from each sale. This commision is used to pay for NCI's expansion, event prize money, and to pay honorariums to our Hosts and Instructors who graciously donate their time and effort to help everyone. Once residents have been in-world 120 days we consider them able to find rental spaces or to aquire their own property for a store, but for those who wish to 'give back' to NCI and don't mind paying the commision in exchange for the exposure of their products to our many members and visitors, our Mall services are still available.

Sellers of any age who take advantage of our vendors may opt for a percentage of their sales to be directly deposited into the New Resident Stipend Fund. NCI manages a Stipend Ball developed by Zi Ree that will give a $L10 stipend, once a day, to any resident 45 days or younger. The funds for the stipend ball are provisioned solely through generous and anonymous donations. Merchants in our New Resident Mall can choose any value from 0 to 100% of their sales income to go towards this stipend fund automatically. (Sellers over 120 days of age may request that a portion of their commission fees goes towards the stipend ball directly, instead of going into NCI's general fund - or request that an additional percentage of sales be given to the new resident stipend fund.) Just one more way to 'give back' to the community if you so choose.

Contact NCI's Mall Director, Nardok Corrimal, for more information if you are interested.

Departmental Officers

2007-07-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

The work of NCI is made possible through the contributions of a large team of friendly and helpful volunteers who staff our various locations, helping to keep the land tidy and peaceful and providing assistance to visitors, new and old. There is also a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, keeping the great NCI machine well-oiled and working smoothly and efficiently. These are the folks who head up the various departments within NCI:

Advertising Manager - position is currently open
Director of Alumni Relations - Rainbow Drake
Director of Education - RoseLinUK London
Events Co-ordinator - Gramma Fiddlesticks
Freebies Director - Garn Conover
InfoNode Project Director - Yumi Murakami
NCI Mall Manager - Nardok Corrimal
Public Relations Co-ordinator - Nebbisk Oh
Scheduling Officer - Afon Shepherd
NCI Wiki - Yukiko Omegamu

Questions relating to any of the portfolios listed above can be directed to the indicated officer. Please direct questions regarding any open position to Carl Metropolitan.

NCI Locations

2007-07-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

NCI is growing by leaps and bounds! Thanks to the generosity of some wonderful patrons, NCI now has five locations in-world to serve you!

We also host nightly events in the auditorium on Usability Island.

Usability Island - Auditorium

Come check us out!

NCI Web Resources

2007-07-29T15:53:00.000-07:00

NCI's service offerings have expanded to include information and help resources on the World Wide Web. Check out these wonderful resources put together by current and former members of NCI's instructor team:

Designing Prim Clothes with Blu Laszlo - NCI Instructor Blu Laszlo shares the secrets of her Prim Clothing Creation class on her web site.
Natalia Zelmanov's Second Life Diary - former NCI Instructor and February 2007 Instructor of the Month Natalia Zelmanov has a plethora of wonderful Second Life tutorials on her blog, including the prim shoemaking tutorials on which NCI's own Prim Shoemaking classes are based
Rainbow's Second Life Tutorials - Director of Education Rainbow Drake is developing a selection of tutorials on Second Life skills on the Rainbow Creations web site. Current offerings include:

NCI's Event Hosts

2007-07-29T15:05:00.000-07:00

Atashi Yue - New Player Show & Tell, Beach Party/Q&A
Heiko Decatur - Blitz Building
Linda Coffee - Newbie Salsa/Q&A
Najmah Handayani - NCI Business Forum
Squee Janitor - Oldbie Show & Tell
Wellington Beam - Beach Party/Q&A
Yumi Murakami - New Player Show & Tell

NCI's Instructor Team

2007-07-29T14:50:00.000-07:00

These folks are hard at work developing and presenting weekly classes on a wide range of Second Life skills at all five of our NCI locations as well as evenings on Usability Island as part of a special event series sponsored by Useful Technology. Be sure to check out what we have to offer and let our instructors know how much you appreciate their work!

Afon Shepherd - shoes, scripting: object communications, basic scripting, flexi prim skirts
Alexandria LeShelle - avatar makeover
AphroditEbesos Truss - animation overriders, search menu, textures
Beverly Montgomery - new resident Q&A
Blu Laszlo - prim clothing
Brace Coral - basic clothing
Carl Metropolitan - consumer skills
fr43k Paine - new resident Q&A bilingual (German/English)
Gramma Fiddlesticks - sculptured prims
Kerhop Seattle - basic building
Lady Deledda - textures
Ligeia Westwick - basic building
Linda Coffee - avatar makeover
Locke Traveler - scripting: sensors & dynamics
Metaphor Box -sculptured prims
Najmah Handayani - advanced land
Nancy Villota - basic land, starting an SL business
Nardok Corrimal - new resident Q&A
Protomas Ludwig - basic land, basic scripting, water effects
Rainbow Drake - animations, clothing
RoseLinUK London - clothing, jewelry, photography, sculptured prims, shoes, building: power tools
Sally Savard - basic building, dealing with griefers, low prim home construction, sculptured prims
Shippou Oud - advanced land
Squee Janitor - new resident Q&A, flexi prims & light
Sunita Beck - hair, basic scripting,
Xxandera Voom - Intro to Role Playing

If you know an NCI Instructor who's gone above and beyond the call of duty, please consider showing your appreciation by nominating him or her to be NCI's next Instructor of the Month. To nominate an instructor for NCI IoM, submit a comment to this post including the name of the instructor you would like to nominate and why you feel she/he deserves this recognition.

Board of Directors

2007-07-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

Here is the current NCI Board of Directors:

Carl Metropolitan - Director
Tateru Nino - Deputy Director
Brace Coral - Director Emeritus
Rainbow Drake - Education & Alumni Director
Mera Pixel
Yukiko Omegamu - NCI International
Shawk Pertwee - NCI South
Lethe Naumova
Yumi Murakami - InfoNode Project
Seronis Zagato
Zi Ree
Garn Conover - Freebies

Kudos? Comments? Questions?
Now you know where to send them!

Freebies at NCI

2007-07-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

NCI's Freebies program has been revamped with a wonderful new server system scripted by Yumi Murakami and overseen by Freebies Director Garn Conover.

We are always happy to put out freebies for you at NCI provided they meet our guidelines. (We urge you to include landmark(s) to your shop(s).) We do not allow any freebies that contain weapons or sexually oriented content. These items will not be put out. Freebies should be Copy/Modify/Transfer (If you need more restrictive permissions please contact Garn). Garn will package up the freebies and place them at our NCI Locations.

This program helps both you and the new players who collect your freebies! New players have no idea where to find things. Your items (and landmarks) will give them a few items to get them started as well as a starting place to look for more. We all remember what it was like being new and lost in this big world! The good will engendered by distributing free goods through NCI can bring endless dividends to you and the new players!

Please IM Garn with questions about NCI's freebies program.

What is NCI?

2007-07-29T13:43:00.000-07:00

NCI == New Citizens Incorporated

We are a volunteer organization, run completely by Second Life citizens for Second Life citizens.

We are a resident help organization, committed to helping Second Life citizens get the most out of their second lives through a variety of means. These include:

Teaching classes on Second Life skills.
Hosting dances, show & tells, building competitions & other events designed to help new citizens find their place in SL society.
Collecting and distributing a wide range of free Second Life goods.
Providing tutorials and information on all sorts of Second Life topics through our information kiosks.
Helping new residents to launch Second Life businesses through our New Resident Mall.
Providing space in which residents can experiment with building in our sand boxes and on the builder's grid at NCI Kuula.
Providing a quiet "Home" location for landless residents in our Ginny Gremlin Park in Kuula.
Providing an IM Help channel through our open enrolment group "New Citizens Inc."
Providing in-world, avatar-to-avatar help through our NCI Helpers who volunteer to staff the various NCI locations, welcoming new and old visitors to NCI alike and fielding whatever questions are thrown at them as best they are able.
Providing an information newsletter and networking service through our NCI Alumni group.

NCI currently has five locations in-world. Stop by for a visit!