Discussion on Tactics At Aether Salon

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

This is one of my "better late than never" articles that temporarily got lost in the reporting about the SL23B and then Rita Mariner's passing. 

Besides being the last day of the Second Life Birthday, Sunday July 19 was also the day of July's Aether Salon discussion. 

Today at 2PM SLT: The Aether Salon presents TACTICS! with one of the founding Salonistas, Jedburgh Dagger. Sneak in unnoticed, steal a seat and brace yourself for further instructions.   

One of the central points of the discussion by Jedburgh Dagger of tactics was what face a commander on the field: "the three 'Cs,'" Command, Control, and Communications."Command, go there. Control, stay together. Communications, tell them to go there too." And in ancient times with no radio, communications wasn't easy, relying on visual signals, horns, and messengers which took time to reach where they were going and vulnerable to being killed. 

 

 

Jedburgh noted that tactics pretty much stayed the same for millennia. Even when firearms first appeared in European battles in 1419, they weren't a significant change at first, until "in 1525 the first battle that was pivotally decided by firearms was fought in Italy. Battle of Pavia, when the cavalry found out that you can't run pell mell at a block of musketeers. But even so, guns ended up not changing the formations a great deal."

Real change would have to wait until King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, "known as the first modern general, and the man who started the widespread use of 'combined arms'.What he did was use cavalry, artillery, and infantry together, each using their strengths to offset the weaknesses of the other."  

Still, the practice of men in lines marching in formation toward each other continued, even in the early and mid 19th Century that saw developments in firearms and ammunition that made rifles more accurate and quicker to reload. But then came Maxim and his machine gun, "it took Maxim's gun to provide huge amounts of fire that ended the large unit use of line formations, and also killed colored uniforms for that matter." But line formations didn't go away entirely, "even today, the riot squad and the infantry squaddie still do the same thing their Greek ancestors did."

 

There were some amusing moments with the occasional joking remark, such as someone responding to the comment "the same thing their Greek ancestors did" with Tepic Harlequin going "drink too much and fight the locals?" He would also man the machine gun on display. There were also fireworks unleashed at one point. 

 

Ceejay Writer, who organizes Salon events, would say, "we do not have a speaker for next month, but we do for the rest of the year," and invited people to sign up to be one.  

 

The Aether Salon discussions are announced in the New Babbage group inworld, and on it's Discord. They take place at Babbage Canals (195/63/105).

 

To read the group blog, including this week's transcript, Click Here: https://aethersalon.home.blog/

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

 

Happy Birthday Firestorm - Interview With Tonya Souther

By Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich)

I got the chance to check out the Firestorm Ninth Anniversary Party today and briefly interview Tonya Souther who is the Mac developer for the Firestorm viewer. The turnout was amazing with well over 150 people there supporting the Firestorm team’s work. “I think the event's fantastic. I hadn't heard Savannah before, and she's a great singer. I'm pleased to see as many folks out here on a September as there are.” Tonya remarked, “I'm constantly amazed at the support that Firestorm gets from the user community.”

I personally have been using Firestorm for years and I absolutely love how customizable the viewer is. I have my Firestorm viewer extremely customized with chat notifications, a purple theme, and graphics settings. It’s a power user’s dream and I wouldn’t be able to go back to another viewer at this point. “Me either!” Tonya said “We make Firestorm to be the kind of viewer we want to use ourselves. We're pretty demanding of what we expect. If we want to use it, then others will too.”

I also got to ask Tonya how Firestorm will handle “Bakes on Mesh” and she had this to say. “We're in the process of gearing a release ready right now. In fact, after I get done here, I'm going to go back to fixing MacOS bugs.”

So there seems to be plenty to look forward to from the Firestorm team in the near future and beyond thanks to their tireless support of the viewer and it’s fans. Here’s to another nine years!
--
-Cyfir

GeekSpeak Science Discussion: Leaving Earth

On Saturday January 20, I attended the "Geekspeak" science chat and discussion event. For those who don't know, the event takes place about every few weeks on a Saturday at 12 PM SL time, and is hosted by Erik Goff. The event takes place at Danmu (143/127/51).

Usually the topic is a science related one. Among them, how will the development of artificial intelligence affect humanity and society in the next ten to twenty years? Could tapping the large "pool" of magma just under Yellowstone help stave off a massive eruption while at the same time give the United States a large source of energy? What would factories on the moon be like? For last Saturday, the topic was a subject that's been the plot of a number of science-fiction stories, and the preliminary story of a few world-builder computer games: the emergency evacuation of Earth due to an impending disaster.

Let’s suppose we need to leave Earth in a hurry in a few (20? 100?) years’ time.  Maybe because of a nuclear winter, maybe because of an asteroid strike or maybe because the sun is about to explode.  How would we go about it?  Who will we select to go?  Could we, should we, turn anyone away?  If we have to travel for several generations who will be kept in stasis and who will be woken up on arrival?  Who will run the ship?  What animals and seeds will we bring with us?  How will we know what will be needed when we arrive?  Will we bring some animals and plants just because we like them? How will we organise life on the ship so as to keep social structure intact?  And when we arrive at a habitable planet will we dare leave our comfortable ship?  Maybe we will decide that life on an endlessly traveling ship is better. Come and talk with us about our future because, one day, we may need to pack. 

Someone asked about the possibility that politicians might try to keep such a disaster under wraps so only they and a few select friends would be saved. Erik responded, "You would think that, ... but you know, the Internet, everyone, including scientists, are vloggers now. Such a disaster could not be contained ..." Someone else commented, "I'm thinking that an asteroid scenario would be like 'When Worlds Collide.'  We'll send our best in a space arc, and the rabble will try to destroy it at launch, out of envy." And whom would be the colonists? Someone suggested perhaps only women would be selected to double the number of people able to give birth, relying on a sperm bank to have children.

It's a fair guess that if humanity had to pull off such a thing in the near future, it could barely be done and with close to the minimal number of people able to continue the survival of the species. "Could we do it?" Erik asked, "would we be able to build arks in 20 years?" "If we put our minds to it, sure," he was answered by one, "I would say that a concerted effort would do in in six months, tops." "In 6 months we could have a generation ship," someone else suggested. Another was a little skeptical, asking if space travel wasn't such a huge undertaking, why didn't we have men on Mars yet. I suggested that the reason was there had been no large deposits of gold or any other valuable minerals found.

 Reasons for an immediate evacuation wouldn't necessarily be due to nature, but by fellow beings. I recalled a friend's science-fiction story in which the alien race humanity first runs into are in two factions. Over much of the history of their homeworld, there are two major civilizations. One was driven by science and democratic rule. The other was driven by a religion that compelled them to try to conquer the other. The first could beat the second in warfare, but never could convince them to change their ways. Finally once faster-than-light travel was perfected, after the next war the first civilization ordered the people of the second off the planet, many millions ordered into cramped spaceships and shipped to another world.

Erik brought up one interesting possibility. Living in a space ark wouldn't be a comfortable existence. But once people were used to it, would they prefer it to settling on a world? As Erik put it, "would they *want* to live on a planet will all kinds of weird diseases?" Someone commented, "There was 'Orphans of the Sky' by Heinlein, where, at first, when they *finally* arrived at Far Centaurus, they had acrophobia, but it was so much better than the ship, they adjusted. Or at least we are left with that impression, as the story ends with arrival." I brought up in some stories, the colony ship was often the first structure of the colony, and remained the largest one for some time.

And would it be necessary to leave the solar system? Someone suggested a space ark (or a fleet of them) might just hang around until Earth was habitable again. Once you could build a large enough ship that could house a population indefinitely, would finding a colony be such a big priority, "Maybe once you go to the trouble to build a large generational ship that can have a seriously large population, a planet doesn't buy you much." I wondered if someone would bring up the idea of tunneling deep underground and wall-up against any disaster and spend generations in a self-sufficient underground area. But that less romantic idea wasn't discussed. There was one idea I didn't expect that was: what if a colony ship arrived at it's destination, but there was no one to colonize the planet as they had all committed suicide, "speculating on the overwhelming depression that generations of people in a generation ship may feel."

Someone did bring up one topic that I haven't seen in too many sci-fi tales, the idea of large numbers of humans moving to an alien civilization to live. That was a concept I had seen in some stories about the Chakats and their homeworld. But the Chakats did not evolve there; they were a genetically-engineered race created on Earth. The humans were going to a world where the natives spoke a dialect of English.

There were other topics discussed, such as the Metric system and why it wasn't adopted by those stubborn Americans. Eventually, the hour was up, and it was time for me to go.

Bixyl Shuftan

Gentle Heron at the Safe Water Foundation's "Let's Mertalk"

By Bixyl Shuftan

About twice a month, the Safe Waters Foundation hosts a discussion called "Let's Mertalk." Grace Wrigglesworth described the event as, "We mingle every other week ... Sometimes Open Topic, and other times there will be other topics announced in advance. So ask your questions and see amongst all of us to see if we can provide some answers.  Special topic speakers will sometimes answered.  Product demonstrations are welcome - so builders and designers - consider participating." So far, the talks have occurred at the bottom of the Union Passage sim, and take place every other Saturday at 1PM

The Mertalk on Saturday June 10 was a special one as its speaker was Gentle Heron. In the community calendar, Grace described the event as, "This week Gentle Heron will speak about her experiences with helping with SL gateways.  How do new people in SL get introduced to the new environment.  Gentle led the opening of an award winning SL Gateway - come hear more - she will suggest some discussion questions for the mer - and of course we hope you come brimming with questions for discussion as well." Just a few days before, Linden Lab had announced their Community Gateway program was officially back.. So the topic was still fresh in the minds of those concerned about the matter.

I arrived a bit late for the discussion, so missed the first ten minutes. There were a number of people present, most were in merfolk avatars, though there was one other fur and one human. Among those in mermaid tails was Barbie Alchemi of Creations for Parkinsons. So was Any1 Gynoid, whom had written for the Newser in the past and was the one who told me about the talk. Gentle Heron was present in a white Beluga whale avatar. "Try to sit close to the white beluga," Grace told us.

Gentle explained that the "newcomer self-instructional orientation path" was done with the help of some librarians, "specifically designed to help people with disabilities learn to use the virtual world. We call it our NROC, New Resident Orientation Course. It takes up about almost half of the Virtual Ability island, and teaches SL skills such as walking, sitting and flying, text chatting, friending, and joining groups; 'buying' things (for free), finding things in inventory, and unboxing purchases; using maps, landmarks, and teleports to get around; and customizing your avatar appearance and outfits."

Gentle went on, "Virtual Ability specializes in assisting people with disabilities to learn how to function in SL, no matter their capabilities, needs, and use of assistive devices to access their computer." She then asked us what we thought was "the most commonly used assistive technology device." Most of us thought a cane. Any1 guessed eyeglasses, which Gentle stated was the case, "Physical disabilities include paralysis, limb loss, arthritis, neuromuscular diseases… anything affecting the ability to move. This is going to impact typing and mouse use, of course. Many people in our community use some form of assistive technology to use their computer. Some of our members type with a wand attached to a headband. Others type with their toes. Some control the cursor with movements of their tongue, or by sipping and puffing into a tube.  And some folks who are totally paralyzed use their eye motion to control their computer."

Gentle went further, "People with mental and emotional disabilities often need mentors to provide social support. It may take them longer to learn how to function within the social norms of a community. Acceptance of diversity is wonderful. But so is acceptance of community standards. There has to be a balance, and that is aided by patient mentors who guide behaviors. People with developmental disabilities must be protected from some of the more 'adult' activities in SL. Again, patient mentors and guides are an important resource for these folks."

"And finally people with sensory disabilities sometimes need very specialized assistance," Gentle stated, "Deaf people need to have transcribers who type the gist of spoken presentations or classes or discussions so they can participate in text in real time. Of course these text transcripts also benefit people whose first language is not English and people with distractibility problems. They can scroll up in text and review… you can’t do that with audio alone. Blind people can’t access SL through either the Linden or the Firestorm viewer. The Radegast viewer provides text-only access that works with their screen reader software. This allows blind people to participate fully in Second Life despite not seeing their surroundings. ...  In fact, we’ve found that many of the adaptations our community makes for people with specific disabilities often benefit others who do not consider themselves disabled." Barbie commented, "That is why the work that Gentle does is so important and valuable! She helps make SL accessible to everyone no matter what their disability!" "Even if they have fins not legs," Grace, in her merfolk avater, mused. It was brought up that Creations for Parkinsons had a blind DJ (news article). Barbie told the group, "Keao is our friend who has been blind since birth and Gentle has taught her and others how to use the Redegast Viewer so they can enjoy SL!"

Gentle then moved on to Community Gateways, "Our community was invited by Linden Lab to be part of their first Community Gateway program along with several other communities, I think that was back in 2009 or thereabouts, and later to be part of their Resident Help Network program, with other mentoring organizations. That was around 2012. Recently, we’ve become part of the new Community Gateway program. Linden Lab announced that program here: https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/2179-open-the-gate-the-community-gateway-program-that-is/   Now please remember, I’m not an employee of Linden Lab so I’m not an internal expert on the Community Gateways program. I can tell you of our community’s experience. Linden Lab’s emphasis this time around seems to be on newcomer retention. They still are not doing well at keeping a majority of those who enter SL past the first week or month. Too many folks try SL once or twice, then never return."

Raks (rakshowes Resident) commented of most new residents leaving, "That is because the controls are hard at first. Many people I not know helped me in first weeks." Grace commented, "(I) would love to figure out how to make the merfolk community more accessible to those new folk. Not to plan her/now, but just a dream of mine. ...  I wanted to see if others shared my dream- as I can't do all the work myself."

Gentle went on, "Those who stay tend to be those who get involved right away with a community. That realization was the 'AHA' for Linden Lab to re-institute Community Gateways. This program took about a year and a half of planning on the Lab’s part to come to fruition. They did a ton of research. Some of the requirements for becoming a Community Gateway are: • an active community in SL for at least a year and a half, with identified leaders, in good financial and disciplinary standing with LL, • a Full region, with a welcome/orientation area including tutorials and other helpful content for newcomers, and without commercial activity,  • separate land access and resident groups, with the newcomers becoming part of the resident group, • a website with a page that allows account registration through a Linden Lab RegAPI."

Grace stated, "We have this region, (it) is is not an official linden gateway for newcomers. It is a resource center for people interested in being part of the merfolk community, and in good standing with the Lindens I believe - so might be a prospect. But if you go see Gentle's gateway, (it) really has some intensive build requirements." Any1 commented, "I recommend everyone go through Gentle's Gateway... it's an SL ground zero training course... the best that's ever been made." Grace agreed, "Absolutely, it is terrific." Barbie added, "Gentle is my hero! I have the deepest respect for her and the valuable work she does in SL."

Gentle responded, "Thanks for the compliments, friends. I think you will want to hear the rest of this. What does LL offer the Gateways? • They put information about the Gateway communities at their intake areas, both their Orientation and their Social Island areas. • They make the island holding the orientation area free, no tier payments. What you particularly want to remember about the Community Gateways is that they are not a place. They are a process. Not a place! A newcomer welcome and orientation process, beginning at the community’s website and continuing on through an inworld learning experience. For more technical details about the new Community Gateway program, you really should speak with Patch Linden. He's very accessible. The RegAPI on the website was really difficult. It took us many months and much sweat and tears to get it working."

When Any1 wondered why the merfolk community wasn't already doing this, Gentle answered, "You'd need a programmer, not an SL programmer but a website one." Grace then spoke, "Do list, a good team to have. What would be the roles you suggest?" Gentle responded, "It helps to have an educator on the team to write the curriculum. And experienced mentors, as well as sim designers. And those who can make whatever materials your community considers necessary for newcomers, along with website folks, who don't even have to work in SL at all. Then you want to think of ways to advertise. Now, more generally about helping newcomers to a virtual world, I will say that our New Resident Orientation Course planners based their work on the theory of andragogy. You may be more familiar with the term pedagogy, the science of teaching children. Andragogy is the science of adult learning. It’s widely recognized in education that adults learn differently than children. And we are all adults here. I’ll summarize the points of andragogy quickly: • Adults are self-directed as learners. They want to decide for themselves what to learn and when and how to learn it. • Adults have life experiences to draw on. That background provides context for new learning. They can learn from mistakes. • Adults learn as part of their social roles: for work, as students, or for entertainment and relaxation. They learn what they believe is relevant. • Adults learn best by solving problems. You can learn more about andragogy here: https://elearningindustry.com/the-adult-learning-theory-andragogy-of-malcolm-knowles . Please bookmark."

Gentle went on, "We also laid out our orientation using a spiral curriculum, to use another education term. This means the learner uses what they just learned previously in the next lesson. So for example, the first thing people learn on our orientation is how to walk. Then they practice walking to get to the next lesson, on camera skills (looking around). They walk to the third lesson, where they use camera skills to find items to click on. Then they walk to the fourth lesson and look around for items to click on that are pose balls." "Baby steps" someone commented. "Exactly," Gentle responded, "and repeated repetition! See how this is a spiral, and how previous learning is reinforced in each subsequent lesson?" Barbie commented, "It really is an amazing orientation and it is so helpful that VAI offers mentors!"

Gentle then decided to answer questions, saying if anyone wanted to schedule a look at the orientation pathway behind the scene with explanations of the design to contact her after she was done. Grace asked, How did you keep the motivation going? Get people to help?" Gentle answered, "I think you mean motivation of the designer build team. That was not a problem! We all knew how much we got out of being here, and wanted a way for more folks like us to experience the virtual world and its benefits." Grace commented, "Really people involved in getting the effort moving forward. You didn't do all by yourself obviously." Gentle told, "Oh no, it was a whole team. After the community leaders determined this need, we sought out people with the skills needed to make it happen. One of our team members was The Sojourner. Soj was the founder of the first disability group in SL. We also included people as testers. We had low vision folks look at various designs of our signage to see what worked best for them. So no, the team was intentionally planned and recruited. Eme Capalini led that team, and she remains estate manager on that island and several of our other properties."

Raks (rakshowes Resident) brought up, "One of the problems for newbies is that they not know where to go. And if they go to places, often no one is there. This can be a turn off in first days." Gentle answered, "If you mean to get orientation, that's why LL advertises the gateways at their own orientation, and also why the gateway communities have to have an outreach website to do their own advertisement. If you mean that newcomers don't have any idea what they can do in SL, yes, that's often true. It's one of the things our mentors assist with. 'What would you like to do?' 'What would you explore if you had a chance?' " Grace told Gentle, "Raks often meets new merfolk in SL, and a common complaint is they visit the sites and don't find people." Gentle told stated,  "We suggest that people go to *events* not *places,* because people cluster at events." Raks added, "As a newcomer you do not know where to go, how to search, who to ask, it is a totally alien world to you." Gentle nodded, "Yes Raks, so true. But it is like visiting a different country. Guides help!" Grace stated, "We are trying to reform our SWF Concierge team. So welcome and help people when they are here - for events or for when the concierges can be in world." Gentle remarked, "We request that if someone KNOWS they will need assistance (E.g., if they are blind) they write to info@virtualability.org , and we assign someone to contact them, and set up a meeting. We help people even before they are in SL, if they need assistance getting through the sign up process. We work by phone and Skype and in some instances even go to their home if there is a mentor near enough." Grace felt, "We can do similar or adapt some of her approaches. The sea is the limit. I wish we could get a mer avatar into the selections, and Lindens want to start up many more of these gateways, so they get a better start." Barbie thought the idea of a mer as a starter avatar was a good idea.

After that, the chatter went into several other questions and issues. Someone brought up the theory of Climate Change, and felt the community should be involved with the issue, Grace told her this wasn't a political activist group. Barbie commented of mer avatars, "As my 90 Years Young Mom said in the video... she can actually feel her muscles relax and strengthen when she watches her avi swimming as a mer!"

Eventually, the conversation wound down, and people went about their different ways. Later that day was Grace's rezzday party, so there was some preparing for that after the discussion.

The "Let's Mertalk" taking place tomorrow, Saturday July 8 at 1PM, will have Barbie Alchemi as the featured speaker.

Union Passage (96/229/1)

Note: Corrected after someone pointed out a question attributed to her had actually been made by Grace. 

Bixyl Shuftan

(Dis)Ability in Second Life Research

by DrFran Babcock

This week I had the pleasure of attending a presentation at Virtual Ability, and you can see it as well. Details will be given at the end of this article. 

Most Second Life residents either know or have heard of Gentle Heron (pictured left), who runs Virtual Ability, a group of sims, an organization, and a philosophy (http://www.virtualability.org  ). As Gentle says: Virtual Ability is committed to accessibility. I will have more to say about Gentle at a future date, but I would like to tell you about the aforementioned presentation:

Ambrosia108 Azalee (pictured below) is an Masters student in Educational Technology at Concordia University, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In voice and text, she told the assembled audience in her interest in the meaning of Second Life for individuals who have physicial disabilities. She is conducting a qualitative research study, as her Master’s Thesis, in the lived experience of Second Life.

For those of you who are wondering what I am talking about a brief discussion of qualitative research might be necessary. Most of us are used to research that generates statistics, like: The percentage of women in Second Life who are actually men, or, What countries are most active in Second Life? Questions such as these are best answered by mathematics. However, to answer the question of what it’s like to be a person with a disability in a virtual world, math just won’t do. Ambrosia108 understands that, and that is why she wants to interview people about their experiences as an individual with a disability in Second Life. As Ambrosia108 says: “I think it's important to ask big questions and dig deeper to find out the benefits and limitations of a technology, and the impact it might have on social justice, inclusion, ability, education, and so much more. Yes, I've always been a bit of a rebel. ;-).” She understands clearly the benefits of essence over numbers when one is studying human beings.

Ambrosia108 explained how she started becoming interested in disability in Second Life. When she joined in 2009, one of the first people she met was someone who had been in SL for many years. They later revealed that they were a quadriplegic, a fact Ambrosia108 would never have known if she had not been told. “As I tried to imagine this person behind the computer screen, I began to wonder how people with real physical disabilities experience having a virtually able body, no sign of disability, and a whole virtual world to explore?”

There are two research questions that Ambrosia108 wants to explore:

1.     How do people with physical disabilities experience learning about themselves and others through interacting in virtual worlds

2.     What do people with physical disabilities learn about themselves and others through interacting in virtual worlds? 

Ambrosia108 is asking participants to be interviews three times over the course of one to two weeks. The interviews will focus on broad topics of history and background and move to questions about the meaning of Second Life for the interviewé.  The interviews can be in text or voice, according to the needs of the participants. If you are interested:

You are invited to participate and take this opportunity to share and voice your personal experiences within Second Life.  If you are interested in participating, please read through the consent form and provide the researcher with your Second Life information in the following link:    Consent form and information:  http://fluidsurveys.com/surveys/slresearch/participant-recruitment/ If you have any questions or would like to contact the researcher, please contact Ambrosia108 Azalee in-world, or by email at: sl.pheno.research@gmail.com

Finally, the point of this whole endeavor, beyond earning a Master’s degree for Ambrosia108, would be to support her real agenda, which is to demonstrate the usefulness of and necessity for virtual worlds for individuals with disabilities. “Second Life is not a game!” she declared. I could not agree more.

The event will be repeated this Saturday, February 2^nd, at 8:00 am, SLT at the Sojourner Auditorium: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/53/172/23  Don’t miss it, especially if you are interested in participating.

DrFran Babcock

Discussion on Hiring Autistics at Virtual Ability

On Sunday January 8th, I went over to the Sojourner Auditorium at Virtual Ability Island. This weekend, Virtual Ability was hosting three discussions, called the “Waiting for the World to Change” series. On Saturday the 7th, Phelan Corrimal (Kevin Feenan in real life) had given a talk on “Workplace Accommodation Toolkits” to help with accommodating a workplace to be more accommodating to someone disabled. For Sunday, it was Hydra Shaftoe, noted in Second Life for having co-hosted the popular game show “The 1st Question.”

Gentle Heron turned the discussion over to Hydra, who spoke in voice and narrated for him for those whom couldn’t hear, “This is mostly my opinion. My disclaimer: I am not here to make us feel good. I won't say, ‘You are an inner superman.’ My perspective is as a manager. Money is what I am after. I say ‘ differently abled’ because it is more accurate than ‘ disabled. ’ Disabled means you can’t do something. Differently-abled means you can do some things.

“I have experience in my work life with autism. Autistics ... there are down sides to hiring them. But you get many benefits from hiring them. Autistics are laser focused. If you need someone to hang in and complete the project perfectly, you want an autistic. But you don't want to give them distractions or unpredictability. Don't bring them into annual performance reviews. That hurts productivity. You want to maintain productivity.”

“With an autistic employee, say a coder, think of a bathroom stall. 500 people sit there every day. The environment is minimally sensory. There are few distractions, no teamwork required. Put them in isolated environment and don't disrupt them. Let them work without interference. Autistic people mostly aren't team players. Put them where they can be uninterrupted. Give them individual projects. If you are developing an ap, you want to be sure languages are built in, and you are on a deadline. If you have 22 of 30 done, pass the project to the autistic person and let him finish the language pack and get it out in the form of a patch. They take pride in their work.”

“The whole purpose of this presentation is to show PWDs can be given meaningful jobs. I get pissed off about hiring quotas for PWDs. Autistic folks often get janitorial positions. You have to be able to manage these people so their capabilities are focused to aid the team's work. You need to coordinate these efforts. The autistic person may not form social bonds. They aren't going on smoke breaks, or water cooler chats. For many people, your management responsibility is to help them form teams. But autistic people can take breaks on their own. Give them an area of silence to allow them to refocus themselves. Chaos offsets autistics.”

“In Second Life development, Second Life tends to attract autistics. The structure is well ordered and sensory deprived. I'm not autistic, but I come here to focus. I prefer to hire autistics. This is a conducive environment. I am a proponent of large corporations of using a virtual environment to employ autistics. Especially social media. They can limit the channels of information input. In real-life, people come and talk to them. You can't push a button to ignore Louise while you finish with Jim. You have communication control, limiting sensory input.”

“Autistics run at 110%. If you are a super rockstar manager, you can help them focus on the work, and they will produce well. These are not machines, they are real people. Put them in an environment where they can do the most good for the company. They work hard, and you make real money for the company. There are always unexpected. Suppose you are past the production date, and you're not finished. You need to make something happen quickly. This is when autistics shine. Make them responsible. Show then you trust them to handle this. From my experience, that has brought them to tears... because they were trusted to work on their own. Let them manage it... figure out their own schedule. They will get it done. You gave them a purpose, something to focus on.”

“At the risk of offending some, and I probably will, I've often found autistic friends and employees are sometimes spoiled. They have been told they need special treatment. You can overcome that by giving them responsibility. Work is meaningful, but failure has consequences. Hold them accountable as you would with any employee. Gentle told me PWDs want to feel useful. Give them a little help. But hold them to a standard. That’s part of the teamwork. Even if the team member is noncommunicative and works in a bathroom stall.... hold them accountable. You do not need annual performance reviews. But do hold them accountable.”

“Using the app analogy, perhaps the Board wants to add scope creep. For the autistic person who has been working on this project, they may be half way through, but you need to make a change. That will distress them. Explain it to them, treat them as adults. Do not treat them as children. Thats what I said about them being spoiled. Everyone on the team has to adapt. Don’t leave an information vacuum. Some managers will give info on need to know. The autistic person may be smarter than you are. The autistic person may be smarter than you are. Tell them of the reasons for the change. ‘ Because I said so ‘ doesn’t work as an explanation. An autistic person will question that. The benefit to treating autistics as an adult is that they will break out of socially enforced self-loathing.”

“A friend had been borderline suicidal, and I gave him a job on a hard project for about 4 months. Every possible issue happened. At the end he said ’ I don't hate myself any more.’ Now he works for Entertainment Arts. Before he was playing video games all day. That was all he thought he was good for.”

“As a manager you need productive employees. You can erase their self-prescribed limits. That sums up my thoughts: Decent work isn't just getting a job, it's also doing a good job and taking pride in it. Sometimes people need help to understand their abilities and how to use them.

Gentle Heron then invited others to speak, “Now it is time for our stories. Please post your short employment stories now in Local Chat.” One responded, “ I was employed once at an agency where i told them about my disability...had to take off time due to my disability and when I returned to work after being off sick, I was fired.” Gentle Heron asked, “Did they try to accommodate your disability?” “No, not at all.” “Will you share what your disability is?” “Crohn's Disease.” “ It's sad. So common. It's easy to replace people now with this unemployment. It's more profitable for companies to do that than to accommodate someone with a disability. ... You may have legal recourse.” “I want to explore that and see if it is a possibility.”

A second spoke, “I am an individual with disabilities. I have also been in the position of interviewing and hiring people for a wide variety of positions. I understand (and live!) the concepts of equality and accommodation for disability. I also know that sometimes a person does not "fit" the job- and it is not their disability or the need for accommodation that is the issue. As an employer, I need someone who can do the job with or without accommodations.”

A third spoke to Hydra, “Hydra, you seem to have a fundamental misconception of what autism is. Autism is a spectrum. People on the autistic spectrum are not a bunch of laser sharp geniuses that work at 110%. It might be beneficial for you as a manger to read a few books about autism if you would like to work with them further in the business world. You need to tailor the job to the individual.” Hydra responded, “I agree. I am not claiming to be an expert. This is my personal experiences as a manager. This is my experience with those I've hired. I'm recruiting from virtual worlds,people I know on social media.” The person was not satisfied with Hydra’s answer.

At one point, Hydra’s tone took on a somewhat whimsical note, “I hire a lot of furries. They are prevalent on autism scale... geniuses and hyper focused. They may be nuts at time, but you can work around that.” This brought a few chuckles, Hydra being a furry as well as a few in the audience.

A fourth person spoke, “Indeed.. Much of my current and past employment was in fast food restaurants and a grocery store. It's absolutely chaotic. I have to try to stay focused while trying to deal with customers. It literally makes me suicidal sometimes. I have found that owning lands here in SL, and managing them, building, and scripting at my own pace, brings me to at a state of peace. I enjoy DJing as well, and own a club in SL. ... and another aspect is recently the corporate office for the grocery store I work at want at least 1 person there during the peak sales time, usually between 5 and 7 PM. It's the most chaotic time of the day, where customers are always trying to get in your way. because the crew is so small, we have to take turns dealing with the evening coverage.”

Spoke a sixth, “It is really interesting to me how this whole topic of teamwork fits in here. This is a huge problem. For some, being part of the water cooler chat might not be the best accommodation for their disability, but for other such as blind people, their biggest struggle once they have a job is having their colleagues include them in all that afterwork or water cooler chat. Do you have any experience with how to get the team to create a socially inclusive “

A seventh related, “In most organizations, including my own, the "fit" between an individual and the position is multi-faceted. It is not always only "can she produce the output". Can you say a few words about how your understanding and experience compares to the general HR (Human Resources) philosophy of ensuring a "fit" between 1) the potential employee, 2) the essential functions or responsibilities of the job, and 3) the culture of the organization? I suspect that attentiveness to "fit" is essential to success- regardless of the type of job or the type of disability a person might have. So, as an employer, I need to make sure all three of these are a "fit", including a fit with the culture of the organization.”

Hydra related one story, “At the University of Alabama, a fellow student who was my buddy, focused on what he did very hard. He was sociable, learning to be a radio DJ. We (his friends) had to accommodate him. We were playing X Box, but he would start adding to the music with his voice. He was talented! He could not do what we were doing, but he included himself. There are people like that in the working world. An audio engineer I worked with, he did it all with a screen reader, and he was completely blind. He could tactically manipulate the software. We didn't think anything of it, because he made incredible music.”

Another in the audience shared, “When I was first suffering from the MS, I had already lost my job at HP. They had suggested I take Voluntary Severance, instead of them having to fire me. This was because I kept falling asleep at my desk, and could not offer any explanation. My next job, where I was when I got diagnosed, the new manager and I did not get along. Personality conflict. I could have dealt with that, but he started asking very rude questions about how the numbness in my hands and other places affected love-making with my wife. (Now exwife). When I filed an objection, he fired me. I understand that I may have been the first person to win unemployment from that company. Not sure if this is what you were looking for.” Hydra laughed, “I had a manager who tried to fire me because I'm an atheist, and I live in the Bible belt.”

Another had a question, “Have you any advice for a "janitor with mop bucket" on how to convince management to give you a new project?” Hydra answered, “Yes I do! Tell them what you’re good at. Let's say you are good at web design, but you are doing lower level work. Do some volunteer work to show what you can do. You're not going to get paid for a demo. Keep a portfolio. Even put in things you think are unrelated, but show what you can do. The boss asks ‘How will she make me money?’ Good managers focus on that. Prove you can be productive,can do things better. Good managers won't care about your disability, but they will care about improved production. This is true for people with and without disability.”

Hydra concluded, “My ending message- You can't summarize people especially those on the autism spectrum into one group. But managers do this. I don't have time to look for specifics on every individual. My job and paycheck depend on putting out product. You can give reasonable accommodation. You can't really use someone who needs constant supervision, unless there is outside supervision. This may offend someone, but you need to balance reasonable accommodation and productivity. As a manager, the bottom line is key. Results are what matters.”

The audience thanked Hydra for his talk, Gentle Heron saying, “Thank you to Hydra for such a stimulating presentation. Of course, thanks to our very active audience. Your questions and comments make presentations come alive.” She announced the next speaker would be Thinkerer Melville (Dr. Selby Evans in real life), speaking on mental disabilities and social & educational issues.

Before leaving, Hydra was asked what line of work in real life he was now. He explained he was now a farmer, “got tired of corporate BS. Now I grow pecans.”

Bixyl Shuftan.