Antiochia: A Sim and a Scholarship Trust

Last week, the Antiochia sim officially opened. By itself, the sim's design alone makes it an attractive place to visit with it's Greco-Roman-Byzantine builds. But the sim itself is backed by a real-life nonprofit group which aims to educate students from the Middle East in Canada. Second Life Newser was invited to visit the sim, where we got a chance to interview the man behind it and the group, Alex Olteanu.

Read more in Places. 

Antiochia’s Opening Festivities Schedule

The Antiochia sim, mentioned earlier this week, is opening tomorrow, Sunday January 11. So here is the schedule of the events, running from 10 AM to 10PM SL time.

Morning: Nymphaeum Plaza and Info Center

10 - 11 am: Sandia Beaumont, Classical piano
11 - 11:30 am: An AST Student's Story: Georges Kabalan
11:30 am  - 12 pm: Inaugural Remarks: Quaestor Hax & Team
12 - 1 pm: Maximillion Kleene, Folk / pop

Afternoon: AST Square in Acropolis Fortress

1 -2 pm: Inaugural AST Lecture: David Orban: Infrastructures and Superstructures: The

interactive components of our lives
2 - 3 pm: Joaquin Gustav, Spanish guitar
3 -5 pm: Discussion panel: A decade of real governance in a virtual space. Speakers: Gwyneth

Llewelyn, Stephen Xootfly

Evening: Forum Valentis

5 - 7 pm: DJ Wally: Country Mix
7 - 8 pm: Komuso Tokugawa: Rock
8 - 9 pm: Gweeb: Blues
9 -10 pm: Joaquin Gustav: Latin dances


http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ANTIOCHIA/138/247/31

Press Release: Grand Opening of the Ancient Byzantine City of Antiochia This Sunday

We are very happy to invite you to the opening festivities of the Antiochia sim – home of the Antiochia Community of Citizens (or, in its Greek form, "Agora Polis Antiochia").

Antiochia is the virtual platform for a number of organizations and individuals whose main aim is to extend the boundaries of information, communication, and education across both virtual and real words. It aims to become a Knowledge Community spanning Real and SecondLife, by focusing on the key values of Education, Citizenship, Creativity, and Diversity.

Antiochia’s main sponsor is the Antiochia Scholarships Trust, a Canadian non-profit organization helping students from the Greater Middle East to realize their dream of pursuing their university studies in Canada. For more information on AST, please visit its website at: http://home.antiochiatrust.org .  Antiochia’s Chief Architect is SecondLife’s Alexia Carnell, owner of the Time Machine Design Studio and Store and its Landscaper is SL’s Butterfli Summers. The Terraforming and some of the buildings were done by Bagheera Kristan.

The sim itself is creatively modeled after the ancient city of Antiochia on the Orontes (today in Southern Turkey), a multicultural, tolerant and creative city with Phoenician roots, Greek origins, then Roman and Byzantine high points. We have tried to reflect this cultural diversity in our buildings, attractions, and the 44 Information Points you will find throughout the sim. A good starting point is Antiochia’s Info Center, located in the Nymphaeum Plaza, with the following slurl:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ANTIOCHIA/138/247/31

The Opening Festivities will last the entire day of Sunday, January 11, 2015, from 10 am slt to 10 pm slt, so people from all time zones can attend one or more events at times convenient for them. You will find a detailed list of all events and their venues' Landmarks below.

We have planned for you a variety of informative, educational, and entertaining events. One of AST’s Middle East students will briefly talk about his dream of studying in Canada; a European expert in leading-edge network science will give the Inaugural AST Lecture; and we will have a panel discussion with questions and answers from the public on Ten Years of Virtual Governance in SecondLife.

The musical events will cover everything from rock, pop, folk, blues, and country to Spanish guitar and even a much-anticipated classical piano concert that will open our entire day, at 10 am SL time.

Please feel free to visit the sim and to join our group, Agora Polis Antiochia, so as to stay informed of our future activities and events. You can contact Antiochia’s Project Manager, Alex Olteanu, either in-world by IM-ing his avatar, AlexOlteanu Unplugged, or by e-mail, at alex@antiochiatrust.org; or the Project Administrator, by IM-ing his SL avatar, Bromo Ivory.

We hope that you are just as excited as we are by the events we have planned for you and that you will be able to attend with your friends sometime during this day.

We look forward to seeing you and your friends on Sunday, January 11, 2015, for Antiochia's Opening Festivities.

The Antiochia Team

Egypt Sim: Protests Turn to Celebration at News of Egyptian Leader’s Stepping Down

Events in the country of Egypt have taken some dramatic turns this week in real life. In Second Life, these events were reflected at the Egypt sim as people protested strongman Mubarak's refusal to resign one day, and the next were celebrating his departure.

Read the article in Events.

Egypt Sim: The Loyalists Appear

As the turmoil goes on in Egypt in real-life, there have been some more developments at the Egypt sim. Stopping by Thursday, the place was much more quiet than it had been the previous day, with fewer avatars and much less chatter. There were also a number of signs that were supportive of Egyptian leader Mubarak, as well as a few avatars wearing tags supporting him. There was also one sign with a picture of a blindfold over the Statue of Liberty "The Big Lie."

People continued to drop by and express there support for Egypt, one woman telling me she had a good friend from the country, "I love Egypt, and all my friends from Egypt." There was much less debate on the protests, someone telling me a number of people had been banned from the sim. I saw Ammroty Aedipo the sim, owner, but he appeared to be away from his keyboard. Seeing him log off, I sent him a notecard, but it went unanswered. I saw him the following day, but he was busy chatting with someone.

Dropping by briefly on Friday, the crowd was a little larger and the chatter a little more active, but the talk was often on subjects other than Egypt, such as US President Obama's domestic policies. One resident did express curiosity about some people apparently changing sides on the issue of Mubarak.

Back in real-life Egypt, Thursday saw much fighting as pro-government groups attacked anti-government protesters. Reporters found themselves under attack too, subject to rock throwing and beatings, and authorities began ordering journalists confined to their motels. Some observers feared this was a sign of loyalist forces about to do something really bad. But Friday's largest demonstrations have apparently gone peacefully, pictures showing some from opposing sides shaking hands and dancing.

What happens next in Egypt is anyone's guess, but no doubt the Egypt sim will continue to be a place of activity and debate for as long as the situation goes on.

Bixyl Shuftan

Demonstrating at the Egypt Sim

With Egypt's protests so much in the news, the spotlight has been put on the Egypt sim in Second Life. Run by an Egyptian group, when I first came here there were just a handful of residents, discussing recent events. Over the next couple days, more residents dropped in to voice their opinions.

Read the article in Events.