International Space Flight Museum
From SL Creativity
Contents |
The International Space Flight Museum
The International Space Flight Museum is located on its own island called Spaceport Alpha. Visitors can explore the topic of Space Flight in a number of different ways. You can check out a unique collection of rockets from all over the world, check out some of the interactive installations or attend one the regular events. The museum was started by a group of SL residents with a shared interest in spaceflight. The group members are all volunteers, but many are very accomplished in related fields in RL. Together they have built a very interesting place and even finance almost the whole thing themselves. In this case study I will give an account of the process that resulted in the creation of this place and explore some of the practices the group uses.
I chose this museum as my main case study for a number of reasons. A big one is that I think that it shows the emergent properties of the SL well. I don’t think any member of the group could have envisioned in 2005 what kind of place they would have built in 2006. This case study will show how they have had to make things up as they went along. Both their museum and the process of building it was something the group mapped out through an iterative process. The whole thing was done without any intention of ever making money on it; truly a labor of love. Finally I feel that the very social and interactive format they have chosen for presenting their information is very interesting. This shows great potential for transferal of knowledge using 3D online spaces that I think that a growing number of RL educators and museum curators among others will start to take a strong interest in soon.
At the same time I should point out that large collaborations such as this is not the norm in SL. “Collaboration is hard” as a resident told me. SL’s permission system can be challenging to work around. This often means that a building process grinds to a halt because someone who is not online at the moment forgot to tick off the right permission. I choose the museum as my case study because I feel it shows the power of collaboration of a group in this space. I hope to show the potential of this even if good conditions for such efforts are not fully realized on the SL platform at this point.
Experiencing the museum
The first thing that caught my eye when I teleported to Spaceport Alpha was a very large circle of rockets. These models I was later told are built to scale, so there is no kidding around on the museum part of things. The rockets came with their own description and by flying around I could help myself to a closer look at them. Something I had actually had had a strong wish to do when I visited the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. the year before. Another really great thing about this collection of rockets is that with Russian, American & Chinese models on display this is probably the only chance anyone will ever have of seeing them in one place. Especially since the Russians have blown some of theirs up. This also raises some interesting questions about preservation when you don’t have access to the physical artifact.
Moving on I had fun with the interactive installation that demonstrated Orbital mechanics. The interactive components really made the educational potential of this place hit home for me. The highlight of the interactive components was a trip on Gemini V Titan II rocket. At the end of trip the rocket catapulted me out on a platform in space from where I could stroll to models of The International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope. Having taken my own sweet time there I proceeded on a tour de planets starting with Mercury. The highlight of this interesting trip was for me the surface of Mars; where I got a closeup look at models of vehicles used for exploration of the red planet.
The museum currently collaborates with several large science organizations. They host an exhibit about the TRUTHS satellite from the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) as well as an exhibit from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Earth System Research Laboratory (US NOAA ESRL).
The museum also hosts regular events. One was a lecture on the history of the space shuttle and on another occasion a NASA engineer gave a talk on the crew exploration vehicle. The feedback on these lectures has been very positive and more are planned.
SL resident Kat Lemineux the leader of the group behind the museum described it as “An art project that got out of hand.” That would really be fair to say and this description of my experience was just intended to give you a taste of this very interesting place. There is more to explore now and even more as the museum continues to expand its exhibits and activities.
A short history
Every year in late summer SL hosts Burning Life an event analogue to RL Burning Man. For the 2005 version Kat Lemieux and Gearsawe Stonecutter built a crude version of a space station. Prominent SL resident Shaun Altman was impressed by this and conceived the idea of starting a spaceflight museum in SL. A group was setup shortly thereafter and work began on a piece of land owned be a friend of the group.
Residents on serendipitous travels of the grid came by and some joined in the efforts. Others heard about it from friends and slowly the group grew larger. The borrowed land soon grew too small and too laggy because of a nearby nightclub, so the efforts soon moved to a better location. Around mid October the first official group meeting was held and a wiki setup to hold the transcripts as well as writings for the project. These meeting have been held on a weekly basis ever since, even over Christmas as Lemieux told me.
In February of 2006 four members of the group met in RL to watch the launch of the Pluto New Horizons Space Probe together. Up until that point no members of the group had met and to this day most of the people involved have never met in RL. At the Second Life Community Convention held in San Francisco August 2006 a larger portion of the members met for the first time. Appropriately about a year after the whole thing started. The real point I am trying to make is that the museum was almost fully realized through online collaboration.
On April 24th the group made the leap and bought a private island. Members of the group financed most of the cost themselves on a “pay what you can afford” basis. That night the group had its first party right there on their barren new home. Two months of intensified work later the island was ready for the grand opening on the 18th of June. The opening festivities lasted 8 days and the museum managed to get a lot off buzz in the wider community.
Around this time members of the group gave me the grand tour. I have been back a number of times and it is very clear that this museum is a work in progress. At the time of writing this the calendar says mid August and I just visited to see new cool things had appeared.
Community
The group met in a very grassroots way and has maintained that approach to things. The structure is intentionally kept very flat and the decision making is based on consensus. The group gave me access to their wiki and I have had a chance to read some of their transcripts and their process is very much based on discussions. Authority comes through skills and as such it is a meritocracy, but Kat Lemieux has as project manager the power to cut through in the interest of keeping things moving forward.
There is a strong sense that this is a total volunteer effort and not supposed to feel like work for anyone; so the notion of fun is very important. I got a strong feeling that the social aspects play a large part. Other aspects are that with the wage incentive gone members need to get something out of it as well as the organization. There is a large component of mutual learning as well as helping out new members by teaching them skills; that are then put to good use for the museum. Large efforts are being made to ensure that individual members receive due credit for their individual contributions.
At present the groups consists of around 40 members; 10 of them make up the active core. In principle anyone can join, but you have to show interest and potential to get an invitation. Certain skill sets make up the team:
- Artist
- Scripters
- Project management
- Builders
- Writers
Kat told me about how she used to work on Space Station program. I asked about other group member’s real life occupations and some examples were:
- Teacher
- Professor
- Engineer
- Entrepreneur
- Student
- Writer
- Researcher
- Museum worker
This group is very diverse several PhDs (Astronomy professors plus aeronautics and astronautics) to people that never finished college. This diversity also was reflected in how much each member could contribute towards payment for the island. This was, as mentioned, solved in an amicable manner. No member is forced to reveal any real life information, so such decisions rely on trust.
One member joined right after coming to SL and is now the most prolific rocket builder in the group. He came to SL with skills in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and some simple 3D skills. Having become a master builder through building more than 50 rockets he is now getting into scripting, and plans to develop and teach classes in "SL Rocket Science" -- building launchable rockets in Second Life.
The group is international with members from USA, Canada, UK & Germany. There might be more nationalities because as Kat told me: “With SL you never know.” “In fact,” she continued: “We don’t really worry about things like age, gender or race all that matters is your interest in and contribution to the project.”
Development
This might be a fun volunteer effort but the collaboration practices are very efficient. The idea is that the time members have to spend on the project should be spent well. An example is how the meetings are organized. A notecard with an agenda is dropped on people [INSERT FOORNOTE WITH EXPLANATION HERE] the day before a meeting and people who can’t attend can check the wiki for the transcript. The actual meetings take place in a jovial tone, but there is definitely focus on moving forward.
The real time nature of SL coupled with an international group made arranging meeting a little hard at times, so a weekly newsletter ensures everyone can keep up to speed. Building the museum was a large endeavor and the meetings became the place where major decisions were being taken. Often through lively discussions choices and all things large and small were eventually made. The implementation of these decisions often happened in a more individualistic manner. Members had their projects that they were solely responsible for. For example the rockets were built by individual builders, but people would grant ownership of their creations to the group.
SL as an environment comes with other unique challenges, which lead to some interesting choices being discussed along the way. For instance should the group buy an island or set up on the mainland? Setting up on the mainland has some advantages. For example the group could buy mainland land as needed, in smaller chunks. This would enable the museum to grow as they got more exhibits and more funding rather than in big expensive chunks (whole sims/islands). On the other hand if you mainland neighbor would not sell then you have a problem. Mainland land could be donated by multiple landowners (rather than one landowner, since an island can only be owned by one person). A big advantage with owning an island would give the group greater control over the land.
Some challenges naturally also come from being - to my knowledge - the first of its kind. Understanding what a museum on a social 3D virtual platform should look like takes a lot of thought, discussion and research. What is the best way of conveying information about a given aspect of space flight? You really get the feeling that the group uses every aspect of the SL platform to the max. But with some aspects of the work such as collaborative authoring SL is not enough, so they move to the wiki. In an attempt to raise further awareness in SL and beyond the group has setup http://slispaceflightmuseum.org
The money thing
The cost of purchase and maintenance of the island for the first year is in excess of $3000. A small part of the money for the island was raised by contribution from non members. A scripted tip jar let nonmembers chip in and by the time the island was bought about a $100 had been donated, so member contribution really made the museum feasible. A new source of income has been added to the equation after launch. The museum has a gift shop where you can buy spaceflight related items. This has provided a decent income since launch, but not enough to finance the island. The main costs have been the island, but the group has also paid to have a logo made and to put in ads in one of SL’s premier publications The Metaverse Messenger [FOOT NOTE http://www.metaversemessenger.com/].
LL grants 25% discount on island costs for nonprofit or educational groups, but the museum is not eligible for this because it only exists in SL. The group is understandably concerned with this paradox. Such challenges have lead to group towards establishing more RL framework. The group is currently in the process of establishing a US nonprofit corporation (501(c)3). Doing this has a number of other advantages:
- The island (and the museum) would be owned by that corporation, instead of an individual.
- Nonprofits can receive tax-deductible donations. The museum has had interest from organizations about making larger donations, but currently lacks a framework for accepting them.
- Nonprofits are tax exempt.
Other non profits are offering advice to help this process towards a stronger framework move forward. Internally there has been some friction about this process. Some view the museum as a fun recreational hobby and don't want to jeopardize this, by letting the rest of the world with paperwork, rules and regulations in.
Future Plans
The name Spaceport Alpha implies that this is only the beginning. Already a month after launch the Rocket Ring was getting a bit crowded with the many contributions. Many interesting ideas are in the pipeline so there is a strong desire for more land within the group. Future project is planned to include rocket building classes; a request of the rest of SL’s community. The project was setup with a focus on creation, so naturally more exhibits are planned. After the successful collaborations with NPL and US NOAA ESRL there is also a strong wish to keep building relations with other organizations.
The project is off to a good start and there is a deserved feeling of accomplishment within the group. In fact coping with continued growth was one of the major challenges they outlined to me. Once you cross the boundary to real life by setting up a corporation; things will inevitably become more complicated. Growth also means new members and a more formalized framework for handling these are in the works as well.
The group’s collaboration practices around their space challenged me to start thing about the differences between 2D and 3D. I will explore these thoughts in the next section.
