You Can, Too!
You can create a museum exhibit.  You can inspire others.  You can make a difference.  You can win fame and fortune (well, perhaps a little anyway).

The Tech Museum in San Jose, CA (RL) will award  prizes of up to one million lindens for the best interactive exhibits designed in Second Life for our upcoming exhibition called "UcanTu." 

UcanTu

The UcanTu exhibition showcases 12 award-winning examples of "technology benefiting humanity" (for more details and a complete list of the technologies, see http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/ucantu/ ).  Each of these technologies benefits health, education, environment, economic development or equality on a global scale. 

THE CHALLENGE

Your challenge is to develop an interactive exhibit that highlights one or more of these award-winning innovations in a way that explains its importance, makes it relevant to the lives of museum visitors, and makes it understandable how it works.  The purpose of your exhibit is to inspire visitors to realize they can make a difference ("You can, too") in their community and the world, either by supporting these particular innovations or by coming up with ideas of their own.

PRIZES

- For exhibits selected to be part of the RL UcanTu exhibition:
L$250,000 per team member, up to a max of L$1M.

Note: Only exhibits that are truly engaging and novel will be considered for adoption.  Be sure to discuss your concept with Rob or Bean by email, or talk in-world to Stephe, Shakini or Lydia on the Main Grid, or to En or Copernic on the Teen Grid to make sure it is not one we are already considering.

There will be five additional prizes, awarded independently of the prize above:
- Most Inspiring Exhibit: L$50,000 per exhibit

- Best in Show (Adult): L$50,000 per exhibit
- runner up: L$5,000 per exhibit

- Best in Show (Teen): L$50,000 per exhibit
- runner up: L$5,000 per exhibit

For more details, see http://thetechvirtual.org/help/faq/prizes

DEADLINE

Hurry, the judging will take place on August 7.  Winning exhibits will be selected by senior exhibit designers from The Tech Museum. 

HOW TO ENTER

To enter the contest, you must:
- submit your exhibit idea in text as a project at
http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/ucantu-projects.
- create a virtual prototype here inside an exhibit frame.

Once you have your idea and are ready to build, get a frame for your exhibit.  Create a sign that gives the basic info on your exhibit (title, idea, your name) and any help you are looking for.  If you have not already described your project on
http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/ucantu-projects, please do so.  This is a collaborative effort and we encourage you to find other partners and build exhibits as teams.  You can join the team for an existing project by going to its Web page and clicking on 'join this project' (just make the exhibit is located on the same grid as you).  Please be respectful of others and their exhibits - if you would like to contribute to someone else's exhibit, contact them and ask to join their team through the Website first.

GUIDELINES

First of all, read the Introduction to the UcanTu exhibition at
http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/ucantu/ucantu 
Then observe the following guidelines:

   1. The exhibit should highlight one or more of the Tech Award-winning technologies listed here, in a way that makes them meaningful and accessible.
   2. The exhibit should be inspiring.  It should make visitors realize that the tools to make a better world are not out of reach, but all around us.  It should make them want to get involved in their own communities and in the world ("You can, too!").
   3. The exhibit must be interactive, and it should not rely on docent explanations or a lot of documentation for visitors to understand it.
   4. It should be educational.  It should convey an understanding of a) how the featured technology actually works, b) what global problem it addresses, and c) how it provides a solution.
   5. If there is a connection that can be made with Silicon Valley (companies, local uses for the technology, individuals involved, etc.), that is a plus.
   6. It must be feasible to build the exhibit in real life.
   7. The exhibit concept must be licensed under Creative Commons (you agreed to this when you joined the Website) and the virtual exhibit should be full-perm.
   8. If you need to contact one of the Tech Award laureates, talk to Rob or Bean first.  We may already have what you need.

MORE INFO

For more information,
consult http://thetechvirtual.org/help/faq/ucantu-faq or
email rstephenson@thetech.org, or tblaine@thetech.org.

On March 31, our panel of judges toured the 31 exhibits in Parkside Exhibit Workshop.  This week, the judges are deliberating on which exhibits will be included in the virtual museum and which will be selected for the $1000 prizes for best SL-only, most educational, best in show, best teen exhibit, and best collaboration.

The awards will be announced on Thursday April 10 at 10am SLT in Parkside Exhibit Workshop.  The teen award will be announced on April 9 at a time TBD.  After that point, winners will have until the end of April to box and prepare their exhibits for inclusion in the museum, and we will ask other exhibitors to take down their exhibits.  The goal is to have a largely open workshop by the end of April when we commence design on future exhibits on new themes... soon to be released!

Thanks to everyone who has participated in the exhibit design so far!

Many people have asked why exactly winning exhibits are being chosen.  What makes an exhibit a winner?

Because this is a pilot project, we've been learning as we go about what's possible and what to expect.  Now that we're a few months in, we have a better understanding both of The Tech's specific exhibit needs and want to share those with you.  I apologize that these were not available from the very beginning; we're learning as time progresses.

The Tech supports and encourages exhibit design on topics of all kinds, and implementations that are both RL-possible and SL-specific.  However, if you would like your exhibit to be considered for the contest to have your exhibit created in RL this spring, please read on.

In June, The Tech will open 10 exhibits on the theme of "Technology in Art, Film, & Music."  We are selecting these exhibits from the website (http://thetechvirtual.org) and the SL exhibit workshop between now and March 30. 

To be a "winner," an exhibit should meet the following four criteria:
1. have a presence as a project both on the website and in Second Life.
2. relate to the core theme of the role of technology in art, film, or music.
3. tie back to an educational "core principle" about art, film, or music.  Examples might include "what is a pixel?" "what is audio compression?" etc.
4. relate to the theme of the "spirit of silicon valley."  NOTE: This is less important, a nice-to-have but not essential.

There are many great exhibits being created that don't meet these criteria.  That's fine--and many of these will be included in the virtual museum, and are eligible for the additional $1000 prizes for most innovative virtual exhibit, best collaboration, best SL-only design, and most active virtual participant. 

IF you want your exhibit to be explicitly considered for the SL-to-RL contest, please send a message to Avi Marquez / nsimon@thetech.org when you consider your exhibit "done" and ready to be judged.  Also, please reflect how your exhibit addresses the four criteria above on your project webpage by adding a wiki page called CRITERIA or something like that.

I'm sorry that these criteria are coming out so late in the process.  They are also reflected in the FAQ on the contest.  You are all part of this early experiment for The Tech and we truly appreciate your patience and continued feedback as we learn more about how to really make this work.  If you have questions or comments about the criteria, please leave a comment on this post or join us for discussion every Friday at 10am in Parkside Exhibit Workshop.