Note: This particular competition has ended

Eligibility: 

You must be 18 or older to use Second Life, or 13-17 to use Teen Second Life.  Must be at least 13 to be eligible.  Employees of The Tech Museum and of Linden Labs are not eligible to win the contest, but can create exhibit projects.

Requirements:

1.  Create an online profile on this website at http://thetechvirtual.org/createMember.

2.  Create or join a project on this website. 

3.  Your project must be an interactive exhibit related to Art, Film and Music in relation to technology.  Interactive means that the visitor will be able to "do" something in or with the exhibit.

4.  Create a Second Life avatar (if you don't have one), post his or her name to your member profile and visit The Tech island in Second Life.  IM Avi Marquez in Second Life to join The Tech group.

5.  Prototype your exhibit in Parkside Exhibit Workshop at The Tech in Second Life.  If you need help building/scripting in Second Life, please attend one of our weekly scripting classes (listed on the right of this page) or contact us at info@thetechvirtual.org.

6.  Projects will be accepted for the contest until March 30.  The earlier you submit, the better a chance you have of winning.  Projects will be juried from now through early June 2008.

Judging Criteria:

To be a "winner," an exhibit must be realizable in RL.  It should also 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.

Exhibits will be judged on Feb 29, March 15, and March 30.  Exhibits judged on the earlier judging dates may be resubmitted at later dates.


Prizes:

To learn more about the contest prizes, see http://thetechvirtual.org/help/faq/prizes

Questions?  Email info@thetechvirtual.org.