Filming the Fest

The Hypergrid International Expo is a bit like a tornado - a whirlwind of cultures, languages, with different styles of presentation, and wildly different subjects, all needing to be filmed so that people who can't be inworld can watch Live, but also to create an archive of videos on the HIE YouTube channel. Setting up, preparing equipment and researching the performances, filming, and editing - it's all a huge amount of work, and the team that does this is led by James Atlloud  with Sofee Supermarine and Petlove Petshop lending a hand for HIE 2025.  

First up, James - how did the new region work out this year, and can you tell us a bit about recruiting videographers? If anyone reading this wants to join the team, what should they do?

James and his Dinkie alt sitting at the Streamer's Table at HIE

James Atlloud: The var region simplified so many aspects of moving around, setting HUD, scripts and more.  Craft grid was so kind to us in the past, but it was quite the pleasure to work on a grid that is largely dedicated to the expo. As for recruiting a team, it can be hard. We are all adult volunteers with complicated demands outside of the expo.  Fortunately every person I ask to help is very considerate, which is consistent with the larger open simulator community.  I value the different styles and aesthetics of the video team members. Filming is a creative expression of our enthusiasm for living and working on the hypergrid. If people are interested in participating the best way to reach me is a direct message to ' jamesatlloud ' in Discord.

Kelso's Keyframes for HIE

This year, as you know HIE moved to a new home on HG Safari grid and got a facelift with a new auditorium on a 3x3 VAR that allowed us to have everything on the same sim, rather than four separate ones. 

Another huge change was the way that the speakers and presenters were animated. This work was done by Kelso Uxlay who developed a special set of scripts and HUDs to make it happen. Why was that needed?

Kelso Uxlay:  We needed something more reliable and dynamic to replace the antiquated, ugly poseballs used in the first years of HIE. 

Thirza Ember:  What was wrong with them?

Viva Subtitles!

From the very first Hypergrid International Expo back in 2017, we have been using a unique system to allow our audience to follow the main points of the talks being given, even if they don't understand the spoken word. It's a Subtitle system using Group Chat. You join the inworld group for your language, and during the event, the group Chat will light up with paragraphs of text that reflect the things being said onstage. 

Loru Destiny - our first speaker at HIE 25

Making these subtitles ahead of time involves a series of steps - getting the speakers to submit the main points of their talk, editing these for length, and then translating them into different languages. Of course, AI can help with that to some extent, but it takes the eye of a native speaker to check that idiomatic expressions, the jargon of virtual worlds, grammar, syntax, and the context of the talk are all respected. This year's team of translators and subtitleists included Rosa Alekseev for the Portuguese, LadyKa 007 for the French, Tosha Tyran for German and Spanish, plus Lux Tergeste and Snowbody Cortes. Thirza Ember worked on the Italian translations, as well as the editing, formatting, of the subtitles, and organized the team. 

Subtitle Group joiners in the Expo Park.
During the conference, subtitles appear in Group Chat.

But what was the experience like from the point of view of these volunteers? Would they recommend it to others? Lux Tergeste has been helping with subtitles for at least three years now, and has often also helped with translating from Italian to English. 

HIE 2025 Spanish Session

 On Sunday April 6 the final session of this year's Hypergrid International Expo was all in Spanish - with voices from around the world - from Barcelona to Puerto Rico, and of course we also had the magnificent retelling of the Four Worlds of the Hopi people, who came into contact with the Conquistadores. 

AnaMari Maggi

The session was beautifully introduced by Ana Maggi,  who speaks Spanish, French and Italian, so is a little bit of a symbol for our multilanguage event. She first introduced Xirana Oximoxi, author and artist, from near Barcelona. Xirana has been exhibiting her art inworld for a long time, both in SL and in Opensim, on her region on Craft, called Karnac. Her talk then was all about inhabiting two realities and making art in both, it's a story of hard work and practical challenges to overcome, so it was both an autobiography and a bit of a how-to speech. Very interesting! Remember, all the sessions of HIE were filmed and streamed live on our HieExpo Youtube channel and you can see the Live session in our archive - in coming days, there will be all the individual talks on the same channel.

HIE 2025 Italian Session

 The Italian session this year was dominated by educators and what a thrill to hear them speak with such optimism and enthusiasm about their passion for teaching and for technology.

The Italian session was moderated by Lorenza Colicigno, who is herself an educator and whose sim NoiLab on craft is a magnet for any thoughtful hg traveler.

Our first speaker was Luciana Mattei. She teaches primary school in Latina, Italy. Her project unAcademy is an absolute joy - she is teaching children not only science, and English, but also all about their digital identity. Luciana's joyful approach to her work is infectious, and the whole audience felt the thrill of seeing how she has combined the virtual school in Craft-world, with the concrete school, in the real world.

If you missed her talk, remember you can watch all the sessions of HIE on our Youtube channel, HIE Expo. Use the Settings button to get the auto generated subtitles for your language.

HIE 2025 French Session

The second session of this year's Hypergrid international Expo was the French part, once again three presentations on three different themes. 

Minord Loup peeps out at the crowd during Nadir Rae's talk

To introduce the French part, Minord Loup and LadyKa 007 did an absolutely delightful  conversational that set the mood for a great session.

HIE 2025 German Session

 This year's HIE event kicked off with a big Welcome from the five person panel - Em Jannings spoke in English, Richi Rizzoli in German, Minord Loup welcomed everyone in French, Lorenza Colicigno in Italian, and finally Ana Maggi made some comments in Spanish, just to give the event a fully international feel right from the start!

I you missed the event, you can watch the whole thing, as it happened, over on the HIE YouTube channel, and in days to come there will also be videos of each individual performance. 

The German session was ably moderated by Richi Rizzoli. Richi, a DJ inworld, with his deep rich voice, was a perfect choice as moderator.

Hie Is Underway!

 Yes, the Hypergrid International Expo 2025 is well and truly launched! Yesterday from 11am SLT we had three wonderful hours of live singers. First up the one and only Zoree Jupiter - follow her on Facebook!  and here's her performance schedule, so you know when and where to catch her concerts inworld. SHe sang a divine set perfect for our international event, with a bit of everything from fado to We Are Family... couldn't have been better. Thank you Zoree!

As you can see we had a great cohort of Dinkies at the party - you can see behind them, the Group joiner boards... what are they for? During our 2 day conference, beginning today, Saturday 5 April, the talks are given in German, French, and then tomorrow in Italian and Spanish. If you don't speak all these languages, no worries, we provide subtitles in English, Italian, Portuguese, French German and Spanish throughout the event, in Group Chat... just join the group for your language, and during the event the subtitles will show up in your IMs. Magic!

Following Zoree, we had a power hour of songs from the 80s with Khiron Ametza as always pumping up the mood of the party and getting us all singing and dancing at home as well as inworld! Khiron, a soprano singer from Brazil, has a great repertoire - a good way to keep in touch with what she's up to is to fave her page on Facebook .

The party continued into a third hour, as people came and went, about 60 plus attended the musical evening, many of them took full advantage of the inworld ability to stay by the singers and dance like crazy, while at the same time camming out into the Expo and pick up LMs, Notecards, and the many many freebies donated by a multiplicity of grids and individuals. We have 130 publicity booths at the HIE Expo this year, and there truly is something for everyone in that wonderful miscellany!

Our final singer was the wonderful Wolem Wobbit - here's his YouTube Channel, be sure to subscribe! A native of Germany, with excellent English, Wolem is a bluesman, a guitarist of great talent, a songwriter and of course a great singer. His original songs are all hits, or ought to be - they have heartfelt, thoughtful lyrics - his latest composition which he played for us is all about the Hypergrid, and the importance of a sense of community and acceptance in this ever more divided and hateful real world. 

Thanks to our wonderful singers, and to everyone who attended the Opening event for HIE 2025 - hope to see you all at the Conference, today starting at 9am SLT (6pm in Europe)  Saturday 5 April and tomorrow 6 April!

HG Address: grid.hgsafari.org:58002:HIE

Testing for HIE

 The past days have been busy on the HIE region as we complete the final run-throughs and tests for our many speakers, artists, and moderators. 

We've been testing animations, talks, slideshows, art experiences, outfits, and NPCs - a whole world of informative entertainment about what it means to inhabit this very special platform.

Practicing the 5 person panel for the opening talk

As you know, the talks are given in a range of languages, not English. If you have been to the OSCC conference, held every year in December and organized by Avacon, you will know that the English speaking community is well served by this opportunity to share their innovations and projects at that event. The idea of the Hypergrid International Expo to give voice - and an opportunity to listen - to opensim residents who aren't English speakers. 

HIE 2025 Schedule at a Glance

The HIE conference is just around the corner, four sessions in four languages with lots of art and pictures and music on the menu as always.

The talks this time will be about a variety of Opensim themes, by people who spend many hours here - working, creating, teaching, playing, and expressing themselves in a vibrant range of ways.

You'll learn so much about how people experience Opensim and in some cases, how their virtual life has enhanced their real life. This virtual platform, with its low prices and its high versatility, has given life to so many projects that wouldn't have been possible in real life.

Four languages, fifteen voices will be heard at this event which counts many more volunteers and advisors who have helped us pull together an event that spans opensim in every way. We hope you ill attend! 

HIE Expo, Something for Everyone

 Freebies are always a magnet at any event and this year's HIE Expo has plenty of them - everything from houses to hats. But there's much more than just a gift or two on offer here. This year we have about 130 booths, representing about 80 different grids, big and small, of every persuasion and point of view, showing just how much there is to love and to learn about Opensim.

There are plenty of dance places and performers are represented on the build, but Opensim offers plenty of other things to see and to do, like Aba Brukh's fascinating regions about Abyssinia - a chance to take a trip in time and space to ancient Africa. 

Most of the booths feature Landmarks so you can go and visit the regions or grids being promoted, although one or two on OSGrid may require a little bit of patience before you'll be able to see them again. 

Other places and groups are as busy as can be, offering a wide range of ways to engage with the community, like VWEC, the Virtual Worlds Education Consortium, or what about some Roleplay with groups like Carima, Candoranien, Starfleet Infinity, Genesis RP Grid, Wyldwood Bayou Grid's two RP groups, and Westeros shown here, a Game of Thrones inspired roleplay group on Wolf Territories.

The Westeros booth is in the blue zone of the Expo park

All this plus Bible Study, Big Art, BDSM, tech tools, scifi, and cultural milestones... the Expo really has something for just about everyone.

Visit the Expo Park any time, and be sure to come along for the Conference during the weekend of 4-6 April. See our Schedule for full details of the speakers!
HG Address: grid.hgsafari.org:58002

The beautiful creation of Lampithaler Artist

Cherry and Morlita at HIE !

 On the weekend of 5 and 6 April, we will be holding the 2025 conference of the Hypergrid International Expo. The program is complete, and we are deep into our preparations!

It's quite a big task to put together 12 different presentations, in four languages. In each section of the event there is an artistic performance, like this one by MorlitaM and Cherry Manga... here is a little hint of it.

These performances involve weeks of work both onsite and on the artists' home grids. Their collaboration is key to bringing about a fabulous inworld immersive experience for our public, so much more than can be expressed in a video - so be sure not to miss the French session of HIE this year, it begins at 12:00 SLT on Saturday April 5.

HG Address:  grid.hgsafari.org:58002:HIE

Tech Talks at HIE

 This year's HIE conference is right around the corner, on the weekend of 5 and 6 April - will you attend? 

The speeches will be given in a variety of languages, but if your native tongue is English, don't worry - we've got you covered! Subtitles in English, as well as French, German,Italian, Spanish will be available again this year so you can follow along.

One of our speakers will be Neo Cortex. In RL a software guy, Neo has been around Opensim since its earliest days, running a small grid of his own and also experimenting with scripting. His talk this year will be about a tool he has developed for the Nara's Nook writing group, led by Nara Malone. Neo's innovations and adaptations of other tools make it easier for them to use the 3D platform to tell their stories, and to engage their readers as part of the adventure of the plot line. 

Neo Cortex

This interesting project will involve some inworld examples of NPCs, and information about how you can benefit from, maybe even contribute, to Neo's Story Sequencer project.

Join us inworld on April 5 at 9am SLT for the German session of the Hypergrid International Expo. You'll be glad you did!

HG Address: grid.hgsafari.org:58002:HIE

Ein Spaziergang übers Expo-Gelände

O schau, da stehen sie wieder

Wie bunte Melodien

Kreativer, schöner Lieder

Aus Opensim Galaxien!

Mein Herz kann sie verstehen,

Denn auf jahrelanger Fahrt

Erwarb es ein Wissen von Wehen

und Freuden höchst virtueller Art.

Ich liebe diese kleinen Kunstwerke,

die an allen Wegen stehn

Als hinreißende Augenmerke

Ihrer Designer leuchtender Ideen.

Das erste, was auffällt, ist tatsächlich das schöne und liebevoll gestaltete Drumherum... Berge, Wasserfälle, Flüsse - es fehlt wirklich nichts. Durch diese Schönheit schlängelt sich ein komplizierter, sich immer wieder verzweigender Pfad und genau in der Mitte befindet sich der Zuschauerraum mit Bühne und Darstellungsfläche für die Vortragenden und die Künstler:innen!

Der Pfad der Ausstellungs-Stände

Ich bin dem Pfad gefolgt, nicht etwa in geordneter Folge, Stand für Stand abklappernd, sondern eher chaotisch (wie es meine Art ist...), mal hier mal da schauend.

Setting up the Expo

The park that surrounds the auditorium for the Hypergrid International Expo, or 'HIE' for short, isn't the biggest expo park in Opensim, or the one with the biggest builds, but it is chock full of fun and diversity every year.

HIE Auditorium 

The Conference part of HIE happens in April - from the opening party on Friday April 4, through two days of talks in French, German, Italian and Spanish, with subtitles provided, if you don't speak those languages.

But before that, and after it also, we have a huge expo where everyone in Opensim, whatever their language, can participate, with a simple booth, like a market stall, where they can tell everyone about their grid, or their sim, or their project. 

Everyone is welcome, there is no charge to participate in this event, and your booth can be simple or more complicated, as you prefer, keeping in mind the need to maintain reasonable levels of lag on the sim.

Booth News!

 The next Expo is in April 2025 but we're gearing up already to create the Expo park full of publicity booths where you can let the community know about your grid, your region, your projects. As always there is no charge to participate, and all are welcome. 

This year we have an innovation - Petlove Petshop has prepared a series of how-to videos - in seven languages! Congrats to her for all her hard work, and for the seven narrators - Rosa Alekseev for Portuguese, Minord Loup for French, the German one is narrated by Loru Destiny, and we have Akasha Kokuu for Japanese, Karima Hoisan for Spanish , Lux Tergeste for Italian and James Atlloud for English - thank you all so much for participating!

While it's true that AI makes translations easier these days, authentic language speakers can't be beaten especially when you've got specific jargon like the kind of specialized terms which we use on our virtual platform. Plus it's fun to emphasize the beauty of our multi-language society.

Just to give you a flavor, here's the Japanese one, you'll see the others on our Youtube Channel.

The idea is to make it as easy as possible for people of all languages to participate, and to answer the frequent questions about what's needed when making a booth - where to get one, who to give it to when finished, what limits there are on the way you can mod it. Please, share these videos with anyone you think ought to be represented at HIE, and with all your friends. Liking and commenting on the videos also helps us to get the message out there by 'feeding the algorithm' so if you can, do your part to help us out.

200 Days before the next HIE

Wait, what? Two hundred days from now? That's forever! 

Well, kinda... but time is like a train, chugging along with a regular rhythm but moving much faster than you think until it's suddenly right there, on top of you! So we're already planning ahead for the next HIE event, which will be from April 4 to April 6,  2025. Scroll to the end of this post to find out how you can stay informed about the event via the Socials.

What is HIE, or Hypergrid International Expo? 

If you're a regular reader of this blog you already know! If you're new to the idea.... it is an Opensim conference, party, expo, and art performance extravaganza, experienced live and archived on our Youtube Channel - please help people find it more easily by giving a Like and Subscribe! 

HIE gives Opensim people of any and all grids, whose first language is not English, the opportunity to speak about the projects, experiments, sims, and builds that they are proud of. They get to tell their stories in their own languages, and we provide a sort of Subtitle system that allows you to follow what's being said in English, or any one of the major languages of Opensim.

In the past, HIE has been held on Craft Grid, with the kind assistance of the lovely Licu Rau.

This year, we have a new home, a 3x3 space on the new HG Safari grid - address at the end of the page. This will resolve a few logistical issues, and means we have a brand new playground for all the HIE activities.

Nazirah Avro speaking in Spanish, HIE23

Why aren't the talks in English?

Simple - there already is a very big annual event for Opensim, where all presentations are given in English. It's called the OSCC  the Opensimulator Community Conference and this year the 12th annual event will be held on December 7 - 8, 2024. However, not everyone's comfortable giving a lecture in English, so the Hypergrid International Expo is a space for these other voices, a sister convention, if you like.

Next HIE Event

 The Hypergrid International Expo for 2024 recently closed its doors on Craft-world, with a final show by Cherry Manga of her fabulous light and sound performance "Variations monochromes autour d'une coordonnée".

About 25 people showed up to say their goodbyes to this multi-language, multi grid event.

Many asked, when will the next Expo be? Who will be the speakers, and which artists will be performing? What languages will be featured, and on what grid will the event be held in the future?

All excellent questions, and the answers will be posted here on this blog over coming months, so do not forget to subscribe! If you do not know much about Hypergrid International Expo, you may find it useful to look at our  main website, which has details of how to participate in several languages.\

https://sites.google.com/view/hieopensim/home

We can announce that the next HIE event will be from Friday 4 April to Sunday 6 April, 2025. Please save the dates in your calendar, and stay in touch so you don't miss any of the details as they emerge.

End of an Era

 This year's Hypergrid International Expo on Craft Grid was held over the weekend of April 19 - 21, as you probably know. It was a fun event, enriched by singers including the Italian Zeno Voxel, the German Wolem Wobbit, and DJ Marlon Wayne, Portuguese singer Zoree Jupiter, who did a set of Fado songs, and Thai performer Ouienanda. It was a kaleidoscope of culture.

We had two days of interesting talks on subjects ranging from education to opensim development, to personal stories of life in the metaverse. Four languages were used for the talks - plus the universal language of art, with fabulous displays by Velazquez Bonetto, Tutz Zabelin, Terra Merhyem, and Cherry Manga.

All this plus Jeff Kelley, CapCat Ragu, Lampithaler Artist, Drusus Zonenations, Gudule Lapointe,  Thirza Ember, and our Moderators, Rosa Alekseev, Tosha Tyran, Dabici Straulino, Lorenza Colicigno and Em Jannings. Plus a huge participation of people of all parts of the metaverse in our huge Expo region -103 booths this year!

Thanks to everyone who participated, we hope you will join us next time

Sunday at HIE

 The final day of HIE 2024 was on Sunday 21 April and once again, it was a mixture of presentations and performances, weaving together work in real life, with personal experiences of virtual worlds, along with some very big and impressive art.
The warm voice of Lorenza Colicigno was the first we heard as she welcomed the audience to take their seats, open the Subtitles group for their native language, and to turn on Stream.

Thirza Ember's talk was all about HG Safari, the history of the hypergrid touring group, its goals and its evolution over the past ten years, as opensim has changed and grown, providing so many interesting places to visit (and to crash in!)