World's Fair Project - ReactionGrid for 2012

Happy New Year

2011 was a slow year for progress on the Restoration Project - but things were still accomplished. View the current gallery of photos on the Grid and don't forget to check on the NYC Building and a few short film clips of the Grid

We don't know what is next, but a couple contenders would be Sweden or Italy.

Dr. Flavia Marcello, Lecturer in Architecture at Deakin University in Australia has sent me the floor plans for Italy and has promised to send more information once his paper is published.

We are also hoping to receive a paper and slide presentation from Matthew A. Malina on the NYC Building display about the New York water system.

Visit the our other 1939 NY World's Blog.

Sign up for the World's Fair Newsletter on the web site's home page

If you want to help with the Restoration Project on ReactionGrid, contact me for more information.

New Statues Pages Added to the World's Fair Site

Thanks to all the hard work by the New York Public Library on their digital collection, I have been able to add 7 new pages to 1939 New York World's Fair Web Site ... all statues. Here's the list and the links:

Fountain of the Atom by Wayland de Santis Gregory, Community Interests Zone
I found Earth, but am missing Fire, Air, and Water and also one of the male elements. If you have a photo of the missing statues, please send it to me so I can complete the page. Be sure to include the source for the image. e-mail: Paul@1939nyworldsfair.com

The Hunter by Elfriede Abbe, Communications & Business Zone

The Runner & The Stone Cutter by Joseph E. Renier, Communications & Business Zone

The Crest by Brenda Putnam

The Astronomer by Carl Willes, Theme Center

Spirit of Florida by George Etienne Ganiere, Amusement Zone

Sea Maid by Raymond Barger, Food Zone

Fountain of the Atom by Wayland de Santis Gregory, Community Interests Zone

I found Earth, but am missing Fire, Air, and Water and also one of the male elements. If you have a photo of the missing statues, please send it to me so I can complete the page. Be sure to include the source for the image.

February 23, 2011: What is the World's Fair Project

Many people who are not familiar with the Virtual World have wanted a way of seeing what our project is all about. So I thought that making a series of short videos may help. here is the first one. It's our introduction to the Fair.
Our hope is that this and future videos catch the attention of people who would like to join us in the Virtual World of Reaction Grid and contribute to the 1939 New York World's Project.
Our next in-world meeting in on Friday, March 4th, at 10am EST (7am PST) on 39FairHQ in ReactionGrid.
Visit the ReactionGrid web site and click on REGISTER to get your FREE Opensimulator Avatar. Use the Contact link on their page if you have questions about the grid or which viewer to use with your operating system.
If you have questions about the project, contact me by visiting the 1939 New York World's Fair Web Site and click on the contact page to send me your question.

World's Fair / ReactionGrid Tour gets a voice

Last year a self-guided tour was added to view those parts of the Fair that were on the Grid. Today, that tour is being re-written and expanded. So far, only the first stop is finished and I am hoping for feed-back and suggestions.

At each tour stop, when the visitor touches the Tour Stop Stand, they are presented with a Notecard which can be saved to their inventory or just simply read and not saved. Once saved, the text can be copied and pasted in to any word-processing program or text editing program and saved to compile a synopsis of the Fair for later use.

In addition to the Tour Notecards, there are also Educational Stands whose Notecards tell about specific events or displays.

The Tour begins in front of the most familiar part of the Administration Building where both a Tour Notecard and Educational Notecard are presented. The Educational Stand also has a "Touch for audio presentation" button which when touched plays "Dawn of a New Day".

Here's what's new: On the Tour Stand is another audio presentation button which gives the option to open a browser window and plays an mp3 audio version of the entire Notecard text. The audio was created using a program called Natural Reader.

Here is a link to the Tour audio file: Notecard 1 audio file. Let me know what you think.

More to come...soon!

The 1939 World's Fair Project

Thanks to the team at ReactionGrid the sim containing the Westinghouse Pavilion has been moved next to our other two sims.

As was mentioned previously, the goal now is to recreated some of the more interesting pavilions of the Fair and add as much information as we can obtain so that visitors can get a "feel" for the building and learn about what was on the display.

So far, we have:

• The Trylon and Perisphere with Democracity inside.
  
• The New York City Building with displays about the building, Grover Whalen, Fiorello LaGuardia, and models of the Fair.
• The Belgium Pavilion with some information about the building, the diamond exhibit, and the bell tower. We also have information and a link to Bells for Peace, the project to replace the bells in the tower of the Belgium Pavilion located in the Virginia Union University, Richmond, Virginia.
• The NCR building with its cash register, (working and counting visitors). Unfortunately, at the current time the NCR building lacks any information about NCR and its displays.
• Westinghouse with the Time Capsule and a lot of information about what was on display.
• A beautiful recreation of the Star Pylon. (Thanks to Joey.)
  
• The Zone Walk, this building was constructed so that visitors can get a synopsis of the Fair. Within are models of the zones, and information about many of the pavilions within each zone.

We are still seeking people to help build in-world and those willing to share photos and information about the contents of the Fair pavilions.

Our next in-world meeting is Saturday, February 19th, at 10am EST in the Underground meeting room on 39FairHQ.

If you would like to join us contact me by using the contact form on the the 1939 New York World's Fair Web site.

Feb 4, 2011 - A Great day on Reaction Grid

February 4, 2011 was a wonderful day for the Fair Project. We had some new people in attendance at the meeting and after being dormant for eight months, the project is moving ahead, albeit with some changes.

We will be conducting in-world meetings ever other week, alternating between Fridays and Saturdays so that hopefully everyone wanting to join in can.
The schedule is as follows:
Saturday - February 19th, 10:00am EST
Friday - March 4th, 10:00am EST
Saturday - March 19th, 10:00am EST

Originally the plan was to lay out the Fairgrounds map and build. This however would be too expensive in computer resources and not practical at this time. What we will do now is to consolidate the sims into one area, and construct various pavilions with as much information about that pavilion as we can obtain. Additional sims will be added as necessary. When the time comes that we have enough pavilions built, we can then move them to a location that matches the Fairgrounds.

There will be one or more "self-guided" tours of what exists of the Fair, with notecards that can be saved by the visitor and even compiled into a complete story about the Fair. We hope to add audio narration tracts, some videos, and more. The main focus is on Education and the history of the Fair.

Stay in touch with the World's Fair Website, the Project, and ReactionGrid

1939 New York World's Fair Web Site: A website devoted to the 1939 NY Fair
1939 New York World's Fair Blog: (on Wordpress) A Blog for things about the '39 Fair, new acquisitions for the site, new stories, etc.
PM Photo - 1939 NY World's Fair & More: (This Blog on BlogSpot) Primarily for the activities on the World's Fair Project on RectionGrid
1939 New York World's Fair on FaceBook: The FaceBook page hopefully will gather more people to contribute to the web site, get involved with the Grid Project, and in general, share information and comments about the Fair.
39NYWorldsFair on Twitter
Official ReactionGrid Blog: (BlogSpot) News from virtual world developer ReactionGrid Inc.

Micha Becker created and posted a Democracity video on YouTube: Thanks Micha, a job well done.

February 2, 2011: Meeting on ReactionGrid

There will be a meeting about the World's Fair Project on Friday, Feb 4 at 9:30am PST in the new (but unfinished) underground room on 39FairHQ on ReactionGrid.

In the large grassy area on the property, you'll see an area with a small version of the Trylon & Perisphere. In front of that display you will see a sign that by touching will open the portal to the meeting room.

Once it's open, you have about 15 seconds to enter. Yeah, it's under water, but you won't get wet.

The discussion will be about the best way to continue to expand the Fair, assign specific projects to interested people, and ways to offer educational material to visitors of the Grid.

I hope to see you there. If you have any question e-mail me at: Paul@1939nyworldfair.com