A report on IBM's history in virtual world.

Hey, Kyle, IBM employs a guy to do machinima

http://eurekadejavu.blogspot.com/2008/05/from-fire-pit-to-forbidden-city.html

Export to World

Here's the link to the site.

Exported objects

Link to DMA Art Collections

At Dean's request, here is the URL to the Dallas Museum of Art's massive online representation of their art collection: 
http://collections.dallasmuseumofart.org/

For fun.

News about Second Life that made me laugh.

It's the part at the end that is most informative...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7476767

Enjoy,
Khimbar

Visual Guides

We have been playing around with what to create as visual guidance for avatars to find other areas. Here is one idea..

Another Shot

Now the telehubs are set up on the central hub area of the islands. Either island you teleport to you will be placed on the central hub.

Introducing Sculpty

This is the central hub of the ATEC Islands. Not exactly what I envisioned, but this will work. Until I figure out the exact bugs that are involved with creating a sculpted prim. For now this is where people will teleport into the island and be able to visually see where other areas of the island are.

Augmented Reality Navigation

From the Google Android Developer Challenge Round 1. This shows how reality, virtual reality / worlds, and mobile devices are starting to come together.

Enkin from Enkin on Vimeo.

Chatting in Class?

a short video from class today

Design Lab Sounds

http://slurl.com/secondlife/UTD%20Accessibility/210/184/27

At the location above we have a version of the Design Lab. We need 2 sounds for this structure. 1 sound can be an ambient noise or music. The other sound should be something that indicates the buttons on the console in the center of the Design Lab have been selected. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me at daddy3d@att.net.

Thanks,
Mark Davis

This is the Plop Art Generator - when it is finished the rotation of the object in the middle will change based on people walking around it, it should also change color on the density of people in it's radius. The final art toy will be grouped with multiple different objects



This is a mock up of the platform generator for the main hub. Im currently looking for ways to spawn the platform that does not require silly stringed together spawned objects :/

Sound Installations=Video Installations

Sound Installations
Originally uploaded by video_shogun

So for the class I am working on creating interactive video sculptures. This was all started when I was thrown the job of coming up with new was to view video in Second-life. Well everything I could find inside and outside of SL was basically watching video on a flat screen. Well I started coming with ideas of other ways to view video in SL. With a flat screen you are only able to view, but if there were another way, then maybe the viewer could partake more with it. So I decided to research a bit more with interactive pieces within SL. Thus I found two islands where an SL artist had created interactive Sound sculptures either where your avatar had to enter the piece or some how interact with it. Well I started to wonder instead of just sound, could video some how be implemented into the pieces and there we have what I am working towards. This is something that I will be working in both this class and Frank's sound design since I showed our class the islands last week, and Frank had a few ideas to throw my way. So there you go and wish me luck for what I come up with.

C3 Visit

Center for Creative Commons (DMA) Visit

Dan and I took a tour of the DMA's C3 (still under construction) space on Monday morning. Here is an overview of the rooms/elements of the opening exhibit along with my ideas for creating greater interconnectivity where I could think of them.

Here

Follow up to House subcommittee: Vid by Jon Stewart

On my usual morning web-news crawl I found this.

Mayan Ball Court

I have been working on a full scale replica of the Mayan Ball court. After finding information on the size and layout of the largest ball court, I began construction of a replica. The actual play field is now complete. As far as sound scape is concerned I suggest the following:
The court is located in a clearing within a jungle. There should be sounds of not-to-distant wildlife. The court itself is made of stone, so standing in the middle the player is in a large open area enclosed on both sides by high stone walls. Several sources on Mayan archeology have stated that the site has a substantial echo. One can hear a whisper from across the ball court.

Here is the SLURL.

-I will keep you updated

Metaverse Gallery and Sound

Been working on ideas for rebuilding the gallery. I still want the visibility of the art to be dependent on the presence of the avatar. In Sound Design, we will create sounds to not only direct or lead the avatar (hey - there is something over here to see), but I'd also like the next show to consist in whole or in part of a sound environment where viewers are led by sound only (perhaps in an enclosed black space).

Kyle is also in Sound Design with me. He and I, along with a few others are working on this.

I see the space changing depending on the exhibition (like the black box for a sound environment), but I will be building a general area for which the Sound Design group will be creating sounds.

Sound Design for New Space

Frank's class will do some sound design for our work - we have until next Wednesday. So create a blog entry with a description, screen cap, sound environment hints (if any), and a SLURL to the spot where your structure / project resides.

To create a SLURL go to the map in SL and click on "Copy SLURL to Clipboard" button in the lower right.

House Subcommittee Explores Virtual Worlds, Simulcasts on Second Life

Here are some links well worth checking out. I found them this morning on my usual 8:30AM web-news crawl.

http://gamepolitics.com/2008/04/02/house-subcommittee-explores-virtual-worlds-simulcasts-on-second-life/

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2008/04/congress_goes_virtual_in_onlin.html?nav=rss_blog

video link: http://energycommerce.edgeboss.net/wmedia/energycommerce/040108.ti.hrg.virtual_worlds.wvx

Enjoy.

Finally, the real time web + 3D

see the article in the NYT

Vivaty, a start-up based in Menlo Park, Calif., is creating 3-D virtual chat rooms that people can add to the Web pages and social networking profiles on the sites where they spend most of their Internet time.

Vivaty turns a flat profile page into a three-dimensional live chat room. Users choose characters to represent themselves from a list of preternaturally handsome avatars — a requirement for any such service — and proceed to one of a dozen environments, like a gothic urban warehouse or seaside villa.

With videogame-like precision, they can then navigate that virtual space, which may feature their Facebook photos hanging from the walls and a YouTube video playing on a widescreen TV. Up to 15 others can choose avatars and enter the same room at the same time for text-based live socializing.

Home Alone on ATEC Island

For two days I haven't been able to Teleport off ATEC Island, despite (1) installation of the new version of Second Life and (2) clearing the caches in SL Preferences, then rebooting. To make things even more complicated, SL's Support has cut back on the level of support they offer to "Guests" (non-paying members) and when I submitted a request for help at the area of their website where I've received help before, they sent an automatic reply saying that my "problem would not be reviewed." Any suggestions from you SL experts for troubleshooting this lack of teleportation? It's been lonely on the island, I've seen not a soul from my team. Seems like there's a lot of work that needs to be done around here. Is the construction crew at a bowling league tournament? Since I can't go anywhere, I've been forced to entertain myself with experiments using the SL templates, creating avatar skin, hair and clothing. As seen in photo above: my first custom hair and matching shirt, made from a multicolored seamless texture. Psychedelic....

Garage Sale

This is especially for Mark, but anyone else is welcome to participate. Mark, is there anything you particularly want me to get on with this week? We've talked about several things including a chair (or any other object on which you can "sit") that will control the avatar owner's camera angle, and an image that will change as an avatar gets closer to it. Last week I made some stands on which you can "sit" to perform an animation suitable to the caption. My avatar is on the "Rejoice" one: I have also "I hate it", "I love it", "It bores me silly" Others are possible if you want any. Anyway, I have an attic full of stuff, including what's shown here: tornado-style bubble transport; picture that throws textured particles of itself (or just a flame glow)  if you're close, but not close enough to see the picture itself; entryway (or other object) that throws textured objects that self-destruct when (or soon after) they hit the ground (created as "temporary" in case of fluke); sculpting textures that swap between their appearance as surface textures and their sculpt objects and offer you an explanatory note card if you click them. An instance of "texture vomit" is shown here

Also objects that can communicate between their own prims or with other objects.

I probably have other stuff, too.

But if anyone wants anything custom-scripted it's TIME to decide about it.

Liz

ATEC Island Under Construction

The chaos is enough to make you want to SCREAM. Here we see the personification of this impulse: Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream" has been officially embodied by the avatar of ATEC Island team designer Diana Souza. Bursting out of the canvas, The Scream Avatar has been set loose on the island in anticipation of starring in a caper (a planned disruption) during the upcoming Dallas Museum of Art presentation. Freak out!

SL release candidate

use this version of SL to see web textures:

SL Media Parcel Changes

from the SL blog

The new media on a parcel feature allows landowners to select and display a wide range of Web-based media content, including Web pages, movies, images, text documents and audio. This change replaces and expands the existing QuickTime parcel media feature, giving you more flexibility in your media presentations. Currently, the displayed media is entirely non-interactive, meaning you will only be able to view and not be able to click web links, use scroll bars, or press buttons on web pages displayed on parcels, although we hope to add this functionality in the future.

Thoughts on Ecosystems and Current Projects

So, in my earlier post I argued for linking the Real World, the Web, and the Virtual to create a dynamic, interactive, ecosystem. I've tried to expand that a bit and apply it to the projects that are currently under development (Mark's idea, Liz and Bobby's scripting, and Tim's Mayan ballcourt). Please let me know what you think.


Elaine Raybourn sets up a four-part framework for her notion of an Intercultural Communication Framework (www.sandia.gov/adaptive-training-systems/papers/Raybourn%20I-ITSEC%202672%2011-17-%202006_citation.pdf), which can be used to produce simulations within which users can have “Crucible Experiences” or “a defining moment that unleashes abilities, forces crucial choices, and sharpens focus. It teaches the person who he or she is.”

The IC Framework contains four components:

Interaction - Dynamic Content, Personas, Roles
Narrative - Scenarios
Place - Environment
Emergent Culture - Assessment, Feedback

I have taken a more detailed look at the question of roles and how those might tie into a dynamic interactive ecosystem. However, before the roles are elaborated, the ecosystem effect may be enhanced through Collective Intelligence or Collective Decision-making.

What follows is a survey of web-based Collective Decision Making Systems (CDMS) by Jennifer Watkins and Marko Rodriguez (www.soe.ucsc.edu/~okram/papers/cdms-taxonomy.pdf), some of which might be expanded upon by rolling them into an ecosystem of interactions or them with Social Simulations. Each CDMS process is shown on the left with the aggregation mechanism on the right.

Document ranking (PageRank aggregation)
Folksonomy (collaborative tagging aggregation)
Recommender system (collaborative filtering aggregation)
Voting system (plurality aggregation)
Open source software (collaborative development aggregation)
Wiki (collaborative editing aggregation)
Prediction market (market scoring rule aggregation)

All of the following roles may not be necessary. Also, there may be quite a bit of overlap between who is playing these roles. With that said, the ecosystem roles can be described:

Framers

The role of the Framer(s) is to set the overall agenda for the ecosystem. “What is it for? What are we doing here?” A CDMS may be used here to determine the purpose of the ecosystem.

Modders

Modders should make changes to the rules of the environment within the constraints of the overall vision set by the Framers. The Modders ask the questions, “What is the ecosystem good for?” and “What are its limits?” The Modder role may simply have a user changing the environment through simple interactions or may include scripting or code addition/alteration. The modding role/effect may manifest itself as the aggregate behavior of the Active or Passive players—in other words, emergent.

Active Players

Active players experience and act on the environment from within the environment. The relationship between Active and Passive players is relative. If the environment in question is Second Life, the Active player contingent will be in-world and the Passive contingent out-of-world. One might say that Active players are the primary interactors.

Passive Players

Passive players act on the environment from outside of it. If Second Life is the environment, Passive players will interact with it through text messages or email.


Art Education - Mark's Idea

Here are some thoughts pertaining to Mark’s Art Education idea.

Framers

I assume the framing statement is “to teach the principles of visual design to children.”

Modders

The modding role could include the child-users choosing which teaching module to view, thus altering the configuration of module presentations to suit their interests. You may even frame the modules as a narrative (a configurable fairytale perhaps?). A CDMS might be used here to allow the children to vote on the module order.

Active Players

The in-world Second Life participants would experience the design principle modules close-up. Is the module in 3D?

Passive Players

Passive players could experience the modules by sending text messages or emails to the CDMS system for voting purposes and view snapshots of the live activity in-world on the DMA website.

Effects Idea - Liz and Bobby

After viewing some of the scripting effects Liz created, I thought there is probably a way they could be linked together to form an ecosystem. Perhaps Passive players could be linked into the process via a reversal of Bobby’s microblogging script where posts from outside Second Life appear in one of Liz’s scripted objects. Of course, before any sort of ecosystem planning could go forward, the mission/framing statement would have to be created. Liz? Bobby? What kind of Crucible Experience do you want users to have?


Mayan World - Tim and Russell?

Here are some thoughts regarding Tim’s Mayan ballcourt.

Framers

I am assuming the mission statement is “to teach users about the mechanics of the Mayan ballgame.”

Modders

A CDMS system could be used by users to choose features of the game-play as superficial as the color of the ball used to the difficulty (as determined by the size of the ring/hoop) or bounciness of the ball. Perhaps another element of the rule-set to be decided would be if the losing team (or winning) would have its avatars “sacrificed.” Perhaps a script will remove the losing avatars and replace them with less desirable ones (skeletons?). The “killed” avatars might be held ransom, with the losers having to pay a certain number of Lindens to get them back.

Active Players

Active players would be in-world, kicking the ball and so forth.

Passive Players

Passive players might play the role of the “gods”, influencing game in a way similar to the Avatar Traps exhibit--widening or narrowing the width of the ballcourt or altering the bounciness of the ball or some other facet of the world.

Augmented Reality Coin Game on n95

here's the download on Mosh if you have an n95

Post by Raph Koster worth reading

here

The I/O Question, Why I Don't Love Bees, but do Like Jane McGonigal

Hi, as I was trying to expand upon my earlier research writings, I decided to only post the new elements and not a fully revised document. I've looked into the dynamism of the I/O question (an attempt at a taxonomy) and some potential real-world uses for I/O applications (Problem-solving).

Here

On a side note, keep an eye on Jane McGonigal. While I’m not a huge fan of Alternate Reality Games (“I Love Bees”), McGonigal has some forward-thinking ideas about what games could be used for (“Happiness Hacking” and “Massively Multiplayer Science”).

Forecasting the Metaverse

As I was researching, I came across this site where smart people like Edward Castronova try to study and forecast the near-term (2016) future of the Metaverse (including Augmented Reality, Lifeblogging, "Mirror Worlds" like Google Earth, and mash-ups of these realms). This think-tank calls itself the Metaverse Roadmap. They've compiled a document in two parts, an Overview and Roadmap Inputs.

The last few pages of the Overview are pretty interesting because they look at implications. Christi, you may be interested in page 18, which raising some questions about virtual identity and relationships. What happens to people when they have 16 different identities in immersive environments? What does that kind of subjectivity or changefulness mean for society?

The Appendix (page 24) has some statistics from a web poll given to experts in the field about what they think the Metaverse will be like in the near-term. Questions like,

22. 2016, how many hours per week (0-20+) will a typical member of the U.S. population ages 13-30 use interactive, internet-accessing, 3D visual environments for EACH of the following activities?

Worlds Within Worlds

An open-source virtual world dev platform called the Croquet Project allows for the creation of "hyperportals" to other spaces. This may be of some help to the Distributed Room folks.

Hyperportals

http://www.3pointd.com/20060421/croquet-releases-sdk-10-beta/

Grid vs. Portal?

http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2006/04/i_imagine_that_.html

Chiellerie #2: How it Works

Hi, following up on Kyle's post, here's a site explaining the Avatar Traps exhibit in more detail,

http://sndrv.nl/secondlife/avatartraps/

Second Life Dumpster

The world is full of junk. Why should Second Life be any exception? In fact, something about the technological impetus to always create new, more advanced gizmos and realities makes this online virtual space a perfect site for the consideration of trash. The New York-based German art collective eteam are doing that now, in their project Second Life Dumpster. full article.

Why Won't Second Life Just Go Away

A must read for class: W. James Au at Etech08

Installation in Chiellerie gallery

From what I can tell, the video is legit. The video is showing an exhibit where people are able to move objects inside Second-life using their cell phones. If this is true, it would be an bridge between Second-life and the mobile-lab.

Example of video art is Second-life

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ochreous/50/148/147

I like Jen

Jen is a virtual travel assistant who's strangely infectious. At least the New York Times thinks so.

Under Construction...

Now that we have a few new goals and directions. Dean would like for me to post what those first goals are.

Beyond the Exhibit.
Taking an existing exhibit at the DMA and extending it to areas that are not available. For example their mummy is on display. We can create the dig site where it was found. Tim and Brian are working on first round. Lords of Death game creating it full size.

Main Structure
Now that we have a design, we will be creating a structure that brings all the islands together. Myself and Bobby are heading this up, along with Tim and Brian.

Microblogging/guestbook object

http://whatbook.tumblr.com/

using Steve's e-mail script I set up a system by which anyone can message this object and create a post on a blog.

edit: the comments can get quite mature

The object is on "what" island

USC Projects

Here are the links to USC's Media Lab projects. There is some overlap between them.

Mobile

Games

Immersive

twitter fountain in Second Life

now maybe we can get Dan & Dave Parry in SL!
new world notes entry on this

The Real, the Web, and the Virtual

Hi, here is a framework for research regarding our efforts. If it gets annoying to read via Tumblr, let me know and I'll email you the document.

Here it is

Walking in Second Life & NYC

this is a project from last year's Conflux Festival :

"A simultaneous walking tour for Second Life avatars and real people, connected to each other by a pair of walkie talkies. One operating from the Second Life virtual world, the other running on any internet enabled mobile phone."

Second Life goes semi-mobile

http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/340/C11804/

Face Detection via Qik

Job interviews in SL

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/397921/have_a_job_interview_in_second_life.html

Augmented Reality Game for Android

A first glimpse of a game for the so-called Google phone includes "WiFi Army", a first-person shooter that's a mash-up of laser tag and the parlor game Assassin.

From Forbes:

Participants meet on the street (using Google Maps) and "shoot" each other with their phone cameras. Those with the highest number of "unique kills" earn points and bragging rights. As the name suggests, players can form "armies" of up to 100 people.

The game is the brainchild of 23-year-old Chicago entrepreneur Peter Wojtowicz, who goes by his screen name, Peter Whatanitch. He describes WiFi Army as "augmented reality," meaning it brings aspects of virtual reality, such as the concept of an online army, to the real world. Its blend of GPS, wi-fi networking and Google applications points up Android's potential to reshape mobile phones and the way people use them.

Sound familiar?

Virtual Destruction

Russell might be into this, seeing he likes to blow up islands in Second Life.

From a Clive Thompson article in Wired.

I plowed into the intersection at about 140 miles an hour and boom -- slammed headfirst into an oncoming four-door sedan. Ouch.

And: Wow. The scene immediately shifted into John Woo-style slow motion. The cars reared upward, groaning, like two fighting antelopes; my hood crumpled into an origami flower, the metal bending like tin foil. The windshield became a fistful of glittering ice, hurled into the air. A tire pirouetted away like an escaping planet.

Let me tell you: It was beautiful.

Interviewing in SecondLife

Job interviewing in Second Life! With your avatar.

Check out the article in The New York Times.

A handful of employers are also exploring the world of Multi-User Virtual Environments, or MUVEs.

Second Life is one of these MUVEs. A handful of corporate customers have bought virtual space, called “islands,” in this virtual reality to use for “in world” meetings, and a growing number in this group is recruiting there, too. Linden Lab doesn’t keep statistics on how many of its corporate customers handle hiring this way, but it says the number has grown exponentially since Second Life began in 2003.

Much of the recruitment is done through job fairs. TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communications, an advertising firm in New York, held two virtual job fairs last year, events that included employers like Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Verizon Communications and Sodexho, a food and facilities management services company. Bain & Company, the global management consultants in Boston, has sponsored virtual job fairs in Second Life, as well.

Some Ideas on spaces

Here is a concept for our class. I need some feedback to make it better. Please provide comments.

Teen virtual world goes Hollywood

Some Habbo news ... it's not all about Second Life, is it?

Saw this while trolling the real world's virtual world, or something like that.

Teen virtual world goes Hollywood: "

Habbo, a virtual world for teens, signed a deal with the William Morris Agency, one of Hollywood's oldest and largest talent agencies. As part of the deal, WMA will promote its celebrity sports and entertainment clients within the digital world and help Habbo forge new promotional partnerships in Hollywood....

"

(Via CNET News.com | Tech news blog.)

Fun with Phones, GPS, Second Life, and triangulation

I find the idea of the real life hotspots that allow you to “see” into second life has a number of possible implementations. As I am unsure of what technologies would be used, are even useful, I have a few varying ideas. Here are some starters.

Since a hot spot is single point, it would be simpler to use a localized triangulation technique to establish it. This means setting up three sensors in an area that would detect when a phone is at a specific point between them. First set up sensor in a real-world café. Then create an item in Second Life I will call a HoloCam. I place the HoloCam in my Second Life art gallery. If I have a second life compatible phone, and I am in the café I can use my phone to connect to second life. From my phone I will be looking into my Second Life gallery. A user in second life would see, projected over the HoloCam, an image of my avatar, letting them know I am watching. Perhaps with a little work I could even use the phone to text chat with the person in second life. I could also use the keys on my phone to rotate and tilt my view of the space.

If the sensors in the café are good enough, I could also look around by “pointing” my phone where I want my avatar to face.

I could also use a variation on this. Instead of using sensors in real life, I could make it so that regardless of my location in real life, I could use an internet ready phone to connect to my Second Life HoloCam. This means that while in sitting anywhere with WiFi, I could see if anyone was visiting my Second Life gallery, and perhaps even text chat with them. If I were to mount a proximity sensor on the second life HoloCam, my phone could ring if someone were to enter my gallery, giving me the option to see who was there.

Government thinks Second Life anonymity leads to terrorism

Doesn't the government think everything we do is terrorism, no matter what it is -- going to church, school, playing in Second Life. Whatever. For the avatar discussions ...

From TechDirt.

Gov't Says Second Life + Online Anonymity = Terrorism: "Just as our courts on continually pointing out that anonymity is protected free speech, it appears that the federal government is trying to do away with anonymity entirely. We've already pointed out that National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell has been saying that the government should be able to monitor all internet communications. Now, the government's Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity has come out with a fear mongering report trying to suggest that online anonymity in 3D worlds leads to terrorism. It highlights things like Second Life as a breeding ground for terrorism. It's all quite scary if it weren't for the fact that it's totally baseless.

Virtual law

This is not Rob Scott's law firm, but it addresses many of the issues he follows. From Virtually Blind, a blog about virtual law and legal issues that impact virtual worlds ... a post about a lawsuit where IGE founder Brock Pierce alleges underhanded dealing at a virtual property company.

[from TechDirt's post: More Evidence of Why Virtual World Economies are Risky]

And did you know there's a virtual law conference?

WOW MMORPG legal article

Interesting article about Blizzard and chat spammers.

http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/02/01/blizzard-puts-peons4hire-out-of-work/

Half-Formed Idea: Message in a Bottle

Okay, this is a half-formed idea, but I'm going to try putting it out there in spite of it not being too well thought out. Further, instead of my usually super-expansive (and unwieldy) thinking, I’m going to try and keep it short.


I was listening to On The Media (http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2008/02/01/07) when a guy brought up that an app named ForwardTrack (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/122/is-the-tipping-point-toast.html) had been developed as a way of getting people to look at ads online by allowing them to not only send the ad to friends, but to get info on who their friends in turn sent the ad to. I thought it was a brilliant way of getting people to map their own networks by giving them feedback on the nature of the network they were charting. In fact, people wanted to grow the their network of ad viewers in order to see how big they could go:


“Watts and Peretti set up a regular mass-market ad buy, running banner ads on several prominent blogs and news sites. Like many ads these days, they added a button on the ad that allows people to forward the ad to a friend--a way of collecting eyeballs for free. Typically, people ignore this "share with your friends" pitch. But Watts and Peretti included technology called ForwardTrack, which displays the route the ad travels once you've forwarded it. This turned ad forwarding into a piece of social cartography. People would pass the ad specifically to those friends most likely to keep it moving. It became a Facebook-like contest to sign up the most friends.”


All of this made me think of the papers I’d read on semantic social networks and cluster maps. What if one hollowed out ForwardTrack and allowed people to forward images, text, links, whatever? Let people take such an app and do what they please--pushing messages, images, and seeing what networks of viewers they can get. The app will give them feedback in the form of semantic cluster maps (covering concepts, f2f relationships, existing ontologies, etc) of their choice regarding who looked at their media/message. This could potentially lead people to make new sorts of connections.


This new app could be a network or semantic analysis/research toolset that could be expanded and tweaked over time. It might be tested in Second Life (Can this sort of thing be done in SL?) before crossing the virtual divide onto the web or f2f social relationships. Perhaps future students might extend the toolset to design new collective intelligence or social networking apps in Second Life.


Dovetailing off of Dan’s post from Tim O’Reilly, a ForwardTrack-like app (Let’s call it “MIAB” for Message in a Bottle) could be used to create on the fly GIS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIS) maps. It could also be used to support growing psychological research efforts in Second Life
(http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-virtual-laboratory) (http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2179)

What can mobile do for virtual worlds?

This is not virtual worlds specific, although with little thought you can see how virtual worlds and mobile might go together. Anyway, I posted over at last100 regarding Nokia's N-Gage gaming platform, and Ovi, the social media sharing site. Obviously Nokia has a content/social strategy, and it makes me wonder what can mobile do for virtual worlds.

Also, a brief note at the emac blog on the same matter, with an eye toward Mobile Lab and content creation. The last quote from a Nokia dude is interesting. Again, what can mobile do for virtual worlds?

gesture based augmented reality

Augmented Reality: A Practical Guide

For everybody interested in augmented reality and virtual worlds. Most things Tim O'Reilly writes is worth reading ...

Augmented Reality: A Practical Guide: "

By Tim O'Reilly

I'm jealous. The Prags have just published a book I wish I'd thought of first: Augmented Reality: A Practical Guide.

I've been talking quite a bit about augmented reality lately, especially when people ask me about what I think might represent a discontinuity significant enough to represent a paradigm shift of the scale of the PC revolution or Web 2.0. Sensors instrumenting the world and driving collective intelligence applications that provide new information layers in our everyday experience is one big element of this next revolution.

The topic also comes up whenever people ask me about Second Life, because I'm much more fascinated by the possibility of SL to create additional information layers on top of this world than I am about the idea of it as a complete alternate reality. I usually point to an SAP project I learned of last year, in which SAP is working with a Swiss property management firm to build instrumented models of their buildings in Second Life. That is, you open a door in the building, a door opens in the SL model. The building catches fire, so does the SL model. And of course, that's why I was so excited about Google's acquisition of Sketchup. It seems to me to be a really important long-term play in the mapping space. After all, so much of the built world we interact with isn't represented at all on the maps we use. An address on the 37th floor of a building looks just the same to our mapping system as one on the first floor. But does it need to be that way? Not in a future where we've populated our maps (at first perhaps Google Earth, but eventually web-based maps as well) with additional layers representing the human-built world.

Augmented reality is also coming at us in the news, especially forward looking news outlets (hint: 'News for nerds. Stuff that matters.') Take a look at these recent Slashdot headlines and think about them as all part of an emerging augmented reality trend: Smart 'Lego' Set Conjures Up Virtual 3D Twin, Cellphone App Developed that Could Allow For 'Pocket Supercomputers', Stanford's New Website Converts Your Photos to 3D, and The Coming Wave of Gadgets That Listen and Obey. Add in the recent Radar posts The Future of Cell Phone Headsets and More on the Virtual Reality Audio Headset. Season with a dash of Nintendo Wii and innovative cell phone games like Mobzombies (Radar post.)

We're clearly careening towards a world in which virtual worlds are overlaid on the real world, bits interpenetrated with atoms.

I should be clear that this broad-strokes definition of augmented reality isn't what's covered in the Prags' new book. They are focused on a more traditional definition: 'to create the sensation that virtual objects are present in the real world.' They provide some first tools for developers to explore interfaces and techniques for doing so, with an emphasis on overlaying rendered objects onto real time digital video. This is a subset of the big picture I'm drawing in this post, but an important one. And perhaps even more to the point, this book will help to socialize the idea and to get people started building the new skills that will be required as augmented reality interfaces go mainstream.

I was thinking after class about how we represent ourselves online, and how we could show a connection between ourselves and our avatars, when I happened along this neat idea for a sort of performance piece. Avatars, wearing approximations of our own face. now, I'll fancy up the handle for the item that it'd give up to the class, but if people are interested in taking part, they can send me pictures of themselves and I'll make the masks

Tornado Transport System

Dean has been wishing out loud for a free-fall, random delivery transport system for ATEC's new architectural plan. What good, chaotic fun it would be, he thought, if an avatar could be plunked down somewhere totally unexpected. He also asked that all designs for the New ATEC Island be non-static, ever-dynamic. Always game for Dean's version of controlled chaos, the rest of the team agreed, and thought it might be practical to have an option for a direct transport to a specified destination as well. The obvious solution: a Tornado and Hurricane Delivery System. A tornado is unpredictable, ever-shifting its form and its path, so it could be the random delivery unit. A hurricane follows a path capable of being tracked, yet it too is a shape-shifter, so it could be the direct delivery unit. A sketch for a layered-form tornado design is shown here, having gobbled up Avatar Blake Wake for delivery who-knows-where. Research is now in progress to explore design and scripting challenges. Interested builders & programmers for this insanely bold project should contact Diana Souza or Liz Rittenhouse.

Island space plan

Dan is out

I am not in class today as the kid has a particularly nasty strain of the flu that's going around. I'm fine, but I'd feel really bad if I brought it to school with me and one of you got sick. Even with drugs, she's been down four days. Without drugs, you could be out two weeks. And you guys would then hate me.

Anyway, the diagram I posted the other day is just a starter. We had four good areas to talk about, and ideas within those areas. I'd like to have flushed those out better, spending time on each other, rather than jumping from idea to idea. I guess if you guys do that today, somebody take notes and we can update where we are -- either with new ideas or builds off the ones we already have.

Habbo and Paramount Pictures to Sell Virtual Movie Paraphernalia

Virtual goods for movies. If only I could find a virtual Veronia Mars. No, wait, that's TV. Damn.

from Mashable

Virtual world Habbo has announced a deal with Paramount Pictures to create virtual goods for movies. Think Spiderman lunchboxes, but in the virtual world instead of the real one.

Specifically, users of Habbo will be able to buy things like accessories for their avatars, virtual furniture, and other worthless crap movie paraphernalia based off the movies “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” “Beowulf” and “Mean Girls.”

As cynical as I am about virtual worlds in general, this deal makes a lot of sense and could probably be pretty profitable for the two companies assuming they are adding virtual goods from titles that are hot with their young and fickle audience. Habbo claims more than 1.8 million teen users, most of whom can probably nag their parents into buying them a virtual Lindsay Lohan “Mean Girls” action figure if they really want one.

see also Reuters story.

Ideas talked about in class today (Jan. 23)

In class today we mentioned several ideas, which I've captured here in sort of a cluster map -- a nod to Jumanne.

Anyway, the larger theme is the bigger circle. Different ideas for the theme are represented by the smaller circle. I jotted down the names of a few students who talked about the themes/ideas. I apologize if I've gotten someone's name wrong, or misspelled it. I'm still learning.

Dean would like us to think about these themes/ideas, but we've already got quite a bit we can brainstorm over. Perhaps in the next class? And I expect we will add to our list a lot over the next week or two.

If I missed something, interpreted something wrong, mislabeled a theme/idea, let me know. I'll make whatever changes are needed.

Larger image.

Reading for next week

The Online Disinhibition Effect by John Suler

Learning Space Design

This site contains large amounts of research data concerning Learning Space Design. Not only can you download an entire ebook on the subject but you can download pod casts as well as case studies.

http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=5521&bhcp=1

Art Education and MobileLab ideas for Second Life

Here is the more detailed document:

http://jkd033000.tumblr.com/

Dennou Coil

On the topic of augmented reality, there's this newer show that showed up in japan called Dennou Coil, it follows a group of kids that interact with virtual pets by wearing special glasses.

episode one, with subtitles :

part 1

part 2

part 3

Howard Rheingold Lecture in Second Life

"At the 2007 NMC Symposium on the Evolution of Communication, Howard Rheingold delivered this keynote presentation live in Second Life. Howard surveyed the big picture/long view of the way technologies, communication media and collective action has co-evolved."

Co-Evolution of Technology, Media and Collective Action

Class Brief Overview

• DMA Project - how to represent a museum in virtual space. Learning examples (ex: cubism in participatory virtual space)
extend it into areas only possible in virtual space
Assignment: go find other museums and see what they are doing, especially any "art learning" Present results in class.

• Island Redesign Project. Proposals about what should be there, what shouldn't be there. Then design proposals, then mockups. KEY is to follow and refine the design principles we have been developing. Codify them better. Present them. Theorize them.
Assignment: 1. find other well designed spaces edu and otherwise and analyze. 2. think of a list of things we should have in our space.

• collaboration with Frank's Sound Design class. ( Midway though semester ) they will do sound for our spaces and we will design an area for sound works. Connect with Frank half way through the class & do sounds for each of the new areas - then - moods spaces at the end - like an installation.

• Presentation / Exhibition: Show results at opening of the Center for creative Connections @ DMA UPDATED: May 3 & 4 and remotely at University of California Irvine Conference on the Cultures of Virtual Worlds April 25-26

Second Life as Platform for Augmented Reality

Interactive Art Exhibit

Second Life hits 61k Concurrent Users

So maybe its not all going downhill after all. Article on New World Notes.

Metaplace Review

Raph Koster's project MetaPlace review on MIT's Technology Review

Pixelanthropy

"Nonprofits move into virtual world and champion causes in new ways"

The Personal Internet

From CES: Intel & The "personal" internet.


And this auto avatar software called Bigstage.

Museums in Virtual Space Articles

I haven't read any of these yet, but I came across them in class. These are all articles or posts regarding the notion of museums in virtual spaces.

http://apps.exploratorium.edu/worlds/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=HomePage
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr057.shtml
http://www.isoc.org/inet2000/cdproceedings/8j/8j_1.htm
http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/01/museum-brings-r.html
http://activeducator.wordpress.com/2007/07/06/museums-go-virtual/
http://www.lastplace.com/
http://www.museumblogging.com/2006/08/museums-and-second-life.html
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/papers/urban/urban.html
http://www.digital50.com/news/items/BW/2001/07/14/20071211005354/the-tech-museum-of-innovations-second-life-initiative-revolutionizing-the-developme.html
http://e-artcasting.blogspot.com/2007/02/wish-list-for-art-museums-in-second_04.html
http://www.3pointd.com/20070427/open-source-museum-opens-in-second-life/
http://www.museumbrandingblog.co.uk/?cat=6
http://www.learninginrealtime.com/minute/37

Second Life Bans Banking

After a $750,000 loss, SL bans in world banks.

Creating Virtual People

first link:

some thoughts from Eric Rice on creating fake people, though mostly from the side of web social networks, it applies.