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.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
SL Media Parcel Changes
from the SL blog
Monday, March 24, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
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?
Monday, March 17, 2008
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
Grid vs. Portal?
Saturday, March 15, 2008
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/
http://sndrv.nl/secondlife/avatartraps/
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
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.
Monday, March 10, 2008
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