While a lot of the open source key companies and organizations exist in SL such as Ubuntu, Red Hat, Oracle, Free Software Foundation, FLOSS, OSI.. etc there presence is merely an advertising, educational and informative one. The opportunity SL presents to software developers for collaborative and distributed open source software production is yet unexplored. The reason I choose to stress on OS companies is for their experience in decentralized software development. I was looking for some statistics regarding software developent in SL and I came across the following from the oreilly open source conference. 25% of time spent in SL is spent creating objects and scripts. With a 140,000 hours hours per day , and an average real life software developer hours of 2000 hours/year you get 17.5 user-years/day. That is the equivalent of a team of approximately 6500 content developers. which would cost US$650 million/year!
Much of the open source development model (See The cathedral and the Bazaar) can be readily moved to SL and VW. However I am very surprised at the lack of development tools and collaborative systems written for second life. The great number of developers available in SL can be directed into a mainstream SL or real life project if the tools are provided.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Second Life???
Wendy said it best, in my opinion.
I'm frustrated, and I have been since I took System Simulation with Paul Fishwick. We used Second Life t0 create media content and code, but my god it is just completely IMPRACTICAL to do it the way they want us to do it. We need tools to do it out of game. What other environment do programmers have to have their computer process a game while simultaneously writing code? It's IMPRACTICAL and its SLOW, and its STUPID design. Give me an out of game IDE or compiler. Give me a modeling plugin for 3dsmax. At least the option of one. Stop asking for MONEY to do anything cool. Because right now I can download mIRC and have the same fun I've been having. Oh, and I can simultaneously browse the internet.
Until we all have internet connections as fast as Korea or Japan, Im not going to have a damn bit of fun. Oh, and if you think that I am going to log into a 3d environment to watch a webcam of class or watch a virtual lecture, I think I'll opt for the powerpoint. Thx
Love Josh
PS, advertising in SL is a joke! It's like a pyramid scheme. That is all.
Yay
"I love simulation games. I love online communities... But when I tried Second Life during the summer of 2006, I didn't get that.OK, maybe second life isn't a game so much as it is a glorified chat room. A chat room where you can play games if you really want to. A really slow, memory intensive, constantly streaming game. Did I mention it's really slow.
I just found a game with no direction and it was difficult to understand, too. A game like The Sims 2 is complex but it starts you off with some tutorials and premade characters and situations.
It would also seem that, in order to really have fun in Second Life, you need to spend money. I can have fun for free on Gaia Online and Neopets! Come on now! Sure you can do stuff for free on Second Life, but when it comes down to it, money matters.
And don't you feel irritated instead on inspired when you read about people making a million dollars on Second Life? What about the people
who teach actual college courses through Second Life? Or how about the people that take it sooooo seriously that they make Second Life their First Life? They cut out real social activities so that they can go to their DJ job and work from 8pm until 5am? And now it is becoming a big advertising thing with car companies making their Second Life cars for sale on there. Yes... Some big car companies have put their cars in the game.
It's not completely bad, but it seems like things are getting a little out of hand. That's my big beef about it and beef is fuckin' delicious!"
I'm frustrated, and I have been since I took System Simulation with Paul Fishwick. We used Second Life t0 create media content and code, but my god it is just completely IMPRACTICAL to do it the way they want us to do it. We need tools to do it out of game. What other environment do programmers have to have their computer process a game while simultaneously writing code? It's IMPRACTICAL and its SLOW, and its STUPID design. Give me an out of game IDE or compiler. Give me a modeling plugin for 3dsmax. At least the option of one. Stop asking for MONEY to do anything cool. Because right now I can download mIRC and have the same fun I've been having. Oh, and I can simultaneously browse the internet.
Until we all have internet connections as fast as Korea or Japan, Im not going to have a damn bit of fun. Oh, and if you think that I am going to log into a 3d environment to watch a webcam of class or watch a virtual lecture, I think I'll opt for the powerpoint. Thx
Love Josh
PS, advertising in SL is a joke! It's like a pyramid scheme. That is all.
Yay
Saturday, January 19, 2008
T-Shirt Instructions
Creating A Basic T-Shirt in Second Life
When I asked my wife for help on this assignment, she just chuckled at me and said it was my homework assignment and she was going to have fun sitting back and watching me. She did take some pity on me though and pointed me to some tutorials and websites to help me out. I do not claim to want to be a good clothing designer in Second Life; however, there are some excellent tutorials available to help you become the next fashion couture mogul in the virtual world should you desire to be one. Some of these tutorials can be found at
http://nicolaescher.com/tutorials.php
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Clothing_Tutorials
http://heatherdesigns.wordpress.com/2008/01/09/tutorial-on-clothing/
There are also instructional notecards available and classes in world that you can take on designing and creating garments for your Second Life avatar.
After looking through some of these resources I determined that, in order to be a good clothing creator in Second Life, you need to be proficient with an outside graphics or photo editing program such as Photoshop, Photo Elements, or the open source GIMP program (http://www.gimp.org/ ). This is if you want to apply graphics or images to your T-shirts. So I went back to the basics for this first attempt. Here’s my run at making my first ever T-shirt in Second Life.
To start with I went to a private area where I could experiment. This is especially important in sims where public nudity is frowned upon or prohibited. Actually my wife and I rent a parcel in the Steelhead sim so I had it rather easy on that score.
I found it more practical to take off the shirt I was already wearing before I started to keep the software from getting confused as to whether I was looking to create a new shirt or edit the one I already had on.
I right clicked on my avatar which gave me a pie shaped menu with several options. One of these options is “Appearance.” This not only affects the appearance of an avatar where you can change a multitude of shapes and sizes (from short to tall, pudgy to washboard stomach, etc!) but you can create or adjust various clothing items.
After I selected Appearance, a menu appeared with a number of options. I clicked on “Shirt” since that was what I was planning to make and, since I was not wearing one at the time, it automatically gave me the option of creating a new shirt and secondarily asking me if I wanted to wear it right away. I clicked on Yes. I’m now wearing a white T-Shirt and a new object has appeared in my inventory called “New Shirt.” Well, I could stop there but there is a lot more to explore here.
By using the slider bars in the menu I could adjust the length of the sleeves, the length of the shirt, the collar, how loose or tight I wanted it, and even if I wanted a wrinkled T-shirt! I settled on a short sleeve T-shirt since this is Florida!
Two white boxes were staring at me. One was labeled “Fabric” and the other one “Color/Tint.” Well, all shirts are fabric in my mind, but I clicked on it anyway. Hmm, this brought me up a copy of my inventory list. What should I be looking for? Ah, textures! There is quite a collection of textures in the “Library” of your inventory. These come as standard issue for any new avatar. I selected a linen texture, then the color and quickly had a nice Gator blue T-shirt!
Textures are how details are added to everything from clothing to buildings. You can find many free or for sale in Second Life, they can be imported from outside sources, or you can make your own and upload them. This is typically where an outside graphics/photo editing program is needed. If I had wanted to apply a customized texture to my T-shirt (like a graphic of an alligator) I would have to upload a picture of it for L$10. Not only that, I would need some specialized templates that are available for free from Second Life and other Web locations. I found a ready-made template in my inventory that I got for free and explored texturing and the color tint option before I declared myself done.
Okay, any texture, color and tint I could imagine to select from. I also found I could combine colors and textures to get different effects and the different free textures I had in my inventory made for some interesting fabric combinations. A nice picture of a wolf wound up as almost one large eyeball on the front of the shirt! Now I know why the designers use the outside graphics programs and free templates.
One thing I thought of to keep in mind, if you are planning to use any graphics from an external source for textures on anything, be familiar with the copyright restrictions for using some material.
When I got done playing with the different combinations and was reasonably satisfied with how it looked I clicked on “Save As” and gave it the name of “My First Demo Shirt.” Then I decided I was going to now try and build a box…..
When I asked my wife for help on this assignment, she just chuckled at me and said it was my homework assignment and she was going to have fun sitting back and watching me. She did take some pity on me though and pointed me to some tutorials and websites to help me out. I do not claim to want to be a good clothing designer in Second Life; however, there are some excellent tutorials available to help you become the next fashion couture mogul in the virtual world should you desire to be one. Some of these tutorials can be found at
http://nicolaescher.com/tutorials.php
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Clothing_Tutorials
http://heatherdesigns.wordpress.com/2008/01/09/tutorial-on-clothing/
There are also instructional notecards available and classes in world that you can take on designing and creating garments for your Second Life avatar.
After looking through some of these resources I determined that, in order to be a good clothing creator in Second Life, you need to be proficient with an outside graphics or photo editing program such as Photoshop, Photo Elements, or the open source GIMP program (http://www.gimp.org/ ). This is if you want to apply graphics or images to your T-shirts. So I went back to the basics for this first attempt. Here’s my run at making my first ever T-shirt in Second Life.
To start with I went to a private area where I could experiment. This is especially important in sims where public nudity is frowned upon or prohibited. Actually my wife and I rent a parcel in the Steelhead sim so I had it rather easy on that score.
I found it more practical to take off the shirt I was already wearing before I started to keep the software from getting confused as to whether I was looking to create a new shirt or edit the one I already had on.
I right clicked on my avatar which gave me a pie shaped menu with several options. One of these options is “Appearance.” This not only affects the appearance of an avatar where you can change a multitude of shapes and sizes (from short to tall, pudgy to washboard stomach, etc!) but you can create or adjust various clothing items.
After I selected Appearance, a menu appeared with a number of options. I clicked on “Shirt” since that was what I was planning to make and, since I was not wearing one at the time, it automatically gave me the option of creating a new shirt and secondarily asking me if I wanted to wear it right away. I clicked on Yes. I’m now wearing a white T-Shirt and a new object has appeared in my inventory called “New Shirt.” Well, I could stop there but there is a lot more to explore here.
By using the slider bars in the menu I could adjust the length of the sleeves, the length of the shirt, the collar, how loose or tight I wanted it, and even if I wanted a wrinkled T-shirt! I settled on a short sleeve T-shirt since this is Florida!
Two white boxes were staring at me. One was labeled “Fabric” and the other one “Color/Tint.” Well, all shirts are fabric in my mind, but I clicked on it anyway. Hmm, this brought me up a copy of my inventory list. What should I be looking for? Ah, textures! There is quite a collection of textures in the “Library” of your inventory. These come as standard issue for any new avatar. I selected a linen texture, then the color and quickly had a nice Gator blue T-shirt!
Textures are how details are added to everything from clothing to buildings. You can find many free or for sale in Second Life, they can be imported from outside sources, or you can make your own and upload them. This is typically where an outside graphics/photo editing program is needed. If I had wanted to apply a customized texture to my T-shirt (like a graphic of an alligator) I would have to upload a picture of it for L$10. Not only that, I would need some specialized templates that are available for free from Second Life and other Web locations. I found a ready-made template in my inventory that I got for free and explored texturing and the color tint option before I declared myself done.
Okay, any texture, color and tint I could imagine to select from. I also found I could combine colors and textures to get different effects and the different free textures I had in my inventory made for some interesting fabric combinations. A nice picture of a wolf wound up as almost one large eyeball on the front of the shirt! Now I know why the designers use the outside graphics programs and free templates.
One thing I thought of to keep in mind, if you are planning to use any graphics from an external source for textures on anything, be familiar with the copyright restrictions for using some material.
When I got done playing with the different combinations and was reasonably satisfied with how it looked I clicked on “Save As” and gave it the name of “My First Demo Shirt.” Then I decided I was going to now try and build a box…..
Friday, January 18, 2008
Violence in SL
I was reading a story entitled, “Humans Crave Violence Just Like Sex” at http://www.livescience.com/health/080117-violent-cravings.html. A short while later in SL, I teleported onto an island where I was greeted by three avatars. Comments were made about the tag over my head stating “Gator Fan”. I guess one of the avatars is a UT fan as we momentarily slipped into RL. I was quickly brought back to SL when another avatar came down on my back and I saw the chat dialogue stating, “SLAP, SLAP”. Was I being attacked from behind? I wondered if the article was correct about the human attraction to violence and whether SL was another venue to explore violent tendencies.
I turned to confront my attacker only to learn he had already moved away from me. I realized he was part of a very active mob that had congregated. I was close enough that the chat dialogue continued on my screen and included several more SLAPS. Do CAPS signify the intensity of the slapping? From what I could tell, the frenzied group was beating up on one avatar. Even an avatar of Snoopy with Woodstock on his shoulder joined the melee. Did Charles Schultz ever imagine that his lovable beagle would turn rabid and become a griefer (at least, I’m guessing that’s who they were delivering the beating)?
The title of the article was slightly misleading in that scientists studied the reward pathway in the brains of mice. Based on findings of the study, the suggestion is put forth that the brain of a mouse is analogous to human brains. Of course, the rise in popularity of extreme mixed martial arts fighting, girl fights on YouTube, and violent video games may substantiate the mouse study. Yet, I had to wonder to what extent do people engage in behaviors outside of RL social norms in SL. I realize I asked a similar question in a previous post but it's a question that I find fascinating.
I turned to confront my attacker only to learn he had already moved away from me. I realized he was part of a very active mob that had congregated. I was close enough that the chat dialogue continued on my screen and included several more SLAPS. Do CAPS signify the intensity of the slapping? From what I could tell, the frenzied group was beating up on one avatar. Even an avatar of Snoopy with Woodstock on his shoulder joined the melee. Did Charles Schultz ever imagine that his lovable beagle would turn rabid and become a griefer (at least, I’m guessing that’s who they were delivering the beating)?
The title of the article was slightly misleading in that scientists studied the reward pathway in the brains of mice. Based on findings of the study, the suggestion is put forth that the brain of a mouse is analogous to human brains. Of course, the rise in popularity of extreme mixed martial arts fighting, girl fights on YouTube, and violent video games may substantiate the mouse study. Yet, I had to wonder to what extent do people engage in behaviors outside of RL social norms in SL. I realize I asked a similar question in a previous post but it's a question that I find fascinating.
Leading Swiss language school opens in SL
For those of you interested in language applications in SL, this article might be of interest. The main body of the PR article is in French, if you wish you can translate it using Babelfish
The Institute of Applied Linguistics , Ecole de Langue Varadi - First school of language in Europe to make profitable these new virtual learning techniques, opens its center of linguistic education on Second Life to offer personalized programs in 33 foreign languages in six continents.
The Institute of Applied Linguistics , Ecole de Langue Varadi - First school of language in Europe to make profitable these new virtual learning techniques, opens its center of linguistic education on Second Life to offer personalized programs in 33 foreign languages in six continents.
Nasa Goes Virtual
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Rolling Restarts
I was just trying to get in some SL time for the first time since class, and of course when I try to enjoy it, there is some sort of mandatory restart in SL. When I restarted the application I saw that there was a "Rolling Restart" post. I am wondering how common these are and how long they generally last for? I would imagine they could be pretty annoying if they occur often, and you are in the middle of building something, only to be restarted and realize it gone.
I also wanted to comment on a problem I have been having recently with teleporting to non private islands, including gator nation. I would imagine it could have something to do with the restarts, does anyone know?
P.S. I found an island with boats that looks really interesting, but they cost money, any freebies out there anywhere?
I also wanted to comment on a problem I have been having recently with teleporting to non private islands, including gator nation. I would imagine it could have something to do with the restarts, does anyone know?
P.S. I found an island with boats that looks really interesting, but they cost money, any freebies out there anywhere?
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Research Approval in SL
Found this on the SLRL list -
Linden Lab (organization that manages Second Life) does not require
permission to conduct research in SL. They rely on institutions to
respect the Linden Lab terms of service and to have internal ethics
approval. Email evidence is available from Linden Lab posted to
Education Listserv 14th January 2007 by Robin Harper (Linden Lab)
https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/educators/2007-January/005002.ht
ml.
:)
Tawnya
Linden Lab (organization that manages Second Life) does not require
permission to conduct research in SL. They rely on institutions to
respect the Linden Lab terms of service and to have internal ethics
approval. Email evidence is available from Linden Lab posted to
Education Listserv 14th January 2007 by Robin Harper (Linden Lab)
https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/educators/2007-January/005002.ht
ml.
:)
Tawnya
RL and SL economics
I have just completed the readings for the upcoming week and felt compelled to blog about it. The reading was "Anda's Game". What started out as a narrative that I thought was going to be about gender identities in virtual worlds resulted in a story about virtual and real world sweatshops. At first I thought what a clever twist but then I began to think that this might be real.
A fellow school teacher of mine plays the game "star wars galaxies" and has several characters that he uses to build up in game resources. He then sells these resources for real US currency on eBay. I have seen him do this and am amazed at the amounts he receives for doing so. He told me that the market fluctuates but he makes about $12,000 a year in exchange for 2-3 hours each night spent "working" in game. He considers it a part time job. Now, for SWG, this is actually against the rules and could result in his getting banned from the game, although many have found ways to fly under the radar. As far as I know he has never "subcontracted" anyone to do any of the work for him.
Now, with second life, it is not a violation of the rules to profit from in game activity. In fact its encouraged. This makes me think that "outsourcing" labor is not only possible but highly probable. The idea of Real life sweatshops using second life sweatshops to produce virtual goods that bring real life money. Does this really exist yet? What are your reactions to this possibility?
A fellow school teacher of mine plays the game "star wars galaxies" and has several characters that he uses to build up in game resources. He then sells these resources for real US currency on eBay. I have seen him do this and am amazed at the amounts he receives for doing so. He told me that the market fluctuates but he makes about $12,000 a year in exchange for 2-3 hours each night spent "working" in game. He considers it a part time job. Now, for SWG, this is actually against the rules and could result in his getting banned from the game, although many have found ways to fly under the radar. As far as I know he has never "subcontracted" anyone to do any of the work for him.
Now, with second life, it is not a violation of the rules to profit from in game activity. In fact its encouraged. This makes me think that "outsourcing" labor is not only possible but highly probable. The idea of Real life sweatshops using second life sweatshops to produce virtual goods that bring real life money. Does this really exist yet? What are your reactions to this possibility?
Xtreme avatar?
This is one of the many strange things that I deal with in my own blog "Experimental Performance Hybrids"
Although in this case the context is performance art you can also think about (for example) the actions of your future autonomous avatar controlling your physical self or viceversa.
Here is another link to where it all has been brewing up, Amsterdam, where else!
Face being manipulated by a radio station
Unfortunately, since this post most of the amazing links have been taken down. I will try to find some repositories of the videos and update this post.
Oh, here are some...
Look for more to come...
Leonardo says
Although in this case the context is performance art you can also think about (for example) the actions of your future autonomous avatar controlling your physical self or viceversa.
Here is another link to where it all has been brewing up, Amsterdam, where else!
Face being manipulated by a radio station
Unfortunately, since this post most of the amazing links have been taken down. I will try to find some repositories of the videos and update this post.
Oh, here are some...
Look for more to come...
Leonardo says
If only...
As always, my life last night and today interferred with my life. By this I mean my son got sick last night with one of his attacks. He gets these attacks occassionally, always in the wee hours, where his throat closes and he can barely breathe. We've made trips to ER with these while my son slowly turns blue. Last nights was not so bad, but didn't occur until around 4 am, meaning he was still dealing with Stridor (the term for it) this morning, so no daycare for him. Not because he's "ill", but rather that if he starts to run, he'll have another attack. While Mom and Daddy know what to do for him and how to calm him, others do not. At 4 am, my mental capacity is pretty low, so as my hubby held my kiddo on his bedroom floor and I raced around geting a humidifier and his nebulizer (just increases oxygen to him with each breath, doesn't stop the attack) and eventually sat down in front of him to help calm him, I kept thinking, Gee, if he was an avatar, we could just blow up his throat and this wouldn't be a problem!
While this thought is new, I've had similar ones with him as he was growing. Jonathan was early and did not have jaw or muscle development needed to suckle. We spent hours in occupational therapy helping to stregnthen and coordinate those muscles. He finally learned to take a bottle. Then we started solids, and it was all back to square one. Now we had to help him learn to chew and swallow. He mastered apple/pear sauce, and then we moved onto potatoes, and again, back to square one. Let me tell ya, most children eat chicken nuggets by a year, it was 18 months for my little guy. And the entire time, I kept thinking, if only you could somehow put your hands on his jaws and make them function properly. As a new mother, it was awful to spend 3 hours coaxing a few ounces of milk into him, then to have to get more milk outta me for another hour, then do it all over again. Is it no wonder I wanted a magical solution? At this point, we aren't sure if the attacks are related to the original problems or not, but it seems likely.
I began to wonder about those that have health problems and are challenged physically. Do they get a sense of freedom with walking/flying? I take it for granted that my avatar can walk and travel. She doesn't get tired, she doesn't get out of breath, and she has no problems, healthwise to worry about. Her kneecaps don't dislocate when she tries to hold up her motorcycle (Man I miss my bike!) The conversation about the mainstream vs. "gamers" seemed to connect to this. Is that draw? You can create a perfect person who can ultimately do anything.
Just a thought. Thanks for reading my rambling to this point.
While this thought is new, I've had similar ones with him as he was growing. Jonathan was early and did not have jaw or muscle development needed to suckle. We spent hours in occupational therapy helping to stregnthen and coordinate those muscles. He finally learned to take a bottle. Then we started solids, and it was all back to square one. Now we had to help him learn to chew and swallow. He mastered apple/pear sauce, and then we moved onto potatoes, and again, back to square one. Let me tell ya, most children eat chicken nuggets by a year, it was 18 months for my little guy. And the entire time, I kept thinking, if only you could somehow put your hands on his jaws and make them function properly. As a new mother, it was awful to spend 3 hours coaxing a few ounces of milk into him, then to have to get more milk outta me for another hour, then do it all over again. Is it no wonder I wanted a magical solution? At this point, we aren't sure if the attacks are related to the original problems or not, but it seems likely.
I began to wonder about those that have health problems and are challenged physically. Do they get a sense of freedom with walking/flying? I take it for granted that my avatar can walk and travel. She doesn't get tired, she doesn't get out of breath, and she has no problems, healthwise to worry about. Her kneecaps don't dislocate when she tries to hold up her motorcycle (Man I miss my bike!) The conversation about the mainstream vs. "gamers" seemed to connect to this. Is that draw? You can create a perfect person who can ultimately do anything.
Just a thought. Thanks for reading my rambling to this point.
Machinima?
For those interested in integrating machinima into your
project, you can drop by the Machinima Institute on
Eduisland 3, 60, 30, 22.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%203/61/31/23
to pick up a package of slides on the shortcuts, and use
of camera controls for filming in SL.
Arturo has posted two more machinima tutorial files,
look at the comment.
Have we overlooked this link? Machinima.com?
The best of times and the worst of times
I was reading Arturo's recent posts and comments and was thinking about how the Internet seems to be evolving in ways that many did not expect, "moving away from the formats of older media and toward new conventions" (Hamlet on the Holodeck). One such future look at the evolution of the Internet can be found in a youtube video entitled 2014 EPIC.
More resources
These resources and tutorials for Second Life are courtesy of Joshua Javaheri. They are posted on the course resources page. Thanks, Josh!
A Guide to Second Life
Fashion Design
Fill out surveys and get paid in Linden Dollars
Get every In-Game Texture
Giving a PowerPoint presentation in Second Life
Implications of CopyBot
Make EASY Linden Dollars
Second Life Anti-Timeout tool
Second Life Optimization
Second Life Business Report
Simply Making Yourself the Creator
Using the Second Life Fashion Design Templates
A Guide to Second Life
Fashion Design
Fill out surveys and get paid in Linden Dollars
Get every In-Game Texture
Giving a PowerPoint presentation in Second Life
Implications of CopyBot
Make EASY Linden Dollars
Second Life Anti-Timeout tool
Second Life Optimization
Second Life Business Report
Simply Making Yourself the Creator
Using the Second Life Fashion Design Templates
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
The woof and warp of the Web
La Bête de la merTapisseries de l’Apocalypse 1
I use the metaphor of weaving and specifically the tapestry form as a representation of both the world of ideas and the process through which ideas are expressed, preserved and performed. The “woof and warp” of a tapestry represents to me a perfect structural relationship, intimately related to the way humans picture life since prehistoric times. And by life I mean not only the quotidian but the mental, the mythological, the magical and the unknown. Moreover, from a technical point of view, tapestry and its substrate, weaving, has demonstrated, as a paradigm, its direct lineage with the ‘whole’ , which is both future and past at the same time.
Weave patternsAs so called “social systems”2 evolve in the ambit of the internet, users (more than a billion of them as of 2007) participate in providing the system (including governments, marketing firms, power groups etc.) all the information that constitutes the knowledge base accumulated throughout the evolution of the species as well as atomized patterns of behavior broken down to the minute (e.g. Twitter), of millions of individuals who choose to share their most banal or trivial moments, snippets of behavior that, when aggregated will conform, in terms of data, all the information necessary to model and synthesize a machinic consciousness.
Although this state of affairs seems far removed from the Tapisseries de l’Apocalypse with which I started this post, I only see a stylistic difference in the treatment of subject matter, and of course an evolution of the technology that preceded the emergence of the web as we currently know it.
But as the name clearly states, a web it is, of relationships, the waft and woof of which take simply another dimension to connect and establish the patterns that tell the stories that hold us accountable for who we are and for what we are doing to ourselves and the world at large.
The morphology is similar, but the material utilized to weave the pattern resembles more and more the stuff of dreams, the eternally changing and moving stream that we call consciousness. This time in the form of an exo-consciousness that will reflect the other, the one that we fear since time immemorial, the one we tell stories about in the dark of night as we get ready to face our dreams or our worst nightmares.2
1- “And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems upon its horns and a blasphemous name upon its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.” (Revelations 13:1-2). Note that the symbol the dragon gives the beast bears the fleur-de-lis, an explicit reference to the passing of French power to the English (source). I added a “digital” artifact to signify a modern transfer of power.
2- Researchers plunder social networks (link)
3- In his seminal essay “The Uncanny” Freud describes this fear of the unknown ‘…everything is unheimlich that ought to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light.’
The above text is adapted from my paper "Roboethics and Performance" © arturo sinclair 2008
SL places to go..
Here's a few places to go that were mentioned during class. Enjoy!
New Citizens Inc.
Wisdom and enlightenment island
Skidz Primz
New Citizens Inc.
Wisdom and enlightenment island
Skidz Primz
Working with Machinima
I am very interested with the possibilities of students creating their own machinima. I come from a video production background and see many advantages of using Second Life as a tool in teaching production techniques. Gary mentioned in his post that he was unsure of what makes a "good shot" in Second Life. I think many of the photographic and video conventions we are already aware of will be applied to SL. I also understand we may need to view things differently to take full advantage of the medium. I hope to gain a better understanding of SL's capabilities throughout this semester in order to create and manipulate machinima.
The ability to create the objects and settings a producer may need seems very valuable and to open more doors to interesting content without increasing costs. Being able to work without physical equipment also makes the learning video techniques more accessible. I think the possibilities in this arena are limited only by the individual' s imagination. Having a place to exhibit machinima will only help to improve each individual's work and allow them to receive criticism and examine different possibilities.
Last semester, I taught a class period on making machinima and was surprised at how excited each student was to immerse themselves in the process. They picked up the basics quickly despite having little or no production background. You can check out a short piece I put together in about an hour, here.
The ability to create the objects and settings a producer may need seems very valuable and to open more doors to interesting content without increasing costs. Being able to work without physical equipment also makes the learning video techniques more accessible. I think the possibilities in this arena are limited only by the individual' s imagination. Having a place to exhibit machinima will only help to improve each individual's work and allow them to receive criticism and examine different possibilities.
Last semester, I taught a class period on making machinima and was surprised at how excited each student was to immerse themselves in the process. They picked up the basics quickly despite having little or no production background. You can check out a short piece I put together in about an hour, here.
More Second Life News and a Reaction to the Readings
I read some more really interesting news about Second Life and will post the links at the end of this post, but I wanted to propose a question about the Gamespy readings for this week first.
The Gamespy readings, while very interesting and making me nostalgic for my college days, also brought back a discussion that we had in game theory class a few semesters ago with Dr. Ferdig and I thought it would be interesting to get the opinions of this class as well on the idea of Game vs. Simulation. I know Dr. Ferdig and some students wrote a chapter in a book about this (I can't find the link at the moment, maybe Dave or someone else has it) but it defined their views on the differences between games like Everquest and Ultima Online vs Simulations like Second Life and The Sims. Do you think we need this distinction between games and simulations?
One of the newest things to happen in Second Life is exporting SL objects into RL. Bloggers are mostly talking about taking objects and printing them out on 2D paper which can then be glued together to create the object such as the donut here http://exporttoworld.plugimi.com/index.php?/how-to-export/ but with the recent invention of 3D printers and all the advancing technology there are limitless possibilities to how we can use this in the future.
The Gamespy readings, while very interesting and making me nostalgic for my college days, also brought back a discussion that we had in game theory class a few semesters ago with Dr. Ferdig and I thought it would be interesting to get the opinions of this class as well on the idea of Game vs. Simulation. I know Dr. Ferdig and some students wrote a chapter in a book about this (I can't find the link at the moment, maybe Dave or someone else has it) but it defined their views on the differences between games like Everquest and Ultima Online vs Simulations like Second Life and The Sims. Do you think we need this distinction between games and simulations?
One of the newest things to happen in Second Life is exporting SL objects into RL. Bloggers are mostly talking about taking objects and printing them out on 2D paper which can then be glued together to create the object such as the donut here http://exporttoworld.plugimi.com/index.php?/how-to-export/ but with the recent invention of 3D printers and all the advancing technology there are limitless possibilities to how we can use this in the future.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Another tool for SL Gators
Hey, everyone! Blogs are great, but for reference purposes (finding things later) for me they leave something to be desired. So, in the spirit of "it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness" I went ahead and created a "Gators in Second Life" Google Group for keeping notes for reference, uploading files, etc. I created the group because:
--- I was seeing some really good stuff in the blog that I wanted to remember, but I have a bad memory and couldn't remember what blog post things were in. Also, I was writing lots of notes on things I had seen, things friendly people had told me, etc. It occurred to me that I could make a useful reference for me and make it available to others at the same time.
--- My character's inventory was filling up with a bunch of note cards that were more descriptive than "useful" in-world, and I saw somewhere that too much inventory can slow down your performance. So I thought I would move the info from some of those cards to the group.
--- I couldn't remember who in the class was who in SL ... and these groups have profiles you can fill out. (Although SL avatars have profiles, I thought this would be better because we could put our class-specific interests and whatnot in our profiles, things we might not want to put in our SL profiles.)
--- At some point I am sure we'll have some machinima or snapshots from class members - this will give us a good central place to put them for admiration by all.
I see the group as a secondary collaborative/reference resource to the blog. By all means, let me know how you think it ought to work and how it should complement what we write in the blog.
Click on the link above to join. You can use the same account you used to become a member of this blog - no need to create a new account. Once everyone is in, I'll set it to "private" to keep out spammers. I hope you find it useful!
--- I was seeing some really good stuff in the blog that I wanted to remember, but I have a bad memory and couldn't remember what blog post things were in. Also, I was writing lots of notes on things I had seen, things friendly people had told me, etc. It occurred to me that I could make a useful reference for me and make it available to others at the same time.
--- My character's inventory was filling up with a bunch of note cards that were more descriptive than "useful" in-world, and I saw somewhere that too much inventory can slow down your performance. So I thought I would move the info from some of those cards to the group.
--- I couldn't remember who in the class was who in SL ... and these groups have profiles you can fill out. (Although SL avatars have profiles, I thought this would be better because we could put our class-specific interests and whatnot in our profiles, things we might not want to put in our SL profiles.)
--- At some point I am sure we'll have some machinima or snapshots from class members - this will give us a good central place to put them for admiration by all.
I see the group as a secondary collaborative/reference resource to the blog. By all means, let me know how you think it ought to work and how it should complement what we write in the blog.
Click on the link above to join. You can use the same account you used to become a member of this blog - no need to create a new account. Once everyone is in, I'll set it to "private" to keep out spammers. I hope you find it useful!
"Regulation" in SL
I wanted to get an idea of what you guys think about the level of regulation within the SL world???
Over the last 5 years I have come to learn that "free markets" seem to be the best way to run a society/country/anything. I would think that the same would be true for SL, especially with so many loyal users in the virtual world who care so much about it. Most recently I saw someone post that the banks are being shut down by the programers/government of SL. I wonder if this is really the best solution? I would think that with enough support from the users, that people would simply stop going to the banks, which would force them to dispear eventually. Is more regulation really the answer? Or should SL just let the world run itself?
There are plenty of questions that could be asked, and I imagine that I will learn much more over the course of this semester. Im not exactly sure what all is regulated, but I will learn more and more and continue to post on the topic as I learn. Comments are always encouraged as I would like to see what others think about the effects of regulation on SL and other virtual worlds including MMORPGs.
Over the last 5 years I have come to learn that "free markets" seem to be the best way to run a society/country/anything. I would think that the same would be true for SL, especially with so many loyal users in the virtual world who care so much about it. Most recently I saw someone post that the banks are being shut down by the programers/government of SL. I wonder if this is really the best solution? I would think that with enough support from the users, that people would simply stop going to the banks, which would force them to dispear eventually. Is more regulation really the answer? Or should SL just let the world run itself?
There are plenty of questions that could be asked, and I imagine that I will learn much more over the course of this semester. Im not exactly sure what all is regulated, but I will learn more and more and continue to post on the topic as I learn. Comments are always encouraged as I would like to see what others think about the effects of regulation on SL and other virtual worlds including MMORPGs.
Online Self Moderation
At first I was a bit hesitant to sign up for a course in which we interact in a virtual environment (SL). My previous experiences in online environments (games, message boards) have been slightly less than hospitable. A good performance in a match is usually met with derogatory comment about my mother or some obscene sexual innuendo. Rarely do I receive a compliment about how well I played, instead I get something to the effect of "OMGWTF YOU A$$HOLE." Of course, I don't expect any of this behavior in a classroom environment, but it makes me wonder what leads to this type of behavior.
I think a large part of it has to do with the virtual environment itself. The fact that someone is represented by a jumble of pixels or a screenname makes it easy to forget that an actual person is behind that avatar. It can be quite easy to scream and yell for no reason at an inanimate object which won't react, but try doing that to an actual person. I think the virtual environment kind of breaks that social bond between people. It's no longer Bob conversing with Jane. It's a Wizard interacting with an Elf. It's CoolD00dBob77 chatting with SexyGirlXOXO. Instead of inanimate objects or real people we have something in between, and that seems to change the rules of social interaction. The lack of identity and responsibility online makes it much easier to do or say things that one would never consider in real life.
SL appears to regain part of that human factor. Each person has a first name and a last name, and appearances can be modified to be fairly realistic. People can buy land, sell and purchase items, and even speak (with a microphone) with other people. I think the voice aspect, if used, can bring a lot to the table. Now instead of just an image there is also the person's voice, and that brings the virtual character much closer to the real person. I think an interesting next step to this would be to use a picture of your own face for your avatar.
As we bring our virtual personas closer and closer to our real identities I believe it will carry with it more responsibility for one's actions. Hopefully we'll move away from anonymous flame wars to more constructive and realistic interactions.
I think a large part of it has to do with the virtual environment itself. The fact that someone is represented by a jumble of pixels or a screenname makes it easy to forget that an actual person is behind that avatar. It can be quite easy to scream and yell for no reason at an inanimate object which won't react, but try doing that to an actual person. I think the virtual environment kind of breaks that social bond between people. It's no longer Bob conversing with Jane. It's a Wizard interacting with an Elf. It's CoolD00dBob77 chatting with SexyGirlXOXO. Instead of inanimate objects or real people we have something in between, and that seems to change the rules of social interaction. The lack of identity and responsibility online makes it much easier to do or say things that one would never consider in real life.
SL appears to regain part of that human factor. Each person has a first name and a last name, and appearances can be modified to be fairly realistic. People can buy land, sell and purchase items, and even speak (with a microphone) with other people. I think the voice aspect, if used, can bring a lot to the table. Now instead of just an image there is also the person's voice, and that brings the virtual character much closer to the real person. I think an interesting next step to this would be to use a picture of your own face for your avatar.
As we bring our virtual personas closer and closer to our real identities I believe it will carry with it more responsibility for one's actions. Hopefully we'll move away from anonymous flame wars to more constructive and realistic interactions.
The New Internet?
As I was attempting to explain what Second life was to some of my family this weekend, I stated to concieve of it in a much different way than I did at the outset. A certain logic that I followed lead me to believe that SL or some very similar browser technology could be the advent of a new internet, one that expands the current internet into a whole other dimension, literally...Please bear with me while I try to describe what I am thinking....
Think of the internet as the 2D manifestation that we all view today. We each sit as individuals and access information and entertainment via that two dimentional window. Several people can being standing outside the same window but we are (for the most part) unaware of one another (some websites allow you to see who else if viewing the page). When we interact with this 2D world we are typically given another 2D representation of what we seek (as if we are window shopping in a mall wearing blinders (not able to see the other shoppers) and as we enter a store, we dont get to touch the product itself but simple a picture or description of it.
Enter VRML. Now 2D environments can be manifested in three dimentions! Now you can go to some websites and "enter" the domain in three dimensions. Second life has upped the ante by allowing people once they enter the domain, to actually create content in that domain. So what we have now is a different picture...
Now the people who are standing outside the 2D window can take a 3D form representative of what image they would like to project and enter through the 2D window and immerse themselves in a 3D world in which they can see and interact with others who are looking at the same stuff, but now they can interact with the stuff itself, and even create new stuff!
Think of the homepage. Many of us by now have created a homepage of one kind or another. Even if it is just a Myspace page. Now, What if some company like myspace entered second life and allowed each person to set up a "home"(page?) in second life for free? What if the 3D environment was the default environment of choice for "browsing" the internet? Whould second life become the new interenet? The new portal through which we travel to gain access to the information we desire on "cyberspace?"
Imagine if we could walk around second life and go to the mall. Then we see a "Blizzard" store (the software comapny not the icecream!). Now we "walk" into the blizzard store and as we cross through the front door our "browser" changes automatically to the "blizzard" browser that allows us to view the content they way they want us to see it. So we walk in and see a portal into "World of warcraft", we decide we want to go in so we walk through that door. As we do our browser recognizes what we are doing and where we are and instantly changes over our avatar to the World of Warcraft character "avatar" we have chosen. Now we are playing WOW by simply walking into the new space. When we are done we simple walk out of WOW and back into the SL environment. Imagine the potential across all kinds of applications?!
As we walk into clothing stores maybe an avatar made up real life dimensions and looks can be accessed and we can try on clothes and see if we like how it looks, then when we are done, walk out and our avatar changes back automatically?
Am I crazy?
Think of the internet as the 2D manifestation that we all view today. We each sit as individuals and access information and entertainment via that two dimentional window. Several people can being standing outside the same window but we are (for the most part) unaware of one another (some websites allow you to see who else if viewing the page). When we interact with this 2D world we are typically given another 2D representation of what we seek (as if we are window shopping in a mall wearing blinders (not able to see the other shoppers) and as we enter a store, we dont get to touch the product itself but simple a picture or description of it.
Enter VRML. Now 2D environments can be manifested in three dimentions! Now you can go to some websites and "enter" the domain in three dimensions. Second life has upped the ante by allowing people once they enter the domain, to actually create content in that domain. So what we have now is a different picture...
Now the people who are standing outside the 2D window can take a 3D form representative of what image they would like to project and enter through the 2D window and immerse themselves in a 3D world in which they can see and interact with others who are looking at the same stuff, but now they can interact with the stuff itself, and even create new stuff!
Think of the homepage. Many of us by now have created a homepage of one kind or another. Even if it is just a Myspace page. Now, What if some company like myspace entered second life and allowed each person to set up a "home"(page?) in second life for free? What if the 3D environment was the default environment of choice for "browsing" the internet? Whould second life become the new interenet? The new portal through which we travel to gain access to the information we desire on "cyberspace?"
Imagine if we could walk around second life and go to the mall. Then we see a "Blizzard" store (the software comapny not the icecream!). Now we "walk" into the blizzard store and as we cross through the front door our "browser" changes automatically to the "blizzard" browser that allows us to view the content they way they want us to see it. So we walk in and see a portal into "World of warcraft", we decide we want to go in so we walk through that door. As we do our browser recognizes what we are doing and where we are and instantly changes over our avatar to the World of Warcraft character "avatar" we have chosen. Now we are playing WOW by simply walking into the new space. When we are done we simple walk out of WOW and back into the SL environment. Imagine the potential across all kinds of applications?!
As we walk into clothing stores maybe an avatar made up real life dimensions and looks can be accessed and we can try on clothes and see if we like how it looks, then when we are done, walk out and our avatar changes back automatically?
Am I crazy?
Parallels to my old hobby
I have played computer games on and off for the past decade. There are plenty of MMORPG's around, but SL is unique. As I walked around Orientation Island and a few other places I was surprised by the number of people who approached me to talk. Someone even gave me a bunch of objects such as a skin, some clothes, and a tattoo. (They were ugly but I actually felt the need to put them on since he had taken the time to give them to me. Yuck. It took 20 minutes to get my original form back.) At first I didn't grasp the fact that interacting with others is the whole point. The objective is not to rescue a princess and kill the dragon (though I'm sure there is an island for that), but just to be in this virtual world.
Many people use SL as a means to get away from reality for a bit... perhaps even to define a new one. The experience as a whole reminded me of lucid dreaming. From the age of 8 to about 14, I would have one or more lucid dreams about every other night. It was thrilling! As in SL, one of the first things I learned to do in my dream was to fly.
So how does SL compare?
Unfortunately it is far less realistic. A lucid dreamscape is incredibly realistic, in fact for some the visuals are more stunning and detailed than RL. I'm not convinced that any virtual environment can ever match up. SL does have its advantages though. You can connect whenever you want! As an adult, initiating lucidity is difficult. Staying asleep once lucid is even more challenging. Plus, in SL you can interact with other real people.
After typing that last point I stopped to think for a bit. What if you could just interact with computer-created avatars? Would that be good enough? What if the AI was very convincing? I wonder
-Axle Rubble
Many people use SL as a means to get away from reality for a bit... perhaps even to define a new one. The experience as a whole reminded me of lucid dreaming. From the age of 8 to about 14, I would have one or more lucid dreams about every other night. It was thrilling! As in SL, one of the first things I learned to do in my dream was to fly.
So how does SL compare?
Unfortunately it is far less realistic. A lucid dreamscape is incredibly realistic, in fact for some the visuals are more stunning and detailed than RL. I'm not convinced that any virtual environment can ever match up. SL does have its advantages though. You can connect whenever you want! As an adult, initiating lucidity is difficult. Staying asleep once lucid is even more challenging. Plus, in SL you can interact with other real people.
After typing that last point I stopped to think for a bit. What if you could just interact with computer-created avatars? Would that be good enough? What if the AI was very convincing? I wonder
-Axle Rubble
Sunday, January 13, 2008
What am I Doing Here?
Weirdly enough, while my friends and the rest of the world are all in love with their video games, I really never had similar fervor and enjoyment toward such games. Being a journalism student, I would rather spent my 4 to 6 hours a day of free time watching TV, You-Tubing, or reading and listening to the latest news—now a days I’m spending much more time on news because of the presidential primaries, and I am having a blast. LOL
So what am I doing in this class? Well, to be honest, I never had the intention to enroll, but because I needed three more credits to be a full-time grad student, I decided to give it try. I went to our first class meeting knowing for a fact that I will be dropping the course, but something changed mind. It could be the cool 3-dimensional class infrastructure, or the diverse array of students enrolled in the class, or even the impressive introduction of the course given by the instructors. But thinking about it more, one thing resonated in my head: I think it was when Arturo said that technology is “unfinished”.
I have my career plans all outlined. I know for a fact that after I get my Ph.D, I will be teaching online media and new media technology at Kuwait University. In the past decade, we have seen how the Internet and other technologies have changed the profession of journalism. The advent of the blog, You Tube and other Web technologies opened doors for grassroots journalism or open-source journalism, a phenomenon that allows every individual be part of the news cycle—we can now make, share, correct and disseminate news. But technology is still evolving—it is unfinished and will never be finished—and, with this evolution, we are going to see more changes not only in the field of journalism, but in all aspects of life.
Many people are skeptical of Second Life, me being one of them, but those people were also one of the first to criticize mobile phones and the Internet when they first hit the markets. Second Life is a fairly new phenomenon that hasn’t received wide attention, but I’m pretty sure it will be one the leading technologies in the near future. I really don’t know how or why it will do so, but I guess I will have an idea from the knowledge I gain in this course.
What I know, at least for now, is that this class will further enhance my practical online abilities, and I am pretty sure it will be one of the courses that I would look back to when I teach my Kuwait University students in the near future.
So what am I doing in this class? Well, to be honest, I never had the intention to enroll, but because I needed three more credits to be a full-time grad student, I decided to give it try. I went to our first class meeting knowing for a fact that I will be dropping the course, but something changed mind. It could be the cool 3-dimensional class infrastructure, or the diverse array of students enrolled in the class, or even the impressive introduction of the course given by the instructors. But thinking about it more, one thing resonated in my head: I think it was when Arturo said that technology is “unfinished”.
I have my career plans all outlined. I know for a fact that after I get my Ph.D, I will be teaching online media and new media technology at Kuwait University. In the past decade, we have seen how the Internet and other technologies have changed the profession of journalism. The advent of the blog, You Tube and other Web technologies opened doors for grassroots journalism or open-source journalism, a phenomenon that allows every individual be part of the news cycle—we can now make, share, correct and disseminate news. But technology is still evolving—it is unfinished and will never be finished—and, with this evolution, we are going to see more changes not only in the field of journalism, but in all aspects of life.
Many people are skeptical of Second Life, me being one of them, but those people were also one of the first to criticize mobile phones and the Internet when they first hit the markets. Second Life is a fairly new phenomenon that hasn’t received wide attention, but I’m pretty sure it will be one the leading technologies in the near future. I really don’t know how or why it will do so, but I guess I will have an idea from the knowledge I gain in this course.
What I know, at least for now, is that this class will further enhance my practical online abilities, and I am pretty sure it will be one of the courses that I would look back to when I teach my Kuwait University students in the near future.
Story Time?
Ahhh, story time with Amy....
Around 20 years ago (yes, I am old) my father brought home a few floppy disks - you remember, the ones that actually "flopped". He said I would like what he had. We loaded it up on the computer my father had built (we were the only people in our neighborhood to have one at the time), and up popped this game in which I had been stranded on an island and had to follow clues to get myself out. The most frustrating part was the linear aspects. You'd type a set of commands and if you didn't type them perfectly, nothing would happen, or you'd get a wise crack. For instance, I had to feed a parrot to make it speak the code for pulling the grotto levers (amazing what I remember). I had not found the birdseed, so I tried feeding that parrot everything I could. Finally in frustration I typed a command that equated to "eat the parrot." Which my character subsequently did, to the remark of, "Well, do you feel better now?"
It wasn't until today that I realized that was the precursor to what we have now. Games, online or otherwise, have always been very linear to me. Even EverCrack was linear in the sense you wished to level and to learn new skills and the only problem was initially, you reached level 50 and there was nowhere else to go. The expansion pack allowed for another 10 levels, but they weren't worth the effort.
Other than playing Thomas with my kid, I do have another hobby... I write. I create worlds, set characters into them, and have a blast making them do all sorts of things. I've been writting since I was around 10 and some become short stories, some are novel legnth, some sit and wait for me to pick them up again. I have one story thats in the last category. A young woman becomes a priestess and goes to a village with a history of losing thier clergy. The secret is that the man that built the church there did so to make up for a terrible crime and the evil of the crime is infused into the church. The result on the town is the loss of young children to a strange plague and the eventual insanity of the clergy. Anyway, one night I asked my hubby's advice on where to go from the point I was at - let me now mention that I've only got roughly 50 pages in everytime I've attempted this book, so it's pretty pathetic as it stands. He read through the section, along with my synopsis and asked about a zillion questions. His response was, "Man, that would be a cool RPG, can't you see it? You could release souls to build mana, you could have her follow clues with her interactions with the townspeople, and every clue gives her access to other stuff, more places, like that chamber hidden in the Priest's study behind the wall..." I said, "What chamber?" His response was very flippant, "The one you need so she can find the diaries that tell about the history of the church."
Moving my mind from a linear set of events to an ongoing set of events is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Everything I study is linear in a way. You look at the history of a culture, you focus on the changes in anticipation of what will come next. I'm not really a creator in the sense that I define what is to come next (other than in my writting, even though I would argue my characters, once defined, determine the storyline for me). I observe, I sit back and watch what's happening and try to understand where it fits in the grand scheme of the culture. Why did my first "subject" take in her sister's child as her own when her sister died? She did it because in her culture, that child was as much her's as her sister's. Why did that child not make a distinction between her aunt and her mother? There is no distinction in the kinship system to allow for it. While she knew her aunt was not the one who bore her, in all the ways that mattered, her aunt was her mother, even when her mother still lived. That "slice of life" type analysis has been beaten out of me in anthro - we avoid looking at groups as static, they are ever changing. And we always no there is not end point....
So why is it that the thought of SL not having an edpoint so darn distressing to me?
I think perhaps my creative side, what I have of it, and my researcher side is clashing. I watch events unfold and look to the history to try and explain them. In SL, I have to create some of those events and I have to accept that it is never finished. Any thoughts of this?
Around 20 years ago (yes, I am old) my father brought home a few floppy disks - you remember, the ones that actually "flopped". He said I would like what he had. We loaded it up on the computer my father had built (we were the only people in our neighborhood to have one at the time), and up popped this game in which I had been stranded on an island and had to follow clues to get myself out. The most frustrating part was the linear aspects. You'd type a set of commands and if you didn't type them perfectly, nothing would happen, or you'd get a wise crack. For instance, I had to feed a parrot to make it speak the code for pulling the grotto levers (amazing what I remember). I had not found the birdseed, so I tried feeding that parrot everything I could. Finally in frustration I typed a command that equated to "eat the parrot." Which my character subsequently did, to the remark of, "Well, do you feel better now?"
It wasn't until today that I realized that was the precursor to what we have now. Games, online or otherwise, have always been very linear to me. Even EverCrack was linear in the sense you wished to level and to learn new skills and the only problem was initially, you reached level 50 and there was nowhere else to go. The expansion pack allowed for another 10 levels, but they weren't worth the effort.
Other than playing Thomas with my kid, I do have another hobby... I write. I create worlds, set characters into them, and have a blast making them do all sorts of things. I've been writting since I was around 10 and some become short stories, some are novel legnth, some sit and wait for me to pick them up again. I have one story thats in the last category. A young woman becomes a priestess and goes to a village with a history of losing thier clergy. The secret is that the man that built the church there did so to make up for a terrible crime and the evil of the crime is infused into the church. The result on the town is the loss of young children to a strange plague and the eventual insanity of the clergy. Anyway, one night I asked my hubby's advice on where to go from the point I was at - let me now mention that I've only got roughly 50 pages in everytime I've attempted this book, so it's pretty pathetic as it stands. He read through the section, along with my synopsis and asked about a zillion questions. His response was, "Man, that would be a cool RPG, can't you see it? You could release souls to build mana, you could have her follow clues with her interactions with the townspeople, and every clue gives her access to other stuff, more places, like that chamber hidden in the Priest's study behind the wall..." I said, "What chamber?" His response was very flippant, "The one you need so she can find the diaries that tell about the history of the church."
Moving my mind from a linear set of events to an ongoing set of events is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Everything I study is linear in a way. You look at the history of a culture, you focus on the changes in anticipation of what will come next. I'm not really a creator in the sense that I define what is to come next (other than in my writting, even though I would argue my characters, once defined, determine the storyline for me). I observe, I sit back and watch what's happening and try to understand where it fits in the grand scheme of the culture. Why did my first "subject" take in her sister's child as her own when her sister died? She did it because in her culture, that child was as much her's as her sister's. Why did that child not make a distinction between her aunt and her mother? There is no distinction in the kinship system to allow for it. While she knew her aunt was not the one who bore her, in all the ways that mattered, her aunt was her mother, even when her mother still lived. That "slice of life" type analysis has been beaten out of me in anthro - we avoid looking at groups as static, they are ever changing. And we always no there is not end point....
So why is it that the thought of SL not having an edpoint so darn distressing to me?
I think perhaps my creative side, what I have of it, and my researcher side is clashing. I watch events unfold and look to the history to try and explain them. In SL, I have to create some of those events and I have to accept that it is never finished. Any thoughts of this?
The primitives I am working with
I've enjoyed reading everyone's posts, so after a week of diving in (and flying around) SL here are a few things that I've found interesting, academically and otherwise. I have enjoyed chatting with a few class members already in-world - this should be fun. (Or, Deckard Jameson has chatted and enjoyed it? Argh.)
I took the class because it was interdisciplinary and interesting - I really had no idea how it would relate to my research, if at all. That's good because in the last week of using SL I've found a whole bunch of things about it that I love that have very little to do with my research, like:
Beyond the metaphysical questions I'm interested in SL as a technology of social connection, too. There are pieces of the "social network toolbox" built in to SL (ie profiles) - but how will this aspect of SL evolve, if at all? Could a future version of SL provide residents with the same sort of "uses and gratifications" that, say, MySpace does today for those who use it? If not, what about the experience of both is different?
So many questions, not enough avatars to find out the answers ...
I took the class because it was interdisciplinary and interesting - I really had no idea how it would relate to my research, if at all. That's good because in the last week of using SL I've found a whole bunch of things about it that I love that have very little to do with my research, like:
- "travel writing" -- I collected a few lists of "places to visit" and spent way too much time visiting different sights and writing notes on them. I would think doing some travel writing on different SL sights would be a blast.
- "the book experience" -- I'm kind of a book nerd, in the sense that I like the 'experience' of a book (that can't be found on the Web) so I was interested to see if/how the good ol' book would adapt to the SL world. I went to visit the SL Library and several book publishers. And, I visited a bunch of "bookstores" to see if anyone had managed to create that great "third place" feel of a good coffee house or old bookstore. (Or, err ... would that be "fourth place"? I get confused easily.)
- "snapshot aesthetics" -- I started taking snapshots early on and they were so bad I had to spend time learning the camera controls. Then I started wondering what qualifies as a good snapshot in SL.
- avatar creation -- To do some posed snapshots I started creating different avatar "roles/skins/???" to use as "models." Fooling with the sliders in different ways brought back lots of lessons on anatomy from art classes that I thought were lost forever. If I were a (professional) actor I think I would be thrilled at my ability to throw off physical constraints in the creation of a role.
Beyond the metaphysical questions I'm interested in SL as a technology of social connection, too. There are pieces of the "social network toolbox" built in to SL (ie profiles) - but how will this aspect of SL evolve, if at all? Could a future version of SL provide residents with the same sort of "uses and gratifications" that, say, MySpace does today for those who use it? If not, what about the experience of both is different?
So many questions, not enough avatars to find out the answers ...
Saturday, January 12, 2008
VR vs. RL forum
You are not isolated in your concerns or simple curiosity about VR and the concept of "reality" as a whole. The global importance of the issue is evident when it becomes the subject of a forum at Davos (Davos is famous as the host to the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum (WEF), an annual meeting of global political and business elites, which is often referred to as simply Davos.)
The picture above gives you a clue about the level of this Forum.
Here is what will be happening as we study pretty much the same subject in our class:
Note the participants...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Open Forum Davos 2008
24. - 26. January 2008
The Open Forum Davos will include a section on "Virtual Worlds - Fiction or Reality?", which will take place on Saturday 26 January at the Swiss Alpine High School (SAMD). The section will include:
- Rafael Capurro, Professor, Information management and information ethics, Stuttgart Media University, Germany
- Florence Develey, Pastor, Switzerland
- Reid Hoffman, Chairman and President, LinkedIn Corporation, USA
- Philip Rosedale, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Linden Lab, USA
- Joseph Weizenbaum, Former Professor of Computer Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
More information on the Open Forum which is organized by the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches (FSPC) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) can be found at:
http://www.openforumdavos.ch/en/home/home.html
More Information of the section is provided at:
http://www.openforumdavos.ch/en/programm/virtual-worlds.html
Hey, uh...hey.
Hey everyone, I just thought I would introduce myself (kinda late, but whatever). I'm Gaellissa (a.k.a. Gaelle Jaxxon in SL), the girl who thought this class would be awesome because she saw SL in one of her favorite TV shows...I just wanted to say hey and that I'm really looking forward to this class and getting to know most or all of you a little better, and eating your food (provided you can cook). If anyone is looking to have an awesome person in their group for "study" sessions, group projects, etc., let me know, because I'm pretty amazing.
Since everyone is getting all detailed about their interests in the future of SL, I think it would be really cool if we could direct this to children, and not just in video games like Grand Theft Auto (though I LOVE that game and if you have it, I would be glad to come over and play for hours). For example, I plan on being one of the creative minds behind Sesame Street one day. Wouldn't it be awesome for Sesame Street to be in SL, and for all kinds of kids and their parents, from all over the world, to interact with the SS characters and each other, and continue their education while the TV is off?! Wow...I have a million thoughts running through my mind about this class, all of them great, and I'm really looking forward to learning about how these thoughts & ideas can become a reality, very very soon.
I don't have a computer right now (mine died a few months ago) and I have to wait/save up for a MacBook Pro (with Leopard, so Nasari, whenever you figure out how that works, let me know), so I might not be posting all that much for the next few weeks, though I will try to post once every week. See you all in class Tuesday :o)
Since everyone is getting all detailed about their interests in the future of SL, I think it would be really cool if we could direct this to children, and not just in video games like Grand Theft Auto (though I LOVE that game and if you have it, I would be glad to come over and play for hours). For example, I plan on being one of the creative minds behind Sesame Street one day. Wouldn't it be awesome for Sesame Street to be in SL, and for all kinds of kids and their parents, from all over the world, to interact with the SS characters and each other, and continue their education while the TV is off?! Wow...I have a million thoughts running through my mind about this class, all of them great, and I'm really looking forward to learning about how these thoughts & ideas can become a reality, very very soon.
I don't have a computer right now (mine died a few months ago) and I have to wait/save up for a MacBook Pro (with Leopard, so Nasari, whenever you figure out how that works, let me know), so I might not be posting all that much for the next few weeks, though I will try to post once every week. See you all in class Tuesday :o)
Greetings from Narasi
Some thoughts - It is about time that I post my fair share of my comments, requests etc. To begin with I am really excited about this class and look forward to learning on how to live in this virtual world. As I had mentioned briefly in the class I have been working in Higher Ed Institutions for the last 8 years especially in the administration of online learning systems and other technologies used for teaching and learning. My interest in SL was sparked by my curiosity to understand Avatars. I am still working on this to compare personality traits of online avatars with the true social identities of the owners of these avatars. I think I can make some good headway with this by being a resident in SL. The other learning objective is to understand product purchase behavior in SL I strongly feel this will be the next arena where products will be tested, however how close one can get to matching ones purchase behavior in SL to the real life is something that is to be learnt.
Fact or Fiction - From a fictional point of view it would be interesting to see if life in SL would take on such a dominant role in ones life that residents behavior in the real world would be altered to mimic the persona from SL or vice versa. As it moves to the next level would society pay greater attention to the life in SL in terms of social status, economic affairs etc and their status in real life would have little or no significance... These are some rambling thoughts at 1.45 AM.
Expanding my understanding - with the increased use of emails, IM, blogs etc understanding the sender's message, state of mind etc was somewhat predictable. Now with the advent of SL use of actions would add yet another dimenstion to this. However, do the avatars in SL have the ability to deploy non-verbal gestures to make communication more effective as in real life? Would this eventually substitute the use of the several available Internet communication tools? Not sure...
Seeking help - If there are some Mac users I would like to get with you all to see what issues you are running into with SL and Mac. I have a Macbook and I am running Leopard and I cannot get the graphic cards supported by SL and I am looking for alternatives.
Fun activities - cooking sounds good we can open a sub-topic and get the interested parties in to hatch a plan. Count me in
SL Event
Hi All,
This is the event I described on Tuesday when I introduced myself. It is some of what Hawc Decosta has been up to in SL.
______________________
January 13th 2008 11:00 AM / PST through 3:00 PM / PST
**** Rockcliffe University ****
Winter Open House “Rockcliffe X”
􀀊
Three mock trials based on real life cases will be reenacted using SL Voice & Text.
Our CSI team has built three 3D recreations depicting the actual crime scenes of the RL cases we will be covering. The judge for our mock trials is a real life attorney, Remington Pinon, the prosecutor is a real life law enforcement officer, retired, Hawc Decosta.
The event attendees will make up the Jury. First Come First Served.
The cases are scripted, but the actors are encouraged to “adlib”, we have a pretty witty team. We suspect this will be entertaining!
􀀉
Event Schedule:
11:00 - 11:30: Welcome! - Dean of Rockcliffe , Phelan Corrimal (Kevin Feenan)
“The values of Rockcliffe University are focused around helping others to harvest the best in themselves, their ongoing development, and relationships. We believe that innovation can only be achieved through perseverance, strong leadership, open communication, protection of individual rights, and social harmony under conditions of high care. To be successful, performance must be measured based on long-term sustainability and not short-term gain. It is our highest value that the legacies we leave should be one that is valued for generations and not simply in our lifetime”
Walk through Meet our Staff and Preview the Crime Scenes. Grab a Jurors seat!
11:30 - 12:15: Mock Trial #1
While off duty and at a party, Police Officer Bill Gannon was asked by the homeowner to get some ice from his basement. Since the ice machine was not immediately apparent, the officer opened two doors. Behind door number two were six marijuana plants. The officer arrested the homeowner. Would you exclude the marijuana plants? What court case(s) justify your decision?
12:15 - 12:45: Butch Dae of VIT Worlds
- Virtual Information Technology -
“So far, this journey has opened doors to Virtual Worlds, Virtual Humans and the transformation of Homo Sapiens to Cyber Sapiens.”
12:45 - 1:30: Mock Trial #2
Ms. Older (age 79) was convicted of murdering her ex-boyfriend by shooting him in the head during a jealous rage. After deliberating three hours the jury rejected Ms. Older’s claim that she was insane when she shot the 85-year-old Mr. Senior, the man she said bought her a car, took her on a number of trips, and threw her a birthday party during their 14-month relationship.
1:30 - 2:00: Seven Shikami - Advanced programming class: Coding for games
2:00 - 2:45: Mock Trial #3
Ms. Sally Sebring was arrested for DUI after she sped through a school zone in the middle of the afternoon. She failed a field sobriety test and was belligerent and abrasive to the officer who stopped her.
2:45 - 3:00: Note Card Giver Contest Judging – May the Best Avatar Win!
Doug
This is the event I described on Tuesday when I introduced myself. It is some of what Hawc Decosta has been up to in SL.
______________________
January 13th 2008 11:00 AM / PST through 3:00 PM / PST
**** Rockcliffe University ****
Winter Open House “Rockcliffe X”
􀀊
Three mock trials based on real life cases will be reenacted using SL Voice & Text.
Our CSI team has built three 3D recreations depicting the actual crime scenes of the RL cases we will be covering. The judge for our mock trials is a real life attorney, Remington Pinon, the prosecutor is a real life law enforcement officer, retired, Hawc Decosta.
The event attendees will make up the Jury. First Come First Served.
The cases are scripted, but the actors are encouraged to “adlib”, we have a pretty witty team. We suspect this will be entertaining!
􀀉
Event Schedule:
11:00 - 11:30: Welcome! - Dean of Rockcliffe , Phelan Corrimal (Kevin Feenan)
“The values of Rockcliffe University are focused around helping others to harvest the best in themselves, their ongoing development, and relationships. We believe that innovation can only be achieved through perseverance, strong leadership, open communication, protection of individual rights, and social harmony under conditions of high care. To be successful, performance must be measured based on long-term sustainability and not short-term gain. It is our highest value that the legacies we leave should be one that is valued for generations and not simply in our lifetime”
Walk through Meet our Staff and Preview the Crime Scenes. Grab a Jurors seat!
11:30 - 12:15: Mock Trial #1
While off duty and at a party, Police Officer Bill Gannon was asked by the homeowner to get some ice from his basement. Since the ice machine was not immediately apparent, the officer opened two doors. Behind door number two were six marijuana plants. The officer arrested the homeowner. Would you exclude the marijuana plants? What court case(s) justify your decision?
12:15 - 12:45: Butch Dae of VIT Worlds
- Virtual Information Technology -
“So far, this journey has opened doors to Virtual Worlds, Virtual Humans and the transformation of Homo Sapiens to Cyber Sapiens.”
12:45 - 1:30: Mock Trial #2
Ms. Older (age 79) was convicted of murdering her ex-boyfriend by shooting him in the head during a jealous rage. After deliberating three hours the jury rejected Ms. Older’s claim that she was insane when she shot the 85-year-old Mr. Senior, the man she said bought her a car, took her on a number of trips, and threw her a birthday party during their 14-month relationship.
1:30 - 2:00: Seven Shikami - Advanced programming class: Coding for games
2:00 - 2:45: Mock Trial #3
Ms. Sally Sebring was arrested for DUI after she sped through a school zone in the middle of the afternoon. She failed a field sobriety test and was belligerent and abrasive to the officer who stopped her.
2:45 - 3:00: Note Card Giver Contest Judging – May the Best Avatar Win!
Doug
Friday, January 11, 2008
Program of interest
Thought some of you might find this program of interest. It's a FRONTLINE program on PBS scheduled for next Tuesday, Jan. 22nd (locally on Ch. 5 at 9:00) called "Growing Up Online." For more info and a preview, you can check it out at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/ It addresses some interesting social questions about online activity...
ESOL in SL
I remember one of you saying that you were working on exploring SL as a tool for language instruction. When searching for something else I came across this and thought whoever it was might be interested:
Hope that helps.
Affordances of three-dimensional virtual environments for English language learning: An ecological psychological analysis
by Zheng, Dongping, Ph.D., University of Connecticut, 2006, 124 pages; AAT 3221577
Abstract (Summary)
The goal of this dissertation is to systematically explore teaching and learning English as a foreign language in a 3D game-like multi-user virtual learning environment (MUVE), Quest Atlantis (QA). This dissertation project is comprised of two studies, offering distinct theoretical perspectives and analytic data techniques for measuring and describing the phenomenon of English language learning in the virtual world. These studies, however, share the same meta-theoretical framework of learning by doing (Dewey, 1910), in that thinking and the use of language are in service to action, not just about action. Study 1--- Attitude and Self-Efficacy Change ---used quasi-experimental design and quantitative analytic tools to measure the differences of Controls and a QA group's affective factors and English achievement test during a one academic year's intervention, during which QA participants explored English-only QA worlds, completed content driven quests, and chatted with native English speakers. The findings, that the experimental group reported a more positive attitude and higher self-efficacy than the control group toward various aspects of language learning and use, are significantly important for both educational research and classroom practice. Failure to find differences on standardized post performance tests of English writing raises issues concerning the trade-offs between test preparation and engaging activities that may sustain learning.
Study 2--- A Cross-Cultural Interaction ---took a finer grain analysis approach to look at the chat logs and other QA-generated artifacts and examines how cross-cultural interaction in a virtual space, specifically collaboration between NES' and NNES' in QA, provided resources for English language acquisition. Qualitative tools including the CHILDES CLAN program, Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis and ethnography were used to examine the smallest unit of analysis, perception and action. Iterative multi-layered analyses revealed the affordances of QA at different levels. Co-questing was particularly interpretable based on the assumptions and underlying design intentions of ecological psychology and sociocultural cognition. Co-questing afforded a higher level of meaning making enacted in collaboration through the chat channel. In other words, this higher level of Negotiation for Meaning appeared to be the result of goal directed behavior within the social and cultural boundaries of the QA situation.
Hope that helps.
Second Life vs. Real Life
I’m fascinated by the development of SL in relation to real life. SL seems to be a utopian society free of many problems and challenges we face in RL. Obesity seems to have been eliminated. I have yet to see a hospital to treat the sick. I know I’ve slammed my head into the sides of a few building while flying with no adverse affects. I’m not sure if anyone has to work and pay bills.
Then again, things may not be as they seem. I noticed the mention of a SL police blotter in a previous post. Apparently there are also restrictions on banking and gambling indicating there is some level of authoritarian control despite an apparent lack of government. I’ve also been exposed to underground cultures in SL. The other day, I was approached by someone asking if I knew of any BDSM locations within SL. Maybe he inquired because I was wearing a free chainmail shirt I had picked up. Does SL reflect the desires, thoughts and feelings of people who are less likely to express them in real life for fear of being judged and even becoming an outcast?
I wonder to what extent the evolution of SL will ultimately parallel RL. Will we see people trying to take control and establish an SL government? Will opposing groups form and clash over religion, politics, ethics, or other potential divisive matters? With
normal experience?
I was thinking the other day about the ability of VWE's like SL to expand our cultural awareness by providing opportunities we would most likely never take in the real world. Yesterday, I had some Linden in my virtual pocket and decided to go shopping for a leather jacket. So I opened up the search window, typed in leather jacket, and teleported to the first location that came up...
I found myself in a place that (no offense) I would never have visited in real life, most likely for fear of my life. It appeared to be in a "rough" part of town, and the combination of a large number of chains, hells angel's types, and goth dress made me feel decidedly uncomfortable. I doubt I would have gone forward in real life, but being pretty sure that I couldn't get damaged (my avatar, that is), I began to walk around the store and look at the merchandise. Although I didn't find anything to fit my tastes (I'm not a fan of the long leather jackets worn in the Matrix movies) I did observe an individual that looked like a vampire and another one that appeared about 4 foot tall, and was some sort of copy of something out of a mythical netherworld.
I admit, I didn't want to talk to them. But my curiosity got the best of me and I discovered that they were not as scary as they looked, were rather friendly, and I got invited to a few parties too. I'm wondering now whether if I had an avatar that looked like theirs, would I have felt more comfortable interacting with them? Or would I have been equally socially awkward? Do my real life physical, emotional, psychological characteristics have more to do with who and how I socially interact with in SL, or is it my avatar's physical, emotional, psychological characteristics?
I found myself in a place that (no offense) I would never have visited in real life, most likely for fear of my life. It appeared to be in a "rough" part of town, and the combination of a large number of chains, hells angel's types, and goth dress made me feel decidedly uncomfortable. I doubt I would have gone forward in real life, but being pretty sure that I couldn't get damaged (my avatar, that is), I began to walk around the store and look at the merchandise. Although I didn't find anything to fit my tastes (I'm not a fan of the long leather jackets worn in the Matrix movies) I did observe an individual that looked like a vampire and another one that appeared about 4 foot tall, and was some sort of copy of something out of a mythical netherworld.
I admit, I didn't want to talk to them. But my curiosity got the best of me and I discovered that they were not as scary as they looked, were rather friendly, and I got invited to a few parties too. I'm wondering now whether if I had an avatar that looked like theirs, would I have felt more comfortable interacting with them? Or would I have been equally socially awkward? Do my real life physical, emotional, psychological characteristics have more to do with who and how I socially interact with in SL, or is it my avatar's physical, emotional, psychological characteristics?
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