Like other groups, our plans are obviously in the very early stages. Our plan is to create an amphitheater for Gator Nation as a platform for numerous multi-media events. We envision a place to host lectures, classes, launch premiers of UF's documentary films, and numerous other events. We are beginning preliminary design concepts and researching other academic, cultural and research venues in SL to identify other organizations with whom we may collaborate or compete.
Our objectives include designing and building an attractive and avatar-friendly environment that will represent a UF landmark, such as the bandshell or the Reitz amphitheater. We also hope to plan a live event at the site and test avatar response for quality of experience. More details on who we will target, how we will invite them to participate, and exactly what we will measure will be forthcoming. Group 5's wiki idea is great! I think we'll be implementing the same planning tool for our group.
Team 3 members, please feel free to chime in!
7 comments:
I am afraid that this idea has been tried and tried and tried so many times all over SL that it is a little "tired", not "wired":-) YOu would have to convince me how or why this project brings something new or particularly unique to using SL and the individual skills or fields of expertise of the members of the group.
I think one of the critical discussions around SL and other VR environments is that we have not yet found the grammar or the language of this very new media, so we easily fall in simply copying familiar scenarios and port them with more or less "success" to the digital domain. I expect the group to discuss this idea further to see if there is something that has not been said or explored (as an idea) in this project you present.
You have the opportunity this semester to utilize the enormous brain bank of the entire class and beyond to come up with something truly original, not necessarily complicated (like some other projects) but pushing your own "comfort zones" beyond the familiar and venture into the unknown realm of this brave new world.
Teleport to Ohio University at 53,151,23 to see an amphitheater like you describe.
One idea that comes to mind if you go ahead with the amphitheatre idea is to make the environment "live".
By this I mean, when an avatar seats down for a class for example, the seat itself provides the avatar with all the necessary motions and expressions that user might need to communicate with the group.
Remember that avatar animations can be embedded on objects (check the disco dance floor at Gator Nation for example. Not that this is anything new, but definitely would contribute to the "quality of experience" that you want to measure, and to my limited knowledge it has not been implemented in an environment like that, not for novelties sake, but for actual improvement in the communication factor which is too limited so far.
I'm not really sure what kind of interaction you're thinking of being implemented or could be implemented in an amphitheater. I can see the use for a Q&A kind of system setup. Other than that, it really is just a forum for unidirectional communication. We're trying to build something that can be useful as part of the online community. It may not necessarily be "cutting edge" or "pushing the limits", but it would be functional (obviously) and could be used by DE classes as well as for special events to be simulcast both on-campus and in-world.
If you give someone a lot of gadgets to play with, they will play with them. So, wouldn't it actually be counter-productive to give the user lots of toys to play with, whether it be for communication or otherwise? If we build something with lots of options, they'll most likely pay more attention to the options instead of the performance. That's why movie theaters only have cup holders.
It seems strange to me that you are thinking about an "unidirectional forum" which is in fact a contradiction in terms. A forum (and there are various forms of it, but let's stick with internet forum or legal forum if you prefer), is a public space where interaction is a key element.
Not only that. The great breakthrough of the internet in general and of "social spaces" in particular is that they permit a bidirectional communication thus breaking the great gap and control that big media corporations had in preventing public discourse.
What I meant to suggest is not to give the avatar "toys" to play with, but merely functional actions that allow it to participate in whatever it is that goes on there. The point and click device ( you can call it gadget) already implemented in every avatar, by which you can for example, examine objects, open doors, teleport and such is an example of said functionality. Very practical and indispensable.
Your movie theater example makes me think that you may be missing the point of the great opportunity we have to design and create for exactly the opposite of a unidirectional, linear-time constrained medium. That is what I meant when I said "pushing your own comfort zone". Not cutting edge or pushing the limits of the technology itself since that would be unrealistic in the time frame, but simply to think "outside the box" and welcome the difference that could make.
Just my opinion :-)
Since you are researching similar venues I recommend you take a look at Esperance Island, part of The Australian Film TC and Radio School. 90, 181, 29 which I mentioned in another post. Look around carefully since there are many more things spread around the space than what you see at first. While you are there take a look at the Center for Screen Business which is located in a pyramid floating above.
I agree that the potential of a 3D interactive space is to recreate a more "real" and participitory experience. The concept of "social spaces" is central to what we're exploring as virtual environments are changing how people perceieve their "sense of place"... what community to they truly belong to? Their neighborhood? Work community? Church community? Athletic community? Now they can "live" in a virtual community without restriction of physical place, and with people who are more likely to share their very specific interests/desires. My big question is, can we create that sense of place in our class research with the restrictions of our "gated community?"
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