Linden Lab founder Philip Rosedale speaks about Second Life. The talk covers quite a lot of issues from Virtual Environments as Utopia to the inevitability of digital technologies. A great argument for Second Life instead of Video Game Environments such as World of Warcraft is the sheer amount of USER created Content. Second Life has 20,000 servers full of data compared to WoW that comes on a couple of discs. bzzzzzzrp
Monday, December 15, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
EVENTS
The last few weeks have had the IML hosting several events and here are some experiences gained.
PECHA KUCHA RECAP
For 2 days a huge tent was visible from my office window setup on the lawn in front of the IML building. From this spot the Pecha Kucha presentations were being streamed into the IML Second Life Island, delayed about 20 seconds, it creates a bizarre experience. Here I am facing the opposite direction of the presentation looking at a screen displaying a presentation space with a screen streaming in the presentation going on right behind me. brain melt....
FAIR USE
This was a different experience. People were streaming into SL, but I logged in for another purpose and that was to relay questions from the SL space to the RL space. Also we learned about quality levels in the streaming of video into the space. At one point we boosted the resolution level and it looked fantastic, but anyone without a wired connection had their viewers almost crash on them. Perhaps in the future we can have people that RSVP for the event submit what type of connections they will be using so that we can provide the best experience for everyone.
Both events in Second Life were attend very poorly....and that's putting it nicely.
Factors that contributed to this were the fact that most of the attendee's that would have done this in SL were able to attend it physically. The other was the times that both these events were held. Pecha Kucha was done in the evening and on a weekend. This meant that it was almost midnight on the East Coast and early morning in other parts of the World. Also the Fair Use event was held during the week at 8:30 AM times when most people are just waking up or in the middle of their day, especially students. However, video and stills taken during the event can be added to the Island afterwards for those that missed it.
PECHA KUCHA RECAP
For 2 days a huge tent was visible from my office window setup on the lawn in front of the IML building. From this spot the Pecha Kucha presentations were being streamed into the IML Second Life Island, delayed about 20 seconds, it creates a bizarre experience. Here I am facing the opposite direction of the presentation looking at a screen displaying a presentation space with a screen streaming in the presentation going on right behind me. brain melt....
FAIR USE
This was a different experience. People were streaming into SL, but I logged in for another purpose and that was to relay questions from the SL space to the RL space. Also we learned about quality levels in the streaming of video into the space. At one point we boosted the resolution level and it looked fantastic, but anyone without a wired connection had their viewers almost crash on them. Perhaps in the future we can have people that RSVP for the event submit what type of connections they will be using so that we can provide the best experience for everyone.
Both events in Second Life were attend very poorly....and that's putting it nicely.
Factors that contributed to this were the fact that most of the attendee's that would have done this in SL were able to attend it physically. The other was the times that both these events were held. Pecha Kucha was done in the evening and on a weekend. This meant that it was almost midnight on the East Coast and early morning in other parts of the World. Also the Fair Use event was held during the week at 8:30 AM times when most people are just waking up or in the middle of their day, especially students. However, video and stills taken during the event can be added to the Island afterwards for those that missed it.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Surveillance
During out day our presence is recorded several times a day. Our phones have GPS, security cameras, our IP! Second Life is far from anonymous, especially if you have a premium account. When I visit regions and other avatars are present I can signal a wand I've scripted to grab the names of all those around me. This I used mostly for meetings with too many people to look up while trying to keep up with the multiple chat conversations going on. I applied this same type of device to our IML Islands to monitor the traffic going on and if something goes wrong (harassment, builds destroyed, etc) I have something to reference. When the students of the CTIN 482 class were told that their presence was recorded a few skeptical glances were shot in my direction. How does this affect assessment for projects when you have a record of how many times someone logged in World? Professors are probably very skilled at spotting the papers started hours before they were due. Can time spent on a project be separated from the final product? This is when documentation of the process comes into play. Sometimes final products don't work for a variety of reasons (technical limitations, technology failures, results aren't what you expected, etc), but that doesn't negate the knowledge gained. bzzzzzzzrp
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
CTIN 482 -Designing Online Multiplayer Game Environments
Yes that's right... but that won't be discussed in this blog post. HOWEVER, students in the Cinematic Arts Interactive Media 482 Class (CTIN 482) will be doing this over the course of the semester on IML 2, the new Second Life Island, that was just recently added. Steve Anderson has been handed the teaching torch and I'm helping with the technical side.
The first two classes were dedicated to explaining the task the students will face over the semester and to have them create avatars, join the CTIN 482 group...now....
Week 3.. The Students have now entered the IML 2 Island...and immediately something happened that you just can't predict... a giant mass of land sprung up in front of me... a cube rezzed next to me... spheres in the distance... the land rippled as multiple students began playing with the terraforming tools. I build on the IML Island alone and unless you are in public sandbox most of SL's architecture is already in place when you visit. So seeing 16 avatars all working on a space is something rare. Suddenly a scream cut through the room, in the physical space not the IML 2 Island, as someones newly created monolith was obliterated by another terraformer cutting across the virtual landscape. It was a lesson quickly learned and everyone realized the potential hazards and benefits of a collaborative space. Everyone eventually settled into separate areas to build, terrafom, or explored off IML 2 Island for research.
The first two classes were dedicated to explaining the task the students will face over the semester and to have them create avatars, join the CTIN 482 group...now....
Week 3.. The Students have now entered the IML 2 Island...and immediately something happened that you just can't predict... a giant mass of land sprung up in front of me... a cube rezzed next to me... spheres in the distance... the land rippled as multiple students began playing with the terraforming tools. I build on the IML Island alone and unless you are in public sandbox most of SL's architecture is already in place when you visit. So seeing 16 avatars all working on a space is something rare. Suddenly a scream cut through the room, in the physical space not the IML 2 Island, as someones newly created monolith was obliterated by another terraformer cutting across the virtual landscape. It was a lesson quickly learned and everyone realized the potential hazards and benefits of a collaborative space. Everyone eventually settled into separate areas to build, terrafom, or explored off IML 2 Island for research.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Avatar Rendering Costs- 3D Optimization
One of the challenges of creating the IML Island has not only been designing a space that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing, but keeping the range of hardware resources people have in mind. Not everyone has high bandwidth and powerful graphics cards that can make the common lag problems a little less frequent. On many educators lists a large topic is how to bring Second Life Education to K-12 Programs, many of them not as well funded and sometimes relying on donated equipment. This makes accessing some of Second Life's areas IMPOSSIBLE as heavy amounts of scripts, animations, particles, flexiobjects, etc. choke already strained resources. Students at the IML are taught how to optimize their project assets to make 2D projects smoother, but 3D projects are new to almost everyone and the same principals need to be applied. This optimization needs to not only be applied to objects and environments, but to YOURSELF... something not applicable in 2D spaces. Avatars have costs unfortunately and sometimes your special outfits, bling, and gadgets can cause others around you to get bogged down. Torey Linden and Linden Labs has posted some blogs and videos explaining AVATAR RENDERING COSTS. Check it out and lets do our part in making this transition from 2D to 3D spaces a smooth and pleasant one. bzzzzzrp!!!
Avatar sets from the Library Linden Labs Provides
all of these Avatars are <1000. ARC(avatar rendering cost) >1000 is considered expensive.....so what does mine cost.... EEEEEEEKKKK!!!!!
Mine fluctuated between 4900 - 5900!! Prim hair is a common expense as most people find the built in hair options less than satisfying. Flexi clothes (Gosurori fashion doesn't come cheap in SL or RL apparently) and my grappling hook add a lot of expenses too. However, this doesn't mean you shouldn't ever deck out your avatar. I spend a lot of my time in SL alone building, scripting, and exploring so without other avatars around the expensive costs of mine doesn't hinder performance.
Avatar sets from the Library Linden Labs Provides
all of these Avatars are <1000. ARC(avatar rendering cost) >1000 is considered expensive.....so what does mine cost.... EEEEEEEKKKK!!!!!
Mine fluctuated between 4900 - 5900!! Prim hair is a common expense as most people find the built in hair options less than satisfying. Flexi clothes (Gosurori fashion doesn't come cheap in SL or RL apparently) and my grappling hook add a lot of expenses too. However, this doesn't mean you shouldn't ever deck out your avatar. I spend a lot of my time in SL alone building, scripting, and exploring so without other avatars around the expensive costs of mine doesn't hinder performance.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Immersive Sound and Vision Sculpture Art
Most of our offline and online audio experiences are the same. Whether it be listening to music while at an event, working with it playing in the background, music videos and films, etc, the sound is always whats being created by the media source and projected at you. However, on
Ramonia - Garden of Immersive Sound & Vision Sculpture Art you experience something different where space, sound, and image are intertwined by the gorgeous installations created by Adam Ramonia. The Island reminds me of the first time I played Myst and started to explore the sparse alien landscape at once beautiful but spooky. The sculptures move around you and the sound changes as you pass through them... your speed, location, and camera all warp the sounds around you. Now if we could only connect this to 5.1 and 10.1 systems.....
Here are my first experiences playing in it. I uploaded to YouTube and Veoh. Veoh being full quality, but YouTube is more accessible to people with mobile devices. bzzzzzzrp
Ramonia - Garden of Immersive Sound & Vision Sculpture Art you experience something different where space, sound, and image are intertwined by the gorgeous installations created by Adam Ramonia. The Island reminds me of the first time I played Myst and started to explore the sparse alien landscape at once beautiful but spooky. The sculptures move around you and the sound changes as you pass through them... your speed, location, and camera all warp the sounds around you. Now if we could only connect this to 5.1 and 10.1 systems.....
Here are my first experiences playing in it. I uploaded to YouTube and Veoh. Veoh being full quality, but YouTube is more accessible to people with mobile devices. bzzzzzzrp
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Greening the Virtual World
When I first arrived in Second Life I was immediately thrown off by the physical world elements in the Metaverse such as gravity, wind, land, water, and TREES! When designing the IML Island one of the first ideas was to avoid such physical world elements and to explore the possibilities of a Virtual World. One Island though has
created a very interesting space with all of these physical elements.
Converseon's Second Chance Trees Reforestation Project
This space lets you buy a Virtual Tree (you even have a selection to choose from) that represents one real life tree in the RainForest for only 300$L (about $1.50). Not only that but they have a space on the Island where you can plant them too. However, this is not actually representative of where the tree will be planted. For Urban and Virtual settings that have few plants this is a great way of being able to participate in helping the Environment.
Shopping in Second Life for Real Trees
My Tree
Prim Roots Planted
This overhead shot shows the success that this Sim has had
created a very interesting space with all of these physical elements.
Converseon's Second Chance Trees Reforestation Project
This space lets you buy a Virtual Tree (you even have a selection to choose from) that represents one real life tree in the RainForest for only 300$L (about $1.50). Not only that but they have a space on the Island where you can plant them too. However, this is not actually representative of where the tree will be planted. For Urban and Virtual settings that have few plants this is a great way of being able to participate in helping the Environment.
Shopping in Second Life for Real Trees
My Tree
Prim Roots Planted
This overhead shot shows the success that this Sim has had
Monday, June 23, 2008
THE CONCH
I had my first meeting with the 'Real Life Educators in SL' group and it was a great experience. The meeting filled up quickly and there was no real agenda. Various threads in conversation opened up and one topic that caught most of the avatars attention was 'what is appropriate dress?' for both RLstudents and for their avatars. Most agreed that naked is inappropriate, but everything else is creative and up for discussion.
During this meeting I revealed the project titled THE CONCH. One of the things I find hinders most people from using SL, aside from the name, is the interface. Even most people I know who navigate Web 2.0 tools with ease are still confused once you add depth and flying into their World. My original idea was sparked by recent obsession with the Harry Potter books and how I had been programming a wand to react to voice commands. I wondered if some things that educators do (blog, teleporting, email, etc) could benefit from a device that also works on voice commands. The object could be anything you want it's just the code attached to it that matters. A prototype is being developed that hopefully will have several functions and will be available on IML Island. This is an object that will be like any other open source project out there and will be FREE and a system in place for version updates and distribution.
During this meeting I revealed the project titled THE CONCH. One of the things I find hinders most people from using SL, aside from the name, is the interface. Even most people I know who navigate Web 2.0 tools with ease are still confused once you add depth and flying into their World. My original idea was sparked by recent obsession with the Harry Potter books and how I had been programming a wand to react to voice commands. I wondered if some things that educators do (blog, teleporting, email, etc) could benefit from a device that also works on voice commands. The object could be anything you want it's just the code attached to it that matters. A prototype is being developed that hopefully will have several functions and will be available on IML Island. This is an object that will be like any other open source project out there and will be FREE and a system in place for version updates and distribution.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Data Visualization
bzzzzrp... Readers of Gibson and Stephenson took the idea of seeing Data in 3D environments and ran with it in Second Life. I am fascinated with being able to see information from different perspectives. Best to let the examples show.
Even something as simple as changing my usual normal view of the SL experience to wireframe helps me find lost prims or invisible objects.
3D visualization of the Stock Market...
The Mind Map lets you navigate Subjects in Layers and shows how they are connected.
This doesn't pull information from a Database, but is very handing in looking at how an entire building is organized. Each of the areas can be clicked to pull up more information about each floor.
Molecule Rezzer. They gave me a free Caffeine model. bzzzzzzrp
ChatBots. Data with a human face. This was also on the Data Visualization Island. It is connected to a database that controls and avatars responses. Second Life has been called "avatarcentric"... does this change that statement now that it cannot be assumed any longer that avatars are controlled by a person?
Airplane Traffic in real time.
Weather in RT.
RESULTS!!! on x,y,z axis.....
The above examples can be seen HERE.
One of the projects that has recently been started by the IML is an open source educators tools. The visualization below shows how another piece of open source software has been contributed to over time. It's quite stunning.
code_swarm - Eclipse (short ver.) from Michael Ogawa on Vimeo.
Even something as simple as changing my usual normal view of the SL experience to wireframe helps me find lost prims or invisible objects.
 |
| From IML Second Li... |
3D visualization of the Stock Market...
 |
| From IML Second Li... |
The Mind Map lets you navigate Subjects in Layers and shows how they are connected.
 |
| From IML Second Li... |
This doesn't pull information from a Database, but is very handing in looking at how an entire building is organized. Each of the areas can be clicked to pull up more information about each floor.
 |
| From IML Second Li... |
Molecule Rezzer. They gave me a free Caffeine model. bzzzzzzrp
 |
| From IML Second Li... |
ChatBots. Data with a human face. This was also on the Data Visualization Island. It is connected to a database that controls and avatars responses. Second Life has been called "avatarcentric"... does this change that statement now that it cannot be assumed any longer that avatars are controlled by a person?
 |
| From IML Second Li... |
Airplane Traffic in real time.
 |
| From IML Second Li... |
Weather in RT.
 |
| From IML Second Li... |
RESULTS!!! on x,y,z axis.....
 |
| From IML Second Li... |
The above examples can be seen HERE.
One of the projects that has recently been started by the IML is an open source educators tools. The visualization below shows how another piece of open source software has been contributed to over time. It's quite stunning.
code_swarm - Eclipse (short ver.) from Michael Ogawa on Vimeo.
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