Second Life has taken a bit of beating lately, but don’t be fooled. Virtual Worlds are alot more than trying to sell products or mass market to avatars. Get beyond the ‘blingtardian” factor and you will find some amazing uses. For example a project I worked on, TheWallSL, was commissioned by someone who wanted to remain anonymous. I was stunned at the response, people crying over VOIP, or the fact the virtual memorial was more accurate (sans reflection.) than the real one.
Many companies are on the charge because they realize the many advantages to virtual work spaces go beyond selling trinkets or bumping up average tickets of dirt-world goods.
Let me name a few: reduced costs, enhanced presence and team building of disparate units, fast prototyping, pleasurable, exciting and novel changes to work…the list goes on.
John Chambers, CEO of Cisco is jumping right in and I am a little biased being from his homeland. I have a lot of respect for Chambers and some regional nationalism. He grew up about 30 minutes from my my city in Huntington, WV and has dyslexia- plus he liked to fish. Despite the dyslexia he pilots a true powerhouse. With a disorder like dyslexia it is obvious why someone like Chambers would embrace virtual worlds.
As I mentioned earlier a colleague had tested their telepresence technology and they were impressed. I hope to have more details for you.
Second Life is a virtual world with millions of square meters of virtual lands (server space), more than 13 million “residents,” (although how many are active is up for debate) and a real economy based on Lindens. Large numbers of colleges and universities—or, in some cases, individual departments or faculty—are active in Second Life, not only for academic purposes but also for campus visits, recruiting activities for prospective students, and fundraising. We even took many on tours to the Vietnam Memorial we created- one many had never seen because of cost, disability or lack of opportunity to name a few reasons. When you heard the reading of the names of those who lost their lives you got an idea how powerful even “virtual worlds and reality can be.”
Let us also not forget recreation. Hang gliding, surfing, horseback riding, fencing, and other things I have no inkling about. Does it replace the real world?
No.
But it can kindle that spark or that interest in new things.
SUNNY IN SECOND LIFE
Sun Microsystems, which makes computer servers and software, operates seven islands in Second Life, two of which are open to the public. The rest are used for training sessions and meetings. During its biggest event, a twelve-hour corporate meeting held in April, 14 of Santa Clara-based Sun’s top executives mixed with hundreds of employees- weird. Skiing, car racing, live jazz and a sandbox were also part of the event. …you start to get the idea. People’s race, religion, sex, etc all fall away and people interact as people. Human beings…and hey not all are dressed as humans. These things really aren’t important- being human is important.
Sun decided to hold the event after it acquired software company MySQL, which tracks its employees by the 110 airports they live near, rather than their actual locations. Sun was looking for a way to introduce the MySQL employees to their Sun colleagues, and Second Life seemed the best solution.
In our far flung world this is a big deal. Having worked with research teams in Bangalore India, Foster City, CA and Huntington, West Virginia I have no doubt that virtual interaction, be it in Second Life or another platform, would have been an important bonding experience and would have saved time and increased esprit de corp.
CIGNA HEALTHCARE
Hoping to make healthcare education hip and hot, Cigna Healthcare announced it has created a virtual environment in the Second Life virtual world to educate people on how to improve their health. I think success will be predicated on how much “fun” they let people have, but this is a good step. Imagination is a good thing. Nothing everything needs to be measured in immediate direct marketing ROI.
SECOND LIFE HAS FLAWS
No it is not perfect- far from it. It has trouble scaling and takes a certain level of indoctrination to learn the ropes…but this is just an early example of what the world we know will produce. It is going to get even more exciting and you can literally fly to the future. Yes it has flaws, but so do humans and that is one of the reasons being human is so great.
It used to be that “street memes” were hard to track, but that has changed with the Internet. What is hot in the areas of spray paint, zines, tee-shirts and fringe culture greatly interest me (almost as much as shock memes in and of themselves)…so what about print-on-demand (POD) or Just in Time (JIT) inventory from grass roots designers? What can we infer or learn if anything?
Do t-shirt sales trends reflect the rise and fall of candidate popularity?
Do current events crank up sales? What does it say about their base?
The Cafepress graph offers a snapshot of weekly candidate product sales so you can do your own analysis…
Cafepress “Election Meter” charts sales across their millions of user created content products.
CafePress declares Barack Obama has won the Democratic T-Shirt Primary with 49% of cumulative sales, while Hillary finished at 18%. Look at the Meter since November, and you’ll see the T-Shirt Primary was truly an indicator of voter preference!
According to CafePress Obama took it away with a commanding lead. Let’s us take a look closer at the number of designs and total number of products. This should give us a better feel…from my snapshot (June 19, 2008) Obama has a commanding lead in overall products and a good edge in terms of designs.
Barack Obama: 32,800 designs on 1,140,000 products Hillary Clinton: 21,000 designs on 650,000 products John McCain: 8,250 designs on 291,000 products Ron Paul: 6,110 designs on 120,000 products
How about the inverse? Anti-candidate products…
Anti-Barack Obama: 6,480 designs on 215,000 products Anti-Hillary Clinton: 4,130 designs on 111,000 products Anti-John McCain: 3,080 designs on 85,400 products
I predict that in the future POD and JIT systems will be contested areas and political pundits will wake up to analyzing the “on demand” spread of ideas and candidates through these systems and various products.
I can almost hear some silly analyst on CNN now…
“Candidate X has a slight edge over Candidate Y in mouse pads, but a blazing lead in coffee mugs and golf balls in terms of conversion and number of products.”
“What does this mean?”
“Well it is hard to say, but the golf balls implies a more affluent voter base than Candidate Y”.
“How about the area of tattoos?”
“Anti-candidate tattoos or pro-candidate? Very important we take this into account.”
Some quick bullets, and a slide show, from Cory Ondrejka , so this post has *some* substance. I agree that Second Life has done quite a bit to further the advancement of Virtual Worlds. As technology advances (Moore’s Law anyone?) I imagine we are going to see innovation really accelerate.
Fact: I have accepted an invitation to join the Association of Virtual Worlds’ Advisory Board along with Chadrick Baker, Lori Bell, Bruno Cerboni, Dr. Sara de Freitas, Francesco D’Orazio, Michael Drew, Rahul Dutta, Cynthia Freese, Sasha Frieze, Dr. Hanan Gazit, Darius Lahoutifard, Dr. Chang Liu, Andrew Peters, Liz Ryan, Colin Trethewey, David Wisotzky and Zafka Zang. Quite a crew of very smart people and future thinkers…I am honored and hope I can make a solid contribution. Release is slated for tomorrow…
Rumor: A preview of CISCO’s telepresence application was described to me as “jaw dropping”. Hope to learn more…source- trusted.
I partially disagree with the “unique marketing opportunity” as that is only part of the equasion. As someone who spends quite a bit of time studying “virtual worlds” I think the bigger bets are on collaboration, eroding work place silos, training, fast prototyping and business interactions. Bank on it- other countries are.
Here is the slide show from Cory…lengthy yet interesting if you look at virtual worlds in context to other technological growth…keep in mind that Spore is coming down the pipe…
Virtual Worlds Projected to Mushroom to Nearly One Billion Users
$8 Billion Market Value Projected for User Services
Analytics today released its forecast of virtual world adoption, which shows that over the next ten years some 22 percent of global broadband users will have registered for one or more virtual worlds resulting in a market approaching one billion registrants and an eight billion dollar services opportunity. The study, “Market Forecasts for Virtual World Experiences,” projects a diversified global market with services targeted at children, teens and adults across a wide range of applications…
“Despite a multitude of challenges, virtual worlds present a unique marketing opportunity to target a highly sought demographic, and virtual worlds should be part of a company’s marketing portfolio,” according to Harvey Cohen, President of Strategy Analytics
I partially disagree with the “unique marketing opportunity” as that is only part of the equasion. As someone who spends quite a bit of time studying “virtual worlds” I think the bigger bets are on collaboration, eroding work place silos, training, fast prototyping and business interactions. Bank on it- other countries are.
To put it bluntly…in 2008 they are already building Teddy Bears that can interface with Twitter. The day will come (probably with the teraflop) when Virtual Worlds or 3D browsing simply dust away the web as you know it. Virtual worlds should be a part of your WORKSPACE portfolio- then worry about marketing.
A Conversation From the Future?
What was HTTP dad? Is it it an illness?
It was before your time son.
Is this about the people who thought you were a bit daft for talking about Virtual Worlds in 2006?
You got it son. Might have been the same ones that called me a retard back in 1996 when I tried to explain to them how important Internet marketing and presence would be.
Sure Dad. Can we get back and go digital fishing on our pixelated yacht?
You got it son. I love this Minority Report Interface…
GoodReads.com is taking off as a social reading and recommendation platform.
This seems like a good opportunity to remind the thinkers and Hive Minds at QuizAxeHatRack they might want to check into the novel, Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson (Life isn’t all Snowcrash). Not only will the Hive get exposed to neat topics like Van Eck phreaking but a really neat chapter going on about RIST.
“RIST is a bit-pattern designator is a random series of bits used to uniquely identify a RIST. For example, the organism traditionally designed as Earth (Terra, Gaia)has been assigned the designator 0577. This Web site is maintained by 11A4 which is a hive mind. RIST 11A4 assigns bit-pattern designators with a pseudo-random number generator. This departs from the practice used by that so-disant ”hive mind” known to itself as the East Bay Area Hive Mind Project but designated (in the system of RIST 11A4) as RIST E772. This ”hive mind” resulted from the division of ”Hive Mind One” (designated in the system of RIST 11A4 as RIST 4032) into several smaller ”hive minds” (the East Bay Area Hive Mind Project, the San Francisco Hive Mind, Hive Mind 1A, the Reorganized San Francisco Hive Mind, and the Universal Hive Mind) as the result of irreconcilable contradiction between several different semantic memes that competed for mind-share. One of these semantic memes asserted that bit-pattern designators should be assigned in numerical order, so that (for example) Hive Mind One would be designated RIST 0001 and so on. Another meme asserted that numbers should be organized in order of importance, so that (for example) the RIST conventionally known as the planet Earth would be RIST 0001. Another semantic meme agreed with this one but disagreed as to whether the counting should begin with 0000 or 0001.Within both the 0000 and 0001 camps, there was disagreement about what RIST should be assigned the first number : some asserted that Earth was the first and most important RIST, others that some larger system (the solar system, the Universe, God) was in some sense more inclusive and fundamental.
A hive mind is a social organization of RISTs that are capable of processing semantic memes (”thinking”). These could be either carbon-based or silicon-based. RISTs who enter a hive mind surrender their independent identities (which are mere illusions anyway). For purposes of convenience, the constituents of the hive mind are assigned bit-pattern designators. The genetic part of the memomes share 99% of it’s contents with the data set produced by the Human Genome Project. This should not be construed as endorsing the concept of of speciation (i.e., that the continuum of carbon-based life forms can or should be arbitrarily partitioned into paradigmatic species) in general, or the theory that there is a species called ”homo spaiens” in particular. Also, The semantic part of the memomes are still unavoidably contaminated with many primitive viral memes, but these are being gradually and steadily supplanted by new semantic memes generated ab initiao by rational processes. ”
I have been following the world of micro-biology, nanotechnology, genetics, and anti-aging for quite some time. Recently, after being discovered a decade ago Standford researchers found some two new key proteins in regards to telemerase.
Telomers sit at each end of a chromosome, the elongated X-shaped thing that contains our DNA. After cells divide a little chunk of the telomer disappears, aging the cells. Old cells off-themselves so they don’t pass on harmful mutations.
Telemerase is an enzyme that repairs damaged telomeres. Cancer cells have telemerase, and normal cells don’t (it vanishes shortly after birth) which is why cancer cells live forever. A drug that blocks telemerase should help block cancer, or a drug that induces telemerase could extend life.
So what did Stanford scientists do? “With gene in hand” and “many technical advances” the scientists “chopped the massive telomerase complex into tiny protein pieces,” put them through a “sensative device that detected the pieces” and found two proteins in telomerase. They disabled one protein using “genetic trickery” in petri dish cells and found out which gene produced the protein or proteins.
The Importance of Proteins
This is a big deal. It not only means you could, in theory, tell cancerous cells to “die”, but you could essentially tell cells to stop division e.g. eternal life. As an aside and for the curious the genetadox story in Second Life a.ka.. Primula Rasa: Chevalier versus Prototyper campaign in Second Life was partly inspired by telemerase research.
“In essence, they seek to discover clues as to “how” and “why” they have advanced to such a high stage in evolution, while so many others remain nothing more than what some would consider primitives…or animals at best. A ruling was put forth by the Council of the Galactic Consortium of Lemnus in order to end the rivalry that, based on Seldone Entropical Theory, could cause serious unrest and economic upheaval.
This task, upon completion, would determine which of the two schools of thought would be next in line to lead all advanced life of the known metaverse and access to the rare and precious Genetadox vaccine. The Consortium power structure, by law, must change hands once a millennium. These laws were enacted through the passing of the Genetic Longevity Caste Act due to the much longer life spans granted after genome mapping was completed and stem cell mining was legalized leading to the creation of Genetadox. Also, perhaps, in the process, solve one of the greatest mysteries of all time.”
Korean researchers have found a complex thiourea derivative that can extend the lifetime of mammalian cells and reverse cellular aging.
Colleagues at Korea’s Advanced Institute of Science & Technology report that CGK733 can extend the lifetime of cultured cells by approximately 20 divisions, or roughly 25%.
A cell’s aging is often called ”senescence,” a term that describes the physical and biochemical signs of a cell’s deterioration toward death. These includes signals for the cessation of cell division, release of chemicals from the cell informing others of its impending doom, and an increase in the girth of the cell.
CGK733 is the first small molecule that can reverse aspects of cell senescence. Genetic techniques have been used to do so in the past. However, CGK733 unique is that its antiaging properties are reversible: When CGK733 is removed, cells return to normal aging and death.
That is a big deal. Futurists know we are about to enter into an era the equivalent of a technological blitzkrieg. Quantum computers will usher in this change. Who gets the antidote? Who gets the innoculation? That is part of the story that Primula Rasa was exploring- science versus the mystics and of course, those that choose neither side.
Molecules Versus Genetics
Cellular senescence researcher Judith Campisi of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says CGK733 will be a good lab tool for biologists. “CGK733 is an example of what many scientists hope will be a trend: the identification of small molecules to mimic more cumbersome genetic interventions to regulate cellular behavior.”
Eternal life may be right around the corner. But I have a feeling the war fought to obtain it will kill alot more than it will save. The best bet is to find the cure, encode it into popular music and art and hope humankind evolves a bit more.
I have been in Second Life for a long time now, at least in avatar years. I have been fortunate to find many, many bright people and despite its problems that is the single most important reason I have stayed and still do despite a growing wave of virtual worlds that will soon hit the Net. Whether or not Bleys Chevalier and I release MicroPepper and RegionTracker is still under consideration given stability issues.
It is these same issues that prompt this blog. MicroPepper and Region Tracker are designed to let sellers (or universities) scale their micro-vending operations, reporting, and affiliate force with a low-cost flat rate fee- in our opinion it is the best, but that is our opinion. Right now if a delivery fails on initial delivery, we make at least ten more re-attempts to deliver. Starting to get the drift of the pain digital crafters are feeling? You must be able to allow content creators the ability to SCALE and that means reducing customer service overhead.
(Note: If you want to beta test MicroPepper or Region Tracker contact Bleys Chevalier or Corwin Chevalier in-world or message me at Twitter . Currently with only a handful of beta testers the system processes about 500,000 Lindens per month and you can also track your SLEX sales, visitors, frame rates, etc, etc.)
My Timeless Mentor
At any rate one person stands out who has been a great mentor, Timeless Prototype often known for his Multi Gadget, Mookah (Sheesha, Hookah), Radio Controlled Planes, Walk and Talk and a certain couch that I spent hours writing copy for *cough*. I doubt there are few people in Second Life who do not possess a Multi Gadget. I give them out as welcome gifts. There are many knock-offs, but the Multi Gadget does it all. (O.K. It cannot protect you from Prokofy Neva, who is my second favorite person in Second Life.)
Tracking Timeless
As the lore goes, I tracked him down to his underground club, Timeless Underground, where we discussed ancient philosophy over a game of chess, but this is Second Life and nothing is out of the question- like playing chess in a club that looks like an Elder God from the Cthulu mythos was sawed into pieces and scattered about while people are experimenting with trance dance moves from the Matrix.
We, even today, continue our philosophical discussions and he was integral if not essential in collaborating with me on the Primula Rasa (here for more photos), and the Monolith 8 campaigns, and I was happy to donate island use for the 4th Annual Satellite Exhibition (4ASE) (Click to See Video). You should also catch his famous London Eye and he is also known for helping out with Relay For Life. Warning- his idea of fun is hanging out in sand boxes while dodging LOLCube attacks…in his own words:
I “grew up” in the sandboxes, and it’s always good to remember where you come from in life, even in Second Life, and show your respects. - Timeless Prototype
Time Stands Still?
At any rate Second Life has had its share of issues- as any platform does, but as of late developers are getting waspish. While I parlay with Time on a daily basis I was concerned when I saw this on a scripting list:
”…object to object e-mails failing, replying to offline IMs via e-mail
failing, and I’m srsly DONE asking
daily issues
enough!
I’ve taken the Multi Gadget vendor offline, tiered down, waiting for
island parcel rental to expire. I will treat SL as a beta game and/or
chat room until general stability returns.”
Seemed like a good time to get a few answers straight from Time.
Interview with Timeless Prototype (a.k.a. Time)
Wayne) OK Time, for the uninitiated how long have you been in Second Life?
Time) Since 2004.
Wayne) That is a long time as avatars go. So I take it you do you enjoy the platform?
Time) Yes, it appeals to me on artistic, technical and social levels. No other virtual world comes close to this.
Wayne) I can identify with that. So why pull your vendors offline as I noted in a scripters list ?
Time) If people buy stuff that won’t deliver and I can’t reply via offline IMs because I’m not always at my computer, then I’m going to get unhappy customers…customer satisfaction is incredibly important.
Wayne) What are the top three upsides to Second Life?
Time) Top three positives: Creativity outlet, shared experiences with friends and micropayment capital of the Internet.
Wayne) How about the top three negatives?
Time) Top three negatives: insufficient business and collaboration tools, intermittent stability and no shiny alpha and shadow casting (immersion is very important, anything that breaks the immersion is a big failure IMHO)
Wayne) As a long-standing and well known veteran where do you think Linden Labs should marshall their resources?
Time) Linden Labs should focus on stability, even if that is to be interpretted as adding new features such as Kelly Linden’s work to make it possible to send HTTP requests to scripts in world so that we won’t need to rely on e-mail protocols for sending data into SL. Hopefully this could also be used for messaging between scripts in world too, being careful about security implications of course.
There is currently also a glitch with rendering updated objects such that the most recent change to the objects does not get applied visually until it is either selected or further updated. It impacts the immersion factor at the end of the day, you bring your mind out of the world by one level to recognize that it’s a glitch.
Wayne) When can we expect your vendors to go back online?
Time) There is currently no planned date for bringing them back online. I guess I need my faith to be restored in the Second Life platform before I commit more time to it, at least from a serious content creation perspective.
Wayne) Any parting words of advice?
Time) Hope can be a very powerful driver. If we lose hope, we’ve lost everything.
That’s all folks…let’s hope Linden Lab get things sorted out. Next topic- Security in Second Life…oxymoron or…
This Reuter’s interview holds some major clues. Adam Pasick interviews Mitch Kapor at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. If you are old enough to remember the days of Lotus 1-2-3 then you might recall Kapor as the founder of Lotus Development Corp.
If you are a privacy and security buff you might recognize him as a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
A Few Highlights as fast as I could transcribe them as I was multi-tasking…
Mitch Capor admits to drinking a bit of kool-aid, per his self, talks about:
- New 3D camera project that can store massive amounts of information is on the horizon- this will change Second Life.
- Second Life is diverse, profitable (no revenue disclosure), they learned a lot of lessons, BUT their current model will have to change. (no surprise)
- Second Life is all about:
3D-Editing and…
Minority Report Style Reports (WTF?)
One important observation was that the PC market itself took fifteen years to “mature” and 3D worlds, by themselves, are as complex, if not more so.
Creation of Business Opportunities
Another interesting mention.
Major Themes included:
- Year of Restrictions including VAT, gambling bans and
- Linden Labs must scale
- Two big obstacles- Software limitations and orientation
Caught off Guard
- Second Life was caught off guard a bit by big media explosion and in some ways this new virtual world glimpse frustrated many people. (Second Life hype cycle is really a function of marketing and a natural oscillation.)
Some words from Phillip
Phillip goes on to say as Second Life matures the content gets better. I agree. This was the same for affiliate marketing industry. In my own experience you had a huge influx of new people drawn to an industry because the barrier to entry was low. How things have changed.
For a company that embraced a user-generated, user created- your world- your imagination entreprenurial spirit Linden Labs simply doesn’t seem to understand how to generate revenue from this type of content, or, to teach or model ways to empower publishers to do it.
Pick a side…as for the recent trademark police…I will get to that soon enough. I have seen ups and downs in Second Life and as an avatar who has contributed to the economy in a significant way I can tell you that selling objects intra-world is a royal pain. Fun- yes. Painful- more so.
A post for my family. Each of you can decide which video goes to which person.
Neural Nets Simulation
This is a pretty awesome neural nets simulation. This is roughly what the creator imagined our brain cells work like”…organized chaos
Artificial Evolution with Cross-Breeding by Jonathan McCabe’s
The patterns are made by repeated foldings, rotations and shifts, and then each point is coloured depending on its positions during the operation. A process of artificial evolution was employed to develop the final images, involving repeated variation, selection and “cross breeding” of the recipes used to generate the images.
AI Tetris
However I think the future is shaping up like this- we won’t need to play games, we will have artificial intelligence to do it for us. More time spent fishing I guess, although I like Tetris.
Locale: NSTA 2007 Conference SJ Gates, Jr University of Maryland
Robert Karplus Lecture: Can String Theory Be An Educational Force Multiplier?
Presenters: Sylvester J. Gates, Jr. John S. Toll, Professor of Physics
Overview of Talk The Public Of A Science Educational Possibility NSTA 2007 Conference SJ Gates, Jr University of Maryland
Key Slides on the Slideshow
Slide 7: Being Informed By The Public Of A Science Educational Possibility NSTA 2007 Conference SJ Gates, Jr University of Maryland
Slide 8: String Theory Has Made A Breakthrough In the Public Consciousness * A search on “string theory” at www.google.com reveals 1,080,000 webpages.
Slide 10: String Theory Has Made A Breakthrough In the Public Consciousness * A search on “string theory” at www.google.com reveals 1,080,000 webpages. * “The Elegant Universe,” a book by Brian Greene, was an international best-seller and paved the way for numbers of other such books. * “The Elegant Universe,” a NOVA/PBS television documentary, repeated this success for video presentations. NSTA 2007 Conference SJ Gates, Jr University of Maryland
Slide 11: Hundreds of popular-level presentations on this topic have been given at lectures, symposia, etc. at universities, laboratories, colleges, libraries & museums. NSTA 2007 Conference SJ Gates, Jr University of Maryland
Slide 14: ‘Superstring Theory: The DNA of Reality,’ (a 12 hour, 24 DvD collection of lectures on string theory at the popular level) generated approximately half a million dollars in sales within six months of its release.
Slide 15: This Raises Questions: “Can This Remarkable Amount Of Public Interest In String Theory Be Made To Serve An Educational Goal?” “If The Answer Is Affirmative Then How Is This To Occur?” For several years, considerations and deliberations on this have occurred for the speaker. A model course was envisioned to test this as a project in curriculum development.
Slide 23: Five Course Intellectual Foci (Examples) CULTURE & SCIENCE The Two Cultures: An Essay by C. P. Snow HISTORY & SCIENCE Leucippus, Democritus & the Atom Aristarchus, Eratosthenes, the Size & Shape of the Earth J.G. Stoney & The Electron NSTA 2007 Conference SJ Gates, Jr University of Maryland
Slide 24: Five Course Intellectual Foci (Examples) PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematiics in the Natural Sciences: An Essay by E. Wigner Karl R. Popper & Science as Falsification Thomas Kuhn & Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Slide 25: Five Course Intellectual Foci (Examples) RELIGION & SCIENCE Giordano Bruno & Galileo James Clerk Maxwell and the Christian Proposition Einstein’s View of Creation Father Georges-Henri Lemaître: A Jesuit Cosmologist NSTA 2007 Conference SJ Gates, Jr University of Maryland
Slide 26: Five Course Intellectual Foci (Examples) SCIENCE Illustrative `tour’ of the major strands of physics: • Theory of Newtonian Physics, Theory of Thermodynamics, Theory of Electromagnetism, Quantum Theory, Relativity Theory , Theories of Particle Physics & Cosmology NSTA
Slide 49: Interim Report The course is apparently serving distinct purposes for its two populations: (a.) non-STEM students learn they can ‘get it,’ contrary to their own expectations.
Slide 50: Interim Report (b.) STEM students are being forced to confront issues outside of science that are important (history, philosophy, communication skills, fostering serious science related discussion, faith-based beliefs, and scientists responsibility to society).
Slide 51: Interim Report (c.) The unforeseen level of popularity of this course with STEM students has had the benefit that a high degree of peer-to-peer mentoring (p2pM) occurs.
I apologize for the late April Fool’s Joke, but I prefer being out of sync, …(Scott Jangro has a funny video on April Fool jokes and includes some of my own history around jokes). You see why I had to publish something after the day of joking around. I also liked Jen Goode’s Penguin page. However Sam Harrelson sort of blew up every possible neuron I had left for lack of a better word. Hat tip to all you pranksters and story tellers. I laugh and I cry.
So on with my story on collissions and the value of generalization in a world of specialists and why being a specialist isn’t always great…I am thinking out loud because I can. (My Isaac Asimov beard is almost ready for video.)
Attention Serves Many Masters
My recent posts on Twitter and collisions received some play as I found it Stumbled, on many social networking pages and in some RSS feeds. Neat. It also got my attention as I ran through some stats and saw an alarming change in SERPs for my own blog (e.g. Right here.). I admit that I do not pay much attention to SEO because resources are better spent elsewhere and this blog often serves as my own sounding board, or “thinking out loud” place for others I know. I run small and large experiments, try creative approaches, and sometimes just keep an eye out for who (or what) shows up. Primarily I like to explore and share observations or give an opinion. I am not a lawyer.
I do not mean one should disregard SEO best practice- Don’t Be Evil is nice but perhaps too vague or too simple for the here and now. I think best practice might be to try to add to the value of the Internet through participation, discussion, and perhaps some basic common sense.
As a marketer if your site does not follow some basic architecture rules for Search Engines you will miss out on some of the “influentials” (potential collisions) that can happen.
If you rely on “search” as your primary attention tool you are probably missing out on a number of emerging technologies that connect people to people and therefore people to information. There are lots of sources of free information, there are plenty of people, but putting it together takes knowledge, experience and time and perhaps even a bit of luck. (Makes a side note to Ev- what might have caught your attention was not Unicode but perhaps the nature of chance e.g. gambling on Twitter or it could have been pure chance, on a quantum level just about anything “could” be responsible.)
Quick Review
I allready knew that my blog was dated and I have started the processes for cleaning up and proofing it for problems. In short a “force unknown” injected some pretty nasty links into a YouTube video post about self learning and another repeat injection another entry. It was injected in such a way as to be cloaked and the content I found extremely “disturbing”. Having researched, as a trade, some of the shadier sides of the Internet economy it really has to be nasty to make me flinch. This was pretty rude.
I am still tracking down how it happened, but it did get my attention as I realize how difficult it is to make everything secure in a period of hyper-change. The charge of being the steward of one’s own blog is a tough task today. However I realize that exploration means a trade-off in security. I value exploration and the liberty to do so and believe it worth the risk. Life is all about taking risks and the outcomes from those risks determine the future. I am a skeptical optomist.
I am not the only one battling it with issues of security, stewardship and liberty as I note various search engines and large media sites have either struggled, are struggling or trying to find their own way in a very chaotic world or at least one that seems chaotic. Reality is broken to the point of being “fake”. Actually I would argue “reality is not even real”, but that is beyond the scope of this post and my understanding. Remember I am merely thinking out loud.
Quick thoughts for my friends to ponder:
- Assume new rules are in play and have been in play for some time.
- Computers are truly acting and growing exponentially in ability.
- We need to start assuming personal responsability for our actions.
- This will take some time as no one wants to be ultimately responsible.
- Technology is pacing faster than our legal system and even our human brains can handle.
- A good place to start practicing stewardship is at your home- and online your home is everywhere.
- Wayne should heed the very advice he gives, but he sometimes gets lost in exploration. (Smack- because he is only human.)
- It is ok to make mistakes and learn, but try not to keep making a mistake over and over.
The Outcome and Dust
Over the next weeks you should expect some dust here as I clean-up some things, update Word Press and the various plug-ins I have tested, and continue working on streamlining my own “work processes” for better vigilance, productivity and fun. I add fun because I know I will be a better steward if I really love what I do and I really enjoy games. Make no mistake, as much as I like Word Press, a quick search on any specialist’s sites about various security vulnerabilities and it gives you an idea of how fragile the concept of security can be.
Think about this- There is much talk in game circles about “gold farming” and World of Warcraft. What does it mean when people start outsourcing their fun?
Spammers Kindle Interests
One cannot spend all the time dwelling on the negative- much of the media will happily do this for you. This is a part of the learning process and step one is a reality check. No amount of money, formal education or mentorship can replace experience. I could spend all day, and probably many nights, talking about the nature of reality, but I won’t bore you with mental gymnastics or semantics. I will add that I firmly believe in getting one’s hands dirty. It is important not to accept everything at face value. It is important to remain as explorers and to try to understand that the very construct we operate in shapes what we do or do not do. Even technology can obscure what we do, how we think, and our intent. We are not even aware of this layer.
So a nasty spam injection on an entry about informal learning forced me to open my eyes up further to how Search Engineers might have to cope with this stuff from a pragmatic standpoint, from an engineering standpoint and from an internal and external competition standpoint. I can cite cases like WorldCup Blogspit technique, Spazbox or the Kmeth worm as prime examples of past research I have worked on and just how difficult this can be to sort out. Search Quality Assurance guards another very important ecosystem- SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). It makes me wonder if the philosophy of “Right Livelihood” can, from a pragmatic view, be maintained and who gets to set the rules?
Quality Really is Relative
I admit years of going after spyware pushers and scummy adware makers may have left me blinded from a more “holistic view”. I go on record that I dislike spam. However, I must see spam for what it is- a key parasite that sends signals about our society and our systems.
“Although parasites are often omitted in depictions of food webs, they usually occupy the top position. Parasites can function like keystone species, reducing the dominance of superior competitors and allowing competing species to co-exist.”
To put it bluntly, as much as I hate it- spam, in certain periods, probably serves a more important function than a WII Mote.
Motivations Behind Spam and Stewardship
I would guess that quick economic gain is the primary motivating force behind a spammer’s actions, however this doesn’t mean economic gain is intrinsically “evil”, it could mean that short-term thinking is not healthy for our species as a whole. This has been rehashed over and over recently in the hot debate around affiliates (note Google’s recent moves with Performics and DoubleClick). From experience I know that affiliates are often “the patsy” for spam, lacking resources they will try and test many systems to survive. However, not all affiliates are spammers, nor are all spammers affiliates. Bad apples do exist, but to lump everyone together is a dangerous road to walk down.
It is important to remember gain can be money, influence, social capital, etc. Where and how it is converted is important. “Right Livelihood” is a philosophical concept you can look up in a basic philosophy primer or probably one of those “guides for idiots”. As I examine my own life and experiences I have come to the conclusion that at the end of the day, what I want to strive for is good stewardship. My father taught me this action by example. He maintained very complex communication equipment over a large region, yet he would never hesitate to do the most basic tasks he would ask of other technicians. When leaving a tower site he always took the time to use a broom to clean the site.
It is odd how small actions I see over and over shape my vision and even other’s perception. I am sure in ways I do not know and cannot know. (e.g. Johari Window Communications Theory)
Power of Collisions…
In my interim posts about “collisions”, and a good and constant reason to be a social collider I happened upon a real-life metaphor on how powerful colliders are being built. I found this via Phillip Lessin’s bookmark on his FriendFeed. (Note my FriendFeed and disclosure of using an Amazon “affiliate link” as a crude form of “attention measurement”. This is like caveman era measurement.)
The world’s physicists have spent 14 years and $8 billion building the Large Hadron Collider, in which the colliding protons will recreate energies and conditions last seen a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Researchers will sift the debris from these primordial recreations for clues to the nature of mass and new forces and symmetries of nature.
Wow. That is some heavy stuff, yet companies are spending much more on mobile marketing. That is a constant you can bank on for a little while anyway.
Yet, and I cite the New York Times again:
“The possibility that a black hole eats up the Earth is too serious a threat to leave it as a matter of argument among crackpots,” said Michelangelo Mangano, a CERN theorist who said he was part of the group. The others prefer to remain anonymous, Mr. Mangano said, for various reasons. Their report was due in January.”
Double Wow. This is the New York Times and while we are looking at weird mobile advertising figures while some physicists are potentially creating collisions that could make the earth a black hole, in theory. What next? The cure for cancer? Even if we had such a cure I think it would be important for many people to talk about it first because we probably couldn’t handle it. I would suggest printing it on the back of baseball cards in some sort of statistical code so people could find it later. Everything takes time and time is a finite resource for people. Come to think about it, baseball might not be valuable so I might use rocks or stone.
The Meme Code- Spam or Brilliance?
A game from the creator of FriendFeed…
I think it is quite interesting, yet I worry about diversity. Note how the web pages are encoded to “die”.
The meme code generates a page from a visitor who arrives from Google, the page will create a new modified and randomized version of itself via a database back-end, and creates a link to it in a visible place. The new page will continue do the same as the old page. After some time a page is taken offline or “dies” although how it dies is not made clear.
Over time several pages would be able to specialize on search niches in the Web – word combonations people are looking for that are not yet covered online are created. This makes “evolutionary pages” turn up in the top results which people will actually click on. A search phrase entered by a search engine visitor is just like food in our nature’s ecosystem. Primarily our ecosystem is full of corn- I might add as an aside. The dynamic process of the meme game means there will be specialized or niche pages to catch this “food”.
A page’s “meme code” will lead it to become a successful species with a lot of offspring, or if not popular it will die and be forgotten…this is not new as Lessig’s game has been around for sometime….even affiliates have been doing it with web services and/or datafeeds too only I doubt they encoded a “termination gene” into the pages. Limited resources and financial incentives would probably force smaller publishers to ensure all pages live and to not practice disclosure because it selects against their visability.
See Kids Forbidden to Use Google this is good food for thought. The comments are even more illuminating. As I collide along I start to make some neat connections and new ways of seeing and experiencing the world. I share them because I am able to do so. I think therefore I am.
How Can You Collide with People and Have Fun? Here is a simple and short list. Five simple concepts or exercises.
Break your pattern: This is much harder than it seems because patterns are so ingrained.
Talk with others outside of your core discipline from time to time. Exchange information. Be tolerant.
Spend some time in the humanities, music, or philosophy to find common ground or evaluate new and old views.
Understand that collissions can be bumpy, but you will grow your business and you will grow. That is OK.
Help someone out. I don’t want get into the philosphical arguments about the nature of altruism (selfish or not)- just help someone or take the time to thank them. It simply makes the experience here more fun.
Example Exercise. Think about Music and why you listen to what you do? How does it make you feel? Today my son is using the Wii to play songs on Guitar Hero. The songs or genres he finds “main stream” did not even exist when I was his age, and when I was a foolish teenager they were considered “taboo”. I am an adult, I am still foolish yet wise enough to know I am foolish, but at any age I can appreciate music.
Here is some music via a video (Semi-Random- I selected it from someone’s Last.fm feed) and it is not a band I follow: Faith & the Muse - Burning season. Do you like it or not? What do the images conjure in your mind? Who listens to this? What neurotransmitters change in the brain when you watch or listen to music? I don’t know- that is the downside of being a generalist in a specialized world. I am asking the same questions because I think they are good questions to ask and by building bridges I can find some experts.
So excuse me while I randomly select someone from Twitter or maybe somewhere else for my next experiment. I plan to use a new O/S, and a couple of dice rolls, and the room temperature to help with the randomness- there are some things in life I don’t want to outsource e.g. being random.
The quick recap of one of my usual winding posts that go on and on….but really worth thinking about. The short version Chev summed up in an insult , yes it is true but the mnemonic is far more succinct. (For those late to the game- we are one and the same, only the avatar version does not always behave as predicted and generally denies I exist.)
- Chev, our rogue knight, wonders out loud in twitter after viewing a Caledonian island covenant.
- Helpful Pfanderson steps up to guide the knight with some information.
- I follow-up via e-mail and ask three questions of Mr. Drinkwater, esteemed and humble resident of Caledon. Carried to him via the helpful Lady Anderson.
- Later this pm, after many e-mails, Tweets, Skypes, etc from folks, and judging by unique visitors on my steampunk’o'meter I find it thrilling to say Caledonians enjoy reading long windy posts. That does not excuse my poor writing, only that I believe that Caledonians will read anything with a vigor that is not quite human.
I received a letter from Mr. JJ Drinkwater. I have not replied back to Mr. Drinkwater, although I shall, and it is not for being at a loss for words, but because after reading it…I felt intruding would be like- well- interrupting a very nice play.
Upon Mr. Porter’s Questions on Caledon, its history, and boons.
These were brokered to Mr. Drinkwater through the quill of Ms. Anderson and I report below. Enjoy and savor fair reader, to use a word from Mr. Drinkwater, the “zest” in this reply. I have made small edits to links for purpose of aesthetics and other slight changes, otherwise this is the text as sent from the good fellow. I shall attempt commentary later, for now my hope is that more Caledonians send me letters so that I may digest them first, then share them. It is rather selfish, but I am a rogue and it is a stingy pleasure.
My Dear Sir.
You raise some extraordinarily interesting questions, indeed….some of which I cannot even presented to answer, but can query in their turn. Before I begin, however, I should like to say that, devoted as the Caledon Library is to our fair nation, we cannot pretend to stand in for Caledon’s sundry Founders, Historians, and Pundits, many of whom, I am entirely convinced, will make themselves heard on ths matter, either at this estimable table, or from their own Podia.
1) Does the Caledonian citizen’s interests in literature influence how well curated the history of the build seems to be?
That is a dangerous question to ask a Librarian, sir, as we are apt to place literature at the centre of all things, and to see all things by its light. However, since you have asked…
Caledon was created to be a 19th-century environment—but Caledon is very far from being a historical re-creation. I like to say that when one comes to Caledon, rather than entering the 19th century, one enters the 19th century imagination. The world of Caledon has as much in it of Ivanhoe and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as it does of *The Mayor of Casterbridge*, *Hard Times*, or even *The Pickwick Papers*. This means that Caledon draws on a very large body of literature and history, instead of (like many other RP regions) a single created world, or body of mythology. Moreover, although it is nowhere stated, the implicit story is (arguably) that Caledon is British, or is Britain, as seen through some appropriate looking-glass.This means that the flourishing of the English-language novel in the 19th century gives Caledon—and its library—a rich source of material to draw on.
During a most edifying conversation, on Orange, this week, the following was said (with much edited out inbetween)
[12:40] Sin Trenton: When “pure” Victorians meet “pure” Steampunkers. In other groups in the past, there is alienation.. In Caledon forums, people promptly decided they wanted to learn more about the other side
(snip)
[12:40] Ordinal Malaprop: Yes, actually, I did want to mention stylistic divisions - not in terms of drama necessarily
(snip)
[12:42] JJ Drinkwater has it categorized into the imaginary 19th century of….. Dickens/Hardy/Thackeray, Verne/Wells, and Scott/Rackham
I suppose I should have said the Imaginary 19th *centuries*, for each of those groups of authors deals in a particular genre of imagination. In Caledon, indeed, the Masters of Technology are not on Mars, they are flying overhead in something brass-riveted and steam-powered, and Fairies are not at the bottom of the garden, they are next door throwing a rout and waltzing for dear life. But what *is* a literature, if it is not how a group of persons…a community, a nation, or what have you…conceives of itself and its surrounds, and pases that conception between themselves, and so on to the larger world, and perhaps to the world that is removed from what they limn, in time as well as space?
I must confess my brain (known for its inelasticity, it is true) will not stretch to encompass the idea of Caledon as a build, unless you are using “build” as a shorthand for “the constructed evidence of a community”? In which case, there is indeed a great consonance between the sundry literacies of Caledon-the-c0mmunity (and how Caledonians read such literatures as inspire them) and manner in which they have depicted, and commemorated, what has struck them about Caledon-the-place
2) Are there any specialized tools or processes that a community can use to “keep its identity”. Regain its identity?
Here I am beyond my depth, as I am but poorly acquainted with the thinking of Archivists, who ( if I am not mistaken, which I may well be) ask us to conceive that what a culture creates, and preserves, is the stuff it will use to understand its own nature, or identity, or, if you like, its geist or spirit or soul.
However, from my own little experience, I can say that what Caledon seems to use are tools that are scarcely specializied, but to use them in a manner which is informed by the will and desire to be a community, indeed, perhapse even to be a People.
The Caledon Forums, and the Caledon Aethero-blogo-sphere, to which Sir Edward has graciously pointed us, uses blogs and wikis and discussion threads and suchlike, it seems to me, to instantiate the vast fluctuating wonder that is the identity of Caledon. They do this by sustaining, and making available, over time, a conversation posessing a thousand topics, but through which runs a submerged thread of “Is this Caledon?” “How is this Caledon” “How is this important to Caledon?” “How is this useful to Caledon?” &c. We speak of many matters, but they are all, somehow, matters of Caledon, and it is through this long and multfaceted conversation that the identity of Caledon comes forward to meet the eye.
I consulted long-time Caledon Steward Serra Anansi on this point, and she put in neatly into the following nutshell: “Every joy, trial, cause or flame war links us all for better or worse…”
I would add that it is not only Caledon’s numerous accomplished builders, but also its cultural institutions….its galleries and theatre and musical venues, perhaps even its library…that feed the delight we all take in this. Every time Radio Riel gives us another day of music from Miss Austen’s era or dances us gaily through a Burns Night Supper (http://radioriel.blogspot.com/2008/01/robbie-burns-and-music-of-scotland.html), every time we see our own images reflected in an exhibit of portraits we enrich our sense of community, and its pleasures.
3) How has having a “history” helped the overall community at Caledon?
This, I believe, is a question for the Historians of Caledon, among which honoured company I dare not place myself.
However, I will speculate that it is as something in the nature of a shared narrative, a set of stories we may tell and retell one another, and by our actions extend indefinitely, that Caledon’s “history” has helped us bond into a community.
We are, of course, making it up as we go along, when we perform the daily duties and pleasures that make up the life of Caledon….only, we are not making it up out of whole cloth. Rather, we are elaborating, each of us in our own way, the stories we already know. We have, as it were, a body of images and devices and motifs, and therefore both our stock of Caledon Characters and our skeleton bits of business ready to hand, and, like the players in the Commedia dell’arte, with their Lazzi and Scenarios, we are ready to charge onto the stage and improvise for all we are worth, and to the enjoyment of all concerned.
That we needn’t guess, or rely on our own fallible memories, for what has made up Caledon, but may rather contemplate the evidence of Caledon’s Caledonian-ness in a variety of places, I would think, only serves to facilitate the zest with which we go about the thing.
I am, sir, your most humble etc etc
JJ Drinkwater
It is I who must thank you Mr. Drinkwater and other Caledonians that I am sure debated the issue in some chamber far away. It is rare to get a response that is not only entertaining and humble and yet so courteous I am want to give up being a wandering knight, a long story really how that occured, and sit still in my classroom chair and read proper. Then again, who would Caledonians make merry over? I can serve, if anything, as a bad example of knighthood and will continue to poorly question any Caledonian who would waste time with this Chevalier.
The Association of Virtual Worlds believes that virtual worlds represent a major information and technological revolution in how we work, play and live per the site. I think any long-time user agrees, despite setbacks, these pocket universes are major market disrupters. “The Association mission is to serve those companies and individuals who are dedicated to the advancement of this multi-billion dollar global industry and reach out to those who have not yet found virtual worlds.”
I might add I’d like to see more of the “multi” going out to the content creators, where the rubber meets the road. Like it or not scripting will in many ways become commoditized for common applications, and builds will be prefabricated or modular. However, the story tellers, the community facilitators, the people who know WHAT tools and HOW to use them effectively and creatively…are getting left out in the cold and their work, coupled with builders and scripters makes a world. Otherwise we have static code and primitive objects. We need bards, and we must value their work and time. Because the work is virtual does not make it less valuable.
This revolution started with people decades ago and it needs to get back to people. That is the essence of the “virtual world” or “web 2.0″, or any name you want to place on this compressed, immersive and fast paced media consumption and interaction. Think about it- no matter how immersive I am willing to be the majority of time users spend- chatting and talking. The visual element provides “presence”
The Goals of The Association of Virtual Worlds are:
1. To create a forum for the discussion of issues affecting the industry
2. To assist in the development of industry procedures and standards
3. To promote the virtual worlds industry, its interest and developments
4. To educate on the benefits of virtual worlds to enhance work and play
5. To offer business and social networking opportunities
6. To connect the public and consumers with members of the virtual worlds industry
7. To participate in the determination of the collective interests of the industry
8. To further the common interests of the industry
9. To provide leadership for the betterment of the industry
10. To recognize accomplishment within the virtual worlds industry
I had a long discussion about the history of various virtual worlds with Timeless Prototype. He joined and I hope will be committed as any group needs DNA from elder thought shapers. We had some discussion about direction and what compelled me to get involved on a deeper level was the agnostic focus and the need, as Time called it, for a “bridge component”- in short a second wave person of varied skillsets who had NOT been indoctrinated into the old system. I can see wisdom in this. I am second wave, and I do see things differently and I certainly have different ideas.
I am passionate about the future of these spaces, their preserveration and what they can do for humanity. I also realize they are very immature in their development. That is ok- this means we are ahead of the curve and a good thing too- they are not as easy as they look. Get started now.
To address the goals, or my personal thoughts on them.
1. There are many forums. Each has its distinct flavor and place. However, I rarely find people who want to interact using their surname. I would like to see that in a professional forum- accountability.
2. To assist in the development of industry procedures and standards. This is sorely needed. In every aspect from media standards to privacy disclosures and well- to about everything. This is a big deal, and I don’t think it is an easy task. People must be sure they don’t give up their rights and rants and raves are not going to protect them.
3. To promote the virtual worlds industry, its interest and developments. Evangelism. Pure and simple, an emerging industry needs wins and good examples to point out. In business this means measureable ROI or a sound promise of ROI down the road. ROI doesn’t always mean immediate dollars. These worlds are here to stay, I believe that and it requires unlearning some things and learning new ones- the time to get started in earnest is now. Nor does this all fall on Second Life’s shoulders. There are many promising candidates that are up and coming.
4. To educate on the benefits of virtual worlds to enhance work and play. In my opinion this is where lines have really gotten crossed. We have went horribly wrong when our work is no longer enjoyable, when people must work extreme hours in miserable environments to survive or for commendation. We have went astray as humans if we have kicked play out of our work.
Play is that creative spark that causes breakthroughs in our work. I recall doing research on unicode and domain name redirection and wondering if unicode could be injected into twitter. To be honest I was looking for an offensive sign to express disgust in a compressed fashion. I ended up with a pack of playing cards and concept of betting via twitter which Ev, the CEO, seemed to like. I did too. Look at the hand I drew. This was work, but it evolved into play that, if I can get Bleys motivated to finish it up, could provide a means to completely subvert the micro-blogging channel for a completely different purpose- relaxation and entertainment. Healthy work can be play, and play is healthy work.
5. To offer business and social networking opportunities. Oddly enough I find myself often socializing with my closest friends via skype paired with the Second Life client. The same bonding took place for affiliatesummit.com or RSA where I have worked virtually in e-commerce, and security for ten years. Networking opportunities, especially face to face, are important steps in a relationship. Virtual worlds do seem to accelerate these relationships, but they are often cemented face to face. This is how I knew Dave was in earnest from the day he told me liked the concept of “flying” to when I met him in Chicago. Virtual world users know it is a powerful tool, but not a complete replacement.
6. To connect the public and consumers with members of the virtual worlds industry. This is a good thing, because the media likes to beat the drum of the fringe and the negative. The fringe was always there. It was in USENET, it was and still is in IRC and it will be in virtual worlds. That does not devalue the medium.
7. To participate in the determination of the collective interests of the industry. Right now that is a priority, alot is needed and hopefully this won’t get mired down in muck. However, again let’s use Linden Labs (I stress Labs and not Second Life- they are a lab.)- they simply cannot solve all the problems. A concerted effort, and probably compromise will be needed, on behalf of users. The status quo has not pushed it ahead quickly enough. It is our world and our imagination- people must dispense of the idea that Lindens are gods, and that they are people like us and systematically work towards change. It will take time, in the last two industry births I witnessed and took part this meant years. I see the same pattern. People are people. Mistakes are made. We move on, we only fail if we do not learn from them.
8. To further the common interests of the industry. At this point I think recognizing and proving it is really viable, and it needs some turns and twists to get back to that direction. Campers to gather traffic is a poor tactical push. Land you “buy” is a rather shaky concept. Viability means people staying. People staying means there is community. Communities are viable. Big brands who want lift need only sponsor wholesome things and learn by interacting through the builds. That is step one. This is not a fast fused turn around. Go buy CPC and hope a botnet doesn’t tear you apart.
9. To provide leadership for the betterment of the industry. Here one has to be careful that leadership does not become agenda laden. Personally I like the idea of leaders with stewardship. It should should have a diverse mix of age and discipline expertise.
10. To recognize accomplishment within the virtual worlds industry. This is needed too. For example, Second Life is really a “closed community” and if you are not in the circle- it is dizzying. Everyone is eager to point out faults, but let’s look at the strides. Everyday I look back at the evolution of the PC and think “wow- I can’t believe I can do this now”. It annoys me that I am trying to run viability tests in a medium that breaks down frequently, but I know that risk going in. Those who accomplish something realize this and either move on to safer ground or stay at high risk.
I’ll leave you with what Dave posted:
Yes, Wayne, I do love to fly. No question about it. Since our first meeting, though, I’ve dug a bit deeper.
Seems that virtual worlds do a very good job at simulating real life experiences. So, flying inside of a virtual world feels like flying. Meeting up with some avatars in a virtual world feels like a real life, in-person interaction. Recently, I was spending time with an avatar while we watched a third putting up a structure in front of us. Despite the fact that my friend was in Edmonton, I was in Colorado, and the builder was physically at her desk in China, it felt only slightly different than standing with a friend peeking into a construction site. Amazing.
I understand that this feeling of being together is called “presence
Posted in 3D Social Networks, Attention, Future Shock, Second Life, Social Networks, Virtual Markets, Virtual Reality, Virtual Worlds by wayne.porter on July 18th, 2008 
