Heh. Personally I would probably doodle something that would land me in trouble…they probably figured adults like me shouldn’t be turned loose with crayons. Therefore the kids get a whack at the scholarship.
However, with the Doodle 4 Google competition, we’re making an exception…
Doodle 4 Google gives U.S. students in grades K-12 the opportunity to design a doodle for the Google homepage. Students will be asked to draw a doodle that best represents the theme “What if…?” We ask ourselves this question every day when we build our products, so we thought we would ask the same of the future doodlers.
A panel of expert judges and Googlers will select 40 regional winners, who will be invited to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, in May. Four national finalists will be announced as the result of a public vote. From there, Dennis will select one lucky student whose doodle will be on the Google homepage for a day in the U.S. This winner will also receive a $10,000 college scholarship and a technology grant for his or her school.
Googleplex…ensure your children have security clearance! Seriously I am going to take my own shot at a doodle and try to sneak it in and save a kid (he or she can have the scholarship)…not like my GUID gives away my age…well I know it does, but I will try it anyway.
And for all of you that tried to draw Tippy the Turtle for years…this is your chance to subvert the system since we are going to stop taking it all so seriously.
I am not saying educators do not! The system does not get it and when I see this
The Immersive Education Initiative is an international collaboration of universities, colleges, research institutes, consortia and companies that are working together to define and develop open standards, best practices, platforms, and communities of support for virtual reality and game-based learning and training systems.
Immersive Education combines 3D and virtual reality (VR) technology with digital media to bring distance learning and self-directed learning to a new level. Unlike traditional distance learning, Immersive Education is designed to immerse and engage students in the same way that today’s best video games grab and keep the attention of players. Immersive Education combines interactive virtual reality and sophisticated digital media (voice chat, game-based learning modules, audio/video, and so forth) with collaborative online course environments and classrooms. Immersive Education gives students a sense of “being there” even when attending class in person isn’t possible, practical, or desirable, which in turn provides faculty and remote students with the ability to connect and communicate in a way that greatly enhances the learning experience.
Immersive Education and the Media Grid public compute utility on which it is built were recently recognized with a national award by Computerworld as “…innovative, promising technologies which hold the potential to significantly affect society in the near future.”
A) No kidding. Second Lifers have known this for a long time.
B) I do not need pixels to get immersion…(they are fun though)
SOME LOWER TECH EXAMPLES:
PLAYING WITH MUD
SNORKELING FRESHWATER PONDS
WALKING IN THE WOODS TO GATHER HERBS
TEARING SHIT APART FOR FUN (just got my blog censored for that- maybe this is why the system doesn’t get it- protecting ourselves from ourselves?)
MAKING STUFF OUT OF ODDS AND ENDS TO SOLVE A PROBLEM OR SEE HOW IT WORKS
LISTENING TO STORIES AROUND A CAMP FIRE
Which is why I try not to ever get to immersed in some mechanical “college marketing books”.
Phillip Jose Farmer
The World of Tiers: Volume One (World of Tiers)
In the World of Tiers we meet earthlings Robert Wolff and Paul Janus Finnigan (alias Kickaha) who through strange circumstances are “gated” into a parallel pocket universe. These pocket universes are maintained by mostly insane “Lords” who are paranoid and spend most of their time trying to kill each other to stave off ennui. The World of Tiers is just that, a multi-tiered world that spans a virtual garden of Eden and changes each level until we come to a deadly palace at the top. I won’t spoil it, but the first three are really good, old-fashioned rip roaring reads.
Farmer’s books went on to inspire the late Roger Zelazny who wrote The Chronicles of Amber. He was so inspired by The World of Tiers Zelanzy actually dedicated one of the books in the series to the main characters Jadawin and Kickaha. I have found Amber to be an incredibly accurate metaphor for Second Life. (Matter of fact you might find the quixotic Chevaliers names and behavior to be quite similar to those of Amberites at times.). In the Amber stories, Amber and the Courts of Chaos are the only two “true” worlds. Everything else, even Earth, are called or simply the byproducts of “shadows”. The royal family of Amber that negotiates the Pattern, and the equivalent Chaos nobility who have walked the Logrus, can freely travel through the shadows and alter them at will. The obvious metaphor for Second Life being that of some arbitrary static reality and the existence of an infinite number of “negotiated realities”. Furthermore we have the metaphor of a scripter or builder who can literally “create” whatever they choose- it is nothing but Shadow and really quite malleable- even the physics.
The books are narrated by Corwin who suffers from amnesia, escapes, tracks down his sister Florimel, and discovers that he is a prince of Amber. He is taken by his brother Random to walk the Pattern. The Pattern is the construct which gives the multiverse its order. Walking the Pattern restores Corwin’s memory and his powers to travel through shadow…I won’t spoil the rest and since it is late I will let the Wikipedia hammer at the metaverse concepts within.
Amber and Second Life Parallels
The series is based on the concept of parallel worlds, domination over them being fought between the kingdoms at the extreme ends of Shadow—Amber, the one true world of Order, and the Courts of Chaos. Amberites of royal blood—those descended from Oberon (and ultimately his parents, Dworkin, formerly of the Courts of Chaos, and the Unicorn of Order herself) —are able to “walk in Shadow”, mentally willing changes to occur around them. These changes are, in effect, representative of the Shadow-walker passing through different realities. There are apparently infinite realities, either found by the Shadow-walker locating such worlds or by creating them (we the readers are never sure; neither are the characters).
Within this multiverse, Zelazny deals with some interesting philosophical concepts about the nature of existence, compares and contrasts the ideas of Order and Chaos, and plays with the laws of physics—they can differ from Shadow to Shadow; for instance, gunpowder does not ignite in Amber, which is why the characters all carry swords. Other Shadows have green skies and blue suns, cities of glass and Kentucki Fried Lizzard Partes, and worlds out of our own fiction can come to life.
In short, as I have maintained, reality is what we mutually negotiate- like modems we will find a common protocol. A game is what we choose to make out of it and if left idle humans will create their own rules and games to satisfy their needs.
Pixels, Mud, Time and Collaboration…oh yeah and Permission to break the pattern. Oh yes and teaching us how to think…
I wasn’t long in world when I managed to trip into Fleep, most might know her as the socialmediachain reaction person I always wax eloquent about- e.g. the teacher I wish I had, etc. It is a curioius relationship andone put into motion over a “video” blog collision and culminating at the Second Life conference in Chicago. Fleep (Chris) is moderating the EDUCASE 2007 Discussion on Virtual Worlds. This event will take place simultaneously on-site in Seattle as well as in Second Life.
EDUCAUSE 2007 Hot Topic Discussion: Virtual Worlds
Thursday, October 25th, 2007 @ 12:45PM SLT
Moderator: AJ Kelton (SL: AJ Brooks), Montclair State University In-World Moderator: Chris Collins (SL: Fleep Tuque), University of Cincinnati
Send questions for the speaker in Instant Message to: Laura Onomatopoeia
Abstract
Will teaching in a virtual environment really be the next big thing? A number of institutions and faculty think so, and that number is growing. This session brings together those who want to discuss how virtual learning environments impact all facets of the institution. Given the position of Second Life in this arena, it will probably dominate most discussions.
This event will be LIVE-AUDIO using the built in voice client in Second Life. You do not need a microphone to participate, but you must have voice chat enabled to hear the events in Seattle.
Please see the directions below for setup. (Tip- CTRL-P will bring up preferences menu.)
Remove Your “Bling”
Please remove any bling, HUDs, scripted objects, extra prims, and particle generating attachments prior to your arrival at the venue. We expect a full house, and the less “stuff” in the sim, the less lag everyone will experience. Thanks for your cooperation! For those not in the know- bling is a particle effect that makes watches, rings, or just about anything “glimmer” like diamonds. In a high demand event this is the polite “thing” to do- as it allows the servers to handle more avatars.
Enable Second Life Voice Chat
PLEASE KEEP YOUR MICROPHONE MUTED
Edit Menu at top - Preferences - Voice Chat tab:
- Enable voice chat
- Hear voice chat from CAMERA position
- Check BOTH boxes under Push to Talk
- Click “OK”
Adjust your Camera Position
- From the View Menu at the top, select CAMERA CONTROLS
- Use the blue circles that appear on your screen to adjust your camera view
Turn off Name Tags
Edit Menu at top - Preferences - General tab:
- Show Names: NEVER
- Click “OK”
Still confused?
Right click one of the volunteers seated at the panel table when you arrive - and choose “Send IM” from the pie menu.
Have I been in torpor? No. I have been resting up after my near fatal crash, or at least detaching from the net enough to clear thoughts and mull over the vast amount of information, theory and news that keeps flying my way. At times shutting off the spigot so I can listen. Not easy to do, but needed.
Still for those wondering- I have a pulse despite a publishing hiatus. I have been (and remain) deeply immersed in:
- unified communications
- Web 2.0
- “Security 3.0″, and, of course
- Metaverses and culture….which continue to totally fascinate me, or more the revolutions I find happening inside of them. I have went into deep immersion into the ether in the wee hours- in this case Second Life.
My AV has hot air balloned over empty sims, horse galloped through deserted suburbia, bought up slums, swept into griefer zones to trade tech, visited goth pits, coffin camping, entered places that were majestic and others that were too offensive for even my Indiana avatar to handle. I even jumped off the WSE (World Stock Exchange) with a parachute. The best way to know terrain is to get ones hands dirty. I do believe that. In this case, pixels are elusive.
I felt I (or my avatar who thinks he “controls me”) needed to go “Indiana Jones style” to find out what is/was really happening- good and bad.. A report soon…far too much to tell and like any story- you can’t tell it all, but it gets pretty intriguing. I have even contemplated keeping an AV journal…but then that shard of synthetic being might get more bold.
But metaverses, unified communications, web 2.0 and security are ALL related.
A side note on: “Twitter and Social Media Chain Reactions” that I wrote on March 18th, 2007. In that post I looked at how Twitter (it could be any nano blogging platform…) can forge new paths. Small sentences, mixed media, and memes propogate.
Noted this gem from Fleep. (Love the 30 prim cottage btw- if you read this Fleep.)
Fleep finds it and….this twit emerges three months or so later.
If you have read Ray Bradbury’s 1952 short story “Sounds of Thunder” you will recall the plight of Eckels who “blew it” and history too.
A short summary: This well-known story about time travel revolved around a business called Time Safari, Inc. Time Safari promises to take people back in time so they can hunt prehistoric animals even the grand Tyrannosaurus rex.
In order to avoid a “time paradox”, Time Safari is careful to leave history undisturbed on the principle that even a minute change can cause major changes in the future. Travellers are only allowed to shoot animals that are already about to die, and they are required to stay on a path which hovers slightly above the ground. Hunting trophies are not taken; no souvenir is allowed except a photograph of the hunter standing next to the dead, and I think they even removed bullets. This was possible because T.S. knew when the animal was about to die of natural causes or by accident- like a tree falling on it. It was for the “thrill of it all”. I won’t spoil it- it is worth reading, but the story is a fictional exploration of what later came to be called the “Butterfly Effect”.
The butterfly effect is a phrase that encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. Small variations of the initial condition of a nonlinear dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system. So this is sometimes presented as esoteric behavior, but can be exhibited by very simple systems: for example, a ball placed at the crest of a hill might roll into any of several valleys depending on slight differences in initial position.
The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly’s wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that ultimately cause a tornado to appear (or prevent a tornado from appearing). The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale phenomena. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different.
Recurrence, the approximate return of a system towards its initial conditions, together with sensitive dependence on initial conditions are the two main ingredients for chaotic motion. They have the practical consequence of making complex systems, such as the weather, difficult to predict past a certain time range (approximately a week in the case of weather).
How do I tie this in? I have read lately a few pundits predicting the “demise” of certain companies namely Second Life, MySpace, and Twitter. I say- so what? Even if Second Life where to implode tomorrow more metaverses are lining up to explode into existence. Even if MySpace were to blow apart from critical mass and the abuse of that mass, the vertical vultures are prepared to swoop in and fill in. Even if Twitter, bless its soul, were to flatline tomorrow, the clones are in wait. I still maintain Twitter should be adopted for the Enterprise as a cultural and a tool to desilo. Throw out power points and Evan- get an Enterprise version of Twitter behind the firewall. Actually most of these technologies are UNDERUTILIZED.
Still the efforts are pioneering and the concepts are sound, provocative, useful- the future- ask ANY kid. They might not Second Life, but four million Club Penguin. If they are on Club Penguin they are not watching T.V. They are not doing alot of things traditional media powers might believe.
The firms might die, but the effect, the “concept” is out of the bottle and transfiguring the landscape.
MySpace
- MySpace has become a basic badge for the “digital self” and the destruction of the common aesthetic. Yes it is clunky and ugly, but it has mass- which is good and bad. The larger the system the more prone to errors, breakdowns, problems, gaming and mischief.
Twitter
- Twitter- Microchunked information simply makes sense and more sense to canonize thought in “blogs”. Much like contemporary mass IM, now a decade old, Twitter continues to impact our language as we seek to squeeze in information. Sadly much of what we write may be in danger of getting lost on media we won’t be able to read so keep your paper (or rock tablet) handy.
Second Life
- Second Life is effecting behavior and an early sign of the rise of nascent posthumanism. The injection of a robust economic system is causing mass change. For example, new exchanges exist to trade equities in firms that produce goods and products that simply do not exist beyond the purpose of creating goods for “Avatars” or digital representations for the self. You get dividends in currency that has no value beyond a EULA and the survival of a company. Big deal? I have talked to dozens of traders (due to my vantage point) from all walks of life fully prepared to wager on the virtual exchange, but when the NASDAQ says something to the effect of- “Yes we would consider trading in a virtual world”- people need to wake up.
All of these so called “doomed” companies are not failures- they are pioneers. It is the concept that matters. These are only a few examples of “social media or socializing around media and chain reactions.”.
These are conversations that never would, could or might have existed.
Each word from an individual is on par with a flap of a butterfly’s wings.
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Watch the film- but there are a treasure trove of great books by Pressfield if you like historical fiction.
All I can say is the movie was just what I expected- graphic violence with surreal effects. Yes- Leonidas (Sparta) vs. Xerxes I (Persia) and the Battle of Thermopylae. 300 appears to be an almost comic-book, souped-up, crazy visual feast (hardly “spartan”) tale of one of the most fascinating battles in history- the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) where a group of Greeks stave off the invading Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae (Hot Springs). Mass carnage, hereos, etc emerge.
The Spartans (and Thespians) were outnumbered in a ratio that was nothing more than sheer and utter lunacy- the kind of thing Alexander would have liked I think. Alot of numbers are bandied around, but it is safest to say the Persian army numbered at least 80,000, while the Greek force checked in at about 7,000 at the onset.
If you were Xerxes you had to grin when you came into the pass and saw the odds. What he did not factor in was the Spartan’s grim determination, the terrain, how well the Spartans were equipped, trained and conditioned, the home field advantage, regional nationalism, and the out-right brutal ferocity of the foe. While Xerxes finally went on to smash the band after three days of brutal fighting- it came at a high price. In retrospect the three days delay and the bravery of the Spartans probably provided the morale boost that enabled the halt of the Persian forces.
King Leonidas and his Spartans blocked the only road through which Xerxes I (there is a Xerxes II) could pass. The Spartans might have even lasted a bit longer had not a local traitor, revelaled a mountain path (should have read Sun Tzu?) that enabled him to move troops behind the Greek lines and crush them in a hammer move.
Leonidas stayed behind with 300 Spartans (Thus the film title 300) and 700 Thespian volunteers even though they knew they were doomed to die. This resistance allowed the retreat of the other Greek forces. The Persians succeeded in a rout, but at a great price in both morale and losses.
This pause also gave Athens the critical time to prepare for a naval battle that would come to determine the outcome of the war. Also the subsequent Greek victory in the Battle of Salamis left much of the Persian navy wrecked. Xerxes had to hoof it back to Asia and left his army under Mardonius, who was to meet the combined Greeks in battle to put an end to it. The combined Greeks assembled at full strength and decisively defeated the Persians in the Battle of Plataea. This the end of that expansion into Europe.
If you think about it- the world might be a totally different place without these three-hundred and the bold stand.
Three Monuments…Stones and Stories
Epitaph of Simonides
The original stone has not been preserved. Instead the epitaph was engraved on a new stone erected in 1955.
I’ll stick to Pressfield although many other translations are offered on the text:
“Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
that here, obedient to their laws, we lie”
- Steven Pressfield, in Gates of Fire
Leonidas monument
A modern monument, “Leonidas Monument”, was constructed in the 1950’s.
It features a bronze statue of Leonidas. A sign, under the statue, reads simply:
“Come and take them!”.
Thespians monument
In 1997, a second monument was officially unveiled by the Greek government, this one dedicated to the 700 Thespians who fought with the Spartans- I am glad they got a toast in history. Under the statue a sign reads “In memory of the seven hundred Thespians”. Not very stirring, but still they are remembered.
Fun, but fictional, Reading and yes i have read them all with zeal. By far The Virtues of War is the best, but The Battle of Thermopylae and The Last Amazons were excellent in their own way. The Tides of War takes some time to warm up with, but does not dissappoint either. Stack up on all of them- The Virtues of War is an excellent audio CD too.
Depicts the battle as told by a squire of Dienekes- Xeo. He was wounded during the fight, piled under the dead, when found. Xerxes himself presses Xeo to reveal how they held them at bay for almost a week. Xeo, however, begins at the beginning of his own life, when his childhood home in northern Greece was taken over and he escapes to Sparta. There he is drafted into the elite Spartan guard and schooled in the art of war. Spartan miliarty schooling is quite brutal.
“The forerank of the enemy collapsed immediately as the first shock hit it; the body-length shields seemed to implode rearward, their anchoring spikes rooted slinging from the earth like tent pins in a gale. The forerank archers were literally bowled off their feet, their wall-like shields caving in upon them like fortress redoubts under the assault of the ram…. The valor of the individual Medes was beyond question, but their light hacking blades were harmless as toys; against the massed wall of Spartan armor, they might as well have been defending themselves with reeds or fennel stalks.”
This is a fictional account of Alexander The Great and his youth (in Pella) and final demise which was probably in Babylon. The book is great, but I think the Audio CD is far, far better. Pay special attention to the concept of “daimon”.
This book covers his rise after his father Phillip II is knocked off, the gritty Battle at Granicus River, the Siege of Tyros, his march into Assyria where he whips Darius in the incredible Battle of Gaugamela and explores some of his atypical military tactics- and the impact of luck- or fate - depending on how your view.
Alexander, how after Gaugamela, pursues Darius as far as Arbela- loses the trail as one of Darius’ supporters leads him astray (and dies for it). Later he heads to Ecbatana, where Darius is ultimately betrayed by his own (which outrages Alexander) and cast into a ditch.
In this account Alexander actually admires his foe and deeply regrets it when Darius’ own forces turn on him and murder him- Alexander really wanted a friend and felt that if anything Darius could identify with him- or course as long as Darius stepped down and Alexander was top dog. Whether you think Alexander was a genius or a megalomaniac (perhaps both) the story is fast paced, lively, visceral and impossible to put down or stop listening too. While driving, I found myself doing anything to slow down, take extra time, etc because the audio was so compelling.
The events in The Tides of War take take place after the Gates of Fire novel. Pressfield focuses on the 27-year Peloponnesian War, the story around the loathed, and revered, Athenian soldier Alcibiades.
This tale is told by two narrators. Jason, an older nobel and Polymides, Alcibiades’ right-hand, now in jail for Acibiades’ murder. This book is probably not his best work, and you need to have some working knowledge of Greek history and perhaps a map handy if want to follow the often confusing action. Nevertheless, once you are on the bandwagon you will enjoy it.
As you can see from this quote, Pressfieldexcels in vivid writing:
“As far as sight could carry, the sea stood curtained with smoke and paved with warcraft. Immediately left, a battleship had rammed one of the vessels in the wall; all three of her banks were backing water furiously, to extract and ram again, while across the breach screamed storms of stones, darts, and brands of such density that the air appeared solid with steel and flame.”
To Victory, Fever Dream, Xerxes’ Tent, The Wolf, Returns a King, Submission, The Ephors, Cursed by Beauty, What Must a King Do?, Goodbye My Love, No Sleep Tonight, Tree of the Dead, The Hot Gates, Fight in the shade, Come and Get Them, No Mercy, Immortals Battle, Fever Dream, Tonight we Dine in Hell, The Council Chamber, Xerxes’ Final Ofer, A God King Bleeds, Glory, Message For The Queen, Remember Us.
Ubuntu, the Linux distro led by Canonical Ltd., a private company founded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth- a South African entrepreneur who was the second self-funded space tourist and first African national in space- has launched a community magazine called Full Circle. (Mark also gets my Kwisatz Haderach seal.)
The current issue of the magazine is available as a seventeen page PDF [Click to Download Issue#0 of Full Circle PDF]. Full Circle is easy to read, chock full of color (really) and a great introduction to Ubuntu newbies. e.g. myself
Issue#0 covers the history of Ubuntu’s various releases running all the way up to Ubuntu 7.04, a.k.a. “Feisty Fawn”. There is also an installation guide and an invite to contribute section.
The name of the distribution comes from the Zulu and Xhosa concept of ubuntu, which means “I am what I am because of who we all are”.
Ubuntu’s slogan – “Linux for Human Beings”, encapsulates one of its main goals – making Linux more available and easy to use.
Yes even Waynebuntucan do it. So can you. Have an ailing box? Try Ubuntu. It is like a B12 injection for your PC.
I want my hat Sam…wait- three converts and then a hat. heh- my kids are in for a treat.
Need inspiration? Need some inspiring metaphor? Want to think ahead? Drexler’s Engines of Creation is a great way to jump start your neurons.
Engines of Creation by K. Eric Drexler. Drexler is one of the foremost thinkers on nanotechnology- certainly an important discipline. However, I find metaphors galore and many useful. If anything it will spin you around. I had read it years ago, but not with the clarity I have now. Amazing how the years help perhaps.
For example, bulk extractors (think “flint chipping”- moving a few hundred thousand atoms at a time- like American Indians did with their arrow tips) and nanotechnologists (people doing the tagging, social bookmarking, etc- protein engineering and atom sculpting) could be useful metaphors for current search engine analysis, not to mention the sudden utility of the concept of “microchunking” and XML site maps. For example, why not get atom shapers to masticate data for you so it is easier to swallow? Question is (as I pose to Nick of Metaversed in a twitter exchange- is this dynamic make-up of SERP “COMPOSITION” driven by AI or something different? Good question.
(Important Note: I don’t care what “HTML pages” are returned- I don’t see the world as web pages- I see them as media types.)
Quick quip from WP:
The substance of Engines of Creation is extraordinary. Various science fiction writers have used the concept of tiny machines and Drexler brings their wild tales to shame. He extrapolates a world from the bottom up where we can build atom by atom. Similarly and inspirationally, physicist Richard Feynman discussed the concept of recursive miniaturisation in his 1959 speech There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom. But only Drexler came up with the idea of using molecular machinery for large-scale fabrication. Drexler sees a world where not only can the entire Library of Congress fit a chip the size of a sugar cube, but “universal assemblers” (tiny machines that build atom by atom) will be used for everything from medicinal robots that help clear the capillaries to environmental scrubbers that clear pollutants from the air.
Engines of Creation (Chapter 10, Limits to Growth) takes a realistic Malthusian view of exponential growth within limits to growth. It also promotes space advocacy arguing that, because the universe is essentially infinite, life can escape the limits to growth defined by Earth. Additionally, Engines of Creation supports a form of the Fermi paradox, arguing that as there is no evidence of alien civilizations:
This should be standard reading for futurists, or for non-futurists really…and those interested in transhumanism, AI Ethics, and singularity…later we can touch more on robotics and the three laws put forth by Asimov, in his fictional I, Robot. There is alot going on out there, I am just not smart enough to get into an Artificial Intelligence conference…yet.
Drexler’s book is free, and awesome- although I plan to order up a batch to give out to those I can influence or at least those I think are ready for this type of thinking. It is not for everyone- you really have to stretch your neurons a bit, especially if you want to extrapolate nanotech to current metaphor.
You can get Drexler’s book, Engines of Creation for free too….
Original web version prepared and links added by Russell Whitaker.
Table of Contents
COVER PAGE & links to non-English versions
FOREWORD - by Marvin Minsky
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PART ONE - THE FOUNDATIONS OF FORESIGHT
1 - Engines of Construction
2 - The Principles of Change
3 - Predicting and Projecting
PART TWO - PROFILES OF THE POSSIBLE
4 - Engines of Abundance
5 - Thinking Machines
6 - The World Beyond Earth
7 - Engines of Healing
8 - Long Life in an Open World
9 - A Door to the Future
10 - The Limits to Growth
PART THREE - DANGERS AND HOPES
11 - Engines of Destruction
12 - Strategies and Survival
13 - Finding the Facts
14 - The Network of Knowledge
15 - Worlds Enough, and Time
UgoTrade covers some earlier thoughts I had about SL and disabilities.
Now, virtual reality plays a big role for people with disabilities, not just because in a virtual world many disabilities are not the factor they are in RL. Mitch Wagner reports, “one woman whose cancer was quite severe, for whom Second Life had become her first life.” And, on Second Life there is a community using SL to aid in the recovery of stroke victims. But, also, Wayne Porter notes that HUDS that simulate disabilities in Second Life can offer a way to educate people from a new perspective (also see Wayne’s review of the groovy and free SLtweets HUD (Heads UP Display) available at SLTweets.com).
With a little bit of luck, inspiration and support the next suave lady and gentlemen you meet on SL, gliding and twirling on the dance floor in “tails” and “bling heels,” may really be 95!
I am sure Bleys will like the feedback on SLTweets! and thanks Ugo for keeping my thoughts focused…I think the 2nd disability scripting is really interesting, by Fez Rutherford, and shifts thoughts for me. It has me so intrigued I am going to bother Bleys and probably Fez about it- if I can track him down. I listened to Sam Harrelson’s video last night about the upcoming iteration of Planet Beta. (BTW Sam Harrelson brings to the table the real brilliance behind the entire fusion- an open mind.) and it reminded me to keep my thoughts in beta.
Virtual Worlds What You See is not What You Get
Recently I was interviewed for an article by Marketing Sherpa on marketing in virtual worlds. As with any interview you send in a lot of points, but it some of it, sometimes none of it, makes the final cut, but let me rehash a point or two here.
It is very important for marketers to understand the fabric of the metaverse before they jump in and setup shop. This means they should spend significant time in avatar form, participating in real world events, exploration, and talking with other Avatars. It is preferable you try different shapes, looks and feels to see what type of reactions this will bring. One will discover that people, functioning as avatars, do not always respond to situations the same as you might expect in Real Life. Knowing this one can expect they may not react to one’s brand as might be expected in Second Life.
More importantly with the avatar form, language and communication will be different. The typical non-verbal body language is missing, although this is can be augmented with gestures or scripts. Meaningful communication can take time and real effort. What we see on-screen does not always represent what is behind the screen. Because we “see” or perceive a 3D avatar in (hopefully) very fluid motion, this does not mean that person feels or is even able to do these things in real life. Second Life is not really a game, although one can certainly game in the Second Life metaverse. There are no preset goals, predermined monsters to slay, or chests of gold to find. It is really a lush social platform. For many people it exists as an alternate reality that is very real and potent.
What we Take for Granted
Based on lengthy travels and discussions I have found many people who have debilitating diseases that make travel or functioning in real life difficult. Second Life allows them a form of theraputic escapism, but more importantly, a fulfilling outlet that allows them to socialize, travel and take part in many activities healthy people often take for granted. Just because an avatar “looks” healthy doesn’t mean the person behind the avatar is healthy. Unfortunately we don’t have statistics on this theraputic use yet, but I believe, anecdotally, there are a large number of ill or disabled individuals. Perhaps far more than we suspect.
So based on that the 2nd Disability Scripting concept really got me thinking. If it can be theraputic for some individuals who are ill could it not be used in reverse, as Fez Rutherford has done, to sensitize people to the realities of life with a disability or even the final stages of cancer? An Avatar, to a certain degree, could “simulate” or experience blindness, or a grand mal seizure- an experience I have had that is truly terrifying or something as mundane as stuttering- another battle from my youth that I spent years overcoming. Furthermore, if meshed with say Bley’s SLTweets HUD (using some automated scanning ability to record public conversation while say one was “unconscious”) one could “experience” a simulated seizure and then later go back and see how people reacted…in real life they usually do not react well- I have no idea how they might react in a virtual world. Sometimes I cannot tell if we are hyenas or human beings…
Who do I think could benefit from these HUDS or scripts?
Probably every damn one of us.
As I go out across the datasphere, and I think the Kathy Sierra case comes to mind, and people’s justified outrage- I have to wonder if society has become so interconnected, so plugged in, so wired up that we can’t step back a few paces and look at things with a more sensitive heart? We forget to walk a mile in another’s shoes.
Twittering to Humanity
Perhaps that is why twitter has been such a hit- because we aren’t allowed to go beyond the confines of 140 characters of text, and our life is reduced to very simple and very human actions. I know it was an epiphany for me- my job forces me into attack mode. Yet while we twitter, we are just simple human beings, stripped of our “post human” digital trappings, flashy graphics, hand crafted avatars, rolling text, need to defend or the ridiculous bars we have set for people- who are just that- just people.
So back to VR scripting surely everyone could benefit to some degree, but I am not so naive to believe that Second Life can replace Real life, the ones open-minded enough to try such experiments are not sympathetic but already empathetic. I often get teased over my enthusiasm for the nascent platform- in a society where we say we value creative thinking, lofty ideas, and breaking new ground, we seem to spend alot of time tearing apart people who try to embrace these qualities.
I accept that. I still like the thought that there is a place where anything or any situation can be created- although I have to wonder why we keep creating the same damn trainwrecks in a virtual world? Given a “do-over” we seem to have learned nothing. Our priorities still seem out of whack. I have been as guilty as everyone else.
I think the best uses might be with our youngsters- not yet jaded, where life is magical and much like a “game”. Perhaps more importantly teachers, doctors, nurses, and health care professionals. Maybe a politician? These people are often empathetic, but due to the nature of the job or the litigious nature of our society they are forced to become muted and less sensitive to whom they serve- people. Second Life…a second chance?
As a wired society I really think we need it…and I think we would still probably blow it- but I have hope.
Today I received the Microsoft Windows Security MVP designation for 2007-2008. So that is two years running. Thank you for the recognition.
Now on to more “shadowy business”- sometimes it is hard to describe my job to those not in the realm- really. It is often like the x-files mixed with the surreal and general WTF?. You wonder when Jason Bourne is going to pop up and take a snap at you…
Below is a taste of two cases we pursued doggedly for weeks if not months- determined to crack it… you will just have to hear it to believe. Following these situations is like a giant jigsaw puzzle, flipping, turning and moving pieces until the picture takes shape. The shape is rarely a pretty one.
Chris Boyd and my RSA 2007 Show- if you really want to hear stuff like:
- On the Trail of Defonics Crew
- Paypal Accounts Swapped like Pokemon Cards
- Satellite Photos and more
- Honey Pot Traps and Botnets
- Tracing the Money
- Stolen Cards and the Carder Script, and RATS
- Thousands of drones and rentals
- The BotNet Economy
- Rootkits, Adware, and More
- Q8 Army and the Gates of God
- Mirc Souped up On Evil
- Deals, structures and the Economy of Evil
- Enough Malware in one dose to Wreck a Mainframe
- Mangled BitTorrent Clients and Mr. Bean (yes)
- Word Domination and End of the World IRC Clients
- Hacker Wars, Paris Hilton and much, much, more….
Go ahead take a peek into two very different stories and the hard core collision that occurs as we enter the world of Botnets, Open the “Gates of God” and the tail the elusive Q8 Army…
Sermo bills itself as the “MySpace for physicians”.
Here, physicians aggregate observations from their daily practice and then - rapidly and in large numbers - challenge or corroborate each others opinions, accelerating the emergence of trends and new insights on medications, devices and treatments. You can then apply the collective knowledge to achieve better outcomes for your patients.
O.K. I am skeptical- I have not seen it but I am still skeptical. This is based on my experience as a nurse of several years ago so I might be out of date. While it was some time ago, and I know more docs have adopted PDAs, etc. The one thing a physician (and a nurse) lacks is time…TIME. Seriously. Never, ever enough time.
I recall doing many late night and early morning rounds with doctors I learned very quickly that time was the most valuable thing they have or didn’t have. Don’t waste it, be efficient, and know your stuff. Now I am not saying Sermo is a time waster- I think it would be great if more physicians tuned into the Net. I still think most would do it to get a date first- they just don’t have time.
Nascent thoughts on where and how I would use the “Twitter Concept” in an enterprise. This is inspired after (caveat- haven’t practiced in ten years)
a) Having worked in various hospitals
b) Having to have been hospitalized
c) More than once, due to weather, having to work back-to-back triple shifts, sleep for eight, and get up and do it again. Man talk about the intercom being surreal.
The Problem: The hospital intercom. Nothing more annoying than that squak box. There is a reason we had:
Code Blue- cardiac arrest, resuscitation needed stat.
Code Whites- Hostile patient- back up needed.
Code Reds- Fire- we have a fire.
We didn’t want to alarm patients, never mind we interrupted them all the time.
Scenario: This could use more thought. This is just a five-minute brain dump…to get thinking aligned.
The hospital would employ an enterprise version of the twitter structure- yes I know some work would be needed for HIPPA compliance- but usually a room number will do. I am sure it can be done with more thought. Each nurse call station could easily send a short message that would go to the phone of the charge nurse, one particular charge nurse, or the med nurse, or to a Doc on call, broadcast all over, etc. Short, fast, quiet, use SSL and posts to the intranet too. You could color code the message for priority, have pre-made messages to save time,and/ or a program on the PDA could sort, rate, prioritize, etc.
By viewing the intranet trend data one could see problems that needed correcting, trends, shortages, surpluses, staffing and any abuse of course. I am sure modern Pixus machines already do this for pharmacists- they can look at a nurses’s PRN dosing patterns to spot abuse by comparing it to the standard deviation from the mean. Still simple problems solved can have real savings.
I remember coming up with the simple idea to use the antiquated dumb waiters in one hospital to do routine after-pharmacy-hour medication restocks. Doesn’t sound like much, but imagine 14 units, a nurse having to go up to the pharmacy and gather meds, (say on average 30 minutes off unit.), and three shifts 365 a year. Average wage of ~ $15.00 hour back then. That is a savings of about $115,000.00 a year, not counting increase in patient care with time spent on unit and maybe nurses could get a REAL break.
Twitter- Short Codes - SMS- etc-think short chunks of vital information that must be relayed and read quickly, quietly, and the ability to trend the information by type. Yes the whole micro-blogging concept has many uses yet untapped.
This is nothing new, as I have pondered the paths of widgets, content, people and media in a blog post before…02/02/2007 Others have too. However it is ironic how similar people keep popping up in these scenarios and new ones get introduced. This is a big part of “social media”.
Let’s explore, “tracer dye style”, a tiny sliver…
The Chain of Reactions
- I resist Twitter, actually complain about Sam’s cellphone ringing like crazy during the Gonzo Experiment in Las Vegas around January 21, 2007. but colleague Sam Harrelson wears me down as usual.
- I cave in and join Twitter and converse with Sam (3/16/2007) and begin to read more of his related “sphere”- Robert Scoble, Tara Hunt, Steve Rubel, many others, etc, etc.
- Enter “Fleep”. At this point Fleep and Myself are parties unknown (still are)- aside from “tweets” via Twitter.
- We track each other on twitter- probably related to mutual interests in virtual worlds like Second Life since I write about it frequently loving everything virtual. I remember adding her because she had a distinct avatar in her profile.
University of Cincinnati Second Life Learning Community (UCSLLC)
The University of Cincinnati Second Life Learning Community will evaluate the feasibility of using Second Life, a 3D multi-user virtual online platform (3DMUVE), in online instruction for the purpose of distance learning and to enhance traditional face-to-face courses. Our major goals are to share and develop resources as we examine the use of the Second Life virtual environment for instruction, pool our talents to build reusable learning objects and spaces in Second Life, and ultimately create a web-based resource for other educators that describes our process, the results of our experience, and our recommendations for its future use as an instructional tool.
The UCSLLC is generously supported by the UC Office of Information Technology Instructional & Research Computing department and the Ohio Learning Network Learning Community Initiative through the Southwest Regional Center at Miami University.
- Here it appears Fleep has updated the University of Cincinnati resource pages with a reference to the very popular “US/ing US video” which I encountered via Steve Rosenbaum’s Video Widget under the “Misc Video about Technology” section.
- The entire loop prompts me to document the action in this blog entry March 18, 2007
- When I hit publish this will not only set off a series of track backs and pings, tags and searches, (no monkey calls I promise) but it will also be injected back into Twitter via an automated tweet- courtesy a Word Press plugin.
“This is one little stream of social media. This is not reliant on search. This is a big change in thought for some.”
Sam’s Wise Quote
“This is for everyone. whether they like it or not…they will be connected, absorbed, and drawn together or pushed apart by technology, by people, by words, by sound, by video, by media that doesn’t yet exist.” Says Sam on March 16, 2007
Thanks to Twitter (a post forthcoming because 140 characters is not enough for me) and a twittering avatar-Fleep I discovered this free online event for educators in Ohio. Excellent- since I live in Ohio…not so excellent because I am not an educator. I would hardly even call myself educated.
However, my wife is an educator and synethetic world enabled. I am sure she will like this free event. The details on the event below. Registration at TeachUOhio.org. Another one looks even better: May 16, 2007: 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm - Some Telling Experiences: Engaging Students through Digital Storytelling.
Ohio Learning Network
Description
* Virtual Worlds for Educators
* Creating Teaching Aids in Synthetic Worlds
* Exploring the Virtual Center for Emergency Preparedness: Fighting Fire with Pixels.
Each of the presentations will last 45 minutes and we’ll have 45 minutes for questions and for platform transitions. Be prepared to move among virtual world software (details TBA) as our facilitators take us on a tour of cutting edge synthetic learning environments.
Intended Audience Other
Learner Outcomes Session One with Michele Dickey: Virtual Worlds for Educators
Online virtual worlds are emerging technologies that offer unique learning opportunities for teaching and learning. Various virtual worlds are now being used as game-based and interactive learning environments. This presentation will provide examples of how various virtual worlds are being used for education as well as provide low cost and easy-to-use resources for educators to create their own environments.
Session Two with John Bowditch and Benjamin Schneider: Exploring the Virtual Center for Emergency Preparedness: Fighting Fire with Pixels
In game tour of the virtual Center for Emergency Preparedness developed by the Game Research and Immersive Design Lab in the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University in collaboration with Owens Community College in Toledo. This demonstration will allow participants to actively explore the Burn Building portion of this first responder simulator. The presenters will give a guided tour covering production decisions, instructional design, and academic merit.
Session Three with Dr. Chang Lui: Creating Teaching Aids in Synthetic Worlds
Synthetic worlds, developed in tools such as Second Life, have great potential for teaching and learning. The development of engaging, effective teaching and learning tools in these environments, however, is not trivial. We will discuss how to get started on this and show a few existing teaching aids in Second Life.
The MacArthur Foundation is exploring how technology is changing kids and changing learning- too late for me. They are committing $50 million to this. I found this piece really cool and hopefully sign of things to come.
The nature of the metaverse changes how we learn…or how we could learn…but, not how we recreate it seems.
I love the fact we can outsource the buying of Lindens at 241.429 per dollar at time of writing- at leats for 5k worth.
Excellent interview with Phillip Rosedale in November of 2006. I love how he uses “meditate on the things we are learning”. Notes analogies with “The Well”, rise of the creatives. Notes that many people postulate that in the beginning Second Life will move from less creators to more consumers as typically seen- yet the creators still clock in at around 30% of the population. Rosedale disagrees- if people are empowered to create, make things, people will take the opportunity. Key phrase: “plasticity of the environment.”
Video Courtesy of The Long Now Foundation.
Yet one more reason I am even considering going the Open Source route- or tasting it again. Where has Ubuntu gone right and other flavors of Nix- well, maybe it is the whole Unix CLI days made it terrifying to some. For some unknown reason “Ubuntu feels Open Source” it feels- “open” whereas I have spent countless hours watching USENET wars blaze on the Windoz versus Nix war…who cares. Ubuntu feels like community- global community.
“Ubuntu Studio aims to be a multimedia editing flavor of Ubuntu for the Linux audio, video, and graphic enthusiast or professional who is already familiar with the Ubuntu-Gnome environment. Ubuntu Studio is currently in planning.”
Posted in Google Trends, Google Verse, Online Education, Technology, Web 2.0 by wayne.porter on February 15th, 2008 
