Posts tagged future
Your thoughts? Scene vs. Business vs. Content
Jul 13th
I recently wrote about Project Wonderland vs Second Life (July 4) and suggested that virtual worlds appear to be falling into different classes of virtual environments: business class vs. content class. With the recent launch of Google’s Lively and Vivaty, there may be a third class of virtual environments beginning to emerge: to borrow from Vivaty’s self-description of their service – a virtual “scene.”
I’m interested in the community’s thoughts regarding these descriptions of different types of virtual environments:
- Content Class virtual worlds are those which focus more on the content and visual imagery within the virtual world than specific business or communication processes. Content Class virtual worlds attract users because of what can be designed, created, or built within the space; I believe Second Life, Active Worlds and There are examples of content class virtual worlds.
- Business Class virtual worlds are those which focus more on supporting business and communication processes than the content and visual appeal. Business Class virtual worlds are more attractive to institutions or businesses interested in the platform as a means of supporting virtual meetings, communications and workspaces. At the moment, I believe Project Wonderland, Qwaq and Croquet are examples of business class virtual worlds.
- Scene Class virtual environments are not virtual worlds in the sense that the various virtual spaces are not spatially contiguous; instead, each virtual scene is independent and typically user oriented; however, it is possible for avatars to “jump” from one scene to another. The emphasis and allure of virtual scenes is the addition of a 3D element to social networks and communication. Although I need to investigate more closely, I believe Google Lively and Vivaty are examples of virtual scenes.
Your thoughts?
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...Project Wonderland vs. Second Life
Jul 4th
There’s been growing interest by educators in MUVE’s other than Second Life: OpenSim, Project Wonderland, Qwaq, Croquet etc. This past week, I (again) attended the Sled Roundtable that AJ Brooks (pictured left in suit, RL: AJ Kelton) hosts each Tuesday at Montclair State University (3:30 SLT). The focus of the discussion was Project Wonderland and other open grid/source alternatives to Second Life, and on short notice, Alan Levine (SL: CDB Barkley, pictured left in red) joined the group as a guest speaker. The conversation, for me, confirmed a few thoughts I noted previously, pinpointed perhaps the primary purpose of Wonderland, and ultimately helped frame the virtual environment landscape a little better while perhaps providing a longer term answer to the question I asked back in December.
First, Alan confirmed several of my initial thoughts regarding Project Wonderland. When asked how Project Wonderland is different from Second Life, Alan commented that Wonderland “is NOT a user generated world” (his emphasis) and that “3d objects can be built in outside tools (Maya, etc).” For me, this confirms the my initial impression that Wonderland may not support collaborative, real-time building efforts very well, and that the Second Life build tools are more accessible (both in access and learning curve) to a broader audience. Alan also confirmed that (a) Wonderland is still very early in the development process, using the term “alpha-ish – maybe beta” to describe it; and (b) the ability to customize Wonderland may be beyond the reach of many institutions since, as he noted, “doing anything custom calls for some serious java skills.”
Second, Alan’s comments help to pinpoint perhaps the primary function and purpose of Wonderland. In describing the benefits of Project Wonderland, Alan said that it “can be more ‘controlled’ – run behind firewalls” and “connected to authentication services” plus “it is more built on the ability to collaborate” through “application sharing.” And, when asked if it was “more like Qwaq” – Alan responded that Wonderland is “IN function like Qwaq” (as opposed to the design or underlying development standards, I guess). Wonderland is particularly well suited to “share any app you run on a desktop . . . co-browse web sites . . . work on shared apps together . . . and there are some interesting potentials for connecting to other net apps.” However, “each server is its own world” and Alan was “not sure if there is a central avatar/identity manager.” For me, all of that suggests that Wonderland is ideally suited as a virtual meeting space – moreso than it is a build and content delivery space; the application sharing, telephony & voice communication tools and private chat capabilities enabled by a server platform that can be more controlled, run behind firewalls and connected to authentication services all point to a tool intended for supporting business-centered collaboration – even within the higher education industry.
The bigger picture I take from this and several other recent conversations is that virtual worlds appear to be falling into one of two types. Second Life, Active Worlds, and There are content class virtual worlds. The usefulness of content class virtual worlds is the user/resident generated content; SL is designed around the ability to build, share and interact with virtual content. Many of the tools to support business and collaboration have been slower to develop in Second Life: voice communication, in-world web access, etc. In contrast, Qwak/Croquet, Project Wonderland and IBM’s proprietary Metaverse are business class virtual worlds. Project Wonderland focuses on the ability to support business needs: application sharing, integration with existing authentication services & business data platforms, voice communication, and business class scalability etc. And, as perhaps expected, it doesn’t emphasize the visual experience; Alan noted that “the avatars are, well ugly,” and as noted above, it’s not as easy to deliver robust content within Wonderland.
The long term question will be whether the current business-class virtual worlds will begin to develop content-class type capabilities or vice versa. Until that happens, I believe educational institutions may realistically engage Project Wonderland AND Second Life but for drastically different reasons and unique purposes. Of course, the issue of which business or content-class virtual world is the “best of class” remains to be answered. Given the NMC/Sun partnership, Wonderland may be the best option in the business class, particularly for educational institutions, and at the moment, Second Life is likely the top option in the content-class for secondary and post-secondary educators and institutions. I do wonder about the extent to which elementary education may or could be using virtual worlds targeted to the under 13 age groups (Webkinz World etc).
As a final note, I’d again like to recommend AJ Kelton’s (SL: AJ Brooks) regularly scheduled Sled Roundtable on Tuesday afternoons at 3:30SLT on Montclair State CHSSSouth (slurl). This group is routinely attracting 35+ Sleducators for very active discussions on pertinent topics.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Virtual to Augmented to Holographic Reality
Feb 29th
I never published the first Second Life related blog post I ever composed; actually, it was my first blog entry on any topic. I thought it would sound foolish or too far fetched, so I didn’t post it; I only discussed the idea with a colleague. However, 15 months and a couple of recent articles in the blogosphere later, my colleague and I are amazed that it’s not so foolish or far fetched as it originally seemed.
Fifteen months ago, after meaningfully engaging Second Life for the first time, the first possibility I imagined was the ability to project an avatar into the physical world; I recently encountered a video at YouTube that shows how that might be accomplished. Start watching the video at the Augmenting Life-Size Avatars section which begins at the 1:48 mark. The video was published by Tobias Lang and Blair MacIntyre with credit to Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat in Munich.
The second technology I thought possible surfaced online three days ago: the notion of syncronizing a real-world environment with a virtual replica. In short, a marker placed on a physical world object corresponds to a virtual counterpart; as the physical world object is moved or changed, the location or status of the corresponding virtual object is updated within the virtual environment.
Independently, those two technologies, to me, boggle the mind. I wonder, though, how long it’s going to take to go one step further still. Combine those two technologies with real time holographic video recording and projection: the capability to record a 3D rendering of a person or an object and project it, across the network, in a holographic, 3D format. With those three technologies, a holographic-technology enabled physical space can network with a virtual space to mashup the physical world with the virtual one in an entirely immersive manner. The holographic space has objects marked to create the counterparts in the virtual environment, and elements of the virtual environment can be projected into the holographic space of the physical world. The thought is a little messy, but it’s a thought. How long before the technology appears in a blogspace somewhere?
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Spiegel Online’s Interview with Rosedale
Feb 8th
Second Life and Education is a new blog recently launched by Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins; the blog is “dedicated to the ins and outs of K-20 education using Second Life . . . is written by educators and for educators, for those who are seasoned Second Life veterans and for those just starting out, for those who are dye-hards and those who are skeptics.“
A recent post by Jeremy Kemp in that space Linden Gaze Strengthens on Education called attention to an interview Phillip Rosedale did with Spiegel Online. I won’t recount the interview or Jeremy’s comments – both are worth the visit and read.
Jeremy referred to part of what I believe to be the most notable portion of the interview, and I wanted to highlight a little more of the context around the portion Jeremy quoted.
Spiegel Online commented,
The growth of Second Life, though, has subsided dramatically. Firms are pulling out…
Of course, the focus of the comment is on the post-hype/backlash downswing of the hype curve occurring for most businesses interested in extending their marketing to the virtual world. Did Rosedale explain why firms are pulling out? Did he suggest firms are not vacating Second Life? He didn’t do either…
Rosedale : The real business use of Second Life centers around collaboration and that is continuing to grow quite rapidly. There are more than 400 universities in Second Life and there are more than 4,000 teachers on our education mailing list. There might have been more enthusiasm and stronger growth in the first two quarters of 2007, but I think that the core growth in utility and in applications is still very strong. There’s been a media focus on marketing …
Jeremy quoted the first two sentences, but I think it’s significant that this comment was in response to the notion that firms are pulling out. For Rosedale’s response to that comment to fcous on the quantity of institutions and educators in Second Life is significant. “Firms are pulling out? Not really… The real business use of Second Life is growing quite rapidly – 400 universities and 4000 educators….”
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Should Educators Be Focusing on Second Life?
Dec 20th
Related to yesterday’s post on population growth in Second Life, Tateru Nino blogged at Massively regarding a forecast by a UK virtual world forecasting & consulting company that Second Life will grow to 20 million users in 2008, second only, according to the forecast, to Club Penguin at 30 million.
Tracking back through the various blogs for the forecast, the numbers may be drawn from the Virtual Worlds Management Industry Forecast 2008 “report” noted by Virtual World News, or they may come directly from research and a presentation done by Nic Mitham at Kzero; I’m not entirely certain, so the links should allow you to track through for yourself. Regardless of the process, the end result is the graphic copied here; it’s available originally from KZero (but copied here so as not to leech bandwidth ;-).
As an educator, I find the dotted lines to be of primary interest: the outermost arc and the three dotted line radii. If I were to begin exploration of virtual worlds as an educator with a blank slate – with zero knowledge of any virtual worlds – and were presented this graphic, which virtual world should I select to serve an educational interest? to introduce to learners in a formal learning environment? From behind that same veil of ignorance, given only this graphic, what would be the first strategic choice you’d make in regards to virtual worlds in learning environments: which would you choose?
I’ll hold my thoughts for a week or so. Until then, I’m interested in your comments.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...SL Active User Population Stabilizes or Stagnates?
Dec 19th
Linden Lab released key metrics for October and November. New World Notes summarized and commented:
Second Life now has an active user base of 538,400, in-world an average time of 45 hours a month. Impressive usage rates . . . Less impressive, however, when you consider that SL’s active users were just under that 538K number in August, but slightly over that, in July . . . Second Life is now in a plateau phase . . . This despite explosive media attention in October, when the world was featured in two top rated television shows . . . The main reasons for this stagnation, of course, are obvious: constant system failures, a confusing user interface, and disorienting first-time visitor experience.
As an educator, I have a different view of it. I’m not as concerned about over the top growth rates; my financial bottom line doesn’t depend on it, and I’m selfish, so I see this as the population of SL stabilizing rather than plateauing or stagnating.
Perhaps — and this may be wishful thinking — the stabilization of 550,000 active residents coming in at an average daily peak of concurrent use at 55,000 will offer Linden Lab an opportunity to catch up on a few things. If the population and concurrent use stabilizes for a while, perhaps Linden Lab can spend time growing strategic resources to solidify core services: improve customer service and further reduce grid downtime. Not running behind chasing issues created by continued growth, Linden Lab could also then focus more coherently on long term strategic issues: scalability, interoperability, open source etc.
As New World Notes concludes,
. . . would that [plateauing growth] be that such a bad thing? The world remains rich in user-created content, grows increasingly picturesque, continues to prove itself as a prototyping platform for real world applications, and as such, will continue being a thought leader and influencer of the Net’s next generation as a 3D, avatar-driven medium . . . Or to put it another way: is there anything wrong with just being [similar in size to] Portland, Oregon?
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Not Just Another Criticism of SL & What It Means for Education
Dec 11th
A bi-weekly check of my RL snail/paper mail revealed the December 3 issue of Computerworld with a prominent cover story titled, “Second Life: Is there any there there? After a weeks’ sojourn, our virtual traveler isn’t so sure.” A quick search online shows that this piece was originally published via the Computerworld site on November 14; you can read it there, if you like. The article’s a little different from other, typical pieces critical of SL, and Computerworld’s coverage of SL is better than most other publications, in my opinion. Rather than simply blasting away at SL with retread arguments, Gary Anthes essentially publishes a blog of his experience as a newbie in SL and draws, in my opinion, reasonable, qualified conclusions. On top of that, the Computerworld print issue followed Anthes’ piece with an “answer” by Ian Lamont that “What’s there is potential.”
What follows are my thoughts and impressions regarding the piece, and since the article presents a newbie’s experience with SL, I also discuss the implications and lessons-to-be-learned for education.
My editor made me do it. I never would have given Second Life (SL) a second look had she not asked me to write a story about it . . . But Bill Gates and others have appeared [emphasis added] at respectable IT conferences via Second Life . . . so there must be something there, my editor said. Just do it . . .
This is the first indication that this piece may be different from others criticizing SL. Anthes actually admits what others gloss over – a very indifferent to negative attitude toward SL at the outset. He closes the opening section of the article highlighting one of the more useful features and capabilities of SL – networking and communication; I thought the use of the word “appeared” is indicative of the uniqueness of SL. Like no other technology I’ve encountered, it becomes possible to create a more salient, social presence via the avatar and virtual representation of self. The implications for education lie in SL’s potential to connect learners and mentors for distance learning and/or professional development.
Monday: Square 1. Newbies are required to start out doing four simple tutorial exercises . . . three were simple and one was impossible . . . I spent a lot of time stuck on this beginning step, and it was quite frustrating.
The implications for education are two-fold, in my opinion. First, many educators understand the learning curve most students will endure to begin using SL in a classroom environment, but I’m not sure the depth of frustration some users experience is truly understood. Being “stuck on [a] beginning” step is not encouraging, and as I’ve described before (yesterday as a matter of fact) , can very easily detract from the course relevant tasks. Second, educators need to make sure learners are entering SL via a friendly orientation portal – not the standard Linden-created orientation island. I highly recommend the New Media Consortium’s account creation site and orientation island (blog – slurl).
. . . even at this beginning stage, I had my first emotional experience . . . avatar of a woman . . . stopped to say hello. We exchanged a few pleasantries until my (real) telephone rang. When I came back to my PC five minutes later . . . I had inadvertently dissed this nice woman . . . and I felt bad about it. But it was a good reminder of something that I guess I knew but had not really thought about: Behind the two-dimensional avatars on my screen were real human beings [emphasis added]
I think this represents an additional element of orientation educators need to provide to learners – beyond the standard technical orientation. SL does seem like a game at first; it looks like a game, it has controls like a game and appears to have characters like a game. I think it’s important to let learners know that there are very real people behind the avatars, and for many real life typists, the avatar is an extension of their real life. This is particularly true of most educators.
Tuesday: Square 1.01. I decided to quit trying so hard to learn how to do everything and just chat with the people I met. Maybe they could teach me things . . . I logged off and immediately ordered “A Beginner’s Guide to Second Life” from Amazon.com . . . Wednesday: Dawn. Advice to readers: Buy a book on SL or get some tutoring from an experienced user. With the help of the book and sheer persistence, I painfully — but, it must be said, with some fun – guided my avatar down the learning curve.
This goes back to the type of orientation we provide to learners. Requiring learners to purchase or putting them in a position of purchasing a text for a technology that’s only incidental to the course is questionable at best. IF newbies, like Mr. Anthes, may potentially feel the need to purchase a book on how to use Second Life, the education industry may need to, at the very least, keep close metrics on the effectiveness of currently available orientations and, as needed, ramp up the level of orientation being provided through additional online resources. In fact, I don’t know that I’ve encountered a traditional, text with graphics type, orientation available via the web.
I walked into a huge, round auditorium called IBM Theatre I. The seats were all empty, and the stage was bare save for a big white board with some semi-interesting techno-items written on it . . . . I made my way to a Sears store, where I found crude images of Sears appliances . . . I saw no other visitors at the IBM or Sears sites . . . Friday: Looking for Commerce. I returned to IBM’s main island determined to find an IBMer who could answer some questions. I didn’t find such a person . . . I traveled next to the Cisco Virtual Campus and walked into the Cisco Training Center . . . I found neither partners nor employees in any of the training rooms, and no books, computers or training materials of any kind.
As I was reading this, the folks at ISTE Island immediately came to mind; volunteers/docents with the organization take turns staffing the island to provide assistance to SL residents and educators. Given Anthes’ experience, I believe educational institutions and faculty choosing to involve learners in SL activities need to establish and provide regular, posted office hours on the virtual campus to ensure the learning space isn’t empty when learners visit. And, finishing the article, Anthes suggests, “Each major company location in SL should be staffed with a real person, at least during business hours.”
Advice to vendors: If you are going to play this game, make sure it works . . . the corporate presence in SL is so tentative and rudimentary, in most ways inferior to the companies’ own Web sites.
Experimenting is good and necessary, but to be taken seriously by learners and the general public, educational institutions should consider developing more polished “fronts” to the virtual presence. Jennings & Collins‘ (2007) work along with a recent presentation by Dawley (2007) provide initial baselines and best practices for the type of features learners and residents need when arriving at or using a virtual campus.
Thursday: Deja Vu. Rendering 3-D images realistically in real time is incredibly compute- and bandwidth-intensive, more than we have a right to expect from SL. Still, scenes download painfully slowly, often taking more than a minute on my PC, a high-end, dual-core model that has 3GB of memory and is attached to the Internet at 15Mbit/sec . . . The user interface is slow, clunky and primitive, at least compared with what’s available in the best computer games today.
This is a tough one for education. Bandwidth and desktop-specifications are a very real concern, and for education, it’s not just the learners-at-home facilities – many educational institutions may face challenges in providing the level of bandwidth and desktop computing power necessary to support regular SL use. I don’t know that I’ve ever laid hands on a dual-core machine with 3GB of memory and a 15Mbit/second connection – much less having access to that sort of facilities on a regular basis at home and in the lab.
Sunday: Reflections. To say I tried everything in SL would be almost as ludicrous as saying I have tried everything in my first life. Readers who are experienced SLers will argue that if I had only done this or tried that, or joined such and such a group, I would have seen the magic in this virtual world . . . Perhaps. But I can only report the disappointments as I encountered them . . .
In short, providing learners with immediate instructional tasks and objectives to be achieved in SL may offset much of the disappointment experienced by other newbies who find the world relatively empty and without any real meaning or purpose.
And, Ian Lamont’s answer to Anthes speculates an exciting future for virtual worlds:
Forget the blocky shapes and blurry textures that now dominate Second Life; the virtual worlds of 2012 will look even better than the high-definition 3D gaming environments currently offered by Playstation 3 and XBox 360. The virtual worlds of 2017 will be photorealistic, and the simulations will be fantastic.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Educationally Relevant Virtual World Trends for 2008
Dec 6th
Stuart Dredge at Tech Digest compiled a list of “20 trends and ideas [he] picked up” at the Virtual Worlds Forum Europe conference held recently in London. Reading that list, I believe several are particularly important to educators working in Second Life.
Trend/Issue 1. Shedloads of virtual worlds will be launched in 2008.
Trend/Issue 2. Teen-focused virtual worlds are huge.
Trend/Issue 19. Is Second Life going to stay a niche?
I think these are relevant to education as a combination. The number and variety of virtual worlds will most definitely grow, and 2008 could see a relative explosion in different MUVE’s populating the landscape. This could bring into the market a viable competitor to Second Life; that doesn’t justify bailing on Second Life, it still has specific benefits for educators, but educators should remain open to trying different platforms. And, as virtual environments grow, so does the adoption rate by younger users. Dredge even comments:
It’s my big takeaway from the conference: the sheer size and popularity of virtual worlds like Club Penguin, Webkinz and Habbo Hotel. Us geeks talk about Second Life like it’s the be-all and end-all of virtuality, but the kiddyworlds have way more active users. More importantly, a whole generation of children are growing up with the sense that virtual worlds are just a part of their lives.
This is an argument I’ve made before as one that makes educational exploration and use of virtual worlds an imperative.
Trend/Issue 5. There will be big growth in corporate use of virtual worlds. Companies holding meetings in Second Life . . . Training for staff . . . although it takes a fairly big leap of faith by a company to get its employees used to virtuality, it’s happening . . . one of the more common criticisms of these spaces – ‘What do you actually DO?’ . . . what you do is improve productivity and save money.
While it takes more time and investment to prepare for the use of Second Life with a live learning environment and learners, I believe it’s more immediately possible for educational institutions to fall in line with this trend: use virtual worlds to conduct virtual meetings and professional development opportunities. In addition to saving time and money on local travel between campuses (where relevant), business use of Second Life within an educational institution may, at the very least, support the learning curve necessary to support the instructional uses of the environment. At the very most? I imagine educational institutions could potentially find Second Life development resources in unlikely, internal places (i.e. imagine an Office Manager attending a meeting in SL to record minutes – only to become interested in and developing the skills necessary to build resources).
Trend/Issue 9. Is it an online game or a virtual world, or both?
Dredge talks about the distinction between online games and virtual worlds – which do not have predefined rules, objectives and outcomes. The trend may be blurring between the two, rather than drawing distinctions, as virtual worlds begin to include more games; he uses the CSI:NY Second Life project as a case on point. I think this potential trend will be important to education in several ways. First, designing and developing learning experiences within virtual worlds already presents new issues for faculty and instructional designers accustomed to more traditional instructional design models (discussed here). With increased blurring between games and open virtual environments will put more pressure on those designing and developing instruction. Second is the potential on the other side of that coin; as we, as an educational community, become more accustomed to virtual environments, we’ll be more capable of designing effective games that engage learners in new and meaningful ways. Third, our learners will face more distractions, as if there weren’t already enough within Second Life.
Trend/Issue 11. Interoperability is important.
I’ve also discussed this previously as one of the primary reasons (second in the list from that blog entry) why educational institutions should engage Second Life.
Trend/Issue 13. Virtual worlds need to become easier to use.
This is certainly true within education K-20. It becomes a feasibility issue within a learning environment. Time and again, we hear about the issues educators face when it comes to orienting a number of learners in a class to use Second Life. JS Vavoom mentioned a several hour learning curve when training his nursing/health science learners in preparation to use the NESIM simulation. I think this issue being discussed at the Virtual Worlds Forum signifies a burden that educators should engage collaboratively; there are many issues common to all learners first engaging Second Life. The solution is a collaboratively developed and freely available orientation area to be shared among educators. The New Media Consortium has the orientation island for educators; the education community needs a similar environment for learners available as a freely available copy/mod package.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...
Hot Topics