Microprofessions December 20, 2007
Posted by mwj as business, crowd sourcing, games, second life, virtual worlds, web3.0. 1 comment so far.Double Happiness is seeking Second Lifers to work in our telematic textile factory on Eyebeam Island from January 17-27 for 3-hour shifts. We offer a competitive salary of 200 Lindens per hour plus land bonuses. No experience necessary. Positions include laser cutters, dye vat operators, jaquard loom weavers, quality control and supervisors.
— from Double Happiness Manufacturing
Nodes and Web 3.0 October 21, 2007
Posted by mwj as 3d, art, crowd sourcing, virtual worlds, web3.0. 2 comments.Last week at the Masters of Digital Media we were paid a visit by the creators of Houdini, a high end 3d animation suite. I haven’t used much in the way of 3d tools (like Maya, 3D Studio Max or Blender), but I am getting more interested in the subject. This is mostly because I believe that Web 3.0 will consist of traversable 3d space, like the Metaverse from Snow Crash.
Houdini is the most expensive 3d animation software out there, but the big selling point is that it allows users to solve visual problems in a procedural way. This sort of proceduralism works like so: first, you take a standard primitive object, like a basic pyramid or a sphere. Then you select an effect, say the colour red, and apply it to the sphere. After this, perhaps you take a certain bumpy texture and apply it, or a certain set of commands that morph the sphere into a different shape.
Each of these effects are called nodes, and the beauty of them is that they can be re-applied to a different shape to generate a different object. Or we can follow the advice of one of the crew from Houdini, and think of proceduralism as cooking. If we think of this style of creation as making a soup, the object that you apply everything to is like the stock or base, and each node you add is a different ingredient.
4 changes I’d make to Second Life October 14, 2007
Posted by mwj as environment, games, media, second life, technology, virtual worlds, web2.0, web3.0, world of warcraft. 5 comments.I’ve been out of the blogosphere for far too long, so I’m just going to jump into it and not make any apologies. I’ve been spending more and more of my time on Second Life lately, at the University Project that Sun has set up for the Masters of Digital Media.
Second Life is a great big open playground, where you can build a lot of different things and add scripts that make them do a lot of different things. Anything that citizens make in Second Life belongs to them, and they can resell their items at any price using Linden dollars which can be exchanged for real money. But you know all that already.
What I’m interested is where Second Life falls short in its claim to be heralding in a new paradigm for cyberspace. In particular, there are at least four areas that need significant work before virtual worlds like Second Life can be part of Web 3.0.
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My first virtual meeting January 18, 2007
Posted by mwj as collaboration, games, second life, virtual, virtual worlds. 1 comment so far.I am applying to join the inaugural class of the new Master’s of Digital Media (MDM) in Vancouver, BC this fall. I’ve already had a chance to interact with, Dr. Gerri Sinclair, who received her PhD in Shakespearean studies, worked for a number of technology companies including IBM, and is now the force behind the new MDM.
The MDM began in part due to what I believe was around a $30 million grant from the BC government. Much of this money is being used to create the new Centre for Digital Media (CDM), which will house future classes of the MDM. For now, the building exists only in Second Life, thanks to Master machinimator, Scope Cleaver, who constructed a version of the building in the virtual world. A brief clip of the construction process is embedded here: for a longer version go here.
The most interesting part of this so far is the virtual meeting that I attended this morning inside this virtual CDM, whose purpose was to discuss the possibility of maximizing creativity and collaboration inside Second Life. Here is a screenshot from the experience (to see the full picture, just click on the image):
JoannaTrail Blazer: so to recap - so far we are looking at a room with invisible walls in the sky, with a pit structure, like a round amphitheatre, in the centre a thought diagram type board we can all add to
Arteer Oliva: def need to make time to orient
JoannaTrail Blazer: and no table
Arteer Oliva: YAY!
JoannaTrail Blazer: and a Wii, laptops, and a minifridge
I came up with the Wii and the minifridge.