UgoTrade

There were many demonstrations across Second Life today in support of peace and justice in Myanmar (Burma) where hundreds of Buddhist monks are being arrested in government raids on monasteries after leading large protests against the military regime.

I joined one of the avatar chains organized by Second Life avatar Vivienne Casavettes. It stretched across multiple sims. Many of the participants wore robes or like me “went bald for Burma.” It was a powerful experience to meet so many people in Second Life finding ways to show there support for the monks and people of Burma.

There were T-shirts, placards and note cards giving updates on events in Burma handed out. I chose this T-shirt asking for the freedom of dissident Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi is a pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar, and a noted prisoner of conscience, advocate of nonviolent resistance. “A Buddhist, Suu Kyi won the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and in 1991 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship. She is currently under detention, with the Myanmar government repeatedly extending her detention.”

Rik Riel on his excellent blog has posted some of the Other steps you can take, suggested by the Peacemaker Institute:

1. Protest - Look below for details of worldwide protests. Contact US Campaign for Burma to sign up to hold a march, vigil or any sort of event in your area- thelma@uscampaignforburma.org .
2. Spread the word - Invite your friends to this group, email all your family and friends, write to local newspapers
3. Write to your elected official - they will respond if enough people contact them.
4. Wear red clothes on Friday.
5. Email the companies that still operate in Burma, their email addresses are listed here
6. Sign up for the petition! US campaign for Burma, Petition Online, AVAAZ

I am a second generation Western Buddhist. Today (Sunday) I will also observe 5 minutes of silent aspiration with members of the sangha of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, in NYC, in support of the protest of the Buddhist monastics and lay sangha in Myanmar, and against the violations of human rights and suppression of religious freedom now being enacted by the government.

Second Life avatars Vivienne Casavettes, Sugar Seville, and Dizzy Banjo are just some of the Second Life Residents who are organizing support efforts in Second Life. Also see Cryogenix’s, Dizzy Banjo’s, blogs and here for more. Dizzy has a video of a vigil organized by Sugar Seville

Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma, cyber activism, Myanmar, national league for democracy, peace and justice in Burma, Peacemaker Institute, Second Life US Campaign for Burma

A road-map for imagining a future and the benefits of virtual worlds was laid out at The Serious Virtual Worlds Conference held in Coventry University, England last week.

In the picture above are David Wortley, Director of the Serious Games Institute (holding the user interface for Guitar Hero) and on the right Dr. Timothy W. Foresman pioneer for the global expansion of the Digital Earth vision.

On Day 2 all the speakers presented wearing the Guitar Hero guitar. Perhaps this was a reminder of Babbage Linden’s warning from Day 1 to beware of making false dichotomies between play and work. But with this in mind and wearing the guitar, Dr. Tim Foresman made a serious call to action for a Digital and Virtual Worlds Commons to address the most pressing needs of the 21st Century.

In an interview with Ugotrade Dr. Tim Foresman gave a prediction for Second Life.

Second Life taps into an element called culture. Culture is that which we have evolved to which doesn’t exist in other species which is the creme de la creme for our evolutionary consciousness. Culture is the key here.

This will be the penultimate statement I am going to give you. The Chinese are not ready for us to watch the Olympics in Second Life. And, we are going to watch the Olympics in Second Life. And, it is going to change the dialogue ‘cuz there are going to be a whole lot of Chinese people sharing the details of Chinese social and cultural evolution within the context of that display. And I am predicting that will be the milestone for 2008 for social shifts and the technologies that impact on them.

There are so many Chinese who can make this happen and so many interested people who have this figured out.

Digital Earth, Virtual Worlds and Our Future

Dr. Tim Foresman’s early inspiration was Captain Jacques Cousteau. Foresman brings a quarter century of experience as a scientist, professor, author, entrepreneur, consultant manager and administrator, and world traveler to imagining a future with digital and virtual worlds. Dr Tim Foresman explained to me the trajectory of his career which has always included working inside and outside of institutions and being active in communities on environmental issues:

to give back what Jacques Cousteau gave to me and to provide inspiration and honesty as to what is going on in a positive way.

He explained how his concern with the environment led to entrepreneurial efforts. He also played a pivotal role in Keyhole Corp. which was bought by Google in 2004 and has become Google Earth.

So once I started realizing the power of spatial tools - when the satellites went up in 1972 - I fell in love with that. ‘Cuz I was out in the field doing research the hard way. And all of a sudden I could use these computers to map what I had been walking and communicate to other people these issues - just mind boggling.

So I started my own company right out of grad school because there were no companies behind me in those days so I started a company. And I have always shown that entrepreneurial spirit. But I have also joined various organizations. I have worked for the EPA, worked for NASA and for the UN. When the time is appropriate and you role is to work within an organization, I have felt it was a good thing to do. So I have worked in all kinds of the positions.

But the constant theme is to really take seriously our role here but also to have fun. ‘Cuz if you are not having fun you’re going to be spending the kinds of hours and time that I do.

I asked Dr Foresman how he became involved Keyhole Corp.

Because I led the Digital Earth program at NASA headquarters when it started in 1998. And I was monitoring all the various groups that were doing these kinds of technologies and actively engaging them and coming together and saying we need to harness this technology to deal with a virtual globe that will make a meaningful difference for the community at large - so there will be free access and we can all share information that is easily accessible and understandable. Because you are looking at the earth you are looking at your neighborhood, it makes sense.

So Keyhole was four young programmers in San Mateo. And, in 2001, I gave them there first contract when I was the chief scientist of the United Nations environment program.

We were able to demonstrate how this would profoundly change the decision making process with which the policy makers are involved with at the UN - 200 nations come together and make decisions about fisheries and forestry. They don’t have the information. This was going to be a different approach. So Keyhole was a wonderful, wonderful way of demonstrating this with our data on that display mechanism.

So Keyhole really only provided the framework, we put the information around it the satellite data etc. Well then Google bought them and now they are Google Earth. They are one of the many that are successful. There is also NASA World Wind which is open source and very good, powerful.

Imagining a Future

I snapped this slide during Dr Foresman’s presentation. It very clearly shows that how we represent data makes a meaningful difference. All the water in the world is shown on the same scale as earth on the left, and all the air in the atmosphere on the right. This puts a whole new perspective on the myth of great expanses of ocean and atmosphere.

The ITC Framework for the Operating System for Planet Earth

This slide is also from Dr. Foresman’s presentation. People working in disciplinary silos will be able to engage in collective environmental, economic and social decision making through a Digital Earth vision. But just as important as the unification of science based knowledge is the active, distributed community enabled by free access to the basic infrastructure.

I asked Dr. Tim Foresman about the role of open source and open standards in creating an operating system for planet earth.

We have to be vigorous and vigilant in all things and not assume that the approach right now is sustainable. I think that is very important. We have to actively engage and ensure that the parts of it we need for public dialogue and good decision making are done in open systems and international protocols for data interoperability - ISO standards - all the good standards for interoperability that we use. We need to be vigorously monitoring that. That is very important.

And are there any threats to that you see on the horizon re this? I asked.

When I see different systems offered for pricing and I realize that there is no policy by Google to keep this stuff free. There is nothing written down. This is just based on their good will at the moment. And corporations and goodwill are two different things. Corporations have to answer to their stockholders. And if they make a corporate decision they could end up saying well we are no longer offering it for free. But the competition will probably keep it out there for free….ArcGIS Explorer, Geomatrix, NASA World Wind.

Google is going to recognize that they have got their spot in the sun now. But it is not guaranteed and if they don’t behave they will be underwritten.

I have posted recently on the Second Earth project by NOAA that merges Second Life and Google Earth. I asked Dr. Foresman if he was aware of the policy of Linden Lab to fully open source Second Life and if he had had discussions with Linden Lab.

Yes I have talked with various members of Philip Rosedale’s team. They came out to Berkeley to our 5th International Digital Earth Conference. And the open source issue was definitely a strong suit. I think Philip would have to move his offices out of San Francisco if he went proprietary. Because that is open source Mecca. It has become a philosophy.

Yes it seems to me they are moving as fast as they can on the full open sourcing of Second Life. I added.

What we find out is that if you are a purist open source really isn’t 100% open. You are always going to find that it is difficult to find code at certain levels. But what it is - is the best that we can do and that is the approach. And by allowing the best that we can do then we can balance that with proprietary systems, interchange standards and that becomes a very effective playground. And that is what we want.

Active distributed community and the networked intelligence of humankind.

Dr. Tim Foresman gave a brilliant and commanding demonstration of why and how a Digital and Virtual Word commons will provide the operating system for planet earth and its inhabitants and fulfill the words of Buckminster Fuller.

Currently Dr Foresman is working with many international institutions and agencies promoting availability of and enhancing access to the scientific information needed by decision makers as well as the planet’s citizens for as sustainable future.

From 2000 to 2003 he served as the director of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Division of Early Warning and Assessment from the Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya and then as UNEP’s executive science advisor. He gave Keyhole (now Google Earth) their first contract at this time. And in 2001 they were streaming information from UN servers. They zoomed in on Africa and used this system to protect resources and to communicate issues.

Dr Forseman stressed that operating system earth will remain inoperable without us! The networked intelligence of humankind depends on all of us. We need to be involved in designing our future. And Dr. Foresman doesn’t just talk brilliantly, he walks the walk. He reaches out to all including children with the message of concern for the environment. First Editions of his new children’s book “The Last Little Polar bear” are available from Blueline Publishing (see thelastlittlepolarbear.org).

At the end of the presentation I asked Dr. Foresman if connectivity issues presented special problems in Africa. I explained that I have talked to many different people about the potential of Second Life in Africa. But broadband connectivity issues often come up as an obstacle to the idea that Africa should be at the forefront of the paradigm shift in global communications exemplified by the collaborative, immersive 3D experience of Second Life.

Dr. Foresman said that we should be careful of setting up false assumptions. He has lived and traveled in Africa and he explained:

The roads are well paved enough almost every where I have been in the world to where that is not the problem now. I worked in the mid-nineties on a project reducing poverty with women. I sat and listened for two years to how they were using technology. And when I listened from that perspective, I found they are using whatever is available. So it is a continuum.

That was why I was laughing yesterday when I talked to Maggi [Prof. Maggi Savin-Baden presented the Second Life launch of Coventry University Island and experienced lag as many Second Life avatars and "real" life conference goers sucked up the bandwidth]. That is how I experience Second Life because I am on the end of a Satellite dish. You get spoiled here with your bandwidth.

It is a matter of saying no we’ll use the tools and we will use them effectively. But we won’t use them like you see in some of the images in New York City.

The Serious Games Institute - Creating Buildings that are Sexy and Smart

The picture above is of Prof. Lizbeth Goodman (right) and Babak Davarpanah Varnosefadarani from the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute being given a tour of the Serious Games Institute “smart” building by David Wortley.

David Wortley talked to me about the SGI “Smart building” project. David “aims to make the SGI a thought leader and focal point for games based learning simulation and immersive 3D environments.” He plans to take the concept of “smart buildings” to the next level. Buildings will not only be smart and helpful to people and the environment. They will be sexy - intelligent, entertaining, conversationalists that are fun to be around.

When I talk about “smart” buildings - there is a lot of debate about what people consider “smart” buildings - I think most people consider “smart” buildings as buildings with environmental controls built into them, e.g., the light switching off when someone goes out of the room, or the heating going down when no-one is there, being able to recognize where people are and so on and keep the costs of the building down to the minimum.

I go much further to say I think smart buildings of the future are going to be about how the building represents your organization and adds real value to its stakeholders. So, instead of saying let’s design buildings that keep our overheads down to a minimum, I say let’s design buildings that use technology to increase our income and the effectiveness of our operation.

So if you are a local council you want to make the building as approachable and friendly as possible and suitable for the stakeholders who go into the building. That is why we are trying to embed technology that will allow us to do some really sexy things that will say what we want to say about Serious Games and the companies that are based there.

In this way we will bring business into these companies, helping to develop a reputation for the university, and the West Midlands region. That is why we have invested in digital signage and interactive type displays, and are implementing location tracking so that when people move through the building you can identify where they are and use that in clever ways to deliver content to them based on where they are in the building.

We are also thinking that when someone goes into a building with a PDA or mobile device the location tracking detects that person and creates an avatar in the virtual version of that building. So as you move about through the building the avatar moves about in Second Life and can interact with people in the virtual world as well as the physical world.

The photo on the left is of avatars listening to Serious Virtual Worlds 07 in Second Life. On the right, is a picture I took at the Smart building demonstration, tour and cocktail reception. Roo Reynolds, IBM, (the tall guy with his back to us) manages to keep one eye on the video stream from Second Life and an ear to the conversation in First Life.

David Wortley noted that at the cocktail party some of the ways the “smart” building can orchestrate interactions between first and second life were demonstrated.

In both the “real” and virtual versions of the Serious Games Institute there is a projector streaming video for the people gathered in both worlds. In the virtual reception there was video being shown from the “real” reception:

The thing that fascinated me was the fact that when we got the projector set up and logged on to Second Life where my avatar appeared there was nobody in virtual reception with me. We set the video streaming going and over a period of a few minutes more and more avatars began to appear in the virtual reception sitting down to watch people enjoy the real reception.

David noted that while this was a simple example it was an indication of how compelling interactions between virtual and “real” worlds can be.

Artists are playing a key role imagining a future and the benefits of virtual worlds

I have frequently posted on the vital role that artists, musicians, architects and performers are playing in creating the experience of Second Life. David also noted

One of the things that has come over extremely well in this conference, and is personified by people like Prof. Lizbeth Goodman (who is a dancer and performing artist by profession - so her background isn’t in technology) is that highly creative and passionate people have realized the potential of technology and performing arts to deliver social benefit to people in need - disadvantaged women, disabled people etc.

Hope for the future comes from grass roots people who are doing really clever things with technology

There is a lot of hope for the future for the way that technology can shape our sustainable development and that hope comes from grass roots people who are doing really clever things with technology that technologists don’t imagine.

Two of the stellar presenters that I met at the conference were the awesome Simon Stevens, (a.k.a Simon Walsh in Second Life) who presented “Wheelies - Second Life and disability: a review of the issues,” and Prof. Lizbeth Goodman, “Virtual World Community Applications.” I will meet both in Second Life to continue our conversation

Like Roo Reynolds (see his blog), I was nearly moved to tears (actually I did have to grab a tissue) by Lizbeth’s work enabling severely disabled children to play games and explore and create in beautiful custom-built worlds. And how severely disabled adults with control of only eye movement and a single neck muscle can gain the ability to create music.

The picture above is from the SMARTlab Flickr stream that has many more pictures of their great work. As part of their project “InterFACES: the human face of assistive technologies” SMARTlab has been testing the effectiveness of available tools for using eye movement as a control mechanism for communications by people with little or no other voluntary muscle movement. This picture is of collaborator James Brosnan, the ‘alpha user’ of the system.

Fireworks on Coventry Island

I was fortunate enough to be there for the whole of this superlative event. But if you weren’t the video archive is being made available on Wednesday from http://seriousgames.org.uk/ Don’t miss this ground breaking event! You will also find notes on all the presentations for Day 1 and Day 2 posted on Roo Reynolds - What’s Next? and see Eightbar. And, as Roo notes, there were a bunch of people conference taking photos. Andy Powell grabbed some great screenshots (e.g., picture above) of the Second Life portion of the event when Coventry University cut the ribbon on their Second Life island.

Here are four of the presenters preparing their digital cameras and PDAs for the Flickr and Twitter fray.

From left to right: Roo Reynolds, IBM, who presented on “Virtual Worlds for Corporate Collaboration” and engaged in some serious mo blogging repartee on Twitter with Ren Reynolds (a.k.a RenZephyr) from Terranova throughout the conference. I was sitting right behind them both most of the time. I kept in touch with their conference commentary and humorous backchat through Twitter. It added a lot to the experience of the event much the way IM channels enhance conference experiences in Second Life.

Next right is Christian Renaud from Cisco Systems who gave the keynote “Getting Serious About Virtual Worlds.” Christian is pioneering the creative use of the special qualities of networked virtual environments - the power of these electronically mediated social environments to enhance communication. “It won’t be face-to-face, but it can be richer.”

To Christian’s right is Dave Taylor (a.k.a Davee Commerce in Second Life), National Physics Laboratory, who presented on his innovative Second Health project and the use of Virtual Worlds for informal education and knowledge transfer (see Ugotrade post here).

To Dave’s right is Fabrizio Cardinali, CEO Giunti Labs, chair European Learning Industries, “Innovating learning in a flat, virtual world.”

And although he wasn’t there in person Rik Riel showed up on a slide in Dr. Timothy Foresman’s presentation!

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Second Life Art is beginning to enter the mainstream of the art world. Visionary artist and art theorist Richard Minsky (his avatar in Second Life is appropriately called ArtWorld Market) and Second Life’s rising art world star Jeffrey Lipsky - known as Filthy Fluno in Second Life - are playing key roles in bridging the two worlds.

Minsky is publisher and managing editor of the brilliant and gorgeous SLART^TM magazine. “In urban slang a slart is between a slut and a tart,” Minsky notes. I caught a glimpse of SLART^TM in real life at SLCC. SLART^TM will be launched as a series of in-world books and exquisitely produced real life limited editions.

Filthy has been making the news and traveling with his exhibit, “The Adventures of Filthy Fluno.” On sept 14th, his show will open at “The Revolving Museum” in Lowell, Mass with a live performance from renowned boogie blues musician Komuso Tokugawa (see a video and post here).

Live from Japan, Komuso will broadcast his raucous guitar stylings and singing into the Revolving Museum using Second Life technology!

SLART^TM and the Second Life art exhibit at SLCC curated by Lipsky had a huge “must see” buzz going on in Chicago. I talked to Richard briefly after his presentation on The Art World Market of Second Life. But I really caught up with ArtWorld and Filthy in Second Life on Thursday, Sept 6th, just as they were preparing to stream the opening of “Crater New York: A Lunar Drawing Contest” into Second Life from Soho’s Location One.

Soho + Second Life

On September 26th a special jury of artists, journalists, a rocket scientist and a realtor will select three winning drawings. The drawings will all be exhibited in Second Life until the judging. “Crater New York” is one of a series of very high profile mixed reality events that are planned for September. See SLART^TM for the full schedule.

I live only a short subway ride from Soho in NYC but was nearly late for the opening. As Tara5 Oh, my avatar on SL, I was busy chatting with Filthy and ArtWorld while they set up the streams from Location One into multiple locations in Second Life. It was almost 6.30pm when ArtWorld urged, “hurry - you’ll be late.” I hastily packed up my laptop and camera and jumped on the #1 train down to Greene Street.

And soon, with the help of Location One’s IT guru, Drazen Pantic, I was logged into Second Life and watching 3D artist Everett Kane making his drawing for the contest both in real life, right in front of me, and on my laptop in Second Life (see the picture below). Filthy was still in-world. I continued my chat with him while explaining Second Life to interested gallery goers, many of whom had never seen Second Life before. Second Life will be projected into Location One for the rest of the show on a large screen.

I met and had an interesting talk with Location One Executive Director, Claire Montgomery and Director of Media Relations Flavia Destefanis. Location One is a very cool art center devoted “to the convergence between visual, performing and digital arts in a time of rapidly changing technology.” And, I met the conceivers of this participatory project - the artist duo of Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese. Crater New York playfully explores topics pressing to art theory and global culture like “what happens to landscape in an age when nature is increasingly replaced by humans?”

Ligorano/Reese’s project gives a new spin to “deeper questions about affordable housing and the place of artists in the New York of the future. A trend that also mirrors the shift in perception of the moon from a heavenly body to real estate.” Crater New York uses the moon as “a model for contemplation,” and “a launching pad for your imagination.” The winners of the drawing contest will each receive a deed for property on the moon.

The Location One team has turned the gallery into “a control room that channels your imagination into the great beyond.” And, as Marshall explained to me, this thinking naturally led them to Second Life, and:

A series of networks of live video feeds and internet streaming virtualcasts your work from First Life into Second.

See, “Whose crater is it anyway?” for more (or click the picture below left) and see Rhizome. The picture on the right shows the stream coming into Second Life. In the picture below, gallery goers discuss the moonscape.

The Metaverse and the Moon

Ligorano/Rees have invited other artists to help them imagine and create the first colonies on the moon - the first lunar group show!

Look closely and you’ll find fantastic architecture: hydroponic gardens, lunar residences, an amusement park, a cathedral, an intergalactic reading library, an oil derrick, coffee shops, and a monument for the Apollo program (visible from earth in 1:16 scale).

Second Life is, of course, the first and greatest group show in the metaverse with countless metascapes to explore. And now there is a world class meta art theorist/avatar, ArtWorld Market (Richard Minsky), to bring the emerging art movements of Second Life into a mainstream critical context.

See here for the SLART^TM visit to the amazing world of Sabine Stonebender, or Visit her Zero Point environment now..

Sabine Stonebender inside her scalar work Plasma Cheerios.

The Art World Market of Second Life

Minsky presented a paper at SLCC that contextualizes the art of Second Life that has no RL equivalent as “using in-world tools and scripts to create native artworks that could not exist in RL.”

These [works] can be huge in virtual scale, animated, and interactive, and can combine visual art, music and performance. These works have no RL equivalent, and the artists are dependent on in-world collectors, individual, institutional and corporate patronage, or their own resources.

Minsky articulates an art world view on creation, production, marketing, distribution, ethical and legal issues of Second Life art.

I found out when I met two of Minsky’s ArtWorld Market avatars in Second Life that this is a man/avatar with some extensive bandwidth.

Minsky is not only a successful artist with a considerable reputation. He also is chairman of the board for The Center for Book Arts. He was Visiting Artist at Brown University, “at the Ivy League East End of things,” and taught on Advanced Thought Particles at the Wizard Academy in Austin, Texas last year. He worked for the Hirshhorn Museum when it was in NYC before they moved to DC. Minsky had a contract to bind their books, which quickly turned into an art history education. Then he took a job as the museum’s photographer, and shot about 2000 paintings and sculptures.

All the best art photographers came to take pix there, at the Hirshhorn Warehouse. I learned a lot about how to look at art from them.

And now, Richard Minsky brings us SLART^TM which got a chorus of WOWs and AMAZINGs at SLCC where he previewed it.

Interweaving the worlds of paper and electrons

Minsky is introducing the world to the metaverse’s art stars. I have already been fortunate enough to meet and talk with one of the brightest, Jeffrey Lipsky, Filthy Fluno in Second Life. Filthy Fluno’s “biomorphic surrealism that brings together graffiti and cartoons recalls the work of Tanguy, Matta and Arp,” Minsky notes.

And, “Lipsky takes the lead in interweaving the worlds of paper and electrons.”

Filthy talked to me about how he got started in Second Life.

i started to really become inspired by the people and creations i came across in SL… so i started making RL art about it pastels and charcoal drawings. i’d photo them…upload them to SL and exhibit them and share them with my community. Next thing you know people started asking for the real stuff. Then i met someone from IBM [Doug McDavid]… he thought what i was doing was interesting so they flew me out to San Jose to lecture and make art… that led to more commissions and more lectures and more chances to travel to exhibit like at Gallery 555 in Porto, Portugal.

More about Filthy’s success story here. And, how he is using the island Artropolis as a platform to help other artists.  Also, see Filthy’s blog and a YouTube of “Filthy Drawing NMC”  here.

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Anshe Chung (picture from Rik Riel’s Flickr stream) spoke live from China at the grand opening celebration for the new Non-profit Commons island in Second Life. Anshe expressed her passion for using virtual worlds to connect globally.

Anshe Chung is SL’s first millionaire, a global metaverse entrepreneur, and donor of the island and buildings that house the NPC. Anshe described some of her own early experiences in virtual worlds and the power of the immersive social experience. She has seen virtual worlds and the internet enable people, previously forgotten and disconnected, to become connected to a global economy, and to meet other people on a more even footing. She talked about how people isolated from the world economy use rural internet cafes in China to socialize globally and make things of value in in virtual worlds.

Anshe, through her own portals on Second Life and other ventures, has been responsible for getting a vast number of people involved virtual worlds. She explained that she hoped the Non-profit Commons in SL could extend this process of finding new ways to connect technically, socially and emotionally to the members of non-profits.

Connecting Virtually: What makes the experience in Second Life so compelling?

Christian Renaud of Cisco uses the term “networked virtual environments” in the blog description of Cisco’s new Virtual Worlds Blog saying:

We believe that these environments offer an excellent new tool in our collaboration toolbox, alongside established technologies like IP Telephony, Web Collaboration, and Telepresence.

And, in my view, the time is just around the corner when “networked virtual environments” will be the tool par excellence for global collaboration and much more. This is one of the founding inspirations of the Ugotrade blog.

SuezanneC Baskerville, makes a fascinating comment to Christian’s post drawn from her recent post Virtual World moguls meet across shared Surface in Metaverse Poker Room. She suggests “that it would be interesting to see Linden Lab link it’s San Francisco and Boston offices using Cisco’s Telepresence system.” Christian’s Renaud’s response to her comment is also a must read. He notes his own experiences with wall sized video conferences, “bumping into colleagues in our break-rooms in our Technology Center offices in Raleigh and San Jose…..”

But, of special interest to me, is Christian’s comment on one of the key aspects of virtual worlds or “verses” as he likes to call them.

The “serendipity” of virtual worlds is a key part of the paradigm shift that Second Life has brought to “over the network interaction.” Christian explains:

One of the areas that we are constantly striving to improve is how you make an ‘over the network’ interaction as valuable and signal-rich as an ‘over the desk’ interaction. One of those variables, which is a key attribute of virtual worlds (or ‘verses, as I call them), is serendipity. I can’t very well bump into you on a telephone call, or (other than your example above) on a Telepresence call, however I can bump into your avatar in Second Life easily. How do we facilitate this serendipity, perhaps even nudge you in the direction of someone with shared interests? Food for thought.

“The Serendipity of Second Life”

And, just to press home a point on this “magic of Second Life,” I had a serendipitous encounter on SL only minutes after reading Christian’s comment. I bumped into a rising Japanese Electro/techno/house star, Shingo, on Virgin EMI Music Japan.

Risso Little is new to Second Life. I had gone to Virgin EMI Music Japan to follow up on some interesting posts on Japanese sims by my friend Al Kronos. While we were chatting an earthquake struck Tokyo, and my new found friend’s eighth floor apartment started to shake. I had just gone to his My Space. And, I was listening to one of his excellent tracks when this happened. (Click here to listen)

Well to make a long story short, Rizzo and I were very relieved when the shake up was over. I offered to take him shopping (yes, I know, what was I thinking? “I shop therefore I am”). But, nevertheless in a few short hours Shingo gave me an introduction to some Japanese areas in Second Life. And, I took him around some of the American and European sims. Here we are chatting with a group of Japanese fashionistas waiting to earn Linden dollars modeling dresses in panels. Later, I connected Rizzo Little to Nat Mandelbrot (of Cruxy Player fame) who is pioneering new ways for musicians to extend the experience of their music in Second Life.

Thinking on a global scale - Second Life is not “empty space.”

The casual drop-in approach to Second Life taken by some main stream journalists, and their resulting cursory view from afar, has created a lot of misunderstanding in recent months about how Second Life works to connect people globally, in completely new ways, for business, pleasure and social change.

Story Geek recently wrote an excellent post pointing out that stories in “Wired and the L.A. Times have deemed Second Life (SL) a failure because of it being empty” misunderstand this new virtual landscape that appears empty to a casual glance even though it is actually teeming with life and economic activity.

Story Geek gives an excellent analysis of why a high level glance at a virtual environment misinforms the observer much the way such a high level glimpse might in the real world perceive Canada as empty. And so, Story Geek quips, “Maybe all businesses should pull out of Canada also.” Story Geek points out some of the specific ways that Second Life’s teeming economy and bustle of activity might not be apparent to a drop in observer. And, he points out:

by understanding the mechanics of the world you get a clearer picture of how the residents exist, inter-relate and consume.

Reflexive Architecture: Experiencing People in the Global Reaches of Virtual Space

3D Experience architect Keystone Bouchard is currently engaged in exploring through reflexive and responsive architecture new ways for people to experience other people’s presence in virtual space. As Story Geek noted, mis-perceptions of emptiness can arise in virtual environments for many reasons, e.g., because Second Life is an open 24/7 space with people arriving from multiple time zones at different times of the day.

In a Gallery of Reflexive Architecture, to be exhibited as part of the new Library Gallery exhibition on Info Island by the artslib group, Keystone is showcasing some of his work with scripter Fumon Kubo. Keystone has posted a video composite of several machinima pieces each describing a different installation in the gallery, such as Rippling Prims, Prim Decay, Sudden Space, Restless Spheres, Carvable Prims, Visible Traces, Moving Tiles, Interactive Glass, and The Cacoon. Some include sound as an integral part of the experience, which is best experienced first-hand (SLurl … subject to change).

The picture below is of Sudden Space.

Keystone explained to me:

One thing I’ve struggled with is the idea that people think sims are ‘always empty’ just because there wasn’t someone there the instant they visited. But in actuality, these places are flooded with people flowing through them. The difference is, we’re on a global scale now most websites are ‘empty’ most of the time too. So, I wanted to build in a system that illustrates that you’re not alone, a relatively low-impact way of measuring how spaces are used as well.

Keystone took me through the reflexive 3D experiences he has created. Here is a short selection of some of the comments he made.

Visible Traces

Each one of us should have a different color and they follow our trails. Right now I have them set to last 2 hours so, we can see visible traces of people who have been here before us. I can already see in the first day this has been here that some of the corner installations are overlooked, so, its meaningful feedback

Rippling Prims

I’ve wondered how this one will behave with many avs present so far, its only been tested with 2 but, its created a nice little space for us where nothing was before.
On Demand Architecture = Prim Ripples.

Carvable Prims
This explores the idea of avatar movement gradually ‘carving’ the architecture. Every time an avatar appraoches, the ‘wall’ elements move a slight bit away so, over time, the high traffic areas become larger.

It was based on a conversation Theory Shaw and I had a while back one of those monumental ‘What If?’ conversation

Keystone and I discussed how reflexive 3D experience architecture will take on new value and meaning when it can be laced with data from the real world. The potential of virtual world/real world intergrations to provide a doorway to a sustainable future is a key theme on Ugotrade. And, I have discussed this many times, including here, here, and here in some depth.

We are on the cusp of virtual revolution that will shift the world away from models of communication, representation, and production that emerged in the industrial age.

In Second Life we are beginning to see Global initiatives like EOLUS One put together the kind of global collaboration that will make virtual environments the stage for planning, designing and managing real life buildings and cities in new collaborative and participatory ways. And once built, these cities will stream back into Virtual Worlds as data that is responsive to our needs and the needs of the environment.

Then 3D experience architecture will emerge as not only a beautiful expression of a new era of global communication and collaboration, but as a a tool par excellence for benefiting communities and people, and creating a sustainable future.

Thinking Globally: How Can Developing Countries Benefit from Virtual Worlds?

An important question that came up at the non-profit commons launch was how non-profits in developing countries can utilize virtual worlds. This is a topic I discussed with Alanagh Recreant of Uthango Social Investments in this post. Also see this interesting article on Uthango’s work in the South African national newspaper Cape Argus. And, please see Uthango’s new blog, Africa’s Second life , Our Virtual Reality, to learn about the first event of Uthango’s African Round Table Initiative, in Second Life, Aug 24th.

These are exciting times for Non-profits on Second Life and the fact that facilitating developing countries participation in virtual worlds seems high on the agenda is very encouraging.

MacArthur funding a non-profit track (see press release) at the SLCC convention which Rik Riel will be blogging.

The Grand Opening of Non-profit Commons on Second Life

There are some excellent blogs on the non-profit commons launch. Ruby Sinreich live blogged it. And, Rik Riel has posted some great pictures on his blog and more here. Susan Tenby (avatar Glitteratica Cookie) talked about TechSoup’s work in Second Life - 300 group members and thousands of avatars have come to their weekly meetings. Coughran Mayo from Preferred Family Healthcare spoke (via Skype), and Glitteractica Cookie (Susan Tenby of TechSoup), Jeska Linden (NP liaison for Linden Labs), and Anshe Chung live from China.

Evonne Heyning (avatar In Kenzo) elaborated on some of the specific ways the Non-profit commons on Second Life will be a portal bootstrapping the non-profit process on Second Life with efforts like, an “office in a box,” to help non-profits get up to speed fast on Second Life. Go visit nonprofitcommons.org on the web and in Second Life:
slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Nonprofit%20Commons/130/125/22/ to find out more.

After the panel there was a tour of the 32 nonprofits who have offices at NPC. Here I am at Yehoodi, the swing dance society run by Rik who is DJing real time. The swing music was great. And, I didn’t have to wait long before I landed a very dashing dance partner -Dore Junot (film maker Salvador Luna in RL) who I gather was the video guru for the mixed reality panel (photo below of the live event, “Jeska and Susan in two worlds,” from net2photos flickr stream)

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I met with Ansi Orochi (a.k.a. Ansgar Schmidt, Lead Architect, Virtual Worlds, IBM Research and Development) on Sawubona on Second Life to ask him the question: “What Are The Most Important Characteristics of Web 3D?” Sawubona, is in a very early stage of development - the first official press release isn’t due for a month. But, it is already clear that this is going to be a ground breaking social music project in Second Life, combining global collaboration and technological innovation to raise money and awareness for a township project in South Africa.

An IBM mainframe has been harnessed to Second Life to allow Second Life residents to remix songs live in Second Life and even add their own voice. South African musicians have donated songs. And, musicians from all around the world and singers, drummers, guitar players and other musicians have contributed tracks that can be recombined in Second Life. The aim is for musicians from around the world to come to together to produce news songs. They will use the Sawubona to remix and collaborate to form virtual bands that will produce CDs and eventually go on a concert tour. The sale of these CDs and other spin off products will also go towards the township project, as will the proceeds from a stadium concert of Sawubona musicians during the 2010 World Soccer Cup, South Africa.

Many IBMers and T4-Media members have been donating time to this project. Jacqueline Wolff, Communications, IBM R & D Germany, responsible for Podcast and Videocast, is working with Ansi. She will produce a blog and podcast about the activities of Sawubona.

Sawubona felt like an auspicious place to discuss “the web as virtual world.” One of the characteristics of Web 3D, in my view, if it is to play a role in positive global development, is that it will emerge from such collaborations across community, culture and business.

Ansi is Eolus McMillan’s partner in the development of the EOLUS One initiative. EOLUS is pioneering, in Second Life, cross industry, academic and community collaboration to prototype large scale facility energy management, building planning, and retail 2.0 projects. EOLUS One aims to harness Second Life as a global creative context bringing communities and corporations together on designs that will benefit communities and the environment.

“The Web As A Virtual World.”

I began my discussion on Web 3D with Ansi by asking him some questions on a recent report in Business Week which, while acknowledging the place of the leaders on the road to Web 3D, Second Life, Google Earth and IBM, focuses on the first requirement of Web 3D - an agreement on open standards.

I was glad to see Business Week this week move on from reporting Second Life as though it was still 2005 (an era when Second Life was still seen as a game, see this earlier post) with this story, “Just Ahead: The Web As Virtual World:” And, BW finally gets to the crux of the matter, at least in topic selection:

Google (GOOG ), Second Life creator Linden Lab, IBM, and a bevy of additional companies are moving toward the day when you can stroll around a 3D Web–and not just their own sites–using a virtual replica of yourself that you’ve created. They are working to establish technical standards, open to all programmers, that would allow the entire Internet to become a galaxy of connected virtual worlds.

The BW report mentions that standards groups like the Web 3D consortium are meeting to develop open standards. And, in 18 months, “an interoperable avatar likely will be approved by the I.S.O., an organization that has verified technical standards like the JPEG, a shareable format for digital images, for its 157 member countries.” But the missing piece, in my view, is to link the discussion of open standards to an understanding of what the characteristics of virtual worlds will be most important when “technical standards, open to all programmers, that would allow the entire Internet to become a galaxy of connected virtual worlds.”

Cory again confirmed to BW that Linden Lab will open source the server code in a year or two so:

developers will be able to modify it to create their own Second Life-like sites and build connections so that a store or other application in one virtual site could interact with those in others

But, I was a little surprised by BW statement that Cory Ondrejka of Linden Lab had indicated:

The company has not decided whether it will hand the code to a standards body to oversee or will write it, get it working, and hope to set a de facto standard the way Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT ) Windows trounced Apple Inc.’s (AAPL ) platform by opening up in the 1980s.

I hope to talk to Cory in depth about this soon as a “de Facto standard” does not seem in keeping with many other statements Cory has made re Linden Lab’s approach to making LL’s Second Life protocols available for the greater good.

Open standards are perhaps even more important to corporations than open sourcing the server code. And, Ansi was clear that while he is very impressed with what Linden Lab has done, and is doing, he thinks:

The world has learned and understood the value of open standards in contrast to proprietary approaches from some companies in the recent years. Creating de facto standards does not help anyone except the company creating them.

I will be doing a series of posts asking many people: “What Should Be The Characteristics of Web 3D.” Hopefully, there will many perspectives on this conversation from many quarters.

The mission of Ugotrade is to explore virtual realities role in creating a better planet. And, Second Life continues to provide more stories than I can keep up with in this regard. Philip Rosedale’s commitment to Second Life’s potential role in positive global development was clear to me back in April. And, Second Life continues to reveal new possibilities in this regard every time I log in.

Second Life - the most open and only truly user generated virtual world to date - already exhibits most of the characteristics that constitute a paradigm shift in global communications and knowledge production that can change the world completely much as Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type printing did, Ansi noted. He put it succinctly:

The main characteristics of the paradigm shift (to Web 3D) have already happened in Second Life.

Virtual Worlds are, in Ansi’s view, the Gutenberg 2.0 revolution. Gutenberg’s invention brought knowledge to the masses. But, virtual worlds and WEB 2.0 technologies can go a step further connecting us to each other in an immersive environment that is capable of transmitting whole cultures and reimagining communication in ways never possible before.

Wikipedia notes A&E Network ranked Gutenberg #1 on their “People of the Millennium” countdown, and in 1997, Time–Life magazine picked Gutenberg’s invention as the most important of the second millennium.^[2

There seem to be a lot of interesting comparisons that could be made between Philip Linden and Gutenberg.

Gutenberg’s picture below (right) with picture of Philip Linden from Torley Linden’s Flickr stream (left) - “Philip Linden has many talents among them, typing while holding a flute :-)”

While it is still the infancy of Virtual World development, Linden Lab’s Second Life has in Ansi’s view laid down the ground work for on the chief characteristics of “the web as a virtual world.”

Web 3D should not only include increasingly sophisticated levels of avatar interaction (that will include level of body language communication not available yet), but new ways to handle digital rights so avatar’s can travel between virtual worlds.

One of the reasons Linden Lab has much work to do before open sourcing is to develop ways to protect, when the server code is open sourced, the hard work existing residents of Second Life have already put into the vast amount of assets they have developed in Second Life.

Second Life has a sophisticated and powerful micro-economy that currently includes the protection of intellectual property rights and the ability to easily share, give away or sell objects easily. Being able to handle digital rights for an interoperable avatar on Web 3D goes beyond the mere establishing of open standards but into the core characteristics that can make a vibrant virtual economy work. Linden Lab has uniquely created just such a vibrant virtual economy on Second Life. And, how this is integrated with open standards might well be the billion dollar question re the future characteristics of Web 3D.

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Yesterday, in Second Life, I met Illuminous Beltran, a.k.a Michael J. Osias, Chief 3D Architect for the IBM IT Optimization Business Unit. Illuminous is leading a team of researchers building 3D Command Centers for customers. And, during my tour of the Virtual Network Operation Center Division of Scripts in the Sky Research Labs, Dreamland Industries, in Second Life, he introduced me to potential role of Second Life in the next generation of software design.

Illuminous’ group is a partnership between the IT Optimization Unit and IBM Research. The key developers are IBM Researchers from Hawthorne NY. Illuminous’ background is in telecommunications, treasury and finance operations, and defense industry. He has experience in large e-Business infrastructures including portals, B2B, e-Commerce, and legacy integration and transformation.

Illuminous’s Virtual Network Operations Center in Second life, and his Holographic Enterprise Interface “that integrates with enterprise systems and provides communications and event management with the 3D environment” was originally his own “skunk-works project.” But, after his VNOC drew attention as a popular way to demonstrate some of IBM’s virtualization and enterprise management tools, IBM decided to invest in the project. They are in the process of making it available to customers. Illuminous’ Second Life project has not only resulted in a number of patents, it is beginning to be leveraged by IBM in a number of ways from saleable products to service offerings.

“Visual Programs or 3D machines are the next level of software design”

Illuminous talked enthusiastically about the uniqueness of Second Life as a 3D platform that offers a new freedom to sculpt and paint code, and create visual programs or 3D machines that are the next level of software design.

In these 3D machines, code and 3D are inseparable and human mind and machine integrate as never before. They will transform industry, business and government through the creation of Virtual Services Operation Centers, Security Operations Centers, and Global Command and Control Systems and much more. 3D data processing will no longer be a simulator but the real deal.

Notably Illuminous said that if Second Life’s servers were open sourced tomorrow his recommendation would be to develop the next generation of 3D Command Centers wholly on the Linden platform. Illuminous has just spent some time porting the VNOC into Torque, an operation requiring a deep level of C code reconaissance necessary “to make Torque dance.” This step, he said, would be unnecessary were the LL servers already open sourced.

Interestingly, echoing the debate on Arch, Illuminous does not like the term visualization for the work he does in Second Life. He says we are in need of new terms but concepts like visual programs and 3D machines come closer to describing this new generation of 3D code/architecture. And, such 3D information machines have the potential to become increasingly helpful to humanity. They can become, in a global collaborative 3D environment, both beautiful and wise - 3D Wisdom machines.

“The extraordinary potential of an open source 3D platform with the Linden characteristics”

Many may be surprised to hear that for this exciting adventure on the frontiers of software design, Illuminous’ platform of choice is not some high end legacy system but the popular consumer platform of Second Life. Take note if you still see Second Life as a game, or have been convinced by a recent spate of negative reporting that Second Life is just a 3D chat room portrayed as good for nothing but sex, lies, and scandalous videotape.

Illuminous pointed out the extraordinary potential of an open source 3D platform with the Linden characteristics to give software designers the freedom to paint and sculpt, and work together in code as never before.

An open source 3D platform with Linden characteristics would give me a common, interoperable platform that can be used to quickly develop innovative 3D business applications. Some of the desirable characteristics include the grid architecture, the in-world communications infrastructure, and the rich programming and state models.

Illuminous also mentioned that while he has come across critiques of the Linden Script Language at conferences, he does not find these criticisms validated in his own experience.

The Linden script language has been able to fulfill all of the programming requirements I have needed. Instead of forcing tons of function into individual large scripts, I program several interacting objects that collectively are combined to form new types of machines or programs.

“The 2D Web is, in many ways, an after thought.”

When Illuminous was talking to me about some of the special possibilites Second Life offers to next level software design, I thought of Keystone’s ideas about virtual architecture. And, how the Second Life collaborative environment, and the freedoms and possibilities created by the building and scripting tools have led Keystone to think about reflexive and responsive architecture - “data architecture.”

Illuminous described that 2D web is, in many ways, an “after thought.” In 2D “computers are bored waiting for us,” no chance to burn out a card and get “the blue screen of death” on a Google. And, he explained, to aggregate and integrate information on web pages is very clumsy. The relationship between mind and computer is much more intimate and integrated in 3D. Not only are there the special relations with the structure of objects in play but there is the fourth dimension of time and change.

For a more complete explanation of the VNOC and The Holographic Enterprise Interface you can pick up a prim book (see page below) at Dreamland Industries in Second Life. And, for more pictures of the VNOC see here.

The rack of XMLRPC Channel banks and the central communications hub does decryption and packet parsing for the Holographic Protocol Architecture.

The Holographic Protocol Architecture (HPA) provides a common and consistent communications framework that allows communications between the virtual and non virtual worlds, and also is used within purely in-world networks.

Illuminous’ integration server to manage the enterprise API integration and mediate communications has also be used in other virtual worlds.

It has been leveraged for use in other virtual worlds, without modifications by using the back end enterprise plugins and the standard interfaces. This allows us to use multiple 3D engines, with minimal changes to the 3D engine, and nearly none of the integration logic, since the job of the 3D engine to maintain world state and sessions, not process large volumes of data and integration logic.

VNOC and the mitigation of energy issues

On Ugotrade I have been blogging about the potential for VOCs to revolutionize energy management. The energy management potential of VNOCs may stay neck and neck with increasing demands for power for CPUs for a while until all the tools for energy management can be tied together in cohesive picture. But, Illuminous explained their potential to reduce energy consumption in a number of ways is considerable. For example, Virtual Operation Centers are better able to consolidate the footprint of large numbers of machines only being used at say 10% capacity, to get rid of extraneous machines, and to monitor power and cooling, distribute workload between data centers, and even move processing to cooler site when weather conditions are unfavorable.

This kind of level of virtual energy management has an important role to play in the energy management goals of the EOLUS initiative.

Christopher Linden Visits EOLUS One -”Where Creative Minds Come Together.”

Last week a steady stream of Metarati visited the EOLUS One iniative that includes in its multifaceted approach a Virtual Operations Center where EOLUS is prototyping and modeling uses cases that have the potential to transform the real estate industry, architecture, and the future of retail. I can only give a taste in this post of the momentum this projects seems to be gathering. I was fortunate to be there last week for a few important meetings, including when Christopher Mahoney, Business Development Manager at Linden Lab, took a tour.

Reinventing the Real Estate Industry in Second Life

Chris has be focusing on SL/RL integrations and is particularly interested in they way the real estate industry could work in new ways in Second Life. But, Chris was clearly blown away when he saw how committed Eolus Mcmillan (a.k.a Oliver Goh of Implenia) is to creating a new model for the Real Estate Industry that puts Second Life at the heart of a new approach to managing the complete life cycle of property.

The life cycle of property can be revolutionized in many ways in a virtual environment and each moment of the cycle, in Eolus Mcmillan’s view, offers different points of engagement, from collaboration on planning and virtual modeling, to the use of Virtual Operation Centers for building management and more. The cycle begins with a birth - a piece of land where decisions are yet to be made about what to do with it, and ends with a maintenance mode - where different responsiblities are on different parties e.g. owners, tenants and even the property itself. For example, at the end, a property may be enlisted through building automation to such tasks as taking care of its elderly occupant who has a pace maker, or needs their blood sugar or heart problems monitored.

Tab Scott (a.k.a Terry Beaubois in Real Life), Keystone Bouchard, Virtual Architect for Clear Ink, and Kiwini Oe a.k.a Steve Nelson of Clear Ink have been putting their heads together on this reinvention of the Real Estate life cycle (more on this in another post).

I caught two other metarati stopping by EOLUS One also. Fizik Baskerville (a.k.a Justin Bovington of Rivers Run Red) who is working on a number of very interesting SL/RL integration projects that I hope will be the topic of a future post. And, Pathfinder Linden who flew in and connected the EOLUS One Initiative with his friends at MIT Media Lab, Responsive Environments Group.

Open Sourcing the Second Life Servers

During the tour, which I will discuss later in this post, Christopher Linden made clear statements on the goals re open sourcing server side (the client is, of course, already open source).

The first tough step for LL Chris explained is figuring out a way that Second Life assets can be distributed onto other servers without degrading the property rights of all the current residents who have so much invested in all the many, many assets they have created on Second Life. And, while this is a thorny problem involving many issues from file encryption to permission structures, Chris indicated that the ability to back up assets on other servers could be available by the end of the year. Rumor has it that full open sourcing is on something like an 18 month schedule. But LL, as far as I know, have not mentioned dates as yet, although they have been very clear about their intentions to completely open source, and that they are moving as fast as they possibly can. Chris concurred saying that Linden Lab are preparing to open the platform completely and transform themselves into an application provider of services like search, Voice Over IP, user interfaces etc.

And, if open sourcing of the server side is accomplished in 15 to 18 months, Eolus Mcmillan said this would be timely for the EOLUS initiative which he hopes will be ready to gear up for large scale integration projects in about the same period.

William Gibson in Second Life

William Gibson’s appeared live on Aug 2nd in Second Life, doing his first ever reading from Spook Country (to be released in stores next week) and followed by Q&A. The cinema on Rivers Run Red (Avalon) was packed and the excitement was tangible.

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