Wednesday, January 27. 2010Time Is The New Space: Moments, Not Memosby Stowe Boyd
In some recent writings and presentations, I have explored the topic 'Time Is The New Space':
I want to build on one aspect of this topic: to the degree that we rely on real-time streaming as the basis of our work interactions, we will sense that we are sharing time, not documents, or other artifacts. Interaction in real-time forms the context of our interactions, and displaces many prior social objects. In particular, this means the end of documenting status is reports: moments are what we share, not memos. The elements of the memo are atomized into a scattershot of micro status updates, which, like macro blogging before it, has thrown away the stucture of beginning, middle and end. We are always at the start, middle, and end. Not everything fits into a 140 character Twitter post, but long form writing won't necessarily look like memos, but a slightly slower stream made up of larger chunks. In everyday, more prosaic terms, I am betting that the operational documents that flowed, sluggishly, through the interoffice mail of companies in the '90s, and as email attachments in the '00s, will simply not be created in the '10s. Instead, people will simply aggregate others' streams -- both micro and macro -- ordered by time and topic. Or simply remain aware of what folks are doing in an ambient way, sharing time. A fully streamed world, not batched. ----- Via /Message
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Culture & society, Interaction design, Science & technology, Territory
at
11:13
Defined tags for this entry: culture & society, interaction design, science & technology, space, territory, time
Monday, January 25. 2010What’s Up With Virtual Worlds? [ANALYSIS]by Samuel Axon
From 2005 up through 2008, virtual worlds seemed like the hottest ticket in tech, but we’ve heard less about them in recent months. We imagined the people of Earth leading double lives in alternate realities. It was the stuff of science fiction, like flying cars and robot butlers, and unlike those things, it actually looked like it could become reality. Except it hasn’t. What happened? Are people still using virtual worlds? Let’s look at the latest developments in two of the most hyped virtual world platforms for insights into where (if anywhere) the alternate reality trend is headed. Second Life: It’s Doing Better Than You’d Think
Second Life was regarded as the standard-bearer for a long time, but the flurry of press over in-world concerts and political campaigns has died down in 2009. However, it appears that the virtual world itself hasn’t done the same — or at least its economy hasn’t. Second Life creators and curators Linden Lab reported just a few days ago that 2009 was actually kind of huge. Second Life’s economy grew 65% over 2008 to $567 million, or around 25% of the virtual goods economy in the United States. This was during a time when the real world’s economy actually shrunk. Second Life’s economy revolves around virtual land and items, the former created by Linden Lab and the latter created by users. Based on anecdotal observation, it seems to us that a sizable portion of the property and items powering the economy are being used for adult activities in the world’s new, adult-only continent Zindra, though Linden Lab hasn’t released the data. The author of a recent article on Second Life at PC Pro observed that the areas of the world outside the adult community seemed empty, but readers responded saying that the real problem is a lack of tools for locating like-minded people. That noted, it looks like Second Life has settled into a niche. That’s not a bad thing if it’s making money, but it’s not the virtual world explosion that the press, users, and Linden Lab itself hoped for a few years ago. Metaplace’s Failure To Launch
Metaplace aspired to be the first great web-wide platform for virtual worlds. Shortly after launching, it became the foundation for 70,000 worlds. Metaplace was envisioned to be a place where anyone could go to create their own virtual world and community, just like they can create their own profiles on Facebook. Just like Facebook profiles, the worlds could be linked or associated in a number of ways. It was also an open platform, ideal for developers who wanted to integrate virtual worlds with whatever other projects they were working on. Since it was a combination of the best ideas in both the web and virtual worlds spaces, it seemed like the most cohesive plan for virtual world domination on the scene. It was a tough sell to users, unfortunately. They didn’t always understand the concepts that developers and designers found so exciting about the project. The grand idea might have been too ambitious. In December, Metaplace announced that it would close on January 1, 2010. “Unfortunately, over the last few months it has become apparent that Metaplace as a consumer UGC service is not gaining enough traction to be a viable product, requiring a strategic shift,” the company said. Nobody’s explained what the new plan is yet, but the company has said on Twitter that it’s looking for Facebook game designers and programmers. The State of Virtual WorldsDedicated virtual worlds platforms haven’t become mainstream despite all the press attention and investor enthusiasm. Maybe most users find them too abstract, or maybe the sort of extreme anonymity they provide only appeals to a few subsets of people. The greatest virtual world success story to date for grown-up users (it’s a whole different story for kids) is arguably the online roleplaying game World of Warcraft. Maybe the lesson to be learned here is that socialization alone isn’t enough to keep people interested in a virtual reality. If socializing is the sole objective, people usually prefer to be themselves on Facebook or Twitter. Also consider Foursquare and Gowalla, which make virtual worlds out of the real one. Like virtual worlds, socialization on its own appears not to be enough to sustain location based services. Foursquare and Gowalla found success where previous entrants in the space had struggled by incorporating gaming elements to keep things interesting. And while location based services and massively multiplayer video games are not the virtual reality science fiction that geeks hoped for, if you think about it, social networking and location gaming are concepts so out there that even most sci-fi authors didn’t see them coming. ----- Via Mashable Personal comment: And in the meantime, it's funny to consider the world wide success of J. Cameron's movie "Avatar", who brings and make popular to "mass market" the concept of the "avatar" that is really and at first a "virtual worlds' invention" (well, maybe not at first...).
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Interaction design, Territory
at
14:07
Defined tags for this entry: 3d, artificial reality, design (environments), interaction design, territory
Friday, January 22. 2010Have I cracked the the telepresence conundrum?Last evening I particpated remotely from my home in France in a pre-event in Amsterdam of ElectroSmog International Festival for Sustainable Immobility. I didn't use the fancy gadget in the photo above. My set-up yesterday was a bit, but not a lot, better-organized than the remote recording session (below) I did for a BBC radio programme last summer. I said my bit to deBalie via skype, and followed the rest of proceedings, which were chaired by Eric Kluitenberg, on deBalie's livestreaming feed. The deBalie session was not, I know, a major event in the greater context of events concerning sustainability, media, and design. But I'm proud, nonetheless: I have not yet set foot in an aeroplane in 2010, and this event was a meaningful first step: it followed a new year resolution radically to reduce my work-related travel. In preparing for yesterday's modest exercise, I was amazed to discover that I have been writing about the substitution of telepresence for mobility for seventeen years. Writing, not doing, I know: By no means all my texts and talks are here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here. Although deBalie's streaming video feed was clear (thanks to their industrial-quality cameras; three-times normal bandwidth; something called an h264 video codec; and Gerbrand); and Eric was a clear and well-organized compere; but the experience was as unrelaxing, experientially, as always. I spent half-a-day spent fidding with lights and backdrops at my end. I had to miss lunch in order to test skype. And I had to work hard, during the event itself, to keep track of what was happening in Amsterdam. An abruptly broken connection, internet-side, just as the final Q+A started, was an abrupt but unsurprising conclusion. Content-wise, the session was a blast from the past - in good ways and bad. A guy from IBM demo'd a hideous virtual "creative office" populated by avatars. The avatar representing the IBM-er in Belgium failed to speak or move for five minutes; its human owner had apparently left his desk to look for a beer. This was fair enough -a national beer strike in Belgium has only recently ended - but the jerky, implausible look-and-feel of IBM's virtual office was less enticing than the pre-Sims demo given by Will Wright at Doors of Perception back in 1998. (It wasn't much better, either, than the time I did a video conference with Korea in which twelve corporate persons - not from IBM - sat in a row facing the camera. I was able scan the camera along the line, jerkily, from my end. But because my fellow videoconferencers were dressed in identical blue suits, white shirt and dark tie; and because most of them seemed to be called Mr Kim; I soon gave up). (But last night's IBM demo was superior to the videoconference between a summer school in Lisbon, and the White House, that I experienced last summer. Then, the link was enabled by Cisco Systems' ultra high-end platform. We were all excited because our interviewee was said to have an office just down the hall from the Oval Office. We all assumed that communicating with the centre of world power on the world's fanciest videoconferencing platform would be fab. But the link, once opened, yielded sound and pictures worse then the ones sent back by the first lunar lander. After ten minutes of torture, someone in Lisbon put their hand up and said" "can't we use skype?" - so we we did). But there were delights, last evening, too. Costas Bissas from DistanceLab told us, from a location somewhere in the wilds of Scotland, about a cow called Grace who has been fitted with a webcam. It took me back to the time Bill Gaver and Tony Dunne attached web-enabled microphones to chickens in Peccioli. I told Costas I would pay good money to see Grace charging a bunch of tourists, but he said that is not their business model. As last night's discussion continued, I had an epiphany: it is not my job to keep track of all these tele-tools and platforms - still less, to set them up and make them work when I need them. I thought back to the early years of the telephone: for decades after the telephone was first publicly deployed, one would pick up the receiver - and a room full of operators would make the connection for you. This is what we need now. We need the equivalent of a roadie for telepresence events. Rock stars don't have to fiddle about setting up amps and lighting and the stage before they perform - so why should I, or any other right thinking citizen who has a life to lead? e-Roadies are the solution I have been searching for for seventeen years. I haven't worked out where to find them, nor how to train them - still less, a business model to pay for them. But I am surely on the right track because E-Roadies are a human solution. Posted by John Thackara at January 22, 2010 10:35 AM -----
Posted by Patrick Keller
in Interaction design, Sustainability, Territory
at
13:49
Defined tags for this entry: artificial reality, interaction design, mediated, mobility, presence, sustainability, territory
Wednesday, January 20. 2010Rainforests Destroyed as Fast as a Field of Matches
Photo via Greenpeace While the rate of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest may be declining, it and other rainforests around the world continue to be cleared at an alarming rate. Figures that are quite alarming, like the fact that 17 percent of the Amazon rainforest has been decimated and 74 million hectares of Indonesian forests were completely destroyed, tend to lose their potency due to their unimaginable scope. Put in more manageable terms, every two seconds an area of forest the size of a soccer field is being destroyed in the world--a fact brought to life by this intriguing animation. The video was produced by Greenpeace in Switzerland, and illustrates just how quickly the world is losing its rainforests, like the oldest in Indonesia and the largest in the Amazon. But, more than just losing forest cover, deforestation devastates habitats and unique ecosystems--threatening a multitude of species found nowhere else on earth. For example, according to Greenpeace, the number of Sumatran orangutans has decreased 91% since 1991. A similar fate awaits countless other species if the rate of deforestation does not drop dramatically. In most cases, agricultural development and logging are the biggest threats to the world's forests--practices policies have been put in place to curb. Nevertheless, it continues and progress has come in fits and starts. It would benefit the concerned spectator of environmental affairs to bear in the mind the video when deciding what action should be taken to combat the problem, for there is much more at stake than a soccer field made of matchsticks. More on Deforestation ----- Via Treehugger Personal comment: Vidéo édifiante... They Will Build Clouds For Us[Image: A C-141 Starlifter flying toward sunset; via Wikimedia]. ----- Via BLDGBLOG
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fabric | rblgThis blog is the survey website of fabric | ch - studio for architecture, interaction and research. We curate and reblog articles, researches, writings, exhibitions and projects that we notice and find interesting during our everyday practice and readings. Most articles concern the intertwined fields of architecture, territory, art, interaction design, thinking and science. From time to time, we also publish documentation about our own work and research, immersed among these related resources and inspirations. This website is used by fabric | ch as archive, references and resources. It is shared with all those interested in the same topics as we are, in the hope that they will also find valuable references and content in it.
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