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Beyond Blogging: What's in a Name?
This is a transcript taken during the Beyond Blogging conference by Jaymin Carthage. Some details, spelling and punctuation have been cleaned up. Anyone who has indicated that they did not wish their comments recorded has had their comments removed.
The presenter spoke via audio so this might not make complete sense to those who weren't there. The slides, transcript and commentary will be published together in the proceedings of the conference.
[13:07] Jaymin Carthage: Welcome to the roundtable discussion on "What's in a name".
[13:07] Jaymin Carthage: Recently I had the opportunity to log into a beta of Nebraska.
[13:08] Jaymin Carthage: If you aren't aware of it, this is a boxed "Second Life Appliance" that you can run a corporate instance of second life on.
[13:08] Jaymin Carthage: However when we all logged in, we all had our real names.
[13:08] Jaymin Carthage: It was a bit of a shock to many of us, confronted with our (Ruthed) avatars, but with our real names floating over head.
[13:09] Jaymin Carthage: It struck me then that I did have this visceral difference between "Jaymin Carthage" and "Jo Grant".
[13:09] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I liked it actually
[13:09] Jaymin Carthage: And many others there found it slightly discomforting.
[13:09] Jaymin Carthage: Of course, as came up in chat earlier, in other contexts people found it disconcerting that people had different names in Second Life.
[13:09] Jaymin Carthage: So it is an odd sort of question. How do names become so associative?
[13:10] Jaymin Carthage: Do we find different avatar names confining and confusing, or freeing?
[13:10] Jaymin Carthage: How do we choose what name we represent ourselves with?
[13:10] Jaymin Carthage: If we were free to choose anything, would we choose differently?
[13:10] Jaymin Carthage: Apollo, you wanted to comment to start it all off?
[13:10] Apollo Reinard: names are a basis for a persona.. a 'new' or different state of mind.
[13:10] Apollo Reinard: well I was just gonna say. my name..
[13:11] Apollo Reinard: I'm fond of mythology..
[13:11] Apollo Reinard: so nearly all my online mmo names are after characters from mythos
[13:11] Jaymin Carthage: It's an interesting approach.
[13:11] Apollo Reinard: that's just my preference. and it sort of expresses high ideals.
[13:12] Jaymin Carthage: Chimera, you spoke of naming alts, and choosing the same first name each time
[13:12] Apollo Reinard: qualities.
[13:12] Smiley Dyrssen nods "for me, it's an expression of personality... I've had the nickname Smiley since I was 14, so it just felt natural to use as my avatar's name"
[13:12] Chimera Cosmos: yes
[13:12] Jaymin Carthage: Hmm. So the high side of mythos. No Dis, or Phobos? :-)
[13:12] Dusty Artaud: Mine came from a character for a book I was contemplating writing
[13:12] Chimera Cosmos: my feeble memory?
[13:12] Dusty Artaud: so I already identified with it
[13:13] Apollo Reinard: Ulysses.. Apollo.. great characters..
[13:13] Bluebase Schaller: are we trying to bring SL into the RW ..or vice versa....what is the goal
[13:13] ydoo Magic: I think the choice of an avatar name reflects the license we give ourselves to accept the completely different environment we are participating in..., and even more so than the name, the choice to morph ourselves into almost anything we can imagine is one of the things I enjoy most :)
[13:13] Earth Alcott: I choose my name instantly when prompted to come up with on back in January of 07 no idea why and it was instant.
[13:13] Apollo Reinard: not the Heracles.. or dark side. :)) smiles
[13:13] Chimera Cosmos: I came in not knowing what to expect and chose Chimera just because Cosmos was on the list, sounded "Cosmic" and there was alliteration LOL
[13:13] Chimera Cosmos: did not know I'd be working here eventually
[13:14] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I came in to SL knowing I would be doing things for IBM so I chose my name based on that
[13:14] ploneglenn Yalin: I was at a Forester Research even here in SL and the hosting people used their RL names. Has anyone else run into that yet?
[13:14] Jaymin Carthage: @ydoo, I'm a veterin role player. I freakin role play Monopoly. :-) But when I created my Second Life character, it felt different. I wasn't playing a role, I was me.
[13:14] Earth Alcott: I did pick Alcott because I like to be on the topside of life
[13:14] LiuPin Laville: i love to ask people why they have chosen their first name... there is always a relation to their rl, sometimes only hidden
[13:14] Jaymin Carthage: @ploneglenn, you get that a lot on the IBM internal grid.
[13:14] Chimera Cosmos: yes, Erica Driver from Thinkbalm believes you should use your real name as much as possible
[13:15] Jaymin Carthage: It's quite an interesting dividing line between those who use their real name and those who have a different avatar name.
[13:15] Chimera Cosmos: Erica requires it of members who go to the opensim Reaction Grid Thinkbalm area
[13:15] PatriciaAnne Daviau: it really is Jaymin
[13:15] Valiant Westland: And then there are those of us who have been involved in Internet Branding for years... I chose my name both for the feeling it conveyed as well as the fact that the initials "VW" were the same as "Virtual Worlds"
[13:15] Earth Alcott: Well it depends on what you are doing here and when. I don't hide my real name but most use Earth even when they know my name
[13:15] Dusty Artaud: Once I had identity as Dusty Artaud here -- I expanded it to email and Facebook - separate from my RL stuff
[13:15] ploneglenn Yalin: I think that google has an initiative to aggregate online identities. Gravatar is kind of an early adopter version of that.
[13:15] Apollo Reinard: hha @ VW
[13:16] Bluebase Schaller: in this case people will have two or more avatars
[13:16] PatriciaAnne Daviau: do most of you have an alt in here?
[13:16] Georgianna Blackburn: once your avatar is branded here in SL, you have to start over with real names though, and keep explaining who you are in which world. ugh
[13:16] Chimera Cosmos: On twitter, half my contacts are Avatars--so I had to blend RL and SL names - @ldinstl_chimera
[13:16] Earth Alcott: i have an alt who holds my money
[13:16] Earth Alcott: a business alt
[13:16] Dusty Artaud: lol
[13:17] Earth Alcott: better banker then Citi group
[13:17] PatriciaAnne Daviau: ㋡
[13:17] Georgianna Blackburn: I have a twin alt that houses corporate inventory/financials
[13:17] Jaymin Carthage: I've used "jaymin" as my login name since my first Unix account 20 years ago. So while thrashing on the name screen I just grabbed what I knew.
[13:17] ydoo Magic: Yes, I have alts here, and in other MMO's,, and i use them like Earth. One for meetings, one for banking,
[13:17] Chimera Cosmos does not socialize except for work-related things, but that doesn't mean it is not fun!
[13:17] Bluebase Schaller: An On demand Name should appear depending on the role or relation I have with the communicating partner
[13:17] Jaymin Carthage: (It's a very, very obscure Star Trek reference.)
[13:18] Bluebase Schaller: If we take Role based behaviour or Project based workgroups for example
[13:18] Earth Alcott: my alt's name is Amivea means something atune to equal in Greek
[13:19] PatriciaAnne Daviau: cool Earth
[13:19] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I like that
[13:20] Apollo Reinard: my alt has an american indian name meaning 'eternal blossom' Aiyana
[13:20] Bluebase Schaller: How we manage our mails with different accounts for example. when I am moving in the world of Earth Alcot I will have my greek like name
[13:20] Earth Alcott: tks. patricia
[13:20] Apollo Reinard: just got creative on a name search.
[13:20] LiuPin Laville: the mails... i linked them
[13:21] LiuPin Laville: and all my avatars emails get to the main account
[13:21] ploneglenn Yalin: Could you give a more concrete example about on demand names for project based workgroups @bluebase?
[13:21] Earth Alcott: yes bluebase was processing that myself
[13:21] Chimera Cosmos: you can find all the available SL last names at the time you sign up if you are a little clever
[13:22] Chimera Cosmos: there are websites
[13:22] Valiant Westland: Are talking about pre-configured Avatars?
[13:22] Valiant Westland: We use a group of those for clients...
[13:22] Jaymin Carthage: How often do they change the last name selection?
[13:22] Chimera Cosmos: but to get the one you want specifically---$$$ right?
[13:22] Jaymin Carthage: I think they only sell group last names.
[13:22] Chimera Cosmos: they add and drop some off every few weeks
[13:22] Chimera Cosmos: I think
[13:22] Jaymin Carthage: And you can only register them through the API.
[13:23] Chimera Cosmos: you can also find out how many already have that last name
[13:23] Earth Alcott: do you know the cost and how many you are allowed?
[13:23] Bluebase Schaller: My group classification of the person choose to or the alias I let the person have of me
[13:23] Valiant Westland: http://slnamewatch.com/
[13:23] LiuPin Laville: as far as i know they allow a certain number of avatars to take one last name
[13:23] Smiley Dyrssen: SL info on vanity names: https://support.secondlife.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=4794
[13:23] Earth Alcott: tks.
[13:23] Valiant Westland: Does anyone else here use a Vanity Name?
[13:23] LiuPin Laville: but some entries offer some names for a longer time than others
[13:23] Chimera Cosmos: Yes Valiant--that's one of the sites I was thinking of
[13:23] ydoo Magic: I agree with Bluebase... It is very helpful for us to have the group tags we see above our avatar names... I manage a group of 2100 members and we have specific titles for those within the group who perform the management training functions... that way anyone who walks into the sim can get a notecard and they can find the security team members, membership coordinators, and people linked to the specific part of the organization they are interested in...
[13:24] LiuPin Laville: so maybe they have reserved
[13:24] Smiley Dyrssen: they're pricey, that's for sure... but yeah, Liu... the lindens rotate surnames based on usage and time... they try to keep a fresh mix, and there are some region-specific surnames that show up for different geographical regions
[13:24] Bluebase Schaller: I am thinking more of security in large companies
[13:25] Chimera Cosmos: but you can have the regional ones if you sign up via that portal--no matter where you live in RL
[13:25] LiuPin Laville: this is a reason to look for the entry point
[13:25] PatriciaAnne Daviau: oh that is cool Chimera ... I didn't know that
[13:25] LiuPin Laville: I was looking for special names and found them in Sweden and France
[13:25] Jaymin Carthage: In IBM we have a field in our internal directory that you can enter your Second Life name into.
[13:25] Chimera Cosmos: that and the variation in orientation experiences--I learned these things while creating my alts
[13:25] Jaymin Carthage: You then get automatically added to the Eightbar group based on that.
[13:25] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I like that Jaymin
[13:26] PatriciaAnne Daviau: so I know who to look for in SL
[13:26] Jaymin Carthage: It's not perfect security, but it means you at least need to have IBM access to get into Eightbar.
[13:26] Bluebase Schaller: then we can use bar coding
[13:26] Chimera Cosmos: I created a couple of male alts just because...but I don't identify with them the same way
[13:26] Jaymin Carthage: I certainly like it a lot better than forcing us to all be Jaymin IBM or PatriciaAnne IBM, etc.
[13:26] Bluebase Schaller: the barcode is not readable for man
[13:27] Chimera Cosmos: my male alts came in via Virtual Australia and Virtual Dublin for instance
[13:27] LiuPin Laville: lol... i do
[13:27] PatriciaAnne Daviau: me too Jaymin
[13:27] Bluebase Schaller: just the appliances that need to manage it
[13:27] LiuPin Laville: i learned a lot by my male avatars
[13:27] Dusty Artaud: me too
[13:28] Dusty Artaud: I meditate better as a male
[13:28] Bluebase Schaller: me as an eagle
[13:28] Chimera Cosmos: I found a great place for a decent noob male freebie pack--decent skin and shape--if anyone is interested
[13:28] LiuPin Laville: i act in another way as male
[13:28] Jaymin Carthage: In the customer briefing I did in here the partners were impressed with one guy who had a hat with his web page floating above it
[13:28] PatriciaAnne Daviau: really Liupin?
[13:28] Jaymin Carthage: That's one way to reconcile your "business personal" with your virtual one.
[13:28] Earth Alcott: it's funny I would be afraid to be a male avatar
[13:29] LiuPin Laville: yes, amazing
[13:29] PatriciaAnne Daviau: how do you act differently Liupin?
[13:29] ploneglenn Yalin: Interesting obervation @dusty. I remember an NPR story about how movie trailer narrators are always male.
[13:29] Earth Alcott: somehow I would feel dishonest
[13:29] LiuPin Laville: i feel different and i act different
[13:29] LiuPin Laville: and i get different response
[13:29] PatriciaAnne Daviau: how so?
[13:29] LiuPin Laville: as soon as i meet people
[13:29] Dusty Artaud: and as a male you get to dance more in couples ;)
[13:29] Earth Alcott: lol Dusty
[13:29] ydoo Magic: yes, the response you get IS dramatically different.... I always sell in my shops as a female av :)
[13:29] LiuPin Laville: lol... well i am always dancing
[13:29] Dusty Artaud: always too many females wanting to dance!
[13:29] LiuPin Laville: with all my avatars
[13:30] Jaymin Carthage: The friend who prompted me to join Second Life used a female avatar because "more people talk to me".
[13:30] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I think the most well known female AV for IBM is Jessica who spoke this morning
[13:31] PatriciaAnne Daviau: and as you can tell 'she' is a he
[13:31] LiuPin Laville: i am still busy finding out what the difference is
[13:31] Jaymin Carthage: Sometimes comes as a shock to people.
[13:31] Dusty Artaud: yes very cool when she used voice
[13:31] Valiant Westland: Thus the reason for voice...
[13:31] PatriciaAnne Daviau: yes it was
[13:31] Bluebase Schaller: with a generic barcoding one could be a female character in X and a male one in another group
[13:32] Jaymin Carthage: And that's another technique: the people who choose gender neutral names and change their gender with their clothes.
[13:32] Jaymin Carthage: I.e. a name choice that doesn't give anything away.
[13:32] ploneglenn Yalin: I've seen quite a bit of creativity in SL avatar appearance, including furries and even cloud creatures.
[13:32] Bluebase Schaller: question is ...when we have voice and visual then one have a slight problem eventually
[13:32] Dusty Artaud raises hand
[13:32] Jaymin Carthage: :-)
[13:33] ydoo Magic: U think it is a very interesting experiment in social "acceptance" that the same people who will chat with me as a female av, wont as a male av, but they won't buy scripts from the female av....
[13:33] Chimera Cosmos: Before today, I thought the only really well-known IBM female avatar who is male was Zha Ewry/David Levine
[13:33] Jaymin Carthage: But actually that is funny. I've got lag and mostly am following the chat. I haven't seen your avatar yet, Dusty, and I actually don't know what gender you are wearing!
[13:33] LiuPin Laville: this is true
[13:33] Chimera Cosmos: I was surprised there was another
[13:33] LiuPin Laville: a lot of men are on sl with female avatars
[13:33] Valiant Westland: I guess I come from the other side of the discussion on gender. I think cloaking ones gender for acceptance or manipulation defeats the purpose of trying to have all persons viewed as equals.
[13:33] LiuPin Laville: often it is their first avatar which is female
[13:34] Chimera Cosmos: yes, but most don't talk with their male voice within SL
[13:34] Dusty Artaud: my gender is real == fem
[13:34] Chimera Cosmos: Zha does
[13:34] Bevan Whitfield: many do
[13:34] PatriciaAnne Daviau: Zha hides it? or no?
[13:34] Jaymin Carthage: Pitch changing widgets aren't all that common.
[13:34] Bluebase Schaller: I think it depends on the activity
[13:34] Dusty Artaud: but am I while, black or Asian?
[13:34] Bevan Whitfield: no he doesn't
[13:34] Jaymin Carthage: So, I guess, part and parcel with names are pronouns.
[13:34] ploneglenn Yalin: From the first speaker today, half the men on SL have female avatars.
[13:34] ydoo Magic: @ dusty but why should it matter?
[13:34] Bluebase Schaller: We come back to the role one play in the moment of truth
[13:34] Valiant Westland: I truthfully won't do business with someone who is hiding anything... If you can lie to me about one thing...
[13:35] Dusty Artaud: when you are interacting socially it matters as much as gender
[13:35] Jaymin Carthage: When I talk about Jessican Qin in world, it's always "she". But if I'm in IBM chat, I'll talk about Craig and say "he".
[13:35] Bluebase Schaller: They think women get information easier than male av's
[13:35] PatriciaAnne Daviau: lol me too Jaymin
[13:35] Jaymin Carthage: My gay friends schooled me in this as proper etiquette when talking about cross dressers.
[13:35] Jaymin Carthage: So it just seemed appropriate to apply it here.
[13:35] Valiant Westland: I don't want to have to remember what "character" someone is playing... I work hard just to remember first and last names!
[13:36] LiuPin Laville: how to find out whether is truly looking for business?
[13:36] LiuPin Laville: they may tell you what story ever
[13:36] Malburns Writer: Yes Valiant - VW differ from roleplay environments - should be honest
[13:36] Bluebase Schaller: What is the difference between a character and an Avatar?
[13:36] ploneglenn Yalin: Yea, it's like there is no difference between online identity and branding.
[13:36] Dusty Artaud: I remember what they say and often ignore appearance
[13:36] LiuPin Laville: character they say in WoW
[13:36] ydoo Magic: @ Valiant.... by that logic none of us are who we really are here... I doubt 1% of the avs in SL have any real physical resemblance to the RL person... why would you consider that hiding? because I always wanted to be 6'4" and have a beard that makes me deceitful?
[13:36] Jaymin Carthage: @ploneglenn, I've never thought about it that way.
[13:36] Chimera Cosmos: So do Zha and Jessica know each other in male form at IBM?
[13:36] Bluebase Schaller: why this two different words
[13:36] LiuPin Laville: and they may not identify too much with it
[13:36] Ahuva Heliosense: why does that matter Chimera?
[13:37] Chimera Cosmos: or even in SL? Do Zha and Jessica overlap in work?
[13:37] PatriciaAnne Daviau: yes Chimera
[13:37] Valiant Westland: That's one reason I put my RW picture in my profile.
[13:37] LiuPin Laville: but SL invites you to identify due to very personal experiences
[13:37] Chimera Cosmos: just interested in whether one influenced the other
[13:37] Bluebase Schaller: A lot
[13:37] Jaymin Carthage: @ydoo, I chose my avatar shape specifically so that I would be better looking in real life than in Second Life!
[13:37] Ahuva Heliosense: ah, i see
[13:37] ploneglenn Yalin: Me neither @jaymin, this conference is a great idea.
[13:37] Bluebase Schaller: We have two world... private and business
[13:37] Bevan Whitfield: Well it's not really moot if on one attends RL conferences. *grins*
[13:38] Bluebase Schaller: Real and Private
[13:38] Dusty Artaud: ugly would really stand out here - we are all beautiful and 20 something and it gets boring
[13:38] Bluebase Schaller: Known and Unknown
[13:38] PatriciaAnne Daviau: lol Jaymin
[13:38] LiuPin Laville: ydoo... i found out that they are trying to put a link between sl and rl appearance
[13:38] Bluebase Schaller: black and white..........and and and
[13:38] Jaymin Carthage: @Dusty, but some people embrace ugly. It takes as much work to be ugly as to be beautiful.
[13:38] ydoo Magic: @VW I still don't understand WHY that makes you any more "reliable" in a SL relationship.... I script objects and people pay me because I can make furniture or "weapons" that do what they want, what does that have to do with my profile picture? or lack thereof?
[13:38] Ahuva Heliosense: yes - I've heard that also LiuPin
[13:38] ploneglenn Yalin: Lol @dusty, SL is just like Miami :)
[13:38] Jaymin Carthage: (Of course we're segueing into the next topic!)
[13:38] Bluebase Schaller: not just appearance but also behaviour
[13:39] Valiant Westland: I wear suits and glasses in RL... I wear mostly black and red in RL.... Bevan, sitting next to me has seen both my 1st Life / RL self and will tell you I'm the same "person" in both places. She is as well. Now, I admit I don't have a "Matrix-inspired" suit in RL, but other than that...
[13:39] LiuPin Laville: behaviour you cannot really change, you may think you can
[13:39] LiuPin Laville: but it will always be you or at least a part of you
[13:39] Sasha Wexhome: Personally I make my avatars based on the purpose for them. If my intent is to provoke a response they look funny, if I am trying to represent something they "look the part"
[13:39] Bevan Whitfield: hey I don't have a 3 story tall transformer in RL either! (gosh I wish!)
[13:39] Chimera Cosmos: I reject all ideas about making people look a certain way for business in SL
[13:40] Jaymin Carthage: @LiuPin, but professional actors, or long term role players can submerge their behavior and embrace a role to a large extent.
[13:40] Bevan Whitfield: I SO agree CC
[13:40] Chimera Cosmos: but I know there are many who push the "professional appearance" as improtant
[13:40] LiuPin Laville: that is like rl... lol
[13:40] Dusty Artaud: actually transforming my av has made me more aware of my RL appearance -- I look at clothes differently
[13:40] Bevan Whitfield: well
[13:40] ydoo Magic: I have a customer now who owns a "Victorian sim"/// i don't have Victorian style clothing ( except in SL) but may ability to "morph" my persona to fit into that sim and become part of the "environment" is one of the reasons I get the business I get from the sim owner....is that dishonest?
[13:40] Chimera Cosmos: so I am always curious what makes some more tolerant to difference than others
[13:40] Dusty Artaud: sometimes I walk and sit more like my animation ;)
[13:40] Chimera Cosmos: sp
[13:40] Valiant Westland: Chimera.... you can "reject" these ideas.... but our customers won't. I don't show up at a customer site wearing my surfing togs in RL either.
[13:40] Ahuva Heliosense laughs we are into appearances, not names
[13:40] Bevan Whitfield: fine, get a flat web VW - this is our world and our imagination
[13:40] Jaymin Carthage: @Chimera, I disagree. It is good for business to look a "certain way". But that "certain way" is not the same as in the real world.
[13:41] Earth Alcott: I have had clients of mine request that I have a reduction on my boobs for certain demo motives
[13:41] Jaymin Carthage: @Ahuva, yeah, schedule slip. Inevitable.
[13:41] Earth Alcott: it matters to some
[13:41] Ahuva Heliosense: :)
[13:41] Smiley Dyrssen: hehe
[13:41] Dusty Artaud: lol!!
[13:41] Bevan Whitfield: It is super easy to go create a grid -
[13:41] Malburns Writer: lol earth
[13:41] Earth Alcott: :-))
[13:41] Chimera Cosmos: @jaymin - do you think the "certain way" for business depends on the business?
[13:41] Earth Alcott: quick recovery
[13:42] Jaymin Carthage: @Earth, Jessica's garb got a lot... more at a certain point.
[13:42] Bevan Whitfield: and then one can put down the laws of how one should look and act
[13:42] PatriciaAnne Daviau: lol Earth
[13:42] Ahuva Heliosense: yes, Chimera - i would say so
[13:42] Chimera Cosmos: or is there a "professional look" for SL
[13:42] Valiant Westland: The challenge is it matters to most. Not necessarily most of "us" but the other 99.95% of the planet.
[13:42] ploneglenn Yalin: Yea, somewhere along the way, I ditched the beach bum look for something a little less homeless.
[13:42] Jaymin Carthage: @Chimera, yes and no. I wrote a "how to dress guide" for people coming to my briefing. It stressed mainly taking care and looking like you thought about what you did.
[13:42] Exosius Mistwalker: I look exactly like this in RL. >kidding<
[13:42] Chimera Cosmos: look at me--I have the free Jackie O suit on that I got last night
[13:42] Chimera Cosmos: some days my clothes are less "traditional"
[13:42] Bevan Whitfield: well - here is the link - http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page
[13:43] Chimera Cosmos: but I do seem to stick with this shape and skin
[13:43] Jaymin Carthage: I mean, if you turn up as a business partner as Ruth, no one who has been here for more than 20 minutes is going to take you seriously.
[13:43] Chimera Cosmos: I find I am more comfortable in human form, but I see that as a possible failing on my part LOL
[13:43] Bevan Whitfield: This is a place for brilliant creative generous people -
[13:43] Dusty Artaud: yes I think we eventually "settle" into a skin until we need to shake things up a bit
[13:44] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I agree Bevan
[13:44] Jaymin Carthage: One of the engineers turned up for the talk as a beaver. Made perfect sense.
[13:44] Chimera Cosmos: yes Bevan, most are
[13:44] Smiley Dyrssen: lol
[13:44] Ahuva Heliosense: I rather like when people have unique avatars
[13:44] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I love my bunny av
[13:44] Bevan Whitfield: ok not wearing my transformer or fish or banana for obvious reasons, but I could if I wanted to!
[13:44] PatriciaAnne Daviau: and use it a lot for some things
[13:44] Chimera Cosmos: and some who are militant about "professional appearance and behavior” are new--and moderate their views over time
[13:44] Valiant Westland: Bevan, we've had this discussion... and although I know you speak to "diversity" I've never seen you dressed at a business meeting like Somedirtycat for instance.
[13:44] Smiley Dyrssen: yeah, sometimes an unusual avatar can help bring focus to an element of a meeting, while keeping things interesting
[13:44] ydoo Magic: @ jaymin I agree that showing up incapable of presenting oneself is a mistake, but isn't part of the "skillset" in SL being able to manage your av and make it "fit in?
[13:45] Bevan Whitfield: (pfftt @Val)
[13:45] Jaymin Carthage: @Chimera, we had a lot of talk internally for the IBM Virtual World Conduct Guidelines on appearance.
[13:45] Chimera Cosmos: have to agree with Val BW--you look like "Bevan" and RL you in your professional roles--and do it very well
[13:45] PatriciaAnne Daviau: yes we have Jaymin but that sort of went to the wayside when some of our IBMers show up ㋡
[13:46] Bevan Whitfield: nods and thanks @CC
[13:46] Jaymin Carthage: The first draft was managed in wiki, which enabled me to go in and edit out the bit about "must wear professional attire". What we ended up with was something along the lines of "should not have a reasonable expectation of offending someone".
[13:46] Chimera Cosmos: @Jaymin - our Rez Days are very close together :-)
[13:47] Jaymin Carthage: @ydoo, I agree. That was part of what I was asking earlier on he topic of if the newbie problems were technical or social.
[13:47] Jaymin Carthage: How you dress is a social thing.
[13:47] Bevan Whitfield: Hydra has a stunning business suit for professional meetings...
[13:47] Dusty Artaud: I saw a fascinating av last night. Since she was meditating I examined her closely. Her skin, the shadowing looked so real and idealized at the same time -- made the average av look simple -- anyone know if this is next gen or don't with some application/
[13:47] Chimera Cosmos: skins vary a lot
[13:47] Bevan Whitfield: Could that have been the "photo realistic"?
[13:47] Chimera Cosmos: and when you are new you don't know what "good" looks like
[13:47] ydoo Magic: yes I pay a LOT for custom made skins :)
[13:47] Valiant Westland: Most business people coming into SL for the first time would take one look at Hydra, laugh and find an excuse to leave the meeting early.
[13:48] Valiant Westland: But... I hide RL programmers in the back room too!
[13:48] Bevan Whitfield: They would be foolish.
[13:48] Chimera Cosmos: hahahahahhahaha Valient
[13:48] Chimera Cosmos: nerds are nerds in whatever skin? LOL
[13:48] Smiley Dyrssen: Dusty... if you were seeing it from a normal client, it was probably just a very detailed skin... details rendered in a 3D program or painted on in Photoshop
[13:49] Bevan Whitfield: Yes, XRSkins is doing that.
[13:49] Jaymin Carthage: Being a nerd isn't skin deep?
[13:49] Dusty Artaud: it looked like a person -- and this is where I think this is going -- we will be as real here as in RL
[13:50] Jaymin Carthage: @Dusty, I think we will have the _potential_ to be as real as in RL.
[13:50] Jaymin Carthage: But I do not think that everyone will choose that.
[13:50] Chimera Cosmos: I got a compliment on my skin from one of the true SL oldie designers who has written SL guidebooks--and I haven't changed it since! LOL
[13:50] Smiley Dyrssen: ah, yes... I think I'd seen something offered as a service somewhere too, where someplace would take a picture of you and map it to a skin, so your real face could be in SL
[13:50] Valiant Westland: Did anyone else here Phillips announcement about him working on transferring captured emotions via a web cam interface to in-world Avatar emotes?
[13:50] ploneglenn Yalin: That's right @smiley. There will most probably come a time when rez time will start getting considered when designing a SL look. I mean, how many times have you seen someone appear and look gray and naked for several minutes before the entire appearance loads?
[13:50] Sasha Wexhome: @agree with Jaymin it's a social thing because how we dress is to identify yourself and you also want to appear socially cool - WOW where did he get that
[13:50] Valiant Westland: Smiley... that service with picture mapping yields TERRIBLE results.
[13:50] ydoo Magic: being a nerd is to the bone, but being able to appreciate someone who has put effort into presenting themselves as original, and respecting their individuality to present themselves in a social situation more often identifies the people who are WORTH interacting with, rather than disqualifying them (for me)
[13:50] Exosius Mistwalker has flashbacks of reading Snow Crash... again
[13:51] Chimera Cosmos: For the record: I don't care about looking like RL me in 2009--I prefer to channel age 25 heheh
[13:51] DavidBatty Hathaway: I have been playing around with mapping photos on to avatars this week, its fiddly but the results are realistic.
[13:51] Chimera Cosmos: but I put my 1st life photo in my profile for anyone to see
[13:52] Jaymin Carthage: I have mine in my profile too. You can judge how similar they are.
[13:52] Valiant Westland: I would much rather have a professional "skin artist" render a high quality representation from a RL picture. In fact, that's next on my list, when I get my "Vanity" alt that will have my RL name.
[13:52] Jaymin Carthage: I'm even dressed like my avatar. But then I guess if nerd is to the bone I've already given that away.
[13:52] PatriciaAnne Daviau: lol Jaymin
[13:53] Ahuva Heliosense: actually, i am also dressed as my av. or she is me
[13:53] ploneglenn Yalin: You wearing that hat in RL @jaymin?
[13:53] Ahuva Heliosense: we have the same hair as well
[13:53] Sasha Wexhome: I was about to say that
[13:53] Valiant Westland: Jaymin... I actually had to get up early the other day... walked into my closet and was disappointed to not find this suit!
[13:53] Jaymin Carthage: Not presently. But I do have a tricorne. I made my SL one because I had one n RL.
[13:53] ydoo Magic: @jaymin but don't nerds really engender the concept of judge me by my skills rather than my fashion sense?
[13:53] Valiant Westland: For a split second I asked myself "did you drop that off at the cleaners?"
[13:53] Ahuva Heliosense: @Valiant - that happens to me all the time
[13:53] Jaymin Carthage: True, ydoo
[13:54] Jaymin Carthage: @Chimera, I see some resemblance between the eyes and lips! :-)
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Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Categories
: [ BeyondBlogging | JoGrant ]
Apr 14 2009, 06:00:00 PM EDT
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Beyond Blogging: Achieving Work/Life/Virtual Life Balance
This is a transcript taken during the Beyond Blogging conference by Jaymin Carthage. Some details, spelling and punctuation have been cleaned up. Anyone who has indicated that they did not wish their comments recorded has had their comments removed.
[12:07] Jaymin Carthage: The topic for this rountable is achieving a work / life / virtual life balance.
[12:07] Jaymin Carthage: For the IBMers here, we know we have a tendency to get compulsive and focused on our work.
[12:07] Jaymin Carthage: It's endemic to the technical profession, I think. To get that deep focus.
[12:07] Ahuva Heliosense laughs
[12:08] Jaymin Carthage: Deadlines loom, schedules tighten, "resource actions" rob us of people. But the work has to get done.
[12:08] Exosius Mistwalker thinks of how late he went to bed last night and nods at Jaymin
[12:08] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I feel that one Jaymin
[12:08] Ahuva Heliosense: to bed late, up early
[12:09] Jaymin Carthage: However IBM (in general) understands the danger of employee burnout, and encourages people to balance their work and non-work lives.
[12:09] Jaymin Carthage: God knows we get enough material from HR about it.
[12:09] Ahuva Heliosense: :)
[12:09] Jaymin Carthage: But, I have to say, given the large number of “I've been here 40 years” that we get
[12:09] Jaymin Carthage: They must, at some level, be doing something right.
[12:10] Jaymin Carthage: I've been here 15 years. Others?
[12:10] Sasha Wexhome: Less than a year for my internship =P
[12:10] Malburns Writer: Hi Tara
[12:10] Jaymin Carthage: Many times I sit at a table in the canteen and half the people have been there longer, half less.
[12:11] Jaymin Carthage: In an industry where the average retention is 3 years, that's pretty significant.
[12:11] Jaymin Carthage: And now we have virtual worlds.
[12:11] Jaymin Carthage: I can only speak for myself, but I think that it is true for many, that our virtual world activity is sort of half personal and half professional.
[12:12] Jaymin Carthage: It has the potential to add more time to the work/life balance on both sides.
[12:12] Jaymin Carthage: I struggle at times with the i-must-logout-and-go-home/go-to-bed
[12:12] PatriciaAnne Daviau: me too Jaymin
[12:13] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I seem to spend a lot of time in SL
[12:13] Jaymin Carthage: What do people think? Has it been harder to separate the two with virtual worlds?
[12:13] Chimera Cosmos: Two questions from the twitterverse came in
[12:13] Jaymin Carthage: Please, Chimera, relay!
[12:13] Ahuva Heliosense grins it is becoming harder to differentiate my play in SL from my work in SL
[12:13] Chimera Cosmos: 1) Are the sessions recorded (from someone who can't get here)
[12:13] Bluebase Schaller: we have product the world produce...in the 60's and 70's for every product being produced we had one sales person and 7 producing it
[12:13] DavidBatty Hathaway: It seems weird to not have voice in SL, I am so used to hearing it.
[12:13] Chimera Cosmos: 2) WoW and VW researcher wants to talk with Sasha :-)
[12:14] Sasha Wexhome: ooh!
[12:14] Jaymin Carthage: :-D
[12:14] Bluebase Schaller: today we have 7 sales people and one person for production
[12:14] Chimera Cosmos: he's looking at WoW and leadership dev
[12:14] PatriciaAnne Daviau: David I never use voice so that is weird to me when I do ㋡
[12:14] Chimera Cosmos: IM me your RL email Sasha -- will relay
[12:14] DavidBatty Hathaway: lol
[12:15] Jaymin Carthage: 1) I will put transcripts up in the blog. Sadly audio recordings were to technically and logistically/legally challenging for me to get organized in time.
[12:15] Jaymin Carthage: PA, you are here a lot! :-) Does that mean you have "no life" or that this is a valued and valuable part of your life?
[12:16] PatriciaAnne Daviau: it is a valuable part of my life
[12:16] PatriciaAnne Daviau: and I do so much here it really has become important
[12:16] PatriciaAnne Daviau: but I do have to sometimes force myself to log off
[12:17] Ahuva Heliosense: :)
[12:17] Jaymin Carthage: How do you make that decision? Or what prompts it?
[12:17] PatriciaAnne Daviau: and it is always finding a balance that is the tricky part
[12:17] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I moderate the IBM 6 and 7 sandbox so I am there a lot doing that
[12:17] Honour McMillan: /does your real life resent your time in Second Life?
[12:17] Bluebase Schaller: the need of something prompts something
[12:17] PatriciaAnne Daviau: but I find it easy to ditch this place when my husband says...let's go out ㋡
[12:17] Dusty Artaud: good to have a closing ceremony/routine - I take meditation class at midnight here and then log off
[12:18] PatriciaAnne Daviau: my real life does not resent my SL at all
[12:18] Jaymin Carthage: That's a very interesting approach Dusty.
[12:18] PatriciaAnne Daviau: but I keep sl very professional too
[12:18] Bluebase Schaller: Really Pat?
[12:18] Honour McMillan: lol glad to meet you
[12:18] Jaymin Carthage: I have a wife and young daughter that often prompts precipitous departures. :-)
[12:18] Honour McMillan: hmmm
[12:18] PatriciaAnne Daviau: lol yes they do Jaymin ㋡
[12:19] Honour McMillan: :)
[12:19] PatriciaAnne Daviau: really Blue
[12:19] PatriciaAnne Daviau: mostly this is business for me here
[12:19] Sasha Wexhome: when I play WoW or any MMO I just have a timer set that logs me off when it expires if I know I have to hurry somewhere
[12:19] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I go to church on Sundays here
[12:19] PatriciaAnne Daviau: and mod the sandbox
[12:19] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I also do SL mentor work here
[12:20] PatriciaAnne Daviau: and IBM is starting their own mentor group
[12:20] Dusty Artaud: that's great PAD
[12:20] Jaymin Carthage: Wow, that's very firm Sasha. I can see that working.
[12:20] PatriciaAnne Daviau: that is a grand idea Sasha
[12:21] Jaymin Carthage: Most of my SL activities are professional, but they aren't really work related, which is a different balance act.
[12:21] Bluebase Schaller: sometime we need to make a living with this... a Real living... People that are not employed with large Companies
[12:21] Jaymin Carthage: I have to make sure my "day job" isn't impacted by my "IBM hobbies" and that neither impact my life.
[12:22] PatriciaAnne Daviau: very true Jaymin
[12:22] PatriciaAnne Daviau: Blue... do you make a living in SL?
[12:22] Bluebase Schaller: No.
[12:22] Jaymin Carthage: (Looks like Sasha's timer ran out!)
[12:22] PatriciaAnne Daviau: lol
[12:22] Ahuva Heliosense: :)
[12:22] Bluebase Schaller: however I need to see what value I can give customers
[12:22] Honour McMillan: good for you Blue
[12:23] PatriciaAnne Daviau: ahhh that is great Blue
[12:23] LiuPin Laville: :-)
[12:23] Bluebase Schaller: in my case smb customers
[12:23] Jaymin Carthage: I think that there are few people who can make a living wage in Second Life. I think that is why you see so few IBMers who are 100% of their time on Second Life.
[12:23] PatriciaAnne Daviau: good point Jaymin
[12:23] Ahuva Heliosense: making a living in SL IS full-time
[12:23] Ahuva Heliosense: i dont think you can be making a living in SL AND be fulltime IBM
[12:23] PatriciaAnne Daviau: it takes a lot of time and effort to make a living here I think
[12:24] PatriciaAnne Daviau: yes it is Ahuva
[12:24] Bluebase Schaller: How do I provide value for customers who is departing the 3D environment
[12:24] PatriciaAnne Daviau: and I respect the ppl who are
[12:24] LiuPin Laville: i think it is not easier and needs the same energy as in rl
[12:24] Jaymin Carthage: Which makes balance important.
[12:24] Bluebase Schaller: Only in managed teams which are project orientated
[12:25] Jaymin Carthage: I usually do SL before going to bed, but I can get so worked up and involved that I then lie in bed with my mind whirling.
[12:25] Dusty Artaud: hallucinating plywood
[12:25] Bluebase Schaller: In this way way we can get position our time within the groups
[12:25] Jaymin Carthage: Ha ha.
[12:26] Honour McMillan: Blue are your groups spread around the world in real life?
[12:27] Jaymin Carthage: I am fortunate to have a supportive manager. He sees some value in the virtual world, at least when I can be his poster child for innovation.
[12:27] Bluebase Schaller: the same way the web was done
[12:27] Chimera Cosmos: I listen to educational podcasts last thing at night -- puts me right to sleep LOL
[12:28] PatriciaAnne Daviau: that would put me to sleep too Chimera
[12:28] Dusty Artaud: innovation need a protective environment to evolve
[12:29] Bluebase Schaller: IBM have an answer to this
[12:29] Jaymin Carthage: Well, IBM made "innovation" a buzzword, and wants to be known as an innovative company.
[12:29] Bluebase Schaller: and Lotus knows best how it's done
[12:29] Jaymin Carthage: And that's one way I've balanced work / virtual work. Since it's a company goal, I get it put down on my PBCs.
[12:29] ydoo Magic: that's one of the issues i have trouble dealing with in SL.... Its very difficult for a developer in SL, especially working with a scripting languages whose documentation represents a "best guess".... development is very slow...and interruptions are extremely costly.....
[12:29] Bluebase Schaller: the infrastructure is nearly in place
[12:30] Jaymin Carthage: (For non-IBMers, PBC = = Personal Business Commitments, a document you maintain annually of what your job scope encompasses over the year)
[12:30] Jaymin Carthage: ydoo, you hear that a lot from some people "I enjoy the quietness of OpenSim, I can get stuff done"
[12:31] Jaymin Carthage: If it's in my PBCs, then it's fair game to do during work-time.
[12:31] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I agree ydoo... I have heard that from a lot of ppl
[12:31] Ahuva Heliosense: you can always create an alt for development in sl if need be
[12:31] Jaymin Carthage: Also, it's not that widely advertised, but I think we're allowed to spend up to 10% of our time on "personal skill development".
[12:31] Jaymin Carthage: Hmm. Antisocial alts!
[12:32] Ahuva Heliosense: :) antisocial alts don't get pinged
[12:32] Ahuva Heliosense: it's very effective without being annoying to friends
[12:32] Chimera Cosmos: My alts go to meetings like this when I'm double booked. :-)
[12:32] Smiley Dyrssen: lol
[12:32] Ahuva Heliosense: ah - so are you the REAL Chimera or the alt????
[12:32] Jaymin Carthage: Too funny. I often have 4 chat windows open.
[12:32] Chimera Cosmos: the alt profiles say they are working and don't talk much
[12:32] Chimera Cosmos: yes, I'm the real one--you can tell from my profile
[12:32] Chimera Cosmos: haha
[12:32] Ahuva Heliosense: :)
[12:32] Smiley Dyrssen: and at least for some scripting, there are off-world alternatives like LSL Editor or the LSL-Plus Eclipse plugin
[12:32] Jaymin Carthage: Is that our future? Several VW windows open?
[12:33] Chimera Cosmos: BTW my alts mainly do have the same first name as me
[12:33] Ahuva Heliosense: I've noticed many people use that convention
[12:34] Chimera Cosmos: simpler to remember
[12:34] Ahuva Heliosense nods
[12:34] Jaymin Carthage: But does it ultimately defeat the purpose? :-) If people "find you out"?
[12:34] ydoo Magic: yes for scripting.... but when you are scripting something that requires the physics engine to test.... I.e. physical interactions between objects and avatars, or the environment..... its not so much the code.....I find the social nature of SL to be a real hinderance, and actually prefer to move to a private OpenSim location to do development work....
[12:35] Dusty Artaud: where's your fav place to birth an alt?
[12:35] Ahuva Heliosense: yes, that is true. there are advantages to developing where there are not many people about
[12:35] Ahuva Heliosense: what do you mean, Dusty? you mean OpenSim v. SL?
[12:36] Dusty Artaud: SL - the home you choose -- does it make a difference?
[12:36] LiuPin Laville: there are differences at the beginning
[12:36] LiuPin Laville: even the kind of avatars may be different
[12:36] Chimera Cosmos: There are well over 100 named "Chimera" in SL--so you can never be sure hehe
[12:36] Dusty Artaud: why?
[12:37] Ahuva Heliosense: it can be "dangerous" playing in strange sandboxes
[12:37] Chimera Cosmos: I've also used alts to test out new entrances into SL
[12:37] Chimera Cosmos: orientation experiences
[12:37] Jaymin Carthage: Ha ha. Using alts for a Virtual Life / Virtual Life balance. :-)
[12:37] Ahuva Heliosense: :)
[12:37] Earth Alcott: have you noticed an improvement in the orientation process?
[12:37] Ahuva Heliosense: I was at an art exhibit the other week - masks for avatars
[12:37] ydoo Magic: yes Jaymin that's exactly the main reason I've found alts to be very useful
[12:37] Earth Alcott: simplified in any way?
[12:37] Chimera Cosmos: it improved vastly when you could bring them straight to YOU
[12:37] Chimera Cosmos: I never send folks in the Linden route
[12:37] Dusty Artaud: I bring clients/colleagues in on alts to smooth their initial experience of SL
[12:38] Jaymin Carthage: A lot of my Second Life work is doing off line things. Right now I'm building a sculptie editor (of sorts). It gets a bit lonely doing SL stuff with no one around.
[12:38] Earth Alcott: yes, your right but does it help them learn to walk
[12:38] Georgianna Blackburn: the orientation area is still quite awful, I recently brought in an alt to test as well, felt sorry for noobs and hung around all day to help
[12:38] Chimera Cosmos: we are working on designing fun experiences to teach the micro skills
[12:38] Dusty Artaud: no but I'm there to help them
[12:38] Chimera Cosmos: in a small group
[12:38] Earth Alcott: In bringing in RL to train virtually that is a big issue
[12:39] Earth Alcott: the learning curve is so steep
[12:39] Earth Alcott: for some
[12:39] Jaymin Carthage: I've heard that a lot.
[12:39] Chimera Cosmos: I don't think it's so much steep as long
[12:39] Chimera Cosmos: a lot to learn
[12:39] Chimera Cosmos: and you can't absorb it all at once
[12:39] Dusty Artaud: very confident ppl freak out when they lose their hair and wear a box for the first time
[12:39] Jaymin Carthage: But I met someone coming back from a learning conference who told me about a company doing DOOM WADs to teach oil platform evacuation.
[12:39] Chimera Cosmos: so chunking is key
[12:39] Earth Alcott: but in this case its just learning to sit and walk and talk not the in's and out's of sl
[12:40] Jaymin Carthage: I think if you can tightly engineer something, you can solve those problems.
[12:40] Smiley Dyrssen: hehe... the Showcase has been helping us see that fact recently too... having newcomers dropped into a game within the VW for their first-hour experience can be an interesting experience
[12:40] Jaymin Carthage: They are going to have to for Nebraska.
[12:40] Jaymin Carthage: But is the adaptions and awkwardness mostly mechanical/technical, or social too?
[12:40] Chimera Cosmos: no--you have to help them through the first hour--especially if they are older or non-gamers or non-techie
[12:40] Ahuva Heliosense: we brought many new people through in just a short time for the AoT conferences
[12:40] Earth Alcott: for me it's mechanical/technical
[12:40] Earth Alcott: the social finds a way
[12:41] Dusty Artaud: VWBPE conference did same
[12:41] Chimera Cosmos: limit their options--build up skills bit by bit
[12:41] Ahuva Heliosense: we prepped them with emails in advance, training sessions before the actual conference
[12:41] Jaymin Carthage: It's one thing we ad to tackle in AoT, particularly calling people by their avatar names or real names.
[12:41] Earth Alcott: good idea chimera
[12:41] Earth Alcott: which did you do?
[12:41] Oura Scribe: I took Sasha to the University of Oxbridge last night and she went thru there fairly quickly.. she does have gaming experience but seems to have no issues for a day or two old...
[12:41] Earth Alcott: real or avatar and did it make a difference
[12:41] Chimera Cosmos: yes--download software one time, pick avatar another, go in just to walk another--small pieces
[12:41] Sasha Wexhome: Yeah I thought it was pretty self-explanatory
[12:42] Jaymin Carthage: Well, we started as we were, and some used the real names, and that was kind of discouraged.
[12:42] Chimera Cosmos: if you are a gamer or under 30, I think it is Sasha
[12:42] Chimera Cosmos: LOL
[12:42] Jaymin Carthage: Then we went through a phase of using nametags.
[12:42] Smiley Dyrssen: definitely, Chimera... my group's been planning on making a first-hour intro 'game' at some point, something to show the newcomers the basics of SL without just dumping a load of dialogues and information on them
[12:42] Jaymin Carthage: So our avatar name was above your head and our real name was on our nametag.
[12:42] Chimera Cosmos: yes
[12:42] Earth Alcott: Very helpful Smiley
[12:42] Jaymin Carthage: Then as people got used to it, we just stopped using the nametags.
[12:43] Chimera Cosmos: teaching snapshot and sitting by having them take an interesting pose
[12:43] Earth Alcott: I like that solution Jaymin
[12:43] Chimera Cosmos: maybe in a group
[12:43] Chimera Cosmos: for instance
[12:43] Chimera Cosmos: or "put on the green shirt and walk to this circle" if you understand
[12:43] Dusty Artaud: some edu sims have fabulous orientations
[12:43] Jaymin Carthage: But, again, it is one of those balance things Some people have work-avatars and personal-avatars.
[12:43] Chimera Cosmos: spatially separate those who get it from those who don't
[12:44] Jaymin Carthage: And keep them very distinct.
[12:44] Chimera Cosmos: I think the "walk along and read signs" orientations are too boring
[12:44] Chimera Cosmos: thinking hard about other ways
[12:44] Jaymin Carthage: But some people, e.g. Jess, are heavily invested in their avatars and they are part and parcel of their self expression, that it's just who they are when in a virtual world.
[12:44] Earth Alcott: the walk alongs don't work cuz. they don't even know how to maneuver the camera
[12:45] Chimera Cosmos: right Earth -- DUH!
[12:45] Smiley Dyrssen: yeah, it's best to keep it interactive, not just telling them how to do things, but showing what they can use the ability for right away
[12:45] Dusty Artaud: but ppl learn differently so you must provide options
[12:45] Chimera Cosmos: Camera skills have to be taught early and with coaching
[12:45] Dusty Artaud: agree
[12:45] Chimera Cosmos: yes, and a way to review on their own
[12:45] Chimera Cosmos: don't just rely on in-world signs and notecards
[12:46] Earth Alcott: it's one thing to voluntarily enter into virtual space for personal growth or fun another to be placed here to learn and train a skill which is unrelated to SL.
[12:46] Jaymin Carthage: That's a good point.
[12:46] Bluebase Schaller: funny ..we are in a Vr world and I look only into the chat window all the time
[12:47] Jaymin Carthage: I ran a client briefing in Second Life. And a lot only learned Second Life to go to the briefing. Not sure that was fair and there was no call for a repeat.
[12:47] Dusty Artaud: things like GIMP are taught here effectively
[12:47] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I took a GIMP class in SL
[12:47] PatriciaAnne Daviau: and I thought it was well done
[12:47] Chimera Cosmos: putting people into a VW just for training - without the proper prep or fun component--I think that's a bad mistake
[12:47] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I do too Chimera
[12:47] PatriciaAnne Daviau: it can be very frustrating
[12:47] ydoo Magic: That's one of the HUGE disappointments I had in trying to learn SL.... I found I was limited in the learning experience because it degenerated into a chat session which did not map well at all to the complex issues I was having..... I really liked the Torly Youtube video concepts for teaching (when i got into building and the like)
[12:48] Bluebase Schaller: something is missing or we are missing the point of VR communication, interactively in larger groups
[12:48] Smiley Dyrssen: yeah... there are a lot of tutorials in-world about off-world tools to help make more in-world content, lol... Gimp, Blender, etc...
[12:48] Dusty Artaud: Torlley stuff ROCKS~!
[12:48] PatriciaAnne Daviau: but ppl learn differently
[12:48] PatriciaAnne Daviau: so all forms needs to be addressed
[12:48] PatriciaAnne Daviau: for it to be successful
[12:48] Dusty Artaud: yes
[12:48] Earth Alcott: lol smiley
[12:48] Earth Alcott: so right
[12:48] Jaymin Carthage: Virtual Worlds can be recursive that way. When much of the content is related to itself.
[12:48] Bluebase Schaller: without voice it's very frustrating
[12:48] Chimera Cosmos: yes---Torley is my model and my idol LOL
[12:49] Apollo Reinard: it's good to have more than one avenue to take in knowledge.
[12:49] Jaymin Carthage: I don't put much credit in the first AoT conference. It was a conference on virtual words, duh of course it was _IN_ a virtual world.
[12:49] Dusty Artaud: YouTube Torley is shot, clear and fun
[12:49] Chimera Cosmos: how to incorporate his videos into the SL orientation--that's one of our goals
[12:49] Jaymin Carthage: The SECOND conference was never meant to be in or about virtual worlds. The fact they had it there, successfully, is a huge statement.
[12:49] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I like that idea chimera
[12:49] Georgianna Blackburn: I've seen places that use Torley's videos for training, why don't Lindens?
[12:50] Dusty Artaud: Torley is a good example of chunking
[12:50] Apollo Reinard: torleys you tubes are great.
[12:50] PatriciaAnne Daviau: short sighted? Dusty? ㋡
[12:50] Chimera Cosmos: it's like ppt--just give people a .pdf handout with the signs if they are useful signs
[12:50] Chimera Cosmos: why make them read them in SL?
[12:50] Earth Alcott: what is chunking?
[12:50] Chimera Cosmos: have them DO SOMETHING in SL
[12:50] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I think LL should use Torley vids more too
[12:50] Chimera Cosmos: breaking into smaller parts
[12:50] Dusty Artaud: learning is small parcels
[12:50] Chimera Cosmos: more digestible
[12:50] PatriciaAnne Daviau: and I like the idea of chunking
[12:50] ydoo Magic: I think another route would be some form of Virtual assistant... maybe avi like, or maybe robot like... that provides a 3D "thing" that you can interact with to ask questions.....
[12:50] PatriciaAnne Daviau: yes ydoo!
[12:51] Dusty Artaud: I do that a lot
[12:51] PatriciaAnne Daviau: a bot for answering questions etc
[12:51] Dusty Artaud: think person is better
[12:51] Jaymin Carthage: Ha ha. That was the BizTech project I WANTED to do.
[12:51] Chimera Cosmos: yes, but you would need to pilot what the common questions would be very thoroughly
[12:51] Chimera Cosmos: and have opt-out to a real person if they got frustrated
[12:51] Jaymin Carthage: @Dusty: think halfway between: a bot attached to a person.
[12:51] Apollo Reinard: the particle lab is a great 3D tutorial example, as is the Ivory tower of Primitives.
[12:51] ydoo Magic: as a builder i notice a LOT of the new folks like the concept of having a Pet that follows them around and that they can command.... it seems like a smart pet, designed to lead them through experiences wouldn't be too complicated
[12:51] Dusty Artaud: yes I can see that
[12:52] Smiley Dyrssen: yeah, that's another great tool... I've seen a few chat-bots based on ALICE and other systems, having one of them properly programmed for common questions would be a great addition to an orientation area
[12:52] Chimera Cosmos: yes--like in Virtual Africa--in LifeFactory Writer's machinima
[12:52] Chimera Cosmos: the meerkat
[12:52] Sasha Wexhome: there is something like that in WoW there is a pet that leads you through a tutorial of a city
[12:52] ydoo Magic: :) exactly
[12:52] Earth Alcott: perhaps there will be a learning gap based on age which will never fully enter this world and therefore from a prospective of business and training my not be a targeted market.
[12:52] PatriciaAnne Daviau: oh cool Sasha!
[12:52] Chimera Cosmos: "Life on Life" :-)
[12:52] Apollo Reinard: the meerkat.. yes. but smarter.. ;P
[12:53] Jaymin Carthage: @Earth, yet as Jess said in the opening talk, age participation in SL is pretty flat.
[12:53] Chimera Cosmos: I think that older profs and older employees and older customers share some characteristics as learners
[12:53] Chimera Cosmos: so we can share strategies
[12:53] Dusty Artaud: @ Earth well I did not get my 83 year old mother here yet, but I got here on Facebook and she is making videos on her new iMac -- it can happen'
[12:53] Marie Kolache: I have to go -- but I wanted to thank everyone for this discussion -- I've been silently listening in.:-)
[12:53] Apollo Reinard: << fits in that 'older' category.. (if age matters :)
[12:54] Earth Alcott: okay so that is good news for me no learning gap based on age!
[12:54] Marie Kolache: I do wish the browser was simplified, though, with an easier version for non-builders.
[12:54] PatriciaAnne Daviau: bye Marie
[12:54] Ahuva Heliosense: i have an SL friend who brought her 70-year old mother into SL
[12:54] Ahuva Heliosense: it's working fine
[12:54] Chimera Cosmos: I've been teaching since 1970 (college chem) so teaching how to be in SL is just a new phase of teaching for me hehe
[12:54] Chimera Cosmos: and I taught lots of chem-phobic beginners
[12:55] Apollo Reinard: avagadros number.. ;)
[12:55] Marie Kolache: i wold love to bring my staff in for meetings.
[12:55] Apollo Reinard: fun stuff
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Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Categories
: [ BeyondBlogging | JoGrant ]
Apr 13 2009, 06:00:00 PM EDT
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Beyond Blogging: Stone Soup Stories
This is a transcript taken during the Beyond Blogging conference by Jaymin Carthage. Some details, spelling and punctuation have been cleaned up. Anyone who has indicated that they did not wish their comments recorded has had their comments removed.
The presenter spoke via audio so this might not make complete sense to those who weren't there. The slides, transcript and commentary will be published together in the proceedings of the conference.
[11:12] Geo Meek: /:-)
[11:15] Ahuva Heliosense smiles
[11:15] Ahuva Heliosense: Bedrock boutique!
[11:15] PatriciaAnne Daviau: ㋡
[11:20] Ahuva Heliosense: yay Honour!!!!
[11:20] Ahuva Heliosense: She found the podium for us!
[11:21] Honour McMillan: :)
[11:21] Ahuva Heliosense: we still have rental space available!!!! :)
[11:21] LiuPin Laville: k
[11:25] Honour McMillan: /lol
[11:25] ydoo Magic: isn't the concept of a virtual world, and its greatest advantage, the fact that we are no longer tied to the groups of "local" talent? why do we keep focusing on the company infrastructure ignoring the possibilities that the stone soup method is the new way
[11:26] Exosius Mistwalker: I work with college faculty as an instructional designer... I taught about 25 faculty how to use SL and now three are enhancing their courses with it... the students are very receptive and engaged in these courses, and the results have been very good
[11:27] ydoo Magic: IBM is NOT a virtual group.... My experience has always been that the company infrastructure defines the group... not the location....
[11:27] Sasha Wexhome: Does IBM have any divisions that deal strictly with virtual worlds?
[11:28] Exosius Mistwalker: Exo is fine
[11:29] Chimera Cosmos: varies a lot
[11:29] Exosius Mistwalker: very collaborative, Prof teaching Mythology allowed his 1st set of students to redesign the course at the end of it
[11:29] Marie Kolache: This is Maria Trombly, I'm a business journalist. How close do you think we are to having a 3D browser that cuts across various virtual worlds?
[11:30] Exosius Mistwalker: the course grew 20% in the next semester, reflecting a lot of word-of mouth
[11:30] Bluebase Schaller: Great Question Marie
[11:31] Luisa Bourgoin: hasn't there been that wiki entry on Hypergrids, inter-grid slurls so far I understood
[11:31] PatriciaAnne Daviau: lol true
[11:32] Exosius Mistwalker: ... For the Circuit City example, having product experts available to all stores via a virtual store, would have been the killer app... Exo says with perfect hindsight.
[11:33] Exosius Mistwalker: maybe.. chef-supervised stone soup?
[11:33] Marie Kolache: All off the record. :-)
[11:33] Bluebase Schaller: could SL handle vrml language
[11:34] Exosius Mistwalker is pretty sure VRML is deprecated/not supported today
[11:35] ydoo Magic: I've always been a big fan of companies supporting their customers by "using" the software/hardware platform the propose as a solution... It seems like until IBM has a "defined" group dedicated to implementing "virtual world solutions" for internal use, it isn't going to be well placed to provide solutions to RL customers...
[11:35] Bluebase Schaller: but their customers need to
[11:36] Marie Kolache: Do you know if there are other companies out there working on building the next virtual WWW?
[11:36] Marie Kolache: Interoperable, easier to navigate...
[11:37] Bluebase Schaller: Before a company can move to VR world one need to have a 3D world in place...in process and product
[11:38] Bluebase Schaller: which I think all should have by now
[11:39] ydoo Magic: woof !
[11:39] ydoo Magic: <- GBS geek
[11:43] Exosius Mistwalker: Can I have a job?
[11:43] Exosius Mistwalker: ;-D
[11:43] PatriciaAnne Daviau: lol
[11:44] Marie Kolache: All of these are gated communities now... when can people start moving across them?
[11:45] Marie Kolache: When we do get interoperability, will the closed worlds die, the way that the WWW killed off Compuserve and BBSs?
[11:48] Bluebase Schaller: Gilde is the acronym... lol
[11:49] Exosius Mistwalker: Local BBS's may be gone but intranets are widely used, as are portals...
[11:50] Marie Kolache: thank you
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Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Categories
: [ BeyondBlogging | JoGrant ]
Apr 10 2009, 08:00:00 PM EDT
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Beyond Blogging: Teaming in World of Warcraft
This is a transcript taken during the Beyond Blogging conference by Sasha Oliver. Some details, spelling and punctuation have been cleaned up. Anyone who has indicated that they did not wish their comments recorded has had their comments removed.
The presenter spoke via audio so this might not make complete sense to those who weren't there. The slides, transcript and commentary will be published together in the proceedings of the conference.
[10:04] Al Supercharge: My mother was a player too - she belonged to the Town's Woman's Guild
[10:04] Bluebase Schaller: Mine too
[10:09] Al Supercharge: I signed up for free trial of World of WarCraft and after half an hour killing wolves (or being killed) I gave up - should I have persisted ?
[10:10] Bluebase Schaller: lol...
[10:11] Jaymin Carthage: I loved the "this will result in drama". :-)
[10:11] Al Supercharge: I'm curious a Guild gives you more power to kill or what ?
[10:11] Bluebase Schaller: The graphics in WOW are great ...how does it compare with SL
[10:11] Dale Innis: What kind of group dynamics did you see? Are there thing that caused trouble that we can avoid?
[10:12] Al Supercharge: so the goal is never anything more than to kill something ?
[10:13] Al Supercharge: SL is far superior graphics
[10:14] Exosius Mistwalker: >dedicated paid content creators vs. general publicly available world building tools
[10:14] Exosius Mistwalker: hard to compare SL and WOW really
[10:14] Bluebase Schaller: Did You noticed some behaviour in the people who played these Games and what social problems does it solve..
[10:14] Al Supercharge: are there no strategy games (not about killing) ?
[10:14] Exosius Mistwalker: depends on the creator, in SL, as to how "good" the "graphics" are
[10:15] Al Supercharge: no
[10:15] Chimera Cosmos: Did your WoW experience help you to get hired as an IBM intern?
[10:15] Chimera Cosmos: heheh
[10:16] Dusty Artaud: Do you think age demographics in WoW influence clique behavior?
[10:16] Dale Innis: ( annoying young males, haha )
[10:17] Dale Innis: Are there specific things that make WoW fun that we could use to make SL business stuff, and even RL business stuff, fun too?
[10:17] Dale Innis: ( So even grownups get cliquish when playing WoW? :) That may happen in SL too. )
[10:17] Jaymin Carthage: Hmm. Customers vs Business SMASH!
[10:17] Dale Innis: Or you fall a really long way without dying!
[10:18] Dale Innis: ( my fave :) )
[10:18] Smiley Dyrssen: lol Dale... been skydiving from the space station near home again?
[10:18] Dale Innis: :)
[10:18] Bluebase Schaller: I have characters in WOW and SL and other Social networks ....do we see them coming together
[10:19] Bluebase Schaller: Where I could use one id in all of them
[10:19] Al Supercharge: Guild us into prefixing our Qs :)
[10:19] Dale Innis: Charles2 McCaw, could you mute your mic please? You're causing echo. (If anyone is getting too annoying an echo, temporarily muting him will help :) )
[10:20] Jaymin Carthage: They talk a lot about education in Second Life and how good it is for delivering educational content. Is there anything like that in WOW? Do you "train" your guild members in any way?
[10:20] Bluebase Schaller: Currency issues ...? WOW is gold
[10:22] Dale Innis: Mentoring!
[10:22] Dale Innis just hit 80, and seriously needs mentoring on gear. :)
[10:23] Dusty Artaud: Sasha, if your house was burning down, which of all your VW avatars would you save first?
[10:23] Dale Innis: haha
[10:23] Dusty Artaud: virtual*
[10:24] Al Supercharge: WoW Business http://shop.ebay.com/items/?_nkw=%22world+of+warcraft%22&_sacat=0&_trksid=p3286.m270.l1313&_odkw=wow&_osacat=0
[10:24] Jaymin Carthage: So you spoke of the importance of managing stress in your team. What sort of things do you do? Social events? Just general chat? Message boards?
[10:25] Al Supercharge: 2,743 results found for "world of warcraft"
[10:27] Dusty Artaud: Are their griefers in WoW?
[10:28] Dale Innis: Applause!!
[10:29] Chimera Cosmos: thanks!
[10:29] Ahuva Heliosense: APPLAUSE!!!!
[10:29] Dusty Artaud: thany you!
[10:29] Honour McMillan applaucs!
[10:29] Chimera Cosmos: |
[10:29] Chimera Cosmos: \ | /
[10:29] Chimera Cosmos: `. \ ' / .'
[10:29] Chimera Cosmos: `. .-*""*-. .'
[10:29] Chimera Cosmos: "*-._ /.*" "*.\ _.-*"
[10:29] Chimera Cosmos: : ; ____
[10:29] Chimera Cosmos: ------ : .. ;
[10:29] Chimera Cosmos: _.-*" \ `.__.' / "*-._
[10:29] Chimera Cosmos: .' `-.__.-' `.
[10:29] Chimera Cosmos: .' / . \ `.
[10:29] Chimera Cosmos: / | \
[10:29] Chimera Cosmos: ' | `
[10:29] Ahuva Heliosense: thank you Sasha!!
[10:29] Bluebase Schaller: thxks
[10:29] Bluebase Schaller: lol
[10:29] Georgianna Blackburn: ♪♫♥ Applauds!!! ♥♫♪
[10:30] ydoo Magic: EQ - i played in a very active guild
[10:30] Dale Innis: I've played WoW, but not very much in large groups. I thought her comments were v interesting!
[10:30] Bluebase Schaller: I would love to have my personal assistant ..who is working from home , appear as a hologram in my office
[10:30] ydoo Magic: and the experience translates well here
[10:30] Dale Innis: Will be challenging to map to SL and business. :)
[10:30] Al Supercharge: AlPengy here from Club Penguin
[10:31] Al Supercharge: those kids are so easily pleased - they'll just luv graduating to SL someday
[10:31] Jaymin Carthage: Ha ha.
[10:31] ydoo Magic: our guild was 90% 40 and over.......
[10:31] Dale Innis: There was some amazing story from EVEN Online about a big battle between virtual corporations / gangs, stealing each other's members and so on.
[10:32] Smiley Dyrssen: lol Blue... yeah, that'd be cool... a few places have tried stuff like that before, using cameras/projectors to physically connect SL to RL
[10:32] Jaymin Carthage: My own experience hasn't been that wide. Because I'm limited to when I an log in, it's been very hard to team up with others on a regular basis. So I just lost interested in MMORPGs that you needed to team for.
[10:32] Bluebase Schaller: We should have a product like SL for large global customers..Tier one first and them prepare the digital content which are sensitive for new product launches
[10:32] Exosius Mistwalker: an enterprise version of the SL grid is on the way next year.
[10:32] Jaymin Carthage: I heard about the Eve online heist. Apparently it was a year in the making.
[10:32] Bluebase Schaller: Today companies are still trying to manage websites
[10:33] Jaymin Carthage: Ended up being a huge thing where a major player in the game was completely taken out.
[10:33] Jaymin Carthage: A lot of people complained but, in the end, the site admins decided that the people who took them down were acting in the scope of the game and let it ride.
[10:33] Jaymin Carthage: It's an amazing example of teamwork in a virtual world.
[10:34] Bluebase Schaller: Are there APi's so I may connect my house appliances to SL?
[10:34] Jaymin Carthage: If you have read about Ghostnet, maybe China is already learning from it!
[10:34] Exosius Mistwalker: Bluebase, the linden scripting lang can talk to/from XML
[10:34] Jaymin Carthage: @Bluebase, I think there is someone who rigged their house up with their SL house.
[10:34] Jaymin Carthage: How about all those WOW dance videos?
[10:35] Bluebase Schaller: Such as heating systems etc
[10:35] Smiley Dyrssen: LOL... Blue, not officially, but technically... yeah, What Exo said... if you can write a program to run an X10 controller or something, you can have your SL home control your RL home's lights/appliances
[10:35] Jaymin Carthage: Are they the result of people doing teambuilding amongst their guilds?
[10:35] Bluebase Schaller: Would like to talk to him ...I need this as well
[10:35] Jaymin Carthage: Or just crazy people with a lot of tie on their hands?
[10:35] Sasha Wexhome: A lot of people like recognition
[10:35] Sasha Wexhome: So if they make something that's fun to watch that's related to wow they become sort of wow celebrity
[10:36] Jaymin Carthage: Ah, so they are more often individual efforts?
[10:36] Sasha Wexhome: yeah they are just attempts at e-fame usually
[10:36] Jaymin Carthage: Interesting. I've been doing a lot of YouTube videos lately. Work related.
[10:36] Sasha Wexhome: other videos are instructions on how to do boss fights (I made my guild members watch those)
[10:36] Bluebase Schaller: somehow the people on SL need to make or earn money if one have to spend so much time in here..We need to ask for a "bill " in Congress for this
[10:36] Dale Innis: Virtual bailouts! :)
[10:36] Georgianna Blackburn: a "bill"?
[10:36] Exosius Mistwalker: Bluebase, SL is international
[10:36] Jaymin Carthage: But I can't honestly say it's not an attempt at e-fame! Lots of hits look good on my PBCs. :-)
[10:37] Exosius Mistwalker: but yes we need some informed legislation
[10:37] Bluebase Schaller: all the jobless people could get some food coupons at McDonalds
[10:37] Jaymin Carthage: Hmm. eGovernment. Town hall meetings in virtual worlds.
[10:37] Bluebase Schaller: when they help to build the Virtual world
[10:38] Jaymin Carthage: How much would congress benefit if they were all thrown into WOW and forced to work together to fight a boss?
[10:38] Sasha Wexhome: I think we would have a gigantic ego clash :)
[10:38] Bluebase Schaller: Lets look at the Technologies and not so much WOW or SL
[10:38] Dusty Artaud: eventually we will be governed by a global AI
[10:39] Jaymin Carthage: I think we already do. (Have a gigantic ego clash in congress!)
[10:39] Bluebase Schaller: Obama is the right president and is open for this
[10:39] Exosius Mistwalker remembers a little bit of a William Gibson novel.. about skyscrapers dating "from a time when people had to congregate their physical bodies to engage in collaborative enterprise..."
[10:39] ydoo Magic: My experience with boss fights is that there is a limited amount of original thinking...so they would probably fit right in..... Once a "tactic is developed by an elite guild I have rarely seen very much more original thought put into group makeup and re-thinking of a strategy....it becomes cookie-cutter "follow the gameplan"
[10:39] Bluebase Schaller: Lets make the White house open for this
[10:39] Jaymin Carthage: Pertinent quote, Exosius.
[10:40] Sasha Wexhome: That's very true ydoo
[10:40] Dusty Artaud: tweet BO often
[10:40] Jaymin Carthage: Hmm. What will be interesting is if we start seeing the SL style participation-authored-content mix with WOW style professionally-delivered-content.
[10:41] Bluebase Schaller: We could sell WOW stuff in SL
[10:41] Jaymin Carthage: What's interesting in Second Life is that very pixel you see was placed and designed by a user.
[10:41] Exosius Mistwalker is a professional content developer
[10:41] Jaymin Carthage: In WOW (and most other MMORPGs) is that everything is designed by professionals.
[10:41] Exosius Mistwalker: :-D
[10:42] Sasha Wexhome: yeah I found that very interesting in SL
[10:42] Jaymin Carthage: You get a huge variety in Second Life, but a huge variety in quality as well.
[10:42] Jaymin Carthage: While WOW is high in quality, but as ydoo put it, the lack of variety is a problem when people can share experiences.
[10:42] Bluebase Schaller: If a fashion Bra is selling in SL .....will it also sell in RL?
[10:43] Jaymin Carthage: Any thoughts on bridging the gap? Or is each perfectly suited to their niche?
[10:43] Smiley Dyrssen: Blue.. possibly, though there are many things possible and popular in SL that aren't in RL... but some of the businesses that have made ventures here have tested the idea of using SL as a modelling environment for RL products
[10:43] Jaymin Carthage: @Bluebase, the Fashion Research Institute does a lot of crossover work.
[10:44] Bluebase Schaller: Yes, and I agree with this
[10:44] ydoo Magic: the important difference in quality is that the "free" market in SL is supposed to give you a price differential that helps you "gauge" what other people think.... except for some limited equipment in the WOW environment, the no-transfer and "pre-determined prices/ requirements for obtaining armor and weapons makes the "value" an abstract thing
[10:44] Jaymin Carthage: What do you think the effect would be if prices were allowed to "float" in WOW?
[10:44] Bluebase Schaller: I find it great..however one also need to maintain the garbage..
[10:45] ydoo Magic: the professional developers would have a revolt on their hands.....
[10:45] Sasha Wexhome: Wow and SL have different intents. The gap is difference in content you are experiencing
[10:45] Sasha Wexhome: prices do float in wow :D
[10:45] Sasha Wexhome: there is no regulation on the auction house
[10:46] ydoo Magic: as a high level character, the time and effort i put into obtaining "epic" equipment NEVER reflected the actual value of the equipment... it was always a total status thing
[10:46] Jaymin Carthage: Ah, OK. I misunderstood ydoo then.
[10:46] Sasha Wexhome: its completely based upon what people are willing to buy what for
[10:46] Sasha Wexhome: As in you can put up an item for however much you like but you may or may not sell it
[10:47] Jaymin Carthage: Back to your comment about different intents, Sasha...
[10:47] Sasha Wexhome: @ydoo you can sell the account and the items to people on ebay :D
[10:47] Jaymin Carthage: I was wondering if each could derive a benefit from some of the aspects of the other...
[10:47] Sasha Wexhome: so you can get real money for it, however the focus is the enjoyment you get out of the items for yourself
[10:47] ydoo Magic: yes.... but since my participation was based on the "social" interactions i enjoyed... the benefit is limited....
[10:48] Jaymin Carthage: E.g. Linden Labs might commission an island of professional content that made up a large scale coherent game.
[10:48] Jaymin Carthage: Or Blizzard might allow end users to create simple mesh attachments that could be bought and sold by users for avatar customizations.
[10:48] Jaymin Carthage: Would that sort of crossover benefit each environment, or are they better off being specialized?
[10:49] Dusty Artaud: Crossover selling potential in Sl - I often wake up in RL thinking that I'm going to wear a T-shirt that I only have in SL.
[10:49] Sasha Wexhome: the reason they don't do that is for taxation reasons I think
[10:49] PatriciaAnne Daviau: I do that too Dusty ㋡
[10:49] Dusty Artaud: there's a business here...
[10:49] Sasha Wexhome: There are some countries that tax in game content and if Blizzard didn't claim ownership of all in-game content you would be the owner and viable for taxes for everything you do in that game
[10:50] Bluebase Schaller: that's correct
[10:50] Jaymin Carthage: But Second Life seems to have solved that by some legal legerdemain in owning everything but selling each person the *license* to use their own content.
[10:50] Al Supercharge: yes I reach for my CyberMindProbe every morning
[10:50] Jaymin Carthage: I'm not sure this has been tested in the courts yet. :-)
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Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Categories
: [ BeyondBlogging | JoGrant | WoW ]
Apr 09 2009, 08:27:09 PM EDT
Permalink
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Beyond Blogging: The Future
This is a transcript taken during the opening talk for the Beyond Blogging conference by Jessica Qin. Some details, spelling and punctuation have been cleaned up. Anyone who has indicated that they did not wish their comments recorded has had their comments removed.
The presenter spoke via audio so this might not make complete sense to those who weren't there. The slides, transcript and commentary will be published together in the proceedings of the conference.
[9:16] Dale Innis: Applause!!
[9:16] Honour McMillan applauds!
[9:16] Ahuva Heliosense: APPLAUSE!!!!
[9:16] Oura Scribe: APPLAUSE!!!!
[9:16] Jonah Svoboda: Apploaus
[9:16] Sasha Wexhome: *claps
[9:16] Bluebase Schaller: perfet
[9:17] Jaymin Carthage: :-)
[9:17] Dale Innis cheers!
[9:17] Chimera Cosmos: :-)
[9:19] Dale Innis: / but 85% of the AVs are female. :)
[9:19] Dale Innis: / oooh I was close!
[9:20] Dale Innis suddenly notices there are slides.
[9:20] Al Supercharge: thankyou for waiting for slides to rez
[9:21] Dale Innis: / food! :)
[9:21] Jaymin Carthage: / laughs
[9:21] Dusty Artaud: bunny
[9:21] Fricker Fraker: my other avatar is a rock .. never moves, it just sits there
[9:21] Dusty Artaud: (\_/)
[9:21] Dusty Artaud: (o.0)
[9:21] Dusty Artaud: (m)(m)
[9:21] Dusty Artaud: this is bunny, he wants to rule the world!
[9:22] Al Supercharge: I suppose u thinks thats bunny?
[9:22] Dusty Artaud: ;)
[9:22] Dale Innis: / These is slight echo; everyone could make sure their mic is not on?
[9:23] Holli Hollwood: that is a trip question...
[9:23] Jaymin Carthage: Charles2, do you think you can mute your mic?
[9:23] Chimera Cosmos: Indeed...can you come talk to my comrades? LOL
[9:23] Holli Hollwood: TRIP.... as in trippy
[9:23] Holli Hollwood: lol...
[9:23] Jaymin Carthage: / laughs
[9:24] Jonah Svoboda: :)
[9:24] Dale Innis: Partying!
[9:24] Sasha Wexhome: competition
[9:24] Bluebase Schaller: Learning Bahaviour
[9:25] Jaymin Carthage: visualization
[9:25] Dusty Artaud: alternate sanity
[9:25] Dale Innis: art
[9:25] Ahuva Heliosense: collaboration
[9:25] Phrip Horten: Teaching - simulation
[9:25] Fricker Fraker: Collaboration of Ideas
[9:25] Bluebase Schaller: Profiling of Geographics
[9:25] Jaymin Carthage: OK, I'll say it...
[9:25] Jaymin Carthage: SEX!
[9:25] Jaymin Carthage: :-)
[9:26] Sasha Wexhome: /brb refrigerator
[9:27] Al Supercharge: Jessica are u Philip Seymour Hoffman ?
[9:27] Dale Innis nods.
[9:27] Holli Hollwood: The ppl are the killer app... no good if it is empty... no matter how cool the build...
[9:27] Al Supercharge: Gus in Charlies War
[9:27] Chimera Cosmos: No way!
[9:28] Chimera Cosmos: You've seen him in films for sure. :-)
[9:28] Al Supercharge: u'll know him once u see him
[9:29] Honour McMillan: /sigh yes
[9:29] Smiley Dyrssen: love that place
[9:29] Chimera Cosmos: sure
[9:29] Dale Innis raises hand.
[9:29] Fricker Fraker: yep. (hides head in hands)
[9:29] H3 Turbo gave you American Holocause H2onE2 Press.
[9:29] Dusty Artaud: ooo slurl please!
[9:29] Chimera Cosmos: Is she one of the Linden $1 million earner examples?
[9:30] Chimera Cosmos: Wondering who those are :-)
[9:30] Jaymin Carthage: lol
[9:31] Dale Innis: / hear hear!
[9:32] Jaymin Carthage: Or clothes!
[9:32] Ahuva Heliosense: they are lonely
[9:32] Chimera Cosmos: Yes! Please get the Portal going for TP. heheh
[9:32] Dale Innis: / Or AOs.
[9:32] Ahuva Heliosense: boots...
[9:32] Fricker Fraker: just like the real Nebraska
[9:32] Ahuva Heliosense: :)
[9:33] Chimera Cosmos typist was born in Nebraska
[9:33] Holli Hollwood: this is a good start!
[9:33] Ahuva Heliosense: it is
[9:34] Chimera Cosmos thinks weird is good...
[9:35] Smiley Dyrssen didn't realize "weird" wasn't normal
[9:35] Honour McMillan: /more sex
[9:36] Chimera Cosmos: 10^8
[9:37] Dusty Artaud: immortality
[9:38] Al Supercharge: well have immortality of the whole body soon enuf
[9:38] Dale Innis: / It might! We don't know how consciousness works.
[9:39] Jaymin Carthage: A machine that could perfectly emulate you.
[9:39] Al Supercharge: Ah no that IS your personality
[9:39] RufusTT Horsefly: the singularity
[9:39] Ahuva Heliosense: hope the asset servers are improved by then
[9:39] Bluebase Schaller: Now I noticed why they call it Nano Meter...to find the brains of the people
[9:40] Al Supercharge: they'll live inside immortal biological bodies
[9:40] Aaronson Swindlehurst: who will pay tier?
[9:40] Holli Hollwood: lol...
[9:40] Dale Innis: indeed
[9:40] Ahuva Heliosense: please - i nearly lost a vase of tulips. i want them holding my self??
[9:41] Dale Innis: haha good point
[9:41] Jaymin Carthage: Of course the government will find a way to tax your virtual self. :-)
[9:41] Ahuva Heliosense: :)
[9:41] Jaymin Carthage: Hey, you are conquering death, that's one of the big three!
[9:41] Dale Innis: Applause!!
[9:42] Aaronson Swindlehurst: the good avatars get free tier
[9:42] Jaymin Carthage: /claps
[9:42] Ahuva Heliosense: APPLAUSE!!!!
[9:42] Chimera Cosmos: Thanks!
[9:42] PatriciaAnne Daviau: woohoot
[9:42] Honour McMillan: /lol
[9:42] Holli Hollwood: really good thoughts...
[9:42] Dale Innis: :)
[9:42] Bluebase Schaller: Yes
[9:42] Jaymin Carthage: Just thinking it gets kind of recursive...
[9:42] Bluebase Schaller: this was the future
[9:42] Jessica Qin: you are all very kind
[9:42] Bluebase Schaller: what about the Present
[9:42] Al Supercharge: with 9 billion IMMORTAL people on Earth when this happens - guess what the REAL future holds ?
[9:42] Holli Hollwood: Jessica... why do you think businesses come into SL and don't see the people aspect?
[9:42] Jaymin Carthage: To have a world of virtual people talking to other virtual people...
[9:43] Jaymin Carthage: Is it life, existence, or just a clever simulation?
[9:43] Smiley Dyrssen: oh... not about the discussion itself, but is there going to be a transcript of it anywhere? I have a few friends who couldn't make it, but would've loved to see/hear about this
[9:43] Sasha Wexhome: How do morals we have today will influence virtual society?
[9:43] Oriscus Zauberflote: Imagine the lag...
[9:43] Dale Innis: They don't take up much space once they're virtual!
[9:43] Svea Morane: :)
[9:43] Bluebase Schaller: Is the Companies infrastructure and policies ready for this medium and which countries are effected
[9:44] Al Supercharge: DISASTER as this doubles every 30 years
[9:44] Dale Innis: Leary was very cool
[9:45] Al Supercharge: the Pentagon will need to launch that neutron bomb to annihilate 8.9 billion of us
[9:45] Jaymin Carthage: Bombs and stuff
[9:45] Holli Hollwood: yea... that is so true...
[9:45] Fricker Fraker: Question - With all the bad press SL gets, what do you feel are positive aspects in SL that will help spread a good light on virtual worlds. And how might we improve the SL/Virtual image
[9:46] Holli Hollwood: yea... this is Quality vs Quantity...
[9:46] Dale Innis: What bad press? hahaha
[9:46] Bluebase Schaller: We are trying to get global with this ...instead one should get the local regions up slowly
[9:47] Jaymin Carthage: Like IM, it took us a decade for consolidation, and that wasn't for technical reasons.
[9:47] Bluebase Schaller: group certain industries together first
[9:47] Aaronson Swindlehurst: In the beginning of "the web" no one expected it to evolve as it did, I don't think we can begin to imagine the state of VR even in the next 10 years.
[9:47] Al Supercharge: the answer is clear
[9:48] Svea Morane: You have a good point Aaronson.
[9:48] Chimera Cosmos: philosophy!
[9:48] Dale Innis laughs
[9:48] Jaymin Carthage: lol
[9:48] Chimera Cosmos: eep
[9:48] Al Supercharge: lol
[9:48] Bluebase Schaller: Is SL making the World greener?
[9:48] Oriscus Zauberflote: Nice to have that settled.
[9:48] Al Supercharge: were on just one of an infinite number of parallel universes
[9:48] Dusty Artaud: Having one avatar identity (like a SSN) across all VWs - likely?
[9:48] Jaymin Carthage: I can take a transcript.
[9:49] Dale Innis: we can insert some
[9:49] Oura Scribe: lol Dale
[9:49] Jaymin Carthage: I was going to record audio but that didn't work out.
[9:49] Chimera Cosmos: I assume you are in favor of a way for those in the new firewalled spaces to get to SL and make contact with the wider community?
[9:49] Dusty Artaud: Prim green NO.
[9:50] Chimera Cosmos: keeping your toaster plugged in is not green either, apparently
[9:50] Holli Hollwood: designs can be tried before carbon base...
[9:51] Holli Hollwood: there are so many ways we can leverage this more...
[9:51] Al Supercharge: except to run Graphics SLI /CROSSFIRE ATI 4870x2 I need a PC with 850 Kwatts
[9:52] Dusty Artaud: identity theft will be a problem
[9:52] Chimera Cosmos: yay!
[9:52] Chimera Cosmos: So relieved to hear that!
[9:53] Bluebase Schaller: We need security appliances put in place in the next years
[9:54] Bluebase Schaller: Sell SL to big companies to prepare their Digital enterprises
[9:54] Chimera Cosmos: Hearing that the lead person thinks this is important--that's worth the TP today for sure LOL
[9:54] Holli Hollwood: thank you so much!
[9:54] Aaronson Swindlehurst: great presentation
[9:54] Dale Innis: / huzzah!
[9:54] Jaymin Carthage: /claps
[9:54] Oura Scribe: thank you
[9:54] PatriciaAnne Daviau: woohoot
[9:54] Aaronson Swindlehurst: where is the keg?
[9:54] Ahuva Heliosense: thanks, Jess!
[9:54] Oura Scribe: APPLAUSE!!!!
[9:54] Dusty Artaud: love your thoughts and thx for inviting the public.
[9:55] Al Supercharge: thought provoking - thanks
[9:55] Chimera Cosmos: Thanks! My fear is that edu/business types will hide behind firewalls. This gives me some hope. :-)
[9:55] Dale Innis: / Some of them probably will :) but we can make it easier for the more clued ones not to.
[9:55] PatriciaAnne Daviau: lol
[9:55] Ahuva Heliosense: lol
[9:55] Holli Hollwood: lol...
[9:55] Chimera Cosmos: that's great Dale
[9:56] Chimera Cosmos: I'm the one trying to pull them over heheh
[9:56] PatriciaAnne Daviau: coffee time ㋡
[9:57] Dale Innis: Where's the danceball?
[9:57] Jessica Qin waves goodbye and sludges off to minister to her packed calendar
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Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Categories
: [ BeyondBlogging | JessicaQin | JoGrant ]
Apr 08 2009, 10:22:09 PM EDT
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Beyond Blogging: Schedule
Here is the lineup of events for the Beyond Blogging conference. All
events will start at the
Lotusphere
Parcel on IBM 9.
Beyond Blogging: The Future
7th April, 09:00 PDT / 12:00 EST
Virtual Worlds are more than just another medium for the exchange of information. Most of the venues we have
for social interaction on the internet today, web pages, blogs, instant messaging, all revolve around the written word.
Virtual worlds such as Second Life allow for user contribute content that spurs on social interaction in ways that
are quite different from previous text driven interfaces.
Jessica Qin will open the conference with a discussion of this culture arising from Virtual Worlds.
Teaming in World of Warcraft
7th April, 10:00 PDT / 13:00 EST
Massively multiplayer online games, like any team environment, rely heavily on good communication and matched goals. Due to the lack of supervision by team leaders, organization and team identity are even more important. In teams who are geographically local, the team members can go to a dinner or some other event together. However, in a geographically dispersed team whose members are unlikely to ever meet face to face, these challenges have to be addressed differently.
Sasha Oliver speaks on the lessons she has learned to address virtual teaming through her experience leading a guild in World of Warcraft.
Stone Soup Stories
7th April, 11:00 PDT / 14:00 EST
Each project I have been involved with in virtual worlds from the first one (Circuit City Build) to the most recent one (Tardis Shopping Mall) has been a cumulative, collaborative experience. There's been an idea, a call for help, and a diverse, and often motley, crew of people have turned out to get it done. There are a few ways to interpret the commonality of this sort of "virtual barnstorming". Is it indicative of a new medium in a growth period? One where no formal established procedure has been set? Or is it that projects in virtual worlds require such a diverse set of skills that they are seldom all found in one group or person?
Lets examine this through discussion by telling some of our "Stone Soup Stories". Maybe, by looking at all sides of the experience, we will gain an insight into the nature of work in virtual worlds.
Roundtable: Achieving a Work/Life/Virtual Life balance
7th April, 12:00 PDT / 15:00 EST
Many people find it hard to balance their work and their life and find both successful and fulfilling. And the situation only gets worse when you add in virtual worlds to the equation! As with any social networking activity, many aspects are purely personal but other aspects are related to work. How do you account for both in a way that is fair to you and also fair to IBM?
Jaymin Carthage leads a roundtable discussion on how people have (or have not) achieved this in their lives.
Roundtable: What's in a Name?
7th April, 13:00 PDT / 16:00 EST
When you enter a virtual world you do so through the guise of an avatar. This virtual representation of you is usually under the guise of a specific name. There are fun names, cool names, descriptive names, and names that just reflect the real name of the owner. But which do you choose? How do you choose a good, memorable, typeable one?
When mixing work and pleasure, real and virtual people, when do you call someone by their virtual name? When do you call them by the real name?
Jaymin Carthage / Jo Grant leads a roundtable discussion on these, and related topics.
Roundtable: Appearance Matters!
7th April, 14:00 PDT / 17:00 EST
In the same way that UI Matters to our software user interfaces, what your avatars looks like matters in the virtual world. Well crafted avatars are personal expressions, not pure vanity. They show a familiarity and how facile they are with the virtual world. They can communicate instantly upon meeting someone how experienced they are and how seriously they are involved with virtual worlds.
Jaymin Carthage / Jo Grant leads this roundtable discussion on people's experiences in naming craft their avatars and the inherent assumptions they make when first meeting others virtually.
The Wonderful World of Colin Fizgig
7th April, 15:00 PDT / 18:00 EST
The prolific Colin Fizgig is responsible for many weird and wonderful builds in Second Life. PatriciaAnne Daviau takes you on a tour of his latest Escher inspired build.
Leaving a Virtual Legacy
7th April, 16:00 PDT / 19:00 EST
Nothing seems as ephemeral as the virtual world. What we perceive as land and buildings and accessories and appearances are just electrons, bits and bytes. Our concept of ownership is nebulous as they are stored on servers we have no control over, and do not represent something concrete we can hold in our hands. The general assumption is that our electronic creations are 'writ on water'. And yet works of electronic media have been tenaciously persistent. What student of the late 80's would have thought at the time their angst filled ramblings on usenet would be indexed and searchable 20 years later, prompting awkward questions from their children?
Perhaps we should take our creations more seriously. It may be that our exploratory fumblings of today, of all the efforts of our lives, are the most likely to end up 'writ on marble'; recorded, indexed, and presented is some unguessable 3D wikipedia of 2030.
Honor McMillian is someone who has pondered these questions as she looks over her own contributions to Second Life. She will present and discuss these and similar thoughts.
Field Trip: Social Aspects of Virtual Worlds
7th April, 17:00 PDT / 20:00 EST
Virtual worlds have high value for business and educational collaboration, cost-savings, and knowledge enablement. On the other hand, the vast majority of virtual world use today is based on the fact that virtual worlds are fun!
This field trip will venture outside the IBM-controlled spaces of Second Life, and explore one or more of the social venues that make virtual worlds an attractive place for so many. We will go to a dance club (a public SL club and/or Dale Innis's own "Indolence"), we will dance, chat, say silly things, maybe play some Word Frog, maybe interact with some Residents who are neither IBMers nor customers, maybe fly around in flying machines. Who knows!
Experience with how real people use virtual worlds for their own purposes should not only be fun, but increase our understanding of the potential of the technology, and the uses to which our future customers are already putting it.
100 Students Interviews in SL Theater
7th April, 02:00 PDT / 05:00 EST / 11:00 Paris Time
Remote education is a real need when teachers and students come from many Countries in the World, and cannot be collocated at all times.
Usage examples are students required to stay longer in their home Country for Visa delay reasons, or recently one Chinese student who had to come back home for a couple of months after his father was dead, leaving his family alone. Another case was that teacher who broke his leg in the Alps after a good ski ride, but was able to maintain his classes using this feature.
One student's project group booked an island on Second Life, built a Theater and installed some basic features.
Intention is not to try to reproduce reality : for example, the look & feel of the (real) University buildings are not reproduced in the virtual space.
Intention is just to provide a facility for remote learning.
Next student project will link the Theater to the "Moodle*" umbrella we use in this University to host the course materials and curricula using a facility called "SLoodle" (as Second-Life-Moodle).
Last year, the teacher's team ran as much as 100 students interviews in Second Life, using buildings lent by the IBM University Relations folks.
Another set of interviews will be organized starting April 2007 using the new University Theater. This has proven to be of good efficiency : the students' resumee is shown on the screen, and the student is asked to comment his past experiences.
This 3-min youtube video produced by our students describes a typical course using 3D objects for increased pedagogy.
Difficulties encountered were mainly due to the reluctance of the University's IT team, when opening the required IP ports for Second Life and Skype. This still remains the major roadblock for the deployment of such initiatives in Universities.
*"Moodle" is a widely used open-source software to manage classes, curricula, forums, tests, etc.
Olivier Sirven is leading International Projects at IBM (BT&IT RUN WW organisation).
He is as well conducting Project Management classes at Lille University in France.
Language Learning in Second Life
8th April, 05:00 PDT / 08:00 EST
When given an international assignment in Santiago, Chile, Yolanda Dickinson attended a Spanish institute in Second Life to brush up on her Spanish. In this talk she shares her experience in using Second Life as a language learning tool.
Homesteading in the IBM Grid
8th April, 08:00 PDT / 11:00 EST
The IBM Grid is the internal OpenSim grid. Who set this up? Who maintains it? How can you get an avatar on it? How you can help build it? How can you help join it?
Sean Dague has been involved in IBM's OpenSim efforts from the very beginning. He is here in this session to explain all. Come and find out!
Lessons Learned from IBM's Academy of Technology Virtual Conferences
8th April, 09:00 PDT / 12:00 EST
In late 2008 IBM's Academy of Technology held a conference on
virtual worlds in a virtual world: a private instance of Second Life
behind IBM's firewall. As an experiment in virtual conferencing for
researchers of the topic it was a success and might have been relegated
as an indication of where the future could go. However, six weeks later,
the crashing economy and emergency cost saving measures caused the
travel budget for the annual general meeting of IBM's Academy of
Technology to be cut. Suddenly our virtual conference work was pulled
from the research sidelines and given center focus as it became the only
possibly way to hold the AGM within the economic constraints.
Neil Katz, an IBM Distinguished Engineer and chairman of the
conference will speak on history, development, success, and ultimate
lessons learned of the two conferences.
|
Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Categories
: [ BeyondBlogging | JoGrant ]
Apr 04 2009, 05:37:14 PM EDT
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Beyond Blogging: 100 Students Interviews in a SL Theater
The 5am slot on April 8th at the Beyond Blogging conference will be:
100 Students Interviews in a SL Theater
Last year, the teacher's team ran as much as 100 students interviews in Second Life, using buildings lent by the IBM University Relations folks.
Another set of interviews will be organized starting April 2007 using the new University Theater. This has proven to be of good efficiency : the students' resumee is shown on the screen, and the student is asked to comment his past experiences.
This 3-min youtube video produced by our students describes a typical course using 3D objects for increased pedagogy.
Difficulties encountered were mainly due to the reluctance of the University's IT team, when opening the required IP ports for Second Life and Skype. This still remains the major roadblock for the deployment of such initiatives in Universities.
Olivier Sirven is leading International Projects at IBM (BT&IT RUN WW organisation).
He is as well conducting Project Management classes at Lille University in France.
Note this session is planned at 05:00 AM EST, which is 11:00 AM Paris time.
| Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Categories
: [ BeyondBlogging | JoGrant ]
Mar 29 2009, 09:23:34 AM EDT
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Beyond Blogging: Teaming in World of Warcraft
The 4pm slot on April 7th at the Beyond Blogging conference will be:
Teaming in World of Warcraft
Massively multiplayer online games, like any team environment, rely heavily on good communication and matched goals. Due to the lack of supervision by team leaders, organization and team identity are even more important. In teams who are geographically local, the team members can go to a dinner or some other event together. However, in a geographically dispersed team whose members are unlikely to ever meet face to face, these challenges have to be addressed differently.
Sasha Oliver speaks on the lessons she has learned to address virtual teaming through her experience leading a guild in World of Warcraft.
| Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Categories
: [ BeyondBlogging | JoGrant ]
Mar 26 2009, 09:21:54 PM EDT
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Beyond Blogging: Stone Soup Stories
I've picked the 2pm slot on April 7th for a talk at the Beyond Blogging conference:
Stone Soup Stories
Each project I have been involved with in virtual worlds from the first one (Circuit City Build) to the most recent one (Tardis Shopping Mall) has been a cumulative, collaborative experience. There's been an idea, a call for help, and a diverse, and often motley, crew of people have turned out to get it done. There are a few ways to interpret the commonality of this sort of "virtual barnstorming". Is it indicative of a new medium in a growth period? One where no formal established procedure has been set? Or is it that projects in virtual worlds require such a diverse set of skills that they are seldom all found in one group or person?
Lets examine this through discussion by telling some of our "Stone Soup Stories". Maybe, by looking at all sides of the experience, we will gain an insight into the nature of work in virtual worlds.
| Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Categories
: [ BeyondBlogging | JoGrant ]
Mar 21 2009, 10:04:20 AM EDT
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Social Networking about Social Networking
Social networking is all about people talking to each other. Expressing opinions leads to opening of minds, or at least understandings. A really good way of doing this is with a round table discussion. You start with a topic, and everyone interested contributes. It's hard to schedule time in our busy work schedules for this sort of interaction, but at an event like the Beyond Blogging conference, it's trivial.
Several ideas have been submitted for these sorts of discusions:
- Achieving a Work/Life/Virtual Life balance Many people find it hard to balance their work and their life and find both successful and fulfilling. And the situation only gets worse when you add in virtual worlds to the equation! As with any social networking activity, many aspects are purely personal but other aspects are related to work. How do you account for both in a way that is fair to you and also fair to IBM?
- What's in a Name? When you enter a virtual world you do so through the guise of an avatar. This virtual representation of you is usually under the guise of a specific name. There are fun names, cool names, descriptive names, and names that just reflect the real name of the owner. But which do you choose? How do you choose a good, memorable, typeable one?
When mixing work and pleasure, real and virtual people, when do you call someone by their virtual name? When do you call them by the real name?
- Appearance Matters! In the same way that UI Matters to our software user interfaces, what your avatars looks like matters in the virtual world. Well crafted avatars are personal expressions, not pure vanity. They show a familiarity and facileness with the virtual world. They can communicate instantly upon meeting someone how experienced they are and how seriously they are involved with virtual worlds.
This talk will first convince you that your appearance matters, and then take you through simple, easy steps to customize your appearance to convey the best.
- Customer Relationship Management Storytime CRM is the holy grail of virtual worlds from a business perspective. Come to this roundtable discussion with stories of customers you have run into, formally and informally, in virtual worlds and what good or bad has resulted.
Unfortunately these topics do not yet have owners! If you would like to facilitate these, or any other discussion topics at the Beyond Blogging conference, you are most welcome to do so! Either sign up via the instructions given on the announcement page, or contact me for details.
| Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Categories
: [ BeyondBlogging | JoGrant ]
Mar 18 2009, 08:29:54 PM EDT
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Field Trip: social aspects of virtual worlds
The submissions for the Beyond Blogging conference are beginning to come in. Here is the abstract of the field trip being run by Dale Innis at 8pm on April 7th.
Field Trip: social aspects of virtual worlds
Virtual worlds have high value for business and educational collaboration, cost-savings, and knowledge enablement. On the other hand, the vast majority of virtual world use today is based on the fact that virtual worlds are fun!
This field trip will venture outside the IBM-controlled spaces of Second Life, and explore one or more of the social venues that make virtual worlds an attractive place for so many. We will go to a dance club (a public SL club and/or Dale Innis's own "Indolence"), we will dance, chat, say silly things, maybe play some Word Frog, maybe interact with some Residents who are neither IBMers nor customers, maybe fly around in flying machines. Who knows!
Experience with how real people use virtual worlds for their own purposes should not only be fun, but increase our understanding of the potential of the technology, and the uses to which our future customers are already putting it.
| Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Categories
: [ BeyondBlogging | DaleInnis | JoGrant ]
Mar 13 2009, 02:55:23 PM EDT
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Call for Presenters: Beyond Blogging
Shortly after the AoT conference a group of us who had helped construct the setting were sitting around, decompressing. As volunteers, we had been invited to attend the conference as well, and many of us did. We talked about the various sessions and there was a general dissatisfaction in the content. I'm not going to say that the content was bad, it just wasn't aimed at us. We weren't researchers, interested in breaking technology and innovations. We were users of virtual worlds. Wouldn't it be great, I thought, if we could do a conference where we could talk about what was important to use: how we use virtual worlds in our work and personal life.
It was at that point that I realized the flip side to what we had been driving for. The AoT conferences showed how you could save money by having real conferences in virtual worlds. If you look at that in the other direction, virtual worlds allow you to have conferences that you otherwise could never have afforded. With that I resolved to have that conference. And, now, I present to you...
CALL FOR PRESENTERS!Beyond Blogging - Social Networking in the Virtual World
April 7-8, 2009, Lotusphere, IBM 9, Second Life
The 'Beyond Blogging' Conference is about exploring the use of virtual worlds by IBM and IBMers alike in their social and working lives. Virtual worlds are used for the expression of ideas, new concepts, collaboration, communication and community building. We are looking for papers, posters or presentation sessions along the lines of the conference theme: how virtual worlds have affected IBM and IBMers.
Since the conference it taking place in public space, non-IBMers may participate if they wish. Those just wishing to attend may subscribe to the Developer Works Blog on "Return on Investment in Virtual Worlds" for updates. Those who wish to present a topic may do so. They just need an IBM Employee to "sponsor" them. You or your sponsor can contact the conference organizers for more details.
Multiple submissions are encouraged. No submission will be refused. Because in Second Life, time and space are unlimited.
Beyond Blogging will take place on April 7-8, 2009, on the Lotusphere parcel in the IBM 9 region of Second Life.
CONFERENCE DATES:
| 1 April | Topic title and abstract on (internal) wiki |
| 6 April | Notification of final timeslots |
| 7-8 April | Conference |
Additional sessions will continue to be accepted up until the date of the conference. Timeslots will be assigned on a first come, first serve basis.
Format of the ConferenceThe conference will include 24 one hour sessions. Standard projectors will be made available to participants. The expectation is that presenters will broadcast with in-world voice, and take questions in chat or by voice. However alternate forms of presenting are encouraged.
SubmissionSubmission format, details and style files will be left up to the presenter. If they wish to use the generic projector then image files will need to be made available to the conference organizers ahead of time. Additionally, if they want their material combined afterwards in the "Conference Proceedings" they should send it to the conference organizers in Open Office, Power Point, or PDF format before 14 April.
To submit a topic, follow the instructions on the Schedule Page on the internal wiki. If you are an external speaker, your sponsor can edit the wiki on your behalf and communicate information back to you.
Review ProcessIn keeping with the principles of an "unconference", our review process will be very light. Where possible conference space will be expanded to accommodate exceptional interest in preference to sessions being rejected. Slight preference for space will be given to sessions closer to the conference theme than for those that are not.
ConfidentialityThe conference will take place on the Second Life main grid. As such it is considered by IBM Legal as "public". Participants should be aware of IBM's Social Computing Guidelines, Virtual World Guidelines, and, of course, the Business Conduct Guidelines. It is the responsibility of both presenters and participants to adhere to these guidelines.
This conference is not funded or supported by IBM. It is being organized and given by IBM employees in their own time.
Jo Grant/Jaymin Carthage
jo_grant@us.ibm.com
| Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Categories
: [ IBM | JoGrant | SecondLife ]
Mar 10 2009, 09:54:48 PM EDT
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IBM's use of Second Life for conferencing
A joint report by Linden Labs and IBM has been released on the recent conferences held in the Second Life shard IBM has running behind its firewall. This is the conference that I was involved in and have been talking about.
The report covers many of the events at a high level. I'm a little disapointed that neither my racetrack or my session got a mention. I guess the racetrack was too trivial. My session, however, was one of the highest attended on that day (I know because I did the metrics!) and got a lot of interest for both the content and the manner in which it was delivered. But I'll have to go into that in another post.
Bruised ego aside, the article does do a good job of putting some actual numbers on the RoI gained by holding the conference virtually. The huge point for me is not the first conference, though, but the second one. Virtual worlds has this kind of inward looking habit. People often present something about a nifty bit of technology using that nifty bit of technology. So having a conference on virtual worlds in a virtual world is hardly surprising and, in my mind, doesn't really prove much of anything. When the next conference got canceled (the report doesn't explicitly state it, but if you check the calendar you will see that the canceling of the conference came about right as the economy started to crash) the decision to have that conference in a virtual world is the HUGE POINT. Here is a case of where a virtual world is used for something other than talking about a virtual world. It's use for genuine business. That, to me, is far more validating than anything else.
Also, not covered by the report, is the fact that the place has been nearly booked solid since. Everyone has had their travel budgets cut. Originally the sixteen sims behind our firewall were just going to be set up for the virtual world conference, and then repurposed for various reasearch and other projects. But now they've been too much in demand and are, more or less, becoming a permananet facility.
It kind of puts a different emphasis on things. To look back at the rag-tag group of volunteers that put it all together. We all put in long hours of companionable labour. Only Craig Becker got any real mention as the leader. No bad feelings there; he probably did twice the work of any of the rest of us. But looking back on it, and what making it all work did, and where it's likely to lead to... It's not often that you get to participate in something that, literally, changes the way we work.
That might sound a little grandiose. And it may be a little grandiose. I think I'll wait a year. That should be enough time to really determine if it was all a flash in the pan or the start of something. :-)
| Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Categories
: [ AoT | IBM | JoGrant | SecondLife | conference ]
Mar 02 2009, 01:18:34 PM EST
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Algorithmically Generated Structures - The Racetrack
One of the things that happened while I was gone was IBM's Academy of Technology's conference on Virtual Worlds. I'll be talking a lot more about this, but for now I'll refer you to Irving Wladawsky-Berger's excellent blog entry on it.
Tezcatlipoca Bisiani was the "art director" for the build and had a number of things he wanted done. He's the one that put it to me "You're good at algorithmically generated structures". I hadn't thought about it that way before, but I can see how things I did like the Fractal Growing Tree give people that impression.
So one of the things he wanted done was a "play area". He wanted a 3D racetrack that "filled the sim". It wasn't my traditional work interfacing the virtual and real world. I had plenty of that to do. But there was a delay in getting the behind-the-firewall sims connected up with the rest of the behind-the-firewall so that was on hold.
Years ago in POV-Ray I had created a system for laying out HO rail track. (Or, really, anything you wrote and described.) I thought something similar might do. So I borrowed heavily from that idea and created a number of base pieces: left curve, right curve, 9m, 6m, and 3m straight tracks. I then came up with a way of describing a series of these together. A little Java program worked out placement and produced another file, suitable for pasting into the notecard, with the directions on it.
This got dumped into a rezzer in world which read the instructions, rezzed the pieces in turn, and gave each their instructions. They then flew out across the sim until they were in position.
So in the end, we had a fixed "pit stop" with a big sign from which you could choose six different rack layouts in three different difficulty levels. (Higher difficulty levels had bits of the track missing!) Tez created some interesting track pieces (much more inspiring than the blank sections of asphalt I proofed the system with) and grandstands and viewing areas.
Cars were much more difficult. The beauty of using a Second Life shard (more on that later) rather than OpenSim is that we had access to all of the material and builds of Second Life. I went car shopping and tried out a bunch of freebie cars. Unfortunately the driving is pretty poor in Second Life and many of them looked cool, but drove like crap. Especially on a 3D track. Every single other track I saw in Second Life was a flat 2D short loop. Booooring. Ironically a freebie VW Beetle Convertable was wide enough and flat enough to handle well on the track without flying off the sides. All I needed to make it complete was to make it explode if it did fly off the track, some gun mounts and grenade launchers.
And the whole thing went down well. It was one of the most popular non-theater places during the event. I have some pictures of it here. One of the down sides of working on a Second life shard is that it's behind our firewall and you can't actually visit it unless you are an IBMer. If someone has a fairly empty sim that they would like filled with racetrack, I'll be happy to set it up for them. It creates itself all from one box, and cleans up with another click afterwards. That's the real beauty of Algorithmically Generated Structures.
| Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Categories
: [ AOT | GeneratedStructures | JoGrant | SecondLife ]
Feb 28 2009, 09:23:24 AM EST
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I'M BACK
Seven months ago I lost my password to my Developer Works blog. To reset your password you need to know your ID. To find out your ID you need to know what e-mail address you signed up with. Unfortunately for IBMers, each different aspect of Developer Works seems to require a different ID. So I had no idea which of the permutations of my e-mail addresses I used. It's taken seven months to get help to work things out for me.
But, assuming this is posted, I'm back and will shortly start blogging.
Lots has happened in those seven months. To try to summarize it all I think the thrust of this blog will broaden more from strictly being about return-on-investment to the whole virtual-world-at-work experience in general.
| Jo Grant
Jaymin Carthage |
Feb 27 2009, 08:47:14 AM EST
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Seeking business value from investment in virtual worlds on the 3D internet
