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Posts Tagged ‘Second Life’
DocTrain West 2008 - RJ Jacquez, Bringing the Video Revolution to Technical Communication
For the first time in history, there are four generations in the workplace. Adobe is working on technologies that bring elearning to the newest working generation. Adobe is hosting a virtual tradeshow in Second Life tomorrow, May 8. I can’t find a link for more information, but his slide showed it would be staffed from 9am PST to 4 pm PST. They want to welcome the new generation and meet their expectations.
RJ showed embedding video into PDFs - plus showing the 3D animations of a brake disassembly imbedded in a PDF file, very cool demonstration. It drew a round of applause, even. I really appreciate that there was no additional plugin to download - it just works.
Also demonstrated Adobe AIR applications. There is a list of AIR applications at airapps.pbwiki.com, and come to find out, Twhirl is an Adobe AIR application that lets you post from multiple Twitter accounts - a use case that my coworker and I were discussing just last week. What if you wanted different Twitter accounts to follow different groups of people? For example, I could have an ASI Twitter account and only follow ASIers, an OLPC Twitter account that tracks OLPC happenings, and so on. I did finally come to the conclusion that I don’t necessarily need to compartmentalize all of my online activities, I guess – the more of “ourselves” we put online, the bigger the overall picture that people can get of me. Just like smalltalk in the office, Twitter can be the smalltalk/water cooler area for “web worker” employees. Twitter is useful for conferences, also, and we’ve started a #doctrainwest tweme that you can view on the web.
Another tidbit from RJ’s talk is that Youtube dominates Internet video more than Google dominates Internet search.
More posts to come from DocTrain West, so stay tuned.
Putting content into context in a wiki - especially in a large environment
An interesting read on the front page of wordpress.com of all places. I enjoy random clicking, and this one came up with a great commentary on the difficulty of using a wiki to get how to information.
From Learning about Second Life from Google:
Over at SL, the main source of information is on the WIKI, which in my opinion has some great information but because Linden primarily lets the users run the show isn’t as helpful as some sort of information clearing house. Trying to sort out how to sculpt, for example, is an exercise in total frustration. There are some wonderful tutorials, but SL does nothing to properly aggregate and put these tutorials into context.
I wonder what Second Life could do to properly aggregate those tutorials to meet this user’s needs? I suppose long-time wiki writers would answer: use categories and encourage tagging, while looking out for orphans. Any other ideas?
I got a great question from Tom Johnson of I’d Rather Be Writing:
I’m just wondering if you have any thoughts on the WordPress Codex, http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page. Yesterday I was looking at this Codex wondering what to make of it all. I think I want to be a contributor, but there are so many topics. It’s chaotic. The organization is like a maize. I don’t know if I should go in there with a wrecking ball and rennovate, or not. Probably 25% of it is outdated. What happens to those outdated pages? Will I offend people if I just delete things that are outdated?
Can you recommend a book or strategy for making sense of massive wikis? Where should I start? I spent a good hour editing a page of it last night that I considered critical. It’s then that I realized this is a huge project and I have no sense of direction. Any insight you can give me would be much appreciated.
With the OLPC wiki, David Farning on the Library list went through the wiki and said he found these categories. It’s quite an accurate content analysis from what I’ve seen, so I was impressed. At the same time, it also helped explain my initial wonderment at how to wrap my arms around the entire wiki - and in fact, it is barely possible to do.
Content
1 Philosophy
2 Contributing
3 Creating
4 Curatoring
5 Projects
Deliverable
In progress
Ideas
6 Management
Once David came up with these categories, he then asked SJ Klein, director of community content and long-time Wikipedian, if he thought the wiki needed structure.
SJ said that the wiki is purposefully without hierarchy - flat, especially for projects, to not force a parent or sibling sense for projects. He also said, however, if you have a specific tree hierarchy in mind, feel free to develop the idea in some temporary space.
So, when working on a large wiki if you have good organization ideas, set them up, and then ask for community feedback. Seems like an appropriate approach to a large wiki.
Other ideas for starting out in a large wiki environment:
While it might seem like it’s a question similar to “how do I get started on a huge writing project?” in my experience, wiki editing has some subtleties due to the collaboration and community vibe already present behind the pages. You have to work harder to figure out that vibe, and then determine your course.
For new people, there’s the whole question of getting a feel for the community so you can start to answer “who am I going to potentially irritate by editing this” and “as a newbie do I have the confidence I’m right?”
So, knowing your role within the wiki community is a first step. You might take a while to get to know who’s there, what their roles are as well, and where you might best fit in. Introduce yourself with your profile page, following the WikiPattern, MySpace - see http://www.wikipatterns.com/display/wikipatterns/MySpace.
Just like a newbie on a writing team, find out if there’s some scut work that you can do to get your feet wet, if needed, to gain the community’s trust.
Deletions are going to bring much more wrath in a wiki situation, I would guess, so they seem risky to do to start out. If you do think something needs deletion, message or email the original author or the big contributors and ask if it’s okay to mark it for deletion. Then, mark it, and hope that someone else (a wiki admin) determines if it should be deleted.
Start small, like tagging, or applying templates. That’ll help you get a feel for the bigger picture.
Let us know your ideas for wrapping your head around a large wiki, we’d love to hear them.
Non-profits, organizations, and social media
I have gathered several questions recently related to social media and non-profits using technology to further their causes. Many other people are writing about this with much more authority than I, but I would like to share my perspective and link like crazy to the experts.
What sites or tools are defined as social media? Blogs, wikis, Second Life?
Scoble has an excellent article, What is social media?, explaining how social or new media is different from old media. This article gives me a gold standard to compare all tools with traditional media like newspapers, television, and so on.
How have non-profits and professional organizations found ways to use social media to further their causes or to serve their members?
There are plenty of examples, especially now that Facebook has introduced the new Causes application. This blog post “The Long, Long Tail of Facebook Causes” describes it with links: The very cool Causes application by Project Agape enables anyone with a Facebook account to support and engage their Facebook networks to support a “Cause” - be it “Save the Seals!,” “End Global Warming!,” or “Fight Hate.” All of the Causes have to be attached to a Guidestar-verified 501(c)(3).” The quoted blog post also has tips for promoting a cause on Facebook. Plus it has number to back up its claim of the Long Tail at work - the total donations ranged from ran from $5 to $22,871. There’s another blog post that gives you steps for promoting your cause on Facebook.
The Red Cross created a visual in Second Life to raise awareness about disaster recovery. Often this type of display is too costly for most non-profits, and it’s difficult to measure the effect and return on investment. There also is a subculture of “griefers” on Second Life that makes any investment in presence risky.
This blog entry says “As I mentioned in my blog post on the Red Cross entry at Second Life, depicting a disaster zone, one way is to create awareness, convey a mood or show people the challenges in such areas. This awareness is much more valuable than the lousy linden bucks it brings in tips.There is a thin line though; It is great to raise awareness but the cost is a consideration. The presence should be sponsored, not funded with sponsorship money.”
Good analysis and commentary. Linden bucks are the currency in Second Life and there’s a direct exchange rate between Linden bucks and US Dollars (300 to 1 USD I believe?).
What are mashups and are they automatically part of social media and web 2.0?
Mashups combine and layer information on top of another item to bring more information to the reader. Layered maps are an excellent example of a mashup. Microsoft’s latest CRM offering shows a mashup of layering an aerial photo of the event location or venue in order to offer additional information to event planners. I believe mashups are directly related to social media because it is putting extra data together to form a more user-centered picture of the user’s goals.
But what if I’m not in my twenties?
My former coworker Michael Cote is now an industry analyst and he has this great post about how different websites like facebook and myspace are actually “colonies” where you are gathering with like folk. It starts with this great quote about how difficult it is for
30-somethings to get 20-somethings to read their blog. I cracked up because I realized it’s so true for me. Read his post here:
Cote talks about the “web I know” and it’s different for all of us, based on age, based on experience, based on education level, based on professional achievements, and so on. I feel like I too need to constantly be on the lookout for what “teh kidz” are doing, as a parent, as a blogger, as a writer.
There is some research on the average age of people on Facebook and I would guess it is moving upward.
Actual usage may go down as users age, though, so they need to continue to get people to sign up and join their “colony.” And Danah Boyd has written a wonderful essay about class and MySpace and Facebook. She’s truly a pioneer in this research and writes so well that you want to finish every essay right away.
Anyway, besides the nagging detail that I’m in my 30s, and have a job, house, spouse, kids, pets, and other responsibilities, there’s another reason why I had been hesitant to sign up for facebook, and that’s the little feminist voice in me that dislikes the term facebook because for me, it has the connotation of that book that all the first year college students get where they’d look up incoming students and rate them on looks. (Am I the only one who had that type of incoming book in college?) I think that perception is melting away rapidly, though. Facebook only opened to non-current-college-students in September 2006, so it hasn’t even passed the one year mark as an open area.
How can I keep up with social media and the technology?
You don’t have to feel like you’re telling the kids to “get off your lawn” but you should be aware of the social media push and also recognize (and throw off) the hype when needed.
I have discovered the new tag “nptech” for non-profit technology, and will keep an eye on that tag in del.icio.us, in blogs, and other areas of the web. There’s a lot to keep up with, and constantly analyze.
I’d also encourage everyone to try out the sites to gain familiarity with the site’s look and feel and implementation, and find ways to use them for your everyday pursuits.
Creating and visualizing simulations in virtual worlds
I found this Wired News article, ” Making a Living in Second Life” fascinating because of a tidbit within it about virtual training projects in Second Life. Second Life is a virtual world built entirely by the people who spend time online there with avatars represented by three dimensional graphics. I’m sure I’m not doing the experience justice, but that’s my take on it.
The interesting link to the real world is something I hadn’t realized before this article — people are building virtual training simulations that can be run in this virtual world. Here’s the quote from the article:
Just ask Rufer-Bach, known in Second Life as Kim Anubus, who works full time making virtual objects for real-life organizations. In a recent contract with the UC Davis Medical Center, Rufer-Bach created virtual clinics in Second Life to train emergency workers who might be called upon to rapidly set up medical facilities in a national crisis. The work is funded by the Centers for Disease Control. “In the event of a biological attack … the CDC have to set up emergency 12-hour push sites, to distribute antibiotics,” said Rufer-Bach.
To create the most realistic simulation possible, Rufer-Bach crafted about 80 distinct objects, “from chairs (to) a forklift, plumbing, wiring,” she said. The end result is a training environment that’s not only lifelike, but relatively inexpensive. “There are substantial advantages to doing this training in the virtual world,” said UC Davis professor Peter Yellowlees. For one thing, it’s “incredibly cheaper.”
Seems like it would be more interesting to be trained this way than in other forms of online training. This approach would break down barriers of geography as well as obtaining and physically manipulating the physical objects (anyone can be a fork-lift driver in a simulation). The Second Life website has this great set of selling points for experiential learning within Second Life’s environment, such as practicing skills safely, learn from mistakes, and so on.
For some reason, I’m also reminded of a visual website traffic analysis tool, I believe it’s VisitorVille, where you see the MSN or Yahoo search engine traffic represented by a bus bringing in visitors to your site, in real time. Now that is a cool visual representation that allows you to learn immediately and hopfeully spot patterns and trends right away.
I think that the visual representation of an airport and the gaming feel are both factors that make the BSM airport simulation class so effective for learning. What are some other examples of neat graphical or virtual representations of work you’re doing or training to do?
