Society and Information Technology in Second Life

Wednesdays, January 9 - July 30, 2008, 4-6, SLT/PT, 7-9 pm ET

on Berkman island in Second Life - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Berkman/114/70/25

Course homepage - socinfotech.pbwiki.com

 

Instructor: Scott MacLeod (not on Harvard's faculty) = Aphilo Aarde (in Second Life)

http://scottmacleod.com/papers.htm

 

 

Jan 30 2008 Soc and Info Tech Course Transcript

 

 

[16:21]  Claryssa Schmidt is Online

[16:23]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Rain

[16:23]  Neurocam Audio Earpiece 3.1 by Chet Neurocam

[16:23]  Rain Ninetails: he sasys he is back in Berkamn

[16:24]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Rain

[16:24]  Rain Ninetails: :)

[16:24]  Boston Hutchinson: Oh. I'll try to go back.

[16:24]  Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...

[16:24]  Connected

[16:25]  Daisyblue Hefferman is Offline

[16:25]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Claryssa

[16:25]  Claryssa Schmidt: hi

[16:25]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Rain

[16:25]  Boston Hutchinson: It rebooted pretty fast.

[16:25]  You: Hi All

[16:25]  You: Sorry for the maintenance at 4:15 SLT

[16:25]  You: on Berkman . . .

[16:26]  You: I hope no one else tried to come at that point . . .

[16:27]  Free Radar HUD v1.1 by Crystal Gadgets

[16:27]  You: Hi ALL - tonight, we'll look at the Internet since the 1990s, when it became popular, and Boston will present on Croquet, the Virtual World . . .

[16:28]  You: So, let's start . . .

[16:28]  You: Andromeda is offline, and soc and info tech chat isn't working right now . . .

[16:29]  You: Boston, would you like to begin?

[16:29]  Boston Hutchinson: OK

[16:29]  You: Boston will present about Croquet this evening.

[16:30]  Gwyneth Llewelyn is Offline

[16:30]  Boston Hutchinson: What is Croquet?

[16:30]  Boston Hutchinson: Croquet is a collection of open-source software

[16:30]  Boston Hutchinson: which is used to build and run virtual worlds.

[16:31]  You: Thanks.

[16:31]  You: Yes.

[16:31]  Brian Whiteberry is Offline

[16:32]  Boston Hutchinson: The project is managed by the the Croquet Consortium, a group of people, universities and companies working on that software and using it tocreate worlds.

[16:32]  Boston Hutchinson: The home pages of the Croquet Consortiumare here:

[16:32]  Boston Hutchinson: http://www.opencroquet.org/index.php/Main_Page http://www.croquetconsortium.org/index.php/Main_Page

[16:32]  You: Hi Andromeda

[16:32]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Andromeda

[16:33]  Rain Ninetails: :)

[16:33]  Claryssa Schmidt: hi Andromeda

[16:33]  Andromeda Mesmer: Hi everybody -- was in a building class that ran late.

[16:34]  Boston Hutchinson: These pages include a number of short videos that explain some

[16:34]  Boston Hutchinson: of the features and current projects in Croquet, as well asthe link to the download.

[16:34]  You: (I'm experiencing some lag).

[16:34]  You: Please continue

[16:35]  Boston Hutchinson: Croquet is built by and [primarily] for educators.

[16:35]  Boston Hutchinson: sorry about the lag... some of it may be me getting used to my new MAC and typing slowly. :)

[16:36]  You: np

[16:36]  Boston Hutchinson: This focus on academics may change in the future.

[16:36]  Boston Hutchinson: There is a Silicon Valley company, Qwaq, that is developing applications for the corporate market, and there is a lot of talk about versions for the general public.

[16:36]  Froukje Hoorenbeek is Offline

[16:37]  Boston Hutchinson: Currently there are many separate worlds.

[16:37]  Boston Hutchinson: Whether there will be a unified collection of islands like SL in the future remains to be seen.

[16:37]  Boston Hutchinson: The tendency at the moment seems to be to create many diverse worlds for different purposes.

[16:38]  Luna Bliss is Offline

[16:38]  You: (Is there a kind of convergence model or plan that you know of - we can talk aobut this at the end of your presentation).

[16:38]  Boston Hutchinson: These could probably be connected together. Connecting worlds is easy, at least in theory. Teleporting is just as easy as in SL.

[16:38]  Boston Hutchinson: Not really, though there is plenty of discussion.

[16:39]  Boston Hutchinson: There are some very interesting projects in education, including a Spanish language lab

[16:39]  Froukje Hoorenbeek is Online

[16:39]  Boston Hutchinson: and a lot of elementary education projects that seem well developed and in use by kids in classrooms.

[16:40]  Boston Hutchinson: You can create your own world in Croquet with a few mouse clicks

[16:40]  Boston Hutchinson: you can just click "create space" and a window will appear. You step through it and are in a new island

[16:41]  You: (Cool).

[16:41]  Boston Hutchinson: You can change the landscape andadd other portals of various kinds very quickly

[16:41]  Boston Hutchinson: The world will run on your computer.

[16:42]  You: (And where is this 'land' - on your machine or on another server? - thanks).

[16:42]  Boston Hutchinson: Not on a server someplace else.

[16:42]  Boston Hutchinson: Actually, if you creade a new portal and world in somebody else's world, it will be part of their sim

[16:43]  You: (That's offers interesting innovative possibilities).

[16:43]  Boston Hutchinson: But to create your own, you can just download a starter world (a copy of somebody's world) and add to it or replace it.

[16:43]  Diego Ibanez is Online

[16:44]  Boston Hutchinson: Currently, the process of inviting people to visit seems to bea bit too technical unless they're on your LAN.

[16:44]  Boston Hutchinson: Connections over the Internet are possible, but not easy.

[16:45]  Boston Hutchinson: GRAPHICS

[16:46]  Boston Hutchinson: I looks to me like the graphics capabilities of Croquet are as rich andinteresting as those of SL,but I'm not a graphics expert.

[16:46]  Sunnyk Noyes is Offline

[16:46]  You: (Sociality, creating things, and innovation, as part of open source, are key in virtual worlds).

[16:46]  Boston Hutchinson: You can form your own impressions by viewing the Croquet videos and downloading and trying the sample world(s).

[16:47]  You: (Perhaps we might try to meet in Croquet after one Wednesday class, if you you'd like to try).

[16:47]  Boston Hutchinson: Yes, for sure. In fact, one of the problems with Croquet is that you can do almost anything--there's not much organization to it to manage the creative chaos.

[16:48]  You: (And an incredible opportunity).

[16:48]  Boston Hutchinson: The last time I tried to get to the "Wisconsin World", the only public place I know of, it didn't work.

[16:48]  You: (That will change).

[16:48]  Brian Whiteberry is Online

[16:49]  Boston Hutchinson: You can download and run on your own computer, but meeting is still difficult.

[16:49]  Boston Hutchinson: Yes, it will change!

[16:49]  You: (You and I were able to meet and communicate in Croquet).

[16:49]  Andromeda Mesmer: Are the universities tending toward Corquet and abandoning SL, or do you know how it is going?

[16:50]  Boston Hutchinson: Croquet supports the use of shared media, including music and video and real-time collaboration on music as well as text.

[16:51]  Champler Snook is Online

[16:51]  Boston Hutchinson: There are some big university projects in Croquet, Andromeda, but they seem to be focused on creating a single class and it's environment.

[16:51]  You: (Hi Zoltar - come join us if you like - this is a class on society and information technology - http://socinfotech.pbwiki.com

[16:51]  Andromeda Mesmer: OK. I just wondered, because occasionally SL can be very frustrating, with classes cancelled due to SL problems.

[16:52]  Boston Hutchinson: For example, a Spanish class that looks ike a South American villiage and marketplace.

[16:52]  Andromeda Mesmer: Online numbers in SL have pretty well doubled since last year.

[16:52]  Boston Hutchinson: The big problem with Croquet right now is that nobody has worked out a simple way to connect over the Internet, through all the firewalls and DNSservers, etc.

[16:53]  You: And when the worlds are hosted on our machines, does this create usability challenges?

[16:53]  Boston Hutchinson: So, the projects that work well are all on LANS, where there are no firewalls and everybody has a fixed IP address.

[16:54]  You: (What are the technical and the pragmatic solutions for Internet use? And are they within reach?)

[16:54]  Boston Hutchinson: Yes, Aphilo, we don't have a way to connect over the Internet.

[16:54]  You: (Or are LANS ultimately an advantage in the long run?)

[16:55]  Boston Hutchinson: They require some programming, and some agreement among members of the organization to choose a particular path forward.

[16:55]  You: (You and I did connect over the Internet, though. As compression tevhnologies improve, what will take shape?)

[16:55]  Boston Hutchinson: LANs are just easy for technical and practical reasons.

[16:55]  Patrio Graysmark is Offline

[16:56]  You: (LANS are local area networks - allowing for faster bit rate, for one).

[16:56]  Boston Hutchinson: For example, even after you connect (easy on a LAN), you have to deal with questions of how many people can visit a single world, and what they are permitted to do.

[16:56]  You: ...rate *tranfser)

[16:56]  You: (Or at least I was using the Itnernet on my side).

[16:56]  Brian Whiteberry is Offline

[16:57]  Boston Hutchinson: Correct, but the Internet is fast enough. THe problem is the protocols for connecting.

[16:57]  Boston Hutchinson: Then, security and permissions will become big issues.

[16:58]  Boston Hutchinson: Currently, you can apparently do anything you want in Wisconsin World, including, I suspect, delete the entire world!

[16:58]  You: (What about piggybacking on existing protocols? And what are the precedents for introducing new protocols? Is ICANN the decision maker? And why not TCP/IP with compression technologies?)

[16:59]  Boston Hutchinson: It's not griefer-proof!

[16:59]  Andromeda Mesmer: Do yu actually have griefers there now???

[16:59]  Boston Hutchinson: The technology isn't really a problem, or difficult, but it requires many hours of programming

[17:00]  You: (A couple of focussed graduate students working on their theses?)

[17:01]  Boston Hutchinson: There's no world for them to go to, Andromeda, other then one demo world. So I suspect they'd find it too boring to bother, but one griefer could take it down in a few seconds.

[17:01]  Boston Hutchinson: As it is, a lot of people have written "Hello" in the sky.

[17:01]  You: (How extensible is the Wisconsin world?)

[17:02]  You: (But we could also hold class there, as we do it now - the technology is there).

[17:02]  Boston Hutchinson: Good question.

[17:03]  Boston Hutchinson: One of the problems is that once you build up a collection of spaces, maybe the size of an SL island, you might start to fill up a PC, especially if too many people are there at the same time.

[17:03]  Boston Hutchinson: At that point, you need to start buildin another SIM.

 

 

 

[17:14]  Claryssa Schmidt is Online

[17:14]  Froukje Hoorenbeek is Online

[17:14]  Annette Paster is Online

[17:14]  Andromeda Mesmer is Online

[17:14]  Mariamo Babii is Online

[17:14]  Champler Snook is Online

[17:14]  Boston Hutchinson is Online

[17:14]  Barbie Starr is Online

[17:14]  Brian Whiteberry is Online

[17:14]  Diego Ibanez is Online

[17:14]  matrix05 Infinity is Online

[17:14]  Eshi Otawara is Online

[17:14]  Krysss Galatea is Online

[17:14]  SamBivalent Spork is Online

[17:14]  Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...

[17:14]  Connected

[17:15]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Aphilo

[17:15]  You: Hi . . . sorry about the problems this evening . . .

[17:16]  Boston Hutchinson: Do you want me to continue?

[17:16]  Boston Hutchinson: I don't know where my chat file is. I've just switched to a MAC since last week and can't find anything yet...

[17:16]  Claryssa Schmidt: hi Aphilo

[17:16]  Rain Ninetails: wb!

[17:16]  Rain Ninetails: Andromeda just got back on...

[17:17]  You: You have to save chat files to the text edit program on a mac - apple key a and apple key s (save) and apple key v (paste)

[17:17]  Boston Hutchinson: Hi Andromeda

[17:17]  Claryssa Schmidt: hi Andromeda

[17:17]  Geda Hax is Online

[17:18]  Andromeda Mesmer: Hi Boston, hi Claryssa -- thanks for the TP Rain.

[17:18]  Rain Ninetails: :)

[17:18]  You: Thanks . . . let's continue the c presentation in a different format later . . .

[17:18]  You: if we can . . .

[17:18]  Boston Hutchinson: OK

[17:18]  You: hello Geda!

[17:19]  You: You're welcome to participate . . .

[17:19]  You: Hello Chadd - this is a class on Society and information technology - http://socinfotech.pbwiki.com

[17:19]  You: Thanks for a very interesting presentation, Brent . . .

[17:19]  Boston Hutchinson: your're welcome

[17:19]  Boston Hutchinson: sorry it went on so long...

[17:20]  Andromeda Mesmer: It was not too long!

[17:20]  You: In the remaining time, let's look at a little of the long and fascinating history of the Internet . . . (it wasn't too long, at all).

[17:21]  Boston Hutchinson: We didn't get to the networking technology part, but another time perhaps.

[17:21]  You: I'll post this transcript, and we can look at networking at a later date.

[17:22]  Boston Hutchinson: Great.

[17:22]  You: So, today's Internet first formed in 1969.

[17:22]  Arawn Spitteler is Online

[17:22]  You: And the ability to surf and enjoy took shape in 1994-95.

[17:22]  You: ... a significant lapse of time since the first network transmitted digital information.

[17:23]  You: There's a popular story of how the Internet started.

[17:23]  Diego Ibanez is Offline

[17:23]  You: It's FALSE that the military created it to prevent the collapse of communications in case of nuclear attack.

[17:23]  SamBivalent Spork is Offline

[17:24]  You: The interent started in an innovated research agency

 

 

[17:26]  Claryssa Schmidt is Online

[17:26]  Geda Hax is Online

[17:26]  Froukje Hoorenbeek is Online

[17:26]  Annette Paster is Online

[17:26]  Arawn Spitteler is Online

[17:26]  Andromeda Mesmer is Online

[17:26]  Brian Whiteberry is Online

[17:26]  Mariamo Babii is Online

[17:26]  matrix05 Infinity is Online

[17:26]  Eshi Otawara is Online

[17:26]  Krysss Galatea is Online

[17:26]  Champler Snook is Online

[17:26]  Boston Hutchinson is Online

[17:26]  Barbie Starr is Online

[17:26]  Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...

[17:26]  Connected

[17:28]  Claryssa Schmidt is Online

[17:28]  Andromeda Mesmer is Online

[17:29]  Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...

[17:29]  Connected

[17:30]  You: Yes.

[17:33]  Claryssa Schmidt: hi Rain

[17:33]  Rain Ninetails: :)

[17:33]  Rain Ninetails: hi!

[17:33]  Andromeda Mesmer: Good.

[17:33]  Andromeda Mesmer: Did my TP work, or did you get here another way, Rain?

[17:33]  Rain Ninetails: thanks Andromeda

[17:34]  You have offered friendship to Rain Ninetails

[17:34]  Rain Ninetails is Online

[17:34]  librarius Berkmans is Online

[17:35]  Joe Petrel is Online

[17:35]  You: Hi Librarius - we were having trouble on Berkman Island tongith - logged out three times.

[17:36]  librarius Berkmans: Hi all

[17:36]  Andromeda Mesmer: Hi!

[17:36]  Rain Ninetails: hi!

[17:38]  Eshi Otawara is Online

[17:38]  You: I will post most of this class to the course wiki - http://socinfotech.pbwiki.com

[17:38]  You: So for the remaining time in class, let's proceed with the history of the internet

[17:38]  You: So the Internet started in an innovate resaerch agency in 1958.

[17:38]  You: in response to Soviety advancement

[17:38]  You: ARPA - Advanced Research Projects Agency.

[17:38]  Daisyblue Hefferman is Online

[17:39]  You: It was started to mobilize the intellectual resources of the academic world, to build superior technology.

[17:39]  You: it was a small group of people in ARPA, who had worked on nuclear subs and in NASA

[17:40]  You: And they received 'peanuts' money to start this project

[17:40]  You: but it was a huge amount of money for an academic project, just small in terms of the Pentagon.

[17:41]  You: ARPA had a reputation for starting projects

[17:41]  You: with almost complete academic freedom.

[17:41]  You: The IPTo - the information technology protocol office - conceived of the notion of exploring computer networking initially -

[17:41]  You: But there were two big problems

[17:42]  You: Transmission technologies

[17:42]  You: And communication software

[17:42]  You: For transmission technologies, packet switiching was key

[17:42]  You: And this was developed independetnaly by 2 people.

[17:43]  You: Paul Baran in the US

[17:43]  You: And Donald Davies in Britain.

[17:43]  You: Baran was working at the Rand corporation in Santa Monica in the 1950s - it was the most sophisticated think tank at the time.

[17:44]  You: The Rand corporation worked on projects to organize communication systems invulnerable to nuclear attack.

[17:44]  You: How?

[17:44]  You: The idea was to make it placeless - make a place that is nowhere or everywhere.

[17:44]  You: ... so that there would be no command and control center . . . and therefore a huge number of nodes.

[17:45]  You: The idea that all nodes could reorganize was present in 1954.

[17:45]  Diego Ibanez is Online

[17:45]  You: The geniuses in the Pentago regjected this idea, and didn't implement Baran's ideas. . .

[17:45]  You: his ideas didn't get approval,

[17:46]  You: but Paul Baran did devlop packet switching.

[17:46]  Whitelight Christiansen is Online

[17:46]  You: In a parallel development and without knowing it, Donald Davies (DAvis), a physiciat in a leading British physics Center - the Natioanl Physics Center

[17:47]  You: developed this idea. He worked there until the 1970s.

[17:48]  You: So the technology

[17:48]  You: was available in the 1950s in the UK, but the UK Porjects Office turned it down as well.

[17:48]  You: So Britain could have started the Internet.

[17:48]  You: In the late 70s, Britain moved into the Internet

[17:49]  You: and bought American technology

[17:49]  You: And we have Davies

[17:49]  You: So we have the IPTO

[17:49]  You: Baran and packet switching.

[17:50]  You: In 1967, in Nashville, TN, people in the defense dept.

[17:50]  You: observed that they still don't have the proper technology in case of a nuclear war, as was envisioned in the 1950s.

[17:50]  You: And they asked - about 10 years later - who is this Baran?

[17:51]  You: And that's how the Defense department found Baran's proposal.

[17:51]  You: So they took the packet switching idea

[17:52]  Persis Trilling is Online

[17:52]  You: and in 1969, ARPANET - asked who were these people who, int eh 1950s, had developed packet switching - the basis for the internet -

[17:52]  You: (Packet switching involves dividing information into packets as they are being sent from one node to another and then reassembling them later on.

[17:53]  You: And ARPANET took packet swithcing and a group of computer scientists

[17:54]  You: circulating between major Universities - MIT, UCLA, Stanford, Utah, Berkeley, and USC

[17:54]  You: developed it.

[17:54]  You: These computer scientists were working, from time to time in other institutes - RAND corporation

[17:54]  Champler Snook is Offline

[17:55]  You: And SRI - Stanford Research Institute, which than became Stanford Research International.

[17:55]  You: Some were working on BBN

[17:55]  You: And these people created email. BBN was a small acoustic engineering firm, a spin off from MIT.

[17:55]  Boston Hutchinson: Bolt Baranek and Newmann?

[17:56]  You: Yes (sorry).

[17:56]  Boston Hutchinson: also involved, I think...

[17:56]  You: And they creatd one of the networks.

[17:56]  Ralph Radius is Online

[17:56]  You: These scientists brough graduate students to work.

[17:56]  You: So the Intenret was started by Big Science from University and by Defense Department money.

[17:56]  You: But what were they doing?

[17:57]  You: They didn't know.

[17:57]  You: The came together to share computing time, and to move data between computers.

[17:57]  You: This led by 1972, to the first demonstration of ARPANET in Washington, DC.

[17:58]  You: And ARPANET was operational, campus wide, and in Geneva and London - and it worked!

[17:58]  Whitelight Christiansen is Offline

[17:58]  You: So let's stop now, and chat for a very brief while.

[17:59]  You: I'm in a cafe that closes in two minutes . . .

[17:59]  You: And continue next week hopefully on Berkman Island - http://socinfotech.pbwiki.com

[17:59]  You: I'll let Berkman Island know about what happened this week.

[17:59]  You: Sorry about that . . .

[18:00]  You: Question?

[18:00]  Boston Hutchinson: There are a lot of underutilized islands, like this one.

[18:00]  You: Questions?

[18:00]  You: yes . . .

[18:00]  You: By the way, thanks very much Boston, for your presentation.

[18:01]  Andromeda Mesmer: Berkman Island seems to have more trouble now than it used to. In both the meeting place and the sandbox.

[18:01]  You: Let's try Berkman island next time . . . and see . . . We can also check out Croquet over time . . .

[18:01]  Andromeda Mesmer: Sure.

[18:01]  Boston Hutchinson: My pleasure. I hope to go into the networking technology of Croquet a bit more. That's what distinguishes it from SL.

[18:02]  You: Perhaps we can do that in Croquet :)

 

[18:02]  You: Perhaps we can do that in Croquet :)

[18:02]  Boston Hutchinson: I wish we could. We might have to wait for the next release.

[18:02]  You: Are there other questions?

[18:02]  Andromeda Mesmer: Well, Boston, maybe next week you can think of a few more interesting points that you forgot to mention tonight -- and I am sure I can think of more questions too.

[18:03]  Andromeda Mesmer: No questions, Aphilo.

[18:03]  You: Perhaps we can talk more next time.

[18:03]  You: Yes, let's chat more next time.

[18:03]  You: about Croquet.

[18:03]  Boston Hutchinson: Great.

[18:04]  You: Andromeda, would you present next week as well?

[18:04]  You: If you are comfortable doing so . . .

[18:04]  Andromeda Mesmer: Yes, I am planning to do that.

[18:04]  Ralph Radius is Offline

[18:04]  librarius Berkmans is Online

[18:04]  You: Great, thaks . . . Will it be about Stross and Heinlein's visionary ideas? Or what?

[18:05]  Andromeda Mesmer: Stross, some Heinlein, and the Elec. Eng. prof. at the U of Toronto

[18:06]  You: Great . . what's his name, again?

[18:06]  Boston Hutchinson: Sounds interesting!

[18:06]  You: (Typing talks takes longer than one thinks).

[18:06]  Andromeda Mesmer: Mann -- he has been hooked up to the internet, wearing a helmet with attachments -- all of which has been getting steadily smaller & smaller.

[18:06]  You: Let's hope we can stream video sooner than later, and without a server.

[18:07]  Andromeda Mesmer: One question about Berkman Island going down today -- that is due to Linden lab, right?

[18:07]  Chinadoll Lulu is Online

[18:07]  You: Sounds very interesting, A!

[18:08]  matrix05 Infinity is Offline

[18:08]  You: I don't know what's exactly responsible . . . odd timing

[18:09]  Andromeda Mesmer: Linden did talk about rolling restarts -- but 3, so close together is a bit puzzling.

[18:09]  Boston Hutchinson: I wonder if the number of people and projects in the sandbox put strains on the server resources sometimes.

[18:09]  Boston Hutchinson: This sim doesn't seem to be having any problems.

[18:09]  You: Thanks very much for coming, and for your patience with the technologies . . . a gmail address has merit . . .

[18:09]  Andromeda Mesmer: Well, Boston, I haven't seen this in the Dreams Sandbox. But you could be right -- Berkman doesn't seem all that busy though.

[18:09]  You: True . . .

[18:10]  You: We'll chat more soon. I need to go now.

[18:10]  Boston Hutchinson: No, it doesn't.

[18:10]  Andromeda Mesmer: I'd say Dreams is a lot busier -- classes, sandbox ...

[18:10]  Boston Hutchinson: Thanks for class! See you next week.

[18:10]  Claryssa Schmidt: bye Aphilo

[18:10]  You: Glad we could converse as we have. :)

[18:10]  Rain Ninetails: bye Aphilo

[18:10]  Andromeda Mesmer: Bye Aphilo.

[18:10]  Boston Hutchinson: I'm not familiar with Dreams

[18:11]  Andromeda Mesmer: It is where The Sojourner hangs out -- famous lady builder who has had multiple strokes and survived all of them --

[18:11]  Boston Hutchinson: But I suspect one clever avatar could build something that takes down a sim either accidentally or on purpose.

[18:11]  Andromeda Mesmer: Old timer who answers questions about building.

[18:12]  Andromeda Mesmer: Oh, that has been done -- the griefers have done it, and boasted about it.

[18:12]  Boston Hutchinson: Interesting

 

[18:13]  Andromeda Mesmer: The notorious group of griefers, Patriotic Nigras, did all kinds of things -- but their main HQ, Woodbury University, was removed from SL, and they no longer have a big home base.

[18:13]  Boston Hutchinson: IN RL, this place (MIT) is a half hour walk from Berkman (Harvard)

[18:13]  Andromeda Mesmer: And just a fraction of a second in SL -

[18:14]  Andromeda Mesmer: I visited Boston 2-3 times, and saw MIT.

[18:14]  Boston Hutchinson: You could also go by bicycle or subway (2 stops), or even canoe--they are a mile or two apart on the Charles river.

[18:14]  Andromeda Mesmer: Well, walkd around the campus a bit -- the extent of my seeing.

[18:15]  matrix05 Infinity is Online

[18:15]  Boston Hutchinson: Well, I hpe Berkman is more stable next week.

[18:16]  Andromeda Mesmer: It shuld be -- this business of coming down 3 times in an hour -- I don't recall anything like it anywhere before.

[18:17]  Boston Hutchinson: They must have had a problem with the restart.

 

[18:18]  Andromeda Mesmer: AND he also had a large number of people on it.

[18:18]  Andromeda Mesmer: The businessman, Lil Carducci, had his sim going down something like 5 times a day, last May --but he was also putting a heavy strain on it through all sorts of ac tivities.

[18:18]  Boston Hutchinson: Another reason why Croquet could be useful--If one user crashes, the sim is still running on the others, but that's hypothetical at this point.

[18:19]  Andromeda Mesmer: That is an excellent feature --

[18:19]  Andromeda Mesmer: Linden might adopt some of Croquet's ideas later ...

[18:20]  Andromeda Mesmer: They certainly seem to be always adding new features -- voice, Windlight ... neither of which I use BTW.

[18:21]  Boston Hutchinson: Yes, maybe. I'm not sure it fits Linden's business model, but they could connect to a collection of Croquet worlds and try to position themselves as a hub for all the variety and chaos of Croquet.

[18:22]  Boston Hutchinson: Avatars could all have their own worlds in addition to small residences in SL.

[18:22]  Andromeda Mesmer: Those who want to, and are not afraid ...

[18:22]  Boston Hutchinson: Maybe SL could sell portals to our Croquet worlds, the way Internet Service Providers sell access to the Internet.

[18:23]  Boston Hutchinson: I'm hoping somebody will start a business (or free project) to automate the production of personal Croquet worlds.

[18:24]  Andromeda Mesmer: There are any number of good buildings in SL who may be interested in somethng like that.

[18:24]  Andromeda Mesmer: *builders, not buildings

[18:25]  Boston Hutchinson: It could be like a living room or an office, and have many of the features of a Facebook page, if you wanted it to, but in 3D and with avatars

[18:25]  Andromeda Mesmer: Umbra Lundardi who owns an island jointly with some friends -- which I have as one of my Picks --

[18:26]  Andromeda Mesmer: Volcano Basin.

[18:26]  Boston Hutchinson: Hmmm. You seem to know a lot of interesting places in SL!