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 - http://socinfotech.pbwiki.com
Instructor: Scott MacLeod (not on Harvard's faculty) = Aphilo Aarde (in Second Life)
http://scottmacleod.com/papers.htm
June 25 2008 Soc and Info Tech class transcript
[16:01] Boston Hutchinson: Hi Aphilo
[16:01] Connecting to in-world Voice Chat...
[16:01] Connected
[16:01] You: HI Boston!, Claryssa!
[16:02] Claryssa Schmidt: hi
[16:02] Boston Hutchinson: Hi Claryssa
[16:02] You: Welcome to talking further about a Global virtual world University
[16:02] You: Let's wait a little until others come.
[16:03] Jayne Urqhart is Offline
[16:03] You: I'd like to talk this evening - vis-a-vis envisioning about virtual world aspects, and then some organizational aspects.
[16:04] You: Have you seen any of "Torley Lives" videos on SL building?
[16:04] Claryssa Schmidt: yes
[16:04] You: Torley is a Linden - Torley Linden - who makes helpful tutorials.
[16:05] Boston Hutchinson: A few.
[16:05] You: Which have you seen Claryssa?
[16:05] You: Boston?
[16:05] Boston Hutchinson: I remember a bit of one on particles.
[16:05] You: Yes . . .
[16:05] You: Hi Rain!
[16:06] You: Welcome
[16:06] Claryssa Schmidt: hi Rain
[16:06] You: My SL hasn't downloaded completely yet.
[16:06] Michele Mrigesh is Offline
[16:06] Boston Hutchinson: Hi Rain
[16:07] You: In Torley's video about terraforming that's abt 17 mins long, there's
[16:07] Luciftias Neurocam is Online
[16:07] SamBivalent Spork is Offline
[16:07] You: a button he talks about that will allow one to convert raw data files into terrain, that is now broken.
[16:08] Krysss Galatea is Online
[16:08] Rajah Yalin is Online
[16:08] You: And, obviously, it's for land owners, mostly,
[16:08] Arawn Spitteler is Offline
[16:08] You: but it does offer the opportunity, in a sense, to shape a virtual world Universe, possibly overnight, limited only by server space.
[16:09] Joseph Tisch is Online
[16:09] You: And for a global, degree granting, virtual world, open, free-to-students, comprehensive University, w
[16:09] You: with Harvard as a key player, for everyone but particularly the developing world
[16:10] You: - it does offer a remarkable 'physical plant' in virtual terms that it infinitely extensible, and shapeable.
[16:11] You: If photos, of one kind or another, are raw data - they are also infinite
[16:11] You: both on earth, under the oceans, and in the universe
[16:11] You: And all with the click of a button.
[16:12] You: And of course it's possible to look inside bodies now with sophisticated tools.
[16:12] 01 Hifeng is Online
[16:12] You: So that, too, could be part of this virtual university
[16:13] You: So it seems to me that virtual worlds offer remarkable opportunities for idea exchange
[16:13] Boston Hutchinson: terrain and textures can be imported, but I haven't heard of any way to generate prims automatically from photographs yet.
[16:14] You: And the possibilities for anyone to help shape aspects of this emerging University and Universe have far reaching implications as well
[16:14] Boston Hutchinson: But the holodecks give the illusion of a world with objects in it
[16:14] You: Perhaps that's what this button will do.
[16:14] Boston Hutchinson: prims?
[16:15] You: It says convert raw data -
[16:15] You: this is the video . . . .
[16:15] You: If one can take usgs DEMs
[16:15] You: maps -
[16:15] You: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR5tZN4BVSw
[16:15] Boston Hutchinson: yes, that's terrain. But not prims.
[16:16] You: Digital Elevation Model is what DEM stands for
[16:17] You: True, but I would hazard a guess that prims aren't far off
[16:17] You: Here's a source for DEMs - http://seamless.usgs.gov/
[16:17] Boston Hutchinson: actually, it's a radically more complex problem technically, but you're probably right that it will start happening soon anyway.
[16:18] You: Have any of you used these?
[16:18] You: Does anyone know who is developing the Havok Physics Machine?
[16:18] You: It would be in relation to them that one might find a fruitful avenue of prim development.
[16:19] You: So what would you like to see in a virtual Universe, that might facilitate both something like the MIT Open Course Ware content, but also a variety of courses beyond this
[16:20] You: both for a degree granting University, with Harvard as a key player, but also what might be useful to a global University built on a wiki / wikipedia model
[16:20] Aidan Aquacade is Offline
[16:20] You: that might be very far-reaching, in multiple languages, and for the developing world,
[16:21] Boston Hutchinson: what would a wiki in a virtual world look like?
[16:21] You: and that would take advantage of IT?
[16:21] Eme Capalini is Offline
[16:21] Harper Beresford is Offline
[16:21] You: Probably like a browser window in SL or OpenSim
[16:21] Gareth Otsuka is Online
[16:21] You: (And it occurred to me recently, vis-a-vis browsers in SL) that recoding a browser to be an avatar in SL
[16:22] Luciftias Neurocam is Offline
[16:22] Boston Hutchinson: Maybe the idea of an encyclopedia in world and in multimedia, and with objects and scripts would be a useful teaching tool.
[16:22] You: - like the open source Mozilla Firefox 3, which seems secure between a mutual fund and you, for example,
[16:22] You: would be a way to create secure interactions in virtual worlds.
[16:22] You: Hello Jazz9
[16:23] Boston Hutchinson: a browser avatar would be a google-bot?
[16:23] Jazz9Ometeotl Loon: hihi :)
[16:23] You: Yes, very much so, Boston
[16:23] Boston Hutchinson: a robot that responds to inquiries by quoting google? or by quoting wikipedia?
[16:23] Michele Mrigesh is Online
[16:24] You: Can anyone think of any examples of reconfiguring a browser into another form that then carries with it the properties functionality it originally had?
[16:24] You: *or other software?
[16:24] Gareth Otsuka is Offline
[16:24] You: like a developing and sophisticated ChomskyBot, Boston?
[16:24] You: Hi Seeker?
[16:25] Boston Hutchinson: There are a lot of widgets that do that. Also cell phones and maybe other devices.
[16:25] You: in formation being sought for through an avatar-browser?
[16:26] Jon Seattle is Offline
[16:26] You: The idea of an encylopedia in world is fruitful, but making such sources as interactive as
[16:26] Boston Hutchinson: It's all a bit complicated technically, but people are exploring different ways of reconfiguring browsers, but it usually means rewriting all the web pages!
[16:27] You: ... and empathic, as a real teacher, is an interesting challenge.
[16:27] Boston Hutchinson: not realistic in the near future.
[16:27] You: And while I'd like to envision this global virtual university as, in part, being independent of humans, so that one could work toward a Ph.D. without human intervention, for example,
[16:28] You: the beauty of SL is that it allows for interaction between real professors and students, placelessly, and
[16:28] Sonja Strom is Online
[16:28] You: with the help of new forms of representation, and much else in the Info Tech revolution.
[16:30] You: It might be a challenge to move from html in a browser, to a secure avatar-browser communication process, but if one privileges
[16:30] You: the conversation aspect of knowledge generation between real faculty and students, using google chat, as an example,
[16:30] You: I think it already exists, Boston, and wouldn't be that challenging.
[16:31] You: So say one could make the Universe in virtual worlds by the fall, for example, and use this a classroom, and that conversations could be secure between faculty and students, who are real
[16:32] You: what else would you want to see virtually
[16:32] You: for a global university for everyone and especially the developing world?
[16:32] Dena Dana is Online
[16:33] You: What would virtual worlds add that we can plan for?
[16:33] You: . . . beyond the familiar classroom?
[16:33] Boston Hutchinson: It seems to me that one of the key problems is that the developing world doesn't have access to virtual worlds.
[16:33] You: library?
[16:33] Michele Mrigesh is Offline
[16:34] You: I agree, Boston, but keeping SL with a light footprint, and waiting for OLPC to have enough memory probably won't take that long.
[16:34] Michele Mrigesh is Online
[16:34] You: I also think that focusing such
[16:35] You: a global, degree granting, virtual world, open, free-to-students, comprehensive University
[16:35] You: with Harvard as a key player, for everyone but particularly the developing world
[16:36] You: for even cell phones, like the iPhone, which is basically a computer, has some merit, becasue that may be at least the beginning device of choice.
[16:37] You: So, for example, say Harvard Medical School, was teaching MDs medicine in Africa, who were based in AFrica.
[16:37] Persis Trilling is Offline
[16:37] You: One interesting aspect of virtual worlds, would be the ability for Boston - based physician- instructor
[16:38] You: instructors to be in the virtual world of both their students, as well as
[16:38] You: the environment that their students were working in.
[16:38] You: ... and living in . . .
[16:39] Persis Trilling is Online
[16:39] You: And, say, that almost every aspect of a medical education
[16:39] You: could be represented virtually, and within a year or two, in a basic way
[16:39] You: what would be helpful and far-reaching that info tech would add to such an educational process?
[16:40] You: Could I.T. speed up a medical education, help create quick specialized knowledges for particularly groups of care givers?
[16:41] Joseph Tisch is Offline
[16:41] You: What else might be possible with Information Technology, given a virtual environment, that allowed for the accomplisment of
[16:42] You: 99% of real life medical education tasks (that might be workable in a year or two)?
[16:42] Persis Trilling is Offline
[16:43] You: Certainly, education processes might be easier, thus, for example, possibly reversing HIV transmission from lack of safety precautions.
[16:43] Persis Trilling is Online
[16:43] You: Thoughts? Observations?
[16:44] Persis Trilling is Offline
[16:44] You: Literacy would be a limitation, but so much is possible in generating medical educational opportunities.
[16:44] You: ... with a virtual world
[16:45] You: and cell phones are significantly less expensive than OLPCs . . .
[16:45] Champler Snook is Online
[16:46] Boston Hutchinson: Can you imagine a student attending this class via cell phone?
[16:46] You: so I think we might think of these devices could be seen as basically free .
[16:46] Boston Hutchinson: It would certainly require a greatly simplified version of the SL client software.
[16:47] You: That's a stretch for me, Boston, but as Hans Rosling pointed out in his video on improving trends in global poverty
[16:47] You: when countries get teh internet, standards of living improve
[16:47] You decline ::CONTACT:: 3.1 on ::SATURN:: from A group member named Sonja Strom.
[16:48] You: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/92
[16:48] You: True
[16:49] You: What else might we envision vis-a-vis Harvard Medical Education in a virtual world - Boston <> Africa?
[16:50] You: which virtual worlds would make possible?
[16:51] You: What would a global, degree-granting, virtual world, open, free, comprehensive University, with Harvard as a key player, for everyone and especially for the developing world, based on a wiki model, do
[16:52] You: reshaping medical education around the world? What could, for example, Harvard Medical School, privileging a virtual world model of medical education, in part, learn from other parts of the world?
[16:53] You: In part, I'm thinking of medical anthropologists work (Kleinman, et al.) which knowledge is being transformed by these new developments.
[16:54] You: The cultural rootedness of disease and sickness understandings would be transformed by, and are being transformed, by globalization
[16:54] You: of which the Internet could be seen as an extension.
[16:54] JenzZa Misfit is Offline
[16:55] You: And virtual worlds become an example, without parallel, of a globalized world, especially in relation to disease, that
[16:56] You: potentially transforms these understandings in
[16:56] You: radical ways.
[16:56] You: So, before we take a break, and focus afterward, on some organizational questions, considering a wiki model,
[16:57] You: what are other envisionings that aspects of virtual worlds make possible in relation to a global University, Ph.D., M.D. and open, as well?
[16:58] You: Let's take a break now, and return at 10 minutes past the hour. I'd like then to even begin to generate a list that will inform a wiki that we then can develop.
[16:59] You: See you soon . . .
[16:59] Jazz9Ometeotl Loon: :)
[16:59] You: :)
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