July 25, 2005
Another ZML
As part of our ongoing collaboration with the Digital Cinema Lab and Media Design Cluster at Keio University's Shonan Fujisawa campus, they have built an (almost) mirror image of our ZML (view image). The intent is to develop collaborative immersive apps over the 10G link that connects the two spaces. Work is progressing on another space at a research insititute in Nara that will also be linked in.
April 23, 2005
WLAN hopping in Athens and more!
Map of Athens' peer to peer wlan networks. I plan to full explore this map in the summer and let you know how it went! (That and my WLAN laptop card as a backup)
I could practically walk around or drive around and wlan hop. There are quite enough operational nodes (green), even in the country side.
Wireless democracy from the land of democracy.
March 23, 2005
SNIF: Social Networking In Fur
SNIF is a project from Noah Fields, Jonathan Gips, Philip Liang and Arnaud Pilpré at MIT's Physical Language Workshop, that builds on the function of pets as natural social devices. The system allows pet owners to interact through their pets' social networks. The hardware can be unobtrusively affixed to pet accessories to augment pet-to-pet, pet-to-owner, and owner-to-owner interactions. SNIF devices aggregate environmental, social, and individual information that can be broadcast or addressed to other participating community members.
Scenario: Max puts the SNIF collar around Alia's neck and attaches her new leash to it before going for a walk. LEDs on the collar start flashing when a dog approaches, showing that a secured ID transfer occurs between the two collars. If the other dog starts barking, Max pushes the button "Incompatible" on the leash.
At the park, Max releases Alia's leash. While the dog plays with the other dogs, her collar records the IDs of dogs she spends the most time with along with some information such as activity levels during the encounters.
When Max attaches the leash again, the information collected is transfered to the leash and updates the external SNIF server. On the way home, Max notices that the leash starts blinking red, indicating the presence of a dog, with whom Alia is not comfortable. He thus crosses the road to avoid a confrontation.
Back at home, Max checks on the SNIF website and learns about his dog's new friends through the profiles left by their owner. Later in the day, he notices that one of Alia's friend, Sugar, just reached the park. Max met Sugar's owner a couple of times, a woman who teaches French cooking, and Max has always wanted to learn how to make a good quiche. He grabs the leash and calls Alia for a walk.
August 17, 2004
IML on Creative Network
For the most part, the IML has now been switched over to creative. Both labs can talk to one another...in theory. Still have a few more things to clean up and fix. Mission critical stuff for the start of school should be finished by the end of the day Wednesday....eerrrr...today.
July 03, 2004
Microsoft Patents Human Body
It sounds like an April Fool's Day joke, but it isn't. Microsoft, that imperialist of the information-technology world, has actually succeeded in patenting the human body as a computer network. US Patent 6,754,472, issued to the company on June 22nd, is for a “method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body”.
May 07, 2004
Ads in Online Environments
WSJ article on New approach to product placement in Habbo Hotel.
Advertisers, Teens
Hang Out Online
At the Habbo Hotel
By ERIN WHITE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 7, 2004
LONDON -- When teen magazine CosmoGirl wanted to attract readers in the Netherlands, it checked into the Habbo Hotel, a European teenage chat and games Web site.
The venue, which bills itself as a virtual "teenager playground," looks like an online videogame. Teens log on, create their own characters, chat with other users and play games. By maneuvering their virtual selves, teens can visit different rooms, including ones they can decorate with furniture they select from Habbo's site.
In February, CosmoGirl set up a room of its own. The result: "Club CosmoGirl," which is designed to look like an American hamburger joint. Inside, a billboard displays the CosmoGirl logo, which, if clicked, takes visitors to the magazine's Web site. CosmoGirl, which is published in the Netherlands through a joint venture between Hearst Corp. of the U.S. and Dutch publisher De Telegraaf Tijdschriften Group, says 9% to 10% of virtual visitors click on the link, a comparatively high rate among Web sites. That has helped to build readership in the Netherlands, where it had its debut last year, in an increasingly competitive teen-magazine market.
It is all part of advertisers' efforts to target people in ever more precise and subtle ways. Advertisers are particularly eager to blend into teenagers' lives in a way that doesn't strike savvy teens as too overt. Habbo says it turns down ads it deems uncool or inappropriate, and takes steps such as prohibiting pop-up ads to make sure its advertising isn't annoying or overly intrusive.
Habbo's roots lie in advertising. A few years back, Jussi Nurmio, chairman of Finnish advertising-agency concern Taivas Group, which is 33%-owned by British ad giant WPP Group PLC, noticed some young techies had created a surprisingly popular fan site for a local rock band. Seeing potential, Taivas backed the creation of Sulake Labs Ltd., a Finnish game-development company of which Taivas owns one-third, to launch the Habbo Hotel as a new youth site. (Mr. Nurmio remains the chairman of Taivas and is the chairman of Sulake.)
Since launching the first Habbo site in 2000, the sites have attracted big-name marketers such as Procter & Gamble Co. So far, Habbo has sites in nine countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, and plans to debut in an additional 11 by the end of the year.
Habbo makes money by getting users to pay a small amount to purchase furniture and to play some games, as well as from advertising revenue.
"All of the big brands have to find new ways to reach this teenage audience," says Timo Soininen, the chief executive of Sulake. Ad messages to teens work better, he says, "if you can create an environment which is their own and then find clever ways of addressing them."
That was the thinking at Konami Europe, a unit of game-maker Konami Corp., when it used Habbo Hotel to promote a dance videogame for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2 in the U.K. last year. Konami ran a traditional ad campaign for "Dancing Stage MegaMix" on TV and in magazines, but also wanted something that helped create word-of-mouth for the game.
So Konami set up a venue inside Habbo Hotel: a "Saturday Night Fever"-style glowing dance floor where users could send their characters to dance contests. Konami placed billboards and posters on streets and buildings inside the Habbo site; Konami also announced the competitions in an e-mail newsletter to Habbo users.
"We didn't want it rammed down people's throats," says Steve Merrett, a Konami spokesman. "If an online community like that is enthused by something, they take that enthusiasm and tell their friends."
Write to Erin White at erin.white@wsj.com1
URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108387122840904212,00.html
Hyperlinks in this Article:
(1) mailto:erin.white@wsj.com
January 22, 2004
musicplasma
pretty sweet idea - type in a band name and see what it's connected to (it also brings up a nice discography. a nice possible way of finding new music.
examples: built to spill yeilds a one degree connection to modest mouse, unsurprisingly, and a nice 4 degrees of separation from Dr. Demento. Yes!
Thin Lizzy --> Phil Lynott --> Temple of the Dog (??!!)
Angels of Light --> Gary Numan --> Kraftwerk (Hmm.)
(warning, the site is slow, but still faster than friendster).
no info on the site about how these networks are articulated...but they seem pretty accurate for the most part (type in anybody on sub-pop or matador, and you're likely to get the entire label's catalog within 1 degree.)
Link via my homegirl janet lin
October 06, 2003
Become a Sim Artist
The Sim Gallery Project Call for Entries
Contribute a 'sim' artwork or performance to a gallery space within the Sims Online--a multiplayer, online game. Works chosen for the SimGallery will also be on view--through in-museum computer stations--during the 'Counter Gaming' show at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in January 2004.
Help us to explore what happens when an 'real world' white-cube
gallery lands in the pre-fab, populist online experiment known as the
Sims Online. What kinds of art and performances are relevant, or even
possible in virtual space?
We invite you to submit artwork or a performance proposal for inclusion in the Online SimGallery Project's in-game show and performance series. Your work, of course, must be manifestable within the game itself.
Some issues we hope interested artists will explore:
- What art can be within the constraints and rules of an online game.
- How virtual embodiment affects performances and the experience of art online.
- How the Sim aesthetic merges with and reshapes your own, when you
bring your work into this venue.
- How a traditionally-styled art space functions in an online game.
Screenshots of the galleries and performance space are available at
http://www.simgallery.net/gallery.html. You can also arrange a hosted
visit to the SimGallery in TSO by sending email to
contact@simgallery.net
Deadline for entries: October 31, 2003.
Complete submission details are below (and available in pdf format at
http://www.simgallery.net/ent.html)
Please note: It is extremely important for artists unfamiliar with
TSO to explore the constraints of the game world when envisioning
works and planning proposals.
Important dates:
Deadline for Entries: Oct. 31 2003.
Notification of Status: November 15, 2003.
Exhibition Dates: January-April 2004.
Proposal Format:
Your proposal must include:
- Project description
- Artist(s) resumé
- Indication of category for your work (performance or artwork)
- At least one of the following:
- A SIM location for existing works and project description.
- 3 URLs to other online works with project descriptions.
- 10 jpgs representative of other works, with a slide list and
project descriptions.
- Portfolio CD, VHS video or 10 slides with slide list or project
descriptions and accompanying SASE.
Submission Process:
Please send your materials either by email to entries@simgallery.net
or by postal mail to:
SimGallery
C/o Katherine Isbister & Rainey Straus
1904 23rd Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
All materials must be received by midnight, October 31, 2003 to
ensure full consideration. We will notify you by November 15 about
the status of your submission.
For more information:
To learn more about the SimGallery Project venue, visit our website
(www.simgallery.net) or visit the gallery itself by logging into
TSO's Alphaville. (Send email to contact@simgallery.net in order to
arrange a hosted visit.)
To learn more about TSO, we encourage you to visit the official
product website
(http://www.eagames.com/official/thesimsonline/home/index.jsp). There
is a brief overview of the game on the project site, as well (http://www.simgallery.net).
September 21, 2003
mmorpg tax evasion, etc.
from /. yeah.
worth a look. nyu and yale law are sponsoring a joint conference talking about the role of 'protests, parties, and politics' in mmorpgs. yale law professor james grimmelmann has a paper focusing on tax evasion in Second Life. Interesting to note that the protests were first staged in the Americana world-- which attempts to recreate US icons-- and included the Washington Monument being replaced by tea crates. and they say the rebellious spirit of america is dead these days.
just another thing. secondlife has it's own official 'embedded journalist', Wagner James Au, who writes about the game here. his game blog makes quite a fascinating read, so check it out if you get the chance.
September 11, 2003
Making movies in online worlds
More from Second Life, in-world movemaking:
Creating movies within a 3D game engine (or "machinima", as fans call it) has become the vanguard app of the game industry, and the latest build of Second Life lets you do just that. BuhBuhCuh's trailer (viewable here in Windows Media Player) is a very early example of machinima in Second Life, and the first application of that technology in a massively multiplayer online world. Ambitious residents are already racing to make the September 22 deadline for the Second Life Movie Contest, to be judged by the Linden staff, with the top three entries taking large L$ cash prizes at an in-world ceremony. (Think Sundance Film Festival, but without the snow or cell phone chatter from Hollywood agents.)Parodies, action shorts, gonzo stunt videos -- the genre possibilities are endless, with the only limits being size and length (under 2 minutes and 30 megs), and inappropriate content (no trademarked/copyrighted material, and nothing prohibited in a "PG"-rated sim.) Imagine the potential for machinima shot "live" in a persistent world, with actors and crew members collaborating from around the globe. Click here for more information on becoming a Second Life auteur.
August 20, 2003
Online Game Economies
Andrew Leyden of PenguinRadio is developing ideas regarding risk managment for online game economies. He sent these links for backgound information. Some of these links are from last year so rules have changed - but what about having a currency exchange system between these games, and how do we tie that in with tangible goods and services?
Online Game Economies get Real
Buy virtual stuff with real dollars
Virtual Economy bigger than Russia's
Inflation threatens Everquest Economy.
Buy and sell virtual goods via PayPal
