Goal-oriented networks need much better communication support than you need in games like World of Warcraft. If you have long-term goals, you need communication support that keeps long-term archives. Businesses and educators have their own systems to meet their needs. Networks that are emerging in Second Life will have to find or develop similar communication support. Here is a case study of one such network -- a collaboration network. That is the kind of network that needs the most in communication support.
Avatar Repertory Theater goes outside the (SL) box
About a year ago, some thespian friends of mine formed a repertory theater troupe. The goal of such a troupe is to develop a repertoire of performances that they can provide on demand. The troupe has well-rehearsed plays with each part backed up by several actors. It has a collection of stage sets and props that must be managed and moved to a performance site by stage/prop managers. And it runs a weekly presentation in experimental theater:
Art Plays Around, Fridays, 5pm SLT, Archon Theater, Cookie
These projects take a lot of coordination. Here are a few things that the communication system has to support:
Coordinate actor schedules. We do that with Google calendars. Actors keep their own calendars. People who coordinate rehearsals and other schedules develop combined calendars as needed, a feature readily supported by Google calendar. Could we do that with the communication tools offered by SL? (Pause here for audience laugh.)
Develop a repertoire of performances. Distribute play scripts, circulate comments and suggested revisions. Keep dated records of script revisions. Imagine doing that in notecards. (This is a test of your imagination.)
Correspondence: Circulate group correspondence, maintain archives, support search on things like dates, author, thread, important words. Someday the notecard system of Second Life may provide services like that. For now, I would settle for a notecard system that I could count on to save my work without coming back to me with “unable to save… unexpected server error.” (How can it be unexpected to Linden Lab? I expect it and do any substantial writing out of the SL box. Then copy-paste.)
These supports would be readily available in a business or academic environment. I could wish that Linden Labs would get serious about communication systems that support business and academic work in SL.
But here is another Thinkerer slogan:
Complaining is easier than fixing. And it lasts longer.
Solution provided by us
We turned the communication task over to Google Groups. We post files and notes. Google arranges the notes in separate discussion threads. And, oh, yes -- it is free.
The threads stay there for us to review as needed. We have the option of seeing each posting or getting a daily summary. I chose the summary: each morning I get a summary of recent correspondence. That comes in my g-mail. I can look it over and see if there is anything I need to tend to. If so, I can read the details and tend to it along with other mail items. No need to sign on to Second Life. I could even do it on a netbook.
What do I want the Lindens to do about group communications for collaborative group projects? Nothing. We all had to sign up on the Google groups account for this specific group—a trivial effort, especially for those of us who already a have a Google account (say, for g-mail).
I don't see anything the Lindens could do to make that easier. We don't have a corresponding Second Life group and don't seem to need one, so a way to link our Google group account to our Second Life accounts does not seem useful in this case. It might be useful for collaborative activities that need an inworld group.
The upshot – we already have all the communication services we need for the Avatar Repertory Theater. Nothing about the SL group communication system is holding us back because we don’t use that system. And BTW, if we decide to work with OpenSim, our group communication system will not be interrupted and will serve us just as well in any virtual environment.
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Saving regions -- From an earlier comment:
Sat, 08/08/2009 - 22:44 — Maria Korolov (not verified)
Why not just save the entire region? Keep a library of different regions for different functions, and bring them up as needed?
I know this is possible with OpenSim - in fact, both ReactionGrid and IBM products come bundled with several pre-configured regions (conference rooms, classrooms, etc...) -- that can be brought up or archived at will.
Aren't there ways to do this in Second Life as well?
-- Maria
Butch Dae and I have been doing something like this with the Horizons Holodeck for about a year. Punky Pugilist did a trial build that covered an entire sim. Right now Punky has several builds in a holodeck at the south side of Cookie. Normally, you see just an open field. But click on one of the build signs and you get the Home Cooked music set, the Murder Hotel set, Stonehenge, or something else.
Novatech has a large number of builds for Horizons Holodeck on offer. You can look through them at Cheshyr's Landing.
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Entertainment in Second Life
The Music Scene -- On Stage
LIVE - CHICAGO DANCE SHOW
Showings:
Friday, August 28 7-9pm SL
Saturday, August 29 7-9pm SL
Sunday, August 30 2-4pm SL
At the Moulin Rouge
THE MOULIN ROUGE REVUE and Director Xanthia Lisle present a truly spectacular event for your enjoyment! A popular show in RL, CHICAGO has everything that makes Broadway great: a universal tale of fame, fortune and all that jazz; one show-stopping-song after another.
Featuring Musical numbers such as Razzle-Dazzle, All that Jazz, Mr Cellophane
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Hobbies
I sent Kitto Flora a link to my earlier blog about his train leaving from Purple. He gave me a landmark to his Wengen - Smither's Bluff scenic line. "Runs thru 13 sims, 2 cars one a single track with passing places, 4-block control, all automatic -- even replacing cars when SL loses them!"
<- *click*
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