Journalists sometimes call themselves “hacks,†a tongue-in-cheek term for someone who can churn out words in any situation. Hackers use the digital equivalent of duct tape to whip out code. Hacks/Hackers tries to bridge those two worlds. This movement started in the US but journalists and bloggers worldwide are joining… Continue reading
Remember the guys who used the Kinect to move around and play in World of Warcraft? I was frustrated that Second Life did not have the scoop… but here we are now: those same people from the University of Southern California, Institute for Creative Technologies, demonstrate how they use the… Continue reading
Not everyone is an avid explorer of new media. Not only that a majority of internet users won’t give Second Life a try, they even won’t use Twitter. The fast moving streams of information or the immersive experiences in virtual environments are new experiences and it’s not always easy to… Continue reading
For months I was having questions about the practicalities of digital storytelling. How much time does it take? Which tools should one use? What are the alternatives? InKenzo has a great post about all this on Nonprofit Commons, Digital Storytelling Methods: Time & Resources Needed? Digital Storytelling can be about machinima,… Continue reading
Virtual worlds and restructuring… it’s becoming a long story. The latest episode: Blue Mars. The company behind the virtual world platform Blue Mars, Avatar Reality, is restructuring “in order to concentrate on bringing Blue Mars to portable touch screen devices like the iPhone and iPad.” The company says they have… Continue reading
My newspaper colleague Dirk Selleslagh recently had an interview with the inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil. The first minute is an introduction in Dutch, the interview itself is in English as perfect translation technology is not yet available…
Microsoft announces Avatar Kinect. Notice how it seems to be possible to give the avatars facial expressions. Of course, I don’t think this will be a user generated world, boasting its very own economy etc. Maybe it will fail miserably, like Google’s Lively did. But then again, maybe it’ll take… Continue reading
So I’ve been monitoring that State of the World 2011 conversation on The WELL (with Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowski), learning about design fiction (see also critical design) and watching an awesome video about Claytronics (programmable matter). Sterling, on his blog Beyond the Beyond: “Check out this bonkers Discovery Channel… Continue reading
In our first blog about other venues where people discuss virtual worlds, we talked about Quora. While Quora is very new, The WELL is almost ancient: The WELL is a cherished and acclaimed destination for conversation and discussion. It is widely known as the primordial ooze where the online community… Continue reading
Oh my! Is our Second Life community, and especially the geeky part of it, losing it’s innovative edge? New World Notes posted a few days ago about how the Kinect is being used to move around and play in World of Warcraft. Watch this video: Interesting to note: in 2008… Continue reading