Drax and Jo present a good take on how VR Rooms may actually be used in homes. Obviously few people are going to be able to devote an entire room of the house or apartment solely to VR. So, there will be some way to integrate the tech into our living spaces.
11:30 The discussion shifts to Philip Rosedale’s demonstration of VR to explore his wife’s brain. Jo points out this is one of few cases of people showing the use of virtual reality for purposes other than games.
Also, I’ll point out that Oculus based VR is rapidly gaining ground in architectural circles.
Discussion continues to explore VR possibilities. Jo and Drax are quit imaginative about the possibilities.
18:00 Drax touches on Tim Berners-Lee discussion of the importance of the Internet for democracy. This is probably a very pertinent discussion as the future freedom of the Internet changes as control of the ICANN system changes hands. See: U.S. to relinquish remaining control over the Internet. The real problem here is who do we trust to control our information. The US Government has sort of controlled paid for it forever via government contact to a private company ICANN.
The US until recently has been the single largest advocate of free speech on the planet. Most other countries have in one way or another imposed or attempted to impose restriction on speech. The majority of nations voting in the UN oppose free speech (democracies are a minority) and thus the UN cannot be trusted. So, who? Business? Religion? China? The world’s most powerful nations? A committee of some kind?
The Bush administration started stepping on human rights and free speech rights in earnest after 9-11 in the name of protecting us. The Obama administration promised transparency and open government. But, the reality is more government secrecy and weaponizing of government agencies to curtail criticism of the administration has occurred in the last 5+ years than since Nixon. Even to the point of signing an executive order stating agencies may lie about the existence of documents requested via Linden Johnson’s Freedom of Information Act. (Reference, Reference) So, America’s prestige as an icon of free speech is diminishing.
We still have to ask who has been doing or could do a better job?
The pressure to take the ICANN away from US control has mounted after the NSA scandals and violations of privacy laws. But, the two are unrelated in the sense of free speech. NSA is listens to everyone’s free speech and is intruding into our private speech. Changing who controls the Internet is risking our ability to speak and will do nothing to control who is listening.
Drax asks who is worse, government or businesses. Again setting up a misleading comparison. A more pertinent question is which people in which positions have the most or least power and motivation to abuse us?
Jo says they should pass a law… but, we already have millions of laws and a large number of them purport to protect our speech from this sort of abuse. So, that idea is doing more of what has not worked.
20:20 Discussion turns to the first VR Talk Show ever. They get into whether the new show is really the first VR Talk Show. (Reference) For the RoadToVR peeps it is important their claim be true and they are invested in it being true.
The rub comes in how people define VR. Is Second Life™ VR? If it isn’t then what is it? According to the Road peeps SL is a virtual world and that is not virtual reality. Really!?!
See the Road’s story: Exclusive: Look Out, Jimmy Fallon, The First Riftmax LIVE Talk Show Is Amazing!
This becomes a classic case of people trying to debate a set of opinions to some point of realism all should be able to agree on. But, agreement will not be reached as a part of the group has an agenda, if not all parts, and some part will forever be unwilling to accept an opinion other than their own. Think Russia and the Ukraine.
Drax and Jo put forth a good set of facts for their point of view. AFAIK, there is no rebuttal from the RoadToVR or RiftMax Live people. If I were placing bets on the outcome of a debate on this subject I would go with Drax and Jo’s position.
You can see RiftMax-Live not so live on YouTube.
Drax and Jo are strong believers in the idea that SL has a reputation problem. Their idea is based on the belief of the Lab having a bad reputation. I disagree and believe SL has no reputation with most of planet Earth’s people.
Thanks Nalates, I think my Jira has been filed as a replica so I’m not sure I can make someone else’s jira public;
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-3893
I agree that a lot, perhaps most people have no opinion on SL one way or another even though most people I know have at least heard of it.
But those that have heard of it, have a negative opinion about it.
So SL needs to have its reputation fixed and also needs more promotion.
And yes, the Media has played a large part in the current situation but LL haven’t been helping.
“From the sound of Widely’s voice it seems he is bursting to say more. ” made me laugh, I had the same feeling, he was so excited!
But, you created BUG-3423. I’m not sure if we can vote on triaged/closed items. We used to be able to. And you may be able edit it to point to whatever item is open. Include a refer to note and list related JIRA items. Or email Alexa and ask her the best way to get it out where people can see the feature request.
You could be right about fixing the reputation. But, I don’t know how to massively target those that know about SL vs those that don’t.
I think fixing the reputation is like fighting a gorilla war. The media is much larger and has a much larger audience. You can tackle trying to reach the general audience of billions or target the hundreds of media people that have written about and may write more about SL. Seems changing their minds with an perpetual stream of easy to report stories would have a leveraged affect.
Having those stories out or ready to send to reporters at news stations when the Oculus releases would give the reporters something positive to say. If you can find the oculus release date or get them to alert you the week before, would allow people to flood the media with positive used of Oculus and SL.
I’ll have a look at my old jira.
I think that the media clearly needs some help, for instance, even positive stories about SL keep using 2007 screenshots because journalists are lazy and they just take the first google images they find or take a quick look at the commons.
They also do a little google perhaps and maybe check youtube or flickr.
So best thing we as users can do is at least flood the internet with current and impressive screenshots (I’ve uploaded a few to wikipedia with no copyrights so journos can use them) and without becoming too blindly positive, we as bloggers have to make sure that at least our stories are up to date and make clear that SL has more to offer, good or bad.
If a journalist googles SL and finds good screenshots in stead of 2007 ones, if they find stories about sims where people don’t just do hanky panky and if they find Drax his videos in steads of someone having a virtual baby, then odds are they change their tone a bit.
It is an ongoing battle and LL needs to put some more effort in.
Stop advertising SL as barbie and pervy paradise.
Companies that want news and media coverage make press kits, an article with pictures written as if the reporter had written it. Those are sent to the reporters.
Some lazy or jaded reporters still go with the sleaze or angles unflattering to the company. Then people target the reporter’s editor.
The above are aspects of active campaigns. A passive campaign, putting stuff out for the media to find, is probably not going to work. They simply don’t find it unless you work at getting search position. The result is articles like this continue to appear: http://flavorwire.com/445543/the-provocative-and-disturbing-world-of-second-life-photography/
I doubt we are going to change Alison Nastasi’s mind. But, Flavorwire.com will publish articles that fit their demographic. It seems SL does. So, that outlet could be targeted for monthly releases. The challenge is finding someone that wants to handle it, has the understanding of media needed to make it work, and has the time.