I’m in a session about using virtual worlds in education right now. I just got here so not sure, but right now John Lester (from Linden Labs) is talking about Second Life and the cool stuff people create in it and then talk about the artifacts. “As you increase the perceptual immersion; you increase emotional immersion.” -talking about the Sistine Chapel in SL. Soon, Rich Vogel will be talking about Ultima Online. Cool.
The conference itself doesn’t really start until tomorrow, but it pretty much took the whole day to get here, so I’m counting this as part of the experience. I’m typing this blog post while listening to a live free concert at the capitol building in Madison, right outside my hotel window. Apparently, there’s a summer concert series every Wednesday. Tonight’s theme is Russian composers. Freakin awesome.
Anyway, here’s my day in photos:
Someone (Paul) actually reads my blog! That deserves a mention. :)
Man, I haven’t posted an update on my personal life in a while…
1. I got a new adviser, Phil Bell, and along with that, a temp summer RA position doing video editing work. My old adviser, Jen Stone, left UW to go to Alaska to be with someone she met through WoW! :)
2. Tomorrow I leave for Madison, WI, for the Games Learning Society conference.
I’ll be presenting a version of my WoW paper on communication and coordination there as part of a panel about different gaming communities. Others in the panel are Laurie McCarthy, Reed Stevens, and Jen Stone with Tom Satwicz acting as the respondent. It should be totally fun.
After a couple of months of trying to wrangle floor space at some grad student’s place (because I’m leechy and po like that), I gave up and got room at the University of Wisconsin’s accommodations for visiting scholars. But I also had to reserve a room in a hotel for Friday since UW didn’t have room. BUT then Moses Wolfenstein responded to an email I sent out to the TerrorNova guild, and now I am actually staying with him! I then had to cancel my bookings. I guess I shoulda just waited and trusted that things would fall into place. Or something. Or maybe I am being a total pain in the ass and just don’t know it.
I plan to take lots of photos and write up how the conference went on here, so check back next week.
More or less what it is now. I’ve replaced CT with Bartender3 and KHThreatMeter with Omen. I also don’t use Natur’s Enemy CastBar anymore…
To get most of these, use the WoWAce Updater tool for ease… :) See my previous post about Ace.
Found on The Stranger’s blog, SLOG…
Is Google getting so big that it inevitably has some complete idiots–or, worse, evil-doers–on its payroll?
Found this on Intelligent Artifice by (he found it on Japan Probe), and OMG, I am such a nerd. The sketch goes on much longer than I thought possible… It’s funny in that innocent, sometimes hilarious, weird as hell, Japanese way.
Really, really cool use of photos to created 3D images, etc.
Photosynth page at Microsoft and the TED talk / demo.
35 Perspectives on Online Social Networking
A cool article on different views of social networking brainstormed by the article writer thinking about the different people who use it…
.
.
