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Rare Tour of Sun Microsystems' "Wonderland"
Surinder Kahai writes "Last week I had the rare opportunity to see an emerging virtual world called Wonderland, the product of an open source project, Project Wonderland, sponsored by Sun Microsystems. The tour was given by Nicole Yankelovich, Principal Investigator of the Collaborative Environments Project at Sun Microsystems. Some of the key aspects of this dynamic virtual world are voice communication with distance attenuation, the ability to join a Wonderland meeting through a regular phone if a computer is not handy, and the sharing of applications such as Open Office. Wonderland is currently being used by educational facilities and can be used by other organizations for virtual collaboration. Since the project is an Open Source project, users can tweak the tools available to suit their particular purpose."
Aside from the obvious fact that the name is more "theme park" than business-like, what can it really do that can't be done (with fewer resources) via teleconferencing, and/or chat, and/or version control? Seems to me it's just teleconferencing with eye candy.
Caveat Utilitor
If it's open source, why is seeing it rare?
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
sounds good. this is the future of business.
You know, people might have said this was a ridiculous waste of time a couple years ago cuz you might as well just do it all in real life. But these days if you can have a Stargate convention in a virtual world without having to spend $700 on travel or having to leave your house or having to put on clothes, that's a good idea :D
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
I work at a software firm and a good chunk of the QA staff and even some product strategy folk can't work LiveMeeting and you're trying to tell me that this is easier and more intuitive to the point of wide adoption?
I wonder if Wonderland runs JAVA. I'd be by the time they got the thing Virtual World started it was time to go.
I've been there. Boston, the T, Blue Line. Good chow, nice Aquarium...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Now where is that angel that kept on appearing?
Arash Partow's Philosophy: Be a person who knows what they don't know, and not a person who doesn't know.
Just as you mention though, this is much like Office Communicator + LiveMeeting. At my work, we use Communicator and LiveMeeting 2007, dedicated server.... Which reminds me, for this software who will host the server? From what I guess seeing that there is an authentication on their website, do they host the server portion?
I'm guessing it's just for small groups that wish to collaborate without the use of GoogleDocs, Instant Messenger, and Ventrilo. It's sun based so it's basically non-proprietary, likely to work cross platform through other O/S's, and uses OpenOffice for some features. Making it open source just lets you tweak to your needs.
I think it's a nice tool for the open community.
clicked the bio link to see if she's hot and didn't bother to click the article ?
MP3 Search Engine
Especially on Slashdot, I'd expect artificially created scarcity to be clearly delineated from necessary scarcity. Just because Sun has been tight-lipped to-date, doesn't make a sudden PR release 'valuable'. My apologies if the editors meant 'rare' software -- i.e. uncooked.
Any company that survives without making money as long as Sun has is a wonder to me.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
Wait! Scratch and reverse that!
Hold your breath.
Make a wish.
Count to three.
Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination
Take a look and you'll see into your imagination.
We'll begin with a spin traveling in the world of my creation.
What we'll see will defy explanation.
If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it.
Anything you want to do it.
Want to change the world?
There's nothing to it.
There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination.
Living there you'll be free if you truly wish to be.
If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it.
Anything you want to, do it.
Want to change the world?
There's nothing to it.
There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination.
Living there you'll be free if you truly wish to be.
If you're interested in 3d virtual collaboration, you should check out opencroquet.org. Strangely, QWAQ was mentioned in the article, but not opencroquet.org (which QWAQ is built on top of).
The best part is that Croquet has a very unrestrictive license if you're interested in developing commercial applications.
There you go! Now it's far more believable.
But does it run Linux?
This isn't anything new really. People have been using 'SecondLife' to do this for a year or so.
In addition, there's even an Open Source server component compatible with the SecondLife client at
http://www.opensimulator.org/
when I first saw the headline about Sun's "Wonderland", I immediately thought of this . . .
http://www.abandonedbutnotforgotten.com/ABNF/sun_microsystems.htm
N.B. I'd hate for anyone to try and gauge my "hottitude" based on what for all intents and purposes is a driver's license photo.
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
How is this different from OpenCroquet ( http://www.opencroquet.org/index.php/Main_Page ) other than it requires a server (i.e. sells boxes) and is in Java (not Smalltalk)? Look at Qwaq ( http://www.qwaq.com/ ) to see some really interesting applications of Croquet for real-time conferencing.
I help admin the Immersive Education node (http://ImmersiveEducation.org) mentioned in TFA. In addition to business use of Wonderland the Immersive Education Initiative is using Wonderland for learning. In collaboration with Sun Microsystems the Immersive Education Initiative recently announced the "Education Grid" to give educators a sneak peak at what's possible with Wonderland.
From TFA, it will be used "...including business, education, commerce, and entertainment".
When it can do this: Entertainment, I know I'll be there like a rat up a drain pipe.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
When I bought my VRML book in 1996, I knew it would be more than just a passing fad!
Nicole was a recognised leader at the then novel junction of hypertext and user interface. Good to see she is still actively building on that.
-- Our systemic servants do not good masters make.
Does it include a virtual Michael Jackson?
i've seen this mistake made over and over again:people take as axiomatic the idea that making any application 3D makes it better. running-around-shooting-people games: yes. modeling the interior of a spaceflight cockpit: yes. doing a walkthrough of your proposed new corporate super-campus: arguably. demonstrating introductory physics: not really; it's better illustrated in 2D. archiving/curating paintings, collaborating on 2D documents, video/voice conferencing: no! many media are only damaged by the translation into 3D, yet there's a persistent unspoken assumption that if you take something and make it 3D, it will be better.
look at the "five key aspects" of wonderland quoted by the article and ask yourself if you really want a 3D application between you and the feature:
* Virtual meeting participants can use voice to communicate with one another;
* If necessary, participants can connect to a Wonderland meeting via telephone;
* Private conversations between participants are possible in a virtual meeting;
* Participants can share applications; and
* Anyone can try out Wonderland (see instructions below).
each of these are nifty features, certainly, but benefit nothing from 3D. the single possible exception is sharing applications, but unless the application you're sharing is fundamentally 3D in nature, you'd be way ahead researching ways to collaborate in good old native 2D. the example from the article is editing an OpenOffice document. It's just foolish to take a nice 2D OpenOffice document and couch it in a 3D world full of annoying perspective, occlusions, camera controls, rendering artifacts, and low framerates.
The main thing which a shared 3D world *can* provide is a sense of presence. If i were distributing the research dollars for improved collaborative apps, i'd aim them first at a generic collaboration framework for plain old 2D apps, and second on something sexy and possibly 3D, to provide a sense of presence, with just bindings out to the 2D framework.