Last Friday, February 17th at the Nonprofit Commons, Jon Brouchoud of Arch Virtual and Chris Collins of Tipodean Technologies took the stage to talk about how their innovative inworld platforms are taking architecture and design to a whole new level of sophistication.
As I mentioned last week, going virtual is not a new phenomenon in certain circles. In fact, for architects and designers, virtual environments for collaboration allow for a relatively seamless workflow across time zones and allows for the possibility of creative exploration in terms of design. Architects for example, can provide digital mock ups and scale models for clients clearly illustrating the finished product before ground is even broken. Imagine the time and money saved by investors, contractors, educators, etc.! Not to mention the flexibility and comfort to try new concepts and cutting edge designs.
In my humble opinion however, there is significant leg room to be made for these organizations in the edu space, primarily on university campuses with Architecture and Design programs. Interestingly, neither organization has been able to make significant progress in capturing this audience. From the mouths of both organizations however, this is definitely a target market they are planning to reach in the near future.
See below for the full transcript of this very interesting Nonprofit Commons meeting…
CHATLOG NONPROFIT COMMONS MEETING
February 17, 2012
Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Plush%20Nonprofit%20Commons/88/126/26
AGENDA
- 8:30am Introductions
- 8:40am TechSoup Announcements
- 8:45am Mentors Central
- 8:55am Jon Brouchard, Arch Virtual and Chris Collins, Tipodean
- 9:40am OpenMic/ Announcements
INTRODUCTIONS
[08:30] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): We’ve got a packed agenda, so lets get started!
[08:30] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Welcome to the Nonprofit Commons weekly meetup.
[08:31] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): I’m your community manager, Rik Panganiban, from TechSoup
[08:31] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): We’re very happy to see you all here this morning.
[08:31] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): We’ve got a couple of great featured speakers.
[08:31] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): And some house business to handle before then.
[08:31] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): But first, as always, we introduce ourselves in the public text chat
[08:32] DJ Earnshaw: Don Singleton, Tulsa, OK (DJ Earnshaw, Professor Viper) HelpingTulsa and APCUG, http://snipurl.com/tk41d @donsingleton
[08:32] Panny Bakerly: Jeanne Booth, Freeport Historical Society, Freeport, NY freeporthistorymuseum.org
[08:32] Francesca Barnes: Mary-Frances O’Connor, now with the University of Arizona
[08:32] Chayenn: monique richert, protect yourself 1, inc., baltimore , md, protectyourself1.org , @PY1US
[08:32] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Please type into the chat your real life name, organization, location in the world, URL and twitter handle, if ou like
[08:32] Zinnia Zauber: Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond, Sequim Humanities and Arts Alliance, Sequim, Washington. http://www.sequimartsalliance.org http://www.facebook.com/sequimartsalliance @renneemiko
[08:32] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Bruce Hestley, Transgender American Veterans Association, Akron, OH, http://www.tavausa.org
[08:32] Buffy Beale: Buffy Bye, Bridges for Women, Victoria BC Canada, http://www.bridgesforwomen.ca @buffyb
[08:32] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): Jon Brouchoud, Madison, Wisconsin, http://www.archvirtual.com
[08:32] Chris Collins: Chris Collins, Tipodean tech. San Francisco
[08:32] Gentle Heron: Virtual Ability, Inc. www.virtualability.org with brand new Facebook, Twitter, and blog available from the front page
[08:32] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Rik Panganiban, Nonprofit Commons / TechSoup, Oakland CA, http://nonprofitcommons.org , @npsl @betterverse
[08:32] Chad Mikado: Chad Gobertwww.serviceandinclusion.org
[08:32] Coughran Mayo: Dick Dillon, Innovaision, LLC St. Louis MO, @Innovaision, @Coughran
[08:32] alebez: Ale Bezdikian, Online Community Coordinator, TechSoup Global, San Francisco, @alebez
[08:32] Sister Abeyante: Sister Patrice Colletti, Sisters of the Divine Savior; also Virtual Ability; Wisconsin, USA
[08:32] Brena Benoir: Brenda Bryan, Preferred Family Healthcare, Kirksville, Missouri; www.pfh.org; @brenabenoir
[08:33] Ozma Malibu: Sandy Andrews, Floaters Org, Arizona, Mexico and On The Road, @ozma
[08:33] RuxandraP: Ruxandra Popa, PR @ TechSoup Romania
[08:33] Kabbie Broadway: Kevin Brooks, Fargo ND. African Soul, American Heart http://africansoulamericanheart.org
[08:33] Anastasios Aurotharius: Ben Linson, Boston, Engineer, Entrepreneur, Educator, founder of www.entrepreneurclubboston.org
[08:33] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): great to see you Ruxandra!
[08:33] James at Lloud (lloud.laffer): Whoa Jon, I’m in Madison too.
[08:33] Dancers Yao: Kara Bennett, Elder Voices, Los Angeles, Health Care and Human Rights, www.eldervoices.net
[08:33] Zotarah Shepherd: BEACH College, CA
[08:33] Gilles Kuhn: Administrator Science Circle ASBL and the virtual university project Spain and Belgium
[08:33] RuxandraP: hi Rik, great to see you too π
[08:33] CarynTopia Silvercloud: caryn Heilman Topia arts center in Berkshires of NW MA connecting via iPhone
[08:33] James at Lloud (lloud.laffer): James at LLOUD, LLC – learning tech consultant, Madison, Wisconsin USA.
[08:33] Anastasios Aurotharius: waves to Zotarah
[08:33] BELOVEDROX: Roxy Rocker Boston, MA National Service Inclusion Project www.serviceandinclusion.org
[08:33] Adalace Jewell: Corine Van Hellemont, RoSa Library Brussels, http://www.rosadoc.be @adalace
[08:34] Red (talkwithmarie): Marie C.-talkwithmarie, aka Red., Greater Boston, Girls project/Girl TV/Talk!withmarie, http://youtube.com/girltvlive, http://youtube.com/talkwithmarie, @talkwithmarie
[08:34] Oronoque Westland: Roberta Kilkenny, Hunter College, City University of New York
[08:35] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Welcome Adalace from Brussels!
[08:35] Red (talkwithmarie): Marie C.-talkwithmarie, aka Red., Greater Boston, Girls project/Girl TV/Talk!withmarie, http://youtube.com/girltvlive, http://youtube.com/talkwithmarie, @talkwithmarie
[08:36] Buffy Beale: hey Nathanmaton, welcome!
[08:36] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): anyone else? This is also for our transcript later
[08:36] Red (talkwithmarie): Hi Gentle
[08:36] Red (talkwithmarie): Hi Z
[08:36] Red (talkwithmarie): Hi C
[08:36] DyVerse Steele (dyverse): Ricky Davis, Restore Center for healthy living and Common grounds DJ DyVerse Steele facebook
[08:36] Glitteractica Cookie: Susan Tenby, Online Community and Social Media Director, TechSOup Global, SF USA @suzboop @techsoup
[08:37] Red (talkwithmarie): gtsy DyVerseπ
[08:37] DyVerse Steele (dyverse): waves to Red
[08:37] Zinnia Zauber: Rah DyVerse!
[08:37] Red (talkwithmarie): π
[08:37] Buffy Beale: yay Talk π
[08:37] Thurs Xu (thursday.xu): Rex Heer – Iowa State University
[08:37] Kali Idziak: jessica Dally, Community Voice Mail, Seattle Wa www.cvm.org
[08:37] Red (talkwithmarie): Hey Buffy
[08:37] Namaara MacMoragh: Gloria Kraegel (http://greatkreations.com) working with BEST (http://brainenergysupportteam.org) in Tacoma WA
[08:38] DyVerse Steele (dyverse): Rah! Zinnia
TECHSOUP UPDATES
[08:38] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): ok lets move on Techsoup Updates
[08:38] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): I don’t think Bulkalak is here
[08:38] nathanmaton: Nathan Maton – dgtlproductions.com, works on educational games for youth activists, @nathanmaton
[08:38] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Glitteractica, can you do that?
[08:38] Glitteractica Cookie: I am giving them today, in his place
[08:38] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): thanks
[08:39] Coughran Mayo: Nice crowd, might be the guests……
[08:39] Glitteractica Cookie: yes, the main update is that we have less than two weeks until teh Digital Storytelling challenge submission deadline
[08:39] Glitteractica Cookie: Please get your digital stories in before it’s too late
[08:39] Glitteractica Cookie: In Kenzo wrote up a nice piece about how long it takes to make a digital story
[08:40] Glitteractica Cookie: I believe it’s at bit.ly/tsdigs12time
[08:40] Glitteractica Cookie: I will check in sec t see i that s thhe correct URL.
[08:40] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): thats correct
[08:41] Glitteractica Cookie: Ugh, my keyboard is having probs, sorry
[08:41] Glitteractica Cookie: anyway, all information about this fab campaign and all the educational webinars and tweetchat recaps are archived at tsdigs.org
[08:42] Glitteractica Cookie: we have ne final tweetchat, on Tuesday, in conjunction with NTC #commbuild tweetchat
[08:42] Glitteractica Cookie: it’s also on digital storytelling as a community building tool
[08:43] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): This is a great opportunity for any nonprofit to get their message out and maybe win a prize
[08:44] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Are there groups here that are planning to send in a story, or already did?
[08:44] Dancers Yao: Elder Voices will try
[08:44] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): awesome Dancers
[08:44] Buffy Beale: Question: will we be having the winner announcement/screening event here as we’ve done before?
[08:44] Kabbie Broadway: ASAH is thinking about it
[08:44] Buffy Beale: Bridges for Women will be
[08:45] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): It can be a very quick slideshow, or a major movie production
[08:45] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Groups active in SL have a leg up with compelling images, videos and characters they can use
[08:45] Rhiannon Chatnoir: only a minute in length though for movies, correct?
[08:45] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): very short
[08:46] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): see http://tsdigs.org/ for details and you can follow the hashtag #tsdigs on twitter for up to minute news
[08:46] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): I’m hoping / expecting NPC tenants to participate if they can
MENTORS CENTRAL
[08:47] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): ok lets move on to Mentors Central
[08:47] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Who speaks on behalf of the Mentors today?
[08:47] Jen (jenelle.levenque): I was going to finish up my presentation from last week
[08:47] Zinnia Zauber: We have Jen!
[08:47] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Only a couple more points
[08:47] Zinnia Zauber: Rah Jen!
[08:47] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): oh great
[08:48] Buffy Beale: Yayy Jen!
[08:48] Jen (jenelle.levenque): I was on the topic of Office Operations
[08:48] Jenelle’s Presentation HUD: I was on the topic of Office Operations
[08:48] Jenelle’s Presentation HUD: F. Office Hours
[08:48] Jenelle’s Presentation HUD: a. Set some office hours. Be realistic in terms of your availability and the timezones
[08:48] Jen (jenelle.levenque): I’m usually in my office an hour before this meeting
[08:48] Jenelle’s Presentation HUD: I’m usually in my office an hour before this meeting
[08:49] Jenelle’s Presentation HUD: b. While in the office, don’t be afraid to check on visitors to NPC in general. While LL has done away with the Community Gateways, people still find their way here.
[08:49] Jenelle’s Presentation HUD: c. Walk through the other offices. Who are your neighbors and what do they represent. How can you work with them? What can you learn from them? What can you teach them?
[08:49] Red (talkwithmarie): yay Jen:)
[08:49] Jenelle’s Presentation HUD: d. Take the tours for a quick overview of who is here. This changes and old groups leave while new ones move in.
[08:49] Jenelle’s Presentation HUD: G. NPC Community
[08:49] Jenelle’s Presentation HUD: 1. Become a Mentor
[08:49] Jenelle’s Presentation HUD: 2. Attend Tenant meetings
[08:50] Jenelle’s Presentation HUD: 3. Attend Wharf Ratz and Common Ground events
[08:50] Jenelle’s Presentation HUD: Jenelle Levenque
[08:50] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Those were the last two points
[08:50] Jen (jenelle.levenque): I’ll be happy to answer questions
[08:50] Zinnia Zauber: Awesome!
[08:50] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): that’s great
[08:50] Ozma Malibu: yes!
[08:50] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Check the Techsoup Toolbox
[08:50] Jen (jenelle.levenque): It’s awesome
[08:50] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): good tips for anyone in the virtual or real world
[08:51] Gentle Heron: Very important points, Jen. Thanks!
[08:51] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Has some great tools for presentations
[08:51] Buffy Beale: thanks Jen
[08:51] Jen (jenelle.levenque): Also, behind Gentle is a little cube on a stick
[08:51] Jen (jenelle.levenque): This records the names of people who come within the set radius
[08:51] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you so much Jen for this and last week. These tips are super to improve interaction and engagement!
[08:52] Gentle Heron: /me is glad she didn’t sit ON the cube on a stick!
[08:52] Zinnia Zauber: Jen is a super Mentor!
[08:52] Jen (jenelle.levenque): I’m around a lot so IM me any time
[08:52] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): this would be a good post on our blog too, if you’d like to post it there for the fture
[08:52] Buffy Beale: lol Gentle
[08:52] Jen (jenelle.levenque): The scripts are mod, so you can change them
[08:52] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you Jen!
[08:52] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): ok Jon and Chris, want to come down?
ARCH VIRTUAL AND TIPODEAN
[08:53] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Let’s give a warm NPC welcome to Jon Brouchard and Chris Collins!
[08:53] Buffy Beale: Cheering for Keystone and Chris, the best builders in SL π
[08:53] Coughran Mayo: Welcome!!
[08:53] DyVerse Steele (dyverse): Rah!
[08:53] Gentle Heron: Nice to have you here as guests, Jon and Chris.
[08:53] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): thanks so much for having us!
[08:53] Chris Collins: hi great to be here
[08:53] Zinnia Zauber: Rah Jon and Chris!
[08:53] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): we are so excited to have both of you here, and together!
[08:54] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): We are going to spend a bit more time on this since they have so many amazing projects to talk about
[08:54] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): take it away, guys
[08:54] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): cool, thanks Rik!
[08:54] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): thanks again for having us, we’re excited to be here
[08:54] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): just as a brief matter of background –
[08:55] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): (I’ll be in back running slides. Just nudge me if you need it to advance)
[08:55] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): i come to this from an architectural background, my company is http://www.archvirtual.com Arch Virtual – and we do all kinds of projects relating to architecture in virtual worlds
[08:55] Chris Collins: and
[08:55] Chris Collins: I am Chris Collins, my company is Tipodean technology and we focus on virtual worlds and serious games into organizations http://www.tipodean.com/management-team.html Prior to Tipodean I worked at Linden Lab for 4 years
[08:56] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): We work across a variety of platforms. A significant portion of our work is in Second Life. We do quite a bit of work in OpenSim, as well as Unity3D. Some of our work spans all 3 platforms.
[08:56] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): Chris and I co-developed a new technology we call ArchTech Engine
[08:57] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): we’ll talk about it in reference to some projects we’ll be sharing today – but you can also learn more and see a video intro here: http://www.archtechengine.com
[08:57] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): Over the years, we’ve realized that every project is unique – and brings a different set of challenges.
[08:57] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): To address that, ArchTech Engine is designed to be very flexible – and wrap around the needs of each project, rather than the other way around.
[08:58] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): We also use a technology developed by Tipodean – called the ‘Converter’
[08:58] Chris Collins: the converter
[08:58] Chris Collins: was buyilt out of the fact that many of our clients have come from a SL/OpenSim background
[08:59] Chris Collins: and often found themselves in a situation where they had invested time/money in great content they wanted to leverage into other platofmrs
[08:59] Chris Collins: so the converter can take an entire island, convert is out into a format that Unity3d can work with. Resulting in your island displaying in the web
[08:59] Chris Collins: some examples are here: http://converter.tipodean.com/unity3d/index.html
[08:59] Buffy Beale: wow
[09:00] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): next slide Rik?
[09:00] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): this is a project called “Customer-Created Design”
[09:00] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): It was a collaboration with Van Mell Associates in Madison, Wisconsin – where we used Second Life to help senior citizens design their own retirement facility.
[09:00] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): We projected SL on a screen, and changed the design in realtime, on-the-fly, as they gave their ideas
[09:01] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): you could really see their reaction – when we lowerd the ceiling for example, they all cringed…”too claustrophobic!!”…
[09:01] Ozma Malibu: wow
[09:01] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): then we raised it – and they were all unanimously saying it was too high.. “too institutional!”
[09:01] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): so we were able to get it ‘just right’..
[09:02] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): same with the windows.. we made the windows bigger, and they all gasped.. “Wow.. that’s way better..”
[09:02] Thurs Xu (thursday.xu): very cool
[09:02] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): so by the end of this 2 hours workshop, they had literally designed a very nice space
[09:02] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): the key was focusing on how they wanted teh space to feel.. not specifics of room sizes, etc – just concepts
[09:02] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): We started out with an empty space – then organized the discussion around a tour – asking them to describe the building as if they were giving a tour
[09:03] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): WeβΓΓΆβΓβΒ₯re now applying this to health care and medical facilities – we call taht βΓΓΆβΓββ«Patient-Created DesignβΓΓΆβΓβΟ – obviously this same process could be applied to a variety of project types.
[09:03] Gentle Heron: /me likes that visualization model.
[09:03] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): there’s a video showing some of the footage from the session here: http://bit.ly/zPRPoN
[09:03] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): next slide?
[09:04] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): this was a project Tipodean was commissioned to create for Intel – and we collaborated on it
[09:04] Chris Collins: We work across many platforms and building in SL and Opensim is still very much what we do due to the ability and power of realtime collaboration. another great example of this was a project for Intel
[09:04] Chris Collins: for the intel project
[09:04] Chris Collins: Collaborating with the client in realtime – such a huge benefit of working in virtual worlds. Meet, and the client makes suggestions – we can realize it immediately.
[09:04] Chris Collins: we needed to work on a tight deadline and budget and we coudl do it as we could meet regularily and mvoe fast as a distributed group
[09:05] Chris Collins: the environment is hosten in ScienceSim (an opensim grid hosted by Intel)
[09:05] Chris Collins: they use their DSG (Distributed Scene Graph) technology to load it up with 100’s of avatars
[09:05] Chris Collins: This is an ongoing project for Intel – ultimately to be used in simulating emergency responses and when it is ready we could bring it out into Unity3d and bring in modules from AtchTech Engine.
[09:05] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): wow!
[09:05] boxy (alfred.kelberry): lovely rendered water
[09:06] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): next slide?
[09:06] Buffy Beale: looks great1
[09:06] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): This was a project Arch Virtual did for Rutgers University – for their new School of Business that will be built in RL soon
[09:06] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): this actually started in Second Life – with the early phase drawings from the architect
[09:06] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): then moved into OpenSim – where they added more of the surrounding campus
[09:07] boxy (alfred.kelberry): jon, how long such a project takes to complete?
[09:07] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): then when the final architectural models were complete, we translated their BIM (building information model) into realtime 3D using Unity3D – and some of the technology from ArchTech Engine to translate and compress it
[09:07] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): (lets hold questions to the end , please!)
[09:07] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): (lots of projects to get through!)
[09:07] boxy (alfred.kelberry): ah, sorry
[09:08] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): its really a fantastic tool for enabling students and faculty to explore the building before construction even starts – and figure out how they’ll really use it
[09:08] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): the next project is Virtual Dubuque
[09:08] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): again, we’re concentrating on architecture, cities and geography – and this project put into practice a lot of the ideas behind ArchTech Engine
[09:09] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): we wanted to create a simulation of the city that would be accessible as a community resource
[09:09] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): the intro video you’ll see here tells more about that project: http://dubuque.archvirtual.com
[09:10] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): next slide please
[09:10] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): a local developer wanted to use Virtual Dubuque to help visualize a new building in their Historic Millwork District, called the CARADCO building
[09:10] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): since the real world site is under construction – this enables them to promote and showcase the building in realtime interactive 3D before construction starts
[09:11] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): all from a simple web browser – embedded directly on their website
[09:11] Buffy Beale: this is so great to see it translate to real world use Keystone
[09:11] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): the thing that’s important to think about here, is this is all single player
[09:11] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): which is a real paradigm shift from our background in virtual worlds, where multi-player is default
[09:11] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): it works really well for me
[09:11] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): and this is a really important distinction that I’d encourage you all to consider
[09:12] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): for a lot of projects we build, the multi-user MMO style of virtual worlds is overkill.. it adds unecessary complexity, makes it harder to deploy to a large audience
[09:12] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): whereas you can achieve so many of your goals with a much simpler single-player to beging with – THEN bring it to multi-player after you’ve proven the concept and attracted attention (and hopefully a larger budget) after having demonstrated the idea in single player
[09:13] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): obviously SL and virtual worlds have huge benefits – again, we do a lot of our work in SL and OpenSim, where those collaborative, multi-user capabilities are vital. But single player is a really powerful option to consider
[09:13] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): next slide
[09:14] Chris Collins: This is a project that Tipodean did for UCLA that uses a lot of the plugins from ArchTech engine
[09:14] Chris Collins: UCLA already had:
[09:14] Chris Collins: -A lot of great content of ancient citie (e.g. Rome) they had built up over the years using modeling packages
[09:15] Chris Collins: but the models were all sitting on computer and they wanted to make them more interactive
[09:15] Chris Collins: so instead of rebuilding the content we leveraged it
[09:15] Chris Collins: this saved time and money (digital recycling)
[09:15] Chris Collins: the slide behind is an example of Multi-player as peer to peer meaning there is actually no multiplayer server needed (makes it easily expandable and decreases costs to maintain)
[09:16] Chris Collins: on the right hand side we also leveraged the fact that there current content was correctly geo referenced
[09:16] Chris Collins: so consumed the KML that they had already produced as a way for the person to navigate
[09:17] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): whispers: KML?
[09:17] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): this is also a really good example of how unity3D projects can be tied directly to content in the web browser. When you click on those menu items on the right – it brings up more info about that part of ancient Rome, so it really augments the virtual model
[09:17] Hour Destiny: Keystone Markup Language that Google brought?
[09:17] Chris Collins: KML is used in Google earth
[09:17] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): ah
[09:17] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): geographic coordinates
[09:17] Chris Collins: that is a lat long and elevation to actual points
[09:18] Chris Collins: so what they can do is put a model into Unity 3d – deploy is to the website with the KML and the person can easily navigate
[09:18] James at Lloud (lloud.laffer): Would love to see Virtual Dubuque from within Google Earth! (im just sayin‘)
[09:18] Chris Collins: all up this system runs on one small webserver. But with Peer2Peer, KML support and leveraging current content, it is massivly scalible but cheap to maintain
[09:19] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): Google Earth is great for orbiting around a mile high in the sky – but what we’re trying to do is achieve more of a sense of place.. a sense of immersion, of really being in the city – hearing the sounds, seeing the buildings in first-person
[09:19] Hour Destiny: Any security issues with running peer to peer?
[09:19] James at Lloud (lloud.laffer): π
[09:19] Chris Collins: do you mean ports etc?
[09:19] Chris Collins: firewalls
[09:19] Chris Collins: ?
[09:20] Hour Destiny: Tampering.
[09:20] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): (do you guys have more projects to presnet, or should we transition to questions?)
[09:20] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): questions at this point are great
[09:20] Chris Collins: with peer to peer you may still hit a firewall. But that would only mean that someone externally can not get in. Internally you are still running multiplayer
[09:20] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): next slide says Questions π
[09:20] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): ah okay
[09:20] Anastasios Aurotharius: k stands for keystone?
[09:20] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Go ahead and type your questions in the public text chat
[09:21] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): It sounds to me like your projects are blurring virtual worlds and augmented reality
[09:21] Anastasios Aurotharius: in kml?
[09:21] Chris Collins: but with Archetch we do multiple muliplayer styles and as Jon said we are HUGE fans of singple player in a lot of instances
[09:21] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): particularly if deployed on small devices like tablets
[09:21] Buffy Beale: Question: Do you feel there is still growth opportunities for showcasing buildings in Second Life, or is there more a move to other platforms?
[09:21] Chris Collins: here is a good reference to KML http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/
[09:21] Anastasios Aurotharius: lol
[09:22] Anastasios Aurotharius: hello
[09:22] Hour Destiny: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kml
[09:22] Buffy Beale: *showcasing π
[09:22] Hour Destiny: Keyhole, not Keystone. My bad.
[09:22] Chris Collins: jon do you want to answer
[09:22] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): I think there are certain kinds of specific use cases for architectural work in Second Life
[09:22] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): like the Customer-Created Design – we couldn’t do that without Second Life
[09:22] Rhiannon Chatnoir: your tool that ports OpenSim/SL OARs to Unity, is that something you set up for people, or is there an accessible tool others can do the conversion for themselves
[09:23] Buffy Beale: thanks Key
[09:23] Chris Collins: Rhiannon, we run the tool here, we generally use it as part of a projec.
[09:23] Anastasios Aurotharius: ty
[09:23] Rhiannon Chatnoir: k
[09:23] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): but putting it out to a web browser with Unity3D and ArchTech – you can reach so many more people, much quicker, much easier – no account registration or huge client download. they just open the page, and they’re there. That’s a huge benefit for promoting a new building
[09:23] Hour Destiny: Can we get ahold of that tool? I have Unity3D myself.
[09:24] Chris Collins: I have a great example of where showcasing in unity is awesome. Jon’s work with Virtual Debuque.
[09:24] Chris Collins: when he launched in he got a flood of traffic, that took down the website. BUT
[09:24] Buffy Beale: Question: Do you believe more real life architects will or should start using virtual reality to gather client requirements, such as you did for yours?
[09:24] Chris Collins: it was wordpress that went down. The actuall Unity 3d deployment was still there
[09:25] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): i believe they will Buffy, as the tech enables them to use their existing 3D models more easily – instead of having to rebuild it
[09:25] Rhiannon Chatnoir: nod, yes would be interesting if there was a way to office as maybe some sort of service model the ability for others to use that port to Unity capability
[09:25] Chris Collins: so for the first time we can showcase our content and not have to worry about it going down when 1000’s 10000’s mill hit the site
[09:25] Buffy Beale: thanks Key, I do too
[09:25] Chris Collins: the converter we run here. We can run it on an island for you and send you back the DAE file to put into Untiy3d
[09:26] Buffy Beale: wow, is there a cost for that?
[09:26] Chris Collins: of course :>
[09:26] Coughran Mayo: got to run….thanks, Jon and Chris! You are two of the real visionaries in Virtual Environments
[09:26] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): thanks Coughran! =)
[09:26] Chris Collins: we price it on a island by island basis.
[09:26] Buffy Beale: π silly me what way I thinking
[09:26] Buffy Beale: do you give price breaks for educationals or nonprofits?
[09:27] Chris Collins: yes
[09:27] Buffy Beale: cheering! great news, thanks
[09:27] Chris Collins: what I like for an EDU is that we can take that island, convert it. then deploy with Unity3d to flash as single player. and you could send that to the entire school and they will all get in
[09:28] Buffy Beale: that is wonderful Chris
[09:28] Chris Collins: this then increases your exposure and potentially for larger funding focooler projects :>!
[09:28] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): how do virtual cities projects get funded and stay sustainable?
[09:28] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): it really opens a lot of doors – since you can take that content you’ve already built, and make it super easy to access. you also then have all of the capabilities of unity3D availalbe to you to make the build interactive, etc. So you can entice people with an easy-access single player version – then come to the multi-player build to dive deeper
[09:28] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): is it an advertising model? government sponsorship?
[09:29] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): I’d love to see Virtual Oakland
[09:29] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): Rik, it’s a variety of revenue sources. We mainly build on sponsorship and custom content commissions from local organizations.
[09:29] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): the nice thing about that, is they’re more in the driver’s seat as far as how we build the toolset. Instead of us building everything and just hoping it works for the community – they’re actively involved with sponsoring and commissioning content.
[09:30] Gentle Heron: QUESTION: I’m not sure I’m quite understanding what you are proposing. Do you take something social, and make it asocial to give it broader exposure and bring in funding for something bigger and social?
[09:30] Chris Collins: also as far as costs go I find building in SL/Opensim is cheaper to get started but then expensive to maintain (expecially if you think cost per user). Unity on teh other hand is more expensive upfront but then incredibly cheap to maintain
[09:31] Chris Collins: Gentle. No we take something social and can ask the question how many people do you want to get this out to, based on that answer we use components from ArchTech
[09:31] Chris Collins: in a lot of cases (coming back to single player) that can have huge results
[09:31] Hour Destiny: What about exporting to HeroEngine?
[09:31] Chris Collins: what does hero support?
[09:32] Chris Collins: if it supports DAE then use it will work
[09:32] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): also a unity3d web-based virtual model is not necesasrily “asocial”
[09:32] Chris Collins: Rik. Exactly
[09:32] Rhiannon Chatnoir: true Rik, look at something like Jibe
[09:32] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): You could still put it besides a chat, twitter chat, facebook threat, etc
[09:32] Chris Collins: you could even argue make it much more social leveraging social tools already used by the user
[09:32] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): you can also have multi-user, voice, even webcam multi-user – all adjacent to unity3d window
[09:32] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): sweet
[09:33] Gentle Heron: Thanks for clarifying.
[09:33] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): what you lose is multi-ple avatars running around the space together really
[09:33] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): which is just one aspect of virtual worlds
[09:33] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): you can still actually have that too π
[09:33] Rhiannon Chatnoir: the sense of shared space
[09:33] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): we do have multi-user avatar-based modules that can be added
[09:33] Gentle Heron: Right Rhiannon, that’s it.
[09:34] Hour Destiny: http://wiki.heroengine.com/wiki/Introduction_to_HeroCloud I know it supports Maya and 3DS Max and FBX. π
[09:34] Chris Collins: here we have a converted island of rutgers. In single player, p2p multiplayer and client server multiplayer all with the same content: converter.tipodean.com/unity3d/index.html
[09:34] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): wow, thats awesome
[09:35] Chris Collins: so options, options options. again why we built ArchTech engine as we didto allow for the options
[09:35] Oronoque Westland: but if you need to then essentially multitask to reintroduce the social aspect, doesn’t that then create greater system demands?
[09:35] Gentle Heron: It would for my brain, Oro!
[09:35] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): its really inspiring seeing where this technology is going !
[09:35] Chris Collins: which is exactly why we ask the question What do you want to do and Who do you want the audience to be. and deploy accordingly
[09:36] Gentle Heron: /me applauds the flexibility offered. You can rarely go wrong with that.
[09:36] alebez: I have a question: wondering how this innovation impacts arch majors and programs specifically. Have many universities adopted this technology into their curriculum?
[09:36] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): its still very fresh – realtime 3D is new to many arch curriculums that are very slow to adopt new technologies
[09:37] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): (just 1 more quesiton before we should wrap up)
[09:37] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): AEC industries in general are notoriously reluctant to adopt new technologies – so its a learning curve, for sure
[09:37] Hour Destiny: Ironic that education not being the vanguard of education. π
[09:37] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): (but I think every Arch program should use realtime 3D =)
[09:38] Oronoque Westland: there was a great deal to read, so I may have missed this — do your deployments support mobile devices as well?
[09:38] Gentle Heron: @Hour, education institutions are notorious for inertia… after all, their base mission is to preserve cultural status quo, including their own.
[09:38] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): now that they can use their existing content more easily, I think it will speed up adoption
[09:38] Hour Destiny: Unity3D does.
[09:38] Chris Collins: I agree
[09:39] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): they’re already building 3D content, so bringing it into unity3D and publishing it to a web browser isn’t a huge step. it will grow rapidly in the next few years I think
[09:39] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): lets answer Oronoque’s question sabout mobile and then wrap up please
[09:39] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): (as much as this is fascinating!)
[09:39] Chris Collins: yeah. Within Unity you have mulit deployment options.
[09:39] Chris Collins: IOS (Iphoe Ipad) and Android (the rest) are deployment options. that is a feature of Unity
[09:40] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): definitely not something you can do easily with SL!
[09:40] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): yep, each platform has its unique benefits and characteristics.
[09:40] Oronoque Westland: optimized for mobile, or miniaturized?
[09:40] The One and Only Drax (draxtor.despres): i am never totally clear on why stuff running in a web browser is so super important! All my audio video editing stuff is NOT in a browers and thankfully so π I would not want to build or film machinima in a web version of a 3D world frankly
[09:40] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): you can actually deploy the same content
[09:40] Anastasios Aurotharius: Question: do you have to modify the high poly arch models to get them into Unity?
[09:40] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Jon and Chris, thanks so much fo spending time with us today. How do people reach you if they have further questions?
[09:40] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Anastasios, we have to wrwap up
[09:41] Anastasios Aurotharius: lol
[09:41] Chris Collins: chris@tipodean.com / www.archtechengine.com
[09:41] Chris Collins: thanks all
[09:41] Chris Collins: fun chatting
[09:41] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you very much Jon and Chris! This was wonderful!
[09:41] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): let’s thank our guests from Tipodean and Arch Virtual!
[09:41] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): thanks everyone!
[09:41] Glitteractica Cookie: big meeting today. did anyone get a final headcount
[09:41] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): I’ve been wanting them here for awhile, so its great that they came togeher
[09:41] BELOVEDROX: thank you
[09:42] alebez: Thank you both! This was great.
[09:42] CarynTopia Silvercloud: yes very informative
[09:42] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Glitter, I ahve those stats of course
[09:42] Sister Abeyante: Excellent topic- thanks!
[09:42] Oronoque Westland: thank you
[09:42] Jerry Buchko MA AFC (jerrybuchko): Yes, thank you both!
[09:42] Zotarah Shepherd: Thank you. Great information.
[09:42] Buffy Beale: Cheering, thanks a lot, great information
[09:42] James at Lloud (lloud.laffer): thanks!
[09:42] Gentle Heron: Thanks Chris and Jon.
[09:42] Red (talkwithmarie): Than you:)
[09:42] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): Drax, let’s do a pepsi challenge someday – get a bunch of newbs to an interactive 3D site in a browser, vs. SL – and see who gets there first.
[09:42] Glitteractica Cookie: thanks very much, you two
[09:42] The One and Only Drax (draxtor.despres): jon – i understand that “busy people on the go” need it fast etc
OPEN MIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
[09:42] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Ok lets do a quick round of Announcements / Open Mic
[09:42] James at Lloud (lloud.laffer): /me is called back to work – cheers good techsoup folk
[09:43] The One and Only Drax (draxtor.despres): I am not the target audience hahahah π
[09:43] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): firstly, the NPC links….
[09:43] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Here are the many ways to can get involved with the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life:
Nonprofit Commons blog: http://nonprofitcommons.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/npsl
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life
Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/2tMEYh
Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com
About TechSoup:
http://www.techsoup.org/stock/howtousetechsoup.asp
http://flavors.me/nonprofitcommons
Weekly Networking Event: Wharf Ratz, Aloft, Tuesdays, 7-9pm SLT
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Aloft%20Nonprofit%20Commons/168/22…
Monthly Networking Event (3rd Thursday):
Common Ground, Plush, 5PM-7PM SLT
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Plush%20Nonprofit%20Commons/128/22…
[09:43] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): you can paste a link.. “hey, check this out…” boom, they’re standing there. That has compelling use cases.
[09:43] Buffy Beale: Draxie!
[09:43] The One and Only Drax (draxtor.despres): and i think there are MORE people out there who enjoy social virtual worlds that are NOT always on the go
[09:43] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): and a couple of more news items from TechSoup….
[09:43] The One and Only Drax (draxtor.despres): kk i shut up now!
[09:44] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): if that’s the target audience, SL is perfect.
[09:44] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): first : the deadline for the TS digital storytelling challenge is Feb 29!
[09:44] The One and Only Drax (draxtor.despres): well the focus should be on many thngs parallel
[09:44] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): So please get working on your digital stories very soon to quality
[09:44] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): (guys, we are still in a meeting here)
[09:45] Glitteractica Cookie: networking after the announcements, y’all. π
[09:45] Chris Collins: drax exacty. when you want 60 people max in your space dynamically building SL/opensim. when you want a million concurrently in a browser then unity3d
[09:45] Loty Doty: hi
[09:45] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): TechSoup has a new product to announce for nonprofits: HUDDLE
[09:45] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): TechSoup now has Huddle, a cloud collaboration and content management system, as a donation to eligible nonprofits. http://bit.ly/xhmzst
[09:46] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): I’ve used it for project management, its really awesom
[09:46] Glitteractica Cookie: our team uses huddle and it’s great
[09:46] CarynTopia Silvercloud: good to kniw
[09:46] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): and lastly here’s an upcoming event for your calendars….
[09:46] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Processing Payments for Good free webinar on 2/23 at 11am PT http://bit.ly/yvjYwh
[09:46] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): so if you want to get cash dollars for your nonprofit, this might be a good event for you!
[09:47] Glitteractica Cookie: and if you are in the bay area, on the 23rd as well, we are co-hosting a pre_NTC party at our ofcies
[09:47] Glitteractica Cookie: office
[09:47] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): ok who else has announcements?
[09:47] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): (sorry we are running long…)
[09:47] Zinnia Zauber: I do
[09:47] Glitteractica Cookie: if you are intererested in joining us for the pre-party on the 23rd, RSVP by emailing communitiy@techsoup.org. It’s in SF
[09:48] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): Anyone else besides Zinnia?
[09:48] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): go ahead zinnia.
[09:48] Zinnia Zauber: I want to thank everyone that made CommonGround amazing last night! DJ DyVerse was stunning!
[09:48] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): You look lovely today btw
[09:48] Zinnia Zauber: thank you
[09:49] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): we love Common ground!
[09:49] Zinnia Zauber: Next month our party is on March 15 and the theme is GREEN!
[09:49] Red (talkwithmarie): Awesome event!! of course im biased with red theme:)
[09:49] Chris Collins: bye. Thanks all. I need to jump to a meeting
[09:49] Chris Collins: thanks
[09:49] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): bye chris
[09:49] Red (talkwithmarie): tc Collins
[09:49] Zinnia Zauber: You can see photos from the party on the NPC Facebook Page!
[09:49] Buffy Beale: bye Chris thanks for coming
[09:49] Zinnia Zauber: lol Red!
[09:49] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): i’m out too. see you. Thanks again!!!
[09:49] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): bye jon thanks!
[09:49] Red (talkwithmarie): tc Jon
[09:49] Zinnia Zauber: Thank you, that was it!
[09:49] Jon Brouchoud (keystone.bouchard): Thank *you*!
[09:49] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): and it looks like we are about wrapped up here
[09:50] Glitteractica Cookie: Sorry, here is the link about the pre-NTC party that we are co-hosting at our office: http://www.picnet.net/about-us/upcoming-events/event/82?view=event&id=82
[09:50] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): look to nonprofit commons.org for the transcxript from today’s meeting
[09:50] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): let’s of great info today!
[09:50] Sister Abeyante: Great topic- thanks!
[09:50] Glitteractica Cookie: yes
[09:50] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): I wish you all a lovely friday and long weekend for thos e in the US!
[09:51] Rik Panganiban (rik.riel): stick around for the Mentors Meeting if you ahve questions
[09:51] Zinnia Zauber: Mentor’s Meeting in 5 minutes!
[09:51] The One and Only Drax (draxtor.despres): bye everyone
[09:51] The One and Only Drax (draxtor.despres): sorry to pop in so briefly
[09:51] Brena Benoir: bye Draxtor
[09:51] Zinnia Zauber: Please get your refills of tea or coffee now!
[09:51] Glitteractica Cookie: bye rik, and thanks to all of you for your service to this community
[09:51] RuxandraP: yes, congrats for the amazing meeting
[09:52] RuxandraP: bye
[09:52] Buffy Beale: thanks Glitter and Rik, great meeting
[09:52] alebez: have a wonderful weekend everyone.
[09:52] Glitteractica Cookie: have a great long weekend those of you in the states
[09:53] Glitteractica Cookie: bye all, and hopefully the next time i come to NPC i will have a new computer that is non-crashy
Written by: alebez