[info] [croquet-dev] Second LIfe hosting Croquet? (long ramble)

[Eugen Leitl]

----- Forwarded message from Darius Clarke <socinian at gmail.com> -----

From: Darius Clarke <socinian at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:22:23 -0700
To: croquet-dev at duke.edu, Lawson English <lenglish5 at cox.net>
Subject: Re: [croquet-dev] Second LIfe hosting Croquet? (long ramble)
Reply-To: croquet-dev at duke.edu, Darius Clarke <socinian at gmail.com>

I know that several of the chief architects of Croquet have friends
working at Linden Labs. I'm sure both are aware of each other's
overriding goals.

I think that Lawson might not be aware of how more universities are
using Croquet than businesses so it has a "research for research's
sake to explore possibilities" perspective for many of its purposes.

Croquet is still a technology. Not an marketplace. I've also read a
survey that said most users of Second Life exist online for "voyeur"
reasons. They live in simple dwellings with little hope of many
material possessions or to own a home. So, they "live large" in Second
Life, not necessarly to make money. Also, this might explain why the
SL visitors don't travel much (except to the dances).

I see the metaverse as a place for education, mutual education such as
Wikipedia. In that sense, its market value is part of a larger package
of education and assessment (via a created portfolio). One might
describe Croquet's help as a blend of Discovery Channel simulations
and Wikipedia. For in this world who have a perspective which they
want to win others to their point of view, much printed literature,
videos, and audio recordings have been made and given away for free.
An interactive simulations whose rules people can explore, change, and
play with would help them as well. Many web sites are created w/o an
interest to create money just because it has a large audience and are
available for mash-ups and general pubic consumption (government
agencies). Croquet might be the same.

I think Croquet and SL have significantly different strengths. Croquet
when you need complete control of the environment and instant access
at all times for one's project. Also, for when you have a small target
audience and don't want to risk something visible to the public. When
one needs a complete programming language. When one needs infinite
real estate and no restrictions on model, simulation size. For
applications needing true sizable fonts and interconnections between
text and the simulation. For leveraging common programming connections
and protocols to devices in the real world. For deep collaboration in
construction of models and simulations.

Croquet can record and play back many aspects of the simulation and
mutual learning sessions while one can't in second life.

SL is for pubic exhibition of models, and simple simulations. For
public discussions about the models/simulations. For a marketplace.

So the interconnections between SL and Croquet in my mind are:
1) Rapidly prototype a simulation in Croquet with a small team until
the concepts are clear enough for public performance, discussion and
marketing, then release to SL.

2) Start in SL with a public discussion among those interested in a
given interest/discipline to determine a need. Prototype in SL then,
when SL limits are reached, port to Croquet for polishing and private
distribution.

3) Have Croquet be an engine for computations and just display the
results in SL, using SL as something like a puppet.

4) Use Croquet for projects needing more than 70 simultaneous
visitors. Use SL for projects needing fewer. Croquet's visibility
filters can allow many people to function in the same world w/o
interfering with each other (in the same manner as how one is
prevented from meeting one's self at "Milliways", the "Restaurant at
the End of the Universe").

5) Use Croquet for procedurally generated models and textures and SL
for static ones.

And, so to each his own universe.
Darius

----- End forwarded message -----
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Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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