Association of Virtual Worlds

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Jim Brock

Are the new VW's just copy-paste's of the digital world or should we re-invent the wheel ?

A week ago we were discussing combining/crossing a web calendar and SL.At first look it's not that difficult to pull data from a database server and represent that as a calendar.

But after a couple of hours I was thinking about the design. Let me say at first, I'm not a designer nor a user-interface expert. So how do we go about it? Should we just make a flat, 2D calendar, resembling the basic calendar lay out we all know from the web/desktop ? Or should we try and come up with a truly 3D design ?

And I mean not just something with depth, but a truly innovative approach to how you'd use a calendar ? There's none as far as I know, wether it's rl or digital, all calendars are basically 2D.

So should I come up with a flackey approach so your grandkids will have someone to blame for in 40y from now? Or should we just copy-paste the approach we're all accustomed to ?

Tags: 3d, design, developing, userinterface

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Chances are if you do come up with something new that unless it has some form of commonly recognisable forms or features people will simply not use it because it's then too abstract; true innovation is completely useless to most folks because they don't understand it, it's why game companies introduce changes wrapped around old paradigms.

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Do those rules still apply today ? With all the Sci-Fi exposure we have today ?

(been thinking 8mins already to prove you wrong... only thing I can come up with is a mouse)
Why should a calendar be inside a square box ? Why can't it for instance be a cube, where what's in front of you is coming up, the back is the past, up moves us months forward and down goes back?
Or represented as spheres, where you can drill down to like with those russian dolls ?

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Right, but think about what you've described (although it was a quick example off the top of your head).... it uses 'familiar' methods of presentation (based on the basic description you gave above) just a slightly different way of showing a normal calendar - one month on each face, at a guess to what you were thinking, with a 'numerical calendar' on each side - I'm guessing that's the picture you had in your head after 8 mins of thinking.

The "Russian Doll" is more 'unique' as it presents familiar information using familiar objects but in a different way.. and it's that which makes the difference.

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The cube thing was more related to how you could present it once some form of holographic display would become possible or for instance on the new MS table interface.

Nice dodging the mouse invention btw :) but some clever guy/girl outthere invented the wheel at some point without a precedent... and take for instance 'transporters' in SL, there isn't a single resident who doesn't use them and to my knowledge we still don't have them in RL.

I understand your point, but like I said, something like redesigning something so universal as a calendar is beyond my knowledge, best I could do is gave it some lucky shots, but there are dozens of other things we could and should think about redesigning because it's possible now no?

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I believe we should make the VW as close to the RL for most applications as for education we need to simulate reality. To much emfasis on fantasy makes the VWs cartoony and unrealistic. Serious games are for serious applications and providing 3D evironments as they are helps to provide experiences that can be related to RL.
I think creating these spaces will be a great way of recording the present for our grandkids to use as historical data.

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I see you mention Opensim in your profile, have you experimented with the opensim grids?

We operate Central Grid, it is running on the opensim and we have a different approach.

We offer estates, where you can create your own mini world within this central platform. Estates have the option to run an opensim grid server at any location or rent a managed grid server from us.

The ability to build what you want and not have all the headaches of operating a grid. This is the Central Grid. Check it out, this may be what you are looking for.

http://www.centralgrid.com

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nice promo there :)

So is it a virtual workshop or a real workshop... kinda stuck in the Netherlands so...

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