If you were not already aware, Studio Wikitecture’s central aim is to explore applying an open-source paradigm to the design and production of architecture and urban planning. In much the same way Wikipedia enables a loose, self-organizing network of contributors to collaborate on content creation, they have been experimenting with ways to bring together a diverse and geographically disperse community of individuals to create an architecturally noteworthy design that, in the end, is more than the sum of its parts.
We(i3D inc.) built the in world Wiki System and the support website for the project. This has been a tremendous project, and we could not be happier for the Wikitecture group for their amazing win!
Architecture for Humanity awarded its Founders Award to the third place Asia challenge finalist, Studio Wikitecture, for embracing a truly collaborative way of working using online crowdsourcing and Second Life as a way to create a highly participatory design approach.
With all the technical changes in how Second Life handles media in the past few weeks, we thought that it would be a good idea to hold off on releasing the vKiosk until the dust had settled. I am happy to announce, with the latest release candidate from Linden Labs, the platform is stable once again.
The Virtual Kiosk has many of the great features that you have come to expect for the SilverStream Network.
Web Information - Flickr, RSS, SecondPages
SLCN Channels
Contextual Content - Targeted to your Interests
The kiosk can be deployed on any parcel that you have media rights, and allow many avatars to browser the content together.
With help from the Designers at Joysco Studios, we have delivered a fully configurable and very easy to use product once again.
Release candidate 1.19.1.0 released some long awaited functionality of putting webpages on a prim. Along with that functionality a few bugs were introduced as well. The first would have seriously affected many scripts who use the technique of directing video streams to specific avatars. Qarl and Soft Linden had it fixed the very next day, and when the next release candidate was out, it was verified to be fixed. The remaining bug (that is known of) is http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-1832 which involves how images and other special video types are handled by the system. Currently they do not work the same way the previously did. Qarl and Soft were also quick to respond to this issue, though they have now decided not to look into the fix further. We believe that we have tracked down the section of software that is causing the problem, and hope that this extra knowledge will encourage the Lindens to address this issue.
With the new functionality, media handling must also be changed. Scripters can no longer be certain that the parcel is set to play video, and must be sure to use the new LSL commands to send a type and size that is compatible with their scripts. This means that if someone plays with the new media in about land and does not switch it back to video, an older video system may not work as it did previously.
In order to work around the known issues, we have spent considerable time researching how to change our products to continue to delivery media and applications at the high level of reliability that you have come to expect from us. I am happy to announce that we have begun to implement improvements that should make your experience with the SilverStream Network seamless. If you do encounter any issues at all, please feel free to email us at team(at)i3dnow.com. Our sim, i3D, has all of the latest versions of our products for your convenience.
We are sending out for immediate release an article on the latest vHUD, and the role that SecondPages.com is playing with i3D.
INTERACTIVE MEDIA BREAKS NEW BOUNDRIES IN VIRTUAL WORLD PLATFORM
i3D inc. integrates SecondPages.com directory service into their SilverStream Network to augment contextually targeted content.
Marketing firms and mainstream brands have previously lacked the technical tools to take advantage of the new opportunities that virtual world platforms offer to provide a more immersive brand experience. i3D’s SilverStream Network provides the reach, control, and ROI metrics necessary for advertisers and brand managers to take full advantage of the interactive media capabilities of these platforms.
According the i3D’s CEO, Jacob Sullivan, “The savvy consumers exploring these virtual worlds demand a higher level of relevancy to their immediate interests. Generic advertising messages and static builds simply don’t cut it, even if they are in 3D.”
Sporting a completely new programming core, the latest vHUD is easier to use, has way more content and applications, and delivers faster then ever before. Building on great partnerships with companies like SLCN.tv, SLEXCHANGE.com and SecondPages.com the vHUD 2.0 also delivers a contextually target advertisement system to only bring you content you want to see.
To complete the new look we reached out to the designers at Joysco at asked them for a color scheme that would make the vHUd look as good as it performed. The results are fabulous.
For a brief introduction to the features check out the pdf here.
After many months of development we are very excited about our new contextual ad system for the virtual world platform of Second Life. Our vision for this AD API is to begin to build the infrastructure necessary to support an advertisement based business model in the 3D Internet. We are all familiar with the concept of embedding contextual advertisement into our blogs or website on the existing Internet, and i3D hopes to extend that possibility to sim owners, gadget makers, and businesses on virtual world platforms.
I had the good fortune to be introduced to Nathan from Cruxy by a new acquaintance Bernhard Drax. We managed to strike up a great conversation on the future of music and media in Second Life, and share ideas on current media technology in Second Life.
In case you don’t know, “Cruxy is a digital marketplace for people to buy, sell, and promote each other’s original creative works. No DRM, no sticky contracts.” And they have an amazing music player in Second Life that does some incredibly tricky and cool things with the media
I am very happy to report that Nathan is evaluating the SilverStream API with the yet unreleased version of their media player. I will be sure to let you know how it goes!
I have been talking with Steve Hill of AvieMedia for some time now, and had a great opportunity to meet him in person at the Virtual World convention in San Jose. Steve and his team bring an amazing amount of experience in software development and commercial Internet system to Second Life, and currently “offers complete development, building, and consulting services in Second Life for businesses and academic institutions.”
I am happy to announce that AvieMedia will be moving onto the i3D sim, to expand their operation and work more closely with us as we continue to improve the multimedia capabilities of the SilverStream Network. They have begun to use the latest SilverStream API to explore the potential of multimedia education applications in Second Life. We are very excited to be working with Steve and his team, and look forward to future announcements with their development.
The Wikitecture Kickoff meeting is about to start. It is a novel approach to architectural design using Second Life to build a wiki like structure of Design tracking. More information at http://www.studiowikitecture.com and http://studiowikitecture.wordpress.com posted by Anthony Reisman on arcspace using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]
The LSL Test Harness was a project we completed for Linden Lab, to be used for regression testing of LSL scripts. They have now published the details, and code, for the project on their wiki.
It is a great example of an in depth look at a complete application we have completed for Second Life.
