Faculty Seminar on

Virtual Reality
Episode 1 - Context and Introductions - 1/29/08
cory ondrejka - cory.ondrejka@gmail.com
before we get started
who are you?
yes, you
who i am
now, on with our program...
 Faculty Seminar on
Virtual Reality
Episode 1 - Context and Introductions - 1/29/08
 Faculty Seminar on
Virtual Reality ?
Episode 1 - Context and Introductions - 1/29/08
 Faculty Seminar on
Virtual Reality
Episode 1 - Context and Introductions - 1/29/08
 Faculty Seminar on
Virtual Reality Worlds
Episode 1 - Context and Introductions - 1/29/08
 Faculty Seminar on
Virtual Worlds
Episode 1 - Context and Introductions - 1/29/08
 Faculty Seminar on
Virtual Communities
Episode 1 - Context and Introductions - 1/29/08
 Faculty Seminar on
Virtual Communities
Episode 1 - Context and Introductions - 1/29/08
 Faculty Seminar on
Online Virtual Communities
Episode 1 - Context and Introductions - 1/29/08
 Faculty Seminar on
Online Communities
Episode 1 - Context and Introductions - 1/29/08
 online versus virtual
community versus world
online versus virtual
online versus virtual
community versus world
community versus world
not false dichotomies
 not false dichotomies

“You are standing in the middle

of a foreboding great room.”
not false dichotomies

!=
not false dichotomies
 nota bene

this is not a value claim

 nota bene

it is an assertion of

difference
the difference between reading
and doing
or
1-to-1, sequential
1-to-1, simultaneous
many-to-many, blended
so, while history matters
focus on the edge
 realtime
spatialized
collaboration
realtime
realtime
realtime
realtime
spatialized
spatialized
spatialized
collaboration
particularly media
consumption
and creation
and creation...
so, we’ll be calling it...
 Faculty Seminar on
Virtual Worlds
Episode 1 - Context and Introductions - 1/29/08
why think about virtual worlds?
some reasons
 millions of reasons
Online Game Online Communities Online Worlds

crapload

many

lots

a few
“crapload” is a term of art
membership hard to measure
 some rules of thumb for
world-wide numbers:

Virtual worlds: 20 million

MMOs: 50 million
Social networks: 100 million

(with lots of overlap)

million$ of reason$
education
lpp
situated
situated
 heterogeneous
65% international

41% female

50% over 35 y.o.

on demand
some more reasons
theoretical questions
not to mention
mass customization
breaking global vs. local
new trends
and my favorite
amateur versus expert
amateur versus expert
amateur versus expert
traditional situation
traditional situation

amateur
and then
you may want to avert your eyes
the experts arrive
 the experts arrive
expert
amateur
 with their expertness

“The essential paradigm of cyberspace is

creating partially situated identities out of
actual or potential social reality in terms
of canonical forms of human contact.”
but
in a zero marginal cost world
are we sure about the roles?
?
?
consider
and all this despite
 low participation
Web Wikipedia Sims Open Source
Mainstream Media

65.00

48.75

32.50

16.25

0
 except...
Web Wikipedia Sims Open Source
Mainstream Media Second Life

65.00

48.75

32.50

16.25

0
why is that?
so, over the next several months
history
so, not really history
 capabilities
impacts
untested assumptions
applications
virtual worlds
and probably
 online worlds and
online communities, too
plus mobile
whatever people are doing
because
virtual worlds today
are like the web 10 years ago
so the next 10 years should be
very interesting...
stop talking now
cory.ondrejka@gmail.com
http://ondrejka.net