Blog

* The Microchip Clips video contest has finished. *

You can see a list with links to all the videos on the Tech Virtual blog (http://thetechvirtual.org/blog) or on the project pages (http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/microchip-clips/videos).

In a few days we should be hearing from the jduges on the results, so check back here for announcements. Thank you to all the entrants for some really interesting projects and good luck!

Here are the final entries from September 1!

"Our World Tomorrow" by Bob Henderson





"the people inside the chip" by Patrick Sharkey







"micro chip josiah and ken" by Kyla Lozis







"Microchip Video Ally, Noelle, Jenise P.3" by Kyla Lozis







"Futureistic Thinking Machines" by Kyla Lozis







"The Future of the Microchip" by Emily DeHority

Here's another batch of entries for the Microchips Clips video contest!

Enter by midnight tonight.

To enter your own videos just follow the instructions
to creage a "project"  at http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/microchip-clips

A reminder that you CAN enter as many videos in as many categories as you like!

"Tiree the Thinking Machine" by Josh Bacigalupi





"How Would Life Be?"  by Stephen Boyd





"Neurons, Thinking, and Microchips"  by Josh Bacigalupi






"A World Without Microchips Sing-Along"   by Dan Nguyen

Here's today's batch of entries for the Microchips Clips video contest!

Enter by midnight tonight.

To enter your own videos just follow the instructions
to creage a "project"  at http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/microchip-clips

A reminder that you CAN enter as many videos in as many categories as you like!

"SCORN NOT, THE MICROCHIP"  by Matt Pierce

"A Day Without Microchips"  by Connor Coleman

"A World Without Microchips" by Matthew Robertson

"Microchip city" by jordan bell   

"life with out chips" by josh woodyard   

"A Life Without Microchips?!"  by Johnny Sanders   

Here's today's batch of entries for the Microchips Clips video contest!

LAST CALL.  Enter by midnight September 1.

To enter your own videos just follow the instructions
to creage a "project"  at http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/microchip-clips

A reminder that you CAN enter as many videos in as many categories as you like!

"Our Society is a Microchip" by Jason Spriggs

"What's Going On In There?"  by Keith Gudger

"Dialog Between Species"  by Nicole Landau

Here's the next batch of entries for the Microchips Clips video contest!

Two days to go.  To enter your own videos just follow the instructions
to creage a "project"  at http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/microchip-clips

A reminder that you CAN enter as many videos in as many categories as you like!

 "One Comparison"  by Kate Ackerly   




"Futuristic World"  by Tanisha Bhatti    

"Traveling Around the Circuits"   by Jason Nelson   (from the Lives of Microchips Series) 

"Traveling Inside Circuits" from the Lives of Microchips Series"  by Jason Nelson    (from the Lives of Microchips Series)    



"Traveling Between Circuits" from the Lives of Microchips series"  by Jason Nelson      (from the Lives of Microchips Series) 

"Computer Brain"  by  Raymond Holleb  

" The Chip"    by  Nicole Landau    

Here's the first batch of entries for the Microchips Clips video contest!

Less than 1 week to go.  To enter your own videos just follow the instructions
to creage a "project"  at http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/microchip-clips

A reminder that you CAN enter as many videos in as many categories as you like!

"A World Without Microchips" by Emily DeHority  

"I LOVE my MICROCHIPS" by Morissa Schwartz 

"No More Microchips"   by John DiJulio  

"The Future of thinking machines"   by Akul Gupta

"A world without chips"   by Akul Gupta

"Binary" by Cesar Vivas

"Inside Microchips"    by Gary Backus 

Marie Crandell of RocozaDesigns.org has created a video of her team's Waterwall project for Science Centre Singapore  Also on the team is and Stephen Crandell and Stina Cooke.

Great work Marie and team!

 Click below to watch the video.

Emily from  CoolStudyGuides.com  (and here's their YouTube channel) has entered the first video in the Microchip Clips Video Contest!

Great work Emily!

 Click below to watch the video.

 Places of Invention project wrap up

The Places of Invention project (http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/places-of-invention) with The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the National Museum of American History (http://invention.smithsonian.org) wrapped up today, with feedback from Amanda Murray who is the coordinator of the project from the Lemelson side. 

Over the course of this project there were 20 projects created (http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/places-of-invention/places-of-invention-projects) around the three design challenge sub-topics.  The topics included "Design and Interactive Space" which could be deployed in a museum, "Design a Collaborative Activity" which could also be done in a museum,  and "Model Your Place of Invention" which invited developers to describe their own idea of what a  place of invention could be comprised of.

"Design an Interactive Space"
Amanda relayed that projects “Make It Your Own” and “House of Inventions" in paricular stood out as being promising for implementation in a real museum environment.

Make it Your own

House of Inventions

In this challenge the most relevant, promising submission was Luke Hohmann’s “Problem Solving Through Collaborative Play.”    Other proposals for this challenge had useful elements such as  “Sketch n Scroll” and  “Inventor’s Park” in terms of the tools and technologies they present.

Problem Solving Through Collaborative Play

Sketch n Scroll

Inventor's Garden

“Model Your Place of Invention”
Submissions in this category were not designed as installed museum content but rather sought to use the virtual world tools to explore the concepts behind Places of Invention.  These entries may  be featured in the Places of Invention exhibition as enlarged screenshots or other images, with credit info and the big idea they included on The Tech Virtual.

Overall there is a consensus that this exercise brought out a lot of interesting issues around the topic and provided insight into how people might approach it, from many angles. 

Congratulations are in order.  It takes a lot of confidence and initiative to present an idea, model it, and make it into something. When or where else would you be able to work on such a topic with an institution like Smithsonian, on such a compelling topic?

Look forward to a recap and followup meeting during August.

 Here's the chatlog: http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/meeting-transcripts/2010-07-22-places-of-invention-reviews-12-wrapup

You can view the Second Life meeting and prototyping space for this project at:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Tech%202/177/214/34

Due to the interest in Places of Invention,  the time period for participating has been extended to
July 18.

The design briefs can be found at http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/places-of-invention

Some new projects were recently added (http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/places-of-invention/places-of-invention-projects) and it will be a great opportunity to allow those to develop.  

We will have 2 final workshop opportunities with Lemelson on July 8th and 15th at the usual 1 p.m. PST/4 p.m. EST time.  

You can attend the meetings and view the ongoing projects that have Second Life builds at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Tech%202/177/214/34

Hello!
Here's a quick heads-up, the Places of Invention (http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/places-of-invention) is due to close tomorrow, June 30. 

Those of you who are working on projects let's wrap them up and if you were hesitating to start one, the time is now.  

Don't miss this opportunity to be part of a major project at the Smithsonian (http://invention.smithsonian.org)  itself. 

I'm on daily for help and we'll still meet this Thursday even though it is July 1.

http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/places-of-invention

In June The Tech Virtual project was awarded the second annual Linden Prize (http://lindenlab.com/lindenprize) which is awarded for the most "innovative project that improves the way people work, learn and communicate in their daily lives outside of the virtual world". 

Instrumental to winning this prestigious award are the partner museums in The Tech Virtual project, and the group of talented developers who contribute to it on a daily basis. The prize serves to validate the forward-looking vision of the Gordon and BettyMoore Foundation in funding this innovative project since 2007.

Announcement:
http://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/blog/2010/06/01/announcing-the-winner-of-the-2010-linden-prize

Coverage:

06/27/10: Examiner.com:  http://www.examiner.com/examiner

06/08/10: Expolab.net: http://expolab.net/eng/?p=726

06/03/10: Massively.com: http://www.massively.com/2010/06/03/2010-linden-prize-winner-the-tech-virtual/

06/01/10: BeTheGamer.com: http://www.bethegamer.com/2010/06/03/2010-linden-prize-winner-the-tech-virtual/

06/01/10: SecondCitizen.net: http://www.secondcitizen.net/Forum/showthread.php?p=216612

06/01/10: SLUniverse.com: http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion

06/01/10: RLEtc.com: http://www.rletc.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2559

06/01/10: Simlands.com: http://www.simlands.com/second-life-news/announcing-the-winner-of-the-2010-linden-prize.html

06/01/10: Slookable.org: http://slookable.org/?p=2286

The Tech Virtual has been selected from over 130 projects as one of 10 finalists for the 2010 Linden Prize
(http://lindenlab.com/lindenprize).

     

Here's a repost of some coverage of the 4/30/10 press release.

Via:  Inventorspot.com  http://inventorspot.com/articles/lemelson_41053?

Today the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation launches a new project on The Tech Virtual.

It's called "Places of Invention" (http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/places-of-invention) and invites you to contribute ideas about how to shape this exhibition in three categories: designing an interactive exhibit space, designing an activity which allows visitors to experience collaboration, or desinging your own place of invention.  

Below find today's release from Lemelson Center's Prototype newsletter.  This project will run through June 30, and feature weekly reviews of the projects submitted.  Don't miss this chance to collaborate on this fascinating topic.
You can get started by reading the design briefs at http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/places-of-invention.

We Want to Know How Place Shaped YourCreative Process Contribute to the Development of a Smithsonian Exhibition The Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation today launches a collaborative design project with The Tech Virtual at the The Tech Museum in California. Through a series of design challenges hosted by The Tech Virtual, the Lemelson Center invites the public to develop and prototype design concepts for the Center’s next exhibition about modern and historic “hot spots” of invention and innovation. The Tech Virtual is a new approach to creating invention and science-based exhibit content for museums using the virtual world of Second Life as a platform for content development, allowing the Lemelson Center to collect fresh ideas and utilize the most innovative tools available. The public can contribute ideas in one or all of these categories: design an interactive exhibit space that allows museum visitors to model their own place of invention; design an activity that encourages museum visitors to practice collaboration, a key feature of many innovative communities; or use a virtual environment or other design tools to model the contributor’s own place of invention. For design briefs and submission guidelines, visit http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/places-of-invention. Image Caption: In the early 1970s, researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center removed conventional seats, desks, and tables from a conference room and filled it with beanbags to create a space for inventive thinking and collaboration as they tried to design a digital user interface. Their ideas led to the computer desktop screen and functions we know so well today. Photo by Xerox PARC.

First Expolab design round wraps up!
As you may have read,  the Expolab exhibit designing round for their first exhibition ended on April 8. 
The team has a blog post about the results at  http://expolab.net/eng/?p=550

The team determined to offer one prize which went for the Connexions project concept by Maria Bobes (http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/expolab/expolab-projects/connections).   This concept was developed at one of their original in-person workshops, and developed into a Second Life model which you can view at
http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Tech%202/143/211/33

      

This exhibit really stood out from the begining.  It has a great concept of simple activity involving string and some configuration with a laptop in the middle which tracks connections and degrees of separation online. It incorporates a computer and a screen without relying either for interactivity.

Online voting and in-person event April 8
The appeal of the exhibits was determined by an online voting period that coincided with an in-person event at Citilab itself in Barcelona.  You can see the results at http://expolab.net/local   You can see second life running on some of their computers at Citlab, and people were able to look at the exhbits using avatars logged on at these stations. Wish I could have been there!

Another whole batch of photos are available at http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/expolab/images

Six exhibits to be developed at Citilab
Expolab team reports that they will work to develop  Expolab Introduction Cube, Connexions, Photography, Digital Skies, Idea Bank, and Point of View.  The plan is to build these out into real exhibits over the next few months.   I'd like to invite everyone to continue to refine these ideas and take these exhibits to the next stage where they can be more detailed and implemented.   If we can make these plans even more detailed, it will make them more usable for other museums as well.

Overall the team reported that the exercise of using The Tech Virtual was really instrumental in developing better ideas, and refining the overall approach.  The Expolab group (Irene, Ramon, Astrid) )utilized the feedback from our Second Life design review meetings to get valuable insight into shaping this project.  These weekly walk-throughs were crucial in developing momentum and cohesiveness in all the projects.  Some ideas were tossed out, some were developed further, and that was the whole point!  If you missed these, be sure to join us for the next round of designs.

Next steps - details and fabrication
There were some great entries.   I'm looking forward to seeing how these develop into something that is built in the actual center. Meanwhile I'll be looking to reconnect with Expolab to see what their next steps are, and will post updates here.  Expolab is an ongoing experimental project that will have another exhibition topic after these exhibits are built. 

Next up for Tech Virtual... "Water" in conjunction with Science Center Singapore (http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/water).  Jump in and experience designing with this international team.  Weekly meetings start next week, with dates and times to be announced in the Second Life group and on the project page. 

See you there,
Bob Ketner

With only one week remaining, here's a look at some of the concepts for the Expolab project. 

You can find the the design brief at http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/expolab

Explore the exhibit prototypes at http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Tech%202/158/210/33

Here's a look at some of the current exhibits in their current state.

Each Expolab exhibit must fit within a 2 meter x 2 meter space. 

Concept piece about locating places on a large globe.

Unnamed project about work and communication.

Shrinking world - Growing Connections by Robert Stephenson visualizes a person's connections on
a large globe.

Digital Skies by Bob Ketner connects a web-cam inside a chamber which simulates changing time zones.
Still under construction.

Networks by Astrid Lubsen and the Expolab team illustrates human networks in an interactive cube.

 Photography by Astrid Lubsen and the Expolab team explores the transformation of photography from analog to digital.

Connections by Astrid Lubsen and the Expolab team allows people to visualize connections with digital and physical pieces.

Endless Line concept piece

Idea Bank by Bob Ketner uses simple images and thoughts to form connections as with hyperlinks.

 

 Points of View by Marie Crandall allows visitors to explore notions of safety with modern technology.

Marie is principal at UK based Rocoza Designs

Another exhibit under development.

There are 2-4 more exhibits in development without titles - looking forward to seeing these progress! 

Did any of these get you thinking?    We are welcoming more concepts until April 7. 

You can check out the design brief and instructions are at http://thetechvirtual.org/projects/expolab 

The winners shown below, chosen by a distinguished panel of judges, are outstanding examples of tools to help people work together better, make better decisions together or solve tougher problems together to create a better world.  The final winner(s) of the Program for the Future Challenge will be chosen in a few weeks by staff from The Tech Museum and other participating museums, after the entrants have time to develop "demos" or museum exhibits for their entries. The project that won the Engelbart Award, HealthMap, is a web platform that combines official and informal (e.g. Google News) sources for an up-to-the-minute global map of human and animal diseases.  The platform has been recognized as a leading indicator of disease outbreaks such as the H1N1 flu. The Engelbart Prize carries an award of $1000 USD.   In addition to the five semi-finalists, other projects deemed worthy of honorable mention by the judges and/or the conference organizers are Charity Connect, The Synergy Engine,  Transit Everywhere, Bloomer--Collective Intelligence,  Intelligent Web,  Fair-Share Spending and Hugging Media.

Dr. Douglas Engelbart (right) congratulates Clark Freifeld, a co- author of the HealthMap project via Skype (photo by Bill Daul).

The Program for the Future Challenge Semi-Finalists

	HealthMap: Global Disease Alert Map	John Brownstein, Harvard Medical School; Clark Freifeld, Mass. General Hospital; et al.
Engelbart Prize Winner		HealthMap brings together disparate data sources to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health.
	Your Health vs. The Crowd	Alex Carmichael, Cure Together
		How does your health compare to thousands of other people? This interactive exhibit will compare visitors' biometrics with all other visitors, and allow people to look up recommendations from the crowd for how to deal with a number of health conditions, drawing on the wealth of data collected at CureTogether.com.
	The Deliberatorium: Towards Large-Scale Structured Deliberation	Mark Klein, MIT Center for Collective Intelligence
		Large numbers of people view, comment on, rate, and contribute issues, ideas, pros, and cons for solving a complex multi-disciplinary challenge in a way that enables radically improved signal-to-noise ratios, encourages evidence-based reasoning, and allows effective allocation of community attention.
	Sourcemap	Leonardo Bonanni, MIT Media Lab
		A web tool for understanding where things come from and what they are made of in order to foster an informed discussion around the issues of environmental and social sustainability.
	Dreamfish: a global work cooperative	Tiffany von Emmell, Dreamfish
		A global work cooperative, we are building a work world for all that alleviates poverty and empowers the disadvantaged through microenterprise development networking. Women entrepreneurs moving out of poverty, unemployed professionals, elders starting next career, young independents making a difference - All are welcome to dreamfish.com.

Don't miss this unique conference on collaboration systems happening this Wednesday, March 3 at The Tech Museum in San Jose.

Organized by a batch of collaboration specialists known as Program for the Future, and basing their ideals on Doug Engelbart's vision of developing tool systems that can deal with the world's complex and "wicked" and problems - this conference will be an experiential dive into the real-time use of multiple collaobration systems.

Finalists  of the Program for the Future Challenge will be announced during the day - along with the announcement of one winner of the Engelbart Prize in the evening program (brief agenda)(full agenda).

Meshing virtual worlds, Google Wave, real time reporting from tables, video and more, this is one not to be missed.  Less than 8  "real world" attendee spots remain open  for the venue in San Jose, and if you can't make it in person, register as a virtual participant.  Join in with all the collaborative tools you can bring to this unique experiment.

Real and virtual registration at: http://colaboration2010.eventbrite.com

There will be multiple opportunities to link up with some of the most talented tool makers and users there, so here's your invitation to get involved on all these levels.
See you there,
- Bob Ketner

advisor Hirishi Ishii on the front cover.

Not only that, I was happy to see featured in the issue the artwork of CoLABoration 2010 organizer Eileen Clegg, Chuck House of Stanford Media X, Martha Russel, and SRI VP Stephen Ciesinski. It's great so see so many of our direct community featured in this magazine under the feature Advanced Design Research in issue 142.

-Bob Ketner