Is There a Language of Science?

There seems to be. Mars and I continue to work well together, despite our different backgrounds. It's a 'professional' relationship - we pretty much show up, work on the project, and go away. And in that sense it's a great relationship.
One of the delights of being an engineer (I'm a graphics programmer in RL)is the noticably low level of office politics. Not that there's none, but there's less than in any other enterprise I've been involved in. Who needs to create an enemy when there's the code base?
Or, in our case, waaaay too many quats and Euler angles. Little did we know when we started this just HOW MANY of these 3D rotation problems we'd have to work ourselves.
  Rob  actually sent me a script for this post, so I'll try to follow it. As we explained somewhere in the wiki, Mars and I met just 1 day before we started building. I ran into him at the planetarium at spaceport Alpha (if you haven't been, GO!) He showed me the virtual tech, and we decided on the spot to try to speed build an exhibit in 4 hours.
Well, 4 hours was enough to design, but not to build. So we've been building ever since.
The combination of wiki and SL works pretty well. The wiki is a bit too 'pull'. Sometimes I wish we just had a whiteboard in the exhibit to write on. Since we're on different time schedules, we often need to pass information like 'don't move this or that'.
Second Life isn't an ideal tool for prototyping. There are too many restrictions imposed by the rather clunky nature of SL. For example, things need to be bigger in SL than in RL, since everyone is 'clumsy'.  I'm used to working with CAD tools that, while they lack the immersive reality of wandering around inside it while you work, make up for it with far greater power.
Rob's last question was why we are doing this. I can certainly only speak for myself, not for Mars. My motives are a) It's fun! Any engineer who doesn't have fun with their skills isn't a good engineer. My goal as an engineer is 'to make software that makes my users smile'. b) it's a good way to learn a new technology. I've seen a lot of interesting things I can do in SL now. c) It's a good way to meet new folks and make useful contacts.

Howdy - Rob's asked Mars and I to start contributing to the blog.

This has been a sort of amazing week. In 5 days we've gone from not even knowing each other to having built this amazing contraption.

 One of the new criteria is showing the spirit of Silicon Valley. Well, I think these amazing exhibits show exactly that spirit.   One part networking, three parts creativity, 99 parts hard work. 

Mars continues to be amazing. I had to go out for a couple hours. I came back, he'd built this great airplane gimbal lock demo. It's fun working this way - I leave, I come back, something has changed.

Today, we discussed several things:

First, some new clarification about judging, courtesy of guidance from the president of the Tech Museum.  We now have clear criteria that each exhibit must have (go through the SL-to-RL process, relevance to theme, core educational lesson, spirit of Silicon Valley) to be considered for RL creation.  We also defined judging dates: Feb 29, March 15, March 30.  To have your exhibit judged on a given date, send a message to Avi Marquez / Nina (nsimon@thetech.org) to that effect.  You do not have to be present on that date, but you do have to have your criteria covered either on your webpage or in your SL exhibit.

We also selected a new exhibit frame for the exhibits that is lighter prim-wise (thanks to Lydia Milner for the clean design).  If you own a project, please swap the exhibit frame at your convenience.  You can find the new frame in the front of Parkside Exhibit Workshop.

We also talked about possibilities for the green screen exhibit.  Finally, we are now featured on the menu at Buck's of Woodside, a famous Silicon Valley restaurant.  Enjoy the link, or if you can, go see the real thing (I still haven't gotten a chance to...)!

Many people have asked why exactly winning exhibits are being chosen.  What makes an exhibit a winner?

Because this is a pilot project, we've been learning as we go about what's possible and what to expect.  Now that we're a few months in, we have a better understanding both of The Tech's specific exhibit needs and want to share those with you.  I apologize that these were not available from the very beginning; we're learning as time progresses.

The Tech supports and encourages exhibit design on topics of all kinds, and implementations that are both RL-possible and SL-specific.  However, if you would like your exhibit to be considered for the contest to have your exhibit created in RL this spring, please read on.

In June, The Tech will open 10 exhibits on the theme of "Technology in Art, Film, & Music."  We are selecting these exhibits from the website (http://thetechvirtual.org) and the SL exhibit workshop between now and March 30. 

To be a "winner," an exhibit should meet the following four criteria:
1. have a presence as a project both on the website and in Second Life.
2. relate to the core theme of the role of technology in art, film, or music.
3. tie back to an educational "core principle" about art, film, or music.  Examples might include "what is a pixel?" "what is audio compression?" etc.
4. relate to the theme of the "spirit of silicon valley."  NOTE: This is less important, a nice-to-have but not essential.

There are many great exhibits being created that don't meet these criteria.  That's fine--and many of these will be included in the virtual museum, and are eligible for the additional $1000 prizes for most innovative virtual exhibit, best collaboration, best SL-only design, and most active virtual participant. 

IF you want your exhibit to be explicitly considered for the SL-to-RL contest, please send a message to Avi Marquez / nsimon@thetech.org when you consider your exhibit "done" and ready to be judged.  Also, please reflect how your exhibit addresses the four criteria above on your project webpage by adding a wiki page called CRITERIA or something like that.

I'm sorry that these criteria are coming out so late in the process.  They are also reflected in the FAQ on the contest.  You are all part of this early experiment for The Tech and we truly appreciate your patience and continued feedback as we learn more about how to really make this work.  If you have questions or comments about the criteria, please leave a comment on this post or join us for discussion every Friday at 10am in Parkside Exhibit Workshop.

What’s the Big Idea?

    Museum exhibit people can be obnoxious. We have to make just about everything difficult. Nearly every day, someone comes up to me and says “I have a great idea for an exhibit!” and proceeds to tell me about an interactive they’ve dreamed up, or a topic they love. (My sister insists that an exhibit about wax would pack ‘em in.) Then I ask the dreaded question: “So, what’s the point?” I’m not trying to be mean, but trying to get across that to be an effective exhibit, it needs a why. It needs a Big Idea.

    The Big Idea is a frustrating master. Without one, you cannot hope to know if your exhibit was effective. But with one, you are constantly bound by the question “does it speak to the Big Idea?” The concept has provoked many a developer ranting “but it’s fun darn it!”

    So why does this matter? Well, we hope that exhibit designers and builders aren’t creating exhibits for themselves. There are these people called visitors, and the exhibit, ultimately is for them.

     A good exhibit changes a visitor. The change can be in their knowledge or skills, their attitude or behavior, or their life conditions. An exhibit on the plight of the purple-horned snorkack could change my attitude toward them and my behavior (if I feel compelled to help them.) An exhibit about the history of 18^th century flatware will certainly add to my knowledge base. What will your exhibit do for the visitor?

If you have a project in SL, what is your big idea?

     The following is NOT a big idea: Biodiversity

     That is a topic. It’s a good one, but it isn’t a big idea.

     This is a big idea: Diversity of life is necessary for the survival of all living things; diversity is under threat primarily by human beings living in the environment, but things can be done and are being done to help. (Courtesy AMNH)

     A big idea is a complete sentence. Ideally it should answer the Enduring Question. For this example, the Enduring Question is: “Why should we care about the diversity of life?”

An effective way of creating a successful exhibit is to work backwards. Start with the end result – not the interactive, but the experience the visitor will have – and work back to the concepts.

Stages of Backward Design:

            1) Think about what you want your visitor to come away with.

            2) Think about how you will know if they “get it”

            3) Plan the experience to make sure they do!

So, what is your Big Idea? How can designing backwards help your exhibit to be more effective?

(Info gathered from The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, Dr. Elee Wood and the Shaping Outcomes training)

From roughly two months of my exploration with our virtual museum project, or the Second Life platform as a whole, the collaboration feature is one of its beauties.  The fact that creative and technical minds from all over the world could meet and prototype together in one virtual space is really amazing to me.

Many thanks to Siiri4 Hirvi and Soaring2 Kondor, both are high-tech professional that live and work in Germany, for spending their time and effort in helping us to work out a solution that links events in Second Life into real life, and vice versa.  Their solution is based on the XML-RPC mechanism, where a Python script on the client computer communicates with a LSL script running inside a Second Life object.  This opens up the door to a lot of useful applications that I could think of.  Soaring2 did the whole Python and LSL scripting in just a day in his Linux box, but the porting of his mechanism into my Windows platform took much longer.  At one point when I was about to give up due to problems with the serial implementation of my Windows-based Python, Soaring2 pulled out his old Windows box that he no longer use, and worked out all the details to make it work.

Wonderful collaboration experience, wonderful peoples.

-Emil

Today, we had a great session that focused on the question of how the contest interfaces with or conflicts with the spirit of collaboration in the Parkside Exhibit Workshop.  We talked about motivating factors for participation in the platform as a whole, and most agreed that they were more interested in a creative, friendly space to realize some cool exhibits than a place to win a prize and cash out in the Bahamas (well, not exactly). 

We were mixed from the beginning about the contest/prize component of this project.  We ultimately decided to implement prizes to jumpstart participation, but our real goal is to support a creative community.  Towards that end, we do have a couple additional discretionary prizes for general participation, but ultimately, $$ is not the way to go here.

We talked a bit about ways to encourage more collaboration on exhibits.  Keystone Bouchard mentioned that he really cared more about working out unsolved problems with the Wikisonic project than anything else and wanted to work with others on it.  I suggested that we create some exhibits that are explicitly group-owned, that anyone can be a part of anytime.  Per the discussion, I also installed a drop box in Parkside where you can drop free, full-perms resources to share with other builders so that we can really create a basis of support and supportive objects and scripts.

I'd love to hear more from folks about how we can best encourage, support, and reward participation without it being fundamentally linked to money.  We have some fabulous participants sharing lots of time and energy, and I am so gratified and amazed by the enthusiasm and positivity of Parkside Hall.  I hope it can continue to grow into a really active place.  Please share your suggestions for how to enable this as comments here, or drop a notecard in the mailbox in front of the museum.

Some tangible changes that were mentioned:

• open posting board in Parkside.  When you enter, you will see this board on your right.  You can upload textures onto it with questions, challenges, creative thoughts, etc. by dragging them while holding down CTRL.
• new exhibit of Reflexive Architecture by Keystone Bouchard outside.  If you haven't checked it out, please enjoy this awesome exhibit.  We will start holding sensor scripting classes soon--let me know if you want to help.
• new museums coming soon.  I'm talking to some other museums about working their exhibits into this process.  This means more challenges, more themes, more workshops.  I'll keep you posted...

On Friday, we had a great meeting in Parkside Exhibit Workshop to discuss progress of The Tech in SL and exhibit projects people are working on.

First, we discussed new and exciting changes to The Tech in SL:

• Lydia Milner/Marie's project, The Painter, has been selected for creation in RL at The Tech!  Many congratulations to Marie on her excellent work.  You can follow the progress of this project in Parkside Hall or via its webpage, which now includes some Tech documentation on how this will be realized in RL.
  
• Help Wanted Signs for Projects.  Per requests at last week's meeting, we now have help wanted signs in the Exhibit Frame area.  Take a copy of one for free and place it with your exhibit space to solicit help with building, scripting, or other things.
  
• Exhibit Opening Weds Feb 6.  On Wednesday at 10am LST, Keystone Bouchard (Jon Brouchoud) will install three of his exhibits from the Gallery of Reflexive Architecture outside Parkside Hall and will give a talk about his work.  He will also share some code under Creative Commons for you to use to create your own sensor masterpieces.
  

• Terms of Service for building in Parkside Hall.  We discussed the proposed Terms of Service, which are currently posted for review in Parkside Hall.  They will be installed on the back wall of Parkside this week.