A virtual world (VW) delivers
instinctive opportunities for people to reinvent themselves in familiar
environments.Most of the information delivered
in a VW is presented with images which is the most powerful iconic symbols for
human perception (TED, 2007).To me, Second
Life (SL) is a more realistic social network that transcends other social
networking sites with realistic avatar’s created by the users.The participants and developers call their
personal avatar’s resident’s which infers they believe, in some way, they actually
are living in the cyber environment.In
a weird and wonderful way, participants get a chance to reinvent themselves as
they feel they would like to be and put themselves in the past, present, and future environments that were never possible to be a part of before.This certainly
seems to be attractive for people who have exhausted themselves on other online
social environments or who are just fed up with their own realities.Furthermore, Second Life makes essential and
tangible socialization with others within the environment possible unlike other
social networking sites. The clip below is an example of how SL transcends an event that happened 100 years ago. It is quite moving for it is almost like I was there and at that time.
A disruptive technology
has been described as a technology that functions much like an existing one,
but rather it functions more efficiently and can eventually make the mature
technology obsolete (Laureate, 2009a).Second
Life can be considered a disruptive technology even though it initially did not
take off as expected.For residents, SL
has expanded conference calling technology to multimedia.Though still used, it would seem that
conference calling takes a big hit in the capacity of users since SL has become
mainstream.The dynamics of the SL
environments are, at least initially, quite stimulating and interesting as
compared to prior static networks like conference calling.Ironically, SL has lost some of its overall popularity
since it peaked a few years back.I do
feel that SL does have substantial life left at least until the future of Web
tools (3.0) hits critical mass.In terms
of years, the newest evolution of the Web has been predicted to hit critical
mass sometime around the year 2015.It
is then that I feel SL will officially start to lose its luster.The social benefits of the current SL
environments are numerous, yet can be much improved upon.It gives everyone interested an opportunity
to not only reinvent themselves, but it gives everyone a primitive look in the
direction of the future of interactive social media.
For public K-12
students and teachers, SL has yet to really make any significant impact at
least in my neck of the woods (Michigan).In the SL environments, inhabitants certainly want to be there
(laureate, 2009b) and I am sure what replaces it will have the same
attractiveness as far as socialization.Whatever innovation it is that replaces SL, I look for it to be much
improved as far as objectives beyond socialization.In order to be an acceptable forum for K-12
learning, the focus of the environment needs distinguish itself as a purposeful
leaning environment rather than just a place to gather like at the in-office the water
cooler.I am optimistic for the future
though for the future of immersive technologies looks to be bright and at least
headed in the right direction.Am I currently
sold on VWs?Not quite.Do I predict my current perceptions to change
with the introduction and usability of the technology that will replace
SL?Most certainly.
I responded to Brandi Renfro's and Keith Klein's blog.
Digital imaging for
consumer grade still and video cameras has progressed quite aggressively over
the last decade or so.With this
advancement, the devices continuously became smaller, a great deal cheaper, and
much more advanced as far as storage and capabilities.Evolving technologies are somewhat
predictable in that new developments tend to rekindle something from the
distant past (Laureate, 2009).In the
case of digital camera imaging, there is a flashback to distant and even more
recent times.With digital imaging, the
camera owner instantly gets an image to view which delivers the opportunity to
pick and choose images to keep or delete.This gives instant opportunities for people to share stories with visuals.It reminds me of the days of the Polaroid
instant picture camera and even goes much further back resembling the initial
use of utensils for creating imaging on cave walls.Instant access to images certainly can help
convey information about an event and create more excitement and better understandings.This is nice for now most everyone has access
to a device they can instantly grab images from in order to spread the
news.Personal or public electronic news
gathering (ENG) can be accomplished by just about anyone and mainstreamed to
others easily, including television stations.Where does the realm of the digital camera go from here? Check out the short video below about the New iPad and the improved camera features below.
In late 2007, Kevin
Kelly spoke of how the Web would be transformed into in the next 5,000 days
(currently more like 3,500).He mentions
three different ways the Web and other technologies will be transformed.First, he speaks of embodiment, then
restructuring, and then co-dependence (TED, 2007).These can be applied to the realm of the
consumer-grade digital camera of today.Currently, mobile devices like smartphones and iPad series tablets are
carrying two multi-purpose digital cameras for Skype and recording still and
video imaging.Consumers have barely
scratched the surface of how and more importantly what to use these cameras
for.Because of this, it seems we have
yet to quite complete the embodiment phase Kelly speaks of.News gathering is good, but quality field
production would be difficult to accomplish using these devices.Will these cameras be of any value in the
educational sectors of our society for anything other than news gathering?Restructuring of mobile devices may include
relatively the same digital camera technologies, but also some video
stabilization and even a place to attach a tri-pod.Innovative improvements in production values
make for better quality presentations.Eventually, a co-dependence should evolve to where people will consider
their mobile cameras as necessity for their private lives, school, and
work.Similar to what Kelly expressed
about us all becoming much more personal to the Web and actually being a part
of it (TED, 2007), so to should digital cameras on Internet accessible mobile
devices.It by then looks as if these
cameras we carry will be more of a constant for more significant productions as
well as a common extension of our perceptions of prior events.
