This year, I was on a panel about open innovation, and how we need to consider collaboration and ecosystem development when building new technology solutions for the future of the internet.
Read moreIn my last blog post, I ended the post with a snarky comment about how much we talk about defining ‘the metaverse’ instead of addressing the underlying problems. I’ve recently been exposed to a new-to-me idea that expands my understanding of how lexicon is important, because it can fundamentally change how it informs our work.
Read moreMetaverse is a helpful term. It encompasses a wide range of related, emergent technologies in a way that – in theory – can help someone visualize what the output of “connected 3D worlds accessed through specialized hardware that allow users to interact as avatars and participate in a global economies for fun and for play.” In most instantiations of the metaverse in science fiction, the metaverse appears largely like our own world, copied into a
Read moreThis is a new series of mine exploring collaboration as a function of communication principles and community norms. In Part One, I explored some initial framing that I’ve developed internally about the process of communication. In this post, I’ll briefly talk about the initial considerations that come to mind with communicating across individuals with social technologies in mind. While the process of generating and translating a thought or feeling occurs internally, the act of sharing
Read moreThe concept of ‘time’ as a resource has come up in several conversations that I’ve been a part of recently, and a recent discussion led me to think more deeply about time’s role in communication. Last year, I gave a talk at SkillsMatter exploring social technologies and online communication. You can break down technological communication services across a couple of different axes, but today I’m going to write a bit more about (a)synchronicity. In particular,
Read moreI’m going to start with the disclaimer: this process involves a number of wonky settings on your computer and isn’t something that runs smoothly “out of the box” with a single click, nor is it an officially supported feature of either Hubs or Zoom. However, if you’re interested in upping your video meetings by appearing as an avatar in a virtual world, and you like messing around with applications and settings, read on. Background I’ve
Read moreThe social app that I find myself unexpectedly spending more time in these days (other than Hubs) isn’t a game that I was familiar with prior to a couple of weeks ago. Despite being an avid Nintendo fan since I got my first console at the age of seven, I had never had the delight of playing Animal Crossing until the latest release. Now, it’s hard to imagine my daily routine without it. Part of
Read moreThe conference world has been thrown for a loop with the wide-reaching recommendations for COVID-19 discouraging or prohibiting large gatherings. As the games and VR industry raced towards March, the month where both GDC and SXSW were scheduled to overlap, cancellations have meant that almost everyone has had a change in plans Naturally, VR Twitter began to weigh the pros and cons of “GDC in VR”, hoping to embrace the growing medium for a chance
Read moreI was invited to give a lightning talk at the W3C Inclusive Design for Immersive Technology workshop about what we’re doing with scene authoring through Spoke for Hubs. As with many of my talks, I think they make better blog posts, and I’m excited to share this one with you today. About Hubs & Spoke For those of you who aren’t familiar with the work we’re doing a Mozilla on social mixed reality, Hubs is
Read moreI just skimmed back into an earlier blog post and realized that while I posted about leaving High Fidelity, I never actually updated with where I was headed. I didn’t post it here, though I did an announcement on Twitter with the news: I joined Mozilla back in March to work on their Mixed Reality initiatives, and finally have been able to go full-time into open source, web-based, asymmetric social 3D / VR spaces. Working
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