It can be easy to dismiss a device like this with arguments of complexity and scale, but it was equally as far-fetched to imagine even 20 years ago the advances we have made in computing to date.

Image courtesy of david.orban on Flickr. He has a whole set of the 2007 Summit

Runitai Linden wrote the controls for the Flycam feature and instructions for getting it to work with your SpaceNavigator can be found on the Second Life Wiki. To set to the Joystick Flycam config window you will first need to access the Client menu in the SL Viewer. If you don’t see it in the drop-down menu across the top of the window use the key combination CTRL+ALT+D and it should appear.

It took me a few tries to get my camera under control. After a combination of setting the Joystick Flycam settings according to the wiki, restarting the SL client, and re-enabling the Joystick Flycam feature I was able to get things working pretty well without causing the camera to spin wildly. If you happen to find yourself in a tailspin, simply hit the ESC key to return to your normal trailing camera view.

Don’t forget to check that you have a current version of the SpaceNavigator driver. The easiest way to do that is to use the Update Wizard installed with the 3Dconnexion software.

Happy panning/zooming.

Photo courtesy of Rev Dan Catt on Flickr

Now, if they only had a logo that made use of gentle gradients and reflections it’s web2.0-ness would be complete.

I stumbled across this site looking through one of the presentations at the site for the course T-502 (Learning Media that Bridge Distance and Time) (on of Harvard’s course iSites).

What - Kaneva is an online virtual world (currently in live beta) where participants can create a free account and download client software to log into the world. It is not a game, it is a virtual, social world - like Second Life, Active Worlds or There.com. When you create an account a space on Kaneva’s community web site is also created for you that operates similarly to MySpace. Think of the whole thing as a mashup between a social network and a virtual world.

Where - My initial foray into Kaneva was unaccompanied and I missed a lot of what was happening - having no idea where to go. Upon logging in I found myself at the mall, the default location for everyone’s first visit to the world. In the mall you can buy clothes, shoes, and a few other things to further customize your avatar. Things that you purchase are stored in your inventory until you are ready to use them. Although there are plenty of people who are happy to chat with you in the mall there are other places to visit too - this was the piece I was missing.

Rich showed me how to search for hangouts and people and use the Travel button to get to places I find (like teleporting in SL). Now Kaneva was beginning to feel much larger.

There are two types of spaces in this world - personal and community. Each person is given an apartment to decorate and invite friends to when they create their account - these are the personal spaces. Additionally, every group that is created on the Kaneva community web site is given a community space in world that is also customizable.

Who - The first thing that struck me about the Kaneva community is just HOW social they are. I had been getting lots of raves and friend requests as I wandered around - not even realizing it until I happened across the Personal Messages window, only to find three whole pages of requests. The same thing happens on the community web site.
Something else that surprised me was that the community allows teens, and spaces containing adult content are marked as “restricted,” which essentially denies access to those who are underage.

Kaneva is ALL about being social and that is how they are differentiating themselves from other virtual worlds. They try to make it as easy as possible to stream in and share media from other social web sites within apartments and the community spaces.

How - So what is the business model here and how do they plan on making money? Credits. Right now everyone is spawned into Kaneva with credits that they can spend on clothing and furniture. In the future, credits will be available for purchase to allow residents to build and customize their spaces out further.

What sets Kaneva apart from other MMOs is the Kaneva Game Platform (KGP). The KGP is open source and available for download to enable anyone to develop their own virtual world. While the KGP is not directly tied to the live Kaneva world, those who are interested can host their own servers for custom development (more here). There are licensing options outlined on their website. Kaneva also supports a developer community.

Kaneva looks very interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing more examples of how people are sharing media in world.

Unfortunately, the platform is only available for Windows at the moment, so Mac and Linux users will have to wait a little before they are able to connect.

Kaneva Inc is based in Atlanta, GA.

Today CommonCraft posted some concise thoughts on OpenID and what wide adoption would mean for online communities. Two projections for the future really stand out to me:

“More Lurker Conversion? On a lot of community sites,
registration is a barrier to participation. Lurkers are often
unregistered. There will always be a high proportion of lurkers, but
OpenID could lower the registration barrier enough to bring new people
into the fray”.

“More Incentives for Good Behavior? Reputation is a big deal
online, either implicit (name recognition) or explicit (ebay rating).
If OpenID increases the portability of reputation, people may be
motivated (and rewarded) to build a positive reputation across sites”.

More conversation sounds fantastic to me, and I wholeheartedly agree with this projection simply because I hate registering to comment on a blog, and love when I can use my TypeKey ID or Google ID (in the case of Blogger). Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to use my OpenID?

Evaluating online reputation will become more of a necessity the more connected we all become, along with the increasing frequency in which we participate in computer-mediated interactions. It is a vital skill that we all need to learn if we haven’t already, and that our children need to learn as well. I’m all for tools that help usget to that end. It would be interesting to see it tied to more services like Opinity - though I admittedly do not spend too much time actively developing my reputation on that service, and wish it was possible to hook more services into it. It is a step in the right direction though.

Two things really catch my attention watching this… first is the ease at which the operator is able to zoom into the document that is in focus. It isn’t the first time we have seen this aspect of the interface featured, but the manipulation of viewpoint on the 3D object as well as the zoom capability on the browser window reveals the power that a human gesture can have on a virtual/digital object. The operator is no longer relegated to peering through the portal of the Window, but is instead given more direct control of the perspective. I simply can’t imagine having to lean forward in my chair to get a better look at my document using the Multi-Touch interface. After spending hours building in SL I dream of having the ability to ALT + click over my Windows to change perspective.

The second part of this demo I find amazing is that there are points where there are two operators working simultaneously with both hands in what appears to be a single program. My tiny mind can barely begin to image the sorts of collaborative projects that could be conceived with this tool.