You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2009.
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Great blog post including a maturity model for communities and organisations.
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webcams vs virtual worlds
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Steven Spielburg likes project Natal! "It was the most tactile experience I've had so far in a gaming space," Spielberg says.
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Combine this with those glasses and we're cooking!
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Once someone can perfect this, are we all gonna be wearing glasses? Daily life could get pretty crazy!
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Things hot up as Sony introduces it's own 3D controller.
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An overview of the skills required for running events.
On the flight back from San Fransciso I whistled through a great little book -Tribes, by Seth Godin. The basic message is the world is not short on good ideas, the world is short on leadership and that it is more possible than at any other time in human history for individuals to rise up and affect change by gathering people around them into a tribe.
As Seth almost admits himself at the end, it’s a little disorganised, and I would’ve like to see more evidence for his assertions but I broadly agreed with his argument, and that the very nature of the way it was laid out and the style kinda underlines the message – you can take it or leave it. Do you get it or not? Are you in his tribe or not? Bottom line is I really liked it and it prompted all kinds of ideas, which I will save for other posts.
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Another nice Twitter visualisation tool
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Alternate Reality Gaming Company
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Great easy to understand videos about social media technologies.
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If you see nothing else on the net this week, watch this video. The future of digital experience just got a whole lot more interesting!
After the Virtual Edge conference I had a chance to spend some time soaking in the experience that is San Fransisco. (In Dan Parks terminology I added San Fransisco to my “Bat Belt of environments!”). The day started very nicely with a fantastic breakfast at The Palce Hotel dining room, which is very grand.
After that I struck out into town to catch the cable car
up over the hill and down into the North part – Fishermans wharf.
Where I went to the Buena Vista cafe, birthplace of Irish coffee:
The bartender there was hilarious and entertained customers with card tricks
I spotted a Segway (amazing self-balancing machine!) tour advertised and pounced as I’ve always wanted to have a go!
The Segway was very easy to learn and quite quickly became second nature to ride. It ate up San Fransisco’s hills too! A bit like riding an escalator when you are heading down a hill. The tour went out onto the local pier and then across to North Beach.
After the tour I had some of the local crab chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. I took the tram down to explore the Ferry building and then walked back to the hotel.
Later on I headed to Chinatown for some dim sum and then up Grant back to North Beach to find “The Saloon”, an old blues bar where Ron Hacker and the Hacksaws where playing some slide guitar. I caught a couple of songs there which was great, before joining up with Kenny and friends at the other end of the social spectrum at the Infusion Lounge for young trendies – thanks guys!
Sunday morning I did some shopping around the Union Square area, starting with a salmon eggs benedict (which is becoming a habit on this trip!) at the Daily Grill. I got myself some Levi’s (much cheaper than in the UK!), and a book on Twitter no less, for the office.
I had a great flight back, talking to a lady who was going to Cyprus to film a documentary about the people who disappeared during the troubles there 30 years ago and a guy who is in the wine trade. I also managed to squeeze in reading Seth Godin’s thought provoking book “Tribes“. Which I will save for another post….
Day 1 ended with team GPJ heading out for a nice Mexican meal and discussing team strategy.
Day 2 included some great sessions, including one from Angie from Cisco and Kenny from GPJ on Cisco’s global sales event which this year is going to be all online. The highlight was them talking about using an alternate reality game (ARG) to help keep participants engaged.
There was a panel discussion, including GPJ’s very own Chris Meyer, looking at the future of virtual events/worlds. The virtual audience was also projected up on the screen including the chat stream from the virtual environment. I logged on to the wifi in the room and joined the virtual audience as well as the physical one so that I can type up on the screen (I was getting tired and mischeivous!). For example they were talking about how the younger generation can multi-task. 🙂 I was asking the panel how they thought augmented reality would affect virtual worlds, but apart from Chris no one really engaged with that and played it safe looking 2-3 years in the future rather than 5-15 years.
Towards the end of the day it was great to finally catch up with Dannette Veale from Cisco on a panel discussion and had a long chat with her afterwards about virtual worlds, Second Life etc. as her role has much similarity to what I was doing previously with IBM.
Later on I gave a mini-interview to CeCe from InXpo about my view on how games will alter virtual events
Finally Kenny and I had time to catch up and throw some ideas around over a beer before parting. I headed into San Fransisco tired but happy and conked out in my room at the fantastic Palace Hotel.
Through the Looking Glass 
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