RealityPrime

A senior executive at Electronic Arts (EA), the company which owns the Sims franchise, said that in light of the popularity of virtual worlds and other computer games which allow players to compete with each other via the web, the Sims may soon become a multi-player game.

It has to be a joke, right? Nancy Smith, if anyone, should be familiar with the now-euthanized EA-Land, nee The Sims Online, which was, in fact, a MMO experience based on The Sims.

But I’m thinking maybe the reporter missed the story here. I’m thinking that the point is not to turn the Sims 2 or 3 into another MMO, but to take a page from Facebook and Spore and make the Sims more of a massively single player experience, but with extensive social elements.

In other words, the doll houses are not all in the same shared town — you might visit a friend’s house, but don’t expect shared public spaces, since that’s most likely where TSO went wrong. The point is to put our creations in a shared, explorable experience (not necessarily one big space), but leave the personal drama to someone else.

Which only goes to bolster my "anti-social" theory of on-line fun. Yes, some people want to discover strangers randomly. But given how badly strangers can and do act in on-line spaces, ranging from usenet to Second Life, I think my theory works pretty well for the other 90% of us who prefer to meet new friends more through mutual interests, activities, and introductions, than via common coordinates and/or curious costumes.

Tags: News by avi
No Comments »

I didn’t go to Google I/O, mainly because I don’t actually develop anything on top of Google products and services. Still, it was great watching a video of Michael Jones, who is really the heart and soul of Google Earth and the entire Geo line. The video starts off a bit slow for those already familiar with Google’s mission, but then it kicks into high gear about half-way through with the demos (where Michael can’t resist a reference to the Prisoner…) and the introduction to the Google Earth API. 

The other major announcement, the magnitude of which probably won’t sink in for a year or so, is the agreement with ESRI to release ("from jail," as MTJ puts it), most of the world’s ESRI-based GIS information, such that Google Eartth and Virtual Earth can show it and, perhaps more fundamentally, search and index it. All it takes is the latest ESRI update and a single click of a checkbox to let the information be free. This is where the rubber meets the road (or the mashup meets the world beyond the metaverse).

I was pleased to hear about his pitch to US governors and counties to release the info — the abstract fear of terrorism is insignificant compared to all the good that can and will be done with this information. Not to get political, but I suggest you all add "Release the GIS" to your regular communication with your elected officials.

Tags: News by avi
No Comments »

Google Earth Blog

Looks like Frank Taylor is first to post the news that Google Earth will now run in a browser. That’s huge. However, don’t expect the full GE UI or feature set, according to his sources. This is meant to be driven by Javascript in the surrounding web page. Better to think of it as Google Maps goes 3D, albeit at real-time interactive frame rates.

For mashups, this will be an amazing enabler. Expect to see it anywhere you might see Maps today, assuming it’s popular, and why not? And I’m sure this is meant to be a swift kick in the pants to Microsoft’s VE, which already runs in browser and does similar mashups.

[Read more →]

Tags: News by avi
1 Comment »

So today was my official last day working for Big Stage. I’d given notice about a month ago, but had some loose ends to tie up to make sure stuff I’d been directing was working well for the upcoming launch.

I’m not going to get into any details publicly. But things are as amicable as they can be. I enjoyed working with the folks there, had a lot of fun, and wish them all the greatest success in this product and in all future endeavors.

As for me, I’m planning on starting some interesting short-term consulting work this week, which could lead to more. I’ll continue to consult while I diligently research a number of interesting full-time and startup possibilities. I’m hoping to get into something very cutting edge, as always, and to play a foundational and/or leadership role.

I’ll let you all know when the time comes, but it could take a while to find the right opportunity this time around.

In the meantime, I might have some interesting and unrelated news to blog about soon.

Tags: News by avi
No Comments »

I did an interview for the very respectable journal Cartographica with Jeremy Crampton last fall and it’s just come out. Seems to cost $12 to view, alas Jeremy has kindly provided a direct link to the PDF for free. Enjoy.

It covers some history with Keyhole my thoughts about GIS (even Net Neutrality, though I don’t know how that came up).

Tags: News by avi
2 Comments »

Adobe Drops Licensing Fees, Gives Away Flash For Devices | Compiler from Wired.com

Well, maybe Queen was overstating it a bit. It’s not even Savior of the Web3D just yet. But Adobe is making some very important moves this month. First was the news that Flash — the format — will be opened to anyone, royalty free. Adobe will make its money off the development tools, not servers and license fees. The code may or may not be opened as well. There was some talk of donating the JIT compiler code to the Mozilla foundation.

Second, they’ve put out a pre-release version of Flash 10, which contains native 3D rendering. Download and try out the demos.

What this means is that companies who already put their eggs in the Flash basket for delivering 3D to the web have been fairly well vindicated, vs. the ones that painfully went with their own proprietary ActiveX controls and whatnot.

Will Flash 10 be as fast as compiled C++ code? Not a chance. But for pushing lots of polygons, it won’t matter as much anymore, as long as we can send big vertex arrays in one call (let’s not ask about physics and simulation though) — the card does all the work. I’ll be curious to see if they allow shaders and therefore GPGPU code, but that’s a side point right now.

The key thing is, if you want to deliver a 3D app to the most number of customers without a new download and install, Flash is certainly an attractive option, especially compared to Java and Silverlight. If it becomes part of the browser, as I expect in the next few years, even more so.

Tags: News by avi
2 Comments »

Virtual Worlds News: Feature: Industry Reacts to Linden Lab CEO Shuffle with Cautious Optimism

So Philip Rosedale is stepping down as CEO, and my prediction following Cory’s "resignation" was at least half-right. I figured that pushing Cory out was a move designed to make the company more attractive to Wall St. I’d guessed that Philip would step down as CEO (correct) and take over the CTO role (thus far, incorrect — he wants to be Chief Vision Officer, or some such).

The reasoning was simple, and apparently other industry insiders agree — a new CEO and/or CTO would be more focused on profitability and growth than on chasing cool ideas or open sourcing key elements — not that either is necessarily bad, but Wall St. likes one slightly more than the other — guess which…

But now it makes much less business sense that he canned Cory first, since the new CEO might have loved Cory and even welcomed the added continuity. It seems to me that the real reason for canning Cory first might be just that — Phillip knew he was soon giving up substantial day-to-day power — a strong CTO with developers on his side can trump a Chief Vision Officer with a portfolio of, um, grand ideas (and a dwindling majority of stock — proxy fights suck). Basic board-room politics, or preparation thereof. I predict the new CTO will be someone with good management skills, strong loyalty, and not much of a technical visionary.

Or, maybe it’s all just part of the same house-cleaning some investment bankers might have urged him to do.

It’s all speculation on my part. But despite my continuing respect for Phillip and everyone at Linden for all they’ve done, I’m quite glad I didn’t actually wind up working there again. I found out at GDC that with all the stock dilution and prolonged wait for a "liquidity event," the company had to issue another round of stock options to the key employees, with another apparently four year vest. Eight plus years of waiting to fully vest is pretty out there. Talk about dedicated employees.

Well, I’m looking forward to seeing what Cory does next. Alas, Linden is now more of a morbid curiosity.

Tags: News by avi
1 Comment »

Sometimes, when I work on a project, there’s nothing we can publicly show until the product launches. And sometimes, by the time the product gets attention, I’m off working on the next big thing and can’t enjoy the show, except by proxy.

In this case, Big Stage has partnered with SonyBMG & YouTube to bring you a free sneak preview of our technology. Needless to say, we’re all very excited to see how it goes.

The process is pretty simple from your point of view: you take and upload three slightly different digital photos of your face to MichaelJackson.com (account registration required), wait an hour or so while our big iron servers do some really heavy math, and then you receive an email telling you the YouTube URL of your finished personalized Thriller video, which you can share as you wish.

That’s it.

The result will be something like this — though imagine your own face in place of my 7 month old son’s — and note: it’s not really designed for kids’ faces:

[Read more →]

Tags: Articles, Featured, News by avi
5 Comments »

Well, those of you who keep checking back for this have been very patient indeed. The delay in making the announcement was that I was waiting for the official company press release so as not to jump the gun. But that won’t come for a few months, and so I got the green light to disclose this now.

The company is called Big Stage, or sometimes Big Stage Entertainment. Never mind those acronyms. My colleagues have developed some of the best 3D facial reconstruction and animation I’ve ever seen. They recently demonstrated it at CES during Intel’s keynote, and more public demonstrations are on the way. It tends to blow people away. And the first application is way more fun than most uses of 3D on the web that I’ve seen.

My new title is "Principal Architect, User Created Content," which I’ll leave to your imaginations. As part of the deal, I sold IP from my R&D company to Big Stage in an all-stock deal. I could therefore say that I’ve successfully sold my first company (on my own anyway — I was long gone from Keyhole by the time it was sold to Google). But I don’t want to overstate things — my decision was less about the potential profit and more about whether to join this company or several other interesting options to occupy my time and bring my grander ideas to market better than I could do alone. And note, it will absolutely take additional time and resources* before you get to see those ideas come to life. For now, I’m spending a big chunk of my time helping the company launch the first product, while building a team* to take it to the next level, so to speak.

^{________________
(*) if you’re a top-notch coder and into the kinds of things I like to discuss on this blog, drop me a line. I do have a budget, and I will be holding interviews for a handful of key positions at GDC.}

Tags: Featured, News by avi
No Comments »

Tags: News by avi
No Comments »