Tweetject

A colleague pointed me to an article by Julian Bleecker (http://www.nearfuturelaboratory.com/files/WhyThingsMatter.pdf) discussing blogjects, inanimate devices that blog and I thought that this could be useful in virtual simulation exercises. The simulation is running 24/7, so it would be useful to have avatars in the simulation communicate to participants not currently inworld about what is happening. So as a trial I have set up the factory simulation to generate tweets on my ShaleBing account whenever the factory fails to meet customer orders. Getting the simulation to generate tweets is very easy, but getting it to generate messages with enough variety to make it almost seem a real person is sending them is a bit trickier. We will see whether this is useful when it is used in class next semester.

Shrinking World

Heard on the Radio 4 PM programme yesterday afternoon that Linden Labs, the operators of Second Life, are laying off 30% of their staff. More details . The coverage was very negative, arguing the virtual world bubble had burst and it was all going to go a bit Friends Reunited. A lot of it does indeed look pretty pointless. However, the difference is that there are uses of Second Life that have some commercial logic and don't just depend on the buzz. In maintaining an island in Second Life for management simulations we are effectively doing two things: paying to have a server maintained and being able to make the simulations very accessible to casual visitors. If Linden Labs slipped over the side of their flat virtual World tomorrow the simulation could be shifted onto an Opensim server that we would have to maintain in the uni: but I just do not want the hassle. I suppose as a contingency it makes sense to create a shadow version on Opensim, but it is even more of a hassle to do this if we are not sure we will need to. I will add it to the to-do list...

Back to the Virtual Factory

Have sorted out the Summer's shopping list of developments. The aim is to use the simulation for the autumn MBA Operations Management class. Before then I have to develop the links with Facebook. Have put a rudimentary Facebook app at http://apps.facebook.com/clemency/ Doesn't do a lot. Runs on an ASP.NET server using the SDK at http://facebooktoolkit.codeplex.com/ Indisputably the worst documented piece of software I have ever used, and not a lot available on the web to help.