Future of virtuality in-the-making: Reflections from Stanford University

My 3-month visiting scholarship at Stanford University's H-STAR Institute marked a very important turning point in my research framework, in addition to its perfect timing, which coincided with a critical phase of the dynamic social innovation process in Silicon Valley. It is even possible to claim that the outcomes of this ongoing social innovation process (use, sharing and co-production of 3D content online) that has been growing since the early 1990s can be considered as a defining moment for the World Wide Web in general.

As a PhD researcher who studies collaborative design and innovation in virtual worlds, my observations have introduced me the rising culture of technological and social innovation through collaboration and co-creation in Silicon Valley (SV), as well as research and development studies on these emerging Web technologies, focusing on social sciences, humanities and educational studies, at Stanford University.

Background: Stanford University and Silicon Valley as leading fields of collaborative social innovation

In his phenomenal trilogy on economy, society and culture of The Information Age, Manuel Castells writes that SV's success in the second Industrial Revolution is, above all, related to the "dynamism of its social structure, continuous creation of startup firms", and "its own social dynamics to attract knowledge, investment and talent from all around the world". The importance of SV comes not only from its exceptionally rich networking opportunities with bright innovators (developers and practitioners) and IT veterans throughout the history of digital communications, but also from the innate culture of curiosity, collaboration and creativity. Although companies and venture capitals value professional ethics and privacy, collaborating on social and technological innovation is just about the natural way of doing things in the Bay Area. In fact, another very good illustration of this collaborative culture is Stanford’s continuous research support on knowledge sharing with the professional communities and independent developers.

For my research study, experiencing Stanford University and SV's culture also had major importance, as my framework contains both technological affordances and social dimensions of collaborative virtual environments (CVEs). This was a possibility to make first-hand observations on how (and by whom) these technologies are created, and how individual visions behind this immense socio-technical paradigm form a network of collective creativity and innovation.

Visit at Virtual Human Interactive Lab on Stanford.

During my stay, I had the chance to meet with Virtual Worlds (VW), Web3D, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) experts as well as platform and content developers, professional users and communities (such as digital fabrication specialists, builders, performance artists and educators). I also attended Professor Jeremy Bailenson's very inspiring class 'Virtual People' and made field visits to some remarkable institutions, companies and labs around Stanford and Bay Area. These visits included Linden Lab, creator of Second Life, meeting with a Unity3D executive, Prof. Bailenson’s Virtual Human Interaction (VHIL) Lab at Stanford, and Autodesk's Gallery of user-created professional projects in San Francisco, and a TEDx event "Living by Numbers" at Stanford.

I’ve also had the chance to attend two important events on WebGL and open standards for a 3D Web; a WebGL Developers Meetup (organized by Damon Hernandez and Tony Parisi) in San Francisco, and the 3rd WebGL Camp (organized by Henrik Bennetsen) at Google Mountain View Campus.

Experiences: Past, present and future of Virtual Environments

WebGL and other open standards for online 3D visualization are essential for a number of reasons, including the growing variety and performances of personal communication devices, increasing potential of ICTs for global collaboration among many professionals, and the need for more immersive and productive co-presence experiences on the Web. The current trends in Web3D communities also show that 3D assets should be freely shared, evaluated and remixed by online communities in order to get integrated to the culture of Web. While some of the current VW technologies such as Second Life or Unity3D enable their users to co-create virtual content and build their own virtual spaces (either as social spaces, MMORPGS, mobile games, 3d interfaces, etc), trends and developments in the IT market shows that more users prefer in-browser spaces and mobile applications to isolated walled-gardens. It is often noted that mobile devices and location-specific applications (including social media apps and AR) are on their way to be the dominant paradigm, with a wider user base than conventional browsers in USA.

WebGL camp at Google: Henrik Bennetsen.

Interoperability and transfer of assets within worlds have also been major topics of discussion in the VW field for many years. It is not only avatars that users wish to transfer, but also their assets (both from within the world to other worlds, and from other software to any world). World designers and content creators have been using the software (or VW platform) that they have access to (and skills with), and searching for ways to use their assets in the most effective way. To support external content development, Linden Labs recently announced that Second Life began to allow Mesh content and began experimenting with the Skylight project on the Web. Unity3D allows creation and editing of Mesh content, by which users can create their own spaces (and artifacts) and share online and through mobile Web. 3D content storing standards, such as COLLADA, enable assets to be shared and re-used by many users.

On that note, some, what makes VWs, Web3D and AR applications alike is the use of similar 3D assets in specific formats, moving these assets from one platform to another, and working with modular online content as with they work with graphical hypertext. This is also where research methodologies on the study of "virtual worlds" exceeds to be a study of this particular (maybe even a little too hyped) realm, but becomes an issue of online collaboration and co-creation of an "immersive web" (idea inspired by conversation with Damon Hernandez, Web3D/AR specialist).

Reflections: Importance of Research Scholarships and ICDK's Presence in Silicon Valley

I believe, ICDK's presence in Silicon Valley has a critical importance for the improvement of academic and professional contacts between Denmark and San Francisco Bay Area, in that it operates as a hub for innovative individuals and institutions to get together, share knowledge and collaborate through such visiting programs, conferences, workshops and several other occasions. Therefore, I believe ICDK's significance in the area comes from not only its value as an institution that supports innovative works, but also its social function in accommodating Danish researchers and practitioners and motivating them to collaborate. By hosting and welcoming guest researchers, offering invitations to events in the area, facilitating contacts and arranging research possibilities, meetings with Danish professionals and entrepreneurs in SV and helping guests to get plugged in to the community, ICDK works as an indispensable resource during the whole visiting experience.

For researchers, visiting scholarships provide far-fetched opportunities to meet creative communities of SV, share international and multi-disciplinary know-how on current technological trends, establish long-standing partnerships and (academic and professional) networks, facilitate meetings, interviews and collaborations with leading experts in the field, and many others.

Visit at Linden Lab, responsible for Second Life.

Networkings: Danish Presence in Silicon Valley

It was really refreshing to see a wide and active presence of Danish institutions, companies, entrepreneurs and researchers in Silicon Valley, especially considering how successfully they have adapted to the collaborative innovation culture of the Bay Area. Other than my association with Innovation Center Denmark (ICDK) through several events and gatherings, I’ve had the chance to meet with Henrik Bennetsen, a former Stanford Humanities Lab researcher and CEO of Katalabs, and Caitlyn Meeks from Unity 3D, a leading Danish-based company in 3D content creation software. These two are of course not the only Danish-based companies in the area, but they were major figures in my research field and interviewing them provided major contributions to my thesis.

– Henrik Bennetsen is the CEO of Katalabs, developer of OurBricks, which is a new Web platform for storing, sharing and displaying 3D content using Collada as an exchangeable file format and WebGL for in-browser visualization. Katalabs built a Blender plug-in for Ourbricks, in order to afford modeling in 3d authoring environment, and using the plug-in to place into OurBricks archive, or Kataspace's multi-user sandbox. Ourbricks team recently released their new API, which enables users to design their own applications and interfaces according to their individual needs. By gaining inspiration from the legendary LEGOs, Bennetsen draws a path to a "mainstream 3D", that is "3D for the web", and defines the purpose of Ourbricks as being a conduit for 3D content, similar to what YouTube means for online video.

– Caitlyn Meeks Ferragallo is the Unity3D Asset Store Manager, and a virtual world building veteran. Unity Technologies is a developer firm of Danish origin, which has offices in San Francisco, Denmark, Lithuania, UK, Sweden and Korea. Unity3D provides a creative platform to import and animate from various sources (3d models, animations, textures, scripts etc) and export designs to various platforms (PC, MacOS, mobile devices and game consoles). Asset Store enables sharing and reusing 3D designs made by others, which offers another model of online collaboration where builders can re-use and remix each others' creations for their own designs. Unity is not a world, it's a world editor; therefore, it targets a wide variety of users, creators and enthusiasts who are interested in creating virtual content for amateur or professional purposes.

Ideas: How can Denmark participate in this emerging/present socio-technical paradigm more competently?

In addition to the successfully ongoing projects and collaborations between ICDK, Silicon Valley and Stanford, some of the major strengths/opportunities for further development may be:

• Creating larger networks, and implementing know-how and technological vision by more visiting scholars, joint workshops and research projects (such as the Viking Ship Museum virtual reconstruction project currently ongoing at RUC)
• Supporting educational activities and research on learning, teaching and designing new collaborative educational spaces
• Inviting professionals and companies to present strategies and business models
• Partnering with established institutions like H-STAR or SRI International on context-specific projects
• Learning from Stanford's research experience and share know-how (such as VHIL Lab experience and how it can be useful for improving projects like RUC's Experience Lab)
• Using online platforms (such as this blog) more efficiently to enhance communication and collaboration, keep networks fresh and share information/news on possible projects
• Collaborating with SV's already-dense Danish population, who are successful rather at their startups like Katalabs, or established platforms such as Unity3D. Multidisciplinary international collaborations would enable both researchers' and professionals' access to a plenty of professional resources and networks, and help them build new ones.