Tag: XR

Plunge into My VR Office – One Mind-bending Click Away!

valibrarian

Virtual reality apps have exploded.  Frame.io is a web-based VR platform created by Virbela which is currently in Beta and will be released next year. In addition, augmented reality (AR) has been around for years but is staged to take off in mainstream media for many uses.  We live and work in multiple realities and we juggle multiple communication tools which certainly require metaliteracy.  Click here to visit my VR office Frame.io/valibrarian or (if you have a device nearby) just use a smart camera to access with this QR code.

Note: the default setting is an open microphone.  I need to tell the Frame.io creators that this might be a privacy issue.  I had the tab open on my browser and then left to do work on other tabs.  A couple hours later, I heard a colleague saying, “Hi Val!  Are you there?”  I could not figure out where the voice was coming from until I clicked over to the Frame.io tab. Yikes! That felt weird.

The images in the VR office have links to resources about metaliteracy in metamodern culture, so click away as you wander through both 2D and 3D objects. Metaliteracy is a term, coined by Tom Mackey and Trudi Jacobson, that encompasses the way we juggle many communication tools every day including social media, email, text messages, app notifications, evaluation of online information and much more. If you come visit, you will create an avatar and be able to chat in voice. 

One wall shares a link to the Community Virtual Library Frame.io space, which also is just one click away! My office hours in Second Life at the Community Virtual Library are currently 1-2pm Pacific Time. I will “plunge” into FrameVR and be around if anyone wants to visit. Of course, if you are reading this ten years from now, we may meet elsewhere. Perhaps on Mars!

XR in 3D with Colleagues

valibrarian

Reality has changed! Extended Reality includes mixing physical world and virtual world spaces. For the celebration of Second Life’s 17th Birthday Party, my friend and colleague Renne Brock built a giant Polaroid Camera set up on an oversized desk for avatars to tour, sit, and share memories of meeting both physically and virtually. Playing with the “size” of our world is an interesting phenomenon.

SLB17 by Renne Brock of Nonprofit Commons

My avatar looks tiny sitting on the yellow beanbag. The memory of my librarian colleagues meeting in San Francisco at a conference can be viewed on the Polaroid picture. Many other “real world” meetups were shared as the pictures scrolled by on the giant desk.

Meeting folks in the “real world” after working together virtually is always a pleasure, yet virtual environments like Second Life ARE real. The Assistant Director of the Community Virtual Library (center of photo) has worked with me on numerous projects on a plethora of virtual platforms: Skype, Google Hangouts, Discord, Zoom, SineSpace, Virbella, AltspaceVR, Kitely, Second Life, Mozilla Hubs and more!

The “X” in XR can stand for any type of reality: AR (augmented), VR (virtual), or MR (mixed). Notice the little colored buttons on the desk? Renne gives out a button each time she meets a colleague in the physical world. I have quite a collection of them. Yes…reality has changed for sure!