Lately I have been using more than one viewer for activity in the virtual world of Second Life and encountering problems with connecting to the Voip services. Vivox is the voice communication software used in most Second Life viewers.
This is all in the realm of magic to my mind though I know that it is just arcane, not unknowable. But I got a clue one day when the viewer software reported a problem from the server trying to give me access to voice. This alert message appeared and provided me with some clues for research:
I then found this forum discussion where a fellow was asking about ports, but the repair was to disable SIP ALG.:
As part of initiative to understand how we might use virtual environments, my colleague and friend Sam Jackson and I prototyped a region name “Molbio” in Second Life. Molbio is a contraction of the term “Molecular Biology”. This region was hoped to serve both training for and promotion of the Promega brand.
This video is an un-narrated tour of the region that I made just prior to our shutting it down.
It is vernacular in Second Life to use the term “build” as a noun to describe the virtual objects and landscapes created there. Sam made several ‘builds’ to be used as gathering places for meeting those interested in general molecular biology topics. Sam also created a ‘build’ of a laboratory where we had hoped to create ‘virtual videos’ – more typically known as ‘machinima’. Machinma has several advantages over real-life media creation and is becoming a significant product of virtual environments.
I created a replica of a building from Promega’s corporate campus to orient new arrivals to the region. I also created a ‘walking tour’ of the basic concepts of molecular biology. These walking tours are another typical use of virtual learning environments which reflects the real-world concept of the poster show – a common practice in the communities of academic and research science.
We could not generate the traction we needed within the organization to continue with the prototype. While Sam and I both had great enthusiasm for the possibilities, we just could not make that connection for our colleagues. It was a very valuable lesson in just how challenging it can be to move people from their comfort zones to explore something new.
This project was used in conjunction with a classroom event known as PromeTech where global employee scientists convened in Madison to experience hands-on laboratories and lectures about the products. While the goal is to gain experience handling the product, many protocols simply take too much time to fit into an in-person agenda. This video was produced to show all of the steps involved up to the point where the learners in the classroom would begin. In actuality, the lab trainers did all of the steps presented in the video and had the prepared plates ready for the learners to finish the protocol.
Flash video
Click to play, but know that it is a VERY large file (50mb)
If you have time to watch this to the end, look for the smiley in the lower right corner and click it to see some scientistical humor.
When asked what was made at Promega I often said, “tiny bottles of liquid.” This is quite true and while on the surface seems underwhelming, these were in fact very carefully manufactured vials of liquid. And as important as any of the manufactured liquids, was the knowledge of how that liquid would behave and how to manipulate the liquid with success. In this way our products were quite literally ‘knowledge’ as well as materials.
In molecular biology success is assured by carefully following the correct Protocol in using the reagents. For products to have a competitive edge in the marketplace, they need to be faster, safer or generate greater quantities of output.
This animation project was part of a training designed to emphasize how much faster the featured protocol is compared to the more commonly practiced method. Two separate Flash movies were created of each protocol and placed side-by-side on screen for comparison. The learner would click the start button and observe an audio/visual synposis of the protocol.
Other than audio production, this project was completed entirely in Adobe Flash. It was scripted in PowerPoint which provided some clip-art visual design guidelines.
This project was an initiative I took after speaking with the global employee scientists who were our online learners. These folks worked in small branch and distributor offices around the world and they often would have to support a product without having seen or touched the components. So with this project I planned to prototype a method to experience a typical group of products bundled as a kit. The animation was completed and included in an online, asynchronous training course.
[2008 :: Adobe Flash - sound & voice, interactive exploration]
(click on the image to view the actual Flash movie)
I employed a fun variety of tools to assemble this project. The photography was quite a challenge. I build a custom stand to support the bottles with very thin wire and photograph each bottle in 8 positions of rotation. It was also difficult to get the level of the liquid to appear inside of white bottles and so I experimented with a variety of background colors and illumination to have the amount of reagent in each bottle plain to see. Assembling the audio and visual elements in Flash was comparatively easy.
I really enjoyed making this animation, but leadership decided that it took too long to produce and no other similar projects were started. The learners really enjoyed it and anecdotally reported that it was very effective for understanding what customers on the phone might be holding in their hands.
This animation describes what molecular biologists refer to as the ‘Central Dogma’ – the basic principle of how DNA and RNA make creatures like ourselves.
[November 2006 :: Adobe Flash - no audio, click-thru sequence]
(click on the image to view the actual Flash movie)
This animation was created to support training for people who maintained an instrument known as a ‘particle handler’. The instrument is used to automate procedures in molecular biology, which is a vastly different discipline from the background of electronics and motors needed to service the instrument.
The animation was written by my colleague, Dee C. who is a molecular biologist working as instructional designer on our team. Dee also provided graphic design as can be seen in the script (click the script image to view a .pdf copy). I contributed to the script and performed all production and distribution of the media using Adobe Flash, PowerPoint, and Adobe Connect Pro as the final container.
I decided to create this site to help coalesce the alternate identities that I have created during what is clearly our emerging online reality. What follows is a recounting of my own journey in creating alternate identities online.
I consider ‘jameschrislloyd’ to be one of my earliest alternate identities. I associate this identity most closely with an image of my self ’simpsonized’.
Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons is a hero and role-model to me in the way he combines criticism with humor. When I was in college I was delighted to see a photo of Matt and discover that we both had the same eyeglass frames!
My next significant alternate self occurred with the creation of my first personal web domain – www.lloud.com. Lloud was created by my son Joe when I was frustrated that ‘lloyd.com’ was taken. Out of Lloud.com came “Metalloud” with the thinking that the real person is meta in relation to the artifice of a web site. In addition I was a frequent reader of www.metafilter.com and just liked the term META. There is no image associated with Metalloud.
I first encountered virtual worlds in videogaming and Metalloud is my xbox gamer tag. When I returned to graduate school to study educational technology I was pursing a topic based in the virtual environment of “Half-Life” by Valve software. Then during the course of my studies my advisting professor, Mike Thomas introduced me to non-gaming virtual worlds like Active Worlds, There.com and of course, Second Life. My graduate thesis project was based in SecondLife and was conducted with the alternate identity of “Jameschris Snickerdoodle”.
My thesis project was conducted using a topic related to work and when I attempted to introduce SecondLife to my employer, I created an alternate identity named “Molbio Merlin”. Molbio Merlin was caretaker to a briefly-lived training region named “Molbio – the island of Molecular Biology”. When it became clear that my employer could not grasp the utility of SecondLife I began to realize that I would have to continue my explorations of virtual worlds on my own. And with that realization, Lloud Laffer was created.
The funny thing about Second Life for most of the time that it has existed was the insistence that avatar names be created using a pre-selected list of last names. I’m sure there are articles written about this all over the internet that discuss the up and downsides of this decision. My conclusion is that it was a largely un-necessary limitation and made it very awkward for those who wanted to connect their real and virtual identities in a way that was recognizable to colleagues. I enjoy the identity of Lloud Laffer, but to mark the creation of this portfolio blog and the new directions I am seeking to occupy myself professionally, I am evolving Lloud Laffer into “James at Lloud” to return a variety of branches I have explored back towards the trunk of my efforts!
I have played with a variety of spellings of this new identity – “James AtLloud” (as in McDonald) or perhaps “James at’Lloud” (as in O’Connell). The meaning of the name implies my email address and so I went with a spelling like those used in Dutch surnames (Jan de Vries).
