wwp@yahoogroups.com:
new promotional possibility - Fullscreen QTVR site
G. Donald Bain 2006-Jul-16 16:29:00
One of the founding aims of the World Wide Panorama was publicity for
the medium - to show the world what VR panoramas are and how great
they are. Another has been to increase traffic to VR sites by cross-
linking, from the WWP site to each of the members' sites, and from
each participant's site to the WWP site.
Others have been working along similar lines, producing web sites
that promote VR technology and VR producers. Prominent among these is
Hans Nyberg, with his panoramas.dk site, featuring a fullscreen qtvr
of the week, an archive of previous weekly features, and the
excellent general information "about qtvr" pages that Hans has produced.
Another leader in this area is Marco Trezzini, publisher of the
cluster of sites known as VRWay. One of these, VR Mag, has been a key
part of the WWP publicity strategy since the very beginning. VR Mag
has featured each of the WWP events, both before and after they took
place. Journalist Michelle Bienias has written about the WWP, and
also individual participants, so many times I have lost track. (An
article on Gardens is in process).
About the time that the WWP was getting started, Hans Nyberg and
Marco Trezzini put together yet another site to promote the medium,
known as FullscreenQTVR. It features sites, large and small, that
specifically feature "fullscreen" VR images. Since the majority of
VR's on the WWP site have fullscreen versions (we would like to have
100%) it seems logical that WWP would be represented there.
I have been talking to Marco for two years now on how to publicize
the WWP through the FullscreenQTVR site. My first concern was to make
sure that it didn't look like the WWP was just another project of the
VRWay organization. I think we have enough name-recognition now that
we needn't worry about that any more.
The other concern is to honor the promises made to WWP participants
to prevent unauthorized commercial use from being made of their work,
and to protect their copyright and their authorship by keeping the
imagery all on the WWP site. Here are the statements, published on
the site with every event:
> This is a non-commercial project, done simply to create enthusiasm
> for VR photography, and provide an outlet for our collective
> creativity. All images will be copyright by the individual
> photographers. Use in any way other than viewing on this web site
> is prohibited unless permission is obtained from the relevant
> photographer.
VRWay designer Marco Luethi (Shen), who is also a three-time WWP
participant, has come up with a prototype of how the WWP could be
featured on the FullScreenQTVR site. Have a look:
http://www.fullscreenqtvr.com/index_test.html
This is not the actual FullscreenQTVR home page, just a proposal for
the WWP community to evaluate. All of the WWP events will be listed,
and all the panos on them, with the same information as on the WWP
site. Clicking a thumbnail or link loads a page from the WWP server -
nothing is on the VRWay server except the thumbnails (which are a
different size than ours) and the identifying information.
If it meets with general approval from the WWP members this prototype
page would be brought up to date (adding Borders and Gardens) and
then published as part of the FullScreenQTVR site, updated with each
new event.
I think this will be valuable new publicity for our efforts. Along
with our evolving presence on Google Earth it will help spread the
news about VR far and wide.
Two special notes. First, because it might be seen as modifying the
conditions under which images were originally committed by
participants, Marco has agreed NOT to list any individual who so
requests. Secondly, this partnership could be the first step toward a
European co-hosting of the WWP image files, using the VRWay servers.
This is just in the talking stages now, but I think it offers much
promise.
Please let me know what you think, either by posting to this list, or
to me personally.
Don
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