wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: Future of the World Wide Panorama - Part One
A Y R T O N 2004-Jul-27 01:06:00
Sorry for my bad english.
I know the beach boys but, I didn't remember the song.
Don't worry.
Let's go for it.
September and December,
Count on me !
Ayrton
On 26/07/2004, at 21:29, G. Donald Bain wrote:
> Ayrton,
> Sorry about the Northern hemisphere orientation. You will notice that
> Landis and I have been careful to avoid winter/summer/spring/fall in
> the names. I was actually thinking of the old Beach Boys song "We've
> been having fun all summer long...".
> Don
> On Jul 26, 2004, at 5:19 PM, A Y R T O N wrote:
>
>> First of all, Congratulations
>> -I'll try to keep participating everytime
>> -4 times a year sounds perfect to me
>> -One weekend each time, sounds good too
>> -All 3 domains are perfect, very good idea
>> -Just QuickTime is wonderfull. No ipox pls.
>> -Just remember that your idea about "all summer long" is not VALID all
>> over the world. Like here in South America now is WINTER !!! And I
>> agree with Landis that such a wide time-event will weak the "event"
>> nature of the project.
>>
>> So Keep on movin ! :- )
>> Sincerely
>>
>> Ayrton Camargo
>>
>>
>> On 26/07/2004, at 20:09, G. Donald Bain wrote:
>>
>>> This is the first of four planned discussion documents about the
>>> future
>>> of the World Wide Panorama. Please respond (to the YahooGroups wwp
>>> list) with your thoughts.
>>>
>>> Timing and Hosting
>>>
>>> There has been a lot of enthusiasm for continuing the WWP with
>>> future
>>> events, and questions about whether this will be possible.
>>>
>>> Landis and I are agreed it is worth keeping it going for the
>>> foreseeable future. I can see at least two more events (September
>>> and
>>> December of this year), and probably continuing into 2005.
>>>
>>> How Long?
>>>
>>> The biggest factor is whether there will be continuing support from
>>> participants. If the number of people contributing panoramas drops
>>> off,
>>> that may be a sign that it is time to stop. We had 180 the first
>>> time,
>>> 120 the second. If we continue to have over a hundred participants
>>> per
>>> event I will consider it viable.
>>>
>>> A second factor is if the world in general continues to be
>>> interested.
>>> I see no problem here -- most people out there still have never seen
>>> a
>>> VR panorama (except maybe a tiny real estate tour). If we continue
>>> with
>>> the same high quality and varied subject matter of the first two
>>> events, we are guaranteed of public interest.
>>>
>>> An aspect of this is publicity. So far we have done very well, and
>>> have
>>> hardly been trying. I have purposely not publicized this second
>>> event
>>> too vigorously, until I am able to resolve some issues of bandwidth.
>>>
>>> The third major factor is whether we will be able to get staffing to
>>> run future events. Landis and I are committed to at least a couple
>>> more. And there have been numerous volunteers offering to help.
>>>
>>> We deliberately kept this project as simple as possible from the
>>> very
>>> beginning, to minimize the demands on the producers. We will
>>> gradually
>>> add features in future events, but cautiously. A greater degree of
>>> automation (on-line forms for submission, and automatic generation
>>> of
>>> html pages from that data) will hopefully reduce the amount of labor
>>> necessary.
>>>
>>> Fourth: issues of disk space and bandwidth. Luckily we have major
>>> institutional support here - the University of California. Despite a
>>> state budget crisis, I foresee no problems.
>>>
>>> I was able to purchase a new server specifically for this project,
>>> which should be able to handle very heavy traffic. The first event
>>> had
>>> such a peak of popularity that I was obliged to take the site
>>> off-line
>>> for several hours because it was impacting work in my department.
>>> But
>>> this was a local problem only, the amount of bandwidth we use is a
>>> drop
>>> in the ocean for this huge campus. In the next few weeks I will be
>>> working to obtain a more direct connection to the internet backbone,
>>> so
>>> external WWP traffic doesn't impact local service.
>>>
>>> There have been suggestions that we use a url that is less
>>> cumbersome
>>> than geoimages.berkeley.edu/wwp.? As long as we are depending on the
>>> university for support, we cannot use a commercial url. It's a
>>> matter
>>> of quid pro quo -- Geo-Images supports the WWP, and in return gets
>>> some
>>> credit for it.
>>>
>>> But to forestall possible problems, I personally registered
>>> worldwidepanorama.com, wwpano.com, and wwpano.org, all of which
>>> point
>>> to the Geo-Images site. We may want to start using one of these in
>>> publicizing the site -- it's much easier to remember a short url you
>>> have heard on the radio or read in a newspaper. Using the domain
>>> dot-org (for non-profit organization) is more appropriate than
>>> dot-com,
>>> which implies a commercial venture. But many people assume every url
>>> ends in dot-com, and browsers auto-complete urls that way.
>>>
>>> For an object lesson in why it might be necessary to register
>>> wwpano.com when we would prefer wwpano.org, try going to
>>> http://iqtvra.com -- but be sure nobody is looking over your shoulder
>>> at the time!
>>>
>>> Fifth, and finally, this project needs to remain hassle-free.
>>> Keeping
>>> it non-commercial will help a lot. The way we have all contributors
>>> maintain sole copyright to their work also avoids complications.?
>>> Having only a small group in charge (so far just Landis and me) is
>>> important. Limiting content to one media technology (QuickTime) will
>>> avoid many problems. To put it bluntly, if it begins to take too
>>> much
>>> of my time, generates controversy, or stops being fun, I will have
>>> to
>>> withdraw my support. As I remember, that was what killed off the
>>> Wrinkle in Time series.
>>>
>>> How Often?
>>>
>>> Personally, I think the world NEEDS a periodic reminder of how great
>>> VR
>>> photography is. Hans Nyberg provides one great example per week. The
>>> WWP can't do that, but I think a showcase of a hundred or more
>>> images
>>> every three months is reasonable.
>>>
>>> The media always want something new, and you don't get much
>>> publicity
>>> for a new edition of an existing work. So we need to make each event
>>> unique. I will be giving my ideas about future themes tomorrow
>>> (please
>>> hold discussion on this topic until then).
>>>
>>> Though each event is unique, there is great strength in a continuing
>>> project. Each event generates a large number of links and search
>>> engine
>>> entries. Each of these lead back to the overall project, where
>>> people
>>> discover the other events. People will remember "the world wide
>>> panorama" and go back to it, even if they have not heard of the most
>>> recent event.
>>>
>>> Will the participants find quarterly events to be too often? I hope
>>> not, but only time will tell. Challenging and intriguing themes will
>>> be
>>> important in motivating ourselves. Positive feedback, in the form of
>>> public and peer recognition, will be another factor.
>>>
>>> It is not necessary for everyone to participate every time.? If we
>>> have, for example, a pool of 200 potential participants, and each
>>> chooses to participate only twice a year, we still have 100 for each
>>> event.
>>>
>>> When?
>>>
>>> When Rabbett invented the "Wrinkle in Time" he chose the date,
>>> December
>>> 21, more or less impulsively. I pointed out that it was the Winter
>>> Solstice, and he subsequently tied the "wrinkles" to the solstices
>>> and
>>> equinoxes. We have followed this plan in the World Wide Panoramas.
>>>
>>> I like the idea of following the solar calendar this way. It is
>>> universal and cross-cultural. Many cultures recognize the
>>> significance
>>> of these dates, but none can claim them as their exclusive own.
>>>
>>> A solstice/equinox is not actually a day, it is a moment in time
>>> (technically, a position in space). This will occur at different
>>> times
>>> and even on different days for different longitudes (time zones)
>>> around
>>> the earth.
>>>
>>> The first WWP was held on a single day. This caused some problems,
>>> with
>>> religious observance, and above all with uncooperative weather. No
>>> doubt we missed a few potential participants because of business and
>>> family obligations on that day.
>>>
>>> The second WWP was more lenient. The Solstice occurred on a Monday
>>> (for
>>> some), but the event included the entire adjacent weekend. This gave
>>> more flexibility with the weather, and time for many of us to travel
>>> to
>>> an official world heritage site.
>>>
>>> I think all future WWP events should be for a weekend or more. How
>>> much
>>> more is open to discussion. The next Equinox falls in the middle of
>>> a
>>> week (Wednesday, September 22) - should we designate the entire
>>> week,
>>> and one weekend, maybe both weekends?
>>>
>>> At one time I proposed to Landis that the September theme be "all
>>> summer long", and accept panoramas taken anytime since the last
>>> event
>>> (i.e. June 19 to September 21). He pointed out that this would
>>> weaken
>>> the "event" nature of the project, which is important for publicity.
>>> Your thoughts?
>>>
>>> ----------
>>> These are my thoughts for today. Please post your ideas on timing
>>> and
>>> hosting to the YahooGroups-wwp list.
>>>
>>> Tomorrow I will introduce the topic of "themes", which should be a
>>> lot
>>> of fun (hold discussion of themes until then, please).
>>>
>>> Don
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ------
>>> The World-Wide Panorama
>>>
>>> For more information:
>>> -Visit the web site at http://GeoImages.Berkeley.edu/wwp.html
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> ------
>> The World-Wide Panorama
>>
>> For more information:
>> -Visit the web site at http://GeoImages.Berkeley.edu/wwp.html
>> Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
> ------
> The World-Wide Panorama
>
> For more information:
> -Visit the web site at http://GeoImages.Berkeley.edu/wwp.html
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>