wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: Future of the World Wide Panorama - Part One
Andy Alpern 2004-Jul-27 09:04:00
WWPers,
First of all I will simply echo Ayrton's comments for ease:
-I'll try to keep participating every time
-4 times a year sounds perfect to me (Solstices and equini (?) are
perfect as global markers of time!)
-One weekend each time, sounds good too
-All 3 domains are perfect, very good idea
-Just QuickTime is wonderfull. No ipox pls.
Second, I am willing to volunteer some time to this project...Not
sure how or how much. Perhaps creating graphics and icons for the
site...no HTML programming please!
Third, if we can reconstruct the site on the lines of
http://www.confluence.org/ that would be great and give a more
interactive multimedia experience to the site.
I found this site which looks really cool theoretically, but i
couldn't 'go' anywhere. http://www.planet-earth.org/
Many thanks to Don, Landis and Kathy again (And UC Berzerkely!)
Peace,
Andy
Golem Productions
http://golemproductions.com
On Jul 27, 2004, at 3:19 AM, 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
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