Future Projects for STS

If you've been an avid reader of this blog, you may have noticed that the last few entries have not been about JHU or STS. The reason for this is because the entire department has been working on an outside project which, after 20 months of solid work, is finally coming to a close. So here's a list of the projects that STS is planning to work on for the remainder of 2011:

1. Modeling the Bloomberg School of Public Health: Like we did for the wildly successful Virtual JHU, STS would like to create a Google plug-in of the Bloomberg School of Public Health in downtown Baltimore. This project would likely take about 6 months, depending on the amount of hours the students are able to spend working on it, and assuming no other major projects are given to us.
2. Reducing the size of the Virtual JHU program to make it faster and easier to load: pretty much what it sounds like. In technology, there's always room for improvement.
3. Collegetown Shuttle Tracker: Have you ever used the Collegetown Shuttle? This project would take a 3D Flash PDF to show you where it is using a coordinated GPS tracking system. This would let students follow its path to know exactly where it is and where it makes its stops. This resource would be available for use by all students who use the Collegetown shuttle, including those at other schools. For security purposes we will require a log-in screen that will need a viable college ID to access the tracking page, but we feel that this will go far.
4. Continuation of the STS TechBlog updates.
5. Meeting the needs of those around campus who need our skills, such as:
1. Creating fliers for official campus activities and meetings.
2. Assisting students with technology problems.
3. Writing technical manuals for new freshmen and transfer students.
6. Updating our technology pages to make them more aesthetically pleasing. 
7. Training new employees in STS tasks.

That's pretty much what we do here. If you would like to learn more, feel free to leave a comment.

Second Life

Even if you haven't played it, chances are you've heard of the Sims, a computer game in which you control computer "people," and guide them through their virtual lives. You can make them get a job, get married, have kids...pretty much anything.

What is less commonly known, but just as widely played, is an internet interface similar in concept to the Sims: The Second Life. In this world, you control one avatar, which you can customize to look like yourself or like something abstract, and you live your second life there. It has its own form of currency, but everything else mirrors the real world. This game looks like the Sims, but behaves like the Neopets website because anyone can create an account, and a player can interact with anyone else from anywhere in the world.

Second Life was launched on June 23, 2003 by Linden Lab, a company based in San Francisco. Linden Lab also owns the internet grid on which Second Life is played, appropriately named Second Life Grid. There are two designed versions: the adult grid (for 18 and older), and the teen grid (for ages 13-17). Unfortunately, a major complaint of Second Life is that adults cannot interact with anyone on the teen grid, and so Linden Lab decided to discontinue the teen grid in or around December 2010.

A player can create an account for free, but for a premium membership (paid for in real American dollars), a player can give his avatar a monthly stipend of L$300. These players, called "Residents," can purchase land, build their homes, and basically live their lives in this world. The coolest part of Second Life is the built-in 3-D modeling tool, which allows residents to create virtual objects for themselves. Linden Lab was honored honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for this development, which was described as "user generated content on an online site."

Because the limitations to what can be done in this world are virtually limitless, Second Life almost effortlessly appeals to a large percentage of the younger population, and some in the older generations. That being said, there are many students who play this game, but replace virtual interaction with real, social interaction.

Inherently, there is a danger to living in a virtual world, especially because, like in the real world, there will be people who don't get along and start fights. Because it's a computer world, privacy and internet rights are prime targets for vengeful players, and in the light of increased identity thefts over the internet, it is a definite risk to be overly involved with this site.

Despite the danger, over 21.3 million accounts had been created on Second Life as of November 2010, and at any given moment, an average of 38,000 people are logged in. As a result, major societal entities such as universities, science research labs, religious groups, and even the embassies of countries have created accounts in Second Life.

The people of Linden Lab hope that this giant virtual world will help promote tolerance and understanding in the real one. So long as real life is not forsaken, it's alright to have a second, virtual life--within reason, of course.