From Troy McConaghy:
One of the problems with getting into Qwaq or Second Life is that you
have to get an account, download a special client/viewer program, then
learn the interface – not ideal if you just want to listen to a talk!
Well, on Monday, a new virtual world opened its doors to the public.
It’s called “Tomorrow Space” and is made by a Seattle startup company
named Transmutable. The underlying code (Ogoglio) is open source.
The thing that interests me about Tomorrow Space is that it’s all Web-
based. You visit the virtual world using your Web browser. If you
want to invite someone, you just send them the URL of the space you’re
in, then they visit that URL with their Web browser and appear in the
space with a default avatar. (Aside: they may have to install the
Java3D plugin. If they’re on a Mac, they already have it.)
Transmutable only charges the renter of the room (6 dollars per day,
and only on days when you want it). Their guests all come for free.
They have voice chat, but I think it’s still “beta” and you have to
pay a bit extra. Text chat is free.
We might do a little test meeting there in
the next little while. If this interests you, you can register for a
free account at https://transmutable.com/signin.html – let us know
your account name.
Here are some questions I asked Trevor, the founder:
* Can I show my PowerPoint slides on a wall screen? If yes, how?
Yes, though you’ll need to save the slides as images which most apps
(Powerpoint and Keynote included) can do. Basically, you can right
mouse click (control-click on Mac) on a screen and pick the slideshow
option. That will pop open a little widget which will let you choose
a directory of images and flip between them.
* Can we put a Web browser on a wall screen?
Not yet.
* Is there a Java3D plugin for people using Linux?
Yes: https://java3d.dev.java.net/binary-builds.html
~~~
Sincerely,
Troy
Qwaq-SL Weblog 