1 / 28

Virtual Rendezvous: A Platform for Social Interaction and Connection

Virtual Rendezvous, founded by Charles L. Perkins, is a platform that embodies a set of ideas, an evolving design, and prototype implementations for a community of virtual collaborators to create a foundation for standards. The platform operates on principles of loose coupling, elegance, and simplicity, embracing open standards and emphasizing the importance of social relationships. With universal standards, ubiquitous platforms, and diverse chemistry options, Virtual Rendezvous offers a unique approach to online interactions. The platform defines personas, contexts, activities, facets, and relationships, allowing users to navigate virtual spaces seamlessly. By focusing on user personas and interactions, Virtual Rendezvous aims to enhance the way people connect and collaborate online.

joyceperez
Download Presentation

Virtual Rendezvous: A Platform for Social Interaction and Connection

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Virtual Rendezvous • Charles L. Perkins • Founder, Chief Scientist

  2. Early experiences • Virtual, Social, Interactive Worlds: • PLATO (1975-6,79-80), Advent (80) • the Net, Object-Oriented thinking: • ARPAnet (1978-83), Usenet (1980-6) • Smalltalk (1981-83), Xerox PARC (84)

  3. Research background • Academic, corporate labs, alternately: • Harvard Univ. (1979-83, 86-90) • Verbex (1982) ➱ Dragon Systems • U.C.Berkeley (1983-4), MIT (80-3) • Thinking Machines (1985-6)

  4. Early contributions • NeXT, NeXTWORLD (1989-93) • 1-800-Wildfire (1990-1) • VRML, α-world, SIMnet (1992-5) • Java, rendezvous.com/java (1993-97) • IMPP (1998-9) ➱ XMPP, IETF (1986-99)

  5. Company relationships • 3DO, US West, Time Warner (FSN) • Continental Cablevision ➱ Comcast • firstperson ➱ Java, Firefly, Abuzz • Alexa ➱ “What’s Related” in Netscape • DimensionX ➱ Keen.com, TellMe

  6. Virtual Rendezvous • A Set of Ideas • An Evolving Design • A Set of Prototype Implementations • A Community of Virtual Collaborators • A Foundation for Standards, a Platform

  7. Rendezvous principles • Loosely Coupled, Elegant, Simple • Embrace and Define Open Standards • The Opposite of Not-Invented-Here • Only Social Relationships matter • yet allow people, software symbiosis

  8. Universal standards • Interlocking, but Loosely coupled • Built above existing IETF, Open APIs • Separates Naming from Protocol, API • Defines the Atoms in a Periodic Table of Connections and Relationship Elements

  9. Ubiquitous platform • At all Times, In all Places, Forever • Across all devices, existing and future • Provides useful Molecules, Compounds • Policy-less, but with intelligent Defaults • Allows many forms of Chemistry

  10. Rendezvous concepts • Persona • Context • Activity • Facet • Relationship

  11. Persona definition • Fundamental unit of (Multiple) Identity • Pseudononymous not Anonymous • Embodies Mood, Aspects of Your Self • Everyone has a growing number, 2-12+ • One is Special: your True Name

  12. Persona examples • Username, Screenname, OpenID, etc. • Avatar (3D), Icon, Facebook ... URLs • Home, Work, Gaming, Porn-browsing • Home Business, Social Butterfly, Hermit • ... / goal / social / seeking / soulmate

  13. Context definition • Fundamental unit of Place, Location • Embodies both Nearness, Where-ness • Has the Set of Persona currently There • Has a default Group (Shared Activity) • Every Persona has a unique Home

  14. Context examples • URL, URI, canonical URN • ... / SecondLife / <Region> / X, Y, Z • Spherically close to named Landmark • ... / Rendezvous / Virtual / Telephony • Running an Application, Watching Video

  15. Activity definition • Group (Set) of Personas, engaged in... • Any Shared Activity, Task, Goal, Hope • Has Collaboration, Communication Tech • Embodies both Means and Purpose • Lives in a Context, which rarely changes

  16. Activity examples • Chatroom, IRC channel, IM conversation • E-mail/slashdot-like thread, blog Users • Set of Avatars near one another in 3D • On the telephone, a Physical meeting • Set of Persona browsing a domain, URL

  17. Facet definition • an Aspect of any Persona, Context, Activity (Group), or Relationship • Has a Type (System, Name) and a Value • Blends Data and Behaviour seamlessly • Allows sophisticated Visibility Control

  18. Facet examples • .../address/street/number: Java,int,42 • XML schemas, data ⇔ graph of Facets • Radically distributed Native XML DBs • Storage of useful (or personal) Info • the Platform UI is built using Facets

  19. Relationship definition • Explicitly represents Implicit P2Persona: • Family, Spouse, Intimate Friend • Friend, (Business) Acquaintance • Talked-to, Touched, Seen, Near • UML Superset: 1:1, 1:many, Set, Graph

  20. Relationship examples • RDF, OWL, Open Cyc, Ontologies • M-language Concept graph ⇔ XML • Bob <.../eros/unrequited/work> Alice • aContext <1:many, Set> aPersona • aNode <many:many, Ordered> aNode2

  21. Rendezvous naming • Every Entity has a Concept-Unique ID • Every Entity has a Canonical Name • Stored in a Directed Acyclic Graph • Created, Updated via Web graphs • Extendible by Users, Vetted and Not • Entities inherit from multiple Parents

  22. Name examples • You’ve seen several in previous slides • .../service/intangible/virtual/world/sex • M-language dictionary word Senses • .../shop.2/clothes, .../social.3/women • http://name.com/path/.../leaf ➯ .../URL/com/name/-http-/path/.../leaf

  23. Platform concepts • Across all Web, Social, Virtual worlds: • Presence, and One Way to update it • Identity, and One Place to change it • Reputation, Guaranteed Useful • Value (Attention), Asset Movement

  24. Platform goals • Ever-growing Ubiquity, Universality • Always the best way to see/find People • Always the best way to manage Yourself • People/SW Service, Stranger Discovery • People Browser via Web of Relationship • Everything Extensible by Everyone

  25. Platform features • Manages a Web of People not just URLs • Spans all Devices, Fixed and Portable • Blends Real-time, Store & forward • Automatic Web login, service, download • Radically distributed, shared Resources • Manages personal Info, Access, Privacy

  26. Platform status • Research partnerships in place: • MIT, Google, FSF, others (ask) • Open Sources identified, investigated • Prototypes of browser/server in Java • P2P/Jxta, Ruby implementation started • Detailed Design, User Stories, on-going

  27. Future needs • an Executive Director for Business Dev. • Additional Partnerships, Sponsors • Funding, Donations of Money, open SW • The Virtual Rendezvous Foundation • You! ➯ enthusiastic, growing Community

  28. Contact info • http://rendezvous.com • VirtualRendezvous at G-mail • Visit if you’re near Harvard Square • Q & A, during the Cocktail Reception

More Related