TransVision06 in SL
From Order of Cosmic Engineers
The event was quite successful despite some initial technical glitches and a hacker attack the last day, see the REPORT.
The text below is the information page available before and during the event.
The PPT presentations are available in PPT and PDF formats. Please look at the presentations in an appropriate viewer as the slides are not shown in the webcast (only the speaker appears). Some presentations are also available in the conference hall in Second Life.
COVERAGE IN SECOND LIFE BEGINNING AT 2 pm, HELSINKI TIME
NEW: SEE HERE FOR DETAILED VIDEO STREAM INSTRUCTIONS
The TransVision 2006 annual conference of the World Transhumanist Association, Helsinki 17-19 August 2006, organized by the WTA and the Finnish Transhumanist Association, will be open to remote visitors in the virtual reality world of Second Life.
TransVision06, August 17-19: University of Helsinki, Finland, Europe
This year the theme of the conference will be Emerging Technologies of Human Enhancement. We'll be looking at recent and ongoing technological developments and discussing associated ethical and philosophical questions.
We will hold a mixed reality event between the Helsinki conference hall and Second Life:
The Second Life event will take place in the uvvy island in SL, in the conference hall in the image below. To attend, use the Second Life map in the client, look for region uvvy and teleport, and follow the indications to the conference hall.
The real time video stream from Helsinki will be displayed in SL.
PLEASE READ THIS if you wish to see the video stream in Second Life. SL uses the client side Quick Time to play video. These instructions apply to both those who wish to see the TV06 video stream in Second Life and those who wish to see the TV06 video stream in the Quick Time player. In theory all versions of QuickTime supports the codec used, but in practice QT 7 (the most recent version distributed with Itunes) plays only the audio and not the video. QT 6.5 plays the audio and the video correctly. To play the test stream (see below) I had to uninstall QT 7 and install QT 6.5.
I recommend that you do some tests before coming to TV06 in SL. You can use this test stream:
rtsp://128.214.211.74/tktl/itmc06k/itmc06k_24.1.2006_2006.01.24_10%3a25%3a20.ce
To play the test stream your IP may need to get permission first. To get permission open this link in the browser, and follow the links to itmc06k and 20060124. After getting permission you can play the test stream in both Second Life and the QT player. If you only hear the audio and see no video, I recommend that you uninstall QT 7 and install QT 6.5. You can download a standalone QT 6.5 installer here.
Outside Second Life, the video and audio test streams can be played with the VLC Media Player. Download from http://www.videolan.org/. This is a good option for those who do not want to downgrade Quick Time.
NEW: SEE HERE FOR DETAILED VIDEO STREAM INSTRUCTIONS
Some presentations will also be displayed in SL in Power Point -like format.
Some PCs running the SL client will be available in the conference hall in Helsinki for SL users (at least 3 plus myself (gp)).
Some SL users will be simultaneously present in both worlds and able to relay questions from the remote SL audience to speakers.
There will be a single text chat space for Second Life users and IRC chat users.
So those whose computers are too slow or for some other reason don't want to use Second Life can use a combination of IRC and the video feed to interact with the conference participants in both Helsinki and Second Life.
The SL-IRC chat gateway is implemented as a bot on the IRC side. On the SL side it is implemented as a script attached to the triangular object in the center of the conference hall. The range is 20m - you are within range almost everywhere in the conference hall (40x40m), but not if you go too close to the corners. If you go out of range your comments and questions won't be seen at Helsinki (see below).
The IRC chat window - which includes Second Life chat as explained above - will be projected on a screen at Helsinki.
See also:
http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=/news/news_single.html?id%3D5808
http://community.livejournal.com/transvision06/
