Activeworlds Technology Celebration

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Activeworlds Technology Celebration
Conference
Location

NewEra

Date(s)

February 29, 2008

Recurring?

✘

Coordinator(s)

Brant

The Activeworlds Technology Celebration was an event that showcased new software programmed by members of the Active Worlds community. The event took place on February 29, 2008.

History

In July 2007, Brant began development on a new project, without announcing the commencement of the project to the community. The new project was titled "Arazu, " codenamed after the Babylonian "god of completed construction." As the project neared completion in January 2008, Brant decided that an event should be held to unveil and display the program. The event would be open to all Activeworlds citizens.

On January 20, however, several Activeworlds citizens approached Brant with the suggestion that others be included in the night's program, and that it be expanded to include more of the community. Thus, the final title and purpose of "Activeworlds Technology Celebration" was decided. The event would now focus equally on many contributors' works, and Brant would be only one contributor of many.

Goober King volunteered to assist with the unveiling by hosting the event on his radio show, The Goober Zone, which airs every Friday at 11PM VRT. The event was originally planned for Friday, February 1, at 11pm VRT, but before any advertising could be released it was decided another month would allow time to create a better application. Thus, the final scheduled date of February 29 was announced.

Focus of event

The purpose of the event is to demonstrate bots, software applications, websites, and utilities that break new ground in improving Activeworlds technology. By exposing the community to what Activeworlds' SDK can do, the organizers hope to encourage people to participate in activities other than the tried-and-true building and chatting. It is also hoped that the event will cause people to become interested in the SDK and to develop new software to improve the Activeworlds universe.

In addition to increasing interest in the SDK, the event also aims to be a fun time for all members of the community, who can chat and share their amazement with each other as each of the new technologies is introduced.

List of presenters

The following presenters have so far accepted invitations to the Activeworlds Technology Celebration:

  • Magine: Introduction to the Role-Playing Game Bot II
An introduction to and demonstration of the newly-revised RPG Bot system, soon to be provided for sale to world owners. The bot allows for configurable players stats, inventory items and much more. Several versions will be available so that you can buy only what you need, or begin with a basic system and add to it later on.
  • Byte: .NET Wrapper for the Active Worlds SDK and Experiments in Parallelization
The presentation will consist of a short brief on the development, and use of the .NET wrapper. There will be a short demonstration of a bot written in C# to show that it works, with source code available for download. The second half of the presentation will cover experiments in multi-threading the SDK in a thread-safe manner and the use of the scripting language Lua to script the system. This will include a short demonstration of the current project in action. Code will not be provided as this is too far experimental and complex to release.
The flow of my presentation for the evening will first begin by presenting the wiki and explaining what it is for users unfamiliar to it. I will explain how it has developed over the past year and the community involvement/interaction with AWI that poised that. I'll explain the importance of the wiki (it is our knowledge base, documentation, etc.) and present some ways for the community to get directly involved (like WikiProjects or editing in a subject they are familiar with)
  • Brant: Arazu: a new era of creativity
Arazu is a project that will change the way people use Activeworlds. This presentation will consist of a brief demonstration and explanation of its inner workings. Community members in attendance will be given the opportunity to use Arazu themselves and see what all the hype is about.
We'll review some of the newest and exciting projects that we're working on, as well as share some of our future plans. Whether you've never heard of Nestor, or you've mastered Preston, we will have something interesting and useful for you.
SW City Interactive enhances the exploring experience by, as the name suggests, interacting with the world. Users can acquire inventory and build reputation amoung SW City's NPC citizens by performing quests and tasks of all types.
Flagg will answer questions posed by the audience about the new 4.2 beta version and the company's plans for the Activeworlds universe.

Schedule

The Activeworlds Technology Celebration will be an event with several presenters, where one project will be presented at a time for maximum community exposure. There will be no booths or simultaneous demonstrations as occurs in many trade shows. Presenters will be limited in time so that as many innovations as possible may be presented.

Schedule of events:

  • 10:00PM VRT: World opens and music plays while visitors chat
  • 10:30PM VRT: Speed Programming Championship task announced, and competition begins
  • 11:00PM VRT: Event gets underway with opening speech
  • 11:03PM VRT: Goober King introduces radio show and invites visitors
  • 11:08PM VRT: Magine presents Introduction to the Role-Playing Game Bot II
  • 11:30PM VRT: Byte presents .NET SDK and Experiments in Parallization
  • 11:48PM VRT: Hyper Anthony presents The ActiveWiki - It's in your hands
  • 12:05PM VRT: Brant presents Arazu: a New Era of Creativity
  • 12:12AM VRT: Ima Genius presents Latest Updates from ImaBot
  • 12:45AM VRT: SW Comit presents SW City Interactive
  • 01:03AM VRT: Flagg takes the stage for Questions and Answers from Activeworlds, Inc.
  • 01:21AM VRT: Technology Trivia competition for P-50/20 world
  • 01:30AM VRT: Brant unveils new community initiative
  • 01:39AM VRT: Countdown to beginning of community initiative
  • 01:40AM VRT: Event concludes; discussion continues on The Goober Zone

The event will conclude with Brant's announcement of a new community initiative, based on the Arazu project which will be unveiled earlier in the evening. The project will invite anyone to participate, and will allow Activeworlds citizens and tourists to work together to produce something that is a world first in virtual reality environments, including Second Life, There, and MMORPGs.

The Goober Zone

Goober King will be broadcasting live on The Goober Zone throughout the event, and presenters will be available for comment on the radio show as the event progresses. Goober will also be accepting Skype calls for anyone to talk on-air, and listeners can tune into a shoutcast! server to hear the voice chat with the presenters.

Goober King has successfully contributed to a number of major events in the past with tremendous success. His show from the 2007 Cy Awards drew so many people and garnered so much acclaim that it nearly crashed his system. Since the number of chat spots is limited, it is recommended that listeners call in early to ensure a spot in the discussion.

Competitions

Two competitions will occur during the event, and a prize is available to the winner of each.

Speed Programming Championship

The Speed Programming Championship challenges Activeworlds citizens to create a bot to perform a task as quickly as possible. This event will begin at 10:30pm VRT, before the start of the presentations, and will continue until one citizen has won the competition. Scripting bots are allowed, but the winning citizen must submit his or her source code or script for evaluation.

In order to win, programmers will need to write a program that is both correct and stable. The task will be announced at the start of the competition, and the winner of this competition will win a 6 month new citizenship or citizenship extension.

Technology Trivia

The grand prize for the evening will be awarded to the winner of a Technology Trivia contest. Technology Trivia will take place after the evening's last presentation, and will consist of trivia questions based upon each presentation. In order to win this contest, citizens or tourists will need to be attentive to all of the presentations so that they can answer the questions correctly.

The person who answers the most trivia questions correctly will win a P-50/20 world for one year, a $469.95 value.

Prizes

A number of prizes will be awarded at the event to those in attendance, with the total value of prizes exceeding $800! Prizes will be awarded as follows:

  • 4 three month citizenship extensions or +1 bot limit (at the citizen's choice) will be drawn at random at four points during the celebration. Each person present at the time of a drawing will earn one chance in the drawing.
  • A six-month new citizenship will be granted to the winner of the Speed Programming Championship.
  • A P-20/5 world for six months will be awarded by Goober King on The Goober Zone. Goober King will reveal how the world is to be awarded on his radio show during the night.
  • Finally, the grand prize of a A P-50/20 world for one full year will be awarded to the winner of the Technology Trivia competition, to be held at the conclusion of the event.

"Bring your bots along!"

Since the focus of the event is on technology, bot rights will be enabled in the world NewEra during the Celebration. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to bring their bots with them into the world, provided they do not flood the chat or disrupt the presenters.

Event coordinators

A number of volunteers are currently coordinating the planning of the Celebration:

Presenter applications

To limit the event to a reasonable length, presenter applications are now closed.

Related links

Retrieved from "https://wiki.activeworlds.com/index.php?title=Activeworlds_Technology_Celebration&oldid=31031"