and I were on a little study team almost two years ago to the day in one of these virtual environments. And it was a two-week mini-study, but it was really fun. And that was the first project I ever did with Selby. So it was the second project I ever did with AJ. OK, I'm going to share my screen and get us going. Now, you wanted somebody in the CVL library? Yeah, Community Virtual Library. Yep, I'm there. OK, good. All right. Well, now you should all be seeing my screen, and you are, because my alt is seeing that. So let's see where did Selby go. I know that it takes a while to... Selby, if you can see me, come over and sit next to me in the library. So let me go through the timeline and protocols. And I'm also starting my stopwatch. So this agenda, this workshop is being streamed and recorded in sound, image, and photo and public text. So anything that you type in public chat, we will have a chat log. And that's important because a lot of your responses, I'm inviting you to use text chat in Zoom. And there's a button at the bottom of your screen that says Chat. If you all see that type of C for Chat right now in the Zoom chat, so I can see it. OK, there's RD.  And Cynthia chuckles. All right. OK, so anyway, good. So I encourage you to respond regularly in text chat, and there's a way where you can have it popped up on the side while you're watching the all-important material. Then there will be an opportunity for voice interaction at scheduled points. You can change your screen name if you like to your avatar name or something. You all look great. You have been given co-host privileges, which means you can unmute yourself and you can webcam and un-webcam yourself. So if you need to disappear for a minute, just hide your camera and mute yourself and then come back and we'll never know. All right. So. We had two people join us, Paul Allington and Cindy Bolero. Paul and Cindy, welcome. Is either one of you in sign space at the moment at the same time and that you should be able to give them a co-host if you would. OK, thank you. That was going to be my next question. Hello. All right. I don't see the screen, so let me. Why don't I stop share for a minute? OK, there's gentle. Hello, gentle. Paul, are you hearing? Yes, sir. OK. This is so sign space. And there is Cindy. Cindy Bolero is connecting. I'm looking at the gallery view. So we're going to do quick intros. If you wish to, in chat, type your screen name slash avatar name and just tell us something about you you'd like us to know. It could be, you know, where are you from? Where are you logging in from or what virtual environment you use a lot or your anything? Just type your name and something you'd like us to know about you. So I'm sidearm and I'm in Texas right now. Just like that. All right, Becky. All right. Anybody hearing me now? Yes, Paul, you're good. Yes, we do. Finally, good. Hi, everyone. So Paul, open up your chat and just type something about. Type your name and something that you'd like us to know about you. Could be anything where you from or what you'd like to do. I can think of five things at once. OK, gentlemen, hearing. There you go. And this is completely optional. You don't have to do this. And Cindy is still connecting an audio. So we're going to keep going. I'm going to share my screen again. As I said earlier, all the public chat is there will be a chat log. And here we go. So we just did the intros and text chat already. And what we're going to be doing is about 15 minutes of some selective material that I'm going to share with you on the theme of what is the metaverse? What is an operational definition? And you are free to respond in text chat, although I won't be monitoring that until after I stop sharing my screen. Let me just test something here. No, I'm not going to do that yet. I'm not sure if I have done my sound or not. No, I see what's going on. And anyway, that's part. That's all part one. So you ready? All right. OK, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to composing for the new era and operational definition of the metaverse. A lot of people think composing means music. I think composing also means putting things together in a pleasing arrangement, which could be sounds like music, images like PowerPoint slides, tastes like cooking, textures like clothing, anything that's physical world that can be arranged into a pleasing arrangement is composing. But in the digital world, we're pretty much locked down to sound and image. So this is an interactive workshop. I'm going to talk about operational definitions and the metaverse is open simulator metaverse. Well, this is being sponsored by the open simulator conference. So I have to talk about that. Yes, of course it is. But why? How do we assess metaverses? OK, what I would like to have happen here is I invite you to leave your preconceptions at the door. I know I am speaking to an expert audience. We will keep your preconceptions safe and you can pick them up again on the way out. Is that a deal? Mm-hmm. Very good. So the target audience is people like us looking for more perspective. What is the metaverse? What does it provide? And of all things, I'm saying one of the key outcomes could be it's easier and more successful trying to explain to other people why you like this so much. So that's the agenda. So what is the metaverse? And this is material that I've been delivering to university students in Turkey and Ireland and to the students in Europe. Selected slides. The metaverse is a persistent online digital environment with instant two-way co-creative multi-user access. The digital metaverse exists above our physical universe. Meta is Greek for above. But let's get materialistic for a minute. It actually runs on wires. In Texas, we call them wires. And this is a picture of Earth's submarine fiber optic cable network. Our continents are engendered by thick cables of fiber optics that go all the way around the coastline and cross between the land masses. But it's also over our head on radio. These are mobile network towers.  So it's very, very physical. And it's very digital. We're already living in the metaverse. Really? So we're going to test these seven platforms to see if we buy that we're already living in the metaverse. But before we do that, the importance of operational definitions. W. Edwards Deming said that an operational definition is a procedure agreed upon for translating a concept into a measurement of some kind. He became famous for helping the Japanese auto industry revolutionize itself and become a number one commercial world class operation because he helped them change the concept of quality into measurable procedures that they could track. It didn't take long for the US auto industry, for those that are in the United States, to remember the panic when Japanese autos were outselling US brands left to right. And they quickly caught on board with using operational definitions. The key point that Deming makes, though, when you translate a concept, there's no true value. The true value is based on how did you measure it? If you change how you measure it, you're changing what you're talking about. What does this mean about the metaverse? The concept of the metaverse is not usable. Unless it can be measurably defined. In the minute you measureably be defined a metaverse, there can be more than one. The issue isn't having multiple definitions for a metaverse. The issue is, are you using the same definition when you're talking to other people? Now, just to give an example, chair has more than one valid measurable definition. The dictionary.com says, hey, a chair has four legs for support and a backrest. There's a chair. It meets the definition. I don't know about you, but I would feel very uncomfortable trying to sit in that. So dictionary.com says, or, or, it supports like a chair. And that I would feel very comfortable sitting in. I'm sure we could think of other examples that you can sit on comfortably that aren't going to quite meet the canonical or the first definition of chair. So it depends on which definition you're using. So let's hit four operational definitions of metaverse. The canonical or original definition is Stevenson. In 1992, he wrote Still Crash. And he said, in metaverse, it's a computer-generated universe. An avatar is an auto-visual body that we use to communicate with each other. And he said, the metaverse is going to come across fiber optic cable. Oh, he seemed to nail it pretty well. We just saw a picture of the global Earth fiber optic cable. He did miss a bet on Wi-Fi radio, but that's kind of an add-on later. This is probably what most of us think of as the metaverse. But modern-day people don't think that way, do they? Wait a minute. Scott Stein of CNET in 2021 gave this operational definition of the metaverse. It's a space where avatars can meet. He used the word avatar. And he actually referenced Snow Crash in his article. It's an ecosystem for connected apps. It's as creation-friendly as Minecraft. You can create in it. It's as popular as Fortnite. It has a lot of people on it. It's as useful as Zoom. And finally, it runs on many devices accessing a shared world. A third definition, Luca Grabbacher, who's in our workshop. She is the attractively animated cat. And she posted in Reddit a beautiful graphic down here. She's a digital artist, among other things. A metaverse provides for the need to socialize and connect with others. That's consistent, but it's kind of narrowing right down there on socializing. It's a platform for heightened level of self-expression. It provides for mental health support. And it provides for entertainment unique to a virtual world. By the way, these are all in my references later if you want to read the originals. So here's the third, my definition of metaverse. I use lines of demarcation to distinguish metaverses. Is it on this side of the line or is it on that side of the line? Avatar. An avatar is something you can see outside yourself that represents you. Can you see your avatar? In Google Docs, I have an icon. In Google Docs, I can see my avatar quite easily. In Zoom, your webcam view is your avatar. If you look at James with Avicon, he's not even using his face. He's using the Avicon logo, those nine dots. Doesn't matter if it is something outside yourself that represents you. The question is, can you see it? Second life, yes. Signed space, yes. Open simulator, yes. Even Discord allows you to have a two-dimensional avatar. Alt-space VR is tricky. When you're logged into Alt-space VR, you're in first-person shooter view. You're in mouse-look view. You cannot see your avatar.  You have to find a mirror or take a selfie. It's disconcerting to be in an environment like that. There's Olive Tree, you can let her in as co-host. So that was my first test. FreeCam, can you see behind the other avatars and around them? Google Docs, nope. Zoom, nope. I mean, theoretically, I could turn off and you can see my kitchen, but I can't see behind Luca. I can't see behind Selby. I think that what we've been calling 3D, this is me, OK? I'm not saying what we call immersive 3D is FreeCam. Because we control our point of view. In second life, I'm so used to being up and down, looking at the crowd like this, taking pictures. I hardly ever go into mouse-look and going down to eye level is like only for special occasions. In Alt-space VR, you can walk around and see behind all the other avatars, but you can't look down on the crowd. You have to get someone to take some screenshots for you if you're making a video of it or something. So again, it's kind of tricky. Build at it. Can you change your avatar environment and content? AJ and I talked about this a lot when we first started working in Science Space. She demonstrated to one of their board members, resin a cube, uploading a picture, slapping on the picture, putting a frame on it and slapping it on her house. You can't do that in Science Space. In Science Space, Paul knows this, that you create it in the 3D blender or whatever environment, you upload it and you wait two days for it to get approved and then it's promoted and it's available. So I had a hissy fit when I learned about that, but I discovered all the developers love that because it's being approved, checked for no violation of IP. So, okay, I get it, I get it. But I still wanted to do something immediate and that's when one of the other dentists said, you just use room, what do they call it? Room edit. I said, what's that? You buy it on the shop and res it. Oh, oh yeah, good point. Do any of you do that in Second Life?   Sure. But it was a very valid point, you know? So it's a little iffy, but yeah, you can do that. Now, what about AltSpaceVR? Well, if you know the moderator of the conference and email them your JPEG slide, they can upload it and put it on the wall for you. So it's kind of like saying, are we talking instantaneously or are we talking with seven lag that drives you crazy? You got to drive your host crazy. There you go. He thought I was really lagging. And then can you visit whole worlds made by others? So that's kind of how I, those are my yes, no questions, but the point is yes, no or maybe still depends on what is the app, what is the platform and what definition are you using? So I learned, I gave up the right to hate on other virtual environments because they don't do it the way I'm used to. You know, if I have a use case that makes it worth it, I'll go figure out how they do it there and learn to work with it. Sidearm, as people have questions, there have been a number of questions in chat. Would you like those raised during the presentation or saved for later? We're almost up to the first interactive part. So yeah, let's do it right there if you don't mind. Okay. Thank you for asking the question, y'all. I'm not really from the South, but I learned to say y'all. The fourth metaverse definition is apps and platforms. This is a diagram called electronic collaboration tools, user access and decision factors, tools allowing instantaneous synchronous many to many online interactions. Many of you participated with me reviewing this, including Selby and several others, all the initials, you can't read it, but if you, in my references, there's a link to it. But I'll tell you what stands out. Is it instantaneous synchronous many to many interactive?  Synchronous means we can talk back and forth at the same time like James and I just did and can be many to many, like you all are interacting with me. I mean, if y'all have the ability to unmute your mic right now and we could have a little, we could sing the hallelujah chorus. That's synchronous, same time. So to me, that's like the first fundamental definition for me and what a digital metaverse is. Then James raised a good point and others have to, is it persistent?  When you log out and come back, is your science space region still there? Is your second life home still there? Is your Discord server and chat still there? All space VR, you can build your own home and it'll still be there when you come back. Some virtual platforms, no, it goes away when nobody's logged in. And the last thing, this is especially something Selby taught me, is it meeting your use case? Nevermind all those questions are the fundamental questions that have to be yes, yes. So that's the fourth proposed definition of what a metaverse is. So now we're going to go into the discussion and the way I'd like to do this is, we're on time, my God. The question, the prompt is, what has caught your attention in the material presented so far? I'm going to, can you guys remember that? What has caught your attention? Cause I'm going to stop share so I can read chat. What has caught your attention? And if anybody wants to speak in voice, grab the mic and the rest of you type away. Whoever grabs the mic first gets to speak. What has caught your attention so far? Paul, is that you? What's standing out to me is there's an emphasis on talking about the whole metaverse, but the idea of the metaverse to me is kind of more of a personal thing in that my avatar would be the hub of my metaverse. I would expect my avatar to exist and be used in every application on the internet if we had a metaverse. For example, if I went to Google Docs, or no, let's say I'm on a Zoom call, I expect my avatar to be able to represent me in the webcam. I would expect my avatar to be seen on the Google Docs profile, et cetera. To me, it's kind of an existence in virtuality, fundamental to how it works. You've got to be able to take your avatar to all these different places. And in that sense, the metaverse can only be individual things from other companies. It can't be one thing, just like we call it the world, but it consists of many, many different inputs to it. So I don't think the definition of metaverse is by any means anywhere close to being sorted out with what the different technologies can and can't do at this stage. It's still a conceptual kind of idea. And I don't really know who's going to come up with the answer or be the authority to define what it is. It's a kind of a theoretical concept like Schrodinger's cat almost to me. Got it, I appreciate that. So I'm going to paraphrase brutally and type it here. But basically, I think you're saying the metaverse for you is still conceptual and you're still curious to see who has the authority to say what it is. And then Selby remarks, it's the semantics of defining metaverse. Okay, good. So what has caught your attention about the slides presented so far? And Gentle Herron is remarking, Paul, that your approach is consistent with self-centered definition of reality. I don't think we had a chance for Paul to introduce himself. Paul, do you want to just briefly introduce yourself? We did it. Yeah, sorry. Community manager at Science Space. So I kind of am involved in the business on the inside, but obviously we're just one aspect of virtual worlds. But yeah, I'm the community manager and responsible for events, entertainment and keeping the community amused. Welcome aboard. I see Paul twice a week in the Science Space Metaverse. Okay, what has caught your attention about the slides presented so far? Final round, Luca, anything? I think the thing that caught my attention is how you say that the flight came in second life is what kind of contributes to your sense of immersion. I think it's like kind of an element or property of immersion that I never thought of before. It's an ability to be able to fly around in a virtual environment like that. Thank you. Selby, anything caught your attention so far? No. Nope, okay. I did. I've commented in the comments, but that's all. Yeah, that's my job. AJ? I'll tag off of where Luca was with the different points of view that you were mentioning in the different types of virtual worlds. I don't have all the words you used, but I think that Luca's correct when they talk about the fly cam and the ability to be able to zoom all around. That's, to me, that creates, that's a better use being able to use a fly cam than having a limited mouse look view in something because you're very locked down. Part of the metaverse is the joy of being more. It's part of becoming something greater than we in our physical bodies can be. And when you're locked into mouse look, you are still doing more or less, at least as far as your vision is concerned, what we can do here with our physical bodies. But in a virtual world, it's so much bigger. And I really, I like that. And I don't know if that's what you wanted, but I'm gonna hush now for someone else to talk. That was perfect. R.D., how about you? And what has caught your attention so far? The need for definitions that are workable with everyone because I have a huge impetus to bring people into virtual worlds, which to me means utilizing any computer to get anywhere.   And to convince people that they already know something about it, I share with them, you use email, don't you? That is one aspect of being in a virtual world. So being able to share with others what it is and how they can use it or how it extends their world or amplifies. Thank you. And I see Cindy Ballero is nodding along with you. James with Avacon has caught your attention so far. Oh, no, I don't know if you want me to answer that. Can Joyce come into the room? Oh, yes. Thank you for noticing that, Paul. So many windows going out. I would just comment that I'd go back to the self being the center of things. And I think about the memory of being in a virtual environment and it relates to the fidelity of the environment. But for me, what's been compelling since the days of there.com and Second Life early on is that in this example, when I sit at this meeting, I remember sitting at a computer in a chair typing on a keyboard. When I attended the OpenSim Community Conference, I remember being in an auditorium and being near a stage and being near other people. And so the memory that's formed is very different in an immersive virtual world. Thank you. Olive Tree, what has caught your attention about the material presented so far? And again, you can also use chat. Is Olive Tree co-host James? I think she is. I'm here. Oh, there you are. Can you hear? Yes. Okay. I'm sorry, by the time I logged in, I'd missed most of it. But I saw some of the discussions in the chat. And from what others said, I can tell you what... Your mic went off again, Olive Tree. Whoops. Yeah. There you go. I'm back, I think. Yeah. I made a mistake of trying to use Zoom on the web instead of the app. And it keeps disconnecting anyways. A couple of things that others commented on. One thing is the definitions. I think the definitions, I mean, it's a question. I'm thinking out loud. When I see internet, the internet is a lot of things. Or the web is a lot of things. I cannot define it as YouTube or a wiki, so I think the virtual worlds or the metaverse needs to be something of that. I mean, the definitions need to be general and can encompass or can include a lot of things because the virtual worlds won't... I don't think the future, they'll look the same. I mean, part of your presentation, I think you showed that there are differences between, for example, design space and now the VR and so on. The other thing is... Okay, Olive, I'm going to stop you there. Olive, I'm just going to stop you there. Okay, we've hit the bottom of the first part. So we're going to continue doing discussion, but I need to re-prompt us. So the first part, I'm going to show my slides again. By the way, I just pasted a link in chat. If you have not filled that poll out yet, it's a voluntary poll, but please click that link and quickly submit your answers because I'm going to show the responses to date shortly. It's just a Google form, it's nothing. You just put your avatar name and then blop, blop, blop, and send it in. Well, you're doing that, Siredan. I'll just share that we've had a couple of comments on the YouTube stream about having an outside perspective might be reductive. Having a first-person perspective feels natural for new metaverse citizens. Oh, good. Chantel, you should laugh at me right now because I'm thinking just so the new folks, everything is being, you type in chat, there's a chat log. We verified it, James and I. And then there's a audio recording, but you guys are saying such good stuff. I'm not quite sure how we're going to catch it all. Back on track, we're now going into part two. I'm going to show you two more quick slides and then we'll do the round table. I am fascinated by the timeline. 1992, we already said, was when metaverse and avatar got defined, at least in print. Avatar, some of you already know is Sanskrit and it's a religious concept. Metaverse, as far as I know, came out of Neil Stevenson. And then down here in 2021, we just looked at contemporary definitions of the metaverse from CNET and Reddit, courtesy of Scott and Luca. And then, you know what? The first popular browser was in 1993, Mosaic, which became the escape navigator, which became this became that and the other thing, but that was the first time you could do text and graphics over the worldwide web. And then here's Deming, my favorite, an operational definition, 1994. So there's this early 1990s thing. And then all of a sudden 30 years later, metaverse has become a media buzzword. It's like the old saying, you know, it takes 30 years to become an overnight success. So I find that evocative and there's second life right there halfway in the middle and there's science space right there. Like 2015 and 2016 were very good years. And then Zoom, Zoom has been around for nine years already, but it took off because of, you know, why? Second thing, this picture, this is a concept diagram that the scribbles on the left are in the individual imagination and the scribbles on the right are group, which means group realization. To realize something means to make it real. Like when you read something in Second Life or when you sow something in the physical world to make it real. And we come up with ideas, but ideas cannot be copyrighted. They cannot be trademarked. They cannot be patented. In order to do that, they must be made real. It must either become a physical object like a mouse. It must become a digital picture or a digital sound like the song. It has to be put into a physical media of some sort, including digital, to be group realized, to be shared. So, you know, my definition is the metaverse exists on a spectrum from individual imagination to group realization. But when push comes to shove, it takes, you know, Phillip Rosedale or an Adam Frisbee or fill in your favorite name to do something and turn it into an app. So those apps, those are all these dotted lines in the middle that are operational definitions. Another word for operational definition is design specification. Paul, who's with us is one of the people actively involved in constantly upgrading and implementing the design specifications for one platform. We are constantly upgraded with Second Life Viewers because they've updated their design specifications and all-space VR, et cetera, et cetera. Almost every time I log in to all-space VR, there's a new update that you have to do. So that's Primmer. We're going back to Round Robin, and I'm going to try to... I should have printed this. What I've been trying to do, guys, is I just call on you in the order that your webcam happens to be displaying to me. And it's page 14. So at the minute I go off the screen share, I won't be able to remember what I'm supposed to be asking you. So I'm going off screen share now. And we just wrapped up with Olive Tree, and we have brand new questions. And these questions are adopted with full credit to the Virtual World Best Practices conference. So the first round of questions is the Metaverse. The Metaverse. The Metaverse. What is exciting about the Metaverse? Val, I'm going to start with you. What is exciting about the Metaverse? And the rest of you, type in chat. Type in chat as well, in case I don't get to you in time for a voice. And don't forget to unmute your mic, Val. Could you unmute Val, James? Maybe I can do it. Okay. There you go. Thank you very much. What's exciting about the Metaverse? It's exciting because of all the many advantages that I've found. You can do so much more than you can when you're constrained by all the physical world constraints, one of which is money. It costs $1,000 to attend a conference and I can do it in second life free. It's a huge thing that's exciting to me that, you know, and also distance is irrelevant. I can have colleagues all over the globe that care about what I care about. And I couldn't do that only in the physical world. So there's a couple of things that are exciting. Thank you. Joyce, if you're there, what's exciting about the Metaverse? Oh, good. People are typing. Joyce just typed. All right. Perfect timing. Joyce says it's a decentralized immersive 3D future. It's more than I can read. Lear says sharing effortlessly, creating content. Cindy says low carbon footprint, less highway travel. Lynn says opportunities to meet and interact. Thank you. Gentle. What's exciting about the Metaverse? If you're there gentle. And you can use chat if you prefer. Paul says, the Metaverse is not fading away or staying static. It's mainstream. It is now mainstream. Ah, and gentle says the utility is amazing. Thank you. Lynn, what's exciting about the Metaverse? You already read mine. I did. Yep. Oh, thank you. Who's left our D. So we says low cost of educational buildings. I just typed mine in, but basically the fact that it's there. And it has been there for a long time and it continues to be there. We can use it. I am so jazzed about this because as a person who normally would not travel anywhere in the physical world due to my challenges. I can be anywhere at any time with anyone on any part of the physical planet. In a virtual reality of some sort. Thank you. AJ, what's exciting about the Metaverse? I'm probably going to reiterate what a lot of people have said. That's fine. You can, you can ditto. I love being able to be somewhere that's not Florida. I love being able to be somewhere that's not Florida. I'm currently a resident of Rose Haven, which is a private estate and second life. It's winter there. I have snow. I have so much snow. It's falling from the sky. It's mounted on the ground. I get to wear winter clothes and it's amazing. And I don't have to go anywhere. And I don't really have to wear a giant heavy winter coat. And there's also just the ability. The fact that geography no longer matters. I have people in Europe, New Zealand, Australia. You name it, you know, people are everywhere and it's, it's amazing. It feels like it's made the world smaller in a good way. More of a neighborhood rather than a vastness that. Sometimes my mind has trouble comprehending. Thank you. I'm going to go to our next question. What is worrisome about the metaverse? Luca, what is worrisome? Anything is fine just off the top of your head. I mean, for me, I'm not too worried about too much because I believe that if some company probably will try to do a very authoritarian or bad thing, things will balance out because it always, it's always like, for example, with the train companies of the Middle East, they got nationalized and say, I'm actually not too worried about, I'm very excited about the metaverse in general. Thank you. Paul says Facebook is worrisome. Cynthia Lear says cyber crime is worrisome. Selby, what is worrisome about the metaverse?  Yeah, it may, and I unmuted myself. I even remembered. And the thing, what is really worrying me is I see a lot of misunderstanding about what assumed details that are not going to be true. And some people, there are people appear and mentioning speaking on the Reddit, my Reddit says that believe the metaverse is all one place. And if you buy an area on the metaverse in one company, you own it in other companies also. And those, they're going to wind up spending, wasting a lot of money on the basis of absurd beliefs like that. That's actually, well, there's a whole collection of things. The metaverse, people, the metaverse even may be, get the blame for the NFT burst, which is bubble, which is certainly going to burst sometime. And especially when they're selling NFT based land. And I'm sure there's going to be a real bubble burst. So those are the things I'm concerned about. I'm really worried about nothing I can do about them. However, got it. So there's a couple of comments. Many comments along the line is the safety factor being preyed upon the ability to be attacked in new and interesting ways. Inaccessibility is worrisome true in all realities. That anyone large company might control the metaverse or be perceived to and echo chambers of thought. Confirmation bias, I think is the word for that. So James from Avocon, are we, I, when I look this way, it means I'm looking at YouTube, but I can't quite read them. Is there anything you want to highlight that they've responded that you comment from the YouTube channel really in line with the same thing, you know, the worrisome that one massive company would own the metaverse and censor it. Yep, yep. Okay. Next question. What is the current stance or opinion on the metaverse? What is the current stance or opinion? I love these are questions on the metaverse and Joyce, I'm going to ask you to kick us off on that. Now, R.D. wants clarification. What is the, you know, some people look at seeing that to see what the consensus is on the metaverse. Some people, you know, go to roundtables and talk about what is your perception? What are people saying about the metaverse? What is the consensus on the metaverse? I'm asking you, Olive Tree, what do you see as the current stance or opinion on the metaverse? It's a tough question. That's a new question to me too.  I'm seeing the professors of the students I spoke to said they're all wondering what is the metaverse and is Facebook in charge of it. It's not that they believe that, but it's like, that's what they're hearing. They're saying it's something that Facebook invented. So that would be a current stance. General says she doesn't think there's a consensus. Fair response. R.D. is saying, ah, street cred. I'm also going to chime in because it's, it depends on what audience we are dealing with. Now I know some brilliant people. Some of you are in the room because I remember being in SL with many of your avatar names and some, the brilliance of people within the venue and that know it is unfathomable. However, if you are talking about a person who knows absolutely nothing about how to use their computer to hook up with other people, which is to me one of the prime reasons of having a virtual world or a metaverse, then it's a totally alien concept to them, which is why I struggle with terms like the use of metaverse and that type of thing. Because we need to take what they already know and translate it that into a path to guide them into utilizing virtual worlds in a more beneficial way to themselves into the universal worlds. And I'm shushing now. Those are fair comments. And you know, when James from Avicon and I were talking, he suggested, well, wouldn't it be an interesting poll question? Is the metaverse real? And I poo-pooed that, but you know, that's a fair question. Speaking of poll, let me share results to date. Let me share screen and then we'll get right back to the round table thingy. Okay, here's the responses. We've had 10 responses. Waiting on six. And make sure you entered it. Okay, how many virtual environments have you used in the last one to two years? 80% of the respondents have used three or more. And 20% used one. How often do you use virtual environments? 60% use it daily. 10% use it not at all. Look, it's changing as we speak. 27.3% use it weekly. How many social platforms have you used in the last one to two years? 100%. Three or more. Three or more. 100%. How often do you use social platforms? Over 60% say daily. 10% not at all. And the range in the middle. With how many others do you interact regularly through virtual environments and social platforms? 60% say 10 to 99 people. And I deliberately picked that range. And then 10% say one to nine and nobody said none. Interesting. None bars number asserts that on the average, we each maintain 150 meaningful relationships with others. To what extent does use of virtual environments and social platforms help you maintain meaningful relationships. Over half say. 10 to 99 of my meaningful relationships are. Helped through these platforms. And. 18 or down to the one to nine. And an amazing quarter, say over a hundred. Done bars number is a topic to come up in a future. Workshop. And then several of you entered some good comments on here. So that's our poll. Let's go back to the round. Table discussion. The next question is, what else. Do we need to know? Oh, wait a minute. Ben Stanley from YouTube says that the metaverse is not Web three. It's not Web three. Okay. Selby concurs that there's not a consensus. And Valerie is talking about way too many voices shouting and. Teens, et cetera. Not knowing who to listen to and in the rise of the influencer. So what. Else do we need to know? Leah, I want to start with you. What else. Do we need to know about the metaverse? And you all can type in chat on YouTube as well as, and thank you, James from Avocon, for monitoring the YouTube here. That's a pretty tall order. the future see for me the the metaverse is the 3d web and everyone's used to the 2d web right so it's a different way of thinking about how we socialize and interact but it's the power of creation it's not just in the hands of the elite few now everyone has the ability to create just as they did to produce media you know with all the affordances of youtube and other social media services so i think we're going to see inroads that will take us in wonderful new directions you know for learning socialization for creativity and then also for science you know so for education it's great thank you paul what else do we need to know about the metaverse and y'all remember keep tapping what else do we need to know about the metaverse if you're still there paul yeah i'm still here i'm just having a ponder on that have a ponder i'm still i'm still concerned about the influences the larger companies will have on this um and whether we're going to get freedom or restrictions in it i cannot i can't see this happening really for still a number of years i know the buzzwords about i know 30 years ago was the first virtual world etc but there's still a lot of stuff that is not going to cohesively knit the metaverse together until we've got applications that support the idea of a metaverse it can't happen you're looking at the well the ability of windows to copy and paste something between applications we need that but for our regions our worlds our environment our props our avatars and the things we own in our own individual virtual worlds i cannot see the cooperation happen between virtual worlds to make this an easy process thank you so many companies got to be a part of this join in with it it's almost like we might need a metaverse operating system to replace windows to make this achievable thank you um olive tree kind of did is that how will it be regulated um selby uh says we need to how do we tell others about the use cases that conserve them our d is saying social emotional learning um having conversationally tilted or i'm not sure facilitating clear language and then lin is saying how can we make it to people that don't have hardware for 3d equity and valerie is dittoing paul and selby is afk i love it uh change from avacon what are we hearing from youtube if anything you want to highlight yeah i've posted in our chat uh just you know more comments about metaverse being good or bad um the internet has changed our society in so many ways that we couldn't have predicted it when we created it uh from from uh ikelos on youtube thank you so i'm going to do the um the debrief now because i promise that we would end on time again all the chat log will be uh james has verified that he's got access to the public chat log anything you said in private is not captured by zoom and there's a chat log on youtube um and these slides are available i'll post a link here shortly if you wish to have them they're they're available for you to use we can link to the slides on the conference listing for this event also okay great um some of the themes i'm hearing and i'd say this is it um is it there it is there it's not here so there's a group consensus that the metaverse is here and that it's not here i love it um so that answers your question james from avacon is metaverse real yes no maybe illustrating my point no or it's being realized it's not quite here yet but it's being realized over time we're kind of sneaking up on it um and then kind of a strong message is one company in charge of it um can one company control the metaverse and our access to it um and uh or we create the metaverse it's it's our world who else do they think is creating it um so thank you all the last thing i'll invite you to do if you wish is to briefly in chat say what did you like about this workshop format i think avacon would very much like to know if you would like more um types of workshop at the next year's conference this is the third one they tried out what did you like about it i'll tell you right now i liked having paul here from science space who i hang out with twice twice a week and cindy ballero who's a a tri denizen she has three and more virtual worlds that she belongs to but i see her most often in in science space uh luke who i met in reddit uh a j who i met in second life and in science space val who i met in verbella lear who i met in moses military open sim james who i said ravicon lin who i met through second life etc etc i love that i got to meet you all in these multiple virtual environments so that wraps it up uh we're not going to shut it down we'll leave it open if people want to blather but um we're officially over with the uh the broadcast part uh james from avacon yeah thank you thank you sider i'm gonna i'll uh i'll end our stream uh going to youtube so thank you to all the people on youtube who have been commenting uh really great thoughts from there and uh we're just going to give it a few seconds for youtube to finish up but i'll uh i'll stop the stream from this end and then and then you can continue just give me


There are several facets of agriculture that have really, really seriously hurt. The apple crop is down 30 percent regionally this year after a category three drought hit Massachusetts this summer, affecting not only your fall apple picking experience but the entire industry behind it. Farmers are faced, some of these farmers, vegetable farmers are faced with the choice of which fields do we keep going and which do we abandon and truly they do abandon some. Smolak serves on the Farm Services Agency within the Department of Agriculture. He is one of five farmers in Massachusetts to be appointed by the past two presidential administrations. Him and other board members are discussing preventative measures. If a drought like this were to happen again. I'd like to think about how do we address this in the future because is this the new normal? None of us know, no way of telling. So if this is the new normal then we've got to really get ourselves in gear and drill more wells and get our irrigation systems up to par. Apples have decreased so much in size that local farmers are coping with the economic losses. When we have a drought also it makes the apples fall off the trees much earlier and that's what we're starting to see. It normally takes 80 to 100 apples to a bushel.  This year it's taking double that. We paid for like the 30 bags so I mean I guess we got like some big ones but most of them were smaller so it was easier to fill the bag. This one, this one they're pretty little. The apples aren't really big they should be oh probably about this big around compared to what they are. Farms on the North Shore have been hit the hardest but according to Smolak mother nature is finicky and it's all part of the job. Reporting for BUTV 10 in North Andover I'm Christina Gallardo.


Clean the environment through the music and the core idea behind my project is that reuse, reduce and retune. I retune all this found objects to my own ways and that's the mindset today. I wanted to share with you and later we can all experience Yeah, experiencing the found object sound Makkalada Makkalada Makkalada Makkalada Makkalada Makkalada Makkalada If we take care of our mother She will always Take care of us and our future generation to come This is my PVC 5 If we make this also yeah Next time you guys gonna make something interesting yeah Inspired by You guys are need some rumbling yeah, let it go the whole day you feel the energy And to come here and play with me one person come here. Yeah, play together. Okay. This is one.  Yeah, two people keep playing keep playing. Yeah. Yeah, I Give you one more drum. Yeah. Yeah, keep playing. I'm gonna come together Make it look Okay One two three. Yeah, I joined me okay children be with me.  Let me follow you guys. What do you say?