There were a lot of concerns recently about where I have been, my visible participation in AMSAT, health etc. I should have probably notified the members sooner and I want to take this opportunity to apologize for that. However email being what it is, during and after the Christmas holidays so much email piled up I was overwhelmed and the thought of reading through 100's if not 1000's of emails was a bit intimidating. During January I was not in the best of health which exacerbated the situation and this continued into February. As March is upon us, my health is improving and I should be back to 100% soon.
As many of you know, I have not been involved in AMSAT as long as many of you, though once I became involved I devoted much time to it. During that time I've mostly focused on three things - education, training and information dissemination. I have and still feel these are the cornerstones of what we need to keep the organization alive. However one thing that happened shortly after the launch of the redesigned website troubled me, and I'd like to take a moment to share it with you.
The AMSAT website is a conventional website, that is, it is built with conventional tools that doesn't stress the average user of the website to upgrade computers,etc. There is a minimal amount of "advanced" technology, and much was done to address browser compatibility issues as they arose. However doing so drained time and effort from development that would otherwise move things forward - it complicates the testing cycle, diverts attention and inhibits our ability to provide new services.
Shortly after launch, someone I hold in good counsel took a middle-schooler to the website. The feedback was not good - basically the reaction was along the line of "there's no animation - where are things that will catch the eye" (though some of the criticism I wouldn't even repeat here). What I took away from that conversation was that we aren't reaching outward to a new generation, we are looking inward to an old. No surprise, I'm not young myself. However in the age where something like 85% of kids in the US own or have access to XBox360's and Playstations, it is no surprise to me that they will be looking for far more to stimulate their interest in most any subject than a conventional website can provide. This was certainly troubling and stuck with me for a long time.
After chairing the symposium I decided to finally have some long overdue down time to relax and do some research. Beginning around the 15th of December I started to look at this problem - how can we build something that will reach out in the next level of technology to a younger demographic. One answer I found was in something called Second Life. Second Life (www.secondlife.com) is an online 3D virtual reality system. Depending on if you are reading Business Week, the New York Times or other publications, it is described as a chat room, an online social networking environment, a MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game) and even the next generation of the worldwide web. I first heard about it on CNN when one of the anchors talked about it, and I decided to investigate it. Probably the best overall independent view of Second Life can be found in the October 2006 Wired Magazine article "Wired Travel Guide: Second Life" (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.10/sloverview.html)
When I first entered Second Life I was not fully prepared for what I was about to experience. Not having ever played video games before, this was an experience like no other I had. Without going into the personal aspects of my experience, I can only say I was immediately overwhelmed at the pace of technology. I immediately understood why the AMSAT website wouldn't appeal to a younger demographic - Second Life is a place that is virtual, 3D, interactive and has much to offer. Universities are building online universities, museums are building online museums, and businesses are building online businesses. This isn't to say it is not without it's drawbacks - it can be disconcerting the first time you go into a store, for example, and the clerk behind the counter is a giant panda. It can be initially shocking when you see some person who is - well, naked and grey - until you realize that the finer points of constitutes their avatar (a person if you will) in SL such as hair, clothing, jewelry etc. hasn't downloaded into your computer yet. Eventually you get used to it and learn how to optimize your video and network settings to minimize this.
What is appealing about Second Life is that it has tools for building 3D objects, scripting them for simulation, documenting them and presenting them. One of the first things I decided to try was to build a simple model of OSCAR III - rectangular box, a few solar panels and four antennas. Easy enough, however not so easy. There are obstacles to overcome, new tools to learn, and a scripting engine unique to the environment. However I was successful, and proceeded to successfully build models of OSCAR I, 7 and even though the tools in the environment have some limitations on small objects, a CubeSat.
Inside Second Life there is an actual online museum for things like this called "The International Spaceflight Museum" or ISM for short. I have joined the staff of the ISM, where I give tours and answer questions for people from all over the world. I did this because staff members are allowed to also create exhibits, and my goal goal is for AMSAT to have a permanent exhibition there. The hope is to have space for representative models of each type of satellite including audio and motion, and to have a story board that will explain the history of AMSAT and ongoing projects and if possible provide a 3D satellite tracking system. I have begun to build these, and the ISM has agreed in part to provide space to me to build the exhibit, though at some point AMSAT will have to pay a small amount (about $50 US) if they want to make it an official exhibit and partner with the museum. Other participants in the ISM include NASA, NOAA and Scaled Composites. The staff is all volunteer and is as diverse as people like myself, people who work for sponsoring firms as well as staff and students from universities around the world.
To give you some perspective of the potential impact of Second Life for AMSAT, Second Life has a population of 3.1 million users, up from 125 thousand a year ago. Of those 3.1 million users, over 2 million have paid memberships. While there are no hard statistics, the demographics of SL is something like 55% in the 18-32 age range, 25% in the 32-45 age range. The ISM receives almost 350 new and unique (first time) visitors per day from everywhere around the globe.
I thought it might be helpful to show a bit of what SL looks like from my perspective - I've posted some graphics at http://www.planetemily.com/sl for those of you who might like to see. I wish they could give you the full 3D experience - it is really wonderful to fly around in a world where pass between actual size rockets and other exhibits.
Second Life is not for everyone - quite the contrary. It will require a broadband connection, and it will require you to have a good CPU and up to date video card. If you decide you want to investigate Second Life yourself there is no charge. You just signup at http://www.secondlife.com, pick an alias for your avatar (my avatar's name is Emileigh Starbrook) and download the software, which supports PC, Mac and Linux. Once you are logged on (which is called being "in-world") there is an initial training cycle to teach you how to walk, fly, pick up objects and will teach you a little about the SL culture. If you decide to become a builder, there are online classes, tutorials and lectures that will help you learn these skills.
Although a Second Life presence will never replace the AMSAT website, I believe it will set the future pace of things we will need to do in the future and the way effective outreach will take place. It has been exciting for me to explore Second Life and I hope that AMSAT will benefit from this soon.
73,
Emileigh Starbrook, AKA N1DID
--------------------------------- N1DID formerly W0EEC - CM87tm
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