Linden Labs vs. Google : Victor takes the virtual marketplace

First: Thank you BumpTop. Your 3D desktop has recovered my desktop, a task previously unthinkable.  It's stable, and you guys rock.

Second: The migration back into a 3D desktop has reinvigorated a perception I've had on the futures of the virtual environments by Linden Labs and Google. It's no secret that I've wondered about Google's potential for SketchUp, but is that far enough? Is it possible that Google Earth is the real competitor to Second Life?

Hugh may be saying it best: 

Walk with me here - Linden Labs has combined the perks of a social chat room with a  marketplace.  Throw a 3-dimensional GUI over this, and that's it. Not much different than your Apple store and iPhone interface, except that you have cute little avatars (well, not that cute) and less control on quality environments.

So, what if you had the following acquisitions: A) a powerful, user friendly 3D modeling application;  a foray (failed, but still a foray nonetheless - RIP Lively!) into an online 3D engine; a powerful, global-based database & map/3D graphic engine; GPS synchronization; a social network/IM stream; an open-source mobile phone OS and handset(s); and finally, a powerful search and advertising/marketing network.

LL, be afraid.

This isn't to say that Google has all of the pieces, but Google has all the pieces. Sony may be able to bring a variation of this to the PS3, but they are landlocked to the console. Apple is missing the advertising connection.  Microsoft isn't even in the same neighborhood (open source? whazzat?).

So how do these pieces go together? There is not much difference if someone is creating something for the web or modeling for real-world architecture (I'm still waiting for Google SketchUp to take on Autodesk, but I've vented on that enough for now...). An intuitive modeler is an enabler, and being able to port to Google Earth is a gateway drug.

Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash speaks of a world where there is relevance between physical and virtual locations. Anyone with Google Maps on your iPhone know of the surrealism of being able to always know where you are, and entering into the virtual based on the physical brings a parallelism unprecedented in 3D environments. Discovering new worlds or landholding your real estate in both worlds gives the ability to sync retail brick and mortar locations with their online presences. 

Now distribute this to your mobile phones. Virtual searches syncronized with physical products. Tracking search and purchase over a distributed network on PC and mobile. VR synced to the physical, yet the parallel with the truly virtual. Advertising pushed to your phone through GPS, driven from the VR parallel, and vice versa. 

Combine this with attributal building information, searchable destinations, or even being able to recombine and build your own cities based on search criteria. Market data beware, you can have user data at an entirely different scale. People could build and share their own virtual 'cities', pulling people to search and build their networks with each other.

Unimaginable, no?

If you VR in a CAVE, does it qualify as SPELUNKING?

Well, there have been some intriguing developments lately in the possibility of utilizing some form of large-format stereoscopic VR as part of pre-construction on this li'l project of ours. Thanks to our reps over at Mechdyne, we were able to make some connections with a terrific Comp Sci researcher at UC Davis' Keck Center, who helped us both translate our Revit data into a custom built Linux ASE viewer as well as being a fantastic salesman for VR. 

Oliver, many thanks.

Going forward, we've been able to track down some potential justifications for utilization of VR as a construction tool:

Virtual mockup rooms -

This is a no-brainer. Construction and schedule costs to traditional, full-scale room mockups are an easy target, as users only get to respond to one room at a time, and changes this late can only be a hit to the construction schedule (can you say escalation and waste impacts...? I knew you can!) Now, imagine a VR environment where you can run your full building, virtualized to 1:1 scale. 

Did I also mention that most users cannot understand architectural drawings?

'nuff said.

Inspector Review tool -

We're dealing with some serious governmental oversight groups out here in Cali. OSHPD alone is bringing potential cost padding of 30-50% on some projects, which is part of the reason hospital construction in CA is through the roof, compared to the rest of the country. Bringing inspectors and other stakeholders through in pre-con holds the potential to identify what they will be reviewing and means and method/sequencing modifications to accomodate the specifics of each reviewer, without getting caught at the 11'th hour in the field.

Design and documentation tool - 

Many architects do not necessarily understand what they're drawing. Any tool to visualize, inspect, and review the data model is beneficial.

Construction scheduling -

The other day, my plumbers brought to light the point that they are having to centralize more of their skilled labor back in the shops, and they are having to deal with an increasing amount of less-skilled labor in the field. This unfortunately means we may have to awake to a fear that we are losing the traditional technical skills (unfortunately, this is hitting architects as well, not just the contractors) that have been honed and handed down in apprenticing over the years. Subcontractors are now in the position that they have to revamp their installation drawings, making them as simple as a user manual, and hoping that the field superintendent can error check and recover in time in the field.

Enter a mobile, onsite CAVE trailer. Large scale VR of the installation to visualize what the installation should be, resolve field coordination issues, and reviewing productivity and sequencing issues from a VICO model. 

I like it.

All of this is just food for thought. Justification and business cases drive our industry, and decisions on this are no different. Tomorrow is another day, and we will have to see where this gets us.....

A Vision (alcohol not included)

This past week has been a great distraction from the last year, which has been one of the few times in the past few years that I have been able to detour from the daily project grind and focus on computing process evolution. To put this in context, it's been an opportunity to explore the use of stereoscopic large scale visualization (more precisely, the use of a CAVE in a VDC process), and the mental retreat has brought with is some enlightenment:

• The future of the architectural project is all about the integrated project team, and everyone working on one model. This is not happening today, as team siloing and planning for risk and lawsuits still define the boundaries that contain the subgroups. The contractual changes of Integrated Project Delivery will overcome one side of the equation, but the software side can only be overcome by vendors, and somebody needs to bitchslap them with the realization of how much time we burn on a project translating files from one application to another.
• Our model data sets are huge, and this is a good thing. 
• Social networking tools may hold a piece of the solution in how architectural teams function. It may turn out to be a necessity of effective project team management.
• Physical, full-size mockups serve a place, but the ability to supplant them with large-scale VR may finally be here.
• We are entering an age of innovation in architectural process, leaving the age of starchitecture.  This requires an open mind towards project delivery, and, more importantly, the perception that the overall project process can be hacked, reordered, and reconstituted into something leaner, more efficient, and one that can both produce better quality and cheaper buildings. 

I am curious to see the next 5 years in architecture - if the current trends hold true, we may be entering a pace of innovation similar to web 1.0, and the revolutionary cycle may leave more than a few traditionalists in it's wake. 

I think I need a drink right about now....