Technology Celebration '08 Recap

The Active Worlds Technology Celebration ensued shortly after the scheduled 11PM VRT start time Friday, following some object path discrepancies. NewEra world held a steady 70 guests through the duration of the event. The celebration was primarily grounds for technical experts to announce and promote their AW-related works. Included is a recap of what each presenter brought to the event.

Magine, the first presenter, introduced RPGBot II. The bot will have the functionality of the bot used in AWRPG, but as Magine says, "without all the bugs." The bot will be available for purchase in modules for those who do not need the full functionality. A bare-bones version will be available for users who wish to add their own code. The cost of the bot will start at around $200 for the basic version, with the full-fledged bot with set up assistance sitting around $1000.

More information at http://turtleflight.com/BBS/viewforum.php?f=29

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Byte presented his .NET SDK Wrapper, which enables programmers to create bots in the .NET platform. He also demonstrated 20 bots in-world at once which consumed a mere 11mb of RAM using 63 threads. Byte labeled his project as a "bot creation utility" rather than a bot, since it allows the user to script and compile bots that can be used by others.

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Gnu64 discussed the ActiveWiki, an information resource many are already aware of. Gnu64 encouraged use of the Wiki suggesting all users are welcome to contribute content.

The ActiveWiki is located at http://wiki.activeworlds.com.

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Garnet promoted CitBingo - bingo for citizens only. She asks any interested object modelers to contribute prizes to the event.

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Brant then premiered one of the highlights of the celebration - 3dWiki. Brant began by emphasizing the "three main pillars of AW" - building, chat, events - and how they are disconnected. 3dWiki, Brant says, will change this.

The bot scans the entire world to get an initial impression of the property that is there and then logs the changes.

The bot works in world and area modes - allowing whole worlds or small areas to act as a virtual wiki. Like a page wiki, the 3dWiki allows people to edit property and roll it back to previous versions.

More interestingly, the bot allows property to be edited by anyone. The property must still be built by only one account however, so a group wishing to allow public edit will need a separate account with a shared PPW (so as to prevent the risk associated with giving out a personal PPW). Alternatively, the bot can be setup in a world where eminent domain is given to all users.

The bot handles "transactions" which must be committed or rolled back before other users can edit the property involved in the transaction.

So how does it tie the pillars of AW together? This system will allow people to build in areas where they'd normally only be able to chat, such as city ground zeros.

More information at http://shoemakervillage.org/help/arazubetahelp!$3/

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Ima Genius of the ImaBot organization was welcomed to the stage. The impressive AlphaMapper was updated to January 30, available at http://www.imabot.com/alphamapper/aw/ and already reflected by the AW Property Search service. In addition, updates to the interface and level of detail are planned for the future. ImaBot's flagship Preston bot as well as the Nestor trivia bot will receive feature updates in upcoming builds.

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SW Comit and Syntax were present to announce the upcoming release of SW City Interactive 4.0, occurring at the 9th SW City birthday bash. The interactivity in SW City allows users to collect items, earn money, and harvest resources all without the use of a bot. The system is instead made possible by web technologies displayed within the AW browser.

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The night was capped off with Brant announcing a bit of information about a project he hopes to get started using 3dWiki, and Hyper Anthony showed up to say his bit encouraging community participation.

The event was also scattered with drawings for winners' choice of citizenship extensions or world user limit upgrades, among other contests.

Overall, the event displayed some promising technical advancements for the future of AW. A bit of ruckus was created when AWRadio's The Goober Zone radio program featured unfavorable discussion, which was used as the global sound in NewEra at the discretion of Brant. Goober King, the show's host, stated that he prefers no event associate itself with The Goober Zone and that AWRadio has no intention of censoring its content.

The Technology Celebration is scheduled to take place every four years, on leap day.