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Virtual-Presence.org |
07.05.2010 Facebook Open Graph vs. Browser Overlays
15.10.2009 Weblin reactivated
23.09.2009 Google Sidewiki
14.09.2009 Weblin offline
14.09.2009 Weblings launch
07.08.2009 Weblin Closes
VPTN-4 published | 29.04.2008 |
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This document describes how virtual presence (VP) uses XMPP [1][2] as a VP transport protocol. It describes extensions to XMPP multi user chat [3] (MUC). Basically, VP uses plain XMPP and MUC plus few extensions to MUC. The extensions augment the user representation with additional user information like avatars, avatar positions and states. |
weblin.lite | 23.04.2008 |
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Weblin.lite is the small sister of weblin. It is Javascript only, works in IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari. Weblin.lite shows people on a web page as avatars. Weblin.lite is a full Jabber/XMPP client implemented in Javascript. It uses http-bind to communicate with a XMPP server, which means, that the protocol is XMPP encapsulated in HTTP. Weblin.lite is compatible with weblin since it uses XMPP, the same location mapping, and the same user data. Both weblin and weblin.lite users see each other on the same web page. Weblin.lite is my 5th prefix-your-URL-and-get-an-IFRAME system on the list. Though, with animated avatars and speech balloons instead of a chat window. |  |
Xpanity | 22.04.2008 |
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Chatsum is a browser-extension-for-chat-on-web-pages. My #8 on the list. Remarkably Xpanity is available for Firefox (as an extension) and IE (as browser helper). The protocol seems to be XML based. Not many users. The Xpanity web site has a "Web Map", which claims 35 users on youtube, but when I went there I found nobody, just old chat lines. They had no timestamp, so I can not really judge how old. But 35 visitors seems like an exaggeration. At least nobody answered. |
PMOG | 11.03.2008 |
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PMOG stands for Passively Multiplayer Online Game. It is a very intersting idea. PMOG makes the Web a play field of an MMOG. The concept sounds like WebWars, the browsergame based on the EVE Online universe. I can't tell better in my own words, so I let this anouncement speak: "PMOG transforms the existing topography of the internet into a game world for players to vandalize, annotate, and curate. Players experience PMOG through a Head-Up Display overlay in the Firefox web browser. This HUD interface allows players to play with each other through the world wide web, creating information quests, laying mines and building defenses around web sites. Order or chaos, destructive or productive - players choose their alignment by the way they surf and the way they use the tools of PMOG." From the PMOG about page: "PMOG is an infinite game built on individual network histories, transforming our web surfing into ongoing social play. With a game head-up display in Firefox, players can bomb each other, wage war over web sites, and lead other users on web missions. Ordinary web sites become caches for items and currency. PMOG fuses an MMO into our WWW." |  |
Google Chatback | 26.02.2008 |
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A Google Talk chatback badge will let visitors to your web page chat with you. They'll be able to chat with you whenever you're signed in to Google Talk. as response. Simple and effective. Nice design. But not many users as far as I can see. Seems, that the creator works on other projects now. The chatback setup page offers an IFRAME which can be embedded into any web page. The code shows something like:
Why is this important to virtual presence? This is a signal, that another major player enters the field of chat-on-web-pages. In this case at least to make web page owners aware of visitors and visitors aware of the online status of page authors. |
Chatsum | 15.02.2008 |
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Chatsum is the latest firefox-extension-for-chat-on-web-pages I learned about. My #7, but it seems to be online quite a while. There are chat entries from 751 days ago and screenshots show news pages 2 years ago. The protocol is based on HTTP FORM POST from client to server and Javascript fragments from server to client. I sent a "test text" and the network shows something like:
as request and:
as response. Simple and effective. Nice design. But not many users as far as I can see. Seems, that the creator works on other projects now.
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Creating a Web of Worlds | 13.01.2008 |
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Cory Ondrejk, coFounder and exCTO of Linden Lab tested Metaplace and comments: "At heart, Metaplace is a lightweight protocol for lightweight communication through the Web, and one of the ways that he sees designers using Metaplace is as a way of letting users experience each other's presence online. Anything that causes the two of us to know we're both on the Web together makes the Web a better place. A big part of what makes interaction in virtual worlds so compelling compared to the Web is the fact that we both know we're there. It isn't the same as leaving bread crumbs on a blog to show that you were there." This, sounds very much like virtual presence. What Areae announced was a Web of Worlds. Maybe what they are really doing is Worlds on the Web. We will see. |
WebWars: EVE | 05.11.2007 |
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John Galt Games announces a new browser game called WebWars: EVE. It's a browser based war game that focuses on conquering and controlling web territories, i.e. web sites. The game is free to play but gamers can buy WebWars money (isk) for faster enhancements. A business model already established in many browser games and east asian MMORPGs. The game is not connected with CCP's EVE Online. It uses the same background story, the same name for the in-game money, but you won't be able to convert money or items between WebWars and EVE Online. It seems to be the first licensed use of the EVE IP following a EVE Online card game by CCP that also built on the same IP. The interesting point in the virtual presence sense is, that every website on the internet is a valid territory. They treat web sites as spaces, that can be visited, conquered, and owned. The value of a web site is based on it's real world visits. The game uses a browser plug-in to track your navigation and enable the game play on the pages you visit with your fleet. |
Ogoglio | 06.10.2007 |
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Ogoglio just came to my attention. It is an open project which aims to put together a world of interconnected (3d) spaces with web technologies. The web site provides general remarks and statements and not very much detail. Well, the project seems to be driven by few people and they have probably more to do than updating the web site. There is a Sourceforge account and there seems to be SVM activity. Sourceforge says a bit more about what the Ogoglio project does. There are few screenshots and documentation. Most interesting is this concept right. Ogoglio is a project, not a product. It is under Apache License V2.0 and seems to be driven by a company called Transmutable. This seems to be the time for virtual spaces which integrate with the Web and which are built on web technologies. The concept is very close to what Media Machines is doing and Metaplace.
Some dates:
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(Source: Ogoglio project) |
Areae: Metaplace.com | 19.09.2007 |
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Last year Raph Koster, MMORPG veteran (UO, SWG), founded a company after leaving SOE to make his own vision of an MMOG come true. The company (Areae) just announced what the have been working on for the last year and what they will be working on until next spring's beta: Metaplace. Metaplace is a collection of virtual worlds, which can be built easily based on Areae's tools and third party tools. The worlds can be linked to create a big meta-world where avatars will be able to move between worlds. It's all built on web technologies: the worlds can be embedded into web pages, e.g. your myspace profile, components are web components loaded from URLs, worlds are web servers and objects are web objects represented by URLs. In short: Web 2.0 meets MMOGs. You wont need the equivalent of Second Life or World Of Warcraft clients installed on your machine, youll just need Metaplace. Anyone will be able to make an online world in five minutes, and dropping in and out of different online spaces will be as easy as surfing web pages. Its Internet 2.0 The two facts that these worlds can be embedded into web pages and that avatars move between worlds puts the whole thing into the vitual presence neighborhood. Also interesting: already known was that Charles River Ventures and Crescendo Ventures put money into Areae. Charles River Ventures has a big fund and since Raph Koster already proved that he can build commercially successful MMOGs, I suspect, that Areae got a decent amount of money. Something you can really work with and hopefully enough to build the next generation of open MMOGs. But money is not all you need. BTW: this seems to be the month of web based virtual worlds and virtual world creation tools. See the previous news entry. |
Media Machines gets $9.4M | 04.09.2007 |
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Media Machines gets $9.4M venture capital money from investors lead by Mohr Davidow Ventures. The company offers a 3D world editor and a browser plugin for IE and Firefox. The founder Tony Parisi was very active in VRML development some years ago. He is now working on X3D, the VRML successor with some other brilliant technologists in different fields. Interestingly, there is also strong know-how in virtual human body animation (avatars!) in the company. This is not completely virtual presence news, more about boxed virtual worlds, than virtual presence, but since Media Machines focuses on browsers as interface it is related to virtual presence. The step for Media Machines is smaller, than for all the other boxed virtual world clients which are popping up in the wake of the Second Life hype.
http://www.thealarmclock.com/mt/archives/2007/09/3d_world_creato.html
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iosurf | 31.08.2007 |
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Iosurf uses a proprietary scalable protocol which sends XML and HTTPS. Users see friends online, LiveUsers on the same domain name, and there is a forum attached to the URL where people even can leave messages. IOSurf is a browser plugin. It opens a side bar and shows poeple on the same web site. Version 2.0 Beta currently available for IE6 and above. |
VPTN-3 published | 22.08.2007 |
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A virtual presence client needs information to display people who meet. It needs a name, an image, maybe an animated avatar, and more. This document describes the storage and exchange of public user identity data. The virtual presence identity data format is optimized for VP applications, where many people need the publich data of their peers, some only once, some repeatedly, where changes happen frequently and must be propagated quickly with minimum bandwidth. |
nloose | 22.08.2007 |
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nloose liveblog: Meet different people who are surfing the same websites as you at the same time. nloose is a browser plugin that shows people who are surfing the same web site at the same time. It shows an indication that other users are avalable and a chat window with images. nloose installs a browser toolbar. It is available for IE and Firefox, which is remarkable. But the software seems to be spanish only currently. I installed, and did not see anyone, but that's probably just a matter of time. |
VPTN-2 published | 13.08.2007 |
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The document describes the location mapping for virtual presence. VP takes place on web pages. VP uses the content of the web. If users navigate to the same page, then VP will make them aware of each other. This is a high level view. Technically, they both join the same chat room and the chat server tells them about each other. Location mapping is the key component, that lets users join the same chat room when they navigate to the same URL. The location mapping process associates a chat room with the document URL. It maps the document URL to a chat room address. |
Coop: Social Browsing | 05.08.2007 |
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Mozilla Labs has cooked up some ideas for a new way of sharing information on the web: through your Firefox Browser. The Coop is a project to experiment to turn your Firefox browser into a social network. |
Me.dium for Internet Explorer | 05.08.2007 |
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Me.dium, the browser add-on tool that is aiming for more social web browsing, has added its service to be available for Internet Explorer users. Previously only able to be used by Firefox and Flock users, Me.dium can now reach a much broader audience. |
Me.dium Raises $15 Million | 11.06.2007 |
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Me.dium announced it had raised $15 million in a second round of funding, bringing its total amount of capital to $20 million from Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Spark Capital, Appian Ventures, Brad Feld, and Elon Musk. This makes Me.dium the front running company in the emerging Virtual Presence field. When they closed the deal they had 20.000 registered users. They won't tell how many active users. Could easily mean $ 10.000 investment per active user. Obviously someone expects whole lot more users, features and services in the Co-Browsing/Virtual Presence field. Some comments: |
Weblin Launches | 21.03.2007 |
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Zweitgeist ended their beta, renamed and rebranded their product to Weblin, and launched on a new server cluster. Your zweitgeist is now a weblin. They renamed to weblin, because weblin is better suited for international expansion. The site also got a new green design and a new expressive logo. There are still 2 avatars on a browser window. But the new logo shows how they emerge from the window supporting the claim: free the avatars. Zweitgeist set up a new server cluster with redundancy on all components and enough processing power for 20.000 concurrent users. Easily expandable to 100.000. That's already in the Second Life dimension and should be enough for a while. |
Virtual Presence talk at FOSDEM 2007 | 24.02.2007 |
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Heiner Wolf, developer of the virtual presence client LLuna gave a talk about Virtual Presence concepts and tech details in the Jabber dev room at FOSDEM 2007. |