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We have some very exciting news to share!
Since 2007, the Wiki tree software development has been funded by Studio Wikitecture and developed by i3D Inc. We’ve considered the software development process to be experimental, just as we’ve considered the ongoing Studio Wikitecture projects to be experiments in collaboration using Second Life.
The Studio Wikitecture experiments have had great success — winning the Founders Award in the 2008 Open Architecture Network Challenge and the 2009 Linden Prize. But how can we build on that momentum? One thing has become clear — the Wiki Tree software needs to grow in many ways. It needs to be easier to set up and easier to use by project collaborators. It needs new features to make it useful for a wider range of projects, from the small in-world build to large designs that will be built in the physical world. It needs better integration with the rest of the Web and with other 3D modeling applications. The list goes on and on. And by ourselves, we don’t have the resources to make that happen.
So we’re liberating the Wiki Tree software. We’re releasing all the code, both in-world and server-side under the Berkeley Software Distribution license. Omei Turnbull (Roger Wellington-Oguri in RL), a long time Studio Wikitecture contributor, has agreed to shepherd the project, and has set up a project home at
https://sourceforge.net/projects/wikitree3d. The source code has been uploaded to a SCM Repository and we’re in the process of creating a Wiki, discussion forums, and an issue tracker.
It is our hope that the Open Source Wiki Tree 3D project will take on a life of its own, and grow to be something bigger and better than we can currently conceive of. But that’s up to you and the rest of the community. If you do use the Wiki Tree, we hope you will give back to the project in whatever way you can, whether that be helping other users, submitting code enhancements, or just spreading the word. But that isn’t a requirement. The BSD License is a “permissive” license, meaning you can do most anything you want with the code, commercial or non-commercial, with or without contributing back to the community project.
Studio Wikitecture itself will be actively engaged in the Open Source Wiki Tree 3D project. We’ll also be offering project hosting, facilitation, training, technical assistance and support. If you would like assistance with setting up a Wiki-Tree, hosting a project on the Studio Wikitecture website, or conducting a Wikitecture project, please send us an email at info@studiowikitecture.com.
To the future!
The Studio Wikitecture project on the Treet Islands is ready to start it’s dynamic and creative evolution and you are invited to come and celebrate the kick-off.
Day: Thursday 3rd September
Time: 6pm SLT
Location: Treet.TV Wikitecture Project, Tropical Treet (97, 146, 24) http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tropical%20Treet/126/166/24/
For a background on the project please visit: http://wiki.treet.tv/Treet_TV_Island_Development
We need your help in deciding how the Treet Islands should be designed. The goal of the project is to come up with a plan by voting and selecting the best ideas.
Wiz and Keystone will be at the event to talk about their goals and hopes for the project.
Although this is the official event, it’s really an informal gathering where we hope people can find out how to get involved, meet others who are working on the project and to share ideas.
Hope to see you there!
Greetings team Wikitecture!
We are pleased to announce an exciting new Wikitecture project, in collalboration with the entertainment network Treet TV (formerly SLCN), to design a master plan and architectural framework for their virtual headquarters. With 200,000 unique viewers per month, this is sure to be a great way to raise awareness, and introduce new contributors to the Wikitecture process. Better yet, Treet TV will be producing a high definition mini-series documentary following Studio Wikitecture in these formative days, for release in early 2010.
Stay tuned for more details, but in the meantime – here is a press release announcing the project. Feel free to spread the word!
San Francisco, CA (July 05, 2009) – Winners of the inaugural Linden Prize, Studio Wikitecture, have formed a partnership with Second Life’s leading virtual television network Treet TV to create a collaborative building environment for bringing new life to Treet’s studio islands. The innovative Wiki Tree collaborative approach will be used to implement improvements to the aesthetics of the space and to foster community involvement.
“Studio Wikitecture’s groundbreaking community-driven system for the selection of designs and ideas fits perfectly with the Treet TV mission. Our network is built by us and our producers as a cooperative effort, and the idea of extending that effort into the design of the spaces we share is exciting new territory.”, says Gary Wisniewski (Wiz Nordberg in SL) CEO of Treet TV.
Studio Wikitecture founder, Jon Brouchoud (Keystone Bouchard in SL), says the project presents challenges that will be a great test of the the wikitecture collaborative approach. “We are are thrilled to have been invited by Treet TV to help design a master plan and an architectural framework for their islands. The fact that there is already an active and vibrant community using the islands means it’s going to be a lot of fun to develop according to the wishes of a large group of stakeholders..”
Brouchoud and Wisniewski expect the development to extend and compliment the existing synergy between the several popular shows that are filmed on the Treet TV islands including Tonight Live, Designing Worlds and Fabulous Fashion.
The development process is set to begin immediately and proposed elements will be open for review by late July. As work progresses, Treet TV plans to create a documentary about the process and its outcome for release early in 2010.
About Treet TV
Treet TV is an entertainment network that serves virtual worlds viewers and producers. Established in March 2007, Treet TV uses a collaborative production model which has resulted in more than 3000 hours of broadcast quality content, all targeting the emerging phenomenon of virtual living. Shows are broadcast live to audiences inworld on Treet TV enabled television screens, as well as live onto the world wide web. Large scale live events in the past include the Transformers press event, Philip Rosedale SL6B Opening Ceremony and the Best Practices in Education conference.
http://www.treet.tv
About Studio Wikitecture
Studio Wikitecture is a collaborative design group that enables public participation in design projects through voting, commenting, or uploading their own ideas to a ‘3D Wiki,’ technology they developed.
In June, 2009, their award winning technology and process won Architecture for Humanity’s overall ‘Founder’s Award’ in the Open Architecture Challenge to design a medical clinic in Nepal. In May of 2009, they also won the inaugural $10,000 USD Linden Prize for “demonstrating how individuals and organizations are using Second Life to improve the overall human condition.”
http://www.studiowikitecture.wordpress.com
Second Life’s 6th Birthday is getting dangerously close. We need to have it setup, on the site by Saturday, June 20! We have a lot of good ideas and themes springing to life, but in order to concentrate everyone’s efforts in the next couple days , we could use a concentrated wave of votes from the community!
Whether you submitted a design iteration, or are watching the design unfold, we could use your vote! You can simply cast your vote on the http://www.studiowikitecture.com/SL6B/. After logging in, go to http://www.studiowikitecture.com/SL6B/all_designs.php5 to see all the design iterations. From here you can cast 3 positive and 3 negative votes.
To Register to Vote:
If you do not have a login for http://www.studiowikitecture.com/SL6B/ site, the following steps will get you one.
- Login to Second Life.
- Join the ‘Studio Wikitecture’ group, if you haven’t already done so.
- Teleport to the following link: http://slurl.com/secondlife/architecture/155/43/22/?title=Studio%20Wikitecture%20SL6B%20Project
- Once there, ‘touch’ the base of the ‘wiki-tree’ interface (which is the image below), to get the password for the website.
- Your Password will be broadcast to you via the Chat Channel.
- Now go to the http://www.studiowikitecture.com/SL6B/ site and enter…
- login: use your full ‘Second Life’ name. (eg: John Doe)
- password: <the password the ‘wiki-tree’ gave you through the chat channel>
- Now you can go to http://www.studiowikitecture.com/SL6B/all_designs.php5 to cast your votes! Thank You.
We are very excited to announce that Studio Wikitecture won the $10,000 USD ‘Linden Prize’ for developing an “innovative inworld project that improves the way people work, learn and communicate in their daily lives outside of the virtual world.”
To coincide with Second Life’s birthday celebration this year (SL6B), Tuesday, June 23rd thru Monday, June 29th, Studio Wikitecture will have a booth visitors can learn more about process and the community’s last couple projects.
In keeping with the collaborative spirit of Wikitecture, it seems only appropriate to open the design process of the booth itself to the Studio Wikitecture community, so that anyone can contribute and vote on the designs they like most/least. Since the booth has to be completed by June 23rd, this Wikitecture project will be a quick one!
We have a parcel and a fresh Wiki-tree set up here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/architecture/155/43/22/?title=Studio%20Wikitecture%20SL6B%20Project
The design challenge is to design a booth that best describes what Studio Wikitecture and the Wiki-Tree is all about. We have images that could be displayed, such as our final entry in the Open Architecture Challenge, screenshots of past Wikitecture projects, the most recent University of Alabama, and more. It is up to the community to determine how many images should be displayed, how they should be displayed, and how large those images should be.
The full booth can be no more than 175 prims, and the parcel size is 28 meters by 28 meters.
In addition to this final ‘booth’ installation, we will also have a demonstration version of the Wiki-tree adjacent to the booth at the SL6B parcel so visitors will be able to see how the Wiki-tree works by cycling through designs contributed in the booth design project. In other words, we will work together to design a ‘booth’ for a 28x28m (784 sqm), which will be persistent at the SL6B parcel. We will then place a read-only version of the Wiki-tree next to that parcel to help describe the collaborative process we used to arrive at the final booth design.
To review, here are a few of the basic steps you’ll need to take in order to participate:
1.) Get a Second Life account, by visiting this site: http://secondlife.com/
2.) Download Second Life, http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.php
3.) Open the Second Life application, and enter the username and password you just created
4.) Do the basic tutorial to learn the basics of walking, flying, etc.
5.) When you’re ready, click this link – then click the ‘teleport’ this link will bring up: http://slurl.com/secondlife/architecture/155/43/22/?title=Studio%20Wikitecture%20SL6B%20Project
6.) Find the wiki-tree, and click the very base of that tree. It will give you a password.
7.) Use your full avatar name (first and last), and the password given to you by the tree to log into this site: http://www.studiowikitecture.com/SL6B
8.) You can now review designs that have been submitted so far by either clicking the ‘leaf’ spheres on the Wiki-tree and watching them appear on the site – where you can walk through the ideas. Or, you can review them on the website, along with design descriptions, and discussion, etc.
9.) You can cast a total of 3 positive and 3 negative votes on the designs. Votes can be distributed to several designsn, or all given to 1 design. If you cast more than 3, it replaces the first votes you cast, and so on.
11.) Think of ways you can combine the best of the ideas you’ve shared so far, combined with your own ideas… when you’re reviewing designs at the wiki-tree, you can simply select the designs you like, and ‘Take a Copy’. Then, head to a sandbox to synthesize your contribution!
12.) Remember this is not a competition! Wikitecture is all about collaboration, and sharing ideas. The last thing you should do is work out a final and polished design before submitting it to the tree for others to review. You’ll run the risk of spending too much time on an idea the community might not adopt. The rule of thumb is to share ideas early, and often… this will give the community a chance to provide feedback, and maybe even include your idea in a new hybrid design contribution.
11.) When you’re ready to share your own 3D design idea using the Wiki-tree, just let Keystone Bouchard or Theory Shaw know, and we will walk you through the process. Otherwise, you can review the tutorial here:http://studiowikitecture.wikidot.com/how-to
12.) Once your design is submitted, it will automatically create a new place for it on the website. You can change the leaf description, and add any design descriptions or screenshots that will help others understand your design.
13.) Check the site often to see how your design does in the community! Remember to continuously cast your 3 positive and 3 negative votes regularly, so the community can get a sense of what are the best ideas to carry forward!
This project will not include a cash payout, so your time and contributions will be voluntary, but contributors names and a profile image of everyone who contributes will be on display throughout the SL6B festivities.
As always, contact Keystone Bouchard or Theory Shaw if you have any questions at all!
Good luck!
Thank you for voting! The following top 3 schematic designs have been voted to move on to the next round of design development and refinement.
Although the following 3 schematic designs will provide the kernel of ideas for the final designs, you are not restricted, in any manner, to use and synergize any other ideas that have been presented to the group thus far; i.e. those ideas discussed either on the Studio Wikitecture all designs page or the wikidot.com forum. Everything is still far game. And also, just for clarification, the next two stages are open to ‘everyone’ who would like to still participate.
We have only put forth these voting rounds to garner the community’s feedback in order to give you some relative decisions on which to base further design refinement.
http://www.studiowikitecture.com/UA/open_up.php5?leaf_id=1227202423
http://www.studiowikitecture.com/UA/open_up.php5?leaf_id=1226768798
http://www.studiowikitecture.com/UA/open_up.php5?leaf_id=1227037400
The next round, which we are calling the Design Development (DD) round, will last from ‘now’ until December 3rd. After which, another voting round will take place between the 3rd and 6th of December.
After the 6th we then use the remaining 5 days before the Dec. 11th deadline to refine and polish the final design. Contributors can take the design we’ve chosen as ‘final’ and rebuild or retexture or otherwise polish the final design to make it the highest quality end-product we can collectively achieve.
Again, thanks for voting and have a relaxing Thanksgiving… well, that is, if you celebrate the Turkey Day.
If you’re in the Chicago area, next Tuesday, December 2nd, stop by the local Pecha Kucha event hosted at Martyr’s Pub where I’ll be presenting the projects and process the Studio Wikitecture group has been working on for the last couple years. Including, of course, the group’s winning competition entry for the Open Architecture Challenge. Now, I only have to figure out how to stuff all this into 20 slides at 20 second each!
Hope to see, you there.
Now is your chance to have your voice be heard – but, you have to act fast! We need EVERYONE in the group to cast their votes on this phase by today! (Monday, the 24th November). This will help us determine which of the preliminary designs submitted so far we should focus on folding into the next round of design and refinement.
In order to vote, you must be registered (get your password by clicking the base of the wiki-tree at the UA ESPRMC sim with the ‘Studio Wikitecture’ group active) then use your full avatar name and this password to log into this website: http://www.studiowikitecture.com/UA/ We each get a total of 3 positive and 3 negative votes to cast – and we encourage you to use them all up! You can always re-assign them later. After Monday, we let everyone know which 3 designs the community has chosen to act as the design seeds for the final round of refinement, and we can all roll up our virtual sleeves and get to work folding these best ideas into a final solution we will present to the University of Alabama! If you have feedback that can’t be conveyed in a vote or a comment on a particular design, use the Forum – found under the ‘Feedback and FAQ’ button on the website. As always, direct any questions to Keystone Bouchard or Theory Shaw. Thanks for voting.
[update: Kick-off transcript posted HERE Wiki-tree tutorial will be held Tuesday, October 28 at 5pm PDT (SL-Time). However, anytime you’re ready to submit an idea, just IM Keystone Bouchard and I’ll walk you through it!]
With so many universities and academic institutions from around the world using virtual environments like Second Life for teaching and research, many have started to wonder what, exactly is a virtual classroom?
In an environment where you can fly, and with no elements to protect from, what role does architecture play in a virtual university? In what ways should a virtual classroom be similar to a classroom in real life? How might they be different? How can the virtual architecture best serve the students, staff and community who use it?
Because buildings are so expensive to build and modify in the real world, rarely are students and staff able to actively participate in the creation of the physical spaces they use. In a virtual space, however, the tables are turned. Anyone can easily prototype their idea in 3D, walk through it, and share it with others. Given these new opportunities, why not let the students, staff and public community who actually use these classrooms design it for themselves? Who better, in fact, to offer insight to improve a occupied space, than the people that use it on a daily basis?
These are the questions, the Studio Wikitecture group has been asking for some time now. Composed of individuals from various backgrounds and open to anyone, the group has been asking whether new modes of production, as witnessed in the open-source movement, for example, can offer any clues into how we might improve the process of designing our buildings and cities, both real and virtual. In much the same way Wikipedia enables a loose, self-organizing network of contributors to come together to create a surprisingly accurate encyclopedia, the group has been conducting a number of experiments and projects to explore ways by which a disperse group, spread around the world, can come together to share ideas, edit the contributions of others, and vote on the success or failure of an evolving piece of architecture.
Over the years, the group has conducted a number of experiments to flesh out the possibilities of a more decentralized approach to practicing architecture. In fact, Studio Wikitecture was recently honored with the Founder’s Award for their collaborative competition entry in last year’s Open Architecture Challenge to design a tele-medicine facility in one of the most remote areas of Western Nepal.
As you can imagine, having a group collaboratively design a building is a daunting and difficult task. In this light, Studio Wikitecture teamed up with i3dnow to develop a software prototype plug-in for the virtual world of Second Life that helped the group better collaborate on the collectively designed competition entry. The plug-in, in it’s simplest form, is a kind of of 3d-Wiki. The ‘Wiki-Tree’, as it is called, acts very much like a typical wiki, but instead of tracking versions of a text documents, it tracks virtual 3D models and unlike a conventional wiki that conveys submissions in a linear fashion, the ‘Wiki-Tree’ visual conveys, in a sort of 3-dimensional mind map, how the submitted designs iterations relate and ‘branch’ off each other over time.
To continue this exploration into open-source architecture, for the group’s 4th project, the University of Alabama has challenged the Second Life community along with its students and staff, to collectively brainstorm and design a virtual set of classrooms. Through this project, you will be working in close collaboration with both your professors and/or peers to design a series of classrooms in the virtual realm.
Furthermore, you and your fellow contributors will be awarded at total of $250,000 Linden dollars, distributed based on a unique ‘Community Assessment’ method. A method, whereby members of the community collectively determine the approximate percentage of credit each contributor deserves.
As with the last project, we will be using the 3d-Wiki versioning tool to keep track your and your fellow contributor’s design submissions. Through the ‘Wiki-Tree’, you will be able to review the various designs submitted, as well comment and vote on your preferences (or dislikes). As an overview, this video will give you a really quick sense on how the ‘Wiki-Tree’ works.
To participate, you’ll need to create a Second Life account HERE if you don’t have one already, then join the Studio Wikitecture group (in Second Life, click Search at the bottom). Then visit the University’s virtual site HERE (UA ESPRMC sim, 186, 87, 26), and click on the base of the Wiki-tree in order to register your avatar and get a password. This password will then give you access to the website component HERE, where you’ll be able to vote and comment on ideas submitted by the community.
For more information about how to use the Wiki-tree, visit this site:http://studiowikitecture.wikidot.com/how-to
In an effort to keep the project as open as possible and avoid hindering creativity, the following are the only guidelines to the project.
1. The architectural style is open to the group’s discretion.
2. We need six classrooms with ample space for student (30 avatars)
3. The disciplines we may house in the rooms include: Science, Mathematics, Art, English, Social Sciences, and Music.
4. No more than 800 prims total
5. Occupy no more than 5,000 square meters
We will also be holding regular tutorial sessions every Tuesday at 5pm SL-time, and at times requested by the community, for anyone who has questions or needs help submitting their idea.
If you have any questions, we can reached at the following emails:
Ryan Schultz (Theory Shaw in SL): (ryan.schultz [at] studiowikitecture [dot] com).
Jon Brouchoud (Keystone Bouchard in SL): (jon.brouchoud [at] studiowikitecture [dot] com).
It is with great pleasure I bring you the news that Studio Wikitecture’s entry in the Open Architecture Network Challenge was awarded the ‘Founder’s Award’ as well as ‘3rd Place’ for our design of the Nyaya Tele-Medicine facility in Western Nepal. The announcement was made this morning.
Architecture for Humanity awarded its Founders Award to the third place Asia challenge finalist, Studio Wikitecture, for embracing a truly collaborative way of working using online crowdsourcing and Second Life as a way to create a highly participatory design approach. Source
I want to direct a big ‘congratulations’ to those individuals that contributed, on whatever level, to the ultimate success of this entry. Well done! In particular I would like to thank the following for their dedicated contributions.
Jon Brouchoud – (Keystone Bouchard in SL)
Roger Wellington-Oguri – (Omei Turnbull in SL)
Roberto Carretero – (Otrober Breda in SL)
Michael DiTullio – (Far Link in SL)
Simone Riccardi – (Turboy Runo in SL)
Ethos Erlanger in SL
Chip Poutine in SL
I would also like to thank the programming gurus at i3dnow for helping us develop the 3d-Wiki technology we used to help facilitate this whole process. With all the contributions made throughout the process, it would have been a virtual impossibility to build a consensus without it.
And finally a shout out to Kirsten Kiser from arcspace for generously donating a large part of her Second Life island to this project.
We’ve definitely come a long way since asking the question: Can the design and production of architecture learn anything from the open and decentralized methods of production demonstrated in projects such as Wikipedia and open-source software. We certainly learned a lot since the early days of Wikitecture 1.0 and 2.0. I have no doubt Wikitecture 4.0 will prove just as successful.
Thank You, Again.
Ryan Schultz
Studio Wikitecture: Opening Architecture 
