Turing Church Online Workshop 2, OpenQwaq, Sunday December 11

The Turing Church Online Workshop 2 will be held on Sunday, December 11, 2011, with a format similar to the Turing Church Online Workshop 1 on November 20, 2010, beginning at 9am PST (noon EST, 5pm UK, 6pm Continental EU).

The Workshop will explore transhumanist spirituality and “Religion 2.0″, the convergence of science and religion, highly imaginative future science and technologies for resurrection, emerging science and technologies for immortality, social and memetic engineering.

The technical implementation of the Workshop will be managed by teleXLR8 using the OpenQwaq VR technology. There are a limited number of seats available for those who wish to attend. On Sunday November 27 and Sunday December 4 at at 9am PST (noon EST, 5pm UK, 6pm Continental EU) there will be meetup and practice sessions for speakers and participants.

Some speakers in the pictures above.

Program: Turing Church online workshop 2 | KurzweilAI

Speakers, morning session, 9am PST to noon PST:

• Giulio Prisco
• James Hughes
• Martine Rothblatt
• Frank Tipler
• Ben Goertzel
• Remi Sussan

Speakers, afternoon session, 1pm PST to 4pm PST

• Lincoln Cannon
• Brent Allsop
• Dan Massey
• Andrew Warner
• Mike Perry
• Fred and Linda Chamberlain (pre-recorded talk)

teleXLR8, a telepresence community for cultural acceleration, now based on open source virtual reality and video software

Space Collective | teleXLR8, a telepresence community for cultural acceleration, now based on open source virtual reality and video software

The teleXLR8 online talk program based on OpenQwaq has been covered by Hypergrid Business “as an online open TED, using modern telepresence technology for ideas worth spreading, and as a next generation, fully interactive TV network with a participative audience.“

At the end of 2010 the teleXLR8 project, based on the industrial strength commercial Teleplace platform, was put on hold waiting for funding.

In May 2011 Teleplace made the visionary decision to open source their technology as OpenQwaq. This permits continuing teleXLR8 as a free, invitation-only program based on OpenQwaq, with more frequent talks, workshops and conferences.

In August 2011 the teleXLR8 project has been re-launched. See my short presentation Welcome to the 2011 season! The first talk has been announced by KurzweilAI: “teleXLR8 is reopening on Sunday 21 10 a.m. PST with a talk by [experimental quantum physicist/programmer] Suzanne Gildert on Hack the Multiverse!. The teleXLR8 online talk program is “a telepresence community for cultural acceleration,” as their blog puts it. Translation: an audiovideo seminar — think TED in Second Life, plus webcam videoconferencing and video session recording."

Suzanne outlined the basics of Quantum Computing, described the the D-Wave One quantum computer, and explained how to program it. For those who missed the talk, the full video coverage is on the teleXLR8 video channel on YouTube.

The teleXLR8 project will continue with more frequent talks, seminars, online conferences and mixed-reality extension of traditional conferences, interviews, talk shows, and e-learning courses. Thanks to the built-in video recording feature of OpenQwaq, we will post the full video coverage to our video sharing channels on Blip.tv, Youtube and Vimeo after a few days. Participation in the realtime interactive sessions is free, but invitation-only: if you wish to participate, please contact us, join the mailing list or the groups on Facebook and Linkedin, and ask for an invitation.

Read more on Space Collective...

teleXLR8 returns, featuring quantum physicist Gildert on ‘Hack the Multiverse!’

VIDEO - Suzanne Gildert on Hack the Multiverse!, OpenQwaq, August 21 2011

On KurzweilAI: teleXLR8 returns, featuring quantum physicist Gildert on ‘Hack the Multiverse!’

See also, on the teleXLR8 website: Suzanne Gildert on Hack the Multiverse!, OpenQwaq, August 21 2011 , and Welcome to the 2011 season!

SecondPlace, QwaqLife or TeleSim?

I am very much in love with both my two favorite virtual meeting technologies: Second Life, partly cloned by the open source OpenSim, and Teleplace, recently open sourced as OpenQwaq. In the pictures, two recent online conferences in Second Life and Teleplace.

I love both, but most VR users tend to strongly prefer one. I am interested in "serious" applications to, for example, online talks and e-learning (no value judgment intended, and please see "Telepresence Education for a Smarter World" for more), and I like both.

The Teleplace / OpenQwaq technology, on which my teleXLR8 online talk program and "telepresence community for cultural acceleration" is based, has much better built-in voice and support for multi user collaboration, document sharing and webcam videoconferencing, all very important features for "serious" applications, but those who prefer Second Life may find it too aseptic and square.

The Second Life / OpenSim technology, much closer to (and directly inspired by) the Metaverse of Snow Crash, has a certain built-in playfulness which is also very important (more important than I used to think) for "serious" applications, and is much more appealing to persons with strong artistic sensibilities, but those who prefer Teleplace may find its more, um, extreme aspects too annoying and distracting.

As I said, I like both. The "conflict" is mostly cultural and psychological, and I have no doubts that both technologies, especially in their open source versions, can easily support both work and play in both square and creative modes. For example, I have prototyped simple examples of videoconferencing and collaborative document sharing in Second Life, and OpenQwaq can import very creative 3D models and avatars.

Open ended, comments welcome.

Suzanne Gildert on Hack the Multiverse!, OpenQwaq, August 21 2011, 10am PST

UPDATE – NEW DATE: Sunday, August 21, 2011, at 10am PST (1pm EST, 6pm UK, 7pm continental EU)

The new phase of the teleXLR8 project will start with a talk by one of the most popular speakers of the first phase in 2010. Suzanne Gildert will give an interactive online talk on "Hack the Multiverse!", using the new open source OpenQwaq telepresence technology, on Sunday July 31 2011, at 10am PST.

Suzanne is currently working at D-Wave Systems, Inc. See the D-Wave blog "Hack the Multiverse". See the announcement and abstract of Suzanne's talk. OpenQwaq is one of the best 3D applications for telework, online meetings, group collaboration, and e-learning in a virtual 3D environment (v-learning). There are a limited number of seats available, please contact us if you wish to attend. Join our mailing list, our Facebook group, or our Linkedin group.

VIDEO – teleXLR8 highlights 2010

VIDEO – teleXLR8 highlights 2010 (with info, long version, links to the same video also on Blip.tv and Vimeo).

Update: Budapest, Terasem, MOM, Second Life, OpenQwaq

A quick update. We are living in Budapest since beginning April. At the end of April I visited Terasem in Florida (photo composition below).

I have been meaning to join Terasem for quite some time, and I am happy I finally joined. See my joinership video here. I plan to be more and more active in Terasem: more thoughts in a forthcoming article, and please see the great Terasem multimedia website maintained by Fred and Linda Chamberlain. Unfortunately I cannot participate regularly in Terasem gatherings in the US, but I can and will participate regularly in Terasem gatherings in Second Life (picture below). I had not been in SL for ages, but I plan to attend all Terasem events and, I hope, other interesting events. My new SL avatar is, guess, simply giulioprisco (the blue skinned old astronaut in the picture).

After Florida I went to see my daughter for a few days. Her film making team just successfully completed their first fundraising project on Kickstarter! On my way back at the airport I received an email announcing OpenQwaq (the open source version of Teleplace). This is very exciting news, because it permits reloading the teleXLR8 project which was stalled for lack of funds.

We are planning to re-open teleXLR8's virtual doors in a couple of months. We will probably launch a Kickstarter project for teleXLR8 (always learn from the young). In the picture above, a first test of OpenQwaq. Watch the teleXLR8 blog for more related news and thoughts.