And you thought Second Life could not get any cooler? In Kenzo TPed me over to an incredible, enormous virtual reality simulator on Commonwealth Island built by Stephane Zugzwang. You stand on a small suspended, semi-opaque platform high above a mountain range. As you click on a large sampling of images on a floating screen,…
Category: Travel
The dirty, decaying, chaotic pleasures of Athens
After the frenzy of the Internet Governance Forum, I decided to spend a couple of days in Athens getting to know the city. Athens seemed like just the kind of place that I would like — full of rich history and urban grit. I had few preconceived notions about Athens, just a desire to see…
Internet Governance Forum, uh, Forums
Rushing rushing rushing to put together the materials I’m going to need for my presentations at the Internet Governance Forum next week in Athens. The main focus of my talks will be on creating new modalities for broadbased participation in internet policy through various communications and information technologies. What is interesting is that there are…
Parioli: immersive Italian-themed sim
Man, those folks over at Parioli sim have created some incredible 360 degree images of places in Italy that really make me wish I was there. I really wanted to walk over to the Coloseum and hang out in the bleachers. This panoramic photo of a plaza in Italy was so real it seems like…
The future of tour guide technology, Part IV
This is the last in a four-part (I, II, III) exploration of guided tour tech. In Part One, I mused about the potential for using ICTs to connect experts in particular disciplines with tourists visiting a particular site on an ad hoc basis. Apparently this coordination problem has been somewhat solved by combining iPods and…
The future of tour guide technology, Part III
As I was posting the previous entry on guided tour technology, I was thinking that it was more than likely that someone had already developed this. I was right. Not only has someone created a prototype of the kind of 3D-imaging, GPS-enabled, context-relevant goggles I wrote about, but they built it specifically for the city…
Mokaflor coffee: it’s not just a beverage, it’s a racist caricature
Cindy was horrified and amused to find in a grocery store in Florence this package of Mokaflor espresso coffee, which depicts a frightening depiction of an African person with an insane smile carrying a cup of joe on a tray. The bow tie seems to imply that the person is supposed to be a waiter. …
The future of tour guide technology, Part II
In my previous post, I blogged about how in the near future we might see the tour guide industry expand from a location-based vocation to one that might be expanded to include experts from around the world using ICTs. Beyond the use of distributed experts to serve as e-guides, there are many possible technologies that…
Pictures of bella Italia
Here’s some of my pictures of Italy, from Florence to Positano to Pompeii to Rome. I’ll spare you most of the boring tourist shots that everyone has and focus on what I think are the more interesting ones. Of course, I had to take the one of Cindy and I at the Trevi fountain, which…
The future of tour guide technology, Part I
I’m back from a lovely trip to Italy with my girl Cindy. It was a fantastic trip, from the magnificent art of Florence to fun and sun on the Amalfi Coast to the rich history and vibrant present of Rome. Visiting the ancient city of Pompeii a couple of days ago, it was obvious that…