[Geowanking] Augmented Reality working group? (was: A9 street-view photo data?)

[stephen white]

On 11/10/2006, at 7:02 AM, Anselm Hook wrote:
> My own sense has been that VR is something of a tar-pit and that
> Augmented Reality to close to VR for comfort.

Uncanny Valley? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley

> Having watched VRML ensnare and sink so many ventures

Heh... encouraging words just as I'm starting my own venture into  
this. :)

> In that role I used to hang out with the VRML community, watching them
> go through their contortions as they tried to define the VRML spec

No specs here. That either means I'm a complete idiot, or I'll avoid  
that problem!

Specs don't come first. I believe that specs come from best practice  
of multiple working implementations, so I'm focussed on making  
something work before I worry about specs.

> Insofar as a geo 3d interest group; it seems like such a group should
> focus on modelling the behavior of systems; with the trite ideas such

Even though this is one of my core interests, I wouldn't join this  
kind of group. Understanding the involved and rich world-views of  
other people would take months per person to do justice to their  
contributions. Look at Kevin Kelly's writings (kk.org) for amazing  
flights of fancy, but where's the practical result?

In the same way that it's not possible to predict chaotic systems 2  
or 3 steps ahead, even though each step can be calculated precisely,  
I don't believe it's possible to anticipate the future other than  
with lucky guesses. Small factors that are completely irrelevant now  
become major influences in different combinations. Perhaps the price  
of rice in China will start the 3rd World War! Who knows, so why  
waste time on it?

Quite frankly, the only reason I'm on any lists at all (and this is  
my only list related to Geo) is because of the value of inspiration  
from like-minded people, and the possible opportunities that result.  
Not that I'm contributing as yet (or at all - I may still fall into  
that tar pit), but exploring this realm of virtualisation is a lonely  
place until it becomes more mainstream.

>  http://www.kk.org/helpwanted/archives/001084.php

I agreed with Christopher Fahey's response to that one:

>> It's hard to answer questions like these about a megalopolis like  
>> New York, where I live. So many of the questions refer to things  
>> that simply do not exist (or barely exist) within 20 miles of me,  
>> or if they do exist they are useless.

So to wrap up with a point... Before we can achieve anything, we need  
to stop wanking and start working.

Steve.

--
   steve at adam.com.au