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Miscellaneous Topics

Virtual Worlds (and Search), Personalisation (and Search), Web 2.0, Semantic Web (and Search)

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Virtual worlds

• What are Virtual Worlds? • History • Second Life • World of Warcraft • Future of Virtual Worlds

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What are Virtual Worlds?

•  A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact with each other via avatars.

•  Enables users to experience telepresence

•  2 kinds …

•  MMORPG (MMOG) – massively multiplayer online role-playing games – World of Warcraft

•  MMORL– massively multiplayer online real-life– Second Life

•  … the difference ?

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Simulated Environment

•  Can mimic real world

....or can be fantasy worlds

•  Both generally have rules governing environment - gravity, motion etc.

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Avatars

•  Representation of a real user in the virtual world

•  Communication between avatars via text, graphical icons, visual gestures, sound

•  Can walk / fly / teleport around world

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History : 1962 Sensorama, Morton Heilig

• The Cinema of the Future

• Immersive, multi-sensory

• Stereoscopic 3d images

• Body tilting

• Stereo sound

• Wind

• Aroma

• Image from the patent

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Then we had Virtual Reality

•  Characterised by bulky headsets and input devices

•  Sensory Imitating •  VR relies on tricking the

perceptual system into experiencing an immersive environment –  => Virtual Worlds on the

other hand rely on engaging the user emotionally and mentally rather than sensorially

•  VR not to be confused with augmented reality

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Not the same as AR

•  This is a poor AR on a laptop/desktop ..

•  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhjuZMEJ4-U

•  … with a Kinect ? •  Augmented reality

on a handset ? Much richer potential because location-aware

•  Wordlens is another

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History: 1974 Maze War, NASA/Ames Research

1974 - Maze War •  First networked 3D

multi-user first person shooter

•  First to introduce the concept of Avatars

•  Played over Arpanet (early internet)

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History: 1986 – Habitat, LucasFilm

•  Early example of an MMORPG

•  Played across QuantumLink (precursor to AOL) on Commodore 64 home computers

•  Users represented as online avatars

•  Players in same region (screen) could see and speak (text)

•  Self governed by citizenry –  Users responsible for laws

and acceptable behaviour •  Avatars had to barter for

resources and could rob or even kill other avatars

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Number of users of Virtual Worlds

Kzero.co.uk, October 2010

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History: Current State of Virtual Worlds

Some stats... 200+ virtual world platforms

•  1000 million users of Virtual Worlds ! •  World of Warcraft (WoW) – 12m paid subscribers

(25% North America, 20% Europe, and 55% Asia) –  Generating +1 billion dollars of revenue per year via

subscriptions (Oct 2010)

•  Second Life – 10m ‘residents’ translates to approx 2.5m active users

•  Habbo Hotel – 175m registered users translates to approx 20m active users ->expected to exceed the others in near future - ‘safe’ -

•  Stardoll has 69m registered users

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Second Life – Linden Labs, 2003

•  Basic membership is free, premium membership is (US$ 9.95) allocates land to the resident

•  Residents can explore, socialise, participate in individual/group activities, travel the world (or ‘grid’) and create & trade virtual property

•  User generated content – –  Residents build objects using primitive 3D modelling tool –  Functionality can be added to objects through Linden Scripting

Language –  Users retain ownership rights of objects they create

•  Linden Dollar (L$) – currency of second life –  Used to trade goods, land and services with other users –  Goods include buildings, vehicles, devices of all kinds, animations,

clothing, skin, hair, jewelry, flora and fauna, and works of art –  Land is a scarce commodity which can be bought/sold or rented –  Services include camping, working in stores and entertainment

•  Users can exchange L$ for US$ –  Current exchange rate of L$204 = US$1

•  A small fraction of users derive an income

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Second Life – Linden Labs, 2003

•  Avatars –  Can be made to resemble real user –  Can fly or teleport to any location

•  Communication –  Local chat – public local conversations –  Global instant messaging for private conversations –  Voice chat now available

•  Land Ownership – fees –  Land can be purchased from Linden Lab or privately –  Premium membership gives 512m2 free from land use free –  No upper limit on land ownership – upper limit a user will pay US

$195 for their first 65536m², and then US$97.50 per each additional 32768m² of land

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Second Life: Corporate Presence

•  Many organisations/companies are creating a presence on second life

•  Why? –  Companies want to appear “cutting edge” –  An online society where publicity is cheap and the

demographic is edgy and computer-savvy –  Provides an opportunity to have rich, long discussions with

customers, employees, and business partners. •  More intimate than email or phone

•  SL is not only used to reach consumers, many companies use it as a location for staff training, seminars etc.

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Second Life as an Advertising Platform

•  Companies can build an online store –  L’Oreal – makeup for

avatars –  Dell - build your own

virtual PC with L$ or buy a real PC with $

–  Pontiac – take a virtual test drive in your customized Pontiac

•  Or place contextual adds –  When you chat the

billboard “listens” and displays related advertising

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Second Life: Press Conferences

•  Several companies have promoted new products / services through SL press conferences –  Sun Microsystems –  Cisco

•  Companies are also providing seminars and group meetings in SL –  Sun Java forum

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Second Life: Examples

•  Wimbledon in SL (IBM) –  Relayed ball tracking info in realtime –  Points recreated in SL in front of audience

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Second Life Examples: MTV

• Virtual Laguna Beach

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Second Life: Examples

•  Dublin in Second Life - Video

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Second Life – Controversy

•  Technical –  Lag, items going missing

•  Cybersex –  Child porn –  “age-play” –  Companies don’t want to be associated with sleazy stigma

•  Money laundering & Fraud –  No paper trail –  Stolen credit cards used to buy L$

•  Can open multiple accounts without any real identification •  Can fund the accounts with cash anywhere •  Can then purchase some virtual real estate from a co-conspirator •  The "seller" can then access these funds, either through ATMs, or through a bank.

•  Legal –  Boundary between real life and second life blurred –  Virtual possessions indistinguishable from real possessions in court –  In-world theft can lead to real world consequences –  Recently a Second Life affair lead to a real divorce

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Second Life: The Future

•  Companies are leaving SL –  Reuters pulls in-world reporter

•  Why?

– Social networking sites becoming more popular – Ghost towns – only small fraction of user base

online at any one time – Therefore small advertising market for companies – Real estate in second life can be expensive

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World of Warcraft – Blizzard Entertainment, 2004

•  Subscription based service •  2 modes of play (realms)

–  Player versus player (PvP) •  Open combat amongst players

–  Player versus environment (PvE) •  Focus on defeating monsters and completing quests

•  Avatars (Characters) –  Faction can be either Horde or Alliance –  Race can be

•  Horde – Orc or Troll •  Alliance – Human or Dwarf

–  Class can include mages, warriors, priests –  Can gain talents as they progress –  Can learn professions such as tailoring, mining,

blacksmithing, cooking, first aid –  Can join guilds

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WoW: Gameplay

•  Mostly involves quests or missions –  Available from game characters (i.e. non-player character

(NPC)) –  Reward can be experience points, items or money –  Usually involve killing some creatures, gathering

resources, finding objects, speaking to NPC, visiting locations, interacting with objects, delivering objects

•  Quest chain –  Quests are usually linked, one leads to another...

•  Players can group together to complete more challenging quests –  Character classes are used for roles in the group

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WoW: Issues

•  Corrupted Blood Plague –  Virtual Plague created in special region of game –  Disease intended to be confined to special region of game –  However pets picked up disease causing it to move to cities –  After a few days entire cities were rendered uninhabitable –  Received much attention from scientific community regarding the

similarity between the in-world outbreak and real world (SARS, avian flu)

–  Scientists are looking at ways to use MMORPG for advanced modeling of effects of real world diseases

•  Technical –  Down time leading to free play time –  Legality of Warden software called into question

•  Fraud –  Hacked accounts –  Feb 2008 Halifax claimed that stolen credit cards were being used

to create accounts •  Gaming addiction

–  Several deaths as a result of continuous gameplay related to exhaustion and lack of food

–  In 2005 China enforced a 3 hour limit on gameplay – later changed to only apply to those under 18

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Future of Virtual Worlds

• Are virtual worlds here to stay? – Many companies pulling out – Google Lively abandoned – Virtual worlds are not interoperable

• Some people compare VW at present with early internet – Many flaws but massive potential

• Corporate use of VW will grow – Staff training, meetings etc

• Future VW may not be SL or WoW but something else...

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Future of Virtual Worlds

•  Virtual worlds vs web - real time, mobile, 3d web is making the web immersive and a virtual world - even JC Penny’s isn’t bad

•  Social networks have become platforms, VWs appear on SNs ...Zynga’s Farmville and Cityville are animated virtual worlds

•  Imagine –  a laptop Facebook app with camera

visualising your chats –  A mobile FB app with camera

augmenting your reality

•  Virtual worlds may get sucked into social network platforms where they become information access tools. iPAD-2 can do this

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Personalisation and Recommendation

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Personalization

•  Much of our information access is alternating between search and browse in supporting our tasks; SEs encourage this;

•  Visual media has even more browse, and text media has even more search;

•  Personalization is the sweet spot between these two, where “the system” takes the initiative and pre-determines what you may need by exploiting a number of underlying techniques and activity patterns - it recommends;

•  Most of these exploit information about you, knowing things about you, knowing your preferences, habits, etc., and often also knowing those same things about others, and then exploiting all that;

•  Personalization can appear as a standalone function i.e. a recommender system, or embedded in something else;

•  Sounds great, except there is a tension between personalization and privacy;

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Personalization

• The techniques for personalization and recommendation are IR-based and IR-derived – Content-based or case-based - match the

user’s scenario against a case-base or match an ideal ‘product’ against a collection based on content; no cold start problem;

– Collaborative Filtering - (e.g. MovieLens) store ratings from other users (anonymously) and match this user against other user trends; issues of cold start;

– Probabilistic models - combinations

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What is not personalised ?

•  Music - iPod, until Apple introduced Genius •  Any broadcast TV •  Any social network site •  Any curriculum’s learning material •  Any newspaper •  Any search service (except Heystaks)

•  Personalisation not the same as customisation - customisation is manual adjustment and tailoring, like skins and portals;

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Personalization & Privacy

•  Personalization & Privacy … a challenge to combine them and to develop techniques that offer a user the balance choice depending on how important the application is;

•  A case study … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNJl9EEcsoE&feature=related

•  Applications and how they work –  Amazon - choose books and media for purchase; –  iTunes Genius - choose music to listen or purchase; –  Learning - choose material to present; –  News - various media; –  …

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Personalization & Mobile

•  Personalization is esp. important on mobile devices because of screen, input mode, people in a hurry, usage scenarios

•  Case of CW - mobile portals allow users browse icons/text - for example, a user who checks local cinema info at weekends means –  go to ENTERTAINMENT, –  then CINEMA, –  then MOVIE TIMES, –  then DUBLIN, –  then OMNIPLEX, –  then BROWSE MOVIES, –  then MAKE BOOKING –  … 18 clicks !

•  Mobile usability -> 30s (10-12 clicks) is our max tolerance (vs. search time?)

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Personalization & Mobile

•  For a sample of 20 European portals, click distance >16 for average info location;

•  Leads to users frustrated with navigation time •  So … improve the portal design by personalised

navigation … promote and re-order menu options according to usage patterns of individuals … move ENTERTAINMENT to the top at weekends;

•  Leads to reduced click distance, improved usability, yet users then spend more time online generating more revenue for operators !

•  This was the first venture into mobile personalization - nowadays mobile devices (e.g. iPhone) use WLAN so less time pressure, and have touchscreens so more navigable, yet the principal findings still hold true.

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Personalization & Web Search

•  Vague queries, ambiguity in NL terms, generic search tools (G, Y!, etc. dominating), no sense of community of like-minded, lots of repetition in web searching;

•  If we knew where a user was coming from, this could disambiguate and personalise: –  ‘jaguar’ from motoring vs. wildlife site ? –  Corporate search, directory search

•  So web search is a good target for personalisation because it’s a noisy process, very many people do it, there are ‘localities’ to personalise from such as a user, a department, a group

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Personalization & Web Search

• Collaborative web search exploits repetition and regularity among searchers;

• Record and reuse past search session histories (Qs, reldocs) to promote previously relevant results;

• Example Heystaks - no individual user profiles but community behaviour is stored and leveraged;

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Relevance & Repetition

• Search Only Works Some of the Time – >50% of searches fail to

attract selections.

• Most of the Time Search is Repetitive – Up to 70% of searches are

“re-runs” (wasted?)

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•  Vague Queries –  2-3 terms / query

•  One-Size-Fits-All

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Search is Always Solitary Difficult for searchers to share queries/results with friends and colleagues (collaboration?)

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• Generic Search – Google,

Yahoo, ...

• Search Communities – Friends,

Colleagues, ...

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•  Generic Search –  Google, Yahoo, ...

•  Search Communities –  Friends,

Colleagues, ...

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HeyStaks

•  Create Staks – Users can easily create Search Staks

(public/private) as a way to capture search activities.

•  Share Knowledge –  Share Staks with friends and others

to grow community/task-based search expertise.

•  Search & Promote –  As users search within a Stak(s),

relevant results are promoted and enhanced.

Sharing

Relevance

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The HeyStaks Components

Browser Extension/Toolbar

Web Site (www.heystaks.com)

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The Browser Toolbar

Active Stak Manual vs automatic Stak selection (based on query analysis)

Stak List Users can choose to search under any of their shared Staks at any time.

Query Entry Search (in the context of the active stak) by submitting queries as usual.

Sharing Staks can be shared with other users and will appear in their Stak Lists.

Create & Remove Create new Staks or remove existing Staks from your Stak List.

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Conventional Search Conventional Web Search engines do a good job of selecting and ranking generic results that match the users query, but fail to recognise more refined notions of relevance.

In this case none of the top-ranking results relate to searcher’s intent, namely Jaguar Cars rather than Jaguar Cats.

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HeyStaks Promotions

Recommended Stak results are promoted & annotated with information such as their relevance and related query terms.

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Keeping Up-To-Date

User Homepage A summary view of a given Stak

user’s recent activity.

Stak Activity Your recent Stak activity,

Stak by Stak.

Stak News A ‘news feed’ of who is searching for what among your Stak friends.

Stak Friends Friends who are

searching in Staks you have created or shared.

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Keeping Up-To-Date

Stak Homepage A summary view of a

selected Stak.

Stak Lists Staks you have

created or shared.

Stak Friends Friends who are

searching in Staks you have created or shared.

Recommendations Other Staks you may be

interested in based on your Stak and search histories.

Stak Summary Summary activity within a given Stak: who is searching for what, and what have they found?

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Personalisation

•  So personalisation has many issues, technical and social

•  In a world of information overload, it has a role, that sweet spot

•  Yet it is the tension between us wanting to be individuals, wanting to be part of groups, and wanting to work effectively

•  It may be explicit and in-your-face, or it may be a background activity, but its present

•  When personalisation is applied to search, it becomes recommendation, and that’s what social searching - asking friends - is all about.