The transcript from today's presentation by Tom Portante on Clear ink Island is attached to this blog post. Tom provided a unique perspective on virtual community based on his experience of over 20 years in implementing and inhabiting online communities. In this transcript, you'll find decriptions and discussion around 16 lessons or principles of building online community. Tom shared some very important ideas here, which definitely make the transcript worth reading if you were unable to attend!

Many thanks to Tom for his time in preparing and sharing his insights with us this afternoon!

As part of Clear ink's ongoing Virtual Community Development Discussion Series, we will be welcoming social computing designer Tom Portante to Clear ink Island this Thursday, February 22 at 2:00 Pacific (SL Time).

Tom Portante's career began in academia - as an undergraduate at McGill University in Montreal and as a Master's and Doctoral student at both McGill and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

His work as a Social Anthropologist focused on understanding how communities are formed and was the segue to his involvement with the earliest online communities in the 1980s. Analytic skills and a passion for technologies led Tom to Accenture where he led the Technology Assessment Group for that 50-some thousand employee global consultancy. His group's task was to find emerging technologies and tools and evaluate business opportunities.

Later recruited to Ernst & Young for a similar role - his Navigating the New Technology Landscape group focused on examining technology trends, concentrating on social computing, encryption, e-cash, and ubiquitous computing.

Throughout these two decades, Tom's efforts invariably return to the arena of online communities. During this time, and using tools ranging from Lotus Notes, proprietary software and blogs and wikis, Tom has created online environments for Fortune 100 companies, regional health care organizations, Katrina disaster relief efforts and national political campaigns. As a speaker and writer in many professional forums, he has been quoted on future technology trends in The New York Times, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and the World Economic Forum.

HERE is a quick Second Life video showing some of the main elements of Clear Ink Island.

Click HERE to View Slideshow

Virtual Community Development Series: Discussion 1

Clear Ink Island recently hosted a Community Development Discussion with Lys Ware (formerly Henrik Linden), Project Manager for the L2 Research Project at Stanford University.

Throughout the design development of our new Clear Ink Island installation, we talked about our hope that it would become a place where virtual community could thrive. However, building that community requires so much more than architecture and talk. But what, exactly, does it take to actually foster and sustain virtual community in a meaningful way?

Since community development is a topic of special interest to many people and businesses in Second Life, we decided to make this discussion public, and host a discussion series. Though not advertised, the event was well attended, and we received lots of positive feedback and ideas for future discussions.

Stay tuned for more info about our next Clear Ink Community Development discussion! Transcript of this event is attached.

In an environment where architecture is more like a liquid than an artifact, everything seems to be a work in progress. This constant state of metamorphosis is a distinct advantage (and challenge) of building in a virtual world, where the architectural palette is able to shift and change as quickly as its context and programmatic agenda unfold.

As we watch Clear Ink Island evolve, I think there is value in documenting and characterizing its current state of architectural affairs as it emerges. My hope is that the buildings and spaces we create there will serve as a foundation upon which to continue expanding our virtual worlds practice, as well as the community we are designing it to encourage and sustain.

As a matter of background, the most ubiquitous criteria the Clear Ink team kept returning to was the development of a sense of community on the island, which remained a core tenet of whatever would be built on the island. Likewise, comfortable, easily navigable spaces, as well as the inclusion of the ‘SL Spirit’ in anything we build were also key ingredients.

By searching images symbolizing the architecture of community, it became clear that, insofar as an architectural relationship with the term was concerned, the most common denominator was the creation of space. Features such as courtyards, town centers, and central gathering spaces were clearly the stuff community is made of.

So, the new installation on Clear Ink Island would feature a town center or courtyard, but what should the surrounding architecture look like?

My avatar friend and Fine Artist Dancoyote Antonelli brought it to my attention that virtual architecture is interface, a thought that has continued to pervade and influence my approach to virtual design. Clear Ink Island is certainly a manifestation of that influence. With no gravity, and no elements to protect from, why depend exclusively on replication of real life architecture – which is derived from an entirely different set of functional requirements? How do we define spaces while retaining clear way finding strategies without resorting to exclusively real-world replication and enclosure?

It is important to remember that people are trained at an early age to understand and organize the world around them through certain visual cues – both learned and innate. Even though we are technically free to design without the restriction of physical limitations, the process of creating effective and easily navigable spaces in a virtual environment requires that we draw upon these basic visual cues in order to organize the architecture into easily recognizable patterns. This process forces a return to the fundamental principles of architectural design. Basic elements, such as hierarchy, proportion, rhythm, scale and layering are as important as ever in shaping quality virtual environments with lasting value.

Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion is a fine example of a restrained, yet expressive precedent of what can be achieved through the utilization of the most fundamental, almost reductivist palette of architectural strategies; highly appropriate for a virtual environment. This precedent was appropriate for Clear Ink’s architectural elements for many reasons, not the least of which was its effectiveness in shaping both indoor and outdoor spaces through the use of point and plane in a primarily open air environment. The elegant simplicity and freedom of shaping space through such minimal intervention seemed an appropriate, albeit prim-efficient means of fulfilling our functional program requirements, while at the same time avoiding restriction of camera movement and the claustrophobia of tightly enclosed spaces.

The potential of incorporating both motion and sound was manifest through the pools and cascading waterfalls intersecting the build. Waterways pass directly under the pavilions, where they join the pre-determined context of the infinite ocean surrounding the sim boundary. With gulls flying overhead, sharks threatening swimmers near the beach, coins in the courtyard pools and other hidden surprises, we hope to preserve and foster the spontaneity and personality of the ‘SL Spirit.’

As for community development, the courtyards and shared common spaces are intended only as an aperture. It is our intention to continue building upon Clear Ink’s invited guest series and events, opening these discussions to the public on a regular basis. To kick off the new year, and to test drive our new installation, we will be welcoming Lys Ware (formerly Henrik Linden) to discuss what it really means to build a virtual community on January 9th, 7pm SL. Stay tuned for details, and background information on Lys and other invited guests.

In sum, by inviting the dimension of time into the equation of architecture in a virtual environment, I believe we gain a more accurate perception of its true character. If Clear Ink Island remains static, its community will be equally so. I think it’s important that we continuously revisit and revise our goals for the island as our agenda evolves, and allow the architecture to shift shape accordingly. After all, architecture really is interface – the common boundary. There is nothing static about Clear Ink’s virtual worlds initiative, our interface can be equally intense.

Click HERE to visit Clear Ink Island.