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Kudos to UC Berkeley for using a virtual world. Somehow I read the choice of virtual world as a comment on our education system. Even if they had a restriction

Kudos to UC Berkeley for using a virtual world. Somehow I read the choice of virtual world as a comment on our education system. Even if they had a restriction on using Open Source only, they could have used OpenSim. If they had been ok with commercial servers and free accounts, they could have used Second Life. Instead they used Minecraft, and "A team of more than 100 UC Berkeley students built the virtual Blockeley University in the popular Minecraft video game"[1]. Where is the lasting contribution of this? How can others reuse these students' work? [1] https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/05/16/watch-blockeley-uc-berkeleys-online-minecraft-commencement/ https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/05/16/watch-blockeley-uc-berk...

Pxtl 6y ago
Well, if you want the Minecraft experience in open-source, there's MineTest. I used it for my daughter's birthday party: https://www.pxtl.ca/2020/05/05/minetest-birthday/ https://www.pxtl.ca/2020/05/05/minetest-birthday/
ReverseCold 6y ago
> Where is the lasting contribution of this? How can others reuse these students' work? The Minecraft format is well understood, and you're free to convert worlds to whatever other format you want. It's like making a PDF in Adobe Reader. Yes, it's proprietary (was?)- but it's so well understood it might as well not be. Also, Minecraft is both easy to use and familiar. If we used something else, this project would probably never have gotten as big as it did. I think that's more important.
ImprobableTruth 6y ago
How would doing it in second life be a more lasting contribution than in minecraft? At least with minecraft people can always host their own servers using the world, while if second life shuts down, everything is gone for good. And why is there even a need for a lasting contribution? A normal graduation doesn't, so why does a virtual one?
- Communitivity 6y ago
  Second Life might not be. I argue OpenSim would be more lasting because: * The model of UC Berkeley can then be Open Sourced and used by anyone in an Open Source OpenSim server, either run by themselves or hosted commercially at their choice. Some of the privately hosted virtual world events I have taken part in that would benefit from that big of an accurate model of a campus are Tornado emergency response virtual world drills for training, active shooter virtual world training, virtual world career fair. * Hypergrid on OpenSim would allow the UC Berkely virtual world campus to be hosted by UC Berkeley and have anyone from another OpenSim virtual world teleport to the campus and visit it. Regarding the need for a lasting contribution.. A typical graduation doesn't need it, other than a motivating speech. This though involved making something. I am of the firm belief that if you are going to make something you should make it to be a contribution to the world's body of knowledge, if possible - doubly so if you are making it as part of academia and likely funded in part by grants.
ganzuul 6y ago
There is another perspective on this. A lot of those students probably grew up playing Minecraft, and all this time later the game is still getting major updates. Microsoft and Mojang are very dedicated to their work. Minecraft is an institution.

Pxtl 6y ago

Well, if you want the Minecraft experience in open-source, there's MineTest. I used it for my daughter's birthday party: https://www.pxtl.ca/2020/05/05/minetest-birthday/ https://www.pxtl.ca/2020/05/05/minetest-birthday/

ReverseCold 6y ago

> Where is the lasting contribution of this? How can others reuse these students' work? The Minecraft format is well understood, and you're free to convert worlds to whatever other format you want. It's like making a PDF in Adobe Reader. Yes, it's proprietary (was?)- but it's so well understood it might as well not be. Also, Minecraft is both easy to use and familiar. If we used something else, this project would probably never have gotten as big as it did. I think that's more important.

ImprobableTruth 6y ago

How would doing it in second life be a more lasting contribution than in minecraft? At least with minecraft people can always host their own servers using the world, while if second life shuts down, everything is gone for good. And why is there even a need for a lasting contribution? A normal graduation doesn't, so why does a virtual one?

Communitivity 6y ago
Second Life might not be. I argue OpenSim would be more lasting because: * The model of UC Berkeley can then be Open Sourced and used by anyone in an Open Source OpenSim server, either run by themselves or hosted commercially at their choice. Some of the privately hosted virtual world events I have taken part in that would benefit from that big of an accurate model of a campus are Tornado emergency response virtual world drills for training, active shooter virtual world training, virtual world career fair. * Hypergrid on OpenSim would allow the UC Berkely virtual world campus to be hosted by UC Berkeley and have anyone from another OpenSim virtual world teleport to the campus and visit it. Regarding the need for a lasting contribution.. A typical graduation doesn't need it, other than a motivating speech. This though involved making something. I am of the firm belief that if you are going to make something you should make it to be a contribution to the world's body of knowledge, if possible - doubly so if you are making it as part of academia and likely funded in part by grants.

ganzuul 6y ago

There is another perspective on this. A lot of those students probably grew up playing Minecraft, and all this time later the game is still getting major updates. Microsoft and Mojang are very dedicated to their work. Minecraft is an institution.