CLASSES: CAP 4403 and CAP 6402

PROJECT 4: Data Flow

DUE DATE: April 24, 2009 @ 11:59PM

ISLAND CLEAN DATE: April 27, 2009

LATEST DRAFT of this document: February 18, 2009

• Definition: The software element of concern for this project is Data Flow in the form of either an equation or a Petri net. An equation represents data flow in the form of a parse tree for the equation, and a Petri net represents flow in the form of discrete tokens through the network. Data flow captures inherently parallel behavior. You will use one or more related stories around a single theme, and you will mine the software element to be represented from this story. You need to represent both the denotation and connotation associated with the software element.
• Project Goals: This is a team project. A Team is composed of 1, 2, or 3 people. No more than 3 people are permitted in each team. The goals are 1) To explore and learn the medium of multi-user virtual worlds (Second Life, OpenSim); (2) To mine for a software element in a story of contemporary public interest, and (3) To apply (1) to (2) to engage the participant. The general goal of this project within the class is to bridge aesthetic concerns (i.e., look and feel of what you create) with functional concerns (i.e., making the scene function correctly and provide effective communication).
• To do:
  • Research:
    • Search news-worthy sources such as 1) major news pages such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or or BBC. Other possibilities include: 1) top news items for a recent year, 2) news blogs and outlets, 3) RSS feeds. Ensure that these numbers have socio-cultural relevance to the general public at the national or global level. Avoid regional or local news (i.e., sports) since we want to maximize the size of the demographic. Even though each news outlet has its own biases, minimize this bias by picking a news article, and not something from the editorial page (i.e., opinion, letter).
    • Identify a value that is related to the story or that is found inside of the story itself. The story is your source; however, you can choose more than one source if you wish. Just make sure to note each source for your documentation.
    • Use this data value mapping guideline to assist with ways in which value can be represented, and this graph mapping guideline for your structured software element.
  • Design:
    • Create a small scene composed of set of objects inside of Second Life or OpenSim that capture both the software element's denotation and connotation. The idea is to represent this software element using the unique attributes of the multi-user virtual environment.
    • Keep in mind that Second Life is an immersive 3D environment, so while flat objects are not disallowed, take advantage of the immersion and shapes in your representations.
    • Use textures and object properties carefully. A general rule of thumb is to imagine what your scene objects would look like, and then apply the appropriate materials, textures, and lighting to achieve a realistic effect. Use textures for all objects unless the objects are very small or can be adequately represented using material properties alone.
    • Create all the prims and scripts yourself or ensure that the 3 primary permissions can be set with any foreign prims, scripts, or media that you obtain or purchase (see the permissions information under Deliverables). Otherwise, do not include them in your model. So, for example, a texture obtained elsewhere is fine as long as can assign all 3 permissions for "next owner".
    • Create a separate sign object that allows the visitor to click on it to get a blog page (see under Deliverables). Use this blogger tool.
    • Create a video that represents a documentary on your scene, and embed the video in your blog.
• Grade:
  • Your project will be expected to draw in a visitor through its look and feel and interaction. It should be creative and innovative.
  • Make sure that your project:
    • Is understandable once someone reads your blog (ref. Deliverables)
    • Does not contain spurious elements that do not convey information (i.e., random music, objects that contain or convey no relevant information)
    • Is consistently designed and "hangs together" as a metaphor - not a random placement of shapes, sounds, and interaction
  • Pay attention to detail. Are your model and other objects fully texture mapped? Look at the colors, textures, materials, lighting, and other object properties.
  • Pay attention to quality. Are you proud of the structure, and would you want to show it off to others?
  • Based on the quality of the project as it compares with the total population of student projects that are delivered
  • There are higher expectations of those taking CAP 6402 (graduate students)
  • A grade of "B" meets the minimal requirements specified in this page, whereas a grade of "A" is given to the projects with the highest quality as judged by the Professor and Teaching Assistant (TA)
  • Hints to help your grade
• Deliverables: To submit your project, you need to:
  1. Package Delivery for Second Life
     • Go to Search -> underneath people tab search for the TA: Zezzell Sage. Drag your complete "package" to the TA's profile (the right-side area that is shown). The package refers to your model, your sign, and any additional objects that comprise your design.
     • Make sure that all permissions are set (see below under Policies). Set all permissions when the object is rezzed, not while in inventory. This is how to set permissions and do testing:
       • For each rezzed object, make sure that all 3 permissions are checked under the "General->Next owner can:" tab for each prim. The boxes for Next owner must be both white and checked. If one of the boxes is greyed out and checked then the permissions are not set correctly. You can set these prim permissions en-masse by region selecting all prims and then setting the permissions. However, this does not set permissions for anything under the "Content" tab in each prim. Finding prims that have not been set correctly involves staying in edit mode, and using region select to find the prim, or prims, that do not have the next owner permissions set correctly.
       • For each item under the Content tab for each rezzed prim (where you may have contents such as scripts, sounds, notecards, textures, and so forth), right click each item and set all 3 next owner permissions under "Properties->Next owner can:". You can SHIFT select all items under content, but this will bring up tabs which have to be individually selected anyway.
       • Searching for prims that do not have the correct next-owner permissions can be facilitated using region (rectangle)-select while in edit mode. Select some part of your project. If all three next owner boxes are white, each with a check mark, then all prims and prim contents are set correctly for that selection. If there is a greyed-out box, then at least one prim or the content of a prim are not correctly set within that selection. Further sub-region selects will allow you to identify which prims are the problem.
       • Testing to make sure your permissions are correctly set is accomplished by giving your complete object package to another student in-world. Make sure that this other student does the following: (1) receives your object, (2) rezzes it, and (3) takes your object back into their inventory. If this can be done without any warnings being displayed next to your object in their inventory, you are fine. Warnings are: "(no copy)", "(no modify)", or "(no transfer)". If you wish to come to the instructor's or TA's office hours, we can be part of your permissions test if you do not wish to enlist the help of another student.
       • Position Invariance should be tested by moving and rotating your project, and ensuring that doing so does not break the functionality of any scripts that you have coded.
       • Region select (Edit Mode->drag mouse) all prims in your objects in edit mode. Select only your objects (Tools->Select-Only-My-Objects) and if necessary (Client->uncheck Limit-Select-Distance)
       • "Take Copy"(Right-Click Object-->More)
       • Rename the multi-part (packaged) object using a long string consisting of the following: your real-life first and last name; your second-life first and last name; your project title; version number. Separate each part with an underscore. For example: "PaulFishwick_FrederichCourier_My Project Name_V1.3"
  2. Package Delivery for OpenSim
     • Follow the same procedure above for Second Life.
     • Create a new blank region and put your scene in that region. Then use "save-xml2 yourproject.xml". Email yourproject.xml to the TA.
  3. Email Blogger URL to the TA
     • Put a reference to your blog in a prim in front of your model/context that acts as a "sign", and deliver this to the visitor when the visitor touches the design. This sign should be selected along with the rest of your prims when you hand it over to the TA. Somewhere in the blog, include the following in this order:
       • Object Name: what you call your work
       • Title: a type of "news headline" reflecting your work
       • Creator: Your real name and SL name in parentheses
       • Date: date of creation.
       • Summary: Two or three sentence (brief description) of what your work represents
       • News Sources: The source(s) (magazine volume/issue #, web URL, RSS feed) used for getting the news-worthy story.
       • Video Link or Embedding: URL for your YouTube video or directly embed in the blog. The video should be uploaded to YouTube. The video can be dubbed using a voice or using overlaid text. The length of the video must be between 1 and 3 minutes.
       • Interaction: List of methods on how one interacts with the model, and how the model is connected to the context
       • Motivation: Reasons/background for creating the model, including an explanation of why it is culturally relevant
       • Description: Detailed description of the mapping approach you used to represent the time series. Include diagrams, pictures, photos, URLs that will help in the description. The mapping must be complete for anyone wishing to know exactly how to intepret your work.
• Policies:
  • Wrong Permissions: penalty: 15 points per day. See above for how to set the permissions.
  • Late: minus 15 points per day starting with the due date/time.