NetHack, collaboratively developed project with vintage.

Nethack is a famous roleplaying game developed by dozens of voluntary developers all around the world, some of whom have never met eachother. The game has survived, and is still actively played, for over 23 to 28 years (depending on how you count) and the collaborative nature of it's development may indeed have something to do with it's longevity.

The basic premise of the game throughout different versions is, that the hero controlled by the player descends through series of caverns to finally reach Hell (politically corrected to Gehenna in later versions), plunder an artifact called Amulet of Yendor and escape back up with the rightful owner on your heels, in oder to be rewarded with immortality by your god. Of course, the true attraction of the game is just to survive in an extremely hostile environment where death of a characters means deletion of the saved games as well.

NetHack has a very peculiar development history. While originally a humble game called Hack, developed in 1982 mainly by Jay Fenlason, assisted by Kenny Woodland, Mike Thome and Jon Payne, it would gain its collaborative nature when more developers would join in and start updating and modifying the game. Thus Hack became NetHack; the word Net does not refer to any multiplayer aspects of the game, but to USENET, a worldwide internet discussion system used by the developers as their primary means to coordinate their joint efforts already in the year 1987 - years before World Wide Web even existed.


Source:
NetHack 3.4.3 Guidebook Credits

Thoughts of collaborative computerized-communication based creation

If a group of people would be determined to create music or art or video production or other creative media type together trough groupware software, would the outcome be a much different than if the people would work together in physically in a same room. In normal human-human communication face-to-face communication involves eyes, face and body movements, in communicating trough computer the feedback is usually reduced to simplified text communication unless using a web-camera or michrophone in instant communication. But if a group of people would work towards the same goal in just text based forums, it has to have an effect to the outcome as well.

In the recent years communication and lots of social life (or something replacing it) has moved to the internet forums, facebook and other social media. The time is near, that also the collaborative working and creativity would also start to happen trough groupware software. Some features that would differ from a normal face-to-face working would at least be that choosing the working partners would rather base on the invidual achivements, interests and the so called internet identity, rather than same social or work circles in physical life. So in practically this allows almost everyone everywhere to create anything with anyone, and by finding totally same minded people with new ideas this could lead to somekind of a revolutionary progress in all areas of creative collaborative work.

Imagine a system where a poet for example publishes a new poem in the certain froupware software. And then it innovates a guitarist in an other country to compose a melody to it. And then maybe a pianist in a third country either to continue from the guitarists work or to create their own composion. This would allow people who are strangers to each others but are likeminded to work on a piece of music together. This could apply also to anyother kind of art project. Like for example a painter creates a picture. A music video maker finds a bunch of interisting paintings from different artists and uses them in his own production. This would of course also need that all the material published in this certain “groupware for creation” would be without copyright and free for everyone to use or expand. Though also I would as an important feature also that the artists would communicate each others that the goal would set together and everyone would know participating in something, rather than little pieces traveling towards a neverending destination where only the next stop is clear for the person currently working on the piece.

This at least could lead to a birth of a new world culture. But could it lead to something else as well? Would the true point and human aspects change radically in this kind of projects compared to old methods of collaborative creativity and could this effect on the artists motivation for creativity?

Ideas were inspired by:
The course book website : http://www.hcibook.com/e3/plain/chaps/ch10
And an article by Jonathan Grudin : Groupware and social dynamics: eight challenges for developers [acm: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=175230]

CMC Applications – Skype and Messenger

The most used computer mediated communication tools most likely include Skype and Windows Live Messenger. Both of these rely heavily on textual communication, and are therefore well suited for more detailed comparison.

Windows Live Messenger, formerly known as MSN Messenger, has more than 300 million users, and its first version was released in 1999. Messenger is mostly used to have private two-person conversations, though a feature to add more people to the same conversation is included. Messenger has many features, people can, for example, send files to each other and view pictures and videos, and have webcam conversations.

Skype was first released in 2003. Unlike Messenger, Skype was a voice call application at heart. People could make free phone calls to each other using Skype, and calling to traditional telephones was also possible via a debit-based account system. Skype has evolved into a multi-use application over the years, and has rivaled Messenger as an instant messaging system. Most features in Messenger are included in Skype as well.

However, technical solutions separate these two applications. Apparently Skype does not store conversations online, but in the users’ computers. This sometimes results in a problem: let’s take a conversation involving three people. One of them is offline, and the other two are having a text chat via Skype. These two people then go offline, and the third one comes online. Now, this person cannot see what the others have written, as she/he has no access to the conversation. It is updated only when someone involved in the conversation comes back online. On the other hand, Skype is better at storing conversations than Messenger and is therefore better suited for certain situations.

A feature in Messenger allows you to set yourself to be seen as being offline by every user, a particular user or a group of users. This is an interesting feature because it has some social aspects that should not be expected in these types of social contexts. It is clear that the feature is used to avoid having to chat with certain people, and I have to admit using it regularly.

All in all, Skype and Messenger are both well suited for textual communication, both having certain strengths and weaknesses. I use both of them daily, Messenger mainly for uninformal chatting with friends, and Skype for more important group conversations.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Live_Messenger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype

The next generation of email?

In class we discussed about how the way we use email has changed over the years. I, and those few who told about their experiences in class, still use email for formal correspondance, but for daily communication with friends email is just too.. well, formal.

Has email already become a communication medium for old people? When the first talks about Facebook's new email alternative came out, it was referred as 'Email killer'. In November 2010 Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg announced the new Facebook email, or how he likes call it: "next generation of email". Then he also made official that it's not going to be email killer, but a new "messaging experience" that includes email as one part of it.

So, the new Facebook mail will combine traditional email with Facebook's current instant messaging system and SMS. You can choose how to reply to incoming mail: You can email, send an instant message or write a text message! You are also able to see conversation histories between you and your friends. And then there is this thing called "Social inbox", which lets you email from your social network (your friends and "people you might know"). This definitely doesn't sound like an email killer, and it frankly doesn't sound much of a mind blowing "messaging experience" either. It sounds like I'm going to get a fourth email box and three is already more than enough.

I think there must be reasons why people use different communication mediums. If I have to contact someone formally I use email. If I have something urgent to tell to my friend, I might as well use Skype. If I don't have absolutely anything interesting to share with anyone, I may still update my Facebook status. I can still do all these things by sitting in front of my computer and I'm pretty sure it won't take any longer that it would took, if I had all these things duct-taped together into some kind of a weird online messaging hybrid that is so god-awfully bloated it's barely usable.

I'm not saying Facebook's email is going to be anything like that, but after having experienced Facebook's problems with regular chat and laggy messaging service, I'm just excited to see how they manage to pull this one off.

Tips to avoid conflict and miscommunication in writing emails

According to the many surveys majority of all conflicts in the workforce stems out of miscommunication. When working in virtual teams or working across the region, miscommunication is magnified by the lack of proper writing skills, whether in emails, memos, instant messaging (IM) or even blogs and other social media.

These are few simple things that you can keep in mind when writing an email:

• · Simplify your messages. The more simple your message will be, the less misunderstanding it will cause. You should keep your messages short and to the point.

• · Use bullet points. Bring your main ideas to the front to help reader familiarize with your ideas quicker.

• · Never write full sentences in CAPS. Capital letters symbolizes shouting. Nobody likes to be yelled at.

• · Use calm colors: Using red font usually means anger or danger. Use calmer colors like green or blue unless you need to mark very important date or number.

• · Don't send emails without subject. Subject will help using search functions in email browsers. Also subject shows basic email content.

• · If you send an email at 1 am then you are implying: "you can call me anytime you want". Respecting Work Life Balance is extremely important. Unless it is urgent don't send emails after working hours, you can always schedule to send later.

• · Avoid the URGENT and (!)High importance/priority signs: Some people are used to overuse signs like HIGH IMPORTANCE or HIGH PRIORITY to a point that people just ignore them all.

• · And finally, read the email before sending it. We discover a lot of mistakes just by reading it again. If it is an email going to important person, try to get a colleague to read it as well. Some sentences might make sense to you but not to the reader.

References:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/12-tips-for-better-e-mail-etiquette-HA001205410.aspx

http://www.ehow.com/way_5286494_group-email-etiquette.html

http://www.ideasgrp.com/blog/blog-entry/9-tips-avoid-conflict-and-miscommunication-writing-emails

Subversion in cooperative software developement

Software development companies are frequently working on large projects. These projects demand cooperative work of database analyst, graphic designers, developers, testers and project managers. The key problem in development process is how to collect, backup, maintain, versioning and revision the source code, models, documentation and other data from different team members.

One of the best know versioning and revision control system is Apache Subversion, also known as SVN. Apache Subversion consist of two main parts - client part and server part.

Server part of SVN contains repository (central storage). Repository physically contains files of all involved team members and also former versions of these files.

The main role of client part is to provide functionality for obtaining copy of actual data from repository (Update, Checkout) and to send modified data back to repository (Commit).

The important feature of SVN is that team member who is modifying some file can lock this file, to prevent modification of this file by another team member at the same time. SVN provides functionality for merging different versions of specific file to one new version. SVN also backup all older versions of file and it's easy to restore the former version.

Simple example of using SVN:

1. Developer downloads actual data from server repository to local folder (Ckeckout).

2. Develpoer modifies the file or add new files.

3. Developer sends modified files or new files back to repository (Commit).

4. Next developer can download modified file from server (Checkout) and provide his own modification.

SVN is developed by CollabNet and it's an Open Source multiplatform software provided free of charge also for commercial use.

Lot of Integrated development environments (IDEs) like NetBeans, Microsoft Visual Studio or Eclipse offers add-ons provides functionality of SVN directly from IDE. There is also a lot of external tools which provide easy interface for using SVN, one of the most common is TortoiseSVN.

References:
http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.5/svn-book.pdf
http://subversion.apache.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Subversion
http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/

Trolling!

Trolling is no longer just the act of acquiring delicious frutti di mare and Trolls are no longer brutes living under bridges demanding tributes. The term has gained a new meaning in the Internet, referring to both 'Trolls', people who haunt Internet messageboards in order to get their jollies from provoking forum members into exaggerated emotional responses, and 'trollin', the previously mentioned behavior.

Trollface, popular caricature image of a
Troll in an act of succesful provocation.

Prelevance: The act of trolling is generally more or less universal in the internet. While this sort of behavior would be regarded as borderline sociopathic in a real life setting, many people engage in it in an online one. Personally I do not believe that the environment itself exactly 'turns' people into troublemakers that they would not in other setting be, but that the internet simply provides ideal opportunity for it: Not only is concealing and falsifying your identity exceedingly simple, the environment of Internet also shields the perpetrator from both idenfication and even physical harm, which would be a very real possibility if such hijinks were attempted in another setting.

Entymology: The word trolling originates from the practice of fishing, and refers to the act of attracting or 'baiting' gullible users into the conversation [Free Online Dictionary]. This term assumably leads to the word 'Troll' being used to describe people who practice the said behavior. Since Troll refers to particularly unruly mythological creature as well [Kvideland, Reimund. Sehmsdorf, Henning K.] the word gains a fitting double meaning.


Source:
[Indiana University] "University Information Technology Services", fetched 24.01.2011
( http://kb.iu.edu/data/afhc.html )

References:

[Kvideland, Reimund. Sehmsdorf, Henning K.] "Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend." University of Minnesota Press. 2010.

[Free Online Dictionary] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trolling, fetched 24.01.2011

Creating music through groupware software

Mostly groupware software usually seems to be noted as communication tools and social collaboration. The collaborative software could be used for serious creation as well, as for example handing out pieces of code or programs or other information and buildind one bigger work from various locations. My interest in this blog post in the otherhand is towards the possibilities of groupware software in creation of music and exchanging musical ideas between artists.

Trough globalization and internet the people are also changing their aspects into more international way of thinking. Also there are many artists worldwide who are skilled musicians and have somekind of a homestudio options for recording music, trough groupware software it is possible also to build up recordings internationally. For example musicians could have a whole band kind of a project without leaving their homestudios. As it also was noted in Ville’s post earlier this week a group is: “people having a shared purpose, being aware of each other, interacting and communicating with each other”. That purpose could also be creating music and exchanging ideas with other musicians. In one case these people shouldn't even need to be familiar with each other in real life, they just need to have a common goal.

I have been trying to use google to search for this kind of international collaborative music projects, which wouldn’t really include people meeting each others in real life environment. At the moment I didn’t find any, maybe because I didn’t know how to search for them correctly, but I know these kind of projects do exist, so if someone has more information, it would be kind to post a comment.

I was able to find an article about cooperative music notation using the Moods system. (Music Object Oriented Distributed System). ACM: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=568515 . Though this article is interesting it is more of a music composing and notation, than about realtime remote music creation. I could imagine many different groupware applications, as the simpliest email, could be used in creating music and sending parts of recordings to each participants of the project and so the piece could be in cooperation trough the home studios. But I could also imagine a recording program that could work in realtime, like for example google docs and wiki’s work for collaborative document creation. Though maybe that kind of applications already exist, I just am not aware of them or maybe that is just a vision of a future home recording.

As it seems, the purpose of this blog post is not to be a very informative one, but more of challenging people think that how groupware software could also be used for music and for other kinds of art as well and if possible it would be great to hear different aspects around this topic and also build my own information more around it. I believe the possibilities for collaborative creation could be endless, if the tools just would be right.

Definitions of Groupware

Groupware is a term I have no memory of running into before I took the course, so I figured I could take some time to think about the definitions of groupware in my first blog post. There are multiple definitions for groupware, but to put it simply, as I understood it, groupware is computer software that helps a group of people achieve their goal by helping them communicate and collaborate more effectively. There are multiple alternative terms for groupware – like collaborative computing, multiuser applications and computer-supported cooperative work (Grudin, 1994).

Examples of groupware include some very familiar applications, like email and instant messaging. When thinking about it, I quickly formed the impression that nowadays almost any software is, to some extent, groupware. This may be the result of web 2.0 and the rise of social media applications, in which communication with others are greatly supported.

It is also important to define what a group is. According to the lecture slides, a group is a set of “people having a shared purpose, being aware of each other, interacting and communicating with each other”. It was said in the lecture that there may be a difference between a team and a group. My impression was that in a team there is a stricter structure and the responsibilities of each individual are defined in greater detail than in a group.

As a sidenote, I started to wonder if videogames and such can be considered to be groupware. It is common that players have shared goals and collaboration to reach these goals is required. However, it should be noted that in these cases the goals are generated inside the software itself and only exist inside the software. Thus, strictly speaking, the game is not “supportive software” to reach the goals, but rather a requirement. Then again, it could also be argued that some individual elements inside the games are groupware – for example party chats.

Wikipedia's WikiProjects

In my bachelor's thesis I wrote about cooperation in Wikipedia's WikiProjects. WikiProjects are groups of WikiPedia users with a common interest in a particular subject. Some of these groups are alive and doing just fine where others struggle due to a lack in active contributors.

In my thesis I tried to figure out what exactly motivates people to write articles under these WikiProjects and what is the role of group veterans in activating and motivating new wikipedians to write quality articles. In online groups such as Wikipedia's Wikiprojects there are no fancy tools to support collaboration, so the interpersonal communication in a group plays a huge role. New members have to have the feeling that they are welcome and that their contributions are vital for the group.

As a veteran members, sending a greeting message to a new group member is not enough. You have to reward new editors and if they have done something wrong, correct them in as nice a manner as possible. The new members must feel like being a part of a community straight from the beginning.

Religion in public relations

Biologists studying evolution is wondering why religion is so important thing for people. Why they sacrifice a lot of their time and money and sometimes even their lives for when looking from biological aspect useless activity.

Last decade specialists from different disciplines - neuropsychologist, sociologists and anthropologists - come to help for biologists with a lot new data and researches. Newest studies show that religion is like social glue holding public in one social unit. Religion not only sets the morals but also creates some sort of sign language which shows with who can be trusted and who can't be trusted.

Most important thing - religious rituals must be very expensive and time consuming. Otherwise if it doesn't cost you to prove that you are trustworthy then it is easy to fake it. But if it is very hard to prove your religious devotion then it is not worth for pretend it. Studies show that religious people are thought to be more reliable and helpful.

In society that is based on mutual trust the highest treat raises from cheats and scamps. Principles and rules that are hard to keep is the way to sift those who only take and don't give back. Principles and rituals also foster confidence, they show that other people keep the same rules and are trustworthy and sincere.

For example: antelope is jumping up looks like showing off and wasting energy. She does not understand why she is jumping but tiger sees that she has lot of energy and he would not catch her. Signal truth value lies in antelope not understanding it and tiger thinking that is correct because otherwise wasting power would be foolishness in that harsh surroundings. In other words the more energy action requires the more action is convincing.

Same as antelope people sends right signals when they don't understand being trustworthy and willingness to cooperate - when they behaves sincere.