WUaS Tourism Studies' subjects, virtual Harbin, MIT, ScienceSim

N,

Thanks - likewise. I'm not on Trinet yet - a little swamped with the amount of information from the web already, some of which I add to WUaS regularly. The recent Tourism and Authenticity conference at UC Berkeley was well done, with many edifying and engaging talks.

... will look to add the references you sent below to WUaS Tourism Studies' subjects ... http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Tourism_Studies and http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Hospitality_and_Tourism ...  or perhaps a Cal grad or undergrad student intern might enjoy this process. How to invite folks all over the worlds to begin to teach, learn, add and create as wiki, and with Wikipedia in 284 languages as precedent, is a question I continue to ponder, besides with advertising - and particularly to generate an academic conversation among folks at great universities? (Wales is good at this).

... still haven't turned the corner in terms of WUaS finances, - this process is a bit of elusive, but I continue to follow up on leads. Would love it if you could/might help Friend-raise / raise funds for WUaS with your contacts ... WUaS will hire a lot of Cal interns (with university/school plans in 3,000-8,000 languages and 200 countries) over the years, - when monies come in. I hope the MIT trip will help turn finances around, as well, but nothing specific yet whatsoever.

Might I please deliver a keynote talk in Paris in 2013 at Tourist Imaginaries on Harbin, virtual Harbin and this year's theme of the erotic there? ... just writing my 6th chapter on Intimacy at Harbin ... Still waiting now nearly 4 months later to hear back from MIT Press about my book proposal.

I'd love to dovetail the building of virtual Harbin as ethnographic field/pools site, not in Science Sim probably, with Ruth Tringham's contacts at UC Merced (Mauritzio? sp?), and possibly her moving virtual Catalhuyuk into the same, free virtual world, since SL costs something like $3600 / year with a $1000 setup fee, and I haven't seen other great alternatives, - and since Ruth killed Catalhuyuk in SL.

(I'm still planning on sending a summary of academic contributions I've made to tourism studies to a number of us, from the TI conference last May 2011).

Where are you traveling next? ... hope to see you soon.

All the best,

Scott

Hi, R,

Thanks for a fascinating (postmodern) talk yesterday at Cal at the Tourism Studies' conference on Authenticity. It rounded out the day in both amusing and very edifying ways, vis-a-vis authenticity.

I'd love to dovetail the building of virtual Harbin as ethnographic field/pools site, in a free Science-oriented virtual world, with your contacts at UC Merced (Mauritzio? - sp?), and possibly with moving virtual Catalhuyuk into the same, free Science-oriented virtual world, (since SL costs something like $3600 / year and $1000 setup fee), and I haven't seen other great alternatives, - and since you killed Catalhuyuk in SL 2 weeks ago.

During my recent trip to the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, MA, last week, I was impressed with the 16 screen TV there forming ONE big screen, which the new head of the Media Lab, Joi Ito, used to teach an open class on virtual worlds, projecting both World of Warcraft and Star Trek Online large onto this screen, both of which scaled huge beautifully. Wow! - it will be great if OpenSim / Science Sim begin to scale like this, especially for ethnographic research at Virtual Harbin, with the 2 communication channels of group talk and group text, as well as the gestural communication possibilities of scripted avatar movements, with many dance scripts already existing (in terms of Watsu especially). I'm looking too for script coders particularly for Watsu - water shiatsu movements, for ethnographic study, in water. (Watsu, a form of water dance in water, with therapeutic benefits, is an original form emerging from Harbin, as you may know).

I'm interested in finding someone to work with to do the main building of virtual Harbin (virtual Harbin may also be a first classroom for World University & School), and I would help, have built some in SL, but I don't have a feel for building terrain yet (would like to learn), so I might learn a lot about building terrain by helping to import Catalhuyuk's builds into ScienceSim, for example. (Here's a Machinima about "The Making of Virtual Harbin Hot Springs as Ethnographic Field Site in Second Life & Open Simulator" which I made - http://blip.tv/scott-macleod/the-making-of-virtual-harbin-hot-springs-as-ethnographic-field-site-in-second-life-open-simulator-2063427 - and which gives one a feel for virtual pools - in the Gardens of Bliss in SL, which no longer exists). Are some of the student builders of virtual Catalhuyuk at Cal still around?

Thanks again for a great talk, and very nice to see you.

All the best,

Scott

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