Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2006 is a mashup of you and Web 2.0: "(you) who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana."
The deeper tale of the day, however, must be C/Net's latest on the Virtual Air Traffic Simulation Network (VATSIM) universe: "Into the wild blue virtual yonder." It again emphasizes the tension underlying Web 2.0 + simulation + people: from the economy of add-ons, to the varied sophistication of user interaction, to their impact on real world systems. See also Slashdot's related discussion (Fn1) and our previous topics (Fn2).
Thanks, pointers from Greg L and Mark.
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Fn1. From Dec 13, 2006 Washington Post: "Flying Without Wings, Rule on Simulators Could Change How Pilots Are Trained."
Fn2. Other recent TN posts on VATSIM (and related):
Playing with a manual. - The role of manuals and game world design.
Lights will guide you home. - Role of altruism in cooperative virtual worlds.
Mike Fright. - On the fear of microphones in virtual worlds
Whale Watching. - Inconsistencies in world view: impacts to cooperative versus competitive play.
Having caught that VATSIM article on C|Net shortly after it was posted, I've wondered why there's been no coverage of it on those blogs and sites I normally visit. Thanks for mentioning it here. Hopefully it'll get some attention and discussion.
Posted by: csven | Dec 19, 2006 at 13:20
An interesting contrast raised in both the Slashdot discussion (cited above) and here (PPruNe) involves the value of real-world training versus simulator training.
To simplify a bit, the argument in favor of simulator-based training hinges on an ability to train (and retrain) on the *exceptions* (from comment here):
On a multi-engine "real" aircraft, you generally train 6 failures (engine fire, engine failure, generator failure, loss of one instrument power source, gear will not extend , flaps will not extend) to a high standard. In a simulator you train these, plus many, many more.
(see also here)
Posted by: nate combs | Dec 21, 2006 at 21:49