sl user survey, IM Pei, Louis Kahn, Chris Marker, shoe string budget film making,

sl User survey 2007
General Psychological Engagement finding:
The Psychological Engagement model in virtual communities is form by elemental types of engagement: Emotional engagement, behavioral engagement, perceptual engagement. (Ortiz de Gortari, A, 2007)

Take a look! If we are to continue doing things in the virtual world, we might find users voices important.

sl user survey

For people who are not familiar with virtual worlds - it is a concept that is hard to understand without having made an avatar and "drive it around like a probe".

Sometimes its useful to see a survey - what do people do in sl? How engaged are they emotionally? and, are survey questions accurate? are there questions that should have been asked?

For example, I was in an "avatar parade" and interviewed the artist who set up the project; he said he was never in sl before the project and, he was a video artist in rl. The setting up of the technical aspects to make it work was artistically very accomplished, he thought of everything. Who came to the parade? The same few avatars who are interested in such activities, and they return over and over again, but always the same people.

Would a survey of visitor numbers show this fact? Or who are the visitors? The quality of their engagement? etc etc

As IM Pei said in a film on Louis Kahn, its not quantity, its quality thats important. He said he had a lot more projects than Kahn, but Kahns architecture is quality. Louis Kahn is quality. But IM Pei never pretends that he is anything other than high quality, well built, well made, a star corporate architect. His talks on architecture concerns how many parking spaces you need for a building; unlike a lot of other people who goes on and on about poetics of space, icnoic functions and all the abstract philosophies behind their design. Pei said, hes Chinese, and when the client doesnt agree with what he proposes, he puts it aside and come back another day; but Kahn, Kahn would have slammed the door and never return. What does Kahn say about his buildings? He talked about what a brick wants to be and could be snappy when the audiences question is not worthy of a serious reply. Compare to Philippe Johnsons statement on Kahn, how much more elegant as a person he is. Johnson makes comments on Kahns "prettiness" etc. and this guy is in the world, he says that if one guy has flowers lining up from the street to the office door whereas the other has a half eaten sandwich lying next to the drawing board... who would Jacqueline Kennedy pick?

What do architects talk about now in their public presentations?

Yesterday, I read about Chris Marker who made his "La Jetee" film with only a few seconds of continuous footage - he said, he didnt have a film camera, he borrowed a machine for half a day. And all the sounds were recorded with a regular ordinary tape machine. Now, why is Marker so mysterious? Are there many hidden stars making superb shoe string films at home these days?

Must documentary films have a "social issue"? (yes, if you want someone to fund it!)