Copy for SL6Booth

Studio Wikitecture Process (displayed on the north* side of the middle bay)

*opposing side

Studio Wikitecture is an open group, composed of a diverse range of individuals from varying disciplines, interested in exploring the application of an open-source paradigm to the design and production of both real and virtual architecture and urban planning.

In short, the group is interested in how the practice of architecture might change as the 3-dimensional web becomes as prevalent as the 2d web. Will the practice of architecture dramatically change with the advent of the 3d web, the same way newspapers and the publishing industry drastically shifted gears with the advent of the 2d web? Since architecture is inherently a 3-dimensional discipline, the question isn't if the 3d-web would change the profession, but how?

Since late in 2006, Studio Wikitecture has been using the virtual world Second Life as a collaborative platform for conducting ‘Wikitecture’ projects. Through these projects,we have been teasing out the exact procedures and protocols necessary to harness a group’s collective intelligence in designing architecture. In other words, in much the same way Wikipedia enables a loose, self-organizing network of contributors to collaborate on content creation, the group has been using these projects to work out the manner by which a group of geographical disperse individuals can come together to share ideas, edit the contributions of others, and to vote on the success or failure of proposed design iterations.

To help facilitate these collaborative efforts, we teamed up with the software development team at i3D and developed a unique inworld 3d-Wiki and accompanying website. The ‘Wiki-Tree’ as we called it, acts very much like a typical wiki, but instead of tracking text documents in a linear history like you see with Wikipedia, the ‘Wiki-Tree’ tracks virtual models and saves them in a kind of 3D mind map. Along with version tracking of the various designs, the interface allows members to vote and leave comments around the evolving designs.

Like other projects exhibited here, the group used the Wiki-Tree to work collaboratively on designing the SL6B Booth you are currently standing in. To see how the design of the booth evolved over time from the many contributions of the group, please feel free to walk over to the Wiki-Tree and cycle through the design iterations contained in each leaf. Since, the Wiki-Tree is in the early alpha stages of development, we had to turn off the functionality of submitting a design to the tree, however, you can still cycle through the designs by simply 'touching' each leaf and the design contained within, will rez itself out on the accent parcel.

Also, to give you an idea of how we used the 'Wiki-Tree' , please view the video below.

Wikitecture Technology (displayed on the south* side of the middle bay)

*opposing side

The ‘Wiki-Tree’ as we called it, acts very much like a typical wiki, but instead of tracking text documents in a linear history like you see with Wikipedia, the ‘Wiki-Tree’ tracks virtual models and saves them in a kind of 3-dimensional mind map. Along with version tracking of the various designs, the interface allows members to vote and leave comments around the evolving designs.

So when a contributor uploads a design iteration of a 3d model to the ‘Tree’, it creates a new ‘leaf’ in the ‘canopy’ above. With every new leaf that springs from the canopy in Second Life, a corresponding profile page is also created on an external website. Here contributors can vote, comment and upload snapshots to describe their evolving designs ideas without having to log into Second Life. (touch this display panel for a link to the website).

To carry this tree metaphor to its logical conclusion, the leaves derived their color from their popularity. Design iterations, voted positive in the eyes of the community, turned green, those in red, however, were not doing so well. The tree automatically prunes itself of leaves that go unnoticed.

The group used the Wiki-Tree to work together on designing the SL6B Booth you are currently standing in. To see how the design of the booth evolved over time from the many contributions of the group, please feel free to walk over to the Wiki-Tree and cycle through the design iterations contained in each leaf. Since, the Wiki-Tree is in the early alpha stages of development, we had to turn off the functionality of submitting a design to the tree, however, you can still cycle through the designs by simply 'touching' each leaf and the design contained within, will rez itself out on the accent parcel.

Also, the video below, will give you a quick sense of how the 'Wiki-Tree' works.

Wikitecture 1.0: the Seed (display 1)

The first two Wikitecture experiments were very simple and were essentially grassroots operations. We simply asked the architecture group in Second Life to design a small meeting kiosk for group meetings. For this first experiment, we knew that since we didn't really have any means of archiving the various design versions contributors submitted and/or any means for asynchronous communication within the group, that the resultant design was going to be tremendously chaotic at best.

This first experiment was a proof positive that without any technology or methodology to facilitate the process, the end result would just be an amalgamation of stuff. A result we knew would happen.

Wikitecture 2.0: the Germination (display 2)

The design that resulted after the 2nd experiment was by far more coherent. Here we introduced a few technical measures to facilitate some measure of consensus in the group. Unlike the first, we incorporated a crude archiving system that allowed members to mix and match submissions made by other contributors or revert back to a previous design iteration if the group decided it was appropriate. In addition, to help facilitate asynchronous, web-based communication, we utilized a Flickr account where members could upload screenshots with descriptions of their ideas, while others could comment and vote.

As you can see, the design was far more coherent than Wikitecture 1.0. Even though we used a number of simple technical mash-ups, the quality of the final design, as well as the feedback from the community, was far more coherent and rigorous than the first experiment. However crude it was, it worked on a number of levels.

Given this promising result and a growing community of members interested in collaborative design, we decided it was time to get a little more serious about the potential of this idea.

Wikitecture 3.0: the Competition (display 3-4)

So in order to demonstrate the 'Wiki-Tree's' potential for building design consensus within a distributed group of people, we entered an international architecture competition hosted by the Open Architecture Network. Since this organization was also know for it's open source approach to solving humanitarian architectural problems, we thought it would be a prime opportunity to submit an entry composed in a similar open source fashion. After months of collaborating around the 'Wiki-Tree', all the group's hard work was rewarded when we won the overall Founder's award. A tremendous honor, considering there were around 600 entries from around the world.

Wikitecture 4.0: the University (display 5-6)

With the good fortune of the winning an international competition with the 3rd Wikitecture experiment, and the affirmative press that followed, we were finally in a position to start calling these so called Wikitecture Experiments, Wikitecture Projects instead.

With a positive track record under our belt, we continued to push forward and were fortunate enough to have the University of Alabama hire the group to collaboratively design a small classroom project for their virtual campus in Second Life. Once again, using the Wiki-Tree as a collaborative platform, the group was tasked with designing a virtual classroom, one that entertained and explored the opportunities a virtual classroom have over a real life one.

The beauty of this platform not only allowed the Studio Wikitecture community to collaborate on the design, it was an invaluable tool for soliciting the continuous stream of feedback from the students and faculty of the school as well.

Wikitecture 5.0: SW2.5Booth (display 7-8)

In keeping with the collaborative spirit of Wikitecture, it seemed only appropriate to open the design process of the booth itself to the Studio Wikitecture community, so that anyone can contribute and vote on the designs they like most/least.

The design challenge was to design a booth that best describes what Studio Wikitecture and the Wiki-Tree is all about. We wanted the community to include images that could be displayed, such as our final entry in the Open Architecture Challenge, screenshots of past Wikitecture projects, the most recent University of Alabama, and more. We left it up to the community to determine how many images should be displayed, how they should be displayed, and how large those images should be. The result of that project is the booth you are in right now!

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From Wikipedia to Wikitecture: Studio Wikitecture is an open group, composed of a diverse range of individuals from varying disciplines, interested in exploring the application of a open-source paradigm to the design of both real and virtual architecture and urban planning.

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