Building on one of last year's conference darlings, Danny O'Brien's Panopticion, Ludicorp is demoing Confab. Taking advantage of the formation of the transient geographic group interacting in both real and virtual spaces here at Etech,
Confab is an ad-hoc conversation space mapped to the conference facility's floorplan which allows you to discuss and debate sessions live with other attendees, make contacts, send instant messages and create conversations to plan group meetings and activities.
A crude Matrix, if you will, for finding friends, not enslaving humanity to harvest their energy**.
** Although if you're an introvert like myself, that's what extroverts do...suck all the energy out of us for their own evil purposes.
There are 3 reader comments
• Apr 23 2003 • 11:14AM
Well, we'll see how it goes when people start playing with it.
And also, I've been told this is pre-pre-pre-beta, so the service might be a little sketchy.
• Apr 24 2003 • 11:07AM
I've been alpha-testing Ludicorp's up-and-coming Game Neverending and am delighted to see some of their tech making it into the real world.
From what I have seen of the nascent game, I can say that it promises to really shake up the way that social groups form and communicate, both online and offline. Ludicorp have always stressed that their product will be not so much a game as a conduit for communication and participation in social activity.
Although this Confab thing is news to me (and trust me, I can't wait to see how they integrate this "core" into the Game Neverending), I think the point that they're trying to make is that their ideas will allow people with common interests to come together (whilst being geographically separated) and discuss common interests.
One thing that I am particularly excited about is Ludicorp's aim to help those people with common interests meet each other. Clearly, at Etech, what we have is a microcosm of the larger world, in that there are a variety of people who are interested in different sessions but who may not know each other.
As Ludicorp develops their ideas (and as others expand upon them), you can expect in the future to see people who (for instance) are shopping for clothes getting (or requesting) advice from other "trusted sources" who might also be picking up some threads (albeit on the other side of the planet). Presto! Geographical barriers are broken and virtual friendship networks permeate "real" life.
Hey, maybe I'm a million miles away from where this kind of thing can go. But it's good to dream of better places, no?
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.
Lutero • Apr 23 2003 • 10:38AM
I'm sure I'm being a bit shortsighted, but hopefully you can post Ludicorp's thoughts (or even better, your own) on the range of community benefits that such a product might bring.