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Community XR 2019 & February Training & User Group Event

By Kathy Bisbee On January 11, 2019 In 360 video, BostonVR, Brookline, CommunityVR, CommunityXR, Diversity & Inclusion, Education, HTC Vive, immersive journalism, Immigration VR, Journalism, Kathy Bisbee, VR Education, VR Filmmaking, Women in VR With No Comments

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At BIG and the Public VR Lab, one of our primary goals in 2019 is to support community media centers, libraries, museums, youth, arts and cultural organizations, and community-engaged filmmakers to understand, create, and provide community access to emerging media equipment, training, and content in all its forms, continuing to build a field for community-based VR, AR, 360, and MR (XR).

We call it Community XR, and we hope you’ll contribute to building the field too!

We hope you’ll join us this year at sessions at national conferences, at regional user group events, and for hands-on training programs to share what we and others have learned as emerging best practices in the field, and in developing staff and organizational capacity to utilize new ways to create media, tell local stories, and attract new partners, members, funding and other resources to our community media centers.

Stay tuned for other conferences and regional training from the Public VR Lab in 2019. Please let us know if you are already implementing 360, VR, AR or MR at your organization or school so we can add you to our growing international directory for Community XR!

We kick off 2019’s events in New England on Friday, February 8th from 10:00 am – 6:00 pm:

Join BIG at our innovative VR Lab partner organization, Westford CAT, for a day of learning how to implement Community XR at your arts, media or cultural organization at a hands-on training from 10-3pm, and/or for our free community XR users’ group discussion from 4-6pm!

From 10-3pm, BIG & the Public VR Lab’s team will offer a low-cost training custom-designed for media-makers, 360 Filmmaking & VR Storytelling Training for Media Professionals (registration below).

In the afternoon, Westford CAT & BIG will co-host a free Community XR users group where community media centers who are using 360, VR and AR (XR) will share current XR projects, challenges/successes, equipment, education programs and best practices for implementing emerging media at your community media center.

Online Release of Data Visualization Tools in Partnership with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Brookline Interactive Group, The Public VR Lab and Datavized Technologies

Brookline Interactive Group (BIG), The Public VR Lab and Datavized Technologies are pleased to announce the public launch of “There’s Something in the Air” a VR data visualization experience exploring air pollution and global data over time around the globe that was presented at the United Nations Environmental Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya in December 2017.

By Kathy Bisbee On March 20, 2018 In Datavized, HTC Vive, storytelling, United Nations, VR Cinematography, WebVR, Women in VR With No Comments

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PRESS RELEASE MAR 22, 2018 09:00 EDT

(BROOKLINE, Mass., March 22, 2018) Launching March 22nd online and in virtual reality, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Brookline Interactive Group (BIG), The Public VR Lab, and Datavized Technologies are pleased to announce the public launch of “There’s Something in the Air,” a VR data visualization experience exploring air pollution and global data over time around the globe. The public launch coincides with the official launch of Datavized’s closed beta platform at the Data for Development Festival, the inaugural gathering of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data in Bristol, March 21-23 and will be on view in the VR Data Play Space along with access to Datavized software tools and at the festival and the Bristol Data Dive on March 23.

The visualization, powered by Datavized WebVR software, was presented by the Public VR Lab’s team at the third session of the United Nations Environment Assembly “Towards a Pollution-Free Planet” of the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) in Nairobi, Kenya on Dec. 4-6, 2017 to 800-1000 UNEA delegates, volunteers, NGOs, students, businesses, activists and world leaders, helping them to experience and understand environmental data stories in a new way.

The collaborative project was spearheaded by the UNEP, Brookline Interactive Group, The Public VR Lab, The EcoLearn Project, and Datavized Technologies to demonstrate how VR can create a paradigm shift to a more hands-on, visceral understanding of environmental issues through immersive data storytelling, and the physical sense of presence and increased empathy that VR provides. “There’s Something in the Air” presents estimates of air pollution based on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and mean annual exposure by country every five years from 1990-2010 and yearly between 2010 and 2015. Data sources include the Health Effects Institute – State of Global Air.

“We want to inspire local communities to craft their own collaborative, immersive storytelling and visual data experiences, and to then be able to share their experiences and data with other communities around the world, with compelling, visceral and visual storytelling around critical issues in the public interest.”

-KATHY BISBEE, CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT THE PUBLIC VR LAB

“The response of over 800 UNEA delegates and world leaders was absolute raw delight and enthusiasm for their experience of virtual reality. From the seven-year-old environmental activist, Sasha Bennett, to Ibrahim Thiaw, Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), all remarked how very real and impactful their virtual reality experience was,” added Ms. Bisbee.

For the past two years the Public VR Lab has provided free community VR demos, launched a VR Academy teaching six different ways to create XR content, and began creating VR/AR experiences in the public interest, working with artists, local museums, education, arts and technical organizations, and with local government. The Lab is training the next generation of creators and environmental educators through a high school job training program, the VR Ecohack, a hackathon focused on mentoring new storycoders, and supporting immersive journalism projects like their collaboration with the Boston Globe’s STAT news team.

In 2018 the Lab launched a national collaborative VR filmmaking project on American immigration/migration stories with 15 community-based filmmakers and organizations from Alaska to Philadelphia, called Immigration in Full Frame. With the goal of accessibility in mind, the Lab recently began providing low-cost VR Demos & Creator Toolkits to libraries, schools, arts organizations, filmmakers, universities, governments, and other cultural organizations to build their capacity to demo VR, create local content, and to show that VR can be accessible and used in the public interest.

“There’s Something in the Air” features a customized visualization of the Datavized software tools scheduled to be released in 2018. Datavized immersive visualization technology, built on the WebVR API, enables users with efficient, easy-to-use, three-dimensional geospatial templates for mapping global, national and city data visualizations. The startup, headquartered in New York, is currently expanding its closed beta program working with pilot partners in industries including government, business, education, transportation, mapping, statistics and sustainable development. Business and individual users can sign up to request access to the beta platform through datavized.com.

“This experience demonstrates how big data and VR can be used together to create an immersive environment for increased understanding and enhanced communication of real-world challenges. We are delighted Datavized geospatial software products and mapping technologies are being used as powerful tools for environmental education, awareness and impact,” Debra Anderson, co-founder and chief strategy officer, Datavized Technologies Inc.

The experience is viewable on any connected device at https://demo.datavized.com/somethingintheair, including mobile, desktop, tablet and in VR through WebVR browsers, including in the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, Google Daydream, Google Cardboard and Microsoft Windows Mixed Reality headsets. For details on WebVR browsers and supported platforms, visit webvr.rocks.

“The data collected and experienced through this pioneering VR initiative will inform policymakers on the status of air pollution in their respective constituencies worldwide. We, at UN Environment, hope that this VR experience will help expedite the implementation of the recommendations in the resolution approved at the Third UN Environment Assembly,” said Cristian Mazzei, special assistant to the director of the ecosystem division of the United Nations Environmental Programme.

“The experience we created together represents a new frontier in environmental education, uniting the possibilities of new technologies with the urgency of crises such as air pollution. The leaders exposed to this tool gain a new understanding of the issue, and also an understanding of how emerging technologies can add a vital dimension to education,” said Nir Darom, lead creative designer at the Public VR Lab.

Nir Darom, Lead Creative Designer at the Public VR Lab with the Ibrahim Thiaw, Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), partner, Amy Kamarainen from EcoMOVE, and Public VR Lab Co-founder/BIG Director, Kathy Bisbee.

About Brookline Interactive Group (BIG):

Brookline Interactive Group (BIG) is an integrated media and technology education center and a community media hub for Brookline, Massachusetts and the region. BIG facilitates diverse community dialogue, incubates and funds hyperlocal storytelling, arts, journalism and technology projects, and serves over 500 youth and adults annually through innovative classes and partnerships. BIG offers extensive multimedia training, VR, AR and 360-video cameras and training, access to high-quality filmmaking equipment, production grants, artists’ residencies, and provides low-cost professional media services to nonprofit organizations, education partners, businesses, and to local government.

About The Public VR Lab

The Public VR Lab, a project of Brookline Interactive Group, is building a global network for a Community VR/XR movement that facilitates public dialogue; provides professional training; empowers community knowledge and creation of 360, virtual and augmented content; offers access to tools, headsets, arcades, toolkits, and professional expertise; and generates locally-focused, broadly impactful, XR experiences in the public interest. www.publicvrlab.com

About Datavized Technologies

Datavized is an immersive visualization platform that makes it easy to turn complex data into fully interactive web experiences. Datavized’s geodata software products provide users with web-based drag and drop tools to effortlessly turn location data in spreadsheets into fully interactive 3D maps for enhanced spatial analysis, visualization and decision making. Datavized works on all platforms and connected devices; including desktop, mobile, tablet, and with virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality headsets, enabling users to tell immersive data-driven stories. Datavized Technologies Inc is currently in closed beta and is headquartered in New York. datavized.com

About EcoLearn

EcoLearn is an educational research group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education that explores the use of immersive technologies to support learning about the complexity of ecosystems. EcoMUVE and EcoMOBILE are two products that are freely available for download and use. EcoMOBILE uses mobile devices and augmented reality to infuse real environments with digital resources that engage, inspire and educate people about the complexities of the natural systems that sustain us. ecolearn.gse.harvard.edu

Stay Connected:

datavized.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/datavized

publicvrlab.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/publicvrlab

Media Relations

www.publicvrlab.com

Brookline Interactive Group (BIG) / Public VR Lab

Kathy Bisbee

kathy at brooklineinteractive.org

datavized.com

Datavized Technologies Inc

Debra Anderson

contact at datavized.com

Categories: High Technology, Environmental, VR, XR, WebVR

Tags: Brookline Interactive Group, data visualization, Datavized, Debra Anderson, environment, Kathy Bisbee, Nir Darom, Public VR Lab, united nations, virtual reality, VR storytelling, WebVR

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Virtual Reality (VR) in the Public Interest….

By Kathy Bisbee On July 31, 2017 In 360 video, AR, augmented reality, Boston, Brookline, Featured, Gaming, HTC Vive, Journalism, Northampton, storytelling, VR Education With No Comments Permanent Link to Virtual Reality (VR) in the Public Interest….

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Tomorrow we’re driving down to Games for Change in NYC. As usual, I’m thinking about VR-in-the-public interest and how we can differentiate gaming from the many other ways we can learn, share, create and teach VR. At the Public VR Lab, we’ve been teaching our community and beyond for over a year now to use new tools and equipment for community storytelling, immersive journalism, and documentary filmmaking in order to heal from trauma and to create awareness and action around the health of our planet. Here’s a few of this week’s highlights and resources we’ve seen so far in the space.

On the content creation side, our team is learning how we can deploy content, trainings and toolkits to our members, community of media makers and to share with other colleagues. While this may seem something drawn from the 1992 novel “Snow Crash” and its “metaverse,” it means the beginning of public creation tools and a door to many new social, creative and possibly economic platforms/spaces that are sure to follow for an almost ready VR-ready world. This might be the closest thing to Dreamweaver for VR that we’ve seen to date. P.S Snow Crash is a must-read.

Start Building Your VR Second Life in Sansar

Empathy-producing content can help us to understand what it is like to “be” a tree, or understand what it might be like to be in the body of another, and to feel “presence” that helps you to put yourself outside of your own experience. Feeling empathy inside of VR can even move us to action on issues like social and environmental justice in the “real” world.

VR-related technologies can help shape beautiful new ways we see ourselves, our current reality, and can shift our perception of what truth and reality are. VR can help us experience and understand many things from visceral perspectives that embody the experience of the “other.”

Tree, is a virtual-reality project that transforms you into a rainforest tree. With your arms as branches and your body as the trunk, you’ll experience the tree’s growth from a seedling into its fullest form and witness its fate firsthand. Tree elevates the concept of empathy in VR, helping the participant understand what it’s like to be a tree in the Amazon. I particularly love the redwood version of this created by Marshmallow Laser Feast (I so love this name!) with a haptic feedback vest that makes you feel like you are entering inside the tree.

And this project, RIOT whose filmmaker, Karen Palmer, will speak at our favorite festival for storytelling, the Future of Storytelling in NYC this October. According to FOST, she was inspired by the events in Ferguson, MO, following the shooting of Michael Brown, and created RIOT, an emotionally responsive, live-action film that uses AI and machine learning through facial recognition to allow participants to navigate though a dangerous riot. Palmer’s work challenges participants to understand other people’s lived experiences, and represents a powerful development in the emerging field of neurogames.

Another area of VR-in-the-public interest growth is in the health sector, and how VR can make us “think” differently and even heal from trauma. This New York Times had a great story today about the use of VR by therapists to heal patients from the fear and trauma of car accidents, the fear of heights, flying, spiders, PTSD, and other forms of anxiety and stress.

And lastly, the team at the Public VR Lab sat in on an insightful VRARA webinar a few weeks ago hosted with Robert Scoble as he shared his always intriguing insights about where tech and VR in particular is headed (here). Check it out!

Gateway Arts Visits the Public VR Lab

By Kathy Bisbee On July 24, 2017 In 360 video, AR, augmented reality, Boston, Brookline, Gateway Arts, HTC Vive, Northampton, Ricoh Theta S, storytelling, VR Ecohack, VR Education With No Comments Permanent Link to Gateway Arts Visits the Public VR Lab

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We’ve been super busy this month at the Public VR Lab and Brookline Interactive Group.

We’re hiring a new Assistant Director, have several summer multimedia programs (aka “camps”) for kids, launched new VR classes for adults, and co-coordinated Crowdsourced Boston to get ten other community media centers involved in re-creating Back to the Future! BIG’s talented members won three awards at the Alliance for Community Media‘s national Hometown Awards, and BIG won Best Public Access Station in the country! Woot!

We are laying our plans for our fall eleven-day film sprint, curating the immersive content and LIVE VR ART at the Northampton Film Festival for their September 27-October 1st, 2017 fest, in collaboration with our sister organization, Northampton Community Television (NCTV).

We’re launching a national collaborative on a VR project around immigration stories, and an affiliate program will be announced soon so that libraries, teen centers, arts and cultural organizations and media centers can learn to share VR with their communities, have the equipment and training they need to start a Lab on site and engage their communities in a conversation about the future of 3D computing!

Our VR demos are weekly, and recently we had Lead Boston, Brookline High School math camps, and the Gateway Arts program stop by for a tour and VR demos at the Lab.

Check out the cool vid of their folks playing for the first time in VR above!

What Do You Want to Create at the Public VR Lab?

By Kathy Bisbee On May 25, 2017 In AR, augmented reality, Boston, Brookline, Featured, Gaming, hackathon, HTC Vive, Journalism, Northampton, storytelling, Uncategorized, VR Education With No Comments

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We need your help in developing the Public VR Lab! Click here to fill out our survey and earn a chance to win an Eco Dot or win a free Public VR Lab membership!

Thanks for your help in developing the Public VR Lab! Become a member and make amazing immersive media!

2017 VR Ecohack Highlight Reel

By Kathy Bisbee On May 25, 2017 In AR, augmented reality, Boston, Brookline, Gaming, hackathon, HTC Vive, Journalism, storytelling, VR Ecohack, VR Education With No Comments

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“Help us, Ecohackers, you’re our only hope.” VR Eco Hack 2017

By Kathy Bisbee On April 10, 2017 In 360 video, AR, Brookline, Featured, Gaming, hackathon, HTC Vive, VR Education With No Comments

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[Above: Co-founder of the Public VR Lab, Kathy Bisbee, transforms into a Princess Leia hologram to promote the first ever VR Ecohack.]

Join us for the VR EcoHack, a regional hackathon in Brookline, MA on April 21-23rd, 2017 where teams of students and adults can create climate change content in virtual reality, augmented reality and 360 video.

We’ll have lesson plans from educators with a focus on science and media literacy that attendees can follow to develop content, and mentors and volunteers will be available all weekend to help inspire and guide teams.

Bring a formed team or meet new teammates at this hackathon to create and test your stories and games on multiple headsets, including HTC VIVEs, Hololens, Oculus, PSVR, Samsung Gear, and more.

Use the Public VR Lab’s 360 cameras, computer labs, television studios, and 3D asset libraries to create your team’s content. Food, fun and ample caffeine. Cash and awesome equipment prizes will be provided in all three categories. [Above: *free Vr EcoHack stickers to all!]

Participants over 13 and of all levels of VR, AR and 360 experience are encouraged to sign up.

NEW TO VR? If you’re new to VR, we welcome you to sign up for a FREE week-long pre-bootcamp beginning on Tuesday, April 18 through Friday, April 21st to help you learn new skills in 3D object creation, 360 video, Unity, VR illustration tools, Simmetri, and learn the basics of Aframe to create content in Web VR.

Please sign up directly on our web site linked here for the VR bootcamp.

Read more about the Hackathon at www.vrecohack.com or sign up!

Thanks to the VR EcoHack partners: Brookline Interactive Group, The Public VR Lab, Boston VR, Teach for America, Wayfair, Fasility, VR Doodler, Mass Media Literacy, Traces.io, LearnLaunch, VR at MIT, the Brookline Public Schools, Lifeliqe, Simmetri, VR- Before It’s Too Late, the VR/AR Association, ROTU, and the Transformative Culture Project.

Community Media’s Role in Literacy and Accessibility is Critical in VR

By Al Williams On May 19, 2016 In Brookline, HTC Vive, Northampton, VR Education With No Comments

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Two Massachusetts nonprofit innovators, Northampton Community Television (NCTV) and Brookline Interactive Group (BIG), are partnering to forge new models of public media in the United States by adding Virtual Reality, or VR, into their community media toolkits.

“The age of virtual reality (VR) is here, and the technology looks poised to change the way stories are told and consumed,” reflected Al Williams, executive director at NCTV. While VR technology is in its nascent stages and still only has low levels of consumer awareness and limited access by the general public, it has been the recent talk of the technology, film, gaming, journalism and storytelling worlds.

Over the past two weeks NCTV and BIG began offering free VR demos, both for the gaming and storytelling aspects of VR, using both the Samsung and HTC VIVE headsets and controllers, which only recently shipped and are the first headsets with a volumetric design.

“It’s been incredibly insightful to watch how people use and react to this technology, and we have been documenting the reactions of some first-time users,” said Williams, who captured his mother testing out the system for the first time. “Fantastic!” she exclaimed.

Entities like the New York Times, Frontline, and Sony Playstation have been growing programs to support and develop VR content, which has the potential to be the most immersive and empathetic form of communication developed to date. Want to tell a story about a Syrian refugee camp? Experience a rare, endangered rhinoceros? Feel the movement of the ocean as dolphins swim around you? Or work with revolutionary 3D drawing tools? VR is the it technology of the day, and perhaps of the future.

But as this new technology unfolds, who will provide the public unfettered access to these powerful creative tools and assure responsible and accessible use?

With most forms of media, corporate entities have had the first access to expensive, new forms of technology, designed to reach audiences with new, captivating methods. “Unfortunately,” said Kathy Bisbee, executive director of BIG, “in the case of VR, these same corporations are going to be funding and controlling most of the early VR content, and thus are determining what kinds of content the public can create, consume and digest in this new medium. Only recently is the price of VR camera equipment becoming more affordable, and by the holidays, many families will own a VR headset. We should be mindful of this new source of screen time, and develop methodologies to think critically, use it wisely, and deconstruct these messages and a new version of ‘reality’ in a new content format that seems so convincingly real.”

Northampton High School student Zev Seltzer uses the HTC Vive.

Bisbee said that from her research and experience with the new technology, “VR can powerfully manipulate how we see the world, real or not, and it can manipulate how we make sense of it. All of the research shows that it can profoundly affect and change how we feel about others and ourselves. So there’s an incredible opportunity to impact people positively through immersive storytelling in VR, as well as an important opportunity to educate, inform and deconstruct messages and redefine our sense of reality.”

Williams added that the same accessibility issues exist for VR as have in the past for new technologies and media tools. “At best, large public gatekeepers have acted as public media institutes that act as proxies for the public, without actually providing the public access to those tools,” citing the need for public accessibility to be part of the VR conversation.

Northampton Community Television (NCTV) and Brookline Interactive Group (BIG), two community media centers in Massachusetts, are looking to change that dynamic.

Already armed with early HTC Vive VR systems to provide the public with opportunities to experience and view VR content, these media centers are aiming to understand and educate the public on the possible ramifications of media literacy in virtual reality, which they have coined “virtual literacy.” These next generation public access television nonprofits seek to educate, inform, and provide a new kind of accessibility in the newest medium now available to and by the community.

Both organizations are curating educational and experiential content to demo for free to the community, as well as developing community viewing through libraries, at senior centers, and to after school and summer programs that will provide access to local residents in western Mass and near Boston. Their centers will also begin teaching immersive storytelling in 360 video and in VR, and in late 2016 will begin offering production services, virtual literacy curriculum, classes, and access to the “virtual commons.”

“VR is the next generation of the public Commons,” said Bisbee, “VR is both a literal virtual commons that we have to ensure will be accessible to the public in VR and a real physical space at our media centers.”

In the works in 2016, the new VR-oriented community media centers are laying the groundwork for programs to support the production of experiential storytelling, immersive journalism, storytelling in games, and new forms of artistic expression in the public sphere.

“We want to ensure that the public is a partner, not just a blind virtual consumer, in this emerging communication medium by supporting virtual literacy, public access to the technology, and best practices in its use,” shared Williams about their collaborative initiative. BIG and NCTV will together roll out curriculum, public demonstrations, and production and literacy training programs throughout the summer and fall.

NCTV is currently offering public demos of the HTC Vive volumetric VR system at their facilities on Tuesdays from 6-7pm, and Wednesdays and Fridays from 2-3pm.

More info about this VR community initiative is available at: www.publicVRlab.com.

Featured image by Maurizio Pesce via Flickr under CC BY 2.0.