I caught this earlier over on AtariBoy (Link) and the more I think about it the more I think it’s relevent to design and 3D content. From the post:
Earlier today the guys at songbird released 0.1 alpha preview of songbird, the firsthint at what is hopefully gonig to be a great new music player. Its more of a proof of concept model rather than a full program, just to prove to the many doubters that songbird does exist. Its no-where near a finish produce, so you cant do any strict comparisons yet, but so far its looking good, and has a lot of potentional.
And I see that there’s also now an interview over on Boing Boing (Link) with former Winamp team member and the guy leading this effort, Rob Lord. It’s very much worth reading imo. Here’s a few of excerpts:
Instead of connecting to one locked store full of DRMmed goods, it can connect to any and all available music (and video) on the internet.
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Songbird can connect to any a la carte media store — downloadable music, radio, video, P2P networks, and classes of services that haven’t been created yet. Services like iTunes — where everybody has to shop from the same store — are like walled garden online services back in the early days.
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As we say in our FAQ, “We don’t steal music and you shouldn’t either. We support DigitalConsumer.org’s Bill of Rights as the best means to a burgeoning, diverse and lawful digital media market.”
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The possibilities for networked services are totally untapped. For instance, [Winamp co-creator] Justin Frankel created a collaborative jamming service, and you can’t do that inside any commercial media player now.
I like the jamming functionality. I’ve been wondering when we’ll see a truly virtual band get some attention in the media… any media (not like the Gorillaz) . A band comprised of people who meet inside a virtual space, form into a group inside that virtual space, and write/practice/perform their music in that virtual space. The Gorillaz don’t cut it afaic.
And btw, forgive me for asking this rhetorical question, but doesn’t that interactive jamming functionality sound a lot like PLM?
“And btw, forgive me for asking this rhetorical question, but doesn’t that interactive jamming functionality sound a lot like PLM?”
I’d like to hear more about your thought on this topic.
Well, PLM is moving towards virtual world-style functionality already. There’s both the ability to share applications via the interface and the ability to do game-like activities such as laying out a factory floor at a manufacturing plant and simulate worker activity… and then evaluate productivity based on layout. It’s like Rollercoaster Tycoon meets Manufacturing Plant Manager (would make a cool little game maybe).
UGS has started down that path. I think Dassault is also pushing for that sort of interactivity. And PTC has been into VR for quite some time (though they seem to be lagging a bit behind).
Do a search here for “PLM” and you’ll see earlier posts where I get into how it’s merging with videogames (especially with applications like Second Life and Croquet which allow in-world data to be exchanged with other applications).
People can already play synthetic instruments inside SL. And I think someone has been working on that as well (but forget his name).
The key quote here really is when he says: “The possibilities for networked services are totally untapped.“