I’ve started to notice that my research undergoes a paradigm shift about once every six months or so. I’m not sure why this happens at six month intervals, but I suspect it’s connected to the energy of a new semester.
In the summer of 2013 I discovered HTML5 and Javascript. I dropped Java like a rock, and I’ve never looked back.
In the winter of 2013-2014 I started the Chalktalk “magic drawing” project. It has pretty much been my personal mainstay ever since.
In fall of 2014 our research group at NYU started to explore untethered social VR, using only lightweight headsets. We have come to refer to this as “future Reality prototyping”. It was clearly the right way to go.
In spring of 2014-2015 my research group at NYU began to focus on artistically driven group projects shown in public. It quickly became obvious that this was really the way to go.
This fall — October and November 2015 — I realized that the best way to move things forward is to just give our technology freely away — both our technology and our know-how. This is turning out to be a spectacularly successful plan. We already have multiple partners from around the rorld for our various research project.
I wonder what the next paradigm shift will be.
Maybe you should use your amazing technology to find ways to help people communicate in new and artistic ways across time and space, kind of like this:
http://www.bionolux.com/finding-connections-across-time-and-space-2/
But with your technology and much more complex and in VR…
I hope you convince other academics to drop Java as well. I see a number of high school kids plodding through Java exercises in their CS classes. “Why Java??” “Because that’s what Enormous State University wants.”
Whatever Java’s merits, “fun” doesn’t seem to be high on the list. And for introductory courses, fun should be the top requirement for the programming tools.