On the web we have seen how easy to use tools have empowered the communities who collaborate around them. When I look at blogs and wikis I really see social content machines and have often wondered what the metaverse equivalents might look like. Jon Brouchoud and Ryan Schultz have set out to explore this question through a series of experiments, using Second Life as a platform for real life architectural collaboration. Under the banner Wikitecture they want to harness the power of mass collaboration and collective intelligence to improve the quality of architecture and city planning. 

Their current work is a humanitarian aid project, aimed at designing a health clinic for one of the poorest regions in western Nepal as part of a design challenge sponsored by the Open Architecture Network. To facilitate this level of collaboration, Brouchoud and Schultz developed a unique 3D wiki interface specifically for this purpose. The research and design process for this project was completely open to public participation, which attracted a community of over 40 architects and designers from all around the world.

So far, the group has produced over 45 design iterations which have gradually evolved from simple 2D plan diagrams into full-size 3D walk-throughs of the various design concepts, many of which can be seen on this youtube video. This project asks exciting questions: What if a decentralized group of contributors from all around the world can actually work together on a single design concept? What would the future of this new reality hold? I have often dreamed of extending the Wikipedia article on Ancient Rome with a portal into a fully immersive multiuser 3D environment where I could go try for myself rather than be restricted to read about it. The scope of extending our current open text repositories is massive. At the heart of this lies figuring out the social content machines. I am very happy to welcome Jon Brouchoud to Metaverse U so we can understand how we may help him with the Wikitecture project.