NOTE: This is work-in-process. Please contribute your ideas!
To stimulate creative and effective approaches to data visualization in virtual worlds (and have fun doing it!). In particular, emphasis is placed on insights into the comparative differences of data viz in SL versus data viz in the usual real world settings.
An example of a well-structured contest is the recent Dobbs Challenge. Note the contest guide, forum, sample code, and $10,000 in prizes.
Find someone to donate a quarter sim for our competition grounds. Partition the land into 10(?) team competition areas, with the proper building rights. Deed the parcel to the 'DVTeam03' group and so forth.
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We need adequate lead-time to announcement to get the above right. Then, we need to allow one or two months of building and experimentation before judging. This may depend on the timing of unversity semesters and the like.
Richard Hackathorn (richardh@bolder.com)
(your name and email)