So now we are taking things to another level. Remember the BE community? This project to build an online environment for young people fighting cancer has been one that has been near and dear to us. I think you know what is coming next.

Yes, we are partnering with BE for this next competition:

Their community have asked for some more choice in avatars. Now we are asking you: “Make an avatar you think would get them excited!”

Go get the full scoop at http://ourbricks.com/contest/becommunity and please help us spread the word to all the visually talented people you know.

Deadline for submissions is May 16 at 12pm PST.

Full details at: http://ourbricks.com/contest/modernlife

Ps. We’d love some input on how to spread the word on this.

Katalabs’ vision is to make 3D on the Web as easy to use and share as video. The key to doing that is to convert your content from proprietary formats—any format, really—into open content that can be used anywhere. That’s why Katalabs chose COLLADA, explains Henrik Bennetsen, CEO of Katalabs, who says, “3D content types are not well-suited for the browser in the same way that video files weren’t great for browsers until we figured out how to hide the complexity. But we see COLLADA as a hope for a very Web-like 3D format. We think everything that has made the Web great has been open and use-case agnostic. COLLADA is the best hope for a native-to-the-Web 3D content type.”

OurBricks lets you discover, interact with and share 3D content right in your browser

You can experience a full 3D version of any piece of content. If you want to put an asset to use you can download it, embed it on a 3rd party site or drop it into our multiuser 3D sandbox. Lastly we have made it very easy to share your own content on OurBricks. This 2 minute video video demonstrates this functionality:

OurBricks was founded on the belief that making great content easily available is powerful. I was thinking about how to put that across effectively when I stumbled upon Sintel, 4k edition (and why it’s useful) over on the Creative Commons blog. This eloquently explains how the openly licensed Sintel movie has helped elevate creativity in and around the film industry.

We firmly believe that good open content can help elevate spaces that rely on 3D assets. But while the CC license on Sintel is an exception for free (to watch) film clips online, we want to put an emphasis on open 3D content. Towards this end we will default the license option for uploads to Creative Commons Attribution. This license will allow our users to remix and the 3D to become the social building blocks the name OurBricks hints at.

A larger goal is to help make 3D part of the social web. At the core lives enabling content to flow to and from OurBricks in interesting ways. This is an exploration and lots remains to be figured out, but we want to build a community who builds together. And evolve OurBricks into the creative engine that enables this. So lets get started.

COLLADA Session: learn about this XML-based schema to make it easy to transport 3D assets between applications – enabling diverse 3D authoring and content processing tools be combined into a production pipeline

I will be talking about our product OurBricks that I am about to introduce on this blog as well. We are very excited about this and I am dying to tell you about it. Stay tuned!

If you want to say hi then we will be demoing OurBricks on the showroom floor as well. Come visit the Khronos Booth # 1444 today Weds from 10-1 and again from 4-6. If Friday is better for you then we will be at the same spot from 10-1.

Drop me a line at henrik AT katalabs DOT com if you are around.

We are not fully there yet but for now those of you on a computer can visit our KataSpace sample environment at: http://kataspace.sirikata.com/

The rest of you can get a flavor from this screenshot:

We see our work as being part of larger rolling upgrade of the web; usually talked about under the umbrella term HTML5. With the release of Kataspace we are adding full multiuser 3D capability to the already exciting list of upgrades. And releasing all our code under the liberal BSD open source license we are hoping to help kickstart this next paradigm.

KataSpace is based on the efforts of the Sirikata open source community which Katalabs is an active participant in. We want to see it continue to grow and flourish out in the open which is why we are putting the KataSpace code and art assets under the Sirikata umbrella. Over at the Sirikata blog you will find a more technical introduction to KataSpace and information on how to get involved. We hope you do!

We named our future online environment for adolescent and young adult cancer patients: BE. You can follow the latest development at thebecommunity.org. We will also be launching the first prototype of BE from here – hopefully before long.

Today Mette and myself have been given an opportunity to present the BE community at the two-day conference Future of Health Innovation at Stanford University. The conference will examine and showcase new innovative ways to optimize the health care system, bringing together researchers and companies from Denmark and the US.

Looking forward to updating you on this project as we move it forward.

In this special open forum we invite developers and users of all varieties of virtual platforms to take a look forward – unconference style. Is your project in a “Trough of Disillusionment” or climbing a steep “Slope of Enlightenment”?  Are virtual worlds defining online collaboration or do they themselves need to be redefined?  What could further alter the space in the coming year In this special open forum we invite developers and users of all varieties of virtual platforms to take a look forward – unconference style.Is your project in a “Trough of Disillusionment” or climbing a steep “Slope of Enlightenment”?  Are virtual worlds defining online collaboration or do they themselves need to be redefined?  What could further alter the space in the coming years?

I plan to do a little demo of some of our bleeding edge stuff. Hope to see you there.