Tag: Reader Survey

HEMOSY and Project Polis: A Brief Introduction—And a Reader Survey!

One of the things that I would not have predicted when I first embarked on this two-and-a-half-year blogging odyssey is that, instead of me having to go out and hunt for stories, the stories would start to come to me.

And so it happened that I got the following message via the Contact page of my blog, from a young Swiss man named Emmanuele Leggio:

My name is Emmanuele Leggio and I am the head of a startup project called Polis, the city with infinite space and zero distance. We aim to build a Virtual Co-working / event space. Yes another YARTVRA*, But I do have a peculiarity and that is the VR helmet I patented the Hemosy. This helmet captures the face of the user and projects it in a virtual reality environment. We can do the same [as] the other co-working [apps], but we make sure you can see the real face and emotion of the people around you.

The reason I contact you is because I would like to ask you if is possible to run a questionnaire or pool from your readers. I wish to test my theory that seeing the real person in front of them is worth buying a VR headset.

*Yes! I finally got someone else on the planet to actually use the acronym I had coined, YARTVRA!

So, I took a look at his website, which outlines a proposed project involving two components:

  • HEMOSY (HEas MOunted SYstem) is a VR headset which uses cameras to record and transmit the actual facial expressions of the user; and
  • Polis, a social VR platform where HEMOSY-recorded video is projected. Among the possible uses Emmauele suggests is a campus for online university courses.

And this ambitious, even audacious, plan is more than just an idea; Emmanuele has already filed for—and received—a patent for his helmet (text is in Italian).

So, suitably impressed by this young man and his bold plans, I agreed to help him by asking you, my blog readers, to fill out an online survey that he has created. (Think of it as market research. I am also quite curious to see what the results of his survey will be, and I will share them with you when it is complete.)

Emmanuele says:

Hello My name is Emmanuele and I’m the founder of Polis, a start up (www.startuppolis.com)  that wishes to bring face-to-face meetings to VR. We are in the early stages, and we would like to test same assumptions we have.  Here is a quick questionnaire:  

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BMMV5PF 

In case you have questions for us, or you wish to communicate with us, please use this link: https://startuppolis.com/contatti/

We thank you deeply for all your feedback. 

So please take a moment to complete Emmanuele’s survey. Thank you!

Results of the RyanSchultz.com Reader Surveys


Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash

Today I realized that I had not yet published the responses I received to my most recent blog reader survey, dated March 23rd. Not only that, but I had also published a reader survey on January 29th, and it would appear I never shared the results of that one yet, either!

So here are the results of both surveys. I’ll start with the March survey.

You guys are pretty much evenly split when it comes to Second Life content on this blog! Four of you want more Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies, and 8 of you want me to expand my coverage of SL. But 6 of you want less coverage of Second Life Steals, Deals, and Freebies, and 5 of you less coverage of Second Life in general. That works out to 12 yeas and 11 nays, a pretty even split. So, I will keep to the middle road, focusing my SL coverage on Steals, Deals and Freebies for now.

Five of you want to see more interviews with Sansar content creators, and another 4 want to see more coverage of Sansar products, places and events in general. (Only one person felt that I was spending too much time on Sansar.) So I will continue to do my best to provide that coverage.

As for High Fidelity, 4 wanted to see more interviews with HiFi content creators, and 5 wanted to see more coverage of High Fidelity products, places and events in general. (Again, one person wanted to see less HiFi coverage on this blog.) Therefore, I will certainly continue to cover news and events on the High Fidelity platform.

Six of you wanted to see more coverage of other social VR platforms (e.g. Sinespace, AltspaceVR, VRChat), and 2 wanted to see less coverage. So I will redouble my efforts to cover as many social VR platforms as I can.

Five people want to see less coverage of blockchain-based virtual worlds, with nobody saying that they wanted more. And frankly, I am tired of covering these worlds myself. Expect less coverage from here on in (with the only possible exception being Decentraland).

People also want to see more tutorials (4 votes) and more editorials (9 votes), so I will try to accommodate. (One person wrote in “Less editorials”, so it’s not universal.)

Finally, here is a selection of write-in comments from both the January and March reader surveys:

  • “You do what you want; it’s all good.”
  • “More coverage of lesser known creators, instead of the same top ones.”
  • “Your editorials are the best part of the blog. I’d love to see more of them!”
  • “VRChat [has] 100X the active users of HiFi and Sansar. Active Worlds has more too.”
  • “Ryan doesn’t take himself too seriously, and is honest in his opinions.”
  • “The ‘freebie’ section of the blog is the most enjoyable to read.”
  • “Sorry, I have no interest (and rather detest) SL fashion/shopping posts.”
  • “Some rare unresearched positions I’ve seen, they seem to be influenced by bias.”
  • “Nothing against Ryan, but the blockchain/cryptocurrency stuff makes my eyes glaze over now.”
  • “Currently, the blog doesn’t include any interviews with Sansar content creators. It would be a great addition to the blog if readers could get a peek inside the creative minds of the people contributing to the platform.”
  • “More emphasis on virtual worlds, less emphasis on virtual reality.”
  • “More focus on VR.”
  • “I think the balance of content is about right currently.”
  • “I think it’s good, I come here often.”

Thank you to everybody who gave feedback!

Reader Survey: What Sort of Content Do You Want to See on the RyanSchultz.com Blog?

Photo by Manasvita S on Unsplash

I seen to have hit a dry spell for the RyanSchultz.com blog. (Hey, after 1,128 blogposts, it was bound to happen eventually!)

So, I have decided to post a brand-new reader survey, which will run for one week—until midnight Central Time, March 30th, 2019. As before, repeat voters will be blocked by website cookie and IP address. So please take a minute and fill out the poll, letting me know what you would like to see more (and less) of on this blog. There’s a space at the end to add your own comments.

I will make the results available on March 31st, 2019, along with some commentary. Thanks for your input!