Andrew Condon | Website/Interactive Platform
Description of project, from presenter:
In this age of digital academics and Zoom fatigue, I think it goes without saying that many of us have found ourselves yearning for connection with fellow students, colleagues, and friends. In light of this challenge and taking advantage of a pilot social media program called “Gather”, I have developed a digital interactive interface for socializing, lab work, class work, and small group activities modeled after the GU campus.
This space was designed by me through a series of templates and builder options within Gather to emulate a campus environment complete with public and private classroom spaces, meeting spaces, a library, office spaces, lab spaces, and a large park for open gathering and socializing. Gather Georgetown was designed to be open and accessible to all GU students and faculty. Gather is different from Zoom in that each user is invited to create a custom avatar which will need to be controlled similar in function to a 8-bit video game to navigate the digital space to interact with others, play games, and attend presentations held within the space. The program is designed around proximity protocols for interaction, so a users associated audio/video stream will not be accessible or heard unless close in proximity to another user by choice or within a space designed for engagement. As a sandbox build, Gather Georgetown is expandable, fully customizable, and can be expanded at will. The current build can support up to 25 simultaneous users but can, through a paid subscription, be open to upwards of 2000 active users at a time.
