Moving on to my own domain.

I've got to say, Blogger was a convenient way to get my feet wet in the blogging world. But I am exploring grander ambitions, and I've decided to register http://www.gameofself.com/ as it's own domain.

I've also changed from Blogger to Wordpress as my blogging software, I like the flexibility and professional features in Wordpress more. I've moved all content from this site to my new site, so you don't need to hang around here any more!

Please update your bookmarks and join me at
http://www.gameofself.com/

-Norman

The Art of Learning

It was serendipitous to find the The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin in a library recently.

This guy is phenomenal, first he was a childhood national chess champion, and then he learned tai-chi well enough to win the world title (twice) in international push hands tournaments.

I found this book to be very inspirational. It rang a bell with both my NLP (how do I learn?) and Taoist (how do I get good at Push Hands?) interests.

If you'd like a preview, check out this youtube video.

OpenSocial and Persistent Worlds

Have you noticed the explosion in little games and entertainment applications intended for use on social networks?

Facebook led the charge by publishing an API for developers to use, but Google followed up soon thereafter with an portable standard interface called "OpenSocial". Most of the rest of the social networks are standardizing on OpenSocial. An OpenSocial application can work similarly on hi5, Myspace and Plaxo and several other social networks with only minor code changes.

OpenSocial provides developers with a Javascript API exposing several interesting services:

1. View the contents of a users Profile.
2. Access to a users social graph (Friends List)
3. Management of application specific persistent data.
4. The ability to read and write "Activity" streams (a log of actions which a user has taken).

Each OpenSocial provider hosts a container for these services, where they can customize which services are available and what permissions need to be validated for access.

By allowing external developers access to this API, the social networks have leveraged the talents of many independent developers, letting them extend their services “stickyness” organically and at very little cost to themselves.

So let me ask, what is the difference between a social networking application and a persistent world? Or even an MMO? Aren’t we just another type of social network, with perhaps some Role Playing stuff on top?

Can we learn from the way that social networks are extending themselves? Should we consider supporting API’s like OpenSocial, and think about extending our communities in a similar way?

Even if we can’t do this “in world”, isn’t there value in exporting this type of information from our game worlds out to the web? Once our communities are visible on the web, we also can support OpenSocial applications.

What are your thoughts?

Find out more about the OpenSocial API.

Breakthrough to Success

Last weekend I spent 3 days getting brainwashed by one of the best NLP trainers out there.

Christopher Howard gives free "Breakthrough to Success" Trainings, and I was fortunate to attend and see him work his magic.

Christopher Howard has learned the "true tradition" of NLP, and has kept it fresh with a lot of the recent innovations in the field. His reputation was why I chose to go, and as I expected, there was a bit of upselling going on. But it was well worth it, because the training I got was very powerful and Life changing!

I had some mental roadblocks removed, and I now feel like I am going full throttle down the highway of life, watching sparks fly off the guardrail as I adjust my course!

Highly recommended, sign up for your own "Breakthrough to Success" if you get a chance!