The world may be unwittingly co-creating the very ARG we are talking
about. On this page you will see links to 3D objects and products
already available in Google Earth's 3DWarehouse that you can use to
build a sustainable society.
We began by creating our own solar hot water panels and water tanks and
support structures only to discover that the hard work has already been
done. No sense in reinventing the wheel!
If you go to Google's 3D Warehouse following these links you will find
two featured collections of
"Green Design Products" ready to use to start greening your
community. Generic
Green Products contains 33 models of everything from solar panels
to windmill generators (including composting toilets!) . The
Green Appliance Collection features "Energy Star" energy
saving domestic products that you can put in the ARG!
Here is a definite win-win for business and industry -- our hope at
Solar Cities is that communities like Darb El Ahmar and Manshiyat
Nasser and the villages of Macanche and San Sebastian in the Peten
Rainforest of Guatemala (the four places we do our field work) can get
sponsored by companies that manufacture green products and
solutions. We would then build their products into the virtual
development we do in the ARG and let the community and aid agencies
"play" the simulations to see how they like having these amenities and
technologies in their communities.
People can then vote on the "versions" or "mods" of the game that they
like the best, and the game can be hyperlinked to the companies
webstore so that real orders can be made.
This is not at all unlike what is happening in Second Life already. The
differences here are that:
1) The ARG will be built cross platform and will primarily
involve using real digital earth technologies such as Google Earth
(though, for interacting with the game, until Google Earth allows for
adopting avatars, we would host the game in a space such as Second Life
and make the game available for stand alone and on-line gaming by
realeasing versions playable on PCs, XBox, Playstation and Nintendo
Wii.) Note that Google Earth is evolving and one can already use it as
a Flight
Simulator, proving the gaming potential of this wonderful interface
to the world (simply press ctl-alt-A (Win) or command-option-A (Mac)).
2) Unlike existing real business/virtual business links in Second
Life, in our ARG the things offered will concern infrastructure as well
as domestic capital goods, all in the service of sustainable
development (as opposed to fashionable clothes, jewelry, artwork, fancy
cars and the other fetishistic objects that people are spending their
hard earned cash as well as Linden dollars on.
Below are some links to some of the products we are incorporating into
the Solar Cities ARG: