2. A little about me
• Today: Professor and Chair of Journalism Innovation, S.I.
Newhouse School, Syracuse
• 2010: CEO of startup Bookbrewer.
• 2007: Knight Foundation News Challenge winner
• 2004: Senior Manager of Digital Products, The
Bakersfield Californian Newspaper.
• 1998: Principal Product Manager, AOL.
• 1994: Producer, Washingtonpost.com.
3. Virtual Reality… the next new thing, but also not new
Science fiction and Second Life predicted all of this.
4. VR in Context
1436 – 1988: CHAPTER 1:
CHAPTER 1: ONE WAY
COMMUNICATION
From Gutenberg Press to
broadcast television.
5. VR in Context
1436 – 1988:
ONE WAY COMMUNICATION
1988-1999:
CHAPTER 2: INTERACTIVE
COMMUNICATION
Words, images, audio all together.
Interact with content.
6. VR in Context
1436 – 1988:
ONE WAY COMMUNICATION
1988-TODAY:
CHAPTER 2: INTERACTIVE
COMMUNICATION
Words, images, audio all together.
Interact with content.
CHAPTER 3?
EXPERIENTIAL
VR, AR, gaming
7. What’s so new?
Beyond the technology, what we’re doing is
fundamentally different from any media before:
• People can jump inside stories to experience them
from a first-person point of view.
• They can walk around, pick things up, and truly
interact within the story.
• “3D Consciousness Transportation.”
8. Four flavors of VR
BYO phone /
“casual VR.”
Phone w/
headset
Sitdown VR
with
gamepad
Immersive
walkaround with
hands
Google
Cardboard
Samsung
GearVR
Oculus Rift HTC Vive
9. But … could it be just more hype?
Let’s talk about that.
18. How I got into this
Nonny: “The Godmother of Virtual reality.”
19. First big project
• Gannett Digital / USA
Today: Hired as a consultant
to help with emerging
technologies.
• They wanted to be first
among commercial news
orgs to try VR.
26. Teaching the next wave of producers
• In third semester of virtual reality storytelling, the
first such class in a journalism program.
• Focus is on both CGI scenes using 3D models and
360 video.
• By May, over 50 students will graduate with VR
experience. Many now want to work in VR.