Vivaty Combines Social Networking, Virtual Worlds - Signing Up
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As I mentioned, Vivaty is currently in private beta. Its first product, Vivaty Scenes, is available to Facebook users, who need to request an invitation. If you want to sign up for the beta, you'll need to fill out a form. It's a little more comprehensive than beta forms I've seen before, though still limited to one page. They ask for your first and last names, email address, and age group (seven choices between 13 and 65+). They also ask you what you do, with some interesting options from the drop-down menu: Artist/content creator, Business Type, IT/Technical, Press/Blogger, Virtual world lover, Student, and Other. They also want to know what country you're from, how you heard about Vivaty, and why you want to join the beta.
But to me, the most interesting part was the question that asked "Which of these services do you use at least twice a week?" (italics in original). The form provides a list of 17 options, including Facebook, MySpace, Second Life, Flickr, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and - strangely - None and Other. I was disappointed not to see a couple of my favorites; though I am on LinkedIn, I don't use it that often (once a week at most).
I can only wonder what their plan is for those who click none. Looking at the form, I realize I won't be able to join their private beta in time for this article, but perhaps I'll be able to peruse the scenes of some of their members; Vivaty's home page seems to imply as much, which should not be surprising since it's supposed to be entirely contained within the browser with nothing to download.
Before perusing the scenes, though, I decide to take a quick look at the FAQ. In addition to the standard list of questions on the left side of the page, they show a table of contents on the right that covers the player, avatars, communications, customizing scenes, navigating scenes, and tools and interface. Clicking on a question takes the user to the appropriate section within that part of the table of contents. I was mildly surprised to see that Vivaty isn't using AJAX for this; you actually go to a new page. I suppose my reaction is just a sign of how common that technology has become.
I learned there were certain "minimum" and "recommended" levels of technology to use Vivaty's service. Dial-ups need not apply; the minimum speed connection you'll need is a cable or DSL connection at 768kbps, and 1.5Mbps is recommended. You'll need Vista or XP for your operating system; I guess Apple and *nix users are out of luck, though Mac support is supposed to be coming soon. Currently, the only browser supported is IE 7, though again, "additional support" is coming soon.
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