Kosmos with a K

Matthaeus Krenn is a user interface designer who published a prototype for an operating system in VR called VR-OS. Before VR-OS, he worked on the Prototyping team at Apple and helped shape cool projects like Animojis that now hundreds of millions of people use. Check out his Twitter and website.

What we talked about:

• Prototyping user experiences around new technologies at Apple (e.g. Animojis)
• Why Mattheus started working on VR-OS (prototype for a new operating system in VR)
• The importance of the exploratory process when designing new user interfaces
• Mixing 2D and 3D apps and making it work in VR
• Ways to bring the keyboard and mouse into VR
• How to drink coffee in VR?
• How will productivity in VR work?
• Why Spotify doesn't need a 3D interface in VR
• The importance of honesty of VR and AR companies (where's that cool whale, Magic Leap?)
• Input devices of the future and what will be relevant for VR
• What real use cases are there currently for AR?

At Kosmos School, we make digital toys for VR.

Shane Harris is the co-founder of SideQuest. SideQuest helps gamers find and install games and apps for the Oculus Quest that are not on the official Quest store. SideQuest is growing in popularity and as of today has over 280,000 monthly active users. Check out their Patreon to support them.

Some of the things we talked about:

• How SideQuest got started
• Solving the discovery problem on SideQuest
• Oculus Quest store curation strategy
• Making SideQuest work as a business
• Fighting piracy
• Finding the best ways to support developers
• Next use cases for VR after gaming
• Future iterations of the Quest and other VR headsets
• Oculus' potential plans to support indie devs more
• Importance of social presence in multiplayer VR games

At Kosmos School, we make nerdy VR games.

Rosie Summers is a VR artist by night and 3D animator at XR Games by day. Check out her beautiful art on her Twitter, Instagram or website.

Some topics in this episode:

• Rosie's Tilt Brush art for BBC Earth called Seven Worlds One Planet (Check it out on YouTube or Google Poly)
• VR art vs. traditional art
• Using the Quest and the Rift for Tilt Brush
• How Rosie got started with VR art
• Rosie's work on The Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure
• Being featured in the Musem of Other Realities
• The evolution of VR art and its tools
• AR art
• How to get started with VR art
• Dangers of Facebook owning Oculus

At Kosmos School, we make nerdy VR games.

Lucas Rizzotto is the creator of Where Thoughts Go, an app where you can listen to voice messages left by others and contribute your own voice to be heard. Our conversation focuses on how VR and AR shape and will continue to shape human and social interactions and how the headset technology will change in the coming years to facilitate that.

Some more topics:

• Airbnb tips for digital nomads
• Future of Social platforms in VR and AR
• Where Thoughts Go (Lucas' VR app)
• Comedy and live performances in VR
• Using VR and AR to change live human interaction
• Different kinds of AR and VR headsets

At Kosmos School, we make nerdy VR games.

In this episode, Brandy Goodrick shares her experience of making VR games as an indie developer, reducing motion sickness in VR games, and how the VR community and events have helped her in her carrier.

Some more topics we talk about:

• Brandy's VR Horseback Riding Simulator
• Reducing motion sickness in VR games
• Tips for attending Oculus Connect
• Grants
• Finding side gigs as a VR dev
• Nreal vs. HoloLens
• MIT Reality Hack and Brady's project
• Making game development tutorials
• Palmer Luckey and John Carmack

Brady is an indie VR game developer who's currently working on her VR Horseback Riding Simulator. Learn more on her Twitter.

At Kosmos School, we make fun educational VR games.

In this episode with Tyler Cowen we talk about a broad range of topics. For example, why it's important that students have less homework, the Swiss science culture, and the low university completion rates.

Tyler is an economics professor at George Mason University, the director of the Mercatus Center, author of many economics books and runs the blog Marginal Revolution.

At Kosmos School, we make fun educational VR games.

Phil is an EdTech entrepreneur and is building Curie, a digital space for teachers and students to come together and learn. Interestingly, Curie runs not only in VR, but also has also web/desktop version. For example, while the teacher is explaining physics topics in VR, students might join via their desktop browser and still benefit from the lecture.

In this conversation with Jan Rihak, we talk about engagement in the classroom and how technlogy can help teachers supercharge their relationship with their students. Also, we discuss why bottom-up sales strategies in EdTech make life easier for entrepreneurs and startups.

Jan is co-founder and CEO Europe of Classtime, a solution for classrooms that complements in-class teaching with immediate feedback on students’ level of understanding based in Los Angeles and Zurich.

I met with Esteban Sosnik of Reach Capital in his San Francisco office. We talked about his background in making games and why it is exteremly difficult to make successful educational games. Also, we touched on the future of the educational technology market and why Esteban believes that it will become more attractive for entrepreneurs and investors alike.

Esteban is a partner at Reach Capital a VC firm that invests in EdTech companies such as ClassDojo,  Nearpod and Replit. 

I talked to Manish and Ketan Kothari of Edmodo in San Mateo, California about taking their first EdTech company AlphaSmart public, about the importance of teachers, and about the question if technology makes people more or less creative.

Manish and Ketan are General Managers at Edmodo, a communication and collaboration platform for K-12 teachers and students with over 100 million users.

Nici is the COO of Poinz, a loyalty and marketing software used by thousands of retail businesses in Switzerland.

I sat down with David from Peergrade to discuss the importance of collaboration in education. Our conversation ranged from bad timings at Y Combinator, comparing the evolution of communication to speech recognition technology, the silliness of telepresence robots, and why education hasn't changed muched in over 1,000 years. Also,  I convince David to get an Oculus Go for his birthday.

David is the co-founder and CEO of Peergrade, a peer feedback platform used by thousands of schools, universities and businesses.