V Bus Expo E Trondsen

Collaborative Work in Virtual Worlds Eilif Trondsen, Ph.D. Director, Virtual-Worlds Consortium for Innovation and Learning SRI Consulting Business Intelligence http://www.sric-bi.com vBus Expo, 26 April 2008 bringing the future into focus

Work and VWs in an Evolutionary Context of the VW Industry 2008
Phase 1:
SL focus
Sales and Marketing
Branding
Phase 2:
Entertainment
Pre-teens and teens
Connecting toys and
traditional media to VWs
Phase 3:
Greater focus on work
Enterprises recognizing
value of VWs for work
Better integration of Web
and VWs
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 SL: Second Life Media and user interest and attention Interest in non-SL platforms bringing the future into focus WORK ENTERTAINMENT LEARNING/ TRAINING

VWs and Work Today
Growing number of professional service firms are using SL as environment for work and collaboration—and some meeting clients in their SL offices
Most large companies are starting to understand and recognize the role VWs can play in collaborative work, but mostly embraced by innovators
Some of key benefits include:
Can enhance social connections and networking and provide important “virtual water cooler” factor for mobile workers
Can help build trust among distributed and disconnected team members
Can improve certain work processes by easily and quickly bringing people together to visualize information and collaborate on certain tasks
Brings important element of serendipity and random encounters
bringing the future into focus

VWs Can Enable Increased Level of Engagement in Work ENGAGEMENT while doing collaborative work Immersion Interactivity Drama Storytelling Competition Social Context Visualization Growing interest in industry and academia in using and leveraging video games, 3D gaming and VW technology in work and learning bringing the future into focus

Example of Potential Use of VWs for Collaborative Work in Oil Industry Use Scenario: VW Knowledge Platform for Oil Industry Geophysical and seismic data feeds Globally distributed exploration and production experts
Queries of data base
Real-time 3D data visualization
Social networking and knowledge sharing roundtables Global exploration and production sites Green Phosphor is one company working on developing this technology bringing the future into focus

Collaborative Training for Environmental, Health and Safety Practices bringing the future into focus

Future Needs and Likely Developments That can Enhance Collaborative Work
Integration of mobile phones and other mobile devices into virtual worlds—to link and bridge the PW and VW
Better integration of various communications and collaboration tools—perhaps including interactive white boarding—between VWs and PW.
New tools for easier and more intuitive navigation—including use of 3D cameras for motion capture and interpretation—and face tracking technology to enhance non-verbal communication.
Easier importing of sophisticated 3D models into all VW platforms
Better and easier-to-use tools for content creation—stimulating more user-generated content in VWs

Recent Survey: Available at http://www.sric-bi.com Potential Benefits that VWs Can Bring to Virtual Work
Being together in VW enable a wider range of potentially beneficial interactions with collaborators: 82%
Presence via avatars bring new and useful dimension that enable better connections with collaborators: 80%
Informal social activities in a VW space can help build trust and relationships that can benefit collaborative team work, especially among highly distributed team members: 76%
VWs can give remote workers an opportunity to have informal “water cooler” sessions that they miss by not being co-located with their coworkers: 70%
Co-creating 3D artifacts with collaborators could potentially be very useful: 58%
A group of avatars jointly working in a 3D space can accomplish tasks that would be very difficult or impossible to do on the 2D Web: 56%

Recent Survey: Available at http://www.sric-bi.com Speed of Adoption of VWs for Collaborative Work in Different Sectors
High Tech Manufacturing 17.7 32.3 32.3 8.1 9.7
Financial Services 4.8 9.5 17.5 30.2 38.1
Media and Entertainment 41.3 41.3 12.7 3.2 1.6
Architecture 34.9 31.7 28.6 3.2 1.6
Academia 33.3 30.2 25.4 11.1 0
Government 6.3 4.8 23.8 27.9 38.1
Very Rapid-1 2 Moderate-3 4 Very slow-5 Percent of Respondents bringing the future into focus

Recent Survey: Available at http://www.sric-bi.com VW Capabilities Critical for Collaborative Work Very Moderately Not Important-1 2 Important-3 4 important-5 bringing the future into focus 4.9 18.0 21.3 21.3 34.4 Strong ability to integrate with other collaboration tools the organization is using 6.5 12.9 12.9 30.6 37.1 Excellent tools for communication 17.5 9.5 17.5 27.0 27.0 Wide range of applications for different types of collaborative activities 0.0 12.7 11.1 15.9 60.3 Easy to use 16.1 6.5 14.5 25.8 37.1 Strong security of VW platform for corporate collaborative work

Recent Survey: Available at http://www.sric-bi.com Challenges to Adoption of VWs for Collaborative Work Very 2 Moderately 4 Not Difficult-1 Difficult-3 Difficult-5 Percent of Respondents who felt Challenges would be most difficult bringing the future into focus 11.1 17.5 42.9 23.8 4.8 Deciding which VWs will best meet the organization's evolving needs in the area of collaborative work 1.6 19.7 31.1 31.1 16.4 Finding ways to integrate VWs with other collaborative tools and technologies that may still be used to complement VWs 0.0 6.3 30.2 28.6 34.9 Making sure every project or team member is comfortable with the use of VWs to work effectively in this new environment 0.0 4.8 19.0 34.9 41.3 Getting management to recognize the potential benefits of using VWs for collaborative work

Contact Information
Eilif Trondsen, Ph.D. Director
Virtual-Worlds Consortium for Innovation and learning, SRIC-BI
Chairman, eLearning Forum
Telephone: +1 650 859 2665
E-mail: etrondsen@sric-bi.com
http://www.sric-bi.com/VWC
http://www.elearningforum.com

V Bus Expo E Trondsen

by etrondsen on Apr 26, 2008

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