NOAA's Adventure into VIrtual Worlds

NOAA’s Adventure into Virtual Worlds Eric Hackathorn, NOAA RMIUG March 13 th , 2007

Agenda

What are Virtual Worlds

Second Life History

The Basics

NOAA’s Virtual Island

Virtual Tour

Resources

What are Virtual Worlds? … an extension of the traditional 2-D web

About Second Life (SL)

Linden Lab was founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale to create a revolutionary new form of shared 3D experience.

Potential customer base is growing by 20% per month and currently serves over 4.5 million

100% user generated content

The education and business tool of the next generation

Demonstration: The Basics

Second Life Client

Hardware requirements

Open source

Avatar

Changing appearance

Basic navigation

Basic operations taught on “Orientation Island”

SLURL: http:// www.slurl.com /

NOAA’s Virtual Island http://slurl.com/secondlife/Meteroa/177/161/27/

NOAA’s Virtual Island Tour Video http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =is8YX32GAyQ

Voluntary Feedback

The information collected consists of name, question, answer, and time/date

Feedback is voluntary

Of 1301 unique avatars, 515 filled out questionnaires

This represents 39.6% and is much higher than traditional 2-D web pages

Statistics gathered for this presentation were from the month of February 2007 Voluntary Feedback Mechanisms

Island Survey Results What is your age bracket? Did you know about NOAA before coming to this island? How did you hear about this island? No 35% Yes 65% Web 20% Search 28% Friends 19% Newspaper 4% NOAA 9% Exploring 8% TV 12%

Defining Traffic Funnels & Goals Welcome Area 913 UA 6.3 minutes SOS 478 UA 3.4 minutes Crawford Center 319 UA 4.7 minutes Tsunami Shore 322 UA 5.7 minutes Tsunami Ocean 125 UA 1.2 minutes Weather Map 478 UA 3.6 minutes Balloon Ride 574 UA 2.2 minutes Airplane Ride 500 UA 2.9 minutes Balloon Ride Top 187 UA 12.6 seconds Hurricane 112 UA 11 seconds Glacier 259 UA 3.1 minutes Sub Ride 285 UA 2.5 minutes Hidden Cave 149 UA 36.2 seconds 922 Unique Avatars – data not updated = goal location

Spot Traffic Analysis Auditorium seating is not popular Avatars prefer to walk rather than fly The majority of traffic is in the main corridor The second floor is getting high amounts of traffic There is little interest in the lobby Few people use the side exit

One Avatar’s Journey This person spent lots of time near the ocean but never got their feet wet This person did not complete the airport exhibits Very little time at “Science on a Sphere” Do most avatars know they can swim? Out of sight, out of mind?

Virtual Tour

NOAA’s Virtual Island

Dell

Toyota

American Apparel

Spaceport Alpha

IBM

Resources

Official Second Life Blog http:// blog.secondlife.com

Second Life: The Official Guide

SLProfiles: http:// www.slprofiles.com /

SLExchange: http:// www.slexchange.com /

SLBoutique: http:// www.slboutique.com /

Serious SecondLife Meetup

Only Serious SL Meetup in the world!

First meeting is Thursday, March 22 at 6 right here in your home town of Boulder

Anyone want to be ‘seriously’ involved?

RogueWave Software

5500 Flatiron Parkway Boulder

Boulder, CO 80301

See http://secondlife.meetup.com/9/

Questions? Eric Hackathorn / Hackshaven Harford [email_address] http:// www.esrl.noaa.gov/outreach/sl / Personal Blog: http://www.hackshaven.com/ LinkedIn Profile: http:// www.linkedin.com/in/hackshaven … 92% of those surveyed want NOAA to continue its virtual expansion!