Stepping Into History conference: An example of presentations-to-tours

by Erica Driver.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a conference in Second Life called Stepping Into History, run by LearningTimes and Alliance Library System. The tag line of the conference was “experiencing the past through virtual worlds.” Now just to set the record straight I’m more of a history buffoon than a history buff, but I wanted to attend this conference to get a better sense for how the traditional notion of a presentation (where I stand up in front of you and yap at you for 45 minutes and then maybe if, I feel generous, give you 15 minutes for some interactive Q&A) will morph over time. The emergence of the Immersive Internet will allow presentations as we know them to be supplanted by something much more immersive, interactive, and impactful: tours. 

During the Stepping Into History conference one of the historical simulations I visited was Discover Babylon. The Federation of American Scientists (FAS), which promotes humanitarian uses of science and technology, has a program called the Learning Technologies Program which is focused on using IT to improve how people teach and learn. FAS funded creation of both a Discover Babylon game and the Discover Babylon simulations of a model of the c. 3200 BC ancient city Uruk and of the c. 2700 BC “City of Gilgamesh”in Second Life. The simulations in Second Life feature historical and scientific information provided by subject matter experts. Why go through all this effort, you might ask? In the words of Dan Bracewell, developer of one of the simulations we visited, “We want to encourage people to play. Play is just another form of learning.”

So – rather than sit in a stuffy classroom listening to someone talk about what ancient Mesopotamia might have looked like, I went there myself! I showed up at the welcome center on the designated Second Life island at the pre-determined time, where a friendly greeter dressed in a toga (who happened to be Michelle Roper, director of FAS learning technologies) welcomed me and instructed me to fly my avatar over to a location under a large floating cone. Once we were all gathered, Dan Bracewell told us a bit about why and how the City of Gilgamesh simulation was built and about the FAS’s future plans for the simulation. Some of the practices the FAS team adopted serve as best practices for business teams pursuing the presentations-to-tours concept:

• A human guide took us through the experience. We weren’t dumped off at a location and told to go look around -– not an easy task for participants who may be unfamiliar with how to navigate in a virtual world. And we weren’t just trucked about in a virtual vehicle that took us through a simulation and spat out descriptions of what we were seeing in text format, to be lost amongst all the instant message and chat conversations going on in our vicinity. Instead, we had a real life tour guide -– someone intimately familiar with what we were experiencing who was able to give us information and answer questions. I felt like I was really on a tour!
• The designers deployed the theater concept of the “fourth wall.” The fourth wall is the imaginary wall at the front of a stage through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. In a 3D virtual world, the fourth wall is anything that breaks the participant’s sense of immersion -– like, for example, a giant billboard in English when we were supposed to feel like we were in ancient Babylon. Rather, period-appropriate black pots sprinkled here and there contained information that would pop up on notecards or Web pages to tell you more about what you were looking at, if you chose to click on the pots. 
• Design was paramount and the environment was easy to navigate. The historical reconstruction we saw had style — lots of it! It felt alive and real. It had personality. The below snapshot is from the virtual reconstruction of the Temple of Innana in the City of Gilgamesh simulation. Not only was the environment appealing and attractive, it was easy to navigate. We could walk or fly easily from one place to another without bumping into walls or ceilings or crashing into each other.

Much like how static Web pages have given way to animated, interactive experiences, presentations will evolve into tours throughout 3D environments. Why? Because this modality can engage the audience and, further, convert passive audience members into active participants. Success will come from developing interesting and engaging content, respecting the fourth wall, and paying a lot of attention to design and navigability.

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