A glimpse inside the ThinkBalm Innovation Community, 10 days in

By Erica Driver and Sam Driver.

The ThinkBalm Innovation Community went live on August 20th, 2008. Built on the Spigit™ serious game engine InnovationSpigit, the ThinkBalm Innovation Community is focused on work-related use of the Immersive Internet ― virtual worlds and campuses, immersive learning simulations, and 3D interfaces to business applications. This community, made up of bright minds and passionate Immersive Internet advocates, has an opportunity to positively influence the evolutionary path of an emerging technology market, for the betterment of all.

We’ve only been live for 10 days and already more than 70 members have joined. Nearly three dozen ideas in several categories (like technologies, applications of technology, business value / ROI, and future of the Immersive Internet) are percolating in the system. The vast majority of ideas are still in the incubation phase, though two ideas have reached the emergence phase where community members can trade “spocks” in that idea. One of the community’s ideas has already resulted in a deliverable: a list of enterprise Immersive Internet Twitters worth following. Here are just a few of the other things the community has started working on:

• Defining characteristics for a new role in organizations: virtual teams facilitator. We are debating how such a role would be similar or different to other roles that already exist inside organizations, and discussing what the job requirements for such a role might be.
• Discussing the best ways to make avatars work-appropriate. We are debating how important it is for avatars to be traditional- and professional-looking, how realistic avatars should look (should they cross the “uncanny valley?”), and what the most desirable work-specific “emotes” or avatar gestures should be. 
• Defining a list of virtual world platform evaluation criteria. We are putting our heads together to define and refine the criteria enterprise IT buyers should use when short-listing virtual world platform and 3D Web solution providers.
• Building a repository of enterprise Immersive Internet use cases. We are discussing and building up a database of examples of using the Immersive Internet for applications like urban planning, enterprise architecture training, benchmarking, and team collaboration.
• 3D model support and interoperability. We are debating how important interoperability is for 3D models and discussing how the industry can make 3D modeling in virtual environments easier for people.
• Formulating requirements for identity management in virtual worlds. We are discussing identity vs. anonymity in virtual worlds and weighing the pros and cons of identity verification systems.
• Identifying needed features for an immersive presentation system. We are constructing a list of features we’d like to have for delivering presentations and leading classes in virtual environments, beyond projecting presentation slides up on a virtual wall.  
• Creating training sessions for community members. We are creating training materials to help community members learn how to use the Spigit system and optimize their participation in the community. We will deliver the training sessions both via traditional Web conference and in a virtual environment.
• Creating a movie or real-time topic tag cloud that conveys the community’s focus. To date, we’ve been uploading daily topic tag clouds from the community’s discussions to Flickr, and occasionally sending out a Twitter message pointing people to these tag clouds. We’re working on some way to create a movie, mindmap, or some other real-time to show how the topic cloud is changing over time. 
• Documenting and refining a feature wish list for our community site. The community is putting its heads together and documenting a wish list of functionality we’d like to have in support of our activities.

The ThinkBalm Innovation Community presents a unique opportunity for IT managers, information and knowledge management professionals, software developers, and technology marketers to help shape the future of the Immersive Internet. Members get a focused venue for sharing knowledge and getting feedback on their ideas, access to the experiences and ideas of thinkers and doers outside their organizations, and a means of building and enhancing their reputations as Immersive Internet professionals. Membership is by invitation or referral only. There is no cost to members to participate. ThinkBalm also offers technology marketers an opportunity to sponsor Idea Hunts in the community for solutions to marketing challenges, insights into customer requirements, and ideas for product names. Contact us at info@thinkbalm.com for information on becoming a member or for Idea Hunt pricing information.

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