ThinkBalm Storytelling Series Issue #2: "End Death-By-Lecture: Tours, Not Speeches"
by Erica Driver and Sam Driver.
Click this image to read or download the report in PDF format.
The ThinkBalm Innovation Community has been experimenting with a new form of immersive event: the “un-lecture.” An un-lecture is a 60- to 90-minute event during which four or five community members each deliver a 10-minute demo, tour, or presentation about something enterprise Immersive Internet-related that they have done or are working on. The purpose of the community’s new un-lecture event series is to spread the wealth of knowledge and experience that exists in the community, strengthen bonds among members, create opportunities for serendipitous interactions, and collectively master how to move beyond traditional, often unexciting presentations to deliver high-value interactive experiences. Participants can move their avatars around in 3D space and interact with environments and objects. They can talk with the presenter and each other via voice, group text chat, or private text chat. In our view, participants in an un-lecture event walk away with an experience, not just a few bullet points and a set of printed-out PowerPoint slides.
On December 1, 2008 the ThinkBalm Innovation Community held its first un-lecture event. We structured the event as a four-stop tour that included:
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A presentation by Claus Nehmzow, entrepreneur and advisor with Alcus International Ltd., on CIGNA’s use of Second Life for healthcare education
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A hands-on demo of Jeff Lowe’s 3D mindmapping tool project — Jeff Lowe is a project manager at University of Oklahoma Center for Public Management
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A presentation on the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI)’s use of Second Life for marketing and R&D by John Kinsella, VP in charge of educational curricula and products at PADI
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A tour of Michelin’s island for training IT pros on enterprise architecture concepts by Philippe Barreaud, chief enterprise architect at Michelin
With the help of six ThinkBalm Innovation Community members who attended our first un-lecture event — Barbara Schwarz, Claus Nehmzow, Eilif Trondsen, Jeff Lowe, Leslie Pagel, and Santi Garcia — we wrote ThinkBalm’s second issue in the Immersive Internet Storytelling Series, titled “End Death-By-Lecture: Tours, Not Speeches.” For a PDF of the article click this link or click the image of the article’s cover above.
© 2009 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.
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I love this report! Great job, I can’t believe there are still so many darn auditorium and conference rooms in Second Life and other virtual worlds. Thanks for joining the crusade against these.
One aspect of virtual world meetings I would add is the role of chat. While not a unique property of the virtual world, I’m finding that people don’t use chat in webinars and other flatland applications, but it’s thriving in a virtual world meeting. Somehow, I think people feel more empowered and compelled to join the chat conversation in a virtual world, which is a great way of participation.
Thanks, Anders. You are absolutely right about the chat conversation. We really focused on the value of chat in our report “Role-Playing Redux: Convince the Curmudgeon” (http://thinkbalm.com/2008/12/17/thinkbalm-storytelling-series-1-role-play-redux-convince-the-curmudgeon/). We agree that the multiple simultaneous forms of communication that can occur in immersive meetings are killer!
Last week at the Imagina 3D conference in Monaco, Michelin won the INTRAVERSE award for work they have done to train IT professionals on enterprise architecture concepts using Second Life. See video here. We wrote a little bit about what Michelin has done in this report.