Comments on: New ThinkBalm Innovation Community video: “The Bridge”

By: Erica Driver

Erica Driver — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:14:27 +0000

@Coyle: First off, you are in good company, as an Immersive Internet explorer. Most new ThinkBalm Innovation Community members are explorers, though we also get lots of advocates and implementers and technology marketers. As an industry, we are in the early adopter stage of this emerging technology market.

You are right on that a strong use case is learning and training. It’s the most common use case today. In our May 2009 report “ThinkBalm Immersive Internet Business Value Study, Q2 2009″ (http://www.thinkbalm.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/thinkbalm-immersive-internet-business-value-study-final-5-26-092.pdf) we found that 80% of our survey respondents — all of whom used immersive technologies in the workplace in 2008 and 1Q 2009 — said they were using the technology for learning and training. The second most common use case was meetings.

You raise a good point about in-world experiences lacking the visual communication cues that occur at in-person face-to-face events (winks, frowns, “what is she thinking?” looks. . . .) While developments are being made to make it easier to project our facial expressions via our avatars (see the work of companies like 3DV Systems and VR-Wear SL), today expressing emotions in a virtual environment is far too manual. I agree with you about this. Innovators are beginning to find solutions, though, to problems of communication among people are not physically in the same room. One example is the voting tool we used in this video (the Attitudeometer created by Jeff Lowe). It allows meeting participants to express their views (vote) in an anonymous fashion. It was originally created for real-time sentiment monitoring; it was modeled after the tool used by CNN during one of the 2008 US presidential debates (more info here: http://www.thinkbalm.com/2008/11/26/anonymity-in-the-workplace-it-is-appropriate-sometimes/).

By: Coyle Brenmann

Coyle Brenmann — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:59:00 +0000

@Erica, thank you for the response. Please understand I am still trying to grasp the value derived for business use from Second Life, but I have read through many of ThinkBalm’s products and writings. I am still on the fence so to speak. I think from a balanced scorecard PoV, there may be justifiable business value as a learning/training tool. This of course would be one of those all important leading indicators of organizational performance rather than a quantifiable financial indicator. The issue I am struggling with the most still with regard to in-world “face to face” experiences, is that in the real world, managers must be able to see reactions, interpret body language and tone of voice, all as clues as to whether their message is getting through. Coworkers rely on their real eyes to judge if the boss or other coworkers are excited, upset, indfferent, etc. In the real business community, real life interaction is such a big part of creating working relationships. All that is lost when we transform our business activities to avatars with canned physical animations, with even less facial animation. What is left is, what I feel, still a misrepresentation of our real selves in a real environment.

Yesterday, as I watched for the n-th time a tv commercial for go to meeting dot com, touting savings on travel expenses and effective meetings and presentations, I wondered if Second Life would ever advertise itself as having this benefit. I checked SL’s homepage (after logging myself out), and there is one container dedicated to learning and how educators are using SL to extend their classroom reach. Surely there are still many hurdles to get from where we are now, to unquestionable proof from 3D worlds in delivering business value. I may still be on the fence, but my eyes and mind are open.

By: Erica Driver

Erica Driver — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:37:33 +0000

@Coyle: Ah, I see we have not quite done our job as well as we could have with this video. Our intent was to show that a business team could make a decision about something as important as whether or not to fund a new pilot without having to travel to meet, and still enjoying a face-to-face experience. With some planning, team members had all the information they needed to support their decision all in one place where they could view and discuss it in 3D. And they could get a good sense for the product ideas Charles was proposing because they could interact with a virtual life-sized model of the bicycle.

@Richard, @Janalee, and @Mo: thank you! Glad you like the video.

By: Mo Touman

Mo Touman — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:03:07 +0000

Erica, Guys

Well done. Liked the story and the business problem .

It is a good demonstration of the practical concepts and how it adds value to the business. Does anybody know the current state in terms of what you can actually do?

By: Coyle Brenmann

Coyle Brenmann — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:00:36 +0000

What value does this create over existing 2D collaboration tools and meeting software? How does virtually standing near someone improve the decision process? I think your work in exploring these topics is providing valuable information, I just didn’t see these concepts addressed in the video.

By: Janalee Redmond

Janalee Redmond — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:12:33 +0000

This is wonderful! Illustrates perfectly how the environment not only conquers schedules and distance, but also enhances the decision process.

Thanks, ThinkBalm!

By: Richard Hackathorn

Richard Hackathorn — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 03:45:54 +0000

Nice production with a informative message! I ever knew that we had such great actors among our ThinkBalm community.

By: Erica Driver

Erica Driver — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:19:07 +0000

Thanks, Cherisa. I hope you find it useful to you in your work.

By: Cherisa

Cherisa — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:16:07 +0000

Nicely done!