Immersive software for meetings will expand the information worker toolkit
by Sam Driver.
Immersive software can deliver a similar level of engagement as a physical meeting or high-end telepresence session, without the requirement to travel. Enterprise immersive software vendors have suffered something of a catch-22 as they built products that show off the potential of immersive technology. They added tightly integrated communication and collaboration features, even though these features are redundant with existing information worker infrastructure. Immersive software features that are also part of more established information worker software include voice services, messaging (real-time and asynchronous), presence awareness, team workspaces, video streaming and sharing, and document and screen sharing. As more organizations adopt immersive software, the time will come to tackle one of the second-stage barriers we’ve discussed before: integrating these new capabilities into their existing software investments? We anticipate that integration will be a major focus of early adopters in 2010.
Immersive software for meetings will:
- Extend the reach of existing investments with new features and functionality. It is helpful to think about immersive technology as the front end of the wave of communications and collaboration tools, with an emphasis on engagement (see figure). Immersive software provides features other forms of information worker software don’t — like a 3D interface (in most cases), avatars (in most cases), unification of collaboration and communication services, more sophisticated non-verbal communication (e.g., gestures and animations), and a strong sense of presence. Immersive technology isn’t about replacement, but expanding and extending the toolkit. Immersive Internet advocates should try to position their investments in immersive software for meetings within the broader information worker infrastructure context.
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Integrate with existing communication and collaboration tools. We are starting to see vendors design or add function to their products to achieve integration with existing systems. For example: Amphisocial has built direct integration with Google Docs and Spreadsheets. ProtonMedia has integrated with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Teleplace provides drag-and-drop integration with OpenOffice.org documents (and can provide this for Microsoft Office documents as well). Several vendors (ARI, Forterra, and Sun Microsystems) provide the ability to call a telephone from within the environment. Sun and VastPark provide a session initiation protocol (SIP) interface.
Recommendations
Think strategically about immersive software, focusing on filling in gaps and extending existing capabilities. Build a program that:
- Doesn’t try to force everything into an immersive environment just because it’s “cool.”
- Choose the right tool for the task at hand
- Look for ways to integrate immersive software with existing tools and technologies, thereby enabling people to interact regardless of which tools they have at hand
- Utilize existing tools that work well for 2D data analysis, asynchronous communication and quick voice chats
- Find new, engaging ways to fill the gap left by travel bans, connect remote workers, or start to work in novel ways, doing things you simply weren’t able to do any other way.
© 2010 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.
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Great post Sam.
I’ve gotten into a few discussions were people seem to think I’m proposing everyone should get an avatar and that in-person meetings are no longer needed. As you point out, these things are just more tools in the toolbox and I wish more people would present it this way.
The best way to collaborate is highly depended on the situation. I’m sure we all run across situations where a conference call is insufficient and we decide an in-person meeting is worth the extra cost (e.g. travel cost or cost of excluding some people). Its nice to have the intermediate steps that immersive technologies are bringing.
In addition, you can often bring things to a virtual world you can’t bring to a real world. Layouts for homes, buildings, factories, fashion designs, product packaging, product mock ups don’t always show up well in a 2D PowerPoint and are usually costly or impossible to create in the physical world. I think this is kind of your last point in the recommendations.
Mark
Thanks, Mark. The “3D or bust” conversation is very common, and I think it plays into my thinking about the language and pitch early adopters use. We’ve been advocating a fundamental change from techno-speak to business-speak for work deployments. Many early adopters don’t see the need to do this, because they have worked in very experimental roles or groups within a more conservative organization.
Fortunately, the vendors are providing new ammunition in this case: we can start to talk about integration, and the blending of what we can do with what we’ve always done will be a great way to introduce new users to immersive work.
I tend to think along the lines of: “remember when we only had text email? Then we got hyperlink-enabled email, embedded files and all that stuff. Adding immersive tools is kind of like that: a new and more powerful way to do what we already do. But I still send a lot of text only emails. That won’t go away. I just want to have both options.”