In 2007, I met with Management at Suntec Exhibition Centre in Singapore regarding virtual worlds and the opportunity for Real & Virtual World events to be run in Unison with each other. Singapore recently held the IT Show at Suntec, 770,000 people packed the centre and SGD58.5 million was spent in four days – how much more could have been spent if they held a virtual event for those unable to make it to Singapore over the 4 stipulated days – i wonder ?
Excerpt from Travel Industry Article below:
At the ITM’s 37th annual conference in Liverpool this week, the people responsible for spending an annual £34bn ferrying business executives and staff around the world will hear that physical attendance is not always the ideal way to convene conferences and confabs. Instead, the technology of online virtual worlds can bring delegates together in an equally productive, immersive, businesslike environment which is also socially responsible, greatly reducing the impact of corporate travel on the environment.
Alan Haymes, director of London-based New Business Horizons – which provides Second Life offices, meeting and conference facilities for other clients as diverse as Universal Music Group and the London Chamber of Commerce – will be leading the ‘Meeting in Cyberspace’ session at the ITM conference, explaining the business benefits of events that take place in a virtual world and comparing the experience not only to physical meetings but to the ‘traditional’ virtual option of teleconferencing.
Haymes comments: “Virtual world conferencing is a more complete experience than the webcam or teleconferencing suite, which means that the ITM’s initiative extends beyond saving money and improving CSR. In a virtual world, delegates can immerse themselves fully in the conference environment and truly feel part of a big event. Breakout and one to one sessions can be easily incorporated, there’s less pressure on performance and appearance … and it can be more fun.”
I think this maybe a very cool way of Uniting with other virtual world bloggers – if you’re blog is in the list below I invite you to connect with me via twitter http://twitter.com/aplink or facebook 🙂
Just in case you are not below – your welcome to connect also 🙂
Made in IBM Labs: IBM Creates Software for Holding Face-to-Face Meetings in Virtual Worlds
Allows Meeting-Goers to Teleport Themselves From Instant Message Chats to Virtual Conference Rooms — No Reservations Necessary
ARMONK, NY–(Marketwire – March 4, 2009) – IBM (NYSE: IBM) is making it easier for widely dispersed businesspeople to interact and collaborate without the time and expense of in-person meetings.
What is making all this possible is the marriage between “virtual world” Web sites, and “unified communications and collaboration tools” — technology that links such things as voicemail, audible chat, and instant messaging. Virtual worlds are interactive, immersive Web sites with three-dimensional graphics. There, people are represented by versions of themselves, called avatars. With origins in multi-player gaming sites, virtual worlds re-create the social and visual dynamics and cues of human interaction, and are now increasingly used in business settings.
IBM is now allowing selected clients test Sametime 3D, a new tool which will let business colleagues not only exchange instant messages and chat verbally, but also share presentations and ideas in private, prefabricated, reusable meeting spaces located in a variety of virtual worlds. These spaces will allow participants to, literally, throw ideas on the wall during a meeting to “see what sticks,” and to vote on, organize, and save the most promising proposals. Avatars can make presentations to one another, socialize, debate, or, literally, examine ideas and 3D objects from all angles.
IBM’s new software enables groups based in different locations to meet on a regular, periodic or impromptu basis in these virtual worlds. With this new software tool, IBM is providing several reusable meeting spaces, including a theater-style amphitheatre, a boardroom and a collaboration space which can each be used for impromptu or scheduled brainstorming sessions, status updates, town hall-style meetings, rehearsals, training classes, and more.
“This project is part of IBM’s ongoing work to redefine the nature of online meetings,” said Colin Parris, IBM’s Vice President for Industry Solutions and Emerging Business. “The work that takes place during a meeting is hard enough; people shouldn’t have to struggle with logistics. Whether through improvements to Web conferencing capabilities or with special offerings such as Sametime 3D, IBM is offering new ways to engage and collaborate, making meetings more effective and productive.”
The new software overcomes several challenges that have existed for businesses wishing to hold meetings in virtual worlds: First, businesses can collaborate the way in which they are accustomed, using software they may already have, such as electronic presentations, enterprise security, and instant messaging tools. Second, IBM has prefabricated a variety of re-useable spaces specifically designed for productive meetings, making it unnecessary for adopters to painstakingly build meeting rooms each time they want to meet. Third, these spaces are secure, overcoming privacy concerns manifest in many public areas of popular virtual worlds. And finally, colleagues not wishing to participate in a given virtual meeting can still view documents, presentations and results from those sessions — or even snapshots of a previous meeting.
In the future, the software will provide a variety of ways for participants to circulate reports to one another that document the meetings’ progress. IBM will also make it easier for users to chat verbally and exchange information generated by and for virtual meetings, with traditional computer software already installed on their computers and servers.
Selected IBM clients and business partners are now being invited to work with IBM’s Lotus Services organization to test this new software. The solution, which may be available by the second half of 2009, uses version 8.0 of IBM Lotus Sametime, and a plug-in designed by IBM Research for virtual worlds. When the software is developed fully, clients will be able to use it to connect any number of virtual worlds, such as OpenSim or Second Life. A demonstration of the software’s capabilities is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfqGwKFStuw
IBM is in the forefront in exploring virtual worlds. Hundreds of IBM researchers, consultants, and developers are developing and providing new ways of learning, collaborating and doing business in virtual worlds. IBM is helping clients to develop their virtual world strategies, and is providing them with solutions and services that enable adopters to better collaborate. In addition, IBM is leading an initiative to help improve compatibility between disparate virtual worlds. Internally, IBM uses virtual worlds to conduct research, host events, and to acclimate new employees.
Guests include co-founder of the virtual world Twinity, Jeremy Snyder, about the exciting new gothic machinima contest there and plans for more virtual cities to be released onto the internet in 2009.
Social Networks guru Andrew Peters looks at the changing face of Twitter and reports on US Military plans to use holograms to keep service personnel in touch with their families while stationed overseas.
On a more serious note, we take a look at a moving tribute in music and pictures by some Second Lifers to the victims of the devastating bush fires in Australia with their song, ‘Too Many Tears’.
And American singer/song writer Dann Russo performs ‘Parking Lot Kings’.
Now will people become more PRIVATE in facebook !!
Gay or straight, your Facebook is their fortune
FACEBOOK is planning to exploit the vast amount of personal information it holds on its 150 million members by creating one of the world’s largest market research databases.
In an attempt to finally cash in on the social networking site, once valued at $US15 billion ($23.6 billion), it will soon allow multinational companies to selectively target its members in order to research the appeal of new products. Companies will be able to pose questions to specially selected members based on such intimate details as whether they are single or married and even whether they are gay or straight.
The company, which has struggled to make money from advertising, has been demonstrating the benefits of its new instant polling tool to business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
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The answer is probably “no” but it is interesting to expore precisely why.
There is a widely held belief that Google and Microsoft could easily turn their geospatial products into mass market virtual worlds containing avatars. While virtual world products such as Twinity have indeed focused on replicating real-life locations, neither of the major players has, as far as I know, stated this as a near-term goal. Moreover, I am reminded of Cory Ondrejka’s observation that the now-defunct Google Lively was room-based to facilitate balancing resource requirements, something that may well prove challenging on the scale of Google Earth. This seems to be borne out in a recent interview with Popcha!, one of the Lively third-party developers, who suggest it was a combination of economic climate, technical scaling issues and uncertain business model that ultimately did for Lively.
One day, Ms Taylor, 28, found Mr Pollard at the computer watching his avatar having sex with a prostitute in Second Life.
"I went mad, I was so hurt. I just couldn't believe what he'd done. I looked at the computer screen and could see his character with a female character. It's cheating as far as I'm concerned. But he didn't see it as a problem, and couldn't see why I was so upset," she said.
Using the virtual world's own special currency, she hired an online private detective to investigate his adultery. However, back in their real lives, the Pollards managed to patch things up.
Then in April this year Ms Taylor caught her husband's avatar in another compromising position.
She claims he was having "cybersex" with a female player in the US.
See forty-one of the 130 films selected for the competition. Ten films and three Canadian films are up for special jury prizes which will be announced at the Expo.
I think for Asia Pacific Start time is around Midnight – between 9 & 10 November…
The Machinima Expo will take place Sunday, November 9th, from 9 AM to 9 PM on Second Life’s Jamvile Island (217, 228, 23).
There will be a “Premiere” of the film “Clear Skies” with the director, Ian Chisholm, present to answer questions after the showing of the film.
Featured panel on “women in machinima” with major female machinima filmmakers participating. The event will wrap up with a party and fireworks.
This event was originally slated to take place in Montreal as part of the Canadian Arcadia Games festival.
The long awaited Machinima Expo will occur this Sunday, November 9th @ Second Life. We will have an entire day of events, panels, demos, screenings and premieres starting at 9pm and running until 9pm in the evening. These times are SL times which makes them Pacific Time (-8:00 GMT).
There will be an information booth and Expo helpers available to answer questions and help you out if you’ve never used Second Life before. SL is a free download here:
And stop by Saturday evening if you want to get a feel for the place and check out the schedule. We’ll be tinkering around and checking the set up most of the evening.
Phil has also created a sweet teaser for the Expo. That’s Phil on the far right in his Second Life “Sol Bartz” persona. I hope you will come by, watch some movies and have fun!
Tokyo – A 43 year old woman, a player in a virtual game has been jailed for killing a digital persona of an online HUSBAND after he dumped her – in a virtual divorce. She stole his ID and password and logged in and killed his virtual Character in Maple Story. If convicted she faces five years in prison and US$5000.00 in fines for stealing his ID & Password, she has been detained but yet to be charged – The women did not make any threats to the man’s real life, but the owner of the digital character made a police report which led to her arrest – now is this taking VIRTUAL LIFE just a little too far ?
New Straits Times - Malaysia
Yet in other instances which involve virtual worlds an LA woman was charged with plotting the real-life abduction of a boyfriend she met thru Second Life and again in Tokyo a 16 year old boy was charged for stealing the ID & password of another player to swindle US$360,000 worth of virtual currency – these ones I do understand.
Who has heard of other breaches of real world law related to incidents from Virtual Worlds ? Could Twinty be exposed to these forms of illegal or undesirable behavior ?
APLINK - itsReal 