Speaking of Virtual Worlds…(Week of July 27-31)
July 31st, 2009
A weekly wrap-up on what’s going on within the Virtual World sphere and beyond! Click on any of the below titles to read the full story.
The iTablet, a possible game-changer for virtual worlds
Virtual Worlds Show Promise for Newspaper Communities
Virtual worlds are getting a second life
Selling Virtual Worlds for Business: Change and the Future of the Enterprise
How To: Use Virtual Worlds for Business
The Metaverse: Booming Despite Your Absence
12% of Americans Bought Virtual Goods in Past 12 Months: Survey
Did I miss a headline? Let me know-simply post a comment below.
Future Outlook for Military Sim & Virtual Training Market
July 29th, 2009
Military organizations are turning more and more to ‘serious’ game-based simulations to train war fighters. We were pleased to see that ReportLinker echoes our outlook on the military simulation and virtual training market to “increase significantly” in the future. Forecasts within the report are for the 2008- 2018 timeframe, the report projects military simulation and virtual training market will generate multi-billion dollar revenues in years to come. The report, cites difficulties with “training costs” and “time and risk of life” that have “forced military forces around the world to adapt technologies such as computer-based simulators and computer wargames in military training.” The summary notes that both combat and non-combat uses of virtual applications will rise in number.
According to ReportLinker, “Increasing concerns over training costs, time and risk of life have forced military forces around the world to adapt technologies such as computer-based simulators and computer wargames in military training. Most importantly, simulation and virtual training have so far proved to be not only cost-effective but also an effective way to train military staff in a wide range of activities. Those functions range from weapons training to flying and even medical training. Both combat and non-combat applications for military simulations and gaming technologies with increase significantly during the period 2008-2018.”
See Visual Purple’s work in embedded training technology for the military.
“- Link to”
YouTube Visual Purple Embedded Training
Push vs. Pull Learning
July 27th, 2009
By Ed Heinbockel, President and CEO, Visual Purple, LLC
Are you focusing on learner engagement and learning experience take-aways within current solutions? E-Learning can result in a hard pressed “push” of the learner’s results.
Let’s further examine a comparison of push vs. pull training… Within a virtual world environment the learner is able to “pull” content as they see fit with various types of overlays on top of the technologies driving the simulation. Logics are embedded to reveal specific information when needed. Virtual world training environments allow the general ability to watch what people are and are not doing while still honoring the different process styles associated with learning. Whereas within an e-Learning “push” environment the learner is pushed directly through the experiences, without the ability to alter the outcome and make decisions on their own.
Visual Purple and BTS transformed a traditional “push” e-Simulation into a “pull” virtual world environment. By leveraging existing training investments one can generate a higher learner/trainee retention rate, apply to wider range of audience and reap benefits from the significant cost savings. A virtual world approach will result in reduced training time, and improvement of overall learning effectiveness for the learner. By utilizing persistent world applications to guide the learner to succeed through decision-based scenarios enabling active participation, virtual world applications allow for engaging and realistic 3D training environments that are directly applicable to business needs. The key is to unlock potential from an existing “push” e-Learning solution and evolve it into a realistic and sticky “pull” virtual world training medium. Many top organizations are transitioning to virtual world based training solutions. Beginning from square one or utilizing an existing e-learning or CBT solution and transferring it into a successful virtual world training application. Virtual worlds offer the learner the foremost in freedom, interactivity and adaptability where specially tailored environments ensure realistic interaction and imagery to promote full emotional and intellectual engagement in any scenario.
View the trailer of the transformation from a “push” learning module to an immersive “pull” learning environment.
“- Link to”
YouTube Visual Purple Winning in Wireless Virtual World trailer
Speaking of Virtual Worlds… (Week of July 20-24)
July 24th, 2009
A weekly wrap-up on what’s going on within the Virtual World sphere and beyond! Click on any of the below titles to read the full story.
Virtual 3-D Online Nursing Education A Reality
Second Life Trains First Responders
Building a university ‘community’ on a Second Life campus… and gaining real new students virtually
Evolver Avatar Creator Out of Beta
Second Life users raise more than a quarter million for cancer research
Company Study Suggests 75% of Training Organizers Considering Virtual Training
Did I miss a headline? Let me know-simply post a comment below.
What Do Virtual Environments Bring to the Table?
July 22nd, 2009
I thought I would outline a few of the major highlights that virtual worlds are able to provide the user with:
-Realism
-Ties to the real world
-Believable
-Sense of Space
-Experience
-Sense of Presence
-Persistence
-Collaborative learning
-Interactivity & Immersion
Did I miss any? Leave a comment below with additions/ suggestions.
Toward Interoperability in Virtual Worlds…
July 20th, 2009
Just as tough as going across the border out of or back into the good ol’ US of A – interoperability between virtual worlds is still not a seamless proposition. Transporting an avatar from one world to another seems to be a hot topic of virtual world users these days. I do wish that it were a seamless transition and one simple answer, but as of now it remains extremely complex. Interoperability from world to world seems to be a common theme that is circled around at virtual world conferences. Going from my customized SL avatar to a generic ‘male tourist’ (don’t ask) default avatar in Active Worlds I was a little bummed. Although once in Active Worlds I could switch to a female tourist- then would go to another in-world destination and (poof!) I was once again a male tourist. So the whole idea of interoperability between worlds is a pretty good topic to bring up and address. Not only is interoperability specific to only avatars but also to virtual goods/ digital assets as well. So we’ll just skim the surface on this as I don’t want to open a whole can of worms on intellectual property laws and the technical differences right now…we’ll dive in deeper at a later time.
Let’s not overlook the avatar name issue. Although I may be Megan Ricantaur in one world when I enter another world that name may already be taken. I believe that cross-world movement will happen, it just remains unseen as to what extent it will be enabled. Maybe someday there will be a universal virtual world client- but for now it’s onto creating different avatar identities for different worlds.
We know that Linden Lab has been dabbling around with the whole interoperability issue. So could interoperability be the future of the web? Will you be able to connect seamlessly to a variety of virtual world platforms? Opensim and Second Life to Active Worlds and Twinity? Will there ever be a single point of portability across worlds? Maybe in the future, but certainly not in the near future. A 3 to 5 year timeframe?? Yes, I think so (or rather I hope so). So let’s work to bring standards to virtual worlds and perhaps voyaging across the metaverse and beyond!
Let’s recap one of the highlights of virtual world interoperability that has been done so far:
“In July 2008, IBM and Linden Lab announced an interoperability agreement following successful tests in which avatars were teleported “from the Second Life Preview Grid into a virtual world running on an OpenSim server, marking the first time an avatar has moved from one virtual world to another.”
Speaking of… Virtual Worlds (Week of July 13-17)
July 17th, 2009
A weekly wrap-up on what’s going on within the Virtual World sphere and beyond! Click on any of the below titles to read the full story.
Exciting Developments in Virtual World Tracking and Analytics
Training Sims Lead to Improved Test Scores, Job Performance
Intel Foresees a Leap Forward for Virtual Worlds
Just 465K of Second Life’s Active Residents Spend L$ In-World, Under 200K Spend USD$10+/Mo in L$
Military Sim and Virtual Training Market to “Increase Significantly”
ROI on Virtual Worlds, MMOs and Twitter
Measuring business success in virtual worlds is not different from business as usual
Can Training in Second Life Teach Doctors to Save Real Lives?
Did I miss a headline? Let me know-simply post a comment below.
“Virtual World” Fundraising vs. Real World Fundraising
July 17th, 2009
Virtual worlds and philanthropy can they really mix? Non-profits are now turning to virtual worlds, namely Second Life to assist in fundraising efforts. Fundraising for various charities has proven successful, some of the more well known charities such as Relay for Life, St. Jude’s Hospital and the American Cancer Society have already set up virtual world fundraising campaigns. A walk-a-thon in cyberspace, the Second Life Relay for Life charity is now in its 4th year and perhaps the best proven example of the way the technology of today is changing how charities and nonprofits work. Case in Point: The Relay For Life® in Second Life® 2008 was the most successful fundraising event in the history of Second Life®! This years virtual Relay will be held on July 18th. Other fundraising efforts in virtual worlds have included Club Penguin, which held its second annual “Coins for Change” campaign this past December, when 2.5 million kids donated a total of three billion virtual coins. That spurred Club Penguin, aided by user suggestions, to donate $1 million to various children’s charities in countries such as Afghanistan and India.
Online giving has gone viral, rising from an estimated $10 million in 1999 to $10.44 billion in 2007, according to Ted Hart, a pioneer in helping nonprofits use the Internet (Notice the change from Million to Billion).
So why turn to virtual worlds to help in fundraising efforts? Well the biggest attraction has to be the relatively low cost of entry. There is unlimited potential for virtual worlds to help humanity, – join a worthy cause in the virtual world today!
Chat Bots 101- Artificial Intelligence Optional
July 16th, 2009
I recently enjoyed testing the intelligence of a variety of “Chat Bots” online. While some tend to hold meaningless conversations, others actually make some sense!
Chatterbots, otherwise known as Chat Bots are defined by Wikipedia in the following definition: A chatterbot (or chatbot) is a type of conversational agent, a computer program designed to simulate an intelligent conversation with one or more human users via auditory or textual methods.
Websites are now employing chat-bots to welcome visitors and answer questions, chat bots are able to serve as a virtual assistant. We have also seen some migration of chat bots into virtual world spaces, such as Second Life. So what’s with this rather new form of intelligent technology? Although it’s not necessarily new, in fact the oldest chat bot was recorded back in the 1960’s! Today, they seem to be evolving and intent on becoming a practical solution in a variety of business and pleasure applications. Perhaps ALICE (Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity), is the most famous chat bot of all.
What’s the role of a chat bot in an immersive virtual world? Applying chat bots into virtual world applications have been done- with some success. I believe that in the future we will see chat bots evolve further in virtual world spaces. When you enter Second Life you may immediately have a chat bot befriend you and carry on a meaningful (and intelligent) conversation. Rather than entering an empty area of Second Life with no other form of avatar contact. Chat bot technology is especially useful for companies that have set up shop in Second Life, whereas they don’t have to worry about staffing the Second Life location 24/7 as a virtual chat bot can do the job and answer the basic questions about a company. Because virtual worlds are primarily text based in nature for communication/ interactions this type of environment makes it a great test-bed for chat bot avatars. Utilized for entertainment and information services, Chat Bots are always available (24/7) and intelligent enough to answer questions.
Many are scripted, however a few are non-scripted that pull from a large database of text. Chat-bots are mostly text bound and utilize Natural Language Processing (NLP). Chat bots can range from greeters on web pages (that have been proven to increase sales/ conversion ratios), customer service representatives, tour guides and non-player characters (NPCs). Do they seem lifelike? To some extent yes, but they by no means take on the persona of a real person.
Are Virtual Worlds Only for Multiplayer?- WRONG!
July 15th, 2009
It seems that there is a common misconception that the ONLY REAL use for virtual worlds is multiplayer. This is a BIG fallacy that most people just don’t seem to understand. So let’s devote some time to clear up this basic misunderstanding. Sure, some of the more popular virtual worlds are multiplayer, World of Warcraft for example which has over 11 million paying subscribers as of 2009. However, much can be said for a single-player/ single- role or single-player/multi-role virtual world, especially when it comes to training/learning on demand and a guaranteed quality of experience.
You might be asking, what is an MMORPG (MMORPGs for plural)? An MMORPG is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. A role playing game is a genre of computer games where you interact with a large number of people in an online virtual world. One might want to play MMORPGs for the social aspect, or the overall game play aspect. Perhaps the more famous here is the MMORPGs of the world (otherwise known as Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) while the standard fare of these games are fantasy in nature these worlds allow for an environment where a large number of players are able to interact.
Now if you bring the whole idea of MMORPG to a virtual world meant for training you will probably find more often than not a large band of resistance against this. And I agree that there should be a huge resistance against MMORPGs for training. Rather a virtual world that is meant for training should just be a single player environment where the user is able to interact with non-player characters (NPCs). Although some will argue that virtual environments are prime for collaboration, with which I do agree. However I think that virtual worlds have a variety of applications that they can cater to. If I want to attend a virtual conference or tradeshow than I agree the largest key component of that would be the collaboration aspect. However when I login to Second Life and am going to learn something I do not want to be bothered by an unknown avatar trying to befriend me. I am there to learn/ train not socialize and make friends.
So I won’t go into all the nitty gritty aspects of MMORPGs rather I merely want to clarify some key misconceptions of utilizing virtual worlds for training and multi-player vs. single-player aspects.