ITEC Speaker Announcement
February 3rd, 2010
The ITEC Conference held May 18-20th, 2010 in London is Europe’s largest and most established Defense Training and Simulation Conference and Exhibition. ITEC 2010 provides expert insight into the opportunities and challenges driving developments in the Defense Training, Education and Simulation industry, along with hands-on experience of new and proven solutions from world leading defense companies and smaller specialist suppliers. The UK is second to the US in terms of defense training spending and is ideal to play host to Europe’s annual defense training, education and simulation event.
On May 18th, 2010 Ed Heinbockel, President and CEO of Visual Purple will be presenting a session entitled “Embedded Training: Overcoming Challenges to Train the United States Military.” Covered within the session will be the drivers that created and influenced the identification of the need for embedded training and the process employed to produce the simulations. Not for the faint of heart, the harsh realities of a nine month production cycle will be shared along with anecdotes and lessons-learned from both production and client perspectives to include cultural and technical challenges.
Virtual Worlds & Training…Do They Mix with Social Media?
January 21st, 2010
Social media seems to be all the rage right now. Is it really possible to infuse social media into a virtual world space? Would it be beneficial or detrimental? I guess it would all depend upon the context- many virtual worlds already encompass social media aspects, whereas serious virtual worlds may not be the ideal training ground to implement social media into the mix. Can virtual worlds really compliment social media? Well that is still up for debate. I believe it all boils down to context. Majority of companies would loathe for their employees to login to a virtual world for training and then rather than training up, pass the time away by updating their Facebook status. “Supposed to be training but thought I would update everyone on my life’s happenings instead. Chris is doing well and the children are growing up sooo fast…” Communication and collaboration are all nice things to have within a virtual world space, but they certainly are not a necessary piece of the puzzle when utilizing a virtual world for training/ learning….or, are they?
Sure a handful of social ‘virtual’ worlds exist currently, such as Vivaty and Habbo Hotel as just a few examples. Rumor has it that the former is still searching for a viable business plan…if it were easy, everyone would be doing it, right?! Incorporating social media into training has been talked about for some time- but would it actually be useful or seen as disruptive to the learner/ trainee. Is there a misconception about virtual worlds, that they are already a social networking opportunity? Although collaboration is brought up quite often in virtual worlds, bringing your live Twitter or Facebook stream into the virtual world training environment could lead to more distraction than anything else. While many companies are enacting social media policies across the board for employees, some are encouraging their employees to utilize social media outlets while on the clock (hey, free marketing, well almost). Sure the real-time experience is cool, but is it really worth the inherent risk of a company’s reputation being tainted without having big brother watching what is coming through the social media channels?
I believe the potential is there, it just has thus far been untapped. 3D virtual social networks may be on the horizon, but only time will tell as to their success. Sure, real time interaction is cool and all but it can also be seen as a distraction when applied to specific training/ learning environments. So let’s keep social virtual worlds in a different category for now…
Has Everything Gone Social?
January 19th, 2010
So here is your social media primer, short and sweet. It seems like everything has gone social! From social media and networking to social learning, the entire world has become more social! I run across write-ups and advice daily on how to become more immersed in social media (i.e. tweet more, gain more followers, sign up for more social networking sites, etc.). But can this all be worth it, or is it all just a passing fad? Fad I think not, my belief is that social media is here to stay. However I do see changes within the social media sphere, currently it seems like there is every possible Twitter application out there- most will fade and the bigger players (i.e. Tweetdeck, Seesmic) will remain.
This addictive social and immersive media offers a little something for everyone. Everything from national brand names to small Mom and Pop businesses are jumping on the social media bandwagon. For the most part, social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter are growing in user base and daily use. Yet you also see some conflicting stats (especially for Twitter) that show some never log back in once signing up for the service. Sure social media can be foreseen as an over-hyped topic, but it is here to stay!
Look for Part 2 of this post: Virtual Worlds…Do They Mix with Social Media?
Government Security News Homeland Security Awards Finalist
October 6th, 2009
Ok- we will blow our own horn here. We just were awarded as a finalist for the first annual Government Security News (GSN) Homeland Security Awards. To see the full list of award finalists, click here.
Best Training/Higher Education Services Finalists:
Allied Barton
Visual Purple
Bellevue University
Henley-Putnam University
Visual Purple Named as 2009 MT2 Top Training and Simulation Company
September 29th, 2009
The results are in and Visual Purple has been recognized as one of the top performers in the global simulation and training industry for the second consecutive year.
Military Training Technology is proud to announce the 2009 MT2 Top Training and Simulation Companies. The list’s companies are from around the world that have made a significant impact on the military training industry across the spectrum of technologies— serious gaming, live training, constructive simulation, modeling, virtual simulation and others. An impartial panel selected the winners from a very competitive group. Companies were selected based on various criteria, which in part, included total military sales, innovation, and program effectiveness. The 2009 submissions were especially competitive.
To learn more about the awards or view the awards list, click here.
The Makings of a Social Media Fruitcake
September 28th, 2009
My Grandmother used to be a fruitcake-making junkie each year when the holiday season rolled around- many friends and family would graciously accept then turn right around and regift “Grandma’s famous homemade fruitcake.” So this got me thinking- social media tools are a lot like a fruitcake. Although thought, care and a little love may initially be baked in, the end result is nuts and the weird fruit candy-like things. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. are the social media kitchens, but often at the end of the day, it’s still the same fruitcake!
Some almost relevant tidbits you might enjoy… Online communities and social networks are becoming more and more mainstream, a part of our everyday lives (both personal and professional). So here is a scary stat: With the ever growing size of Facebook’s 300-million active users, if Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populous in the world.
So in reality it’s fitting how the term ‘fruitcake’ can also reference a crazy person. Every time I see the commercial for Verizon selling phones where the parents and kids are on the back porch and Dad is tweeting: “Sitting on the back porch,” I chuckle to myself about how true this is with some social media updates today. Although I have carefully handpicked the people I follow on Twitter I still see random tweets like “sitting on the plane waiting to take off” or “going out to Mexican food with the girls.” Although these tweets do depict an activity- are they really relevant? I tend to want to follow people that have the same interests as I do- although I have not met most of them face-to-face I can tell a little bit about them just in the way that they tweet. So on a whim I decided to try posting a ‘pointless’ tweet and see what the reaction was. Although there was no reaction after I pressed the ‘tweet’ button, I felt like I had jipped my followers (sorry, loyal followers!)… Here I was, yet another person in cyberspace that had posted a tweet with no real value and was in fact, pointless…who knows I’ll probably see it re-tweeted soon…wish I liked fruitcake…
“- Link to”
YouTube Visual Purple Verizon commerical- Twitter Updates and Facebook
3D TLC Panel Announcement
September 23rd, 2009
Ed Heinbockel has confirmed to be on an industry panel at the upcoming Engage! Expo entitled “Vendor View: Collaborating to Cross the Chasm.” Join Ed on Thursday, September 24th from 4 to 5 pm.
What’s the session all about?
Thinkbalm has identified a number of barriers that need to be overcome to enable increased adoption of immersive technologies in the workplace. You can view and download the PDF of the ThinkBalm’s analyst report: Crossing the Chasm, One Implementation at a Time here.
Tony O’Driscoll will moderate a panel discussion with CEOs from the vendor community to understand what are planning to do from a technology roadmap perspective to address these issues so that we can collectively drive increased adoption and get across the chasm.
Tony O’Driscoll, Professor of the Practice, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business (moderator)
Chris Badger, VP of Marketing, Forterra Systems
Ron J. Burns, CEO, ProtonMedia
Ed Heinbockel, President & CEO, Visual Purple, LLC.
Howard Mall, VP of Engineering, ECS, Inc.
100 Down & Many More to Come!
August 27th, 2009
In celebration of our 100th blog post on Virtual Speak- I saw it fitting to recap the Top 5 most popular blog articles.
1. Return on Investment= Proven Success?
3. When Your Voice-actor is a Robot (Confronting the NPC Speak Challenge for Virtual Worlds, Part 2)
4. Chat Bots 101- Artificial Intelligence Optional
5. The Bottom Line- What’s Your Company’s Training Budget?
Here’s to the next 100- thank you to our loyal readers!
Top 5 Things You May Not Know About Visual Purple
July 14th, 2009
1) We are passionate about applying advanced simulation technology in radically innovative and effective ways.
2) Although we have produced dozens of training simulations, only a handful of our ‘first-person thinkers’ are available for public consumption.
3) Contrary to popular belief, we really don’t wear pocket protectors!
4) What Visual Purple stands for… although our mission statement is “Visual Purple’s mission is to provide our clients with world-class, state-of-the-art instructional tools that increase trainee understanding of processes and procedures, reduce training time, and improve overall mission readiness and performance. We take great pride in the creation of each project: we build strong, sincere business relationships, striving to understand your training needs. Our commitment to your vision ensures effective solutions and provides you with a lifetime training partner well versed in your organization’s goals.” Our name actually implies ‘always driven by perspective.’ For instance, our friends in Special Operations Forces immediately equate the name with survival because visual purple—rhodopsin—is a highly light sensitive pigment found in the retina of the eye that enables vision and thus survival in low-light conditions.
5) Our team has been a leader in the interactive computer software industry since 1991 (our founder and CEO is really old and built games at Sierra On-Line in the 80’s), when our products were originally developed as interactive adventure, cinematic and strategy PC games.
Adult Learning Techniques Exploited
July 13th, 2009
Adult Learning Techniques (ADL) can be applied in a variety of forms from instructor led classes to immersive training simulations.
Mark Prensky, author of Digital Game-Based Learning (2000), confirms the need for simulation training using adult learning techniques in The Technology Source, “Simulations and the Learning Revolution”:
“I do not believe it is possible to overestimate two things – first, how different and richer simulations are than other learning content, and second, how much they will eventually dominate the way classes are researched, designed, and implemented. Anyone who wants to understand and contribute to education in the near future must develop a working knowledge of the philosophy of simulation.”
Adult Learning Interactive Simulation Techniques stimulate positive behavioral change in trainees while they train, meaning that improved performance is immediate. Through repetitive training, users acquire a more developed sense for making good decisions, as well as an increased ability to deal effectively with the consequences resulting from their decisions. The 3D Visual Imagery allows for updates and modification to the program, maximizing efficiency and cost effectiveness.