Enterprise Gaming, Virtual World

Ying Cao—Project ManagerMichael Lang– Content/Site EditorRin Chitinanda– Webmaster/Researcher

Contents

• Collaboration Tools• Define: Enterprising Gaming—Virtual World• Benefits of Enterprising Gaming• Activities• Dimensions• Use Case 1• Use Case 2• Software List

GamerUnite—Collaboration Tools

What’s Enterprise Gaming, Virtual World

Virtual worlds [and gaming] are not about technology or "physics" (thereby including elements such as lighting, gravity, object interactions and so on). They are primarily and fundamentally about people. Virtual worlds [in the enterprise] are about creating an environment in which people interact within an enterprises primary architecture. The primary requirements are the concepts of presence and persistence. We interact with other individuals (via our respective avatars) in real time — they are in a concurrent space at the same time as we are — and changes made will persist after we leave the environment (although others may change things while we are gone

Gartner: Virtual Worlds: What to Expect in 2009

Benefits of Enterprise Gaming

• Participants can interact with colleagues in real time using audio, chat, shared whiteboard, polls or hand signals — all tools that promote collaboration

• Travel costs and downtime for participants are reduced• Sessions can be recorded and archived, so they can be

reviewed after the fact or when time permits• Involvement and attention rates are higher than with written

material or conference calls• Existing material, such as PowerPoint slides or video, can be

incorporated through application and file sharing

Activities

Virtual Worlds• Second Life• Active World• Qwaq (teleplace)• Wonderland• Forterra

Activities

Knowledge Sharing/Presentation• IBM has also created a virtual rehearsal studio

where employees can practice presentations or role-play in preparation for difficult discussions with customers. One IBM manager handling a consulting project for an auto manufacturer used the studio to test different production schedules for auto parts, running "what-if" scenarios with excess inventory and different suppliers.

Activities

Education/Training• Some health-care professionals see virtual

worlds as a way to help train doctors and nurses in a setting that doesn't jeopardize patient safety. An energy company uses Forterra Systems software to train employees to handle hazardous materials on a virtual oil rig

Activities

• Virtual Office• Some businesses use these made-up spaces to bring together

employees in far-flung locales, from Minneapolis to Shanghai. They can conduct meeting in a virtual meeting room or have casual conversion in a virtual hallway. To increase project productivity, they can use a project room where a team might collaborate using a whiteboard, store documents, and post deadline reminders. The company wants to make a bigger reduction in the number of people who must commute, and to that end will soon encourage workers to use virtual workplaces i.e

Activities

Virtual Event• Cisco held a virtual summit in conjunction

with the physical one, with the help of Unisfair, a virtual events company. To cut cost and save money, virtual platforms are also the direction companies such as Consumer Electronics Show are going to host virtual tradeshows instead of physical ones.

Activities

Creativity• Build new product• Model home• Fashion

Activities

Experiment/Assesment/Evaluation/TestingRetailers are using virtual worlds to experiment

with different configurations for new or existing stores. The software also lets consumer product manufacturers gauge customer reactions to new promotional displays or to the relocation of their favorite products.

Dimensions

Presentation Training Virtual Office

Virtual event

Creativity

Experiment

Audio/VDO stream Y Y Y Y Y Y

Security Y Y Y Y Y Y

Scalability Y Y Y Y N Y

Archiving Y Y Y Y Y Y

Real word application link i.e search engine

N N N Y N/A N

Communication Tools/IM/Text/Chat/Email

Y Y Y Y Y Y

Use Case 1

• Grace Swanson-Human Resource Manager• Age: 33• Company: Bold Tech Corp.• Company Location:• Headquarter Seattle, Washington• London, Shanghai, Tokyo, Paris, Rome• Company Size: 5034 employees• Job: Regional Human Resource Manager

• Goal: Manage an online educational institution, employers are able to explore new concepts, learning theories, creative curriculum design and discover new paradigms in social learning.

• Scenario:

– Grace has to train other human resources staffs in the North America region.

Solution

• Communicating with the upper management team to create curriculums

• Asking permission to launch an online educational institution• Working with visual collaboration company to set up online

classrooms• $ 450 for 30 staffs• The solution should enable staffs to directly access to online

employee guidelines, work applications and visual collaborations in order to perform duties more efficiently through gaming

Use Case 2

• Children memorial hospital needs to train staff how to get the kids out of the hospital and to safety in case of fire, tornado, terrorist attack, or other disaster.

• Issues – The hospital can't be shut down for training.– Tabletop drills lack of realism.– Need training software that can be re-used for

other kinds of training exercises.

Solution

• $25,000• Second Life & GoogleEarth• Simulated campus and building• In the simulation, a suspicious object--a

knapsack-- is left on a corridor floor and the trainers leave it to the trainees to find the suspicious object, identify it as a threat, and then evacuate simulated patients from the hospital, just as they would in real life.

Software List

Active World

• Active Worlds hosts a universe of over 1,000 3D virtual worlds. Active Worlds’ most popular world is AlphaWorld. Access to the worlds is free and facilities there include shopping, chat and playing online games.

• Over 2 million individual users worldwide who have downloaded the browser and visited the one UniServer. Receive more than 1,000,000 hits per day