Glob – The Indusgeeks Blog

Indusgeeks was featured on the Business Channel ETNow recently. Find the video here : Indusgeeks on ETNow Technoholik .

The show featured Indusgeeks CEO Siddharth (Sid) Banerjee talking about  Metamersive Learning Spaces application developed on the Second Life platform  and an older marketing campaign done for Child Rights and You (CRY). It features client and partner testimonials from CRY and Learning Possibilities.

Indusgeeks is proud to present Metamersive Learning Spces  as one of the very few  3D Training, Learning and Collaboration( 3DTLC) related solutions featured on the Second Life Work website by Linden Lab. We are now extending the MLS framework to other virtual environments like Open Sim, Shockwave, Unity 3D and Flash.

Metamersive Learning Spaces features ( demo video here ) :

1) Fully functional 3d multiuser classroom

2) Automated converters for PowerPoint and other audio/video media

3) Easy Web Interface to point media to different screens in the 3D environment

4) Full Security with Private regions and group limitations

5) Text Chat logs

6) Customizable 3D Learning Environment

In the last post on the State of Virtual Worlds we covered my impressions from the Engage Expo’09 at San Jose. In this post we’ll look to answer why companies are moving back to basics with Virtual Worlds.

The phrase “Virtual World” became so popular in 2006-08 that almost anyone doing anything remotely 3D or 2D started ‘tagging’ their work as such. I think that led to a vast amount of generalization. Increasingly,now  the trend is towards the opposite end. We see most companies trying to distance themselves from the term. So words like “Immersive”, “Interactive” and “Real time” are being used with more frequency to describe environments which would have passed off as “Virtual Worlds” about a year back .

Ironically, these words were being used to describe “Virtual Worlds” back in 2007 as well. This movement back to look at fundamentals of what “Virtual Worlds” mean and do, is not limited to semantics only. Most companies including ours are trying to go back to basics and keep what is important and shed what is not. I think the need to make 3D environments complex started when people thought that all virtual worlds had to mimic something like Second Life.  Which meant most 3D environments needed :

1. Multiuser capability -with very high concurrences ( without any thought for whether those levels were required for the solution)
2. Full 3D – high graphic requirements  ( again without any thought for whether a 3D environment was even required for the solution let alone high graphics)
3. Ability to author objects – ( most environments do not require users to be able to create content- most clients still insisted on this capability!)

These requirements led to over engineering and unnecessary cost and timel; with real Return on Investment ( RoI) falling  as the capabilities were rarely used. Or in the worst case, due to the necessity to include these features costs would shoot up ; and the client would back out due to budget constraints.

Over a period of time though the vendors and clients have become more aware of  the what and how of using  these 3D environments.  Expectations have become more realistic and so have outlays and billings. This rationalization was necessary and good for the industry.

Thanks to spectacular early failures, the recession and increasing realism in part of the industry advocates and vendors; in 2009 the market has become more realistic and sustainable. Now these environments , especially for enterprise deployment, previously grouped under “Virtual Worlds” as a whole get categorised as :

1. Interactive – at this stage it can be 3D or 2D
2. Immersive – mostly 3D but could also be 2.5 or 2D.
3. 3D – Only if required
4. Online – hosted on a server either connected or not connected to the Internet.
5. Multiuser – only if required with defined concurrency levels;usually between 10-100 concurrent users for most enterprise type environments.
6. High graphics – only if required. Infact most clients are willing to compromise high end graphics for the ease and savings associated with being able to run these environments on  commodity grade computers.
7. Closed authoring – almost no enterprise asks for content creation capabilities for users. In fact it’s considered a nuisance in most cases.

Thus we see an increasing shift towards distinguishing between features which were previously bundled together into what came to be defined as a “Virtual World”. And this modular approach has led to higher Returns on Investment and faster deployment time. In doing so, the lines between Serious Games, Simulations and what used to be called “Virtual Worlds” is becoming more distinct. This is healthy and lets virtual worlds like Second Life do what they are good at doing,namely create a virtual community based around art, entertainment and virtual goods, while keeping a limited and focused tool set for other immersive applications. Ultimately, I think the industry really didn’t have any choice but to get back to basics and this may yet lead to the redemption of 3D , multi-user, online, immersive, interactive environments aka ‘virtual worlds’

- Sid Banerjee

Update  Dec 9, 2009 :

The event was a very interesting and the video for the same is available here :

ThinkBalm Global Unlecture Event

Thanks to Erica and Sam Driver of ThinkBalm for editing and posting this video.

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I am posting directly from Dr. Yesha Sivan’s blog who has done an excellent job of explaining the event here :

On November 6, 2009, the ThinkBalm Innovation Community will be holding an event called “Un-lecture no. 5: ‘Global’.” Three presenters will talk about Immersive Internet adoption trends and use cases in their region of the world: Yesha Sivan on Israel and the Middle East, Siddharth Banerjee on India and surrounds, and Claus Nehmzow on Hong Kong and region. Barbara Westmoreland will wrap things up by demo’ing part of nTeams island, which her company uses for global team-building activities.

How to RSVP: Reply to the LinkedIn group:http://tinyurl.com/yj2p2f8 . Please make sure “Follow this discussion” is checked off so you get the logistics details once we’ve finalized them, and you receive an event reminder via email.

* Who: Immersive Internet advocates, implementers, explorers, and tech marketers

* What: Three presenters will talk about Immersive Internet adoption trends and use cases in their region of the world: Yesha Sivan on Israel and the Middle East, Siddharth Banerjee on India, and Claus Nehmzow on Hong Kong. Then, Barbara Westmoreland will wrap things up by demo’ing part of the nTeams island her company uses to facilitate global team-building efforts. For more info about the un-lecture event format see this ThinkBalm Innovation Community video on YouTube: The Innovation Un-Lecture, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PiuJPmSQ_M .

* Where and how: Second Life, details TBD. We’ll use in-world voice.

* When: Friday, Nov. 6th from 8-9AM PDT (which is the same as Second Life time). Here is a link to link to the Time Zone Converter:http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc .

* Why: Share and gain insights into what’s happening with work-related adoption of immersive technologies around the globe. Learn what other members of the ThinkBalm Innovation Community are working on. Spend time with other members.

Please email or call with any questions.

Erica Driver, Principal
ThinkBalm
www.thinkbalm.com
ph: +1(401)592-0170
email: erica — at — thinkbalm.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/EricaDriver