MPK16 in the Virtual World: Enhancements!

One of the coolest things about working with a virtual instance of MPK16 has been that we can add features that are hard, or even impossible, to do in the real world. Two areas that I'd like to highlight are the use of the MPK16 virtual space as a meeting area for many people attending from all different locations; and the ability to rapidly reconfigure a room into a completely different configuration, by rearranging chairs and tables in a matter of seconds!

Meeting Location

A virtual world such as Second Life, or Sun’s Wonderland product, can accommodate dozens, even hundreds, of avatars in one location. Although most people agree that face-to-face (in-person) meetings are the most effective and satisfying way to meet, these days it is getting harder to hold meetings this way, for both financial and time-consuming reasons. In addition, more and more teams, due to the desire to take advantage of the best source of expertise, now contain members who do not sit with the rest of their team(s). 

Video is an excellent substitute for face-to-face meetings, but it is most effective up to four or five locations (people); after that the images get smaller to fit on your screen, and the faces become correspondingly smaller. At some point, you will lose the benefits of video, as you can no longer read someone’s face, and you may not be able to even recognize them. In a virtual world, each person is represented by a single avatar, so adding more people doesn’t degrade the appearance nor performance of your overall meeting. Plus, your hair always looks great!

(comparison of video meeting in MeBeam with eight people, Second Life meeting with nine)

Reconfigurability (aka, “Rooms of Requirements”)

One great feature of the virtual world we knew we would be able to take advantage of immediately was the ability to quickly reconfigure a room. Currently, four of the areas in the MPK16 pilot space have multiple configurations, and we are able to use the tools of Second Life to just push a button and see a room rapidly reconfigure itself.

This gave us three quick payoffs:
1. it reminds the designers of new spaces of the features they need to keep in mind for their floor plans, and gives a visual representation they can use to explain these features to their clients
2. the layouts in buildings undergoing a next gen retrofit may not be easily reconfigured to satisfy the requirements of the space, so the multiple configuration views give a visual guide to show the actual requirements of that type of space
3. it gives “instructions” on how to configure the layout of the physical space

Here is an example of the three different configurations of the MPK16 Break Area space:
Break Area Configurations
  

1-Café Style

2-Theater or Auditorium Style
 

3-Classroom Style

(see video below; also at https://slx.sun.com/1179275712)

Download now or watch on posterous

Break Area RoR.mov (4471 KB)

I will continue discussing and demonstrating some of the enhancements we were able to show in the virtual world instance of MPK16 in the next post.

Posted via email from dianaf's posterous