MPK16 in the Virtual World!

Sun’s Open Work Services Group is opening the virtual world version of our MPK16 Pilot Space in Second Life on the morning of Tuesday, October 13! We will be conducting guided tours at 10am SLT (PDT) this Tuesday, immediately following the Sun Expert Chat: Digital Quicksand, as well as for the next several Tuesdays. If you’d like to come on one of the guided tours, meet at the Sun Employee Island (slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sun%20Microsystems%206/117/110/26) Tuesday morning. 

(Note: your Second Life avatar must be registered as a Sun Employee; register or get an avatar here)

My next few blog entries will discuss the different aspects of the virtual world instance of our MPK16 Pilot Space, starting out with a little background on the project.

Background

The MPK16 pilot space, in the “real” or physical world, was built to facilitate collaboration for teams that are physically seated together, as well as those that have some distributed members. Currently, most of Sun’s MPK campus consists of closed (four walls plus door) offices, which, while excellent for heads-down and isolated work, is a poor choice for team collaboration. The MPK16 pilot space contains the following features to enable collaboration:

* open plan studios, dedicated to a team
* multiple informal areas for collaboration such as Laptop Bar, Network Den, and Break Area
* formal collaborative areas (conference rooms, Team Room)

All of these areas are enhanced to specifically improve collaboration, both locally and at a distance.

We originally built a virtual world replica of our physical version of the MPK16 space to train and tour our Sun counterparts throughout the world, to let them see the prototype space so they could see the functionality, layout, and obtain training in the use of these newly implemented collaborative areas and tools. 

It has since become another “node” in our network of places, in addition to other nodes such as other Sun offices, client sites, travel locations, and employee homes. Most of my co-workers are local to the Bay Area, as I am, but my boss and another co-worker are in other states. Although our first choice is to meet face-to-face, that’s rarely feasible for us, so we can now choose to meet “in-world.” 

In our Second Life version of MPK16, you can move your “avatar” around, walk around the space, and see and talk to your co-workers (the other avatars). This space exists in a private area, only accessible to Sun employees, so your conversations and presentations won’t be overheard. 

  

Next, I will explore how we have replicated some of the aspects of the MPK16 real world space.

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