Welcome to epsiode twenty-three of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business.

On today’s show, we speak with Chris Sherman, Executive Director of Virtual Worlds Management, the leading trade and media company serving virtual worlds professionals. With more than 17 years experience, Chris is a seasoned expert on the virtual worlds and video game industries

He discusses the upcoming Virtual Worlds London event, taking place at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre on 20-21 October 2008.

We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 20 7193 1295 or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com

Links

- Virtual Worlds London, 20-21 October
- Virtual Worlds Management

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Welcome to epsiode twenty-two of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business.

On today’s show, we speak with Robert Gehorsam, President of Forterra Systems.

Forterra is probably the leading provider of private, virtual world technology for the corporate, healthcare, government and defense, and education sectors.

Robert is a veteran of the online entertainment world, having held senior management positions at Prodigy, Sony and Viacom before joining Forterra in 2002.

Show notes for this episode:

00:12 - Mike O’Hara introduction
00:45 - Start of interview
00:55 - Robert’s background
01:40 - Some history & the relationship with There.com & Makena
04:42 - The Olive platform and Forterra’s customers
05:20 - How and where is Olive used?
07:40 - Interfacing with the real world & external applications
09:24 - Open standards versus open source
10:10 - Simulated vs real-world environments & the “uncanny chasm”
12:35 - Emergency response & military training
13:58 - Simulation of real-world events & scenario analysis
17:45 - Training in hazardous material response & other industrial uses
19:54 - Thoughts on OpenSim
22:02 - Forterra’s plans for the future
23:49 - Where to find out more
24:27 - End of interview and wrap-up

We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 20 7193 1295 or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com

Links

Forterra Systems Inc

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Welcome to epsiode twenty-one of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business.

Today, we talk to Rohan Freeman, CEO of The Sine Wave Company, Second Life’s leading producer of professional animations, events and robots.

Rohan talks about how he discovered a niche within Second Life and how he manages to run a successful real-world business enterprise on the back of content and services offered purely in the virtual world.

Show notes for this episode:

00:12 - Mike O’Hara introduction
00:48 - Start of interview
01:25 - Rohan’s background
02:18 - Motion captured animations
03:30 - Robots
05:08 - Avoiding the empty building syndrome
06:28 - Live events
07:23 - Getting around constraints on audience sizes
07:55 - The “sports bar” model for event distribution
10:00 - OpenSim
11:07 - Business evolution of The Sine Wave Company
12:56 - Tapping into the growth of user-generated content
14:32 - The participation aspect of live events
17:16 - How Sine Wave’s animations are created
20:47 - Plans for the future
22:26 - Where to find out more
22:57 - End of interview and wrap-up

We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 20 7193 1295 or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com

Links:

The Sine Wave Company

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Welcome to epsiode twenty of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business.

Today, we bring you a conversation with Greg Nuyens, CEO of Qwaq. Recently named as a “cool vendor” by Gartner, Qwaq creates business collaboration solutions using virtual world technology. Its product, Qwaq Forums, is increasingly being used by enterprises such as Intel and BP to facilitate collaborative working.

Show notes for this episode:

00:12 - Mike O’Hara introduction
00:55 - Start of interview
01:40 - Greg’s background
02:52 - Why does Gartner think Qwaq is a “cool vendor”?
03:26 - A brief overview of Qwaq
05:25 - Why is sharing the same virtal space so important?
06:52 - Collaborative working in practice
08:54 - Combining human social cues with collaboration activities
11:14 - Mimicking the real-world environment within the virtual world
14:22 - Applications and tools supported within Qwaq Forums
16:15 - Dedicated client software versus browser-based interface
17:38 - Hosted server environment versus enterprise deployment
18:30 - Croquet, the open-source back-end
21:46 - The main challenges in getting this technology adopted
24:31 - Who are the early adopters and what are they doing?
27:21 - Where to find out more
28:20 - End of interview and wrap-up

We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 20 7193 1295, or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com

Links:

Qwaq.com

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Today we bring you the second and final part of our conversation with Christian Renaud, Chief Architect for Networked Virtual Environments at the Cisco Technology Centre.

Christian chats with Vicki Zesses of Voices in Business on a range of topics, including how he has been using virtual world technology to attempt to reduce his carbon footprint, by holding virtual meetings instead of flying around the globe.

Show notes for this episode:

00:12 - Mike O’Hara introduction
00:38 - Continuation of interview from previous episode
00:50 - The goal Christian has set for himself to not travel
01:58 - The Nature Conservancy challenge
04:05 - The inefficiency of trade shows
05:28 - The shrinking role of geography in collaboration
06:55 - Different levels of human & social interaction
09:50 - Where face-to-face communication is necessary
10:32 - Research work being done with Tom Malone of MIT/CCI
12:51 - What does the future hold?
13:21 - Education, training and simulation
14:10 - Business collaboration
15:51 - Integration with existing technologies
16:40 - Custom 3D simulations
17:48 - The problem with linear extrapolation
19:08 - The gamer generation
21:34 - The move to a distributed working model
24:14 - End of interview and wrap-up

We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 20 7193 1295, or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com

Links:

The Nature Conservancy challenge
MIT Centre for Collective Intelligence

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Welcome to Episode Eighteen of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business.

Today we bring you the first part of a conversation between Vicki Zesses of Voices in Business and Christian Renaud, Chief Architect for Networked Virtual Environments at the Cisco Technology Centre, the group that provides business rationale and market insight for determining future Cisco emerging technologies. The Technology Center is Cisco’s corporate incubator chartered with identifying emerging markets and technologies and developing them into new revenue streams for the company.

Show notes for this episode:

00:12 - Mike O’Hara introduction
00:55 - Start of interview and Christian’s background
01:57 - Cisco’s involvement in Social Media and virtual worlds
04:48 - Product launches in Second Life
05:51 - Getting the word out and driving traffic to virtual events
07:55 - What has and what hasn’t worked
10:30 - Starting with the user
11:28 - Measuring ROI on new marketing versus traditional marketing
14:44 - Targeting the right demographic
17:25 - Using the appropriate metrics for measuring ROI
19:45 - End of part one and wrap-up

We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 (0) 20 7193 1295, or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com

Links:

Christian’s blog
Cisco Virtual Worlds blog

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Welcome to Episode Seventeen of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business. Today’s show features an interview with Ron Edwards, President of Ambient Performance, a firm specializing in mobile solutions, Web 2.0 collaborative technologies and Virtual Worlds.

Ambient partners with Forterra Systems, creators of OLIVE (the On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment), which is increasingly being used as an Enterprise Virtual World platform in both the private and public sector (by, amongst others, military and intelligence organizations).

I spoke with Ron about how and where OLIVE is being used and how it differs from Second Life.

Show notes for this episode:

00:12 - Mike O’Hara introduction
01:01 - Start of interview
01:31 - Some background on Ron & Ambient Performance
03:17 - How Forterra’s OLIVE differs from Second Life
05:15 - Training/simulation and collaboration
05:50 - Role-playing & real-world physics
07:05 - Interoperability with real-world systems
08:21 - Single sign-ons, LDAP and authentication
09:01 - Photo-realistic avatars
09:39 - Technology and culture of business collaboration
11:40 - Carbon reduction and cost reduction
12:48 - The learning curve
15:20 - Security, stability and reliability
17:40 - Use of OLIVE by military, defence & intelligence agencies
19:30 - Where to find out more
20:20 - There.com
21:06 - Upcoming events
21:48 - End of interview and wrap-up

We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 (0) 20 7193 1295, or or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com

Links:

Ambient Performance website
Ambient Connections blog
Forterra Systems - screenshots & videos
YouTube video playlist of OLIVE in action
SGI & Serious Virtual Worlds Conference, Sep 2008  
Enterprise Virtual Worlds Seminar, May 2008 
There.com

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Welcome to Episode Sixteen of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business. Today’s show features an interview with Jeff Barr, Web Services Evangelist at Amazon.com.

As an evangelist, Jeff travels both the real world and the virtual world talking to people about the Amazon Web Services. I was fortunate enough to catch up with him in real life on his recent visit to London, and spoke to him about Amazon Web Services’ activities in Second Life.

Show notes for this episode:

00:12 - Mike O’Hara introduction
00:42 - Start of interview
01:28 - Jeff’s role at Amazon.com
03:18 - Where do virtual worlds fit in?
04:40 - Second Life as a development platform
06:15 - Communicating with software developers
08:27 - In-world conferences and chats
11:00 - Barriers to entry
13:48 - Amazon’s author events
16:02 - Keeping it real
17:57 - What does the future hold?
19:58 - Some resources for listeners
20:46 - End of interview and wrap-up

We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 (0) 20 7193 1295, or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com

Links:

Amazon Web Services website
Amazon Web Services blog

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Welcome to Episode Fifteen of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business. Today’s show features an interview with Erica Driver, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, Inc.

Erica recently co-authored a Forrester report entitled “Getting Real Work Done in Virtual Worlds“, which looks at how virtual worlds such as Second Life are increasingly being used effectively in a range of areas, from simulating real world situations and environments, through training and education, to business collaboration.

Show notes for this episode:

00:12 - Mike O’Hara introduction
00:39 - Start of interview
01:10 - Why should businesses be paying attention to virtual worlds?
02:05 - Simulation and practise of real-world events
03:25 - The medical and emergency sector
04:34 - The challenges for non-gamers
05:38 - Alternatives to Second Life
07:35 - Behavioural changes associated with virtual worlds
10:35 - Where are the key growth areas?
13:04 - The educational aspect
13:45 - Where to go for more information
14:58 - End of interview and wrap-up

We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 (0) 20 7193 1295, or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com

Links:

Forrester Blog - From Information to Knowledge Management
Forrester website

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Rocky Maddaloni + Tom Hood

Welcome to Episode Fourteen of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business. Today’s show features an interview with Certified Public Accountant, Tom Hood.

As well as being the CEO and Executive Director of the Maryland Association of CPAs and Founder and CEO of the Business Learning Institute, Tom is also Founder of the Second Life Association of CPAs (SLACPA) and the man behind CPA Island, a fast-growing resource for all things CPA-related within Second Life.

Show notes for this episode:

00:12 - Mike O’Hara introduction
00:46 - Start of interview
01:07 - Background on SLACPA
02:22 - The new generation of CPAs
05:50 - The birth of CPA Island
06:27 - What actually happens on CPA Island?
07:05 - Student recruitment
07:48 - CPA education
08:25 - Meetings and connections
09:59 - Certified continuing education credits
11:20 - Virtual Business & Accounting Expo
12:25 - Answering the sceptics: where is the money?
13:58 - Virtual World economics and taxation
16:01 - Where to start?
17:52 - Where to find out more
19:01 - Final thoughts
20:12 - End of interview and wrap-up

We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 (0) 20 7193 1295, or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com

Links:

CPA Island
Second Life Association of CPAs
CPA Web 2.0 Self-guided Learning Site

Six Reasons to consider Second Life for Learning
Is Second Life for Real
Professor Robert Bloomfield’s show on “Metanomics”
Professor Hornik’s really Engaging Accounting

CPA Island (SLURL)

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