Recently in Pages - Archived Category

Second Life is a virtual world on the Internet. Unlike multi-player games like World of Warcraft, Second Life has no rules, quests, or goals - people just do what they want. Whilst Second Life has some fantasy users and some SF users, the vast majority of users have avatars that represent "normal" people (well OK, slightly extreme normal people), and the architecture is also pretty much C21.

With nearly 2m users, typically aged in their 30s, a 25:75 male/female split (but with females spending twice as long on-line as males) and over 50% of new users coming from outside the US, Second Life is not to be dismissed lightly. Add in the fact that brands like the BBC, CNET, Adidas, Toyota and IBM are buying in to Second Life can you afford not to at least have a look at what all the fuss is about?

For a start, download our briefing note on Second Life (PDF), and read on....

Why Second Life

We are interested in Second Life (SL) for four reasons.

First, in its own right it is the most developed and flexible virtual world, and we are already seeing the beginnings of virtual commerce v-commerce), both in terms of an in-world economy and an SL-RL (Real Life) economy. By learning on SL we, and you, will be better able to capitalise on this and other v-worlds and v-commerce systems as they develop. Companies like the BBC are already using the world, who will follow?
Second, SL provides a wonderful 3D environment in which to look at data in a different way. There are already examples of companies building copies of RL environments - or planned RL environments - and getting potential customers to try them on for size in SL. We can also use SL to display more abstract information in a 3D way - why not look at stocks and share data as a set of palm trees - or even as a micro-ecology. IBM has bought an island in Second Life just to experiment with the concepts and technologies.
Third, SL is rapidly becoming the place for leading edge marketeers. Toyota has already run one campaign in SL, a hotel chain has used it for PR, and an American clothing store is now selling virtual copies of its clothes. Could you market your business through Second Life?
Finally SL is a real test-bed for the future. In SL we can create almost anything in software. Want to know what personal robots might be like, or smart paper, or swarm-bots. Just create them in SL and see how they work - and use that knowledge to inform your RL planning.

Daden and Second Life

To us Second Life is useful because it has a web interface which lets us pass data between SL and RL. So for instance:

- we can create smart newspapers in-world which when touched call on an RSS feed in the real world to provide them with the latest news headlines
- we can interface our chatbots into SL, so that the same chatbot can answer queries both within SL and RL - providing a consistent customer experience
- we can take real world data and use it to manipulate (and even create) objects in SL which vary with the data





We first started using Second Life in 2004, less than a year after it opened. We are ideally placed to help you:

- understand Second Life, and what it might mean for your business
- build your own in-world presence
- gain maximum PR and marketing benefit from SL
- move information between SL and RL (product data in, customer data out!)
- use Second Life to help your business succeed





If you would like a copy of our Second Life white paper then please contact us, or else visit us in Second Life at Nari <48, 170, 134> and IM/talk to Corro Moseley, our in-world representative.

Whilst the advanced visualisation and presentational technology is great, we recognise that some users need alternative approaches in order to best access web based information and services.

Such assistive technology has in the past often been very bespoke, and as a result very expensive. We believe that the web is opening up a whole array of new opportunities for cheap but powerful assistive technology for those with disabilities - and particularly for those who are visually impaired.

Our current assistive technology solutions include:

• ReaderBot - a web-delivered talking web browser for individual or organisational users, or site-owners


• TENBot - a free* simple conversion service which turns any RSS/RDF/ATOM feed into the Text Electronic Newsletter standard, an optimised standard for screen-reader use (* see conditions)


• VIGoogle - a free alternative front-end to Google which is optimised for screen-reader use

For decades now we've got use to the idea that we must communicate with computers in unusual ways. First it was the command line, then mouse and windows, then hyperlinks and the web.

But outside of the electronic world we communicate by talking. By conversation. Our work on natural language interfaces is designed to help bring the conversational metaphor to web-sites and web based applications and services.

Combining leading edge avatar and text-to-speech technology with our own Discourse conversational engine we can offer you and your customers a variety of new ways of interacting with your information and services, in particular:

• Avatar guides to provide help, sales messages, news and commentary to web users


• Natural language interfaces to a wide variety of applications


• Chatbots which can engage your users in full two-way conversation


• Self-build avatars and text-to-speech systems for use in your own applications

Visit the www.chatbots.co.uk micro-site for more information and to talk to our chatbots.

The brain understands patterns and images better than lines of text - a result of our early life out on the savannah.
That's why we like tools that let you display information in visual ways. Our main activity focuses around:

• DataGlobe - for presenting geographically-related data with Google Earth, Google Maps,and other web based GIS systems.


• NewsGlobe - a version of DataGlobe especially for displaying RSS, RDF and ATOM news feeds on Google Earth, Google Maps,and other web based GIS systems.


• DataTime- for presenting time and date related data using MIT's Timeline and other web based timeline tools

We are also interested in creating novel visualisation approaches (see our visualisation gallery of favourite examples).
Our work with visualation tools has also given us significant experience in data transformation, getting web data out of one system and into another.

All of our solutions are related to how you analyse, visualise, access and communicate information.

Information Analysis		Information Visualisation		Communicating Ideas and Information		Assistive Access Technology
Our models and meta-models will help you make better business decisions. ... more about Models		The brain understands patterns and images better than lines of text - a result of our early life out on the savannah. So why not make use of our powerful mapping and time-line visualisation solutions? ... more about Visualisation ... use Second Life to visualise your data		Forget command lines, mouse and windows, and even hyperlinks! Natural language, virtual world and avatar driven interfaces are now a reality. ... more about Natural Interfaces ... more about Virtual Worlds and Second Life ... dedicated Daden Chatbots micro-site ... use chatbots in Second Life		The web is opening up a whole array of new opportunities for cheap but powerful assistive technology for those with disabilities - and particularly for those who are visually impaired. ... more about Assistive Technology ... dedicated ReaderBot web site

Our solutions are delivered either as consultancy assignments, web delivered applications, or bespoke developments.

We have a keen interest in advanced Internet speech and mobile technologies. Often this interest results in applications which we develop for specific client engagements, but sometimes we think the ideas are so good that we develop them into stand-alone products.

All our applications share one thing in common - they are web delivered (what we used to call ASP). All the code runs on our servers, so you have no need to install code on your servers, or your users' PC. This makes the applications easier and cheaper to deploy and manage, and means that you benefit from our on-going upgrading of the applications.

Some of the applications are offered for free, and others operate on a subscription model. All are aimed at helping you to use and communicate information in new and original ways.

Chatbots				Chatbots are software programmes designed to mimic human conversation. They are a great way of engaging with your clients an can act as entertainers, advisors, virtual sales and support agents or even teachers or trainers. Our chatbots can be text or speech based, and we can provide dynamic avatars to give the chatbot a human (or in-human!) face. Visit our dedicated chatbots site at www.chatbots.co.uk. Download our Chatbot white paper...
NewsGlobe				NewsGlobe takes any RSS, RDF,or ATOM web feed and plots the entries against either Google Earth or Google Map zoomable map of the world. Whilst originally developed to plot world news stories, it could be used to plot any set of geographical data, from construction projects and flu outbreaks to homes for sale. Our free version plots to major city accuracy, but the commercial version can plot data to post code or 10m lat/long accuracy. Read our GeoData Tech Brief for more information.
Nabaztag				Nabaztag looks like a cute rabbit, but is actually better thought of as a smart WiFi pager or messaging system. Linking easily into any available WiFi network the Nabaztag can receive either text or recorded messags and play them to anybody within earshot - and store them for later review. The availability of an API also means that external applications can make use of the Nabaztag for alterting or reminder purposes. We are particularly interested in looking at applications for kids, the elderly and infirm, and for visually impaired people.
ReaderBot (beta)				ReaderBot is our soon-to-be-launched virtual screenreader. It is designed to allow blind and partially sighted users to access web pages from any Internet connected PC. Versions will be available for web site owners, community organisations and individual users. ReaderBot is due to launch in October 2006. Visit the ReaderBot web site.
NewsBots				NewsBots are virtual newscasters. They take an RSS, RDF or ATOM web feed and read the content out to visitors. Newsbots are a simple and effective way of adding life and dynamic content to any web site. Visit our dedicated chatbots site at www.chatbots.co.uk for more information.
PageBots				Pagebots provide visitors to your web sites with an audio commentary to one or more pages or functions. For instance a page bot can greet a visitor and tell them about special offers on your site. Unlike chatbots Pagebots are just a one-way communication tool and can't engage the visitor in conversation. However we can make their content dynamic based on external data feeds or even phoned in voice recordings! Visit our dedicated chatbots site at www.chatbots.co.uk for more information.
PhoneBot				PhoneBot is our generic application for taking web based information and delivering it as speech to mobile phone users. The information can range from extracts of a single page (eg latest company news), to RSS/RDF/ATom news feeds to entire, navigatable web sites using our ReaderBot software in conjunctions with PhoneBot. Give us a call if you have information that you would like to put at the end of a phone line.
TENBot (beta)				TENBot takes any RSS, RDF,or ATOM web feed and converts it to the Text Electronic Newsletter format. This enables blind and partially sighted users to get easy access to the latest information on your web site with few of the difficulties of trying to read and navigate through conventional web pages. Read the provisional TENBot information sheet, or download it in PDF format.

Make RSS feeds readable to visually impaired users Uses the familiar TEN Electronic Newsletter format Allows users to rapidly search to stories of interest Users use own screen-readers or magnifiers Hosted service, no software to install Free* to charities serving visually impaired users The Electronic Newsletter (TEN) standard developed by Headstar is emerging as a common and useful format for email based newsletters. By setting the newsletter out in a simple standard format TEN lets visually impaired (VI) users use their screen-readers (or other access technology) to rapidly get an overview of the newsletter and then jump forward to the items that interest them. Despite attempts to make web sites usable, the typical web site still presents a complex proposition for a screen-reader user. However if the site has RSS (or ATOM or RDF) feeds available then potentially it has much key information available in a format that could be more easily used by the visually impaired use. TENBot is a hosted service from Daden Consulting that allows web site owners to provide their RSS feeds in the TEN format for use by VI users. This will enable these users to rapidly obtain the key information from your web site without having to deal with complex navigation issues. Every feed which is TENBot enabled is made available on our feed directory, allowing users easy access to a wide variety of information. TENBot is provided as a hosted service, so you don't need to install any special software on your web site, and the user needs no special plug-ins or downloads. Simply register your feed on our web site, place a link to the TENBot enabled feed on your web site and you're done. Whilst initially developed for use with news stories, the flexibility of RSS and TENBot means that you can use it with a wide variety of information feeds from events lists and for-sale items, to service bulletins and programme times. Visit www.daden.co.uk/tenbot/ to try it today! You can also download this information as a PDF.

Specification The principal specifications of TENBot are: Reads RSS, RDF or ATOM feeds Displays contents in text or HTML format using the TEN standard Dynamically generates TEN formatted contents list Content delivered in its original language ASP delivered (i.e. all code runs on our servers, no need to install anything) Email support We also offer other services to make more use of your RSS-type feeds including: NewsBot – a self-voicing virtual newscaster NewsGlobe – plots stories by location on Google Maps or Google Earth. PhoneBot – delivers news feeds over the telephone Pricing TENBot is free* to registered charities principally serving visually impaired users. For other web sites TENBot is priced at: TBC p.a. for up to 100 uses p.m. TBC p.a. for up to 1000 uses p.m. TBC p.a. for up to 10,000 uses p.m.. Higher capacities on request. * The free offer is valid to a maximum of 1000 uses a month. Daden reserves the right to place advertising on the free service. For more information on the TEN standard visit www.headstar.com/ten/.

The Electronic Newsletter (TEN) standard developed by Headstar is emerging as a common and useful format to make email based newsletters more accessible to visually impaired users. TENBot is a hosted service that allows web site owners to provide their RSS feeds in the TEN format for use by blind and visually users. This will enable these users to rapidly obtain the key information from your web site without having to deal with complex navigation issues. Every feed which is TENBot enabled will be made available on our feed directory, allowing users easy access to a wide variety of information. TENBot is currently in public Beta and comments are welcome. To try the service out we have TEN enabled the following popular RSS feeds (all links open in this window to help screen-readers). BBC News (supported by BBC Backstage) Guardian News Cinema Blend Movie Reviews BBC TV Now and Next (supported by BBC Backstage) As you see just put the RSS feed URL after url= to view any other feeds you know of. Check out Feedster for other feeds to try. (Note that this facility will only exist during the Beta testing phase). We hope to launch the service formally in February 2006. If you'd like to make use of the service then please let us know. Read the provisional TENBot information sheet, or download it in PDF format.

NewsGlobe for Google Maps

To use NewsGlobe for Google Maps just call the following URL:

http://www.daden.co.uk/cgi-bin/newsbot/newsglobe.pl?url=FEED&api=gmap

(replacing FEED with the URL of an RSS, ATOM or RDF news feed)

Note: If the URL of the feed includes the characters ?, & or = then replace them with their encoded values, ie %3F for ?, %25 for &, and $3D for =.

NewsGlobe for Google Earth

NewsGlobe is a free dynamic layer Network Link from Daden Consulting for Google Earth.

It takes the stories from an RSS news feed, then checks the words in each story title against a list of countries and cities on the Earth. Any matches will result in placemark being placed on GoogleEarth, along with the news item title. You can then click on the placemark to read the summary, then then click through to the original story.

To use NewsGlobe you first need to install Google Earth (it's free) from http://earth.google.com.

Then the simplest way to access NewsGlobe to click on this link:

http://www.daden.co.uk/newsglobe/newsglobe.kmz

...which will automatically install NewsGlobe with our default feed set (currently BBC World News only - supported by BBC Backstage).

If you want to add more more feeds then for each feed add a new Network Link in GoogleEarth and set its URL to:

http://www.daden.co.uk/cgi-bin/newsbot/newsglobe.pl?url=FEED

...where FEED is the URL of the RSS/RDF/Atom feed you are after. Again watch the URL encoding.

We've set up a complete set of BBC World News for you, and other users are creating their own sets which we'll try and post here.

For best results, set the zoom to about the size of Europe then set the globe spinning and you'll see each of the stories appear and disappear as the Earth turns. For even better results put it on a big plasma screen!

Users can click on the link in each news story pop-up to go to the orginal story on its home web-site. (Click on image for full-size screenshot)

---

NewsGlobe Change History

21 Nov 05 - Included Google Map generation option, as well as Google Earth.

4 Aug 05 - Finished adjectives for all countries. Added 480 UK place names.

29 Jul 05 - Started adding adjectival versions of country names, eg Polish, French etc

27 Jul 05 - Added 250 world cities to the geocoding, which join the 300 countries already on the database

---

Back to the NewsGlobe Product Description.

Our strategy services are designed to help you ensure that your marketing and communications strategy flows from your business strategy, and that your business strategy is well communicated.

Meta-models are central to our strategic consulting. They guide you through the thought processes tools and models needed to create and implement world-class strategies - and provide you with a valuable communications tool when working with staff, stakeholders and investors.

As well as helping you develop your strategy meta-model, here are are some of the ways that we can help you.

---

Balanced scorecards are ideal tools with which to formulate, manage, and communicate strategy. We can help you develop a "strategy map" that encapsulates your business, and derive a balanced scorecard that lets you track, and communicate progress towards you goal. We can even help implement either a hosted or on-site scorecard application to automate the scorecard reporting and communications process.

---

Is your marketing strategy the right strategy for you? Are you selling the right product, to the right customers, through the right channels in the right way? We can work with you to review your current marketing strategy, or to develop a new one. And by having an efficient marketing strategy you will be able to minimise the cost of your marketing - and maximise the return.

---

Getting new product develop right is always a difficult task, and managing risk and cost during the NPD process is vital for a successful business. Our models can help you understand how you are approaching R&D, and how you should be selecting candidate products for further development. A Product Development Meta-Model can let you see at a glance the complete strategic environment within which a new product will be operating, giving you a better understanding of the risks and opportunities, and a higher likelihood of success, than ever before.