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Our office address is:

Daden Limited
Faraday Wharf
Birmingham Science Park
Holt Street
Birmingham
B7 4BB

The office is within easy walking distance (about 15 mins) of Birmingham City Centre and all three city train stations (New Street, Moor St and Snow Hill).

Note: Ignore Oxygen St - it no longer exists!

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Coming By Car

• From the North: By M6 or M1 to Spaghetti Junction (M6 J9), then S on the A38M (Aston Expressway) then filter off left (signed Inner Ring Road) just before the A38M ends. Turn L (1st exit) at the roundabout onto the Inner Ring Road, get into the right hand lane and turn R at the first traffic lights into Lister Street, then R in 50m at the first cross-roads into Holt St, then R in 50m up the ramp into the car park - or R in 100m at the end of the building down Love Lane then R again into the underground car park.
• From the South West: M5 up to the M6 J10, then S to Spaghetti Junction (M6 J9) then follow instructions as above. Faster and simpler than going through the city centre.
• From the South East: M1/M6, or M40/M42 to M6 J4, then N to Spaghetti Junction (M6 J9) then follow instructions as above. Faster and simpler than going through the city centre.
• Parking: If you are with us for less than two hours there is free parking in the car park up the ramp at the front of the building. If you are staying longer we can usually arrange for longer - just contact us before hand. Otherwise there is a pay-on-exit car park beneath the building (entrance at the left/west end of the buiding from Love Lane, don't go up the ramp).

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Coming By Train

Birmingham is well served with regular fast train connections in all directions (London Euston is only 1h20m away). It is simplest to walk from the station to our offices (too close for any easy bus), but a taxi takes about 5 minutes and costs about £5. If coming from New Street the best bet is to:

• Head up the escalators into the Pallasades shopping centre
• Turn left, walk out the shopping centre and down the ramp
• Carry straight on up Corporation Street, past House of Fraser, straight over a roundabout with a metal cut-out of Tony Hancock (!), past the Law Courts to a big dual carriageway (James Watt Queensway)
• Cross the dual carriageway at the pedestrain crossing on the right, then turn left towards Aston University
• Turn right into Aston St, cross the road by the bus/taxi stops, then walk across the precinct to the right of the main Aston building, keep right of the Aston Student's Guild, go down the right hand side of the Sack of Potatoes pub onto Lister Street, then at the cross-roads with Holt St go STRAIGHT ACROSS
• About 50m further on there are steps in the wall on the left which take you up to the Faraday Wharf car park and then just walk along the building to the entrance on your right.

(we'll try and plot it on Google Maps!)

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Coming by Bike

The BSP web site has additional directions, especially for those coming by bike!

With our growing reputation and a steady stream of successful and innovative projects the demand for Daden's services is growing rapidly. Our current job opportunities are listed below. We are also always keen to hear from anyone interested in working for us in a freelance capacity - particularly if Midlands based. More details below. Any enquiries regarding employment opportunities should be sent to jobs@daden.co.uk, ideally with a CV and a link to any on-line or in-world portfolio.

Permanent and Part-Time Roles

We currently have no vacancies for permanent roles.

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Freelance Work

We are always in interested in hearing from anyone who would like to work for us in a freelance capacity - particularly if Midlands based (although we have worked with people as far away as the USA and Australia). Freelancers are brought in on a project by project basis. There is no guarantee of work, but it's nice to know who we can call on as opportunities arise. Skills we are particularly interested in at the moment include:

• AI programming (esp if you have AIML expertise)
• Web programming
• Perl and C# programming
• Advanced scripting (esp web-sl interfacing)
• Prim based avatars/mannequins
• Clothing, skin and avatar design
• 3D modelling (esp Unity)
• Landscaping
• Vehicles (land, sea, and air)
• Recreating real-world buildings

DataScape is Daden's data visualisation system for virtual worlds. Within it you can view map, text and 2D and 3D data in order to gain a better understanding of a particular situation or data set, and to help make better decisions. In a world where data overload is a major issue Datascape can help you make better decisions and gain a better understanding through shared access to integrated data. Datascape supports 10 main methods of data visualisation: The Mapscape map table which lets you display most web compatible systems, such as Google Maps and Open StreetMap, zooming down to the same level of detail as on the web, but sharing that view with everyone else in the 'scape. We can even turn custom mapping and schematics into Datascape compatible maps. Plotting geocoded information onto the map - typically derived from RSS feeds or databases, and geocoded by place name, lat/long or post/zip code. Each marker can then link back to a further information source on the web or elsewhere, or display integral data about itself, or from an RSS or similar feed, or be used to zoom the display. Plotting real-time data on the map such as radar tracked aircraft or ships, or GPS tracked vehicles or people Displaying RSS feeds as text displays. The standard Datascape offers 3 displays, each capable of displaying 7 news items, but more and bigger displays can be provided. Each story can be read by clicking on it, and links can also be followed to the web and imagery. Each screen can also have an index of feeds. Displaying static images or powerpoint slides, turning the whole space into a presentation forum Running video - either pre-recorded or streamed in from video cams, CCTV and web cams Plotting 3D points in space, either as representations of objects (eg stars, molecules etc), or as data (eg 3D graphs of stock prices etc), or as 3D connection/mind maps (eg books on Amazon linked by Listmania) 3D globe display with data points plotted as for the 2D maps. The globe even has optional Moon and Mars modes (we call it future proofing!) 3D object displays - whether of vehicles or buildings, or new consumer products Access to the web through Daden's own Navigator Web Browser for Second Life which (with a few limitations) lets you collaboratively surf the web from in-world. In addition Datascape also provides access to White Board facilities for collecting ideas during meetings (with export to web), and Abi, our chatbot who can look data up from information sources such as Wikipedia, the BBC and Amazon. The best way to understand how Datascape works is to use it. Around the edge of the scape are over half a dozen control panels. Each sets Datascape up for a particular theme. These will show off all the different ways in which Datascape can be used. Just visit each one, or those that interest you, and touch the large image on the panel to trigger the initial displays for that theme, and then the other buttons on the panel to look at more specific data/visualisations. We can create versions of Datascape tailored or customised to the needs of individual organisations, both public and private sector. If you have concerns about data security then we can even deploy a version within Open Sim or Second Life which will operate behind your firewall. If you would like a demo of Datascape then just contact us. NOTE: You must have your Second Life Media control switched on to see the map. The map display currently takes about 5 - 10 seconds to refresh - please give it time to do so before using another control.

The following products focus on specific aspects in the business and organisational use of virtual worlds - particularly Second Life.

PIVOTE - Virtual World Independent Training Authoring PIVOTE allows you to create the structure and information content of a training exercise on the web - independent of a virtual world. You can then link 3D assets in your chosen virtual world to the exercise, and potentially play the same exercise in multiple virtual worlds, on the web, and even on mobile phones. Tutors don't need to learn virtual worlds to create and maintain content, and all student performance data is saved directly to the web for analyse and upload into a VLE. PIVOTE is an open-source application which Daden helped develop, and for which we can provide consultation, development, training and hosting. Read more about PIVOTE Download our Instruct flyer (1MB PDF)

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Datascape - A Truly Virtual War-Room for Data Visualisation Datascape bring a wide variety of information visualisation techniques into a single shared briefing hub within a virtual world. At its heart is Mapscape, which lets you view Google Maps and other mapping systems in Second Life, and plot data from RSS and Google Earth feeds onto the maps. In addition RSS screens display RSS content, a 3D plotter can plot numeric or spatial data, webcams and video content can be streamed straight in, and live data can be accessed and used to plot real-time locations and events. Read more about Datascape Download our Integrate flyer (1MB PDF)

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Discourse & Altair - Virtual Characters for a Virtual Word Virtual worlds are empty unless they are filled with avatars. But running your own staff 24/7 in a virtual world may not be effective. Our robotic avatars can not only act as virtual receptionists and sales staff, but also act as non-player characters in training exercises, and eActors in eDrama. And being based on the web, the same bots can also be accessed from a web site or mobile phone, or from multiple virtual worlds, and can use web services such as Wikipedia and Amazon to help answer questions. Read more about virtual characters. Download our Interact flyer (1MB PDF)

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Annotated Spaces - 3D Consultation and Commenting Virtual worlds are a great place to visualise new builds or redevelopments proposed for the physical world - but how do you collect stakeholder comments? Daden's Annotated Spaces let users drop "3D Post-Its" around a new build with their comments. Later visitors can interact with the "Post-Its" to say whether they agree or disagree, or add new Post-Its of their own. All the comments are extracted to the web in real-time, allowing web users to read the comments - and even add their own back into the virtual world. At the end of the exercise all of the comments and votes can be extracted to contribute to consultation documentation. Download our Involve flyer (1MB PDF)

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Daden Cays - Flexible Managed Spaces Daden Cays is our Virtual Business Park within Second Life. Located next to Daden Prime it enables organisation to rent smaller pieces of land when they are not ready for, or need, a full Second Life island. But the Cays is not really about plot sizes, its about being to operate in a managed environment where Daden can help you get set up (every tenant gets a choice of office builds free, and support to get logos, RSS feeds, web sites and powerpoints configured), and provide you with free access to central facilities such as a 60-seat auditorium and sandbox. And we vet every tenant so you know that everyone if focussed on the serious uses of Second Life!

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For more information on any of these product, or our more general virtual world services just follow the links or give us a call.

Virtual worlds can be used for two main type of visualisation: Structure and Data

Visualising Structures

Here we use the 3D space to create virtual copies of existing or proposed real-world structures. This could in theory be anything from natural forms (eg large versions of body organs) and fabricated objects (eg new machine parts or consumer goods) to complete buildings and even complete cities.

It is in these latter areas of building visualisation that we have seen the most interest so far. Early in Second Life history there were examples of campaigners using SL to visualise proposed new developments, and we now know of several cities and several technologies embarking on whole city visualisation projects (eg Twinity for Berlin and London). And of course there is always 3D modelling in Google Earth.

For us the really interesting aspect is how a virtual world like Second Life provides not only a 3D visualisation but also a social and immersive space. This is where virtual worlds offer a different solution to existing 3D fly-throughs and the like. With a fly-through you are normally stuck with a pre-rendered path, and even with interactive systems you have an objective view of the development from some disembodied point, and you can't share the experience, or actually use the space. With virtual worlds you get:

• An avatar in the space which lets you experience the build in a very subjective way
• A space which you can move around at will - and meet other people and share thoughts and ideas
• The ability to annotate the space with what you like and don't like, and comment on or vote for other people's comments, and choose between design options
• The ability to interact with the space - use the lifts and escalators, use information points
• The ability to actually use the space - either to fine tune design decisions, or to hold pre-launch events and familiarisation days, and to make it a living spce before the real build is even finished.

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Visualising Data

Virtual Worlds also have no diffiiculty in making data seem "real". Several virtual worlds support the ability to bring data in from the web and the real world - either as batch files or live data from web services feeds. This data coudl be real-time or historical and represent absolutely anything. We can then plot the data again historically or in real-time in a number of different ways:

• Literally, so the data points look like the real data subject - for instance our system which tracks aircraft appoaching LAX and plots the data as aircraft models over a map of southern califormia, or our star plotter which plots astronomical objects in a 3D planetarium
• Figuratively, as conventional 2D or 3D graphs, but with the added ability to make the points themselves vary in size/colour/shape
• Analagously - for instance plotting stock market data as a virtual forest, or our Twitter fountain which visualises Twitter posts as bubbles of thoughts
• Abstractly - anything else

As with visualising structures there are already PC applications that ley you do many of these sorts of visualisations, but by doing them in the virtual world:

• You experience the data in a very subjective way and from your avatars viewpoint - making it easier to appreciate trends and outliers - walking inside the data lets your experience it in a very visceral way and can lead to new insights


• You can share the visualisations with other people at the same time from anywhere in the world - and you can discuss the data whilst still "inside" it


• You can use just one system/virtual world to visualise to visualise widely varying data types - obviating the need to buy and learn different packages for different types of data

Next Steps

If you think that virtual worlds could help you better visualise your new build or your data then we'd be more than happy to come and present to you to give you a better understanding of what this technology can offer now, and where it might be going in the future. Please give us a call.

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Why don't you:

• Watch a video of real-time aircraft tracking data in Second Life (You Tube)
• Watch a video of Google Maps a 3D city models in Second Life (You Tube)
• Read about our work with Birmingham City Council on using Google Maps in Second Life to visualise city data and new development projects


• Download our Integrate flyer (1MB PDF)

Almost any project in a virtual world requires the design and build of a virtual space. We have an experienced team who can produce stunning virtual spaces based either on real-world buildings, or completely imagined ideas. Our Daden Cays virtual innovation park provides ready-to-go spaces for organisations who just want to dip their toes in the virtual water, whilst our client projects have included multi-street builds and single structures up to 250m in size.

Whether you need space for marketing, training, meetings or other uses, we can help you make the most of the virtual space. Here are just a few of our virtual world builds:

Millennium Point, Birmingham
Canals for Birmingham City Council
Imaged space for Southampton Solent University
Beach Bar, Daden Prime
Sunrise, Daden Prime

Next Steps

If you think that we can help you build a spce for you or your clients in a virtual world then we'd be more than happy to come and present to you to give you a better understanding of what this technology can offer now, and where it might be going in the future. Please give us a call.

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Why don't you:

• Watch a video of our build for Southampton Solent University (You Tube)
• Watch a video of the Outsiders machinima (You Tube) with the virtual set we created for Infinite Wisdom
• Download our 9 Point Virtual World Business Plan so you know what you should be building!
• Download our Involve flyer (1MB PDF)

	:
The media relay device used with the Navigator on group land		The Daden Navigator menu

Back to Daden Navigator main page

Please note that the below is extracted directly from the in-world notecard.

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Daden Navigator V1.0
====================

This may just be the first proper web browser in Second Life. Through simple chat commands

it let you view almost any web site on the web, surfing from web page to web page following

links just like a real web browser.

Installation Instructions
===============

The Navigator works by directly controlling your parcel's media stream.

The Navigator does not have its own screen, but works with whatever media texture and

screens you use on your parcel. When you use the Navigator the web pages will appear on any

media screens you have on your parcel. Your normal media content will automatically

re-appear when you use one of your other media devices. (note that some older devices may

not reset the new media MIME type properly, but you can do this manually from the Media tab

on the About Land option on the World menu drop-down.

If you don't know how to set up media screens on your parcel then check out Torley Linden's

excellent videos at:

http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/03/10/parcel-media-video-tutorials-how-to-play-movies-webpa

ges-more/

For use on Group land use the media relay included in the box - details below.

PLEASE NOTE THIS!!!!!

Say "home" or choose the "home" option from the menu in order to set the MIME type of your

media stream to text/html, after you have selected Direct or Group mode, otherwise you may

find the media screen stay blank even though the Navigator says it has loaded a web page.

END OF NOTE !!!

User Instructions
===========

Most control is via chat on Channel 0 (Pro version lets you set channel).

The main two commands are:

url YOURURL - to load a web page
link KEYWORDS - to follow a link based on the words in the link name, just put as many

keywords in as are necessary to distinguish the link from any other. Separate keywords by

space. For instance if you want to follow a link called "About Us", just type "link about

us", or even "link about" if there are no other links with the word "about" in them.

Other commands are:

search or google - brings up google search page
search X or google X - searches for X on google
back - back to last page, Navigator has a 6 page back history
forward - forward onto next page in history (once you've done BACK)
home - go to home page (default is www.daden.co.uk)
set home - sets current page to home*
refresh - refreshes the page
menu - launches (alternative way of getting to most commands)
popout - puts current URL into your main browser, or SL windowed browser
bookmark - remembers page as bookmark with the name of the link that led to it. number only

limited by memory. note that bookmarks are cleared when you reset the script
bookmarks - opens dialog box to browse bookmarks
clear bookmarks - clears bookmarks*
list bookmarks - lists bookmarks as chat (good to copy)
toggle media - toggle media between direct and relay mode*
ownerlock on - switches on ownerlock so only the owner can use the features marked *
ownerlock off - switches off the ownerlock

Notes:
- Daden Navigator starts in ownerlock mode
- resetting the script will clear the bookmark and history lists and set the home page back

to daden
- the script resets each time the unit is rezzed
- keep a backup copy in case you get the dreaded Stack Heap memory crash
- after 10 minutes of inactivity the browser reverts back to home page
- the colour border goes red when a link is requested, and blue once URL data is received

and purple when a menu is requested and its waiting for a menu choice
- all Navigator chat feedback uses Whisper mode, so you need to be within 10m to hear it

Browsing Notes
==========

- When matching links Navigator scores both on how many words are matched, and what

percentage that is of the words in the link - so for longer links you may need to match

more words than a shorter link if it doesn't have many unique words
- Page Not Found (404) errors can confuse the Navigator - just say "back" to go back to the

previous page and try another link
- If you think an image might be a link then since Navigator handles "Alt" tags you might

be able ot guess the ALT tag name and follow the link

Media
====

Since the Navigator uses the SL media stream you can only use one on each parcel.

Navigator supports two media modes:

- Direct: This is the conventional way of handling media. It means that the Navigator

directly sets the media stream for the parcel. In order to do this it MUST be owned by the

same avatar as the land itself. If the land is group land it would have to be deeded to the

group. The only issue with the latter is that because the Navigator is copyable we have

also made it non-transferable (otherwise you could distribute your own copies). So for

Group land please use the Relay mode.

- Relay: We use this a lot as it means we don't have to deed scripts we are working on!

Just rez the Media Relay pyramid (free with Navigator) and tuck it out of sight on your

parcel within chat range of the Navigator. Deed the Relay to your group (if you want you

can also change its texture to the parcel media texture but this is not essential). Then

use the "toggle media" command on the Navigator to set it into relay mode. It will then

"say" each URL on the media channel (-63342 - i.e. MEDIA on a phone keypad) which the relay

will hear and then set the media stream appropriately. The say "home" (or any url ending

with .html) to force the parcel MIME type to html not video.

Limitations
=======

Whilst Daden Navigator is a great step forward it is still not a 100% capable web browser.

Its limitations come from two areas:

- Second Life Web Page on a Prim: We use this feature of SL in order to display each web

page. This means we cannot control how each individual web page will be rendered. For

instance at the moment (July 08, SL V1.19) SL does not render Flash, YouTube or play media

and cannot scroll up and down on a page, or fill out forms - so we can't do these with

Daden Navigator.

- To follow links we use our proxy to retrieve the web page you are looking at and parse

the HTML to identity the links on the page. However if the links are embedded in Flash, or

use complex Javascript, or are images without ALT tags then we cannot find them. In fact

Daden Navigator behaves very similarly to the talking browsers and screen-readers used by

visually impaired users - so sites with good accessibility (eg WAI AAA) should work well,

whereas those with poor accessibility will not (just note how many sites have lots of links

called "more" or "click here" or just as images - they are a real pain for screen-reader

users - and now for you). We've always said that accessibility was important!

The simplest work-around to both of these is to use the "popout" command to put the

displayed page into your SL client or desktop web browser.

Reasonable and Acceptable Use, and Privacy
============================

Daden Navigator is subject to a Reasonable and Acceptable Use policy. This is mainly

driven by the fact that it uses a proxy on our servers to operate - that is how we find the

links you need. That does require us to place three conditions of use:

- Daden Navigator may only be used to look at lawful content. We don't want our proxy to be

used to fetch illegal content - defined by illegal in the UK, USA and where you are.
- Whilst the Navigator is copyable this is mainly to give you protection against accidental

deletion or stack heap memory crashes. Whilst we're happy for you to have a couple of

Navigators running on your land large number of copies (particularly if they are in

concurrent use) are not acceptable - please contact us for our volume pricing.
- Every link fetch eats up our bandwidth, we have to get the whole web page to match the

link you want. Whilst we are happy to support reasonable use of the system by a reasonable

numbers of SL residents if either of those parameters became excessive we may be faced

with excessive bandwith costs - in which case we may introduce a tiered service fee, or

even an ad supported model (of course we hope that Linden Lab sorts out proper on-prim

browsing before then!).

In order to help manage both these situations we capture the avatar name/id and location of

link request made (and of course the to/from URLs associated with that link request). This

data will only be used by us to support and manage the operation of this service.

PRO Version
=======

Coming soon, Daden Navigator Pro with support for a bookmarks notecard, owner

configuration, different chat channels and chat prefixes and more....

Join the Daden Navigator User Group to find out more.

Corporate Version
===========

For corporate users we also licence the proxy server that drives Daden Navigator. This will

not only speed response times for your users but it will also allow them to access your

Intranet pages from within Second Life. We can also build in bespoke features to better

support your employees. Please contact us for details.

Support, Suggestions, Bug Reporting
=======================

If you have any support question, product improvement suggestions, or wish to report a bug

(other than browser/page limitations described in Limitations above) then please email

support@daden.co.uk and include [Daden Navigator] in the subject line.

Why not join the Daden Navigator User Group on SL so you can help other users, and also

receive product update information.

About Daden
========

Daden Limited is full service virtual world consultancy. We offer services in 4 broad

areas:

- Inform: Letting businesses and organisations know what virtual worlds are all about - and

this includes worlds other than Second Life
- Involve: Getting organisations involved in virtual worlds, whether its creating bespoke

devices, or doing multi-sim builds
- Integrate: Integrating RL and VW data and systems, and in both directions. For instance

we have a demo system which displays real-time aircraft tracking data in SL, and we have

also brought Google Maps into SL
- Interact: Creating chatbot controlled avatars in SL to act as virtual receptionists and

customer service assistants, and providing other systems to support avatar relationship

management

Our RL clients include 6 UK universities, global brands from several sectors, SMEs and

charities/social sector organisations.

Visit us at Daden Prime (landmark included in the distribution box)
or on the web at http://www.daden.co.uk (why not use Navigator now!)

You can contact Daden in SL by IM'ing Corro Moseley or ImmortalitySou Ballinger, or

emailing info@daden.co.uk.

About Daden Navigator

Daden Navigator, the first publicly available web browser for Second Life, allows residents of the virtual world to collaboratively browse the web, sharing one web screen between users who may, in real life, live on different continents.

Technology introduced by Linden Lab a couple of months ago allowed residents to view web pages live within Second Life - however they could not follow any links to surf from one page to another. Daden Navigator now lets residents do this - surfing the web collectively in the same way that Daden's recent Google Maps viewer allowed residents to share Google Maps within the world.

Daden Navigator provides all the functions that you expect to see in a normal web browser. It lets you set a home page or a bookmark, view bookmarks, and has back, refresh and search buttons. It's as close as you can currently get to a normal web browser in Second Life.

To use the browser just rez it onto land you own (or your Groups land). You can then use Second Life's text chat facility to browse the internet. Simply entering the url of the website in chat will automatically bring up the relevant page onto media screens within their SL space. To follow a link from that web page to another the user just "says" the name of the link, or some unique keywords from it. The new web page then loads.

Since Daden Navigator uses Linden Lab's existing web-page-on-a-prim technology it inherits the same current limitations as that technology - you can't scroll through long pages, fill out forms or view active Javascript or Flash content. However Daden Navigator has a "popout" command which loads the view page automatically into your own web browser in order to deal with difficult content.

How to Buy

Daden Navigator costs L$2400 and is being sold at:

• Daden Prime inside of Second Life
• SL Exchange

Enterprise Solutions

- Volume Pricing

Although we make the Daden Navigator Copyable this is primarily to provide protection against any accidental deletion or memory issues. Whilst we're happy for users to have a couple of Navigators in use at a time any more than this begins to put high loads on our servers. If you expect to have more than a couple of concurrent users at a time, or just want to buy lots of Navigators for different users, then please contact us about our volume pricing.

- Enterprise Proxy

Since Daden Navigator operates through a web proxy it will not be able to access content that is protected by your organisation's firewall - even if the user is also behind the firewall. To allow your users access to your Intranet - and also to speed response times - we can offer you your own version of the proxy, keyed to a dedicated version of Daden Navigator. The proxy is a single Perl script which you just install on your own servers. The Enterprise proxy costs £975+vat, including one year's support. Please contact us for details and to order.

- Custom Versions

Since Navigator does not handle forms some Intranet (or web site) content may be hard to access. For many sites/intarnets we can code bespoke solutions that open up yet more content to your SL users. We can keep these enhancements either private to you, or make them available to any visitor to your web site. Please contact us for details.

More Information

• Read the Press Release
• Read the Documentation notecard
• Check out the coverage we're getting

User Quotes

• "I love it! It works so easily that it will definitely be in my tool box."
• "fills a missing feature here in SL, so is much needed"
• "Superb product. Very advanced for Second Life"
• "Browsing on a prim just got friendlier" - SLNN
• "it's actually very easy to browse the Int0rweb from within Second Life. You need some practise, switching to the chat commands instead of the normal point-and-click behaviour, but it's really really useful." - Primforge
• "Finally, a full web browser for Second Life that works" - Not Possible IRL
• "Various people have, I believe, started out to do a web browser on a prim but I'm not aware that anyone has a finished, general purpose solution... until now. ... for the time being Daden's solution looks to be as good as it gets." - TidalBlog
• "a powerful extension to the inworld web browser ... The metaverse is destined to become the principle interface of the future ... the more we see tools like this being developed, the more immediate such prospects seem. Daden's toolbox is rapidly becoming an essential feature set in this path toward augmentation." - Mal's SL Edu-Blog

Virtual Worlds offers a unique environment to support training. The key strengths of virtual worlds are that they:

• allow users to be remote from one another
• allow tasks to be undertaken as joint activities, helping to build team building skills
• enable the creation of immersive environments which might be too costly or impractical to use for real-life training
• enable real-life, real-time data to feed in to the scenarios
• can support "virtual" actors, enabling every user to get the same experience.

Who's Using Them?

Early adopters of virtual worlds for training have included the military and emergency services, hospitals, universities and even retailers. For instance St George's Hospital and Coventry University are using them to train paramedics and social care staff respectively, the US Department of Homeland security has used them for emergency services, and BP has used them for delivery drivers and forecourt staff.

Why Use Them?

Virtual worlds typically supplement rather than replace real-world training, and in use they can reduce costs and improve learning retention. Students are often prepared to try things or suggest things that they are too embarrassed to do in real-life, but the immersive nature of the training means that the lesson is remembers as images, sounds, people and actions, rather than just as dry text or a passively watched video.

Virtual World or Serious Game?

Care needs to be taken in differentiating virtual worlds from serious games, Serious Games are typically far more structured, focussing users on a very specific goal, and giving them a limited course of actions. The user also develops little attachment to their "avatar" - and in many cases they have no "on-screen" presence. By contrast virtual worlds are far more open and personal. An eLearning strategy may well make use of both types of simulation, teaching or testing different skills in each.

Avatar or Information Driven Scenarios

Within a training environment we are seeing virtual worlds used for a wide range of different scenarios. A useful axis is that between avatar and information driven scenarios. In the former the emphasis is on learners watching or interacting with human or computer driven avatars - using language and even building and managing relations. The latter represents exercises where procedure and knowledge are more relevant. Virtual worlds can support both.

Content Management

A key difference between serious games and virtual worlds is that the latter is more agile - tutors and developers can create, share and change scenarios more rapidly in a virtual world. Another key approach is to develop the core of a system so that its content is actually stored and managed on the web, enabling easier management and the support of multiple worlds (and web clients) from the same core system. For instance we are finding that the Medbiquitous Virtual Patient (MVP) standard offers significant potential for non-medical as well as medical users to create eLearning material for a virtual world.

And of course most virtual worlds can make use of existing audio, video and office document/presentation resources. We can also capture student performance data from the virtual world and send it back to an eLearning management system to go on the student, course or tutor record.

PIVOTE - an Open-Source vLearning Authoring System

Daden have played a key part in developing PIVOTE - a web based authoring tool for vLearning and vTraining. With PIVOTE you create the exercise on the web, but then play it in a virtual world(s), on the web or even on the phone. This immediately removes the problem of vvirtual world lock-in, since you can potentially play your exercises from any world, and lets your instructors focus on content and structure, not on trying to code for different worlds. Read more about PIVOTE.

Moving Forward

If you think that virtual worlds could help you deliver better training for your staff then we'd be more than happy to come and present to you to give you a better understanding of what this technology can offer now, and where it might be going in the future. Please give us a call.

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Why don't you:

• Download a copy of our Training flyer (pdf)
• Read about our work on the PREVIEW project with Coventry University and St George's
• Download our Instruct flyer (1MB PDF)

Where to go?

As with any type of marketing, when it comes to virtual worlds you need to be clear about who your audience is, and in this case which world they are in. If you are after pre-teens you'll find them in places like Club Penguin, teens might be in Habbo Hotel (100m registrations) or There, twenty-somethings in Twinity or Kaneva, and thirty-somethings in Second Life (13m registrations). You need to choose the right world for your campaign. We can provide geodemographics for most of the major virtual worlds.

It's about Experience

Marketing in virtual worlds tends to all be about experience and social interaction - leave heavy information-based content, and most transactions on the web. If you are in a virtual world then look to create an experience, something that avatars, and their friends can participate in together.

Here are just some of the marketing projects we've seen in virtual worlds:

• Virtual shops and hotels
• Car-culture islands, and cars
• Customisable trainers
• Beauty "skins" and designer label clothes
• Flooded islands to highlight climate change
• Voting kiosks to get users involved
• Sponsored events to support others
• Giveaway gadgets to get messages out

Worlds Have Their Limits

Of course the scope of what you can do will be limited by the world you are in. As you'd expect the opportunities in pre-teen and teen worlds are far more limited than in adult worlds, and you'll need to work closely with the world owner to do anything. At the other end of the scale a world like Second Life is completely open, you just run your campaign with no need to get official blessing from Linden Lab.

A Tiered Approach

Once you have decided what you are going to do in your chosen world we recommend that you take take a three-tier approach to marketing their virtual world activities.

- In-World Marketing

This breaks down into two areas. The first is getting your brand and events in-front of users through their world browser - this might be a log-in splash screen, or specific functions like events listings. The second is about marketing actually in the world - buying billboard space, having field sales staff, doing in-world PR - in other worlds all your usual marketing activities but done in world.

- The Ecosystem

There are a considerable number of web sites, podcasts, newsletters and other publications (mostly on-line) that cover virtual worlds. We can provide our clients with contact details for all the key publications, and advise on which is best suited for each type of business.

- Real World Marketing

The final tier comprises marketing activities both on and off line which promote your virtual presence - but in the real world. This will range from conventional PR, search engine marketing to on and off-line advertising. You can support this marketing with video content for YouTube and the like, and dedicated registration and virtual world location URLs to help people experience your virtual presence more easily..

Next Steps

In only the last 2 years we have seen a wide variety of marketing campaigns in virtual worlds. We are beginning to get a good idea of what works and what doesn't. If you'd like to avoid the mistakes of others and talk about how virtual worlds could support your next marketing campaign then please get in touch. We're always happy to do informal briefing sessions to help you understand this technology better.

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Why don't you:

• Download a copy of our Marketing flyer (PDF)
• Check out the Corsa Guide to Second Life project which we did for Vauxhall, integrating SL objects and residents with the web to create a user driven guide.