An opportunity to identify innovative partnership opportunities

Hear senior speakers from both "health" and "serious games".
"The health & social care demands cannot be met..."

* The very serious issues in health and social care are well-known. They relate to an ageing population and to a large minority of disadvantaged and hard-to-reach communities of people.
* The biggest hurdle is also known:"We can't afford it"

"Can we reduce the cost using serious games..?"

This is a major chance to see the opportunities for the use of serious games technology to help answer the "Can't afford it" problem by reducing the cost and increasing "engagement" in both training and service delivery.

For the full agenda, speakers and to book see:

http://www.themarketingworkspace.co.uk

Whereas the Internet is about information, Virtual Worlds are about experience. They engage with users on an emotional level. Going far beyond what is possible in an Internet forum or chat-room, or even a fan-site, a virtual presence can let your audience connect with your media properties at a deep and immersive level adding direct and indirect value.

Who's Using Them?

The BBC staged the first big Second Life media event in the summer of 2006 when they brought their Big Weekend music festival into the world (see picture). Since then Second Life has been used by book publishers (Penguin), film studios (20th Century Fox), newspapers (The Guardian) musicians (U2 & Duran Duran), and TV series (L-Word). MTV used There (another world) to create Virtual Laguna Beach.

But don't forget the in-world community. Second Life residents have their own thriving music and machinima (film-making) scenes, and complete fan communities (such as Star Trek).

Social Interaction

In our experience the things that work best in virtual worlds are those that involve high levels of social interaction. That is how these worlds differ from the web. If you watch a video clip on the web you usually do it alone. If you watch in a virtual world you'll usually do it with others, and then go on to talk about it, and may be live it out.

How could I use it?

Here are just a few of the ways you could use Second Life:

• Hosting screenings within media lounges and encouraging after-broadcast chats
• Networking content into bars and residents homes (many have virtual TVs!)
• Creating in-world games and activities to promote the brand
• Creating and selling clothes and props from the show
• (re)Creating the show in-world
• Building stage sets that residents can use to make their own machinima or role-playing experiences

In many of these it will be important to engage the existing residents. In fact the real trick will be to make them do a lot of the work for you, and want to do it.

Since Second Life currency can be bought and sold for real £ and $, and users can be linked to e-commerce sites you can even directly monetarise these activities, if you want to.
.
Next Steps

If you would like to know more about Virtual Worlds and Second Life, and how it could grow value for your media assets then please get in touch today and we can arrange a free demonstration at your office.

Why not:

• Download our Media Sector flyer


• Ask about our event hosting services

The Virtual Gallery

One of the simplest ways for artists to get involved in virtual worlds is through a virtual gallery. Many artists are already setting up their own galleries in virtual worlds such as Second Life to create not only a place where they can sell their work (both in real and virtual forms), but also as a place where they can build relationships with their audience through virtual cheese & wine parties (we're not joking), and other networking events. Such virtual galleries are not limited to individuals, real-world organisations such as the Louvre have used virtual worlds to showcase their collections - or visualise historic spaces lost to the real world.

Real-World Streaming

Many large (including the BBC, Liverpool Philharmonic and Channel 4) and small organisations, and individuals have made use of the ability to stream real-world performances into a virtual world (and to a virtual audience), either as audio or audio and video. The technology to do this can be delivered over the web, and paid for on a monthly or per event basis, putting it within reach of any artist. The benefit over simple streaming to the web is that the artist gets to see their audience, and the audience gets to see and talk to each other. It becomes an event,

Virtual World Art

One of the advantages of virtual worlds is that they let you create art which would not be possible of practical in the real world. For instance in Second Life you will find gigantic sculptures, complete ethereal environments and performances which mix sound, light and objects in ways that only CGI can achieve in the "real world". Such art is ideally enjoyed as an avatar in the virtual world, and preferably as part of a social event, but it can also be streamed out into the real world through video and audio,

Mixed Reality

To us one of the most interesting uses of virtual worlds is when they are blended with reality. Arts events like Ars Electronica have already showed how the real and virtual can be brought together in new and interesting ways. For instance virtual world imagery can replace views through windows and mirrors, real world movements can change virtual world objects, and virtual world actions can be used to create immersive soundscapes in the real world. Once you add in the location-specific and public-access potential of WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth you have the makings of a whole new set of art forms.

Daden's Solutions

At Daden we have a number of solutions that artists and arts organisations can use to take advantage of virtual worlds. At its simplest this is just the expertise to help you stream your event into Second Life, or visualise your collection in a virtual space. More interestingly though we have tools sets which let you control virtual world activity from real-world switches and sensors, others which put real world lights and devices under virtual world control, virtual puppets which can be controlled from the real world, and interfaces for standards such as MIDI (for music) and DMX (for lighting) which let you join the real and virtual in either direction.

Next Steps

If you think that virtual worlds could help you deliver a new and imaginative artistic experience 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.

Why not:

• Download our Arts flyer


• Watch some of the videos on our YouTube channel which show some of our Second Life-Real Life interfacing systems

Whereas the Internet is about information, virtual worlds such as Second Life are about experience. They engage with users on an emotional level. Going far beyond what is possible in an Internet forum or chat-room, or even a fan-site, a virtual presence can let your fans connect with you at a level only one-step away from being there in person.

Who is using them?

It is undoubtably early days for sports within virtual worlds. However Ajax has already built a replica of their stadium in Second Life, Major League Baseball (MLB) in the US has already broadcast games into the world, and both MLB and IBM (using Wimbledon tennis data) have done work on replaying games actually within the world.

The Virtual Club House

The best analogy for a virtual world sports presence is a virtual club room. Imagine a space where fans could go, as avatars (and probably in virtual replica strips) to meet, talk about you and your sport, watch video together. They may even get to take part in virtual meetings with star players. Yes, a lot of this could be done through a web site, but with a virtual world fans get to see the other fans, and talk directly to them. They build community far quicker, and far more naturally than they would do in a chat room.

Monetarising the Experience

It is perfectly possible to make some area of the "club" paid-for areas with unique content. On a web site you don't know who has access to the premium areas. In a virtual world you watch them go through the green beize door - and want to follow. You can also sell virtual products (like strips and logo'd outfits), and even link users straight to pages on your web site for real-world merchandise.

Stadium, Pub or Lounge?

When considering your approach to the virtual world you need to consider which metaphor works best. Are you trying to recreate the stadium, the big-screen down the pub, the club-house or the living room. Stadiums might look impressive, but technical limitations in Second Life mean that you'll never be able to get more than 200 people inside!

Next Steps

If you would like to know more about Virtual Worlds and Second Life, and how they could help your sport's business then please get in touch today and we can arrange a free demonstration at your office.

Why not:

• Download our Sports Sector flyer


• Ask us to arrange a tour of sporting locations in Second Life - or event try out some of the sports for yourself

Whereas the Internet is about information, Virtual Worlds are about experience. They engage with users on an emotional level. Going far beyond what is possible in an Internet forum or chat-room, or even a fan-site, a virtual presence can let your audience connect with your cause at a deeper level than they would do on the web.

Who Is Using Them?

A number of charities and Third Sector organisations have already started using Virtual Worlds. For instance:

• The American Cancer Society's "Race for Life" raised over $75,000 in Second Life in 2006


• Save the Children have sold virtual Yaks to highlight poverty issues


• Comic Relief sold virtual red noses for RND07


• The US Centre for Disease Control created virtual flu, and a virtual flu vaccine for the Habbo Hotel virtual world


• PR company Ogilvy flooded parts of Second Life to highlight global warming issues for one of their clients


• Envirolink used a virtual globe within SL to plot seismic data and other environmental news and information

Awareness, Education, Service Delivery or Fund Raising

Overall, you need to be very clear about why you are using the virtual world and what you expect to gain - as the aim will dictate not only the sort of project that you do, but even which world you do it in.

Virtual Economics

You may well have to pay close attention to the economics of the world. How much in-world money do players have, and what are the typical prices of things? This is particularly an issue in a world like Second Life where the in-world currency (Linden Dollars - L$) is freely convertible into pounds stirling. A £1 donation may not seem much but within Second Life £1 equates to around L$500, enough for an expensive suit or a sailing boat, and often as much as a user will have in their wallet. Mentally users may equate that donation to its "real world" equivalent, in this case more like £250, not £1.

Social Action

Virtual Worlds are proving to be a viable forum for different levels of social action. At their most basic they provide a virtual meeting space, where you can talk to others, relating avatar to avatar - a step beyond just a name in a chat-room, or even a voice on the phone. In more developed examples Second Life is already seeing rallies and protests in support of issues ranging from environmental (eg the "flooding" of Second Life) to the political (eg "red shirts for Burma").

Next Steps

If you would like to know more about Virtual Worlds, and how they could help your organisation then please get in touch today and we can arrange a free demonstration at your office.

• Download our Third Sector flyer

Most companies involved in architecture, property development, planning and regeneration are already using 2D and 3D mapping and visualisation tools. Whilst Virtual Worlds such as Second Life may not replace all of these they offer a number of distinctly different approaches.

Living The Design

Whilst visualisation tools may let you create a 3D fly-though of a proposed build they rarely let you stray off the pre-defined track. With Second Life once you have built a structure or environment users can move around it at will, they are not confined to a particular path. What is more multiple users can be active at any one time.

The ultimate expression of this would be in regeneration planning where people could actually "live" in the proposed design over an extended period, getting to know it, using public spaces and finding its good and bad points. And every movement could be tracked and logged if required. Second Life could provide a richness of quantitative and qualitative data unrivalled by any other technology.

Interaction

Within Second Life objects can do things. Doors can open, lifts can go up and down, screens can show video, and sofas can be sat on. A virtual world can truly bring your proposals to life.

Easy, Remote Access

Second Life is easy to use and operates across the Internet, so clients can access your visualisations from their homes or offices within minutes, using a simple, free download. You can of course control access, so you can chose who sees your visualisations.

Planning

Second Life is proving to be a viable alternative to audio video conferences Participants can view presentations and even stand around a planning model and dynamically change the model as the discussion flows.

In fact Second Life could provide the ideal counter-part to Planning For Real® sessions - enabling output to be readily captured, discussed and further manipulated over the web from participants homes and offices long after the cardboard boxes have been put away.

Next Steps

If you would like to know more about Virtual Worlds, and how they could help your business promote and develop better projects and improve sales and client satisfaction then please get in touch today and we can arrange a free demonstration at your office.

Why not:

• Download our Property Sector flyer


• Ask to visit our 1:1 scale build of Birmingham's Millennium Point, or our whole-city planning model for Birmingham City Council

Pure virtual world retailers not only have few problems, but also have many advantages. Their stock is completely digital, they have no issues of raw materials, production, distribution. Even Point-of-Sale is simplicity itself, a buyers electronic wallet automatically being debited as they click on buy - and the product is delivered straight to their inventory. No wonder that in Second Life the in-world economy turns over in excess of $1Million a day (in US dollars).

But for people looking for real world goods the whole process is far more cumbersome. Actually having to walk down an isle of books (when with Amazon everything is just a click away), making sure that you in-world wallet has enough credit (the "typical" SL wallet has about £2 in it - enough for a good SL suit, but very little in the real world), and then worrying about whether it fits or looks right in the real world. Perhaps it's not suprising that virtual-commerce is yet to be a runaway success.

Social Shopping

The one ray of hope in all this is the notion of "social shopping". We have long maintained that the web is great for information and transaction, but that virtual worlds are great for social interaction. By that measure shopping which is transactional (eg books, eBay etc) is always likely to be easier on the web, whereas shopping which is more social (eg clothing, furniture, even some food shopping) might work better in virtual worlds.

Interestingly it is this social shopping category that has not done too well on the web. But in a virtual world the shopper can not only buy the real product - but also try out the virtual product - does it fit with their house or their body, or meet the approval of their friends? Virtual worlds might finally offer these products their route to virtual market.

Managing the Customer

A common complaint of shops (and offices) in virtual worlds is that they have no staff. Whilst it might be expensive to put a real member of staff in a virtual world the whole time, we can offer a variety of automated solutions that either alert you to virtual visitors (and let your call centre talk to them without running a virtual world application), or which provide computer controlled avatars that can talk to your customers and answer their questions (and even ask marketing questions of their own).

Virtual worlds can also track customers with an ability unmatched in the real world. You can know how often someone visits your store, which isles they go to, how long they dwell there and what they buy. And all of this data can be exported to your main CRM system.

Closing the Sale

To get around the virtual wallet issue it makes sense for the final purchase to be made in real currency. At present this is best managed by linking the customer to a secure web page - as on the web. By designing the pages for in-world use, and with the emergence of in-world browsers, the whole experience can be kept "in-world" far more effectively than even a year ago.

Next Steps

If you think that virtual worlds could help you deliver a new and effective retail experience to your customers 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.

Audio conferencing probably delivers the most. Simple to set up and easy to use - yet the meetings are strangely disjointed - there is no shared experience, no visual clues, and no real sense of who is there. And if you want to show Powerpoint or anything visual you need to add in other technologies.

Video conferencing has always struggled. Initial cost and complexity made it something that only large organisations used. Even then staring into a camera meant that meetings were often stilted - when the technology worked. Whilst one-to-one video calling through the like of Skype is now feasible for anyone, video meetings are still a far from natural event.

Web conferencing - essentially audio conferencing with pictures - has faired little better. The complexity of set-up - particularly for sharing documents - has meant that the prime use is for virtual seminars - one to many communications, rather than the open collaboration of a meeting.

Virtual Meetings

With virtual meetings participants make use of a virtual world (or a room in such a world) to hold the meeting. Each attendee is represented by an avatar. Everyone can see everyone else - including how they are dressed, who they are stood with, and what they are doing. The meeting takes place using ordinary speech - although there is usually the option to supplement this with typed text (great for sticking to the point and taking a transcript home).

Depending on which world you use you may be able to bring a variety of documents and images into the world, and in some even edit them collaboratively. For instance Second Life will let you import and display Powerpoint and video relatively easily. Qwaq (a virtual world purely focussed on business meetings) not only lets you drag and drop documents from your desktop

into the world it also lets you collaboratively edit them in the virtual meeting room itself and jointly browse web sites. And of course if you need to view 3D objects (from ketchup bottles to city plans and skyscrapers), virtual worlds are the only way to really do it.

Getting Started

Holding a virtual meeting can be relatively simple. You don't need to buy virtual land or install server software. Just download the appropriate virtual world client, create an account for each attendee, make an arrangement with a company like us for a meeting space and log in. Your attendees will need a PC with reasonable (but not stellar) graphics, headset with mic, and you'll need a broadband connection. Your IT department may also need to open some ports on their firewall - depending on which virtual world you are using.

For regular users we can create dedicated private rooms - or even whole offices. We can also source systems which can sit completely behind your firewall for more sensitive discussions.

Next Steps

Any organisation which needs to hold internal (or even external) meetings with attendees from different locations should seriously consider trying a virtual meeting to save cost, time and the environment. Why not give us call today to arrange a free trial?

The advantage of such an approach over the more conventional streaming of content onto a web site is that the people attending the virtual event can talk and network with each other in almost the same way as they would in real-life.

Remote attendees will get a far greater sense of being at the event than they would just watching video on a web site.

Core Offering

The core offering provides a generic auditorium or seminar room for up to 40 avatars, provision of "SL Joining Instructions and User Guides", setting up of an event group, briefing for event organisers, speaker liaison, at-SL support from H-1h to H+30m, on-call support during the event and end-of-event clear up. Audio feed set to any given URL (i.e. your event audio stream) and tested. Slide shower set to the JPG slides URL, and loaded with root URL for each set. Price: £800 for up to 3 hour event, £1500 for 1d event, £2000 for 2d event. Add 50% for 40 - 60 avatars. Contact us for > 60 avatars.Add £50 an hour for at-SL location support throughout event.

Audio

You have 3 options for providing audio streaming for the event. Costs above assume you bear all these costs. If you want us to provide some elements then see details below.

Option 1: SLVoice: Feed the speakers audio into the mic-input of a running the SL client, so that the PC's avatar "speaks" the audio. Can have quality and in-world location issues, but avoids streaming costs.

Option 2: Audio Stream: Either use the PC mic or a feed from mixing desk and relay the audio through suitable software to an audio streaming service (eg..) We can source this from third-parties such as? Typical price is ....

Option 3: External: Maintain a separate audio feed (e.g. Skype Group call). Also useful as a backup-up!

Video

You have 2 options for video streaming for the event. Costs above assume you bear all these costs. If you want us to provide some elements then see details below. Note if you video stream you can't also stream the slides but must upload them - see details below.

Option 1: Web-cam: The cheap-and-cheerful option. Use a PC with web-cam or video camera and run suitable software to send to the streaming service. We can source this from third-parties if required.

Option 2: Pro-video: We assume that you will source your own video crew (or we can recommend). You will need sufficient location bandwidth to get the real-time video out to a video streaming service. Video streaming service costs and conversion costs on request. If you need us to quote for on-site video capture as well we can.

Slides

If you are not using video slides can be brought in on the SL media channel. Otherwise slides must be converted to JPG and imported individually and then loaded into a slide player. A member of the event staff should then control the slide player in SL from the RL event so as to keep the slides in-sync. That same staff member can also act as a relay for questions from SL attendees.

A PC at the event running SL can be used to provide a local large-screen projection of the SL side of the event. Can combine with the slide PC above.

Other Services

In addition to these core services we can also provide:

- Dedicated SL Registration and Orientation
- Attendee Support
- Local and in-world Event support
- Event video

Please also ask about how we can help with event marketing if required.

Virtual Worlds are well suited to experimental, collaborative and problem based learning. They offer a safe environment where students can explore and make mistakes - with minimal or no repercussions Virtual Worlds are also ideal places for informal learning, where students can learn from information embedded in the environment.

The Campus - Imaginary or Real?

Many clients initially think about recreating their whole campus in a virtual world. Whilst this can have its merits the creative opportunities of virtual worlds (and sometimes technical limitations) suggest that a more imaginary and open space approach is better. What may work best is to have a few real-world points of reference, but to leave significant space for novel environments.

The Virtual Classroom

There are at least 3 new types of virtual classroom that can be created in most virtual worlds:

• A "conventional" classroom, but one whose windows open out onto a "virtual" environment matched to the lesson


• An empty classroom whose interior can be instantly changed to reflect the lesson, "holodeck" style


• An entire space which is created to provide a unique learning environment, from medieval hovel to volcano caldera

Technology Integration


It makes sense to leverage an establishments existing investment in technology. Virtual worlds can make ready use of existing video, audio and PowerPoint. They can also be integrated into Virtual Learning Environments (eg Moodle via SLoodle), and eLearning tools and standards such as SCORM and Labyrinth.

Staff and students can also easily capture video, images and text chat from within the worlds to include in assignments and post to intranets, blogs, wikis or the web.

Choice of Worlds

There are now a number of virtual worlds to choose from. As well as Second Life, other virtual world options include platforms such as Forterra's Olive, QWAQ and Multiverse.

Decisions as to which to use should be based on a variety of factors including capability, security and cost. Second Life offers probably the simplest route into Virtual Worlds, and with Closed Islands on the Teen Grid students can be offered a completely protected environment accessible only by you, and which prohibits their moving out onto the rest of the Teen Grid. Second Life also makes it easy for staff and students to get involved in the creation and maintenance of the world, reducing costs and increasing involvement.

Next Steps

If you would like to talk more about how virtual worlds coudl help you create novel and effective learning environments, or would just like to see the technologies demonstrated then please get in touch.

Why don't you:

• Download a copy of our Education sector flyer (PDF)
• Read about our work with Birmingham City University
• Visit the PREVIEW web site to read about the JISC funded learning project we are doing with St George's Hospital and Coventry University
]]> http://www.daden.co.uk/pages/education_sector.html http://www.daden.co.uk/pages/education_sector.html Pages Tue, 13 May 2008 22:15:02 +0000

We've just uploaded a couple of videos to YouTube which show our work-in-progress on the JISC PREVIEW project looking at problem based learning within virtual worlds and health care. The first looks at the Medbiquitous Virtual Patient player which we are working on within the context of paramedic training, and the second is a bit of eDrama using our Discourse chatbot engine. We hope to get the MVP SL player to Beta by mid June. More information on the project at the PREVIEW web site.

]]> http://www.daden.co.uk/news/preview_videos_on_youtube.html http://www.daden.co.uk/news/preview_videos_on_youtube.html News Tue, 13 May 2008 10:52:16 +0000 Here are just some of our virtual world and virtual personality clients. Just click on selected logos to read more about the projects we've been involved in, links to the projects themselves, and the benefits that that we've brought to clients.




You can also read more about other projects and our experiences on our Experiences page.]]> http://www.daden.co.uk/pages/clients.html http://www.daden.co.uk/pages/clients.html Pages Mon, 12 May 2008 19:29:53 +0000 We are already finding that there are some clear cases for virtual worlds technology in particular market sectors, and in specific cross-sector activities. Please follow the links we are building up below to read more about specific experiences and solutions.

Sectors

• Education
• Healthcare
• Property & Regeneration
• Local Government
• Retail
• Media
• Sports
• Charities and Third Sector
• Arts

All the above should be read in conjunction with your "Virtual Worlds - A 9 Point Business Plan" available from our download page.

Cross Sector Uses

The following uses of virtual worlds are applicable to almost every sector:

• Events
• Virtual Meetings and Collaboration
• Brand Building and Marketing
• Training
• Visualisation
]]> http://www.daden.co.uk/pages/sector_and_crosssector_solutio.html http://www.daden.co.uk/pages/sector_and_crosssector_solutio.html Pages Mon, 12 May 2008 10:58:39 +0000 This story in the FT has been spreading fast around the virtual world blogs - a McKinsey staffer coming out with choice quotes like "any consumer-facing business "absolutely" had to be "experimenting in virtual worlds" if it wanted to get the attention of under 30s.", and that they were "ignoring them at their peril" and that virtual worlds were "on the cusp of a major expansion". The interview is in support of a new McKinsey report on virtual worlds. Whilst the FT appears to have added a certain amount of hyperbole, and a few inaccuracies like "which costs $9.95 to join", we have to agree with the sentiment!
]]> http://www.daden.co.uk/news/mckinsey_ignore_second_life_at.html http://www.daden.co.uk/news/mckinsey_ignore_second_life_at.html News Fri, 02 May 2008 08:13:05 +0000