Comments on: Enterprise VWs — do they suck?

By: Dusan Writer’s Metaverse » The Courage to Create: The Virtual City (Part One)

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:47:50 +0000

[...] summarizes the arguments neatly over on UgoTrade, picking up on Raph Koster’s comments about what it will take to see mass adoption of virtual [...]

By: UgoTrade » Blog Archive » Putting OpenSim Into The Heart of Web 2.0

UgoTrade » Blog Archive » Putting OpenSim Into The Heart of Web 2.0 — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:37:11 +0000

[...] as Raph Koster in his post commenting on 3Di’s OpenSim announcement notes, the question how immersive virtual worlds can go from strong niche or enterprise markets to [...]

By: Peter S.

Peter S. — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:22:51 +0000

In surfing, you want to get out into the ocean where the waves are forming, then wait for a wave you can put yourself in front of. Maybe they’re just making sure they’re out in deep water?

By: epredator

epredator — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:36:39 +0000

As a corporate metaverse evangelist I do fully understand the uphill struggle in persuading enterprises to adopt any form of virtual world technology. It, like the web, like internal instant messaging and like blogs/wikis etc is less of a technical challenge and more of a cultural one. (of course there are some tech challenges.)
The reduction in IT spending though is likely to only be surpassed by the reduction in travel budgets. Global enterprises may see their current belt tightening as a good time to apply some low cost IT innovation to help their employees communicate more effectively.
I am often quoted for the numbers I calculated that our company wastes 9.4 years a week on dead phone time waiting for telephone conferences to start as people dial in. Some sort of solution to that cost and that frustration needs to be put in place.
Every pitch I do people seem to nod and curse telecons. They have no sense of context, just another faceless conversation or half listened to presentation.
That is not to say that VW’s have to be used for everything. Sometimes a quick IM, a 1:1 chat on the phone might be whats needed.
I have noticed a change in many enterprise conversations from “why would we need such lunacy” to “which one and can we have one now”.
Again I come back to the similarity in our company with IM. Back in the early days the ROI brigade seemed to think this was a waste of time, all chatting. We all carried on regardless able to run our own software on our own machines (it was not bought in or downloaded). Within the space of a few years IM had swept the company. It has become an essential tool. The naysayers felt left out and before you knew it we had corporate IM as a product installed everywhere and in other enterprises. I think this pattern holds for VW’s when they are integrated to the enterprise services and not stand alone places to escape too.
Of course I would say that wouldn’t I?

By: Enterprise VWs — do they suck?

Enterprise VWs — do they suck? — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:26:41 +0000

[...] Random Feed wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSecond Life technology continues its slow move towards being an enterprise solution with the announcement that the SL-derived OpenSim project is getting commercialized by 3Di. Enterprise was a big buzzword this year at the Virtual Worlds conf in Hollywood. (Of course, in the midst of it, someone had to ask “what is enterprise anyway?” It means “selling VWs to businesses”). The penny has also dropped for some users that SL itself seems to be trending in this direction — as Tateru Nino writes o [...]

By: Nate Randall

Nate Randall — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:49:05 +0000

Great points Raph. In my own analysis of Enterprise Solutions for a mjor corporation recently, we experienced many of the same issues.

No clearly articulated ROI for the desired use

High learning curve (of some solutions)

Technology issues (most common business PCs in this case could not run the application, not to mention the unlikly approval to install unproven software behind the corporate firewall)

And lastly, it turns out most people actually prefer an environment such as webex and conference calls (in this particular environment) for many very good reasons

At the end of the day the cost benefit analysis was negative and my reccommendation was to proceed slowly, with a small budget, not to expect a rerturn and to treat it as a pet project.

With many corporations running into hard times lately, it is unlikely pet project budgets are likely to gain much support.

That brings me to my final point. If the consultants and developers analysing enterprise worlds don’t start telling the cold hard facts as they are (don’t sell a solution that isn’t proven) companies will get burned. When companies get burned, especially in an environment such as we are in right now, they don’t forget. Enterprise developers and the “consultants” selling these worlds may just find thier passion for and belief in the product undermining it’s future growth potential.