River runs information – immersive workspace

A very well thought concept of novel immersive workspace for various dislocated collaborative activities. By using Second Life platform backed up with other web services, this vision sketches new ways of thinking and working in future business objectives. It can be useful, as claimed by authors, not only for corporations and service firms, but for education as well.

The connection between web and virtual worlds is a definitely a scenario for the future. It saves resources and time, makes fun for the collaborators and the audience can be reached in more creative and engaging ways. This opens new possibilities, since there is no limit to its extension. The show case of the company River Runs Red at Sim Avalon, which develops the project Immersive Workspace, lacks of proof though for many statements they have made if we look at it in more critical way what has been presented, but it is still important and inspiring step to bring this issue further on. The whole concept is basically based on communication, but what I have found was an empty sim – no avatars in sight. Do the company use it by themselves? Which web technologies they use – xmlrpc? Never then less let us take a closer look to their web presentation and additional material they have provided.

The immersive workspace should enable people in disparate physical locations to come together and in one place to collaborate and communicate. This way is definitely more enjoyable and visually immediate then using e-mails, repositories or CMS for example. The co-workers are represented through their avatars, so this embeds also a certain personification even beyond video-conferencing. It offers also possibilities for various simulations during the product development, which are using less resources then in real life and extend psychical boundaries. Of course this is a complementary work space, supported by the web applications as a backbone. The obvious reduction of travel costs and use of broadband access through mobile devices, this innovation shapes the corporate culture, where employees collaborate with one another regardless of time and space gaps.

But from their list of benefits I would not agree with all of them. At least not in the presented model. Yes, there is reduction in unnecessary travel, it makes work more fun, it gives an option to simulate and use platform for product development, but in terms of effective knowledge transfer I don’t see a clear concept of product life-cycle management system or strategy, which leave us to the conclusion that this is a very impressive visualization of communication and exchange of power point presentations, with maybe some consulting on certain topics. Yes, it supports non-linear events (provides space for exhibitions, lectures, conferences, enabling pre and post-event knowledge transfer) and of course sync events (even live streams, although with some small delay of about 15 secs), but I doubt the increased productivity, since the creative process is not explained and it is not clear how project management is supported through this immersive workspace, without going back to old very well known systems such CMS and data repositories are. What I also miss is a lack of vision for integration in real work environments in the present time of post-desktop era and augmented realities.

So, who are potential clients for immersive workspace? The agencies seeking to engage their teams in a rich, immersive environment, to develop an internal network that they can then extend to clients to produce relevant ideas driven via collaboration and brand immersion. Immersive workspace delivers increased flexibility and drives innovation for agencies looking to reach deeper understanding of consumers and build strategic brand experience. The corporations can collaborate in one central, virtual location 24/7, without the disconnect of teleconferencing and lag time of emails and phone calls (this is something I seriously doubt in this explanation). Educators can provide students with latest in collaboration and visualization technology: an environment where all participants can create communities engaging in a more immersive exchange of knowledge, by distance and flexible education, presentation, panels and discussions, data visualization and simulations, libraries, art galleries and museums.

All in all this project tackles the newest trends considering virtual world making: strong growth and interest in 3D virtual worlds, open systems and increasing realism. By the way that would be my main critic — lack of ideas and scenarios for thinking in open systems and structures, especially because of recent rapid development of open simulator. With still unsolved issues of interoperability (connected virtual worlds) and embedding in real environments, the applications will stay limited to: meetings, 3D visualization & simulation, education and training, public relationship and marketing (which seems to be a failure as last year has shown us).