e.

My supervisor is trying to get into virtual worlds, simply just for meetings and what not so as a “millenia” kid she got me to do the research. So I’m just wondering. Everything’s pretty new to me. I can honestly say I never even heard about Second Life until last week.

In my mind there’s an image of a real world oriented virtual world where my CAD designed living quarters are because the apartment place makes the virtual world version available as part of it’s marketing efforts. My real furniture is in the virtual apartment because the furniture makers make the model available as part of their marketing and I chose to put it in my virtual apartment. When I buy a neat gadget in the real world I hold it’s UPC code up to my webcam and the model of my neat gadget appears on my virtual nicknack rack. If its the sort of thing that would be useful in a virtual world the company that sells it would have created the script to produce it’s virtual world behavior. If not they’ll have a link to some promotional info. The folks that design cars on CAD systems will make the cars models available, scripted for use in a virtual world. Every sort of real world item that is designed on a computer will be in the real world oriented virtual world because it will be in the interests of product makers to promote their products.

This real world oriented virtual world won’t be experienced just from behind your computer desk, it will be on your mobile devices, your cell phones, your cars nav systems, etc.

Here in the world of today I’d like to see the Zoho people add some virtual world features to their online collaboration offerings or at least do what’s necessary to have some mashup between a virtual world and the Zoho collaboration products.

But I can tell you that our clients, even those with previous experience in Second Life, do not complain of QF avatars. They are just interested in QF as a collaborative workspace, and many actually _prefer_ the flat faces of QF avatars because you can display your webcam feed on your avatar face (this features is only available in the Mac version of QF at the moment). The webcam option is considered more important that the realism of the avatar. Actually, a good way to describe QF to a potential client is as an advanced collaboration and videoconferencing environment with shared document editing capability, without even saying the word “virtual” tat may scare the most conservative clients.

a) security– you can run Qwaq behind your firewall

b) document integration

Point b, in my opinion, also makes it easier– out of the box– for corporate collaboration use than platforms like Forterra and Multiverse. I can’t speak to Forterra, but I’m sure document integration could be developed for Multiverse, which is free to develop on as long as your worlds are free to use (they can still be closed/restricted access).

And, as an aside, I don’t think Qwaq has to look like shit. As I recall from a developer demo, it can take standard 3d models. It’s just, like so many technology companies, they didn’t put any resources into design for the demo.

There are lots of choices for 3d collaboration out there, and Second Life is one of the poorest options if you need security or stability at all. (I say this as a Second Life user and as a professional virtual worlds developer.)

In addition to Second Life you could have compared Qwaq to Ogoglio, Project Wonderland, or any of the other virtual world applications that are actually dedicated to “work”. I can’t understand why you didn’t.

My point wasn’t “QWAQ should look and operate more like a game.” It is that QWAQ is such a primitive rendering of a virtual space, of avatar,s and of collaborative tools that it wouldn’t serve me well if I were to meet with my distributed team, clients or vendors in it.

It may have some basic functionality but without some finesse and elegance, some level of business sophistication, it would reflect badly on me to bring business associates into the product’s spaces to do virtual work. Especially when there are so many other virtual work spaces out there – not even counting any of the so-called “games and 3-d social networks” – that present the tools in a much better way.

Can someone say “Second Life?” or any other virtual world or virtual world application already out there?

Such as There. Or one of MTV’s marketing efforts. Or one of Doppelganger’s dedicated brand worlds (e.g. “Tyra’s Virtual Studio”).

When called out as a group, it’s clear what the thinking is.

And yes, I am at least aware that there is a gap between the reality of Qwaq and its potential. That’s why I used the phrase “especially when” to indicate a future capability.

As to solving your particular needs, that’s a bias. Perhaps what I’m wanting wouldn’t be of use to you, but it would certainly be of use to me especially since much of my design work is done collaborating with overseas clients. My output isn’t documents, but the files used to mass product product. And because watching me spin the 3D in my CAD application provides little frame of reference to non-designers, companies spend thousands of dollars on models which don’t even function just to wrap their head around the 3D qualities of the product. A virtual environment could act as a substitute in at least some cases.

Furthermore, afaik no one is suggesting there “needs to be, or should be, a hard & fast line between a social network/community and business communications.” In fact I wrote a well-traffick’d blog entry describing an integrated system ( http://blog.rebang.com/?p=577 ), but that’s probably even more “especially when” then a business-focused solution. All in good time.

There’s a difference between the potential for the technology that csven talks about, and the reality of qwaq as it is now.

I have been telecommuting for the past 2.5 years and I don’t see how an avatar and a virtual room solves any challenges in my business communications. And I’m not sure there needs to be, or should be, a hard & fast line between a social network/community and business communications. It isn’t a 3D rendering of the office walls that brings distributed colleagues together.

I know Second Life quite well. It’s fair to say I was the one who convinced Linden Lab to open it up to corporate use. But what Qwaq is doing is quite different and more like a virtual Product Lifecycle Management application than a videogame.

You’re completely missing the point, in my opinion.