Here are four things organizations can do in 3D virtual immersive environments.
Meetings
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| Meeting at the site of a virtual accident in Second Life. |
Meetings are one of the ways in which organizations share knowledge and are where co-workers learn about organizational functions and projects from each other. The problem with most organizations is that with a geographically dispersed workforce, many meetings have to be held via conference calls or 2D virtual meeting software. Both the conference call format and the 2D virtual meeting format allow for multi-tasking and tend not to fully engage participants in the meetings. Virtual immersive environments provide a space in which a meeting can occur that is engaging and provides opportunities to interact with others. They also provide the opportunity to have a meeting in any place that would be appropriate. Meetings can occur on virtual factory floors, in hospitals, or any other venue that is appropriate. Most organizations begin their use of virtual immersive environments by conducting meetings within these spaces.
Virtual Events
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| Attending a virtual event in the world of Virtualu |
Planning a large scale event within an organization can be costly and thus limit the number of participants or the frequency with which these events can occur. One way to deal with these obstacles is to conduct large scale events within a virtual immersive environment. Several organizations and professional societies have sponsored events conducted entirely within virtual worlds with thousands of participants. Other organizations have combined physical world events with virtual events. The American Cancer Society's annual Relay for Life is one example where people walk in the physical worlds while others created groups of walkers within a virtual world to support the event. It is also a great way to demonstrate new products to large groups of people without incurring travel costs and with minimal lose of productivity time.
Simulations
Virtual immersive environments provide the opportunity to create simulations of hospitals, disease states and medical devices. An advantage of a 3D virtual immersive environment is that a simulation can be created and interacted with by a team of individuals. In most traditional simulations, it is just the learner and the software with no other people involved. In a VIE, learners can work together within the simulation. This provides the experience of learning about the content as well as learning to work within a team. One interesting area of simulation within virtual worlds is to allow a person to experience a role they many not otherwise have an opportunity to experience. In America's Army, you can assume a variety of roles including that of a medic.
Data Visualization
It is now possible to connect the 3D graphic capabilities with data bases of information to display data graphically. The primary idea of data visualization is to provide a three-dimensional rendering of data typically presented in a 2D format. Items such as spreadsheets, graphs, pie charts and other visualizations are typically done in flat representations. Even if they are shown in 3D, it is difficult, if not impossible, to interact with that 3D data. Usually a person is not able to walk around the data or inspect it in anyway. However, within a virtual immersive environment, the opportunity exists for an avatar to walk around; through and even fly above data that is being presented. Within a VIE, the rendering of a set of data as a graphical image allows for the “socialization” of the data. This means that learners can gather around data and view it graphically, seeing the same data and same shape as their colleagues and discuss the data from a visual perspective.
To learn more about others things organizations are doing in virtual immersive environments, check out this book:
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