For some time I had had in my mailbox an unread message about "reaching dispersed audienced with Second Life". Well, the message was sent by a consulting agency specializing in social media, so I didn't expect much from it. However, some bits of interest were still sparkling and I didn't kill the message straight away. So when I realized that there's no hope for me to join a ConnectPro meeting room, I decided to check the stuff.
Well... Among the usual buzz about how "increasingly sophisticated and varied technology helps us to keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues far and wide" *grin*, there was a link to posts on how Australian accountants organized a conference on Second Life. One of them is here.
A reader, i.e. me, is supposed to be fascinated by "how detailed it is, how big the island is, how immersive that even this video is? Amazing stuff". Mmmmm...... Well, it may be (in terms of Second Life stuff) BUT what amazed me the most was irritating music. That's it.
Another thing that struck me was the venue. It was indeed nice looking and I thought that it could have been really nice to BE there, to have a bodily experience of sitting in the stylish chairs and looking at such huge screens, BUT it was only a virtual projection of some ideal space by a small group of conference organizers. So there is NO way to escape snowing and cold by attending such a conference. There is NO way to show nice clothes. There is NO chance to taste exotic food. What I should be excited about is sitting at home alone on a couch wearing old jeans and a t-shirt and sipping from a cup of instant coffee. Thanks a lot. I'm SOOOOOO excited by the Second Life conference island.
This type of applications are supposed to "save money, carbon emission and time". Well.... Whose money actually? The immediate answer would be of the participants, say Department of Production (in case it comes to the conclusion that the only thing researchers do at real conferences is partying). But what about the University at large? It should provide the proper soft and hardware to attend this type of virtual conference (and my experience with it this morning is that one can never trust either soft or hardware. It can fail any moment). I guess it would cost quite a lot if one wants technology to work. Then what about those who create virtual islands? I suppose they won't work for free. What about avatars? As far as I know, avatars' developers earn good money on selling "virtual identities". Ah, and don't forget about people at ATK providing support and maintenance for ever-failing software.... So does it make any sense of talking about saving money? Maybe it's better to talk about redirecting money?
Carbon emission... Well, I'm not environmentally conscious. This point doesn't touch me at all. After all, to a great degree it's just a part of contemporary discourse and pretence to do ethical business.
Time... Yes, I agree, virtual conferencing saves time: no need to book tickets, pack clothes, travel long hours, etc.... Another question is: it saves time FOR WHAT? For more work???? More tasks? More pressure?
Thanks a lot. I'm not amazed by this amazing virtuality at all.
*This post is largely inspired by my futile attempts to attend a mentor meeting today.
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Hi Natalia!
ReplyDeleteSo true, you cannot trust software even if the hard part is ok! My experience on Wed morning: the program application was too old, so my cool new hardware (webcam) refused to cooperate! Actually, I couln´t even get to the ACP.
And you are sooo right in asking what do all the virtual conferences save our time for? Who needs more pressure these days?
I´m glad you checked that place for us. It saved us time for... LIN 3!
Have fun planning your course!
-Tiina :-)
Hi Natalia,
ReplyDeleteYour focus on the annoying music, lack of ability to log in to your own meeting, no reason to buy a new outfit, or be stuck with last night's leftovers instead of some more exotic food cooked elsewhere, makes me think a morning (or more) of frustrations has made you a little cynical.
Nobody is saying virtual meetings are better than the real thing, or should replace real conferences or meetings 100%. What we're talking about here is complementing those events, adapting to the realities of ever more busy, dispersed and remote workforces and groups, and giving people options if they cannot travel due to cost or time constraints (and giving some time back to people, rather than making them work longer). We're also talking about making the experience more involving than dialling into a conference phone line and watching some slides tick past on your screen.
You might not be able to be there, but with improvements in this technology at least you can almost be there, or be there for the sessions you want, and interact in more sophisticated ways with other people that are in attendance.
These environments also present their own opportunities for demonstrations (products, concepts etc.) that might be unfeasible in the real world, or are made much easier by virtual worlds.
Regarding glitches, the underlying technology and its limitations are factors, undoubtedly, and few people believe that Second Life is the platform of the future, but this type of technology will only get better and easier to use as time goes on.
With the CPA example, the feedback they had was overwhelmingly positive (it's worth reading more into it if you haven't already) and plenty of other organisations - banks, government agencies etc. - are seeing the same sorts of results.
You can dismiss all this technology, the motivations behind using it and the companies having success with it. But personally I wouldn't, not without having a more rounded perspective and understanding.
All the best,
Alex
P.S. The newsletter in question is from an internal communication research agency, not a social media consultancy.
Hello Alex,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! Now there is more balanced view on the issue in my blog :)
Natalia
True. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd there's been some follow-on discussion on this too from the people involved with the main example I looked at. Some good comments around focusing on the visual versus text, and how such environments can be useful etc.
Post and comments on my blog:
http://is.gd/9FmI
Post and comments on Mick Leyden's blog:
http://is.gd/9FmQ
Alex, thanks for developing the discussion further.
ReplyDeleteI think there are three different threads in our discussion. The first one is about using SL as a conference venue. I've already expressed my opinion about that. :) Maybe changing the design in some way would make the environment looking more attractive for me. This leads the discussion to the issues of e-learning environments' design. Thanks Mick for picking it up! Mick, if you don't mind I'll make another post on my blog with the link to your post in order to draw more attention to the issue.
The second thread is about technology itself. Well, SL is a good technology ... which is to me a technology only. I'm not a kind of person who would be excited simply by the fact of how sophisticates technology is. I'm interested in applications, in what there is in the technology for me. Conference example was not that good in this sense. Maybe another application would look more interesting. (So I’d say that your, Alex, words about dismissing technology are too far reaching :) ) But it's again leads discussion to individual preferences and individual learning style.
The third thread is about technology reliability. My feedback about our virtual events (which are based on Adobe ConnectPro platform) was also very positive until I couldn't attend because of technology glitches. So far I, as a user, can’t rely on either soft or hardware of my computer (after all, application usage largely depends on how good users’ computers are). Improving it would require time and financial investment. This leads the discussion back to the issue of savings :) However, I hope, as technology matures, there will be less glitches in the future.
Hi Natalia,
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining in the discussion. As I said in my post, personally I don't find the experience of a Second Life event any more engaging than a Webex event. However we feel that exploring the use Virtual Worlds as conference or training venue is a worthy exercise.
CPA Australia has members based all over the world. Our flagship professional development event CPA Congress at this stage only runs in Australian capital cities. While it's an enormous event in its own right, we still have big chunk of members who are not able to access the event as they live either in regional Australia or internationally in Asia, Europe or the US.
The real power in all of these virtual conference tools for us; is that it allows us to provide equity of access to all members, regardless of whether they live. A member in Wagga Wagga or Washington will get the same professional development experience.
Second Life is only one of many tools available that can meet this need, but as I stated in my post, there is a growing group of people who will choose this option over some of the more traditional models we can use.