Virtual Environments Networked Virtual Environments and Virtual Worlds

Virtual Worlds is now Virtual Environments

So you may have noticed a name change for this blog has taken place. Wondering why? Well the main driver is that virtual worlds does not really cover all of the topics being discussed in this blog. This blog started out mainly focusing on virtual world activity but has grown in scope since its launch in 2007. We have posts on virtual web based environments (mostly as relates to events), augmented reality, gaming, and of course virtual worlds so it seemed only fitting to change the name to more accurately reflect the content being shared.

The growth of the topics covered via this blog became very clear when I went to create this round up of articles on all things virtual. The articles included cover:

• augmented reality systems to make driving safer (including a video demonstration)
• the potential impact on carbon emmisions via the use of virtual meetings and events
• online gaming to reward kids for practicing positive social behaviours
• the trend towards virtual hyrbid event as an extension of a physical event

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Posted by Dannette Veale at 02:42PM PST

Virtual Fan Mail

For those event planners working on virtual environments to complement their physical events it’s nice to get affirmation that you’re strategy and implementation are on track and being received positively by your audience.

Don’t get me wrong of course event planners want feedback whether positive or negative but when someone takes the time to submit a positive comment it means a lot. Just like anything in life we are always more apt to share feedback when we are unhappy (kind of like me with airlines) so when someone takes the time to provide a kudo you know you hit the nail on the head for that user.

Here are a couple of comments from Cisco Live and Networkers Virtual users received over the last month or so on the platform and the 21 October Ask the Expert event just held!

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Posted by Dannette Veale at 09:04AM PST

Virtual Ask the Expert on October 21

Don’t Miss the Upcoming NetPro Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert Event in Cisco Live and Networkers Virtual

Cisco Live and Networkers Virtual is already your anywhere, anytime resource for technical information, networking with your peers, and learning more about Cisco products.

Join us on Wednesday, October 21 at 10:00 a.m. PDT for a live, interactive NetPro Ask the Expert event in the Auditorium of Cisco Live and Networkers Virtual. Edison Ortiz, Routing and Switching CCIE # 17943, Network Consulting Engineer, Advanced Services at Cisco will be discussing Campus QoS with Cisco Switches, providing background and discussion on QoS as the foundational network infrastructure technology required to support the transparent convergence of voice, video and data networks.

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Posted by Dannette Veale at 12:32PM PST

Watch the Live Keynote Featuring Guido Jouret, CTO, Emerging Technology Group

Next week you can join hundreds to thousands of your peers from all over the world in the Cisco Live and Networkers Virtual Auditorium as Guido Jouret, Chief Technology Officer of Cisco’s Emerging Technology Group delivers the opening keynote for Networkers Australia and New Zealand. The keynote takes place on Monday, September 28, at 3:30 PM PDT/Tuesday, September 29, 8:30 AM AEST.

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Posted by Dannette Veale at 08:44PM PST

Analysis of a Virtual Event

Post Cisco Live we always try our hardest to measure and understand the effectiveness of the event for our audience. This year we had to measure not only the in-person event but also the virtual hybrid event. This effort focuses on:

• Measurement for loyalty, familiarity with Cisco products and technologies, and messaging awareness
• Comparing in-person attendees with virtual event attendees to all major performance metrics to understand the differences in these audience types
• Whenever possible, compare event performance with Exhibit Surveys’ Industry Averages for hi-tech proprietary events

This survey was sent to in-person and virtual attendees with 26% of the in-person attendees and 13% of the virtual attendees completing the survey. Big shout out to Erica Spoor, Cisco Live Event Strategy Manager, for leading this effort and providing such a thorough post event analysis; no easy job. I would like to share some of the results with you in this post.

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Posted by Dannette Veale at 03:49PM PST

Expanding Your Field Of Vision

Pleased to have a guest author this week, Dan Gerson the new content manager for Cisco Live and Networkers Virtual. Dan has been sharing a lot of interesting articles and blogs on augmented reality. After reading some of these I have been totally inspired, the future is now people! Dan was kind enough to provide a write-up on this topic…

Advances in computer and mobile technology have placed vast amounts of information at our finger tips. This knowledge, however, still lives within the confines of our TVs, laptops, and smartphones. New technology known as Augmented Reality aims to bridge the gap between the virtual world and the real world.    The concept is not new; Hollywood has depicted versions of augmented reality in many films, including our own Governator, in 1984’s The Terminator. The technology exists as an overlay, injecting relevant data and elements into the real world around us, in real time.  If you have watched a football or hockey game in the past few years, chances are you have see elements of augmented reality. The floating yellow first down and the trailing puck are both examples of real-time visual elements displayed over real world images.  Augmented Reality Today While the reality of owning a pair of digital glasses or contact lenses might be a few years away, some industries are taking hold of the technology today.  Smartphone developers are building applications that will allow an augmented view of the surrounding environment using the built-in camera. These applications, while still in early phases, are showing the possibilities of viewing live data streams in new ways. There is a definite “wow-factor” involved when playing with the technology and it’s no surprise that the advertising industry has taken augmented reality under its wing. Check out this demo for the new movie District 9, in which you print a postcard and place it in front of your computer’s webcam. The action figure springs to life, and you are able to control this hologram-like image using your keyboard and mouse.

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Posted by Dannette Veale at 01:56PM PST

Virtual Event Key Learnings – Part Two

A couple of post back I mentioned that the team was currently working post event debriefs and metric analysis for the Cisco Live and Networkers Virtual hybrid event that took place on 30 June and 1 July 2009. We just wrapped the debrief meetings and post event final reporting, yeah! A lot of great findings resulted from these efforts so…

I though I would share:

• The top five key learnings
• High level reporting for all you data junkies
• Current enhancements under way for Cisco Live and Networkers Virtual

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Posted by Dannette Veale at 03:39PM PST

Globalization of Virtual Events

When looking at a virtual event platform to serve more than one country or culture’s needs what should one consider? Language, imagery, interaction, time zone, content, and more oh my!

Of course, I (and others I am sure) wish there was a simple formula but me thinks this is not so cut and dry based on the discussions I have been having with folks lately. Below are a few of the key factors currently being considered for globalizing the Cisco Live and Networkers Virtual platform. You will see many questions…without answers because there are no hard/fast rules to apply is what we are finding.

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Posted by Dannette Veale at 04:22PM PST

Virtual Event Key Learnings

With it being just about a month since the Cisco Live live hybrid event I thought it would be a good time to reflect on what worked, and what did not work. So below is my list of a few of my key learnings with more to come as we continue debriefs and plan for future Cisco Live Virtual activities.

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Posted by Dannette Veale at 11:21AM PST

The Value of Virtual Events

Recently there has been feedback from some folks that a virtual experience can not compensate for a physical experience. My first reaction was “really I had no idea?”. All sarcasm aside; yes physical and virtual experiences are different. The fact is they both offer different value for the attendees.

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Posted by Dannette Veale at 11:30AM PST

All a Twitter Over Twitter in Cisco Live Virtual

So Twitter is everywhere! Obama @barackobama, Guy Kawasaki @guykawasaki, Darth Vader @darthvader and John Cleese @johncleese use it. I know any time I watch any news station a plug to get the latest breaking news via following @blank on Twitter is sure to be shown. Of course @cisco is no exception as we love tools that allow us to connect with our customers and each other anytime, anywhere.

To this effect we worked fast and furious to make sure you all can contribute to the conversation on our Cisco Live 2009 activities. Now once you are logged into Cisco Live Virtual you will be able to tweet via the chat status mechanism available in the bottom right-hand corner (see picture for detail) of the Cisco Live Virtual interface or on the social networking link (that launches next week) in the left hand navigation.

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Posted by Dannette Veale at 03:00PM PST

The Virtual University and Sensor Networks

Cisco Live is once again coming to Second Life, third year running! We will host activities for your participation live on June 30 and July 1, see below for the schedule.

Looking for technical content? Then Cisco Live Virtual is the virtual destination of choice.

In Cisco Live Virtual you can participate in all of the activities offered in Second Life* plus watch technical sessions and interact with Cisco and partner experts in the virtual World of Solutions. Register for Cisco Live Virtual and see for yourself all that this community has to offer.

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Posted by Dannette Veale at 01:00PM PST

Virtual, Your Way

Since my last post on Cisco Live Virtual 2009 there have been a lot of folks buzzing about the upcoming show. Some great feedback coming in on the environment and live agenda and of course we hope to get more, i.e. keep it coming!

One theme that has been cropping up frequently is regarding a perceived ‘shift’ to a web based virtual program from a virtual world program. Just want to clarify that there is no shift really as we have been using both web based and virtual world platforms for more than 2 years now, since we made the shift from an online portal in 2007. See below for a list of what we use and why.

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Posted by Dannette Veale at 10:00AM PST

Spime Design Workshops in Second Life at Cisco Works

“We have friends of friends networks and reputation scores when we trade online. We share our preferences and our tag clouds as well we make sure that we are recognized in our professional lives in a given social network or even our hourly updates of what is going on with our lives are known to the entire world. It is once again not a coincidence but is a necessity as these tools become widely available geography disappears.

Ideas flow freely in the flat world we are inhabiting and this flow of ideas is enabled by the tools reinforcing the message. Especially in online worlds of which SecondLife is an excellent example, go in an entirely new forceful direction with the concept of extending the frontiers of where a corporation must tread and dare to tread. Because in an online world not only in the ‘traditional Internet with Blogs’ for example, you can go on and eliminate the differences between provider and consumer, between seller and customer. In online worlds you start to and involve what used to be called a client at even earlier stages in co-designing your next generation products. Together with whoever cares enough to invest their time. To invest their creativity from whatever you want to earn then and profit from”.
David Orban, Chief Evangelist, WideTag and host and moderator of the Spime Design Workshops

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Posted by Dennis Mancini at 10:28AM PST

Watch the Archive of Intelligently Stop Threats with Global Correlation

If you didn’t see the recent announcements from Cisco Security on how Cisco is enabling you to collaborate with confidence, read the details now.

This TechChat featured Danelle Au, Senior Product Manager, Security Technology Business Unit, and Rush Carskadden, Product Manager, IPS Technology Group, both from Cisco. During this TechChat our speakers discussed the newest capabilities of the Cisco Security portfolio announced at RSA, including IPS updates (global correlation for IPS) and an ASA feature (Botnet Traffic Filter). These will help simplify operations while providing even better threat mitigation for your organization.

View this archived discussion to hear how these new capabilities help to:
- Keep intellectual property protected with improved attack detection
- Reduce total cost of ownership using more robust network intelligence for reduced network downtime
- Protect your organization’s reputation with intelligent troubleshooting for threats

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Posted by Dannette Veale at 09:59AM PST