The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast

Chris Sherman Welcome to epsiode twenty-three of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business. On todayrsquo;s show,nbsp;we speak withnbsp;Chris Sherman, Executive Director of Virtual Worlds Management, the leading trade and media company serving virtual worlds professionals. With more than 17 years experience, Chris is a seasonednbsp;expert on the virtual worlds and video game industries He discusses the upcoming Virtual Worlds London event, taking place at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre on 20-21 October 2008. We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 20 7193 1295 or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com Links - Virtual Worlds London, 20-21 October - Virtual Worlds Management Listen Now: To listen to the podcast right now, click on the player icon below.

Robert Gehorsam Welcome to epsiode twenty-two of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business. On todayrsquo;s show,nbsp;we speak withnbsp;Robert Gehorsam, President of Forterra Systems. Forterra is probably the leading provider of private, virtual world technology for the corporate, healthcare, government and defense, and education sectors. Robert is a veteran of the online entertainment world, having held senior management positions at Prodigy, Sony and Viacom before joining Forterra in 2002. Show notes for this episode: 00:12 - Mike O'Hara introduction 00:45 - Start of interview 00:55 - Robert's background 01:40 -nbsp;Some history #38; the relationshipnbsp;with There.com #38; Makena 04:42 - The Olive platform and Forterra's customers 05:20 - How and where is Olive used? 07:40 - Interfacing with the real world #38; external applications 09:24 - Open standards versus open source 10:10 - Simulated vs real-world environments #38; the "uncanny chasm" 12:35 - Emergency response #38; military training 13:58 - Simulation of real-world eventsnbsp;#38; scenario analysis 17:45 - Training in hazardous material response #38; other industrial uses 19:54 - Thoughts on OpenSim 22:02 - Forterra's plans for the future 23:49 - Where to find out more 24:27 - End of interview and wrap-up We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 20 7193 1295 or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com Links Forterra Systems Inc Listen Now: To listen to the podcast right now, click on the player icon below.

Welcome to epsiode twenty-one of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business. Today, we talk to Rohan Freeman, CEO of The Sine Wave Company, Second Life's leading producer of professional animations, events and robots. Rohan talks about how he discovered a niche within Second Life and how he manages to run a successful real-world business enterprise on the back of content and services offered purely in the virtual world. Show notes for this episode: 00:12 - Mike O'Hara introduction 00:48 - Start of interview 01:25 - Rohan's background 02:18 - Motion captured animations 03:30 - Robots 05:08 - Avoiding the empty building syndrome 06:28 - Live events 07:23 - Getting around constraints on audience sizes 07:55 - The "sports bar" model for event distribution 10:00 - OpenSim 11:07 - Business evolution of The Sine Wave Company 12:56 - Tapping into the growth of user-generated content 14:32 - The participation aspect of live events 17:16 - How Sine Wave's animations are created 20:47 - Plans for the future 22:26 - Where to find out more 22:57 - End of interview and wrap-up We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 20 7193 1295 or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com Links: The Sine Wave Company Listen Now: To listen to the podcast right now, click on the player icon below.

Greg Nuyens Welcome to epsiode twenty of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business. Today, we bring you a conversation with Greg Nuyens, CEO of Qwaq. Recently named as a "cool vendor" by Gartner, Qwaq creates business collaboration solutions using virtual world technology. Its product, Qwaq Forums, is increasingly being used by enterprises such as Intel and BP to facilitate collaborative working. Show notes for this episode: 00:12 - Mike O'Hara introduction 00:55 - Start of interview 01:40 - Greg's background 02:52 - Why does Gartner think Qwaq is a "cool vendor"? 03:26 - A brief overview of Qwaq 05:25 - Why is sharing the same virtal space so important? 06:52 - Collaborative working in practice 08:54 - Combining human social cues with collaboration activities 11:14 - Mimicking thenbsp;real-world environment within the virtual world 14:22 - Applications and tools supported within Qwaq Forums 16:15 - Dedicated client software versus browser-based interface 17:38 - Hosted server environment versus enterprise deployment 18:30 - Croquet, the open-source back-end 21:46 - The main challenges in getting this technology adopted 24:31 - Who are the early adopters and what are they doing? 27:21 - Where to find out more 28:20 - End of interview and wrap-up We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 20 7193 1295, or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com Links: Qwaq.com Listen Now: To listen to the podcast right now, click on the player icon below.

Welcome to Episode Nineteen of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business. Today we bring you the second and final part of our conversation withnbsp;Christian Renaud, Chief Architect for Networked Virtual Environments at the Cisco Technology Centre. Christian chats with Vicki Zesses of Voices in Business on a range of topics, including how he has been using virtual world technology to attempt tonbsp;reduce his carbon footprint, bynbsp;holding virtual meetings instead of flying around the globe. Show notes for this episode: 00:12 - Mike Orsquo;Hara introduction 00:38 - Continuation of interview from previous episode 00:50 - The goal Christian has set for himself to not travel 01:58 - The Nature Conservancy challenge 04:05 - The inefficiency of trade shows 05:28 - The shrinking role of geography in collaboration 06:55 - Different levels of human #38; socialnbsp;interaction 09:50 - Where face-to-face communication is necessary 10:32 - Research work being done with Tom Malone of MIT/CCI 12:51 - What does the future hold? 13:21 - Education, training and simulation 14:10 - Business collaboration 15:51 - Integration with existing technologies 16:40 - Custom 3D simulations 17:48 - The problem with linear extrapolation 19:08 - The gamer generation 21:34 - The move to a distributed working model 24:14 - End of interview and wrap-up We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 20 7193 1295, or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com Links: The Nature Conservancy challenge MIT Centre for Collective Intelligence Listen Now: To listen to the podcast right now, click on the player icon below.

Christian Renaud Welcome to Episode Eighteen of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business. Today we bring you the first part of a conversation between Vicki Zesses of Voices in Business and Christian Renaud, Chief Architect for Networked Virtual Environments at the Cisco Technology Centre, the group thatnbsp;provides business rationale and market insight for determining future Cisco emerging technologies. The Technology Center is Ciscorsquo;s corporate incubator chartered with identifying emerging markets and technologies and developing them into new revenue streams for the company. Show notes for this episode: 00:12 - Mike O'Hara introduction 00:55 - Start of interview and Christian's background 01:57 - Cisco's involvement in Social Media and virtual worlds 04:48 - Product launches in Second Life 05:51 - Getting the word out and driving traffic to virtual events 07:55 - What has and what hasn't worked 10:30 - Starting with the user 11:28 - Measuring ROI on new marketing versus traditional marketing 14:44 - Targeting the right demographic 17:25 - Using the appropriate metrics for measuring ROI 19:45 - End of part one and wrap-up We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 (0) 20 7193 1295, or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com Links: Christian's blog Cisco Virtual Worlds blog Listen Now: To listen to the podcast right now, click on the player icon below.

Ron Edwards Welcome to Episode Seventeen of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business. Todayrsquo;s show features an interview with Ron Edwards, President of Ambient Performance, a firm specializing in mobile solutions, Web 2.0 collaborative technologies and Virtual Worlds. Ambient partners with Forterra Systems, creators of OLIVE (the On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment), which is increasingly being used as an Enterprise Virtual World platform in both the private and public sector (by, amongst others,nbsp;military and intelligence organizations). I spoke with Ron about how and where OLIVE is being used and how it differs from Second Life. Show notes for this episode: 00:12 - Mike O'Hara introduction 01:01 - Start of interview 01:31 - Some background on Ron #38; Ambient Performance 03:17 - How Forterra's OLIVE differs from Second Life 05:15 - Training/simulation and collaboration 05:50 - Role-playing #38; real-world physics 07:05 - Interoperability with real-world systems 08:21 - Single sign-ons, LDAP and authentication 09:01 - Photo-realistic avatars 09:39 - Technology and culture of business collaboration 11:40 - Carbon reduction and cost reduction 12:48 - The learning curve 15:20 - Security, stability and reliability 17:40 - Use of OLIVE by military, defence #38; intelligence agencies 19:30 - Where to find out more 20:20 - There.com 21:06 - Upcoming events 21:48 - End of interview and wrap-up We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 (0) 20 7193 1295, or or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com Links: Ambient Performance website Ambient Connections blog Forterra Systems - screenshots #38; videos YouTube video playlist of OLIVE in action SGInbsp;#38; Serious Virtual Worlds Conference, Sep 2008 nbsp; Enterprise Virtual Worlds Seminar, May 2008nbsp; There.com Listen Now: To listen to the podcast right now, click on the player icon below.

Jeff Barr - Jeffronius Batra Welcome to Episode Sixteen of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business. Todayrsquo;s show features an interview with Jeff Barr, Web Services Evangelist at Amazon.com. As an evangelist, Jeff travels both the real world and the virtual world talking to people about the Amazon Web Services. I was fortunate enough to catch up with him in real life on his recent visit to London, and spoke to him about Amazon Web Services' activities in Second Life. Show notes for this episode: 00:12 - Mike O'Hara introduction 00:42 - Start of interview 01:28 - Jeff's role at Amazon.com 03:18 - Where do virtual worlds fit in? 04:40 - Second Life as a development platform 06:15 - Communicating with software developers 08:27 - In-world conferences and chats 11:00 - Barriers to entry 13:48 - Amazon's author events 16:02 - Keeping it real 17:57 - What does the future hold? 19:58 - Some resources for listeners 20:46 - End of interview and wrap-up We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 (0) 20 7193 1295, or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com Links: Amazon Web Services website Amazon Web Services blog Listen Now: To listen to the podcast right now, click on the player icon below.

Erica Driver + Erica Burns Welcome to Episode Fifteen of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business. Todayrsquo;s show features an interview with Erica Driver, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, Inc. Erica recently co-authored a Forrester report entitled "Getting Real Work Done in Virtual Worlds", which looks at how virtual worlds such as Second Life are increasingly being used effectivelynbsp;in a range of areas, from simulating real world situations and environments, through training and education, to business collaboration. Show notes for this episode: 00:12 - Mike Orsquo;Hara introduction 00:39 - Start of interview 01:10 - Why should businesses be paying attention to virtual worlds? 02:05 - Simulation and practise of real-world events 03:25 - The medical and emergency sector 04:34 - The challenges for non-gamers 05:38 - Alternatives to Second Life 07:35 - Behavioural changes associated with virtual worlds 10:35 - Where are the key growth areas? 13:04 - The educational aspect 13:45 - Where to go for more information 14:58 - End of interview and wrap-up We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 (0) 20nbsp;7193 1295, or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com Links: Forrester Blog - From Information to Knowledge Management Forrester website Listen Now: To listen to the podcast right now, click on the player icon below.

Rocky Maddaloni + Tom Hood Welcome to Episode Fourteen of The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast, brought to you by Voices in Business. Today's show features an interview with Certified Public Accountant, Tom Hood. As well as being thenbsp;CEO and Executive Director of the Maryland Association of CPAs and Founder and CEO of the Business Learning Institute, Tom is also Founder of the Second Life Association of CPAs (SLACPA) and the man behind CPA Island, a fast-growing resource for all things CPA-related within Second Life. Show notes for this episode: 00:12 - Mike O'Hara introduction 00:46 - Start of interview 01:07 - Background on SLACPA 02:22 - The new generation of CPAs 05:50 - The birth of CPA Island 06:27 - What actually happens on CPA Island? 07:05 - Student recruitment 07:48 - CPA education 08:25 - Meetings and connections 09:59 - Certified continuing education credits 11:20 - Virtual Business #38; Accounting Expo 12:25 - Answering the sceptics: where is the money? 13:58 - Virtual World economics and taxation 16:01 - Where to start? 17:52 - Where to find out more 19:01 - Final thoughts 20:12 - End of interview and wrap-up We welcome all feedback, so please leave a comment here on the website, call us to leave an audio comment on +44 (0) 20 7193 1295, or send an e-mail to comments@voicesinbusiness.com Links: CPA Island Second Life Association of CPAs CPA Web 2.0 Self-guided Learning Site Six Reasons to consider Second Life for Learning Is Second Life for Real Professor Robert Bloomfieldrsquo;s show on ldquo;Metanomicsrdquo; Professor Hornik's really Engaging Accounting CPA Island (SLURL) Listen Now: To listen to the podcast right now, click on the player icon below.