Virtual Meeting Support Resource Downloads
Three Questions and Answers on Virtual Meetings — HTML
Anthony Adams, a full-time real-life meeting facilitator and operator of the Alpine Executive Center, poses three questions, with answers, to highlight the value of having structured virtual meetings and events in the 3D environment of Second Life. The Questions Are:
1. How is meeting in a virtual world better than meeting in the real world?
2. What are the drawbacks? – and remedies!
3. Does business networking and socializing really work in Second Life?
Hong Kong Net Cooperative Education Project — HTML
The Hong Kong Net cooperative education program takes place in Second Life at the Alpine Executive Center during September, October and November. Ninety (90) graduate and undergraduate students from four universities experience working in multicultural distributed teams collaborating with team members from other continents and cultures on joint assignments. These virtual teams do research on current IT developments and software related fields, and produce reports that integrate an Asian, American and European perspective of their subjects.
Press Release — Graduate Students Earns Degree Developing 3D-Tools (2008) — HTML
Julio Molina Orrego, a graduate student from Colombia, successfully earned his Masters degree by researching, presenting and defending his thesis in Second Life. He was presented his degree virtually from the Eindhoven University of Technology. Julio Molina's research centered on “Collaborative Virtual Environments for Group Support Systems”, studying the effect of 3D space on group support systems, GSS. The end result of the research and development is the introduction of a breakthrough technology for meeting support tools that can benefit businesses and organizations everywhere.
Group Support Systems 3D Tools — Masters Degree Thesis (2008)
Collaborative Virtual Environments for Group Support Systems: Studying the effect of space on group support systems,
by Julio Cesar MOLINA ORREGO in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Operations Management and Logistics, TUE. Department Technology Management. Supervisors: Prof. dr. ir. van Genuchten, M.J.I.M., TU/e, IS, dr. ir. H.A. Reijers, TU/e, IS,
Prof. dr. Douglas Vogel, CityU, Hong Kong.
This study describes the design and implementation of tools in a virtual world for studying the effect of space in-group support systems.three applications inside the virtual world SecondLife were built for brainstorming, organizing ideas and for decision-making. Then, the tools were tested in face-to-face meetings with professionals from real companies as well as with participants geographically distributed around the world during virtual meetings. The results show the effects of space on aspects of group support systems applications like user interface and structure of the meeting process.
Virtual World Effective Use of Business Meetings — Masters Degree Thesis 2009)
This paper by Jeroen T. A. Verhallen, at the Technical University of Eindhoven, describes the design, implementation and testing of meeting support tools for idea generation and categorisation. The research follows the design-science paradigm. Three applications inside the virtual world Second Life were built for idea generation and categorisation and tested with a group of experienced Second Life users. The meetings held in Second Life showed a positive attitude towards the effectiveness and fun aspects of the tools, with reservations for over using space which can reduce the effectiveness.
The research focuses on how well a creative business meeting held completely in a virtual world functions, and how can the business user and the process of idea generation be integrated in a virtual world. Both the process itself as well as the organization of the process is included in the research. The primary research question is: How can space as provided in virtual worlds help in idea generation and organization. Two sub-questions are: 1. How can the number of dimensions aid in structuring an idea session? 2. How can rights management be implemented within the limits of a Virtual World?
Sample of a Real-Time Generated Report (Global Risk Assessment)
Meeting results automatically recorded and instantly available to authorized participants in formated reports, in both HTML and PDF formats. These reports are available only to authorized meeting participants who may save the reports on their own computers. The formatted reports include tables and graphics of the voting results showing the mean and standard deviation for each question.
Article— Say Goodbye to Boring Meetings — HTML
A Second Life resident tells how she dreaded attending the annual company meeting that was scheduled in some far-away place, where is was cold. To her surprise, when she discovered the meeting was going to take place at a ski resort, the Alpine Executive Center, in Second Life... well she tells you about her experience in this tongue-in-cheek article.
Getting Started Guide — Alpine Executive Center
We have a Getting Started Guide with important system configuration tips and specific information for for working in groups and using the meeting support resources at the Center. We think our guests can save time and get up to speed quickly by reading this guide and coming directly to the Alpine Executive Center where we can give personalized attention.
Second Life Quick Start Guide — from Linden Lab
Linden Lab has created an easy Quick Start Guide (PDF) to get you ready to work quickly. this quide is particularly useful for new residents of Second Life. It can be downloaded from Second Life and we have made it available here for your convenience.
In Search of SecondLife Nirvana — Hong Kong Research Paper
This paper compares Second Life to other group support technologies through an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) lens. The environment chosen is a virtual team space at the Alpiine Executive Center in which an online book is produced through interactions between graduate students in Hong Kong and the Netherlands. Technologies including email, forums, video conferencing, Second Life, and MS Messenger for team support were provided and evaluated.
Limitations of Research:
Participants were predominantly Chinese, and with Second Life being predominantly Western-oriented, a lingering suspicion is that cultural differences do enter into aspects of use. For example, some Chinese have been taught that work and play do not mix which can be expected to affect their reaction to Second Life which is perceived as a platform for both business and entertainment. An additional serious limitation is the focus on TAM taken in this study.which is oriented to explore acceptance of more traditional information systems that generally do not have the rich set of characteristics and emotional reaction present in SecondLife.
See you in-world at the Alpine Executive Center