Emergence of Virtual Worlds A look behind Second Life and its application to business The use, disclosure, reproduction, modification, transfer, or transmittal of this work without the written permission of IASA is strictly prohibited. © IASA 2006 Akhil Kumar a.k.a. Rob Cushing IBM Certified Senior IT Architect, IBM India

© 2007 IBM Corporation Agenda  Evolution of Virtual Worlds  Virtual Worlds Potential  Second Life  Applications to Business  Demo

© 2007 IBM Corporation Struggling to Survive Information Overload IM Web newspapers audio/video business data market reports

© 2007 IBM Corporation Visualizations: Cure for Information Overload?

© 2007 IBM Corporation Visualizations: Cure for Information Overload? Social Interactions More Like Real Life

© 2007 IBM Corporation Evolution of internetworking Individual Connected Inside Level of Interaction Time

© 2007 IBM Corporation  Evolution of Web 2.0  Personal websites → Blogs  Britannica Online → Wikipedia  BBS → Forums  Content management systems → Wiki  Directories (taxonomy) → Tagging ("folksonomy")  Screen Scraping → Web Services  HTML → AJAX  Double-Click → Google AdSense  Key Themes to Remember  Social networking  User-generated content  Collective Intelligence  Rich User experience Evolution to Web 2.0

© 2007 IBM Corporation Massively Multi-user Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG)  A software environment where each individual who is logged in  is represented as an icon that is visible to other individuals who are logged in  Can ‘interact’ with other individual through actions of their respective icons

© 2007 IBM Corporation An application that runs on the internet and  allows the  Creation,  manipulation and  shareable experience of  persistent 3D representations of real-life  artifacts along with their  behaviors and  resultant scenarios,  through open, standards based (man-machine) interfaces. What is a virtual world Massively Multi-user Online Collaboration Platform (MMOCP)

© 2007 IBM Corporation Imagine the Internet with Highly Immersive, Visual Components and Social Interactions  3-D online spaces where your “avatar” can walk around in a real life setting  Build virtual buildings and machines, socialize and exchange ideas with others – even do business …satisfying two key aspects of being human: our innately social and visual natures …

© 2007 IBM Corporation Second Life

© 2007 IBM Corporation Second Life  “An online society within a 3D world, where users can explore, build, socialize, and participate in their own economy.” – Linden Labs  Since 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a 7.25 Million people from around the globe.  A vast digital continent, teaming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity.  Residents retain the rights to their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other residents.  The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions.  This commerce is handled with the in-world unit-of- trade, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at online Linden Dollar exchanges.  Demographic –  Average Age – 34  Male: Female Ratio – 60 % in favor of Women

© 2007 IBM Corporation Two remarkable features User Generated Content  Hundreds of thousands of player- created downloads are available, for furniture, wallpapers, clothes, gadgets with behavior  User content can help turn a great game into a mainstream phenomena. (Limitless possibilities)  We believe that players will be given more and more direct control over the shape and structure of the world through further refinements in concepts such as crafting and ownership. Ownership Rights  Who owns the artifacts that are being created inside the virtual worlds ?  Linden Lab, the creators of Second life made an unprecedented offer to its players  It allowed residents to retain full ownership rights to their virtual creations  This created a real economy

© 2007 IBM Corporation Early Virtual Worlds Business Applications Commerce Collaboration and Events Education and Training Other Emerging Applications

© 2007 IBM Corporation Early Adopters – Commerce  Improve customer service and satisfaction with 3-D help  Simulate entertainment experiences  Custom design tools in a 3-D, immersive environment  Preview how products will look in your home

© 2007 IBM Corporation Early Adopters – Collaboration  Global events, audience participation  Virtual meetings, sharing  Connect after meetings like you would in real life  Closer to real life than teleconferences and web chats

© 2007 IBM Corporation Early Adopters – Events  Recreate real world destinations, events  Spectators immersed in action, take view of athletes  New revenue stream opportunities  Provide access to remote destinations for millions

© 2007 IBM Corporation Early Adopters – Education and Training  A highly compelling distance learning environment  Connect with experts and teachers from around the world  Train, rehearse, role play in virtual world  Simulation of real world environments for “walk-through” or re-enactments  3-D models, immersive environments recreate real life and simplify the complex

© 2007 IBM Corporation Emerging Business and Societal Applications  University of California, Davis: Peter Yellowlees, professor of psychiatry at UCD using Second Life to simulate and experience Schizophrenia  Centers for Disease Control: Created virtual clinics to train emergency workers who might be called to rapidly set up medical facilities in a national crisis  ANWR* Oil Rig: Second Life’s ANWR oil rig demonstrates ability for development of education and workflow optimization of process based industries * Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

© 2007 IBM Corporation Emerging Business and Societal Applications  Medical or other training using virtual world technology  Rehearsal and role playing  Simulations and response  3-D models, immersive environments recreate real life and simplify the complex

© 2007 IBM Corporation Evolving to a 3-D Internet  Immersive, social attributes reflect real life experience  Move towards open standards will reduce interoperability challenges  Faster computers, improved graphics, more bandwidth continuing to improve user experience  Beyond Second Life, moving toward a 3-D Internet, integrated with current 2-D Net  Significant potential for all industries

© 2007 IBM Corporation  Transforming Customer Experiences  Improving Business Process (i.e, supply chain, manufacturing, HR)  Commerce and Transactions  3-D Modeling and Simulations  Real World and Virtual World Connections 3-D Internet: Implications and Opportunities …applications nobody has imagined yet

© 2007 IBM Corporation American Apparel Microsoft Enterprises Now In Virtual Universe Text 100Adidas Sun TelusStarwood HotelsSony IntelReebokToyotaVodafone

© 2007 IBM Corporation Education, Charity and Government News, Media and Advertising Harvard NOAACancer Society UN Against Poverty Infinite Mind WiredCNETBBCBBH Mark Warner Leo BurnettReuters

© 2007 IBM Corporation Demo Application: Furniture retail of future  Aspects of a Retail Experience in Virtual Worlds  Browse,  Compare  Assembly,  Interact/Customize,  Buy,  Fun,  Familiarize.

© 2007 IBM Corporation Thank You