Happenings in the Corporate Virtual World Space

Here are some emerging events happening in the corporate virtual immersive environment (VIE) space.

Aggressive and Targeted Integration with enterprisewide applications:
Teleplace just announced that it is now fully integrated with MS SharePoint and now joins ProtoSphere as players looking to meld enterprise applications with virtual immersive environments. Forterra System’s OLIVE integrates virtual meetings into web based intranets, extranets or portals, and can assure a user’s identity based on authentication systems like LDAP.

Accelerated Move to Browser-based Virtual Worlds:
Designing Digitally announced in May on their public blog that they received a contract to create a fully browser-based virtual campus for the Air Force Academy.

And the company known as theElectric Sheep Company has had the browser-basedWebFlock platform for a few years and continues to integrate it into corporate and entertainment venues.

Competition with 2D Platforms Heats Up
Virtual immersive environment provider, VenueGen just announced a new platform specifically designed for freelancers, small businesses, non-profits and trade groups. The solution called THUNDER offers virtual conference rooms with photorealistic avatars, surround sound VoIP, in-world streaming video and shared-screen content. The pricing is designed to be competitive and is reasonable as compared to 2D solutions. Read the press release here.

This strategy is similar to the conversations I’ve had with James Parker of VirtulU who told me that his customers are looking to break out of the 2D environments (which actually emphasis the distance between participants) and get into a 3D space that feels more realistic and reduced the feelings of distance.

And similar to how Eon Coliseum has positioned its 3D product with schedule ahead or meet instantly capabilities.

The move away from 2D to 3D may explain why Unisfair is reporting a 60% year over year growth. Unisfair reports that it’s growth, according to Market Research Media Ltd, a market and technology research company, is in line with the growth of the overall industry.
Market Research Media in its recent research report “Virtual Conference & Trade Show Market Forecast 2010-2015“. Forecasted that the worldwide virtual conference market is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56% between the period of 2010 and 2015 and to generate $18.6 Billion revenues over the period 2010 – 2015

The Healthcare Industry Embraces Virtual Worlds
In May of this year, the Duke University School of Medicine and Virtual Heroes announced an agreement on a partnership to leverage interactive game technologies for medical education and training. The partnership will includes initiatives in the following areas: healthcare team communication training; medical device and pharma product education; patient education; medical recertification; clinical trial education; CME courses; and healthcare quality assurance training. Read the press release here.

This on the heals of the agreement between Kaplan-EduNeering and ProtoSphere to partner in the compliance space to provide collaborative compliance-based virtual world solutions. And the announcement that the MS LifeScience Award this year went to a 3D Virtual Conference Design created by the virtual immersive environment vendor, ProtoSphere, indicates that the healthcare and life science industry are leading the way with virtual immersive environment adoption.

Also, Activeworlds turned 15 this year! Happy Birthday.

And do check out the feature article by Karl Kapp and Tony O’Driscoll published in this month’s issue of Training Industry Quarterly called Learning in Virtual Worlds.

And, if you are looking for more information on virtual worlds for learning and collaboration, pick up Learning in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration

What have I missed? Let me know and I’ll include in the next report of 3D industry happenings.

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