A View on IBM’s Use of Virtual Worlds

A View on IBMs Use of Virtual Worlds

Joseph JaquintaSL: Jaymin Carthage

Join me on a journey

Some introductions

IBM's Public Engagement in VWs

IBM VW Product Lineup

How IBM uses VWs internally

How IBMers use VWs

But first...

Some legal stuff:

I do not speak on behalf of IBM

Any opinions presented here are my own

I can't tell you anything IBM hasn't announced

I like my job

And want to keep it!

http://www.ibm.com/investor/governance/business-conduct-guidelines.wss

Who am I?

Hired 1994

Lotus Legacy Employee

Day Job: programmer dude

Virtual Worlds?

One of my IBM Hobbies

Lotusphere Parcel

BizTech Project on VWs/Social Networking

2.5 D Presentations

IBM Blogger

IBM Sandbox Admin

This and that


Customer Engagements

VW Business Conduct Guidelines

IBM Islands

Department showcases

Alumni outreach

Research outlet

V-Business Grid

Customer Engagements

Customers started asking about VWs

IBM created a few prototypes

Some went on to full blown sims

IBM Followed this pattern

Featured

Product and feature awareness

Brand promotion

Edutainment

Did not feature:

Virtual products

What was learned:

Only a small subset of product could be displayed compellingly in 3D

Face-to-face support very engaging, but very costly

Margins too low to apply brick & mortar model

Traffic too low to apply website model

Virtual commerce outside the realm of traditional IBM customers

VW Business Conduct Guidelines

Significant, but often overlooked

Legitimized doing business in VWs

Set the bar for a liberal approach

E.g. is a furry avatar appropriate for business?

Most companies err on the side of no

IBM says yes, becomes an example to market

http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_projects.nsf/pages/virtualworlds.ibmvirtualworldguidelines.html

IBM Islands rise above the waves

VWs innovative, but barriers too high for most IBM groups

CIO's office bought 12 islands and made available to IBM groups

Amphitheaters set up

Expertise gathered

Infrastructure created

The aim: to see VW capabilities in IBM

Engaged by different groups

Eclectic mix, mostly driven by interest

Customer outreach

From server products

To mainframes

To end user products

Greater IBM outreach

Research showcases

Public Service

Sandox

SL Ballet

And in a single day and night...

The islands sank beneath the waves

Mission Accomplished

Expense in CIO/Profit elsewhere not sustainable

Some areas graduated to full islands

Some areas migrated elsewhere

Most just disappeared

What was learned:

Much of the same as for customers

SL hard for IBM to engage in

Logistically

Can only buy whole sim from LL, most projects need less

IBM not set up for internal cross charging

Legally

IBM, effectively, responsible for vendors legality

SL driven by small, non-professional vendors

Overhead overwhelms micro-currency

V-business Grid

Invitational space for businesses

Land available for development

OpenSim based


Some introductions



Virtual Data Center

Sametime 3D

Research


How IBMers use VWs

3D Data Center

Data centers are all about consolidation

Virtual operations allows consolidation over wider geographies

Supports Hardware as a Service

More compelling than existing 2D

Less training

Easier transition

Based on OpenSim

Sametime 3D

Virtual Collaboration for Lotus Sametime

Organize virtual meetings just like normal

Meeting space includes:

Flip charts

Brainstorming boards

Visual voting tools

Presentations

Full import/export

Based on OpenSim

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/services/vc4sametime.html

Research

Bluegrass VW front end to Jazz

Olympus avatars in 2D meetings

Art Exhibition Space art sponsorship

Virtual Team Building Games

Rehearsal Studio

PowerUp 3D

Cross world teleportation

OpenSim development

Academy of Technology


Some introductions




IBM Grid

Nebraska

Virtual Universe Community

How IBMers use VWs

IBM Grid

32 - 64 OpenSim servers

800+ registered users

Anyone can add a server

Nebraska

Second Life for the Enterprise

Saves IBM $

Sweet spot: poster sessions

Cancelled conferences now go virtual

New conferences we could have done before

Well received

Unfortunately future in question

Virtual Universe Community

An internal Activity Group centering on VWs

4000+ members

Hosts field trips inside and outside IBM

Provides stress testing for projects

Knowledge sharing

Social activities

(vote for me!)


Some introductions




How IBMers use VWs

We are just like you!

About 4 to 8,000 IBMers have SL avatars

Music, art, shopping, building...

Some are notable residents

Most are just people

Tend to be more formal/polite

Internal directory creates accountability for actions

Eightbar

Set up as a non-over group for all IBMers

Became a sort of secret handshake

Use for permissions on a lot of parcels

Good logic for adding, but not removing

Some key players left and did not transition

Mostly defunct now

Diaspora

Wave appears to have peaked

IBMers active in Blue Mars, OpenSim, other places

I have not seen critical mass in any one other place

Too early to tell long term implications

Thanks!

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