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What features in OpenSim would you like to see worked on for your business or entertainment?
Web 2.0, 3D environments, whatever you want to call it, is coming! In the next few years there will be a migration from the internet as we know it and into an avatar-based virtual world used for many purposes. There is a project going on now (OpenSim) that is an open-source venture to create simulator applications that should be able to link into this world. What features for business, education, anything you can think of, would you like to see being worked on?
Answers (20)
Real World Lighting, Object and World Coordinate Translation/Manipulation, just to name a couple out of a hundred or so... (I'm a SL developer) :)
Links:
Brian R
President at Semper International
Best Answers in: Staffing and Recruiting (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
Virtual work space. Ability for an avatar to connect with and work in our database from SL. This would allow me to have all my remote offices login to SL and work in one large pit where we could allocate human resources to issues in what ever region was in the most need. Would assist in developing a better national team.
Basically, controlling their desktops from SL. So dbase, email, browser etc.
For training as well. One trainier with a large screen in SL showing their desktop and the students watch and doing on thier own desktops.
I'm actually using OpenSim for an ongoing project at the moment, so I've got some definite opinions about this :)
The main feature which motivated me to use this platform for the project was the ability to use it in an off line manner. However, doing updates is cumbersome and usually involves having to reinstall the database/server portion.
The ability to sync/update against a central master snapshot which be most useful.
Well, all features available in the Second Life server software, of which OpenSim is meant as a clone.
Plus (specifically for business applications): import documents from a popular office format (MS, OO...), use webcam feed for videoconferencing, in-world web browser with Flash support, video streams linkable to any suitable surface-
Dave E
Executive Director, Association of Virtual Worlds; CEO, VRWorkplace
Best Answers in: Web Development (2), Using LinkedIn (2), Education and Schools (1), Freelancing and Contracting (1), Events Marketing (1), Internet Marketing (1), Organizational Development (1), Software Development (1)
Think about the gaps in SL, many of which have been identified here. More seamless integration to business applications and real world media.
One of the most important aspects needs to be that it is not a closed system but part of the ecology of social tools - information needs to easily flow in and out. Your update in-world can be sent out automatically to your Twitter or Facebook; a screen in-world displays information from an RSS feed, etc.
Clarification added 9 months ago:
Also, the main problem with Second Life for us is that it is designed for individuals, not groups. E.g. no way to create mass accounts, to track avatar actions, to change passwords for someone else, move ownership from one person to another, etc.
I'd like a sandbox installer with Open Sim and enough of libSL to let a builder build in Open Sim and then upload to SL, preferably in bulk with all assets attached. The installer should be easy enough for non-technical users and should also create a shortcut on the desktop for "Open Sim Sandbox" which would be a batch file that starts Open Sim and runs the SL viewer pointed at it.
Global protection for IP / patent property in 3D worlds and better exchange rate for meta-money to RL currencies
Ed L
Learning and Web Professional
Best Answers in: Web Development (5), Occupational Training (1), Intellectual Property (1), Business Development (1), Blogging (1)
Import/export, especially for Google Sketchup.
Nancy G
Director of IBF North America (nancy@ibforum.com) at Intranet Benchmarking Forum
Best Answers in: Staffing and Recruiting (1), Exporting/Importing (1), Offshoring and Outsourcing (1), Enterprise Software (1), Computers and Software (1)
The likes of Microsoft and Verizon are already experimenting with SecondLife for virtual recruiting and interviewing. Below is a link to an article on this experimental practice in last week's edition of MSN Careers.
In my circles, intranet professionals are struggling with this topic in terms of value proposition, practical uses, and ROI ahead of checking off desired functionality from a goodie box.
Just last week, a fellow LinkedIn member - Dave Elchoness - posed the following question: Virtual Reality: Would you try it in the workplace? ...Say to bring geographically separated work groups together?
It would be interesting to put you, Dave and a few others in front of a virtual whiteboard to tie the conversations together? (A link to Dave's Q&A thread follows below.)
The combined discussion would then be seeded by a two-pronged question: "What business problem (or opportunity) can we solve via these next-gen tools? ...then ask "What functionality will best serve these need(s)?"
Links:
The concerns I see from my experience in Second Life and There.com, are with the steep learning curve for those entering the environment, system stability, lag in its various forms, the effects of packet loss on user experience, asset protection (from intellectual/copyright/tradmark/tradename theft, data loss) and maintaining the sense of community in an ever-increasing population.
Jeroen F
International Metaverse Superstar, Futurist, Consultant and Content Developer in Second Life and other platforms.
Best Answers in: Professional Networking (1)
I agree with Barry Joseph. Group management is needed and then i don't mean the SL group things.. But group/user management in a similar way of that of computer networks. Creating/deleting accounts, what permissions they have to see, etc.
I think that the way groups are managed in SL is to cumbersome, to much tied to Land. There needs to be a outside system, where you land is like domains in networks. And you can attach users/groups to them, with there specific attritbutes. etc.
1) Virtual server architecture - i.e. running a server park that supports any number of running sims (up to hardware limit) and automatically & dynamically balances the load between them, so a heavily-visited sim is issued 20 servers, whereas an inactive (no current users) uses no resources at all.
2) Using the virtual world as a gaming/collaboration backchannel. I.e. you play a racing/fighting/strategy/board game against a couple of online opponents, and once the game is over, you return to the 'lobby' (the place where you meet people to play against) - which IS the virtual world.
3) A decent no-frills engine for each type of shared 3D app or game (racing game, flight sim, fighting game, CAD, etc.), that can be extended through a good API or used as-is. Think of OpenSIM as an O/S and think of these engines as the Notepad, iPhoto and Media Player apps. You NEED these to 'sell' the platform.
4) The obvious ones: the basics of conferencing & office use, dynamic lighting, friendly learning curve, no inherent lag, offline building, 3D model importing/exporting, built-in visitor and eyeball statistics systems, simple group & ownership management
5) A totally new method of search, probably based on tags (a folksonomy), similar to how Flickr works
6) Support for body and face tracking (I know it's a huge task, but it's a crucial part of the transparency)
7) A charting/diagramming tool that enables you to do 3D business diagrams, scenario planning, visual project management, finite automata, etc.
- more than SL's 50 avatars per sim
- any media on a surface (web, Word doc etc)
- step through portals for teleporting
- easy import of models created in other apps - or export
- a good scripting language without LSL size restrictions
Donald S
Director of Online Promotion, Technology Writer, Imagelink Productions, Moderator Technology Forum FastCompany.com
Responding to Ed Lass re import/export tools:
Ed take a look at http://www.simtools.jp/sltk/en/index.php
Also, re AutoCad you might wish to follow The Arch Blog: http://archsl.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/upcoming-architectural-events-in-second-life/
Best,
Donald
PS. Ahh... if this board was only threaded.
Alex H
Training simulations expert, Second Life Pro, e-Learning infrastructure and e-learning content developer.
I absolutely agree with Ed Lass: import/export would be very important. I would also vote for ability to create programmable robot-avatars (we need them for training sims, there are workarounds in Second Life, but having the real thing would be great) + ability for a script to write a note card.
Thanks for a great question
Alex Heiphetz
Second Life: Education Island
Integration with the current learning environments like Angel. The sloodle project is interesting, but the commercial LMS's are far more robust.
HTML on a prim, baby.
Oh yeah, and prims on HTML.
But, you know, baby steps.