Virtually There

Options for hosting and attending online meetings and eventsLibSTEW 2011July 13, 2011

Sarah Jones, Digital Library Services

Virtually There

Budget cutbacks ... Airline baggage fees ... Gas prices ... Airport security hassles ... Driving home to Arlington during rush hour from a meeting at UTD ... 20 minutes spent driving around campus trying to find a place to park ...

There's lots of value in attending an event in person and seeing people face-to-face, but sometimes that's just not practical or even not possible. Instead we can use online tools to host or attend an event online.

Options for Online Meetings - 1

Web-based conferencingExamples: Adobe Connect, GoToMeeting, WebEx, Yugma (or other free

solutions).Pros: very easy for people to attend your event, usually provide for a variety

of multimedia presentations, usually provide at least a speaker’s webcam.Cons: usually expensive and/or require someone to set it up for you, are best

for presentations rather than a group discussion.

Options for Online Meetings - 2

TeleconferencingExamples: Skype, traditional videoconferencing, telepresence.Pros: Skype is pretty easy and free and provides a conference call

experience, telepresence is reportedly impressive (I don’t have experience with it).

Cons: Skype is basically a phone call and can be a useful component in a broader online meeting experience but may not be sufficient on its own, videoconferencing usually requires others to do setup and tech support, telepresence has got to be expensive (though there are two public Cisco Telepresence rooms in North Texas: at the DFW Airport Marriott and at the Sheraton Dallas).

Options for Online Meetings - 3

Immersive EnvironmentExamples: Second Life, Jibe.

Pros and Cons - 1

Pros (both): Immersive, 3D, multimedia, real-time/synchronous experience, avatar-

based. Leads to attendees having an enhanced sense of place, sense of co-

presence, engagement with the event, memory of their online experience.

Pros and Cons - 2

Pros (Jibe) No software to download, user interface is intuitive, pricing is attractive

($47/month hosted, $295 one time cost for self-hosted), support for mobile devices coming in 2011.

Pros (Second Life) Mature, well-established, large community; real-time inworld collaborative

creation of nearly anything you can imagine; nearly infinitely customizable avatars.

Pros and Cons - 3

Cons (Second Life) requires software installation, software interface can be challenging and

requires some commitment for users to adjust, environment creation/development requires learning skills, pricing is less attractive ($295/month).

Cons (Jibe) environment creation/development requires learning some skills, it’s a

new-ish platform but with additional features in development, including support for iOS and Android.

Lets take a look at Jibe -1

It’s all in a web page: no software to download and install Includes text and voice chat - or use Skype on the side if you preferCreate items/displays/environments that include interactivity - tutorials?

games? self-paced learning modules?Use an inworld Presentation screen for slides or video, or supplement

your presentation with a desktop sharing application like join.me Industry-standard creation and development tools

See Jibemix.com

Lets take a look at Jibe -2

Let’s go visit some places!

Demonstration Jibe world created for the Defense Acquisition University - http://jibemicro.reactiongrid.com/pathfinderlester/DAU_Demo.html

See how a Jibe world can be embedded in a web page that contains other information and features - http://jibemicro.reactiongrid.com/pathfinderlester/

See how a Jibe world can be embedded in a Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=124597584291998 or http://apps.facebook.com/rockcreekpark

Questions?

A final thought...

Imagine: you've been driving around campus looking for a place to park and finally end up out at the stadium. By now, there's no way you're going to make it in to the library in time for your meeting. What if the meeting were online as well as in person (a mixed reality event that's also broadcast online)? You could sit in your car, connect to the meeting with your iPad, netbook, or laptop, and still "be there" and participate... It's not that you don't want to see your colleagues face-to-face, but failing the ability to do that, because you can be there virtually, your participation can be real and in real time.

Virtually There

Workshop activity: (Your "Thing to Accomplish"! - general info about how to do your "Thing to Accomplish") -- Visit John Lester's world and ... Find the table and chairs and sit downPet the cat and see what happens Find the sign that says "Walk up to this sign and something will happen!"

-- walk up to it. What happened?Extra credit:

Wander around and see what you find.Play the Memory Puzzle Game and post your best score to Twitter with the

hashtag #ReactionGrid Then... don't forget to post your comment to get registered for a prize!

Virtually There

Thank you!

Sarah Jones - sjones@uta.eduUniversity of Texas Arlington, Digital Library Serviceswww.uta.edu/secondlife

In SL: Razitra Artizar (Raz)

This presentation: www.slideshare.net/razitra