Last Thursday, I got up infront of the class and talked about my job as a facilitator. I also mentioned that we are facilitating part of an offsite in Second Life. The details keep rolling in and today I've been tasked with creating a "how to" for attending a meeting in second life. We aren't sure how many people will have microphones for Voice Chat, so we are going to rely primarily on text chat. I'm getting headset from the company so I can at least present through voice, but I can't deny that I'm pretty nervous. I'm familiar with Second Life, and feel like i'm out of the novice stage, however, to get my avatar ready for prime time with directors and a few vice presidents, i'm not that comfortable with. The things I need to prepare is our Vote box. Part of our team created a box where everyone who wants to participate must collect a ballot from teh box by clicking on the box and collecting the ballot. Any person who has a ballot can also call a vote. This happens by posting a note int he top right hand corner. It will display the question and the vote options. This isn't a sophisticated vote, but more of a "yes" or "no" or rank order type vote.
My job will be to make sure the avatars are able to communicate with my facilitating avatar and that everyone can see the presentation materials (which will be in Second Life as well). Additionally , I need to supply a CONOPS, (concept of operations) on how to attend a meeting in Second Life.
The challenge we face is that we do not allow Second Life at work. Therefore, we are relying on personal computers and people sitting either at designated lab sites, or in their homes paying attention while we bumble our way through a meeting.
Additionally, a developer on the team has created a space for happy hour. He created a pool table, a bar and darts to play in our simulated happy hour.
I have to admit, i'm not exactly thrilled at the propsect of embarrassing myself in front of a lot of potential bosses. This will take a lot more work than traditional methods, and i'm afraid of what the attendees will experience. Many of them have never been to Second Life before...I know a few of them are having their kids help them during the offsite...
More to come on my adventures on teaching second life.
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5 comments:
What do you think will be harder:
being taken seriously as a possible business application or having to keep people from getting "virtually drunk" on company time?
I think both would be equally hard to address, but the first one would be the most important to address because "becoming drunk" on the virtual technology implies the technology has been accepted in business. In planning this offsite, a lot of intangibles and "what ifs" have been discussed, and this is one of the first times we are taking non-techys into our FirstFlight area (LM SL area). I agree SL is a challenge to traditional communication models, and it shouldn't replace any of them.
That is an interesting point. If a person doesn't know a new technology you shouldn't have to worry about their capabilities. Still, the "what ifs" list has to be longer than my arm. Between people, tech, and location you have a beast that won't be tamed easily. You've got guts pioneering this kind of technology for this audience. I wish you luck.
I think you'll be ok! If they are open minded enough to attend a meeting on SL, that means they are willing to explore. I think we are in a day and age now that we anticipate a few hardships with new technology.... what I'm saying is that I'm sure the attendees will expect to have some difficulty ... best of luck!
As bad as this project may seem...i think its preety cool that you work in an enviornment where these types of projects can occur and where your co-workers can expect mishaps. You'll be fine. you guys will all get thru it together. Just remember to have fun with it!! Good luck!!
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