Case Story: Virtual World Communications

Summary
Group / workshop	None	Status	seed
Project details...

Situation

What was the setting in which this case study occurred?

A team of people were working on a project in Second Life, which involved constructing artefacts and buildings, based on existing architectural plans and models, and also filming various scenarios in this to be available publicly.

Task

What was the problem to be solved, or the intended effect?

Apart from the tasks of design, development and implementation of the SL environment, the usual project management tasks (e.g., sharing information and documents, discussions, tracking progress) had to be covered. The aim was to establish the best means of carrying out these tasks to support the project.

Actions

What was done to fulfil the task?

The project management and support system evolved informally, starting with using e-mail as the main communication tool, and a file sharing site for common files – particularly as some of these were too large to be sent conveniently by e-mail. It gradually became clear that the best way to communicate was just to go into Second Life and conduct real time conversations there. 

Towards the end of the project, the idea came up that if we had a whiteboard of some kind in the development area, this could take care of most asynchronous communication as well. This was modelled on what was often used for physical teams – a heading for each team member, where they could leave information for others (e.g., when they’d be around), and where other people could leave messages for them, and then a general space for the project information and activities – outline plan etc. Unfortunately, for various reasons, particularly because it was late in the project, we didn’t implement this as such, although we did use some similar ad hoc methods in the development space.

Various interesting hybrid work methods were also evolved. For instance, several people could be communicating in Second Life, but one of them could be talking to someone else using a mobile who was not in SL, and directly or indirectly, the conversation could be relayed into SL.

Results

What happened? Was is a success? What contributed to the outcomes?

Using SL for project communications had a number of advantages. You could see the state of progress by looking around, eliminating the need for detailed verbal descriptions, and face to face (or avatar to avatar!) communication was much the best way to discuss problems and issues, especially as you could actually set up demonstrations and try things out collaboratively.

The whiteboard idea or equivalent, had the advantage that it was simple and intuitive. You didn’t have out of date information there because you just rubbed it out, and the space restriction meant that you had to very brief – although you could obviously reference external sources if necessary. Because we had facilities within the environment to access the web, stream video etc., most project support activities could take place there as well if required. However, e-mail still formed the basis of communication because of its simplicity. 

Using a virtual analogy of a physical workspace allowed forms of interaction that are often cumbersome and difficult to arrange online, to be easily enabled. For instance, you could just post a notice up saying you would be doing something at some time, and whoever wanted to be there would attend – no need for working out who to e-mail, dealing with the replies, setting up a conferencing session etc. Particularly interesting was that “members of the public” could wander in (you could control this of course), and you could ask their opinions on things (user engagement!) – even rope them in as “extras” if appropriate!

Lessons Learned

What did you learn from the experience?

• Look at your project communication methodology in relation to what the project is doing. There may be ways of integrating these, and tailoring communication and support to fit what is being done.
  
• Virtual worlds provide potentially powerful ways of facilitating communication and collaboration, particularly if one integrates other systems with them using seamless gateways. Currently, they are not suitable, in the general case, to form the basis for project communication and support, because of their technical overhead and complexity.
  
• This situation will change, however, not only because of hardware and bandwidth improvements, but also because of developments in how we understand the way people interact with systems and systems interact with each other, leading to new types of hybrid system that more closely mirror the way we think and work. It is worth considering how to take part in this process of development.

Licensing

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.