ec3v3.projectchainsaw.com for high res models, etc.

Considering your background, I would like to thank you for commenting on the interview. I saw how you made the list of influential women of the web 2010 http://bit.ly/6VJ5zH and your blog http://www.rocketwatcher.com/ is insightful for tech start ups like web.alive. Oh wait…. you promoted web.alive & are the reason I found the technology. Plus I learned how to sell complex futuristic applications from your blog.

@juliefogg

I’m just a fan of 3D tech (I don’t work in 3D at all) but I’ve been playing around in 3D online worlds since the late 90s myself. I enjoyed reading your take on this. Having used both web.alive and SL, I have seen the differences, and there’s certainly a lot.

I agree with Julie’s thoughts that WA’s 3D positional audio makes for a more immersive, natural experience where you hear what you are standing next to and at a volume relative to distance, as opposed to SL where audio tends to be “either you can hear it or you can’t and there’s one volume for everyone”. The cocktail party analogy is apt, and so is a work board meeting or large conference, for web.alive. SL is much more of a free for all most of the time, though SL does provide tools to own and control property the same way, it’s more about the fact that the SL population are usually whom get invited, while in WA, the entire population of the world is strictly controlled.

I can also relate to the comment about nervousness/giggling with regard to the interview. Interviews can be a little stressful for sure, and an in-person meeting does tend to mitigate that. A 3D meeting can have the same effect, to a degree. You feel a bit more in control of the audio and visual experience in an online world versus a phonecall.

Julie’s comment that it is a controlled environment is key. web.alive does give the world owners more control, and out of the box, it’s more appropriately restrictive of avatar appearance. For example, in a typical corporate web.alive world, you won’t see someone running around as a wolf or a flying phallic symbol, but in SL, that’s very possible. The idea is to give the owners complete control over the experience. The default set of avatars in web.alive are far less extensive than what can be done with SL, but when you’re trying to get work done, that’s what matters – a simple set of politically correct avatars.

web.alive is based on Unreal technology, though scaled down for high compatibility with older machines. SL is also very compatible so this isn’t really an advantage that WA has, just a feature enabling it to compete in that area. They’ve done some interesting things with streaming video out of web.alive and embedding presentations and other mundane office-type functions, whereas Second Life has focused more on diverse property ownership and avatar customization.

Probably the most significant difference with WA is that it is web-enabled and the barrier to entry is reduced significantly as a result. Compartmentalized, online worlds can be embedded into a webpage and strictly controlled by the owner, such as the Lenovo E-Lounge, and entered by non-tech visitors with a highly automated plugin-based install-and-go model. Second Life requires a full client download, account setup and registration, and while it may seem simple to most people who have used computers for more than a month, it’s simply too much for many people.

I can send anyone the URL for the e-lounge and just about everyone could get in with one-click and then following a few basic instructions, the first time or every time. If I create a Second Life world, the instructions to invite someone who has never been are… excessive to say the least. SL is a single monolithic world with it’s own culture and goals and web.alive gives that power to companies to run controlled worlds specific to their work.

Regarding recording, I also don’t know the answer here, but you could certainly screen record with something like Fraps on either platform, and upload the resulting video to YouTube or whatever. I don’t believe either system has this function built right in, but I could be wrong.

Both systems help the environment, but only if they’re adopted and used. web.alive makes it easier for corporations to get into this technology for sure, cutting travel and all that, which is great. SL, to be perfectly honest, is just full of a lot of very weird people who are more focused on SL itself rather than the subject at hand.

Check out the Lenovo E-Lounge for a real-world implementation of web.alive:
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/Sitelets/eLounge/welcome

I hope this technology is adopted widely soon. I’m sick of conference calls on my cellphone sounding like garbage. The sound quality through the PC is much, much better – when people can get their mics to work. WA has made this pretty easy as well, I must say.

Thank you for interviewing me. It’s funny that I stumbled onto this post right after a video demo from a prospective vendor. The gal bounced in her chair the entire duration of the demo and I was completely distracted. In light of that experience coupled with reading your interview, I would like to list communication technologies from my favorite to my least favorite:

1. 3D aka a virtual world like web.alive or Second Life (voice can be done in-world or separate for privacy).
2. Voice conference with collaborative capabilities like Google Docs or Sonexis Conference Manager.
3. Skype or enterprise VoIP calls (Avaya or Nortel).
4. Mobile calls (lower quality but acceptable).
5. In-person (this creates carbon dioxide and is my least favorite unless really necessary).

Thank you again for taking the time to speak with me about a technology that I am so passionate about. I’m definitely an evangelist.

Here is a link for some of the most well-known people on Twitter using 3D technologies: http://twitter.com/EricaDriver/immersive-internet

Here is a link for the Association of Virtual Worlds: http://www.associationofvirtualworlds.com/

Here is the link for the gentleman I attended UCLA’s Anderson School of Management MDE Program who is heavily involved in augmented and immersive technologies: http://www.immersivetech.org/

A link on Second Life launching their enterprise product: http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterpriseapps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=221600198

And the web.alive website: http://www.projectchainsaw.com

Thanks again!

Julie Fogg
@juliefogg