Team meetings in a 3-D virtual world

For those of us who work virtually with clients and colleagues on all corners of the globe, anytime we can bridge the distance and feel like we're in the same room is a huge milestone.

This is one of the reasons why I'm so into the 3-D virtual world of Second Life (SL). SL is a place where anyone on the planet can gather, meet, discuss, plan, and socialize with 3-D avatars as our representatives.

For those of you who haven't joined SL yet and are having a hard time imagining what a meeting "inworld" would look like, I did my best to take some snapshots of my first meeting within Second Life, which was Nick Wilson's Twitter Users meeting.

BYOS: Bring Your Own Sword 

Frankly, I didn't know quite what to expect, but it turned out to be very fun, and I ended up meeting some interesting, friendly folks who I probably wouldn't have met otherwise.

As you can see from the photos, a meeting in Second Life is not like a meeting in Real Life.

As each member teleported in, we were made to feel welcome and told to take a seat. In a SL meeting it's fun to look and just soak up the visual appearance of each person. Some folks make their avatars look like their real life selves, while others obviously get a little creative with their look. :-)

Two of my favorites were Jeremy, wearing a traditional business suit and carrying a large sword (how often have you wanted to do that in real life!?), and MikeG1 who was looking very dapper in a top hat and formal tails with a cane.

I didn't catch his name, but you might be able to see in the pics that there is one gallant gentleman who looks like a cross between Hellraiser and a kitty cat. He's the one in the all black, with the white face and the cat ears. And of course he was carrying a sword. :-)

I wish I had gotten a closer shot of him--he was definitely "far-away cute", if you are familiar with that term ;-). Not sure what he looked like up close though.

Now that I think about it, there were a number of guys carrying swords at the gathering. At least I know that had any violent intruders come to invade the Twitter Users meeting that we would have been well-protected! :-)

How do you talk to each other?

There is a chat feature in SL that is like any normal IM tool, and in the meeting it's like a group chat session. (If you click on the photos, you can see a bit of the chat.)

The only challenge is following all the streams of conversation --sometimes it's like there are 5 conversations being started at once, so it takes a few minutes of getting used to.

One of the members of the group compared it to when her kids come home for Christmas, and there's all this chatter going on at once. Yep, it's kinda like that. You get used to it though, and like in a real life meeting you tune into what others are saying and try not to trample on anyone else's discussions.

This particular meeting was actually more similar to being at a little party than a traditional business meeting, but this was probably due to the casualness of the gathering--there was no strict agenda or anything :), which makes for a more laid back meeting.

I didn't get the geographic locations of everyone, but I know that Denmark, London, California, Pennsylvania, Alabama and various other locations in the US and the world were represented.

A charming way to meet

All in all, the meeting was delightful and the hour went by way too fast. I'll definitely go again!

Is this geeky? No doubt.:-)

Is it fun? You bet!

Is it an exciting new way to connect with colleagues around the world? Definitely!

Obviously there is a quite a bit of creativity and whimsy that goes into a meeting in Second Life, and I consider that a good thing. Gathering inworld makes a meeting more visual, more interactive, and more fun. Especially if you work in a creative field or in the web tech arena, SL would the perfect place to meet up with your team.

I'm lucky that the guys I work with are of the creative/geeky variety :-), because in the future, if I can manage to get some of them interested enough in SL to join, I can totally see us meeting up there for fellowship and business talk over a virtual cup of coffee.   

BTW--I know that some of you are Twitter Users, so feel free to join the next Twitter Users meeting, which should be sometime next week. If you haven't already joined Second Life (it's free BTW), you have about a week and a half to get your avatar decked out so that you can attend the meeting in SL. Let me know if you have any questions or need any help with anything. :-)

Comments

[57 Miles]

That's an awesome description of our meetings :) Im really glad you enjoyed it!

Now you just have to tell me which one you were hhh!

[Sharon Sarmiento]

57--I can't believe you don't know which one I am!

Of course I'm the avatar who looked like a cross between Hellraiser and a kitty cat. Kidding! I wish I were that intersting looking in SL, but alas, I am merely RedKitten, the young human-looking lady with the flower in her hair who was seated to your right.

This brings up one of the other challenges of having a meeting in SL--sometimes it's kind of hard to tell who's who, with all the made-up names and the creative looking avatars. But it's still fun--we all need a little mystery in our lives anyway. :)

[KG]

He was "far-away cute" ROFL! What a great phrase. Never heard of it before. Is that anything like when someone looks cute in one type of lighting, but then not so much in another type?

You make SL more and more intriguing with each post. Now if I could only find me some time...I think June will open up. I have a feeling I'd really love this.

Now do I go for a human-type avatar or one along the lines of the kitty-Hellraiser? So many choices! ;)

[Sharon Sarmiento]

Hey KG,

Yes, you're spot on--"far-away cute" is a very close relative to being cute in only a certain type of lighting. :-)

I think you would really love SL too. It's goofy and whimsical, but also has some solid foundation under it in terms of virtual business and collaboration, so it's a hoot!

Re: the human -vs- furry dillema. There was a time when I was so tempted to try on this free White Wolf avatar that someone had given me, you know, just to see what it would feel like to go around looking like a wolf.

But, I chickened out. With my luck, I wouldn't be able to get the darned thing off, and then I'd be stuck going to business meeting and such dressed as a white wolf!

Maybe one day I'll be more adventurous with my look--you've gotta admire anyone who has the guts to don the kitty-Hellraiser look!