The author (right) checks into a virtual-reality event, and finds a lot to be intrigued with, as well as a few experiences that don't exactly track with reality. For example: What role should furniture play in an event like this?
Over the past few years while rumblings and investments in videoconferencing increased, Avaya has been delveloping an alternative called web.alive. It is a virtual reality conferencing solution now available for $49/month (up to eight users). Avaya kicked-off the latest release of web.wlive with an immersive press/analyst event. It was a success in that many of us transitioned from skeptical to intrigued; including me.
I attend quite a few conferences and webinars each year. Conferences are a pain, but immensley valuable. Webinars are far more efficient, but do not facilitate building relationships. Avaya's web.alive sits in between these two and is distinct from video conferencing; it deserves a look. For example, I had side chats with people I knew and even met someone new--that does not happen in a webinar.
For a basic overview of the service, check out Zeus's post. Below, I intend to get more into the notion of physical realities in an increasingly virtual world.
Avaya went to great lengths to provide a reasonably realistic auditorium. The room had real sound characteristics in that you can talk to and hear neighbors, but only the official presenter could be heard across the room. Slides were presented on smart screens, the presenter can use a laser (eye safe) pointer on the slides. Many of the attendees looked reasonably similar to their real life alter egos--I even recognized a few. Everyone controls their own avatar including its look and gestures. The experience is far more immersive than an audio conference, and not as invasive as a video conference.
With a desktop video conferencing, there's usually a choice between slides or video. With room systems, camera angles can be a problem. The TVs, slides, and cameras are usually all on the same wall--so a presenter talking to the room with slides usually has the back-of-their head pointed at the camera. This virtual conference avoids all that. The benefits of a controlled, animated environment. However, I did have a problem with sunshine blinding.
Cyber realities generally attempt to improve upon reality. For example, this was the first conference I attended where no one was too fat or too old, and no one had a stained shirt. No one had long hair, it wasn’t an option (although I did manage to create a green beard). I could speak, talk, text, clap, but not fart--and considering the popularity of farting apps on smartphones, that seemed to be a big omission.
Upon arrival, I found I was a woman (not that there is anything wrong that). Elka Popova said she arrived as a man. It seems odd the system takes a guess instead of a simple prompt to ask. After a quick gender and wardrobe adjustment, I was directed to an auditorium for announcements. The room size was comfortable--about 50 people in attendance, I wonder if it expands and shrinks with demand. The auditorium was impressive--actually a bit similar to the Gaylord Palms atrium at Enterprise Connect. It had an atrium roof and there were Avaya banners in every direction.
But what kind of auditorium has no chairs? Actually, the notion of furniture is an odd one in cyberspace as avatars don’t feel fatigue. In the break-out rooms there was furniture, but my Avatar, which walked through people, could not walk through furniture. It seemed a nuisance, so my Avaya host Gino simply flipped a wall switch and turned off the furniture (poof). I did eventually figure out how to sit, but it wasn’t very fulfilling.
On the conference table there was a speaker saucer which turns out to be "real"--it can place calls. But what happens to the call (and phone) if someone turns off the table? The smart screens were very clever--they could be used for screen sharing or slides--other models were web browsers. They could all be popped out into a separate 2D window. But I don't know why Avaya didn’t equip our Avatars with wireless video devices; probably too expensive.
This virtual conferencing could prove to be useful. It seemed a bit wasteful that it didn’t use my webcam at all. Microsoft announced a consumer version of this concept associated with its Kinect Xbox console. With Microsoft Avatar, the camera supposedly reads your expressions and gestures--not sure that's a good idea. But maybe the camera could at least assist in avatar design. In web.alive, moving around was fairly straightforward, but you have to use A and D for Left and Right. With Avaya’s UNIX heritage, I would have guessed H and L. The mouse is more intuitive regardless.
The debate over determining which parts of reality are good and which are a drag is not new. SIP trunks can (and some do) support multiple calls per trunk. But that’s confusing--a trunk has always represented a single call path. Today, the vast majority of SIP carriers only support one call per trunk. It makes the technology more comfortable and leverages years of terminology and engineering. But does it make sense to hinder a new technology with historical models?
Another virtual compromise can be found in emerging ebooks--some allow the owner to lend a book for two weeks. This makes a lot of sense as that is a key benefit to real books, but lending a book removes it from the owner while it’s loaned. This makes no sense with ebooks which can exist in more than one place at a time. If the terms of lending for two weeks or purchase, why can’t the purchaser keep the ebook while hustling it for the publisher?
Presumably Avaya web.alive is customizable for the host. A university might, for example, want to allow long hair. Avatar conferencing is reasonably light on the bandwidth, reasonably efficient for collaboration, and has a social aspect that's missing in webinars. At $49/mo it isn’t a big risk to try it out. It could indeed prove to be very popular in certain segments, particularly with younger crowds that are more accustomed to virtual role playing realities. Try it out yourself at http://launch.avayalive.com.
