Re: [vmeet] IETF Island in Second Life

[Lisa Dusseault <[e-mail]>]

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 6:20 PM, Henning Schulzrinne
<[e-mail]> wrote:
> Not having done much in SL, I'm curious what you see as the principal advantages compared to more boring tools like GoToMeeting and WebEx. Was interaction easier and, if so, how?

This is one of those "works for me" things:  not speaking for anybody
else, but I'm easily distracted.  I knit during many meetings so my
mind doesn't wander.  SL provides some of the same advantages but more
directly related to what's going on: viewing the avatars keeps my
focus on the proceedings, almost as much as real life and much more so
than a voice-only call.  This surprised me when I experienced it, and
I was also surprised that having meetings with a brass robot (my boss)
and a nautilus shell (my colleague) was interesting rather than
distracting.  YMMV.

I just wonder how many social responses are triggered by sight as well
as sound.  Is it a general human trait that it helps us listen to have
something to look at that represents the speaker?  How much does it
help if we can look at a face instead of a non-mammalian avatar or
image?  How much does it help if the visual focus is animated along
with the voice?  Would a smiling cartoon avatar in a meeting foster
cooperation compared to a frowny cartoon avatar?  Does this effect
strengthen with increased avatar realism or not?  I'm not the person
to study these things, but I read the studies avidly in between
working on the technology.

> Did the meeting feel more productive? Beyond seeing some avatars, what capabilities were used?

None as yet; next time we try this we're going to try a slide
presenter in-world.  I've been in other meetings with slide presenters
or shared video and that's been an aid, though so far no better than
real life (just cheaper).

>
> Can somebody dial in by phone or is this headset-only?

Yes you can dial into a group by phone, although I believe that's not
a feature available to all groups just yet.  The dial-an-avatar
feature only recently got added (for $:
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2009/08/19/bye-bye-beta-avaline-dial-an-avatar-is-now-available-to-all-avatars)

The voice stuff is SIP by the way :)

Lisa