Describes how virtual worlds are disruptive technologies.

1. Virtual Worlds Are
Disruptive
Michael Macedonia

2. What Makes A Technology Disruptive?
• Introduces a new capability (e.g. the digital
camera)
• Maybe “inferior” but a lot cheaper (e.g. the
transistor)
• A result of the “harmonics” of technology
curves (e.g. the iPhone)
• Ultimately forces change in business
models (e.g. Internet)

3. Harmonics: The Fully Connected World

4. Harmonics: Universal Wireless Broadband

5. Harmonics: Everyone Lives in the Virtual World

6. Everything Changes: eLearning in Africa

7. Stuck in the Past: CIC on a Ship
2005
People looking at dots
on a screen trying to
imagine they are ships
1975 and airplanes

8. What is the
business
model of
command
centers?
Its all about
collaboration.

9. Predator Cockpit – The Ultimate Virtual Reality
Experience

10. Imagine This: Command Center in Cyberspace

11. Imagine This: Virtual Worlds as the Workspace

12. 1995: $1 million for
virtual astronauts to
shake hands between
Houston and Germany

13. 2010: unit cost of virtual worlds go
toward $0 while performance goes
exponential

14. How: Media Sharing in Forterra’s OLIVE
Video or Flash Based Web Content Sharable Content Object
Microsoft PowerPoint
PowerPoint
Desktop Applications White Board

15. How: Geospecific Mirror Worlds in OLIVE

16. Group Meetings & Collaboration
• Branded Rooms &
Accessories
• Identity
– Personalized avatars
– Profiles
• Media Sharing
– MS Powerpoint
– Video
– Desktop applications
• Virtual Meeting
Reservation System
(VMRS)
• Lotus Sametime

17. Training
• Realistic & hypothetical
Scenarios
– Scenes
– Simulations
– Role players
– NPCs
• Scenario & Scene Editor
• CBT or SCORM
Integration
– Instructor led
– Self-paced
• Record & Replay
• Datamart

18. Operational Solutions
• Virtual Emergency
Operation Centers
• Common Operating
Picture
• Context Specific
Operation Centers
• Connection to real
world – GPS, RFID
and other sensors
• Embedded
Rehearsal
Environments
18

19. Summary
• Virtual worlds are disruptive because:
• New capabilities
• They make the abstract a real experience
• Enable rich collaboration from anywhere on the
earth
• Cheaper
• They are far, far cheaper than existing physical
solutions
• They ride the harmonics of the Internet, Computing,
Social Networking and 3D graphics
• They are changing business models in a Internet world