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INDIE EDUTAINMENT MARKETING
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MOVIE ARTICLESTable of Contents
GAME ARTICLESTable of Contents
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Immersive Technology for Training, Meetings and Events
Research is beginning to track the effectiveness and ROI of immersive online technology. The marketplace is thriving with 95% of 2009 survey respondents reporting some level of success with their immersive technology deployments in government, non-profits and even corporations. But they also focused on non-financial benefits.
Immersive technology won out over a variety of alternatives primarily due to low cost and the increased
engagement it delivers. The leading alternatives were Web conferencing and in-person meetings,
followed by phone calls. Nearly 60% of respondents (38 of 66) indicated that immersive technology was
less expensive than alternatives, and 11% (7 of 66) reported that it was more expensive. SOURCE: PDF: ThinkBalm, Immersive Internet Analysis report series, Issue #2 by Erica Driver and Sam Driver, Principals of ThinkBalm. May 26, 2009
Understanding business value is still an issue that pioneers are trying to get their arms around.
Practitioners are using a variety of
metrics to determine the success of their projects:
Pioneers state that virtual events cost less than physical events. Microsoft, demonstrated that per-attendee cost of a developer conference reduced costs by more than a factor of 100 by reducing travel and venue costs.
Machinima costs much less to produce than traditional videos. Several survey respondents and
interview participants listed machinima creation as one of their organization’s uses of immersive
technology -- machinima is a collaborative effort to create a space in which people
from around the world can inhabit and enhance one another's ideas.
Some training and corporate groups are getting into the immersive technology game early to gain valuable experience with an emerging technology
they believe will result in a competitive advantage.
Migrating delivery of intellectual property to an immersive environment
can expand access to new sources market niches ... and revenue while providing a significant competitive advantage. By removing the need for people to be in the same place at the same time, face to face training organizations can fundamentally change their business model.
The three top ranked alternatives provide a higher level of engagement than a simple phone or conference call or instant message conversation.
The benefits of immersive environments include collaboration and communication with shared context and experience, presence awareness and a voice channel.
Those communication capabilities foster creative problem solving more rapidly than disjointed communications.
These online meetings can also bring together people who would have no other means of meeting. Connections can be made among construction companies, government program staffers civil engineers -- as well as top level executives and front line workers who might not feel comfortable in the real world, but with non-intimidating avatars, can meet more productively.
Even access to transportation can be a hindrance for some kinds of counseling or training services. By visitng client homes virtually, services can be delivered for outpatient services with less hassle and more cost effectively.
Effective training for high-risk, low-frequency tasks can be a highly valued crisis management advantage. Oil refineries, or other intensive industrial situations or even war zones can be provided to sharpen skills, add performance best practices and build teamwork for real world tasks.
Some spent nothing -- relying on volunteers and free software. As you can imagine, those tended to be very simple applications.
But pilot projects that use a public virtual world -- such as Second Life -- can be relatively inexpensive.
Innovative projects also tend to elicit volunteer or off the clock programming time ... and later projects will no longer garner these "free" resources, with more realistic budgets.
The learning curve is also a challenge -- both for creating content and learning from it.
Getting IT support and alignment can be a challenge.
Convincing end users that the technology is beneficial and easy to use is another hurdle. Resistance to change is widespread.
And when you succeed, keeping pace with demand can also be a challenge!
The report provides a list of recommendations that can help plan and implement immersive technology programs. The authors also provide a list of additional research reports that will help you plan and manage your first immersive technology projects.
SOURCE:
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