The ICT Cluster interviewed David Burden, Managing Director at Virtual Worlds Agency, Daden, to find out more about virtual worlds, their uses for SMEs and how his Birmingham-based company is leading the virtual revolution.

ICT Cluster (IC): What is a virtual world?
David Burden (DB): A virtual world is a 3D, electronically- generated environment where users can interact, create and communicate just as they would in the real world.  One of the most famous examples is the online community, Second Life.

IC: How do virtual worlds play a role in business?
DB: In a virtual world, people can meet, collaborate, plan, visualise, train and learn together. They can use the same tools as in real life meetings such as whiteboards and PowerPoint as well as accessing media such as You Tube and websites. Furthermore they can visualise information three dimensionally. For example, instead of seeing a list of potential clients, they could walk onto a live Google map and touch a marker to bring up media relevant to the organisation such as their website, news coverage, press releases etc – all in one space -  and share that experience with other team members (no matter where they are in the world).

IC: Why are virtual worlds important for businesses?
DB: Virtual Worlds are about experiences rather than transactions. Being able to meet, learn, visualise and collaborate in environments that mimic real life is more engaging and memorable. In our experience, virtual worlds are better at delivering this total immersion than conferencing alternatives such as video meetings.  As virtual worlds can be accessible to employees, partners and customers across the world, it can also reduce development, training and support costs.

The recent closure of airspace certainly highlighted the relevance, opportunities and advantage of holding such meetings virtually.

IC: Can you give us some examples of how virtual worlds can be used?
DB: We currently see three main applications: education and training, ‘built environments’ where users can explore and interact within a specific organisational-setting; and collaboration and data visualisation. 

For example, one of our clients, St George's University London, uses Second Life to help second year paramedics practice. This project won the 2009 Times Higher Education Award for the Most Innovative use of ICT.

We also recently entered and won first place in the skills building category, at the U.S. Federal Virtual World Challenge, for a simulation to disarm an immersive explosive device (IED) - training that in real-life could result in casualties.

You can use virtual worlds to create scaled copies of planned and existing real-life builds which can be explored, commented and consulted on. The build can be walked through, tweaked, re-used and “put to work” rather than a fly-through which has a limited shelf-life

The old adage of ‘practice makes perfect’ certainly applies to virtual worlds which are an ideal environment for training and problem based learning. You can place the student in the environment specific to the job e.g. health and safety training could be in a workshop, on a construction site or on top of a sky scraper. Individuals can learn without risk.

IC: How can small technology companies use virtual worlds?
DB: At the very basic level, for relatively little money, a small or mid-sized company or even a non-profit organisation can have an international presence showcasing their work or be able to hold meetings without the associated travel/hotel costs. It offers far more immersion than other options such as video conferencing or and web meetings.

IC: How can small technology companies use virtual worlds for their clients?
DB: Companies can use them to support a wide variety of operational systems and services, as well as part of the sales and support process.  Training and education, data visualisation and new product development are all key areas as is a built environment visualisation – showing how systems work in-situ, or how things are laid out in a data centre etc.

IC: Have you got an example of virtual world being used for business?
DB: We are working with a local software developer who creates web-based educational software. This is designed to be used in a team environment, but the existing web interface is not compelling, and there is no real support for remote working. We are working with the company to see how we can embed their application within a virtual world, so that data is visualised both in 3D and in model form, and the whole space becomes both immersive and supports remote working out-of-the-box.

IC: What are the most common misconceptions about virtual worlds?
DB: That they're “seedy places where people have affairs”. Sadly, sensationalism often rules. If you go looking for adult content you will find it; just as you would if you surfed the internet. Virtual worlds such as Second Life have taken note and it’s not possible to enter an “adult” area without confirming that's what you intended. There's probably far more adult content on the internet than in virtual worlds yet the internet is not blocked by businesses.

IC: What do you see as the future of virtual worlds?
DB: Virtual worlds will continue to develop and mature. They'll become part of the business mix for any organisation. The introduction of the internet was approached with caution - now it’s a must-have and virtual worlds will also become something we can't do without. Just as the web has become the de facto standard and platform for almost any transaction based application development, so too we expect to see virtual worlds become the standard for spatial and social applications. You'll be able to access and work on a wide variety of applications and spaces, web pages and data but do it all collaboratively. In due course you'll be able to embed virtual worlds in web pages – bringing the two environments intimately together.

A report from GigaOM Pro stated that “3-D virtual world applications for enterprise use will grow into an industry earning $8 billion to $10 billion in annual revenue by 2014” (Oct 2009) so it’s important that people begin to consider them as part of their business mix now.

IC: Tell me more about Daden
DB: Daden is a virtual worlds solution provider. Our focus is on using virtual worlds to deliver more efficient and effective enterprise systems, saving our clients money, time, carbon, and delivering better understanding and collaboration.

IC: How have you built up your expertise in virtual worlds?
DB: I’ve been involved in virtual worlds since the 1990's and formed Daden in 2004. Daden has grown organically with most of our work coming through   recommendations and referrals. We recently moved into new offices and tripled our workforce.

IC: What is your position in the virtual worlds market?
DB: In the UK we're probably one of the top two players – especially in how these worlds are used to support business internally and for B2B use.  Daden were double finalists in the U.S. Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge, so our work is also gaining international recognition.

IC: Who are your clients?
DB: Our clients include government, education, private sector and health-care organisations. We are members of Intellect and are Linden Lab Gold Solution Providers for Second Life.