Conferences and Meetings
From Virtual Worlds
Practical Guide To Conducting Conferences And Meetings in Second Life
Meetings of the geographically dispersed teams and conferences oftentimes become the first application of the virtual worlds in corporate environment. This seem to be a logical and easy-to-execute first step, but as anything else, it does require planning to be successful.
All Participants Are in Second Life
It is easiest to setup a meeting or a conference when all of the participants can log into the Second Life. In this case, you simply need to agree on the time and place and make sure all of the participants have working headsets and know how to configure voice communications in Second Life and how to use instant messaging.
To configure audio, select "Edit" from the top menu, then go to Preferences -> select Voice Chat among the tabs on the right side of the Preferences window -> make sure "Enable Voice Chat" check-box is checked and select additional options (to hear voice from the avatar or camera position, etc. Feel free to experiment with these options) -> click "Apply" -> click "OK".
Notes:
- Keep your mic off unless you speak. Few things are as distracting, as (heavy) breathing in a microphone that all participants will hear.
- To avoid echo do use headsets and not a mic + computer speakers setup.
Some Participants Are In Reeal And Some Are In Second Life
The setup is almost as easy when you have two groups of participants: one group at a single location in physical world and others participating in the meeting via Second Life. In this situation Second Life - based participants will use their regular setup with headsets. People in real life can use a single computer with access to Second Life (perhaps connected to a projector, so that everybody could see what is happening on the screen) and a microphone. Since a mic and speakers can result in uncomfortable audio feedback / echo, you can use a USB microphone that is easily turned off / on with one click of a button. We had excellent results with a Logitech USB mic using this type of setup during several presentations on conferences with half of the presenters being therfe by way of Second Life. Other USB microphones will probably work just as well.
Some Participants Do Not Have Access To Second Life
The situation becomes a bit more complicated when some participants do not have access to Second Life. This could be a technical issue, for example, in one of the company divisions access to Second Life can be blockied. This could also be a policy issue, for example when you want to demonstrate something to a group of people outside your company who are prevented from visiting your Second Life location. There are three possible sub-situations:
- Participants will only be able to see and hear what is going on in Second Life. No data will be transferred from physical world into Second Life;
- Only video and sound from physical world will be transferred into SL. Nothing from Second Life will be transferred into physical world (a case of a concert or a key-note speaker doing presentation from real life); and
- The traffic will be bi-directional: the data will be transferred from and into SL.
Links below will help you organise these situations:
Streaming Video From Second Life Streaming Video Into Second Life
