Second, Functionality

Last week I discussed performance issues and placed them first because no matter how great the functionality is that Second Life provides for meetings, if users log in and are bogged down by lag, they will not want to return. So, this week I am going to discuss some of the functionality required.This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Instead, it is examples of the kind of customizations that would make the SL environment conducive to business meetings.

First, there needs to be some sort of an external meeting planner. This planner could invite people to meetings and remind them when meetings are approaching. When they log in, the meeting planner could give them the option of being teleported directly to their meeting. If they are on already and a meeting time approaches they could be notified and given a tp option.

Second there need to be default accounts set up for people holding meetings so that a person can attend a meeting using a default account. Some people may wish to attend a meeting and may not wish to have a Second Life account and all that entails. So, default accounts will allow greater accessibility.

Third, there needs to be greater support for the display and distribution of media. As it currently stands, you can get a PowerPoint presentation into Second Life and display it, but it is a royal pain. There should be an object in Second Life that will take a Power Point presentation from your hard drive, convert it, up load it and display it in Second Life. Further, there should be an easy way to distribute the presentation to others at the meeting and place the presentation in some sort of archive for people who missed the meeting. Similar capabilities should be available for the display and distribution of documents and other media.

Fourth, protocols need to be developed to prescribe proper meeting behavior. How does one ask a question? How do you take turns? Do virtual meetings follow the protocols of real world meetings or are there some differences.

These are major areas in which capabilities need to be developed if Second Life is going to be used successfully for meeting. Next are some minor 'nice but not necessary' features.

When an avatar shows up at a meeting they should have some clothing options to choose from. This may include a range of business attire or a collection of outfits that would be appropriate to the theme of the meeting. Avatars should be able to select an outfit with a click, and have it placed automatically on their avatar. If they don't like it, they should be restored to the original with another click. This business of paying nothing for a box, dragging it to the ground, etc, has got to go.

There should be a collection of meeting gestures readily available to the meeting attendees. For example, an avatar should be able to raise its hand while sitting to ask a question. Text gestures like "Joe Smith has a question" or "Bill Brown nods off" should be available and possibly even accessible through a HUD.

There should be some audience management capabilities so a speaker or a person running a meeting can queue up questions and get to them in turn. And finally, there should be an easily accessible meeting aid so that people who are attending a meeting can easily contact a person whose primary responsibility is to help people with questions about the environment.

As I said at the beginning, this is not intended to be an exhaustive list of functionality. It is intended to be examples. These are features that would be useful for meetings and not much else. Currently, Second Life focuses on generic functionality which makes it good for a lot of things while not particularly good for any specific thing. If it is going to catch on for business applications, that is going to have to change.