Looking Back; Looking Forward

It was about this time last year that I joined the Greater IBM Connection. My first adventure was going to a holiday party at the  Greater IBM virtual world at Second Life. We were invited to dress-up and show-up!

Much like a real party, there was that burning question, "what do you wear to an IBM holiday party anyway? LOL First I had to create Debbe Dae, my avatar. It was great fun to see her come to life, taller and more graceful than in real life. It was something like 5:30 a.m. when I logged-in for the party, teleporting my way to the celebration. I remember having the sense that  I was "flying off" to some new land — definitely a "second life experience" from the start.

The party was quite amazing. There were IBMers everywhere. It really gave me an introduction to what’s possible for all of us in this virtual domain … I met new friends from all over the world; even discovered that when Debbe Dae hit the dance floor, she could let her uptight hair down and dance! (I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture of it!). The holiday costumes and exhibits were way beyond what I had imagined at the time. As I look back, it was probably the most exciting IBM party I can remember LOL. Here are a two "snapshots" I took at the event to show my disbelieving friends where I’d been. I’m the one in the red and black:

Getting up the courage to dance

On the ice rink with the "Skating Christmas Princess"

It came to me that we’ve begun to create history here at the Greater IBM Connection and there is much more to do and nearly unlimited possibilities. New events are emerging all the time with many planned for the coming year. We have a new IBM Innovation Center, a Conference Center and even a place to stop for a latte at Second Life. We have new Greater IBM Connections eMagazine and IBMers all over the world from every region are landing here. It’s one of those important moments when opportunity arrives and questions you. Greater IBM is here. Thousands and thousands have joined the community and now, what will we do with it in 2008?

Looking back; looking forward questions for YOU…

• Do you have a memorable moment or experience at Greater IBM Connection from this year to share with all of us?
• Have you joined Great IBM yet? We hope you do. Click here to learn more
• What’s your vision? If we could really make this Greater IBM Connection the best social networking community in the world, what would make it the best for you?

I look forward to hearing from you—and happy holidays to everyone across the world!

Debbe Kennedy
Contributing Author
Greater IBM Connection
Founder, President & CEO

Global Dialogue Center and Leadership Solutions Companies
IBMer 1970 – 1991 L.A.; Anchorage; Seattle; San Francisco

See the Greater IBM Connections Premiere Issue
A eMagazine for and about Greater IBMers

Photos from The Greater IBM Connection Virtual Christmas Party

Thanks to all who came to The Greater IBM Connection Christmas Party!
I was overwhelmed by my many folk came along and at one point I
couldn’t get into my own disco as the island was full!  We had:

• Christmas Rides and a nativity scene on IBM
• A snowman and snowglobe building competition on IBM 1
• An icerink complete with iceskates on IBM 6
• A Christmas tree with presents from the IBM architects and a Disco in the Greater IBM Virtual Connection Center on IBM 7

All of the above will be there for a few days if you want to go and visit.

Ian, has beaten me to blogging first with some nice pics, but here’s my photos from the event:

What Christmas is really all about:

Boris rides again!:

Lots of people entered the building competitions and there was a good atmosphere there:

Here are the winners on podiums:

The
prize was some ultra-cool iceskates.  One of the winners managed to wear
the box instead of the skates… (we’ve all done that at least once
):

The IBM architects were giving out presents under the Christmas tree:

And Anita from SOA land had provided some great festive fare outside our building:

People had fun skating:

The Greater IBM Virtual Connection Center was transformed into a disco for the event:
I could only get in after lots of people had left, so it wasn’t so full when I took pics:

Santa even showed up for a boogie!:

Before relaxing with a gluwein…

It’s
been an amazing year, and I think the turnout at short notice to the
party underlines how many Greater IBMers "get it".  You you haven’t taken the plunge into Second Life yet, you can sign up here.  This is one of the ways we are exploring to interact in meaningful wasy with IBMer alumni and IBMers, and given the recent IBM and press attention, we have been riding the wave, so why not jump on-board!  We look forward to seeing you at more events: online, in-person and virtually next year.

Merry Christmas!

The launch of the new virtual IBM islands in Second Life

Well, the big day has arrived for the launch of the new IBM virtual islands complex!  Sandy Kearney the leader of the new 3D internet EBO (Emerging Busines Opportunity) launched the IBM islands
with a rousing speech in Theatre 1…

After that there were some tours around the islands.  We then formally opened our new Greater IBM Virtual Connection Center.

TA DA!

We served up cocktails at the bar, thanks to Doug:

And ok… I had one too many shark attack cocktails …

and went to sober up on the viewing platform in seminar room 3…

Feel free to come take a look at the virtual connection center on IBM 7 island in SL.

The Great Machinimania Challenge Meetup

            
The Greater IBM Connection Machinimania Challenge
(make a video trailer for Greater IBM using Second Life) kickoff
meeting went really well on Friday.  We have loads of uptake and Jacob
Hall lecture theatre was the fullest I’ve seen it.  The island even
maxed-out and people were pinging me saying they couldn’t get it as
there were so many people!

I
ran through the slide deck for the challenge, and explained how the
challenge would work.  Wayne Smith then gave a live demonstration of
the very cool Bijo Cam tool for doing multiple camera angles.

We had to clear out of Jacob Hall as there was another meeting right afterwards,

I
suggested we go somewhere else, so what we were not blocking folk from
teleporting into Almaden.  Someone suggested going to Narnia (where
else !), so we all teleported to Cair Paravel without a fur coat or
wardrobe in sight!  Thanks to the owner, who is an IBMer.

Whilst
there, I gave out some more Greater IBM keyboards, and gave people an
opportunity for people to split up into teams.  Here’s looking forward
to some fantastic submissions for videos.  If people have any
questions, please let us know.

Kevin Aires
Project Manager
The Greater IBM Connection

Greater IBM Virtual Bloc Party Video on YouTube

We have posted a 5 minute summary of the virtual bloc party on YouTube.  Take a look:

Greater IBM Virtual Bloc Party in SecondLife report with screenshots

It sounds like a great time was
had by all at last night’s Greater IBM virtual bloc party.  Bloggers are already on the case, with Andy
Piper and Eric Mariacher beating me to it. You can also see Wayne Smith’s pictures on snapzilla.  Wayne was filming all through the event (note the video camera in the screenshot below) and is busily editing as we speak.

The meeting was set up in SecondLife on our new skyPOD on
Almaden island and on an international, operator-assisted conference call.  We had 43 attendees in
total or which 29 were guests, with the rest made up of helpers (thank you very
much!) from IBM’s Virtual Universe Community. We had guests to the skyPOD from as far away as Chile, Brazil and Afganistan.  Other countries represented included USA, Canada, UK, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany and Austria.

Guests were welcomed at SpacePort Alpha and Austin
islands for orientation, before they were teleported to Almaden island.  Jean Paul, Mayor of Almaden enabled this to be an exclusive event by limiting access to his island to party guests.  Once on Almaden, despite our best efforts to make directions to the skyPOD clear, some people got a little disorientated and went exploring other parts of the island before we herded them all back to
the teleport point and beamed them up to the Greater IBM skyPOD.

Our fears that the system might slow down due to the large numbers
of people using it thankfully proved unfounded.  This enabled me to take the entire group on a tour around the skyPOD together, which I was concerned may not be possible.

Our guests were shown Steven Harrion’s Amazon bookstore application, which demonstrates how users can order books from within SecondLife.

They also saw an
IBM share price ticker which pulls live stock price information from the internet.  During this tour I gave a demonstration of my “Do Not Disturb Sphere” (a tool I created for future use to ensure that IBMers giving client presentations in SecondLife are not disturbed by other passing SecondLife visitors).

As the sun went down, guests were invited to
take a look over Almaden island from the observation deck. They were then encouraged to practice the
skills needed for the following part of the meeting – using gestures,
sitting down, and standing at a microphone.

We moved through to the adjoining Seminar Hall, where Ian Hughes
(ePredator Potato) presented on IBM’s virtual world activities.  As part of his presentation he showered us
with tennis balls (Ian is a veteran member of IBM’s Wimbledon Tennis Tournament project team), and showed off his new
customised virtual Reebok training shoes to demonstrate how well known brands are experimenting in SecondLife.

Mathew Georghiou, CEO of Mediaspark took us through what his
company is doing in the MMOG education software space, and how worlds like
SecondLife may impact this market in the future.

Jack Mason of IBM Strategic communications, presented on what we are trying to achieve with
The Greater IBM Connection,

and then led us into a breakout session where each table discussed one of these
questions:

* What will make Greater IBM most valuable for IBM alumni?

* How can Core Connectors ignite network growth?

* How can IBM become an engine for collaborative innovation?

* What part can virtual worlds play in helping to build
Greater IBM?

 

A member of each table then reported back to the entire group,

before I formally ended the meeting and thanked everyone for coming.

Most people stayed on for a while to chat with other guests

Guests were each given a Greater IBM gift pack containing a branded T-shirt, cap and flag, all designed by Judge Hocho. I also presented guests with a Greater IBM
keyboard gadget which we had commissioned especially for this event.  These were very well received and one guest told me that he worked for Logitech on keyboard development, so he was particularly impressed!

Virtual Bloc Party Dress Rehearsal

IBMer, Jack Mason, IBM Strategic Communications & The Greater IBM Connection Executive Producer

Just got finished with a little walk ‘n  talkthrough on the Virtual Bloc Party  were throwing this Thursday.
What you see here is one of the discussion circles where breakout groups can tackle our three brainstorm topics. (See previous post on those questions)

The microphones in the background will also enable participants to ask questions (via our simulcast conference call) and help us keep track of avatars and the people behind them.

While the Virtual Bloc Party will be a bit experimental, I can tell you this….
the best thing about this effort is that so many of our colleagues in the Virtual Universe Community, the hotbed of activity that self-assembled across IBM this year, have chipped in in so many ways, just as they did for the 3D Jam last month.

For example, Judge Hocho (his  stogie-chompin’ avatar’s name, pictured here),has created some very nice giveaways for our guests.  And CopterPilot Sikorsky is looking into how we can capture and share our brainstorming and network-building soiree in some very clever new ways.  Fingers crossed on that front.

We have others who have volunteered to serve as moderators, stewards and party helpers, so on the social networking front within IBM, putting this event together has already built our bonds. A thousand thanks to everyone who is stepping up.

Biggest props go to Kevin Aires, Greater IBM’s new project manager (aka Boris Frampton in SL), who has done just an incredible job of assembling all the virtual, as well as actual, elements, of our metaverse workshop.

Some of the exhibits he’s assembled for show and tell in Greater IBM’s skyPOD hover-house include RSS  from Greater IBM’s external Web sources (courtesy of our Virtual Universe comrade, Hugo Dagleish) and an automatatic notecard dispenser.

If he can help the Greater IBM Connection itself become as innovative as our forthcoming virtual gathering, I’m very bullish on our prospects to create the world’s most delightful and useful business social network.

IBM’s 3D Jam in Second Life

[N.B. About 15 people from the Greater IBM Connection joined the 3D Jam, a virtual offshoot of IBM's recent InnovationJam. Based on the strong interest, Greater IBMers will be invited to meet and greet via the "metaverse" once or twice a month- Jack Mason, Greater IBM Executive Producer]

Chuck Hamilton, IBMer, Center For Advanced Learning (CAL) – Solutions Leader

 

On September 12, 2006 a small volunteer community thought we would try an experiment involving IBMers and a 3D virtual space which we felt looked and felt a lot like the next wave of web based collaboration. We called the event the ‘First Ever IBM 3D Jam’. Since many of us were already proposing similar applications as part of the first phase of the IBM InnovationJam, we decided to tie our 3D Jam event to the main Innovation Jam and see what happened.

We put out a simple and unfamiliar looking invite to about 40 people. We warned them that we were experimenting and that they might experience a few road bumps along the way. We asked people to sign up, develop a virtual 3D character (an avatar), and then attend a virtual meeting as their character in SecondLife.

 

The original 40 person invite yielded 388 positive responses, spreading virally in just four days. In the end, around 150 alternate personas from around the world managed to make the virtual meeting event. Some characters stumbled and hopped in, others flew in gracefully and landed near their seats. They came in all shapes and sizes, excited, (and some) frustrated, but all ready to participate.

Participants were spread across four virtual IBM islands (under development by various IBMers for over a year) distributed by an overwhelmed ‘greeter team’, transporting back and forth like space travelers, taking in the sites and events. Visitors listened to renowned experts like Larry Johnston from the New Media Consortium and IBM’s Jeanette Horan,
VP Business Process and Architecture Integration, speaking to the role of play in our work lives and how environments like these, were going to become increasingly more available to all of us.

Audio was simulcast across all IBM islands as people multitasked through various worlds.

After the introductory chat, people simply wandered around, chatted live, instant messaged, took navigation instruction from peers, explored exhibits, tried math puzzles, went to the NMC museum, talked to robots, picked up free tee shirts or got themselves tossed out of cannons. Long after the scheduled event people mingled and dialogued about what had just happened to them.

In just a few short hours, people were ripped into a future world, old timers still frustrated with cuurent browser usability issues flew about next to younger upstarts who were up and running in ten minutes. A buzz began.

This buzz then flowed into the IBM InnovationJam, which became the next attack point for participant comments. New comments streamed into the space dedicated to ‘Real Markets for Virtual Worlds’ which became one of the most active threads of the entire InnovationJam.  This was followed by requests and proposals to integrate this sort thinking into our business and numerous media requests.

On Tuesday September 19th Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Vice President, Technical Strategy and Innovation will be speak to the world about the innovation emanating from these spaces with live demo in London England. IBM’s newly formed Virtual Universe Community (which meets weekly in Second Life) is still sorting through the deluge of requests and the new to do list we have generated through our after action review.

This entire event was managed by a cross section of the IBM community, numbering around 15 or so people, volunteering their skills and ideas. No one was really in charge, we just assumed roles, without a hierarchy, doing what we could and helping each other with any holes we encountered. It was tiring, but well worth the effort. While most people were pleasantly surprised, some were simply shocked by the activities they saw. Another group simply gave up, frustrated by the barrier to entry they encountered.  Yet this simple experiment has yielded a wealth of knowledge about IBMers and the future of remote collaboration. Our team will be grappling with lessons learned from this event for quite some time.

But here is the real kicker: The cost of this entire experiment was ‘zero’. Outside of the time people offered up to participate, there was not cost to IBM for this deeply immersive 3D, virtual meeting of 150 people. Let that number wiggle around in your head for a while and think about what is possible from a community building and collaboration perspective across IBM.

We launched and watched innovation happen this day and IBM was a wondrous place to be! We employed a new work model that is certain to be at least part of the future of our work and frankly we are not sure what we’ll do next. But stay tuned!

Some Comments from the Virtual Event

“I am getting buried in Sametime questions, meeting invites and emails on this.  The timing was perfect aligning the community launch, the 3D jam and the innovation Jam. I could not believe the number of people collaborating in the Innovation Jam on this”

“Wow this is a very cool idea. Is it real?”

“This is the coolest thing I’ve seen IBM do in a long time, whose paying?”

“I was able (with difficulty) to get into the Second Life.  After the experience, I know why it is we hear about guides for the next life .  And…I think I understand a little better what Alice felt like when she fell down the rabbit hole.  It was not intuitive….starting with the email invitation that had extremely limited instructions (e.g. “set up avatar” and “install software”)…would have actually been easier to fall down a rabbit hole!!”

“It was incredible!  You cannot imagine what I had experienced!”

Some IBM Virtual Places in Second Life

Almaden     PUBLIC    106.164.25     http://slurl.com/secondlife/Almaden/106/164/25/

IQ              PUBLIC    148,136,24     http://slurl.com/secondlife/IQ/148/136/24/

Jessica       PUBLIC    47.53.27       http://slurl.com/secondlife/jessica/47/53/27/

Innovation Jam Wiki   http://wiki.globalinnovationjam.com/collaboration/jam/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=55

Greater IBM alumni Second Life
Social Networking