ThinkBalm: Immersive Internet insights & expertise

by Erica Driver and Sam Driver.

The ThinkBalm Innovation Community went live just over three weeks ago. We’re having a heck of a time. We hit the 100 member mark today. Members have posted and been refining more than 40 ideas related to enterprise use of the Immersive Internet, with more than 400 posts and 30,000 page views. But, as we tell our clients all the time, these kinds of things are not the real measures of business value. Even in its nascent state, this emerging innovation community has begun to create its own value, providing another point of evidence that there is great power in numbers.

• The community is training itself. The ThinkBalm Innovation Community is based on the Spigit™ serious game engine, which is a new experience for nearly all of us. Community members have self-assembled into an idea team to review and contribute to the PowerPoint training slide materials and even lend the community Web conferencing technology and an immersive environment for the training sessions. We had a call this week to discuss requirements for the immersive environment and are having another meeting early next week to go over the training materials and work through some more logistics. We think we’ll be ready to offer both Web-based and in-world training sessions the week of September 22nd. 
• We’ve scheduled a panel discussion on the topic of 3D models in immersive environments. As professionals in the discrete manufacturing and architecture / engineering / construction (AEC) industries begin to experiment with using immersive technologies for work, it has become clear that we need a bridge between the world of old pros who create 3D models in traditional CAD systems and the new breed of professional 3D modelers who create objects for use in immersive learning simulations, virtual worlds, and serious games. A ThinkBalm Innovation Community idea team self-formed and met this week in an immersive environment lent to us by one of the team members. We finalized the panel agenda and list of vendors we want to invite. We will invite speakers from the traditional CAD software market as well as some of the newer Immersive Internet platform vendors. While we don’t have a specific speaker lineup yet, we’ve picked a date: Wednesday, November 5th at 11AM EST. If you’re interested in attending this event, join the community and put the date on your calendar.
• We are crafting a series of brainstorming events. Immersive environments present an opportunity for people to brainstorm together to solve problems in new ways. Yet another self-assembled team has come together to collaboratively develop an agenda for a series of brainstorming events, where community members present problems they are wrestling with and peers brainstorm possible solutions utilizing 3D tools and techniques. Because we’ve already got one upcoming event that’s going to take place in OpenSim and another that’s going to take place in Second Life, we are hoping to use some other Immersive Internet platforms for the brainstorming events – ideally platforms that are natively conducive to brainstorming.

The ThinkBalm Innovation Community presents a unique opportunity for IT managers, information and knowledge management professionals, software developers, and technology marketers to help shape the future of the Immersive Internet. Members get a focused venue for sharing knowledge and getting feedback on their ideas, access to the experiences and ideas of thinkers and doers outside their organizations, and a means of building and enhancing their reputations as Immersive Internet experts. There is no cost to members to participate. ThinkBalm also offers technology marketers an opportunity to sponsor Idea Hunts in the community for solutions to marketing challenges, insights into customer requirements, and ideas for product names. Contact us at info@thinkbalm.com for information on becoming a member or for Idea Hunt pricing information.

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