Presence and IntComm WG

["Ben Chinowsky" <>]

*Action Items as of November 15*

(high priority)
[ACTION] (11/9) Dennis will ask Jeff Pulver if he can join a call to talk 
about
the PIC potential of Second Life, or recommend someone else to do so.
[ACTION] (10/12 - in progress) Candace will try to fix pals-dev.
[ACTION] (9/7) Mark will post his presence-agent code on the web.
[ACTION] (8/24 - in progress) Mark will see if he can find interest in the
presence-agent project on the Psi developers' list.
[ACTION] (5/18) Mark will evaluate prospects for modifying the calendar-
integration code written by Ben T.'s 2005 SoC student, to drive XMPP presence.

(medium priority)
[ACTION] (8/31) Dennis will contact Skyhook for more information.
[ACTION] (8/3) Rodger will put a discussion of current vendor offerings in the
location-services space on the agenda for a future call.
[ACTION] (pre-12/8 - in progress) Rodger and Joe will write up some use cases
for enterprise federations.

*Attendees*

Rodger Will (chair) - Ford
Joe Rork - Ford
Deke Kassabian - Penn
Dennis Baron - MIT
Neal McBurnett - Internet2
Ben Chinowsky (scribe) - Internet2

*Discussion*

The group continued its discussion of Second Life. There was general agreement
that virtual worlds have considerable potential as a collaboration tool. The
group discussed improvements that could help realize this potential:
- purpose-built virtual spaces, e.g. classrooms, so that a group could have
privacy and exclusive control over the objects it's working with
- federated virtual worlds with avatar portability, so that organizations 
could
build their own worlds but an individual wouldn't need to adopt a different
identity for each one of them. On the other hand, the use of multiple 
identities
is common, and has its perceived advantages. Joe cited the case of a man in 
his
twenties who engages in political discussion using an avatar representing a
woman in her forties, because he thinks this makes people more open to the 
ideas
being expressed. Authentication would be an issue for avatars that purported 
to
represent real people in real-world business dealings.
- better ways for avatars to communicate attitudes toward ongoing
conversations -- in particular, better ways to communicate when attention is
being paid. On the other hand, it was noted that the ability to pay attention 
to
your email without others knowing is an advantage of traditional phone
conferencing.
- audio. Deke noted that this is coming soon to Second Life.
- enabling virtual hallway conversations -- you walk around, overhear a
conversation you're interested in, and join it. This would require both 
improved
attitude-communication, and audio that would be highly sensitive to your 
virtual
location.

Pulveria is one of the more advanced examples of corporate presence in Second
Life. [ACTION] Dennis will ask Jeff Pulver if he can join a call to talk about
the PIC potential of Second Life, or recommend someone else to do so.

Deke noted that universities are experimenting with Second Life for disaster
simulations (pandemics, tsunamis, hurricanes...) and to try out designs for
new campus buildings.

Rodger has scheduled a face-to-face PIC WG meeting for Tuesday, December 5, 
from
7:15am to 8:45am. Breakfast will be provided. See
http://events.internet2.edu/2006/fall-mm/sessionDetails.cfm?session=3012&event=258