Presence and IntComm WG

["Ben Chinowsky" <>]

*Attendees*

Rodger Will (chair) - Ford
Jeff Pulver - Pulvermedia
Dennis Baron - MIT
Deke Kassabian - Penn
Candace Holman - Harvard
Neal McBurnett - Internet2
Steve Olshansky - Internet2
Ben Chinowsky (scribe) - Internet2

*Discussion*

The call was devoted to a discussion of the potential of virtual worlds with
special guest Jeff Pulver (http://pulver.com/jeff/).

Jeff is interested in delivering voice services to virtual worlds; he 
described
one of his companies, Vivox (http://www.vivox.com/), as on its way to becoming
"the phone company for Second Life". The Vivox client is an evolution of 
Pulver
Communicator and Free World Dialup. Among other things, Vivox is working on
voice distortion (to make the voice fit the avatar) and location-sensitive
audio.

Jeff encouraged the group to create a presence in Second Life, but noted that
non-uniform user experience due to differing bandwidths is a major issue. Jeff
estimates that it will be another year or two until the typical user's machine
is able to make Second Life really work the way it's supposed to. He also 
noted
that you don't want to encourage new users to have you be their first 
experience
of Second Life; you want an audience that's comfortable with the environment,
and it takes some time to become proficient.

Pulveria (built by the Electric Sheep Company -- 
http://www.electricsheepcompany.com/) has been well received, especially the
combined real-world/virtual-world event at VON. Jeff sees the commercial
potential of Second Life as being more in public relations and demonstrating
products than in direct monetization. Second Life is currently capable of
supporting events of up to a few hundred people; Jeff is hoping to do a 
webinar
soon.

Jeff also suggested that Second Life could be useful for freshman orientation 
-- 
incoming students could meet one another and familiarize themselves with the
campus virtually before even arriving. Dennis noted that MIT is working on 
this,
Rodger suggested a similar application for new employees at Ford, and Deke 
noted
that a friend of his has done something similar with his neighborhood in
Portland.

Jeff also made a few comments about IP communications more generally. VoIP is
now a worldwide phenomenon; Jeff predicted that within five to seven years all
the world's phone companies will be IP-based. Vendors are starting to become
more customer-centric, providing tools to help people customize their
experience. Jeff also noted the coming-of-age of Internet video; he is 
currently
spending a lot of time working on TVIP.

Finally, Jeff stressed that he would like to help PIC however he can
(introductions, blog space, VON space...) and encouraged PIC members to 
contact
him at 
.