Zachmann.NET
Microsoft's Second Life
Virtual reality version of "Heroes Happen Here" is launched.
Microsoft late last month undertook a fascinating experiment, hosting a virtual reality version of its "Heroes Happen Here" traveling launch of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. The event took place in Second Life (SL), the fantastically popular but notoriously quirky virtual reality world for grownups.
Despite the inevitable minor hitches that come from pushing at the edges of a still-evolving technology, the event was a big success. And it was a clear advance over prior SL-hosted events by Microsoft. The company has lagged behind major IT firms like Cisco, Sun, Oracle and IBM in leveraging SL as a platform for reaching out to customers and developers.
Having attended the real-world Heroes Happen Here launch in Boston, I was in a position to make some comparisons between the cyberspace and meatspace versions of the event. For one thing, by the time the traveling show got to Boston, it looked tired, like watching a local version of a Broadway hit where the original cast had been replaced by local stand-ins.
The SL version was better for three reasons. First, because it was a very challenging project for the Microsoft folks and the contract folks helping them, I think they were much more motivated to make it work than were the road-weary staff of Microsoft's traveling road show.
Second, presenters in the SL version didn't seem to be as bound to following standard presentation scripts as much as the presenters did in real life -- at least from what I saw in Boston. The presenters in Boston tried to be enthusiastic, but came across as tired and a bit bored. The presenters in SL, at least in the Visual Studio track that I attended -- which was the most popular one -- were enthusiastic, articulate and not simply reading from a prepared script.
Third, more than at any of their prior events in SL, the folks from Microsoft and their helpers did not simply try to clone a copy of the real-world event, but adapted the format to take advantage of the unique features of SL to create a more interesting session. They did this using SL as the primary venue, while supplementing it with Microsoft Live Meeting for live demonstrations and also as a backup in the event of problems with SL.
Better than Real Life
This worked very well. SL provided the primary virtual meeting space, along with its text and voice chat, and projection screens for videos and PowerPoint slides. Microsoft Live Meeting provided an alternative way to see the PowerPoint slides -- they loaded quicker than they did on the screen in SL-but mostly it was an excellent way to see the live demonstrations of Visual Studio 2008. At the live event, because demos were projected with video projectors, it was very hard to actually see the desktop and the code examples. With Live Meeting supplementing the SL venue, they were clear to read and easy to follow.
The SL event also enabled folks in the audience to talk with each other during the presentation, both collectively in the Local Chat window and individually using the SL instant messenger (IM) windows. It was great to read comments and observations from others in Local Chat and to carry on one-on-one or small-group conversations in IM. These facilities also gave the presenters some great instant feedback from the audience.
The result of all this is a much more information-rich experience for attendees in the virtual-reality version than in the real-world version. The ability for presenters and attendees to type or paste Web URLs furthered that effect, making it easy to visit Web pages cited during a presentation, for example. One could also directly follow the link to the Microsoft virtual labs.
Virtual Team
The only disappointment was that the Microsoft SL team was unable to convince their company to provide real-world launch kit swag for those attending the virtual event. Shame on you, Redmond, for not supporting your pioneers in SL better!
A crack team pulled everything together to make this successful event happen. The two key Microsoft virtual reality pioneers, organizers and presenters were CSharp Writer (Zainab Naboulsi, Microsoft's Virtual World evangelism lead in real life) and Elwyn Nightfire (J. Sawyer, a Microsoft developer evangelist), along with their colleagues Davcor Hax (Dave Bost, a Microsoft developer evangelist) and MJ Merryman (Mike Murphy, with Microsoft Across America and TechNet). Microsoft Development Community volunteers Robin Proto (Robin Gomby), G2 Proto (Kyle Gomby), Strawberry Fride (Chris Hart) and Mark7152 Houston (Mark Stevens) provided huge support for the effort, building the facilities. And that's just a partial list.
Don't look now, but Microsoft is getting a second life. Perhaps you should, too.
About the Author
William F. Zachmann, born before the modern digital computer was invented, has lived with them (and made his living off of them) all his life. He was director of research for The Forum Corp. in the mid-'70s and senior vice president of corporate research at International Data Corp. (IDC) in the '80s. He has a copy of Windows 1.0 that Bill Gates signed for him the night it was rolled out at Comdex Fall '85. Zachmann is now director of Canopus Research Inc. He programs in C# using Visual Studio 2005 with a focus on ASP.NET and SQL Server 2005.