Business Process Management Virtual Environments

CFP: Intl. Workshop on Theory and Applications of Process Visualization

2012-01-28T21:37:00.000-08:00

1st Intl. Workshop on Theory and Applications of Process Visualization

Visualizations can make the structure and dependencies between elements in processes accessible in order to support users who need to analyze process models and their instances.

However, effectively visualizing processes in a user-friendly way is often a big challenge, especially for complex process models which can consist of hundreds of process components (e.g., process activities, data flows, and resources) and thousands of running process instances in different execution states.

Many challenges remain to be addressed within the broad area of process visualization such as: scalability, human-computer interaction, cognitive aspects, applicability of different approaches, collaboration, process evolution, run-time requirements of process instances and applications, etc.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

Visual Metaphors in Processes
Visual Design and Aesthetics for Processes
Visualization of Dynamic Data in Processes
Change Visualization for Processes
Interface and Interaction Techniques for Process Visualization
Visualization Techniques for Collaboration and Distributed Processes
Visualization of Large-scale Processes
Cognition and Perception in Process Visualization
Evaluation and User Studies of Process Visualization
Visual Modeling Languages
Analysis Techniques and Visualization for Processes
Process Visualization of Large Screens
Mobile Process Visualization
Visualization Tools and Systems for Processes
Visualization Techniques for Processes
Process Visualization and Sonification
Virtual World Process Visualization
Immersive Process Modeling Approaches
3D Process Visualization Approaches

Format of the Workshop

The ½ day workshop will comprise accepted papers and tool presentations. Papers should be submitted in advance and will be reviewed by at least three members of the program committee. All accepted papers will appear in the workshop proceedings published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (LNBIP) series. There will be a single LNBIP volume dedicated to the proceedings of all BPM workshops. As this volume will appear after the conference, there will be informal proceedings during the workshop. At least one author for each accepted paper should register for the workshop and present the paper.

Important Dates

Deadline for workshop paper submissions: 1 June 2012
Notification of acceptance: 2 July 2012
Camera-ready version: 30 July 2012
Workshop: 3 September 2012

Paper Submission

Prospective authors are invited to submit papers for presentation in any of the areas listed above.

Three types of submissions are possible:

full papers (12 pages long) reporting mature research results
position papers reporting research that may be in preliminary stage that has not yet been evaluated
tool reports

Position papers and tool reports should be no longer than 6 pages.

Only papers in English will be accepted and must present original research contributions not concurrently submitted elsewhere. Papers should be submitted in the LNBIP format. The title page must contain a short abstract, a classification of the topics covered, preferably using the list of topics above, and an indication of the submission category (regular paper/position paper/tool report).

All accepted workshop papers will be published by Springer as a post-workshop proceedings volume in the series Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (LNBIP). Hard copies of these proceedings will be shipped to all registered participants approximately four months after the workshops, while preliminary proceedings will be distributed during the workshop.

Submitted papers will be evaluated, in a double blind manner, on the basis of significance, originality, technical quality, and exposition. Papers should clearly establish their research contribution and the relation to the theory and application of process visualization.

Registration

Accepted papers imply that at least one of the authors will register for the BPM2012 and present the paper at the TAProViz workshop.

Further workshop information is available from the website.

Ross

Paper: Human resource behaviour simulation in business processes

2012-01-25T00:18:00.000-08:00

Rune Rasmussen and I have just had a new ERA A journal paper accepted with Future Generation Computer Systems (FGCS). QUT EPrints Link

Title: Human resource behaviour simulation in business processes

Abstract: The structure and dynamics of a modern business environment are very hard to model using traditional methods. Such complexity raises challenges to effective business analysis and improvement. The importance of applying business process simulation to analyze and improve business activities has been widely recognized. However, one remaining challenge is the development of approaches to human resource behavior simulation. To address this problem, we describe a novel simulation approach where intelligent agents are used to simulate human resources by performing allocated work from a workflow management system. The behavior of the intelligent agents is driven a by state transition mechanism called a Hierarchical Task Network (HTN). We demonstrate and validate our simulator via a medical treatment process case study. Analysis of the simulation results shows that the behavior driven by the HTN is consistent with design of the workflow model. We believe these preliminary results support the development of more sophisticated agent-based human resource simulation systems.

Ross

Video: Two Videos from Gartner BPM Summit

2011-11-27T04:01:00.000-08:00

Have just uploaded two videos we showed back in August at the Gartner BPM Summit in Sydney.

The first video is a refresh of our Augmented Reality Process Modelling tool.

The second video shows us using an MS Surface as a collaborative modelling tool.

Ross

Boast: 2011 Final Year QUT Games Projects

2011-11-08T22:29:00.000-08:00

This week I am very proud to present this years games published by our final year students within the QUT Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment. On Friday, 4th November, our students showcased their work at the State Library of Qld in Brisbane. Fourteen games were on display, and a great night was had by all. A special highlight was an excellent motivational presentation by Assoc. Professor Jeff Brand from Bond University.

The QUT Games staff award for best game went to Manastorm (Lust for Guts), while Halfbrick Studios (Brisbane developer of the Fruit Ninja game) gave their award to Awien Ambush. Photos of the event, by Michael Miller, are found here.

Matt Ford, Michael Docherty and I have been working very hard with these students for a year now, and we are VERY proud of the results. This year's cohort has exceeded all expectations.

Some highlights are:

Stranded and Awien Ambush making the top ten on IndieDB - just to compare, Minecraft is the top game on IndieDB, this is a great achievement;
Manastorm making the top fifty on Youtube Australia with just their trailer video.

But don't just take my word for it. The following are links to all our freely available student work. Download them for yourself, and have a play! :-)

Ross

http://www.indiedb.com/games/manastorm-lust-for-guts - macho spell casting wizard fps

http://www.indiedb.com/games/awien-ambush - home alone with lots of aliens

http://www.indiedb.com/games/art-of-defence - tower defence with amazing 3D environments

http://www.indiedb.com/games/schools-out - escape your science teacher's clutches

http://www.indiedb.com/games/stranded - escape a planet inhabited by deadly beasts

http://www.indiedb.com/games/synergy - collaborate to solve 3D platform puzzles

http://www.indiedb.com/games/abzorb - solve puzzles by absorbing physical attributes

http://www.indiedb.com/games/scrapped - robot puzzler with cool detachable arm

http://www.indiedb.com/games/stick-ninja - ninja combat with an insane grapple mechanic

http://www.indiedb.com/games/spectrum - solve puzzles by transforming into light itself

http://www.indiedb.com/games/morvennan - defend against zombies and take the trebuchet

http://www.indiedb.com/games/unleashed - hack and slash with skills, skills and more skills

http://www.indiedb.com/members/hover-game - hovercraft-based 3D shoot-em up

Paper: Virtual world process perspective visualization

2011-11-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

Just had a paper accepted for eKNOW in Valencia, Spain in Jan 2012. This is the first output of a collaboration I have with Johannes Herter and Daniel Eichhorn at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Abstract: Product Lifecycle Management has been developed as an approach to providing timely engineering information. However, the number of domain specializations within manufacturing makes such information communication disjointed, inefficient and error-prone. In this paper we propose an immersive 3D visualization of linked domain- specific information views for improving and accelerating communication processes in Product Lifecycle Management. With a common and yet understandable visualization of several domain views, interconnections and dependencies become obvious. The conceptual framework presented here links domain-specific information extracts from Product Lifecycle Management systems with each other and displays them via an integrated 3D representation scheme. We expect that this visualization framework should support holistic tactical decision making processes between domain-experts in operational and tactical manufacturing scenarios.

Ross

Video: BPMVE in Qld Games Doco

2011-10-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

A QUT student has just put together a documentary about the games industry in Brisbane, featuring yours truly, and some of my BPMVE research videos.

You also get to see my games degree teaching and research colleague Dr Daniel Johnson, the local game oriented "Mana Bar", and a very bushy moustache I had growing at the time of the interview. :-)

Ross

CFP: ISVC'12 (Visual Computing), Crete, Greece, July 16-18, 2012

2011-10-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

CALL FOR PAPERS and SPECIAL TRACKS

8th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC'12)
Aquila Rithymna Beach Hotel
Crete, Greece
July 16-18, 2012
http://www.isvc.net

The purpose of the International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC)
is to provide a common forum for researchers, scientists, engineers
and practitioners to present their latest research findings, ideas,
developments and applications in visual computing. ISCV'12 seeks
papers describing contributions to the state of the art and practice
in the four central areas of visual computing: (1) computer vision,
(2) computer graphics, (3) virtual reality, and (4) visualization.
For a list of specific topics, please see http://www.isvc.net

ISVC'12 will consist of invited and contributed presentations dealing
with all aspects of visual computing. In addition to the main
technical program, the symposium will include several keynote
speakers, posters sessions, and special tracks.

***Important Dates***
Special track proposals: 1/20/2012
Paper submissions: 3/10/2012
Notification of acceptance: 4/10/2012
Final camera ready paper: 5/1/2012
Advance Registration: 5/1/2012
ISVC'12 Symposium: July 16-18, 2012

***Keynote Speakers:***
Schmid Cordelia, INRIA, France
Cremers Daniel, Technical Univ of Munich, Germany
Faloutsos Petros, York Univertsity, Canada
Coquillart Sabine, INRIA, France
Doleisch Helmut, VRVis Research Center, Austria (pending)

***Computer Vision Chairs:***
Fowlkes Charless, Univ of California Irvine,USA
Wang Sen, Kodak Research Labs, USA

***Computer Graphics Chairs:***
Choi Min-Hyung, Univ of Colorado Denver, USA
Mantler Stephan, VRVis Research Center, Austria

***Virtual Reality Chairs:***
Schulze Jurgen, Univ of California, San Diego, USA
Acevedo Daniel, KAUST, Saudi Arabia

***Visualization Chairs:***
Mueller Klaus, Stony Brook University, USA
Papka Michael, Argonne National Laboratory, USA

***Special Tracks***

Proposals are invited for special tracks on any topic relevant to the
symposium. Special tracks are intended to stimulate in-depth
discussions in special areas relevant to the symposium theme. A
special track may span multiple sessions, depending on the quantity
and quality of the papers submitted. All papers accepted in a special
track will be published in the symposium proceedings. If you are
interested in organizing a special track, please email a special track
proposal to admin@isvc.net by January 20, 2012. Proposals should include the
following information:

1. Title
2. Scope and Topics
3. Names of organizers and contact information
4. Initial special track committee
5. Anticipated number of papers

For a list of special tracks organized in previous years, please visit
http://www.isvc.net and click on "Special Tracks".

***Submission Procedure***

Papers submitted to ISVC'12 must not have been previously published
and must not be currently under consideration for publication
elsewhere. A complete paper should be submitted in camera-ready
format. The length should match that intended for final publication. The
page limit is 12 pages. In submitting a paper the author(s) agree that,
upon acceptance, they will prepare the final manuscript in time for
inclusion into the proceedings and will present the paper at the
symposium.

***Paper Publication***

This is a fully refereed symposium. Papers will be reviewed with an
emphasis on potential to contribute to the state of the art in the
field. Each paper will receive two-three blind reviews and should not
contain names or other information revealing authors' identity. Selection
criteria include accuracy and originality of ideas, clarity and
significance of results, and presentation quality. All papers accepted
will appear in the symposium proceedings which will be published by
Springer-Verlag in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series.

Competition: Fantastic Femmes

2011-10-14T00:58:00.000-07:00

From my QUT colleague - Penny Kyberz

Hi Everyone,

Our third and final Women in Games event for the year is an art competition and exhibition. Please let your students know about it.

We are inviting people of all ages to participate in our Fantastic Femmes character design competition. The competition is to design the artwork for a female games character that would make a great role model for gaming girls. Entries can include line art, hand drawn, computer generated and/or 3D renders in any style. The competition entry closes at 5pm, Friday November 25.

Entries will be displayed at our end-of-year exhibition at 5pm, Wednesday December 7, where the winners will be announced. Entrants must be able to attend the event to be eligible to win. Detailed competition rules and entry specifications are attached.

There is up to $500 worth of JB-HIFI gift vouchers to be won, so get designing!

http://rsvp.scitech.qut.edu.au

Thanks,

Penny.

Video: Towards a service framework for remote sales support via augmented reality

2011-09-27T06:56:00.000-07:00

Demonstration video of AR Sales Services prototype mockup for USECA 2011 paper can be found here.

Ross

Paper: Towards a service framework for remote sales support via augmented reality

2011-09-27T06:27:00.000-07:00

New paper accepted at USECA 2011 has been uploaded here.

Abstract. Real-time sales assistant service is a problematic component of remote delivery of sales support for customers. Solutions involving web pages, telephony and video support prove problematic when seeking to remotely guide customers in their sales processes, especially with transactions revolving around physically complex artefacts. This process involves a number of services that are often complex in nature, ranging from physical compatibility and configuration factors, to availability and credit services. We propose the application of a combination of virtual worlds and augmented reality to create synthetic environments suitable for remote sales of physical artefacts, right in the home of the purchaser. A high level description of the service structure involved is shown, along with a use case involving the sale of electronic goods and services within an example augmented reality application. We expect this work to have application in many sales domains involving physical objects needing to be sold over the Internet.

Boast: PhD Thesis Success!

2011-09-27T06:18:00.000-07:00

This week my PhD student, Alfredo Nantes, has passed his external thesis examination. In addition, he has been nominated for a QUT Outstanding Thesis Award by both his reviewers.

Well done Alfredo! :-)

Some of his work is detailed here and here. Special thanks also goes to Dr Frederic Maire, who assisted as associate supervisor.

Ross

Information Technology and People Special Issue on [location] {location;}

2011-08-03T05:15:00.000-07:00

Information Technology and People
Special Issue on
[location] {location;}

Call for Papers
Smartphones have enjoyed phenomenal growth in the latter part of the first decade of this century. By 2012 sales of such devices are predicted to outstrip sales of PCs, and by 2015 more people will be accessing the internet with such devices than they will be with a PC.

Key to the growth and popularity of such devices has been the convergence, not just of telecomms and photographic equipment, which helped drive mobile phone sales, and the addition of internet access, which defined the smartphone, but the addition, following the success of in-car satellite navigation devices, of GPS receivers into mobile internet devices. The integration of GPS technology into smartphones, coupled with the consumer-led approach of Apple’s iPhone, gave birth to a whole new class of location-based services for mobile internet devices, available in particular for the iPhone, but also for Android, and other devices.

As our lives become increasingly encroached upon by the digital virtuality of our exponentially advancing information society, will this be at the cost of our humanity? Writers such as Sherry Turkle and others seem to believe this is already happening in circles of people sitting together in silence engaging with their smartphones. When our senses are surrounded by interactive exposure to telepresent realities – the faces of those we are speaking to across the world overlaid upon the world before our eyes, streams of data passing across the pavements and shopfronts as we pass, electronic voices calling our name and tantalising us with goods they know we want (famously envisaged in the movie, Minority Report) – when the worlds around us are both real and virtual, will this grant us additional scope to express our humanity, or constitute such an overload that engagement fatigue exhausts our faculties?

At our off-grid holiday resorts in rugged mountainous territory or remote wilderness encampments, luxuriating in isolation-downtime, delighting in the simplicities of one-to-one, face-to-face conversation with no distractions, in natural landscape with no overlaid streams of historical and commercial data, out beyond the boundaries of location aware personal shopping avatars telling us where to get what they already know we would ‘Like’, will we savour a richer, more traditional humanity we feel the hi-tech virtuality-soaked everyday of our lives has come to miss? Or does this vision of a virtu-reality that beckons in the coming decade mistake digital virtuality for something other than simply the latest manifestation of the - very human – dreams our ingenuity and inventiveness has managed to create?

In the light of smartphone and GPS convergence, this workshop aims to explore and examine the implications of digital virtual technologies on our sense of place, our relationship with location(s) both real and virtual, and welcomes papers from any related disciplinary background on topics including, but not restricted to:

• The impact of GPS app(s) on social, organisational, political and other activities
• Theorising location in a smart world
• Down-time / going ‘off-grid’
• Emerging technologies likely to impact our sense of place
• Surveillance, privacy, trust – is it a generational issue?
• Locating ‘location’ – the evolution of our sense of place in the history and philosophy of technology
• Local / Global – are smartphone GPS systems a chainstore takeover of our traditional highstreet localisms?

Instructions for paper submission
Papers must not substantially overlap with papers that have been published or are simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference with proceedings. Papers must be written in English; they should be at most 6000 words in total, including references and (well-marked) appendices. Papers should be intelligible without appendices, if any. See http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id... for author guidelines.

Submissions must be made via the IT and People site at Manuscript Central:
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/itp

Important dates
Deadline for Submission of papers: October 15th 2011
Publication of Special Issue: by April 2013

Special Issue Editors

- David Kreps

Salford Business School, Salford University, UK

- Martin Warnke and Claus Pias

Computer Science & Culture, Leuphana University, Lueneburg, Deutschland.

http://www.ifip95wg.org/sicfp

Paper: A Prototype Augmented Reality Collaborative Process Modelling Tool

2011-07-08T20:18:00.000-07:00

We have had a BPM 2011 Demo paper accepted describing our new augmented reality process modelling prototype. A copy of the paper is available here. A video of the prototype is available here.

This work is the product of an Honours project by my new PhD student Erik Poppe. He will be continuing this work in his PhD project, supported by a scholarship from the Smart Services CRC.

Well done Erik!

Abstract at end of post.

Ross

Abstract.

Identifying, modelling and documenting business processes usually requires the collaboration of many stakeholders that may be spread across companies in inter-organizational business settings. While there are many process modelling tools available, the support they provide for remote collaboration is still limited. This demonstration showcases a novel prototype application that implements collaborative virtual environment and augmented reality technologies to improve remote collaborative process modelling, with an aim to assisting common collaboration tasks by providing an increased sense of immersion in an intuitive shared work and task space. Our tool is easily deployed using open source software, and commodity hardware, and is expected to assist with saving money on travel costs for large scale process modelling projects covering national and international centres within an enterprise.

Paper: Human resource behaviour simulation in business processes

2011-06-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

Our PhD student Hanwen Guo has been busily working away on simulating human agent behaviours with regards to workflow systems such as YAWL. He has now developed and tested an HTN-based set of agents for testing resource models in virtual worlds. Preliminary results are available in an ISD (Era A) conference paper here, applied to a health care workflow scenario.

Well done Hanwen!

Ross

Abstract

The structure and dynamics of a modern business environment are very hard to model using traditional methods. Such complexity raises challenges to effective business analysis and improvement. The importance of applying business process simulation to ana- lyze and improve business activities has been widely recognized. However, one remaining challenge is the development of approaches to human resource behavior simulation. To ad- dress this problem, we describe a novel simulation approach where intelligent agents are used to simulate human resources by performing allocated work from a workflow manage- ment system. The behavior of the intelligent agents is driven a by state transition mechan- ism called a Hierarchical Task Network (HTN). We demonstrate and validate our simulator via a medical treatment process case study. Analysis of the simulation results shows that the behavior driven by the HTN is consistent with design of the workflow model. We be- lieve these preliminary results support the development of more sophisticated agent-based human resource simulation systems.

CFP: Cultures in Virtual Worlds

2011-06-23T05:26:00.000-07:00

Cultures in virtual worlds
A special issue of the New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia

Guest-edited by Jeremy Hunsinger and Adrienne Massanari

Virtual worlds (VW) embody cultures, their artefacts, and their praxes; these new and old spaces of imagination and transformation allow humans to interact in spatial dimensions. Within these spaces, culture manifests with the creation, representation, and circulation of meaningful experiences. But virtual worlds are not novel in that regard, nor should we make the mistake to assume that they are novel in themselves. Virtual experiences have been around in some respect for hundreds of years, and virtual worlds based in information technology have existed for at least 40 years. The current generation of virtual worlds, with roots over four decades old in studies of virtual reality, computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), sociology, cultural studies, and related topics, provide for rich and occasionally immersive environments where people become enculturated within the world sometimes as richly as the rest of their everyday lives.

We seek research that encounters and investigates cultures in virtual worlds in its plurality and in its richness. To that end, we invite papers covering the breadth of the topic of cultures in and of virtual worlds.

Some possible areas/approaches of inquiry:

1. How culture of virtual worlds affect relationships
2. VW interfaces and culture/s
3. Hidden subcultures/communities in virtual worlds
4. Ages and VW cultures
5. Emic and etic experiences of virtual worlds
6. Producing VW cultures
7. Traditional cultural/critical studies inquiries of VWs
8. Transnational or cosmopolitan cultures in/of VWs

While all forms of scholarship and research are welcome, we prefer theoretically and empirically grounded studies. We seek a Special Issue that exemplifies methodological pluralism and scholarly diversity. The use of visual evidence and representations is also encouraged. We especially seek pieces that investigate virtual worlds that have received little scholarly attention.

Submission guidelines

This special issue is Guest-Edited by Jeremy Hunsinger (Virginia Tech) and Adrienne Massanari (Loyola University Chicago). Queries regarding the Special Issue should be directed to them at jhuns@vt.edu and amassanari@luc.edu. The Guest-Editors welcome contributions from both new researchers and those who are more well-established. Submitted manuscripts will be subject to peer review.

Length of papers will vary as per disciplinary expectations, but we encourage articles of around 7000 words (longer articles may be possible, if warranted). Short discussion papers of around 3000 words on relevant subjects are also welcomed as 'Technical Notes'. Detailed author submission guidelines are available online at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/journal.asp?issn=1361-4568&linktype=44.

Papers must be submitted via the journal’s online submissions system: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tham Please indicate that your submission is for the Special Issue on Culture in Virtual Worlds.

The special issue will be published in summer 2012.

Important dates:

November 11, 2011 Paper submission deadline
February 10, 2012 Author notification
May 5, 2012 Final copy due
Summer 2012 Publication

Jeremy Hunsinger
Center for Digital Discourse and Culture
Virginia Tech

Link: We've been blogged at New World Notes

2011-06-09T19:06:00.001-07:00

New World Notes, an influential Second Life blog, has our Augmented Reality video listed.

However, he thinks we are from New Zealand, not that I mind too much about being confused with our neighbours. Choice bro'!

I was wondering why my Google Analytics stats were high for this month. ;-)

Ross

QUT Games: Slipstream Racing Game

2011-06-09T18:44:00.000-07:00

New batch of students generating some great games at QUT as part of our Games Degree.

Slipstream have a fast action-packed racing game available from here, with some very impressive visuals. They have achieved great rankings on IndieDB. Nice work lads!

Check it out.

Ross

Journal Paper: Using virtual worlds for collaborative business process modeling

2011-05-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

Have uploaded a new journal paper I have written with Jan Recker and Stephen West, published at the Journal of Business Process Management, "Using virtual worlds for collaborative business process modeling."

Ross

Video: Augmented Reality Process Modelling Tool

2011-05-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

In this video we show a prototype BPMN process modelling tool which uses Augmented Reality techniques to increase the sense of immersion.

The avatar represents a remotely logged in user, and facilitates greater insight into the editing actions of the collaborator than present 2D web-based approaches in collaborative process modelling.

We modified the Second Life client to integrate the ARToolkit in order to support pattern-based AR.

Open Source version of this project will be available soon.

Ross

Event: QUT Women in Games

2011-05-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

Event being run by my colleague Dr Penny Kyburz at QUT.

RSVP here: http://www.scitech.qut.edu.au/industry-community/events/rsvp.jsp

Ross

Doh!: Fixed video link in previous post

2011-04-28T06:06:00.000-07:00

I omitted to include a url link to the SIOP video in my last post.

Last weeks post has now been fixed. The video can be found here as well.

Ross

Video: SIOP 2011 Presentation

2011-04-24T01:24:00.000-07:00

This is a video of a slide show I prepared for the 2011 annual conference of the Society for Industrial & Organisational Psychology (SIOP).

A session was being run by Richard Landers on Virtual Worlds, and this video was presented in place of my physical presence, as I was unable to attend.

The video presents a short preview of my work, with some (naive) references to Organisational Psychology.

Ross

Video: A Day Made of Corning Glass

2011-03-24T05:03:00.001-07:00

Corning have the future all sorted out. We will eat, sleep and dream glass surfaces as interactive information displays.

While very interesting, the video of our Corning future has a distinctly sweet cheeriness to it. It also lacks monorails and flying cars, and people in bright orange jumpsuits. Not that I really mind about the jumpsuits.

Ross

Link: QUT Game Students Media Article

2011-03-14T01:21:00.000-07:00

A tad late, but here is a link to a newspaper article about our successful QUT Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment students. Article highlights some of the great work our graduates are doing on the world stage.

Well done!

Ross

Tech Demo: Fractal Lab - WebGL

2011-03-09T22:15:00.000-08:00

A web-based 3D Fractal generator using WebGL is available at http://fractal.io/. You will need Google Chrome or Firefox 4 Beta to run this application.

We have been waiting years (since VRML) for a suitable web-based 3D platform for apps. to be delivered as a web service. This WebGL technology looks impressive, as the fractals generated are formed using GPU Shaders that implement a form of real-time ray tracing. If we can get this sort of efficiency with a web-based delivery, we may not be too far off viable native web-apps. for 3D Virtual Worlds and Games.

BTW, the Mandelbulb (pictured) is amazing, and runs perfectly well on my tiny GeForce 9400M powered Mac.

Ross

Boast: QUT ERA Results - IS Discipline best in Australia

2011-03-05T00:21:00.000-08:00

Been meaning to get to this one for a while (content from an internal QUT email).

Australian Universities have recently been through an Excellence in Research Assessment program by the government. The ERA Ranking has been published here (http://arc.gov.au/era/outcomes_2010.htm).

Only six Australian universities were able to submit under the 0806 FOR Code (Information Systems). Our very own group is the only university that achieved a ranking of 5!

An ERA rating of 5 is defined as: "The Unit of Evaluation profile is characterised by evidence of outstanding performance well above world standard presented by the suite of indicators used for evaluation." http://arc.gov.au/era/outcomes_2010/FoR/MIC0806

In addition, QUT has been ranked overall as 10th in Australia on research record. This is an amazing achievement, as QUT has only recently been focussing on research in addition to its teaching.

In addition:

The top journals in the global field of Information Systems are bundled in the widely accepted 'Basket of Six'. Sometimes two further journals (JSIS, JIT) are added and make up the 'Basket of Eight', ie. the highest regarded journals in the IS research world. The Association of Information Systems (AIS) endorses an online ranking base that allows to compare the performance of universities and authors over the last years.

In the most recent ranking (incl. 2010 data), QUT's Information Systems Discipline

* is ranked 14th worldwide in terms of publications in the 'Basket of Eight' over the last three years (highest in Australia, higher than any European university)

* is ranked 23rd worldwide in terms of publications in the 'Basket of Six' over the last three years (highest in Australia, higher than any European university)

In addition, Jan Recker (a colleague I have written a number of papers with) is ranked 37th in the Basket of Six list of authors over the last three years.

This is very satisfying and encouraging evidence for our standing in the global Information Systems community.

For these and further details see: http://vvenkatesh.com/ISRanking/index.asp

Makes it a little hard for me to keep up with, but good to be on a winning team. :-)

Ross

Video: SSCRC Austin ICU Handover

2011-02-20T15:35:00.000-08:00

Video showing the results of our collaboration with the Smart Services CRC and Austin Health. We created an environment for nurses to learn ICU Shift Handover processes. Shift handover processes in an ICU involve a briefing meeting with ward nurses, and then a bedside handover of patient care information to the nurse starting the next shift. The bedside discussion involves a physical check of the patient, and then a check of the congruency of the ICU support machinery with perceived patient status. A plan of care is then developed for the patient for the shift.

This simulation will allow students to remotely practice their handover skills, thus freeing up expensive resources at teaching hospitals, enabling them to be at a higher skill level when they commence live training. An interface is provided for educators to develop multiple scenarios for a complete training course.

Smart Services CRC - www.smartservicescrc.com.au

Austin Health - www.austin.org.au

Ross

Link: Scientific Collaboration Visualisation

2011-02-14T17:45:00.000-08:00

Quote via Visual Complexity blog.

'Using data from Science-Metrix, a bibliometric consulting firm that licenses data from journal aggregators like Elsevier?s Scopus and Thomson Reuter?s Web of Science, Olivier Beauchesne build an intricate map of scientific collaborations between cities all over the world, between 2005 and 2009.

As Olivier explains: "...if a UCLA researcher published a paper with a colleague at the University of Tokyo, this would create an instance of collaboration between Los Angeles and Tokyo. The result of this process is a very long list of city pairs, like Los Angeles-Tokyo, and the number of instances of scientific collaboration between them."

The brightness of the lines is a function of the logarithm of the number of collaborations betweena pair of cities and the logarithm of the distance between those same two cities.

You can also see a high-resolution version of the map.'

What would be interesting is to correlate this activity with other economic factors, and life quality parameters, for national demographic data. I have a strong belief that investment in research (including collaborative research) is a key pillar of the strength of an economy. It may be fairly obvious, but sometimes a picture circumnavigates objections by its emotional impact, and may finally convince some people that investment in research is a good thing for the citizens of a country.

Ross

News: QUT Students Win Games Award!

2011-01-16T16:26:00.000-08:00

Great news! //No Comment, a student team from our QUT Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment, has just won the Best UDK Game award on the IndieDB website for their Sp.A.I. game.

The lucky lads now get to fly to Epic Games in the US to present their ideas to management.

Well done boys!

Ross

Tech: Museum AR iPad Application

2010-12-23T16:23:00.000-08:00

Neat video here of AR application running on an iPad at the Natural History Museum in London, UK. Excellent use of the device to create an engaging, highly interactive, museum exhibit.

Brings across the ability of the touch interface to colocate the gestures of the user, with the video feed of the scene.

The video has David Attenborough narrating too.

Ross

Humour: Inception Movie in BPMN?

2010-12-22T14:11:00.001-08:00

Article here at BoingBoing about the hand drawn diagram used by Christopher Nolan to develop the movie Inception. For those not in the know, Inception has a complex plot involving parallel timelines within dreams.

Looking at the timelines in the sketch, they have a certain swimlane appearance to them. And, note the circles with crosses; maybe they are a form of choice, with synchronisation points occurring later in the narrative. Looks a little like BPMN to me, if you squint.

Maybe Nolan worked at SAP as a BA before his present film making gig. :-)

Ross

Process Game: DOD CPI Missile Making Game

2010-12-09T16:34:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to a serious (maybe) game regarding Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) in missile manufacturing, created by the Defence Acquisition University (DAU).

From their site: "Aliens are coming and only you can save the earth by employing Continuous Process Improvement in this game where building missiles is the number one priority!"

Some nice Flash content (chuckled at the WII era propaganda introduction) and approaches here to teaching people about CPI using a humorous story line.

Ross

Justification: SimOnAStick

2010-12-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

A while back in March this year, I blogged about how you can store a virtual world on a USB stick, and distribute it, just like a word document for commenting. This was intended as an article to break down the notion that you always have to think of a virtual world as a cloud service, it can be considered to be just like a local document that can be annotated.

Well, there is now a web site call SimOnAStick, where they literally provide a distribution of OpenSim and the Impromptu Viewer to fit onto a USB stick.

I told you I was right. :-)

Ross

Disruptive Business Model: Level Editing

2010-12-03T19:26:00.000-08:00

In my work I have lots of conversations with companies that consume 3D visualisation technology. I am noticing that these companies have a habit of investing in such systems using a business approach of purchasing the visualisation as one large artifact, lock stock and barrel, and in the process being charged exorbitant amounts of money for every modification and new feature to be adde. In addition, some of the extensions are to me trivial, and not worth the money paid.

This reminds me of the old school processes used in software production, when I was a callow youth at La Trobe University in the late eighties. It was noted then that bespoke creation of software was prohibitively expensive, and that new packages were being created to facilitate the easier and cheaper process of "configuring" a shrink wrapped package to be the company's information system, especially for small enterprises.

I teach a lot of students in games project units at QUT, where students will take the position of a level designer for the project team. Once content is created by the animators/artists to fulfil the look and feel of a game design, it can then be reconfigured via simple(r) scripting by the level designer, who may have limited programming skill sets, but can develop event models of gameplay for the environment.

So why are companies purchasing such enormously expensive bespoke systems, when they could hire a graduate to reconfigure present systems for a potentially cheaper price? Strikes me that there is a disruptive style business opportunity due to three reasons:

Cheap technology can cope with this task - there are lots of game engine level editors out there that can do this work easily, which contain low barrier to entry scripting languages.
Skilled workforce is available - universities are teaching this technology as part of games and simulation degrees. Lots of non-programming people have also participated in modding communities, doing similar tasks with games like Half Life 2.
Content is much more easily available - Google Sketchup Warehouse et al. has delivered a lot of content for people to use, at cost or even free.

We'll see what happens over the next few years in the business visualisation/simulation space, but I expect these forces will bring about an even greater dispersion of such technology, to the point that 3D virtual worlds and related components will become affordable to SMEs in many new application domains. Might make a good research topic for an IS PhD. :-)

Ross

News: Unity Powered Web SL/OpenSim Viewer

2010-11-29T13:42:00.000-08:00

Tipodean technologies has just released a web-based browser called Canvas, for OpenSim and Second Life.

Tipodean is run by an Australian, Chris Collins, ex Linden Labs.

November 29, 2010 - Tipodean Technologies is pleased to announce the preview launch of Canvas, a web-based viewer for both Second Life and Opensim. Licensed from IBM, Canvas is unique in that it is highly scalable and easily customizable. Built with Unity3D and open web technologies, the web development community will be able to create unique and branded immersive virtual world experiences without having to know/learn new or complex code. The viewer can run as a hosted solution for individual use or be deployed to be hosted by others. "Canvas gives you the ability to have a light weight web-based virtual world solution that can configured to whatever your needs may be. Combing Canvas with OpenSim allows for an out-of the-box scalable virtual world deployable in the web", said Chris Collins, CEO of Tipodean Technologies.

Tipodean will be distributing and supporting Canvas. It will be offered in two forms: on a per user basis and as a completely customized deployment. Distribution of Canvas will start the week of December 6th, 2010. For more information, please contact Tipodean at +1 (415) 669-4028 or canvas@tipodean.com.

Tipodean Technologies is a company focused on virtual world technology that is easily accessible to all.

Ross

Links: QUT Game Students' Work

2010-11-21T01:13:00.000-08:00

My students at QUT have just completed their final year projects. Some of them are absolute crackers; I'm VERY proud of their work.

I have included a list of the URLs for their projects that they set up as part of the deliverables required in the project unit. They all contain movies, download links for executables and team contact details.

BTW, they will be looking for work now. So feel free to contact them if you are looking for virtual world programming and content creation talent. :-)

Ross

Links to student work follow:

www.eternalduskgame.com

www.rockinmoses.com/cloud9

screwtapestudios.com/golfwar

www.pineapplefishstudios.com/

www.elementalistgame.com/

www.indiedb.com/games/bear-story

www.badsciencegame.com/index.html

www.indiedb.com/games/spai

sites.google.com/site/fungiochi2010/home

www.kungfuteachergame.com/

www.moddb.com/games/cannonball-clash

www.noahsjungle.com/

www.moddb.com/mods/silvercurls

www.acoenvi.com/

Humour: Synergon is a BLARP

2010-11-04T15:30:00.000-07:00

Great article via Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing:

"Synergon is a BLARP: a business live-action role-playing game. Players create fantasy characters who start out as low-level corporate drones and then perform boring, soul-destroying repetitive tasks set by a game-master (called "The Boss") until they level up. Players also fight one another for the chance to do more boring, soul-destroying tasks."

Now all we have to do is add a process model system to it, and we'll have a real money maker ;-)

Ross

CFP: International Conference on Digital Information and Communication Technology and its Applications (DICTAP2011)

2010-10-31T01:51:00.000-07:00

The International Conference on Digital Information and Communication Technology and its Applications (DICTAP2011)

University de Bourgogne, France

http://www.sdiwc.net/fr

The DICTAP2011 proceedings will be published in the " Communications in Computer and Information Science " (CCIS) Series of Springer LNCS

You are invited to participate in The International Conference on Digital Information and Communication Technology and its Applications that will be held in Dijon, France, on June 21-23, 2011. The event will be held over three days, with presentations delivered by researchers from the international community, including presentations from keynote speakers and state-of-the-art lectures.

Best selected papers will be published in the following special issue journals

Important Dates

Submission Date	Feb. 20, 2011
Notification of acceptance	April 1, 2011
Camera Ready submission	April 10, 2011
Registration	April 10, 2011
Conference dates	June 21-23, 2011

Location

DICTAP will be organized by University de Bourgogne, Dijon, France in cooperation with The Society of Digital Information and Wireless Communications (SDIWC). All the activities of the conference will take place in France.

Would you like to organize a workshop or a special session or a tutorial?

If you are interested in organizing any workshop or special session, please send us email to di@sdiwc.netwith the title of the session

Would you like to be a reviewer?

All the reviewing are online. Please visit http://www.sdiwc.net/fr then select link be a reviewer. More details are listed there.

Submission

Submission instructions are listed at this link Submission of Papers

Contact

Send E-Mail to : di@sdiwc.net See for further details: http://www.sdiwc.net/fr

Crytek Architectural Visualisation

2010-10-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

Video of a Ukrainian architect's experiments with the Crytek 2 game engine. Shows very intricate and highly realistic visualisations of a suburban landscape. Improves the speed of visualisation, as all of this detail can be generated within a level editor that comes with the engine. This is one of the things I keep telling people who query the effort involved in modelling a business simulation. Level editing systems in Games allow low-skilled programmers to develop quite sophisticated environments with simple event-based scripting systems. Skills well within the reach of a typical Business Analyst.

Ross

Good News Visualisation

2010-10-14T01:13:00.000-07:00

Hans Roslin presents some great news about the decline in infant mortality. While this is great news full stop, I do love the way he presented the information. He uses impacting dynamic graphs to illustrate the downward trends. It also succinctly illustrates the relationship between infant mortality, family sizes and the education of women in society. These are key factors in future sustainability and quality of life issues for the human race as a whole, and I believe he uses visualisations to communicate this well.

Ross

Link: The Wilderness Downtown

2010-09-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

From the Yesha VW Blog, a machinma generation software page for an Arcade Fire song.

It is pure emotional manipulation, using images of your home town as a way to engage with the song in a deeper manner. Found it quite wistful to see the large St Killian's Clapboard Church from my hometown of Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.

However, putting aside my cynical attitude to being manipulated by an Emo band, this approach could be used in an exceedingly powerful manner for visualisation and communication. Imagine a Green Party political campaign with images of YOUR home town damaged by global warming.

Another example of Minority Report style location aware advertising I guess. :-)

Ross

CFP: 1st Global Conference Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds

2010-08-27T16:50:00.000-07:00

1st Global Conference Experiential Learning in
Virtual Worlds

Sunday 20th March - Tuesday 22nd March 2011
Prague, Czech Republic

Call for Papers
The advent of Information and Communication
Technologies has changed how we work, teach,
learn, and relate to each other. The idea of a
virtual world encompasses online communities,
communities of inquiry, formal teaching and
learning, and horror and fantasy games. The
experiences gained in such virtual worlds, whether
high or low tech, impact who we
are in the analog world (and vice versa): Who am
I? How do we relate to each other? What is my
role? How can we be productive as a team? What is
mortality? How do we resolve conflict? These
questions are addressed, to some degree, through
the experiences we have in virtual worlds. What
are we learning through those experiences? How can
we perform better in both worlds?

The aim of this conference will be to examine
formal and informal learning in virtual worlds in
an attempt to critique both its essential
characteristics and its future possibilities.
Teachers of all levels, university faculty,
virtual world players, researchers, and others
interested in what happens in virtual worlds and
what it means for us as humans are invited to
participate.

Being such a broad topic, Experiential Learning in
Virtual Worlds defies a definitive list of
sub-topics but the following list is indicative of
the envisaged topics covered within this Call for
Papers:

* Virtual and global teams
* Communication modes and etiquette
* Skill development in MMORPGs
* Online communities, formal and informal
* Case studies of experimental projects
* Understanding mortality in the virtual worlds
* Sexuality: appropriate behaviour in virtual
learning worlds
* Play, fun, fantasy and horror in the
virtual world
* Art of building a virtual persona
* Emerging technologies within Higher Education
* International technology challenges
* Blended Learning approaches
* Expectations of performance in virtual spaces
* Metrics and assessment in virtual worlds
* New forms of testing in virtual worlds
* Organizational issues/strategies in Virtual
education
* Professional development/support structures
* Role switching between traditional and
virtual organizations

Papers will be considered on any related theme.
The Steering Group also welcomes the submission of
pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will be
considered on any related theme.

300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday
1st October 2010. All submissions are minimally
double blind peer reviewed where appropriate.
If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a
full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 4th
February 2011. Abstracts should be submitted
simultaneously to the Organising Chairs; abstracts
may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with
the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d)
title of abstract, e) body of abstract

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain
from using footnotes and any special formatting,
characters or emphasis (such as bold,
italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and
answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do
not receive a reply from us in a week you
should assume we did not receive your proposal; it
might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to
look for an alternative electronic
route or resend. If an abstract is accepted for
the conference, a 12-20 page full draft paper
should be submitted to both Organising Chairs by
Monday 7th February 2011.

Organising Chairs

Peter Williams
Assistant Professor Organizational Leadership
University of La Verne
La Verne, California, USA
E-mail: pwilliams@stlearn.com

Rob Fisher
Network Founder and Network Leader,
Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
United Kingdom
E-mail: elvw@inter-disciplinary.net

The conference is part of the 'At the Interface'
programme of research projects. It aims to bring
together people from different areas and
interests to share ideas and explore various
discussions which are innovative and exciting.

All papers accepted for and presented at this
conference will be eligible for publication in an
ISBN eBook. Selected papers maybe invited
for development for publication in a themed hard
copy volume(s).

For further details about the project please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/education/experiential-learning-in-virtual-worlds/

For further details about the conference please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/education/experiential-learning-in-virtual-worlds/call-for-papers/

Video: World Game Layer

2010-08-26T16:33:00.000-07:00

Have received the latest TED feed, with a video by Seth Priebatsch (Princeton Dropout of course :-) ) on the use of Games as a motivation and behaviour change approach. Seth, offers some great insights into the motivational nature of gameplay, and how it can be used to possibly engage people in tasks, at the level of even controlling their activities.

Thoughts of Government Mind Control via games aside, this is a powerful idea. People spend hours playing games, days even. Tasks in these virtual spaces offers emotional rewards that strongly engage otherwise apathetic people. Which leads me to think that there is something in this space for motivating people in uptake of new processes via a gaming methodology. New ways of doing things in an organisation are often resisted due to our psychological makeup - this resistance gives us a sense of stability and control. However, this stability prevents good change from occurring. Apropos of nothing, could we use such game play ideas to motivate people in their work, and in other civic areas. This is not a new idea, but this use of gameplay for motivation has great potential.

Ross

Presentation: GAME ON PUBLIC PROGRAM

2010-08-26T16:13:00.000-07:00

GAME ON PUBLIC PROGRAM
WHERE: the Glasshouse, Creative Industries Precinct, Musk Av, KG
WHEN: Wednesday September 1st 6.00-7.00pm

Delivering your Game - elsewhere

The game is perhaps fast becoming THE contemporary medium. As new innovators move into making games, a plethora of new outcomes are appearing - art games, docu-games, games for health, serious games, cultural games and interactive visualisations for all sorts of research outcomes. This talk introduces you to some of the other funding opportunities out there and gives you hints on reframing your concepts to suit

Speaker: Fee Plumley, Digital Program Officer, Australia COuncil for the Arts

Fee is a techno-evangelist working across the Major Performing Arts sector through the Arts Organisations Division and all artforms through the Arts Funding Division.

Supported by:
Brisbane IGDA
CIP Precincts
iCi - Inst for Creative Industries & Innovation Griffith Universtiy QCA Qantm College, Brisbane Southbank Institute of Technology

Connect:

IGDA Brisbane website: http://igdabrisbane.org/ IGDA brisbane twitter: http://twitter.com/igdaBrisbane Facebook Group for news and events etc:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=319387216329

Don't forget to join us online for the fabulous 48hr:
http://www.48hrgamecomp.com/

Info: CRC Smart Services PhD Scholarship

2010-08-23T00:18:00.000-07:00

For those wanting to study for a PhD with us at QUT, you should consider applying for the CRC Smart Services PhD Scholarship.

We are updating the CRC Smart Services scholarship web page and project topics for the approaching QUT scholarship round. Some possible BPMVE projects are listed in the following link:

http://www.scitech.qut.edu.au/research/scholarships/crcsmartserv/bpmve.jsp

The CRC Smart Services scholarship will be run with the QUT annual scholarship round.

The timeline is:

30 August 2010 - applications open
30 September 2010 - applications close for new international students
15 October 2010 - applications close for all domestic and international students who are currently enrolled in a research higher degree
10 December 2010 - offers sent to successful applicants

Email me on the address at the right hand side of this blog for further information. Please send me a CV with your certified grades on it for me to assess. Only students with high grades should apply.

Ross

Link: Medical Students Engaged by Virtual Environments

2010-08-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

Via Cranial Tap Inc, recent medical education study showing a strong interest in using Virtual Environments. From the results summary of the paper - "A majority (77%) would use a multiplayer online healthcare simulation on their own time, provided that it helped them to accomplish an important goal."

The evidence is gradually mounting that virtual worlds can encourage high levels of engagement from students, especially due to their experiences with modern online game environments. I think it is not unreasonable to say that such virtual worlds will produce a similar effect within business process training, and in wider community engagement.

Ross

Video: Virtual World Web Technologies

2010-08-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

Video here from Damon Hernandez' youtube channel, showing a demo site he built using web based virtual world technologies such as HTML5. An Augmented Reality window is included to show a complete set of web-based test applications in various virtual interaction modalities.

A key driver for uptake of software applications is the ease of use. Using HTML5, WebGL, X3D, and X3Dom technologies will assist in widespread deployment of applications for easy access by clients.

Although I do remember people saying this a few years ago about VRML as well. :-)

Ross

Advert: Tech Ed OZ Student Session

2010-08-01T05:31:00.000-07:00

From Andrew Parsons at Microsoft Australia.

THE STUDENT DIALOGUES

Come and hear from and interact with students from all across the country - possibly from your very own university - who all want one thing - to have a better, richer, more productive and inspiring experience while they study.

Hear how they want to be inspired to use technology and what they need to feel supported by you in their endeavours to better themselves, and why they want to be more productive (and how they can be) which in turn will help them succeed even more, and even what they want in an email service at their university.

Want to know what your students want to do when they graduate? Feel it's important to know how to interact with the modern day student in your class or on your campus? Hunger to not only teach but lead your students to success in study and career?

Last year's Academic Day confirmed one thing to us - the faculty and IT staff attendees found it incredibly valuable to hear directly from the students on the day, so we're committing ourselves this year to making that happen even more - every session delivered in The Student Dialogues will be presented by a student from around the country that all have a common goal - to help their universities serve their students better so that when they graduate they're ready for the outside world as powerful and effective as they can be.

You might have noticed the title of this event contains the word Dialogues, which is completely intentional. While every student presenter will be delivering to you their key messages, they're also keen to hear from you - they're committed to making this an interactive experience that benefits both the university and the students. So every session will have a dedicated Q&A time slot allocated to it.

So don't miss this special three and a half hour event on the Gold Coast. RSVP is essential so book your place today!

All attendees will also receive complimentary access to the opening keynote address of the biggest technical conference in Australia - TechEd, and an invitation to attend the opening party of TechEd where they can network with the IT industry itself, potentially finding partners to help support their students in their study.

AGENDA OUTLINE - 12:30pm Start

· Introduction

· The Modern Student: What it means to be a student

· The Future Student: What can you do to attract students to your institution

· Inspiration - Imagine Cup - students want to represent your uni or school on the world stage

· Afternoon Tea

· Mobility - Windows Phone 7

· Productivity - Office 2010 and Office Web Apps

· Communication - Live@EDU

· Conclusion

Remember, all sessions include Q&A so you can ask the students directly for more details on the burning info you're after.

4:00-4:30pm Transition to Keynote

4:30pm - Complimentary access to Opening Keynote of TechEd Australia

DETAILS

When

12:30pm - 4:00pm, Tuesday 24 August 2010

4:30pm onwards for TechEd Opening Keynote

Where

Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre

Corner of Gold Coast Highway and TE Peters Drive, Broadbeach QLD 4218

Session information

The Modern Student - What does it mean to be a student in today's world? How does the modern student cope with the pressures of always on communication, families, work and social activities while at the same time trying to excel at study? What things can you do to help them succeed and not feel bombarded and helpless? What things can they do to help you better connect with them and communicate with them more effectively?

The Future Student - All universities are constantly challenged to recruit more and better candidates for their undergraduate courses. Hear from students who are passionate about exciting kids to get into studying technology and how they can help you get more passionate high school students applying to study at your university. Find out what techniques work when trying to get potential candidates keen on IT, and hear how your own current student pool can help you reach out to your surrounding schools.

Inspiration - Students all over the country are proud of the university they study at and we're hearing they want to represent their uni on the national and global stage. Microsoft run Imagine Cup, the world's biggest technology competition for students with over 325,000 students entering the competition worldwide in 2010. How can you help encourage and support the students at your university represent their technical prowess and in turn showcase the talent that is produced out of your university to the industry and media worldwide.

Mobility - A special introductory session on Windows Phone 7 that shows off the features and how it can integrate to other aspects of the learning experience for a student, plus a quick demonstration of how easy it is to build your own applications for the phone that could potentially leverage off your institution's existing infrastructure.

Productivity - All students want to be as productive as possible. Studies show that they have almost double the amount of activities as they have waking hours in a week, which means they need to be as efficient as possible with everything they do. Hear how some students use products like OneNote and the new Office Web Apps to make their lives easier and see how they can be integrated into your own learning environment easily and at low or no cost to help them be even more productive in their study.

Communication - Email is arguably the most important and effective way of communicating with students in a typical university environment but is also one of the hardest to manage. Hear how students who have used Live@EDU have found it to be an incredibly effective solution for their email needs and has the additional benefits of being able to be used as their online ID elsewhere, thus spreading awareness of your institution on a wider net.

To attend, simply send an email to tech.ed@infosalons.com.au and include the following information for each person you're RSVPing for:

Full Name

Educational Institution

Too easy!

I look forward to seeing you there, but more importantly, the student speakers are looking forward to seeing you there. Don't miss out.

Link: 30% Unity Business Non-games

2010-07-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

In this article the CEO of Unity has stated that around 30% of licences for their game engine are from non-game companies seeking to use virtual worlds for business interests.

This may be a product of the cross-platform capabilities of the engine, as it can deploy implementations of worlds to web, pc, iphone, ipad and android, but it does go to show the growing usage of virtual worlds for marketing and business opportunities. We also use it at QUT in our games degree.

Bland statements aside, virtual worlds and games are now almost de rigour as marketing tie ins to films and products. The Salt movie and game comes to mind as the most recent idea.

What I wonder is what further unique linkages can be made between such environments and commonplace business processes. I think augmented reality holds some interesting possibilities here.

Ross

VIdeo: Second Life to SAP Netweaver

2010-07-27T17:56:00.000-07:00

An older video here of SAP Netweaver system integrated into Second Life as a user interface.

The example shows a 3D interface to an airline booking system. While not a generalised interface to business processes like our work, it is a great example of the interface possibilities for Second Life style systems.

Ross

Video: BPM on an MS Surface

2010-07-26T21:35:00.000-07:00

Video of a BPM package running on an MS Surface. While interesting, the interface here is a rule-based system (at first glance) and does not use a graphical language such as BPMN for process modelling, unlike our video shown previously.

Still, would be good to explore such hardware in detail for collaborative modelling.

Just need to find $20K.

Ross

Video: Collaborative 3D BPMN Modelling Two

2010-07-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

New improved collaborative Open Simulator, 3D BPMN editor video, showing a new interface and collaboration capabilities via remote login of another avatar.

This video is being presented at AMCIS 2010 in Peru, along with our paper.

Ross

Video: Collaborative Tabletop Process Modelling

2010-07-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

Have just shot a video of QUT BPM Research group members using a Mimio pen-based device for collaborative process modelling. The advantage here is in the projection of the modelling system onto the table, making the workspace large enough for close collaboration. The process modelling application is Oryx, a free web-based tool.

Ross

CFP: SIOP MUVE Conference 2011

2010-07-22T01:11:00.000-07:00

REQUEST FOR PAPERS

The study of Multi‐User Virtual Environments (MUVEs), like Second Life and OpenSim, is a brand new area of investigation in industrial/organizational psychology. Researchers in I/O
Psych study the application of psychological principles to workers and worker behavior in a
wide variety of settings, from large multinational corporations, to small businesses, to the
military. MUVEs are being used in these settings for many reasons, including recruitment,
selection/interviewing, training and development, leadership studies, and many others.

We are currently seeking collaborators for a symposium submission on MUVEs to the 2011
conference of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology [SIOP]. The SIOP conference
attracts approximately 4000 academics and practitioners from a variety of fields, most typically
including I/O psychology, human resources, organizational behavior, and management.
OBHRM professionals are also often in attendance. Together, this composition offers ample
opportunity to establish new partnerships, collaborations, and contracts with a wide variety of
organizations.

Symposia at the SIOP conference are one‐ to two‐hour presentations consisting of 3 to 7
individual theoretical or empirical presentations, followed by a discussant that gives
commentary on the papers presented. Individual presentation lengths vary, but are typically 20
to 30 minutes. For this symposium, we are targeting empirical submissions, but high quality
theory is also welcome. Case studies of MUVEs deployed in actual organizations (outside the
lab) would be of high value.

The 2011 SIOP Conference will be held in downtown Chicago, IL. Each paper submitted in a
symposium is abstract‐length, and the deadline for this submission is September 15, 2010.
If you are interested in being a part of this symposium, please contact Richard N. Landers
(rnlanders@odu.edu), Assistant Professor of I/O Psychology at Old Dominion University to
discuss it in further detail.

Relevant URLs:

General SIOP Conference Website: http://siop.org/conferences/default.aspx
R. N. Landers: http://rlanders.net | http://neoacademic.com
SIOP: http://siop.org

CFP: 6th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC10)

2010-07-09T05:52:00.000-07:00

6th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC10)
Monte Carlo Resort & Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
Nov 29 - Dec 1, 2010
http://www.isvc.net

The submission deadline has been extended by one week
(July, 19, 2010).

The purpose of the International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC) is
to provide a common forum for researchers, scientists, engineers and
practitioners throughout the world to present their latest research
findings, ideas, developments and applications in the broader area of
visual computing. ISCV seeks papers describing contributions to the state
of the art and state of the practice in the four central areas of visual
computing: (1) computer vision, (2) computer graphics, (3) virtual
reality, and (4) visualization. ISVC10 will consist of invited and
contributed presentations dealing with all aspects of visual computing. In
addition to the main technical program, the symposium will include six
keynote speakers, one poster sessions, several technical sessions, and
eight special tracks.

***********************
***Keynote Speakers****
***********************

Dorin Comaniciu, Siemens Corporate Research, USA
Tobias Hollerer, Univ of California at Santa Barbara, USA
Ioannis Kakadiaris, Univ of Houston, USA
Marc Pollefeys, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Steve Seitz, Univ of Washington, USA
John Stasko, Georgia Tech., USA

(Area 1) Computer Vision Chairs
Ronald Chung, The Univ of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Riad Hammoud, DynaVox Systems, USA

(Area 2) Computer Graphics Chairs
Muhammad Hussain, KSU, Saudi Arabia
Kar-Han Tan, Hewlett Packard Labs, USA

(Area 3) Virtual Reality Chairs
Roger Crawfis, Ohio State University, USA
Daniel Thalman, EPFL, Switzerland

(Area 4) Visualization Chairs
David Kao, NASA Ames, USA
Lisa Avila, Kitware, USA

SPECIAL TRACKS

ST1: 3D Mapping, Modeling and Surface Reconstruction

Organizers:
Nefian Ara, Carnegie Mellon University/NASA Ames Research Center,
USA
Broxton Michael, Carnegie Mellon University/NASA Ames Research
Center, USA
Huertas Andres, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, USA

ST2: Best Practices in Teaching Visual Computing

Organizers:
Albu Alexandra Branzan, University of Victoria, Canada
Bebis George, University of Nevada, Reno, USA

ST3: Low-Level Color Image Processing

Organizers:
Celebi M. Emre, Louisiana State University, USA
Smolka Bogdan, Silesian University of Technology, Poland
Schaefer Gerald, Loughborough University, UK
Plataniotis Konstantinos, University of Toronto, Canada
Horiuchi Takahiko, Chiba University, Japan

ST4: Low Cost Virtual Reality: Expanding Horizons

Organizers:
Sherman Bill, Indiana University, USA
Wernert Eric, Indiana University, USA

ST5: Computational Bioimaging

Organizers:
Tavares Joo Manuel R. S., University of Porto, Portugal
Natal Jorge Renato, University of Porto, Portugal
Cunha Alexandre, Caltech, USA

ST6: Unconstrained Biometrics: Advances and Trends

Organizers:
Proena Hugo, University of Beira Interior, Portugal
Du Yingzi, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, USA
Scharcanski Jacob, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Porto
Alegre, Brazil
Ross Arun, West Virginia University, USA
Amayeh Gholamreza, EyeCom Corporation, USA

ST7: Perceptual Organization

Organizers:
Parvin Bahram, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
Loss Leandro, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA

ST8: Behavior Detection and Modeling

Organizers:
Miller Ron, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, USA
Bebis George, University of Nevada, USA
Rosen Julie, Science Applications International Corporation, USA
Davis Jim, Ohio State University, USA
Lee Simon, Army Research Laboratory, USA
Zandipour Majid, BAE Systems, USA

Link: Proctor and Gamble, and Virtual Environments

2010-07-06T17:11:00.000-07:00

Over at Business World Online, great article on the use of Virtual Environments for Business Process Management by Proctor and Gamble. Their intention is to enable the company to innovate using visual representations of processes, and also to better engage the public regarding their products. All things that I have been advocating here on this blog for a few years now.

Just further proof that we are onto something here at the BPMVE. ;-)

Ross

2nd CFP: Virtual Worlds as Information Systems: A Special Issue of ISJ on Virtual World Technology and Information Systems

2010-06-26T00:06:00.000-07:00

Information Systems Journal (ISJ)

Virtual Worlds as Information Systems

A Special Issue of ISJ on Virtual World Technology and Information Systems

Special Issue Guest Editors:

Ross Brown, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Andrew Hardin, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA

David Kreps, University of Salford, UK

Jan Recker, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Virtual worlds have garnered unprecedented profile in both the media and academic research. Many IS Managers in their thirties have gained experience with 3D environments via gaming, and the appearance of game ready commodity hardware means that virtual worlds are now feasible as an Enterprise-wide Information System rollout. 3D virtual world interfaces are now increasingly used across a company as complementary information spaces, to web-based and other system services.

This strong momentum in IS practice, however, has not yet been matched by an intense academic focus. In particular, what is lacking is an in depth analysis of these worlds as potential business information systems interfaces, and their relevant design and use consequences.

The aim of this special issue is to provide a forum to present and discuss the emerging role of virtual world technology in the information systems community. The special issue explicitly advocates multi-disciplinary approaches that expand and integrate the current isolated research efforts in this exciting new area of IS research.

The special issue specifically aims at reporting on and discussing empirical and theoretical research in the use of Virtual World technology in Information Systems. In particular, we hope to provide a picture of the present state of international research with regards to how virtual worlds can shape the design, analysis, use, or management of information systems in organizations.

We encourage submissions that report on the use of research methods including experiments, surveys, case studies, focus groups and/or other empirical methods for the discovery of insights in the deployment, uptake, use, success or failure of Virtual World technologies in enterprises. Research contributed may range through various aspects of virtual world information systems, from development and integration, to impact studies on users.

We especially would like to encourage submissions on atypical usage of such worlds for Information System domains, in order that new and novel research may be brought to the attention of the international IS research community. In addition, we welcome papers that present, introduce or discuss novel approaches to emerging virtual world research, as this new domain will inspire different investigative approaches.

Contributed papers may deal with, but are not limited to:

- Social networking and communication in virtual worlds

- Virtual teams, collective cognition, and group performance, in virtual worlds

- Entrepreneurship in virtual worlds

- Virtual World technology and Interactive Systems Design

- System demonstrations and simulations

- In-world Information System modeling

- Human Computer Interaction

- Interfacing and integration of virtual world technology with other Information Systems

- Representations of Information Systems as virtual services

- Virtual world technology in IS education and training

- Adoption of Virtual World technologies and systems in corporate practice

- Diffusion of Virtual World technologies in social networking systems

- Virtual World technologies and co-creation of IT value

Submission Guidelines

Manuscripts should not normally exceed 7000 words and should be submitted online at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/isj. Authors will have to select Special Issue Submission as the manuscript type. Author guidelines are available at ‘author guidelines’ at http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journals/isj/.

All submissions will be peer-reviewed following the double-blind review process of ISJ. The objective is to apply very high standards of acceptance while ensuring fair, timely and efficient review cycles.

Timeline

Full initial paper submission deadline: 30 August 2010

First Review deadline: 30 November 2010

Revised paper submission deadline: (if required) 30 January 2011

Second Review deadline: 15 March 2011

Camera-ready paper submission deadline: 30 April 2011

Publication of special issue: mid-2011

Guest Editors:

Dr Ross Brown

Information Systems Discipline

Queensland University of Technology

Office 508 / 126 Margaret Street

Tel: +61 7 3138 9481

Fax: +61 7 3138 9390

Brisbane QLD 4000, Australia

Email r.brown@qut.edu.au

Webpage http://www.bpmve.org

Dr Andrew Hardin

College of Business
Department of Management Information Systems
4505 Maryland Parkway Box 456034
Tel: (702) 895-0447
Fax: (702) 895-0802

Las Vegas, NV 89154-6034
Email andrew.hardin@unlv.edu
Webpage http://faculty.unlv.edu/ahardin/

Dr David Kreps

Salford Business School

University of Salford

43 The Crescent

Tel: +44 (0) 161 295 5884

Fax: +44 (0) 161 295 5999

Manchester, M5 4WT, United Kingdom

Email D.G.Kreps@salford.ac.uk

Webpage http://www.business.salford.ac.uk/staff/davidkreps

Dr Jan Recker

Information Systems Discipline

Queensland University of Technology

Office 510 / 126 Margaret Street

Tel: +61 7 3138 9479

Fax: +61 7 3138 9390

Brisbane QLD 4000, Australia

Email j.recker@qut.edu.au

Webpage http://sky.scitech.qut.edu.au/~recker/

News: 3DI Develop Android Open Sim Viewer

2010-06-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

News article here shows 3DI, a Japanese Software company making Open Sim builds and viewers, has developed an Open Sim viewer for the Google Android Nexus mobile phone.

This is excellent news for virtual worlds, due to the future possibility of having mobile devices like the iPad being used for such virtual world applications.

Ross

Video: Smart Services CRC Presentation

2010-06-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

The Smart Services CRC have on their website a video of me delivering a six minute presentation on using virtual worlds for process training.

Please pardon my wrinkly shirt. I had just got off the plane two hours before delivering the presentation. :-)

Ross

Video: Personal Processes Interface Mock Up

2010-06-14T05:46:00.000-07:00

In this video we show a 3D mock up of a personal house purchasing process. A path traversal metaphor is used to give a sense of progression along the process stages. The intention is to be able to use console devices like an Xbox to consume business processes. This is so businesses can expose their internal processes to consumers using sophisticated user interfaces.

The demonstrator was developed using Microsoft XNA, with assistance from the Suncorp Bank and the Smart Services CRC.

I'll talk about it in more detail in a paper someday.

I also think the cows are a great touch. ;-)

Ross

Link: Virtual Chocolate Factory

2010-05-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

Theo Priestly over at BPM Redux has sent me a link to a virtual chocolate factory that is using virtual world and web 2.0 technology for remote process management and collaboration. They see their main application to be in remote management of outsourced factories by design headquarters.

And no, I will not make any jokes here about virtual Oompah Loompahs.

Ross

CFP: 6th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC10)

2010-05-19T21:45:00.000-07:00

Call for Papers
6th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC10)

Monte Carlo Resort & Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
Nov 29 - Dec 1, 2010
http://www.isvc.net

The purpose of the International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC) is
to provide a common forum for researchers, scientists, engineers and
practitioners throughout the world to present their latest research
findings, ideas, developments and applications in the broader area of
visual computing. ISCV seeks papers describing contributions to the state
of the art and state of the practice in the four central areas of visual
computing: (1) computer vision, (2) computer graphics, (3) virtual
reality, and (4) visualization. ISVC10 will consist of invited and
contributed presentations dealing with all aspects of visual computing. In
addition to the main technical program, the symposium will include six
keynote speakers, one poster sessions, several technical sessions, and
eight special tracks.

*********************
***Important Dates***
*********************

. Paper submissions July 12, 2010
. Notification of acceptance August 31, 2010
. Final camera ready paper September 15, 2010
. Advance Registration September 15, 2010
. ISVC10 Symposium Nov 29 - Dec 1, 2010

***********************
***Keynote Speakers****
***********************

Dorin Comaniciu, Siemens Corporate Research, USA
Tobias Hollerer, Univ of California at Santa Barbara, USA
Ioannis Kakadiaris, Univ of Houston, USA
Marc Pollefeys, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Steve Seitz, Univ of Washington, USA
John Stasko, Georgia Tech., USA

(Area 1) Computer Vision Chairs
Ronald Chung, The Univ of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Riad Hammoud, DynaVox Systems, USA

(Area 2) Computer Graphics Chairs
Muhammad Hussain, KSU, Saudi Arabia
Kar-Han Tan, Hewlett Packard Labs, USA

(Area 3) Virtual Reality Chairs
Roger Crawfis, Ohio State University, USA
Daniel Thalman, EPFL, Switzerland

(Area 4) Visualization Chairs
David Kao, NASA Ames, USA
Lisa Avila, Kitware, USA

***************************
***ISVC10 Special Tracks***
***************************

ST1: 3D Mapping, Modeling and Surface Reconstruction

Organizers:
Nefian Ara, CMU/NASA Ames Research Center, USA
Broxton Michael, CMU/NASA Ames Research Center, USA
Huertas Andres, NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, USA

ST2: Best Practices in Teaching Visual Computing

Organizers:
Albu Alexandra Branzan, University of Victoria, Canada
Bebis George, University of Nevada, Reno, USA

ST3: Low-Level Color Image Processing

Organizers:
Celebi M. Emre, Louisiana State University, USA
Smolka Bogdan, Silesian University of Technology, Poland
Schaefer Gerald, Loughborough University, UK
Plataniotis Konstantinos, University of Toronto, Canada
Horiuchi Takahiko, Chiba University, Japan

ST4: Low Cost Virtual Reality: Expanding Horizons

Organizers:
Sherman Bill, Indiana University, USA
Wernert Eric, Indiana University, USA

ST5: Computational Bioimaging

Organizers:
Tavares João Manuel R. S., University of Porto, Portugal
Natal Jorge Renato, University of Porto, Portugal
Cuhna Alexandre, Caltech, USA

ST6: Unconstrained Biometrics: Advances and Trends

Organizers:
Proença Hugo, University of Beira Interior, Portugal
Du Yingzi, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, USA
Scharcanski Jacob, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Porto
Alegre, Brazil
Ross Arun, West Virginia University, USA
Amayeh Gholamreza, EyeCom Corporation, USA

ST7: Perceptual Organization

Organizers:
Parvin Bahram, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
Loss Leandro, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA

ST8: Behavior Detection and Modeling

Organizers:
Miller Ron, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, USA
Bebis George, University of Nevada, USA
Rosen Julie, Science Applications International Corporation, USA
Davis Jim, Ohio State University, USA
Lee Simon, Army Research Laboratory, USA

**************************
***Submission Procedure***
**************************

Papers submitted to ISVC10 and special tracks must not have been
previously published and must not be currently under consideration for
publication elsewhere. A complete paper should be submitted in
camera-ready format. The length should match that intended for final
publication. The page limit is 12 pages. In submitting a paper the
author(s) agree that, upon acceptance, they will prepare the final
manuscript in time for inclusion into the proceedings and will present the
paper at the symposium.

***********************
***Paper Publication***
***********************

This is a fully refereed symposium. Papers will be reviewed with an
emphasis on potential to contribute to the state of the art in the field.
Each paper will receive two-three blind reviews and should not contain
names or other information revealing authors' identity. Selection criteria
include accuracy and originality of ideas, clarity and significance of
results, and presentation quality. All papers accepted will appear in the
symposium proceedings which will be published by Springer-Verlag in the
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series (pending approval).

Link: Excellent Software Visualisation Website

2010-05-18T23:57:00.000-07:00

Found an excellent software and process visualisation website here, maintained by Grady Booch and Ruth Malen. It has a lot of software that I have come across before, neatly organised, and very up to date.

Well worth a visit.

Ross

Link: Honorable Mention on Jim Sinur Blog Comments

2010-05-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

Was scratching around doing ego surfing, ahem, "performing blog impact evaluations", and found a reference by Theo Priestly about my work on one of THE Gartner Blogs by Jim Sinur.

It makes sense that Jim might have a passing interest in this area, as Andy Sinur is a games developer. But he is still waiting on case studies from Gartner clients to evaluate its usefulness. Thanks for the backup Theo.

Meanwhile, as of today, the jury's still out regarding my work, for Sandra Kelmsey. ;-)

I am not complaining. At least I'm getting some attention.

Ross

Book Chapter: Virtual environment visualisation of executable business process models

2010-05-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

I have just uploaded a Book Chapter draft reference to QUT eprints that will be part of a book being published - Virtual Technologies for Business and Industrial Applications: Innovative and Synergistic Approaches.

This details our work regarding the linking of YAWL and Second Life, as per this video.

Contact me for further information about the paper.

Ross

Paper: AMCIS 2010 Collaborative business process modeling using 3D virtual environments

2010-05-16T19:23:00.000-07:00

I have just uploaded our new paper accepted for AMCIS 2010 to the QUT Eprints Site. This paper details a collaborative BPMN modeling environment that my Masters student Stephen West has built for Open Simulator and Second Life. The main outcome is the creation of a useful 3D space to collaborate around a process model. A video of the work is posted here.

Jan Recker will be presenting the paper at AMCIS 2010. This work is part of our ongoing projects in the area of collaborative process modelling. Contact me if you need a copy of the paper before AMCIS.

Well done Stephen.

Ross

Article: Second Life Economic Report

2010-05-02T17:41:00.000-07:00

Metaverse is offering an analysis of the economic situation at Second Life Q1 2010, in particular, critiquing Linden Lab's adoption of pure money transfer (without actual virtual goods) as a measure of economic activity. I'm not an economist, but the related analysis looks informed and reasonable to me.

I think the interesting point to note however, is that Second Life has put in a solid quarter by a number of metrics. This result can only be good for the virtual world industry as a whole. But, I find myself still not that desirous of purchasing virtual goods, not unless they influence my Real Life, and only music and video comes to mind in this regards.

Ross

Article: BPMVE Airport Process Video on TV!

2010-05-02T00:06:00.001-07:00

Just had a look on the Australian ABC site for Stateline QLD, and have found my Airport Processes Video has been played as part of a news item on the Airports of the Future QUT research project. The original video is shown here at Youtube.

Ross

Link: Video of Mobile Phone DLP Projector

2010-05-01T20:49:00.000-07:00

Samsung have a new mobile projector using Texas Instruments Pico Projector technology.

One of my desires is to see ad-hoc environments developed using the latest technology, allowing process modelling spaces to be portable and spontaneous in nature. This sort of display technology will go a long way to creating such spaces, especially as the mobile projector can be mounted in atypical ways to form interesting projection environments, and can then be placed in the pocket and taken home. This displays can be combined with touch table solutions and other surfaces to create productive ad-hoc digital interaction environments for collaborative process modelling. Such ideas have been explored by the Sixth Sense project at (where else but) MIT. Would be good to see this happen with Process Modelling, especially for client/analyst communication.

A word of caution here though. Let's hope we don't take it too far and do the Iron Man 2 thing and turn every surface (and volume) into a display. Ugh! :-|

Ross

CFP: ACIS 2010 Call for Workshops, Panels and Tutorials

2010-04-17T18:59:00.000-07:00

21st Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS 2010):
Call for Workshops, Panels and Tutorials

Brisbane, Australia
1-3 December 2010
http://acis2010.org

The Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS) is the premier conference in Australasia for Information Systems academics and professionals, covering technical, organisational, business and social issues in the application of Information Technology. In 2010, the ACIS Conference will be jointly organised by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and The University of Queensland (UQ). The event will take place at the QUT Gardens Point Campus. The campus is located in the Central Business District of Brisbane, the fastest growing city in Australia. With 1.7 million people, Brisbane offers all the facilities and infrastructure of a global hub for technology and tourism.

ACIS 2010 will be dedicated to the definition and establishment of Information Systems as a discipline of high impact for the scientific community and IS professionals. The focus will be on approaches that facilitate the identification of research questions of significant relevance that are studied by following sound research methodologies and that lead to results of measurable impact. Thus, the theme for ACIS 2010 will be: 'Information Systems: Defining and Establishing a High Impact Discipline'.

We now invite submissions for workshop, panel and tutorial proposals to be included in the ACIS 2010 Conference Program.

Workshops are meant to facilitate the focused exchange of ideas and experiences between active researchers, and stimulate discussions on new and emerging issues in line with the conference topics. Workshops may concentrate in-depth on research topics, or may also be devoted to issues such as applications, standardization, and curriculum development. Proposals for one-day workshops are requested.
Tutorials and panel discussions will complement the core of the ACIS 2010 conference. Tutorials will provide the opportunity to introduce one selected topic to the conference participants and to discuss related trends and challenges. Panel discussions will allow for the open conversation of topics related and relevant to the ACIS conference theme among a group of experts. The conference organizers are able to facilitate contacts to local industry representatives, if this is of interest for the organizer of a panel.

Each proposal should include the following information:

- Workshop/Panel/tutorial title and acronym, where applicable

- Brief biography of each organizer and key invite speaker, where applicable

- An outline of the workshop/panel/tutorial theme, goals, planned activities, and a brief discussion on intended audience, and expected audience numbers

- The complete text of the envisioned call for papers, where applicable.

(To decide your workshop key dates, please note that the preliminary workshop proceedings to be distributed at the workshop must be submitted to the ACIS 2010 conference organizers before November 1, 2010.)

We especially encourage workshop proposals that explore new topics and/or attract audience from outside the Australasian region.

All proposals should be directed to the ACIS 2010 Workshop, Panel and Tutorial Chair in electronic form (plain text or PDF) by the deadline indicated below.

Important Dates:

Deadline for workshop/panel/tutorial proposals:
May 15, 2010

Notification of proposal acceptance: June 15, 2010
Workshops and Tutorials: November 29/30, 2010
Panels will be included in the ACIS conference program from 1-3 December, 2010

Organizing Committee

ACIS 2010 Conference Co-Chairs
Peter Green, The University of Queensland
Michael Rosemann, Queensland University of Technology

ACIS 2010 Workshop, Panel and Tutorial Co-Chair
Jan Recker, Queensland University of Technology
Email: j.recker@qut.edu.au

Contact: info@acis2010.org

Seminar: From Concept to proposal with Morgan Jaffit

2010-04-12T19:38:00.000-07:00

Game On free public programs - WEDNESDAY 14 - all welcome
Venue: the glasshouse, CIP Musk Av, KG, Brisbane, Qld
Time: 5.00pm - 6.00pm

From Concept to proposal with Morgan Jaffit

Indie game dev is typified by small teams, short production timelines and – ideally – getting a strong work out there that engages with its audience. Indie concepts are actually the most difficult to get right because they cannot hide behind big production budgets and glamorous
high end visuals. Come and join us for a presentation by a games industry veteran on the nuts and bolts of getting to the core of an idea and producing a good indie game proposal.

Speaker Bio: Morgan Jaffit is the head of The Impossible Changing Brain Foundation, an independent game developer focused on creating innovative titles and addressing users outside the classic market. He has been designing games all his life. Morgan’s first computer game design was an educationally focused biology challenge for the Atari ST at the age of 13. He has been working as a professional game designer for the last nine years and has shipped a wide variety of games for a broad spectrum of audiences including: Happy Feet, Freedom Force and
Homeworld 2. Most recently Morgan was Assoc. Creative Director for Pandemic Studios developing new I.P. with a strong social and online focus. He is convinced that the game industry is the most exciting place in the world to be, at least partially because it’s filled with crazy people on the frontier of creativity. Morgan has lectured internationally on topics such as the game design process and creative team leadership.

Join our facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=319387216329
Join the Brisbane Chapter of the IGDA: http://www.igda.org/brisbane

* With love and thanks to our adored supporters - The Institute for Creative Industries & Innovation [iCi], Griffith Film School [QCA], QANTM, Southbank Institute of Technology and of course CI Precincts, the Brisbane IGDA and our own GDAA *

CFP: GET2010 Extension to 24th May

2010-04-12T06:05:00.000-07:00

CALL FOR PAPERS - Deadline for submissions (1st call extension): 24 May 2010

IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE GAME AND ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGIES (GET2010)
Freiburg, Germany, 26 - 28 July 2010
(http://www.gaming-conf.org/)
part of the IADIS Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems(MCCSIS 2010)
Freiburg, Germany 26 - 31 July 2010
(http://www.mccsis.org)

* Keynote Speaker (confirmed):
Matt Costello, Scriptwriter & Games Designer, USA

* Conference background and goals
This conference aims to bring together research and practice from creative, social and business practitioners and researchers in this challenging field. The focus of this conference is on design, development and evaluation of games, entertainment technologies and the nature of play.

* Format of the Conference
The conference will comprise of invited talks and oral presentations. The proceedings of the conference will be published in the form of a book and CD-ROM with ISBN, and will be available also in the IADIS Digital Library (accessible on-line).

* Best Papers
Selected authors of best papers will be invited to submit extended versions of their papers to selected journals (i.e. IADIS International Journal on Computer Science and Information Systems - ISSN: 1646-3692) including journals from INDERSCIENCE Publishers.

* Types of submissions
Full and Short Papers, Reflection Papers, Posters/Demonstrations, Tutorials, Panels and Doctoral Consortium. All submissions are subject to a blind refereeing process.

* Topics related to Game and Entertainment Technologies are of interest. These include, but are not limited to the following topics:

- Development methodologies
- Design issues
- Controversial issues - we welcome debate and dissension, for example; games as art, entertainment as purely for monetary returns etc
- Special Effects
- Animation
- Mobile and ubiquitous games and entertainment
- Serious Games and entertainment -applications, critiques
- Philosophical issues
- Prototypes
- Social and cultural uses of/for Play
- Tools and technologies
- Skills, strategy, rules and chance
- Genre
- Immersiveness and engagement
- Research methodologies in creative practice

- Usability and playability
- User/player centered design
- Psychological, social, and cultural differences in perception and participation
- Communities, networks, social interaction and social capital
- Cross-cultural and intercultural approaches
- Assessment of exploratory learning approaches
- Emerging practices

* Important Dates:
- Submission Deadline (1st call extension): 24 May 2010
- Notification to Authors (1st call extension): 14 June 2010
- Final Camera-Ready Submission and Early Registration (1st call extension): Until 30 June 2010
- Late Registration (1st call extension): After 30 June 2010
- Conference: Freiburg, Germany, 26 - 28 July 2010

* Conference Location
The conference will be held in Freiburg, Germany.

* Secretariat
IADIS Secretariat - IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE GAME AND ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGIES 2010
Rua Sao Sebastiao da Pedreira, 100, 3
1050-209 Lisbon, Portugal
E-mail: secretariat@gaming-conf.org
Web site: http://www.gaming-conf.org/

* Program Committee
Game and Entertainment Technologies 2010 Conference Program Chair:
Katherine Blashki, University of Sydney, Australia

General MCCSIS 2010 Conference Co-Chairs:
Piet Kommers, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Pedro Isaías, Universidade Aberta (Portuguese Open University), Portugal
Dirk Ifenthaler, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
Nian-Shing Chen, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan

Committee Members: *
* for committee list please refer to http://www.gaming-conf.org/committees.asp

Article: iPad Virtual Worlds

2010-04-04T06:08:00.000-07:00

Well, since the world is going crazy over the iPad, I guess I had to at least reference one article. Neat video here, from Techcrunch, of someone playing Crysis using the iPad as a thin-client, displaying the streamed output from a cloud rendered version of the popular game.

Now, I have just spent the last article I wrote, talking about needing to allow people to exchange virtual worlds as documents, to open up their usage in the light of unreliability of access to networking for cloud computing.

The above video makes me hope that we can have reliable high speed wireless networking everywhere, even in the basements of large buildings - I have had access problems at meetings in such dungeons. Such thin-client software opens up the possibility of using high quality virtual worlds on slower hardware as a video streaming device. Network speeds are high enough now that we can see the output from a virtual world system as a streamed video in real-time, thus cutting out the need for a powerful machine as a world client.

Seems this is the bees knees in Games at the moment, with new Game Cloud offerings from OTOY and OnLive. AMD is also working with OTOY on their technology, utilising the amazing capabilities of the cinematic quality LightStage system for real-time photo realistic rendering.

So, apropos of nothing. Does this move of games to the cloud, yet again show how Games and Interactive Entertainment is leading the development of new technology in IT? Will gamers and their insatiable thirst for content actually bring about the wide spread adoption of the new cloud technology? I wouldn't bet my house, but I might bet a few dollars, that a business technology is now going to be taken over by the Gaming field.

The motivation is that one of the biggest pains with new games, is the requirement for new hardware. With cloud forms of games, this hardware maintenance is left to the "Game As a Service" providers. You just buy a small interface client like an iPad for a few hundred dollars.

This is looking very, very disruptive to me.

Ross

Article: When is a virtual world not a virtual world? When it is a document

2010-03-31T00:33:00.000-07:00

I have just had an article published on the Technology Management Portal about using Virtual Worlds as documents, not just as cloud servers. Not really an academic piece, just me thinking out loud about the business usage of Virtual Worlds.

Ross

Idea: Games that Change the World

2010-03-28T05:35:00.000-07:00

Slightly left field, but thought provoking TED talk here by Jane McGonigal about using games to solve world problems. Her thesis is that games teach people heroic behaviour, and excellent team work skills.

She also points out the great amount of time people spend in these environments, and how they are an intensely motivating medium, due to the sense of being a better person in game, than outside. She also briefly details her peak oil simulation game, which intends to produce potential solutions to peak oil problems via gameplay.

I think her ideas have much merit. For the first time, we can create synthetic environments with the ability to model complex scenarios as gameplay, and thus apply the computational power of humans to major world problems, to explore solutions that are not obvious unless many skills are brought together, all with the pressure and productivity of competition that gameplay produces.

I think this approach could be applied to business process problems as well. Ironically, a lot of the worlds problems are related to business, especially in the area of resource usage and its links to the economy. Maybe an unexpected outcome of educating people about business processes via games, would be their improvement via the same gameplay. Food for thought.

Ross

Techtip: Digital Content for OpenSim Servers

2010-03-24T23:28:00.000-07:00

One of the things about Second Life is its walled garden policy regarding digital content. In many ways this is understood; people do want to make a living from their creations, and allowing for exportation is basically an opening for piracy. But, it does leave the content challenged, such as myself, a little left out when we set up Open Simulator servers.

This situation is now being at least partially rectified at the following sites I received on an email list I subscribe to in Australia - source Twitter: http://twitter.com/jokay:

Avatar Marketplace http://members.avatarmarketplace.com/
Rexxed http://www.rexxed.com/ (mainly xml files for upload to opensim via meerkat, open for creators to sell their goods)
My Opensim http://myopensim.com/ (mainly designed to serve content to the Myopengrid but does have some full perms stuff)
ReactionGrid's Outpost http://outpost.reactiongrid.com/ (more highend tools that everyday shopping - but includes some great stuff)
SLapt http://slapt.me/ (which is an independent shopping destination for SL primarily, but allows creators to specify their work as 'for opensim' as well as in SL
Total Avatar Shop http://www.totalavatarshop.com/ which will deliver to ReactionGrid or Second Life.

Ross

CFP: Virtual Worlds as Information Systems: A Special Issue of ISJ on Virtual World Technology and Information Systems

2010-03-24T22:59:00.000-07:00

Information Systems Journal (ISJ)

Virtual Worlds as Information Systems

A Special Issue of ISJ on Virtual World Technology and Information Systems

Special Issue Guest Editors:

Ross Brown, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Andrew Hardin, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA

David Kreps, University of Salford, UK

Jan Recker, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Contributed papers may deal with, but are not limited to:

- Social networking and communication in virtual worlds

- Virtual teams, collective cognition, and group performance, in virtual worlds

- Entrepreneurship in virtual worlds

- Virtual World technology and Interactive Systems Design

- System demonstrations and simulations

- In-world Information System modeling

- Human Computer Interaction

- Interfacing and integration of virtual world technology with other Information Systems

- Representations of Information Systems as virtual services

- Virtual world technology in IS education and training

- Adoption of Virtual World technologies and systems in corporate practice

- Diffusion of Virtual World technologies in social networking systems

- Virtual World technologies and co-creation of IT value

Submission Guidelines

Timeline

Full initial paper submission deadline: 30 August 2010

First Review deadline: 30 November 2010

Revised paper submission deadline: (if required) 30 January 2011

Second Review deadline: 15 March 2011

Camera-ready paper submission deadline: 30 April 2011

Publication of special issue: mid-2011

Guest Editors:

Dr Ross Brown

Information Systems Discipline

Queensland University of Technology

Office 508 / 126 Margaret Street

Tel: +61 7 3138 9481

Fax: +61 7 3138 9390

Brisbane QLD 4000, Australia

Email r.brown@qut.edu.au

Webpage http://www.bpmve.org

Dr Andrew Hardin

College of Business
Department of Management Information Systems
4505 Maryland Parkway Box 456034
Tel: (702) 895-0447
Fax: (702) 895-0802

Las Vegas, NV 89154-6034
Email andrew.hardin@unlv.edu
Webpage http://faculty.unlv.edu/ahardin/

Dr David Kreps

Salford Business School

University of Salford

43 The Crescent

Tel: +44 (0) 161 295 5884

Fax: +44 (0) 161 295 5999

Manchester, M5 4WT, United Kingdom

Email D.G.Kreps@salford.ac.uk

Webpage http://www.business.salford.ac.uk/staff/davidkreps

Dr Jan Recker

Information Systems Discipline

Queensland University of Technology

Office 510 / 126 Margaret Street

Tel: +61 7 3138 9479

Fax: +61 7 3138 9390

Brisbane QLD 4000, Australia

Email j.recker@qut.edu.au

Webpage http://sky.scitech.qut.edu.au/~recker/

Video: Talumis Airport Processes

2010-03-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

Dutch firm Talumis has some interesting software for manufacturing simulations. Their Youtube videos include a demonstration of checkin processes at Airports.

System looks good, and offers a lot of discrete time simulation capabilities regarding passenger flow. They also use a similar format to my work, involving minimalist visualisations incorporating a floor plan and elegantly sufficient modelling of relevant process artifacts. However, their approach does not incorporate some of the BPM ideas that I have been pursuing.

Ross

Techtip: Avatar Creation with Your Image

2010-03-16T16:18:00.001-07:00

Have finally got around to creating a recognisable avatar for myself in Open Simulator. The process is simple, just download a nice tool like AVMaker, which uses a simple webcam image to generate a texture that is mappable to your avatar's head. You should then carry out the following steps.

First step, is to take an appropriate passport style image with your webcam. See below.

Then use something like AVMaker to generate the texture image to be applied. See below.

The next step is to fire up the viewing client (in my case Hippo), login to the grid you want to upload your appearance to, and then modify the appearance of your account avatar. To do this, right click on the avatar and select Appearance, and then select Skin. To make your face appear on the avatar, you must upload the face texture as a "Head Tattoo." See the image below.

Once you get out of the appearance menu, you should then have an avatar with, ahem, something like your appearance. See below.

I will now work on my hairstyle and clothes, as at the moment my avatar looks like a cross between Groucho and Harpo Marx.

Ross

Link: BPMRedux Minority Report

2010-03-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

Theo Priestly has a great article here about Minority Report style Process Modelling interfaces. Accenture even offers a product around this space. Such spaces are indeed, as Theo suggests, a good 21st Century replacement for Postit notes, scissors and glue.

However, these interfaces are limited due to the absence of a spatial juxtaposition of the users connected via networking. What is needed is the ability to give a view of the networked collaborators shown working on the process model. My impressions of the remote collaborative capabilities of these spaces are that they cannot handle such remote collaboration well, especially when dealing with concurrent collaborative modelling. We still need to do some work on giving people easy remote access to modelling spaces, that give people a real 3D sense of the other people working on the model concurrently.

This is where I think Augmented Reality systems will come into great effect, as it enables the merging of synthetic networked spaces, with real physical spaces for collaboration purposes.

Ross

Video: SSCRC Project Preliminary Video

2010-03-14T05:24:00.000-07:00

This video shows an example of the latest version of our middleware linking the YAWL workflow engine to Open Simulator. We have created a simple example of an accident victim being brought into a Hospital to be processed.

The preliminary interface to the YAWL accident treatment workflow is shown as a worklist on the left of the image. The tasks are presented to the avatar via this interface, in a similar manner as done in web based workflow systems. Objects in the simulator are instrumented with a complex knowledge base, that enables the validation of actions within the world, to make sure that tasks are carried out correctly. This is particularly useful for process training.

NB: this movie is quite long in length - ~7 mins.

This project is supported by the Smart Services CRC. Publications will proceed from this preliminary work, and will be duly reported on in due course.

Ross

Report: ThinkBalm 3D Virtual World Vendor Choice

2010-03-08T21:39:00.000-08:00

ThinkBalm is well known in the Virtual World business for providing excellent business reports on this growing field. They have an excellent report here, that formalises the process of choosing 3D Virtual World vendor products.

Well worth the read, even if only to obtain an overview of vendor product functionality, especially in the conference, training and collaboration application domains.

Ross

Video: Auckland University Hospital Sim

2010-03-06T21:49:00.000-08:00

Scott Diener, a Virtual Worlds researcher at University of Auckland, has a great Hospital Sim he and his team have developed on the Long White Cloud region in Second Life. The full version of the video is found here. He is also part of an Open Sim grid being operated by New Zealand Universities.

He has also assisted us in some of our research, with a demonstration of our process system being developed within the Auckland Sim for a book chapter we have had published. Details soon.

Ross

Opinion: Virtual Worlds Tipping Point?

2010-03-02T16:51:00.000-08:00

Business analyst here, thinks virtual worlds is at technology tipping point. The argument is that we need to have lightweight technology to support low barrier to entry, via standards such as HTML 5, COLLADA, WebGL et al.

I think I have heard this before somehow from the VRML pundits, going way back to the Nineties. It still seems strange to me that installing a plugin is considered a barrier to entry, when we routinely install Twitter, Facebook and various other Games in order to engage with applications that are seen as fun and rewarding to our social interactions. Downloading and creating Second Life accounts is not such a different experience to me.

I have argued before that I cannot see the value of purely socialising in a virtual world, unless it adds something to the experience. Moving around in a 3D environment is time consuming. Keeping track of people in world is a little painful, if all you need to do is talk. I am still of the opinion that Twitter and Facebook are more effective in this area, due to simple interfaces, and ease of incorporating media content into the socialising. Games as Virtual Worlds succeed here, because the tasks given to you in-world are entertaining, engaging, and competitive (which has social constructs attached via teams).

IMHO, the only barrier to entry is simply the lack of a need to use such worlds for social applications, at this stage. Maybe something will come along and change this, but I have yet to see anything reducing my skepticism in this respect.

Education, training, collaborative design, and work-based communication/conferencing are, I believe, the major drivers for Virtual Worlds at the moment, as they are application domains that reap a measurable business benefit from the technology. Many non-ICT workers use complex IT for work because it brings perceived benefits. I believe there is no difference with Virtual Worlds. As soon as it becomes something useful to the socialising masses, then it will take the place of other socialising tools, maybe. Otherwise, it remain a very useful business tool in specific application domains, used alongside of other ICT technology.

Ross

GET 2010 Date Extension

2010-03-02T16:47:00.000-08:00

Deadline for submissions (new date): 29 March 2010 --

IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE GAME AND ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGIES (GET2010)
Freiburg, Germany, 26 - 28 July 2010
(http://www.gaming-conf.org/)
part of the IADIS Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems(MCCSIS 2010)
Freiburg, Germany 26 - 31 July 2010
(http://www.mccsis.org)

* Conference background and goals
This conference aims to bring together research and practice from creative, social and business practitioners and researchers in this challenging field. The focus of this conference is on design, development and evaluation of games, entertainment technologies and the nature of play.

* Format of the Conference
The conference will comprise of invited talks and oral presentations. The proceedings of the conference will be published in the form of a book and CD-ROM with ISBN, and will be available also in the IADIS Digital Library (accessible on-line).

* Best Papers
Selected authors of best papers will be invited to submit extended versions of their papers to selected journals (i.e. IADIS International Journal on Computer Science and Information Systems - ISSN: 1646-3692) including journals from INDERSCIENCE Publishers.

* Types of submissions
Full and Short Papers, Reflection Papers, Posters/Demonstrations, Tutorials, Panels and Doctoral Consortium. All submissions are subject to a blind refereeing process.

* Topics related to Game and Entertainment Technologies are of interest. These include, but are not limited to the following topics:

- Development methodologies
- Design issues
- Controversial issues - we welcome debate and dissension, for example; games as art, entertainment as purely for monetary returns etc
- Special Effects
- Animation
- Mobile and ubiquitous games and entertainment
- Serious Games and entertainment -applications, critiques
- Philosophical issues
- Prototypes
- Social and cultural uses of/for Play
- Tools and technologies
- Skills, strategy, rules and chance
- Genre
- Immersiveness and engagement
- Research methodologies in creative practice

- Usability and playability
- User/player centered design
- Psychological, social, and cultural differences in perception and participation
- Communities, networks, social interaction and social capital
- Cross-cultural and intercultural approaches
- Assessment of exploratory learning approaches
- Emerging practices

* Important Dates:
- Submission Deadline (new date): 29 March 2010
- Notification to Authors (new date): 30 April 2010
- Final Camera-Ready Submission and Early Registration (new date): Until 24 May 2010
- Late Registration (new date): After 24 May 2010
- Conference: Freiburg, Germany, 26 - 28 July 2010

* Conference Location
The conference will be held in Freiburg, Germany.

* Secretariat
IADIS Secretariat - IADIS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE GAME AND ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGIES 2010
Rua Sao Sebastiao da Pedreira, 100, 3
1050-209 Lisbon, Portugal
E-mail: secretariat@gaming-conf.org
Web site: http://www.gaming-conf.org/

* Program Committee
Game and Entertainment Technologies 2010 Conference Program Chair:
Katherine Blashki, University of Sydney, Australia

General MCCSIS 2010 Conference Co-Chairs:
Piet Kommers, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Pedro Isaías, Universidade Aberta (Portuguese Open University), Portugal
Dirk Ifenthaler, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
Nian-Shing Chen, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan

Committee Members: *
* for committee list please refer to http://www.gaming-conf.org/committees.asp

Video: Collaborative Second Life BPMN Editor

2010-02-18T00:09:00.000-08:00

Stephen West, a Masters student I am supervising, has created a BPMN editor in Second Life as an assignment for one of our BPM units at QUT. Full size video here.

His idea is to create a BPMN pool on the ground, upon which tiles are laid to create a process model. This form of representation is very amenable to collaborative modelling, due to its use of a flat shared space in the Virtual Environment. We are writing this work up as a conference paper, that will appear on this site shortly. We will follow up with a teamwork example in this space, to explicate the collaborative capabilities of such an editor.

Ross

Techtip: Messages and Events in OpenSim

2010-02-12T19:13:00.000-08:00

The colleagues I work with in the BPMVE group have been finding that the configuration OpenSim.ini file settings have solved a few problems with our in world scripting in Open Simulator. I thought it would be good to share these on the blog.

Firstly, we have found a few problems can occur with script events when a large number of objects are in the region. This is caused by too small an event queue, causing script events to disappear for no obvious reason. The line below is the default setup for OpenSim.

; Maximum number of (LSL) events that can be queued before new events are ignored.

EventExecutionMaxQueueSize=300

We find setting the value to something in the order of 10000 often solves script event problems.

Secondly, messages can only be sent over a certain distance in OpenSim. This is a problem when you want to create scripts that rez objects over a large area via messaging mechanisms. Frequently, the location to place the new objects is out of range of the default distances specified, so messages never get to the objects. Setting the following parameters in the .ini file to more sensible distances often fixes these problems as well.

; Distance in meters that whispers should travel. Default is 10m

whisper_distance = 10

; Distance in meters that ordinary chat should travel. Default is 30m

say_distance = 30

; Distance in meters that shouts should travel. Default is 100m

shout_distance = 100

Thanks to Rune Rasmussen and Nathan Steenstra for these tips.

Ross

Keep Calm and Carry On

2010-02-02T17:37:00.000-08:00

Received an email today from Forterra regarding its acquisition by SAIC, a large scientific software company. Coupled with Sun dropping its support of Wonderland, and this is looking a like a shake down of the industry.

A number of pundits in the virtual world industry have commented on this happening in 2010. In fact any industry, car, IT, airline et al. , has an early bloom of start ups, and then the cold hard processes of business kick in, reducing the population to those that have the resources and business models to survive. This is a given.

As for me, it is business as usual with my research. My group will be meeting this afternoon, and we will get on with developing our virtual world business process technology. We will exploit the new opportunities that will emerge in the future.

Ross

Paper: Measuring Visual Consistency in 3D Rendering Systems

2010-01-22T23:04:00.000-08:00

My PhD student, Alfredo Nantes, has published and presented a paper at ACSW 2010 in Brisbane last week - Measuring Visual Consistency in 3D Rendering Systems

It covers his approach to using reverse projections of pixels in 3D computer graphics images in order to create a ground truth sample cloud that can be queried to confirm the geometric correctness of the objects in a 3D scene.

Nice work Alfredo!

Ross

Paper: APCCM 2010 Modelling in 3D Virtual Worlds

2010-01-22T22:38:00.000-08:00

I have uploaded to QUT eprints the paper I presented at APCCM 2010 this week - Conceptual Modelling in 3D Virtual Worlds for Process Communication.

In this paper, I go into a little more detail about the 3D BPMN Editor I am developing in Open Simulator. I also discuss how to annotate a Virtual World with a Business Process Model (BPMN) in order to provide a place for a business analyst and a domain expert to combine their information to develop the conceptual process model for the business.

One comment from the audience was quite profound. In my approach, the Business Analyst brings the conceptual process model, and the domain expert brings the model of reality - buildings, layout and other artifacts representing the business. Together, these can be used to validate the correctness of the presented process model. Indeed this is done every time a consultant talks to a domain specialist and builds a model. However, when using the virtual world as a modelling space, the domain specialist provides (virtually) tangible information about the Enterprise.

Ross