Putting Virtual Worlds in Business Perspective
Putting Virtual Worlds in Business Perspective
Putting Virtual Worlds in Business Perspective - Active Worlds
Delivery model: Hosted; stand-alone; service
Target audience: Consumer and enterprise
Situated behind firewall: Yes
Number of users: Thousands of organizations have purchased the Active Worlds software
Collaboration tools: VOIP; IM; streaming video; HTML shared but rendered in 2-D portion of browser; presentation software and ability to call external lines are provided separately
Business application integration: Can display Web-based apps
Putting Virtual Worlds in Business Perspective - Forterra Systems
Delivery model: Stand-alone
Target audience: Business, focusing on collaboration, training, product lifecycle management, operations management, retail and e-commerce
Customers: Enterprises and world developers
Situated behind firewall: Yes
Number of users: Several dozen customers with limited deployments
Collaboration tools: VOIP; IM; presentation; file sharing; meeting scheduling; presence from Lotus SameTime, as well as in-world presence; conference recording
Business application integration: Currently integrates with Lotus Sametime, and support for Microsoft LiveMeeting is being considered; LDAP support for single sign-on
Putting Virtual Worlds in Business Perspective - Multiverse
Delivery model: Hosted; stand-alone
Target audience: Consumer and business
Customers: World developers
Situated behind firewall: Optional
Number of users: Less than two dozen developers
Collaboration tools: VOIP, IM, streaming video; HTML
Business application integration: Can display Web-based applications
Putting Virtual Worlds in Business Perspective - ProtonMedia
Delivery model: Stand-alone
Target audience: Business; e-learning; knowledge management; unified communications
Customers: Enterprises
Situated behind firewall: Yes
Number of users: 14 Fortune 500 customers
Collaboration tools: Blogs; wikis; user profiles; application sharing; IM; VOIP; whiteboarding
Business application integration: API is available to connect with other proprietary systems, such as Microsoft Sharepoint and Outlook, as well as with multiple learning management systems
Putting Virtual Worlds in Business Perspective - Qwaq (Croquet)
Delivery model: Hosted; stand-alone
Target audience: Business, focusing on distributed project management and training
Customers: Enterprises
Situated behind firewall: Optional
Number of users: Low thousands (seats)
Collaboration tools: VOIP; IM; whiteboarding; Microsoft PowerPoint; application sharing; streaming video
Business application integration: Can display Web-based content
Putting Virtual Worlds in Business Perspective - Second Life Grid
Delivery model: Service
Target audience: Consumer and business
Customers: Enterprises
Situated behind firewall: No
Number of users: Unknown
Collaboration tools: VOIP; IM; outbound dialing
Business application integration: Can display Web-based content
