AVATAR 98 : Boeing Admin

Boeing Admin: Otherwise known as Ludwin Fuchs
lu cypher: Hi
Boeing Admin: He recently delivered a little talk at a workshop for CSCW
Princess Tia: hi lu :)
Boeing Admin: And I will be using some of the viewfoils that he and I put together
lu cypher: Hi Princess
Little Cupid: Kewl - I didn't miss anything?  ;-)))  *waves to everyone*
Boeing Admin: If you will click on the sign to my right, you will see the current "slide"
Boeing Admin: I am going to be speaking about our work in Boeing with virtual worlds, Active Worlds, specifically
Boeing Admin: I am Rick Wojcik
Boeing Admin: Ludwin and I work in Applied Research & Technology
Boeing Admin: Our organization explores new uses of technology within boeing...
Boeing Admin: and our mission is to introduce that technology to all the divisions
Boeing Admin: Right now we have 3--commercial, space, and defense
Boeing Admin: Now click on the first link on the web page...
Boeing Admin: That is "slide 1-Business Applications"
Boeing Admin: The sign to my right will change throughout the talk, as needed
Boeing Admin: We have been exploring what we call "Virtual Collaborative Environments"
Boeing Admin: Or CVEs
Boeing Admin: Our project is in "Virtual Collocation", and Boeing has a strong interest...
Boeing Admin: in using telecommunications technology to bring people together over long distances.
Boeing Admin: Our company has branches or offices almost everywhere.
Boeing Admin: We also do a lot of training, and that costs the company a lot of money...
Boeing Admin: Our travel budget is phenomenal.
Boeing Admin: So we have looked at technologies like Active Worlds and asked ourselves how we could use them in a business setting
Boeing Admin: Slide 1 identifies several business applications
Little Cupid: Kewl  ;-)))
Feu des Astres: ... soon to include the ISS ... not easy to travel back to the home office on
short notice.
Boeing Admin: These are the ones that we think are the most reasonable in a business setting
Boeing Admin: The first bullet--Corporate Culture--is one of the most important
Boeing Admin: But it is a bit intangible.  We often refer to it as the "one company" image
Boeing Admin: How do you bring people together into one organization when they live in different time zones
Boeing Admin: And have very different work settings?
mondaugen: are your slides working?
Boeing Admin: No, the slides must be operated by you :-)
mondaugen: OH
Boeing Admin: You do the work.  Click on the slide to my right.
Princess Tia: Could you please post the urls of the slides? I can't use IE/show web right now , IE is err not working
mondaugen: got it
Little Cupid: They are  :-)))
Boeing Admin: I think of the corporate culture item as referring to casual encounters
Boeing Admin: watercooler conversations.
Little Cupid: http://www.boeing.com/   <---- that it?
"CyberEdge Ben": Here's the URL for the slides: http://home1.gte.net/rwojcik/avs98/vircorp1.html
dZap: http://home1.gte.net/rwojcik/avs98/vircorp1.html
Little Cupid: Oh, sorrys
Boeing Admin: http://home1.gte.net/rwojcik/avs98/vircorp.html
Princess Tia: thanks :)
Boeing Admin: The 2nd bullet--Business Activity Rooms
Boeing Admin: That is a bit hard to explain outside of the company.  :)
Boeing Admin: We have rooms in which people conduct strategy meetings--post information on the walls
Boeing Admin: These are physical rooms.
Boeing Admin: Big problem:  They are expensive to maintain, and people have to travel distances to get to them
Boeing Admin: A virtual strategy room would be a big plus, especially for groups that do a lot of traveling
Boeing Admin: Later I will speak a little about our Europe Control Room prototype
mondaugen: so are you basically talking about using AW to cut travel costs?
Boeing Admin: 3rd bullet--Distance Learning
Boeing Admin: I personally don't think that AW (or orther virtual world technologies) will cut travel
Feu des Astres: Travel, facility, materials expenses.
Boeing Admin: Rather I think that they will increase travel...
Boeing Admin: but I'll address this issue later.
mondaugen: thanks
Boeing Admin: If you have queries or comments send them via telegram to lu 

Boeing Admin: Distance learning is a no-brainer.  Clearly this environment has great potential for training
Boeing Admin: We'll talk about problems with it later, though.  :)
PNNL Booth Woman: anybody know where wocjik's talk is?
Little Cupid: Here - LOL
Boeing Admin: Right here PNNL  :)  I'm Wojcik
Boeing Admin: Meetings & Info Exchanges--
PNNL Booth Woman: Oh, okay. Hi.
Boeing Admin: We know that COF does all of their business in the AW environment
Boeing Admin: Nevertheless, we don't find this environment very good for serious business meetings.
"henri": COF ?
Boeing Admin: Again--comments on why will come out later.
Boeing Admin: COF=Circle of Fire.
Haba: how serious?
Little Cupid: LOL
Boeing Admin: They own Active Worlds.  And they obviously have an incentive to work every day in this environment  :)
Boeing Admin: Next bullet--Public Relations
Boeing Admin: This is a good business application, but it is limited to the population that uses AW
Boeing Admin: That population is huge by the standards of the internet & 3D communities.
Boeing Admin: But it is very small from Boeing's perspective.
PNNL Booth Woman: how can we increase it?
Boeing Admin: Still, I think that there is a place for it.  And the population in here will grow over time
Little Cupid: Yeah  ;-))
Boeing Admin: You can use the environment for tours, events, displays
Boeing Admin: Note that NASA also has a world
Boeing Admin: You can go there and take tours now.
Little Cupid: Yes  ;-)))
Boeing Admin: Final item--Product and Process information.
Boeing Admin: Within Boeing, we have a need to keep people updated on information such as where...
Boeing Admin: planes are in the manufacturing process on the factory floor
Boeing Admin: We are always looking at the possibility of representing such information in a virtual space
Boeing Admin: AW isn't ready for that kind of functionality yet, but we see the potential
Boeing Admin: OK.  Next slide--click on "next" at the bottom of the page
Little Cupid: *next*
Boeing Admin: The sign to my right will take you there as soon as the universe server gets around to it  :)
Boeing Admin: I've got some links on this slide to jpegs.  You may not be able to download them fast enough
Boeing Admin: Depends on your individual machines.
Boeing Admin: What I want to do here is show you what we have done internally in Boeing
Little Cupid: Kewl  ;-)))
Boeing Admin: Nothing really fancy compared to what is in the AW universe
Boeing Admin: We were the first to purchase a uniserver from AW and we helped Roland to test it out
Boeing Admin: I first installed it on the Boeing intranet back in June of 1997
Boeing Admin: Nobody used it for a while, because I promptly left the country.  :)
Boeing Admin: Went on a business trip to Russia, where I met up with some friends from Russian World  :)
Boeing Admin: Well, that's another talk altogether.  :)))
Princess Tia: :))
Little Cupid: heh heh
Boeing Admin: Anyway, we began to pick up users by word-of-mouth
Boeing Admin: By Christmas time we had almost 180 downloads of the browser
Boeing Admin: Inside of Boeing, no one has to pay $20.
Boeing Admin: Too bad.  I could use the money.  :((
Princess Tia: heheh
Little Cupid: LOL
Boeing Admin: Anyway.  I have some jpegs for you to look at
Little Cupid: :-)))
Boeing Admin: First link on the page is just GZ in the Boeing World on our intranet
Boeing Admin: I just put some signs around.
avatar: excuse me, but I don't see any pictures you're showing.
dZap: What is the right part of the pic called "Business Meeting (with phone bridge)"?
Princess Tia: http://home1.gte.net/rwojcik/avs98/vircorp2.html
Boeing Admin: Try the top link--that is GZ.  You should all be on slide 2 to get to the jpeg links
Little Cupid: Yep  ;-)))
dZap: ...some special version or just cut and paste in this case
Boeing Admin: I don't have a picture of my office here.  :)  Built myself a penthouse office out to the east of GZ
Boeing Admin: Use the arrow next to the stop sign at the top of your browser to go back to the previous page
Princess Tia: :))
Boeing Admin: Or just click on the sign to my right
Little Cupid: http://home1.gte.net/rwojcik/avs98/gz.jpg   <----- this is what we are looking at?
Boeing Admin: Go to the Business Meeting jpeg
Little Cupid: A-ha  ;-)))
Boeing Admin: Yes you were looking at gz.jpg
dZap: maybe a web page?
Boeing Admin: Now I want you to go to brainstorm.jpg
Boeing Admin: Same url path
Boeing Admin: You will see a little park that I set up for a formal business meeting
"CyberEdge Ben": {If you pre load all the poix, you can just flip between them. use a right-click, and get link in separate window.}
Little Cupid: That is called Business Meeting (with phone bridge)
Boeing Admin: We had 30 people in a room.  A phone bridge
Boeing Admin: About 15 avatars showed up.
Boeing Admin: We projected AW on a screen.
Boeing Admin: The meeting went very well.
mondaugen: did they all have voice connection?
Boeing Admin: We used a phone bridge.  Sound is essential
Boeing Admin: I don't like business meetings in chat.  Too chaotic.
Boeing Admin: Although I  must say that you are all a very well-behaved bunch.  :)
Little Cupid: *I'm trying my hardest*  LOL
Princess Tia: :D
dZap: :)
Princess Tia: hehehe
Boeing Admin: Anyway, I built this park under an ID that I shared with others
Golem: hello richard...jeff here
Boeing Admin: That is, I gave them the privilege password of the builder
Boeing Admin: Then I asked them to leave comments on those  signs that you see around the park
Golem: hi richard?
Boeing Admin: Hi, Golem
Little Cupid: Kewl idea!
Golem: jeff schwartz here
Boeing Admin: ok  Back out of that slide and go to the next one
Boeing Admin: Hey, Jeff.  :)
Golem: how's it going
Golem: :-) backatcha
Golem: nice work
Little Cupid: Christmas Party  :-)))
Boeing Admin: The Christmas party
Boeing Admin: Well, this environment is designed for socializing.
Boeing Admin: We had a great party that first year.  I gave everyone Santa and elf avatars from the standard stock
Boeing Admin: We played Christmas music, and people came from all over the country
Little Cupid: Kewl!  ;-)))
Princess Tia: par-tyyy :)
Little Cupid: heh heh
Boeing Admin: I got complaints from the East Coast that I was on PST time, so it was off their lunch hour
Boeing Admin: The fact is that people don't much like to visit our intranet universe unless they are on lunch hour, before or after work
Boeing Admin: I know of one employee that was caught at the Christmas Party and reprimanded for wasting company time  :(
Princess Tia: oh oh
Feu des Astres: Scrooges.   } :-(
Magine: tsk
Boeing Admin: However, she worked in an office with just a few other folks out on the East Coast
Boeing Admin: She had never been to Puget Sound.  She loved AW.
Little Cupid: Kewl  ;-)))
Boeing Admin: It was a way for her to visit other people in the company, ask questions, learn things about the corporation
"DeniZen": that's no excuse
Little Cupid: Greaaat idea!
Boeing Admin: You could see the value of this tool for "corporate culture"
Princess Tia: definitely
Boeing Admin: Yeah, her boss was a scrooge.  but that's very human behavior, isn't it  :(
Little Cupid: LOL
Boeing Admin: It takes time for people to get used to new technology and understand its usefulness.
Boeing Admin: OK.  Next jpeg is the Boeing Museuem
Princess Tia: COOL!
Boeing Admin: Actually, I've put a lot of pictures in this world--more than I have on our intranet.
Boeing Admin: So you can walk around in here and get a feel for what it is like.
Princess Tia: look at the first boeing aircraft! cool
Boeing Admin: You get a real appreciation of the breadth and scope of products that Boeing produces
Golem: ya know what's truly cool...that i just came back in and can see what direction yer all
looking at by looking at yer faces...just realized that
Boeing Admin: You see faces and machines from our history.
Boeing Admin: In the picture on the web page, you see the four people who founded the various components of Boeing
Boeing Admin: You have the first airplane built by Bill Boeing
Boeing Admin: OK,  Next take a look at the Europe Control Room
Boeing Admin: This room is not actually being used.  It is just a prototype.

Boeing Admin: We built it to show our European marketing organization what they could do if they wanted a control room...
Golem: cool
Boeing Admin: to monitor their activities and teaming in Europe
Boeing Admin: They are constantly in different countries...very difficult to coordinate everyone's activities
Boeing Admin: Ludwin played a big part in building this room
Golem: can we go into it?
Boeing Admin: You can't see all of it here, but we divided the room into various functions.
Boeing Admin: No, this room is just on our intranet uniserver.
Golem: ah...
Boeing Admin: It is actually closed to other people in Boeing.
Boeing Admin: Some of the info in it was a little sensitive
Boeing Admin:  :)
Princess Tia: :0
Princess Tia: :)
Boeing Admin: OK.  Back out and go to the "Park of Privileges"
Minouche: ..
Boeing Admin: That is a concept that I pioneered in Russian World--actually, I go the idea from Le Nouveau Monde
Boeing Admin: The French world.  They have done a lot of interesting things in their world
Golem: very cool
Boeing Admin: What I did was construct a park with signs that everyone could modify.
Boeing Admin: Like tourist property, but made with a real citizen number under a public privilege password
Boeing Admin: Everyone can then leave messages on those signs
Boeing Admin: In the web browser to the right of the window, you see one of the web sites that was attached to a sign in the park
Boeing Admin: People wanted to use the environment to display their work and give access to team web pages
Little Cupid: Kewl  ;-)))
Boeing Admin: It is very instructive to wander through the Boeing world and look at some of the sites people have put up
Boeing Admin: You can learn a lot about what goes on in the company.
Boeing Admin: OK.  The last jpeg is a so-called "citizen site"
Boeing Admin: Actually, most builder sites don't look that good.
Golem: maybe we can help with that...
Boeing Admin: This one was put up by someone with a little artistic ability.  :)
Little Cupid: LOL Golem
Golem: ;-)
Boeing Admin: But it just illustrates that our "business" use mirrored what goes on in the internet universe
Casay: Yep.. no lack of talented builders here .;))
Boeing Admin: People love to build things.  Especially in a company of engineers.  :)
zg: :)
Boeing Admin: By the way, some of the folks involved in the NASA site in this universe build supercomputers
"Staria": hi everyone
Boeing Admin: So this is easy for them, I guess.  :)
Little Cupid: :-)))
"Staria": hohoho
Golem: they are doing a good job in their world
Boeing Admin: OK,  back out and go to the next slide--3
Boeing Admin: We did a survey of people who had entered the Boeing universe
Boeing Admin: this was conducted primarily by Gloria Mark, whom we had on load a few months ago..
Boeing Admin: from GMD, the German National Research Lab
"CyberEdge Ben": how loaded was she?
Golem: hoohoo ben
Boeing Admin: That's also where Ludwin comes from.
lu cypher: :)
Golem: lot of "other" folks rick...who are they?
Boeing Admin: Gloria sent out almost 200 surveys by email
Princess Tia: afterwork users perhaps?
Boeing Admin: You can see in this pie chart the distribution that we got back.
Boeing Admin: There is a huge chunk of "others", as Jeff points out.
Boeing Admin: Our survey didn't tell us who they were.  We figure that most of them were machinists
mondaugen: interlopers, maybe
Golem: yeah...i see that the mgrs...unfortunately the ones who must be convinced are the smallest group...
Golem: aargh
Boeing Admin: Those are the folks who actually build the airplanes  :))
Boeing Admin: But we don't really know.
Golem: food services?
Golem: janitorial
Golem: jest jesting...
"CyberEdge Ben": Are you concluding that you got better blue-collar participation than management participation?
Golem: but ya never know
Princess Tia: generally managerial/admin. amount to the smallest group in a business usually anyway
Boeing Admin: I'm not concluding anything.  Let the facts speak for themselves.  :))
Little Cupid: :-)))
Boeing Admin: Let's go to slide 4--running out of time here
Princess Tia: what would be interesting is how much that group uses it :))
Golem: that might just be true...there is a  lot of confluence between engineering and blue collar types in other studies
Boeing Admin: Click on the sign to my right to see it
Casay: said like a true manager.. LOL
"CyberEdge Ben": Yes, the slide data reaveals more ?? than answers, doesn't it?
Little Cupid: Casay  :-)))
Boeing Admin: This is a bar chart.  Out of 140 users, you can see reasons people gave for why they came into the environment
Boeing Admin: As you can see, curiosity...well, Duh!
"CyberEdge Ben": and the next slide shows why -- managers have curiosity bled out of them! ;-)
Princess Tia: hehe
Casay: LC!! :-)
Boeing Admin: I don't find these slides terribly revealing, but I find them useful for padding my presentations.  :))
"CyberEdge Ben": LOL!
Boeing Admin: Let's try slide 5--more of the same
Princess Tia: :))
"kaatje": hi
Little Cupid: heh heh Casay
Boeing Admin: This one is about perceived benefits of the environment.
Boeing Admin: I think I should just rush to the last web page, which has more interesting points on it.
mondaugen: the 'other' categorie are the most intriguing!
"kaatje": hi!
Princess Tia: :))
Boeing Admin: Yes, the "other" category is always the most interesting
Boeing Admin: So, I'm on Slide 6 now
Boeing Admin: Experiences, issues, and open problems.
Boeing Admin: The points on this slide are mostly critical.
Casay: heheyou're on 6. .I'm still trying to DL 4.. LOL
Boeing Admin: I don't want to give the wrong impression--I'm very bullish on AW and virtual worlds technology
"kaatje": aaaaaaaah
Boeing Admin: But I want to try to be as realistic as I can about the state of the art
Golem: do you feel that the critiques are all valid or that some of them are perceptual
Boeing Admin: For business purposes, it is still not up to our needs.
Boeing Admin: There  are also problems in terms of acceptance in the workplace
avatar: but do you still see the potential?
Boeing Admin: We all enjoy this stuff, but most of our workdays are pretty hectic at Boeing
Boeing Admin: There are a lot of things to do, and we often find it difficult to learn to navigate in new territory
mondaugen: so where do you think your world will go?
Golem: are there any aspects to it that you see as more useful and therefore worth concentrating on for business use
Boeing Admin: Programs like AW have a learning curve associated with them, and frankly...
Boeing Admin: They aren't considered business-related.
Boeing Admin: That is why most people show up only during lunch hour.
Casay: ummm my 10 year old learned it in minutes...
Casay: very easy to learn...
Boeing Admin: OK.  First bullet--the survey people said that they thought the technology needs to improve
Boeing Admin: Before they can adopt it in a practical sense.
Golem: but are there any purposes for which a collaborative 3D environment could be seen as the optimal solution amongst a number of alternatives
Boeing Admin: 2nd item--3D environments are not perceived as serious enough...
Boeing Admin: and that is especially true of older people
Golem: i think the key is to find a purpose for which no other solution applies
Boeing Admin: I believe that the younger workers--those who have played a lot of video games--
Casay: percieved is the word there...
Boeing Admin: are more likely to adopt it for serious work.
Boeing Admin: Yes "perceived" is important.
avatar: haha that makes sense!
Boeing Admin: Everything is relative.
CR: 77993111//QWEDD
Boeing Admin: My 3rd bullet--that 3D communities require a critical mass 
avatar: ??
Boeing Admin: That is extremely important.  You have a kind of chicken & egg problem
Casay: so, older ppl within the corp hold it back?????
Boeing Admin: Without a lot of users, people don't find the environment practical
Princess Tia: Actually.. I asked Lu, if the Boeing Museum was open to the public ( non-boeing users). He indicated that because of firewalls, it is not.  So I think the Boeing Museum is fantastic, and I wondered if Boeing would consider a
Princess Tia: Boeing Museum World for the AW universe? It seems to me this would be great PR for Boeing, and educational to the general aw public as well...
Boeing Admin: If the environment is not perceived as practical then people don't participate in it.
Princess Tia: *draws deep breath*
Golem: yeah, could be linked to from Nasa
Casay: THere are students at the Jr high school here that would lov eto go there..
Little Cupid: heh heh PT
Boeing Admin: So we are trying to bootstrap it.  And it is swimming upstream

Princess Tia: :)
Boeing Admin: Another problem--chat
Golem: well there are different ways of skinning a cat...
Boeing Admin: You are all familiar with the problems of chat communication. Many of us have learned to live with it.
Boeing Admin: But sound is absolutely essential.  And *good* sound
Golem: bandwidth...
Boeing Admin: Not internet telephony.  Not in its current state.
Golem: seen ATT's click 'n chat?
Boeing Admin: The last point is one that I think is most important
Boeing Admin: If AW and like technologies are to succeed, then they must be perceived as a better alternative
Casay: but comparing Netmeeting to AW is comparing apples and oranges..
"CyberEdge Ben": Exactly! what does this technology do better?
Boeing Admin: So you have to always ask why you can't use the web or NetMeeting for a particular business activity
Boeing Admin: NetMeeting is designed for business meetings.  AW is not as useful...maybe
CR: How is Boeing tied to the space station?
Boeing Admin: But AW gives us a persistent environment.
Boeing Admin: Anyhow, I'll end on that note.
CR: How is boeinggoing to get me into space?
Casay: Aw gives the 'perception' of someone else ther etoo...
Boeing Admin: Questions and comments?
Golem: thankyou rick...very interesting
"CyberEdge Ben": thanmks, richard!
lu cypher: Yes, I have a few questions...
"henri": thanks, great
Boeing Admin: CR.  If you go to space, Boeing will help you get there.  :)
mondaugen: what plans do you have?
Boeing Admin: Ok lu
Golem: can we access this presentation in the future?
Magine: have you considered the possiblity of using aw as a kind of 3d scratch pad for discussing engineering problems, etc?
Princess Tia: What do you think the feasibility of a Boeing Museum would be?

CR: Wouldn't  space travel allign itsself with good corporate palning?
Boeing Admin: I'll leave the presentation up as long as I can
Princess Tia: (in aw)
Golem: thx
Boeing Admin: The url is from my private web site
Boeing Admin: This world is something of a Boeing museum
Boeing Admin: I would like to keep it open, but that will require some buy-off from corporate PR.
CR: Is Boeing investigaing moving in to space travel??
Lone Dragon: cool
"CyberEdge Ben": I agree w/ Princess Tia. I think AW is a great way to replicate a museum, not just Boeings, but any museum, on the net.
lu cypher: I have got a question from Feu des Astres: Given the current explosion in competitive software "universes", how might one expect any particular universe to become the "standard" outside of corporate environments?
CR: Are you in at Boeing in Seattle?
Boeing Admin: I think that AW is currently the leader in this type of software.
Casay: So, last bullet, you said needs to compete with netmeeting etc... why not develop white boards for Aw?
Boeing Admin: That is why we are using it.  We are, of course, exploring alternatives, too.
Casay: sharing / colaborating functions...
Casay: is that what is needed?
Boeing Admin: Sharing functions would be very helpful.
lu cypher: Also I have a question from Princess Tia: Is there a boeing museum world in the aw universe?  seems to me that would be great pr for boeing .
Boeing Admin: Some of the other 3D & 2D environments have very nice features.
Casay: like?
Boeing Admin: Well, Princess, I would like this world to be a museum for Boeing.
"henri": Have you tried using AW in combination with other communication media ...
Boeing Admin: I have put up a lot of jpegs (in a hurry) for just that reason---so that you can walk around and look
Princess Tia: Is this world online all the time in aw?
"henri": ... such as conference calls etc.
Princess Tia: or is it online for this occasion only?
Casay: Tia.. are you talking about recreating their actual RL museum in Aw??

Boeing Admin: Henri, we use AW in combination with ICQ, BSCW, and the telephone
lu cypher: Also we did a crude integration of AW with Netmeeting
"henri": Okay, how does this work?
Princess Tia: However they'd want to do it casay :))
Casay: I think a virtual tour.. like the Boston Science musuem woudld be great PR..
Boeing Admin: Yes, I believe in a mixture of technologies.  The Europe Control room combined AW with NetMeeting and BSCW
lu cypher: You enter a specific room and you get warped into a Netmeeting Multipoint conference
dZap: Do you think COF listens to your needs? Are Boeing such a big customer that you have an influence in AW development?
Golem: yes
Boeing Admin: dZap:  Yes, they listen to us.
Golem: definitively
Princess Tia: :))
Boeing Admin: They are very supportive.  But they have limited resources, as do we.
lu cypher: Yes, that is definitely their problem
Boeing Admin: So I am probably a lot more tolerant of them than most users. :)
Golem: well we expect that to change in the future...
"henri": It seems getting higher level support is crucial - as always of course
Golem: we just can't say exactly when
Casay: well, gonna run.. very intersting .. thanks!! :-)
"henri": i wonder what the real estate people may say
Princess Tia: bye casay :0
Casay: waves to all... *poof-erz*
Boeing Admin: I would really like to see COF expand--hire more people
Princess Tia: more programmers?
avatar: I heard they are very small company...
Boeing Admin: Thanks to all of you for coming
Boeing Admin: Yes, COF has a very small number of workers.
avatar: Thanks :)
"henri": thank you very interesting.
Feu des Astres: Thanks for inviting us.
Boeing Admin: And they get a lot more done than some bigger companies I know.  :)))
Princess Tia: Thank you, you brought up a number of interesting and informative points :)
dZap: Thank you for the presentation...very interesting!
Feu des Astres: This last week in AW has been quite informative .
Boeing Admin: Great.  You are all invited to stay in and wander around
Boeing Admin: Enjoy yourselves.
Golem: thx rick
Midnight Madness: : )
Boeing Admin: Yeah, Jeff.  See you soon, I hope.
Feu des Astres: WebCams including voice ... important necessary addition.
Golem: yeah can you email me the url for this presentation? thx
Princess Tia: hi MM :)
Boeing Admin: Sure, Jeff.  Here, it's home1.gte.net/rwojcik/avs98/vircorp.html
Feu des Astres: I assisted with 3Com's WebCam promotional efforts in the Palace universe this last week.
Golem: i'm not at my own computer and i don't have access to email...so you can email me?
Boeing Admin: Yes, the Palace is very interesting.  I saw a presentation on some work in it at CSCW
Lone Dragon: so you guy s r in this for the long haul?
Feu des Astres: Interesting stuff, but I don't think the technology and bandwidth are quite "there" yet.
Boeing Admin: OK, Jeff
Golem: thx
Boeing Admin: Lone Dragon:  I think that we will be working with AW for quite a while.  This technology is very useful for experiments, if nothing else.
Feu des Astres: We use ICQ as well as net browser material  in coordination quite a lot in Palace meetings.
Boeing Admin: We'll keep trying to bootstrap use in practical situations.
Lone Dragon: i wonder about the future of Renderware
Golem: AW "flies" on a P200 over 56K modem
Lone Dragon: it's pretty old
Feu des Astres: Electric Communities is also a small company though, and like COF, has limited resources.
Midnight Madness: Hi Tia..sorry am in teles right now
Golem: and with all due respect...the palace is hardly AW
Boeing Admin: Yes.  But EC has some very nice ideas
Midnight Madness: the palace??? lol
Feu des Astres: Different tools trying to achieve many of the same purposes, Lu.
Feu des Astres: I don't advocate one over the other.
Feu des Astres: (Except, perhaps, that I'm a mac user and there is no AW mac client.
Golem: aha
Boeing Admin: Aha!
Golem: sorry...i'm a mac guy myself...i pray for the day
Feu des Astres: I'm here using my mac at this moment, but under Windows emulation.
Boeing Admin: A Mac user, eh?  :)
Golem: but really there is no comparison between the palace and aw
Boeing Admin: Feu, how is the performance?
Golem: one is 3D...the other isn't
Princess Tia: well hearing from Leftover now, he indicates that he still cannot enter aw
Feu des Astres: Sure there is, Golem.  Similarity in many concepts beneath it all.
Princess Tia: JP, you here?
Feu des Astres: Not bad for most functions, Rick, but I don't have what one would consider a consumer level mac.
Boeing Admin: Princess, JP is not here
Boeing Admin: He left his avatar here to record the talk
Princess Tia: Cryonics is listed as in boeing
Princess Tia: ok i see
Feu des Astres: The new generation of macs though, with additional RAM and the SoftWindows emulator would be capable though.
Boeing Admin: We need a way of putting avatars in a visual "sleep" mode
Midnight Madness: Which boeing are you located?
Princess Tia: and cof needs to quit blocking legitimate aw users
Boeing Admin: I hope so, Feu.  The Mac is a great machine
Feu des Astres: In fact, a lot of the iMacs are being bundled with SoftWindows by the various mail-order firms.
Princess Tia: poh
Boeing Admin: I'm in Shared Services Group--in Bellevue, WA
Golem: i think the bottom line is that for any purpose in which a recapitulation of an environment in 3D accessible simultaneously by many folks...AW is the optimal solution...you must go from that premise
Princess Tia: Richard, have you seen Leftover's avatar designs in Zuzu yet?
Boeing Admin: Golem, you should get a job with COF.  :)
Feu des Astres: If one assumes 3D is necessary, yes, Golem.
Golem: ;-)
Boeing Admin: I have not.  Does Leftover go with a Russian ISP?
Lone Dragon: well i'm off,i'm encouged by Boing's commitment BA
Princess Tia: yes he does, ..
Golem: yes feu...otherwise other solutions...such as the palace, may be as good or better
Feu des Astres: Electric Communities next generation product is 3D.  Still in alpha though.

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