Calling all virtual world educators! Share your innovations and best practices at VWBPE 2013 (24 – 27 Jul). This year we are encouraging presentations from across the virtual worlds, hosting presentations in Second Life, OpenSim, Unity/Jibe, and Cloud Party. The theme is Beyond the Stage.

Join us in the multi-verse and accept this year’s challenge to share the spotlight with us. Go beyond the educational stage by integrating technology, presentation, and just a bit of creative magic in this year’s call for proposals. Strike your set by selecting a stream, format, and a location in the multi-verse, and we’ll be glad to cast a light on you.
Submissions open 06 May 2013
Submission deadline 15 June 2013
Details: www.vwbpe.org

On a personal note I went to my first VWBPE conference in 2009, and have been back every year since.  Not only was it free – and zero travel dollars or time, but it was the more dense concentration of Ph.Ds per square meter I have ever seen.   I am still working to implement ideas I learned every year at this con since 2009.

I have sponsored the last two, and am on the org committee again this year.  Sponsorships are appreciated from $50 to $1,500.  So lurk, participate, present, volunteer, or sponsor – either way, we’d love to have you.  See ya online!…..AgileBill.

The distributed tools industry is in constant flux. 2012 was no exception as old vendors combined with other companies and new technologies and enterprises were formed. Our Agile3d Atlas ™ gives you a visual overview at a glance. You are welcome to visit many of these worlds in the Agile Business Park ™. Check with AgileBill for which tools apply best for your needs.

In spite of there being so many tools, I don’t feel there is yet one that is perfect for every need. Whether it is mobile, web, or rich client, building, scripting language, cost model, or collaboration tools, there seems to be one that excels in some areas for some needs, but none that cover every need. Let our atlas guide your way!

We’ve organized the video section to include the talks from the Distributed Agile Worlds 2012 conference. I enjoyed all the speakers and look forward to more in 2013. We are planning for our next video event to be held in June. In the meantime, I offer you a set of talks ranging from trailers, to 10 minute lightning talks to hour long deep dive presentations. Just click the image above to go to our video library.

Enjoy!

76% of the teams I teach are distributed. I’m pleased to announce our second conference on Distributed Agile Teams Oct 3-6. This year we have some great speakers that are leaders in both the Agile industry and also the distributed collaboration community. The conference offers two ways to attend.

1. Experience multiple immersive platforms (At a total cost of $45 for the entire event)
2. Watch live on our web channel, and interact with text chat (free of cost)

Selected sessions will also be recorded for later playback at the Agile Witness News vaults

• Register: meetup.com/agile3d
• Schedule of speakers: Schedule
• Checkout the trailer video
• Read the Conference Program Guide
• Tweet us: #agileworlds12

Access TechNotes

These details will help you experience the event in hands on fashion using the spatial tools.

Speakers will need to send a skype id to Bill as well as slides. Thank you.

Or simply view live via the Web

Recordings will be featured at Agile Witness News ™.

About the Conference

This conference draws on more than 3 years of experience working with distributed teams as well as Bill’s certification in the subject. It is no longer a novel idea. It has been done for years. Come see what tools and best practices help today’s global teams, and be part of the distributed collaboration community.

• Leon Sabarsky
• Yvonne Kish
• Keith Boswell
• Bob Galen
• Comming Soon: Catherine Louis
• Comming soon: Todd Olsen

Leon Sabarsky

“Don’t forget to offer Agile training to the management Team”

Yvonne Kish

“Account for Technical Debt by Categorizing User Stories”


 

Bob Galen, CSC

“Product Ownership is a Village”

Yvonne Kish and Keith Boswell

“Use Personal Kanban to limit multi-tasking”

We will be adding Catherine’s video soon. I can also produce higher definition versions if desired.

• Collaborate
• Measure
• Rapidly Adapt to Industry Best Practices
• Hold Retrospectives for Ccontinuous Improvement

Hmm, this sounds like a page from an Agile Training course! Shee Mr Brown’s video here or below.
John’s blog post

Here is another interesting case in teaching in 3d.

I was happy to run into Bob Moir, a top coach from Facilitator4hire. I met him by accident through our online agile series. He works with Janet Danforth, who is a an IAF-Certified Professional Facilitator. That was a new body to me ,but I could instantly see it’s value. Our technical skills apply on specific jobs, but working with people is needed for every job, and does not become obsolete over time. So I looked at the website http://www.iaf-world.org/index.aspx for the International Association of Facilitators and continued to be impressed. Bob has had some amazing roles, including working with Allistir Cockburn of Agile Manifesto fame.

I liked the whole subject area so much I went to a PMI hosted webinar to hear Janet talk. Still good. But what really fascinates me is doing this in a spatial environment – in 3d. My experience since 2009 has been that such venues enhance learning and retention. I was pleased to hear Bob and Janet are doing a class in VenueGen, one of the platforms used by my Agile Business Park. So not only can I get a better learning modality, but I don’t have to drive to Atlanta to take their course. Since they had a special discount I quickly registered to save $500 + more in travel costs. That is a good value for 12 hours over 6 sessions.

I look forward to learning their facilitation content, and also looking at another 3d training use case data point. I would love to see you in class with me. Sign up at or give Bob a call. You’ll find his contact info at their website.

See you in class!

For example – in meetings with fully able folks we sometimes have challenges with voice and sound. In the virtual ability community, is is common culture to transcribe. Some folks are deaf, so will never have hearing. The panel I’m listening to right now is transcribing in both directions. Some people speak, and others transcribe into text. Some type into the chat window, and someone reads it in the voice channel.

One of panelists made a good point about multiple channels available in these platforms. It is common to have students networking in global text chat, group chat, and individual chat. As a speaker she found she misses reading the audience questions and reactions in environments that do not support rich backchat channels.

Virtual Ability’s International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference was held virtually on Aug 3rd and 4th at the Sojourner Auditorium on Virtual Ability Island.

Schedule of events: virtualability.org/idrac2012

Descriptions of the individual sessions are found at blog.virtualability.org

Presentations include

• Chad Gobert from the National Service Inclusion Project and Melissa Rowan of the Job Accommodation Network will discuss how programs can document and evaluate their impacts in the community.
• Kimberly O’Haver, who oversees the Open Society Foundations’ work with youth with disabilities, will speak about international media coverage of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
• Nola Nash, Project Manager of The Learning Center, will describe the Atlantis Community, the second-oldest Independent Living Center in the US.
• Tom Boellstorff, Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, and author of Coming of Age in Second Life, will discuss how communities form in Second Life®.
• Philip Rosedale, founder and chairman of Linden Lab, creators of Second Life®, will chat with Alice Krueger, President of Virtual Ability, Inc. about how the virtual world infrastructure facilitates community development.
• Kathryn Irving will discuss the history of the Massachusetts School for Idiotic Children, which is the oldest publicly-funded institution serving children with developmental disabilities.
• Preethy Samuel, Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy at Wayne State University, will speak about community interactions of families with a child with a developmental disability.
• Caren Levine, a consultant in educational media and technology, will speak about welcoming new members into a community.
• Carla Broek, a Belgian expert on online media accessibility, will speak about European disability issues under the European Union.
• Cindy Tandy of Valdosta State University and Scott Anstadt of Florida Gulf Coast University will lead a panel discussion of varied approaches to facilitating communities within Second Life®.
• Treacle Darlandes, co-owner of the “White Tiger Mentors” groups in Second Life®, will talk about learning to think about who is around us and about community inclusion.
• Richard Gilbert, Professor of Psychology at Loyola Marymount University, will address the social-emotional effects of being in virtual communities on persons with disabilities.

We have many tools that share screens. Many handle voice, text, and even video communication. But what is missing is a spatial context. This also allows positive yet accidental communication. 3d environments have supplied platforms for these needs and more for 10 years. However, many are too complex to use.

2D yet ‘spatial’ tools (i.e., with visible rooms) such as Sococo seem to fill the gap. My video gives my perspective on what this looks like.

We have scheduled the sessions to make it easy for people to attend without missing work, no matter what part of the world they live in. Well, we did not cover India well this time, but I guess that’s a reason to hold another conference! But we did get Japan, Australia, North and South America, Europe all the way to Greece, Ukraine, South Africa.

Topics cover both tools and soft skills for distributed teams, agile or not. Be sure to come to our user group meetings so you get experience ahead of the conference.

See conference details.

Click on this image to see more on timezones.