Virtual Worlds, Real Collaboration

Robin Harper, Consultant and Linden Lab veteran
Robert Ketner, The Tech Museum of Innovation

Online virtual worlds have enabled countless users to meet, train, learn, play, socialize, create and collaborate on complex tasks without regard to geography. The level of interaction provided by virtual worlds is proven to be deeper, and with more impact, than other online experiences. Some would say they have become indispensable elements to their core businesses.

Recently, the benefits and promise of multi-user, real-time environments have become better documented, and scores of variations on the basic product theme serve the diverse needs of users in all sectors. Still, many virtual world proponents say that the full impact of virtual worlds’ possibilities is yet to be seen on a vast scale. They maintain that the potential of virtual worlds extends far beyond what we experience today, and that the model is transforming not only online interactions, but the economy and our notions of community as well.

Tonight, two of virtual worlds’ strongest advocates will engage a discussion on the latest trends and successes in the medium. Bring your own input and experiences about how the real is becoming virtual, and the virtual is becoming real on many levels. Learn about the state of the art, and get an advance view of the state of the future as well, in this interactive session.

Bob Ketner is Virtual Community Manager for The Tech Virtual, a 2 year old project by The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose which is using virtual worlds to design, test, and prototype museum exhibits. Bob’s background encompasses product design, ecommerce, social media, and loyalty programs. In 2006 he founded the SDForum Virtual World SIG, and is the author (via an avatar) of the Metaverse Manifesto.

Robin Harper is partner and consultant at First 30 Services, a firm specializing in beginnings — creating new businesses and driving transitions in existing businesses. Previously Robin was VP of Marketing and Community Development at Linden Lab, where she led the emergence of the Second Life brand and supported this life-changing technology. Earlier, Robin was the VP of Marketing at Maxis, a division of Electronic Arts where she established SimCity as one of the most recognized brand names in entertainment software. She was named one of the Marketing 100 by Advertising Age/Newsweek .

Innovation Alignment: Integrating Diverse Resources

Howard Lieberman, CEO, Silicon Valley Innovation Institute

While disruption and divergence are key drivers of innovation, agreement and convergence are often necessary to bring value to the table. Complex innovation challenges require collaboration across diverse and even competing organizations. In these cases, alignment, in service to alliance, is key. When resources are limited, timely alignment plays an even more urgent role.

Howard Lieberman, founder and CEO of the Silicon Valley Innovation Institute will lead us in an exploration of the key elements involved in aligning and integrating across the mindsets, personalities, vocabularies, and goals of diverse resources. Howard will draw upon current innovation challenges he is deeply involved with and helping to address.

Perspectives from a Serial Intrapreneur

Chuck House
Executive Director, Stanford MediaX

Join us as Chuck House reflects on intrapreneurship at HP, Intel, and a range of innovative Silicon Valley companies, over a career which spans three decades and beyond.

HP Phenomenon is the working title for a new book by Chuck and his co-author, Ray Price. Having spent 29 years at Hewlett-Packard, playing a wide variety of roles in a number of divisions, Chuck understands the HP phenomenon, as well as the Silicon Valley phenomenon, better than most.

Chuck House is Executive Director of MediaX, Stanford University’s Industry Affiliate research program on media and technology. As a senior research scholar, Chuck is continuing his work in technology-enabled communications, collaboration, and community.

Chuck has provided leadership roles at Silicon Valley companies ranging from HP to Intel (Virtual Collaboratory), Dialogic (acquired by Intel in 1999), Spectron Microsystems (sold to Texas Instruments), Veritas Software (during IPO period), and Informix Software (during the very successful turnaround years of 1991-1993).
Stints as an IEEE Fellow and a President of ACM, round out a rich and on-going career.

Social Software for Innovation and Collaboration

featuring Dreamfish and BrightIdea

Join us for an up-close look at two social software platforms designed to increase the success of your organization’s innovation and collaboration initiatives.

Dreamfish is a a new social networking platform, optimized specifically for effective organizational and personal collaboration. Loni Davis, Dreamfish’ Director of Client Success Services, will show us how Dreamfish goes beyond photo sharing and online conversation to support the further essentials of true collaboration.

BrightIdea is an innovation pipeline management platform, optimized to manage the generation, evaluation, and prototyping of your organization’s best ideas. BrightIdea’s Michelle Fairbanks will describe the BrightIdea platform and show us what’s possible beyond the initial “WebStorm”.