Video: IBM Takes Lotus Sametime into 3D with OpenSim

IBM Research announced that it had integrated Lotus Sametime with OpenSim to create Sametime 3-D. The project has been rumored since early this year, and IBM is now also working to integrate Sametime with other virtual worlds, including Second Life and ActiveWorlds.

"When we spend time with customers and businesses and enterprises, they’ve told us that virtual worlds are really of interest to them for the purpose of collaborating, communicating, and interacting with content, discussions, and services," said Boas Betzler, 3D Internet & Virtual World Technical Lead, IBM Research. "So what we focused on is integration with some of the capabilities for communication and collaboration that enterprises use today with this 3D virtual world and immersive environment."

The goal is to reduce the barrier to entry to virtual worlds while also making them more relevant to business needs, both working with existing technologies and practices while offering alternatives as well.

"Just imagine for a while that two employees are talking about a product or a machine or topic and they talk through text chat [on Sametime] and say, 'there’s this product or technology and I have a couple of questions and can you help me out,'" explains Betzler. "And then one of them says, 'Wouldn’t it be easier if we looked at the product in a 3D environment and I could point out a couple of things?'”

That sort of use case seems to drive the integration. When users click a link through text chat, Lotus dynamically creates a new 3D space where the users can upload content for discussion. The space is automatically integrated with existing databases to check employee credentials, which allows them to enter with no new logins. And, even if they can't enter the 3D space, text discussions from the 2D or 3D world are displayed in both. The rooms and discussions are then saved along with the text chat, and IBM is working to add even more archiving, like video recording, for example, to make the spaces a source of record for employees.

"We made it very easy to log in there: no new account, no building the environment, just selecting one and using it, but also lowering the barrier of entry for those participants who are hesitating or are not sure they are interested in using this virtual world," said Betzler. "If they're not, they can still participate in limited ways through this text chat. Though obviously they would then see the need to participate."

Along with OpenSim and the other worlds, IBM has been working with Forterra on Babel Bridge, a Unified Communications and Collaborations platform for the intelligence community. The integration works by providing a set of APIs and touch points with Samtime along with middleware to integrate with the virtual world.

"These different engines do provide different functions and capabilities," said Betzler. "We get different requirements from customers. Some say they really want a very immersive environment. Some of the government agencies like the robustness and standard compliance that Forterra provides, and some others have invested in the skills to build content for Second Life or OpenSim. We see this as an opportunity to provide a virtual environment with the additional benefit of business collaboration and the integration with processes and features that a business already has established. That highlights the point of how we make this relevant to the customer. They want a virtual environment that’s relevant to their business or interactions and to bring that content into these 3D environments."

IBM already has several interested customers--Betzler says the current product is the result of two years of internal and external input--especially within the existing Sametime user base. There's an increasing interest in enterprise virtual worlds, which shows a demand for this sort of integration, but also an increasing interest in fulfilling that demand. Just last month, for example, Nortel announced that it would launch its virtual world, web.alive, as a product for enterprise collaboration.

Betzler says integrating with Sametime offers the advantage of already having a large install base as well as its built-in tools for recording, translating text, accessing databases and more. Regardless of Sametime, though, he thinks the new 3D tool offers its own benefits. IBM is already using the system, among other virtual environments, for training, collaboration, and team building, as well as demoing it as a product design tool. With integration into content depositories and still-developing analysis tools to record and monitor interactions, Betzler says clients are seeing a range of possibilities.

What keeps those open is the customization available from different environments. IBM isn't ready to discuss how Sametime 3-D may look as a product--Betzler says the company still needs more feedback--but it sounds like it'll have more than one face.

"We’re just reacting to different customers," he explained. "Some tell us they have high-end communications and it’s important to have a flexible environment and others that don’t have as strong of a connection and need something that’s less heavy on the network and less requirements on the client. Of course you buy that with some costs to the capabilities of the physics simulation or the flexibility of dynamic content you create. That very much depends on what the customers need. We’re very open and flexible and think there’s not going to be a single solution."