A collaborative working environment for small group meetings in Second Life.

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality
• Computer-Supported Cooperative Work

Background:

• Geographically dispersed teams require effective communication and collaboration tools.
• Existing virtual environments may lack specific features for synchronous group work.
• The Second Life platform offers a basis for developing advanced virtual meeting spaces.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present the SLMeetingRoom, a virtual reality environment for remote group meetings.
• To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of SLMeetingRoom compared to other meeting settings.
• To identify essential components for supporting group work activities in virtual environments.

Main Methods:

• Developed a prototype SLMeetingRoom using the Second Life platform with ten additional components.
• Conducted empirical studies comparing four meeting settings: face-to-face, videoconference, standard Second Life, and SLMeetingRoom.
• Involved graduate students in a virtual reality and multimedia discipline.

Main Results:

• SLMeetingRoom groups reported a sense of presence similar to face-to-face meetings with low cognitive effort.
• Task completion and participation levels were not significantly impacted by the meeting setup.
• The SLMeetingRoom demonstrated comparable effectiveness to traditional meeting formats.

Conclusions:

• Second Life, augmented with SLMeetingRoom components, is a viable tool for synchronous remote meetings.
• SLMeetingRoom effectively supports group work activities, including communication and coordination.
• This virtual reality environment complements existing electronic meeting technologies.