sounds like the start of a bad joke – what happens when you mix psychologists, a business school, and $1.7 million dollars?
well . . . when the standardised testing group behind the GMAT has an Ideas to Innovation Challenge program and has money to burn you might end up with a very expensive virtual world!
the Rady School of Management, part of University of California-San Diego has partnered with Rembisz & Associates, a consulting firm of psychologists and management experts, to build a virtual world that “could easily cross international boundaries”
and they’re spending $1.7 million US dollars on it! o_O
pardon my french - holy @!#&!!!
dang, is it just my cynical nature or does this sound like one expensive @$$ deployment of OpenSim?
i mean i know that the “international” aspect of it could be the big dollars (snap, Enclave Harbour and Kitely are international too, hmm . . )
hey! anyone want to buy a fresh and international version of sim-on-a-stick? get it today for half a million, what a deal! =p
This is outrageous, what will they do for that? Do these Rembish ppl have the knowledge or just an enormeous big mouth? Anyone else do a Rembish?
Nick Zwart - 3DLES
18 Apr 12 at 4:23 pm
well, it depends..I can see that amount if they are investing it in a grid project that will improve the software and technology for their particular use case.
ELQ
18 Apr 12 at 4:48 pm
I’ll do them one for a bit less than that, I might even undercut you, Ener.
soror Nishi
18 Apr 12 at 5:15 pm
Ener, send them a stick with SoaS on it accompanied by a bill for the cost of the stick. Include a note, “problem solved, try to use the savings wisely” :-D
Sarge Misfit
18 Apr 12 at 6:31 pm
Damn it, I just couldn’t help myself …. tweeted:
“@RadySchool Just read about the $1.7 Million GMAC Grant. Check out OpenSim, http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page and SoaS http://www.simonastick.com/“
Sarge Misfit
18 Apr 12 at 6:38 pm
Oh Gosh! Great story Ener! I got lots of giggles out of that one :) Maybe they need some “international” NPCs for their virtual world from some RVing mountain fella.
I can see NPCs “Choks San Yew” (from the Orient), and “Lady Shirley Ujest” from England among the ones I could offer. They should swing at least six or seven grand each.
Araxie Longoar
18 Apr 12 at 7:56 pm
Can we haz a Canadian one … Annie Poutine?
Sarge Misfit
18 Apr 12 at 11:26 pm
it’s big money and i am sure the proposal for the programme must have been very thorough
i would bet that one big expense is tracking the metrics of improvement. in other words, the GMAT people will want to see some measure of the outcome – how many people, any increased knowledge retention, blah, blah, blah
i highly doubt that anything will come of this that improves virtual worlds – these things are usually so siloed and short-term (like 2 to 3 years)
BUT . . . imagine what could be done with that kind of money if they tapped this OpenSim community (i mean you right now!)
most participants of this blog are hands-on people with massive talent. let’s say there are 50 of us and we were given one year to build something. all of you have complementary skills to each other and perspectives that if brought together would have really high synergy
take $10,000 a month to lease a high performance server (you can get some serious “balls to the wall” hardware for that! (lol, ain’t i crude! that’s from having lived in Texas) – that’s $120,000 for year one
the remaining money divide 50 ways would be $31,600 each!
and say you gave 10 hours per week to this project for a total of about 500 hours over the year
imagine what the result could be!
50 people at 50 hours a week = 25,000 man-hours/year
holy crap!
Ener Hax
19 Apr 12 at 10:27 am
lol, awesome tweet Sarge!!!
Ener Hax
19 Apr 12 at 10:28 am
Unfortunately, the KPI for disbursement of such funds is in the act of the disbursement itself.
Lets say the $1.7 million was part of $10 million available in some technology pool, and someone is standing at a press gallery lectern:
“We have committed $10 million this year to high tech Information Technology. We are committed to enhancing local business, jobs, the economy, and the purchase of those miniature flags so everyone can have one to wave.”
Breen Whitman
19 Apr 12 at 11:25 am
*waves i <3 breen flag* =)
Ener Hax
19 Apr 12 at 12:15 pm
[...] enter Ener -stage left- (the avatar’s blog that got me started in this). She posts a blog with numbers in it. Yes somewhere people are spending 1.7 million dollars on what in my head is akin to playing with a really nifty set of Legos. Then enter stage right [...]
Homer’s D’oh is an Epic Ramble | Are We Not Avatars?
20 Apr 12 at 3:26 pm