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Press release: PPD and ProtonMedia Recognized for Advancing Clinical Research Associate Training Brandon Hall Gold Award honors innovation in employee learning and development WILMINGTON, N.C. & LANSDALE, Pa.–Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC (PPD) and ProtonMedia today announced that PPD® 3D earned the Gold Award for Best Use of Virtual Worlds forRead More →

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Press release: ProtonMedia Announces Release 2.2 of ProtoSphere 3D Virtual Collaboration Cloud ProtonMedia to Showcase ProtoSphere 2.2 at Microsoft Lync Conference 2013® LANSDALE, Pa.–ProtonMedia, the leader in 3D virtual collaboration, announces the availability of Release 2.2, of its award-winning ProtoSphere virtual collaboration cloud. This latest release adds fine-grained moderator controlsRead More →

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Press release: Asia Training Consortium Launches Collaborative Cloud Solution Microsoft and ProtonMedia to Help Speed Industry Drug Development and Time to Market LANSDALE, PA. – The Asia Training Consortium (ATC), a Merck-sponsored group of pharmaceutical companies and clinical research organizations that was formed in Shanghai in 2011, has added ProtonMedia andRead More →

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Press Release: PPD Named to InformationWeek 500 List of Top Business Technology Innovators Unique virtual learning platform helps earn third consecutive annual ranking WILMINGTON, N.C.  – Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC (PPD) today announced it has been named to the 2012 InformationWeek 500, an annual recognition of the most innovative usersRead More →

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Press release: ProtonMedia Unveils ProtoSphere 2.1 Featuring Unprecedented Microsoft Outlook Integration PHILADELPHIA, PA –ProtonMedia, the developer of ProtoSphere®, the market-leading virtual collaboration environment for the enterprise, announced today the release of ProtoSphere® 2.1. Featuring a wide range of new tools and capabilities designed specifically for the enterprise, ProtoSphere® 2.1 is aRead More →

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Press Release: ProtonMedia Introduces ProtoSphere 2.0: the Immersive, Social, Learning & Collaboration Software for the Enterprise Market-leading collaboration environment for the cloud deeply integrates with Microsoft technologies LANSDALE, Pa.—ProtonMedia has introduced ProtoSphere 2.0, the company’s immersive business collaboration environment for the enterprise. ProtoSphere 2.0 is an innovative approach in immersive,Read More →

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Press Release: New ProtoSphere v.1.5.4 Now Supports Video and Flash Content Five new features extend ProtoSphere’s lead as the virtual collaboration environment for learning and training LANSDALE, Pa.—ProtonMedia today released ProtoSphere Standard Edition v.1.5.4 with new video and Flash content support. Now large enterprises can train in ProtoSphere using videos,Read More →

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Press Release: ProtoSphere Lync Edition to support Office 365 and associated online functionality LANSDALE, Pa.–ProtonMedia, a Silver Unified Communications Microsoft partner, today announced its ProtoSphere Lync Edition application will support Microsoft Office 365. This will provide users the benefits of Microsoft’s Lync high-quality VoIP and Office 365 platform through ProtoSphere’s engaging virtual collaborationRead More →

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Press Release: PPD and ProtonMedia Win 2011 Microsoft Life Sciences Innovation Award Microsoft recognizes ProtonMedia for the second consecutive year for its innovation in life sciences with its ProtoSphere virtual collaboration technology LANSDALE, Pa. – Microsoft Corp. has named PPD, Inc. and ProtonMedia winners of a Microsoft 2011 Life Sciences Innovation Award, recognizing their innovative useRead More →

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Press release: ProtonMedia’s ProtoSphere Now Integrated with Kaplan EduNeering’s ComplianceWire LANSDALE, Pa.—ProtonMedia and Kaplan EduNeering have integrated their technologies to create a new way for life sciences organizations to meet regulatory and compliance regulations. The companies have combined ProtonMedia’s ProtoSphere virtual immersive environment with Kaplan EduNeering’s ComplianceWire learning management system. With this integration, companiesRead More →

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Last week, ProtonMedia made a formal announcement about a project I first reported on in September  of this year that ProtoSphere, the 3D enterprise collaboration and learning tool, is  now fully integrated with Microsoft’s  Lync Server 2010. The Lync server is a software product that unifies enterprise voice, instant messagingRead More →

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Press Release: ProtonMedia’s ProtoSphere Works with Microsoft Lync Server 2010 ProtoSphere now provides an immersive collaboration layer for Microsoft Corp.’s latest enterprise class unified communications platform LANSDALE, Pa.–Have you heard? Word on the street is that ProtonMedia’s ProtoSphere Lync Edition 2010 now has the best-sounding and most scalable Voice overRead More →

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Press Release: ProtonMedia Releases ProtoSphere 1.5: First Portable 3-D World for Business Collaboration Now Companies Can Stop Meeting and Start Working with World’s First Portable App for 3-D Virtual Collaboration LANSDALE, Pa.–Today ProtonMedia released ProtoSphere 1.5, a major update of the company’s market-leading virtual collaboration environment for the high-performance workplace.Read More →

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Press Release: Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Support to be Introduced in ProtonMedia’s ProtoSphere LANSDALE, Pa. — ProtonMedia today announced that its ProtoSphere virtual immersive environment for the high-performance workplace will support the new Microsoft Lync Server 2010 (formerly known as Microsoft Office Communication Server). By incorporating ProtoSphere into their MicrosoftRead More →

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Press Release: New release extends ProtoSphere’s lead as the enterprise-ready 3-D virtual world for collaboration, meetings, and learning LANSDALE, Pa.–Today ProtonMedia released ProtoSphere v.1.4, a milestone update of the company’s market-leading 3-D virtual world for business. The new release boasts the seven major features most requested by global life sciencesRead More →

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AvayaLive Engage, one of the three major enterprise-focused virtual environment platforms, is shutting down the company announced. Avaya is no longer accepting new customers, and service for existing customers will end when their current contracts expire. The platform is shutting down because the browser are no longer supporting the requiredRead More →

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I’ve gotten a little wary of trying new virtual reality applications because some of the best ones, graphically, do the nastiest job on my stomach. There was that one swimming-with-sharks simulations that made me seasick, that I still remember well. AltspaceVR has figured out how to put people in aRead More →

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There’s a number of things to be said about the publicity Linden Lab recently attracted for moving developers towards a next-generation version of Second Life. It’s bad for OpenSim. OpenSim still draws the majority of its users from Second Life due to the fact that it uses the same interface.Read More →

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The folks behind the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset announced an app store yesterday, called Oculus Share. The site is intended for developers at first, but the company plans to grow it into a full-scale gaming marketplace. Oculus Share is already up and running. “With Share, you can host Oculus-readyRead More →

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Press release: ProtonMedia Announces Mobile Strategy for ProtoSphere 3D Virtual Collaboration Cloud LANSDALE, Pa.–ProtonMedia continues to lead the industry by announcing the first enterprise-ready 3D virtual collaboration environment optimized for iPad. ProtoSphere by ProtonMedia brings the ultimate business collaboration solution to the simplicity and mobility of iPad in Release 3.0 of its award-winning collaborativeRead More →

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I love participating in online conversations, so here’s my take on the “Why do I blog?” meme which recently showed up on New World Notes and Journey To The Center of the Metaverse and Daniel Voyager’s Blog after a challenge by Strawberry Singh. How long have you been blogging? I launched HypergridRead More →

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Looking for an immersive platform for your company, non-profit, educational institution, or government agency? Start with the following list of vendors, all of which have a successful history of serving enterprise customers. Browser-based platforms Running a virtual world in a browser does impose some limitations on the environment. But, onRead More →

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A new paper published this month in the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research listed a few reasons why business users are hesitant to embrace virtual environments: The main reasons were: Technical difficulties: “Due to frustrating first-hand experiences, professionals predicted that high technical requirements, slow system performance, and the inability toRead More →

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In general, Hypergrid Business uses the Associated Press Stylebook for news and feature stories. More stylistic leeway is allowed for first-person columns and editorials. Types of stories We accept submissions in the form of briefs, news stories, feature articles, how-tos, opinion essays, and listsicles. Please send story ideas to editor@hypergridbusiness.com andRead More →

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This week, ReactionGrid has all but abandoned OpenSim in favor of its proprietary, Unity-based Jibe virtual world platform. And Linden Lab has also distanced itself from OpenSim, removing support for the “-loginURI” feature which allowed people to access OpenSim grids with the official Second Life viewer. Both of these decisionsRead More →

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I just checked out the beta test of the 3Di Cloud, a browser-based social world platform. And though the two share some surface similarities, 3Di Cloud is no Cloud Party. In fact, as of right now, 3Di Cloud barely looks like a product. Japan’s 3Di, Inc., best known for their browser-based OpenSimRead More →

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“Inspire the Future” was the 2012 theme of The Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds conference that convened this past week in Washington, D.C. at the National Defense University’s iCollege, and it drew about about 300 physical world and an estimated 3,000 virtual world attendees. Several virtual worlds were demonstrated at the conference,Read More →

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Companies interested in the cost-savings and productivity benefits of immersive virtual environments but put off by the cartoony avatars may soon have another option, according to LA-based Integrated Virtual Networks. IVN’s patented “Silhouette” technology uses standard cameras to capture the user’s image, isolates it from the background, and converts it intoRead More →

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There are many reasons why I believe that virtual worlds are not dead, dying or disappearing. In fact, I believe that they are gaining momentum and are becoming more and more impactful as the technology gets better and more real world business cases are indicating the value of these environments,Read More →

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First of all, an apology. In May, we wrote that Redwood City, California-based virtual worlds company Teleplace, Inc. open sourced its platform in order to grow its market — and that the company would continue to offer paid hosting and support, and continue working on new features. At least, thatRead More →

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Press Release: Discover the Innovation Behind Some of the Industry’s First Virtual Clinical Trials ProtonMedia and Microsoft to host workshop at Microsoft’s Technology Center featuring industry leaders discussing the impact of virtual clinical trials LANSDALE, Pa.–ProtonMedia and Microsoft will be hosting an interactive workshop focused on innovation in clinical trials.Read More →

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I’m regularly asked why I give more coverage to one company or another, or why I’m biased against particular grids or platforms. And, it’s true. I do have a bias. You see, in my day job — I’m not actually running Hypergrid Business for the money — in my dayRead More →

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Because of its community and stability, Second Life is still the destination of choice for companies looking for a virtual world platform, said experts participating in a Second Life Community Conference panel about choosing the right virtual world. “Communities are amazing in Second Life,” said Chris Collins, CEO of Tipodean Technologies.Read More →

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We all remember the Microsoft-Netscape battle. Okay, maybe some people don’t, so here’s the summary: Netscape was a company that made a free Internet browser and and a not-free commercial Web server. (The latter has since been bought by Sun, and open sourced.) Microsoft built their own version of aRead More →

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Earlier this week, Teleplace announced that it was releasing the current version of proprietary virtual world software to the open source community as OpenQwaq. The next generation of its software won’t be commercially available for three to six months. The Teleplace software normally runs for $50 per user per monthRead More →

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One thing that might keep Teleplace customers from scampering away to its newly open-sourced, free OpenQwaq alternative is the promise of Teleplace Connect — a new version of the Teleplace software with better Sharepoint integration, better in-world application sharing, and a fully-featured Web-based viewer. The new goodies will be availableRead More →

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Press release: ProtonMedia and Sify Sign Technology and Services Agreement Partnership to deliver next-gen virtual learning and training solutions to global life sciences companies LANSDALE, Pa.-ProtonMedia and Sify Software Limited today announced a new technology and services agreement that will bring collaborative learning and training solutions to global life sciencesRead More →

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Today, we are seeing an explosion in virtual world platforms. We’ve got various — and incompatible — open source projects, including OpenSim, Open Wonderland, Open Cobalt, Sirikata, and Vastpark. We’ve got stand-alone proprietary software that runs behind corporate firewalls, and requires dedicated viewer software, including ProtoSphere, Teleplace, and SAIC’s Olive.Read More →

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Press Release: ProtonMedia and PPD to Introduce New Virtual Clinical Trial Training Solution LANSDALE, Pa., and WILMINGTON, N.C.—ProtonMedia and PPD, Inc. today announced they have entered into an agreement to jointly develop a new virtual clinical trial training solution that will improve the cost effectiveness, speed and quality of clinicalRead More →

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Press release: Microsoft Certifies ProtonMedia with Silver Unified Communications Competency LANSDALE, Pa.–ProtonMedia has achieved Microsoft’s Silver Unified Communications competency, making it the first and only virtual immersive environment software provider to achieve this certification from Microsoft. This certification affirms ProtonMedia has met Microsoft’s silver competency credentials and customer evidence requirements.Read More →

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Chris Lineberry is the principal of the Florence Virtual Academy in Florence, Arizona, about 60 miles southeast of Phoenix, serving students in grades six through 12 who live in the district – or anywhere else in the state. The school currently has 23 students, and enrollment is expected to riseRead More →

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There are three main ways today to have a 3D virtual business meeting using your browser – VenueGen, Altadyn’s 3DXplorer, and Avaya’s  Web.alive. Of the three, VenueGen stands out by actively marketing its platform with ubiquitous Internet advertising. But the company wants to be known for its ease of useRead More →

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Colleges and medical institutions have been trying out immersive virtual environments for training and teaching for years, but one new service, CliniSpace, is trying to take ease-of-use a big step forward — into the browser. Los Altos Hills, CA-based Innovation in Learning, Inc. launched CliniSpace in September of 2010, andRead More →

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Companies looking to hold virtual conferences first have to decide whether to hold a Web-based conference – normally some combination of streaming video, live chats, slide shows, and social media – or one in an immersive environment. The immersive conference allows avatars to walk around inside a three-dimensional virtual environment,Read More →

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Virtual environments are changing rapidly, and it’s sometimes hard to keep up with everything that’s going on. Here is a quick round up of the best options for the most common uses of virtual worlds for various types of enterprise needs. If you’re looking for a high-end, Fortune 500-caliber virtualRead More →