New Virtual Grove Learning Center

Is it possible to experience panoramic visualization without actually participating in a meeting that is graphically facilitated? We’re coming close in The Grove’s new Learning Center in Second Life. For about a year we’ve have been experimenting with how much of The Grove’s work we can portray in this interesting virtual world. We own an island there, called “The Grove.” Just click this SLURL and it will direct you. If you get lost search for “The Grove” under “Places.” Maps on the pier where you land at The Grove have clickable teleports, including up to the Learning Center, shown here.

The Grove Learning Center in Second Life

The Grove Island and Learning Center ( a platform 300 virtual meters in the sky) was created so that our affiliates and associates can show clients what we do. We’ve also been using the site with a computer projector as a substitute for PowerPoint. It’s much more flexible, and very much like visiting a real place. The gallery format, for instance, directly communicates what it would feel like to be in a planning event using Graphic Guides. Here’s a picture of the set-up that illustrates our Strategic Visioning process.

Visual Planning System Gallery

Inside the Learning Center on the second floor (you teleport up using the teleport platforms, which have labels to guide you), there are examples of some of our most impressive graphics. The show features The RE-AMP project, Harvard Business Review of Management Practices, Presidio Conversion Roadmap, and a hi tech top management meeting done entirely with murals.

Grove Gallery Panorama

If you have some time and want to really explore, down on the main island (shown in the following map), we have replicated The Grove’s Future Center in the Presidio (calling it the Global Network Center in this world). We found a Queen Anne Victorian and modified it with porches, just like in real life. The Garden Room, Fireplace Room, and other features of our Presidio center are all mimicked, along with examples of the work that hangs in our real walls.

The Grove Island in SL

Virtual worlds are still at the bleeding edge of groupware, but evolving rapidly. This exploration has taught us a lot about what is possible, and has left a wonderful artifact that you can explore if you have the patience to learn how to maneuver a little avatar. (You can get an avatar and download free software at www.secondlife.com . A basic membership that allows you to visit and build in public sandboxes is a one-time cost of $9.95. A monthly charge as low as $6.00 a month allows you to own virtual land and build). For more about Second Life you can download my 40 page SL Retrospective from my personal blog.