WIKTI

I found tonight's diversion while exploring the Southern Marches of Second Life, where you will find an archipelago of French islands. It is the sim belonging to the WIKTI Project - short for the Water International Knowledge Transfer Initiative. The sim and its associated web page seem to be at an odd point in their development. At first sight, they look complete - but on closer inspection both seem to be a little way off being ready.

So what is this WIKTI thing then? Well it appears to be a project or initiative of SUEZ, whose website informs me: "SUEZ, an international industrial and services Group, designs sustainable and innovative solutions for the management of public utilities as a partner of public authorities, businesses and individuals. The Group aims to answer essential needs in electricity, natural gas, energy services, water and waste management."

In the Commercial section of the website, we are told: "WIKTI, the Water International Knowledge Transfer Initiative, was developed by SUEZ Environment to standardise and implement knowledge transfer. This method, which is ISO 9001 certified, relies on the establishment of a matrix-based organisation: vertical operational tasks are cross-referenced against horizontal functional tasks, defined according to the WIKTI maps for the 36 task processes. For each process, a Business Area Expert is given the task of identifying the level of expertise and instigating the transfer with the help of a ‘business kit’ consisting of appropriate learning tools."

As part of the KT process they are building the WIKTI University sim in Second Life. This has a fairly basic structure, resembling a quincunx. The corners are occupied by the Orientation, Learning, Conference and Information Centres. The centre of the island is labelled "Discover Wikti" and has a large number of graphics panels, depicting various aspects of water management. I assume these will eventually hook into pages on a web site, but at the moment they are mute. The build appears to be the work of French virtual world construction company Stonfield Inworld (go here for the more complete French site), who have already done work for Credit Agricole. Completion cannot be far off for this sim and its associated website - but I don't think it's quite there yet.

Here's a few snaps for you - they should give you the idea:



It's not an Earth-shattering build, but that should not prevent it from doing what it is setting out to achieve - namely vLearning; providing an always-on resource centre, teaching facility and meeting space.