PowerMatch

A fairly brief one this. Being of a certain age, I still extract untold merriment from the title of that old, not-so-classic movie: Danish Dentist on the Job. You can follow the link to unearth the full story of this complex tale of human emotions - but frankly I wouldn't bother. But sad to say, the title always pops into my head when the subjects of "Denmark" and "employment" crop up in the same context. Mercifully, this is a rare event - but it did happen yesterday, when I found the PowerMatch sim.

It was not a familiar name - and indeed even Google struggled to land the right links. But a bit of persistence brought me to the Power Match website. Even so, the information is a tad sparse, other than (I think) confirming what I already knew, namely: Power Match is a Danish virtual recruitment consultancy. It is owned/run by Heidi Ballinger, who describes herself in the Second Life wiki as working "fulltime with Second Life. The half of the time I work for a Danish University who do scientific work in Virtual Worlds, and the other half I use on my company 'Power-Match'." I missed their most recent jobs fair by a week or so, though my prospects as a non-Danish speaker probably weren't that great.

The sim has a smallish arrival area, near sea level. However, the main action takes place in a large sphere, high above you (well over 600metres). A teleport will whisk you there in a painless fashion. There you will find a number of recruitment booths, for companies as diverse as Saxo Bank, IBM and FLSmidth Cement. There's also a "VIP lounge" and, more usefully, a pod listing a large number of Danish sims in SL. Oh, and an auditorium.

I don't know how well the job fairs have fared, but the sim is still here, there are some prestigious companies involved, and they've been holding events for a number of months. So I'm guessing business could be a lot worse. Anyway, I only have a few photos - so to save the overhead of retrieving from Flickr, here they are:

Cementing Relationships in Denmark

In recent posts I have been toddling around a few Northern European commercial sims - and tonight is no exception. This time we are in Denmark, at the FLSmidth Cement sim, a company specialising in the provision of equipment, systems and services for the cement and minerals industries.

FLSmidth has been in existence for 125 years, and currently employs some 9,000 people (or is it 7,000? The website gives both figures). Perhaps to tie in with this anniversary - or perhaps to demonstrate their open and innovative mindset - they have employed Danish IT company, Intoint, to build this island in Second Life. Once again, I am rather late to the party, since this island was actually built in the Summer of 2007 - but better late than never, eh? Intoint describe this build thus:

FLSmidth wants to explore the possibilities in 3D virtual worlds - and Second Life is the obvious choice. The solution is placed on a dedicated Second Life island ("FLSmidth Cement"). On the island it is possible to see movies, pictures and explore an animated cement factory. Furthermore it is possible to get a ride in one of the ECO cars, sponsored by FLSmidth.

And this is indeed a decent summary. The main feature of the island is the animated cement factory, which seeks to demonstrate the key processes of such a beast to an ignoramus like me. I was impressed with the idea, and indeed much of the execution. However, it was not easy to make out where the actual raw materials were in the process. Lots of moving parts, but not much moving through it. The ECO car was fun to drive - which coming from me, is high praise indeed. I am dreadful when it comes to driving virtual cars - but this one seemed responsive, rather than skittish, and had the added benefit of easy-to-use gears. Aside from this there is a cargo ship and a (high altitude) meeting and presentation area, where an assortment of videos can be viewed.

If you feel so inclined, you can help yourself to a free T-shirt and hard hat. While I think the island is probably underutilised, and does not appear to be tied in with any wider marketing campaign, I still rather liked it. Oh... it will probably class as a ghost sim - but then, the population of Second Life is not likely to be falling over itself to visit a cement company. I hope, though, that the company is taking the opportunity to assess how virtual worlds may be useful to them in the future, building on (and taking lessons from) the work done here.

Koldinghus - And Some Scandinavian Minimalism

After posting the entry about free Swedish lessons I thought I'd check out the area around the Swedish Institute, and came across the Kolding Danmark sim. As it was open, it seemed churlish not to drop in for a look.

The Koldinghus is "the last of the ancient royal castles on the peninsula of Jutland... [it has] had many functions ranging from fortress, royal residency, ruin, museum and the location of numerous wartime negotiations." It is now a museum, but you can find out more of its history here. It is built overlooking the town of Kolding. It is not abundantly clear whether this sim is built on behalf of the town (as the name implies), the castle (as the build to date implies), or both (as I suspect may be the case).

It is clear that the build is still in its early stages. The bulk of the castle is in place, but is yet to be furnished. Hence my remark about "Scandinavian minimalism" in the title of this piece. Outside there are large pieces of construction that can best be described as "work in progress," comprising large swathes of default "plywood." The build is clearly some way from completion so it would be wrong of me to comment. But that doesn't normally stop me! I have one observation, concerning the textures used on the castle. Basically, at the moment they seem over-stretched, resulting in a blurry effect. As it is not claiming to be ready, I will assume that this is temporary, to show the general effect. However, I hope before they open that they make the time to improve this texture. Aside from that, there is nothing else to say about the build at this time. Here are a few snaps for you:


The last picture shows you some of the work in progress.

Fancy a Danish? Virtual Copenhagen

This post was originally posted at 3pointd - but reprinted here with extra pictures.

2007 has seen a trend (dare I say “meme”? No, perhaps not) for real world cities to be replicated in the virtual world of Second Life. This trend has been particularly prevalent in Northern/Central Europe - with Germany and The Netherlands vying for the most virtual cities. Today, while passing by the World Trade Center Memorial again, I espied an island called »CPH«, and finding it open, went to have a look. It seems that the trend has moved North a tad, as this is virtual Copenhagen. But is it “wunderbar, wunderbar?”



There are many reasons why a city might want to establish a presence in Second Life. The context for Copenhagen’s build can be found in the related website, where you will find an English-language PDF file:

How can Copenhagen evolve into an international top rank knowledge city? A city, seething with innovation and enterprise. A city that is a magnet for students and knowledge workers worldwide. These are the questions we have worked on in the Think Tank for Internationalisation and Business Development. The Think Tank was set up by the City of Copenhagen in May 2006, under the initiative of Lord Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard. The result is nine concrete proposals spanning from a new hotel concept for researchers and knowledge workers to transforming Copenhagen into one huge exhibition of groundbreaking technology.

1. Copenhagen Campus is designed to attract international students and make Copenhagen a World-class university town.

2. The Welcome Shop is an international citizens service centre, where guest researchers, knowledge workers and students find everything they need to establish themselves in Copenhagen. Anything, from information about Copenhagen and Danish legislation to help with finding a job, accommodation and childcare.

3. A Knowledge Hotel is an accommodation service for international guest researchers and knowledge workers. It provides a place to live and a social network that will make you want to return to the city or settle down permanently.

4. The Potential Exchange is a place where people with unexploited potential come closer to the labour market. This could be a taxi driver with an engineering degree or a corner shop owner who is actually a trained doctor.

5. Smart Stars is a talent program for primary school pupils. The program will help pupils with poor odds and provide the talented ones with new challenges. The youngsters will learn that smart stars shine brighter.

6. Copenhagen has the potential to attract many more international firms. The Carlsberg district is one of the areas that have the largest potential. It could become an international power centre, housing the regional headquarters of large firms from Denmark and abroad.

7. Copenhagen’s urban spaces should be transformed into opportunity spaces, where there is room for creativity, diversity and enterprise. The key is collaboration between residents, those who use the city, developers, students and artists.

8. Copenhagen Solutions transforms Copenhagen’s urban spaces into a showroom of the best Danish technology and social solutions. An international magnet where one can see and experience the future.

9. Copenhagen Venture is an ambitious entrepreneur collaboration between the universities and the commercial sector. It aims at making Copenhagen a city seething with enterprise and new ideas.

These 9 concrete proposals are re-played here for the benefit of visitors, with many links to relevant pages of the website. The centrepiece of the island is Rådhuspladsen, or City Hall Square, and it is here that visitors first arrive. Teleports enable you to get to the various parts of the island where 3D visualisations of the 9 proposals can be found. The majority of the buildings on the island appear to be faithful reproductions of those to be found in the real city, including the City Hall (shown above). I know this can lead to endless debate about the merits or otherwise of trying to model real world buildings in Second Life. Personally, if there is a point and it is well done, then that is fine.

Here's the selection of teleports and a couple of the visualisations:


The quality of the texturing and rendering of these buildings is very good - but for the most part they do lack a certain something: access. Aside from a school room (representing “Smart Stars”) I could not find any traditional buildings that I could actually enter. They seem to exist purely to provide a 3D backdrop for the presentation of the 9 proposals. I don’t see the aim as being to build any form of online community, although that may be planned for later. However, the use of Second Life both as a creative visualisation medium and as a promotional platform is well executed and interesting to see.

Of course, the real challenge is not is Second Life, but whether Copenhagen can achieve its objectives in the real world.