An innovative ICT Architecture supporting the Design and Automatic Generation of Collaborative Session for the Entrepreneurs of the Future

Purpose – Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) are computer-based 3D virtual worlds where users can meet and interact with each other in order to perform effectively collaborative work [1]. CVEs are increasingly used in many areas: eLearning [2], eEntertainment [3], eMarketing [4], cultural heritage [5], eMeeting [6], and entrepreneurship [7]. Currently, the development of the 3D environment often lead designers to define action/interaction rules on the basis of the environment facilities offered by it. Then it is needed a design approach, supported by a suited architecture, that let the designers focus the attention over the goals that the collaborative session is aiming. Design/methodology/approach – We propose an ICT X3D compliant architecture that allows the design and automatic generation of collaborative session for multiple virtual environments. We have been driven by the need to capture all the relevant abstractions embodied in CVEs for several domains, particularly the entrepreneurial domain. .Domain experts can design 3D collaborative experience without any CVE and technological skill because of the choice to use the Theater Metaphor [8] to abstract the CVE concepts. We introduced the concept of modeling primitives, used by different authoring profiles, which are involved in distinct phases of the design process: training designer, trainer/domain expert, CVE engineer. Originality/value – Comparing our contribution with the state of the art, we can affirm that new is the proposal of a system to generate collaborative sessions compliant with different virtual environments. The many advantages that we can demonstrate are: expressiveness to capture all of the collaborative features needed to support the creative processes of the entrepreneurs of the feature; semi-formality to facilitate the establishment of a common ground between designers of entrepreneurship platforms and CVEs engineers, and guidance to enable non-experts to cope with all the relevant aspects of a 3D virtual world. Practical implications – The growth of CVEs for entrepreneurship (but also for other domains) calls for new concrete tools that enable domain experts and engineers to model and keep under control the design complexity unleashed by technologically heterogeneous 3D virtual worlds. Two characteristics of our conceptual approach help designers during the modeling phases: abstraction (the metaphor) and separation of concerns (model views). By this ways, trainers and start up incubators in general are free to model the formative experience for the entrepreneurs of the future, designing its objectives and concentrating on the method, without the pain on facing with the technological details.