Design of a multiuser virtual trade fair using a game engine

The current world economic situation makes it necessary to develop new ways of establishing commercial relationships. One possible solution is to explore the advantages of virtual worlds, and for this reason online virtual trade fairs are becoming more popular in the business world. They enable companies to establish a trade relationship with their customers without the need to visit them in person. This is very attractive for exhibitors because it can save them money, which is a priority for many companies today. In this line, this article presents a multiuser virtual trade fair developed using 3D game engine technologys. Users represented by avatars can interact with each other while they are visiting the virtual fair, which has some interactive objects included in the stands to provide information about the exhibitors. This virtual world is accessible online, and visitors only require a plug-in on their computers to be able to enter the virtual world. The game technology makes it possible to obtain a high degree of realism: very real lighting, cast shadows, collision detection, etc. Moreover, the virtual world presented builds the 3D objects automatically. Participants in the trade fair can customize their virtual stand and the application will generate the code necessary for its inclusion in the rendered virtual world.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology project TIN2010-21089-C03-03. And also by Bancaja, project P1 1B2007-5

Critical success factors for embedding carbon management in organizations: lessons from the UK higher education sector

Organizations are under increasing pressure from governments and stakeholders to reduce carbon emissions from their business operations for climate change mitigation. Universities are not exempt from this challenge and are operating in a complex external environment, not least responding to the UK government's Climate Change Act 2008 (80% carbon reductions by 2050 as per 1990 baseline). In 2012–2013, the UK Higher Education (HE) sector consumed 7.9 billion kWh of energy and produced 2.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions. This indicates the scale of the challenge and carbon management is central to reduce carbon emissions. However, effective processes for implementing and embedding carbon management in organizations in general, and universities in particular, have yet to be realized. This paper explores the critical success factors (CSFs) for embedding carbon management in universities and, more widely, in organizations. This exploratory study adopted a mixed-methods approach including the content analysis of universities' carbon management plans alongside semi-structured interviews in the UK HE sector. The paper identifies six key factors for successfully embedding carbon management that are pertinent not just for the HE sector, but to organizations broadly: senior management leadership; funding and resources; stakeholder engagement; planning; governance and management; and evaluation and reporting