Erica Driver is Co-Founder and Principal of ThinkBalm. She is a leading industry analyst and consultant with 15 years of experience in the IT sector. Prior to co-founding ThinkBalm, Erica was a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. Erica will be presenting at the July Providence Geeks Dinner. Her presentation will include a live tour of the ThinkBalm Data Garden in Second Life. Details here and RSVP at Facebook.

In June of 2008, I left my job as an IT industry analyst at Forrester Research to join the free agent nation. My husband Sam Driver and I founded ThinkBalm – a tiny next-generation analyst firm focused on work-related use of the Immersive Internet (virtual worlds and campuses, immersive learning environments, and 3D business applications). We offer independent IT industry analysis and strategy consulting services. 

Lots of people thought I was crazy to go off on my own, especially focused on such an early stage market. But we just celebrated our first anniversary in business and there’s no turning back now! Being a free agent focused on an emerging technology market has given me permission to experiment and innovate in all sorts of ways.

• We’re breaking the mold in how we perform our industry analysis. Rather than study a technology market from afar, every day we use the emerging technologies we cover. We hold nearly all our meetings in immersive environments. We use immersive environments to hold training sessions, brainstorming, and role-playing sessions. We have learned how to build out and administer various immersive environments, and know first-hand about the issues involved.
• Rather than gather information from occasional conversations and interactions with practitioners, we founded and operate the ThinkBalm Innovation Community. This community, which currently has about 280 members, has a mission of advancing adoption of immersive technology in the workplace. The community has evolved into a mix between a social network, a collaborative laboratory, and a guild. Members of the community are Immersive Internet advocates, implementers, explorers, and technology marketers.

One of our recent experiments is the ThinkBalm Data Garden on ThinkBalm Island in the virtual world of Second Life. The ThinkBalm Data Garden is a data visualization experience built around the ThinkBalm Immersive Internet Business Value Study, Q2 2009, which we published on May 26, 2009. Creation of the data displays was a collaborative effort between me and Sam and several members of the ThinkBalm Innovation Community, including Jeff Lowe and Jonas Karlsson. This display is open to the public — feel free to come by and visit. You can also watch a 9-minute video tour on YouTube.

I hope to see you at the Providence Geek Dinner on July 15th!

Click here to read Erica's interview with PBN.