For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

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January 7, 2008 Getting Real Work Done In Virtual Worlds by Erica Driver, Paul Jackson with Connie Moore, Claire Schooley, Jamie Barnett	Average: 9  (4 ratings)

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Executive Summary

Virtual worlds like Second Life, There.com, and more business-focused offerings are on the brink of becoming valuable work tools. Major companies and public-sector organizations — such as BP, IBM, Intel, and the US Army — are investing heavily in virtual world technologies. But it's still early, pioneering days. You've practically got to be a gamer to use most of these tools — setup can be arduous, navigating in a 3-D environment takes practice, and processing and bandwidth requirements remain high. But within five years, the 3-D Internet will be as important for work as the Web is today. Information and knowledge management professionals should begin to investigate and experiment with virtual worlds. Use them to try to replicate the experience of working physically alongside others; allow people to work with and share digital 3-D models of physical or theoretical objects; and make remote training and counseling more realistic by incorporating nonverbal communication into same-time, different-place interactions.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Much Of Today's Technology Leaves Communication Problems Unsolved
• Now Entering: Virtual Worlds As A Real Business Tool
• Lots Of Fantastic Efforts Are Going On "In World"
• What's Holding The Business Use Of Virtual Worlds Back?

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Experiment With, Explore, And Trial Virtual Worlds
• Supplemental Material
• Related Research Documents

This is an excerpt