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| An avatar from Second Life. Courtesy of Linden Research Inc. |
If online worlds collide, some hope for big bang of sales
IBM, Microsoft explore ways to connect Second Life, There, and other virtual spaces.
from the December 7, 2007 edition
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Some companies say virtual-world technology could enhance telecommuting.
When Linda Ban and her colleagues at IBM began having meetings in 3-D conference rooms, they found that unlike a video or teleconference that ends when the meeting ends, in the virtual worlds participants lingered, just as they would in a real-world meeting room, to discuss ideas or just catch up.
"Qualitatively, not quantitatively, we have identified that issues or challenges that may have taken us weeks and months to address, in some cases we might be down to hours or days" in a virtual environment, says Ms. Ban, client and program strategy executive for IBM's virtual-worlds efforts.
Chris Badger holds most of his meetings in a virtual conference room. In some instances, people may one day prefer these environments to a physical meeting place as the technology improves, says Mr. Badger, vice president of marketing for Forterra Systems Inc., a San Mateo, Calif., company that specializes in building virtual environments,
"We can display these types of data sets in a 3-D environment, where literally, as an avatar, you could walk around the data," he says, "Information will pop out that today, in a 2-D world, you don't see, or you can't see it as effectively."
Although such applications are likely to multiply, many experts are skeptical that virtual worlds will be connected anytime soon.
"All of the virtual worlds that are really successful are not going to substantively get behind this because it's going to require big changes in their practices and big changes in their code base and changes in the way they operate," says Reuben Steiger, cofounder of Millions of Us, a Sausalito, Calif., firm that helps companies market themselves in virtual worlds. He doubts that virtual worlds would expend effort developing technology that would make it easy for users to leave. "It's going to represent a big investment and a big sacrifice for marginal to negative gains," he says.
Ultimately, consumers will dictate any change, says Christian Renaud, chief architect of networked virtual environments at Cisco Systems in San Jose, Calif. "The customers will say, 'Look we've been bearing the costs of maintaining multiple parallel systems that don't talk with one another, and we're not going to take it anymore. If you want us to buy any more of your stuff, you're going to have to figure out a way to interoperate.' "
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