Inspired by interactive environments like Second Life, virtual worlds in business pick up steam as companies like IBM embark on the journey toward virtual corporatism by starting with the meeting room. With IBM a leader in supercomputing hardware, it seems only natural that a company like IBM would involve itself in social software.From article:
IBM is building a virtual world to help its employees collaborate, and while it's not the first big technology company to do so, Big Blue may be unusual in that it decided not to mess with those silly laws of physics in its own virtual environment.
"Why do we need walls and ceilings to do a meeting?" asks Michael Ackerbauer of IBM, who is building the company's virtual world, called the Metaverse. "We’ve had meetings under water and up in the air. Meetings are where you want them to be."
Not only will virtual interaction replace video conferencing, the creation of a virtual co-operative plane will simulate the corporation itself. Participants in this virtual business environment will have instant access to a variety of ongoing tasks within the interworkings of various departments, increasing interaction and effectiveness amongst workers.
The ecological benefits of this collaborative technology are found in the ability to conserve physical resources that power automobiles, massive buildings and other physical maintenance that would otherwise disturb original habitats.
Once business activities are as costly as information transference, the need for business activity will become less than marginal or at least change the way we participate in everyday life and what we define as work.
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