Are you ready for virtual business? [BT broadband office]

Are you ready for virtual business?

Posted 15 January 2008 at 12:49PM by Ian Betteridge in Doing business online

Will virtual worlds revolutionise business in the same way that the web has? If industry analyst Forrester is to be believed, the answer is "yes".

According to its report "Getting Real Work Done in Virtual Worlds", 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."

For anyone who's spent any time in Second Life, as I have (you'll find me as avatar "Ian Betteridge" - say hello if you see me online), the notion that virtual worlds are on the cusp of revolutionising business might seem a little strange. Sure, there is plenty of business presence there, but most of the more prominent businesses seem to be technology or communications companies learning about the new medium, rather than businesses set on making money.

However, this is almost exactly the same scenario as the early days of the web, when corporates scrabbled to create a "web presence" in the same way that many are now building one in Second Life. In the early 1990's, few companies actually did business online. Now, very few don't.

So while it might be early days for business in virtual worlds, if you're interested in seeing what might turn out to be the next wave of online communications, it's worth taking a look. You never know - you might turn out to be one of the pioneers.

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Tags: bt, bt broadbandoffice, second life, virtual business, virtual reality

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Comments

1. At January 15, 2008 1:27 PM, Isaac Yankem wrote:

I can't see a presence in Second Life being of that mush use to most companies, except maybe for computer game manufacturers and Dungeons and Dragons fanclubs.

2. At January 15, 2008 2:43 PM, Nicola McBlane wrote:

That's a rather weird view of Second Life Isaac - firstly it's not that popular with geeks - and secondly it's just a rather limited view. The US gov has been looking at bringing in laws for the sale of it pretend 'real estate' - because of the existance of an effective exchange rate between it's currency and real money. Seems pretty silly to me - but there are apparently valid needs for this stuff for legal reasons.

Various businesses and even government figures like some US politicians flocked to set up virtual offices on Second Life initially - but recently a lot have been moving away - since unlike the internet there was really the same gains made after the initial testing period.

This is very old news really.

3. At January 15, 2008 6:04 PM, Isaac Yankem wrote:

I dunno. Still seems to me like it's just a computer game that people take far too seriously, and the fact that the Americans are creating laws about it doesn't change that opinion. Let's remember here, this is the legal system that allows people to sue McDonalds for serving them hot coffee and created The Patriot Act.

4. At January 15, 2008 7:06 PM, Dark Djinn wrote:

Did someone mention a virtual world?

Well....I want to live in a virtual world, where I have a virtual 18 room mansion, managed efficiently by virtual machines, with the best virtual creature comforts, making oodles of virtual money, in a virtual society regulated by virtual law but that's virtually not possible so I'll stop day-dreaming now and get back to work to make reality work for me.

5. At January 16, 2008 10:10 AM, Nicola McBlane wrote:

I'm not denying the American legal system is kind of silly in many ways - but my point was more if they are feeling the need to make laws about it there must be a lot of real money involved for them to care enough.

And that real money could well be of interest to a broader range of businesses than Isaac suggested.

6. At January 16, 2008 10:56 AM, Ian Betteridge wrote:

You're already virtually there, Dark :)

Nicola, what's interesting about the corporations that have decided to either end or scale back their virtual world presence is that they've all followed the same path: build something and hope that people will come to it. Few of them have actually actively engaged in the world, in the way that, say, IBM has.

IBM has, on its staff, a couple of "metaversal evangelists" who promote virtual worlds to businesses. They clearly believe it has a big future.

7. At January 16, 2008 2:21 PM, anjanesh wrote:

Second life is emerging from its first banking bust with Ginko Financial (one of virtual banks ) going bust leaving investors short of $700000 of real world money .

Linden Labs have a long way to
go for wider acceptance. Better graphics and modelling would be a good start.

However , it provides an excellent opportunity for people with good entrepreneurial skills with intellectual property to promote like music,art and design.
Virtual worlds may be currently ahead of their times .

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