Virtual worlds - relevant to business, to training?

Brandon Hall has just released a not-very-useful (but still very expensive) overview of the value and place of Virtual Worlds (Habbo, Second Life) in business and more particularly in training. Not so useful because they restate much of what is already known about these worlds; and because their thin'ish report (31 pages) is more descriptive than analytical or pragmatic (how can I apply this to my own organisation?).

Much more useful will be to keep a watching brief on the application of these worlds by major organisations - such as Telstra and IBM, both of which have invested significantly in the development of organisational spaces and even in micro economies, in Second Life for example.

Since IBM first started experimenting with virtual worlds almost a year ago, their progress has been rapid. Not only have virtual retail storefronts for clients such as Sears and Circuit City been built, but IBM has also created training environments and held a 'party' for The Greater IBM Connection. The IBM chairman directed his avatar to open a virtual town hall in IBM’s replica of the Forbidden City.

These experimentations are part of an IBM-led initiative to collaborate with clients and partners on both conducting business inside virtual worlds and connecting the virtual world with the real world to create a richer, more immersive place to investigate and potentially solve business problems in a new way.

IBM has a series of areas in the virtual world of Second Life open to the general public. On these "islands" - spaces where people can build three-dimensional objects and interact with other people in a way that is more like real life than a web conference or phone call - IBM has been experimenting on extending virtual worlds for business in three key areas: virtual commerce and work with clients to apply virtual worlds to business problems; driving new kinds of collaboration and education; and experimentations on pushing the limits with a broad community on what might be possible in virtual worlds.

"We view these virtual worlds at a very early stage, both technically and culturally. The user experience will improve as we do more experimentation and figure out how to better apply them to solve real problems in business and society," said Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM's chief technologist. "Commerce and collaboration are two key areas ripe for applying virtual worlds to real life, but we also see applications in education, healthcare and many other areas."

In addition to virtual commerce, IBM works with clients, employees and alumni to use virtual worlds to drive collaboration and provide a more immersive online educational experience. For example, IBM uses virtual worlds to connect with its alumni population and for on-boarding and educating new and current employees. Virtual worlds have proven an effective tool to help simplify the complex, with 3-D models and interactions that cannot be recreated in a Web conference or phone conversation, and have been useful in connecting people around the globe to drive collaboration.

Given that many of these developments are going to find their way into the mainstream pretty quickly - whether as they stand in Second Life, or in other virtual forms yet to come along, it is well to take the opportunity to think about their application to your own organisation - what role might they have in driving learning; do they have a larger role in business problem solving; can they be an appropriate place to test out new products, new marketing strategies?