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There are several reasons why your company should have a presence in Second Life, which are outlined below. It is clear that we are only at the beginning of the use of virtual worlds in a business setting (1). The concept of virtual worlds exists already more than 10 years (remember the VRML initiave). The concept of virtual worlds became mainstream with the book of Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash (1992) who introduced the concept of a Metaverse and movies like The Matrix (1999). Since a few years several virtual worlds have been made constructed which are a mixture of online chat systems combined with the existance of a 2/3D environments and the use of avatars (online presentation of the user). An overview of existing virtual worlds is avialable on virtual worlds review. A second important step is the existence of an economy and the possibility of user-content creation in virtual worlds, of which Second Life is a prime example. The above described features enable companies to use virtual worlds for design, simulation, optimisation, operation and management of business activities. If you decide to have a presence in Second Life, the main promotional reasons are to highlight the high-technology and innovative aspects of your company or the leisure, entertainment and fun aspects. You can also use Second Life for intra-company communication and education. If you want to discuss the possibilities of Second Life for your company, please contact Louis Platini. (1) Six Rules For Effective Forecasting, Paul Saffo. Havard Business Review, jul-aug 2007, pp 122. |
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