Virtual Worlds

           Personally for me, when it comes to working in virtual worlds I find it to be aloof and I wind up easily distracted. I do not think I would be able to work in Second Life if I was to attend a meeting or a conference. It’s so easy for me to go onto other websites, since I’m already on the computer, and browse around or do other things while I’m at home. Of course it would become obvious if I wasn’t responding to anyone or taking too long to respond, but I think after time I could master the art of going online during Second Life meetings without anyone noticing (and I’m sure plenty of others would too) and that is futile when it comes the goal of the meeting. I would much rather do video conferencing, that way I could see people’s faces and garner their reactions to what is being said, and it gives me less room for distraction and to do other things. Since I don’t go anywhere private on Second Life, right now strangers walk in and out of my screen all day long, which is yet another distraction for me. The Linden Lab article seemed to make a good point that IBM had firewalls and their conference area was private to online IBM employees, which seems to be a smart choice when it comes to keeping the weirdos out. The Linden Lab article really is trying to drive home the point that meeting in Second Life is so cost friendly and there is not jet lag, but of course a case study written by the company that owns Second Life would be promoting business meetings in this virtual world because they want other big companies to do so as well. This is obviously a smart career move, because they want to attract attention from companies that might possibly want to invest in them and create their own private little sectors in Second Life. As much as I am on my computer and going online, I’m really not interested in working in Second Life. I feel like it might have worked out well in IBMs favor that one time, but I don’t think every online meeting in a virtual world will be as successful. I feel like we’ve continually discussed in this class how when online people have tendencies to not act like themselves because they become comfortable. I know that this is a business meeting setting for IBM, but at the same time not all these people know each other so the risk of someone getting too comfortable or doing what they want comes about in this situation. I’m more of an in person kind of gal, I think it’s the most effective way to get things done and to do them right.