Doing virtual work in Second Life ?
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Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6944Members
Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6944Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">For real money ?</div>This week, while having a bit of spare times at my IBM job, I started cheking news at the company's site. I found out about a project they started last year or so about a virtual world. That got me interesting so I read more. I was surprise to see some things in an IBM projects. They were mentioning the game Second Life. I had heard a bit about it a while ago as this is a mean to live in a virtual world but back then, I was only hearing about interaction with other peoples through a virtual world.
So what is IBM doing in Second Life ? What else, business. They have started to expand virtual business in this Second Life and through references on their articles, I see other companies doing the same thing. For exemple, the company Manpower is now on <a href="http://www.manpower.com/SecondLife" target="_blank">its own private island on Second Life</a> and what are they doing there ? Hiring people to work in the virtual world of Second Life and being paied to do it. Now I haven't read the whole thing but, cheeeee, is Second Life expanded to enabling us to work in their virtual world and geting REAL money for it now <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" /> This thing has gotten far behond what I had thought back then. I am wondering now if I should start getting involved into this. Finding a job for the past year has been problematic as my 10 year profession is geting very rare in my Canadian province. So will Second Life evolve to a point where I could actualy be working in it and making a decent living off of it ?
Can someone with enough knowledge about Second Life vs virtual work englighten us ?
So what is IBM doing in Second Life ? What else, business. They have started to expand virtual business in this Second Life and through references on their articles, I see other companies doing the same thing. For exemple, the company Manpower is now on <a href="http://www.manpower.com/SecondLife" target="_blank">its own private island on Second Life</a> and what are they doing there ? Hiring people to work in the virtual world of Second Life and being paied to do it. Now I haven't read the whole thing but, cheeeee, is Second Life expanded to enabling us to work in their virtual world and geting REAL money for it now <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" /> This thing has gotten far behond what I had thought back then. I am wondering now if I should start getting involved into this. Finding a job for the past year has been problematic as my 10 year profession is geting very rare in my Canadian province. So will Second Life evolve to a point where I could actualy be working in it and making a decent living off of it ?
Can someone with enough knowledge about Second Life vs virtual work englighten us ?
Comments
Second Life just banned all gambling, which is more or less suicide.
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But at the same time, other companies are starting to emerge in Second Life and their products are, what else, sex related.
Found this link about <a href="http://www.nbhorizons.com/list.htm" target="_blank">list of companies and organisations in Second Life</a>.
I also just read another article stating that Second Life is geting more and more virtual business oriented. I wonder it is will drive second life wannabes away. After all, the majority of its populations are there because they wanted another life, a more exciting life. So if business keeps geting in their way, will they get fed up and go away or try to get virtual jobs.
I wonder how much a virtual job actualy pays vs real life jobs.
If getting paid to make virtual models of animal phalluses is wrong, <i>I don't want to be right.</i>
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Is that what your avatar/signature is?
I dont understand, who are these people who susposely play second life? Mostly teenage girls or what?
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People who lack a first life.
(SAN FRANCISCO)—Anything pretty much goes in online virtual worlds. Identities are nebulous. Online characters known as avatars chat it up, gamble or even have sex at first sight.
Increasingly though, these online zones like "Second Life" are also becoming places where commerce is happening. Big companies such as IBM Corp. and Intel Corp. use these graphics-rich sites to conduct meetings among far-flung employees and to show customers graphical representations of ideas and products. Now, in hopes of capturing the power of this new platform while avoiding potentially embarrassing incidents, IBM is taking the unusual step of establishing official guidelines for its more than 5,000 employees who inhabit "Second Life" and other online universes.
IBM appears to be the first corporation to create rules governing virtual worlds. The move has critics, who say that mandating behavior for the so-called "metaverse" is unlikely to reform impish avatars. They also question why IBM would add a layer of buttoned-down bureaucracy to this relatively rollicking corner of the Internet. IBM executives counter that having a code of conduct is akin to a corporate stamp of approval, encouraging workers to explore more than 100 worlds IBM collectively calls the "3D Internet."
The Armonk, N.Y.-based tech company also has a financial incentive: It hopes to make money advising corporate clients that craft business strategies for virtual worlds. IBM has built a virtual retail center in "Second Life" for Circuit City Stores Inc. and used the site to re-create the action at Wimbledon. "The 3D Internet will have a big impact on business, on IBM and on our clients, and the only way to figure it out is to use it," said Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a retired IBM technical executive and now an engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Intel also is drafting a tip sheet and plans to offer a voluntary course this year for employees who use blogs, social media sites and virtual worlds. About 150 Intel workers conduct business meetings in "Second Life." The chip maker recently purchased the last name "Intel" for employees' "Second Life" avatars, said Gina Bovara, Intel marketing specialist. "For those employees who may be hesitant, guidelines can provide the encouragement and Intel philosophy they need to actually dive in and start anticipating," said Bovara, who maintains Intel's "Second Life" mailing list.
IBM's rules — which apply to "Second Life," "Entropia Universe," "Forterra," There.com and other worlds — are logical extensions of the real world: Don't discuss intellectual property with unauthorized people. Don't discriminate or harass. Guidelines also include a 21st-century version of the Golden Rule: "Be a good 3D Netizen." Other rules are unique to the metaverse, which requires users to create animated avatars with distinct appearances, personalities and gestures. "Second Life," owned by San Francisco-based Linden Lab, has more than 8 million avatars; most look human, but many take the form of chipmunks, zombies or fantastic beasts.
IBM, whose 20th century employees were parodied as corporate cogs in matching navy suits, doesn't have an avatar dress code. But guidelines suggest being "especially sensitive to the appropriateness of your avatar or persona's appearance when you are meeting with IBM clients or conducting IBM business." Rules caution workers who have multiple avatars or frequently change their avatar's appearance. It's common to have numerous avatars — similar to having multiple e-mail addresses for work and personal use. "Building a reputation of trust within a virtual world represents a commitment to be truthful and accountable with fellow digital citizens," IBM states. "Dramatically altering, splitting or abandoning your digital persona may be a violation of that trust. ... In the case of a digital persona used for IBM business purposes, it may violate your obligations to IBM."
The guidelines shouldn't sound heavy-handed, and it's unclear whether workers who violate them could be disciplined, said Sandy Kearney, global director of IBM's 3D Internet initiatives. Instead, she said, rules encourage ethical behavior in worlds where people often act out rapacious or rude fantasies. "We don't want it to be the Wild West," Kearney said. "I use the metaphor of nation building: If you have a problem, you need embassies, ambassadors, governance and government."
But other business experts say IBM's guidelines may come off as stodgy — the stereotype that Big Blue largely shook in recent years. "I'm just not sure it's necessary," said Reuben Steiger, founder of Millions of Us, a Sausalito-based consulting firm that helps companies operate in virtual worlds. "Companies that don't bother with guidelines aren't flying blind — the regular rules automatically extend to virtual worlds."
So far, it doesn't appear the guidelines have stifled IBMers' creativity. IBM's "metaverse evangelist," British computer scientist Ian Hughes, is a minor celebrity in "Second Life." His avatar, clearly associated with IBM, is a wicked-looking robot with dreadlocks and named "epredator Potato." "We want it to stay an exciting place," Wladawsky-Berger said. "We don't want to be sheriff."<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<a href="http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1647500,00.html" target="_blank">source</a>
I dont understand, who are these people who susposely play second life? Mostly teenage girls or what?
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Furries.