The Imminence of Virtual Corporate Parks - How This Affects You!
Tateru Nino posted a thoughtful piece at Massively entitled “A Second Life corporate grid: When, not if“. A specialized “for-business” version of Second Life has to happen eventually for 3 basic reasons:
- It’s easier (meaning cheaper) to manage than an “anything goes” space. Security on all levels is a snap.
- It could still be connected to the main Second Life grid, giving employees an excuse to log in on their spare time and remain engaged.
- Creations there are sure to be clean, sanitized, and professional, making it a real showcase for what makes the technology important.
Of course, that’s just what makes it important to one world-builder. What about the average business? Why should you care?
Picture it: a large 3D space that your company stake-holders can wander around, dedicated to the business sector. They come here to work together for a lot of reasons:
- Integrated voice makes talking to people you run into easy, and groups are no problem at all - and it’s free!
- Distance issues are a thing of the past - meetings are a click away (instead of having to deal with airport security).
- Sharing ideas is easy - use slides, play video, paste a link to a file in chat. Collaboration is a piece of cake.
So here they all are, going about their business. It costs very little, and companies everywhere are saving on office space as well as a dozen other things. Now, for the best part: it’s a shared world. People wander down the street to check each other’s buildings out and see what they’re offering.
You’re now open to a whole new audience. From a marketing perspective, there’s a difference between this and a website: these people can ask you questions live, and you can answer. Better yet: you can take them on a tour of what you’re all about. Brochures and websites gave people information, but instead you’re giving them an experience. Which do you think they’ll remember?
Fast-forward a bit, and very quickly you’ll discover that there are only two kinds of business in the world: those that have an online 3D presence, and those that don’t. Consumers, prospective employees, and even investors make decisions about who they want to deal with accordingly.
So, are you ready?
