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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Article: Online Communities Go Corporate

A few weeks ago, I was interviewed along with a number of other folks for an online article about the corporate implications of virtual worlds.

The resulting article is titled Online Communities Go Corporate:What Can Virtual Worlds Do For Your SME?

The article, appearing in the online publication Processor, describes how different organizations are replicating, "with some accuracy, the experience of working physically alongside others, including working with and sharing digital 3D models of physical or theoretical objects."

The article also references an article by Susan Kish titled Virtual Worlds:Second Life and the Enterprise where she defines some terms and provides a great graphic showing the inter-relationships between MMORPGs, Metaverses and MMOLEs. (Yeah! to Susan for using the term MMOLE!)
Susan Kish's diagram showing the intersection of various online worlds.


Take a few moments to check out both articles.

For even more information, here is an article I wrote for ASTD Learning Circuits titled Defining and Understanding Virtual Worlds.

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2 comments:

Lisa Gualtieri said...

I think the current interest in virtual worlds is fascinating, especially since it is so widespread. I first used virtual worlds in the mid-90's when I started teaching online. One way I used them was to have class parties for my students to replicate the experience of going out together for a meal or drinks during a corporate training (my favorite virtual world later became a porn site!) and my students loved it.

What is different about the virtual worlds now and why does everyone talk about it like it is new?

Karl Kapp said...

Lisa,

Sorry to hear about your favorite virtual world becoming a porn site...bummer.

What a great use of virtual worlds, we used a number of virtual worlds when I was in graduate school and really focused on work being done with virtual reality and how it was going to "change training."

I think what makes them so "hot" now is that the bandwidth, the lower hardward requirements and the hype of the press and even training world has brought the concept to the forefront of many more individuals.

Hey in the mid-1990's you were a pioneer in the space, today many people have entered into virtual worlds (and many don't understand how to use them as well as you did in the 1990s). So I think some of the barriers have been reduced and so with more people in these worlds, more people are talking about them.