Virtual Pets Blog

Larry Dignan and Tom Steinert-Threlkeld’s Between the Lines blog on ZDNET had a posting today titled, Virtual World Tipping Point: Is there an Enterprise Use?, They point out Google’s recent entry (Lively introduced yesterday), Second Life’s quick rise to success, and IBM is working with their own virtual world engine designed for corporate use. They also point out IBM and Linden Labs announced yesterday they have successfully moved an avatar from Second Life to an Open Sim server. As virtual worlds gain more traction, and the ability to interact with other virtual worlds, we may see more business meetings being held in virtual environments.

Here at Virtual Pets Blog, we think that is a given. Fuel and transportation costs are significantly impacting nonprofits, churches, and organizations. We expect them to lead the pack. Yes, we know many of these organizations already have a presence in Virtual Worlds, but much of the current presence is to recruit “real” members, seek donations, or to raise the awareness of their cause. In the future, we expect them to also be holding their business, leadership, training, and organizational meetings there to save fuel and travel time.

One place this could rapidly come on the scene is organizations with several young families in rural America where distances are large, and the younger generation is comfortable with the virtual platform.