Antony Kontellis UTS Blog

Alternatively to completing a short course, for this assignment I participated in Second Life, an online virtual world which is increasingly being used from an organisational, educational perspective. Many firms now have “islands” in Second Life which they use to implement training, induction, meetings, conferences, etc. I spent a total of six hours setting up, creating, and exploring Second Life and the basic and educational facilities it has to offer.

From a professional perspective I found there to be great potential for certain aspects of Second Life, and also certain issues which would cause significant problems for my organisation if we were to implement Second Life as part of our training facilities. The organisation I work for and will be taking the professional perspective towards in this essay is a large global firm specialising in corporate commercial property as well as various other advisory, management, valuation and corporate real estate services. My firm currently has a Learning & Development department as part of Human Resources, who implement all training courses as well as the firm’s induction program.

In this essay, I will be reviewing my experience of spending the abovementioned total of six hours setting up and utilising Second Life. In addition to comparing Second Life to my current workplace context, I will draw on various references and ultimately make recommendations for improvement and potential adaptation in my firm. 

At the commencement of my Second Life experience, I had already established some ideologies and pre-conceived notions relating to the feasibility, compatibility and basic concept of utilising Second Life in a professional context such as my own firm. I believed that a virtual world was a gimmick fad which would never make it off the ground and become a widely accepted form of training or professional tool for development. 

However following various class discussions and a lecture of Second Life, my position on the idea of Second Life as a professional training tool altered. Now that I am more informed, I realise that Second Life is an increasingly growing tool and that many firms have already progressed past testing stages and into full implementation in their organisations, to varying levels of success. 

IBM is a key firm utilising Second Life for education and innovating the educational landscape we know, through things like “IBM’s Centre for Advanced Learning, an authority on the use of play and work to create optimal learning” (Hall & Nguyen, 2007). IBM has numerous islands and offers training and induction, as well as meeting facilities, in the virtual landscape. American Express is also pursuing Second Life and taking an interest, with Tim Hall (the instructional designer for American Express) suggesting exploring the possibilities of Second Life “if for no other purpose than to see what is on the horizon for online learning and immersive collaborative environments” (Hall & Nguyen, 2007). ING is another firm which has embraced Second Life, with blogger Marcel de Ruiter stating in a post that “the waiting is over, so here it is: ING gets serious with Second Life!” (Ruiter, 2007).

Thus, following the discussions, lecture, six hours of personal experience and analysing various references, my final position on Second Life is split.

On the one hand, I believe that it would be a mammoth task to implement a system of this nature into my entire organisation (in the region) of over 10,000 people, and that there would be significant issues relating to on-boarding of the system, employees accepting and embracing the technology, relevance of certain staff, and especially the potential for misuse (much like email pornography, a comparable issue brought about in the nineties after the introduction of email and internet to offices).

Traditionally, pornography has been an issue in workplaces around the globe since email and internet became essential tools to any office. The issue has escalated, and “more than a decade after employers began cracking down on those who view online pornography at work, porn is continuing to create tension in offices… in part because laptop computers, cellphones and other portable devices have made it easier for risk-takers to visit such websites undetected” (Armour, 2007). Second Life itself is full of islands and areas dedicated to sex, which raises very loud alarm bells when considering implementing at work. Second Life is “…explained by thinking of 3D virtual worlds as user-friendly rendering software that allows fantasies to be staged much more easily than in real life” (Ruberg, 2005). The issue has gotten to the point where serious legal matters have arisen, such as “recently reported in the Second Life Herald, Second Life Insider, and acknowledged by Linden Lab, German TV network ARD has revealed Second Life depictions of child porn to national viewers and authorities” (Walsh, 2007). This is a major obstacle that would somehow have to be overcome and/or monitored if Second Life was implemented in any organisation.

However on the other hand, there is great potential for Second Life to become an extremely valuable and effective tool in my organisation once the technology has progressed to a certain point where user-friendliness is at it’s peak. My experience in Second Life shed light on the fact that there are a range of different potential improvement and time/cost cutting measures available. Things like islands dedicated to training resources, the property for purchase to create areas suitable for tailor made seminars and conferences, facilitation options ranging from interactive presentations integrating video, text, audio and live demonstrations, and voice capabilities meaning that team meetings could be held in Second Life as opposed to over the phone, are all aspects of Second Life which would directly relate to my firm.

This has been the case in several organisations of a large scale, a prime example being the fact that “IBM is using the virtual world of Second Life as the next best thing to being there for corporate meetings” (LaMonica, 2006). Evidently IBM, along with other early adapting firms, are acting as innovators, found through evidence like “IBM’s vice president of technical strategy and innovation said that virtual worlds…remind him of how IBM embraced the Internet and e-business a decade ago” (LaMonica, 2006). Another large organization perusing Second Life and encountering potential successes and also key issues is NASA. “The colonization of virtual outer space hints at the shape of things to come, for NASA as well as less traditional players on the final frontier. And along the way, the virtual-world pioneers are encountering some of the same technical and bureaucratic challenges they deal with in the real world” (Boyle, 2007).

In my case, the reality that my company is based across various regions around Asia-Pacific, Europe and the United States is a key factor in my position on Second Life, whereby location, language, time, cost and coordination aspects which currently act as barriers in many cases could be abolished in Second Life by utilising the resources, islands and functions available. 

This is where I believe Second Life could be of great use, however it would take several years of this to become feasible for my firm, as there would be unavoidable resistance to this concept by management employees alike, and if the systems infrastructure was still not fully developed (it is not currently) this resistance would be even greater and would cause potential backlash. 

Taking into account the positives and negatives of Second Life and it’s potential implementation in my firm which have discussed above, my recommendations fall under aspects relating to improvements, strategies and implementation.

Improvements for the Second Life systems are essential to my firm even considering it. As mentioned, there will already be resistance to this concept regardless of the user-friendliness, however making Second Life more user-friendly would help things a lot. Currently the system is confusing and difficult, especially when one is first encountering this world. I found that it was time consuming and difficult for me to adapt and learn how to navigate, search, participate, communicate and use my avatar for basic functionalities (and I am a relatively computer-savvy individual, therefore I was constantly thinking “Imagine trying to get senior managers and technologically challenged people to even attempt to use this”). There were also various occasions where the system crashed and had to be reset.

These rough patches were not a key problem for me whilst experiencing Second Life for the purpose of this assignment, however in any firm time is money, and wastage of valuable employee time on resetting systems or spending hours trying to learn how to use an avatar would be chaotic. Therefore my recommendation in terms of improvement and subsequent implementation is that all these creases in the technology be ironed out. Once the Second Life system is smooth and at it’s peak in terms of user-friendliness and back-end functionality, only then do I believe my firm, and many others, would consider adapting their organisation to the virtual world.

Implementing something of a scale this large would require a collaborative effort on the project from various departments, including Learning & Development, Human Resources, IT, Legal, and most probably an external project team including a project manager and at least one or two experts on Second Life implementation (possibly from one of the firms which currently uses Second Life, like IBM or ING).

At a base level, issues would arise in various key areas. Budgeting would be a factor, as purchasing land and resources incurs costs depending on how advanced one wants it’s island and/or infrastructure to be. Legal issues would relate to things like misuse of the Second Life world at work for inappropriate, non-work related things. Installation of systems and having compatible computers would be another key factor (and also link into budgeting), as well as having a fast enough network to support Second Life.

Once systems, budgeting, legal, and installation issues are overcome, L&D would have to tailor existing and/or new courses to Second Life, and become experts in facilitating these. Then would come the biggest challenge – acceptance and embracing of the system from management and employees. Proper education would have to take place for all employees who would use the system, and an ongoing permanent support staff member/s would need to be available to assist employees, mangers and facilitators when issues arise.

Ultimately, I do believe that from an organisational perspective there is potential for Second Life to eventually be implemented in my firm. This would be positive in terms of time, location, distance and communication barriers being overcome and innovated into something of excellent value for the firm, however it would also raise the negative aspects of systems and legal issues, budgeting, and employees/management embracing and accepting a virtual world as a professional Learning & Development tool. From my experiences in the six hours I spent in Second Life, the current state of back-end systems is not currently at a place where my company could consider implementation, however there is evidence from firms such as IBM, ING and American Express, to suggest that eventually Second Life could definitely become a part of my organisation. As technology continues to advance and learning progresses more towards online based solutions, large firms such as mine must move with the times, be innovative, and look ahead to where organisational learning is headed. I believe Second Life is one of the destinations, and it is the journey to get there that will be the challenge.

Word count: 1,889

References 

Hall, T and Nguyen, F (2007) ‘Review: IBM @ Play in Second Life’, ASTD.org July/August 2007http://www.astd.org/content/publications/newsletters_journals/memberEnhancedOnly/eLearning/0708review.htm 

Ruiter, M (2007) ‘ING Enters Second Life to Learn and Facilitate’, www.ShapingThoughts.com blog post – Feb 22^nd 2007http://www.shapingthoughts.com/2007/02/21/ing-enters-second-life-to-learn-and-facilitate 

Armour, S (2007) ‘Technology makes porn easier to access at work’, USA Today – Wednesday 17^th October 2007http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2007-10-17-porn-at-work_N.htm 

Ruberg, B (2005) ‘Cyberporn Sells in Virtual World’, www.Wired.com – 22^nd December 2005http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2005/12/69878 

Walsh, T (2007) ‘Child Porn Panic Hits Second Life’, www.ClickableCulture.com – 5^th October 2007http://www.secretlair.com/index.php?/clickableculture/entry/child_porn_panic_hits_second_life/ 

LaMonica, M (2006) ‘IBM Breaks Ground in Second Life’, www.News.com – 19^th October, 2006http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-6127448-7.html 

Boyle, A (2007) ‘Virtual-space gurus build final frontier’, www.MSNBC.MSN.com – 30^th March 2007http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17841125