Virtual+Global+Office

The [virtual] global office: Moving beyond Second Life marketing, many companies are infiltrating virtual worlds for employee meetings, mixers, and recruiting. (May 5, 2008). //Business Week Online,// p. NA. Retrieved April 25, 2009 from Gale

Article starts out by pointing to how IBM has been successful at using virtual environments for everything from employee mixers to meetings to training and collaboration.

Goes on to mention that while early experimentation with branding in SL has been disappointing, companies such as IBM, Sun Microsystems, Xerox, Cisco Systems, and Unilever are using the virtual world to help their employees build cooperation and teamwork, no matter what office in the world (or lack of an office) they belong to.

Working in SL tends to lessen travel expenses.

Some of these companies, however, have begun to move beyond Second Life and are now hosting their own virtual environments in which they can keep control and security within their corporation.

Article goes on to point out that architects such as those from Crescendo Design have found use for Second Life in that they can show their clients a "finished" home virtually, before any money is spent on actual building supplies. In today's tight housing market, this cuts down on waste.

Article closes by saying that while some aspects of Second Life might be exciting to some companies, the jury is still out on just how valuable virtual worlds will be to corporations in the future.