Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

Create Account  |  Retrieve Password

IBM to Regulate Employee Second Life Behavior

Posted by Zonk on Fri Jul 27, 2007 06:02 PM
from the no-furry-costumes-during-work-hours dept.
IBM The Internet Entertainment Games
mytrip writes "In hopes of avoiding potentially embarrassing incidents, IBM is taking the unusual step of establishing official guidelines for its more than 5,000 employees who inhabit Second Life and other virtual worlds. 'IBM appears to be the first corporation to create rules governing virtual worlds. The move has critics, who say that mandating behavior for the so-called "metaverse" is unlikely to reform impish avatars. They also question why IBM would add a layer of buttoned-down bureaucracy to this relatively rollicking corner of the Internet. IBM executives counter that having a code of conduct is akin to a corporate stamp of approval, encouraging workers to explore more than 100 worlds IBM collectively calls the 3D Internet.'" This regulation may be coming from more than self-interest: IBM sees these environments as management training courses in some ways; working inter-personal skills via chat and human resources via guild activities.
+ -
story

Related Stories

[+] Linux: IBM Reveals New Virtual Linux Environment 96 comments
jenwren1010 writes to mention that IBM has just announced the new open beta version of their virtual Linux environment that allows users to run x86 Linux programs on POWER processor-based IBM System p servers. "Designed to reduce power, cooling and space by consolidating x86 Linux workloads on System p servers, it will eventually be released as the [rolls-off-the-tongue] 'IBM System p Application Virtual Environment (System p AVE).' With a 31.5% global revenue share during 2006, IBM hopes to build on System p UNIX success and extend firmly into the Linux marketplace. Considering there are almost 2,800 applications that already run natively on Linux on System p servers, the chances are good that it will succeed."
[+] IBM Adds Videogame Console Chips to Mainframes 103 comments
GoIBMPS3 writes "Soon the powerful 'Cell' microprocessor that fuels Sony's PlayStation 3 console will be available in IBM mainframe computers. The intent is to allow high-performance machines to run complex online games and virtual worlds. 'The integration initially will be accomplished by networking the mainframe with IBM's Cell blades, but eventually the Cells will be plugged more directly into the mainframes via PCI adapter cards, IBM said. It's the latest twist in IBM's years-long effort to keep mainframes not only relevant but also cutting-edge. IBM is touting the partnership as an example of hybrid computing--a trend sweeping the high-performance computing industry as companies augment general-purpose servers with special-purpose chips that to accelerate particular tasks.'"
[+] IT: IBM Finding Business Uses for Virtual World 96 comments
jbrodkin writes "IBM has an unconventional take on virtual worlds for business use. Rather than strictly adhering to the laws of physics, IBM is letting its employees hold virtual meetings up in the air and under water. Employees are also being given wacky chores, such as kicking a giant boulder 1,400 kilometers. The virtual world, known as the Metaverse, has been in development for two years. Michael Ackerbauer of IBM says, 'I'd say more people are still finding it a novelty than a business tool. But ... if you build enough tools that they can use, they will come.'" IBM seems to be following a trend of involvement in virtual worlds, which we have previously discussed.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

IBM to Regulate Employee Second Life Behavior 25 Comments More /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More
Loading... please wait.

  • Um... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dragonshed (206590) on Friday July 27 2007, @06:05PM (#20017127)
    So IBM sanctions playing Secondlife while on the clock?

    This, I have to see for myself.

    • Apparently. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by khasim (1285) <brandioch.conner@gmail.com> on Friday July 27 2007, @06:14PM (#20017211)
      From TFA:

      IBM, whose 20th century employees were parodied as corporate cogs in matching navy suits, doesn't have an avatar dress code. But guidelines suggest being "especially sensitive to the appropriateness of your avatar or persona's appearance when you are meeting with IBM clients or conducting IBM business."

      Okay, aside from the concept of "meeting with IBM clients" in Second Life ... why not just go all the way and license something unique for your company sponsored avatars? Then, if you're representing the company, you use a company avatar.

      When you're on your own you can whatever you want to be.

      Seriously, anyone who needs to be told what is appropriate for meeting clients really should NOT be meeting clients. In real life or online.

      • Re:Apparently. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by karmaflux (148909) on Friday July 27 2007, @07:42PM (#20018065) Homepage

        Seriously, anyone who needs to be told what is appropriate for meeting clients really should NOT be meeting clients. In real life or online.
        And what happens if someone slips through the radar, gets hired, and conducts IBM business dressed as a flying phallus? Do they fire him? Get sued for discrimination, because there's no written dress code? Not IBM. They've been in the game too long to make naive mistakes like the one you're advocating. It's a litigious society; if you expect something from someone, put it in writing. That's all they're doing here.

        • You mean like the prototypical IBM outfit - dark blue suit and black wingtips?

          Pretty much. They'd have a selection. Male and female of different appearances. So you can sort of match it to you. And so you don't look like Agent Smith when a group of five of you show up.

          And they'd hire people to polish them. You want to present the most professional appearance possible (if you're IBM). So spending money on getting the textures and shadows right is important. It's all about paying attention to the smallest det

    • Re:Um... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by JustNiz (692889) on Friday July 27 2007, @06:14PM (#20017217)
      I admit up-front that I don't 'get' the whole second-life thing. It only took me about 20 minutes to realise how dull and pointless it is. There's nothing going on, loads of places you can't go, and its totally boring just wandering around. Also even on broadband the crappy world graphics update so slowly its painful. Literally. You can bump into walls even minutes before they get drawn.

      So I wouldn't classify second life as a game as there is no fun or objectives and its very clunky so 'playing' it isn't accurate.

      • Re:Um... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by timster (32400) on Friday July 27 2007, @06:20PM (#20017301)
        Years after most people had figured out that the Internet wasn't a virtual world, the idiot media was still going on about "cyberspace". So somebody figured out that if you actually developed the product that the idiot media imagined, you'd get loads of free PR. It doesn't matter that the product is useless.

        • Re:Um... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Arthur B. (806360) on Friday July 27 2007, @07:19PM (#20017851)
          I wish I could mod you up. The vision of Internet as a 3D cyberworld completly lacks of imagination, it reuuses what we have to try and predict the future... The internet forum for example has evolved to a specific form which is extremely efficient to handle its task. Absolutely nothing looked like an internet forum 50 years ago...

          A cyberspace import limitation of the physical world that get in the way... brought to you by the same people who imagined giant network of tubes to deliver mails.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by sgant (178166)
        Don't worry, I'm right with you. And I seriously doubt there are 5000 IBM employees playing this. There's not even 5000 people in the world playing this. Ever go there? I log on every once in a while just to look and it's a ghost town. Every time I go there, I never ever see anyone else in the actual world. The only time you actually see other people is at the starting island where you make your character and learn how to move. Other than that, it's a virtual ghost town....filled with buildings that you hav

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Stalus (646102)
      IBM isn't sanctioning 'playing' Second Life. They're sanctioning business activities in Second Life, hence the guidelines. They're going to have guidelines for anything where employees are doing things on the clock in a public space. Plus, if some guy is burning half his time in some virtual dance club, he's probably not going to look so great when it comes around to evaluations.

      But, yes. IBM is a tech company. They have islands in Second Life, and there are certainly people who have legitimate reasons

  • When logged onto Second Life at work (or presumably using the same account you use at work), they want you to project the corporate image. This seems reasonable, although perhaps overly anal.

    • It's reasonable only when you say in game that you work for IBM other then STAY THE F*** OUT of my home life. You job does not take full control of your life and they should not be able to tell you what you can do on your time off there is one place that tried to fire people who where smoking in there off time It is ok to say no smoking at the office but at home? Also what is next beer, types food that they don't like, pop, and other things you do on your time off.

      • I know, I know: RTFA is a joke. RTFS is dead. RTFT happens on occasion. But would you mind RMFP (My F* Post) before replying. They want the avatars you use on company time to adhere to some decorum. Even if you use them also at home. TFA doesn't say explicitly, but implies these are IBM's avatars you may use from home (RTFA for context, I don't feel like retyping it here.) So, yes, they are saying in the game they work for IBM.

    • Re:So...? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by HomelessInLaJolla (1026842) * <lajollahomeless@hotmail.com> on Friday July 27 2007, @06:20PM (#20017307) Journal
      There are political considerations, of course.

      Say, for example, the guys down the hall have been at the company for ten years, and you're a new hire, and they issue to you a challenge to be able to code $something, or find a bug in a particular process, or prove to them how a particular bug can be turned into an exploit. And they're all be-boppin' 'n' scattin' all over you every time they see you, frat boy hazing style, and constantly giving you digs about how,"If you were any sort of real programmer you'd have it done by now" while, in private, constantly reassuring you that it's impossible because they have never been able to do it.

      Then, one day, you pull it off. And all of they're be-boppin' 'n' scattin' and taunts and hazing comes back on them from the people in the other building who've been quietly hoping to hell you'll pull off the challenge because, several years back, their department got their budget slashed because the guys down the hall (who issued the challenge and followed it with taunting) managed to come up with a miraculous save on one of their projects and have been egotistical knuckleheads about it ever since. At least until you showed up and put their challenge right back up their nose (where it needed to be).

      So now you've become the unwitting participant in a five-to-ten year running ego war between two prominent researchers, both from lengthy lines of prominent publishing research groups, both managing groups of thirty to fifty people with budgets figured in the tens of millions.

      Kind of an awkward position, isn't it? Okay, but you're still proud of yourself that you managed to accomplish the $challenge.

      Then, one day, when you log on to Second Life... you find yourself surrounded by griefers who never go away and, the day you finally tell one of the griefers to "Shove it!" using rather colorful language, that day is immediately followed the next morning by a reprimand from corporate for not observing the corporate image online.

      And then you begin to get snyde in-the-hall comments from the be-boppin' 'n' scattin' hazing frat boy fanclub down the hall that, yes, they're the griefers who've been trolling you on Second Life... but there's nothing you can do about it because they turned you in to HR first, and anything you say now will need to go both against their collective reputation (which, given they came up with the miraculous breakthrough five years ago, is pretty darn big) and the impression that you're just a malcontent who's retaliating against "The Man" and with some psychotic conspiracy theory.

      No. No, and No. It is not a good idea for an employer to have any legal authority, either inside or outside the workplace, to observe, monitor, or check on anything you do once you leave their doors.

  • So... (Score:5, Funny)

    by bomanbot (980297) on Friday July 27 2007, @06:15PM (#20017245)
    No flying genitalia in IBM business attire then, eh?
  • Are they suggesting that they should be able to govern how their employees spend their spare time, or are they just expecting their employees to play the game when they are supposed to be working?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by TheAwfulTruth (325623)
      Obviously you didn't RTFM

      They are both giving good advice to their potentially noob employees about how to interact on line at ANY time, but then have specific guidlines that must be followed "When representing the company in a virtual world".

      It was all very straight forward looking.

  • Rule number one (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bender Unit 22 (216955) on Friday July 27 2007, @06:23PM (#20017327) Journal
    1) Don't use Second Life. It is embarrassing and no one in the real world cares besides the news media and misc. company bosses.

    (it is kinda like the "news media" just discovered that you can make a virtual world online)

    • It is embarrassing and no one in the real world cares besides the news media and misc. company bosses.

      People are making money in SL. This is the biggest differentiator between SL and previous virtual worlds. As soon as profit enters the picture, everyone starts paying attention.

      Your comment reminds me of comments in '94/'95 about the Web. That flash in the pan has carried on pretty well, I'd say.

  • "Second" Life? (Score:5, Funny)

    by mugnyte (203225) on Friday July 27 2007, @06:30PM (#20017405) Homepage Journal

      IBM would like to discourage employees from

        aimless wandering around
        dressing up as a flying phallus (without a tie)
        crowding around the "hot looking"
        starting conversations with "check out my new script" ...oh and there's new rules for Second Life too.

  • Is it even legal? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ElGanzoLoco (642888) on Friday July 27 2007, @06:31PM (#20017413) Homepage
    Honest question here (IANAL): can it even be legal for the employer to issue guidelines/codes of conduct for activities that are presumably not happening at the workplace?

  • Guidelines (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2007, @06:32PM (#20017425)
    I'd love to see the IBM Employee Handbook section on yiffing etiquette.
  • attempt to justify their existence.

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.