IBM to Regulate Employee Second Life Behavior

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.

Re:So...?

[EvanED]

I have to say that this is one of the more.. fanciful... posts I've read here in a while.

Re:One has to wonder, however....

[TheAwfulTruth]

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.

RTFA

[Wesley Felter]

The whole point of the rules is that IBM is using Second Life for business purposes. It's a no-brainer, really: if you're doing business in SL from the office during work hours then obviously you should act like it.

Re:So...?

[fonik]

I seem to be having the same problem today. I think Slashdot is getting "raided" by idiots from 4chan or something. Either that or the mods are all on acid.