IBM Takes Training into Second Life

IBM is hopping on the corporate Second Life bandwagon with their IBM@Play program. The project will join remote workers into teams on Second Life and India’s Planeshift MMO. Serious Games Source reports:

IBM also plans to use virtual world technology in the U.S. to bring together both retirees and those still working as a way to mentor new hires through speed mentoring, group meetings, and other disciplines.

"New IBM employees separated by thousands of miles will be able to mingle, interact and share ideas in the virtual world before their first day on the job," said Ted Hoff, IBM's vice president of learning. "They can learn real-life working skills such as signing up for benefits, developing code as part of a global team, and ramping up sales skills before they meet with IBM clients."

I’m not clear on how these tasks can be better applied in Second Life than they can in any other sort of online interactive medium, but it seems like getting your corporation into this sort of thing is just the thing to do these days. As a commentor on the Guardian Unlimited post about the same subject quipped:
**

Cool, i'll send my avatar to an online meeting or training session, while I bugger off for a fag.

No word yet on whether furry avatars with giant, prehensile penises are against company policy, or if you can make 5$L per ten minutes of gyrating on the cafeteria dancefloor.

IBM Looks to Virtual Worlds for Global Training [Serious Games Source]