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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.
So IBM sanctions playing Secondlife while on the clock?
This, I have to see for myself.
Okay, aside from the concept of "meeting with IBM clients" in Second Life
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.
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?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
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.
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
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)
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"
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?
Hello! I'm a disaster waiting to happen!
I'd love to see the IBM Employee Handbook section on yiffing etiquette.
I have to say that this is one of the more.. fanciful... posts I've read here in a while.
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.
Damn, all this world needs is another 5,000 people in blue suits.
because so many IBM consultants are dicks.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
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.
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 details.
You'd all have the same "look" and that "look" would be "polished professional".
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.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ