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IBM to Regulate Employee Second Life Behavior

Posted by Zonk on from the no-furry-costumes-during-work-hours dept.

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.

7 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. Um... by Dragonshed · · Score: 4, Funny

    So IBM sanctions playing Secondlife while on the clock?

    This, I have to see for myself.

    1. Re:Um... by timster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
  2. So... by bomanbot · · Score: 5, Funny

    No flying genitalia in IBM business attire then, eh?

  3. Rule number one by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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)

  4. "Second" Life? by mugnyte · · Score: 4, Funny


      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.

  5. Is it even legal? by ElGanzoLoco · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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!
  6. Re:So...? by EvanED · · Score: 4, Informative

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