Avatars To Have Business Dress Codes By 2013

nk497 writes "With businesses increasingly using digital tech like virtual worlds and Twitter, their staff will have to be given guidelines on how they 'dress' their avatars, according to analysts. 'As the use of virtual environments for business purposes grows, enterprises need to understand how employees are using avatars in ways that might affect the enterprise or the enterprise's reputation,' said James Lundy, managing vice president at Gartner, in a statement. 'We advise establishing codes of behavior that apply in any circumstance when an employee is acting as a company representative, whether in a real or virtual environment.'"

Comments

Already have this in IBM

[Anonymous Coward]

And it is pretty much a no brainer.

If you use the avatar for anything that may be business related then it should be an avatar that shows some level of professionalism. If your talking about a product you sell while your avatar looks like a refugee from a Doug Winger collection then yea it is out of order.

If it is your own personal avatar on your personal time not work related then its ok. However the work/real life/virtual life are blurring.

Re:Already have this in IBM

[rtfa-troll]

the work/real life/virtual life are blurring.

People are allowing their work and social life to blur but it's a real problem. I think it's very important to keep them separate, but that most people don't yet understand the technology or it's implications. I'm allowed to use my work computer and email for limited personal reasons (before you tell me that that's stupid; it's only stupid if your company lacks competent lawyers; or possibly if you live in the USA), however I keep clear tagging; personal stuff is generally under one userID; work another. At the very least I use clearly labelled folders. I have music I can listen to on my company phone, but I use a separate memory card which I paid for; which is clearly labelled as personal and where I keep the receipt. Keeping this boundary intact is critical.

It's very simple to apply this to the virtual world. You should have two separate avatars. One you use from work; one you use from home. Do not link them in any way. Make it clear to people which one they should interact with depending on circumstances (e.g. your friend's avatar wants to have sex with your work avatar; if you even admit who you are you then you say "sorry I'm working. I'll be off later"); if it's the suit which is turning them on, then get another avatar dressed in a sharp suit too.

There are very clear legal differences between these different things. If I have my (legally copied) music on my card I can use privacy laws to limit the companies access to them during an audit (you still have to allow access if you want to demonstrate that you haven't been stealing company secrets, but you can make an agreement that they can't have any personal material). If I have the same stuff on a company computer I may actually have indulged in unlicensed copying because the act of putting it on the company computer from my personal media is copying/distribution (even if the music is CC-SA or some such, I may not in a position to agree to the CC-SA for the company). If you have material on your personal computer at home you have much more protection still. In the context of Avatars, as long as you do your best to maintain the separation, the very fact that your HR researched what other avatar you have in private life should already be a breach of privacy laws in any civilised country.

In that context, what's the difficulty with a dress policy for your work avatar? You should treat your work avatar as company property. Let them dispose of it as they wish. Do not share anything personal with a company unless you are a contractor with your own company (in which case nothing will save you from liability).

Re:Resigning Issue...

[k8to]

They're clean.
They're just not sterile.

And they are probably inappropriate in your industry.
But that doesn't make them unsanitary.

Business with an avatar?

[syousef]

Yeah that'll work. When's the last time you or your company did business via fucking avatar. Video conference MAYBE. Even then if money's involved it'll be in person, with signatures and handshakes. If you're wearing a fucking avatar you're not in business dress period...let alone when it's a slut in a toob top or a shirtless hippy guy.