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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.'"
I'd resign if anyone tried to tell me what to wear in the real world, never mind the virtual. I've never worked at a company with a dress code and I never will. Not because I have an aversion to looking smart, but because that kind of control is normally just the tip of the iceberg.
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were not talking personal avatars/twitters etc, thats a seperate, more difficult problem.
this is about representing a company, situations like gaming with developers, company islands in second life, twitter feeds for businesses. situations where an employee is representing their organisation on an official level in a digital context.
i think the same company office policy should simply extend to the online realm. in second life you avatars dress code should reflect the dress code of the business, same with behavior, etc.
for example i apply a simmilar policy to my work mobile. no custom tones or backgrounds, it uses a generic ringtone and the company logo as the background, no good sitting down to a meeting with a client and having the "crazy frog" or star wars theme start blaring out of my phone.
Gartner gets so many things wrong, so much of the time, why should this be any different?
The day someone tells me how to dress is the day they find out that they can't tell me how to dress.
As long as it's clean, presentable, and isn't festooned with slogans promoting criminal acts or competitors' products, it's simply not their business.
And it's not like an avatar is going to have to abide by safety codes like "hard hats required beyond this point".
If your company is depending on avatars to try to hide the fact that "Bob" in customer support in Idaho is really "Bashir" in New Dehli, it ain't gonna work.
My avatar is a grey squirrel, you insensitive clod.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
"casual friday" for avatars.
Bill Lumbergh: Oh, and remember: next Friday... is Hawaiian shirt day. So, you know, if you want to, go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans.
totally fucking stupid
Facebook is the new AOL
You should probably not google doug winger if your in work (and what is seen cannot be unseen) O_O
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).
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
This was my first thought. I don't think they've ever done anything intelligent in 15 years. That whole "analyst" gig sounds like a scam.
At an old company I was at, Gartner gave us a huge boost in their ratings and ranked us top in the field, and the only thing we had done differently was start a new marketing campaign. The product hadn't changed at all, the customers hadn't changed their opinions. There was rumor that we also paid them off, but I suspect that someone was just doing their "analysis" by reading industry magazines and press releases.
My company requires me to maintain a rank 8 on my warlock.
ASL?
It's pretty much standard issue for a pool attendant.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
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.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer