Newsmaker: IBM's virtual pioneer

(continued from previous page)

BeauZeau Zhao (question from audience): Does (Second Life company) Linden Lab consult with IBM on their freaking database?
Wladawsky-Berger: We have some conversations with the Lindens, but not much. It is something (on which) we would like to collaborate with them more, especially in the area of standards and open source. I think it would be very good to get the various virtual-world communities to participate in efforts to define standards and to define what it means to interoperate across virtual worlds--something that needs lots of innovation.

Colby Hill (question from audience): Thinking way out there, how do you think virtual worlds could impact society even beyond business?
Wladawsky-Berger: I see huge potential in learning and training. It gets back to my point that visual interfaces are broadband and perhaps easier for many more people to absorb information through them. Perhaps we can make major changes in how to teach kids of all sorts, including kids with disabilities and kids from poorer communities who might be disadvantaged in very text-oriented styles of teaching.

There are probably people out there with good ideas about standards. We need them to come forth and start collaborating.

Tommy Oz (question from audience): What do you think the role of open source will be in this new emerging system?
Wladawsky-Berger: We need to have open-sourced the major layers of commonality we want across virtual worlds--say, the equivalent of Apache (open-source Web server software) that runs on all platforms and lets them interoperate at some level. It's the same with tools. It would be nice, perhaps, to have avatars be portable so your avatar can attend an event in some other virtual world. That is all stuff that needs to be worked out.

GreeterDan Godel (CNET News.com reporter Daniel Terdiman): So there are applications in Second Life, but what about return on investment? What does IBM see as the long-term ROI?
Wladawsky-Berger: I think about ROI here the way I did (with the) Internet and e-business. If you unleash lots of creativity and innovation, people will invent lots of new stuff. Most of it we cannot predict at this time, just like we could not have predicted e-business in 1995. I am comfortable that the more new stuff gets invented, the more we can sell systems, software and services--that is, the kind of stuff we and others in IT do.

Chalmerswayne Kondo (question from audience): Does IBM see any e-commerce with end-user consumers/services clients in Second Life?
Wladawsky-Berger: Absolutely! I think that the e-commerce paradigms today are pretty much "catalog"-based, which very nicely fits the text orientation of the Web and Web pages. But with virtual worlds, you open up commerce to virtual stores of all sorts, where you walk around and see the merchandise, and you can have expert sales clerks assist you if you have any questions, much as happens in FL (first life--in other words, the real world).

I think Second Life and similar virtual worlds will open up lots of interesting opportunities for e-commerce to become more visual and to include people as sales help.

HatHead Rickenbacker (question from audience): Is it too early to begin defining standards for virtual worlds? Does more exploring need to be done first?
Wladawsky-Berger: We need to very much start defining standards. I suspect that it will take us a while because we need the research to be done, but we have to start now and see where it leads us. There are probably people out there with good ideas about standards. We need them to come forth and start collaborating.

Chalmerswayne Kondo: When, if ever, will IBM require some employees to have avatars (for virtual training, etc.)?
Wladawsky-Berger: Good question. We are not there yet. Right now, there is a volunteer community that participates in Second Life, but over time, that could change. If we start holding more and more meetings in Second Life and teaching courses, then people will have to have an avatar. I cannot predict when that will happen.

Chalmerswayne Kondo: How many (IBM employees) have avatars and use them for work now?
Wladawsky-Berger: I think that there are close to 1,000 people in our Second Life community now active and perhaps several thousand who have avatars that are not very active. It is very much in an experimental stage now. Having our CEO, Sam Palmisano, jump into Second Life during our recent Beijing meeting helps a lot in legitimizing this kind of activity within IBM.

Orlander Lucerne (question from audience): What do you view as the greatest opportunity presented by Second Life? Gaming/entertainment, research, marketing, societal development through social networking or something else?
Wladawsky-Berger: I think these are all very important. For Second Life itself, I think it is virtual meetings and collaboration, since this is the nature of the platform. Other virtual-world platforms--for example, World of Warcraft--are more designed for gaming, and others have to emerge for more "serious" business and professional applications with far better security and scalability.

HatHead Rickenbacker (question from audience): Will people have to maintain a separate avatar for personal use (so that the IBM code of ethics isn't in effect)?
Wladawsky-Berger: Very interesting question. I have wondered whether we will have different avatars for business and informal use. I have only one avatar. As you see, is not very imaginative at all--it sort of looks like me.

Certainly, many of us have separate e-mail addresses, but we don't have separate human bodies.
Wladawsky-Berger: Every so often, I don a suit and tie like I did for the Beijing meeting with Sam. Most of the time, I walk around in my informal baseball shirt. For people who have more fanciful avatars, they will likely have something more "modest" for business meetings.

HatHead Rickenbacker (question from audience): But not a nightie, if you know what I mean. ;)
Wladawsky-Berger: I suspect that a nightie is not good business apparel--probably not even informal apparel with friends in general. So it becomes a matter of common sense. I suspect that we will (base) Second Life code of etiquette on the first-life code of etiquette. I honestly find these kinds of human learnings the most fascinating--what works and what does not.  

More Newsmakers