Second Life: The Business Case for HR

Second Life: The BusinessCase for HR in the Virtual World

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Should I be worried about it? Should MY organization be there? Why would we??

What IS this?? Is it a game??Who ARE these people that spend their time and MONEY there – and what the heck do they DO there?

How is it different than MySpace or Facebook?Should I let my kids be on it? Should I

let my EMPLOYEES use it?Isn’t it just a big WASTE of time?

I heard someone made $1M in Second Life…say it isn’t so?

Is it SAFE? Is it secure?

4Sources: Business Week April 2006, The Economist. Living a Second Life, Sept. 28, 2006

Second Life is some unholy offspring of the movie The Matrix, the social

networking site MySpace and the online marketplace eBay.

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Tony O’Driscoll, aka

Wada Tripp

Duke University Professor of the Practice,

Fuqua School of Business

6Source: Joe Miller. Linden Lab

All Data: (Industry, Job Level, Company Size, # Learners Impacted)

16 Million Members1.1 Million Active Residents350,000 Hours of Use Per Day87,500 Hours Development Time/Day$1.6 B worth of Free Work per Year163 Virtual Square Miles (5X Boston)520,000 Unique Items traded/Month

Clearly if social activity migrates to synthetic worlds, economic activity will go there as well. Castranova

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81% of the business population age 34 or younger are gamers 56 million are old enough to be employees 7 million are already managers in the current workforce

Sources: Merrill Lynch 1999, Beck and Wade, Got Game., Prensky, Digital Game Based Learning

Digital ImmigrantsDigital Natives

The new generation is huge, 90 million people in the US alone. Already there are more of them around than there

are baby boomers. Beck and Wade

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9Source: e-Learning Guild

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By the end of 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users (and Fortune 500 enterprises) will have a “second life”, but not necessarily in Second Life,

Steve PrenticeGartner

Source: Gartner Consulting, IBM EBO

3D DigitalDomains

3Di ValueDrivers

Metaverse IntraverseInterverse

Collaboration

Commerce Learning

Web 1.0 Analogue B2B B2EB2C

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Dr. Robin Teigland, aka

Karinda Rhode

Stockholm School of Economics

Associate Professor

Photo: Henry Lundholm , Metro

What companies are striving for…

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. - Steve Jobs, Apple

Our competitive advantage is our ability to attract talented people to collaborate and innovate together. - Aleksander Farstad, eZ Systems

The goal is to always build a diverse group of people – good decisions are a result of diverse people coming together examining every point of view in a deliberate process and then making a decision. - Carly Fiorina

The rate at which individuals and organizations learn may become the only sustainable competitive advantage, especially in knowledge-intensive industries. - Ray Stata, Analog Devices

While we know what to do….

13Network picture from http://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/blog/?m=200712

HierarchyHierarchyLinear, static, process-Linear, static, process-

based organizationbased organization

HierarchyHierarchyLinear, static, process-Linear, static, process-

based organizationbased organization

HeterarchyHeterarchyDynamic, integrated Dynamic, integrated

collaboration networks collaboration networks

HeterarchyHeterarchyDynamic, integrated Dynamic, integrated

collaboration networks collaboration networks

…….getting there is hard to do!!.getting there is hard to do!!

Communication still occurs primarily within formal silos

Stockholm

London

Brussels

Helsinki

MadridCopenhagen

Teigland 2003

San Francisco

Creativity and innovation come from Creativity and innovation come from individuals spanning diverse networksindividuals spanning diverse networks

Firm AFirm A

HighHighcreativecreative

Low Low on-timeon-time

HighHighon-timeon-time Low Low

creative creative

Teigland 2003Teigland 2003

HighHighcreativecreative

VirtualVirtualcommunitycommunity

Firm BFirm B

BA

Two employees with the same number of contacts…

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…but with very different access to resources

BA

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The challenge!

When people are more than 50 feet apart, the likelihood of them collaborating more than once a week is less than 10%.

Our networks tend to be homogeneous – we tend to develop relations with people like ourselves.

The higher the diversity of team members, the higher the potential for conflict and poor results.

Our biggest challenge!– Enabling our employees to live up to our motto of “share

your information”– With people at 9 different locations

– From 22 different nationalities– CEO, eZ Software (open source content management )

Allen 1984, Burt 1992, Marsden 1987, Ruuska & Teigland 2003Allen 1984, Burt 1992, Marsden 1987, Ruuska & Teigland 2003

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VWs help overcome these challenges

Unilever uses SL to bring together Unilever uses SL to bring together individuals working with Dove across the individuals working with Dove across the

world world

Finding and connecting with peopleFinding and connecting with peopleBuilding communitiesBuilding communitiesSharing information and knowledgeSharing information and knowledgeSolving problems and finding Solving problems and finding solutionssolutionsLearning informallyLearning informally

Overcoming diversity challenges Overcoming diversity challenges through creating collective through creating collective competencecompetence

Shared understandingShared understandingShared language, normsShared language, norms

External networks are growing in importance!

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Other people around the world

Other employes around the world

Other employees in your country

Co-Workers

Friends

You

AlexEyal

Your managerRami’s manager

Hila

YaronYuval

Eduardo

Ed

Muriel

Peter

Frequent e-mails

Infrequent e-mails

Web 2.0 Collaboration

Large portion of Large portion of new ideasnew ideas and formal and formal collaboration relationships come from collaboration relationships come from external external contactscontacts

Large portion of Large portion of new ideasnew ideas and formal and formal collaboration relationships come from collaboration relationships come from external external contactscontacts

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China is making big efforts in Virtual Worlds!

•A “virtual economy district A “virtual economy district – a world where millions – a world where millions will work, communicate, will work, communicate, and be in love”and be in love”

•Reaching out to the 150 Reaching out to the 150 mln overseas Chinesemln overseas Chinese

•7 million inworld at same 7 million inworld at same timetime

•Five virtual banking Five virtual banking licenses licenses auctioned for $404,000 auctioned for $404,000

www.crd.gov.cn, www.foreignpolicy.com

“The real China is only a piece of land. We believe that there must be a China in the virtual world and the real world.”Robert Lai, Chief Scientist, CRD

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HSB is creating tomorrow’s solution while attracting employees and customers today

Building the house of the futureBuilding the house of the futurein a competition with architecture studentsin a competition with architecture students

HSB: One of Sweden’s largest real HSB: One of Sweden’s largest real estate management companiesestate management companies

So, what does all this mean?

Organizations have to develop their networks globally - both inside and out

Organizations have to leverage social media − To win the war for talent − To innovate for competitive advantage

Organizations have to cultivate an open, knowledge sharing culture

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If you love knowledge, set it free…

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Chuck Hamilton, aka

Longg Weeks

IBM Learning and New Media

Program Manager - IBM 3D Internet Team

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Convergence In Virtual Spaces

mentoring

Green Data Center

SOA Training

Play is how we principally learn and principally create" Ray Kurzweil

many tochoose from

IBMLotus Tools

BMW Training

Media

BrainThinking

Application across IBM’s HCM Lifecycle

• Second Life Recruiting Center – Themed Zones, Education and Meeting Spaces, etc

• 3DI On-boarding and Orientation

• 3DI Learning Experience Spaces in Multiple Environments

• 3DI Business Rehearsal and Testing

• 3DI Virtual Career Portal

• Virtual Workplace for Employees

Collaborationand Portals

WorkforceManagement

Learning andDevelopment

PerformanceManagement

Collaborationand Portals

WorkforceManagement

Learning andDevelopment

PerformanceManagement

Enabling enterprise

innovation and performance

through improved workforce

effectiveness

Enabling enterprise

innovation and performance

through improved workforce

effectiveness

• Virtual Workplace for Employees

• Career – Fast Forward Zone Meeting Space

• Expertise and Event Collaboration

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At your tables…

What potential applications of this technology do you see within your organization? What might it replace? What might it add that you don’t have now?

What obstacles do you see to venturing into this space?

What questions does this raise for you as you think about your job in 5 years’ time? What other questions do you have for our presenters?

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Take 20 minute break

…and come back for the panel

Steve Mahaley, Director of Learning Technology, Duke Corporate Education

[email protected]

Ace Carson in SL

Tony O’Driscoll, Professor of the Practice, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

[email protected]

Wada Tripp in SL

Robin Teigland, Associate Professor, Stockholm School of Economics

•[email protected]

•Karinda Rhode in SL

Chuck Hamilton, Learning and New Media Program Manager - IBM 3D Internet Team

[email protected]

Longg Weeks in SL