Whitespace: Enterprising avatars - virtual reality in the workplace

Issue 57: January 2010

It's official. James Cameron's Avatar is now the highest grossing film in Australian box office history. Clearly the story of a wheelchair-bound former solider taking on a virtual reality personality, or avatar, to fight the bad guys has captured the nation's imagination.

While Avatar is a clearly work of science fiction, what if the possibilities it so elegantly presents spilled over into the business world? Could lead character Jake Sully not just shape the future of the fictional world of Pandora but also influence the real-life world of work?

This month's Whitespace investigates the adoption of avatars in business-focused virtual worlds, a development some believe is a workplace eventuality.

Closer than you think?

The film Avatar may be set in the future but for many firms small 'a' avatars are part of the here and now. According to the Harvard Business Review, an impressive collection of organisations – including BP, Boeing, Wells Fargo and IBM – currently encourage the use of virtual worlds at work.

It's claimed avatars are being embraced for staff recruitment, training, brainstorming, conferences, meetings and teambuilding exercises in established virtual worlds like Second Life or private worlds developed using applications like Project Wonderland or ReactionGrid.

Stanford University communication researcher Bryon Reeves believes the reason why avatars are edging towards their tipping point is that game-like environments have the potential to address a number of real-world problems.

An obvious benefit of performing collaborative work activities using avatars is that it's often cheaper to meet virtually than physically. It's also a greener approach that reduces the greenhouse gas footprints left behind by globe trotting professionals.

But ultimately the main advantage of avatar-based communication revolves around mental stimulation. According to Reeves the killer application of avatars, its 'secret sauce', is fun.

Fun + immersion = engagement

Speaking recently to the Stanford Report, Reeves claims: "For a lot of jobs right now, work sucks. It's boring. It's repetitive. It's dull. The tools that we've been giving people to do their jobs are not particularly engaging even though we know engagement at work is necessary and valuable for job productivity and satisfaction."

By comparison avatars can provide a more immersive way for employees to perform routine duties with Reeves' research indicating that people's hearts beat faster and their brains work harder when controlling a virtual self. The fun aspect is derived from the innate sense of creativity or even fantasy exhibited in virtual worlds.

Of course there's bound to be some resistance to the idea of fun and gaming at work. But this attitude may soon be a dated one when avatar use reaches its predicted critical mass. Recent studies suggest virtual world populations are booming with market research firm Strategy Analytics estimating that 640 million people will inhabit virtual worlds by 2015.

The next big thing? Really?

The latest predictions about the enterprise opportunities of virtual worlds are nothing new. A few years ago Second Life was receiving a lot of media hype with companies like Telstra pouring funds into virtual world marketing before realizing the people behind the avatars simply weren't interested in sales pitches.

Selling products in Second Life may not have been so successful to date yet activities such as training and collaboration are still bubbling along quietly and, as a result of their low development and use costs, could be worth experimenting with.

As Bryon Reeves notes, in the modern enterprise 'work' is not necessarily the opposite of 'fun'. So why not have a little? You never know, maybe some of James Cameron's success will rub off on your organisation's collaborative processes.

Whitespace is published monthly by the Australian Institute of Management - Qld & NT. Sign up to have a copy sent direct to your mailbox.