Virtual Worlds; Second Life, Sony at Home

Second life and Sony at home are virtual 3d gaming worlds where users create avatars in which they can interact with other avatars. One can immerse themselves in a world where they can chat, play games, build spaces, and find communities and express individual ideas globally.

These immersive virtual spaces have penetrated mainstream society and for those who have access to a computer, using these virtual settings are particularly effective in replacing and extending the abilities of modern real-time collaboration systems.

This concept of virtuality in both these two programs, encourage the exploration of ideas through simulated communication. As they relate to a new digital experience, the shared virtual experience puts all users on an equal playing field. Race, sex, age and creeds are left behind for any variety of interactive collaboration to develop.

They are in fact, social systems, where any sort of interaction can occur. These networks allow for virtual relationships and encourage communication through IM chatting and VoIP.
Second Life and Sony at Home interactions can replace real meetings and collaboration to some extent. Besides benefits such as cost and time saving, there is another very important advantage. Being a public space creates opportunity for a wider range of participation and hence ideas. Innovative and additional solutions can result simply because of more participants.

What these programs lack however is its use in collaborating files and transferring of documents, fundamental in business collaboration. But their main advantage is there ability to enable online collaboration in forms of conferences, training and meetings. Collaborating simultaneously, that’s the key concept of such programs as SL and Playstation at Home.
Creating content, consuming content and communicating all at the same time. Mirroring how people like to interact and exchange ideas in the real world.