One company is using a Second Life-type of virutal world to train their employees. Silicon Image, a chip manufacturer, has a virtual world that represents its corporate campus and allows employees to interact with each other using 3-dimensional characters. Videos and slideshows are available within this virtual world, which supplement live classroom training. Employees can move through this virtual world, enter different departments, and play videos to learn more about what is done in that department.
This may seem a little strange to us, but Silicon Image says this keeps employees interested in learning. The technology isn't cheap - virtual world training usually costs $60,000-$300,000 to set up. However, since Silicon Image is an early adopter, they received a speical discount.
It's hard to imagine being trained in a virtual environment. I think I prefer the real-life version. But it will be interesting to see if and how fast this catches on. I think that as Second Life becomes more popular and mainstream, we will see the ramifications of this in other areas, including more companies engaging in corporate virtual training.
Artricle:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120717370600584599.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
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