January 11th, 2007
In Second Life, "knowledge collisions" really do happen
It is often said that software (email, chat, web conferencing, etc) can't reproduce "water cooler conversations". These are where people bump into each other unplanned, and this "knowledge collision" results in a valuable sharing of information.
There are still many questions about the business value of virtual worlds, so I wanted to share a true "collaborative experience" I had this week in Second Life.
I was walking around the IBM islands trying to see what was there. Using the Second Life map, I could see that there were a few people gathered in a certain IBM building so I decided to walk. The building was a recreation of an office building, complete with offices and meeting rooms. I walked into one of the offices to find a fellow IBMer (I'll call him Dylan) sitting behind their desk working. I said a quick hello not wanting to interrupt. They said hello back, and started a quick conversation. Being polite, after a few sentences Dylan stood up and walked over to me to carry on our conversation.
In Second Life, much like the real world, if you are close to a public conversation that is taking place you can "hear it". Some of Dylan's employees "heard" our conversation, and came over to join in. We chatted for a few minutes, and it became apparent that this impromptu meeting was a good one that we should carry on. Dylan suggested we take a seat on some couches in his office, and we continued to talk for several minutes.
At the end of the meeting, we had a quick "cheers" to celebrate the brain storming work we had done.
This was an amazing experience. The odds are very low that I would have met these people in the real world. I also would not have started a random chat with them via instant messaging. The emersive nature of virtual worlds allowed me to meet, interact, and benefit from a conversation with fellow IBMers that otherwise would not have happened. These type of "knowledge accidents" don't have to be with people from just your own company, they could be with customers, partners, and even potential new customers. This story is not marketing hype, that is an actual encounter from my real life. I'm hooked.
