U.S. employment attorney and HR consultant Dave Elchoness has launched a "virtual reality workplace" company called VRWorkplace. The company has a Boulder, CO facility, but operates out of Second Life, leasing, designing and constructing spaces for business use on the Second Life grid. VRWorkplace is also offering consulting services for businesses on virtual worlds strategies.
The company's Second Life facility currently includes office and meeting space, an amphitheater, coffee house, and, of all things, an amusement park -- everyone needs break time, one supposes.
Elchoness says he founded the company after running global IT outsourcing and noticing the challenges. He commented, "Geographically separated teams and client bases are increasingly the norm. Until now, we've used air travel, telephone, and other technologies to help us with distance. But there's nothing like virtual worlds technology to bring people together. Having a virtual workplace reduces air travel and improves workplace collaboration because virtual worlds offer one-of-a-kind shared experiences. With VRWorkplace, coworkers 10,000 physical miles apart can meet in a virtual 'hallway,' conference room or coffee shop, any time they like. It's what we call 'remote togetherness.'"
Comments (1)
Thanks for the mention. Actually the amusement park is for more than break time. In a virtual world, you can work pretty much anywhere you like. Perhaps you're most creative in an amusement park. Or maybe you like meeting in an underwater conference area as fish swim by and swans float overhead (we've got one of those too.) Why not construct spaces that capture the imagination and mood in a way the real world cannot?
Posted by Dave Elchoness | January 15, 2008 12:09 AM
Posted on January 15, 2008 00:09