I've been traveling a bit lately. Recently I was sent to Switzerland to speak at the Food and Beverage conference, and then earlier this week I was up at Boston where Involve helped produce a panel (as well as the overall streaming) of the Connected Health conference.
It struck me that the two industries have very different ideas about virtual worlds.
When I spoke to the Food and Beverage people, it was mostly CEOs and heads of marketing departments. They had heard of Second Life, though they weren't really familiar with the term "virtual world". More than half had Facebook accounts and/or MySpace accounts, and were familiar with social networking, however few if any had Second Life or virtual worlds accounts.
They knew they should be exploring Second Life, and were extremely cautious. They'd heard all of the negative press, the rumors, the hype, and weren't sure what to believe. They asked tough questions, wanted hard numbers to prove virtual worlds were worthwhile. One-on-one, they were easier to persuade, and had interesting ideas on where virtual worlds could go. Still, they asked about security, the darker side of Second Life, limitations, and all the sorts of questions that are important, but miss the bigger picture: virtual worlds are just like the Internet, there are bad things and good things there.
The Health care industry was very different. Most had heard of different virtual worlds. Many had Second Life accounts, and a bunch of them were already working in Second Life or a colleague was. They had ideas on how to do remote care via virtual worlds, a good part due to remote care being an important topic that's come up in the last decade in general. There was even an organization there that sold robots with video screens for heads where doctors could visit a patient remotely. Kind of.
They also were very aware that nothing could replace real presence. I had one conversation where a person talked about how a doctor friend of his was expert in the Da Vinci robotic surgery tool said it was tricky doing it without tactile sensation. We chatted about how even that technology is being developed.
But the industry got it - they were very augmentationist (Metaverse extends the Internet, not replaces it) and wanted to gain expertise. They didn't need numbers as much as the Food and Beverage industry because it seemed to already be part of their long-term plans.
Overall, it was interesting to me to see two different industries react so differently to a common technology. I wonder if anyone can comment here about how other industries see virtual worlds?
10/24/2007
Different Industries Viewing the Metaverse
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