Business week has an interesting article “The End Of Work As You Know It -
Increasing connectivity will change how and where we labor—even the very notion of an employer”

The article mentions upcoming Virtual World SIG presenter Seriosity and also touches on augmented reality, Mechanical Turk, telepresence, and distributed workforces. We have discussed it in virtual world circles before but it’s the first big publication mention I have seen of how work processes could be deconstructed, distributed, and completed by contractors working around the world.

I’ve also tossed around the idea that work processes themselves could be deconstructed. For example: the task of identifying a tumor on an x-ray could be represented as a map or other image and then “acted upon” or spotted by a player (contractor) for a digital currency reward. Couldn’t other data manipulation tasks be abstracted as well? I can imagine a future of monotonous data entry or auditing being accomplished by a workforce that only viewed the data as “a game” or as elements in a virtual world. The source data would be even be somewhat encrypted by virtue of this “virtualization”. Great things to consider as we continue to redefine “virtual worlds” as they emerge.

Let’s continue the discussion at the upcoming SIG and I’ll also be speaking on the topic at the Virtual Worlds 2007 conference enterprise track where SDForum will have a presence with a booth and a VC forum.

Book discussed in the article:

The Future of Work

Just announced from SDForum: 

SDForum members get 10% off on the current registration rate, ($60 off the $595 price or after August 24, 2007, $80 off the $795 price), for the Virtual Worlds Fall Conference. October 10-11, 2007, San Jose
The Virtual Worlds Fall Conference

Virtual Worlds Fall is dedicated to helping businesses harness the power of virtual worlds to engage with their customers, partners and employees. The event follows the highly successful Virtual Worlds Spring Conference which took place in New York in March.

The conference has five primary tracks: Entertainment and Marketing; Virtual Worlds for the Enterprise; Business Strategy and Investment; Community and Customer Service; and Design and Development. Leading companies will be showcasing the latest technologies and services at the Virtual Worlds Expo.

Please email Bridget DiMambro to get the discount code for the 10% off on the current registration rate,.

REGISTER NOW at http://www.virtualworlds2007.com/,

San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, CA

Registration/More Information

TechCrunch.com has posted a roundup of Virtual Worlds they visited.

The post is here: virtual world hangouts-so many to choose from

They also include a matrix summarizing some qualities of the worlds, which is similar to the chart by Virtual Worlds News located here.

So now with so many worlds getting online, the question will be shifting to: Which worlds for which users?  Which functions work for which users? And on to the next generation of all of these worlds. That’s the purpose of the Virtual World SIG to sort these things out for investors, companies and users.
It’s good to see virtual worlds getting attention, as of course MRO thinks that they are a model for many elements that will form the future of the metaverse.

Aug. 27 join us for a discussion of the latest virtual currency to hit your inbox.

-MRO