Mobile Virtual Worlds Emerge

There are so many communications companies pushing products and services revolving around virtual worlds, one wonders if we are about to see a new subset of communications break out and achieve mass appeal like VoIP, the iPhone or Blackberry. Do...

Posted on June 4, 2008 4:55 PM

One More Reason To Vacation in the Bahamas

Recently the Bahamas Telecom Company (BTC) decided to migrate its existing countrywide wireline network to IP using Sonus and Calix gear. The move to IP will reduce the amount of equipment that needs managing and in addition, the Bahamian phone...

Posted on June 1, 2008 7:07 PM

Post Memorial Day Communications Update

It has been a long weekend for many in the US as the weather these past few days was fantastic and based on the level of incoming e-mail I received, it seems many in the tech and telecom industries took...

Posted on May 27, 2008 3:54 PM

Virtual Worlds, The Future of Communications

I am here at Nortel R&D headquarters in Ottawa, Canada where the Nortel incubation team is showing us a bunch of the latest technologies they are working on in the labs. This is the first day the media has...

Posted on May 15, 2008 10:17 AM

Second Life Meets the Call Center

You have heard me discuss how contact centers could connect with virtual worlds and moreover how virtual worlds could connect with e-commerce. One of my most recent posts is titled Virtual Customer Interactions and in this post I give an...

Posted on April 11, 2008 3:42 PM

Virtual Customer Interactions

This is my next Customer Interaction Solutions High Priority column. If memory serves it will be the October, 2007 issue. As often happens this will be the unedited version. If this is of any interest be sure to subscribe digitally...

Posted on August 25, 2007 7:20 PM

Now it seems Mary K. Pratt at ComputerWorld has jumped on the bandwagon as well and although the article she writes doesn't imply the transition to virtual worlds and avatars will happen overnight, I see this coverage as continuing evidence that a shift could be in the works. Certainly avatars on an iPhone make sense as the screen can handle it. Computers can handle it as well. Skype is a natural platform for such an experience since most conversations take place at a computer already.

I know my kids are fascinated by avatars used in conjunction with Skype and it seems just a matter of time before they become popular enough to use at work. IBM has them for their Second Life island so there doesn't seem to be a stigma attached to using them for corporate initiatives.