The Evolution of the Virtual Workplace: Manpower in Second Life

Linden Lab, the company that owns Second Life, just posted this video, "The Evolution of the Virtual Workplace." I collaborated on this video with Linden Lab and ILL Clan Animation Studios.

My company, Dancing Ink Productions, has been collaborating with Manpower Inc. on issues related to virtual work since 2007. DIP produced the event depicted in this video. The exploration of Second Life is one aspect of Manpower's work in this area. I've been consistently impressed with the senior leadership at Manpower's adaptive and visionary approach to virtual work.

I also collaborate with Linden Lab on advancing awareness of what can be accomplished in Second Life for business enterprise groups. For the past year I've been working on case studies to document projects like Northrop Grumman's Cutlass Robot, which disarms real-world bombs, the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration's simulated ocean from equator to poles, and the Children's Memorial Hospital Chicago, which conducts full scale evacuations in a mirror build with health care practitioners training in a variety of lifesaving ways. The number of sophisticated, creative projects in Second Life with real world benefit is staggering.

I couldn't have imagined in November 2006 when I first went into Second Life to track down IBM scientists and researchers around the world that I'd still be working in this platform and still amazed in 2010. As Innovator-in-Residence at the Analytics Virtual Center, directing the Smarter Work project, I am committed to virtual work for the benefit of a new global culture and economy in the Imagination Age. Virtual work is not about stepping away from the physical world. It's about including the people with the skills necessary to create new opportunities, systems and careers.

And it works.