Acquiring a professional "Second Life:" problems and prospects for the use of virtual worlds in business

The current surge of interest in virtual worlds suggests they are poised to make an evolutionary leap to the workplace, as instant messaging did a decade ago. In recent work we have introduced dozens of new users to teambuilding activities in the Second Life® environment, meeting both enthusiasm and skepticism. We document five issues for professional users of virtual environments: initial motivation, technical difficulties, interacting competently, becoming socially proficient, and finding compelling activities. Based on these we describe a training strategy to enable professional users of virtual worlds.