New report warns of dangers of trashy avatars

I love the headline of this news article regarding recommendations that businesses using virtual worlds should develop policies with regards to use of avatars and dress codes when used for professional purposes. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10370382-36.html

I can understand the need for corporations to protect their image as more of them experiment with virtual worlds but the headline made me el oh el. Anyone have any real life experience they would care to share with respect to corporate guidelines and use of virtual worlds in this regard?

Just dress your Avie like you would attend an rl meeting, not like your going clubing. In other words, just use common sense.

So my crotchless chaps are out for the finance meeting?

Corporate policy dictates that you may only wear them in black leather and you must shave.

That depends on the kind of business meeting you usually attend in RL, I think.

I think virtual worlds are still new enough, at least to most people, that there is not enough of a common experience to develop common sense.

I can see a lot of people new to the medium just thinking, why would be on Second Life with this creative avatars available if we weren't expected to use them?

The line that made me think twice in the article is this:

"That means your avatar might want to lose the sparkly pink torpedo bra, metallic leggings, and giant bat wings. When it's representing your company, that is."

If your Profile indicates the company for which you are working, then you are _always_ representing your company.

Everyone that knows me, knows Immy... And that includes co-workers and my boss. (^_^)

Honestly, Immy is far more normal than my RL avatar. Nobody is surprised at all. (^_^)

Though.. If Immy were to meet ~my~ boss's avatar inworld... I'd expect her avatar to be quite a bit more clean cut. (^_^)y

Hmmmm... I wonder if she DOES have an avatar by now... =^-^=

Even in meat space, common sense doesn't seem to be all that common a lot of times.

I think there will be some interesting questions for corporations to think about as they develop policies on how they want their people to be represented in virtual worlds ... issues such as non-human forms, gender bending etc. I think a lot will start off very conservatively and likely go with uniforms of some sort if their avs are integrated with the public masses. One example that comes to mind was the manner in which the fairly successful Gossip Girl sims were run. All of the "mod squad" contracted by Warner Bros had very corporate looks with dark suit jackets, knee length skirts and prim and proper hair.

I can totally see the employees messing around with their avatars and not being able to revert back. There would be huge problems trying to customize avatars to look like the RL people. If you have employees do it themselves they'd likely make mistakes and if someone else made the avatars people might complain if they didn't look good.

I can see that as well, yet no one really wants to look like a clone if they were only given a limited set of shape, skin and clothing options. Yet on the other hand, if it was a free for all, I wonder if they'd have to eventually spell out policies like xyz sliders may not be larger than ...

I don't think it's unreasonable for a company to not want a meeting full of dragons, vampires, slave girls, and tinies. Maybe one idea would be for there to be a company issued av for meetings, given that at least some of the people are not going to want to carry their SL experience any further than inworld meetings, and if other people want to continue to create an SL persona they can have an alt for that purpose. So what if the corp ones look like an army of drones? I see no reason why a corporate av needs to be the same one someone is going to use to explore their fantasies after hours.

As we (the College I work for) are considering using SL for educational purposes, I have started to wonder how we would go about conducting classes inworld. The RL-school sort.

I can see it being somewhat distracting when the subject is machining or electrical conduits in a room full of tinies, furries, things with wings, blingtards, vampires and half-naked people.
Not only distracting but also lag-causing.

I came across an Australian university teaching pharmacological processes in SL where it appears that everyone had fairly noob looking avatars and all wore the same labcoat and pants. Probably the same outfit they'd wear at the RL school.

So, using some sort of "uniform" by handing out a package of some sort - I like the labcoat idea - would probably solve issues like that, for staff and, in cases like ours, clients.

While avatar creation is all about creativity and wanting to be seen, it's not the main focus of an RL business simulation and should be left at the door.

I have a friend who teaches inworld, and she was telling me about the experience of lecturing inworld to an audience of students that consisted almost exclusively of identical off-the-rack newbie avatars. She said it felt like teaching to a class drawn from the ranks of the Dawn of the Dead.

Shave WHAT?

"I felt a little foolish turning up to the board meeting in a Chuck Norris avatar, when the CEO arrived as a Red Dragon. But then again. Johnson from IT was some sort of R2D2, Fiona was up to her usual form, her sexy reptile domonatrix look would get her out of this months poor Transport department efficiency report. Thompson the new sales manager looked uneasy in his Noobie avatar sitting in the noticibly blackened and melted chair of his predesessor, this wasn't mentioned in the job interview and his first months figures weren't that good. But what the hell was going on with Peterson from Accounts with the Sexy Submissive PlayVixen Avatar?"

happy halloween btw

Yeah, like that. Except not as well dressed . . .

Must remember to remove neko tail when online conferencing.

(Scylla: That is my Fav movie - I carry it on my iPhone)

Your razor; your imagination.

--
Aes

Personally, I have zero problems talking business with any avatar. However, a lot of folks are put-off when talking business with me and I'm all jungle boy. When I'm on business, I clean up and put my spear away. Makes business easier because folks are like that.

Us nekos, kitsunes, and kids are ok though, right?

This is another example of a corporate culture trying to impose RL standardds on SL rather than adapting to the environment. You can see that in the places that have tried to advertise here ... the ones that saw SL as 'just a 3d website we can splash ads on' died off quickly, meanwhile the ones that provided useful content stuck around for a bit.

As an example of a common SL meeting, look at the office hours. Not only are many of the attendees wearing all sorts of AVs, sometimes even the Lindens (Blue, Torley, etc). While that may be a bit much for a company, I would suggest their AV be a bit more 'normal looking' than a scantily dressed BDSM slave, but not to the extreme of 'all AVs must be human avatars between 1.75 and 2 metres tall and only wearing suits'.

Ack! I would literally feel naked without my kitsune tail. I even have both stomach-attach and pelvis-attach versions in case a skirt or belt absolutely needs to use one or the other. Not to mention a nonscripted neko tail if I am told to remove all scripted attachments.

Business or pleasure, I'm a dragon / reptile of one sort or another. If anyone's got problems with me, that's their loss. Anyone who sets out preconditions as regards appearance is shutting the door on themselves.

Let's face it, it's all about power, control, domination, yada, yada when person A insists on person B having a 'sensible' haircut, clothes, manner, political affiliation,religious affiliation, sexuality, lifestyle, etc. What they're really saying is that they're unimaginitive inadequates who can't cope with anyone or anything outside of a very narrow range of what they believe to be normal / acceptable / whatever. The only reason they get away with it is because person B needs them for employment / security or whatever.

The answer is to learn how to turn the tables on these control freaks [or sociopaths to use the correct definition]. If you can't make them see sense, walk away. Jobs are like buses: there will be another one along in 5 minutes and you're under no obligation to ride a bus simply because it pulls up and stops.

A good site for learning how to spot and deal with sociopaths: http://www.bullyonline.org/

Do people really still go to the office in starched collars and their Sunday best anymore? (O.o)

This whole conversation is sounding quite funky to me. Really, I don't see anything in all of PG SL that would cause trouble in a business networking environment. I mean... Why are we trying to slink back to 1950's ideals of business "attire"... (o.O)

Myself... I wear chains, a padlock, calf high glossy red lace-up boots, and have one EVIL head of hair down to the middle of my back. I've been known to streak colors into it once in a while. (^_^)

My lead technician has more tattoos than he has skin. (^_^)

My senior tech is a skinny Chinese boy with manga hair and a thing for ripped clothing. (^_^)

And, my boss... Well, she spotted me yesterday while I was logged in to SL at lunch time...



... commented that THIS is "adorable"!!! XD

Hey! It's a uniform, ain't it? (^_^)y

Immy, if I was your boss I would be CURIOUS AS HELL about what you get up to in SL.
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