Virtual World Administrators: Service Requests in Cyberspace

  By Daniel Margolis —

Regardless, virtual worlds will likely grow into a more prominent presence in our lives. “With any new technology, initially humans use it in an old way,” Bower said. “So, 99 percent of the Web sites out there are basically flat 2-D books or magazines. Computers are not limited to that.” According to Bower, a growing contingent believes that within 10 years, the entirety of the Internet will consist of virtual worlds. Bower holds this prediction to two-thirds of the Internet.

“There are kinds of information that it just makes sense to get in flat form, for example if you’re doing a known item search,” Bower said.

But he believes large stores such as Home Depot will move over to being represented online by virtual worlds. “All their stores are the same; there’s no reason why their Web site shouldn’t be a virtual version of their store,” he said.

According to Bower, migration to virtual worlds has the potential to change not just e-commerce, but advertising as well. “What virtual worlds provide, and not very many of them understand this yet, is a way to engage users more deeply than any other form of media,” Bower said. “As we become aware of that, advertising should no longer be ‘How many eyeballs watched a 30-second slot,’ it should be ‘How many brains are involved in an activity’ at the level of hours, days and months. Then, because that’s driving advertising and marketing, it’s going to drive the growth of virtual worlds.

“For that reason, it’s a growth industry for people who know how to build and manage these things.”

– Daniel Margolis, dmargolis@certmag.com