IBM Creates a Virtual "Rehearsal Studio"

IBM says this science fiction is now approaching reality with new innovative technology from its Research team.

Cast members, orchestras and football teams all practice -- or rehearse -- on a regular basis to improve their performance as a team. Research shows that most people learn most of their required skills on-the-job rather than classrooms.

How much more confident and successful would you be if you could rehearse your response to your toughest job challenges and then see the outcome of your decisions?

An eclectic group of IBM researchers -- including virtual worlds experts and ethnographers -- have built a software program in Second Life that allows its IBM services professionals to learn high-level skills with their teammates. They can perform "what-if" analysis, such as creating excess inventory and sourcing different suppliers.

Using avatars in a virtual world empowers the participants to take more risks, test their judgment and see the results of their decisions quickly—compressing many months of learning in days.

It's not hard to imagine that sometime in the future this in-house learning tool could be customized for a broad-range of difficult-to-learn capabilities as medical surgery or financial negotiations.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• IBM
• 3dinternet
• virtual
• worlds
• IBMResearch

[jwkinraleigh]

IBM never did anything. Contractors do all the work. The only thing IBM employees know how to do is climb that corporate ladder

(and piss on those contractors).

[malachandra]

greta use of technology, impressive!

[kurwamacjebanapizda]

graphics designers and graphics programmers and graphics programs lol

[devonrose742]

IBM needs a better graphics designer