The Virtual Meeting Room

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How much the technology will transform users' business is an open question, and in some cases security remains an issue. Linden Labs, owner of Second Life, is considering steps that will give corporate users more control of their own virtual worlds. Company property in Second Life is now largely open to the public. Ad agency Leo Burnett, for instance, wouldn't dream of discussing confidential matters on its Second Life island. "There are no secrets being told," says Tor Myhren, Leo Burnett's executive creative director.

But down the road, Linden plans to let companies run its software on their own servers, effectively creating their own Second Life-like worlds, says Glenn Fisher, director of marketing programs at Second Life. Users would have the option of providing a gateway to the Second Life community or keeping their worlds closed.

Virtual conferencing could cause some disruption in the market for Web conferencing, particularly among vendors such as WebEx (WEBX), acquired by Cisco in March; Microsoft (MSFT), which provides conferencing through its Live Meeting tool; and Adobe (ADBE) (see BusinessWeek.com, 3/16/07, "Cisco Ups Ante in War with Microsoft").

Virtual Loss

Corporate virtual worlds aren't much more expensive than tools like WebEx. For its hosted application, Tixeo charges $47 a month for a group of up to five people to meet up any time, for unlimited time. WebEx charges $49 a month for unlimited meetings of up to 10 people. Building a virtual world from scratch can be done cheap and fast as well. Multiverse lets developers use its tools free but then shares in any revenue that's generated from a virtual world. "For business collaboration, you don't need incredibly high-level graphics," says Multiverse co-founder Corey Bridges.

For now, WebEx doesn't appear to be losing sleep over new conferencing possibilities. The company says its customers prefer real-time videoconferencing capabilities to 3D interactivity. "When you're doing business, you want to be able to look that person in the eye, and I would personally not want to look at an avatar," says Gary Griffiths, WebEx's president of products and operations. "Our focus is not on virtual, it's on the real," he adds. Indeed, companies like Intel have been using their virtual worlds to complement—not replace—existing video- and Web-conferencing software.

What's more, using virtual worlds requires a steep learning curve. For Mark Levitt, an analyst with consultancy IDC, the question boils down to this: "How many workers will prefer to vicariously watch their avatars access a customer relationship management or team-project timeline rather than accessing these tools directly?" The folks at Qwaq and Media X will soon find out.

Click here to see a slide show of tools for virtual business meetings.

Kharif is a senior writer for BusinessWeek.com in Portland, Ore.