Computers real future of business

Ah, Second Life.

Thought of as the virtual-reality stomping ground of weirdos and sketchballs everywhere, the infamous Internet-based, 3-D virtual reality program is about to gain a few new residents. Welcome to the neighborhood, Kelley School of Business. Might we interest you in some virtual real estate?

Second Life is basically a second world in which characters can do everything they do in real life – talk to other people, do business, shop, visit Amsterdam, go to religious meetings and – now, anyway – attend IU.

The Kelley Executive Partners program (KEP) is jumping on the borderline-creepy bandwagon and going virtual.

Students plagued by rising travel costs and tight schedules – along, of course, with those Dungeons and Dragons graduates who would prefer to have no real human interaction with non-avatars – are ideal “students” for this program.
Online learning is nothing new to Kelley, which has been running a fairly successful online MBA progr am for the better part of 10 years, earning a top-25 ranking in the Financial Times’ 2008 ratings of executive education programs.

So what’s so special about this program? Why is Kelley investing so much in a program where students can virtually sit down in a classroom, virtually listen to lectures and virtually collaborate on the dreaded group project with other virtual students?

Kind of exactly like, you know – the REAL world. Sounds like a virtual waste of money, doesn’t it?

But, as rewarding as it would be, we unfortunately can’t dismiss all of this creepiness and redundancy as unwarranted.

Odds are that as you’re reading this piece of journalistic brilliance, you’re fumbling for your iPhone or on Facebook stalking that cute guy who sits next to you in physics.

Odds are good that you’ve e-mailed a lot of your assignments in the past few semesters and that you’d rather work on group projects via e-mail than in person.
If you think about it, we all spend a lot of time in the virtual world.

Now, although we at the Indiana Daily Student enjoy criticizing the Business School for being blood-sucking, profit-driven maniacs just as much as the rest of you do, we recognize that business students rarely undertake any large-scale effort without researching it thoroughly, analyzing its implications, weighing other options and judging it to be a good investment.

More than likely, they didn’t start the KEP program just so they could see what their professors’ avatars would look like or throw a virtual Jay-Z concert (it’s been done).

Given the increased level of business collaboration across time and space, along with the complete transformation of today’s workplace into a technology-driven operation, for students to experience something similar on Second Life is an asset, rather than a manifestation of some kooky Business School idea to recruit techies as puppy kickers or to take over the world.

We would suggest that those who are enrolled in KEP try out this whole real social interaction thing. That’s just a recommendation, though – our avatars heard it was fun.