As head of HP's Innovation Program Office, Philip McKinney's job involves thinking long-term about new technologies, so it's encouraging that he's optimistic about the future for virtual worlds. Even if that future is a couple of decades down the line.
At a recent conference, McKinney said that in 20 years time, Second Life style virtual meetings will be much more common for business users, and he’s now expanded on that in an interview with the Mercury News, explaining that it could throw up new legal issues that need to be addressed early.
“The problem with distance collaboration is: You can schedule a meeting on a particular topic, but you miss out on casual conversation. That’s a role Second Life can play. Some companies are using it as a virtual water cooler. The challenge is when you start creating those kinds of social networks, there’s productivity and output generated. But if I get in a virtual collaboration with somebody in another country and we invent something, what creates the basis for ownership? If there becomes a dispute, where do you take that dispute? That’s going to have to be addressed.”
Meanwhile, McKinney also has interesting things to say on the ‘gray wave’ - the increasing number of older internet users. While not specifically referring to virtual worlds, his words should provide food for thought for people in this industry:
“My grandmother lives in Cincinnati; she’s 93. I’m not going to give her a PC with Skype on it so I can have a video chat with her. But if I can embed it in something else to where she just turns her TV to Channel 4 and she’s connected with me in my house in San Jose - that’s where the opportunity is.”
This may be a form of video-conferencing rather than a virtual world, of course, but McKinney’s point that tech firms are chasing the 18-25 year-old demographic, which is shrinking by 6.5% a year, rather than the over-55 demographic, which is growing by 8% a year, holds true. At a time when the virtual worlds industry is focusing more on kids and teenagers than ever before, there may be big bucks to be made from cracking the usability nut and making a virtual world that your grandparents can use…
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