PlayStation Home goes up corporate ladder: hosts virtual meetings, Microsoft joins in

Who needs webcam conferences when you can have it over at PlayStation Home? Video conferences are so last year, especially now if you can have your avatar drop some cabbage patches or a running man while sealing a multimillion dollar deal over the network. Gives an entirely new definition to “working at Home,” doesn’t it? Yes, apparently, some companies are already testing out this new venture: virtual corporate meetings at Home. And that includes Microsoft!

So you’re tired of webcam conferences, eh? PlayStation Home is still in open beta, and already, it’s changing the landscape of how people communicate with each other. Some of you have done this casually over Home, I’m sure – meeting up with your friends in the virtual world and whatnot. But did you ever imagine using Home as a place to have a virtual corporate meeting?

This new direction of virtual meetings is being spearheaded by none other than Ernst & Young, one of the biggest firms handling professional services for over a hundred companies across the globe. Among the companies already taking part in the project are Merrill Lynch and, yes, Microsoft.

(Oooh, Aaron Greenberg might have something to say about that…)

The entire project involves some of their companies testing out how viable it is to have a meeting in Home. The goal here is to see if having virtual meetings in Home is cost-effective: no need for huge office spaces, travel costs, heck, they may even help the environment (no travel = less carbon emissions).

Andrew Mawson of Advanced Workplace Associates (they’re the guys commissioning the project) comments:

Increasingly we are living in a world without borders where workers need to collaborate on a global scale. Audio and video-conferencing solutions have emerged but the use of virtual worlds may offer the next evolution in overcoming the tyranny of distance – a more realistic and learning-enhanced environment.

Oh can you just imagine? Sealing a multimillion dollar deal with an online associate and having an epic dance-off while you’re at it! Gives an entirely new definition to “working at Home,” doesn’t it?

---

Related articles:

• PlayStation Home patch v1.05 goes live, voice chat back online
• Microsoft: ‘Home feels like 2005 tech in 2008,’ dealing with economic humbug during holidays

Via GAAPWeb