Avatars in the

Working Environment
 Avatar - Definition
• There are many
definitions of the word
avatar:
– An Avatar is Divinity
taking a human form.
– Avatar is a character that
you can personalize and
use when interacting with
friends online, creating
your own unique persona.
 Important
• Thousands of real-world
employees are beginning to
use avatars as part of their
regular jobs.
• There are many companies
that have been using Avatars
to deal with customers and
internal matters:
– IBM, Accenture, Cisco, State
Farm, Intel, BP and Wells Fargo.
 Avatar – Main Activities
• Employees are logging into
virtual worlds and use avatars
to:
– Brainstorm with colleagues,
– Recruit employees,
– Sell to customers,
– Attend leadership training,
– Manage programs, direct
operation centers,
– And collaborate with company
groups around the world.
 Avatar - 2011
• The Gartner Group
predicts that 80% of
us will use an
avatar at work by
the end of 2011.
 Avatar – Benefits
• They're practical:
– It's easier, cheaper, greener, and
healthier to meet people in a virtual
world than it is to fly, drive and host
a live meeting where people meet
face to face.
– Document sharing and all forms of
AV as well as tracking methods,
create a richer, more interesting
environment with contextual clues
about who's interested and who's
paying attention.
 Avatar – Benefits
• You can do things with
avatars that you can't do
in the real world:
– You can customize your
avatar by picking your
appearance, role,
personality, size, gender
and race; you can have
total control over its
movements.
– Puppeteering an avatar is
a whole lot of fun.
 Avatar – Benefits
• People become more
interested:
– As a result of this
intensity, avatars create
the emotional and social
connections necessary
for the most valuable
business conversations.
 Avatar – Problems
• Using Avatars can offer
some problems since it
creates an imaginary world
with characters that don't
exist.
• It can develop an Internet
Addiction Disorder with a
major impact on our mental
health (obsession).
 Avatar – Problems
• It can interfere in our everyday
life and decision-making when
facing the real world.
• It can give up or reduce
important family, social,
occupational, or recreational
activities in duration because the
user can get out of his imaginary
and fun world.
• Feeling of incapacity to deal with
real life problems.
 Avatar – Conclusion
• The sense of engagement
that avatars can create will be
valuable as companies seek
new ways to design work that
is compelling and purposeful.
• Avatars generate a kind of
fun that isn't the opposite of
work — it's a reason that
people will engage their work.
 Avatar – Conclusion
• But we need to be
always aware of the
many differences
between Neverland and
our Real World.
Lico Reis Consultoria
& Línguas
Roberto Lico Reis
www.licoreis.com
licoreis@licoreis.com

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