Back Home Again

I have returned safely from my latest adventure in the U.S. of A., doing my bit to keep the Internet running. While I was down in Dulles this time, it occurred to me that the whole environment (whose bizarre perfection I have written about previously) was very like Second Life. As I walked with a colleague from the office to a pseudo-Italian restaurant for lunch, past a purpose-built lake flanked by a landscaped garden space complete with fountain and flagstone paths, I was struck by how easily it could be a space I would discover in the game. The people are real enough and very nice to work with, but the physical setup still gives the impression of a world made six weeks ago. Ironically, the problems we are tackling for this job are the same old ones we’ve had for millennia: how do we communicate accurately and effectively to people to make things happen.