Friday, March 23, 2012

Text in Virtual Worlds ("Chat") benefits all. BUT HOW?

In virtual worlds (like Second Life), users have a choice to present information (seminars, presentations, lectures, trainings, etc.) in voice, in "chat" text, or both.

Some organizations providing extensive training and information in Second Life consistently elect to use ONLY voice, even when asked by customers/users/consumers of their services to provide access to the information in text.

Aside from ADA-rights issues (if the request for text is disability-based), there are ALSO strong "business incentives" for including text access to virtual world communication. Here are a few we have generated so far. What additional benefits do YOU see?

BENEFITS TO TEXT ACCESS:
Text access helps EVERYONE.

No need for rapid note taking
Grab exact URL and other info
Step away from your computer, come back and still know what was discussed
Automatic “minutes” of meetings, including who said what
Ability to easily IM the “speaker” from the Chat feed
Ability to multi-task!
Easy to run through a translator program- for those whose first language isn't English
Deletes the effects of verbal accents
Allows easy archiving of meetings
Offers participants a "take-away" they can reference later
"Brand" your insightful comments as you participate
Easy to pull into your blog, website, Twitter, Facebook for additional interaction and commentary




Please, add your thoughts in the comments section below.
We'd like to gather your ideas and share them with others!



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