Gartner on virtual worlds

Gartner Says 80 Percent of Active Internet Users Will Have A ``Second Life'' in the Virtual World by the End of 2011.“The collaborative and community-related aspects of these environments will dominate in the future, and significant transaction-based commercial opportunities will be limited to niche areas, which have yet to be clearly identified,” said Steve Prentice, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “However, the majority of active Internet users and major enterprises will find value in participating in this area in the coming years.” Click image to link to article in BusinessWire.

Virtual Worlds

A virtual world is a computer-simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars.
This habitation usually is represented in the form of two or three-dimensional graphical representations of humanoids (or other graphical or text-based avatars). Some, but not all, virtual worlds allow for multiple users. (Wikipedia, ”Virtual World,” 2006, para. 1).

Read the rest in an interesting article by Brett Bixler, Lead Instructional Designer & Manager, ETS of Pennsylvania State University. Click the image to go there!