Real rules for virtual worlds
IBM, whose 20th century employees were parodied as corporate cogs in matching navy suits, doesn't have an avatar dress code. However, guidelines suggest being "especially sensitive to the appropriateness of your avatar or persona's appearance when you are meeting with IBM clients or conducting IBM business."
Anything pretty much goes in online virtual worlds. Identities are nebulous. Online characters known as avatars chat it up, gamble or even have sex at first sight.
Increasingly though, these online zones like Second Life are also becoming places where commerce is happening. Big companies such as IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) use these graphics-rich sites to conduct meetings among far-flung employees and to show customers graphical representations of ideas and products.
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