This Week's Herman Trend Alert The Consequences of Virtual Meetings

The Herman Trend Alert March 21, 2007 Find Virtual Market Research Subjects in Second Life By now, most of us are familiar with the Internet virtual world, Second Life. If not, you owe it to yourself to visit www.secondlife.com. A digital construct, like Second Life allows the "player" to meet new "people", really other personae online. Each player chooses an avatar and a screen name. Living in this virtual world is similar to the real world, except without some of the physical limitations dictated by gravity and other immutable laws of physics. The real news is that when Second Life participants were given the opportunity to sign up for a research panel to express their opinions, without any compensation whatsoever, within three weeks over five hundred people had stepped forward and expressed their willingness to participate. This fact is significant for two reasons. First, millions of people are "paid" everyday for their feedback and opinions in research panels, like e-Rewards and Lightspeed Research. (Even the airlines, notably U.S. Airways are getting into this business.) And second, the numbers of people enrolling themselves in this panel are growing exponentially. The Social Research Foundation, headed by creative entrepreneur Andrew Mallon, has launched this first-ever market research panel in virtual cyberspace. Mallon calls it the First OpinionsTM Panel. Mallon wanted to filter out people who were less interested than others, so he added the requirement that each respondent spend five to ten minutes reading his orientation material and another five to ten minutes completing their 33-question personal attribute survey. In a preliminary poll of these first participants. . . ninety-nine percent of them are in Second Life on a daily basis. About half hail from the United States, though many other countries are represented. Gender breakdown of the population is exactly 50/50. The age distribution is as expected with the most populous segment being those ages 30 to 35. Our forecast is that Second Life and other virtual cyberspaces will not only be used for market research and advertising, but for virtual conferences as well. Those of us who are professional speakers will need to learn to speak on the virtual platform, as well as the real one. © Copyright 1998- by The Herman Group, Inc. -- reproduction for publication is encouraged, with the following attribution: From "The Herman Trend Alert," by Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia, Strategic Business Futurists. (800) 227-3566 or http://www.hermangroup.com. The Herman Trend Alert is a trademark of The Herman Group, Inc." BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND: RETENTION SPECIALIST PROGRAM A growing number of people have expressed an interest in attending our Employee Retention Specialist Certificate Program. We'd like to schedule on that's convenient for those who want to attend, but need your feedback to do so. Please place RETENTION SPECIALIST in the subject line and Joyce will personally call you back to schedule the workshop. Or you can call Joyce directly at 336-210-3548 (PDT this and next week). BUSINESS IS PICKING UP Most employers are unprepared. The recovery will bring a new set of challenges for employers that have been in prolonged contracted mode. They will need more skilled workers or will need now to begin to upskill their current staffs. But organizations can not engage in Strategic Workforce Planning, when they don't know how. That's where The Herman Group can help. We can help you with your "People Review"----large or small---so that you will know who you will need and when you will need them. . . and we can also guide you to the best sources for the people you will need. For more information, call Joyce at 336-210-3548 or e-mail joyce@hermangroup.com. FIND OUT WHAT YOUR EMPLOYEES REALLY THINK AND FEEL Discover what’s really going on in the hearts and minds of your employees. Our InnerViews interviewing service uses SPHRs and PHRs, certified human resource professionals to probe for the information you really need to know. Exit and Stay Interviews, as well as Why-Didn't-You-Take-Our-Offer Interviews. Call Rosalie Catalano at 937-416-7066, or read more at: http://www.hermangroup.com/retentionconnection/exit_interviews.html. Herman Trend Alerts are produced by the Herman Group, strategic business futurists, Certified Management Consultants, authors, and professional speakers. New subscribers are welcome. There is no charge for this public service. The Herman Trend Alert is received by over 30,000 subscribers in 78 countries, in addition to other websites and printed magazines. Do you enjoy receiving this weekly e-mail update? Contact us about our co-branded Trend Alert service. Click here to sign up for the Herman Trend Alert. Subscribe or Unsubscribe to weekly Herman Trend Alert View this week's Herman Trend Alert Archived Weekly Herman Trend Alerts

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