SigEx Ventures : IBM Tells Employees to Behave in Second Lifeby Delia Cruceru

IBM issued a series of 11 Netiquette guidelines for its employees in Second Life or other virtual online worlds, where they have to interact with the general public. IBM recently opened a sales center in Second Life, and it’s the first company that ever created rules for governing on virtual worlds. Rules like “Protect your -- and IBM's -- good name”, “assume that activities in virtual worlds and/or the 3-D Internet are public -- much as is participation in public chat rooms or blogs", “Protect others' privacy", "it is inappropriate to disclose or use IBM's or our clients' confidential or proprietary information -- or any personal information of any other person or company... within a virtual world,", are meant to protect against discrimination, harassment and the intellectual property of IBM. The avatars used in the virtual world must be appropriate for doing business. Employees of IBM that might encounter an inappropriate situation that is work-related must report this to IBM. A spokesman of IBM said Friday: "Whether it's suggesting to our people how they protect their privacy and identity in the 3-D Net, or how to protect intellectual property, ours or our customers', some kind of 'rules of the road,' even at this early milepost, makes sense,"

related story: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135182-c,onlineentertainment/article.html

by Delia Cruceru for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models