Virtual Enterprises
There’s virtual and then there’s virtual.
We have Virtual Private Networks (VPN), Virtual Printer Technology (VPT),
Virtual Machines (software that mimics hardware), Virtual Memory and Virtual
Terminals.
Before any of these, there was a vision. Before there was Virtual Reality, was a vision of a virtual world.
Native Americans and other aboriginal people celebrated a “Vision Quest.” Plato & Aristotle told us that our current world was “virtual” environment and we would someday attain the “real” world. Who can forget the “Matrix” trilogy and its “virtual” reality?
Our great (great, great) grandparents thought virtual reality was listening to Saturday night radio shows (virtual imagination = “theater of the mind”).
For the internet generation, the Web is “virtual reality,” its easier to keep up with the changing world on-line. Think instant messages, on-line dating, international access, game rooms and MP3.
Whether your idea of virtual reality is a hologram, iBox or a good book, or whether you go for the full bodysuit, sensor gloves & 3-D goggles, we are all moving closer to living in a “virtual” world.
The “virtual” office takes telecommuting to a whole new level. Your office goes along wherever you go, in your purse or clipped to your belt. There are many other visions for virtuality:
We now have the software and infrastructure to make Virtual Companies a reality. Virtual Enterprise refers to virtual collaboration in an internet space, sharing software & ideas to collaborate and create new solutions, from marketing concepts to health cures and other technology. Enhanced productivity and pure savings are driving the virtual enterprise, reducing fulfillment times and human resources needs dramatically. The biggest obstacles: paradigm shifts, organizational process and internal politics.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is attempting to develop a portal to interconnect security agencies and shared information. If we are looking at paradigm shifts, organizational process, internal politics and personnel reductions as major challenges, this may be the first step toward a “virtual government.”
What is your vision for our “virtual world?” Forum
Communications welcomes your comments or ideas on teleconferencing
and communications technology.
Thanks for your input!
