Yeah, I think virtual world could make a cool virtual office. I know most focus on social and gaming though and I have some ideas in this space. I was thinking if I did end up building something, early on develop it with a business version in mind and actually use it for the company itself developing the world where it can have more account controls and own private space where they can limit access. Then could license and host a business version of it for companies and offer productivity tools when ready to polish it more for that market, However I see going first to market with the consumer version, but that might help too if you got popular and later pitched the business version since people would already be familiar using the virtual world and interacting with it.
Education is another use case too, I know there's already online schools for college and even K-12 has online schools. Florida I guess there's a popular one, Ohio had one called ECOT but they ended up shutting down due to an issue with tracking attendance but some feel it was more political attack on school choice. But usually there's what called a learning management system where you can mail your teacher, view grades, submit assignments like uploading a DOC or Powerpoint, do quizzes, read and watch material. Then once or twice a week there's a live session that was optional which uses software that the webinar people use with chat, voice, screen sharing, whiteboard, etc. So I think a virtual world could replace the meeting software maybe, but I could still see the school wanting to use their own LMS.
However I think some regulations will slow the adoption of working remotely which I commented about yesterday on another post but it was a bit long and not sure if stuff people actually are thinking about. For example if a company in California wants to hire someone in Ohio to work remotely there's extra red tape to deal with. Because the company is then considered doing business in Ohio and not only California so creates paperwork and expenses for compliance. Plus if the business doesn't have an address in the state, that can also complicates things and then other questions come up too since the laws were written considering everyone commutes to work instead of working remotely for a company across the country. So it's not usually worth the extra burden to hire only a single person in a state or even some stuff is county or city by county or city. So sounds like remote would be easier if they report to a regional office instead of being fully remote maybe. So if a company in San Francisco wants to hire people remotely, they might have to limit it to residents of the area they operate in.
I remember reading once on HN but forget where someone was already remote and wanted to move somewhere cheaper but was told no due to legal reasons. Actually wouldn't surprise me if a lot of companies are already breaking these employment laws. Like some startups offer unlimited vacation but expect people to still stay in touch or maybe they'll spend a hour or two doing some work from their hotel room... If the company is based in California and they took a ski vacation to Colorado, the company could be creating obligation to Colorado for different taxes, insurance requirements, etc technically. Same with trade shows or conferences for example worker compensation not every state has reciprocity, and some funds are state ran too without allowing a private insurer. So if you send your team to a conference for a few days, that could complicate things especially if it's not a state you already were doing business in - like someone was doing something in Washington State and some forms online wouldn't let you use a out of state address. There's a list somewhere, some states want you to do this on the first day while other states are more friendlier (maybe they are hoping to attract events and conferences to their state!). Then was reading states like New York will even consider a layover during a business trip, so check your employer email on your blackberry and New York wants a slice of the pie. Sure this is how some lawyers and HR people interpret this stuff, but in reality not sure if NY will really follow up just for checking your email but in theory it's a possibility.
Then a few states like NY, NJ, PA, DE, NE has rules on telecommuting too, apparently someone who worked remotely for a company located in NY from his home in TN ended up owing income tax to NY even though he performed the work in TN. However if the business created Nexus in TN by hiring someone from there, sounds like a huge conflict of law with TN and NY, so maybe those states are bad to base your company from if you want to allow remote. Sounds like though if that company had an office in TN, they could have assigned the employee to report to the TN location instead of NY and wouldn't of been a problem maybe.
Education is another use case too, I know there's already online schools for college and even K-12 has online schools. Florida I guess there's a popular one, Ohio had one called ECOT but they ended up shutting down due to an issue with tracking attendance but some feel it was more political attack on school choice. But usually there's what called a learning management system where you can mail your teacher, view grades, submit assignments like uploading a DOC or Powerpoint, do quizzes, read and watch material. Then once or twice a week there's a live session that was optional which uses software that the webinar people use with chat, voice, screen sharing, whiteboard, etc. So I think a virtual world could replace the meeting software maybe, but I could still see the school wanting to use their own LMS.
However I think some regulations will slow the adoption of working remotely which I commented about yesterday on another post but it was a bit long and not sure if stuff people actually are thinking about. For example if a company in California wants to hire someone in Ohio to work remotely there's extra red tape to deal with. Because the company is then considered doing business in Ohio and not only California so creates paperwork and expenses for compliance. Plus if the business doesn't have an address in the state, that can also complicates things and then other questions come up too since the laws were written considering everyone commutes to work instead of working remotely for a company across the country. So it's not usually worth the extra burden to hire only a single person in a state or even some stuff is county or city by county or city. So sounds like remote would be easier if they report to a regional office instead of being fully remote maybe. So if a company in San Francisco wants to hire people remotely, they might have to limit it to residents of the area they operate in.
I remember reading once on HN but forget where someone was already remote and wanted to move somewhere cheaper but was told no due to legal reasons. Actually wouldn't surprise me if a lot of companies are already breaking these employment laws. Like some startups offer unlimited vacation but expect people to still stay in touch or maybe they'll spend a hour or two doing some work from their hotel room... If the company is based in California and they took a ski vacation to Colorado, the company could be creating obligation to Colorado for different taxes, insurance requirements, etc technically. Same with trade shows or conferences for example worker compensation not every state has reciprocity, and some funds are state ran too without allowing a private insurer. So if you send your team to a conference for a few days, that could complicate things especially if it's not a state you already were doing business in - like someone was doing something in Washington State and some forms online wouldn't let you use a out of state address. There's a list somewhere, some states want you to do this on the first day while other states are more friendlier (maybe they are hoping to attract events and conferences to their state!). Then was reading states like New York will even consider a layover during a business trip, so check your employer email on your blackberry and New York wants a slice of the pie. Sure this is how some lawyers and HR people interpret this stuff, but in reality not sure if NY will really follow up just for checking your email but in theory it's a possibility.
Then a few states like NY, NJ, PA, DE, NE has rules on telecommuting too, apparently someone who worked remotely for a company located in NY from his home in TN ended up owing income tax to NY even though he performed the work in TN. However if the business created Nexus in TN by hiring someone from there, sounds like a huge conflict of law with TN and NY, so maybe those states are bad to base your company from if you want to allow remote. Sounds like though if that company had an office in TN, they could have assigned the employee to report to the TN location instead of NY and wouldn't of been a problem maybe.