Forrester: Virtual Worlds Crucial to Information Workplace

In Forrester's new study, "The Seven Tenets Of The Information Workplace," it identifies several Web 2.0 technologies that companies should adopt for stronger information connections: RSS, blogs, rich Internet applications (RIAs), tagging, wikis, and virtual worlds. "Some companies have adopted them more heavily than others," Erica Driver, a Forrester analyst who contributed to the report, told CIO.com. However, she says a lot of CIOs might play it safe. "As they try to develop information workplace strategies, they want to get as much Web 2.0 as they can from incumbent vendors." Instead, they should look for innovation from the younger set. [via CIO.com]

The seven tenets are that:
1. Work should be contextual: Forrester envisions RSS feeds pushing information to workers in their portals instead of forcing them to go to multiple applications to catch up on work. Forrester sees virtual worlds as a bonus here, where workers can interact in a 3D environment and access files in the same way they would in the real world.

2. Portals should be individualized, allowing users to customize their space in a wiki, RSS, or virtual world.

3. Work should be seamless. Virtual worlds aren't mentioned specifically here, but the idea is that instead of clicking between applications or folders, information should be tagged in one location. A virtual space makes for an interesting way to browse. See, for example, projects the intelligence community is working on for a virtual work space.

4. Information should be presented visually, which seems like a pretty clear tie-in to the previous tenet for virtual worlds.

5. Technology should be multi-modal. I.e., it should allow for mashups.

6. Information should be social. Again, this has been one of the major arguments for a 3D virtual work environment that allows users to collaboratively access and edit information in real time.

7. Information should be quick. Instead of working with local software, businesses should focus on Service-Oriented Architecture.