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within and companies can indicated they would
like an area that isn't as populated as other areas.
Also, residents can request the sim be an island,
meaning the sim is not attached to the mainland;
this lessens the chance of accidental wandering
ins or flyovers by curious neighbors, or other
residents, who stumble upon the site. Also, as
mentioned previously in this chapter, the owner
of the land controls the land right down to limiting
its use and hiding it from searches.
Residents can also choose to close the prop-
erty's borders to residents not on the access list;
this list is easily maintained by using groups and
setting the access list to only allow certain groups
or individuals. For example, Company XYZ
could buy a sim and set it to allow group XZY
Employees. By simply creating and maintaining
the XYZ Employee group, their land is accessible
to their employees but not others. While closing
a sim's borders will keep unwanted residents out,
those residents can still see into the property and
view anything that is visible, so it isn't foolproof
on its own.
Private sims can also be hidden. When a sim
is hidden it does not show up in searches or on
the map. The only way for residents to see it is if
they accidentally stumble upon it (and as we just
discussed precautions can be put into place to
ensure that doesn't happen), or if they are invited
onto the sim. Furthermore, property owners can
even disallow landmarks to be created. Landmarks
are a locational bookmark within Second Life and
allow residents to teleport, travel, back to that
location at any time. By disallowing landmarks
to be created, residents can not travel back to the
sim without an invitation. There are also other
advanced ways to keep a sim private by taking
advantages of tools created by residents, but by
taking the two precautions discussed here, hiding
an island and setting the access list, a sim can
remain relatively private.
As companies start to utilize MUVEs for
training, education, collaboration or marketing
exercises the worry over inappropriate behavior
begins to emerge. In response, some companies are
choosing to set guidelines that govern employee
behavior inside of Second Life. More and more
these companies are setting the standard that
employee behavior in Second Life should be no
different than in real life, even though Second Life
is full of creativity, individualism and freedom of
expression. Sun Microsystems insists its employ-
ees' avatars appear human and Intel has banned
employees from visiting adult themed establish-
ments, like strip clubs, if the employee is using
an avatar with the last name of “Intel,” a private
last name only available to company employees
(Semuels, 2008). Taking it a step further, in the
summer of 2007 IBM established guidelines dictat-
ing employee behavior in Second Life and other
MUVEs ( IBM Virtual World Guidelines , 2007).
While the guidelines are not all encompassing
they do a reasonable job of defining appropriate
and inappropriate activities for IBM's employees.
Clearly, as this technology grows and matures
more corporations may follow suit.
The other aspect of concern regarding security
is network firewalls. To allow Second Life to
work properly a number of specific ports must
allow traffic through. The problem with this is
that most often times, in the interest of protecting
their internal private networks, companies rou-
tinely shut down the required ports. By doing so,
companies provide better security for the internal
systems and significantly reduce the possibility
of viruses or other malicious programs entering
their networks. The reality of this situation hit
The Nature Conservancy in June of 2009 when
after spending a year making the case to move
training into Second Life their IT Security team
indicated that by opening the required ports on
their firewall would too significantly threaten
organization data and the decision was made to
look for other ways to establish a virtual presence.
For companies facing similar decisions, the pros
and cons of each individual situation must be
examined and a decision made in the best interest
of the organization.
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