On 27 June 2008, the Virtual Worlds @ Work consortium held a daylong meeting at the SRI International Headquarters in Menlo Park, California, to examine and explore a range of issues related to the overarching theme of the meeting: Year in Review and Year Ahead. The Menlo Park meeting also included a panel session in Second Life—with the following panelists: Christian Renaud, chief architect, Networked Virtual Environments, Cisco Systems; Justin Bovington, CEO, Rivers Run Red; David Wortley, director, The Serious Games Institute, Coventry University Enterprises Ltd, England; and Nick Wilson, managing director, Clever Zebra—to hear the views and perspectives of these virtual-worlds thought leaders.

The survey that this report describes gathered a wide range of perspectives from people who have a strong interest in virtual-worlds issues and developments. We presented a brief summary of the survey findings at our Menlo Park meeting. The sample size—35 respondents—of this survey is too small for us to assume any statistical validity of the results. Nevertheless, we find the results useful and complementary to other anecdotal evidence that we have about the questions in the survey. We greatly appreciate the contribution of survey participants who shared their view and perspectives with us.

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Table of Contents

Introduction and Background			1
Survey Demographics			2
Year in Review			3
The Year Ahead			6
Concluding Remarks			10
Tables
Which of the Following Categories Best Describes Your Current Position?			2
Your Location			2
Most Significant Virtual-Worlds Developments in the Past Year			3
The State of the Virtual-Worlds Industry Today in Comparison with a Year Ago			4
Virtual-Worlds Developments That You Expected but Did Not Happen			4
Most Serious Challenges or Obstacles to Widespread Virtual-Worlds Adoption in the Past Year			5
How Do They View the Year Ahead?			6
Positive Developments That Will Bring Significant Benefits to the Virtual-Worlds Industry Next Year			7
Most Serious Challenges Ahead?			8

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