Greetings! I've had the opportunity to give several talks in Manchester and Oxford last week. This allowed me to crystallize my thoughts about ecosystems and virtual worlds, as I see these as complementing each other with increasing frequency moving forward.

First, let me answer some practical questions asked regarding how knowledge ecosystems can be cultivated. I'd suggest three points to consider: (1) establish opportunities, (2) motivate behaviors and (3) enact protocols--that is, give people opportunity, motive and method. Opportunities include spanning divisions and organizations, as well as surpassing perceptions of "turf." Motivations include rewarding knowledge sharing, reuse and collaborations. Finally, protocols include practice and evaluation (and then more practice), as well as allowing for flexibility and unknowns. With protocols, organizations need to avoid ossification of routines.

Now, consider for a moment virtual worlds as a technology. Some might suggest they're just video conferencing, but I'd suggest they're different, as you can transcend physical appearance. You don't have to look like you do in the real world--you don't even have to look human, for that matter. Also, what's at the other end doesn't necessarily have to be a human. The U.S. Army is using a virtual avatar by the name of Sgt. Starr to recruit. The avatar talks to and answers questions of interested individuals, as if it were human, but it's really a smart computer program. Since it's a computer program, Sgt. Starr can "talk" (using predictive text matching on the questions people answer) to 100-plus people at the same time and record all the conversations for later.

Virtual worlds, or VWs, are also more immersive than teleconferencing, in addition to the ability for worlds to "exist" long after a conference is over (so other people, or computer programs, can come-and-go within the space). Therein their connection to knowledge ecosystems: VWs can help overcome the friction associated among different group identities, divisional fragmentation and political "turf" issues. VWs can assist in cultivating knowledge ecosystems for inter-agency collaborations and alliances.

However, like all technologies, VWs are dual-sided, with potential for both good and bad uses. Illegal activities are quite possible in VWs. In fact, the FBI has been reported using agents (who navigate Second Life as "plain-clothes avatars") to investigate the extent of online gambling in Second Life. Since a virtual world doesn't really "exist" anywhere per se, is it illegal for an individual to gamble in a virtual world? And if the FBI starts cracking down on this online activity, will virtual worlds simply move their servers to remote islands and start encrypting their communications with a "members-only" policy for invitees?

Which leads to a more important question: Do national borders matter in an Internet-enabled world? Obviously, they will continue to suggest some, but I think the increasing paradigm shift is that physical borders will increasingly matter less in the next five to 10 years, whereas borders will soon be defined by online social networks, group communities and virtual worlds. Perhaps initially more in terms of who's talking to whom and what ideas are being spread, but such virtual areas are growing fast (more than 20 million people). And, as in the case of the Second Life millionaire (who made the equivalent of $1 million in U.S. dollars within Second Life building virtual "real estate" for people to buy in the world), VWs represent Internet communities with the ability to generate, spend and harbor large amounts of funds.

At any rate, I'd label VWs as an early technology with the potential to both benefit and disrupt elements of businesses and government agencies. As a technology, VWs are still emerging in terms of their potential--sort of like the advent of Web browsers in 1993-1994 and the world-wide Web.

What do you think? Your comments and feedback are welcome.

--David Bray

Editor's Note: David Bray is research associate at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University; formerly IT chief for the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and an eWEEK Corporate Partner. He's now in London as a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute. Bray is researching how humans consume, retain and use information, and what that means for organizations.