Certification Magazine - March 2008 - (Page 28)

“Obviously, penetration into Asian markets seems to be quite an issue, and it’s probably mostly around language,” Sima said. “European users are fairly comfortable with saying things in English. Asians users are not so comfortable navigating English sites.” prominent platform for virtual worlds,” Sima said. “It would be difficult to have specific application knowledge around that. However, there are some common concepts between different worlds.” Asked whether he believes a virtual world administrator certification could come into being, Bower answered, “I could certainly design one, but the other people in my domain wouldn’t agree with mine. Things are still in the early stages of shakeout in terms of how virtual worlds operate and what managers are responsible for and not responsible for.” Whyville applies a certification process for each job its administrators perform, and Bower realized these tests could coalesce into a process by which an individual could certify as a virtual world administrator. Virtual Growth The interesting thing about administrating a virtual world is that while it may involve many of the same technical skill sets as administering a system or a network, what you’re really administering is human beings presented in virtual form. “A lot of people believe that the most important part of virtual worlds is the graphics, the engine – the pure IT stuff,” said James Bower, a professor of computational biology at the University of Texas at San Antonio and founder of Whyville, a virtual world with more than 3 million users. “The truth is, the most important thing about making a virtual world work is the human management, and you need to have the technology and software to do it, but you also need to have people who are trained in how to manage virtual worlds.” But whether or not someone is trained in how to manage virtual worlds is a sticky issue, as no broadly applicable formal training for this skill exists at present. Sima and his staff are certified in A+ and MCSE, but not in any virtual world administrator certs because, of course, none exist. “I’d be really curious how [a virtual world administrator certification] could be done, considering that there isn’t a single “There are a whole bunch of issues at work in a virtual world of adults in which almost no investment has been made in any form of control or enforcing community standards. Virtual worlds like Second Life are a cross between Orange County, where the developers run mad, and Baghdad, where the terrorists run mad.” 28 CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE March 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Certification Magazine - March 2008

Certification Magazine - March 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Data Stream Tech Careers Academic Connection Dear Techie Virtual Village Mastering IT: Choosing Between an Immediate Job and Higher Education Inside Certification Virtual World Administrators: Service Requests in Cyberspace Interface Boomers in IT: Will the Talent Shortage Affect Techies? Ad Index Endtag

Certification Magazine - March 2008

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