real jobs for real people

Hello,

I find that the current needs in VW's are generally senior. How about setting aside some funds in the budget for regular CSR people who can be employed as avatars?
So far, VW jobs are focusing on management. How about seeking people for support positions who have some sort of experience and track record in VW's? It seems just getting to the point where a user can navigate and even build iin VW's requires SOME sort of dedication and skill.

The first thing I did at AW, was apply for an open job in helping people find real estate. Well, ... it was fake.... but at that point, I really thought it was real and that the need was real! However.... this kind of position MAY actually have a place in today's state of the VW.

In addition, paying people to inhabit the worlds is a good way to maintain some sort of steady population.....

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jack Ryker on January 5, 2008 at 4:12pm: Intelligent Avatar Researcher --requires a PHD. I think I'm going to go find a job as a coffee machine operator. This is ridicolous. Noone told me I had to get a frikking PHD just to get a damn job.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brian Regan on January 6, 2008 at 8:42am: Jack,

I can see the need for people skilled in VW navigation finding work. I use my SL location for recruitment, events, training and seminars and always have 2-3 skilled Second Lifer's in the audience there to assist people not as fluent in SL navigation. My goal is to make a new user's first experience easier with the expertise of myself and staff.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by 9mmbooks on January 7, 2008 at 1:02pm: One of the Jobs I am prepared to hire a character to execute is that of a Docent. Some might call them a tour guide of my VW sites.

Of course the questions pop up...

1) Do I pay in the local economy currency - or in real world currency via PayPal?
2) How do I train the character to conduct an informative tour?
3) How do I evaluate Job Performance - send in the QA Job testers at random.
4) How do I know if the character has shown up and will stay on site for the hours I have requested.
If the VW provided a logfile for the character that I might read that would help.

9mmbooks; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by SlashL on January 7, 2008 at 4:19pm: Would also note that, unless you're hiring a bot to operate a cash register, the job would require a level of commitment that would require trust on your part that would probably exceed the capabilities of any surveillance technique that you might employ. If you have some level of trust in the employee, she/he could provide periodic screenshots documenting hours of work if other, simpler documentation is unavailable.

SlashL; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brian Regan on January 7, 2008 at 1:27pm: Hi,

I dont have functional knowledge of the VW you are in, but here are my suggestions.

1) Do I pay in the local economy currency - or in real world currency via PayPal?

I would pay in RL $ and use Paypal, better to know who you are dealing with especially someone representing you.

2) How do I train the character to conduct an informative tour?

Determine the appropriate way you want the tour handled, write a basic script and go through a number of times with the person hired, then have that person give you the tour, make suggests, and then let them go live. (Perhaps join the first few). Then every once and awhile using a new avatar secret shop the person and act like a person interested and take to tour.

3) How do I evaluate Job Performance - send in the QA Job testers at random.

Have a list of people that take the tour and send a short but sweet eval note.

4) How do I know if the character has shown up and will stay on site for the hours I have requested.
If the VW provided a logfile for the character that I might read that would help.

If there are no available tools to track avatars at your location you may have to rely on the eval forms and randomly pop in.

Hope this helps.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jack Ryker on January 8, 2008 at 1:00pm: Regarding payment, I would prefer cash, but would definintely consider payment in World Funds. Points to be considered here are 1. Will the inworld money allow me access to a LOT of real world g oods(for example in hollywood there is a supermarket delivery service yummy.com or something, and lots of money goes to food....) food, clothing etc.... 2. One must consider the exchange rate fluctuations.....perhaps an employee can get paid better if he opts for inworld cash?

As far as attendance, can't you just write a program that indicates who is working etc? This is one area VW's can take advantage of . There should be no need to drop in , unless you want to (or whatever your style of management).

Essentially I see no difference. Perhaps it can be more secure since you don't need to have the employees access any cash registers, unless you allow it. I view the visible avatar function as a social function first, to greet,
and to handle any weird things or transactions that may need a human eye to oversee it.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by 9mmbooks on January 8, 2008 at 1:49pm: Your points on Payments of Wages are good ones to think about.

It is my assessment that the virtual worlds are all at different levels of development. For example in Kaneva they are not ready for Customers to write programs and introduce the binary into the system. NOR are they ready to allow Scripts in some native platform language to be introduced. As far as writing a bot program that emulates a player at the screen, keyboad and mouse.... AND can use AI to assess the situation .... That Programmer is probably working on her PhD at Standford Robotics Lab in Palo Alto or hidden away in a think tank working on a DARPA or NSA project.

The difference is - If I have an Australian Woman as a site tour guide providing tours while I'm sound a sleep - how do I know it my Australian Customers were given a tour by my employee? You see, as an employer I have found what an employee does in front of management is often different than what they do when management isn't around.

9mmbooks; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brian Regan on January 8, 2008 at 2:04pm: I gave some manual ways.....did you read them?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by 9mmbooks on January 8, 2008 at 4:32pm: Yes I did - I was responding to the notion you can write a program in the above post.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brian Regan on January 9, 2008 at 10:50am: I see so no way of tracking traffic like in SL. In other words, you need trusted live people at all times.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by 9mmbooks on January 9, 2008 at 5:19pm: Not in Kaneva or vSide that I know of. I'm not sure about There.Com. SL I've never been to so have no knowledge of available features.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kevin Russell on February 25, 2008 at 6:48pm: @Brian ... tracking via AI sensors (networks) are possible. A number of games (e.g. Fable II) ... will have this, the technology does exist as far as I know . The VW platform and more importantly privacy policy are the main issues. The employee / employee relationship is basically a transactional one, thus I would agree to be tracked for the purposes of 'guaranteeing the terms the transaction' were upheld. How wide the scope of terms ....is the detail worth noting. In general common sense in the general guide. Sure I should be able to teleport (maybe), and if a client arrives I would expect normal performance metrics to apply e.g. serve the customer in X amount of time etc.... proximity and boundary sensors etc... should suffice.; ▶ Reply to This