Rational RSDC, Jazz and Second Life

governance capabilities too. We shall have to see which approach to delivering industrial-strength end user computing works better in the long term.

Finally, I had a “user experience” thing with Second Life at RSDC. Grady Booch was present in Avatar form—and, frankly, I wouldn’t want to share the stage with an avatar (even if it does have a smart “sergeant major stance”, shoulders back, chest out, as Avatar Grady did. Grady lost connection at one point, which rather spoiled the build-up to Erich Gamma’s keynote, and we wasted a fair bit of time watching an avatar in confusion, looking for its life-support system. As Sabbah admitted afterwards, Second Life isn’t capable of supporting a sustainable collaborative development environment—yet…

Nevertheless, I think it will in the not-too-distant future (although face to face meetings will always be an important part of building trust relationships maintained in Cyberspace, I think). Just like the use of end-user business mashups for integrating IT into the business, virtual collaboration is nowhere near mainstream yet—but it is something that companies should be aware of and allow for in long-term strategic planning.