Submitted by joel on
As travel budgets are squeezed and slashed in the recession, 
companies are increasingly seeking innovative ways of bringing employees
 together for conferences and meetings remotely.
Virtual community Second Life is seeking to tap into that market by creating a new tool that allows businesses to have virtual meetings on their own computer networks.
The company's Enterprise tool will let 
employees' avatars -- animated alter egos -- meet in virtual worlds from
 the privacy of a company's own network, rather than the public networks
 used in standard Second Life. That extra security could encourage more 
companies to take up the technology.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collabora...