IBM, whose 20th century employees were parodied as corporate cogs in matching navy suits, doesnt have an avatar dress code. However, guidelines suggest being especially sensitive to the appropriateness of your avatar or personas appearance when you are meeting with IBM clients or conducting IBM business.

Official Press Release:

IBM, whose 20th century employees were parodied as corporate cogs in matching navy suits, doesnt have an avatar dress code. However, guidelines suggest being "especially sensitive to the appropriateness of your avatar or personas appearance when you are meeting with IBM clients or conducting IBM business."

Anything pretty much goes in online virtual worlds. Identities are nebulous. Online characters known as avatars chat it up, gamble or even have sex at first sight.

Increasingly though, these online zones like Second Life are also becoming places where commerce is happening. Big companies such as IBM (NYSE: IBM) Latest News about IBM and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Manage remotely with one interface -- the HP ProLiant DL360 G5 server. Latest News about Intel use these graphics-rich sites to conduct meetings among far-flung employees and to show customers graphical representations of ideas and products.

Now, in hopes of capturing the power of this new platform while avoiding potentially embarrassing incidents, IBM is taking the unusual step of establishing official guidelines for its more than 5,000 employees who inhabit "Second Life" and other online universes.

Breaking New Ground

IBM appears to be the first corporation to create rules governing virtual worlds. The move has critics, who say that mandating behavior for the so-called "metaverse" is unlikely to reform impish avatars. They also question why IBM would add a layer of buttoned-down bureaucracy to this relatively rollicking corner of the Internet.

IBM executives counter that having a code of conduct is akin to a corporate stamp of approval, encouraging workers to explore more than 100 worlds IBM collectively calls the "3D Internet."

The Armonk, N.Y.based tech company also has a financial incentive: It hopes to make money advising corporate clients that craft business strategies for virtual worlds. IBM has built a virtual retail center in "Second Life" for Circuit City Stores (NYSE: CC) Latest News about Circuit City and used the site to re-create the action at Wimbledon.

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