Wipro Innovation

A few days ago I read an announcement that Wipro Technologies, one of the giants of Information Technology in India - and, by logical extension, the world - had launched an Innovation Isle in Second Life. If you work in IT and by some strange chance have not heard of Wipro then trust me, you will. They, like the other Indian mega-IT companies, are heading your way. If you're lucky you may still have a job at the end of it. The rampant success of companies like Wipro has led the "Western" IT companies, like IBM, Accenture and Capgemini to respond with massive ramp-up of staff in India. Now Wipro has become the first major Indian IT services company to launch in Second Life.

I have to say, I don't really like the build - and that's not just because my RL job might be at stake! Here are some pictures first, so you can see what I mean:




The island has everything you might expect - and more. There's a learning centre, a cafe, a recruitment station and many other buildings, including "administration" and "security." There's a large open "pit" for less formal meetings, and there's even a volley ball court. So on the plus side, they've squeezed a lot in. On the downside, it is all rather messy - there is little coherence between the various buildings and much of the interior work is weak, with clashing textures and odd blends of pre-built and bespoke built elements that are jarring to my eye. It seems to be a place in search of an identity and a style. At the moment it lacks both.

It is clearly not quite ready yet - when you click on many parts of the build you are prompted to select options from a builder's toolkit! So perhaps it will discover its style in due course. But for now I think it is not a great example of a public corporate site (standards can be a lot lower when only your own staff are going to see the place!).