Anonymous

South

Sceptic

"This make work in northwestern europe or USA, where personal interaction is less important than in other cultures."

I think not! I deal a lot with a very technologically competent company that already uses remote working, online collaboration etc. - or at least tries to - in precisely those geographies. The one consistent comment people make is that they lack face to face interaction.
It is going to take a LONG time for this type of thing to become common and accepted - if ever! Bear in mind that "virtual worlds" have actually been around at least since 1996 when I remember demonstrating them at public events. That's 12 years so far and, for all the hype, they are hardly mainstream. "number of members" is a world of difference from "number of unique, regular users"!
Totally agree with the analogy to the "paperless office". I was around when that "arrived" and one of the sceptics who doubted it would truly occur. Instead we generate more stuff faster and turn lots of it into paper. Whatever, it has probably had a negative effect on the quality of communication!