Virtual Design Teams in Virtual Worlds
Design innovation increasingly requires cross-functional virtual teams and is becoming plural, collaborative and distributed. In order for global companies to compete they must be able to sync with the rapidly increasing pace of change and be able to tap the international talent that may, in the future, only connect via virtual worlds and virtual reality. It is important to recognise how design innovation and knowledge flow are regulated and how the virtual ecosystem can either inhibit or excite collaboration and the creation of new ideas, and the design of useful prototypes. This chapter presents a theoretical framework using three models, with examples, to explain and understand how virtual design teams can identify the regulation of knowledge flow and collaboration in the virtual world, Second Life.