Websites like Instructables.com and wikiHow.com have become popular virtual meeting places for inventors and others.

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Give people tools to work at home and on the road: instant messenger, mobile phones, internet service, virtual meeting tools, webcams.

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Unlike the expansive microcosms of Linden Lab's "Second Life" or Vivendi's "World of Warcraft, " In-Q-Tel's digital environment will likely be a single room, designed to function as a virtual meeting place for U.S. intelligence agencies, according to a Forterra spokesman.

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Forbes.com spoke with Rosedale about his new role at Linden Lab, the viability of Second Life for business and whether it actually makes sense to hold a company meeting around a virtual conference table.

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Compared with those action-packed scenarios, a group of intelligence agents meeting in a virtual conference room seems rather tame, says Gartner Research's Carol Rozwell, an analyst focused on the use of virtual worlds in business.

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But when the rivals turned their historic meeting last week into a virtual love-fest, euphoria replaced doubt.

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All participants were informed that they were taking part in a study on virtual organisations and would be interacting with, but not meeting, a fellow student who worked in the same fictional consulting firm.

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After visitors "fly" to the city of their choice and arrive at the local Deloitte virtual office, they can go to various parts of the office such as meeting rooms and talk to employees.

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Though the personal preference of the security officer might be that virtual systems are not used, that security officer must recognize that there will always be risk associated with meeting the business objectives.

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