Word: virtualization
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...America's fat-drenched fast food is an old story. What's new is the way that more and more of these businesses are run: by managers based in the U.S. who direct and assist their overseas branches through the Internet, e-mail, phone and videoconferencing. Call them virtual bosses. They offer a more efficient way for hundreds of U.S. multinational firms--from restaurant franchisers and hoteliers to Web-hosting firms and chemical manufacturers--to export management expertise without having to relocate key personnel to other countries...
...kind of lasting bonds that are too often lacking in off-line society. They meet and swap tips in the chat rooms, they build friendships over sales, they sometimes even wed. Spend any amount of time hanging out here and you will get the impression of a vast, virtual citadel under rapid construction, a tower of Babel with street hawkers on every level, most all of them kept honest by the gaze of their neighbors...
...hate window seats, I remember thinking just before my virtual flight took off. You can see how far you'd fall if...Oops. Don't go there. I want to speak to the crew for reassurance, but there is no one. Instead I'm squeezed into a row of four seats, alone...
...take a hurried glance out the window to check the weather. Just a few stratus clouds. That's O.K. The sound of jet engines drowns me as my virtual airplane heads down the runway. My legs are stiff, and I arch my back in anticipation. No g-force in this simulation. A small break for me. We level off. Sky is still good. I begin to relax. Look around...
...this may not be the best moment for cyberspace. Napster is stumbling. NASDAQ is a bust. Whole sectors of the virtual economy are wrapping up their stories at Chapter 11. But who cares if investors lose faith in the digital world? The artists are sticking with it--at least the ones who lately have been making some galleries look like Circuit City, full of dot-matrix screens and wall-mounted monitors. Remember when videotape was the hot new medium? Compared with CD-ROM art and screen-saver art, with website artworks or virtual-reality goggles, videotape is starting to look...