Tim Wang's eLearning Blog

Not that World of Warcraft needs more attention, but the new US leader Obama just announced Kevin Werbach to be one of the transition team members in January 2009. Kevin Werbach AKA "Supernovan Jenkins" in the World of Warcraft game, is a level 70 "Shaman". He is also a professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. A level 70 in the game WOW means Werbach has invested a huge amount of time and should be a pretty skilled and yet active player in the game.

In a blog post written by Werbach praised massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) for fostering a sense of community. Himself of course is a well known figure in the real world, but try to chat on "Supernovan Jenkins" in WOW! The following are some of his blog postings:

What (Warcraft) does is provide an incentive for people to develop new software and ideas for collaborative production," he wrote.

Many of those ideas will translate to other group activities, including those within the business world. I think MMOGs will be, at a minimum, a significant testbed for these new technologies, because users see a direct benefit and are willing to experiment with new things.

One thing you can bet on is his WOW experience will help the new administration to reshape the virtual worlds.