The project’s test subject will be a senior [National Science Foundation] program manager known for his wealth of institutional knowledge. A UIC graduate student will shadow this official for several months making video and voice recordings. His presence will be digitally reconstructed and interviews used to glean his institutional insights will be stored in the information database. It will allow NSF personnel to consult his virtual counterpart whenever they want to tap his institutional wisdom.
Leigh sees a commercial market for preserving virtual people whose critical or unique knowledge is vital to operations of corporations and other institutions.
Virtual Reality for Virtual Eternity (University of Illinois at Chicago, via TDG)
that’s sort of what the knowledgebase thing is about, what wikis are about. maybe the biggest difference isn’t the video, it’s the interviews. usually you don’t get a sit down with somebody who knows that much stuff, you don’t get a really big session of questions answered, because they’re too busy.