With the explosion in popularity of so-called virtual worlds, the question of what, exactly, businesses can do to harness these new entities is sometimes difficult to answer.

What tools are there to help a business find its way in the murky maze of virtual worlds?

Well, for a start, there are old-fashioned conferences. It might be surprising to find that the people behind the virtual communities still interact with one another in person, but that's exactly what they need, says Chris ...