Step Forward: Western Australia Police Recruitment in Second Life

Overview

Binary Culture contracted GMG to design and develop the online presence of the WA Police recruitment in Second Life.

With an initial design brief of “create something like the Tardis”, we designed this imposing structure that stands out in quality and style beyond the usual fair.

Additional information

The Step Forward Pavilion presents three different, themed rooms which are marked as follows:

• Transfer to the Western Australian Police
• Open the Door to a Better Life
• For a Rewarding Career Step Forward

They are joined by a foyer with a sign greeting visitors. The entire pavilion has been designed to be low maintenance, while still offering a useful online presence. Actual Police recruiting staff will log into the pavilion during office hours and be on hand to answer questions, and even if you miss them, they are still available to answer messages sent through to them via Second Life’s message system. The Pavilion presents a direct, non-threatening, internationally accessible, and 24-hour link to the WA police recruiting service.

Second Life – New Police Career!

WA Police are venturing into the “virtual world” in their latest initiative to recruit real police.

The WA Police Second Life “Step Forward” Virtual Recruiting Pavilion will be officially launched today, September 19th, 2008.

The Acting Assistant Commissioner for Professional Development, Gary Dreibergs, said the move into the virtual world is the latest in a multi-pronged police recruitment strategy, which has so far been extremely successful.

“Technology is changing the world and we want to position WA Police in emerging recruiting markets that may not be tapped through traditional media such as television, newspapers and radio,” Mr Dreibergs said.

“Some people may think it’s far fetched but the virtual world is accessed by millions of people worldwide every day. Second Life is a social network with over 500,000 active members, each with an “alter ego” or caricature, called an Avatar.”

The Second Life WA Police Recruiting Pavilion contains interactive panels which will enable users to either navigate their way to the refreshed Stepforward website, or view videos on what it is like to work with the WA Police, or what the lifestyle in WA is like.

Police Assistant Director for Attraction and Marketing, Trudi Angwin, said the site had been developed by game technology specialists Binary Culture P/L in WA. Binary Culture’s founder Robert Spencer also brought international online game developer Interzone to Perth and has been awarded $500,000 Government funding to develop, train and attract highly skilled technological expertise to Western Australia, as part of ‘beyond the boom’ planning for WA.

“The WA Police Recruitment Pavilion enables users (residents) of Second Life around the world to ‘walk in and visit’ our Recruiting Centre, and at various times throughout the week, talk with one of our Recruiting Staff about the Recruitment or Selection Process in Second life,” Ms Angwin said.

“Two police recruiting attraction staff ‘avatars’ are live in Second life, ‘TRUDI KARU’ and ‘DREIBERGS LANNOCK’ and they will visit from time to time to interact with interested visitors to the pavilion.”

The Second life Recruitment Pavilion will operate initially for a three month period.

“By recruiting in Second Life as well as having a general presence in the virtual world, we will reposition the WA Police as a technically minded organisation that is cutting edge in the way we conduct all business,” Ms Angwin said.