One can argue that the single most important thing that computers do is replace physical objects (such as paper and filing cabinets) and physical activities (such as payments and conversations) with digital representations. This is what we mean by virtualization – the replacement of something real with a virtual equivalent.

Today, there are three main types of virtualization; all are having profound business consequences:

• The virtualization of the firm. The use of virtual manufacturing, virtual ecosystems, virtual teams, virtual employees, telecommuting, hot desks and so on is increasing quickly. Enterprise technologies are following a similar pattern – virtual networks, servers, desktops, etc. In both domains, long-standing physical systems and presences are becoming subordinate to their digital alternatives.
• The virtualization of things. Smart phones and tablets are steadily replacing a briefcase full of physical products – clocks, cameras, maps, guides, notebooks, newspapers, music, etc – with their digital equivalents. The path to a lighter, less cluttered individual desk (and overall economy) is now clear.
• The virtualization of the individual(s). Looking back, the market's enthusiasm for Second Life and avatars a few years ago was premature and missed the bigger and simpler point. Increasingly, how we appear on the mainstream web – and especially on Google, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook – shapes our overall identity and reputation more than who we know and what we do in the physical world. Virtual communities have, on balance, been more important than physical ones for some time.

While there has been a great deal of discussion about virtual enterprises, virtual things (especially iPhone apps) and virtual communities, the virtualization of our individual reputations has been slower to sink in. Like it or not, we are heading into a world of reputation management where, from an increasingly early age, we will be expected to groom our online images every bit as much as we do our appearance and credentials in the physical world. A new generation of reputation management fi rms will emerge to help us. For those of us over 50, this often sounds alien, but those under 30 are (to quote David Bowie) "quite aware of what they're going through".

To help our mostly 40ish+ clients think through their individual online strategies, we have developed the simple social media self-assessment survey that is now on our web site at http://www.lef.csc.com/virtual-identity-assessment. We recommend that you take the five minutes needed to complete this questionnaire to ponder your own strategies and attitudes, and to see how you compare to your peers.

The questions in the survey are based on our recent report, Developing Resourceful Humans – Opportunities and Challenges in Social Media. The report assesses the impact of social media by applying the psychological model developed by the American author, Robert Dilts. This model structures the components of personal development into a six-layer hierarchy – the environment you work in, your actual behaviour, your skills and capabilities, your values and beliefs, your identity and sense of self, and fi nally your overall purpose and goals in life.

We have already received more than 100 survey responses, but we are waiting until we have a larger and more representative sample before reporting the detailed data. However, it is very interesting that to date the aggregate scores in values and identity are distinctly higher than those in environment, behaviour and capabilities. This suggests that many of our clients know that their image on social media is important but may be less than satisfied with their actual efforts thus far. Sound familiar?

We will look at these issues more deeply in a future commentary. Until then, we suggest that you take the survey, and get others in your organization to do the same. Every firm will have a wide mix of attitudes. At a time when IT is becoming pervasive, these attitudes will increasingly shape the culture of your firm.