Metaverse One

I had to take some time to salute the work of Clive Jackson , CEO of Pelican Crossing , and his relationship with Peter Finn (Strategy and Innovation at IBM). They are working on a really cool idea for user travel between virtual worlds. Imagine a client with a cool interface that allows you to move between different 2D and 3D virtual worlds. So far supported are Blink3d , X3D , Second Life , Club Penguin , and more in the coming list. The inDuality client is embedded in a Web page using standard HTML. The client determines the type of content to be rendered, checks to see if the needed files have been installed to support the content, and that they are up to date. The user then interacts with the virtual world in the same manner as they would through the original client. I watched Peter give a demonstration where his avatar moved in-between virtual worlds by moving closer to the pillars in the plaza pictured above. Each pillar is an entry point to a virtual world. The transition fro...

Even though these events are from last year, they are great insight by two forward thinkers as to where the web is headed. MM1 -Mike Liebhold, a Senior Researcher at the Institute for the Future , focusing on the mobile and abundant computation, immersive media and geospatial web foundations for context-aware and ubiquitous computing. MM2 - Jamais Cascio is currently a Research Affiliate at the Institute for the Future . He writes about the intersection of emerging technologies, environmental dilemmas, and cultural transformation, specializing in the design and creation of plausible scenarios of the future. His work focuses on the importance of long-term, systemic thinking, emphasizing the power of openness, transparency and flexibility as catalysts for building a more resilient society. A TED 2006 conference speaker and co-founder of Worldchanging.com Thanks to Henrik Bennetsen with Stanford for organizing these events.

The word student is etomologically derived through Middle English from the Latin second-type conjucation verb "stŭdērĕ", meaning "to direct one's zeal at"; hence a student could be described as 'one who directs zeal at a subject'. In its widest use, "student" is used for anyone who is learning. - Wikipedia The year 2000, "1999" (Prince) was just getting out of my head, the Y2K bug didn't end the world, the bubble had burst, and I set out to search myself and discover what profession in life I would enjoy to do to the point where "I would never work a day in my life cause I love what I do". I picked the top rated things I liked (video games), was good at since a little guy (scene building and design), and valued (education and proactive change) and combined them somehow with the help of a SnowCrash into a new profession of wanting to build virtual immersive environments that were structured to different learning styles. A...

After becoming aware that more than just the nice folks at Vivaty were reading my blog (they promptly thank fans), I see the need to catch others (non-supernerds) up to what all my recent blogs are about. For those techies that know what Open Metaverse truly means, skip this blog, close the laptop, close the eyes, rub the eyes, open, and go talk with someone you enjoy. If you have little/no clue to what the Metaverse is, or if you think it is SL or OpenSimulator, please keep reading. To see what smart collaboration (Open Metaverse Roadmap) had to say about the Metaverse last year, this is a must READ . ( warning-beyond this is my perception zone, not wikipedia ) Repeated visitors to my blog will see this graphic again. What is the Metaverse? Don't worry, I am not going to cover all these now, but these "domains" are converging into a mash up of technologies that will blur the line between the virtual and real via the immersive 3D web. This is the Metaverse, a mix of rea...

What an interesting day for the web and me, but let's cover more of the web 1:23 am- I finished my review of the public beta launch of Vivaty and called it a day (see previous post). 8:35 am- Woke up, entered the web, caught up on known news, and read the IBM and Linden Lab Interoperability announcement. I applaud the people that worked on the project, really. Glad to see them making progress on what they set out to do. Beyond that, the press announcement was a tad bit over-dramatic. " This is a historic day for Second Life, and for virtual worlds in general. IBM and Linden Lab have announced that research teams from the two companies successfully teleported avatars from the Second Life Preview Grid into a virtual world running on an OpenSim server, marking the first time an avatar has moved from one virtual world to another. It’s an important first step toward enabling avatars to pass freely between virtual worlds." Sounds great to the public, and three cheers for...

This review has been a long time coming but I did not want to share too much while these guys were in closed beta. Vivaty, the fun way to socialize and share your web stuff in a personal virtual scene ( your stuff. your friends. your scene. ), is now open to public beta. This multi-user 3D platform allows you to view and interact in the 3D web via a small browser plug-in for Facebook or AOL AIM. Lets start with the spaces. The spaces take almost no time to load on a broadband connection and look really detailed. Nice job on the designs, lighting, fog, and backgrounds. They have an "open" feel to them and each has its unique style. One can tell this design team is a group of pros. Somewhere I can here "You can do it!", in the Governator's voice. The release is showcasing partnered scenes from Target and Coke Zero, some cool looking virtual dorm spaces. The avatars are realistic with almost lifelike animations. There are a number of moods you can set fo...

ExitReality , a London headquartered start-up with offices in Australia and Los Angeles, is another open standards supporter making its entrance into the immersive web targeting social networks. ExitReality is a social media company with an enhanced 3D, multi-user, immersive messaging environment. After signing up for the beta, and installing the player, one enters with an avatar in a 3D plaza at sunset. Carls Jr and Hardees have 3D spaces here, the Match.com ice cream truck (??) is off to the side. Now before I can agree that this is " just another VRML world ", I cant help but think of the player. The ExitReality player displays X3D / VRML and COLLADA content. It supports interactive Flash as a polygon texture. The interface has a stylish look that seems like a mash-up of Vista and Itunes . It allows you to drag/drop assets into any world for personalization with standard editing tools (move, rotate, scale, clone, delete, save). It has a buddy list, chat, and ot...

On June 25, 2008, Dr. Chi Tau Robert Lai , Chief Scientist of China's Cyber Recreational District (CRD) passed away in his sleep at the age of fifty. Robert understood the way the Metaverse would shape our world, blur the line between fantasy and reality, and bring us all closer together. " There is no virtual, just one ." He had the passion for the Metaverse, you could tell within thirty seconds. He was an advocate for the "open" 3D web and showed China's interest in supporting the current standards of web3D. In November 2007, I was among four U.S. speakers invited to China by Robert to speak on "Open Standards, Open Metaverse" at the official launch of the CRD, a part of the ICCIE Summit . As guests to China, we all I got to know our host and new friend well. He was someone who made me feel very welcome in China and I am sorry to know my friend wont see his dream for China first-hand. Greg Howes...