Metaverse One

As promised from my blog in August , here is my entry (now that there are videos) about the Web3D Tech Talk. At SIGGRAPH 2008, the Web3D Consortium celebrated its 10th anniversary with its best ever Web3D Tech Talk. Of course I may be a little bias as I participated in the event, but the tech talk show cased very cool uses of X3D and VRML with content and applications from various sectors and across all hardware platforms. No boring Powerpoints or spec jargon here at this standing room only talk that wowed the crowd with the technology that is defining the open 3D web. Participants from around the world showed off X3D applications that covered medical, educational, social, mixed reality, and other interesting uses of the tech. Enough of my writing, these videos speak for themselves: Michael Aratow - Rationale for 3D standard for 3D medical imaging Tony Pack - X3D to display and review seismic data Johannes Behr - Beyond the Web Browser:X3D used for Virtual and Augmented reality Damo...

3pointD.com reports on emerging 3D connectivity — a phenomenon sometimes called the metaverse — in all its manifestations. From virtual worlds like Second Life to applications like Google Earth , from cool mapping hacks that link up real-world locations to new ways of creating virtual ones , from concepts like folksonomy to the culture of online worlds , find news and feature articles about all that and much more at 3pointD.com, every day.- 3pointD website 3pointD.com is a good resource of current news for all those interested in virtual worlds and Metaverse related technologies. Started in April 2006, edited by journalist Mark Wallace and sponsored by the Electric Sheep Company . Mark is a seasoned journalist, co-author of the book The Second Life Herald , and co-founder/Chief Executive of Wello Horld, a web start-up based out of New York. Since he is an active participant in the community, make sure to check out his blog and keep an eye out for Wello Horld.

I am sure most remember that Kevin Costner movie "Field of Dreams" and the line, "If you build it, they will come." This quote seems to also be the mantra for most if not all virtual world platforms. I have recently seen multiple companies build a platform, give people an avatar, movements, personal spaces to customize, and scenes to explore in hopes of catching huge numbers of virtual residents to monetize off of. Very cool idea, but then what? I have spoken with hundreds of virtual world residents in all kinds of platforms and most express a similar problem, nothing to do. A growing consensus that I think the virtual world operators need to address. 3D chat and Feng Shui'ing a space can only hold so much excitement. Personally I feel it is not about the number of unique visitors or account sign-ups, but the return patrons. Imagine if World of Warcraft had no quests, PVP, or story line. Just create an avatar, move/animate in various 3D spaces, and chat. Would t...