Metaverse One

Founded in 1991, Planet 9 was one of the Internets' first 3D content providers. Their mission is "building the next generation of data and software to bring 3D city interfaces to applications." Led by architect turned 3D web CEO David Colleen, Planet 9 is a long time leader in digital city creation and cutting edge applications. Planet 9's latest innovation is RayGun ™. RayGun is the first application to provide what David calls "Social Navigation". I got the chance to meet with David Colleen to ask him some questions about this first 2D and 3D geo -aware social network. Originally developed for Boeing and the US Army, RayGun combines the technologies of GPS tracking, route finding, friend finding and social networking functions all within a state of the art 3D interface. Users and their friends are shown in their correct locations so that they can share routes, text chat, share photos and videos or use our new push-to-talk feature. The first mobile mix...

A key element in the Metaverse, the convergence of the digital world with real, is Geographic Information Systems ( GIS ). So this weekend I took the chance to participate in my first OpenStreetMap mapping party. OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free editable map of the whole world that allows you to view, edit and use geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on Earth. The data is under a Creative Commons license, contributed by OSM members, and collected by portable GPS devices, aerial photography, and a variety of free sources. Led by Sarah Manley (a great hostess) from CloudMade , the gathering was full of volunteers surprisingly from all around the country. After a brief presentation to OSM, I signed out a Garmin eTrex GPS unit, and hit the town. The unit was set to record my position every second so I became a nerd on a mission. This was my first time with a GPS unit, other than one in a car, and I wanted to collect coordinates on everything of interest around the city. ...