The Metaverse, a phrase coined by Neal Stephenson’s science fiction novel Snow Crash (1992) constitutes Stephenson’s vision of how a virtual reality-based Internet might evolve in the near future. [Source: Wikipedia]

We are moving towards a virtualized existence that has been touted for some time now. Initially the term virtual reality captured our imaginations with pioneers like Lanier and Rheingold. We watched as Lori Singer and Pierce Brosnan portrayed amazing Hollywood visions of what VR might be. The reality of VR was that the clunky gear and 14.4 modems could not even begin to match the futuristic visions Hollywood was putting out.

Fast forward ten years and a more realistic virtual existence has emerged with broadband and advances in computing making social interaction in virtual spaces much more realistic than the cartoonish virtual spaces of the past. We still live with many limitations in these virtual worlds but as the quad core processors and 100MB broadband become more and more real the limiting factors start to fall away and we move ever closer to Stevenson and Gibson’s versions of immersive 3D environments.

Here are a listing of some of the more popular platforms to interact in 3D spaces:

• Second Life
• Active Worlds
• Croquet project
• Dotsoul
• Entropia
• Universe
• OLIVE Platform
• There
• Virtual Object System
• Furcadia
• blaxxun
• IMVU

In a 3D space our “physical” manifestation is referred to as an avatar.

An avatar (abbreviations include AV, ava, avy and avvie) is an Internet user’s representation of himself or herself, whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games, a two-dimensional icon used on Internet forums and other communities, or a text construct found on early systems such as MUDs. The term “avatar” can also refer to the personality connected with the screen name, or handle, of an Internet user. [Source: Wikipedia]

Here is my avatar representation in Second Life (SL). Second Life is my personal leading contender in this space due to a number of factors but most important in my mind is that fact you are allowed to maintain your intellectual property. It also has its own economy and generates transactions of approximately $650,000 a day.

One of the items that really impressed me about the platform when I started really digging into it was the news release section of the Linden Labs site. When I first went to that section of the Linden web site I expected to see press coverage from gamer magazines and things like Wired. However what I found was coverage by MIT, BBC, Harvard Business Review, New York Times and Fortune. It amazed me how this platform was more than a game and how our sociological norms transcended into this virtual space. Something more connecting and “real” occurs, even though you communicate the same way you would in any chat program, but ‘actually’ being looked at seems to make it more “real.” A great twist is in the way an avatar slumps over with cartoon bubble stating AFK above someones head if the stop interacting with the keyboard. This actual physical representation in a virtual place that is getting more and more photo realistic is making the Metaverse much more than a toy or a game.

More on this in a future post on Virtual Companies.

[tags]Virtual, Metaverse, 3D Web, Web 3.0, Neal Stephenson, virtual reality-based Internet[/tags]