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Everyone I met at Virtual Worlds 2007 seemed to agree this conference, the first of its kind, marked a “Tipping Point”. Of course, people love to talk about Tipping Points. It is one of those ideas that adds a little excitement to an occasion regardless of accuracy. But, the buzz and excitement was tangible at VW ’07, even bordering on an innovation feeding frenzy at times. And, there was general agreement that virtual worlds were about to change our lives in ways we have barely begun to imagine.

But, there are some differences of vision. On the one hand, there is open virtual space (a concept pioneered by Philip Rosedale) that offers us vast possibilities to reinvent our world. This is an idea so big that we cannot understand it fully now, Philip Rosedale points out. (Click here to listen to Philip Rosedale’s remarks on the role Second Life can play in positive global development.) On the other hand, traditional media providers want to serve up virtual worlds as highly polished products, “where, if content is king, context is emperor.” In this vision, narratives, often already popular in broadcast TV, are taken to interactive 3D environments offering a limited range of customization, to “deepen” viewer engagement. Then there are the virtual worlds that are both a highly polished product, and highly customizable, but only offered as enterprise applications, e.g the virtual world products of Forterra, and Proton Media. Also, with a strong presence at VW ‘o7, was Multiverse, a different approach to virtual worlds pioneered by veterans of Netscape

But, can the model of unbounded virtual space exemplified in the vision of Second Life survive? (Gwyn’s post was an April Fool’s Day special, which the rest of my post is not. But, many a true word is spoken in jest!) The recent announcement of Microsoft Metaverse (April Fool!) and link to Virtual Worlds research division, cnet, Microsoft Live labs, and techcrunch’s rumor of a Google Metaverse create an April Fool’s vision – where fiction and fact blend seamlessly. Gwyneth points out “the battle for the Metaverse (MS or not) has begun.” Well it may not be MS or not, at least at the moment. But, it is true to say that competing visions of the metaverse(s) have begun to strut there stuff.

Many different 3D environments are called virtual worlds. The entertainment model of interactive 3DTV, while it is, in the words of the MTV speaker, Jeffrey Yapp, an example of “social networking on steroids, i.e., social interaction in intense wicked hot locations,” has little to do with imagining the next generation of the web that Second Life futurists envision.

Even a virtual world like Entropia that boasts, “it is the first virtual universe with a real cash economy,” is much more restricted than Second Life. In Entropia, user generation is more aptly termed customization. Locked down worlds are shopped to big corporations as places where they can market their brand without fear that it will be reinvented, or even horror of horrors, to a billion dollar company, devalued. The many hip marketing notions of ways users can add value to brands in user generated virtual worlds are only just beginning to penetrate corporate culture, where fear of loss of brand control is prevalent. But, the Adidas in Second Life team, and others, presented a number of ways that people interacting with a brand in a virtual world delivers marketing gold, e.g., producing “brand evangelists.”

And, not all big companies are putting their bets on the locked down interpretation of a virtual world that broadcast media giants clearly seem to favor. IBM is quite clearly not going to be caught napping this time. They are full on with their research and a presence on Second Life. And, the speaker from IBM, Colin Parris, offered some of the broadest imaginings of virtual worlds at the conference. But, it is not necessary to go to big business research to get an excellent understanding of the potential of virtual worlds.

The Singapore blogs are a good place to learn what is truly revolutionary about an open virtual space like Second Life, from the perspective of a community of enterprising individuals deeply engaged in exploring its potential. As Global Voices Online points out:

“decent broadband Infrastructure and familiarity with online technologies makes Singaporeans avid experimenters of emerging technological trends. It is not uncommon to find Singaporean blogger topping Technorati’s listing once every couple of months and Singapore based meetup groups often have more members than the ones from bigger cities. Second Life, the three dimensional virtual world created by Linden Labs is fast becoming the new hangout of Singaporeans.”

The video grab at the beginning of this post is from Rinaz, a Singapore resident on Second Life. Rinaz will welcome you into her rose garden and give you a video tour of her home which she also uses as a market place for her virtual wares. Check out her super cute frogs!

Also see Kevin at theory.isthereason‘s introduction to Second Life (and the video, Bollywood in Second Life!). This response to a post about Linden Lab’s CTO visiting Singapore was taken from Singapore’s blog aggregator Tomorrow.sg (Global Voices Online). It is an excellent primer into the difference between more locked down and open ended virtual worlds. Kevin writes:

“Just to set the record straight, Second Life (SL) isn’t a game. There are no missions, no quests, no experience points to earn. Unlike games like World of Warcraft, you don’t get told what to do…”

“Think of these MMORPGs as like renting a fully furnished apartment. Everything is in there and you just need to mix and match items and strategies to navigate your world. Now think of Second Life as like buying an empty house. It’s not much fun when you start out, but you get to ultimately have full control over how you want it to turn out (you make more choices). In other words, SL is fun in a different respect… one where the canvas is larger and one’s creativity is almost unbound.”

“I personally see these metaverses as the “New Web”. Since Second Life is ever-changing thanks to constantly user-generated content, SL makes the case where it exists as the most feature rich multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) I’ve seen so far. It’s applications have gone into the realm of education, research (e.g. sociology, psychology), business, etc. Still, SL isn’t the “be all end all”. Just as when Mosaic first gave us the means to experience the visual web, I see Second Life as giving us the first glimpse at a tangible online social space. There should be more competition in this genre in time to come.”

Vantan also blogs about and posts images from the first “in-world” Singapore Second Life gathering.

Following emerging technologies in this era of user innovation (the user generated revolution extends well beyond content) involves burning the candle at both ends and peering into images that flicker in these flames. In the age of Wikinomics, what is happening on on the ground, i.e., the new and innovative ways people are using emerging technologies is as least, perhaps, more important than looking at which horses the researchers, corporations, and those with big investment dollars are backing. And, there is also an important futurist, visionary component. Innovation circulates in the imagination long before it manifests in hardware, software and metaware.

I came back from VW 2007 with a recommended reading list including, The Fourth Turning, Wikinomics, Cultural Convergence (Henry Jenkins) – some big idea wheeling here, I suspect! And, I will give them a look when I finish Neil Stephenson’s “The Diamond Age.”

Stephenson’s Snow Crash, made the first extensive reference to the term “avatar” to describe one’s representation in a virtual world. Avatar based marketing was a very hot topic at the conference, as it is elsewhere. See, Paul Hemp’s Avatar Based Marketing in Harvard Business Review and some quibbles with his argument here.

But, in my view, the most interesting questions about avatars were not necessarily only those posed by the marketing theorists who ask: “How does a marketing message get transformed as it passes through an avatar?” And, hotly debated: “Are Avatars distinct from their creators?” Or, “Do Avatars represent hidden aspects of the consumer?” Hemp pointed out that whether or not these alter egos were what was displayed by the avatar, advertising has always targeted alter egos – hip, attractive alter egos that were just waiting to come out with the advertisers help. For me, some of the most interesting questions about avatars were raised by some of the organizations like CDC – Center For Disease Control (for more on CDC’s presence on SL see Spare Change), and Sundance on SL who in developing their presence on Second Life are not looking at ROI merely in terms of monetorization. They are asking questions about human development and social investment, such as: “How do we get people to go out and make a difference?”

Perhaps, the most energetic debate in the conference came when an educator in the audience challenged a speaker from the business community with the question: “How do we get business investing in education through virtual worlds?” “If we can figure out the application of virtual worlds in education then you have the attention of every child and parent.”

But, the potential virtual worlds have for education is well recognized. Linden Labs points out that Second Life Educators have a vibrant community and for every one entertainment company there are 100 educators. It is clear that virtual worlds offer a far more energizing medium for distance learning than web based e-learning.

Adam Reuter on The Second Life reported in October, 2006: “Indiana University Professor Edward Castronova has made a name for himself as an economist who studies virtual worlds. Now he’s been awarded a US$240,000 grant to create one himself, based on the world of William Shakespeare…..The grant to Castronova is part of $50 million in grants for the study of digital media and learning from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.”

“Some are afraid that young people spending more time in Virtual Worlds will create generations of “mouse potatoes” whose social skills turn to mush.” The Electric Sheep futurist, Jerry Paffendorf noted. But, this fear has not be born out in research on massively multi-player online games, he said. And, there are many optimistic outcomes that virtual worlds may bring about in terms of facilitating work and education over vast distances of geography, and with on the fly translation, language will no longer be a barrier to collaboration, work, learning and cultural exchange.

It is not just pesky “immersionists” who may be finished off when new levels of collaboration and participation in open virtual worlds come of age. Who knows, those even peskier divisive forces of nationalism worldwide may finally meet their match. Calling all netizens!

Tags: Second Life | Philip Rosedale | Linden Labs | Web3D | Virtual Hills | Web 2.0 | Web 3.0 | Virtual Reality | Virtual Worlds | Virtual Worlds 2007 | Interactive TV | 3D TV | The Tipping Point | global development | bridge blogging | wikinomics | avatar based marketing | education | netizens |