If you’ve been watching the development of videogame technology and user interfaces, you might have noticed that we’re getting closer and closer to the point where the Matrix becomes a reality. At some point in the future, most of us will be socializing, working, and having fun in a vast virtual landscape — also known as the 3D Web, the metaverse, or the hypergrid. Read full column at Internet Evolution. … Read more »

When it comes to business-focused virtual platforms, customers typically have to choose between platforms that are completely customizable and difficult to use, or easy to use but not particularly customizable. The recent crop of Web-based, enterprise-friendly virtual environments like VenueGen,Web.alive, Assemblive, ReactionGrid’s Jibe, and 3DXplorer have made great strides in the direction of usability. The previous generation of virtual world platforms – ProtoSphere, Teleplace, and SAIC’s Olive — requires that the software be installed on corporate servers, and that end users download heavy clients. Read full article at Internet Evolution. … Read more »

As travel budgets continue to stay tight, virtual meeting platforms are gaining in both financial appeal and usability. However, as the choices multiply, it can be difficult to choose the right tools for the job. Every company should have some kind of videoconferencing system in place for very small meetings, whether it’s a simple Skype connection or a Cisco telepresence room, or a feature included in its unified communications infrastructure. Every company should also have picked a Webconference platform for making online presentations to employees, customers, and investors. And companies should be considering the use of immersive 3D platforms for training or collaboration. Read full article at Internet … Read more »

If I told you that in the future we’d all be living in a virtual world, chances are you’d imagine one of the following two scenarios: The dystopia. We’ll be living in a virtual world created by some outside organization. Like Disney, say, or the government, or our alien overlords. (It’s hard to say which would be worse.) Our possibilities in the world would be severely constrained, and our primacy trammeled. It would be hell, and there would be no escape, since our environment would have been destroyed by pollution and global warming — or occupied by aliens. The paradise. We’ll be living in a virtual world completely … Read more »