This will be my last post for a while as I’m taking vacation. I may or may not post between now and after New Years, so let me leave you with this thought.

Browser Wars Redux: Are we going to see competition between “metaverses” that will look like the Netscape/Internet Explorer wars in the ’90’s?

Will it matter?

Invariably in conversations, people ask me, “What’s the future of Second Life?” as in, “Do you think there’s a future,” as opposed to, “Do you think Linden Lab will institute x,y, or z feature?” I’m reminded of a conversation I had with an advertising radio producer in 2000 who asked me in all earnestness, “Do you think this Internet thing is going to really take off?” I’m thinking for her, the verdict is still out!

The price of hardware and fast bandwidth have dropped to a point that there are enough people with machines and connectivity that a metaverse(s) can be self-sustaining. This isn’t the VR days of 1993 when were happy to get Vertis Walkthrough running on our computers and had no clue that other people could be in the same space as us. Indeed, 3D spaces have that one-two punch that even myspace doesn’t have: a vicerality that gives you a sense of being with another person as well as the potential for being able to get useful things done. For anyone who’s built something collaboratively in Second Life, the experience is mind blowing as in, it will blow away all your preconceived notions of what it means to work with other people. It really is that cool and potentially USEFUL.

Multiverse wants to be the “browser” of the metaverse. So does Second Life.