I think what's changed most is that the days of one company creating and marketing a whole world and controlling the inner space are passing. Hypergrid and interconnections between grids and worlds are the next step. Most companies want complete control of their VW space and want to chose who they allow in. Secondlife was a great concept and got the ball rolling, but it doesn't make any sense to let a single company control the virtual space anymore. Servicing others VW's spaces with digital assets,is a hugely growing area for us. Where those spaces are hosted is less of an issue, other than for reliability and tech advantages.

Opensim fulfils many of the new emerging needs in ways most others do not, its cross compatability with similar operating environments like realExtend and Secondlife etc… is an advantage not a hindrance. Inworld and trans world ecommerce is a big issue however, digital media can always be uploaded, backed up or downloaded, Solving common means for etrading and ecommerce in virtual worlds is essential to the use of VW's as anything but entertainment or education or virtual live meeting envirnoments.Also the ability to seamlessly move inventory automatically from one VW database to another inworld is paramount. My clients already ask for this, even on a simple level like "can I play my powerpoint presentation inworld, make changes or get live responses then have the uers download it to their inventory." Well of course that can be done through web browsers, but it kind of defeats using a virtual world in the first place if you have to go back to your web browser in a live inworld corporate meeting. We are a long way from integratiing that into any virtual world software I have seen. Of course the integration of Flash, Flex and Ajax functionality to an inworld environment would also be a key to bringing the outside web world into the VWs and in the end, this is what will have to happen if the public and businesses will ever fully adopt VW's in their everyday use..

Personally, I think the only way forward is in full integration with the existing web browsers. That's where peoples heads are, it took ages for the masses to accept even using a thing called a web browser! lol, Even today, a lot of people don't know what firefox or opera are, they think the online world is run by Internet Explorer. Asking them to choose between 4 or 5 different VW 3D browsers that don't work or look the same as their beloved internet browser, may seem a small ask, but the masses aren't called sheeple for nothing! lol

Read her report here: http://bit.ly/6NJ36E

I'm surprised you would bother with such a comprehensive attempt to be condescending at my comments. Sorry, but you could have googled a bit, you haven't said anything new to me and while I could argue over 90% of your arguments I can't be bothered wasting time on it. Frankly your proclamations remind me of the librarians' reactions to the web circa 1995.

However; I must point out a few things; maybe you don't understand how Blue Mars works and consequently its potential to ever be a virtual world (it exists on a users' HDs like a game sold on DVDs). Similar limitations of content creation and creativity exist in WoW even though it is server based system. And as far as OpenSim goes – I think you can see what it is based on and how it fails to deliver any hyper/meta grid functionality for the handful of users who maybe online at the same time in a dozen or so of the public servers. Personally, I can't identify with a world of paperbag skins and system clothes with a few blatant CopyBot rip-off from Second Life mixed in. BTW in a corporate setting LL prices aren't actually the barrier to business viability, but to the contrary, the $20 per region charges you mention are aimed at semi-professionals you seem to think constitute SL commerce. As far as 'mesh' import goes, you overestimate its impact on the creative possibilities in SL and believe me, mesh will result in more lag, rather than amazing new possibilities.

Finally, I suggest that you shouldn't make references to what others should 'try' when you have no idea and can't be bothered to check their credentials – this just isn't a good collaborative spirit. There is no need for you clarify the Virtual World / Metaverse etc paradigm for my benefit – I'm only too familiar with the academic perspective, current state and future expectations and especially the reality of the situation.

(A qualified opinion of an independent SL resident backed by extensive experience. [Also in OSGrid, OpenLife, Blue Mars and an ex of Lively.])

When approaching a decision maker to ask about implementing a virtual world presence, these failures make it more difficult to justify the value of a virtual world presence.

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I'm writing specifically from the standpoint of enterprise users here in this publication. Enterprise users need virtual worlds for training, education, collaboration, prototyping, new employee onboarding, meetings, and conferences.

Enterprise users are only concerned about copyright issues to a limited extent. For example, corporations would not hesitate to put up thousands of pages of content up on the Internet just because those pages can be easily copied. If they are, corporations have legal departments to go after those infringing their rights. (Of course, they keep proprietary information on internal sites — similarly, they can run virtual worlds behind a firewall when sensitive information is at stake.)

As far as I can see, the issue of copyright protections for virtual content is a smokescreen to keep Second Life closed. The price of basic virtual content is about to drop to zero or close to it. As soon as Second Life allows full mesh imports, we're going to see content from all the 3D depositories on the Internet flood the world, such as Google's 3D Warehouse. Manufacturers already make virtual copies of their furniture, appliances – even factory equipment — available to the public. Since creating a simple virtual object is trivially easy — especially if a company already has the model stored somewhere in its design databases — it can easy make give-away items available for free as promotions. Clothing manufacturers can give away free copies of clothes. Car manufacturers can give away free virtual cars. Home builders can give away free virtual copies of homes — the idea being, once you spend some time in your virtual dream house, you might want to actually move into it in real life.

So what will designers do? Some will migrate to custom work. After all, there are many, many companies all around the world making custom websites for clients. And yes, they worry that their work will be copied — but not so worried that they stop what they're doing. The copyright protections that currently exist, weak as they are, are enough to keep the business world moving along and the Internet to keep growing.

Some designers will move up the food chain, producing complex virtual products integrated with back-end databases or server-side modules. These cannot be easily copied by users (though they can, of course, be reverse engineered by "fast followers").

Other designers will step up their marketing and community-building efforts. After all, Yahoo! started out as a simple directory of websites — easy to copy the entire thing. Copy, paste, voila! You've got a duplicate of Yahoo! on your own site. And if you change the layout a little bit and write some of the text, you're even covered legally — data collections are not protected by copyright. What makes Yahoo! survive is its collection of users who are tied to the service by having an email address there, by belonging to groups there. It survives because of its name recognition.

Finally, some designers will do a combination of all of these — improve their content just a little bit, do a little bit more content work, and maybe move to a less expensive location (such as an OpenSim-based grid) to reduce costs.

The future opening up of Second Life — whether to mesh imports or to teleports to OpenSim — may well completely wipe out the thousands of pro-am content designers who make just enough in Second Life to cover their store rentals and refuse to change the way they do business.

I do feel some sympathy for them. But my primary interest is in companies that are currently running viable businesses, employing people and contributing to the real economy, for whom virtual worlds will be a game-changing technology.

Fortunately, there is still time left. Time to take some marketing classes. Learn how to script server-side code. Or time to start developing a reputation for high quality and on-schedule custom work.

Or designers could start looking around for other worlds to move to. Most professionally-run virtual worlds (such as Blizzard's World of Warcraft) or social networks that distribute virtual goods tend not to have too many opportunities for mom-and-pop shops. Large, well-run companies tend to want to do business with other large, well-run companies. They'd rather make one big licensing deal with Disney to get their branded goods than with a million small shops that make products of various degree of quality, and little to none brand name recognition.

Blue Mars is one possibility, but it already allows mesh imports. As a result, designers here will need to be comfortable with third-party 3D design software, and be able to product virtual goods significantly better than those already available for free in this format.

Another possibility is to move to a Second Life clone that promises to keep the world closed for ever. They will have smaller customer bases, but also correspondingly smaller rent payments.

Finally, any designer can set up a private OpenSim grid running on their home computer, for free. (Check out the Diva Distro.) They can give away goods that are out of season, and sell new, fashionable items for PayPal Micropayments. With a home-based grid, they'll be limited to a handful of visitors at once — their broadband connections and computers won't be able to handle higher traffic loads. Butt then again, if they're lucky enough to see substantial traffic, they'll be able to handle OpenSim's low hosting rates (some hosting providers charge less than $20 per region per month).

But it's definitely time now to start planning. The times, they are a-changing.

– Maria

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So what about the 'issue' I'm concerned about? Assets, vendor lock-in and community. In reverse; yes there will be a universal VW avatar registry one day, but not any time soon and certainly not based on some registry of residents' email addresses – think closer to domain name register style delegation and authority.

Vendor lock-in – what are you actually suggesting? OpenSim is a result of reverse engineering of the most successful, while at the same time very poorly designed VW system codebase with practically no population or content besides cloned SL material.

Finally, assets – seems like you are advocating a move to legitimate use of CopyBot and related tools. Sorry, a total fail again. To a casual new user, the most attractive drawcard in SL are the unique avatar identities – unique being the operative term. To the majority of business users it is the broad range of creative possibilities until they find out how vulnerable their Intellectual Property is at which point they curb their enthusiasm.

Sorry, but I have a feeling you are missing a few vital points regarding the significance of Second Life and the role of Linden Research (Linden Lab) at this stage of the user adoption cycle of the Virtual World paradigm.

I may have a reputation for pointing out the problems with Linden Research business and technology, but I doubt that Lindens fail to realise that Second Life residents and their needs are the only chance they have in remaining relevant and viable in the furore. Further, I'm confident that LL don't underestimate the importance of enhancing and developing technology to support the integrity and protection of users' assets and their Intellectual Property, as being core aspects of likely growth opportunities for SL.

Don't forget Second Life is still just a game without a plot, even if it enjoys an almost 'real' economy and its subscribers and freeloaders have long outgrown the system they play. Sincere apologies for the critical tone, but since your comments tend towards an authoritative voice, I'd hate if your interpretation was to influence the opinions of the wider world who simply don't have a clue and simply feed on hype.

(A qualified opinion of an independent SL resident backed by extensive experience. XOXO)

The fact that Metaplace is trying to address the issue head-on speaks very highly of their regard for their users.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by sashaaprice5: Metaplace closing a warning for virtual worlds users: If a world is hosted locally, on a company’s own serv.. http://bit.ly/6V3CQ5...

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