Two contradictory articles put different spins on what happened in today’s ICANN meeting. Only the future of the whole world wide web was at stake here.

Article #1 comes from the UK: United States cedes control of the internet – but what now? which basically says that US will soon no longer be the ruling body over ICANN.

Article #2 comes from the US: US to continue its control over ICANN which basically says that at least for the next year, the status quo will remain.

Continue reading “Control of Internet expanding out of US hands”

Metaverse News

The largest island in There is now Kalifornia, which in terms of There scale, is as big as the real california. It is located about 405 KM ESE of The Atoll

Here is a map:

http://www.so-there.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1580&d=1150142470

It is also the first island to be clearly visible from World View.

Metaverse News There, virtual real estate

Basically the story of IMVU starts with There.

Will Harvey is the creator of both. He spent years building There, then left the company soon after they officially launched. According to Harvey, the vision of There was to become the “Metaverse”, but he realized that the internet itself is the Metaverse and that trying to be everyting for everybody is a bit too hard to achieve.

So he took the two most popular activities from There , shopping and chatting, and created IMVU, which pretty much does just those two things.

Originally IMVU was designed as an add on to other chat clients like AOL, but after much discussion, they found that most people prefer a seperate client. The full story of IMVU is told in Will Harvey’s own words at http://www.metaversesessions.com/ (look for the June 1 entry)

There is no walking around in IMVU. You join a chat and find a place to sit, then start typing. The program is free to download, but EVERYTHING costs money.

Want to get rid of that “Guest_” in front of your name? $7.95 Want access to adult content (or chat in the nude)? $19.95 Want the ability to try stuff on before you buy it? $19.95 Then there is the “Gold Pass” which apparently does nothing but costs $9.93.

Custom content is available and even encouraged. Many of the designers from There also design for IMVU. From a monetary stand point, most custom items sell for about $0.25 to $0.50 instead of the big bucks often spent in There.

This is the third program I have written about in as many days. From a “what can it do?” stand point it is the weakest of the three, and yet it is easily the most successful of the three because of custom content.

Apart from the chat client, there is also a MySpace™ like website with profile pages and an active forum. Its not just the program it is a community.

http://www.imvu.com/

My IMVU Homepage (I’ve been a member for two years, but have not done much with it)

Virtual Society IMVU, reviews, virtual worlds

The latest social online game is The Lounge or PCD Music Lounge. Most everything I said about Red Light Center below could be said about The Lounge as well. (Especially the part where I said “There is nothing here that isn’t doable better in Second Life.”) Its still considered “beta”, it is propped up by advertising, there is as of yet very little in the way of content.

There are some differences. The Lounge feels like an interactive music video, complete with song title, artist, and CD title in the lower left corner at the beginning and end of each song. You of course can click on these titles and be taken to a web site where you can purchase them.

The Lounge is sponsored by A&M records and so that is what you hear, as you wander around the cool looking but very small courtyard. There are plenty of places to sit, especially since the two or three times I visited there were 20 or fewer people on with me.

The avatars are outline rendered, not only does it make them cool looking but it is also less work for graphics cards. You cant customize your wardrobe, but there is a decent selection of stuff to wear. There is also a decent selection of animations to perform via menu. A third of them are dance moves since this is a virtual dance hall after all.

http://pcdmusiclounge.com/

Virtual Society reviews, virtual worlds, vside

Lately I have been interested in the future of the internet. Where is it going? Can it be stopped?

John Dvorak recently wrote a piece called The Golden Age of the Internet where he says we are currently in a Golden Age that is inevitably going to end.

“A golden age ends either when something new comes along (as with radio’s golden age, killed by the advent of TV), the government gets involved, or entropy sets in—usually a mix of these elements. In the case of the Internet, we are already seeing a combination of government, carrier, and business interactions that will eventually turn the Net into a restricted and somewhat proprietary network, with much of its content restricted or blocked. Only a diligent few will actually have access to the restricted data, and in some parts of the world even trying to view the restricted information on the Net will be a crime.”

We are right now seeing elements of change coming. For example the whole “Net Neutrality” debate has to do with new technologies being implemented right now to bring about what has been dubbed “Web 2.0″.

For years utilities have been laying millions of miles of fiber optic cables that are currently not being used because new technologies have made it possible for lots more data to be transmitted over current systems. If we ever get around to lighting up the dark fiber optic cables, bandwidth and speed will only be limited by the laws of physics.

Well the use of these fibers will also be controlled by the laws of the land as well as politicians like to have a say in these things. What the Net Neutrality debate is all about is the use of this faster web. The companies that own these cables want to charge a premium on the faster bandwidth and thus control access to it.

Content providers, like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, EBay etc. are united in favor of bandwidth neutrality. They want the telephone companies to transmit all data at the fastest speed possible, regardless of what that data contains.

Then there is the content makers like the movie and television studios, the recording industries, the software companies, the book publishers, and artists who have a vested interest in protecting their intellectual property being offered for free by web services like You Tube and Bitorents.

Then we have the politicians like Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA) who insist on introducing draconian legislation “to protect the children” that in fact seriously restricts internet access for many http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6071040.html.

Meanwhile, “entropy” is becoming a concern. Once upon a time, e-mail was on the verge of practically replacing the telephone. Then “spam” became a problem which created new industries of spam protection. The rules of spam protection vary everywhere and it is making e-mail very unrealiable even for legitimate use because when you send an e-mail you have no idea if it will actually reach its intended destination, or be blocked along the way, or end up in the receivers bulk mail box.

The same applies for internet downloads. It is not safe to surf the internet without virus protection, adware detectors, malware detectors, and firewalls enabled. The Golden Age of the Internet is also proving to be the Golden Age of Internet Security.

A new secure system of e-mail is going to have to be created and implemented if it is ever going to return as a primary form of communication.

Meanwhile, social networks, like MySpace are the new cool thing these days, their success is spawning million dollar lawsuits from “victims”. I feel for victims of sexual predators, but I believe it is up to the users of these services to protect themselves rather than the services to provide that protection. It is entirely possible that these services could be legislated or sued out of business simply because of a few bad apples.

The very infrastructure of the World Wide Web is being threatened with change. Right now ICANN (the international organization that controls domain names) is under attack from many governments as their contract expires in September. Among the desired changes to the system is restrictions on registration of trademarked domain names and the desire of many to own domain names for life. Every year thousands of domain names are lost because the owners forget to renew them, some system of lifetime ownership is needed to stop domain name theft. IMHO if someone runs a website under a domain name for five years, and that domain name does not contain any trademarks, that domain name should be yours forever.

Such a plan could mean initially big money for registrars, but eventually it could mean stagnation of the domain name market. But, it is not the only threat to the domain name market. Google “search words” is on the verge of replacing the whole domain name system, and unlike the WWW where there is government oversight, search words are controlled by corporate entities.

But it is not just domain names, the future of hosting services, the source of 90% of all web content, also has a limited future.

It is amazingly easy to host a website. Any one can host a site on their own home computer for no more than the cost of their current internet connection. There are three good reasons why you should go with hosting instead. 1) Dedicated web hosting means the computer is only dedicated to running the website. If you host the site on your own computer, then everytime you run a resource heavy program (i.e. Video game) your website will be slow. 2) Dedicated bandwidth. Most hosting servers are connected to reliable and expensive high traffic lines. Most home computers are connected to cable, sattelite, or wi-fi where upload times are restricted. 3) Dedicated sys-ops are monitoring your website traffic and making sure your site is up at all times, and doing regular maintenance and daily backups of your data.

Its a law of computing: Computers will continue to find ways to get faster and more reliable. That means reason #1 may soon disappear. As I pointed out earlier, we are on the verge of having massive amounts of bandwidth for everyone, that means reason #2 may soon disappear. Once those two are gone, it is only a matter of time before technology eliminates reason #3

Another threat to hosting is the increasing number of specialty services out there. You can host your videos at You Tube, and your pictures at Flickr and your podcasts at ipod and your links at del.icio.us and your blog at any number of places, then just have them link to each other.

Then as I pointed out in an essay on the metaverse, there is going to be inevitable growth in a 3D web at the expense of the 2D one. Maybe that is where hosting companies will move to, from dedicated web hosting, to dedicated world hosting.

All of this points to the internet being a very different environment in five to ten years. There are lots of very powerful forces tugging on it in all directions, and lots of important issues to be resolved. Lots of material we can get for free now may soon require payment, but it will be instant on demand accessible. There will be an inevitable loss of true anonimity and privacy to stop stalkers, spammers, scammers, virus makers, and identity thieves.

The important question is: Will we still be able to express ourselves any way we want to and form communities in a secure environment?

Metaverse News future, philosophy, web 2.0

This is a new 3D social game designed primarily for its adult content. It is currently being advertised as “open beta” and it does have a few bugs and lacks much content.

A lot of the doors around town simply say “coming soon”, and if you try to access anything interesting, like the streaming video, it asks for you to purchase the VIP membership for $20 a month.

Currently there is no custom content, so you are very limited in wardrobe and avatar looks, and most of the wardrobe is extremely revealing, at least on the female side. Animations are also very limited too.

For all intents and purposes, this is just a clever gimmick to sell membership in a porn site. There is nothing here that isn’t doable better in Second Life.

The one thing I am interested in is this: What the makers of this program have done is make a simple bare bones 3D chat and navigate system. I am curious as to how small it is and how simple it is. A simple bare bones 3D chat and navigate system as a front for other websites and commerce besides just porn could be huge.

http://www.redlightcenter.com/flashtour.asp

Update: The makers of this program also have opened up a MySpace like place for adults (R-rated content) http://www.utherverse.com

They WILL add custom clothing for sure as it is an option available in the profiles. They should add custom faces as the 3 they currently offer are pretty boring.

Bottom line: Not worth $20 a month just to access porn content. There is not enough free 3D content to keep people around for long. The social networking end shows promise and it is done much better than Xpeeps, but the community is a bit too small right now.

UPDATE #2: Wired did a review of Red Light Center as well and came more or less to the same conclusion as me. Their review is here.

Virtual Society redlightcenter, reviews, virtual sex, virtual world

What is a virtual third place?

Well the term “third place” comes from the book The Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg.
http://www.pps.org/info/placemakingtools/placemakers/roldenburg

Oldenburg identifies third places, or “great good places,” as the public places on neutral ground where people can gather and interact. In contrast to first places (home) and second places (work), third places allow people to put aside their concerns and simply enjoy the company and conversation around them. Third places “host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work.” Oldenburg suggests that beer gardens, main streets, pubs, cafés, coffeehouses, post offices, and other third places are the heart of a community’s social vitality and the foundation of a functioning democracy. They promote social equality by leveling the status of guests, provide a setting for grassroots politics, create habits of public association, and offer psychological support to individuals and communities.

So, in the world of suburbia where these “third places” seem to be disappearing, what is there to replace them?

While it is definitely not for everybody, I believe that virtual worlds, whether it be games designed to be social places like There or Second Life or MMORPG’s like World of Warcraft and City of Heroes, have a good shot at fulfilling that role.

The “Metaverse” is on its way to becoming real, and offers a social environment where people cut off from one another geographically can meet and socialize with all the benefits of real “third places”.

Virtual Society philosophy, reality, Virtual Society