Futures Bulletin

One of the reasons this blog has been a bit empty of late is the amount of time I have been spending developing a presence in the "metaverse". Commonly thought of as the 3D web, it will most likely be the future of human-digital interfacing - taking over the desktop within the next decade. The much-publicised "Second Life" internet platform is probably the best "template" at the moment and the one I have chosen as a base. There are plenty of other grids on the horizon though so only time will tell. This short report from CNN sums it all up rather concisely.

Even if you don't plan on entering very often, it is well worth downloading the SL viewer since an increasing number of links will be pointing to "SLurls" locations you will not be able to see without access to the sub-system on your computer.

In the near future I will be publishing one of these here myself. It will take you directly to a 3D hub where you will be able to access everything of mine through this new interface.

Later.

clipped from www.cnn.com Virtual worlds: The next Facebook? LONDON, England (CNN) -- It's 2020. You get home from work, kick off your shoes and relax -- on your very own tropical island. That night, your friends teleport over with other glamorous guests, all nipped, tucked and primped to perfection, for a hedonistic cocktail party at your five-star beach house, decked out in expensively understated chrome, crystal and fine Italian furniture. But this is no billionaire way of life. If virtual worlds become the next Facebook phenomenon, experts predict that logging on to a luxury lifestyle could be attainable for all of us -- and we might even spend more money on our online homes than on our real-life surroundings. Interaction on Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites is mainly limited to text, with the ability for users to add photos and video. But in a virtual world, people are represented by avatars: computer-generated figures which can look uncannily like ourselves -- if we choose.