During the last few days I came across some articles about the future of virtual worlds. Here are the highlights:
Virtual worlds and the future of TV
Via the Endless Innovation blog I’ve found an NY Times article about the possible future of TV integrated in virtual worlds.
Credit: Sundance Channel via New York Times
[...] if the wildest dreams of some very excited technology developers come true, virtual reality might finally be the medium that unites the passive experience of watching television with the interactive potential of the Web. If that happens, the television industry — which has not been particularly speedy in adapting to the Internet revolution — sees an opportunity not only to recover lost ground from online competitors but also to take a lead, and in so doing create an entirely new environment in which to influence and sell to its audience.
A Virtually New Web
Technology Review is toying with the idea that Second Life and Google Earth could merge to “Second Earth“.
[...] the extraordinary success of virtual worlds [...] can only partly be explained by new technologies including cheaper bandwidth, graphics cards, and free storage. Much more important was the decision of Linden Lab and Google to support an anarchic openness within their cyberworlds. Both companies have turned over control to users: any user can add almost anything to either environment. (podcast of Jason Pontin, Technology Review’s editor in chief)
I’m not entirely sharing all the “virtual thought experiments” that circulate in the web but these two ideas sound interessting to me. The reasons? On the one hand I believe in the fusion of TV and PC and on the other hand the dream of anarchy always was a powerful stimulus for many people.
But to come back to reality I invite you to watch this great parody of Second Life:
[youtube flkgNn50k14 nolink]
