Video of the 3D3C metaverse Metanomics Talk

See the video here.Earlier I reported on my talk for the Metanomics TV program. This is part of the Metaversed series of talks about the Metaverse. This is a MP4 almost 1 hr video where Robert J. Bloomfield, Nicholas H. Noyes Professor of Management from Cornell Johnson Scool of Management asks me some difficult questions about the future.

This video can serve as a good intro to the long term value of the Metaverse.

See the video here.

Real Face on an Avatar

In one of the last shows I was offered a free gift. My own face on my own avatar. I'm not sure I like this gift. but here it is. Larry Gardner CEO of CyberExtruder, says it is easy. you can try it for yourself in avatar island (see SLURL).

MetaverseLabs to Participate in IBM led Interoperability Alliance

From Virtual Worlds News (see full item)

After all the about IBM's secrecy surrounding the meeting

it organized to set standards for virtual worlds, Emerging Technology and Standards Senior Technical Staff Member Peter Haggar wanted to set the record straight. Haggar was one of the leaders at IBM for the summit and helped organize it from the beginning. That makes him the target for some of the ire over perceived exclusions from the conversation. But that was never the intent. "The meeting was definitely a kick the tires type meeting to see if the idea of interoperability had legs," Haggar explained. "The invite list, there were companies and organizations that you could say we should have invited. But we didn't because we couldn't include everyone. And we didn't think we could have a productive meeting with 300 people there. We wanted a small meeting with key members and a broad representation of the industry. Now that we've had the meeting and are moving forward, we are in the process of creating, probably the best word is an alliance among the industry to start looking at it and figuring out what the best standards will be. That will be open to everyone." After all the about IBM's secrecy surrounding the meeting it organized to set standards for virtual worlds, Emerging Technology and Standards Senior Technical Staff Member Peter Haggar wanted to set the record straight. Haggar was one of the leaders at IBM for the summit and helped organize it from the beginning. That makes him the target for some of the ire over perceived exclusions from the conversation. But that was never the intent. "The meeting was definitely a kick the tires type meeting to see if the idea of interoperability had legs," Haggar explained. "The invite list, there were companies and organizations that you could say we should have invited. But we didn't because we couldn't include everyone. And we didn't think we could have a productive meeting with 300 people there. We wanted a small meeting with key members and a broad representation of the industry. Now that we've had the meeting and are moving forward, we are in the process of creating, probably the best word is an alliance among the industry to start looking at it and figuring out what the best standards will be. That will be open to everyone." More info.

2006-7 Summer Course: Virtual Life: MBA Business Simulation (Bar Ilan)

As part of the Bar Ilan University MBA school, this EMBA course is two fold:

1. To introduce the Metaverse as a new form of fun, work, and being.
2. To facilitate an integrative business process of a new market, new product, marketing, sales.

The platform we will use is Second Life (one of the first example to the Metaverse).

Topics:

1. Get to know the world
2. Products and services in the Metaverse
3. The business environment
4. Project Presentations

Lab Location (SLURL).
Course Site (internal).

Helping out: Lover's Pearl

So Dera Kit is helping some innovative product makers Ludvaig Lindman in Second Life. This new product has it all -- romance, elegance, and simplicity. Made of only 12 prims -- it will make you smile.

It took us years to create this Lover’s Pearl. Like in Real life. Our pearl is big; it symbolized the love between two parties… our heart is opened like this amazing shell. One of the most unique items in Second Life this Pearl will dazzle your lover as well as your friends. Simple and elegant, Lover’s Pearl will brings you a smile each time you use it.

See it in action here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lindman%20Design%20Beach/119/94/22

Economist.com: MMO Netscape Moment

The Economist had a small article about the need for standards. See here.

What happened on the internet, of course, was that the web came along and provided common, open standards for both client and server software, doing away with proprietary online services and bringing together previously separate communities as CompuServe, AOL and the rest adopted the web's open standards. Now a firm called Multiverse Network hopes to do the same for MMOs. It has created MMO client and server software based on open standards, and a way to move between virtual worlds built on its platform, just like following a link from one web page to another. And it has made its software available for free download by anyone who wants to build and host a virtual world.

Personally I LOVE THIS TOPIC. The Metaverse standards will allow this entire industry to develop. see Yesha's Five Dimensions of Standards.

Anshe Chung Studio to Welcome Israeli Game Conference 2007

As part of the 2007 Israeli Games conference
I hosted a panel on the Metaverse. We were fortunate to be welcomed by the Founder of Anshe Chung Studio, Ailin Graef. This video demonstrates the range of things that can be done structured in the Metaverse.

Metaverse Labs: The Robot in the Maze

As part of the 2007 Course: Software Workshop - Motion Planning in Virtual Environments we are connecting robots that can solve a maze.

This course by Prof. Dan Halperin, Dr. Yesha Sivan, and Alon Shalita use Second Life as a simulation grounds for motion planning. If you can spot the bug in the course and can explain its reason you will get 3 points. (ah ah).

Metaverse Labs: New mini Island added

Dera KIT, CEO of Metaverse Labs is happy to annouce the expantion of the lab.

Here, he "fly" over the lab at gazing at beutiful sunset of the 21st bay. /me Ahhh....

Web 3.0 or Metaverse

Web 2.0 hype was high last year. Now the hyper monster wants its share ... and the new candidate is web 3.0. I hear a lot about it. See for example in this Businsess Week message.

It is especially exciting cause one could talk about web 3d.0 and you have a gimmick inside the hype. Amazing.

But I would stay with Metaverse. For two reasons. First the Metaverse has an history behind it namely some research, terms and work. Second, because the Metaverse is NOT yet another Internet. To think about the Metaverse as the next Internet will be to miss the entire point. (I admit I often compare the Internet and the Metaverse).

Anshe Chung scores venture capital funding

One of the major player in the Metaverse, Anshe Chung Studios is reported to get funding from a German based VC. The exact amount was not disclosed. All my VC friends should note, according to http://secondlife.reuters.com/:

Media investors are betting that the services surrounding virtual worlds like Second Life may be as profitable as companies such as Linden Lab that run the worlds themselves. At least one other metaverse services firm will announce a major investment within the next month, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
Wuhan, China-based Anshe Chung Studios, whose eponymous founder claims to have accumulated more than US$1 million worth of Second Life assets, has branched out to other virtual worlds including IMVU, There.com and Entropia.
“Our business is based more and more on people and talent and less and less on a certain platform,” said Guni Greenstein (Guni Graef in the real world), who is the husband and business partner of Anshe Chung (Ailin Graef) in a Second Life interview.

See full item here.

Number of users in MMORPS

http://www.mmogchart.com/ has good data on numbers of MMORPs users. The table says one thing: WOW is booming (green line). The numbers are from June, 2006. The site has the actual excel numbers of many other games. Interesting data. By the way, according to video blogger (on Jan 11, 2007):

Blizzard Entertainment announced today that World of Warcraft, its subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), is now played by more than 8 million gamers around the world.

World of Warcraft has also achieved new regional subscriber milestones, with more than 2 million players in North America, more than 1.5 million players in Europe, and more than 3.5 million players in China.

So it is possible to build a massive MMORP for the metaverse. (well, baring in mind that true Metaverse is a bit more difficult).

Dera Kit to head Metaverse Labs

Metavers Labs HQ in Second Life

Dera Kit (a Second Life Avatar) has informed me that he has officially formed Metaverse Labs. ML will host innovative projects, ideas, and initiatives in the virtual world. Dera works closely with Dr. Yesha Sivan. (ohh... very close :-).

(In the back some of the learning platforms of the lab... with some confidential experiments).

(Reporters: this is a pre release. please do not quote yet.)

2006-7 Spring Course: Software Workshop - Motion Planning in Virtual Environments (Tel Aviv)

Prof. Dan Halperin (Tel Aviv University) and myself will teach a Software Workshop at the School of Computer Science, Tel Aviv University.

This is aprogramming-intensive course for 3rd year undergrads.

The assignment in this workshop is to plan a collision free motion for moving bodies (robots) in an environment cluttered with obstacles. The major platform will be SecondLife, which is one of the first programmable Metaverse platforms. Several problems will be proposed as well as different solution approaches.
Possible projects:

• Robot getting out of a maze


• Hover (flying) chair


• Snake (multi-link) robots; follow-me dog

More projects will be proposed in class. Students are encouraged to propose their own projects.

Prerequisites: Software 1, Software Project, Algorithms, Data Structures.

See Course Home Page

2006-7 Spring Course: Virtual Worlds Engineering: Internet, Metaverse and Society (Afeka)

Update: An update version of this course was given in the Fall of 2007-8.

In the Spring Semester, 2006-7 I will over a review course in the metaverse. for more details see the course description. Here is the course description:

The Metaverse world – while still in its initial phase – is becoming a key to the internet industry. The Metaverse is a parallel 3-Dimensional world in which people act, work, and – mostly – have fun. Leading organizations like IBM, Toyota and Dell are already active in this world. The Metaverse was born out of the world of gaming and the world of the participatory web (web 2.0). The goal of the course is to acquaint students with key concepts, and key patterns on the Metaverse. The course will deal with:

1. Get to know the virtual worlds: Wow, Second Life,. There, IMVU, Habbo.


2. Get to know the engineering challenges in the technology and business sides.


3. Practical experience in building products, services, and work plans for the Metaverse.
   

The course will be based on classroom demos and home work. Ohh yes. You do get academic credit for playing games!!. Warning: the Metaverse can be very addictive. Please be aware of that.

See course Home Page