Well, it’s one week away and I thought now would be a good time to mention the Metaverse Roadmap Conference (Link). For the sake of publicity, here’s the intro:
What happens when video games meet Web 2.0? When virtual worlds meet geospatial maps of the planet? When simulations get real and life and business go virtual? When your avatar becomes your blog, your desktop, and your online agent?
What happens is the metaverse. Taking its name from the immersive virtual world imagined by Neal Stephenson in his visionary novel, Snow Crash, the Metaverse Roadmap (MVR) is the first public ten-year forecast and visioning survey of 3D Web technologies, applications, markets, and potential social impacts. Areas of exploration include the convergence of Web applications with networked computer games and virtual worlds, the use of 3D creation and animation tools in virtual environments, digital mapping, artificial life, and the underlying trends in hardware, software, connectivity, business innovation and social adoption that will drive the transformation of the World Wide Web in the coming decade.
The MVR is organized by the Acceleration Studies Foundation, a nonprofit research group, and supported by a growing team of industry and institutional partners, all pioneers in this important space. Public contribution is invited. Join our mailing list to receive updates and find out about opportunities to participate, and check out 3pointD.com, an affiliate blog of the Metaverse Roadmap, for a tour of the emerging 3D Web.
I’ve known about the conference for some time now since I was invited to attend before it was officially announced. Unfortunately, however, I have a conflict that weekend and can’t fly out to join in the fun. Major bummer. Just look at some of the people in attendance: Jamais Cascio, Julian Lombardi, Richard Marks, Jeremy Bailenson, Raph Koster, and more (those I’ve named are just the one’s I wanted to corner with questions; the rest would just get a portion of my ear – after which they might get corned with questions). How cool would it be to sit down and discuss the issues about which I blog with some of the most interesting people involved? Another time perhaps.
Unfortunately they’re missing someone who can discuss fabrication and manufacturing. I’ve tried to locate someone and have sent out emails (as yet unanswered) to people who might be peripherally involved in some of the transreality stuff on which I focus, but it’s not looking good. Maybe I can find time to get a small powerpoint together and give my “public contribution”. I’d really like to trigger some discussion dealing with links to rapid manufacturing.