Web, Web 2.0 and Virtual Worlds

Slide 1: Web, Web 2.0 and Virtual Worlds Roo Reynolds Metaverse Evangelist roo@uk.ibm.com 03/04/07

Slide 2: Web 2

Slide 3: Netscape Navigator – 1994 - 1998 3

Slide 4: Mosaic - 1993 4

Slide 5: WorldWideWeb - 1990 5

Slide 6: First web server (Tim Berners-Lee’s NeXTcube) – 1990 "This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!" 6

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Slide 8: Web 2.0 8

Slide 9: Web 2.0 examples (then and now)  Personal websites → blogs  Britannica Online → Wikipedia  DoubleClick → Google AdSense  Domain name speculation → search engine optimisation  Screen scraping → web services  Content management systems → wikis  Directories (taxonomy) → tagging ("folksonomy") 9

Slide 10: Web 2.0 components / characteristics Techniques: Tools: RSS, Standards: REST, Mash-up, wiki, AJAX, PHP, XHTML tagging, blogging Ruby The Web Light-weight Rich user as programming experience models “The Platform” Small pieces Software that gets loosely joined, or better as more “re-mixed” people use it Services, not Harnessing Architecture of packaged collective participation software intelligence 10

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Slide 18: Key themes to remember  User-generated content  Social networking  Feeds – the glue that holds it together 18

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Slide 20: Web 2.0 attitude “ Web 2.0 is an attitude not a technology. It’s about enabling and encouraging participation through open applications and services. By open I mean technically open with appropriate APIs but also, more importantly, socially open, with rights granted to use the content in new and exciting contexts.” Ian Davis http://iandavis.com/blog/2005/07/talis-web-20-and-all-that 20

Slide 21: Virtual Worlds 21

Slide 22: Mars Base Alpha 4 22

Slide 23: Some history  Text based adventure games - Adventure / ‘Advent’, 1975  MUD (Multi-User Dungeon/Domain/Dimension) - 1978  Talker - real-time, text-based communication, 1984  Rogue - early 80s ASCII ‘graphics’. e.g. Nethack is ‘roguelike’  Graphical MUD - Habitat, 1985  IRC - Internet Relay Chat, 1988 (via MUT talker)  MOO (MUD Object Oriented) - AlphaMOO, 1990. Later LambdaMOO  3D games - Wolfenstein 3D, first 3D First Person Shooter, 1992  Online FPS - Doom, 1993  Instant messaging - (`talk`), popularised with GUIs (ICQ, AOL) ’90s  MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game)  Virtual Worlds… 23

Slide 24: Virtual Worlds – as distinct from MMORPGs MMORPGs (Massively multiplayer online role-playing games) e.g. NeverWinter Nights, Everquest, World of Warcraft, Ultima Online, Runescape… Virtual Worlds - Massively multiplayer (but not role-playing games) e.g. There.com, Second Life, Big World, … • The users generate the content • Not a game; no objectives Terminology: Virtual World or virtual social environment, MUVE (multi user virtual environment), synthetic world, … 24

Slide 25: Who are the games players?  In 2005, video and computer games sales came in at $7billion – Slightly down on 2004 – due to new consoles  69% of American heads of households play computer or video games  The average game player age is 33  25% of gamers were over the age of 50  42% of online game players are female  Women aged 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (30%) than boys age 17 or younger (23%) Source: Entertainment Software Association., “Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Game Industry, 2006” 25

Slide 26: Second Life Stats 4,490,000+ user accounts and growing fast 1,600,000+ logged on in past 2 months. Usually 20,000+ concurrently online Not a game A place for meeting, building, selling, collaborating and exploring Active economy Millions of US$ changes hands between players every month. Media coverage BBC, Wired, Economist, Business Week, Observer, Sunday Times, Guardian, Channel 4, CBS, USA Today, The Register, Forbes, … everyone 26

Slide 27: More thoughts  Are you an immersionist or an augmentationist? – Replacing real life, or augmenting it?  How to treat each world. Its own country? – Each has own culture(s), with etiquette and often economies. Tax? Who are the rulers?  “The Web in ‘96” – Immature, lacking many conventions. Sex and gambling. Walled gardens. – At least the Web had HTTP 27

Slide 28: BBC – One Big Weekend concert with streaming audio and video 28

Slide 29: Major League Baseball event hosted in virtual stadium 29

Slide 30: Regina Spektor – marketed in-world by Warner Bros. 30

Slide 31: American Apparel virtual store 31

Slide 32: Reuters have a Second Life office, complete with embedded journalist 32

Slide 33: Why does IBM care? 33

Slide 34: Meetings 34

Slide 35: IBM Alumni event (http://greateribm.com) 35

Slide 36: IBM Innovation Jam, CEO and VP present from SL 36

Slide 37: IBM 12 island innovation complex 37

Slide 38: Circuit City 38

Slide 39: Sears 39

Slide 40: Wimbledon demo… Integrating real-world ‘Hawkeye’ ball tracking July 2006 data with Second Life for Wimbledon demo 40

Slide 41: Australian Open Jan 2007 41

Slide 42: More possibilities – Marketing, brand promotion – Retail (consumer feedback) – Design (trials) – Media and entertainment – Education (e-learning, blended learning, …) – Training (and rehearsal) – Conferences – Community events – Networking and collaboration – Modelling (visualisation, simulation, …) – Research, including monitoring (and data-mining) –… 42

Slide 43:  eightbar.co.uk  rooreynolds.com What’s next? 43