Interoperability; was: [sldev] Call for requirements: ISO MPEG-V ...

[Mike Monkowski]

I cringe every time I hear 3D virtual worlds discussed as "The 3D Web." 
  The 2D web is primarily static, one directional, and lonely.  Yes, 
there are chat rooms, MySpace, and blogs--the Web 2.0 stuff--but when 
you're talking about "3D representations of online stores, advertising 
in virtual spaces... in short the same business models that surround the 
web" you're not talking about communication and collaboration, you're 
still talking about marketing.

If you call it Web 3.0, then I might give you the benefit of the doubt, 
but if you're still talking about "The 3D Web," I don't think you 
understand virtual worlds.  "The Web" is about providing.  Virtual 
worlds are about collaborating.

Mike


Ben Francis wrote:
> My answer is a resounding yes! The sharing of assets between different 
> 3D worlds is a crucial part of my personal vision of a 3D web. I should 
> add the disclaimer here that I enter this discussion from a background 
> in web technology rather than gaming engines and have quite different 
> views of some architectural points than is perhaps the norm on this list.
> 
> I can not see how inter-operable 3D worlds can even consider not having 
> avatars which can travel between worlds and objects which the avatar can 
> take with them. Yes, new security models are necessary (you don't want 
> spammers turning up to your peaceful scene brandishing huge billboards), 
> but that is just one of the challenges ahead.
> 
> The idea of a consistent avatar in principle is similar to the images 
> people can associate with their name in a discussion forum on the web.
> 
> Interoperability for me would be anyone being able to create a 3D scene 
> in the same way that anyone can create a web page, anyone being able to 
> run a chat server in the same way that anyone can run a Jabber server or 
> IRC server. It would be wandering between 3D scenes in the same way that 
> people browse the web.
> 
> In terms of business models - why not 3D representations of online 
> stores, advertising in virtual spaces... in short the same business 
> models that surround the web. But really I'm not sure that business 
> models have a great deal to do with creating technology standards. The 
> W3C doesn't tell you how to make money on the web, it tells you how to 
> make a standards compliant web site that everyone can use and will work 
> with the rest of the web. I think any attempt at building business 
> values into technical standards will result in a collection of walled 
> gardens with a frustratingly inconsistent user experience, and never 
> reach the full commercial potential that we've seen with the World Wide 
> Web.
> 
> Sticking with my 3D Web example, an avatar is just an X3D resource which 
> can be served from a web server and included into a X3D scene in the 
> same way that an HTML resource can be embedded in an iframe in a web page.
> 
> That's my point of view, from a web perspective, of interoperability.
>