Virtual worlds can be described as open-ended video game or 3D chat room environments connected over the Internet where participants may have the freedom to build the world, their avatars and structure all activities and interactions. Second Life is the largest virtual world to date with over 10 million registered users and a concurrency of 30,000 – 40,000 (the number of people in-world simultaneously at any time). The economy is routinely over $1 million U.S. dollars per day.
As with any new medium, digital world participants have at first attempted to replicate physical world activities such as building houses, offices, stores and other familiar landscapes, introducing social interaction mechanisms and constructing commercial marketplaces for products and services. A new phase then occurs with a fuller exploration of the medium and a creation of concepts unique to digital environments. Featured innovations include simultaneous worldwide interaction with automatic translation, multi-threaded communication and novel collaboration in group settings, and the ability to filter and structure personal views.
In her presentation at the Foresight Vision Weekend Unconference, Melanie Swan shared an interactive overview of the current status and use of virtual worlds, including a recent standards announcement, and a review of the Metaverse Roadmap released in September 2007.
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