CTO Blog

It wouldn't be a CTO blog entry about SL without me posting a reply! So to avoid disappointment, here it is:

Stability and systems management remain big issues for Linden Lab, and could prove to be their Achilles' Heel. Plans to update the under-the-bonnet Havok engine from vn1 to vn4 should see a big improvement in capability and performance - but stability will remain a problem.

There are 2 "game changing" events in the pipeline. The first will roll out in a matter of days - the introduction of integrated speech, which is expected to make radical changes to inworld interactions and is of particular interest to educators and business.

The bigger, longer-term, change is the release of the server software (probably under OpenSource) in about 12-18months' time. This will be Linden Lab pitching for the 3D internet.

Outside of SL, and of more immediate interest to businesses, are the virtual world initiatives from Sun and IBM. Both are at the internal testing stage, and both are set to launch within their respective companies this year. We punters can expect to wait until mid-2008 to grab hold of these.

In the meantime, SL continues to grow (though the pace has slackened significantly in May) and companies, colleges and not-for-profit organisations continue to enter. The "killer app" remains elusive, and may continue to do so until one has direct control of one's own virtual world server.

It wouldn't be a CTO blog entry about SL without me posting a reply! So to avoid disappointment, here it is:

Stability and systems management remain big issues for Linden Lab, and could prove to be their Achilles' Heel. Plans to update the under-the-bonnet Havok engine from vn1 to vn4 should see a big improvement in capability and performance - but stability will remain a problem.

There are 2 "game changing" events in the pipeline. The first will roll out in a matter of days - the introduction of integrated speech, which is expected to make radical changes to inworld interactions and is of particular interest to educators and business.

The bigger, longer-term, change is the release of the server software (probably under OpenSource) in about 12-18months' time. This will be Linden Lab pitching for the 3D internet.

Outside of SL, and of more immediate interest to businesses, are the virtual world initiatives from Sun and IBM. Both are at the internal testing stage, and both are set to launch within their respective companies this year. We punters can expect to wait until mid-2008 to grab hold of these.

In the meantime, SL continues to grow (though the pace has slackened significantly in May) and companies, colleges and not-for-profit organisations continue to enter. The "killer app" remains elusive, and may continue to do so until one has direct control of one's own virtual world server.

Andy a brief reminder on the latest genre.....Second Life.
Together with Canal+ and a games software company Cryo in 1996 Capgemini created La Deuxieme Monde....I get a sense of deja vu....way ahead of its time an online underground Paris....can such a concept be copyright protected I wonder....!

as ever Second Life attracts comments! full explanation from Tim helps, and Bob leaves us wondering about the concepts and the reality of implementation!

seems that as ever the concepts are well established in terms of what people want but often takes time for the reality of technology to make them possible!

as ever Second Life attracts comments! full explanation from Tim helps, and Bob leaves us wondering about the concepts and the reality of implementation!

seems that as ever the concepts are well established in terms of what people want but often takes time for the reality of technology to make them possible!

Does Life 2.0 always require 2.0 comments? :)

haha, nice one (or is that 1.0), Mike!

In my case at least, the problem was down to the "Post" button hanging... Evidently the first post succeeded before IE collapsed in a gibbering heap. I wonder if I will have the same problem with this post?

Andy, this to me show an interesting side to the way things may develop going forward.

It looks like the momentum behind second life is getting too fast for Linden Labs. What would have happened if 15,000 or 150,000 or 15 million residents banded together to complain? Who's in charge then - Linden Labs or the Residents?

It strikes me that as others begin to develop such innovative ideas (Third Life and Fourth Life is bound to come along) then more attention needs to be paid to the implications of scaling to meet potentially rapid growing demand.

As more people become comfortable and familiar with such technologies, expectations get higher.

Future ventures like Second Life will need to recognise and adapt their models properly go from the 'lab trials' status to 'industrial strength'.

After all, if Second Life gets choked through its popularity and become difficult and unreliable, people will vote with their (virtual!) feet.

But here lies a conundrum, because with web2.0 we live in a 'perpetual state of beta', and how do you balance that with stability and scaleability?

agreed - but i am sure that we will have a laod of SLifers coming into to re assure us that all is well in SL and that any overloads are temporary !

In the absence of a "load of SLifers" coming in, and not wishing to disappoint Mr M, I thought I'd pick up on the thread.

I suspect that the overloads experienced in SL are far from temporary - at least,for as long as demand outstrips supply. But then most companies see SL as a waypoint, rather than the final destination - and live with the "non-industrialised" environment in return for the virtual world experience they accrue.

As mentioned in my early reply, the next generation of virtual environments is already under construction in companies like Sun and IBM. These environments are aimed at increasing networking and collaboration internally within companies, while reducing the need for costly travel.

Increasing computing power and new, more powerful products (not necessarily SL, which may well be GoogSL by then!) will continue to drive the uptake and expansion of 3D. With 10s of millions already participating in the many existing 3D worlds it would be naive (to the point of foolishness) to think othereise.