UmbrellaTable: From The Shade

Virtual World Frontier: Signs of Things to Come

Posted on November 15th, 2006 by theshade.
Categories: Uncategorized, Making Hay, Opinion, Concepts.

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You know I have thought and many in my sphere of influence have considered China to be the New Frontier. I mean 1.3 billion consumers, a coal fired power plant coming on line everyday. Old world economy oil, steel, wire, cotton and rubber. Have you looked into copper in the commodities market lately?

The growth potential is unparalleled. Some I know have been, others are making plans to go and not return. Go east young man. Read the signs. They are written in Simplified Chinese.

Yes, but I am reading some different kind of signs. I am seeing movement and migration into a different frontier. One that encompasses not just a geographical shift in resources and market strategies but a paradigm shift as well.

Of course I am speaking to the shift to virtual universes, virtual worlds, the virtual reality. Whole communities of multitudes of people. Wherein over $500,000 in usd values trade hands everyday. World’s like Second Life are growing in membership by 10% daily.

Yes I know that you have heard this before and you may not be surprised that movie premiers have been launched in ‘Second Life’. Some of the companies that have storefronts in that world should make you think.

Techcrunch announced that Dell was pissing off press by announcing a product launch inside Second Life, with the purchase of some virtual real estate where computers may be purchased with USD and Linden Dollars. Linden Dollars are Second Life’s currency that can be earned and spent on line and also traded for US Dollars. The Techcrunch article is here. This is merely one….

virtual universe. There are many of them. It would take more space and time to list them here than I have allocated for the task. This is a very small snapshot of what is taking place. As computers grow bigger, faster better and capacity to crunch data is increased more and more becomes possible.

I am sure that you have heard of World of Warcraft and it’s 6-7 million users. That is one of several dozen games that exist on line almost at that level. For a good history of on line gaming PacRimX has a history of avatars. Avatar being a gamers personal representation inside the game.

The numbers of users are staggering. The economies inside these virtual worlds are as well. There are even guides and books on how to sell virtual swag from the games, even reports of sweatshops in other countries where people are paid to play incessantly.

I realize that I am late to the game and many of you may be thinking “where has this guy been?” Well I’m here now.

Many people have the perspective that this is the level that it has become online. I urge the perspective that this is the beginning of what will become the world as facilitated online.

No longer just a sales and marketing platform wherein large volumes of news history and research are stored. But where the news research and history is created. Look I realize that this conversation may get too far out for many so let me just ….

At a minimum what is going on online is as huge a frontier as what is going on in China. Maybe even more so. Because it will affect China as well.

It already does. Online currency trading for the average Joe is commonplace. Commodities stocks and the like are transacted online 24/7 in some market somewhere. Retail is commonplace and wholesale is becoming more prevalent by the hour.

Every 12-18 months new computers come out with even more processing power. This translates to more applications and security. Soon going to China will not be necessary unless you want a vacation.

It is surely apparent how much computers and the Internet have affected the United States in the last fifteen years. Think back. Many of you can still remember when computers weren’t commonplace. Soon you and I will be considered ancient explorers.

In the last few years this growth has spread further into what used to be known as the third world. What will it be like in five years. Ten. When your fifteen year old is 25?

Moore’s law stated basically that computing power would double every 18 months, this is what caused the exponential growth.

“Moore’s Law equates to an average performance improvement in the industry as a whole of over 1% per week. For a manufacturer competing in the competitive CPU market……

In early 2006 IBM researchers announced that they had developed a technique to print circuitry only 29.9 nm wide using deep-ultraviolet(DUV, 193-nanometer) optical lithography. IBM claims that this technique may allow chipmakers to use current methods for seven years while continuing to achieve results predicted by Moore’s Law…..Since the rapid exponential improvement could (in theory) put 100 GHz personal computers in every home and 20 GHz devices in every pocket…. “(from the great folks at wikipedia.org)

IF you have the latest and greatest computer it’s more than likely got a Pentium 4 at 3.X GHz. The fastest hot rod box is over clocked at 5.46 GHz as reported by PC World.

So lets say their predictions are wrong by half. That would be 50 GHz of computing power in the next seven years. A five hundred percent increase in GHz and god knows what it will be able to do or create. New math will be made.

So what are your priorities? If not for yourself certainly for the next generation in your family.

My stance is learn what you can to educate yourself to the forefront of what is technically available. Keep reading and learning to stay on the cutting edge. The playing field is level. A new piece of software or a new way of doing things is new to most everyone else as well. If you learn a technique or software when it comes out you have as much experience as anyone else in that technique or software.

If you have kids, nephews, younger people in your life, get them in front of a computer. Sponsor them to take part in the virtual world whether it is gaming or something similar to Second Life. Encourage them with your time and resources to learn as many software platforms as possible.

Help them research computer technology training whether it is graphics, design, 3D, animation, sound or software.

This is where THE frontier is right now which will eventually include China. Hopefully you and yours will already be there open for business.

I am working on a guide for Gaming careers and have decided to expand it to cover as much as possible for the virtual world. There are many great schools and resources.

I should have it completed soon as a follow up to the “World of Warcraft Online Gaming Parents Guide” that I have available now in audio book/e book format. Yes I am a capitalist.

I hope you have enjoyed the discussion.

I am going to clip this here and will submit the further discussions of this topic separately in a subsequent post. Suffice it to say it speaks of online freedom and smells of revolution. Stay tuned.

theShade

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