In Which I Happen to Invent Web 3-point-D
by walkerspaight on 20/02/06 at 1:17 pm
Perhaps because I feel for the most part that “Web 2.0” is just a fancy term for the march of Web-related progress, I don’t use the phrase all that much. But its particular rhythm has stuck in my brain, and now that we’ve begun talking about places like Second Life as part of a possible three-dimensional version of the Web that may come along, I find it popping up at inappropriate moments. Specifically, I find myself referring to “Web 3-point-D” when I should be referring to the “3D Web.” All well and good, except that the cool, energetic and exceedingly inventive Philip Torrone (see the Herald’s previous report from The Happening) has started to step on my coinage. Outrage!
Let it be known here and now that I invented “Web 3-point-D” and that its intellectual property now resides with Herald Enterprises. Torrone is hip and all, but he’ll just have to get his own wonky phrase to refer to the 3D online world that seems to be taking shape. We wish him the best of luck, especially since a lot of the gadgets he’s dreaming up could be exceedingly useful in such a place. And if he wants to talk about licensing opportunities, we’re open to that conversation.
More to the point, Web 3.D made a good showing over the weekend at The Happening, in Washington DC. One of the most interesting parts of the party was the projection of Second Life that streamed onto a white wall of R&B Coffee all night — interesting not for what was on the screen, but for the fact that there was a constant gaggle of virtual world virgins standing in front of the image throughout the event, alternately staring in wonder and chatting amongst themselves about what this weird world could be and what they themselves could possibly get up to in there. Second Life put on a good showing. Almost no one glanced at the screen, saw a video game there, and simply walked away.
I was also pleased to chat with Sibley Hathor, CEO of the Electric Sheep Company, one of the first companies providing Web 3.D services. On the podcast I recently took part in, I noted that it was an interesting time for companies like the Sheep. While we’ve all been happily chatting away and building things in Second Life for the last two or three years, the time has finally come when we need to bring those skills out into the world. Virtual-world interactions are different from real-world interactions; some are better at one than the other. It was nice to see that the guy at the helm of this new-ish kind of company had real-world chatline skills to match the in-world talent the company boasts. It bodes well for the Sheep, and for Web 3.D in general.
Sibley Hathor and friend
The night was nicely topped off by the fact that organizers and fellow Sheep Jerry Paffendorf and Jonah Gold (aka SNOOPYBrown Zamboni and Hank Hoodoo in SL) had rented a ZipCar to bring equipment to the event, and that they’d parked it out back of R&B Coffee on none other than a street called Linden Lane.
Fellow Electric Sheep Chris Carella (aka Satchmo Prototype), Jerry Paffendorf and Jonah Gold (rear), show off their ride
The Lindens can’t keep their meddling hands off anything, can they?
pt
Feb 20th, 2006
yah – i’ve been joking around about the terms web 3.0 and web 3.d for a few months now, the first mention was at oreilly’s foo camp during a late night werewolf session. the other mention was with joi ito a few months ago, on #joiito on freenode regarding WoW.
but i like to build stuff, so it’s all yours :-]
i think part of the definition of what 3.d services are will be the glues between real world and in world services. right now, it’s a little email, a little xml-rpc, but it’s just getting started. what is the meta data on virtual objects or in world searches that can reach out to the web, and how can objects / places, etc get indexed in real world engines. i’m still in dire need of rss and opml from second life, in any shape or form.
fun stuff, thanks for the write up.
cheers,
pt
Walker Spaight
Feb 20th, 2006
Well, I think I can release the term under some sort of Creative Commons license or something. Really, though, I’m just experimenting with what it feels like to be Al Gore, hehe.
Jerry Paffendorf
Feb 20th, 2006
> Really, though, I’m just experimenting with what it feels like to be Al Gore, hehe.
And I was just experimenting with East Coast/West Coast hand signals in those pics. WEast side is D best! :p
Blunderful Bunderfeld
Feb 20th, 2006
How about .ddd (spoken as dot-three-dee) as and alternative ?
ironperth
Feb 20th, 2006
Well, the article seemed to have a lot of truthiness so I believed ya, Walker.
Alvis Brigis
Feb 20th, 2006
The widespread Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Web 3-D coinage debate has been funny to watch, with people sometimes growing serious attachment to 1 of the 3 and sometimes getting offendend. So here’s another meme to throw into the darwinistic fray: how about .ddd (pronounced dot-three-dee)?
Prokofy Neva
Feb 21st, 2006
What I really hate about these stories is not only how incestuous and fatuous they are with the whole FIC/SIC thing (which Walker is now firmly placing the Herald into, to our immense disappointment), it’s how the RL-SL thing rips into the immersive world, and leaves one with a sense of violation, of deep queasiness, precisely because it rips the fabric, it destroys it, but replaces it with total bland stupidity.
Like, you get this:
One of the most interesting parts of the party was the projection of Second Life that streamed onto a white wall of R&B Coffee all night — interesting not for what was on the screen, but for the fact that there was a constant gaggle of virtual world virgins standing in front of the image throughout the event, alternately staring in wonder and chatting amongst themselves about what this weird world could be and what they themselves could possibly get up to in there
See, you step on, don’t care about, and are happy to trash what is happening on the stream — but perhaps that’s because usually what’s happening is a lot of avatars dancing, setting off Watermelon launchers, and appearing for the camera in as wacky a costume/wierd avatar as they can, in the utter cliche of all RL-SL encounters, which inevitably mimic the Star Wars Bar meme.
And you leave “to the imagination” what “they themselves could possibly get up to there,” even though we know you’re supremely indifferent, if not ironical, if not contemptuous of what most people “get up to there”.
As for “we need to bring those skills out into the world” it still escapes me what these skills are. Mainly the skills consist so far of merely serving as glorified tour guides and ferrymen to the virtual world itself, it’s about itself.
Satchmo Prototype
Feb 23rd, 2006
Not sure which one of you guys really claims ownership of it, especially since I heard you both say it independently within a few hours of each other, but I’ve been spreading the Web 3.d coinage everywhere I go. Might as well have our own buzzword rather than tweak some old ones
Walker Spaight
Feb 23rd, 2006
We’re sharing it, Satch. Do you want I should break you off a piece?