The Coming Virtual Web. In the future, the Internet is almost certain to look more realistic, interactive, and social—a lot like a virtual world Ever since Neal Stephenson published Snow Crash in 1992, the virtual world he described in his seminal dystopian novel has been the Holy Grail for a generation of tech whizzes. The metaverse, as Stephenson called it, was essentially the Internet. But in place of the flat, two-dimensional World Wide Web that had just been invented, he imagined a completely immersive and highly social 3D online world.
People's avatars, or virtual representations of themselves, could interact using facial expressions and body language so richly textured that for many the metaverse became more compelling than the real world. Now, 15 years later, the glimmers of a real metaverse are coming into focus. You can see it in the popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft, which is revolutionizing online games with sophisticated graphics and complex team strategy. Defining the 3D Internet. Getting Started in VRML. What is VRML? VRML is Virtual Reality Modeling Language, the open standard for virtual reality on the Internet. VRML files define worlds, which can represent 3D computer-generated graphics, 3D sound, and hypermedia links. What is VRML useful for? VRML is useful for a variety of applications, including: data visualization financial analysis entertainment education distributed simulation computer-aided design product marketing virtual malls user interfaces to information scientific visualization Data visualization turns numbers into a 3D VRML world.
It takes a complex database with lots of numerical information and turns it into a three-dimensional environment, which may have a time dimension. Even interactive features and sound can represent information. Financial analysis can use data visualization to visualize financial data, such as stock prices or corporate financial accounts. Entertainment is a potential goldmine for VRML developers, since VRML allows for interactive, 3D movies. What is the 1% rule? | Technology. It's an emerging rule of thumb that suggests that if you get a group of 100 people online then one will create content, 10 will "interact" with it (commenting or offering improvements) and the other 89 will just view it.
It's a meme that emerges strongly in statistics from YouTube, which in just 18 months has gone from zero to 60% of all online video viewing. The numbers are revealing: each day there are 100 million downloads and 65,000 uploads - which as Antony Mayfield (at points out, is 1,538 downloads per upload - and 20m unique users per month. That puts the "creator to consumer" ratio at just 0.5%, but it's early days yet; not everyone has discovered YouTube (and it does make downloading much easier than uploading, because any web page can host a YouTube link). So what's the conclusion? Whatever happened to a 3D Web?