Mapping a path for the 3D Web

... agreement that most people will be spending far more time in 3D, virtual environments than they do today.

In addition, there was a general consensus that — as mobile devices become more sophisticated — the 3D Web would become much more the province of such devices and far less of the kinds of desktop or laptop computers we know today.

During one break in the schedule Saturday, two members of the team producing Croquet, an open-source software platform designed for creating collaborative, multiple-user online applications, showed off their software. And as word spread about the demo, nearly everyone in attendance suddenly scrambled to watch.

Quickly, about 30 people gathered in a tight semi-circle around the two Croquet team members as they showed off the software's ability to let people move in and out of rich virtual spaces easily and with little of the lag and complicated user-interface of virtual worlds like "Second Life".

The demonstration was one of the highlights of a day filled with engrossing conversations, but short on tangible progress toward the road map everyone had come to create.

To some, the format of the event presented hard challenges to achieving the stated goals. But some felt that organisers had gotten it right.

"I'm not necessarily a huge believer in central planning of technological and cultural advances," said Corey Bridges, co-founder of the Multiverse Network, a sponsor of the event. "But happily, that's not what we're doing here. We are identifying areas to explore. We're seeing mountains in the distance and saying, 'There's something there, someone should go investigate it.'"

Bridges also applauded the makeup of the group that had come to the event.

"I think this was a wonderfully diverse and cantankerous group," Bridges said. "I was a little worried that we might get a bunch of starry-eyed people who weren't grounded...(But) we have all learned to temper our enthusiasm with our level-headedness and that is serving us well."

He also cited comments Dyson made as mirroring the feelings many at the event had.

"Esther Dyson wonderfully stood up during the introductions," Bridges said, "and said she has not drunk the Kool-Aid but she was here to see what the flavor of the Kool-Aid was."

Indeed, Dyson said she was somewhat skeptical of what such an event could produce, but added it really depended in large part on how people can work through the problems that they perceive stand in the way of the goals.

"The connections people made here I'm sure will lead to people doing interesting things in collaboration," said Dyson, who writes Release 1.0 for CNET. "But we're not coming together to promulgate a standard. We're trying to get a common vocabulary, a common understanding."

And in the end, that's what the event's organisers were really after.

"I feel that people came and engaged, and that part of it was extremeley successful," said Bridget Agabra, the Metaverse Roadmap's project manager. "Now the hard work begins again. But this is fun because it's content and ideas... When you see the magic (participants) were doing, the magic they were making with their minds, that was brain food for me."