[vos-d] Flux Worlds Server Announcement

[Karsten Otto]

Hi everyone,

I just came back from vacation and am catching up with my e-mail  
right now.
I may be late to the discussion, but I want to throw in my two cents  
anyway :-)

What is the Metaverse? (Matrix, Cyberspace, YouNameIt)

In my opinion, it is not a protocol/file-format/system, it is a feature.

<background>
In the "traditional" Internet world, you don't have a one-size-fits- 
all protocol, file format, or tool. What you use depends on the  
requirements of your application. If you want to transfer a file, you  
use an FTP client and the FTP protocol over TCP. If you want a live  
audio stream, you use an audio player supporting RTP (or something  
similar) over UDP. Sure, there is the common IP protocol, but by  
itself it is good for nothing at all.

The WWW integrates a number of these different functions in the form  
of hyperlinked multi-media documents. But this is still only a  
partial solution! Sure you can watch a video in the browser, but for  
a better experience most people download it and use a full-screen  
standalone player. Sure you can design great documents with HTML/CSS,  
but PDF still has its place. There is AJAX, but... you catch my  
drift. The Web-Browser can get you 90% of almost everything, but  
never all, and nobody really expects it to. Its main quality is to  
provide a common interface for browsing information.
</background>

The Metaverse/Cyberspace/Matrix in SF literature has the same quality  
as the WWW - it is an integrator for a number of different spatial  
content and applications. This is something we don't have today,  
regardless of what LL or anybody claims.  VRML, Collada, Flux, even  
VOS... interesting building blocks already out there, but no  
Metaverse by themself.

I don't believe that a single protocol, data model, or system could  
ever solve all problems and accomplish every goal. Like in the  
traditional Internet, the requirements differ too much among 3D  
applications. When you chat with friends in a virtual pub, you need a  
different protocol than when you go to the arcade to play an FPS  
game. When you do virtual flight training, you need a different data  
model than when you study surgery at Virtual Medical School. And so  
on...

In my opinion, if we want a Metaverse (do we?), we need something  
that can get us from application A to B without too much of a hiccup.  
It likely has to support multiple protocols and data models for this  
purpose. It will not deliver 90% right from the start, and I'd settle  
for a lot less. After all, you cannot really compare Mosaic to Mozilla.

The question to ask of every protocol/data model/tool thus is, how  
well does it serve integration? Or in other words: How metaverse is it?

Regards,
Karsten Otto (kao)