It’s a murky and gloomy morning. You wake up and switch on your computer and login to the virtual world. You are eager to see if anyone has purchased your new creation in the virtual world – The new outdoor lounger.
As your computer starts up you think about the advertisement you had set up to sell your creation.
The new outdoor lounger – set comes complete with table & umbrella as well as 2 loungers. Great for any pool area or deck. Modifiable so you can color anyway you like.
Was it good enough to make a sell, you wonder!
Finally you login to you Second Life and are really elated to see that someone has purchased your Outdoor Lounger. You have made L$300. That’s now enough Linden Dollars to buy that virtual private island you were eying since quite some time now. You make final checks on the virtual property and virtually interact with the property holder and crack a deal. The Linden Dollars exchange hands and now you are the proud owner of the private island on the web.
Seems like fiction? Well, this is the modern World Wide Web (www) for you. This is actual reality and it is happening and working as you read this. There are millions of registered residents on Second Life and presently many of them are creating new gizmos to sell in the virtual world, many are interacting with exciting people, making friends, some are attending Harvard Law classes, some are virtually experiencing the new car on the block, the list is endless.
On the market, Linden Dollar vs US Dollar stands at 271.3 L$/USD as of 26th June, 2007 9:16pm PDT. US Dollars spent in Second Life over last 24 hours $1,680,771 as of 26th June, 2007 7:29pm PDT.
Hard to digest?
Well then digest these:
- Toyota is the first carmaker to enter Second Life. It has been giving away free virtual vehicles of its Scion brand. Read more>>>
- Microsoft Uses Second Life to Promote Visual Studio. Read more>>>
When you hear names like Toyota and Microsoft, you know it all ought to be serious.
All this time, I have been talking about Second Life, an Internet-based virtual world. A creation of Linden Research, Inc. Follow this link get a second life>>> 🙂
There is a changing trend in the world we live in and we are unknowingly getting used to this change. More and more of our activities are shifting towards the internet. Nowadays the powerful desktops or laptops we were using to crunch our complex tasks has now virtually become a medium to plug into the Internet and all our work is being done with online applications.
Be it the latest MashUp site, your web desktop, your online spreadsheets, your blog; be it anything on Web 2.0, it has all become a part of our daily life now. Now, unknowingly we are getting used to the new trend on the raise – The Web 3.0.
Artificial intelligence, Distributed computing, Semantic Web, Scalable vector graphics, Second Life are all part of Web 3.0. More and more stress has been put on transforming the web into a 3D space. As we brace ourselves for the new 3D experience of the Internet, I often wonder – Are we ready for it? Is India ready for this change? Is India up to pace with the technology?
Web 1.0 was dial-up, 50K average bandwidth, Web 2.0 is an average 1 megabit of bandwidth and Web 3.0 will be 10 megabits of bandwidth all the time
– Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix, at the Technet Summit, Nov 2006.
If you are a techy guy, you would have understood by now that the most basic infrastructure required for accessing something this heavy is your Internet Bandwidth. I was reading an article recently in the Times of India which had reported a study on how India fares when it comes to Broadband penetration. According to the report, at present the broadband penetration is at an alarmingly low level, at around 4%. This speaks a lot about the hardware infrastructure presently available in the country.
Every common man who wants to get a Broadband connection now in India now knows how hard a task it is. I wanted a broadband connection to my house and had to scout around and went to various providers available. All had the same response. There were not enough ports available and there was already a big queue in place. I finally decided to go with BSNL and applied for it. After a 6 month long wait, I finally got the broadband connection I was looking out for.
So this makes me wonder. Are we sitting on a good enough hardware infrastructure to experience the full power of what the modern day web has to offer? I wonder if there is anything being done to improve it. Are providers in India already thinking about the potential of the broadband market? Is there enough help from the government on this front?
My rants, raves and random thoughts 