Good Yahoo post by Wayne Pierce.
Personally, I think the time for 3D has come. We have machines capable of processing the data, we have high bandwith, we have software capable of desiging the data and we have the software infrastructure. What we don't have (yet) is the software modified to work in a 3D environment, at least publically available.
Consider what would happen if WorldForge[1] (or some other persistant 3D online game) said that they were going to make an "Internet" using their existing software? They already have most of it figured out, just make it so that people can build stuff easier.
There are several projects underway on the Internet to build a 3D Internet, I'm actually helping with one which is how I found DDD. DDD really should think long and hard about working with these groups, perhaps trying to bring them together. The reason for this is that no matter how much effort DDD puts into it the groups over the Internet have more time, manpower and in some cases resources.
Again the best thing I can think of for this company is to try and organize all the 3D Internet efforts out there. Nobody is going to allow another MSFT to form. Once people see the money that can be made they'll come flooding in, if DDD already has things under control they'll have to play by the rules.
They haven't said how they plan to do the 3D Internet, hopefully it won't use VRML. Ideally, they would design it so that it could be viewed with a 2D browser (Netscape, et al), as well as a text browser similar to a MOO. A MOO is basically a text based virtual reality.
The reason for this combination is that people that don't want to upgrade to the new C-3D Virtual Reality browser to view a site (or don't have it on their machine) can use the 2D browser. In addition, people with vision problems or who are blind can use the text based system to navigate. This may not sound like a big deal, but consider the lawsuit[2] against AOL because blind people can't use the system.
Finally, if DDD is serious about buliding a 3D Internet for the public (not an internal network like AOL). Contact the CEO of Id Software[3], John Carmak. He's stated in his .plan[4] file that he's going to be looking into building a 3D Internet....and when he decides to start building a LOT of people over the Internet will be racing to help out.
As far as the stock goes, I'm here for the long term, although I don't own much. If it's still reasonable prices after the New Year I'll get more.
Hope this helped some without getting too far off track. If there's anything else I can help with please let me know,
Wayne
[1] worldforge.org
[2] nytimes.com
[3] idsoftware.com
[4] slashdot.org
I like the 3D internet concept.
Jack |
