When will SL take over the net?

When will SL finally make real the dream of a true 3D net?

Previous attempts have failed due to the difficulty of creating good and useful 3D sites, and the lack of 3D avatar technology that worked in an attractive and simple to learn fashion.

Second Life provides a lot of building talent, as well as a place to do the building in prototype form. (This also expands the "real economy, real money" aspect of SL - good builders can get jobs, and sub-contract to other builders to do a job fast.)

Once a 3D site is built, the bulk of the content could be exported to be served by the web-builder's servers, while Linden servers continue to handle all the usual chores. On entry, the client would pull down a fairly big chunk of content before starting to show the site (commercial sites will want a guaranteed good first impression and some control over download time).

There'd be two classes of 3D sites - those that use Linden servers (or buy time from a 3rd party service provider using SL hosting software), and those that license Linden servers. The former would be cheaper up front (for small websites) but have service charges. Maybe all would be expected to maintain a SL in-world teleport point, so there really is a single 3D world organizing all the websites, and so a standard SL client can get one to any 3rd party site and back. This dramatically increases the value of SL, IMO - all the web browsing people now do, they could do by carrying portable teleport portals listing their favorite sites. People could browse 3rd party sites as a group by using the same portal, with the 3rd party site expected to do its best to get all using the same portal into a shared shard of their sim.

There'd have to be a smaller client download - maybe 8MB just to get started - that can activate when a link is clicked. People could just use a default appearance for 3rd party websites - but most would want to customize their appearance by joining SL Basic, and so would need to be able to pull their appearance parameters off SL to their client. When visiting a 3rd party site, their client would send those uplink to the website for others to see them.

For 3rd party websites reached via web links, all default clothing and attachments would be provided by the particular website (quality and content control) unless the site enabled user content. So a site for test driving a sports car might put everyone in a racing coverall, but they could then change their helmet and other accessories with a few quick clicks. Another site might offer costumes to try on before buying them in real life - or second life! (Hmm - good follow-on product - certification of avatars as "G-rated, normal sized, non-infringing", with encrypted data. Disney could sell official mickey mouse hats...)

One basic change required for the SL client is to allow information links at 3rd party sites to pop up a web browser window to display web information served by the 3rd party site. Yeah, that breaks the 3D reality, but it leverages the website's existing content, without forcing them to re-format it all for sometimes awkward 3D viewing. It's critical for gaining acceptance by existing websites.

Oh yeah - and I'd change the basic avatar-walk to something more like roller-blading - speed with a more graceful movement. In fact, that's something I'd suggest for SL in general, at least after the first few steps.

Yes, interoperability... interactivity... inuitivity... these are important to me too.

Mmmhmmm... instead of the jagged waddle or the spazzy run. Hurray for Animation Overriders!