| Web 3.0 - What's Next? - Web 3D |
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| Written by the Cyberspace Pursuit Team | ||||||||||
Page 5 of 8 Web 3DAnother popular prediction for web 3.0 is the transition to a 3-dimensional web- sound familiar? While Hollywood does a great job of making people wary of a web with depth (remember the Matrix?), this idea may not be as far-fetched as one might think. A Separate WorldA Separate WorldThere are applications popping up all over the grid that claim they are the future of the Internet. While we do not foresee these applications as the final destination of "web 3.0", we believe these applications represent a needed bridge- a transition- to a future three-dimensional web. Applications like Second Life, Active Worlds, and Kaneva allow users to sign-up and create avatarsAvatars are online identities, usually either a picture or 3D model, that represent a person in digital form. In this instance, avatars are the 3D human models that players can move around the virtual world. to represent themselves within the virtual world. From there, users are usually able to create their own "living spaces" and interact with other users. These programs all have different, distinguishing features, but essentially they remain the same. ExitReality is one application that we believe comes closer to the future of the web and deserves special mention. ExitReality is an application that transforms 2D webpages into 3D rooms via browser plug-ins, building on the current web instead of apart from it. Critisism: These applications are great in an innovative sense, but they remain limited for several reasons. First and foremost, these applications are proprietary- they are created by a single company and, while users may be able to add to their virtual worlds, they could never represent a new internet for lack of interoperability. The purpose of the internet is to make information instantly available around the world; these applications partition the internet into separate pieces, making it harder for people to find the information they need. Therefore, if they were to become mainstream, they could never replace our plain, old-school, 2D web browsers. Web++Web++While we do acknowledge the potential power of 3D worlds in the World Wide Web, we believe they will only provide a transition to a new web which we like to call Web++. Currently, several three-dimensional markup languages exist, mainly:
These formats are unique from more well-known 3D solutions, like Adobe Shockwave, Unity, and 3DzzD, in that they do not require a commercially created plug-into view in a web browser. This is the key to universal support. If web browsers natively support these formats like it does with HTML and the like, they will soon become web development hot spots. New design concepts and practices will become mainstream, and the uses of the web may change- or rather, be added to- dramatically. Once these markup languages become supported by a large portion of web users, we believe it will only be a matter of time before we will be able to use the web as a separate space for life. Technology is developing at an exponential rate, and as soon as new technologies develop, entrepreneurs find new ways to employ them. While we are sure that the web will never develop to the point that people could be injured or killed by faulty programs alone (hehem, Hollywood), you may eventually be plugging in your own body. For now, expect quite a wait for this new web to take hold (especially for certain companiesMicrosoft seems to be putting up a struggle with these publicly licensed markup languages for fear of losing revenue. As much as it pains us as developers, as long as Internet Explorer remains a dominant player in the internet industry (Go Firefox!), these languages will remain to have a very small audience. ), but in the future, many web pages might just be in 3D. Criticism: The AHSTSA Cyberspace Pursuit team supports these new conventions all the way. |
