Dave Greenfield at EWeek.com gives a short and precise overview for companies of the ways to crack the metaverse. He starts by listing the four paths to the metaverse based on the Metaverse Roadmap: virtual worlds, mirror worlds, augmented reality, and lifeblogging.Greenfield then provides a brief overview of the virtual workspace – including the insight that virtual spaces will become more attractive as the cost of travel continues to increase – then talks about strategies for entering the virtual marketplace. He also provides an overview of some of the detriments to the 3D Economy’s current state, which include lack of scalability, usability, and business problems such as payment processing issues and a lack of communication from Linden Labs about SL’s strategic direction.

While any direction on the use of virtual worlds for business is welcome, this may be a bit of a tougher nut to crack than Greenfield lets on. While on the one hand it’s useful to highlight the domains of opportunity, most businesses aren’t struggling to figure out what the possibilities are, they’re struggling to synch those possibilities with existing brand plans, ROI models, and operating procedures. Entering the metaverse is as much about a company needing to be open to a wider cultural change that is as comfortable with the terms Web 2.0 and open source as it is mapping a build strategy in virtual worlds.