The virtual world is a new frontier and it is amazing to explore and join. It is unexpected, it reminds of things from the real world and from our dreams at the same time. It is like a time machine where you zip forwards and backwards. Most importantly it is a unique place for self-expression without limitations or pre-judgements. Of course the social and real-time nature of interaction is fanatastic and adds the energy to the experiences.

So where’s the problem? Let’s face it…CSI was/is a flop. Most of the corporate builds are empty (deservedly so) and the one good one Pontiac Motorati got canned. Why? Every corporate we meet has a negative comment about SL. SL was overhyped by the media and clumsy developers delivered boring sims at high prices. Also experienced online marketing people took a risk on SL, but with weak traffic they cannot justify what looks like wasted money. They built it but not enough people came. LL promotes a ridiculous registration statistic when so few people can even get off the arrival islands. There is now a backlash. LL is flat on a meaningful response to this. They should wake-up and start telling their own good story.

However, the main issue — is content. The core SL audience (the 400,000 or so active/engaged users) has a collective early adopter profile. They want/demand edgier stuff and are not bothered with the rough usability or need to understand technical details to enjoy stuff. But the taste, patience and interests of the much larger mainstream audience are different. So really, making more of the same or even better more of the same is not going to increase meaningfully the SL active user count.

The concern for the future of SL is how to attract the mainstream users without killing what is unique. So maybe it would have been worse if tons of CSI fans came into SL and the whole grid reacted to become more like WOW.

For what it’s worth here’s what we are trying to do right now:

* more user generated content. Garden is an example, we are also continuing to host more fairs and festivals on our 4 special events sims. We take request from people for 1 or more sims.

* more digital art shows. We already run the largest art collection in the metaverse — Black Swan, Collectors’ Gallery, the Cannery and the Dagger Eye. We also have sculptures scattered across the void sims as well as a new goth cemetary next to Carnival of Doom. We are bring digital artist into SL from places like deviant and flickr.

* Open Source community project to make surfing waves and boards. This is being announced shortly, but main point is to allow more people to participate in making surfing great. So we will support a LSL development community as well as give Board makers free sales areas on our sims.

* More interactive. We are opening a 2nd Greenies sim in next few months. It will involve questing and exploration in a great build context.

* User participation build for a new version of the Toxic Garden. We will announce this soon as well, but effectively we want users to build the story from an outline about utopian dreams gone awry.

* Carnival of Doom will start running a weekly show all done by SL residents. We are in fact offering free rentals in a new trailer park for the performers.

You will also see more pay-to-visit across our sites. In most cases the fees will be nominal. We think people will pay for quality and value–our mission is to understand what that is.

As far as LL goes…we still think they are the best platform for this kinda stuff. If we had any wish, it would be for them to sell off Mainland and focus on establishing service level agreements for customers. The grid is way passed the point where LL needs to prop-up the rental market.

Anyway, not sure if that was hair down or knickers down…cu on the grid (when it’s up again)!

But I suppose that’s one vision and I guess in many ways it was Philip’s. A grand vision of everyone connected for a better humanity, everyone growing their own little worlds, but it is nice to hear and listen to what people will think that means and I almost feel ashamed now to think that one time I thought brands might kind of get it, but I suppose it was too early for them, or this ONE grid was too early in any case.

I’m at a Games for Health conference in Baltimore where I’ve seen people using platforms for all kinds of things – helping kids exercise, stroke patients rehabilitate, scientists discover proteins through massive online games, brain wave controlled racing games for ADHD treatment instead of using drugs, or MTV doing some amazingly simple stuff to educate about HIV infection.

I wonder whether with larger shared visions we can find other ways to focus our thinking, creativity, and attention on technology development. But you’re right – there was no grand vision for the Internet really as it started to sort of make itself up. I suppose it would just be nice in a period of grid crashes and asset server freeze-ups to know that there’s others with hope and optimism and to hear what that hope and optimism is based on.

I was feeling inspired down here, listening to excited people talking about how video games can help cure, treat, educate, engage. SL has a wider purpose than just ‘let’s buy a beach house’. Or maybe it doesn’t. And maybe a beach house is enough. I am curious what the talent thinks – the ‘guild hall’ at Rezzable or our friends at Avatrian or other dreamers who might have some ideas on what it means for us to share a platform for stories.

Maybe that is the vision of the future : that there isn’t any grand one. Just a new world growing out of tens of thousands of small ones.