Social Technologies has launched a magazine-style overview of virtual worlds which, confusingly, they call “World O” and offer their own set of predictions and possible paths to a ubiquitous metaverse, cautioning that the hype of yesterday will be followed by more grounded initiatives tomorrow:

“As was the case with e-commerce in the 1990s, the initial popularity and hype surrounding World 0 led many companies to rush into virtual worlds without first creating solid business plans. As companies learn from their mistakes and gear up for the second round of innovation and application, it is likely that investment flows into World 0 will increase substantially.”

Nice overview - kind of thing you pass along to your boss because it’s reasonably balanced and informative. Download a copy here.