As far as avatar portability, while I agree that there are some applications where it is useful, the basic premise of defining standards for all virtual worlds that only actually apply to a few feels backwards to me.

IMHO, what customers need is easy to create content. That means using the formats customers already use. They need easy access to the content. That means not creating walled gardens and closed systems.

I don’t think IBM will have much interest in WoW. In fact, IBM hasn’t got that much experience here. This is a push to sell iron and collect part of the much discussed *billion* dollar bubble.

You already have standards. You don’t use them. I don’t expect that to change. I expect a separate market to grow along side the current one.

Christian, there was a fight over HTML/HTTP/TCP-IP; you weren’t there because you weren’t a member of that community. There were better systems. They weren’t free and IP/indemnity issues weren’t around then.

SGML was widely used in expensive closed systems such as aerospace and automotive design plus DoD CALS. XML is the dumbed down version of that. One way or another, pioneering designs get pushed aside and that is how this will go. This isn’t about anything but money and power. How much of either do you have?

Here’s the kicker: the designs most likely to be pushed aside will be the closed systems such as SL and other format-agnostic systems that can’t share content because they have no natural allies. The same claims that no one WILL share content were made about the various superior hypertext systems prior to the worst one (HTML) winning based on an inferior format but a working link type and a design philosophy that security was insignificant and link maintenance was an authoring problem not a system problem.

This is how the web works. The least wins when amp’ed. Until the next least thing comes along.

Raph, you and yours spent some time dissing existing standards for your advantage. Now the bigger fish are coming to do the exact same thing. Guess what? You have no defense because you have no professional organization that acts as a holding entity for your IP or to defend the legitimacy of it. So you cooperate or get pushed aside. That’s how it works. There is a truckload of speeding money entering the plaza and you are standing in the way. It isn’t a healthy place to stand.

What will survive: the technology communities with internal cohesion and market presence that are not affected by this or can get market share from it. Forterra, geoVRML, Multiverse, etc., are on the right track. The other world types are as healthy as their traffic sustainability so really, they are like nightclubs in your area with lock-in and good acts.

Yes, that meeting was a political circus, but so were the last two elections in the US and it didn’t stop the war. Sometimes bad things happen en masse when enough emotions are used divisely. This is a good time to calm down and assess what your audience, authors and their customers need.

From The Tales of Nasruddin:

“Be on good terms with thy ass for it bears thee.”