The camera will become the next standard component of the off-shelf computer package.  The speed of the Net will enable voice communication free of long distance charges.  The novelty of both talking face to face and the free long distance phone call, will make the camera one of those overnight successes.  Chat rooms have been extremely popular and may be the only reason AOL is able to throw around billions to secure their next future.  And a reason why Microsoft is scooping up cable companies around the world.  The use of text chat rooms has been limited to stranger on stranger.  The next Net explosion will come when the voice Net and camera enable free communication between relatives and business relationships.

How are we progressing to the gold rush that will be virtual reality?  It’s all in today’s business moves to secure the bandwidth for voice support and fancier interactive video and graphics.  The scramble for cable and satellite connections to the Net.  AOL has graduated into the realm of shenanigans Microsoft has been accused of.  This Summer sees the ironic paying of students to dress up as chess pieces protesting against being turned into AOL pawns.  Microsoft didn't see the future that became AOL's social scene and is now copying the chat schematics.  They make a chat connection to AOL clients and AOL changes the connection to stop it.  Hilarious how AOL is trying to "get a free ride" on AT&T while trying to deny Microsoft the same thing. This is just the latest example of something so pervasive it already seems like an age-old lament in the world's youngest public consumption technology.  Standardization - who will win and who will lose?  When will this latest facet of the computer world become standardized? This is the negative (with silver lining) in our development toward unspeakable profits.

The telephone and cable companies will evolve to satellite delivery of every digital input to your house.  One monthly bill will pay for your high speed access to the Net, TV channels, pay per movie, digital music with or without the disc jockey or advertisements, and phone communication.  This attractive/cheap one-stop shopping will further spread the Net’s influence around the world. Satellite will be much cheaper than hard-wiring to each residence.

Meanwhile the text chats evolve into voice chats and the camera will probably become an instrument of fear to the porn industry as the racier chat rooms "up the sex talk ante".  And you were afraid of the children visiting static pictures and text chat rooms.  As just one part of the new camera culture, the sex aspect will be a hot breeding ground for lurid rural folktales.  At the same time most people will be comfortable with voice but not with the camera.  The chat rooms will still relish in anonymity by using avatars to stand in their place - camera mimicking the actual facial expressions and body language of the user.  The ease of voice versus text will increase the popularity of the chat industry.  Leading us to put that camera to some other uses where the popularity of voice can merge with more sense expanding interactivity.

In the "glass is half full " we have an extremely surprising example - a promising creature surfacing in a dynamic fluid much deeper than any glass - open development.  Creature is a good analogy for something that has shown an amazing life of its own. We can't help using Microsoft as the measurement of something's viability - and for the giant to even acknowledge this new culture much less dabble with opening their own code.  The open development movement is a movement.  Cultural in every way as an ideal, and as a community. It is this years buzz word and it hasn't even made impact.  Culturally it has grown confident and has already proven its self.  On the OS front we have Linux promising to be an excellent Internet platform for virtual reality in less than a year.  We use only the examples that are getting the most attention or what is perceived as the first.  In each category there are many projects and all have the same potential.  We are hoping to post insider articles on the triumphs and stumbling blocks of these projects.  Look forward to hearing about alternative OS's and even ones that are emulators (running all the same programs as) of Windows

Naturally we use an example from the virtual sphere in exploring open development.  On the 3D engine front we have Genesis3D and Crystal Space. Hopefully all these projects in the virtual area will retain a software mode rendering.  The cutting edge commercial engines such as Unreal and Quake3 Arena are moving away from software modes and going exclusively to (3D card) hard-ware rendering. Some of the open 3D projects may get swept up in the excitement of directly competing with the big boys and lose site of the global future, dumping their software mode.  Genesis3D by Eclipse is a premiere example of an open development strategy with a lot of insight for the future.  Their engine has already been used (even though it was in beta mode at the time) for several commercial games and the open source code and demos have even shown up on the store shelves (by way of publishers unconnected to Genesis3D - 3D programming tutorials).  By making the engine available for free use - even if used commercially - they are securing their future with massive input. You also have to wonder about the level of knowledge in the hottest development beds doing more than just trickling down to these open projects. They are moving at an incredible speed closing the gap with the industry standards.  The route Genesis3D has chosen is very commendable for its community building at the lowest common denominator.  Their forum and a circle of Genesis community web sites openly give advice daily to "newbies". There will be a lot of industry insiders spawned through the vision of Genesis3D.  Their vision is sharp enough to produce peripheral products like this paragraph, using them as a prime example of open development.  They openly show their beyond the games vision with their HollyWood3D project. Web oriented use of 3D isn't very exciting to the typical, game industry insider, or wannabe, but it shows their aim to become a standard.  You know these guys will keep a software mode close to the heart of their objective - chasing applications on the lowest tech platforms from around the globe and at the same time a hardware based render that the most jaded gamer or 3D artist will appreciate.  The open development movement will deserve more exploration of its cultural structure through some insider accounts to come.

Through the years we will explore many cultural developments through the Net.  Remember the first case of a presidential election decided by appearances. The forever repeated story in TV lore is Nixon losing to Kennedy and the factor on this first televised debate was Nixon's dark suit blending in with the back drop.  How soon will journalists be tossing around the effects of how web sites reflected the personality of the candidate.

Is the impact coming into our daily lives too fast?  Will we grow wary of it, like the invasive appearance of books, radio, TV and video games?  Are we already trained to incorporate faster and easier?

The future is spelled out in the present - ideas - intangible products are growing faster than any other business.  It is the age for non-material products such as information services, interactivity, social enhancement, digital art, social consciousness - the age of the info-sphere is finally becoming an intractable fact

If the web is a true social construct of what is human then it must contain all that is extremely beautiful and all that is extremely ugly.  Maybe this enhancement to see and feel all we want of the human extremes will have the homogenizing effect.  Literally keeping you at home and out of trouble?  An acceleration of the good things about globalism.  Will the web and its transparent language translation through voice recognition reach across all barriers and soften all resistance, economic, religious, political?

The WWW is globalism - as usual we spot the impact long before it really begins.   The use of the word is already past the overuse and loss of meaning. We could foresee the breaking down of borders and closed societies to homogenize with some better ideals such as equal treatment of both sexes. The number one issue of the globe.  This issue has to be dealt with before any other issue in the UN can have any impact.   Globalism will come back and this time as an issue as the very first examples of clear change in remote cultures (remote in the info-sphere).  The good and evil of globalism will be decided on the outcome. Evil that other nations become clones of the nations they wish to emulate economically.  

The disappointment of seeing village children in Sudan wearing Nokia T-shirts.   But maybe the elation of the ecology finally being taken care of, because it jives with present global cultural values.  That is if we finally face the deep abyss, separating the haves and the have-nots. It will be through art to communicate the issues.  Today 90%+ of the worlds Internet users are within the USA.  Our natural tendency is to assume those statistics will improve and the alienated countries will enjoy the emerging global economy.  Unfortunately we adopted the attitude a long time ago in 3^rd world development years.  At that time, at least a half century ago, we feared the USA would use 90%+ of the world's resources.  And unfortunately, today we still do.  The positive futurist will say, making the Internet racier, will increase it's revenue and bring technology such as satellite delivery of socially conscious art - supporting the 3rd world.  So the positive nature of Net technology will advance the 3rd world cause, and the cheaper technology will be available to all, versus the expensive hard-wiring we had to evolve through.  Hopefully as we develop the great Net, we will keep in the front of our mind to look at look at global issues - such as how to standardize the 3D software engines to the cheapest hardware, and get this available to the 3rd world - when the net goes 3D.  But what will that do toward exploring the dangerous abyss getting deeper and darker.

The insidious and artful qualities of virtual worlds will disarm the global population through the new experience of time, and space.  A citizen of Chile  who has been to Paris once, regularly visits the on-line representative - his memories of activities within the virtual version crowd out the real visit.  As he looks up at the Eiffel tower he feels the familiarity of the place and the last person he socialized with, as he went up the elevators - she was excited about going to the real Paris next month, for the first time, prompted purely by her virtual visits.  He gives the computer the command "make me invisible (versus invisible to avoid interaction with others and can walk through other avatar’s - invisible, unless you speak when looking at someone) I am lazy today."  With a slight forward tilt of the head, he moves toward a book store within the haunts of his favorite neighborhood.  After selecting a free digital book from the public domain, he walks out to the habitual park bench, and before reading, he tunes into the ambient hum of life around him.  And then asks for "play the movie themes" before looking down to the print.  After reading during the music of 2 selected movie tracks, he sees a persona he hasn't seen in a long time - it looks like an improved version of an avatar, used by a fellow explorer, in one of the first virtual worlds.  "Make me visible" as he tries to remember what country the old friend was from.

The sharing of a new time and space while the cultural differences are more transparent, will be something for the college thesis, for many years.

While we are visiting Paris - what about the rest of the world?  During all this how do we keep the divide between the info tech society from permanently leaving the agrarian/industrial nations?  Must keep alternate content available for slower connections and older computers.  There is a lot of excitement in computers.  They are empowering, maybe the fever of the roaring ‘00s will make more of us want to use the technology to empower the artist in that 1 of just a hundred impoverished nations.  What is it like to live in the shadow of the  legendary existence of super nations - exposed more every day through global media?  New ways of seeing for all of us?  Will the gap between nations continue to increase or will there be a new moon of communication?

The only answer we have, for now: it will be a wild ride - intensity is the WWW.  Its amazing the WWW has already gone through a few phrases and even the name is passé - that’s culture for you.  Luckily "surfing the web" is just another phrase so overused we no longer see the total picture that Art, E-Commerce and the Interactive Industry bring to the monitor.

back to the top            contact us