Zoe's Ahh moment!

Last night the funniest thing happened - I came home around 18:30 so I could see Zoe before she goes to sleep. As usual I take off my "work" cloths and prepare to slip into something more comfortable. Zoe comes over to me with my just taken off shoes and says "Daddy, LALA" (which are shoes in her lingo). So I smile and say " yes these are my shoes, maybe you want to put them in my room?" and she shrugs me off...

Later she comes over with my just taken off socks (!@!@) "daddy - BAYIM" (again similar to socks in Hebrew) and I reply "yeah - why don't you put them in the laundry" shrugs me off again....

THEN I tell her "you know these are my pretty shoes - now daddy wants to put on his slippers" - what does she do?....

She replies "Ahh" and then proceeds on her own to take my shoes to the bedroom, take the socks to the laundry room and comes back with my Crocs (which are my slippers)

MC

Privacy: AOL and Google...tid bits

Reading in TC about AOL's move to help the RIAA track down private users that transfer "illegal" content through their AOL accounts reminded me of the lengths that some of these big boys will go to in order to continue in their losing DRM battle. On a slightly similar note here is an interesting "Google conspiracy" clip that i found at Go2Web2 - a worth while web2.0 blog by fellow blogger and Israeli Orly Yakuel

MC

Microsoft Surface vs. SapceTime - real implementation of 'cool" UI

So there is quite a lot of buzz around the unveiling of several new UI related products - the MS Surface computer and the new SpaceTime 3D search engine/browser (see the links to TechCrunch posts). As far as UI goes the concept of enhancing the GUI with 3D graphics and intuitive interfaces has been around for quite a while. Take a look at BumpTop or the great UI in the Moxi set-top-box. Not surprisingly MS Research had a long time 3D desktop project which was probably the pre cursor to some of the new stuff. As I said in the past - cool 3D UI is limited in its usability due to I/O issues - this is what will make the difference between really useful products and eye candy. With all the deep rooted "issues" we all have with MS - the surface computer is a real breakthrough in the paradigm as it combines 3D with natural input techniques to render (what looks like) a superior UX. I wonder if there are any plans to incorporate more 3D input beyond the multi touch screen. Something like a 3D pen (see Epos) could add depth to the experience...



MC

Vertical model of VW?

So I'd like to share some thoughts about how I imagine the vertical of VW might evolve from its current fragmented form. Right now it seems that most VW (I am talking about "free from" VW and not WoW style) have adapted the following structure:

• Endusers – like in everyday life people consume services and goods in the form of entertainment, education, shopping, leisure etc. They also interact socially.


• Infrastructure and service providers – these could be stores, data centers, media outlets, financial services, project integrators (like ESC), marketers (like Centric ) retailers etc. Out of these some are extensions of larger RW brands and some are local "in world".


• World "owners" – these are the entities making the rules and deciding upon the theme, content and so on. At this point in time they are key players that drive the industry forward with new ideas and concepts.


• Platforms - providers of the basic engines behind the experience (like Forterra, SL, BigWorld and so on)

Obviously some of the current VW have a few of these functions merged (i.e. – SL is both platform and world owner and as such didn’t need someone to build their world at day one). As this is an emerging vertical there is still very little clarity as to where it might go. This will also depend on VW going towards Metaverse style models that are all inclusive environments or limited functionality theme specific outlets (like MTV Virtual Laguna Beach).

After several talks to people in the industry my current thoughts are somewhere along these lines:

• Platforms are the most challenging technically and suffer the most form lack of interoperability. They take a long time to develop, witching costs are high and are investment intensive. For these reasons I foresee this as one of the places more likely to see the big names (Google, MS) so future consolidation and/or standardization is a probable outcome. With that in mind it is safe to assume that better tools for rapid deployment will lower the technical barriers to creating VW in the future.


• Service and infrastructure - right now this is a really segmented area, with some businesses just small time and others large brands. This sector could split up into two where the bottom is basic infrastructure (financial, V real estate, security, IT and so on) and on top of it a myriad of retail or consumer businesses. At the end of the day if these worlds are going to scale up most of the basic service providers need to consolidate and be big names that can support large scale operations. Moreover, leveraging their RW brand trust (say like banks or insurance) will make it easier to attract heavy clients in VW as well.


• Integrators - integrators and world builders today thrive on the fact that platforms are not easy to use and thus this function is critical for players who are not technology companies (MTV, BBC, WalMart). They make much less sense in a world where big players offer wide range services, interoperability is better and platforms are more ubiquitous. Current vertical players (like ESC or Chung) will either consolidate or shrink.
  
• World owners - right now they are the driving force (have the crazy ideas) in a wider perspective there is a very strong survivability bias - some will be big and others disappear or remain niche players. Here again big names might come up.
  

In moving from niche to global mass market VW will need to adapt their verticals to be coherent within the larger scheme of things and within RW sensibility.

MC