This is a great post from Wade Roush, a longtime tech journalist who's now acting director of Knight Science Journalism at MIT. Back in 2007, Roush wrote the cover story for MIT's Technology Review. (Our own Iris Ophelia, as it happens, shot the SL image for that cover.) Roush got a letter from the metaverse from Timothy Jackson, a brilliant 3D content creator in Second Life (where he's known as Maxwell Graf) among other worlds, and because it's so inspiring for several reasons, re-posted it in full. You should read whole full thing there, but I wanted excerpt some of here:
I eventually ended up meeting someone in SL, whom I dated for several years virtually before meeting in the flesh. This led to me moving across the country to live with her, where we have been happily together for 5 years now. All thanks to an article you wrote. It changed my life in many ways. I wanted to say thank you, and share this with you, as I recently found that issue of Tech Review in a box of stuff, and it brought back many memories...
It seems that a proper convergence of technologies is about to happen, as broadband speeds, rendering tech and the power of personal devices all have been surging forward to higher and higher levels. Social media is searching for the next big thing and I personally believe that virtual environments, whether 3D, augmented or headset-enabled, are the logical conclusion. Not only have we not seen the last of virtual spaces but it seems that they are about to become a larger part of what most of us do on the internet, as Facebook/Twitter did, but in a much richer, substantial way. It is, if you consider the money, time and energy being spent by the likes of Sony, Google and Facebook, almost inevitable. For example, Cory Ondrejka, one of your leading sources in the article from 2007, was involved in the (now defunct) world Cloud Party and is now head of mobile technology for FB.
... and who is now head of a secret startup which may very well be VR's Next Big Thing.
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