transmutable

Web3D: The Next Major Internet Wave

A few months ago I was interviewed by Forrester Research's Erica Driver for a report about the future of the "Web3D". While I find that term generally misleading in the same way that "Web64bit" would be, the report itself is a good summary of current movements in online spaces:

The Internet is on the cusp of its next major evolution: Web3D. Within five to seven years, Web3D will deliver an interactive, immersive experience much richer than the static, text-oriented or even interactive graphical interfaces of today's Web. In the new world of work that Web3D will enable, people will be represented visually by avatars that can move in space, communicate with others, and interact with objects and information — making the digital world seem more like the real world. Yet Web3D won't leave the old world behind; it will integrate with the Web technologies we use today as well as existing and not yet invented business applications. Workers will use Web3D to teach and learn, innovate collaboratively, communicate and network, interact with and present information, and manage real-world systems.

You can find the full report here: Web3D: The Next Major Internet Wave

Since Opening the Doors

It has been a bit quiet on the blogs since we opened the doors, but we're still here! We had a rush of folks poking around on the site and we've been making changes based on the feedback you've sent. Though of course we're pushing the envelope of what browsers can do so not all feedback is positive, it's inspiring to check email these days because people have been so generous with their time and have helped smooth out a lot of rough edges.

You all rock, is what I'm saying!

One thing we heard a lot was that you can't get a feel for what is available from Tomorrow Space and the avatar accounts before being asked to set up an account and payment info. Also, we opened the doors to the site with a very limited set of clothes, body types, and attachments and we received a lot of feedback that more options are definitely required. We hear you and are looking closely at a variety of ways to beef up the inventory, ranging from paid artists to user created wardrobes.

If you have opinions on how this should work, now's the time to let me know!

We also heard from people landing on the site that they really want a public space to try out some of the social features before committing the time to tweak your avatars.

Here are the major changes we've made so far:

We added a public space which is linked from the front page. It's wide open so you'll find the same wild mix of people (and language) in there that you find on the street of any city, but it is a good way to see how web based spaces work with multiple people.

We also completely revamped the account levels, merging all avatar customization options into one free account level. So now guests can register for free and have access to the entire inventory without involving their credit cards. In the future we may add premium wardrobes and attachments which aren't free, but for now while the inventory is small it's all out there for anyone to use.

If you registered for a paid account level, don't worry! We made these changes before the end of the first billing cycle so your credit card was never charged.

Behind the scenes we're working on making the viewer more stable. It's a crazy world full of odd graphics cards, and we're finding new and interesting ways in which they can go pear shaped when asked to render 3D alongside web pages.

So that's where we're at: knocking down bugs and listening to you tell us where to take this thing called Tomorrow Space.

Tomorrow Space: Open for Business

I'm proud to say that the first application on the Transmutable network is now open to the public!

Tomorrow Space offers daily rentals of online event halls.

It takes 5 minutes to sign up, rent an event hall, and people can attend just by clicking a link from your blog, email, or IM.

I'll put together a screencast soon, but here are screenshots:

Front page: choose an event hall to tour or rent

Event page: an ongoing event with 3D space, text chat, and audio chat

Account page: your information and settings

Body editor: change your appearance

Events page: list your events and your invitations

Registration is now open, so host your own events and create your own 3D avatar today.

Tomorrow Space is a simple tool to make the web a little less about isolation and little more about real time conversation. Don't stop telling us where we're missing the big picture or where the little details aren't right and together we'll make Tomorrow Space a great place.

Audio Chat

Later today we're going to roll out a tiny little UI widget which I think will make a huge difference to event organizers:

You will be able to add audio chat to your event halls if you feel that text chat alone won't work for your attendees.

How will you be able to add audio chat? With the new store UI widget:

Those items are from our test suite, but you get the idea.

I believe that these two features are characteristic of how we approach development. They're simple to use, accessible to anyone, and they're both based on customer feedback. Keep those comments and emails coming, folks!

Testing underway

A few days ago we opened the doors a little wider and invited 70+ people for a sneak peak of tomorrow space. They've created their avatars and organized a few events. It's really satisfying to log into my account and see all of the activity.

I must admit that between browser plugin woes and a couple of server side problems it's been a rough ride for some people. But we're stomping bugs like mad and rolling out fixes every day.

Thanks to everyone who's given us a hand during this round of improvements and kept a good attitude about the quirks! It warms my heart each time one of our excellent volunteers takes the time to give us a detailed bug report so that we can prevent problems when we open the site to the public.

There will be another batch of invites soon so don't fret if you weren't in the first group. If you'd like to join the test, email your preferred username to humans at transmutable dot(.) com with the subject "Beta Me!". I can't promise that the site will be perfect just yet, but I can promise that we'll continue to work overtime to make tomorrow space a great tool for online communities.

A Quick Screencast: New Space, Body Customization

Click the icon above to see the video in glorious full screen. Unfortunately, my voice will not be appropriately resized.

The Start of Art

At long last we're starting to receive art from some excellent freelance 3D professionals. Here are a few screenshots of a new Tomorrow Space event hall which I'm putting together:

So, in the next couple of weeks we'll have new avatars, new event halls, and a new scalable system which can host enough people to make it interesting. A less exhausted man might say "w00t!" but I'm just going to smile and get back to work.

Economy of scale

Today we ran the first of a series of load tests on the new system which not only balances the load of space hosting across many machines but also dynamically starts and stops Amazon EC2 instances based on demand. We're discovering a lot of details about how Tomorrow Space really acts under load. There's work yet to be done, but today's test results look very good.

I'm tired as hell (in part because of attending the Seattle Startup Weekend) but there's just something energizing about seeing six months of hard work turn a plan into a product.

Get Satisfaction: People Powered Customer Service

Until we find that perfect community manager to show us how it's done, I'm going to be all over the new Transmutable Company Page from Get Satisfaction. The basic idea is that you control the topics and conversation and I pitch in with details of what we're doing, who we are, and our take on where this hurricane we call a company is going.

Here's their handy widget listing current topics:

Active customer service discussions in Transmutable

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Service and support by Satisfaction

It will take few days for Get Satisfaction to check that I'm really a part of Transmutable so right now the company page claims that nobody from the company has joined the conversation, but I'm there for you!

Hey, Joe

Our excellent avatar artist, Sergio, has come through with a preliminary version of a new basic male. I'm calling him "Joe" because right now he's dressed like your average Joe:

I'll make Joe available for use in Tomorrow Space once he's properly customizable and has a more varied wardrobe. Not long after he'll be followed by a basic female and the race to mod mastery can begin. I really can't wait to see what kinds of custom skins and gear these two can sport.