Monday, August 17, 2009

(Virtual) World Domination Pointers

Alright I've got a serious bee in my bonnet, so please excuse the bluntness. I've been sitting on some of these ideas for far too long. These are some ideas for projects of business ventures in/for the Metaverse. The ones that interest me after this posting might get a more fleshed out dedicated post. Feel free to do whatever you will with these.

SimpleViewer: A Beginner-Friendly Metaverse Viewer
Please, for the love of the FSM, somebody do this. It boggles my mind that despite the myriad of development work being done across the OS viewer scene, all of the development work has only made viewers more complex and feature heavy. If we want the Metaverse or SL to really attract more than the hardcores, we can't keep up like this. Its like giving a industrial-grade metal smelter to a kid who just wanted a EZBake oven. Beginning users don't need or want a lot of power or fancy functionality, they just want to be able to log in and interact with the world without wrestling with cluttered menus and counterintuitive interfaces. Please, someone take Hippo and strip it down to its chasis. Then design a easy, intiutive user interface that won't make granny want to put her fist through the computer. The world will thank you.

MetaJobs: A Job Board for Metaverse Workers
Can somebody please answer me why the Metaverse doesn't have a unified job board? No, XStreetSL's employment section of their forums don't count. I'm talking about something meant to serve both SL and the Opensims. Content isn't quite portable yet, but talent sure is. Anyone who's searched for a job in SL knows what a goosechase that is. Making a one-stop web-shop for all things employment would be a big boon for both potential employees AND employers. It would be pretty easy. So easy it could be done with a PHPbb and a domain name. Yes it could and should be more intricate than that, but its really all you would need to start. I have a hard time believing theres no one out there who doesn't see the money potential.

Convoy: A Secure Marketplace for Pan-Metaverse Commerce
So I just said that content isn't portable between grids yet. That's not completely true, but for the majority of normal Metaverse users its the reality. The truth is the functionality to import/export conent exists. What's missing is the system of trust between content makers and grid operators to allow people to buy things in one grid and move with them to another. This creates a giant mess. So what if a company stepped in with a XStreetSL style marketplace, and a dedication to absolute security? Content creators, trusting the market to not sell to unsafe grids, upload their content to the market and put it on sale. The company accepts applications from grids to gain delivery access to the grid. The company verifies they are running a content-safe server code and enters into a contract with the grid to deliver goods to the grid so long as the server remains kosher. Once verified as safe, customers from that grid can buy from the Marketplace and have the purchased content delivered to their account on their grid. The company could make money any number of ways, including delivery charges, listing upgrades, and other services. Just remember the company's number one service is the trusted bridge it provides for content creaators and grid owners.

I'm sure I have other ideas I've spaced on. I'll write about them later.

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