On the non-profit side we have spoken with representatives from charities about how they might better harness the power of the Web. One of those is Paul Lynch and his committee who organise the annual GOAL charity ball in Paris. This year they are using a wiki to organise the event rather than email. Ronan and Paul have revamped www.goal-ball.org enabling people to pay for tickets online, specify meal choices and pick tables. A group has also been setup on Facebook (GOAL Ball Paris) for attendees to join in the conversation.

Each of the above projects are good illustrations of the transition now taking place in social computing. The beneficial use of second generation Web tools is now moving from early adopters to mainstream users.

As someone who is not a fan of versioning I prefer to think about what is happening in terms of waves. The first wave was a top-down driven revolution, the second wave is a bottom-up driven counter-revolution and the third wave will be about where the two intersect and ultimately evolve – middle space. During the first and second waves our digital identity and attention identity were separable. In the third wave the two will become one with significant social, economic and political consequences.

A number of projects are attempting to build services to ride the third wave. OpenID, Particls and Project VRM are but three examples which need to be considered alongside the likes of platform contenders Facebook, Google and Linden Lab. Whereas RSS provides content, microformats provide context, Virtual Worlds provide presence – both in terms of location and self. As our understanding and interpretation of gestures improve Virtual Worlds will play an important part in providing a sandbox to enable the mind shift required in third wave thinking from linear to non-linear.

With more people experiencing Virtual Worlds first hand many are surprised to learn just how long they have actually been around. Thankfully an initiative by Bruce Damer called Virtual Worlds Timeline is at hand to help fill in the gaps. For those interested audio and accompanying slides of a March 26th 2007 presentation on the origins and evolution of Social Virtual Worlds by Bruce is available here. There are a number of gems within the presentation for those who take the time to listen to it. More to follow …

CNN Future Summit: Virtual Worlds aired on June 13th on CNN International. Originating from Singapore and Palo Alto, California, the program features creative visionaries and entrepreneurs leading us into a new age of creativity and imagination.

CNN Future Summit : Virtual Worlds serves as a good primer for those new to the space. Kristie Lu Stout attempts to connect the dots by bringing together some of the leading thinkers from academia, gaming, social media and virtual worlds within this one hour special. It is now viewable online with the show broken down into 6 segments – Virtual reality, Communications, Movies, Connectivity, Creative talent and Virtual future. Recommended viewing and food for thought.

With the initial hype finally passing organizations are exploring how they might use the multitude of sandbox opportunities Virtual Worlds present. Mitch Wagner’s chat with Christian Renaud, chief architect of networked virtual environments for Cisco, highlights some of the many ways early adopters are currently using Second Life.

Now that people are becoming more familiar with Virtual Worlds as a concept it is time to start new conversations about their place within the third wave of the Web. This we have been referring to as The Living Web and is something I shall be writing alot more about here going forward.

There are some really exciting projects on the SL Teen Grid. One such initiative is the Global Kids Digital Media Initiative. While much of their creativity happens in-world out of sight and sound of the majority of SL residents moo Money recently gave us a preview. Global Kids islands consist of a gaming island and machinima island either side of their main island. The quality of builds are as good as you’ll find anywhere on the main grid. Great to see moo Money back doing what she does best.

Secondly Jesse Linden posted a request for volunteers to participate in a usability review. While initially worried that Linden Lab were undertaking this exercise internally it was reassuring to read Andrew Crow’s post over on Adaptive Path that they are on board for this project. Given their expertise within this space this is welcome news.

Thirdly Robin Linden announced contingency plans over the interim to try and keep things running within the current grid constraints. Some of these plans will necessitate short term sacrifices to keep the show on the road. No they will not be popular but yes they are required.

Mark Wallace raises a number of valid concerns in a record breaking 1,800+ word post which is recommended reading. I am less concerned than Mark about Philip, Cory and the Linden Lab team getting the next steps right or the future of virtual worlds. With input from OpenSL and a number of other communities work around’s will be found.

The proof of concept has already happened and virtual worlds are here to stay. We have entered virgin territory on how to scale Second Life. While MOU, ESC, RRR and all SL residents grow increasingly frustrated by grid performance issues we are all on a voyage of discovery. In dino inc I talk about leadership, followership and fellowship in the 21st needing to become more comfortable with the Columbus School of Management.

When Columbus left Spain he did not know where he was going, when he reached the US he did not know where he was and when he returned to Spain he could not tell anyone where he had been. However over seven years he successfully completed the journey on a number of occasions. Having followed what Philip and Cory have achieved since 1998 I have every confidence that they will figure things out again on this occasion also. Onwards.

UPDATE : Caliandris Pendragon posts that the documentary is being released on Jan 31st. A new trailer has been posted on YouTube which finishes by announcing that it will be available for purchase and download at the Robo Studios website. Looking forward to watching it.

Just the day before Tristan Louis, a VP over at HSBC, crunched some SL numbers forecasting 3.5M accounts and +600k users at the end of April 2007. Regardless of whether you believe Tristan’s analysis to be conservative, accurate, optimistic or some combination thereof each of the above posts reinforce the ongoing interest around SL which continues apace. SL is no longer a fad as some quarters were professing but rather a very real trend of where things are headed as we enter the third wave of the Internet – the Living Web.

Also good to see Pathfinder Linden publishing advance notification of upcoming events affecting grid performance which will greatly assist residents in working around potential downtime. The comments accompanying the post show residents appreciation for the gesture. A good next step would be a graphic on the SL home page displaying a rolling 4 week early alert system linked to a more detailed grid status page.

Each of the above conversations are a very good start to 2007. Heres hoping for more of the same throughout the year from Philip and all the LL team. As remarked before everyone benefits from doing so. Out with the old and in with the new.

UPDATE : The words all good things come in threes come to mind. David Kirkpatrick has exclusively announced the LL will immediately release open source versions of its client software for Windows, Mac and Linux under a GNU General Public License, version 2.0. SL post here with more developer details here.