While researching rich 3d modeling and virtual worlds, I came across an article that appeared in MIT’s Technology Review called “Second Earth”. The article, which featured in July 2007, was written during the heyday of public interest in Linden Lab’s Second Life. It gives a detailed description of the maps and diagrams built within the world to replicate data from the real world, like a real-time map of weather patterns in the United States that avatars can walk across. Anyone with a Second Life account, a parcel of land, and experience scripting can achieve such visualizations off-the-cuff, and the result is a three-dimensional model of actual phenomena that other users can interact with, even take with them. But Rouch also describes how non-representational it is because of its limited capacities — not enough bandwidth to really support real-time, clunky, awkward three-dimensional movement within a two-dimension interface and screen, and its sometimes cartoon-ish nature.
These drawbacks, which even today many recognize as some of the obstacles causing Second Life to remain outside the mainstream media, may let up slightly when coupled with the emerging worlds modeled in Microsoft’s Virtual Earth or Google Earth — what Rouch calls “Second Earth.” Rouch writes this marriage between a world built around a person’s avatar and a mirror world resembling the Earth is inevitable because there are perhaps users who would want to take their avatar through a virtual tour of New York or Beijing; interestingly, the meeting between these two services still hasn’t occurred. But what is significant about Rouch’s article is the opportunity to include personal avatars inside a virtual Earth, allowing them to interact with buildings, talk to other users on a street, or travel new and exciting areas that would take time and money otherwise.
Rouch envisions two possibilities for such an integration: either Google Earth allows users to build avatars and interact, or Second Life expands to the size of the actual world with representations of cities, towns and wilderness. Again, neither have happened, nor do I believe there are any plans for such a marriage. Google Earth, however, has expanded one of its services to include what is a major feature of Second Life: the ability to build models of structures and items (through its Sketch-up and Building Maker). Initially, such a service would promote broad public effort in building much of what remains two-dimensional in Google Earth, although ensuring the quality of these models may be a difficult endeavor. But it also opens up possibilities for building custom additions and items to these buildings, such as outfitting streets and front yards with trees, or building your own car in your driveway. Thinking even further: buildings would have interiors where avatars in Google Earth could interact, engage in business or create personal spaces.
Tags: creation, google earth, modeling, second life, virtual earth