So, before you tune out and think I'm crazy, I'd like to take you on a quick tour of Second Life as an example of the 3D web. (Many people cannot run it on their computer because it requires a newer computer.)


I spent last Saturday in Second life with Beth Ritter-Guth. (See her Second Life Blog) Beth is working to use second life in a positive way to teach her college ****s -- she shuns the seedy areas and works with the positives.

She has "set up shop" in London and has found a place that is free of a lot of the bad things that go on elsewhere in second life. So, I like what she's doing and where she's heading.

Sharon Peters, in Canada, spent time learning Shakespeare in there last week. In her post, Second Life, It's not a game, she says:

 

"A few days ago, I was sent an invitation to attend a group meeting of English Second Language Teachers who were meeting in Second Life to discuss an initiative of Language and Culture Education in SL. I decided to drop in on the meeting to see what it was about.

I fumbled and bumbled my way in and joined the skypecast conversation that was taking place between the members as they were in SL. More than a dozen avatars were present, representing real-life teachers from countries such as Brazil, Sweden, Germany, Spain, the UK, and the US. A few were high school teachers, but most were college teachers or teachers of adult learners. We discussed how we would like to create a database of lesson plans that could be used by educators who wanted to use SL as an environment to augment the teaching of language and culture."

 

So, what's the big deal, web3d?

The Web3D Consortium announced that its X3D® Interactive Profile has been adopted by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) to bring state-of-the-art, X3D-based, interactive 3D graphics to the MPEG-4 multimedia standard. As a result of a cooperative joint development between MPEG and the Web3D Consortium, the X3D Interactive profile is now a part of the ISO/IEC 14496 specification that will formally become an International Standard.

The Web3D Consortium's X3D specification, ISO/IEC standard 19775, defines multiple profiles to enable diverse markets with the need to communicate real-time 3D data. The X3D Interactive Profile provides a powerful web 3D capability in a small footprint that enables web 3D content to be delivered to wide range of platforms, including handheld devices and mobile phones, for applications such as entertainment, web 3d design for sony products and data visualization, electronic commerce, distance learning and interactive instructional and product manuals.