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There are many new technologies that will emerge in the next few years, including those for mobile and the Internet. The semantic web (Shadbolt et al, 2006), development of mobile as multimedia centres, and increasing proliferation of online applications are all good example of these. Since mobile Internet is expected to boom in the next few years, both will have significant impacts on the development of VWs. If they follow the current trend of Internet technology being incorporated with mobile handsets then these technologies will also be usable on mobile phones and provide opportunities for social VWs to capitalise upon. However there are 2 overarching issues that are considered key since technologically they will govern the rate of change at which a solution can be launched as well as the overall opportunities available for the industry as a whole to develop an effective product; Computational Power and Speed of Data transfer
Although technology should not lead what is created and adopted it certainly facilitates the opportunities available. For example a key evolution of virtual worlds in the past has been the increased capability of the graphics processor, which enabled a graphical visualisation of the world and a move from text-based environments (e.g. MetaMOO) to graphical interfaces (e.g. Habbo). This does not mean to say that they were the cause of the ballooning VW adoption seen today, but provided an easier to consume interface for the mass market, which made it more accessible to them. Most of who have little technical ability to use the original text base interface to perceive it as usable. Other computing technologies, like the CPU and broadband Internet have also enabled more complex and realistic environments. Moore’s law (BBC, 2007) has so far proved correct with the CPU doubling every 2.3 years and this is likely to be one of the primary drivers in the development of VWs (Smart et al, 2007). This trend is set to continue in the future and will ultimately see greater demand for superior graphical rendering and complex, intelligent services for an ever-expanding VW population, with ever more powerful computer processing (BBC, 2007). Thus providing an ever-greater opportunity for us to automate our lives (Mex, 2007) and exist seamlessly within a virtual space.
The increasing computing power available on personal computers can also be seen on the Internet, where online applications have noted considerable development and sophistication in recent years (Zetie, 2006), where rich online applications can now take the place of installed computer software. Particular successes can be seen through the mass uptake of Hotmail (online email client) and more recently the social network Facebook, which now has hundreds of applications and a plethora of uses in both social and business contexts. Facebook has found itself as a prime force in the social networking scene, yet this would not be possible without broadband. Similarly MSN’s recent aggregation of services also requires higher speeds. These are considered superior services than offered even a year ago, which have been facilitated by the wide spread adoption of broadband...
