Metaverse Roadmap site launches

From Jerry Paffendorf's crew at the Acceleration Studies Foundation, founder of Future Salons:

What happens when video games meet Web 2.0? When virtual worlds meet maps of the planet? When simulations get real and life and business go virtual? When your avatar becomes your blog, your desktop, and your email address?

What happens is the metaverse. Taking its name from the immersive virtual world imagined by Neal Stephenson in his visionary novel, Snow Crash, the MVR is a comprehensive two-, five-, and ten-year technology forecast and visioning survey of 3D Web technologies, applications, markets, and impacts organized by the Acceleration Studies Foundation. Areas of exploration include the convergence of Web applications with networked computer games and virtual worlds, the use of 3D creation and animation tools in virtual environments, digital mapping, artificial life, and the underlying trends in hardware, software, connectivity, business innovation and social adoption that will drive the transformation of the World Wide Web in the coming decade.

If you're in Northern California at the start of may, you can check out their first summit.

Creation of the Roadmap begins with an invitational Metaverse Roadmap Summit May 5-6 2006 at SRI International where a diverse group of industry leaders, technologists, analysts, and creatives will outline key visions, scenarios, forecasts, plans, opportunities, uncertainties, and challenges ahead.